I actually completed the living room & dining room a while ago (actually right before Christmas 2010), but I finally got around to taking the “after” photos that I’ve been meaning to take for a while now.
Before & After:
Project Progress
May 24th, 2010
The last two weekends have been pretty productive. I finally took the time to properly wire up the accessories in the Jeep. My lights have been mounted on the roof rack for well over six years, but never wired. The air compressor has been mounted in the back for three years and not wired.
Review of JCR Offroad Rock Sliders
May 2nd, 2010
This weekend I installed my JCR Offroad Stage 2 Rock Sliders for XJ and I thought I’d share my thoughts since JCR is a fairly small shop and there probably aren’t many reviews online for their products.
Fighting Chaos
April 12th, 2010
Owning a house is fighting chaos. Hopefully you can fix stuff quicker than it breaks.
This has been a tough fight since Zee was born. There just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of.
Internet Radio in the background on the iPhone
March 5th, 2010
So we all know that the iPhone doesn’t allow 3rd party apps to run in the background. Push notification is a great solution (for battery life and even may even be a better solution than background processes for many apps). There are a few app ideas that we’ve had in the past that just don’t work well because of the lack of background processes.
Getting video from the Zonet
January 20th, 2010
I recently purchased a Zonet ZVC7611 because it was relatively inexpensive for an IP camera (about 1/3 of the cost of the Panasonic I’m currently using). I figured if I was going to disassemble a cam to try to improve the IR image, I’d rather do it to a cheap camera.
The problem is the camera is Windows + IE only. It requires an ActiveX control just to view the stream. Luckily I was finally able (with much searching and even a failed attempt to contact their tech support) to get a feed from the camera.
As a side note, the default IP for the camera is 192.168.2.3. Luckily my internal IP range is 192.168.2.X so I didn’t have to muck with anything. Additionally, even without IE you can get the menus to work (and I think you can tweak the settings). It’s just not easy. Also the default username and password is : admin/1234.
A still frame can be retrieved by going to http://192.168.2.3/loginfree.jpg (or at least that’s the default). Still frames are fine, but camera actually looks like it’s a faster frame rate, and better low light than the Panasonic so I really want video… which you can get by going to http://admin:1234@192.168.2.3:80/snapshot.cgi (notice that you need to encode the username and password into the URL).
Time Ticks By
December 14th, 2009
One of the things on my “want” list is a QLOCKTWO. Of course at about $1200, it’s ridiculously overpriced (but I guess that’s the cost of art). I never seriously considered purchasing one, but making one is certainly within my capabilities (I think). Really this is another great project for the Arduino board, so I bought a replacement (since my first board is still functioning in my differential thermostat). I think I’ll be able to build my QLOCKTWO clone for less than $120 when it’s all said and done… I guess we’ll see.
Ticking drives and such
November 11th, 2009
I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but as part of my laptop updated I bought a 320GB drive to swap into my new MacBook Pro. I’m not sure it it has always done it, or if it’s something that’s new (in the last month or so), but the drive ticks. It’s not a thrash like a dying hard drive, but most likely the heads being parked.
That Pool is a Dump
October 4th, 2009
As a pool owner, probably the biggest fear you have is that one day, a catastrophic failure will dump the contents of your pool in a matter of minutes. Today that fear was realized for Cara and I.
The story starts months ago when I got home from work and the pool pump wasn’t running. For over a week the pool pump was off (and the pool turned a nice shade of green), then I was able to get it limping along which helped it from turning into a complete cesspool, however it wasn’t really up and running until a few weeks ago. By then it was time to close the pool, but before I could do that, I had to return it to a somewhat clean status.
The Format of Rock
October 2nd, 2009
As soon as you get serious about a musical instrument you start to think about music differently. You tear apart songs into their components and begin to listen to the intricacies that are contained within. I wouldn’t say that the enjoyment is any different than for those who don’t play an instrument (I might even suggest that ignorance is bliss).