Infinite Abyss

Kelly got me a charging valet from Pottery Barn for Christmas.  For various reasons I was a little slow (ok a lot slow) in setting it up.  Today with some encouragement from Kelly I got it setup.  It is a neat cable hiding device.  Inside it has a power strip to plug in various devices.  Then a small cable pass through for the charging tip.  I ended up placing it on my TV rack in living room as it worked better there for power.  It looks nice as you can see in the below picture.  Even though it was intended to match that stand it does anyway.  I was even nice enough to let Kelly add her phone to the device to charge, can anyone guess which is hers?

I wanted to make a post in case anyone else comes across this problem. I had been using xcacls.vbs in a PowerShell script for most of the summer fine and then I started getting error stating that RPC server is unavailable. It took me a little while to realize that in the interim I upgraded the server that I was using xcacls.vbs against to Windows Server 2008. By default the Windows Firewall is turned on, and I recommend leaving it on. Anyway to resolve this issue go into the firewall config and enable the rule for Remote Administration (RPC).

Using my recently purchased Panasonic DMC-TZ5 I filmed two clips in 1280x720x30.  They aren't great quality since I was doing it handheld with moving subjects.  The biggest problem is the camera keeps trying to adjust focus.  I took the original clips which were motion JPEG and re-compressed with Apple Quicktime using H.264 at various bit rates.  Feel free to download and check them out and tell me what you think of them and how fast they downloaded.  The first is the dancing fountains in Las Vegas.  The second is an animation demonstration at Disney using strobe and spinning items.

This post is as much for me to remember things as anyone else. If you find this useful too all the better. I may update this at times. These are things I have installed on various machines and then forget where I can or did get them. All of the utils are free and I have installed them at some point successfully.

FLV Player
Free Download Manager
Exact Audio Copy
DVDFab
Wireshark
ImgBurn
Network Monitor
VNC
WinDirStat

Today I got Verizon FIOS installed, specifically FIOS Business 20/20 with static IPs.  This ends my eight year relationship with Speakeasy.  I can't too highly recommend Speakeasy but they just don't have anything to compete with FIOS since they are stuck in DSL land.  I have had many levels of service from them over the years.  I started with 144 kpbs IDSL, then I had 1.1 mbps SDSL and for the last few years I have had 6.0/768 ADSL (or something very similar).  Just to show the difference in speed a bit I ran some before and after tests using my desktop.  The problem with FIOS is right now it is too fast for many testing sites and breaks them to some degree.

This is what Speakeasy provisioned me for:

These are two of the more accepted speed test sites (one of them is from Speakeasy):

You can see I wasn't quite getting the full speed, however I will admit it fluctuates depending on many factors including time of day.

Now here are the same two speed test sites on my new service:

With this you can see I am getting my download speed for sure, I have seen the upload higher so it may be the server on the other end.

I will be switching over the www.hoyty.com server to the new service shortly so it should be much faster.  The switch has given me 3-4 times the download speed and up to 26 times the upload speed.  Should be fun.

Back in November I decided I wanted to do some upgrades to my home theater system.  I had a few goals that I wanted to accomplish with the upgrade.

1. End to End HDMI 1.3a support.
2. Ability to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in same player as well as DVD.
3. Ability to transmit and decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD HR / MA.
4. Ability to transmit and display 1080p with 24fps support.

To accomplish these goals I bought three new pieces for my home theater system.

1. Sanyo PLV-Z2000
2. Onkyo TX-SR705
3. Samsung BD-UP5000

I accomplished 1, 2 and 4 immediately after I got the new equipment.  3 was more of a problem because the Samsung BD-UP5000 wasn't able to properly output the new advanced sound codecs.  It wasn't until 5/30/2008 when the 6 month late firmware update came out that the 5000 was able to send out the new sound formats.  At this point all the upgrades are working together quite well.  With them I have the highest quality video and sound available currently in consumer level equipment.  All on a 106" screen with 100 watts of power per channel.  If you want more details on the upgrades you can check out my Home Theater Blog.

During our Vegas 2008 trip we got two different rental cars.  They were both basically identical however based on the GM Epsilon platform.  Two words I would initially use to describe this particular cars is sloppy and mushy.  I can only compare to the cars I have owned, but it was like night and day when I got back in my Accord at home.  The other odd thing with both cars is they only had key entry on the driver side door.  Also I couldn't find a away to unlock or lock all doors using the key.  It was very annoying to get Kelly and I into the car.  It might be better with a fob for entry but the rental places didn't give us one.  It is amazing to see the difference between these cars and an Accord.  People wonder why Honda and Toyota sell so many more cars than GM, just drive one.

Monday morning I got up to get our second rental car.  I rented it at a place I thought was on or near the strip.  However I didn't look closely enough.  I thought the rental place was at the Tropicana, but in fact it was just on Tropicana Ave a little over two miles away.  Luckily the walk wasn't too bad since I had my iPod with me and the weather was still cool and below 70.  I did finally get the car a Chevy Malibu (same platform as last one) and I will comment more on it later as well.  I went back to the hotel and got Kelly and checked out.

We drove out of town about 10 AM heading for the Hoover Dam.  The Hoover Dam is actually really close to Las Vegas it is only about an hour and it only takes that long because of low speed limit roads and security checkpoints.  Kelly laughed at me when I said I remember it exactly from the Transformers movie but it was true.  We walked around the outside a bit and then went in to take the tour.  They take you down to see the pipes that take the water from the lake to the generators and then actually into one of the generator rooms.  You can see it in the below picture.

After the tour we did some more walking around the top of the dam.  We took a few more shots that are in this set.  We then continued on to the Grand Canyon.

Between the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon there is whole lot of nothing.  I mean desert like nothing, there are houses and other buildings every now and again but no real cities along the way.  Definitely not a time and place you want to run out of gas for sure.  It took another 4 hours or so to get to the park itself.  We got their about 6 PM and paid the $25 entrance fee.  We stopped to look into the canyon almost immediately and then headed to the visitor center.  While there we decided that we would do a ranger lead walk into the canyon at 7 AM the next day.  Since we were going to be hiking into the canyon we went to the general store to get some supplies.  We went and checked into the hotel and then walked over to the rim near our hotel.  We caught the tail end of the sunset in the canyon.  We headed back to the hotel and unpacked the car.  Lastly, we got something to eat before turning in.  We went to bed pretty early since we planned to get up early the next day.

We got up close to 5 AM to begin getting ready for the hike.  Kelly headed off to get her daily dose and I packed up the car.  We had planned to catch the shuttle bus over to the information center but thanks to a bus policy of no drinks and Kelly's coffee we ended up driving over instead.  We then caught another shuttle to the hike location.  We got there about 6:45 and met up with the ranger and the other visitors for the hike.  As we hiked down into the canyon the ranger stopped several times to point out different aspects of the canyon or its plants and wildlife.  We even saw a big horned sheep as seen below on the walk.

We made it to the end of the hike in about 90 minutes.  We stopped and ate some of our snacks and drank lots of water.  We also took some more shots in the canyon.  After hanging about for 30 minutes we then had to start the task of the trip back up.  It was not nearly as fun going up as down (and down wasn't easy either).  We saw another or the same big horn on the way back up.  I think the best way to illustrate the way back up is this picture.

If you look closely at the sign you will see the warning below.  Which says don't hike to far or you might get ill or die!
 
It took almost 2 hours to make the hike back up and that was with going without stopping other than resting.  On the way down it took longer since we kept stopping and waiting for others to catch up and for the ranger to talk.  You can see the hike we did (from a distance) in the below picture.

After making it back to the starting point we walked along the rim path back to our car.  Before leaving the canyon we went to a few more sites.  All the photos from our visit to the Grand Canyon can be seen in this set.  About 2 PM we started back to Las Vegas.  The trip back was uneventful but just long.  We also found out if you need to go to the bathroom there aren't many chances anywhere near the Hoover Dam.

For our last night in Vegas we stayed at the Luxor in a fancy spa room.  Unfortunately a combination of tiredness and some pretty bad sun burns meant that we couldn't enjoy the room too much.  I went and returned the second rental car then we went down to the new Luxor More buffet.  Kelly went to bed and I went and played a few more slots before we left Vegas.  The next morning we got up and flew back to Baltimore.  The flight was even better on the way back.  We actually landed over an hour early and got off the plane about an hour early.  So ends our trip to Vegas for Memorial Day 2008.

Kelly and I got invited to Matt and Morgan's wedding in Las Vegas.  Before you think it is was a "Vegas" wedding it wasn't it was simply a normal wedding being held in Vegas since that is where Morgan's mom lives.  Since it was over Memorial Day weekend Kelly and I decided to make it more of a vacation.  Kelly had never been to Vegas so we planned to do a few things there.  We also decided to go to Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

We left on Friday morning from BWI.  We were able to get direct flight on Southwest which was nice.  It left on time and was a pretty uneventful flight.  There was a little bit of weather as we landed but not too rough.  Once we got to the airport we decided to rent a car for a day.  We were going to Morgan's mom's house which was a ways outside the city and we figured round trip cab fair would be more than a rental car for the day.  We went to the new Las Vegas airport car rental plaza where eight or so car rental companies are.  As we were getting the car it began to rain, kind of rare in Vegas it being a desert and all.  It was also only in the mid 60's which was chilly for Vegas.  We got a Pontiac G6, more on this and our second car in another post.

After getting the car we went and checked into our hotel until Monday morning which was the Fairfield by Marriott.  The hotel is located with 3 others on the other side of I-15 behind the Mandalay Bay.  After checking we went for a drive down the strip.  I hadn't been in Vegas in about 2 years so there had been some changes.  Kelly got to see the fun of sitting in stand still traffic on the strip.  After the strip we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.  We headed over to the dinner and it began to rain quite hard again.  This caused the party to be contained inside the house.  There was 130 or so people at the party and it was a little crowded.  Also for a while the only people Kelly and I knew were Matt and Morgan.  Later some people that Kelly knew from swimming at Johns Hopkins showed up.  We left a little early since we had gotten up at 6 AM Eastern and it was 9 PM Pacific.

The next morning I got up and went to get Kelly her daily dose of caffeine from Starbucks before 6 AM.  Later we took the car back to the rental place.  We took a cab to the MGM.  We spent some time in the MGM and then headed out onto the strip.  We went to the M&M's store and looked around for a while.  You can see me standing in front of the M&M's NASCAR car below.

After M&M's we continued down the strip.  We stopped in the Planet Hollywood casino and walked around.  We then continued on to the Paris casino.  We decided to get some lunch in Paris.  At first we were going to go to their buffet but the line was really long.  We went to their cafe instead, which was still really busy.  After lunch we headed back to the M&M's store to watch the 3D movie, however it was almost painful since it was either our of focus or timing between the two projectors or maybe both.  We then returned to the MGM to catch the shuttle back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

We got on the shuttle to the wedding at 1 PM.  The shuttle took us to the church which was huge.  They have something like 10,000 people that come to this church.  The ceremony was most of a full service, it wasn't too long though.  There a few shots from the ceremony in this set.  After the ceremony we all got back onto the busses to go to the reception.

The reception was at cili which is located in the Bali Hai Golf Club just off the strip.  It was a really nice restaurant.  The whole place was rented out for the reception.  They started the night of with hours devours and drinks.  After an hour or so we moved in for the main party.  There was two rooms with one edging on the bar and the other surrounding the dance floor.  The DJ was pretty good, just cheesy enough and not over the top.  The dinner was great, I had a steak and Kelly had some chicken.  The wedding cake was an ice cream cake which was both unique and very tasty.  We left the party at about 8:30 PM and took a cab back to the hotel.  There are a few more shots from the reception in this set.

Sunday morning we got up and headed out to the strip again.  We took the shuttle over to the MGM.  We walked down to Paris and did eat the buffet this time.  It was very good.  We walked around some different casinos and headed down the strip.  Occasionally we stopped to play some slots.  Most of which we lost at but sometimes we won a little.  Kelly didn't seem to enjoy it much.  We walked through some of the malls as well and stopped at both Tiffany & Co.  We made our way to the Mirage.  Their volcano was under construction as was the lion habitat just as you walk in.  We went to the new habitat they built called Secret Garden.  We spent almost 2 hours looking at the dolphins and the big cats.  We took quite a few pictures that are available in this set.

We walked around a bit more and ended up at Treasure Island for dinner.  After dinner we went and picked up our tickets for Mystère.  While waiting for the show Kelly and I played a Price is Right slot machine, she did enjoy this and only spent $2 in almost an hour.  We got into the theater about 15 minutes before show.  The entertainment began early as an actor began playing tricks on people as they came in.  Doing things like taking their tickets, sending them to the wrong seats and throwing popcorn all over the place.  The show was really good, one of the few downsides was that at times there was too much going on and didn't know where to look.  During the show there was also audience participation.  My favorite part was some moves done on trampolines and where the actors climbed poles using just their hands at times.  Watching this show it made it seem like it was the pro league almost for NCAA gymnasts, there was at least 50 people that were pretty amazing athletes.

After the show we headed back toward the Belagio (correction thanks to Jerry) and the dancing fountains.  I took a video of the fountains that will post at another time.  We then headed back to the MGM to catch the shuttle back to our hotel.  Some other shots from our day are in this set.

In the spring of 2007 I built my first new computer totally from scratch in a long time.  Then more recently this spring I wrote about building a new server as well.  The older computers that were replaced have pretty much been sitting around collecting dust (even more than before).  Today I gave them both to a friend who is currently studying to learn various Microsoft programs.  Hopefully they will help him as much as they did me.

The desktop that I gave away was actually the third to fourth set of parts in the same case.  I bought the case almost exactly 10 years ago to the day.  It had a Pentium II in it when I first built it.  Over the years I upgraded it to a Pentium III and then later to a Pentium 4.  Along the way there were various video card, hard drive and optical drive upgrades.  I bought the case hoping it would last me a long time and in the computer world 10 years is an eternity.  I was sad to see the PC Power & Cooling Solid Steel monster go but it served me well.  Unfortunately it didn't go quietly.  I was trying to verify it was all working and I plugged it in.  When I did it screamed, popped and then the magic smoke came out of the power supply.  The one thing I don't have spares for is working power supplies.  I rarely bought them and they rarely failed.  I think with a new power supply the machine will work and be useful again.

Kelly was especially happy today to see all of this stuff go.  Two gigantic computers, an old monitor and some other odds and ends.  Slowly but surely she is getting me to let go of some of this old equipment.