BamaBoy

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Fuquay Varina, North Carolina, United States
A guy finding out if life really does begin at 50.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Again with the Cables

Hello and Happy New Year!
For Christmas I got myself and new Blu-Ray DVD player with internet video streaming (aka Netflix). Beside watching Blu-Ray and regular DVDs I can also watch movies streamed 'on demand' from the internet. The Blu-Ray player is connected to the internet using the the Wired Ethernet port I installed next to my 'media cabinet.' But to hook up to the plasma I needed to run a second HDMI cable from the Blu-Ray in the media cabinet to the plasma.

The media cabinet is actually in a closet that shares a wall with the den. In the den my plasma is mounted on the fire place hearth. The picture shows the plasma just after I hung it a couple years ago. If you look closely you'll notice there are no cables connected to it in that picture. Sort of reminds you of those commercials where a handsome couple sit watching their flat screen hanging cable free on a perfectly clean wall. If you read the disclaimer that flashes up during the commercial it says 'simulated picture shown' - most people believe they say that to make an excuse for why their super HD picture looks so bad on your crappy TV. But I know different. They 'simulate' the picture because you can't get a real picture on a flat panel without running lots of cables to it! And cables showing can really spoil the picture - which I'm sure some readers know too well.

Well over the last couple years as I hooked up various devices to my flat screen plasma and cable (mis) management got to be a real problem. No perfect picture here.

On the lower left you can see the hole in the wall the cables use to pass through to the closet on other side. I never finished the opening. I have enlarged the hole as I ran more cables through it.

The Blu-Ray used the last remaining connection on the plasma's input panel, so with no more cables possible I decided it was time to finish off 'the hole.' I also wanted to hide the cables. The next picture shows the finish outlets with the new connectors. 2 HDMI, 2 component video, 1 video, external antenna, 3 speakers cables, sub-woofer, and power cords.

Not bad. Much neater for sure. I ended up adding a 2nd opening for speaker wires for the surround sound. The black bundle of (13) cables snakes up the side of the bricks. Way better than it was, but I was still not happy.

While staying with Dexter and Jan in Atlanta for the Peachtree Road Race I noticed Jan had put their cables inside of a tube she made out of fabric. It was gathered fabric and I thought it looked nice and did a good job of hiding the cables. I don't have access to a sewing machine, so Gale suggested I just make the hem using glue. Then use hook-and-loop along the edges of the fabric so when fasten it would form a tube. So I took a shot at it and made my own cable tube!

I don't have Jan's sewing skills so it does not gather as nice as hers. My fabric also does not match the wall paper like hers (Wall paper? What wall paper? I anit got no wall paper in my house!). But, I think it turned out pretty good. Doesn't look like a snake crawling up the wall now.

So after about $150 in cables and connectors, a bit of fabric and glue I'm having a Happy New Year!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

I Remembered my Camera

Toronto
So I had another quick trip up to Toronto this last week. We needed to be there Monday AM so Wally and I flew up Sunday. We decided to take a late morning flight so we have time to do a bit of sight seeing. I had been to the Rogers Center on a earlier trip but forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures. I got a few this time.

Oh BTW - I'm on Facebook now. Look me up, and let's connect.

Friday, October 30, 2009

1223 Vs 858


So I picked up a pair of New Balance 1223 to replace my 2 year old 858 at the New Balance Outlet store in Lawrence, MA. In the store I had a new 858 on one foot and the 1223 on the other and liked the 1223's better (they were the same price). So when I got home I was surprised when I ran that the 1223s sort of jarred me way more than I remember the 858s did. So next day I ran in my old 858s and sure enough THEY JARRED ME more than the 1223s! WHAT!

So I'm now running in the 1223s. Moral of the story: Don't take 4 days off from running before buying shoes!
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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fall of a Different Color

New Hampshire
Spent a 4 day weekend with Gail and John in New Hampshire. I've known John for 15+ years through work. He's been telling me about his passive solar house, pellet furnace, and Maple syrup making for a couple years now so I wrangled an invite and flew up to check it out.

All I can say is New Hampshire and it's people are SWEET! Especially John and Gail. They were wonderful host and hostess. They went out of their way to make sure I had a great weekend. I hope to return the favor soon. Enjoy the pictures and comments!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Wired

Not been up to a lot lately. I've had a phone line to the satellite receiver/DVR running across a doorway for a couple years now. I've been wanting to run a phone line through the wall to get rid of that wire since it runs across at the floor. Some of you might remember I don't like visible wires (see Mission Accomplished). Been living with this because besides the phone wire I need to have wired Internet access for the satellite/DVR. That requires an Ethernet jack, and I didn't have the tools to work with Ethernet cables. So time sort of went by.

Well I ordered some Cat5e crimpers and 8P8C connectors. Then I ordered some jacks and a 110 Punch Down tool along with some Cat5 cable and now I have two Ethernet jacks and a phone jack in the closet. The other end of the cables go to a new outlet with jacks I installed in my home office near the router. I also expanded my home network by adding a 4 port switch. I was out of ports on my router.

The satellite receiver will down load movies from the internet (for a price). I decided to wire two Ethernet ports so that I'd have a back up or extra in case of failure. Running two Cat5 cables through a wall, then the crawl space then up and into another wall is as easy as one. I might use the other jack for a wireless access point since the closet is on the opposite end of the house from my current access point. We'll see. Stay tuned...

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Better idea...

One advantage that the old gravel drive had was I never notice all the debris that fell on it. Sure from time to time a tree limb would come down and I have to toss it to the side, but I never notice the sweet gum balls, acorns, or leaves. I just drove over them. The new paved driveway really shows the debris, so I bought a blower to keep it clean. It's a cord less blower that uses a 18v nicad battery pack. Worked pretty well doing the drive or the parking area, but not both. The 18v battery pack just doesn't have the capacity to handle both areas on one charge. Most people would just get a 2nd battery pack. However, it takes 24 hours to charge a battery, so I could still only do one area or the other each day. What good is that? I had a better idea...
It just so happens I have two 18v Lithium ion batteries that powers the drill, saws, and flash light that JB left here. It also has a quick charger to recharge the lit-ion packs in a couple hours. So my idea was to use a lit-ion pack to power the blower. Since both are 18v it was just a matter of connecting them somehow. Well with a bit of tinkering I was able to connect the flashlight to the blower and use the flashlight's connector to the lit-ion battery to power the blower. A Velcro strap



holds the two devices together, and a polarized quick disconnect connector keep the two devices safety connected.

I'm happy to say that one lit-ion pack has the capacity to do both the parking area and drive on a single charge. An added bonus is the lit-ion battery pack regulates its output so that the blower motor runs full speed right up to the point the pack shuts down. No more weakening blowing action as the battery discharged.


Since I didn't modify the battery in any way and I used a connector instead of hard wiring them together the blower can still use it's nicad battery if needed and the flashlight still works.

Hey! Another idea just came to me! If I were to spin the flash light around I could have a blower with a work light! SWEET!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

O' Canada, Good Friends

I when up to Toronto on a customer visit last week. Took the 7am Tuesday flight and came back Friday afternoon. It was a busy trip, but Wally was able to drive me around some on the way back to the airport so I could get some pictures (thanks Wally). It was an overcast day so I didn't get what I call any really good pictures, but at least I did get a pretty good shot of the CN tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame.

My last trip to to Toronto was in March of 2001. On Thursday, Larry, a retired IBM'er (42 years) invited Wally and I over for a cookout. Larry to this day is still an example of what IBM used to be full of. Men and women who lived IBM's basic beliefs: 1) Respect for the Individual 2) Best possible customer service 3) Excellence in all ways. One of the high point of my 30 year IBM career to be able to work and learn from Larry, and a real honor now to be invited to his home for a cookout.
It's funny, but one of the projects Larry, Wally, and I worked together back in our IBM days was code named BBQ. The project was so named because we were at a cookout at Dan's house here in North Carolina when we decided to take the project on. I learned a lot from Larry doing that project. Management killed the BBQ project, but a lot of what was in BBQ was used in the last project I worked on which shipped 3 releases before I retired.

Larry - Me - Wally
When I think of Canada I'll always think of people like Larry that I'm honored to know, and proud to call a friend.
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