DoughnutBlog

Pocket OSX

2007-09-29T22:44:00.000-05:00

Well, after spending two weeks with my new iPhone I am ready to add my voice to the thousands of ones already out there talking about the new Apple device.

Pros -

The UI is super slick and the touch aspect of it and the huge screen make all the other "Smartphones" I have owned look lame in comparison. The browser on the phone while still having issues is still by far and away the best I have seen so far and used as well. The heuristic touch get s easier to use over time and the heft of the phone while heavy seems just about right. I no longer carry my Nano with me when I go to work, just the iPhone plus I have pretty much stopped using the Archos as well, we shall see when I go on the road.

Cons-

The big one is being locked to one carrier, which I have never loved even when they ran under their old name. Also the fact there are no third party apps for the phone is a huge issue. Right now I don't really consider the iPhone a smart phone though, you can't extend the functionality with third party apps like you can with the Symbian, Windows Mobile, or Blackberry phone OS. Until that changes for the most part you will see it as not a true smartphone. As it stands now, its better than 90% of the multi-function phones on the market. The last 10% would be to allow third party apps on the phone an a SDK to allow development plus not restricting it down to one carrier.

Apple has finally dipped its toe into the phone market and its close to being a pocket computer all on its own. I will be interested to see if the google phone will be fact or fiction because I see that as the only one that may have a chance against the iPhone itself.

As Laptops outpace Desktops and people are looking at more and more functionality in our phones how long before the phone replaces the laptop as the device of choice especially for the mobile business warrior. With the iPhone, I have just replaced a cell phone, PMP, and an MP3 player in one shot plus I can check e-mail on it at will. How long before I can VPN with my phone into the corporate network or store my documents on my phone and dock it at work so I don't have to lug around a full laptop?

San Francisco

2007-09-22T14:57:00.001-05:00

Every time I visit San Francisco, I enjoy the city so much. Like Seattle, its right no the ocean but has such a great vibe to it as well. The hills and the fact that you can get around without a car is one of my favorite things. Right across the bridge is Murin county and the hills of Northern California. I took a few snaps on top of Knob Hill when I walked up from the downtown area.

The city always has had good food and plenty of things to do at about any time of day or night. The weather was just about perfect with it being in the low 70s during the day and the low 50s at night. I was there for business so I did not to enjoy my time as much as I wanted to.

In the end it was a great time just to get to go back and spend a few days there. I hope I get to visit it soon. There are more pictures on my photo site as well if you want to take a look -

San Fran Pictures

Ouachita Moutains

2007-08-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Well took a little trip up into the Ouachita Mountains which on the eastern edge of Oklahoma and Western edge of Arkansas. The highest point is Magazine Mountain which is in Arkansas at a mind numbing 2133 ft above sea level.

At least though it gets up a little bit and there are some pretty good roads to ride as well. It seemed a little cooler as well at that elevation, I forget, there is a formula for every so many feet above sea level the temperature drops a few degrees. In the end it was a nice day, with just a little of 800 miles round trip. The mini hog sipped fuel and I managed to squeeze about 54 mpg out of it for the whole day. I will be back that way hopefully soon as soon as I have the chance again. You can catch a good bit more of the pictures I took at my photobucket album -
Ouachita Moutains

Road Warrior Tools

2007-06-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I am getting ready to head out on a 10 day, Multi-City trip for work and for fun. 3 days in Newark, NJ. Then three days in Richmond, VA. Finally, five days back in Atlanta. I figured I would share what I normally take on the road with me, this is the latest version.

1. Archos 404 PMP(Personal Media Player) - It carries all my shows ripped off the Tivo that I want to watch while I am away and don't want to use the slingbox(works well on the plane)

2. Casio Exilam camera, full metal body and pretty tiny as well. Just picked it up so not too much miles on it yet.

3. 1st generation iPod 4gb Nano - It has been with me the second longest. It has far outlived any of my other MP3 players by miles. I have had it survive a Texas rainstorm in the from pocket of my motorcycle jacket so it has a thunbs up from me.

4. Nintendo DS Lite - For when you want to waste some time on something other than watching TV you can whip this badboy out and play a few games of what you have on tap. Mario Bros usually stays in the DS slot. They also have a browser out fo it now as well but it does not do flash so no YouTube

5. TMobile Dash - My personal phone which has all the usual smartphone goodies on it such as Wi-Fi, EDGE (No 3G though), and all the power of a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone. The one really kewl thing is watching the home TiVo over EDGE or Wi-Fi on the thing. If they came out with a BB verison, I might just get rid of the Dash though, it eats waaay too much battery.

6. Crappy Verizon LG work phone - Nuff Said!

7. iBlue GPS hockey puck - Can pair up with the Windows Mobile phone and using either Google Maps or Windows Live can give me GPS location and directions if I want them.

8. All the various cable and charging devices I have to carry. The only two that need something really special are the Verizon phone and the DS. The rest have at least USB cables and they can be charged either off the laptop or the little white apple brick which has a slot for USB. It pretty much works with everything I have had so far.

9. Crappy Work Laptop - Nuff Said!

Apple TV First Impressions

2007-04-15T22:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I got my Apple TV on Friday so I figured I would lay out my impressions of it like most everybody else is doing.

So far I like the design of the device and the simplistic nature so far but the whole annoying as hell "Everything must be in iTunes" crap is really annoying as hell. I know the basic excuses as to the why of it but still, the fact you have to cram everything into the iTunes library.

So the first thing after making sure that it would boot up was to void the warranty and rip it apart to enable SSH on the device plus make a backup copy of the HD in pristine condition. After that was done it was a simple task to put everything back together and start loading all the plugins from all the various places. First was to make sure that I could play Xvid and Divx content from another location on the Apple TV so I pulled down those codecs plus the info for the ATV files plugin. That way I could have another option in finder called files that would be under the Movies folder that I could place other files such as Xvid and Divx files via SSH on the AppleTV and play them from there.

Also I enabled AFP on my old Media Center Mac, my Mac Mini so I could mount afp via my external HD and stream files over the network and so far it works like a champ. It does not play any of my .WMV files but it plays most everything else.

So final words on it is that its a great device but only if you worship iTunes totally, but otherwise hack the box and enable some more cool features on it so you can really use the box to its full potential.

Surfin' From Home Anywhere!

2007-02-06T22:24:00.001-06:00

OK, have you always wished you could surf from work or a hotspot just like you could at home? Do you hate the stupid web proxy crap that many places seem to install to keep the kiddies safe? Well now there is a way around it, and while not totally easy or quick, it is worth it in the long run.

For this you will need the following -
A high Speed DSL or Cable Modem Connection at home
A PC that is always on
A USB flash drive
A copy of Firefox Portable and Porta PUTTY
A copy of VMware Player
A copy of VMware Appliance Ubuntu Image for your proxy machine.
Usage of a free DNS service such as DynDNS

Once you have these components, we can move onto the first step.

First download and install the VMware player on your home PC or if you have a Mac you can use the Beta VMware Fusion player.

After that, you can get the appliance image for the Ubuntu Edgy install and copy the files down to your PC. Make sure to let them machine create a new UUID as well. when you login for the first time, you will get a chance to run through the config script for everything. Take the defaults for most everything in the script. The machine by default is set to DHCP so you should not have to worry about that. You will need to know the IP address for poking a hole in your firewall.

After you are done with initial config and reboot, you will log back in and issue the command "sudo su" which will put you into root mode. From there you will need to run the "apt-get update" command and then the "apt-get upgrade" followed by "apt-get install ssh" to install the SSH server which is what you will use to tunnel your browser through. After its done rebooting, then you should be ready for the next step.

Now, you can will need to poke a hole in your home router/firewall for the SSH session. SSH uses encryption for its sessions so all your traffic through the tunnel back home will be encrypted. You can use the default port of 22 which is usually allowed by even the most anal of DSL and Cable Modem providers. Worst case you may need to to use port 23. You need to know the address of the Ubuntu Server machine and map the port to that IP address.

You will need some way to keep track of your home IP address. By using a service such as DynDSN, you can give a hostname to your home machine so you don't need to know the IP. You will install the software(they have mutiple versions for XP, OSX, Linux, etc....) to associate your home machines external IP with a DNS name. Once you have this done you can move onto the next step.

Now you should be ready for the next step which is loading the Porta PUTTY and the Portable Firefox on your USB key drive. After you download the files , you can pick the USB drive as the location for the install files. I usually create an apps folder for all my USB flash drive apps. Install the two program s under there.

Run the PUTTY app, then create a session for your home machine. Put in the DNS name you used and make sure the port is the same that you used on your home firewall/router box. Under the SSH settings on the right under Tunnels, you will need to put in a port of 8080 as the source port and mark it as dynamic. Once that is done, save the settings for the session. You can test at this point bu opening the session. You should see a dialog box for the certificate for the first time so accept it and after that you should not see it again. Log in with the ID you logged onto the box from the VM console and if it works you are 95% done.

Next run the Portable Firefox program, this will be a little slower than your normal browser but it leaves no files on your PC, its all on the flash drive. Go to > Tools > Options to open up the window. Under there, you then select the advanced tab and the network tab under there. Click the settings button under connections and make sure the radio button for manual proxy connection is selected. The only one you need to fill in is the SOCKS connection field. put in the address of 127.0.0.1 and port 8080. Once that is done, you save the settings and you should be ready to surf through your proxy.

What this does is tunnel your browser request through your local machine back you that Ubuntu virtual machine back home so you bypass all the settings for the firewall or proxy server where you are. If you go to speedtest.com and run a test it thinks you are running from home because your HTTP sessions are coming from your home DSL line. Your program is on your USB drive so no history file to clean up or worry about on the local PC, you pretty much only have to worry about keyloggers at this point, but as long as you don't go banking, you can do pretty much anything without worrying about web filters. Just make sure you run the PUTTY session first for the encrypted tunnel.

Hopefully this will be helpful, I do hate web proxys they are usually all wrong or over paranoid.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

2007-01-10T08:43:00.000-06:00

Well Apple rolled out its new offering yesterday, the iPhone. The press is all over this thing, Apple fans are salivating and the stock price of Apple is up. But to me that is not the REAL story. I have owned multiple "smartphones" over the years, from Windows Mobile, to Symbian OS, to RIM's Blackberry (My current phone is a Pearl). For years now, picking a smartphone is like picking the lesser of two evils. You had to decide what you wanted most in your phone and that based your choice. Blackberries did e-mail, Windows Mobile did MS apps well, and Symbian operated with multiple OSes pretty well. In the end, the UI on the devices were either horribly painful or had a steep learning curve.

Now to me where the Apple iPhone is unique is not that it does everything but Julianne fries, but in the new UI. For 98% of the worlds population not only was a smartphone unnecessary but the pain of learning the hand held device was usually a long and annoying process. I have know people with a high level of computer literacy give up just on the aspect of how long it took to get a level of functionality out of their "smartphones". No way would I ever give one of these things to a non-techie, they would scream in frustration over the interface. Once again, just like the iPod, the user experience and ease of use with the touch interface seems to be the focus. When someone gets frustrated with a product or how hard it is to learn it, the first thing most geeks think is - "how dumb can that user be?". But many times but not all the response should be - "How dumb can the company be who designed this crappy UI?"

We are now seeing companies who have been specialized in one market dipping their toes into multiple areas. If someone would have told me back in 1992 that Microsoft would be in the game console market I would have laughed and called that person a fool. Same thing for Apple and a cell phone. The digital convergence market is beginning to move with the speed of a freight train. People (myself included) want their data whether it be music, movies, TV, documents, web pages, friends, games, etc all at their fingertips. Whether its on their big screen LCD HDTV, or on their cell phone or even on their laptop as well. They want to seamlessly move from one platform to another and not have to worry about compatibility or how hard it is to set up or will it work with this other system. Companies are now see this trend and wanting to give you that option all in house. MS and Sony are a prefect example of this with their Xbox 360's, PS3's. HTPC's, Vista, you name it. Another abstract of this is Google with their applications being web enabled for everything, you do not need to have a specific hardware platform, you just need a web browser on whatever device you are using. In the end its about one stopping point for all your data and a familiar interface.

Just like the iPod where the interface was slick, smooth, very intuitive, and easy to use; if the iPhone can generate that level of customer comfort with the device and is that easy to use then Apple will have a killer product. Instead of going after that 2% market like almost all other smartphone companies that make convergence devices, Apple is going for ALL users. In the end, if your customer can not use your product its not that the end user is stupid its the UI that is broke.

Too Damn Lazy to Update!

2006-12-11T21:09:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally remembered that I had a blog. Too much work crap going on to have a chance to update. Soon I shall be putting up some tech reviews for the holidays. Broke down and bought a TiVo. Also figured out how to archive my shows off of it onto the Mac Mini so I could have place to watch them when the TiVo ran out of room. The Akimbo is now sitting on the shelf, too much effort to maintain and too painful. I will also put up some info on the HD DVD drive for the 360 and some movie info as well. Gotta love Netflix for stocking HD DVD movies!

FEAR - Combat Virtual Appliance

2006-10-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

Well, the second game virtual appliance I have created is now up and running. You can download it from the same location as the Battlefield 2 server. It seems like the network code for the FEAR server seems to run much better than the BF2 network code. This one is set to a max of 8 players but that can be tweaked in the config files for the server.

Hoover Dam

2006-10-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

Took a little trip and got to see the Hoover Dam. It is a marvel of engineering, if you are in the area I would suggest a visit to the dam to have a look. The sheer scale of it is awe inspiring and the story behind the construction of it is interesting as well.

I'll post a few more pictures at the bottom of this post. Go online and do a search on the Hoover Dam and read up on the history and the engineering scale of the entire project. The dam was finished two years ahead of schedule, just one of the things that I learned on the guided tour.

Mac Mini as DVD repository

2006-09-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

Well, its been awhile since I threw something up so I figured it was time. Here is my idea of how to use a Mac Mini as your DVD library.

At this point I have about 100 DVDs, all of them I consider Movies that I will watch more than once, since they are my favorites. I figured one of the new Dual Core Mac Minis would be a good fit as a possible media center. I had a high def TV with HDMI inputs plus component and VGA. I figured this would be an easy way for me to run Front Row and have all my DVDs to play off of the Mac Mini onto the TV from a repository.

I first picked up a refurb Mac Mini from the Apple Store. It was a 1.66 Dual Core machine, about $100 less than retail with the 1yr warrenty on it. Next I picked up a Western Digitial MyBook drive with a 500GB drive in it. I figured that if I compressed the DVDs down to 2 GB in size, that I should be able to fit all my current DVDs on the drive. I also picked up a mini to RCA audio adapter plus a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. After it was all said and done, it was a pretty slick setup. I went and loaded on a VNC server for remote control and loaded Handbrake as my DVD ripper software. So far in my collection I have not had any DVDs with issues about be converted into MP4 format. The only thing that I had to do was create a symbolic link in my Movies Directory back to the External HD that I added to the Mac Mini. I used a Dual Link DVI cable to connect up via the HDMI port with an adapter and it all worked pretty well. Now I can control the Mini via Front Row and also use it to rip DVDs from VNC from another machine as well. Even with the default 512megs of RAM in it, the machine has no issues running the DVDs off of the WD hard drive There are also some other programs you can use to even further tweak the Mac Mini to get optimum performance and other types of playback like WMV files and the like. In the end, the Front Row interface is very simple, it easy to load the software on it to run other home Theater components as well. Its pretty simplistic overall but if more specific info is needed just drop me a response.

Some Effort for a desert treat!

2006-08-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

If you don't know what this is, its an Ice Cream Maker. Basically, you put in rock salt and ice in one end of it. The other has a little pint container that you put your ice cream mix in. You shake it, roll it, play with it for 20 minutes and Presto! You have a homemade pint of Ice Cream that took a little bit of effort to make. Saw the device on slashfood.com and decided I wanted one. I'll update in a bit and tell you how my treat action ball was at making ice cream.

Clerks 2 - Interspecies Fun for the Whole Family

2006-07-23T15:38:00.000-05:00

Well, went to watch Clerks II last night and I have not laughed that hard at so many dick and fart jokes in a loooong time. To me Kevin Smith has nailed much of the original "mystique" behind the first movie. Its still got the crass humor(love the "Silence of The Lambs" bit), the long orations by the main charicters on life, sex and what ever else comes to mind at the time. Some may whine that it gets sappy but I'd tell those people to cram it! To me the most unexpected treat of the whole movie was Rosario Dawson's performance, I know that she is a good actor but her part made the whole flick more enjoyable and added a good bit to the movie as well. In the end the movie pretty much leaves you feeling satisfied but as always maybe wanting to see Randall and Dante again(And of course Jay and Slient Bob). In the end Kevin Smith makes his point, which I don't want to spoil(GO SEE THE MOVIE NOW!) in that he gets it across pretty clearly. In the end, this one goes into the collection with all the other View Askew flics(except for Jersey Girl which I have still not mustered up enough courage to watch) and as one of my favorites. Thanks Kevin Smith for the movie and thanks Brian O'Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Rosario Dawson, and Jason Mewes for the performances.

Ft Worth - Sundance Square

2006-07-23T15:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I took the train over to Ft Worth yesterday just to have a look around downtown. Thought I would spend some time in a place called the Flying Saucer which claimed to have close to 100 beers on tap from around the world. I got tired of counting around seventy something on the taps behind the bar. Sundance Square is a section of downtown Ft Worth that has been spruced up by some of the rich benefactors that wanted to see some city life spring up. So far, its seems to have worked. There were lots of people out on the street walking around in all age groups. Teenagers, Older Couples, Families, all out for a night on the town. It impressed me to see so many people out and about in Ft Worth. I had not ever seen a crowd like that in an Urban setting in a long time back where I grew up and have seen nothing like that in downtown Dallas. There were police patrolling the street on foot, which I still don't think I have seen a beat cop in Dallas since I have been here. Lots of restaurants both chain and non chain, fancy and not so fancy. You still got the feeling that most of the people did not live in this area and had come to make it a night on the town but still it was refreshing to see that the developers had invested in revitalizing a downtown instead of some ugly strip mall or a big mega mall instead. I shall be back soon to sample some more of Flying Saucer's brew and to explore some of Sundance Square.

Pics

2006-07-18T21:37:00.000-05:00

Well, here are a couple of shots of the view from the new place. Still need a better camera that what I got to get some better shots of the downtown skyline. Nighttime pictures do not come out all that well.

@#$%^& DVD Wrapping!

2006-07-01T18:34:00.000-05:00

I had forgotten why I had not gone and bought any DVDs in awhile. Now I remember! The damn wrapping they put these things in takes longer to open up than it takes to watch some of the moves that are in the package! Christ on a Pogo stick they make it hard. Hey, movie executive @$$hats, if you stopped treating your normal customers like criminals and maybe allowed us to donwload moves and maybe even burn them to DVDs, maybe people would go back to buying your stuff. I already buy stuff of of iTunes, if I could buy a movie in 720p or 1080i off of iTunes and maybe watch on my home system plus on my Laptop while traveling, that would be nice. I hate having to shuffle through close to 200+ DVDs to find my movie. Get with the program and offer us Digital Content that is OURS TO KEEP!

Akimbo Review

2006-07-01T18:11:00.000-05:00

Well I have been promising this for awhile now, and I figured it was about time to go ahead and do it. I picked up this set top box form a company called Akimbo awhile back. The whol premise behind it is that they have farious selections of shows and you pick which ones you want, you can even schedule them from the web. After that the box uses you home internet connection and downloads the show to the set top box. They also have a component that you can use with a Windows Media PC also.

First blush after I opened the box and set it up was pretty good. The standard 9.99 pre month cost for all the basic offerings did not seem tod bad. There is quite a bit of free content such as video blogs and local talent plus videos, movie clips for upcoming attractions, and some odd comedy stuff as well. To get anything that you would normally recognize off of TV such as Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and Cartoon Network, you have to pay extra. What grips me is the model is not consistant. For Cratoon Network you pay a fee per month and get all the shows they have out there on Akimbo. Some of the other channels make you pay per freekin' show! That is my main annoyance.

Second look and it still seems pretty good. You won't want to use this as your primary means of watching TV. To me Akimbo is like having Pay-Per-View with a bunch more choices and odd content also with your normal TV. I'm paying all told about 25 per month with a couple of channels and of course all the free stuff. The set top box works pretty good, though I have had to reset it once since the video was kinda laggy but after that it worked fine. Did I also mention that there is a ton of Pr0n on there as well!(gotta pay for it). To me since I refuse to pay for cable going screw you rate for TV and Internet, this plus my over the air digital receiver plus Netflix gives me all the viweing pleasure I need and for less than what I was paying for before. I hate not having a choice plus I always like to be on the bleeding edge if I can.

In the end, Akimo is not for everyone especially a TV junkie(you know who you are;). In the end though, I f you know where to look and like out of the ordinary TV and weird conent to go along with your normal stuff, Akimbo is a good choice. Its a higher level of choice.

BuhBye Traditional TV!

2006-06-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick grainy shot of my new setup for TV. Ignore the Dish TV tuner, below is the Akimbo TV Player and next to it is the Mac Mini sitting on top of a 500GB hard drive. Between the content hosted on Akimbo which is costing me about $25 a month downloaded over my internet connection and the Mac Mini, where all my movie collection is being put onto plus Over-The-Air HDTV with the Migila TVMini HD add-on with DVR capability, I should have more than enough content to keep me being satisfied watching the boob tube. I'll post a review of the Akimbo later on this weekend since it looks like some nasty weather is brewing up in the DFW area. Don't want to get caught out on the H-D in one of those Texas-sized rainstorms I've been told so much about! So far the Mini and the Akimbo have functioned very well. Be glad to not be coughing up 70 bucks a month in TV costs for a bunch of crap I don't want. The inital cost ain't cheap as least for the Mac Mini, but figure you have a place to watch DVDs from plus if you want downloaded content off of iTunes, then use DVR, it looks pretty good in the long run. You get your money back in about a years time and for as long as I have been paying for Cable TV/Satellite, that is a bargin.

Visit to tha Dentist

2006-06-16T12:22:00.000-05:00

Welp, I took a little visit to Dr Toothy today cause I cracked a tooth last night eating a peppermint after having dinner. After calling in and getting them to see me on such short notice, I was told it was a BABY TOOTH! Turns out that my left front canine never came in and a baby tooth was blocking it from erupting. So five minutes to shoot me up with novacaine and yank the tooth out and I'm done(for now). Doc was really good and knew his stuff, so I'll be back soon enough to get the full deal from them.

BF2 Virtual Appliance

2006-06-10T23:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I was able to do it, I created a VM image using the latest version of Ubuntu server and created a Battlefield 2 server. It should run under VMware Workstation 5.5, Server and the VM Player as well. I don't know about ESX though. The zip file weighs in at about 1.2 gigs at this point. I may send it in to VMware as an appliance to be shown on their site. Now just need a possible place to host the file. I will be coming out with some instructions on what to do when you download the file when I publish it. There is already a README.TXT file that I have not totally finished up at this point. At this point the server starts by default and already has some basic settings in it. Its running with one processor and 512 megs of memory. Pretty basic actually at this point without a whole lot of fluff. I may go order me a new digital camera sometime soon and throw up some pics of Dallas, just been kinda lazy is all.

Update - The file is now being hosted via BitTorrent since I could not find anyplace willing to host 1.2 gigs for free. URL is in the comments.

Half Life 2 - Episode 1

2006-06-04T20:45:00.000-05:00

Just got through the Half Life 2, Episode 1 and just like HL2, you are left wanting for more. This episodic content for Video Games, I am still debating whether or not is it annoying or a really good thing. Most first person shooters have crap for a storyline but the Half Life franchise has always been really good about developing the story plus the graphics, gameplay, and special features have been really good on both the first and the second. Steam also seems like a good idea as well. It was easy enough to pre-load the game and play. The new Sin game they have as well is supposed to be interesting. The MBP had no issues running HL2, Episode 1 also, so I am very pleased with the machine.

I should be getting my Video Over Internet device sometime next week. When I get it I'll give an overview of the device. I'm tired of paying cable companies and sat companies for crap shows and channels I will never watch.

Atlanta to Texas in 12 hours!

2006-06-02T21:02:00.000-05:00

Well I managed to ride the HD from Atlanta to Dallas in around 12 hours. 13.5 to be exact but that counts the time spent for lunch and dinner and time wasted getting gas as well. Its pretty much a straight shot across 20 all the way till you hit the paremeter which is 635, Dallas' version of 285. The you have 35E, which is 75, Dallas 75 is Atlanta's 85, Finally, the GWB toll road is 400. Dallas and Atlanta have sooo much in common. Except the traffic sucks far less in Dallas than Atlanta. Anybody who says Dallas traffic is bad has never been to Atlanta and seen GA 400. Blech!

Back in the ATL

2006-05-28T14:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I am back in the Atl for a little while at least, get to enjoy a few days sleeping in my bed before I head back. Just got the bike serviced and a new tire on it so I am gonna ride back to Dallas over Memorial Day and part of the next day. Bought a new seat but found out I gave them the wrong part number at the dealer so no new seat! Guess I will buy one when I get to the big D.

I am now in the process of looking for a new digital camera that I can throw in my pocket when I am wondering around downtown Dallas. Figure it might be nice not to look too much like tourist when I am exploring. Seems like the bum population is a little less then Atl. Also there is an underground area as well. More like a food court but at least somewhere to get out of the heat when it gets bad in the summer.

New Home

2006-05-24T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well, I have now found a Home in Dallas and I am a Postie. Otherwise known as a Post resident. The Building is called the Wilson and it is on main street in Downtown Dallas. The Building was built in 1903 so it has some history to it. Its still close to work(walking distance) and I like the building better than the one I am staying in right now. Rent is not too bad and the place is 900+ square feet also. The only bad thing is there are no washer/dryer connections in the place so its wash in the communal area or pick up.

Overall, I think it is a kewl place with alot of charicter. I got a few grainy shots with the cell phone but in the future, I will take some pictures with a good camera. Now I don't have to worry about a place, I can just worry about getting my stuff moved here. Should be on the 14th of July