Author Archives: Peter

Mount Vernon, OH

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All is well here in Mount Vernon, OH. We have been enjoying the past few days, spending time with Mom, Dad, Kirsten and Mark. Our trip was very smooth, and we actually made the drive from Charlton, MA to Mount Vernon, OH in just 12 hours. Saturday night, we had a birthday party for me and Dad. On Sunday, we visited Mark and Kirsten’s [church](http://www.firstalliancemansfield.org/), at which Mark is the Youth Pastor. Today, Becky and I visited the [Airstream](http://www.airstream.com/) headquarters in Jackson Center, OH, and took their factory tour. Very cool. Tonight we had dinner with the fam and then made some “music videos”. If you’re *really* lucky, we might put those online. All in all, it has been great to be back in Mount Vernon, and to get re-acquainted with the town I grew up in.

On Tuesday, Becky and I are leaving for a quick trip to Saint Louis, and on Wednesday we’ll be headed up to Chicago for a few days. We’ll be back in Mount Vernon Saturday evening, and early Sunday morning we’ll be headed back up to Beverly.

We might upload some photos while in Saint Louis, if the hotel has a decent internet connection. It’s still dialup here at home, so uploading would take far too long. Otherwise, we’ll definitely have all of the photos online at some point during the week after we get back to Beverly.

Another Whirlwind Adventure!

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Friday night, Becky and I are heading off on another whirlwind adventure! This time, we’re taking a road trip, the general route of which you can see below:

ppp|2005 Road Trip|ppp

We’re stopping briefly in Charlton, MA on Friday to stay with Kevin and Susie, who are conveniently located near the Mass Pike. Saturday morning we will drive straight through to Mount Vernon, OH to spend a few days visiting with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. From there we’ll be driving to [Saint Louis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Louis%2C_Missouri) to see the [Jefferson National Expansion Memorial](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_National_Expansion_Memorial) (i.e., the Arch and its environs), and then we’ll be driving up to [Chicago](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago) to spend a few days visiting Melanie and taking in the sights of the Windy City. Finally, we’ll be jumping back to Mount Vernon, and then back home to Beverly on Sunday, October 23. Phew!

It will be a long and tiring trip, but we’ll be spending it in the best of company. And that’s really what makes any endeavor worthwhile.

iPod Hookups

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Thanks to some birthday gift fundage from my parents (*Thanks Mom and Dad!*), I’ve been able to purchase a few useful gadgets for hooking up our iPod in various locations.

The first one is a device manufactured by [USA Spec](http://www.usaspec.com/), and sold at retailers such as [Circuit City](http://www.circuitcity.com/). The [DF-TOY](http://www.usaspec.com/aux2.htm) hooks up to the CD Changer input on our new Corolla’s factory stereo, and provides two sets of RCA auxiliary inputs. This allows us to output sound directly from the iPod into the car stereo, without the need for a radio transmitter (which provides mediocre quality at best) or a cassette adapter (which wouldn’t work in our car, since it doesn’t have a cassette deck).

Installation was a lot easier than I expected:

1. Remove the bezel from around the stereo. This is easily done by working a flathead screwdriver around the edges and popping it out.
2. Remove the four phillips screws holding the stereo in.
3. Plug in the adapter to the cd changer port.
4. Run the cable out from the back of the stereo, down to the opening just above the gas pedal.
5. Connect the cable to the input box.
6. Connect RCA cables from the device of your choice.

Voila! I have crystal clear sound, and I also have an extra set of RCA inputs should I ever want to have TWO auxiliary devices hooked up. Yikes! The only thing I ought to do is find a nice place to mount the input box, and clean up the cables. Right now it’s all sitting on the floor behind the gas pedal. I’ll take and post some photos if I have a chance.

The other gadget that I bought was an [Apple iPod Dock](http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=M9868G/A). The iPod model I bought did not come with a dock, and I’ve gotten by just fine with the basic FireWire cable for a while. But at the Apple Store they had a bunch of “refreshed” docks on sale for 50% off the regular price, so I grabbed one of those, and it’s working great. Now our iPod has a nice little home to live in when it’s on the desk.

**Update**

Here’s some [photos](http://gallery.prwdot.org/ipod_hookups) of the Dock and the aux input connectors.

Google Reader

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This is almost week-old news now, but [Google](http://www.google.com/) recently [released](http://www.google.com/press/annc/reader_launch.html) their [Google Reader](http://www.google.com/reader/) software into beta. It is a direct competitor to web-based news aggregators such as [Bloglines](http://www.bloglines.com/). As it is still in beta, there are a number of kinks being worked out. You’ll sometimes get error messages when trying to read the news, and their servers are frequently slow or unresponsive. But as time goes by, bugs get fixed, and they have a chance to scale up to their demand, I think lot of the issues will be smoothed out. There are a lot of things you can do with Bloglines that you can’t do in Google Reader, and I have emailed all of my notes on those matters to the Google Labs folks.

In order to make my testing more effective and directed, I’ve imported all of my Bloglines subscriptions into Google Reader. I’ve also removed all of my links to Bloglines so that I’m forced to use Google Reader to get my news. Overall, I’m quite impressed. As usual, they have given the application those little touches that make an application oh-so-Google-y. Boxes that slide open and closed, search-enabled-everything, colorful icons and labels, etc. And so far I haven’t needed to go back to Bloglines for anything. I’m still getting used to Google Reader’s organizational methods. Reading the news from a specific source in Google Reader takes a bit more effort than it does in Bloglines. As I go along I’m sure I’ll learn some tricks to help make things better.

Anyway, I’d definitely recommend giving it a try. If you’re looking for a way to organize all of the news and blogs you read, check out [Google Reader](http://www.google.com/reader/) today!

Gordon Reunions

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Becky and I have had reunions with various folks from Gordon in the past several days.

Early on Saturday, we had a virtual reunion of sorts with fellow Gordon College alum James Berry, via a comment on Becky’s [post about Pete Holmes](http://prwdot.org/archives/2005/10/calling_all_sweaty_toothed_mad.html). James is living out in Idaho and working on his master’s degree.

Saturday was also Homecoming at [Gordon College](http://www.gordon.edu/). Even though the weather was lousy, that didn’t stop a lot of people from coming out in support of their alma mater. Throughout the day, we had reunions with various Gordon folk: [Jeremy and Angela](http://www.thebiggspicture.org/), Dr. Askew, [Heather Cole](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050098), Stephanie Trombley, Dr. and Mrs. Wick, Erin Simmons, Jeff Barraclough, Owen Webb, Brian Hall, Dr. Senning, Prof. Bjork, Prof. Levy, Culley Parris, Emily (Winchell) Card, and Doug and Shannen Rhoda. It was great to get to see all of these folks and catch up with them. It was also fun to walk around Gordon, eat at the cafeteria, and visit our old dorms and classrooms. Lots of good memories.

Saturday afternoon, we got together with Jeremy and Angela, as well as Bob and Leah, who had travelled up from New Jersey with their new baby [Lucas](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050113). We all went out to dinner at [Uno’s](http://www.unos.com/), and then came back to our place for dessert – a strawberry cake that we have [previously enjoyed](http://prwdot.org/archives/2004/05/strawberry_heav.html). We had a great time that evening, talking about the good old days and the good new days. Bob, Jeremy and I welcomed Lucas into [our club](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050111). We also tried to teach him a [traditional Vulcan greeting](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050107), with little immediate success (though he does have a promising future).

Finally, on Sunday we saw Gordon Alum Matt Fitzpatrick at [church](http://www.danestchurch.org/). He just got a job at [Electric Insurance](http://www.electricinsurance.com/), and is living in downtown Beverly with Rob Dokes, another Gordon alum. Matt and Rob were both friends of mine while I was at Gordon, and it’s been over three years since I’ve talked to or seen either one of them. It was good to reconnect.

Finally: For any Gordon folks who are reading this, make sure you head over to our [Gordonexus](http://prwdot.org/gordonexus.html). There you will find a listing of websites belonging to Gordon students, former students, and alumni. Check out the websites and see how many people you can connect with! If you have a site you would like to add to the list, just drop me a line.

Bamboozled!

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In the words of Richard Hatch, “I been bamboozled!” As has already been pointed out to me by various people, the man I photographed [on Sunday](http://prwdot.org/archives/2005/10/rock_stars_knitters_activists.html) in Boston was not, in fact, Bono. No, it was a look-alike hired by [Mix 98.5](http://www.mix985.com/) to drive around the city and give out tickets to the U2 concerts. So I apologize for misleading anyone.

In my defense:

1. I actually didn’t think it was Bono when I first saw him and took the photos. I thought it was just some random crazy guy riding around in a limo – maybe some wannabe or lesser-known rock star. I thought he had too much facial hair and that his hair color was too light. Only when I got home later that night and looked up U2’s tour dates did I think it was him – I didn’t even know that U2 was going to be in Boston this week.
2. How often do I see Bono in public, to begin with?

I guess I was just too excited about the potential prospect of having gotten a decent photo of a celebrity. Next time, I’ll go with my gut instinct, which was to avoid asserting the identity of anyone I photograph until I have 100% positive confirmation that it was, in fact, who I thought it was.

P.S. If anyone from [Mix 98.5](http://www.mix985.com/) is reading this, I think I should get a pair of tickets just for taking such a nice photo of your look-alike. Thanks!

One Year

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One year ago today, we [launched our site redesign](http://prwdot.org/archives/2004/09/pennies_nickels.html). Other than a few minor tweaks, the design remains unchanged. We are both very happy with the design, and we haven’t felt the need to make any major changes*. We hope that everyone else continues to like the design as much as we do!

* That is, changes visible to our users. We have made some semi-major under the hood changes, such as moving to fully standards-compliant, semantic XHTML markup.

Meelike Meebo

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[Meebo](http://www.meebo.com/) is a web-based instant messaging tool I’ve been playing around with for a couple of weeks now. It uses [AJAX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX) technology to display a buddy list and IM windows, and the [GAIM](http://gaim.sourceforge.net/) library to provide connectivity to various IM services. You can log in to AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Jabber, Google Talk, and Yahoo Messenger. The interface is very smooth and simple, and while it’s not as full-featured as a traditional desktop-based IM client such as [Adium](http://www.adiumx.com/), it sure packs a wallop for a web application. It’s also a great choice for when you’re on a computer system that doesn’t have an IM client already, and for whatever reason you can’t download one. The Meebo team is hard at work on pushing out bug fixes and feature releases, and they deserve commendation. Their most recent [release](http://blog.meebo.com/?p=35) includes the ability to set away messages, and the ability to view a buddy’s info and away message while hovering over their icon.

If you’re away from your regular IM client, or even if you’re not, give [Meebo](http://www.meebo.com/) a try today! And if you’d like to IM us, you can find our screen names for various services on the [contact page](http://prwdot.org/contact.html).

Free Ink

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I’m subscribed to Robert Ellis’ blog [Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/). Robert is a management consultant and Mac fanatic, and Futurosity serves as a place for him to post various Mac-related news and tidbits. I first encountered Robert’s work in his former standalone blog, Handpicked Software. It was a log of his reviews and notes on new Mac software products. I started reading Futurosity after he [rolled Handpicked Software into Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/5/handpicked-software-is-now-futurosity), and I’ve been following it ever since (you can still follow Handpicked Software – it’s now a [category](http://www.futurosity.com/category/Handpicked+Software/) on Futurosity).

Anyway, I recently noticed a post about [free HP black ink cartridges](http://www.futurosity.com/227/free-hp-printer-cartridges). This piqued my interest, since we have an HP printer, and those cartridges are $30 a pop! So I headed over to read the post.. only to find that this was an old offer, and that since he had no takers, he would be selling the cartridges on eBay. I fired off a desperate comment, and wouldn’t you know it, Robert decided to go ahead and send me the cartridges anyway! What a swell guy! I’m looking forward to getting the cartridges… our printer is running dangerously low on ink. In the meantime, head over and check out [Futurosity](http://www.futurosity.com/).