Author Archives: Peter

State of the Tech

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In the world of technology, no news can sometimes be good news. I haven’t mentioned a whole lot on the blog here, mostly since things have been working pretty well. But for the sake of pure information, here is a status report on where the Wood Family’s technology is at.

Land Line Voice Communications
Currently serviced by Comcast Telephony. This service runs in through our cable lines, and connects to our apartment’s phone jacks. The call quality is good, and our local, regional toll, and long distance calls are all handled by the system. The caller ID information is also better than the information Verizon used to provide. We have two similar GE telephones, one with caller ID, and the other with a digital answering machine.

Wireless Voice Communications
Currently serviced by Sprint PCS. We have a service plan that provides 500 anytime minutes, unlimited night and weekend minutes, and unlimited PCS-to-PCS calling. This means that Becky and I can make as many calls as we want between our two phones and will not be charged for them. This also means we can call my parents’ or my sister’s cell phones from our cell phones at no cost to us. We have had some problems with Sprint not billing us correctly for PCS-to-PCS minutes, but I have been able to resolve those problems by ultimately going to our local Sprint PCS store and talking to the assistant manager (who it turns out is originally from Mount Vernon, Ohio). Becky currently has the venerable Sanyo SCP-4000 (coming up on 3 years old… it didn’t even make it onto Sanyo’s “previous models” page!) and is loving it. I am currently using the Samsung SCH-A400, and am rather frustrated with it. Thus I’m currently looking at purchasing a new phone. One of the candidates is the Sanyo SCP-8100. This is a PCS Vision-enabled camera phone. It has similar features to Sanyo’s 5300, but is smaller in size and has a lower quality camera. Since I already have a digital camera, that’s not such a big deal. It looks like a fun phone to have, especially with Sprint’s Vision service, and it comes in at a good price when I get the phone upgrade discount. I actually got to check out a demo model at the local Sprint PCS store, and it looks to be a very solid phone. It’s a bit thicker than the phone I’m using now, but still easy to carry and use.

Data Communications
At home we are currently using Comcast High-Speed Internet. We have not had any problems with our service. It just works!

Our web hosting provider, Site 5, has been performing admirably well. I have not had much need to contact their technical support, and their service has been up and running consistently. We still have plenty of storage space left on our account. Becky and I also run our email through Site 5’s servers, and we haven’t any problems with that. Five stars for Site 5!

Computing
Becky’s desk is currently equipped with an HP Pavillion 6730 running Windows XP Home. I recently relented and gave her back the LCD monitor so that she could have some more room on her desk.

My desk is currently equipped with a SuperMac S900 and a PowerBook G3 “Firewire”, both running Mac OS X 10.2.5. The S900 was upgraded a couple of months ago, and has been performing well since then. When I gave Becky back the LCD monitor, I bought a new 17″ CRT monitor to use with the S900. It was a fairly cheap model, $100 after a mail-in rebate, but it performs just fine for everyday use.

While we were visiting my parents over Easter, I took the opportunity to install Mac OS X on their computer. From what I tried while I was home, and from the reports I’ve heard since I left, things are working well!

As you can see, there are certain devises we associate with certain processes. It is hardly possible to use HP for industrial purposes, so there are special computers that you can find at https://cp-techusa.com/rugged-lcd-monitors/.

Audio Entertainment
My iPod continues to perform well, day after day. Thanks to some recent software updates by Apple, its battery life has improved significantly. It is almost filled to capacity, and I’ve recently had to delete some less-frequently-listened-to music files from it in order to add new music.

Video Entertainment
We recently upgraded to Comcast Digital Cable, so that we could get all of the TV stations we wanted, and then some. In particular, Becky wanted TLC so that she could watch While You Were Out, and I wanted to get some of the news stations and FX network. Incidentally, upgrading to Digital Cable put us into a Comcast Bundle, so we now actually get our High-Speed internet for a little bit less per month!

The home entertainment system hasn’t been used too much recently. Becky and I have been too busy to have occasion to watch a DVD, but hopefully we will have more time to do that soon!

That’s all that’s noteworthy on the technology front!

Easter in Ohio

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We’re back! Becky and I got back last night from our Easter trip out to Ohio. We spent lots of time with my family and friends from Mount Vernon. We went bowling, toured Amish country, hung out at Friendly’s, did some shopping, had a cookout with the Carters, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Naturally, we took lots of photos while we were out there, and you can see them all here:

Easter in Ohio

Big Dig Review

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On Sunday, on the way back from visiting some relatives in Southie, Becky and I drove through some of the new portions of the Big Dig.

On the way in to the city, we took the Mass Pike from the Allston/Brighton Tolls. This put us into the new Mass Turnpike extension, aka the Ted Williams tunnel. The TWT runs underneath the south end of the city, and carries traffic under the Fort Point Channel, runs under a portion of South Boston, and then heads up to East Boston, Logan Airport, and Route 1-A.

We took exit 25 off of I-90 East, which puts you smack into South Boston. The ride through the tunnel was very smooth and fast, and the tunnel was brightly lit. The exit signs were very clearly marked.

On the way home, we got on I-93 North via the Congress St. on-ramp. The on-ramp was really a huge tunnel that took us down into the Liberty Tunnel (the name given to the new Central Artery tunnel). The on-ramp itself had to be about half a mile long, and then we were dumped off into the new central artery. The ride on the central artery was very fast, but it seemed to be EXTREMELY bumpy. Our car, which can normally handle bumpy roads pretty well, was lunging up and down as it drove through the tunnel. Of course, that may have something to do with the fact that we were driving well above the posted speed limit… 🙂 In any case, the Liberty Tunnel, like the Ted Williams tunnel, was brightly lit and the exit signs were clearly marked.

The Liberty Tunnel northbound exited directly onto the new Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge (or, as radio stations have been calling it, simply the ‘Zakim Bridge’). As you pass out of the tunnel and onto the bridge, you can still see the remaining upper and lower decks of the old central artery. Immediately after that, however, you are treated to a magnificent view of the new bridge. We drove through at night, and the lighting on the bridge was spectacular as we drove through! I wished that I hadn’t been driving so that I could get a better look. In any case, we flew across the bridge, and immediately at the end of the bridge there was a left hand exit to get on Route 1 North via the Tobin Bridge. This dumped us out into the old City Square Tunnel, and from there the ride was pretty much normal.

Except for the uneven, bumpy ride in the Liberty Tunnel northbound, everything was very nice! I am looking forward to the day when the southbound side of the artery will be open, and the hulking green skeleton of the old artery will be removed. This will make way for a good chunk of new green space in the city, and will once again connect the waterfront to the city’s downtown.

Kurds

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I really didn’t know much about the Kurds, or what part they play in the conflict in Iraq, so I looked around for some information. I found a good article here:

The Kurds

If you don’t know much about them, this is a good time to read up.

Voting in North Dakota

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The fun fact for today:

The state of North Dakota does not have voter registration. Their system basically depends on the fact that most communities are very small and closely knit, and most everybody knows everybody. For people who are new to a precinct, usually a sworn affadavit is required. Interesting!

For more info, go to the source: Voting in North Dakota

TMBG

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Saturday’s TMBG concert was great! It marked my fifth time seeing TMBG live in concert:

1. Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH
2. Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
3. Avalon, Boston, MA
4. Avalon, Boston, MA
5. Avalon, Boston, MA 🙂

Suffice to say, seeing TMBG in concert is one of the few occasions I will frequent a smoky, crowded venue such as the Avalon. Their show was great, as always. They really know how to entertain a crowd! One of the best parts of the show was the ‘Radio Play-Along’… they hook up a KLH radio to the PA system, and then randomly tune to various stations. Then they try to play along with whatever is on the radio. Hilarious! As they said in the lead-in to RPA, “This is the part of the show that consistently disappoints! This is the part of the show that can tank at any time!”

TMBG managed to pack in a really full set of music into the hour and 15 minutes they were on stage. This time, I managed to bring along a notepad and jot down their set list. Unfortunately, there were a few songs I didn’t recognize (!!), but here it is:

1. Wicked Little Critta
2. James K. Polk
3. (???)
4. Black Magic Marker
5. Super Tasters
6. “No!”
7. Shout and Stomp (not a song per se…)
8. Birdhouse in your soul
9. The Guitar
10. Man it’s so loud in here
11. Don’t Cross The Street
12. Au Contraire
13. Rocket to the Moon
14. Radio Play-along (they tune in to random Boston radio stations and play along with whatever is on the radio)
15. Older
16. Another First Kiss
17. The Statue Got Me High
18. Doctor Worm
19. Drink!
20. Violin
21. Fingertips
22. Cyclops Rock
23. The Sun (is a mass of incandescent gas…) (The sun gets its power from the reactions of Route 95, Route 91, Route 84, and the Mass Pike…)

Encore I:
1. Christmas Tree (?)
2. Ana Ng
3. New York City

Encore II:
1. Robot Parade
2. Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Weekend Pics!

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As Becky posted earlier, this weekend we were up in Maine for Aunt Emmeline’s 80th birthday party! We had a great time up there visiting with the extended Lowe family. The party was great, and we also got to do some shopping at the various outlets (Kittery and Freeport).

I took some photos at Emmeline’s birthday party, and here they are!

Out of that gallery comes today’s pic of the day — a particularly nice photo of Ken and Dianne!

Enjoy!

Dream Sequence

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So last night I had a very vivid dream which I wanted to share with you all…

I was in the Army, apparently. I was dressed in military fatigues, wearing a helmet. I don’t remember being armed, but one would assume that I was. I was riding in an 18-passenger van with a bunch of other Army troops. We were driving somewhere dry, desertlike, but familiar. Not in Iraq or in a foreign country. I got the impression it was somewhere in the Southwest, maybe New Mexico or Arizona. We were hungry and we were looking for a place to eat. I was sitting near the back of the van, and I had a map that had the locations of Taco Bells in the area. I saw one on the map, and I tried to help the driver navigate to one. Then it got really weird. According to the map, the road to Taco Bell went straight up a sheer rock face. We got to the spot on the road where Taco Bell was supposed to be, but nothing was there. We stopped the van, and I got out and scrutinized the map. The rock face was tall, but not so tall that it couldn’t be climbed. I scrambled up the side, and peeked over the edge. There, as luck would have it, was a plaza with a Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. I went in to the Taco Bell, but I didn’t have any cash on me. I made one of the other guys pay for me, but then I realized that there was an ATM inside the building and I could have gone there to get cash. Anyway, I ended up eating my food (I don’t recall what it was), and that’s about when the dream ended.

What the heck is that supposed to mean??