Owner: Ronnie's Blog URL:http://www.ronniesblog.net Join Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 14:00:34 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog about whatever I feel like Site statistics:Click here
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 2 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The dining room is going pretty well. I purchased some paneling to cover the walls. The drywall was in such bad shape, that it would not have been worth fixing it. I would have had to hire someone, and not only would that have been expensive, it wouldn't be "DIY" either. So, paneling it is. It will be cheaper and easier, and will be just as smooth has drywall.Which brings me to the next problem. I want the walls to be smooth when this is complete. No paneling grooves. Not a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless. Here are a couple of pictures of how things are currently.Isn't it a pretty color? Too bad it won't be that way when we're done. But enough about that. The current problem is those grooves. To help with those grooves, I picked up some spackling. And with a "smoothing tool", I have been working on filling in the grooves. It's not real hard, but it's not real easy either. The grooves are fairly shallow, so the spackling tends to come out when I apply it. Read more:Remodeling
Unboxing the D-Link DPH-50U 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I have been a fan of saving money. A few years ago, I stopped getting a land line telephone. I couldn't stand the thought of paying $40.00-$50.00 a month just for phone service. And, at that time, that included 500 minutes of local (yes, local) calling. All long distance calls had a per minute charge. So, $40.00-$50.00 a month just to hear dial tone. Crazy. I had a cell phone, and didn't see the need of getting another one. Cricket came along with a cell phone package that included unlimited local calls, and unlimited long distance. All for the same price as a regular phone. One problem was that it only works in certain areas. But it was nice not having extra charges tacked on, and it would work around town. The next big thing was VOIP. There were a few companies coming out that offered telephone service through a high-speed Internet connection. Vonage and SunRocket were two that I considered. SunRocket had the best deal, and I went for it. For $24.95, total, we had unlimited calls t Read more:Unboxing
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 1 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Friends and family know that my wife and I recently purchased a home. We like the home, don't get me wrong, but some things need change. Take, for instance, the dining room. The previous owner, who bought it solely to flip it, did some ugly sponge painting on the walls to cover up the even uglier wall paper. It was definitely going to be one of first things to get redone when we had the time and money. Well, we have the time, and enough money, so we're going for it. It's going to look really nice when we're done. And, I thought I'd share the journey with anyone who is interested.Here are some pictures of what everything looks like starting out.Do you see how ugly it is? Can you understand why we wanted, even before we bought the house, to change this? We just didn't like it. I mean, I know they put a lot of work into it. It was cheap. And they liked it when they were done. But, really, you've got to be kidding me!This is something we have wanted to do from the begin Read more:Remodeling
Pay Per Post 1970-01-01 00:59:59 There has been a lot of talk about a site called Pay Per Post
. It's a site that allows advertisers to connect with bloggers. The talk about it has been mostly negative, as many people feel that bloggers should do what they do for free. I disagree. Yes, the blogger should be up front about why they are reviewing the product or website or whatever. But as long as it is an honest review, no problem. That is, until I signed up for an account myself. I figured I'd give it a try to see what it would be like, and I thought it would be kind of cool to offer my review of something. (Don't expect anything from me any time soon, they have a requirement that a blog should be at least 90 days old)The problem is, the advertiser can request the tone of the review to be whatever they want. Positive, Neutral, or Negative. So, if I review a product and don't like it, they can refuse to pay me for the post if they were requesting a positive review. That, I don't like. I think the blogger
Personal TV Censor, Rant about Gizmodo 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Gizmodo has a short article about a patent that was recently filed about a Personal
TV Censor
. They were responding to an article on Arstechnica about it. Gizmodo has it's pluses, but one thing that bothers me about the site is their use of foul language. I even wrote the editor a couple of months ago about it, and I received a polite response about how the idea of blogging is the freedom of speech. I don't think having a potty mouth is justified in the name of "freedom of speech". It doesn't add value to the article or review. And if anything, it takes away from it. The attitude toward foul language, and the people who don't care for it, is evident in this article.Adam Frucci writes "It's not gonna help you when some naked man ### is shown on a gritty cop drama, but you could always just grow a pair and not be so easily offended."This world is going down hill quick, and particularly this country (USA), because of attitudes like this. People are losing respect for each oth Read more:Gizmodo
Choosing to be poor over being married 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Saw an article on MSN Money about a lady named Donna Freedman who will be living on just $12,084 this year. She talks about why she is having to do that, and how she is going to do it. She does offer some good tips on how to live with less money, whether you have to or not. It's always interesting to hear how other people save money. And what she offers is no exception. Have a look at it for that alone.What stood out for me was the following statement: "Make no mistake: I'm poor by choice, because I needed to change my life. I chose to leave my marriage, and I chose to become a student. I can live this way because I know it won't be forever." Granted, I don't really know why she "chose" to leave her marriage. Maybe there was a good reason. But based on this statement, it doesn't sound like it was for the right reason. It sounds like it was done to satisfy her and her whims. It is sad that so many people these days are choosing to leave their marriage. Despite the fact that they vo Read more:married
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 3 1970-01-01 00:59:59 The remodeling is coming along. Ran into a bit of a snag, however. The grooves in the paneling that I worked so hard to fill with spackling didn't work out quite like I wanted. I had everything nice and smooth, but when I put the primer on you could still see the grooves. I'm guessing that what is happening is that the grooves are just ever so slightly higher than the rest of the paneling. So, simply just filling them wasn't going to get them hidden. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but going down the middle of the picture is the groove that I'm talking about. Ideally, you shouldn't see that. (And yes, I could use a better camera) So, now I have to go back over them. But this time, make it wider. I need to cover all of it. Just just the inside of the groove, but all around it. I have now applied more spackling about an inch on either side of the groove to make sure that there is nothing showing. I probably should have known that. But how often does one fill g Read more:Remodeling
Steve Jobs, DRM, and eating for free... 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I caught an article on Engadget about a letter that Steve
Jobs wrote in regards to DRM. Digital Rights Management has been a pet peeve for me (one of many). As I've mentioned before, the studios are spending millions, possibly billions, on DRM. I firmly believe that it's a waste of time and money. Yeah, they have to try and protect their assets. They have to make sure the money they spend on making the content is not wasted. When a studio produces a movie, or music, or whatever, it's an investment. Some movies do better than others. And they have the right to go after people who pirate their copyrighted content. But it is a waste of time and money trying to figure out ways to protect the content from being copied. All it really does is prevent the honest consumer from being about to do with the content what they want. I have a PSP, and when flying, I enjoy using it as a DVD player. I want to be able to move the content from a DVD to a memory stick and watch the movie when I want. Wh Read more:eating
, Steve Jobs
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 4 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Okay, this has been a fun project so far. I didn't realize a mitre box could be so interesting. Especially when the walls are not exactly square. I need one of those mitre saws so that I can cut at any angle. Maybe for my next project. The painting is done, for the most part. I will need to do some touch ups. But the majority is done. The wainscot is done. And most of the moulding is done. Here are a few pictures of the finished painting. It's a nice deep blue. It's Lowe's Biltmore Estate Collection from Olympic Paints. The color is called Majestic Blue from the Library. Everyone kept telling us that it should be a lighter blue. Something more like a country blue. But my wife and I knew what we were doing. Here are a couple of pictures with the wainscot and moulding up. And I think you'll agree that it's much better with the deeper blue rather than a lighter blue. I have a few things left to finish. Odds and ends that need repainting or whatever. Once I have e Read more:Remodeling
My feelings about homosexuals 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Retired NBA player Tim Hardaway is being ridiculed for making a comment about not liking gay people. And New Jersey's new civil union law just went into effect this past Monday.Tim Hardaway went about this the wrong way. It is fine for him to believe/feel the way he does. No one should fault him for those feelings. Even though they are. What he needed to do was word it differently than he did.Personally, I don't have any problems with the people themselves. I'm reminded of a saying, "hate the sin, but love the sinner". This is how I feel about it. Being gay is wrong. PERIOD. There is nothing that can be said in favor for it. I'm not closed minded. I have read and listened to just about every argument. It is sad that such a small population is so influential in this society. I'm sure that an extremely low percentage of gay people really are "born that way" (but that still doesn't make it okay). But for everyone else, it's a learned feeling.More importantly, what does the Bible ha
Home Solar Electric System...FOR FREE (sort of) 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Over at Wired News, they have an article about a new company that is looking to provide solar electric systems to home owners with no start up costs. Citizenre hopes to provide home owners with the system, and recoup the upfront costs by charging the home owner for the electricity used. At a monthly cost that will be less than paying your current electric provider. And if your system produces more than you consume, the extra electricity is sold to the power company.This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. But it's just to expensive for me to consider it, until now. I firmly believe that we should be using less fossil fuels and more solar power. We are just to dependant on oil. We have an unlimited resource of energy coming from the sun, and we should be using it more. Companies like this will help drive the cost of the equipment down, and make it affordable for everyone. And with a system like this, an electric car sounds interesting now.
Read more:Solar
, Electric
, System
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 5 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, it took a while, but the majority of the project is now complete. Here are a few pictures of the results.I think it looks great. The color is perfect. Everything is just right. Even the people who told us that it should be a lighter color now agree that the darker blue is perfect.There are still a couple of things left to do. In the next couple of days, I will post a conclusion. I want to go over what I've learned, and go over the mistakes I made. But even with the mistakes, it still cam out great.
Read more:Remodeling
Another AACS key found 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Well, it looks like another AACS key has been found. As I stated back in a previous blog entry, DRM is pointless and a waste of money. No matter what you do, there will ALWAYS be a way around DRM. People WILL find ways to get around DRM, and get to the data and use the data the way they want. It is a complete waste of time to try and stop them. The studios need to incorporate features that would be worthwhile, like filtering bad language, and stop trying to prevent people from using the content on whatever device the consumer owns. I don't know how long it is going to take the studios to figure this out. I understand their need to protect the content from thieves. That is fine. Go after the people who sell copied content. Go after the people who buy copied content. But don't prevent people who purchase a legal copy from playing the content on a Sony PSP, Apple IPOD, or whatever.So, stop spending so much money (as if any of the studios would ever read my blog) on limiting p
Citizenre - Is it worth it? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 It seems like there is a lot of talk about the company Citizenre, and whether or not they are going to fulfill what they say they will do. There is a blog here that has a lot of points about why Citizenre will fail. And why it's probably not a good idea. My take is this. If it wasn't for a company like this, I would never be in the market. One comment on the blog mentioned above states that people are signing up for Citizenre and are taking themselves off the market for other solar systems. I was never in the market. And I would imagine that most of the people that have signed up with Citizenre are in the same situation I am. There is no way I would ever be able to afford a system like this. At least, not any time soon. For the few that can afford a system with another company, the company will just have to learn how to compete with Citizenre, or join them. But I doubt they will be out of business anytime soon. The blog article also mentions that people who have signed up w
Paypal's new security key 2007-02-28 15:30:00 I have been a member of Paypal from the very beginning. It has been a great service. I have had absolutely NO problems with the service. Although I keep reading over and over how bad they are. The best example is this site.Because of the popularity and the money involved, it's been a target by people wanting to steal from the members of Paypal. Phishing has been a huge problem for Paypal. People with little security
knowledge are suckered into believing that they are actually on the Paypal site, although they really aren't. Once this happens, the phishing site has the username and password for the person being targeted. Huge problem.Paypal has come up with a very nice solution. They now have a security key fob available for the meager price of $5.00 (includes shipping). The service is still in beta, but so far, I'm loving it.I hate all of the security measures that other sites have chosen to employ. Things like different questions every time you log in. Th
Spotplex 2007-03-06 15:24:00 I recently found a new website that has a lot of potential. It's called Spotplex
. It's a lot like Digg in that articles are listed based on popularity. The difference, however, is that Spotplex bases the popularity by the number of times people actually view/read an article. Here is how Spotplex describes it: Spotplex provides internet users with real-time ranking of blog articles basedon actual impression count. In other words, you can find what is the hot newstoday, this week, or this month in real time at Spotplex. It is not a list ofarticles people recommended or voted for, but a list of articles read most in agiven timeframe.Don't get me wrong, I like Digg. I find a lot of good articles from Digg. Digg and Spotplex compliment each other. But there is something about Spotplex that appeals to me more. You read articles about how people are gaming Digg. It makes Digg seem less realiable. I'm sure people will figure out ways to game Spotplex, but right now, I think it will have a
Paypal's new security key 2007-02-28 15:30:00 I have been a member of Paypal from the very beginning. It has been a great service. I have had absolutely NO problems with the service. Although I keep reading over and over how bad they are. The best example is this site.Because of the popularity and the money involved, it's been a target by people wanting to steal from the members of Paypal. Phishing has been a huge problem for Paypal. People with little security
knowledge are suckered into believing that they are actually on the Paypal site, although they really aren't. Once this happens, the phishing site has the username and password for the person being targeted. Huge problem.Paypal has come up with a very nice solution. They now have a security key fob available for the meager price of $5.00 (includes shipping). The service is still in beta, but so far, I'm loving it.I hate all of the security measures that other sites have chosen to employ. Things like different questions every time you log in. Th
Citizenre - Is it worth it? 2007-02-25 22:49:00 It seems like there is a lot of talk about the company Citizenre, and whether or not they are going to fulfill what they say they will do. There is a blog here that has a lot of points about why Citizenre will fail. And why it's probably not a good idea.My take is this. If it wasn't for a company like this, I would never be in the market. One comment on the blog mentioned above states that people are signing up for Citizenre and are taking themselves off the market for other solar systems. I was never in the market. And I would imagine that most of the people that have signed up with Citizenre are in the same situation I am. There is no way I would ever be able to afford a system like this. At least, not any time soon. For the few that can afford a system with another company, the company will just have to learn how to compete with Citizenre, or join them. But I doubt they will be out of business anytime soon.The blog article also mentions that people who have signed up wit
Another AACS key found 2007-02-25 20:40:00 Well, it looks like another AACS key has been found. As I stated back in a previous blog entry, DRM is pointless and a waste of money. No matter what you do, there will ALWAYS be a way around DRM. People WILL find ways to get around DRM, and get to the data and use the data the way they want. It is a complete waste of time to try and stop them. The studios need to incorporate features that would be worthwhile, like filtering bad language, and stop trying to prevent people from using the content on whatever device the consumer owns. I don't know how long it is going to take the studios to figure this out. I understand their need to protect the content from thieves. That is fine. Go after the people who sell copied content. Go after the people who buy copied content. But don't prevent people who purchase a legal copy from playing the content on a Sony PSP, Apple IPOD, or whatever.So, stop spending so much money (as if any of the studios would ever read my blog) on limiting p
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 5 2007-02-23 23:53:00 Well, it took a while, but the majority of the project is now complete. Here are a few pictures of the results.I think it looks great. The color is perfect. Everything is just right. Even the people who told us that it should be a lighter color now agree that the darker blue is perfect.There are still a couple of things left to do. In the next couple of days, I will post a conclusion. I want to go over what I've learned, and go over the mistakes I made. But even with the mistakes, it still cam out great.
Read more:Remodeling
Home Solar Electric System...FOR FREE (sort of) 2007-02-21 17:47:00 Over at Wired News, (another here) they have an article about a new company that is looking to provide solar electric systems to home owners with no start up costs. Citizenre hopes to provide home owners with the system, and recoup the upfront costs by charging the home owner for the electricity used. At a monthly cost that will be less than paying your current electric provider. And if your system produces more than you consume, the extra electricity is sold to the power company.This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. But it's just to expensive for me to consider it, until now. I firmly believe that we should be using less fossil fuels and more solar power. We are just to dependant on oil. We have an unlimited resource of energy coming from the sun, and we should be using it more. Companies like this will help drive the cost of the equipment down, and make it affordable for everyone. And with a system like this, an electric car sounds interesting now.
Read more:Solar
, Electric
, System
My feelings about homosexuals 2007-02-19 18:41:00 Retired NBA player Tim Hardaway is being ridiculed for making a comment about not liking gay people. And New Jersey's new civil union law just went into effect this past Monday.Tim Hardaway went about this the wrong way. It is fine for him to believe/feel the way he does. No one should fault him for those feelings. Even though they are. What he needed to do was word it differently than he did.Personally, I don't have any problems with the people themselves. I'm reminded of a saying, "hate the sin, but love the sinner". This is how I feel about it. Being gay is wrong. PERIOD. There is nothing that can be said in favor for it. I'm not closed minded. I have read and listened to just about every argument. It is sad that such a small population is so influential in this society. I'm sure that an extremely low percentage of gay people really are "born that way" (but that still doesn't make it okay). But for everyone else, it's a learned feeling.More importantly, what does the Bible ha
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 4 2007-02-18 03:17:00 Okay, this has been a fun project so far. I didn't realize a mitre box could be so interesting. Especially when the walls are not exactly square. I need one of those mitre saws so that I can cut at any angle. Maybe for my next project. The painting is done, for the most part. I will need to do some touch ups. But the majority is done. The wainscot is done. And most of the moulding is done. Here are a few pictures of the finished painting. It's a nice deep blue. It's Lowe's Biltmore Estate Collection from Olympic Paints. The color is called Majestic Blue from the Library. Everyone kept telling us that it should be a lighter blue. Something more like a country blue. But my wife and I knew what we were doing. Here are a couple of pictures with the wainscot and moulding up. And I think you'll agree that it's much better with the deeper blue rather than a lighter blue. I have a few things left to finish. Odds and ends that need repainting or whatever. Once I have ev Read more:Remodeling
Choosing to be poor over being married 2007-02-06 22:25:00 Saw an article on MSN Money about a lady named Donna Freedman who will be living on just $12,084 this year. She talks about why she is having to do that, and how she is going to do it. She does offer some good tips on how to live with less money, whether you have to or not. It's always interesting to hear how other people save money. And what she offers is no exception. Have a look at it for that alone.What stood out for me was the following statement: "Make no mistake: I'm poor by choice, because I needed to change my life. I chose to leave my marriage, and I chose to become a student. I can live this way because I know it won't be forever." Granted, I don't really know why she "chose" to leave her marriage. Maybe there was a good reason. But based on this statement, it doesn't sound like it was for the right reason. It sounds like it was done to satisfy her and her whims. It is sad that so many people these days are choosing to leave their marriage. Despite the fact that they vo Read more:married
Steve Jobs, DRM, and eating for free... 2007-02-06 21:28:00 I caught an article on Engadget about a letter that Steve
Jobs wrote in regards to DRM. Digital Rights Management has been a pet peeve for me (one of many). As I've mentioned before, the studios are spending millions, possibly billions, on DRM. I firmly believe that it's a waste of time and money. Yeah, they have to try and protect their assets. They have to make sure the money they spend on making the content is not wasted. When a studio produces a movie, or music, or whatever, it's an investment. Some movies do better than others. And they have the right to go after people who pirate their copyrighted content. But it is a waste of time and money trying to figure out ways to protect the content from being copied. All it really does is prevent the honest consumer from being about to do with the content what they want. I have a PSP, and when flying, I enjoy using it as a DVD player. I want to be able to move the content from a DVD to a memory stick and watch the movie when I want. Wh Read more:eating
, Steve Jobs
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 3 2007-02-06 02:32:00 The remodeling is coming along. Ran into a bit of a snag, however. The grooves in the paneling that I worked so hard to fill with spackling didn't work out quite like I wanted. I had everything nice and smooth, but when I put the primer on you could still see the grooves. I'm guessing that what is happening is that the grooves are just ever so slightly higher than the rest of the paneling. So, simply just filling them wasn't going to get them hidden. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but going down the middle of the picture is the groove that I'm talking about. Ideally, you shouldn't see that. (And yes, I could use a better camera) So, now I have to go back over them. But this time, make it wider. I need to cover all of it. Just just the inside of the groove, but all around it. I have now applied more spackling about an inch on either side of the groove to make sure that there is nothing showing. I probably should have known that. But how often does one fill g Read more:Remodeling
Personal TV Censor, Rant about Gizmodo 2007-02-02 17:41:00 Gizmodo has a short article about a patent that was recently filed about a Personal
TV Censor
. They were responding to an article on Arstechnica about it. Gizmodo has it's pluses, but one thing that bothers me about the site is their use of foul language. I even wrote the editor a couple of months ago about it, and I received a polite response about how the idea of blogging is the freedom of speech. I don't think having a potty mouth is justified in the name of "freedom of speech". It doesn't add value to the article or review. And if anything, it takes away from it. The attitude toward foul language, and the people who don't care for it, is evident in this article.Adam Frucci writes "It's not gonna help you when some naked man ### is shown on a gritty cop drama, but you could always just grow a pair and not be so easily offended."This world is going down hill quick, and particularly this country (USA), because of attitudes like this. People are losing respect for each oth Read more:Gizmodo
Pay Per Post 2007-02-02 14:51:00 There has been a lot of talk about a site called Pay Per Post
. It's a site that allows advertisers to connect with bloggers. The talk about it has been mostly negative, as many people feel that bloggers should do what they do for free. I disagree. Yes, the blogger should be up front about why they are reviewing the product or website or whatever. But as long as it is an honest review, no problem. That is, until I signed up for an account myself. I figured I'd give it a try to see what it would be like, and I thought it would be kind of cool to offer my review of something. (Don't expect anything from me any time soon, they have a requirement that a blog should be at least 90 days old)The problem is, the advertiser can request the tone of the review to be whatever they want. Positive, Neutral, or Negative. So, if I review a product and don't like it, they can refuse to pay me for the post if they were requesting a positive review. That, I don't like. I think the blogger
Remodeling The Dinning Room, Part 2 2007-01-31 03:51:00 The dining room is going pretty well. I purchased some paneling to cover the walls. The drywall was in such bad shape, that it would not have been worth fixing it. I would have had to hire someone, and not only would that have been expensive, it wouldn't be "DIY" either. So, paneling it is. It will be cheaper and easier, and will be just as smooth has drywall.Which brings me to the next problem. I want the walls to be smooth when this is complete. No paneling grooves. Not a huge problem, but a problem nonetheless. Here are a couple of pictures of how things are currently.Isn't it a pretty color? Too bad it won't be that way when we're done. But enough about that. The current problem is those grooves. To help with those grooves, I picked up some spackling. And with a "smoothing tool", I have been working on filling in the grooves. It's not real hard, but it's not real easy either. The grooves are fairly shallow, so the spackling tends to come out when I apply it. Read more:Remodeling
Unboxing the D-Link DPH-50U 2007-01-28 22:29:00 I have been a fan of saving money. A few years ago, I stopped getting a land line telephone. I couldn't stand the thought of paying $40.00-$50.00 a month just for phone service. And, at that time, that included 500 minutes of local (yes, local) calling. All long distance calls had a per minute charge. So, $40.00-$50.00 a month just to hear dial tone. Crazy. I had a cell phone, and didn't see the need of getting another one. Cricket came along with a cell phone package that included unlimited local calls, and unlimited long distance. All for the same price as a regular phone. One problem was that it only works in certain areas. But it was nice not having extra charges tacked on, and it would work around town. The next big thing was VOIP. There were a few companies coming out that offered telephone service through a high-speed Internet connection. Vonage and SunRocket were two that I considered. SunRocket had the best deal, and I went for it. For $24.95, total, we had unlimited calls t Read more:Unboxing
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