our life

Getting ideas and making notes...

Spent Sunday touring the model homes of Reids Heritage Homes, Reids Uptown, and Mattamy Homes. I really like the model homes of Mattamy. You'd think they'd be a selling machine for them, but frankly I find that most people who are wandering through are just like us. Just looking for idea's. They do up the homes so much more then any other developer. In fact they do them up to the point where a good amount of what you see is not even something that you could ask for. 10 foot ceilings, wood paneling, custom kitcheners that are so overdone you couldn't order anything like them...ya...but they sure look nice.

We spent Saturday picking out flooring - so we wanted to make sure we did pick the right thing. Felt a little better once we got to see a lot of the same colours and patterns in a real home. Got some new idea's too, so we can go back to the flooring place ( Flooring plus in Kitchener ), and make some changes.

Got some idea's for the kitchen since we are picking our cabinets soon. Its nice to be able to see a whole kitchen so you can better imagine all the pieces together. Working so far with Hira Homes has been very good - another thing that is nice returning to other developers is being reminded of how much more for the money we are getting with Hira Homes. Though a big reason why we save the money is because he doesn't build model homes. So we have looked at homes he has built before and model homes of others for idea's.

Next weekend I think we'll go out to Rockwood or up to Elora/Fergus. Both those area's have some builders who also create very nice model homes that are worth touring for idea's. Part of me still wish's we could have picked a home out there. You also get a lot for your money. But we decided we didn't want to commute, and my parents wanted to be in town, so the south end still fits both our needs better.

Ya know whats good about Bittorent and TV?

Setting up a torrent takes some time - record the show, re-encode the files, post to a tracker etc.

Whats good about that is that it means that all these people act as a filter to the TV reality. So the good shows make it to the trackers - funny form of flattery eh - thus the filter.

Its sorta like getting a recommendation from a million of your best friends.

Recently I decided to download the season for two new shows - Numb3rs and House. I love edu-tainment and these are great examples of that type of show. We started watching Numb3rs ( a big thanks to my friend Gord for recommending it as well ), and its brilliant. The show mixes action and number theory. The characters are interesting, realistic, and timely. Really liking the show. Tonight we started to watch House - which is a med show. Like ER I gotta praise this show for getting it right - the show is technically correct about its medicine. Its completley different then ER - its not a med drama. Instead again like Numb3rs, its a solve the problem kinda show - in this case medical problems. Also it has good characters - realistic characters with depth to them.

Gotta say - among all the crap reality shows - its nice to see two good shows emerge.

Another pair of shows I'm enjoying is Office - I downloaded both the BBC series and the US version. I've watched the US version now, and now am watching the UK version. Its kinda fun to see the few lines that they changed due to localized humour. Made a few choice changes with the characters too - also to suit the different markets. Next to Dilbert cartoons - these comedy are spot on for office humour.

That brings me to the last item I BT'd - Dilbert ( season 1 & 2 ). I missed this on TV and now I get to watch them at my own pace - I love Dilbert.

This week in BT land

So I downloaded the new Azureus and had setup the RSS plugin, and finally got around to populating it with the RSS feed from BTEFNET. It was working great. It was grabbing the shows I told it I wanted as they were becoming availible.

So just as it started to get good, the #$%^ing MPAA struck again with a new round of 'site closings'. I was using only one of the sites mentioned in this press release - BTEFNET - but that was enough to get me pissed.

The MPAA going after movies I understand - I think its futile - but I understand. Going after TV I understand as well - again I think its futile - but I actually understand it less. It is copyright material so of course they have to go after it, but what I don't get is where they are going to draw the line. With movies it can be a zero tolerance drawing of the line, but with TV we start with fair use copying for your own personal use ( legal ), then we can share a copy with a friend ( tolerated ), that friend can share it with more friends ( not so tolerated ), then one of those friends can put it up on his http/FTP/BT/eDonkey site and share it with all his friends ( AKA the rest of the planet ). Even products like Tivo and other DVR's allow users to share TV ep's. You can send copies of stuff you record to another user of the same box. So ahh...this is built in.

Where are they going to draw the line - perhaps this is why it took them so long to go after the tv sites. Not sure where to draw the line.

The part I find sick, even more so then the #&$^ing MPAA, is the vultures who drop in right when things like this happen. If you go to the BTEFNET site right now somebody has hijacked the domain and is pleading for money. This time unlike Lokitorrent, its not the owner being dirty, its some other person trying to capitalize on the situation. The real BTEFNET crew are alive and well though, and just like all things that fit into the dark side of the internet - they have gone back to IRC. In case you don't already know IRC is where everything happens. Before the web and instant messaging this is where everything really happened. Warez has used this as a backbone almost since day one. It never stopped, and everytime something bad happens in the internet metaverse - we always go back to IRC. Its like a fallback position in the digital media war(s).

So if you have the skillz and would like to take a shot at working it on IRC - jump to EFNET and head to #BT - oh and I believe there is yet another plugin for Azuerus for IRC.

If you have gone to the BTEFNET site, do not send them money - in case that wasn't painfully obvious.

On a Happy note - I've found a truelly wicked Progressive Trance site. I've downloaded the whole collection now and wow. As I type this I'm listening to the different DJ sets on the xbox in 5.1 digital surround and these guys did some great work!

The collection of MP3's in the CD changer in the car is getting stale - so I'm gonna fill up a few cd's with the new stuff. So happy.

[Update] Looks like the channel was getting flooded, so everyone got kicked and now its +m...and now its +i.

Finally found a cat

So after a few months of casually looking - consisting of every other night checking 40 or so sites - we finally decided on a cat. Not the one we ended up deciding on though. Umm...I'll explain.

I talked with Sue of the Uppercredit Humaine Society about Mickey, who was a nice declawed cat they had, and Toonces since he was another large cat they had. I explained that we really wanted a declawed cat and with that we came up Thursday evening to have a look at the pair. When we arrived Sue told us a story about Toonces ( the cat we adopted ) was really acting odd just before we arrived - really happy. He was this way when we came in as well. Almost as if he knew he was going to be adopted.

We had a look around at all the cats, and we finally did get to see Mickey - who appears to be a very nice cat. Toonces however really seemed happy with us, so even though he is not declawed we decided to take him.

When he arrived home he didn't take long to feel at home. Now he follows us around the house, and watchs us do things. He watchs us sleep too which is a bit odd. He sat a good chunk of the night on the night stand - so when I looked up I'd see him staring at me. From what I've been reading apprently Maine Coons are like this - very dog like in behaviour.

Planning the next move

Right now for TV we have two EchoStar 3100 IRDs. One is programmed for DISH and the other Bell Expressvu. Soon both networks will be moving to Nagra 2, and the 'trick' that allows us to watch TV on these networks will stop working.

In last while, we've not much cared since we rarely now watch live TV. Its down to one show really - AOTS is the only show we watch live. Everything else is TV shows or movies that we BT.

But I like to watch the News ( mainly the BBC ) and yes sadly I still want to watch TechTV after Nagra 2. So I've been looking at FTA lately. I've done the easy part so far, which is to pick what equipment to use. The next step is understand what Sats have what, so I can decide what dish(s) I need.

I like solutions that are open - community support is a great thing. The DreamBox FTA recievers are great in this way. IBM provides a solution in its PowerPC set top box kit, and companies then have a hardware design to create a solution around. For the software side, Linux is provided by IBM - as in IBM had tailored Linux to work on the box, and this company can now futher customize it. The best part though is the company believes in community support so like Tivo who endorses hacks, they support users creating modifications to improve the product.

In the end basically I want to get FTA going because frankly right now I'm not watching enough live TV that makes it worth paying for.

Dim Sum and Shopping

Went down to the Markham today. First stop was to have some Dim Sum at Perfect Chinese. Just as others have mentioned in different food forums, this place had a long waiting time, the food was pretty good, and the price was very reasonable. Saw many people / families eating and reading the saturday paper - hey its a ritual for some folk - a good one I think. Hang got to have some of her favourite Chicken feet dish. These ones were especially big too. Later we headed over to the Pacific Mall / Market Square area. This is an incredible mall. In fact the whole markham area is filled with great asian stores and restaurants. Many great shops, and very good grocery stores. We picked up some extremely large mushrooms for Hangs mom - they apparently have some medicinal value - give you more energy. They have to chop them up so you can make soup with them. I joked that a pair of these massage chairs would go great in the new house. I not sure if my dad enjoyed the joke, or was really enjoying the chair - but either way he was smiling.







Finished off the day buying groceries at both the grocery stores in the Market Square. Serioiusly jelous of these places. The other china towns have nothing as good as these two stores - our local Zehrs is pathetic in comparison. So many different kinds of food, great prices, and everything is so fresh.

So much live fish.

IRC, Friendster, and the Matrix all rolled into one.

I started watching the .Hack ( pronounced Dot Hack ) series a while ago, and now I'm onto watching .Hack Twilight. This anime revolves around a ficticious MMORG that exists in the near future. By this point the game is photorealistic and you wear game accessories that allow for much more natural interaction with the game.

This got me wondering about the state of MMORG's. Reality check is we still have much more of the same. Better graphics, better network scaling, and larger worlds perhaps - but still pretty much the same sorta game.

Then I stumbled upon Second Life. I figured this would eventually happen. When I first started using the good ol' IntraWeb, I used to hang out on IRC, and Moo's and Muds. This was the social side of the internet. I figured it would only be a matter of time till somebody took the principle of those technologies and enhanced them. Thats what Second Life looks to be. Its not an MMORG, but its much much much larger then one. Its currently around 25,000 to 30,000 for active users, but the 'world' size is much larger then other current MMORGs. It isn't an adventure game though. Its just a world. Like IRC, it exists as a platform for social interaction. You can create a character, buy some land, build things on it, and interact with all the other people doing the same. Some users have created 'games' within the world - so there are places to go where you can play games that resemble other games - Like GTA, RPG like games, car racing games, or other more simple games like Chess ( with pieces the size of people ). There is currency in the game, and now an active economy outside of the game to trade real world currency for in game currency. Apparently one person has even setup an ATM in the world - not sure of the logistics of how he did this, but since the company behind this world encourages the building of practically anything into the world I guess its possible. In the end though its not a game, its really is just a world where you do what you want - like we do in this world.

Its free to try, and $9.95 for a life time membership - so I'd to try this with hang - go virtual site seeing - if we like it perhaps we'll get a membership.

Um Hello - who is it?

Call out Gouranga be happy!!! Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga .... That which brings the highest happiness!!

Got this in the mail last night...

Its wierd since I haven't gotten any spam on my own domain email accounts since I created them. I have two email address's that I use, one that I use on public forums and one I just use for private email. This one landed in the inbox for my private email.

Lastly it was wierd since the email arrived when Hang and I were having a small arguement over something insignificant, and we both noticed the email come in, and stopped argueing since it was so odd to have this email arrive.

Did a bit of googling - all I have found so far is that it has some religious significance, and that its been showing up in more then just email.