corkerns.com

Why I Love the Mac (a series) - Streaming Music

bruce — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:08:02 +0000

Before my first Mac, I was considering Sonus as a way to stream music throughout the house and onto the deck. The cost to stream music to 3 locations (at the time…haven’t checked lately) was about $3,000. Instead, I installed an Airport Express in each location where I wanted music and streamed my iTunes to each device…problem solved. It streams in a synchronized stream so there is no weird effect as you walk from keeping room to the back deck. Total cost - don’t care, as the ease of use was worth it. But I think each Airport Express was around $179, so I’m way ahead of Sonos.

I started the system using a Linksys WRT54G like 90% of the world. I’ve since retired the Linksys and substituted an Apple Time Capsule with a 500 gig hard drive to get 802.11n wireless speeds and for Time Machine backups. It works well, and I’m actually (mis?)using it as a file server. AS it turned out, I’m not crazy about using Apple’s Time Machine backup program to back up every durn thang I do as I use my brain instead to figure out what to back up. I also like my backups to be off-site, so I ended up with a spare 1/2 terabyte in the Apple Time Capsule to use to store files.

We currently have music streamed to living room, back porch (sorry, neighbors, and yes, I realize music carries over water), master bedroom, master bathroom, and upstairs to the Apple TV. To stream music from iTunes, I just choose from the menu:

Next in the series….what music do we stream? Hint-XM radio on the web, iTunes (with special playlists), Pandora….more to come…

Sprint’s NOW Machine

bruce — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:53:50 +0000

Keep tabs on things….

Photo shoot

rhonda — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:21:20 +0000

Here is one of the many pictures I took today of Brad and Auburn. It was a beautiful day for this.

Satartia

rhonda — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:40:48 +0000

Beth and I traveled to Satartia yesterday with my parents and my Daddy’s two aunts. It is where my Daddy’s mother’s (Sadie Ryan) family is from, the Ryan side of the family. This tomb stone is my great-great grandmother’s. It is said that she is related to William Clark of Louis and Clark. I don’t know how she was related, but it is still interesting.

This is my Daddy and his two aunts, Gladys from San Diego, California and Bonnie from Richland, Mississippi.

Oh, Yeah, Tobi went on this little outing also!

Boating in November

bruce — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:18:06 +0000

We took advantage of 80 degree weather to do some boating today. RC and I floated around a bit, then met Brad and Auburn at the Pelican Grill. Once again, there were no pelicans, but there was a duck.

Earlier in the morning, we left the bow cover on and shut the door that blocks the bow from the main part of the boat. That made it perfectly comfortable with temperatures in the 60s. After lunch, it was still kinda cool for the kids riding in the bow once you added a 50 mph wind chill:

Gracie seemed to really enjoy herself. She’s an honest to goodness boat dawg.

Halloween 2008

bruce — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:51:07 +0000

Since Brian and Peggy have abandoned their annual Halloween bash, RC stepped in to fill the void. It was a cool night, so we had a fire down in the natural area and borrowed a heater for the patio. The weather turned out perfect! I wish we had taken more pictures, though.

Rhonda found this old cooler on one of her dumpster-diving trips. It has a drain plug on the bottom (Duh! Why don’t all big coolers have that?) and a bottle-opener on the side. This morning, all the ice is still in there. The only melting came from the first bag that cooled it down.

The totem of warmth was a big hit. I wish I had some to sell. I may have an Tupperware-style party for Lowe’s and sell these suckers (assuming Rhonda will put them together).

Me: How do you turn off the flash for night photos?
RC: It’s easy….just move this doo-dad to here…

We looked like pyromaniacs, but no one got burned.

We only got good pics of these 4 folks.

As usual, all the photos (such as they were) were uploaded to Flickr.

Coast trip Update

bruce — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:15:17 +0000

Rhonda took these photos from the window of our room. That’s Deer Island that’s within swimming distance of Biloxi. A few weeks ago, we launched our boat just to the east of our room at the public launch next to the Hard Rock Casino. We think the area behind the water is a no wake zone, but the dude in the photo below doesn’t think so.

I really liked the Beau Rivage, although I would prefer a bed & breakfast out in the country somewhere…

Jackson Browne

bruce — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:54:50 +0000

We went down to the Beau Rivage with Skipper and Beth to see Jackson Browne in concert. Dude is 60 years old! One thing about it…there are no bad seats in that place.

Beth was the youngest person there who’s idea it was to attend the concert. She would have been the absolute youngest, no caveats, except for some folks who brought their grandchildren.

BMW vs Lexus

bruce — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:42:50 +0000

The other day, I was leaving the parking garage and heading up State Street. I glanced down at the odometer and noted 21,414 miles on my car. I thought, “How long am I going to have to drive this car?”

Flashback: I remember leaving the parking garage and heading up State Street in my BMW. I remember thinking, “How long can I drive this car before I have to give it up?”.

p.s. I still occasionally try to downshift when taking the Gluckstadt exit.

Only The Good Die Young

bruce — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:12:32 +0000

After only 17 days, Rhonda harvested my salad and ate it up like it was Hansel and Gretel. In her infinite cruelty, she made me eat it too!

I hope that the next generation is ready by Halloween.