Friday Update 9/23

Had a pre-drywall walkthrough with Chuck on Wednesday, so no call from him today.

The house is really coming along–it’s actually beginning to feel like a house. This week the electrical and exterior insulation was installed, so everything looks pink. Here’s another look at the 2nd floor living room today (compare it with last week’s):

A shot of the 3rd floor master bedroom:

And a few more images around the house:

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One thing I wanted to mention was a design option that I opted for called a “smurf tube”. It basically is a tube integrated into the wall allowing cables to be easily passed through. The one I chose in particular was for the living room TV area. The cost?

Expensive right? Yeah, a bit. But I know that it’d be something I’d regret when it comes time to wall mount my TV with cables dangling about. The cost is worth it.

Today I was reminded of what it actually is–a tube nailed to some wood.

That cost one-hundred and thirty-five dollars. Amazing.

Facebook Timeline

I was a little reluctant to give Facebook another shot, but after seeing a few of the partnerships and app integrations from today’s f8 I really think FB is beginning to treat their role as a social network with respect. Timeline is turning out to be a great balance of top, recent, and relevant info (something that Google+ is currently struggling with).

So far, I’m happy with it.

Sausalito/San Francisco Trip

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=107931

Friday Update from Chuck 9/16

Here’s a peek at the 2nd floor living room/kitchen before electrical and insulation goes up next week:

 

iTunes 10.5b118 Audio Decoding Issue

Update 10/1/2011: With the latest iTunes 10.5b132, this issue has seemed to be fixed.

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I’ve been encountering a decoding issue with iTunes 10.5 beta 118 where certain audio files will artifact during playback. Using Finder’s preview and Quick Look, the audio plays w/o issue leading me to believe that it isn’t a systemwide issue nor is the source file damaged.

Here’s a screen capture of the artifacting issue, first played back twice in iTunes 10.5b118, then played in Finder and Quick Look:

1 Thing I Hate About Maintaining A Media Library

Having a collection of media files dating back from the late 90’s, the beaucoup problemo of maintaining an up-to-date level of standards becomes more prevalent with every release of a new and improved codec.

Take witness one of the first movies that started my collection, 1999’s teen romantic comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. The first version I had was actually a 300mb ASF file, which has since been replaced (as with most of my videos) with some variant of early DivX or XviD encoded AVI’s. But AVI’s have come and gone with the mid-twenty-aughts (2000s) to make room for the much cleaner and more efficient H.264.

Tonight I decided to take my library one step closer with a new BDRip of 10 Things. For the purpose of documenting the difference between these files, I have taken 12 screen caps from each version for you to compare. Enjoy.

10 Things I Hate About You.avi
600mb | DivX MPEG-4 V3.x | 704 x 432

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10 Things I Hate About You.mp4
1.79gb | H.264 | 1280 x 688

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Final Design Choices

I stopped by the Shea Homes Design Studio yesterday to finalize some interior design options for the house. I took the pics as choices were made, so a few things in the pics weren’t a part of the final design.

The Hardwood flooring and Cabinetry:

Bathroom Vanity and Flooring:

Kitchen Countertop, Backsplash and Electrical:

Kitchen Faucet:

Wall Paint Color and Carpeting (color only, different design):

Microwave:

Cooktop:

Oven:

Dishwasher:

Refrigerator:

Wine Fridge:

Washer and Dryer (red):

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Longhorn Demos circa 2004

[Windows 8] is all in the future. All potential, nothing actual.

Gruber makes an excellent point. Today wasn’t the first time Microsoft demoed pre-release software long before RTM. I dug up a few demos for the operating system that would eventually become Windows Vista, codenamed “Longhorn”. At the time these demos were quite impressive showing off technologies such as:

• Integrated Keyhole map viewing functionality (before they were acquired by Google)
• WinFS data storage and management system
• Windows Indigo messaging system

But that’s all they were. Demos.

When Windows Vista finally debuted 3 years later, the user experience was vastly different than what was shown in the demos. As Tom Reestman points out, there is a huge difference between these Longhorn demos and today’s demos at BUILD, being that today’s demo was followed up by an actual release of Windows 8 pre-beta developer’s preview. But even still, given another year of planned development, you can bet that the product you see today will not be the product you will see then.

Friday Update From Chuck 9/9

Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 90-250mm F/2.8

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My dad just got his new toy. He’s happy.