We got up early this morning, grabbed breakfast at the Starbucks in our hotel, and then walked over to Universal Studios for the Early Park Admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley.
Continue reading ‘Labor Day Weekend 2014 at Universal – Day 1’ »
It’s Labor Day weekend which means it’s time for our annual mini family vacation over in Orlando. We haven’t been to Universal Studios in a few years so we’re looking forward to seeing all the new stuff (Diagon Alley, Minion Mayhem, Transformers, etc.). The weather might interfere with our plans, however, as there’s an 80% chance of rain both days. 
Continue reading ‘Labor Day Weekend 2014 – Back to Universal’ »
Doom, the video game in which you navigate a dungeon in the first person and messily lay waste to everything that crosses your path, represented a milestone in many areas. It was a technical landmark, in that its graphics engine delivered brilliant performance on ordinary PC hardware. It was a social phenomenon, with individuals and companies hooking up networks specifically for Doom tournaments and staying up for days to blast away on them (well before the Internet went big-time).
I just finished reading “Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture” by David Kushner and am itching to hook up some old PCs and do some deathmatching. Who’s with me?
Our family laptop (an hp Envy 14 Beats Edition) has taken a beating (no pun intended!) over the past few years and recently (thanks to be carried around by the screen by my daughter) the LCD has gone wonky, requiring a bunch of futzing to get the display to work properly.
The recent tax-free weekend here in Florida (for back-to-school) was different than in years’ past in that the first $750 of a computer purchase would be tax free. This seemed like a good time to get a new family PC before the new school year started so I did some quick research and ended up with the Dell XPS 18.
“It’s …”
This afternoon I went to my local theater to see the live broadcast of Monty Python Live (Mostly) from the O2 Theater in London. I’ve been a Python fan ever since some friends introduced me to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” back in high school and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see their last live performance.
2,440 miles later and we’re back home with our latest family vacation road trip in the books.
It’s Saturday night … hard to believe tomorrow morning we leave Houston already and start the trek back home. But our Fourth of July weekend in Texas was an eventful and fun one …
Continue reading ‘Houston Road Trip 2014 – July 4th weekend’ »
It’s just before midnight (CDT) and we’re finally in our hotel room in the museum/medical district south of downtown Houston. It was a very long driving day, but let’s back up a little …
More cameras as my replacement project continues! I’ve been using the TRENDnet TV-IP422W cameras inside for the past few years but really hadn’t been using their pan-tilt-zoom features. Rather than replace them with fixed, high-resolution PoE cameras like the TV-IP572PI and continue to possibly overload my ZoneMinder installation, I decided to give the Dropcam Pro a try.
My security camera re-org project continues as I upgrade my old indoor cameras to newer HD (and PoE) versions. I replaced the outside ones earlier this month and next on the list was my four year-old TRENDnet TV-IP121W which I replaced with the very similar, but newer TV-IP572PI.