Vacation 2000: Day 1

Today was a travel day. We started out on a 9:00am EDT flight from Cleveland to Houston (having driven to Cleveland from Cincinnati the night before). We enjoyed the luxuries of first class as we flew through some rough weather to land at a rainy George Bush Airport in Houston.

The weather delayed us for a bit, and even after boarding the plane (again in first class), we sat on the runway for about 40 minutes before we were released by air traffic control for Albuquerque. We landed in New Mexico about an hour and a half late, around 2:15pm MDT.

After grabbing our luggage from baggage claim, we headed out to the parking garage to pick up our rental car from Budget. We loaded up the navy blue Ford Explorer and hit the road for Arizona.

The countryside we drove through was amazing, especially in New Mexico (see pictures below). Six hours later (8:00pm MST (Arizona does not observe daylight savings time)), we pulled up to the Fray Marcos Hotel in Williams.

After unpacking the Explorer, checking into our room, and reorganzing some of our luggage for tomorrow, we walked over the Max and Thelma’s for dinner.

Like I said, a travel day. Tomorrow, the real fun begins.

Linksys KVM

Linksys KVMHaving a home network is very cool and convenient, but having to switch back and forth between my main PC and my laptop on the same desk was getting to be a pain, literally. The placement of my laptop on my desk left no room for my legs and was causing me to hunch over … not very ergonomic. I decided it was time for a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) switch and ended up with the Linksys KVM100SK: a two-port switch kit that contained the switch box and all the cables needed to hook up two PCs, all for under $100. It was a snap to setup and doesn’t need an external power supply (it draws power from the keyboard connection). You can switch between the two PCs using the button on the switch, or by pressing the CTRL key twice. It also supports autoscan. Now I can control both my PCs from my main monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX receiver

Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX receiverOver the Millenium New Year’s weekend I was bitten by the home theater (or HT) bug. Since at the time I already had a DVD player in my laptop (using Margi’s DVD-to-Go, now discontinued) and a decent big screen TV, I opted for a receiver. I chose the Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX. It’s a Dolby Pro-Logic/Dolby Digital/DTS/THX 90W receiver with component, optical, and S-video connections and still serving me well today.

ADS Tech PYRO1394DV firewire card

Since I have a digital video camera of course I want to be able to edit video on my PC. Since most digital camcorders have IEEE 1394 ports (also called Firewire (by Apple), or iLink (by Sony)), I also have a Firewire card: the inexpensive PYRO 1394DV card from ADS Tech. The PCI card provides two external (and one internal) Firewire ports, a cable to connect to your camcorder, and is bundled with Ulead’s VideoStudio SE which pretty easy to learn. Beware … you need a LOT of hard drive space to store all the digital video clips!

Sony DCR-TRV8 miniDV camcorder

DCR-TRV8My digital camcorder is the Sony DCR-TRV8. It’s a miniDV camera complete with 10x optical zoom (120x digital zoom, but who uses that?), digital and picture effects, 12/16-bit PCM sound, audio/video output, 3″ flip out LCD screen, and a ton of other cool features. Since it’s now several years old, it’s been supplanted by much newer models in the DCR line (including ones with megapixel still image capture, MPEG movie modes, and even Bluetooth connectivity!) but mine still works perfectly and continues to help me document those memorable moments.

Delorme Tripmate GPS receiver

TripmateNow this is cool. The TripMate from Delorme is an inexpensive GPS (global positioning system) device that uses the government’s network of GPS satellites to pinpoint your position on the globe. Paired with Delorme’s Street Atlas software in your laptop, you can plan a trip, attach the Tripmate to the serial port of your laptop, place the Tripmate on your dashboard, and then watch yourself move on the map as you drive. The GPS calculates your heading and speed and even speaks when your next turn is approaching. Very, very cool.