Birthday Gift

Happy Birthday!

I hope you like the gift. You now have an instant perfect beach in a bottle whenever you need it.
If it isn't obvious, you can remove the tape and the sticky notes.
I don't know how it did in transit, but there are a few items in the bottle: 2 dolphins and 6 or so rainbows. I'm not sure if they are buried or not at this point.
The top comes out with a nice sound, so you can add any future items to your beach collection.

There's more to it, but it's up to you if you want to share the info below:

Do you recognize this particular bottle? ;-)

Now, the sand. Can you guess where it came from? Do you recognize it?
Here are some pretty strong hints:


Do you recognize the beach?
Here's another hint:

And finally, here's my friend Laura and her son collecting it for me (pics taken by her husband):


May you have a wonderful birthday. May you be recognized for the wonderful person you are. You certainly deserve it.

video test

Cracker Hat

Zack took a bag of goldfish crackers and put in on his head as a hat. Notice how Tobey is eyeing him VERY carefully.

Project #1 Building my own PVR

So, I've had this project in my head for a while.

This will achieve a few goals:
1) My wife has demanded we get a Tivo in order to save time in our lives and to not be ruled by the networks' schedules. I'm cheap and think I can do it for less material cost (not factoring in the possibility of this becoming a time-sink, of course)
2) I want to reconnect with the digital media technology space after living in the email and spam space for the last three years. What better way to see the current features and challenges than to try and build first-hand?
3) I need a linux project. I've been working almost exclusively in the windows environment for almost 10 years now, by necessity, not by choice. the nerd in me secretly yearns for the good old UNIX and X-windows days. This is a good forcing function to finally install and use linux.

So here is the first decision: Do I build a Freevo or MythTV system?

Welcome to the scOutpost

Hello! this is the first posting of the scOutpost, a blog that is designed to document the searching for, tinkering with, and evaluation of new end-user technologies. There are so many new and interesting hardware and software products and services available, many of them open-source, with "some assembly required". The documentation and user reviews often don't capture the real investment in time and energy required to get the thing working.
I'll let other blogs and writers make neat literary allusions and witty references. You'll see none of that from me...well maybe some wit depending on the time of day. I'm not a prolific writer, and it still blows my mind as to how some bloggers can write so much on a regular basis. I'm more of a data guy than a words guy, so in place of profound statements, you'll see quanititave analysis or stats.
As far as the level of technical writing, I think I'll err on the side of the novice rather than assume a technical audience. I've got a technical background (which has become a bit rusty over the past few years), but want to critically evaluate these technologies for usability for broader adoption. Anyway, we'll see how this goes. Feel free to comment!