Recently in Electronics Category

After the discussions with Trina I had scrapped my plans on bringing several computers on vacation and instead just brought my laptop and the Shuttle small form factor computer. It was a lot less equipment to pack and gave me an excuse to play with this new device to fully review how well it would work as a server. I was feeling pretty good about my decision. Trina had not yet realized that I had a new computer and really how ticked off could she get about a computer the size of a small breadbox? That theory would probably have held water if I had not made one severely large mistake; I forgot to pack a monitor.

We completed our packing and we were finally ready for our vacation. On Diary of a Diehard I discussed a little of what goes into summer vacation at our house. The planning is more representative of a large scale battle plan for a world war than it is for a family to go on vacation. I think a lot of that is as a result of having a house full of women. With just Dakota and me to represent the male population we are quickly outnumbered by the estrogen gang. Discounting the computer equipment for a moment, there is a substantial difference between how women pack for a vacation and how men pack for the same amount of time and same location. Take for example my son Dakota versus my daughter Whitney.

After my computer store excursion I had to go into stealth mode. Trina had returned from out of town and I was already in trouble for the handiwork she did know about. You would think that a wife would be grateful that her husband would do things around the house but not my wife. Of course her ideas for home improvement and mine seem to be diametrically opposed. She sees things such as landscaping, house painting, and minor repairs as at the top of the list. I am more inclined to think of rewiring the house with optical cable, running Ethernet over power line, or adding home automation devices as home improvement. I mean seriously who doesn't want to control their lights from the comfort of the computer or be able to set the thermostat from the Internet? Still I guess she does have a valid point. Our house is filled with technology goodness but my backyard still has not been fully landscaped since we moved in 14 years ago. I blame the electronics industry. If they would come up with cool landscape technology I would be all over it.

I should never be allowed into an electronics store or a computer store unsupervised. There are just too many gadgets and I have too many ideas to be trusted to not come out of one of these stores without spending too much or bringing home something new and unusual. As I documented yesterday I was going to need some new parts in order to make the necessary repairs around the house. I am usually ok going to Home Depot or Lowe's by myself. Well ok that might be debatable especially after the whole rewiring the house and adding home automation fiasco of 1999. By the way, the switch explosion was not among those that I had previously messed with so this one was not my fault. That's my story and I am sticking with it.

Our middle daughter Tiffany begins college this coming January. She has just finished High School graduation and is now trying to earn money to afford to go to school this coming winter. Recently she was accepted into Brigham Young University - Idaho which is the campus in Rexburg Idaho as opposed to Provo Utah. There are pros and cons to going to BYU-Idaho. On the con side BYU-Idaho does not have the collegiate sports programs that the BYU-Utah campus has. This means that she will not be able to compete in NCAA track like she hoped. On the pro side the campus is slightly smaller than BYU-Utah and therefore has a closer student body. She will also be able to share an apartment with her sister Mallorie who will be a Senior during Tiffany's Freshman year. This of course could be a pro and a con in itself depending on how much sister stuff they can deal with. When the kids graduate from high school my gift to each of them has been a laptop computer. It is nearly impossible for a kid to survive in college without their own computer and many colleges are now requiring a laptop for several classes.

Today marks day one of the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. It was a year ago at this conference that Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone. Since that time the iPhone has achieved near cult status as *the* smart phone to have. Anyone who fancies themselves as hip had to have an iPhone on their belt or in their purse. It wasn't just that it was cool to be seen with one, it was that it changed the way people looked at cell phones and how they were used. The interesting part about the iPhone was that it really wasn't that revolutionary. Most of the features contained within it were already available on other devices. What Apple did was to package these various features together and surround them with an elegant user interface. They then enclosed it in a sexy looking package and the world flocked to their doorstep. In the days leading up to the release of the iPhone there were people camped out at the local AT&T stores waiting for a chance to buy a cell phone. When was the last time people got that enthusiastic about their cell phone? Clearly Apple had hit upon something. Despite all of the hype surrounding the iPhone, the product wasn't perfect. There were missing features that users clamored for. Now 12 months later the hype around the iPhone has returned. Everyone anticipated that during his keynote address today Steve Jobs would unveil the next generation of iPhone.

I'll freely admit I am very biased towards digital SLR cameras. The capabilities they provide are just so much better than what can be found in a point and shoot camera. Not just the ability to change lenses to meet your shooting needs but in the other features as well. The larger sensor sizes in the DSLR cameras provide better noise management especially when using higher ISO settings for lower light shooting. The ability to have a hot shoe flash that moves the flash further away from the sensor plane is also a huge advantage as it results in fewer red-eye pictures being taken. I have never been a fan of red-eye reduction flash since all it really does is pre-flash to fool the eye. The problem with this is that the subject thinks the pre-flash is the actual picture so you end up many times with people moving or closing their eyes since they think the picture has been taken. That drives me crazy. But for all the benefits of a DSLR there is one thing about them that can be troublesome, their size.