When passing through Boonville, CA, you must stop at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company, home of the excellent award-winning ale, Boont Amber. AVBC just release a wild new ale called Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema. I've never had another beer like it. It really has a very smooth, cream-like te... read more →
I now have four shows on my Comcast DVR [superbowlcomcastdvr, comcastdvrwar, comcastdvrdst, newcomcastdvr, comcastdvrdead, comcastdvrdelete, comcastdvravsforum, comcastdvrcodes] that will neither play nor allow me to delete. The Comcast DVR has so much promise, but it is so damned clunky and buggy ... read more →
Wow, that was fast! Ron over at the mt-daapd project followed up on my entry about streaming lossless WMA to iTunes by adding full WMA metainfo support to the mt-daapd project. Sweet! So what does that mean? It means that if you set up a patched version of mplayer on a Linux box, and install the... read more →
I've been thinking of a solution for cellaring wine at home. I do have room under the house to build a proper cellar, but I won't have time to do a big project like that for many years to come. So in the mean time, I've kept my eye on those 'Wine Cooler Fridge' things that are ... read more →
If you are looking for a nice overnight escape from the SF Bay Area, head up the coast to the Albion River Inn. Located about 15 minutes south of Mendocino , the Albion River Inn has a set of charming cottages perched atop of a cliff overlooking the mouth of the Albion River. Most rooms have firep... read more →
No sooner did I recommend and upgrade to the latest version of Xiino [xiino3.4, xiinodead, xiinooffline] than the Xiino Dataserver went offline. What does that mean? To save bandwidth and screen real estate on the Palm, Xiino uses a special proxy server they call a 'Dataserver' to downsampl... read more →
Those courtesy earbuds that Apple included with your iPod are acceptable, but if you want to hear some real bass and a warmer and more accurate high-end, you'll want to step up to a pair of headphones. I was looking for a solid pair of portable headphones that were priced where I wouldn't cr... read more →
If you're a guitar fan, you're probably a fan of Joe Satriani. And if you're not, well, you will be after listening to Joe's latest album, Is There Love In Space? This album is a dangerous one to listen to while driving. Things get started quickly and funky with Gnaahh, then the f... read more →
There is a lot of baseball being broadcast in HDTV this year, and I'm loving every minute of it. I get HD via an antenna on my roof (OTA ) and via Comcast cable, but since most HD baseball is shown only on Fox Sports, I usually end up watching the feed via cable. There is a noticeable amount o... read more →
A new version of the PalmOS web browser Xiino was released last week, and it is a very nice update. Xiino 3.4 improves page rendering by adding support for colored, sized, and emphasized text, as well as including a new 'image preview' option that allows downloads of low-res gray-scale plac... read more →
I bought the SanDisk WiFi SD [idlesandiskwifi, sandiskwifisd] card for my Zodiac, but I've found that I never use it. As a matter of fact, I never even carry the WiFi card with me. Why? The card is too big. It sticks out of the top of the Zodiac by about ¾ of an inch, and prevents me fr... read more →
I'm not really a boxing fan, but you don't need to be one to love Fight Night: Round 2 from EA. I've never played a game that felt this viscerally satisfying. If you're ever in the mood to just pummel the crap out of someone, you won't find a better outlet than Fight Night: Ro... read more →
I installed an OmniFi DMP1 in my 2000 Audi A4 this weekend. Well, 'wired up an OmniFi' would be a better way of saying it, as I haven't found an appropriate mounting location for the controller yet. Interfacing the OmniFi with the Audi stereo is very simple, thanks to an adapter from ... read more →
Ever wonder what would happen if your DVR wasn't aware of Daylight Savings Time? Those of us on the west coast with Comcast DVRs just found out: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay/message/17063?simple=1http://www.dvrchatter.com/viewtopic.php?id=219 ... read more →
Trader Joe's is always a great place for tasty organic snacks. Lately, I've become hooked on their Old Fashioned Blister Peanuts. From the label:Generations ago folks soaked peanuts in water to remove the red skins prior to roasting. This caused the peanuts to 'blister' during roas... read more →
Continued from musicstorage [musicstorage4, musicstorage6, musicstorage1, musicstorage2, musicstorage-solved3, musicstorage3, musicstorage-solved1, musicstorage8, musicstorage-solved2, musicstorage5, musicstorage7] Among the requirements I've set for a Whole-House Music Storage system, two are: ... read more →