2008 November 07 archive

So… what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with a lot of time on your hands?

Well, you catch up on the geek projects waiting for you at home.

Here’s what I’ve got done so far:

Alexandria:

Alexandria is back online from Myrtle Beach, and is in its home. It’s connected to the outside Internet and is accessible to registered users.
I’ve also got Sharepoint services up and running on Alexandria. This will be used to provide the front end for the registered users when they connect.
I’ve also increased the total capacity of Alexandria to 1.37Tb

The Den / Twister:

Twister has been resurrected and has been re-purposed as a computer for the Den. (I’m sure that Amante will talk about what we did in the Den in her blog)
I’ve taken the monitor that was originally running the previous computer setup and it is now acting as a monitor for Twister, and a HDTV display for the Den.
In the future, the cable box will be replaced with a TiVo. This will give us a total simultaneous recording ability of 4 channels. Estimated HD recording capacity of 20 hours (180 hours in standard).

Amante / Blizzard:

Installed connector to Alexandria for Blizzard. Created user account for Amante.
No major upgrades planned for Blizzard.

Amante / Tsunami:

Moved all data to Alexandria and began preparations to rebirth Tsunami for a future role.

Me / Shockwave:

Prepare to move all data to Alexandria. Plans to rebirth Shockwave as possible weather station / house surveilance & automation station.

Master Bedroom:

Replaced cable box with HDTV box. Plans will include a TiVo for this room in order to use the Multi-Room Viewing.

Kitchen 2.0 / Typhoid:

Typhoid is ready with a dual display and will be placed at the island when the cabinets come online (which is currently obviously on hold)
I have begun the framework for a kitchen database, and have acquired a UPC database which has millions of products to source from. The initial design will track groceries and costs.

Family Room:

This has been the biggest bit of work in the house. We have replaced the television with the one that I had up in Myrtle Beach, and installed the TiVo and extended storage.
I’ve hooked up the X-Box Gen. 1 to the television.
In order to properly configure the TiVo, X-Box and Television, I will need to bring a network drop to it, which means crawling in the roof amongst the insulation to pull the cable. I did some preliminary work this afternoon, and should have that roughed in tomorrow.
The cable company comes tomorrow to give me the Cable CARD. After that, we can return to the Family Room.