Cindy and Greg

As you all know, I am what they call a geek. I have been thinking about this topic for a little bit and was hoping I could get some suggestions from some of my geek friends (*cough* Jim, Mark *cough*). I would certainly welcome any suggestions.

So the challenge, put together the ultimate gear bag for your technology needs. Include as much detail as you possibly can (type of back, hardware specs, accessories, etc). To get the conversation started, this is what I currently carry:

• Timbukt2 Laptop Messager - Blue/Grey
• MacBook Pro 15″ 2.4Ghz 4GB/160GB/SuperDrive/Glossy)
• Sprint v740 EVDO revA
• Western Digital Passport 250GB USB Hard Drive
• SanDisk Cruizer 1.0GB (x2)
• Keyspan USA-19HS USB/Serial Adapter
• Cisco Serial Cable
• Cat5e Ethernet Cable (green)
• DVI - VGA Adapter
• Bottle of Advil

What else would you suggest?

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For a while now, we have been using Google’s PicasaWeb gallery for sharing photos. My friend Mark has been singing the praises of Flickr now for what seems like forever and I must admit I just never saw the attraction. I am now a convert. I even purchased a Flickr Pro account and have transfer our photo galleries over to them. I have even geo-tagged all but about 500 pictures (the pictures from Grandma’s apartment).

Are you a Flickr user? Let me know and let’s connect on Flickr, my account name is: gmsmith

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This evening Cindy and I decided to watch Live Free or Die, the final installment in the Die Hard series of movies. We noticed that it was on DirecTV OnDemand, so we downloaded it to our HD DRV and sat down to watch it, but got error message 732, check phone line. I thought this to be a little odd since after all we had downloaded this HD quality movie over the 100MB connection that was connected to our home network. So I called DirecTV after waiting for about 15 minutes, and got what must have been the dumbest customer service rep I have ever spoken to. Anyway, it appears that despite having an ethernet connection to the Internet that you must also have a phone line connected to this modern marvel of television technology so it may bill you the $3.99 for the movie. Am I the only one that things this is the dumbest thing you have ever heard?

So, okay I will play their little reindeer game. I deleted the download, strung a telephone cable from my office to the DTV receiver and rebooted the received. After waiting at least 20 minutes for the received to reboot, I tested the phone line and it came back okay. So I went back to OnDemand and purchased the movie again. We wait about an hour for it to download, yet again, and we go to start it. Guess what? Yes, you are right, error 732 *again*. So now, I am on hold with DirectTV again (now for 20 minutes and counting). So for those keeping time, I have now spent more time screwing with this to get it working, then the length of the entire movie, what a way to spend a Friday night.

Okay, I will stop venting now…

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