I was shocked this morning at how quickly it setup. I was literally up and running in like 4 minutes. The unit is small and sleek looking. I was disappointed with the quality of the build as it related to drive insertion and such, but overall, I can live. I copied over all of our data and then shared it out using OS X Leopard Server.

So far so good. It come with a cute little dashboard app, see the picture below. I will let you know how it performs. I also got word that my MSI Wind shipped on Friday from Amazon. Looks like I will have a little toy to play with while Cindy is traveling this week.

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McCain not natural-born citizen, prof says
Published: July 11, 2008 at 9:36 AM
TUCSON, July 11 (UPI) — Research shows the circumstances of John McCain’s
birth don’t pass constitutional muster for him to be U.S. president, a
University of Arizona professor says.

A 1937 law granting citizenship to children of U.S. parents in the Panama Canal
Zone came too late to apply to McCain, the U.S. senator from Arizona and likely
Republican presidential nominee, The New York Times reported. The Constitution
requires the president be a “natural-born citizen,” but the law made McCain a
citizen just before his first birthday.

“It’s preposterous that a technicality like this can make a difference in an
advanced democracy,” professor Gabriel Chin said. “But this is the
constitutional text that we have.”

The law at the time of McCain’s birth conferred citizenship to children born to
American parents “out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States,”
Chin said. The term “limits and jurisdiction” created a problem because the
Canal Zone was beyond the limits of the United States but not its jurisdiction,
the Times said.

McCain has dismissed suggestions that he does not meet the citizenship test. In
April, the Senate approved a non-binding resolution declaring McCain eligible
to be president.

“No court will get close to it, and everyone else is on board, so there’s a
constitutional consensus, the merits of arguments such as this one aside,” said
Peter Spiro, a citizenship law authority at Temple University.

A lawsuit challenging McCain’s qualifications is pending in a federal court in
Concord, N.H.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/11/McCain_not_natural-born_citizen_prof_say
s/UPI-86721215783410/

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Some interesting product releases this week from Apple.

• Tomorrow at 8am Apple will launch the iPhone 3G - man I wish AT&T wasn’t so crappy here in Williamsburg. I would so be all over that
• Today, supposedly, MobileMe was suppose to be available, but as of 2:30p EDT, the site is still “under maintenance”
• Apple iPhone/iPod Touch Management UI, kinda cool allows management of iPhones and iPod Touch devices in the enterprise
• The App Store - all sorts of fun little applications for your iPod Touch/iPhone. They even have a Salesforce app, which may be very useful in the near future.

Who knows, maybe on the way home from Sterling on Saturday, I may have to stop at the Apple Store and buy a new little toy. Mark has been rubbing in his “new addition” over the past few days.

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With Father’s day a few hours away, it is hard not to get choked by listening to this and his head fake. Many lessons learned and great memories of growing up came from watching this. Take an hour from your schedule and watch this or order the book from Amazon.

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So after some time reviewing the technology (while Stephen reviewed the company, their investors, etc), Cindy and I decided to place an order. We have been looking for a security system on an off for a few years because of the traveling I do, I hate leaving Cindy home alone. Anyway, we placed the order Sunday morning (5/25) and our order arrived on Friday 5/30 (they apparently upgraded us to 2 day shipping). The boxing was very Apple like (that will make sense to a few of you). It was clean and neat, with easy directions. As I was installing the system, it was incredibly easy to follow and understand. I would recommend reading the directions so you can really understand the system. I had the doors secured in about 30 minutes. We have 14 windows on the main level and choose to go with window sensors, in lieu of the more economical motion detectors because of the pets. The windows took a little bit of thinking to make sure the senors did not impact the way the window opened (either for air or for cleaning), but I found a good method of installation. I did run into 2 problems during the installation, both user related. The keychains didn’t program at first, but I found I needed to program them while standing near the keypad console (makes sense if you think about it). And the senors in my office didn’t seem to want to connect to the security grid the first time I installed them. I fired off an e-mail to IngridHome support desk and had a phone call within 2 hours. They said that sometimes you just need to play with it a little bit, which I asked if that was code for user error, the woman kind of chuckled.

Some of the  truly unique about Ingrid is that it connects to your broadband AND your analog phone line. You can use either or both to support your system. You get a web console called MyIngrid (creative, yes) that gives you a full view of the system, its health and all the configuration options possible. You can have it send you text messages/emails when you have a change in system status, a failure, or breakin. You can program various users and assign notification levels based on the user code entered to disarm the system (for example, the kids coming home from school, get a text page to let you know they are home). You can even bridge systems in geographically diverse locations together (how cool is that)?

There are a couple of wish list items for the Ingrid:

1. Temperature Sensor (monitor temps in specific locations within the house)
2. Carbon Monoxide Monitoring
3. Water Sensor (for flooding)

Check out a couple things:

• Comparison matrix
• Various components of the system
• InGrid Videos

I should add, the entire system was under $700 bucks and less then $30 a month to monitor. This compares incredibly well. ADT/Brinks advertise a system for $200, but then if you have more then 1 window or door, you need to add senors for those, if you want smoke detection you need to add those as well. So the system from ADT/Brinks for our home was well over $1000. Plus the monthly monitoring was more expensive especially when you included the smoke detectors.

So color me impressed!

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