Posts from — April 2008

We have a Mac mini, Hi-Fi, and iMac. The Apple remotes for the first two are a critical part of our home entertainment setup and they’re intentionally paired so each remote only controls 1 thing or the other. How’s a guy to keep these things in order in a clean and classy way?

Moo Stickers to the rescue!

Before

Ambiguous Apple Remotes originally uploaded by -DjD-.

After

Now Unambiguous Apple Remotes originally uploaded by -DjD-.

Birthday Run originally uploaded by -DjD-.

I got out for a nice 9 mile run today and the weather was beautiful. Continuing to move the mileage up and bring the pace down but I suspect it’s going to get much more difficult once I break my half-marathon distance.

Here’s the stats thus far, as well as a training page I’m starting to put together tracking my progress.

In 2 months I’ve run:

• 29 times
• 98 miles
• 15 hours 33 minutes @ 9:39min/mi overall
• 9 mile longest run @ 8:56min/mi
• 4 mile fastest run @ 8:27min/mi
• 15,200 calories burned

One of our biggest goals when moving Across the Pond was to maintain connections with friends and family despite the distance. Fortunately, thousands of miles and a 5 hour time difference is a cake walk in the digital age.

For phone, our tool of choice has been Skype. Empirically, I’d estimate that average folks are only marginally aware of Skype which is unfortunate considering how much freaking money you can save if you make even a handful of international calls (and often domestic as well). To make things even better, Skype has just released new flat rate calling plans for various regions in the world that makes it an even better value.

Let’s break down our setup, what it lets us do, and how much it costs.

Internet Connection
First of all, we need a DSL or broadband internet connection. It doesn’t need to be blazing fast either as Skype doesn’t hog too much bandwidth. Highspeed internet is a fortune in the UK but I’m not factoring that cost here as we also use it for TV, Movie Rentals, regular Internet Access, etc.

Skype Phone – £90
You don’t need to have this, but it makes life easier. This particular phone has a base station which plugs in to our internet AND to our UK landline. The phone itself wirelessly talks to the base station like any other cordless phone. That is, you can’t connect it directly to a wireless network if you were at a friend’s house or Wi-Fi hotspot. If you have other requirements, there are other phones that may suit you better.
Benefits: Don’t have to be sitting in front of the computer to talk. The Mrs. can talk to her fam on the Skype phone, while I talk to mine using Skype on the computer.

Calling Plans – $2.95/month
Used to be (a few weeks ago), the standard SkypeOut rate was right around $0.02/minute. That assumed you were calling much of the developed world and sometimes mobile lines were excluded from that low-low price. With no clear indication of the rate when we placed the call, we’d occasionally get stuck paying $0.20/minute or so. Not the end of the world but certainly not preferred.

Enter the new monthly subscriptions and we are now paying a killer $2.95/month for unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in the US or Canada!

SkypeIn Lines – $24/year each
Since it’s nice for our family to be able to call us as well, and we haven’t expected each and every one of them to setup Skype, we also have local SkypeIn numbers. These numbers are US local numbers, one for Ohio and one for PA, that automatically route the call to us here on Skype. Since we have a Skype phone (see above), we don’t need to be in front of the computer to answer the call. With one of the paid subscriptions above, each of these numbers is only $24/year.

Total Monthly Cost
Figure the phone hardware will last at least 2 years and add in the other monthly recurring costs (excluding internet) and you come to about $15/month for unlimited calls to the US and Canada, unlimited calling from the US to here, included voicemail and other odds and ends. All in all, not too shabby!

Just a glimmer into our weekend and Jen’s new greenhouse.

Initial Greenhouse Project originally uploaded by -DjD-.

Beverley Church Bells originally uploaded by -DjD-.

Some stellar reporting out of the New York Times this morning:
Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air. Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves.

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.

Essentially, for much of the course of the Iraq war, the Pentagon has developed a formal and far reaching program of wining and dining ‘military analysts’ to encourage them to promote the Administration’s talking points on the major networks (CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.). In most of the cases, the dozens or so of supposedly independent analysts were given privileged access to top Administration officials and classified information with the implicit understanding that they would promote the provided talking-points on the air or be cut out of the program. Many of the men were also working for companies seeking government reconstruction contracts in Iraq at the time. Contracts worth billions of dollars.

While perhaps not incredibly surprising if you’ve been paying any attention whatsoever for the last few years, the amazing bit is how well the Times has been able to document and substantiate the program. For anyone fed up with the current state of affairs, the full article is a great read.