Well, I finally made the switch officiall. I have officially abandoned Windows, and I think this is the last time (well, except that I still maintain 2 or 3 Windows networks)

I would post some screenshots, but wordpress isn’t cooperating. Don’ t know why. It doesn’t really matter because they really don’t do it justice, especially the visual effects that make Vista curl into the fetal position and rock itself to sleep. On half the hardware.

Oh, and i’ve got XP running in a virtual machine, just to prove I can.

All week I have been looking forward to the launch of AMC-14, the newest satellite to be used by Dish Network to deliver more HD content. The launch went off with no problems, but the second burn did not go well.

AMC-14 has been lost. It never made the intended orbit. No word on if it actually went “blooey” or not, but it doesn’t appear to be recoverable.

This sucks, my friend.

Yes. I am really this big of a geek.

Ann and I got a chance to go out on a very nice date on Friday. We went to Bonefish Grille for the first time, and while it is expensive, it was a VERY excellent meal. Highly recommended if you are in the mood for a $50-$80 bill for two people.

My mother-in-law kept Micah while we went out. Unfortunately after dinner she calls to tell us that the satellite reciver won’t come back on. There have been thunderstorms in the area.. oh…no.

My thoughts first go to my new TV… nausea sets in…

Long story short, I get home and it appears to have run in on my phone line, killed the DSL modem, my wireless router and my Dish Network reciever.  The TV is good, but I am going to have to buy a new router. Not bad, considering the lightning hit.

So, my Father-in-law and i were sitting in my living room the other night. Normal stuff… TV Channel flipping.

“Hey, go to Bestbuy.com and look at this TV”. He says.

“Ok.. hmm.. looks pretty good, great price on that set” Says I.

“Well, do you want one?”

“Why, yes… yes I do.”
So my FIL has officially won “Father-In-Law” of the year, because we got up and went to Best Buy and he purchased matching 50″ DLP TV’s. One for him… one for me. Now, my theory on that is that he wants to know how to use the remote when he comes to visit… much the same reason he bought us a recliner, so he’d have a place to sit when he comes to visit. Pretty funny, but ultimately I reap the benefits.

Dish Network has been called. HD Satellite service will be installed on Saturday. The peasants will rejoice. Until then, I can still get my local DTV stations with a set of rabbit ear antennae, which was almost impossible with a standard NTSC TV. The static was just too much. Not so when you go digital. The format is still a little immature. The standard needs to be set and everyone needs to comply with it (Like they did with Color TV several decades ago). At any rate. I have a TV that, for the room I have, is like being at the movie theater. It works nicely with my surround sound too.

Alabama football parties at my place this fall are going to ROCK!

Just when you thought I couldn’t get any geekier… sitting on my desk now, where once only a server installation of Linux resided now lives 2 installations… one as my primary desktop.. yep i’ve abandoned M$ as my primary desktop OS now. I’m using openSUSE 10.0, and so far I love it. I still have my copy of XP Pro on the disk… and i’ll use it for some stuff still but not as a primary OS for a while. Looks like i’m gonna have to get myself a bigger hard drive… the 6gb linux partition is filling up quickly.

Oh, and just to add another level of geekiness to the mix.. i’m trying to get a broadcast automation system (Rivendell) working on my new install of linux. Why? A new challenge… it’s definately not just “Install” and play.. i’ve been working on it for 4 days now.

Farewell for now my geeky friends…