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Archived News starting from 11-14-2018 and earlier

Not satisfied with my NEST thermostats perfect operational record, I decided it was time to complicate my life with a less popular, less supported but much better looking smart thermostat. Enter the GLAS. I knew it was Windows 10 IOT based, but you couldn't really tell until it prompted me for my Microsoft login and then of course the Cortana integration also gave it away. It reported as "Windows Phone" to my router, so clearly the remains of that ecosystem have found a new home in this thermostat. My Microsoft fanboy satisfied, I quickly learned how limited it is compared to the NEST, save for the awesome touchscreen and air quality monitoring. Since I'm not a thermostat power user it suits my needs, but definitely a step down in terms of features from the NEST. Hopefully that's rectified by future software updates because it looks amazing.

Tired of wireless connection drops with my solar controller, and still trying to figure out a solution for my security camera DVR when the power is out, I decided it was time to make a proper networking solution. I routed all the outside wires that run upstairs and to my office into the garage, and ran wires from the solar controller and security camera DVR. I then ran an extension cord from the security camera DVR UPS to power the new switch that all 4 cables now plug into. Now I'm 100% proper CAT6 cabled to all my wired devices, with no more powerline adapters. I was so excited I immediately drew a network topology.

Senator Kelley is a well known jerk for making me spend money on hardware I don't need. That said, he mentioned upgrading his PS4 Pro - Kevin Edition with a new hard drive and I immediately had to one-up him and upgrade my Xbox One X. I chose the Samsung 860 EVO 1TB drive because SSD and same size as my current crappy 5200 factory drive, although I soon learned the factory drive is actually a 960GB because false marketing. A quick review of this video and the stock ST100LM035 was free of it's prison. Clonezilla Live then imaged it over to my new drive and I magically had an SSD enabled Xbox One X. Sadly, the 7 partitions only used 960GB and I was too scared to expand the data partition, so I hid a bunch of illegal documents in the extra unaddressable 40GB. System and game bootups are all pretty much 5 seconds faster, so nowhere near making the $150 upgrade price worth it. The Senator is rightly jealous though which makes up the rest of the gap.

At the behest of every tech magazine I read, I decided my 5.1 surround system was in need of an upgrade. No sooner did I put the idea of a new receiver in my head, than Woot obliged me with a sale. My existing 5.1 8 ohm speakers were up to the task, save for two additional ceiling mounted ones for the final 5.1.2 configuration for the minimum Atmos experience. A quick trip to hell (my attic) and I was ceiling speaker enabled. Having already upgraded to an Optoma UHD60 last year, I was now Atmos and 4K HDR equipped. My Xbox One X began pumping out all the goodies immediately, save for the Blu-Ray of Oblivion which for some reason only gave me Dolby True HD instead of Atmos despite supporting it. I'm almost happy I have one last configuration item to pick at, as long as it's a minor one. All the "demos" work perfectly in crisp object oriented Dolby Atmos glory. Full equipment list below:
Receiver: Yamaha TSR-5810, Projector: Optoma HD60
Source: Xbox One X, Screen: 10ft x 6ft x 15ft throw
Speakers: Klipsch HD Theater 300 + two ceiling speakers

After powering down my latest alt-coin miner and reducing my total power footprint to a 50 watt PC, I finally found a server that only requires 5 watts. I upgraded the ASUS VivoStick TS10-B017D to a full Win10 Pro and now host this server off of it. At 5 watts, I can happily run a local server indefinitely in this age of cloud computing. I keep kicking myself for not saving my BBS, so this server will live on as long as it can in it's current 1990s design style. Hopefully I get more sections operational, so for now you'll be greeted with a large number of 500 or 404 responses.

After neglecting this blog for exactly one year, I decided it was time for an update. I blame bookface for the lack of updates of course, but really it's because blogs are dead per Senator Kelley. Well no longer! Blogs are not dead! I'm bringing this one back! It's a beautiful 65 degrees today in South Carolina, and 38 in Michigan. The only regret I have from the move is losing all the great Michigan folks that for whatever reason refuse to follow me down here. I can only hope next year I am writing about everyone that also moved.

With a closing date of December 5th finally set, we scheduled our trip to South Carolina to arrive December 30th before the final walk through on December 1st. What to do while we waited for the closing date? Why visit the underwhelming aquarium of course! We also made a point to hit the beach and drive around the area to get familiar with everything, but the palm trees by far were my personal highlight of the whole vacation.

Our last Halloween in Michigan was typical of the state: cold, dark and rainy. The combination limited us to a total of 10 houses, but Lila was quite happy to go back inside after making the rounds. Lexi did a few more but soon succumbed to the Michigan curse as well. Afterwards we took off the jackets and let the kids show off their outfits for a bit longer before calling it a night. At least South Carolina won't have the cold factor and we can hold out longer even if it's raining.

With the last baby party having taken place almost a year ago, it was high time to have another. The age increases allowed this party to feature more chaos and a total dance party. Marco and Amanda were inducted into the group despite not ejecting the offspring quite yet, and seemed to enjoy themselves just as well.

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