Although I’m a bit of a gadget junkie, I still haven’t forked over $359 for an Amazon Kindle.

The thought does intrigue me - the book backlog that’s haunting my nightstand seems to be continuously growing out of control, and the idea of dumping all of this paper and consolidating to a single device with all my reading material does, on some level, seem appealing.

However, I’ve decided to keep true to the ‘End of 2007 Purge‘, which has quelled any desire to pick up another ’speciality’ device - especially when I have a perfectly good laptop and iPhone that can read PDF’s just fine. (Side note: Would love to know of a company that I can send old books to that will convert it to a PDF, send me back the digital document and keep the book).

Anyways - Amazon recently announced that Kindle Publishing was now open to all blogs. I wasn’t really expecting anyone to subscribe, but I thought I would just play around and publish The Furrygoat Experience up on the Kindle store to see what the process was like, etc.

It was all pretty straightforward, worked off of my RSS feed, and enabled me to quickly build the book.

Wait a second - It worked off my RSS feed.

I started to think (and looks like it’s true) that I could put any RSS feed in there.

So as an experiment, I decided to publish my Twitter feed (heck, it’s updated way more often than the blog). For the low monthly price of $1.99 (which includes wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet) you can subscribe to my Twitter ramblings and read them on your Kindle.

I mean, who wouldn’t want such gems as:

• good morning tuesday!
• wondering the origins of the pimento loaf.
• is awake.
• has decided that I really can’t stand this desk.
• etc

Technology is awesome, huh?

And by the way, you can also read this blog post (for an additional $1.99) by subscribing to the Furrygoat Experience on your Kindle.

Earlier this week, I couldn’t resist the gadget-upgrade gods and picked up a new NVidia-based Mac mini to drive my home theater.

Now to be clear, I’ve actually been waiting for this to happen for awhile now - since I push live HD over my network via an HDHomerun, and run tons of H.264 encoded movies through Frontrow, having hardware decoding of H.264 was essential. Quick summary: Love the box.

Anyways - this post is about what’s running behind the scene, the ‘central nervous system’ of my setup, the media server. As I’ve mentioned before, I used to run a massive machine with 4 drives with a RAID array, and switched over to a small Intel-based Mac mini. Since I’m using very little storage on the box - 20gb or so (all my media is on 2TB of external storage), I wondered what impact switching to a solid-state disk would have on boot time (for those occasional software upgrades), heat, speed, energy consumption usage, etc.

Here’s some information on the machine: It’s a standard configuration (as of 2006) 1.83 ghz Intel Core Duo, 1GB of Ram, 80gb 5400 RPM drive.

Based on some simple research (searching google), I decided going with a G.SKILL 64GB SATA II. I figured, for $139 and reported high write speeds, why not. I also liked the fact that the drive also had a built-in USB connector on the back, making the clone from the internal disk simply a matter of plugging the drive in, using SuperDuper to clone, then replace the old drive.

So, that’s what I did. The hardest part, as you can imagine, was getting the Mac mini apart and installing the drive.

And here’s what I found:

Boot Time

Basically, it cut the boot time in half.

Power Consumption

Using a Kill-A-Watt, I tested the power consumption of the Mac mini. When idle, I noticed a small power usage difference (18w on SSD vs 20w on HD), but otherwise, nothing terribly notable here. I should compare it to the new Mac mini, which claims to be at 13w while idle.

XBench

Using the latest version of XBench (1.3), I saw the most dramatic differences.

Conclusion

Was it worth it?

Sure - basically got a faster boot time, less heat, and about double the performance. The SSD drive didn’t come close to the performance of my Macbook SSD (SLC vs MLC memory), but it was an interesting enough experiment to call it worthwhile.

Now, what I’d really like is a 2.5″ 1TB drive, so I could get rid of those enclosures….

Prediction:

The term ‘cloud’ will become the most overused buzzword of 2009.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love that we’re at a point (EC2, S3, CloudFront, etc) where we have massive computing power and storage space served up from some remote location at the fraction of the cost than infrastructure that I had to previously build out myself.

I also love the fact that now in 2009 I can tap into a wide variety of data sources (i.e. API’s) that are floating around out there to enable my iPhone, web or client applications. But wait a second, is that really cloud computing?

I also use Dreamhost for my web hosting. They offer me unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, burstable system resources, analytics and a wide variety of application execution engines (pretty much whatever I want, actually). Couldn’t that considered cloud?

But then, I guess my iDisk is cloud too.. since it offers me storage space ‘not here’, just someplace in the ether.

Wait a second - I thought cloud computing was about virtualization.

Heck, even AT&T now does hosting for my VM’s, storage, utility mail and infrastructure services.

So I guess the basic gist is that anything on the Internet, that I don’t host myself, can be cloud. The term ‘cloud’ can mean a variety of different things to people, and unfortunately will suffer through the same hype machine that RSS, Web 2.0 and social networks have undergone the last few years.

And that’s its problem. Buzzword overkill. Furrygoat’s Law. Irrational exuberance.

Back in July of 2008 my wife and I decided to stop eating beef.

As a long time carnivore, something happened to us between watching both Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me and the various ground beef recalls that just did us in. Don’t get me wrong - sometimes I still crave for a cheeseburger or an amazing Stubbs steak but the thought of what goes on in the slaughterhouses to turn a cattle into packaged beef just put me over.

I usually have an incredibly strong stomach, but watching the ’sticker’ and the ‘knocker’ just was too much. From Wikipedia:

The sticker severs the carotid artery of a steer every ten seconds. The knocker stuns cattle on arrival to the slaughterhouse by shooting them in the head with a captive bolt stunner.

In some ways, this was remarkably reminiscent of working in Sunnyvale (I kid, I kid), but it was something I think about every time a piece of meat sounds appealing.

The best news, which may or may not be related, is that combined with a revamped work out routine, I’ve managed to drop my cholesterol from 232 to 195.

Of course, we’re hypocrites - we still eat chicken and turkey on a regular basis for protein. Still trying to figure out the next steps to cut that out.

[Getting Rich Slowly] When we cut our cable bill from $65.82 per month to $11.30, I knew we would save over $50 per month… Since we started, we’ve purchased eleven “seasons” from iTunes, totaling $398.42 (or about $36.22 per season). This works out to about $16.60 per month. When added to our $11.30 basic cable bill, we’re paying $27.90 each month for television. That’s less than half of what we were paying before.

Back in 2006 (and again in 2007) I made the bold statement that Television, as you know it, is dead.

Since then, we’ve had a digital conversion (oops, make that June 12th now), but the basic assertion was that opt-in video is simply a better way to consume television. The post this morning up on “Getting Rich Slowly” reminded me on how much of a better model this also is for your wallet.

So here’s the obligatory 2009 post to document my shift in the way that I consume media:

• My home theater is now powered by a Macbook. While I’d prefer this to be a ‘dedicated’ device, such as an Apple TV or XBox 360, I need the ability to stream ‘live’ events to the big screen.
• How do I push around HD? The HDHomeRun (in the closet) has dual QAM tuners and ethernet out - I can push HD quality television over IP anywhere in the house.
• The living room has a TiVo Series 3 HD. Since this room is where most of our TV watching occurs, it had to have the most WAF friendly device present. Added bonus: Netflix Instant Watch movies.
• Apple TV. Probably the biggest change over the last 2 years has been this devices infiltration our our home. Ranking very high on the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) scale, we now have one in the living room, the playroom and our bedroom.
• Media storage and server. A few years back, I had a massive PC with 4 drives in a RAID array serving digital content (photos, music and video) to the theater. Today, this is all handled by a single Mac Mini in the closet with 2TB of external storage.

And, like all things, nothing is perfect. Here’s my short list of 2009 “wants”:

• Slingbox to release a native HD client for the Mac. None of this “browser” based malarky that they’ve announced.
• Slingbox to finally release it’s iPhone client.
• Time Capsule to be able to be an iTunes Server, so I can dump the Mac Mini and have my entire library served up from a small, embedded device in the closet.
• Netflix to release (as part of their API) a way to get Instant Watch streams via H.264.
• Apple TV to support USB QAM tuners, this way I could switch to a ‘device’ in the theater, making it easier for the wife and kids to watch content in there.

Now, if I could only get Hulu and Netflix streaming on my AppleTV…..

Both my wife and I are really big fans of TiVo (since 2001, wow!).

The latest incarnation, the TiVo HD, is actually our third box - they certainly must be doing something right since we keep coming back for more. And, while I think some of the UI has lost a bit of it’s simplicity from earlier revisions (where’s amazon videos buried? how about some netflix queue management?), it still ranks incredibly high on the Wife-Acceptance-Factor (WAF) compared to most other devices.

One of the problems, however, is that we find that we quickly run out of space, especially when it comes to recording kids shows and HD content. Let’s face it - 160gb these days just won’t cut it.

In the past, I’ve performed other warranty-voiding surgeries on my TiVo’s such as my series 1 upgrade to integrate wireless and a larger drive in a series 2.

With each of the previous TiVo upgrades, I’ve simply pulled apart a PC, plugged in the drives, and have followed whatever steps I found online that were necessary to do the upgrade. This time, it would be a bit more difficult - I don’t even own a PC anymore.

So, after doing some research on Google, I came across this fantastic post about Upgrading TiVo With Your Mac and VMWare Fusion. While the article describes the process for Series 1 and Series 2 boxes, I tried it this afternoon with my Series 3, and am happy to report I’m now humming along with 1TB of storage. All thanks to using virtual machines.

First, the obligatory warning: This will void your warranty. If you even think about doing this on your own TiVo, it may melt, spontaneously combust or magically turn into a giant glob of cheese. I take no responsibility if you decide to embark on this journey and destroy your box.

That being said, here’s what I did (basically the same as the post suggested):

1. I bought the Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB drive from Newegg.
2. Waited 3 days for the drive to show up.
3. Using a Torx #10, I disassembled the TiVo.
4. Downloaded the MFS Live ISO to my macbook.
5. Plugged each drive into it’s own USB / SATA external drive connection.
6. Created a new VM and enabled the USB drives in the settings.
7. Set the VM to boot the MFS Live disk.
8. Determined that /dev/sdb was the TiVo drive, /dev/sda is the new 1TB.
9. Ran the following command:
   backup -qTao - /dev/sdb | restore -s 128 -r 4 -xzpi - /dev/sda
10. Waited 3 hours.
11. Put the new drive into the TiVo.
12. Screwed everything back together.
13. Turned it on.

Boom. I now can store 142 hours of HD, 1241 hours of SD.

Now, if I could only stream my recordings to my iPhone while I’m roaming, I’d be all set..

While I’m certainly no Bobby Flay, I have to admit that there’s a certain primal joy in taking the time to really cook a meal on the grill or a smoker. And while I still don’t own a Green Egg or a Traeger like some of my friends, I find that I can usually fare pretty well with my Genesis Silver grill or a basic $40 charcoal smoker from Home Depot.

That being said, one of the consistently successful things that I enjoy making is smoked salmon.

Of course, last night, it took me an inordinate amount of time to dig through the massive pile of papers (i.e. the recipe ‘dump’) to find my brine formula, so I thought I would put it in the blog just in case it gets lost in the rubble.

Side note: I really need to get us organized and get these recipes stored electronically.

Salmon Brine

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder

To prepare, I usually get a 3-4lb salmon and soak it in the brine for 24-48 hours, meat side down (so it soaks in). I also cut the salmon in half and place the fish and brine in a plastic bag to reduce the ‘mess’.

About an hour before smoking, remove the salmon from the brine and pat it with a paper towel to ‘dry’ it. The salmon usually needs around 2 hours on the smoker to cook all the way through.

I’ve smoked with both hickory and mesquite wood chips and both work well.

Tap, tap, tap… Is this thing still on?

Well, it’s been around 5 months since I’ve posted anything here on the Furrygoat Experience. While it’s easily my longest blogging hiatus since 2001, I have no idea on even how many people are even ‘listening’ in any more. Anyways, here goes… I’m kicking the tires to see if this thing still has some gas left in it.

While my original intention for my little corner of the ‘net was to share interesting links and drop bits of information hoping that others found it useful, I have to admit that this go around is a bit more selfish: I’m in the process of trying to reconnect.

So on one hand, I’m using the blog as a way to hold me accountable. On the other, I’m also hoping that it helps me reconnect with the things that I’m passionate about that I’ve let slide on by with the daily routines.

In traditional fashion, here’s some other random things on my mind lately:

• Food and Diet. This is a tough one because I don’t eat fast food, rarely consume anything deep fried and typically make healthy choices when eating. I eat grain bread and haven’t had red meat since July (and sure, have the occasional cookie). Yet, I feel like something is still way off balance. My weight is up (need to lose 10 lbs) and I consume way too much coffee. I don’t count, but I’m easily at five to seven shots of espresso a day.
• Health and Exercise. I’m planning a late July or early August climb of Mount St Helens. Having a goal (like a climb) usually helps me get back into the exercise swing. The good thing is that I’ve been in the gym the last 5 of 7 days, so we’re off to a good start.
• Computers. The software industry has changed. It’s odd - as a long time Microsoft developer, I don’t even own a Windows machine any more. I wonder though: does it even matter any more? Most of the time I’m on email or the web and the iPhone handles most of my routine computing and communication needs.
• Simplification. Made great strides in 2008 to reduced my clutter, but it still feels like we have way too much ’stuff’.
• Career. If anything, I want my focus to return to rediscovering what I love about gadgets, software, etc. The so called ‘pundits’ spend way too much time whining, and too little time writing great software and kicking ass. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at big companies versus small ones, and trying to find out where the passion lives these days.
• Overload. There’s just too much of ‘life’ that is online now. I find I often check twitter or facebook while driving. There’s just too much living virtually going on. The funny thing is that it’s all just noise. Seriously - debates on twitter authority? Who really cares.

Anyways, lots of things rattling around my head.. We’ll see where this goes….

Last year (almost to the day!) I decided that I was going to quit blogging for awhile. A few months later, I returned. Perhaps the same will hold true this time around, but I’m just not feeling like the blog is doing it for me lately.

I can be found on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading, and so it goes.

This one cracked me up.

[Jeffrey Zeldman] Our personal sites, once our primary points of online presence, are becoming sock drawers for displaced first-person content. We are witnessing the disappearance of the all-in-one, carefully designed personal site containing professional information, links, and brief bursts of frequently updated content to which others respond via comments. Did I say we are witnessing the traditional personal site’s disappearance? That is inaccurate. We are the ones making our own sites disappear.

Back in 2001, I started writing content to The Furrygoat Experience for two reasons: First, I wanted a have a place to share interesting links or news items - I figured if I was muddling around with something like building a home theater, playing with embedded devices, working on interesting projects while I was at Microsoft, etc., someone else must be interested in the same thing. Second, I wanted a place to drop little nuggets of information so I wouldn’t have them all over the place - links on my desktop, random emails, etc. In other words, this site was a ‘backup brain‘.

But what happened?

It’s 2008, and as Jeffrey (and Chris Pirillo) point out, the ‘decentralized me’ is taking place - personal content is being strewn all over the Internet. My personal ‘vanity’ site is becoming just that - a placeholder for my online presence and the occasional post, while my live day-to-day content is pushed regularly between YouTube, Flickr, FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Upcoming, Delicious, etc.

Now, that’s all great, but I’m not sure how I feel about this yet.

On one hand, each site is dedicated to a specific set of functionality, and for it’s particular feature-category (photo-sharing, videos, events, etc), they usually do a fairly good job of managing and aggregating data.

On the other, it drives me nuts to have all of my ’stuff’ all over the place. Perhaps its some basic instinct, but I like to have a centralized place where all my “stuff” is (which is why I have the blog).

Of course, this feeling (obviously shared by others) is what has lead to the rise of the latest Internet craze - the ‘lifestream aggregator‘ class of sites. Great - another website to manage a bunch of websites I have managing my stuff. It’s a never ending cycle, and feels like we’re in a constant pattern when it comes to our data: expand, contract, expand, contract, expand, contract. Lather, rinse and repeat.

Now, I know this can’t be a storage problem - I have over 600gb of free space on my Dreamhost account, with most of the space being unused today. Perhaps it’s just a simplicity problem - it’s a lot easier for me to quickly push some status update to Twitter, or publish a video on YouTube without having to worry about video transcoding, finding a viewer that works cross platform, etc.

Anyways - its interesting times.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make you happy. For me, it’s always been when Rainier Cherries make their debut in the local stores signaling the beginning of summer.

While I’ve always thought heading down to Pike Place Market and picking them up is a better deal (and more fun), having them available in the local QFC is just downright convenient. This summer, the contest will be to see which is more expensive: gas prices per gallon, or cherries by the pound.

Right now, cherries are slighty more expensive at $4.99/lb, local gas is at $4.41/gallon for regular.

I bet this flips by July 4.

Brought to you by Where the Hell is Matt?

Direct link to video

[Wired] The movie is also an example of how effective a slide show presentation can be. Presentations are a powerful way to get your message across both verbally and visually.

While I agree with the key points that Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design makes about presenting (knowing your audience, usage of images and fonts, etc), I feel that it’s my duty to point out that while I really enjoyed it, my wife fell asleep while watching An Inconvenient Truth.