A twofer today….

I’ve been talking a lot today about Media Center Extenders and how great they are and with the advent of cable cards and the possibility of the Direct TV dual tuner USB box, that it would be awesome to be able to have a single, central location for all your DVRing needs. A central storage point, no more needing to have HD DVR’s, cable boxes, or any other “rented” hardware at each and every single tv in your home.

HP has taken this concept and went a step further adding Media Center capabilities directly in their TV’s. So no instead of having a TV + a $250 Linksys DMA-2100 or 2200 (or Xbox 360 or Dlink DSM-750) Media Center Extender, you just have a tv with all the media center extender capabilities built directly into the tv.

So now I wonder if that might possibly be the next tv I get for my bedroom?

- Josh

So to try in win myself a free copy of WHS I am posting up here to inform all my readers (the few that there are) about the free copy of WHS. For those of you that do not know about WHS and what it can do for you, well here’s your chance to find out. 

I am currently running WHS myself with a tad over 3TB of disk storage. Just a little screen capture to show my setup.

I use it to back up all of my media, photos, music, documents, ect…. The reason I chose to start using WHS because of all the great add-ons/plug-ins. Currently my WHS box doubles as my email server, my File Server, My Web Proxy, and my off site backup.

One of my favorite plug-ins is Jungle Disk it allows me to make nightly backups to Amazon’s S3 service so that I get off site backups of all my important documents, photos, family videos, ect.. You can had over to We Got Served for more plug-in info, and remember to check out home server hacks for the latest tips, tricks, and hacks on WHS.

Home Server Hacks: FREE Windows Home Server OEM DVD

http://www.newglobalairline.com/

So for those of you that didn’t already know I work for Northwest Airlines and last night I found out that they announced a merger agreement with Delta Airlines. Now normally I wouldn’t be too worried about a merger with a company however Delta is based out of Atlanta, GA. Not the kind of place I’d want to be for work, or living for that matter.

So last night I was up extremely late, couldn’t sleep, tons of shit going through my head, basically something that I normally don’t do. If you know me at all, I am a pretty easy going guy and take life as it goes, and try not to stress about things all that much. well the merger announcement last night got me worrying.

Would I still have a job after the merger? Would I have to move to Atlanta? would I even move to Atlanta? If I did what would it take for incentives to get me to move? Things like that, questions just kept going over and over and over in my head. I swear I have never had a sleepless night like that before.

When I first started working for Northwest I was just there to make a quick buck, teh pay was great, the job was easy, and I really enjoyed the things I was doing. Eventually I got more settled in and realized I really could work here for the rest of my life and make a career out of this job. So I was content with what I was doing. I love the job, love the pay, relatively good benefits (when I could use them) but over all it was a job I was happy with and felt good about the job I was doing and felt like I was actually accomplishing things.

So back to the Merger, now we have the merger announcement between NWA and Delta. I got to work this morning, had several “pep rally” type meetings trying to get people excited about the merger and how “great” this will be and how we can merge our “synergies” and all that BS. Between watching our fearless leader, Doug, on the new with our eventual new leader “Mr. Anderson” (had to how in the Matrix plug there) talking again how great this merger will be and how great it will be for the companies as a whole. Well through out this entire pep rally, so called moral booster, I am still like “yea well what the fuck is going to happen with my job” “where to I fit in with this grand plan”?

So now the day goes on, I get an email from my direct boss saying he would like to meet up with all of us in our office before we leave for the evening. So around 4pm today I go into his office and get the same old “hooora” pep speech from my boss, then come to find out I get a raise are part of my “performance review” but I honestly think this was a ploy to keep people from quitting and finding new jobs else where. We also got information about if we stayed with the company through the “approval period” that I would get a nice 20% bonus (based off of my base salary pay) well great I get a raise and will get a bonus in 8 - 9 months but what will that give me in the long run? Still doesn’t mean I will have a job when this is all said and done.

It just sucks being in this situation, not knowing where you’ll be in the grand scheme of things. But in the end I just have to ride the wave, take it as I get it and hope for the best. So for now wish me luck and hopefully I’ll still have a job to pay for this site to stay up and running.

Till next time,

- Josh

So Richard says my site is “old and busted” and thus said he was going to take my link off of his blog roll from his site. I agree that content has been lacking on here for a while now, but honestly nothing has been going on recently that is really all that worth while to talk/write about. So to appease Richard I am updating my site and posting.

I haven’t been skiing, or snowmobiling or anything along those lines in a while so I guess I just have forgotten to update my site. However I did purchase a new car a little over a week ago. While browsing my usual Ford Focus forums, I came across a post that a kid in the MNFOCUS forum started a post saying he was looking for a used Focus with a 5-speed manual and well I had just that, and was contemplating on selling my Focus anyways. I sent the kid and PM, he responded, we met up so he could see the car and the rest is history.

A few days later I was looking for a Ford Fusion and on the way home from work I decided to stop by Freeway Ford and check out a used 2007 Ford Fusion they had. I got there and took it for a test drive right away and loved every minute of it. The car was fully loaded, heated leather seats, dvd navigation system w/ Sat radio and ipod hookup, power moon/sun roof, power windows, power seats, and my favorite feature, All-Wheel Drive.

So without direct concent from Jody (aka “the Wife”) I started the paper work and bought the car and drove it home that same night. At first Jody was pissed that I bought the car without her concent or without her being there but eventually she let it go, espcecially after I let her drive the car, even though she won’t admit it, I think she loves the car more than her truck.

So after the paper work was all finished up, I got the keys to my new (new to me) 2007 Ford Fusion and I couldn’t be happier. It is a great car, and I will admit way better than my “Riced out Focus”. Even though I will miss the Focus and miss having a manual transmission, I enjoy every minute with the Fusion, it is a great ride, smooth handling, and quiet to boot.

I haven’t taken any pictures of the new car yet but once the weather gets warmer and I have time to wash and wax her, I’ll throw up some pictures.

Another update (other than my new car) is that I have finally upgraded my HTPC, no more old ass Pentium4 and windows Media Center 2005. I upgraded the “guts” to my HTPC, upgraded to Windows Vista Ultimate which contains Vista Media Center. So far I am really enjoying the new HTPC and its running 100% stable with full auto commercial skip and extending with Media Center Extenders.

I want to save another post to go more in depth on the HTPC upgrade so I will end here.

Until next time,

- Josh