Blog Entries Tagged Tech

Here's a list of all 52 blog entries tagged Tech here at derek.broox.com. I've also got 970 other things related to Tech.

  • How I do home automation posted

    After 20 years of tinkering with home automation, I thought it'd be fun to blog about how I've come to approach things. First, the background My entry into home automation was tinkering with old school, X10 powerline/RF lamp and outlet modules that were paired with remotes, motion sensors, and a "smart" module that you could program via a PC to begin adding automation. Since then, I've played with tons of brands and ecosystems, but I've primarily used Zigbee, Zwave, wifi/mesh, and PoE devices. I've gone pretty deep with Hue, Lutron, Arlo, Ring, Nest, NuHeat, Sonos, Amazon, Google, Apple, Liftmaster, Bond, and other random generic smart devices. To tie the ecosystems together, I've mostly used SmartThings and HomeAssistant, but have researched and played with many others... read more

  • Snow Leads to Geo Detectives of THE FUTURE posted - 1 comment

    And now for a story about Josh and I geolocating a random YouTube video - and how I'm amazed by how easy it was. So, this all starts with a conversation with my dad over the recent snowfall we've been having... He tells me about this Toro Power Shovel thing, which sorta looks like a vacuum sized, cheap snowblower. My dad said that he was super skeptical of this power shovel, but he tried it out and wound up being thoroughly impressed. Soon after, I passed this info onto my buddy, Josh... read more

  • Gee One to Nexus One posted

    So, my buddy Harper is hooked up with all sorts of the right people. Sometimes it makes me a bit jealous, but a lot of the time I get to benefit from his hookups as well. This is a story of another one of those times. Last spring, Harper got hooked up with some G1 dev phones - you know, the very first Android phone. He basically had so many that he didn't know what to do with, so he hooked me up with one... read more

  • IE6, The End is Near posted - 1 comment

    About half of my readers are techie enough to share in this enthusiasm. If you're not in that group, just know that something awful is coming to an end. ...Like the end of of a war. The people - the big people, are killing all support of something horrendous. IE6... read more

  • A week with Android and the G1 posted - 4 comments

    So, just to bring you up to speed - Harper (and Google) hooked me up with a developer version of the "Google Phone" or G1. As a developer phone it's sort of "unlocked" or rooted and comes with a fancy case. In short, it's awesome - but definitely, definitely a geek phone. I imagine the actual unrooted version you get from t-mobile is a bit easier to work with, but I still think it's more of a geek phone than a mainstream device like the iPhone. However, I can totally see this OS growing - especially with some better hardware in the future... read more

  • So I Bought My First Mac Today posted - 9 comments

    But first, a little history... I started getting into Apple shortly after I got my first iPod 6 years ago. I began to think of Apple as a media company and Macintosh simply as "media machines." I even said things along the lines of, "yeah they're awesome for music and photos and such, but you could never develop with them." They even released a Mac Mini to further prove my point. It seemed to be the perfect "media machine" at the time. I even had some big plans to throw one into my home theater system for internet browsing, sharing videos, etc... read more

  • My iPod Classic Review posted - 3 comments

    So I got an ipod classic a few weeks ago, which is the 4th ipod that I've owned (5th if you count Kari's nano). And even though my first ipod classic went completely corrupt and I had to replace it... I really do love this ipod. The metal front is nice, 160gb rules, and the soft/firmware on it is definitely awesome. I know it's been reviewed 1,000 times, but I figured I'd talk about some of the features I like/don't like... read more

  • From a Sidekick 3 to a Blackberry Curve posted - 6 comments

    I've been an avid sidekick supporter since I got my Sidekick 2 back on 04. I upgraded to a Sidekick 3 in 06, and I bought my wife a sidekick slide earlier this year... but now, I'm switching. Why? The Sidekick is just moving way, way too slow... read more

  • Using cURL to test RESTful Rails Web Services posted - 8 comments

    Lately, I've been writing lots of services for some of our newer Rails 2.0 projects. And one of the quickest/easiest ways I've found to debug these web service apps from a Mac is by using cURL. I'm not exactly an expert on the subject, so I'm documenting this half for myself and half to help anyone else out.... First of all the cURL parameters I usually use are: -X [action] Pretty straight forward... let's you specify an action (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to take on the URL... read more

  • From Broox to Flickr - and back posted - 1 comment

    So last week at work I had to learn the Flickr API for this rails site we're doing. It's been a lot of fun and really got me more excited about Flickr. I've always loved Flickr and its community. However, I've never used it for my personal photos because I really like having full control of my images. I like to have them stored them locally, I like to run queries on my photos, and I like how I have no limitation on integrating them into my personal site... read more

  • Re-Optiplex'd! posted - 6 comments

    As a computer programmer I like to stay on top of new technology - like computers. That said, I think it's important that you buy a new computer at least once every ... 5 years, haha, wtf? No, for real, I bought my last computer 5 years ago this month, which is pretty baffling. Don't get me wrong, I upgraded it a bit over the years, but it's still ridiculous... read more

  • Mosso Sucks. I Need a New Host. posted - 42 comments

    Well, let me rephrase that. Mosso tries hard to be awesome - they just released a beta application without the beta label. Harper convinced me to join Mosso based primarily on the billing/user management system - which rules by the way... but it's really the only part that rules. When I first joined Mosso, Harper and I got to have a conference with one of the founders of Mosso, Todd Morey... read more

  • I don't want it unless it's BRAND NEW posted - 12 comments

    Things are about to happen financially. I'm excited. As yall probably know, Kari got a new job with like a 40% pay increase and I got a ... not so big raise, but still a raise. So, I'm going to be in the market for a new PC (and maybe even a new car) very soon and I'm stealing harper's post about asking what to get... read more

  • Server: Dead posted - 30 comments

    Well, I was trying for a month without blogging, but this is an emergency blog which all began this morning with: rich: so my outlook wont check my dick4d email rich: anymore Rich is a friend of mine whose websiteI host. I'm currently in the process of switching hosting companies from my dedicated box to a mosso account. However, half of my sites are still on the old server, which went down: reynoldsgrid.com, solidgrind.com, dick4d.com, aeongrey.com, desmoinesalive.com, qcalive.com, iowacityalive.com, cedarrapidsalive.com, victoreynolds.com, aylarexroth.com, n8than.net, dsmpaintball.com, and truespin-media. A couple hours, calls, failed reboot attempts, and e-mails later, I get this e-mail: After running hardware tests on your server, your hard drive has failed. I will need to reinstall your server... read more

  • How to Sync Google Calendar, Outlook, and a Sidekick II posted - 1 comment

    I don't know if this is the best way, but it's the first way I've figured out to sync all of my calendars, so here it is... I used to just put all of my appointments into Outlook at work, then use IntelliSync to sync it to my phone's Calendar. But then I realized that wifey and I had a really hard time keeping track of each other's schedules. I can't easily share my Outlook calendar with her... and I don't look at the paper calendar inside the closet door to find out what she's up to... read more

  • USB Punches To Your Face posted - 5 comments

    Ever since I have met Kevi we've been having conversations that usually go something like this: keviatwork: i'm going to try to convince usa today to pay for our wedding keviatwork: USA Today presents.... Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Switzer keviatwork: haha brooxatwork: i really wish i could administer punches over aim Seriously, some friends and i have been talking about punching each other through the internet for years. I have always wanted to hook that old school AIM "warning" button up to physically harm them... read more

  • Optiplex'd! posted - 3 comments

    Oh man, so I got a new computer at work. Dell Optiplex GX620 -P4 HT 3ghz -2gb RAM -150gb HD -DVD ROM/CD-RW -And a ball mouse, wtf? I need an optical mouse in this piece. Combined with my new dual LCD monitors, I'm loving life at work. I haven't even had it setup for a full day yet and I already want to get a new setup for home... read more

  • How to Convert Mp3s into Audiobooks with iTunes posted - 14 comments

    If you didn't know, iTunes has an audiobooks category similar to the radio and podcast categories. An advantage to audio books is that iTunes will remember where you left off on your book so it will always start where you want it to. The problem is that if you rip an audiobook CD into iTunes or have an audiobook in mp3 format, iTunes will not let you simply drag your song into the audiobooks category. There isn't even a buried setting to change the category. So Kari's dad had me help figure out a solution to organize his audiobooks using this category... read more

  • Twit, Twit, Twitter. posted - 2 comments

    Remember back in college when you could find out what everyone was up to just by checking their AIM away message? Like, "Ah, Kari's at Hilltop? Bet. I'm headin up town." It was nice, real real nice. But now, if I wanna know where my peeps are, there are like 18 places to check... read more

  • Broken Hard Drive - Round 2. posted - 2 comments

    Oh man. I'm really really scared again. So I was just working on my home electrical system when I accidentally flipped breaker 8 - the one with all outlets for the top floor. It shut my computer off, etc. No big deal really... read more

  • Streaming Music Throughout My House posted - 14 comments

    So, I apparently let my home network go to crap in the last few years, which is not conducive to my current project - to setup a virtual "whole house stereo system." See, I have this stereo in my loft with some strategically placed speakers. These speakers use my vaulted ceiling to bounce music all over the top 2 floors. Plus it's all controlled via itunes on my primary computer. I love it, love it... which is why you'll always hear music playing in our house... read more

  • Massive Need for Tech Upgrades posted - 3 comments

    Man. This house is in so much need of tech upgrades, it's ridiculous. My PC runs decently but it's now over 4 years old (9/2/2002). I started noticing the suckiness a lot lately because I am constantly running out of room on my secondary HD, which is primarily used for media (photos, videos, music, etc). I mean, I have an 80gig primary and a 120 gig secondary... read more

  • MP3 Tagger (mp3 folksonomy) posted - 8 comments

    This is not about a program to edit ID3 tags. It's about tags in reference to folksonomy. (like flickr, del.icio.us, youtube, etc) I've been wanting this app for quite for a while now, and I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't found one yet. If I had time I'd love to write it but I simply don't... so here it is... read more

  • Sidekick 3'd!!! posted - 10 comments

    Supposedly the Sidekick 3 comes out July 10 and I just got mine - 4 days early, suckers. And what a great time to get a new phone - when I'm home sick. So needless to say, I've been playing with it a lot in bed, hehehehe. I really really like the SK3. The interface (both physical and soft) is much nicer... read more

  • Locked PC Wallpaper Display Problems posted - 17 comments

    OK, there isn't a whole lot of good documentation about this online, so here it is. If you change your desktop wallpaper with Windows systems (i.e. 2000 and XP) you will probably run into this problem at some point. Sometimes during startup or when you lock your computer via CTRL+ALT+DEL a previous wallpaper will be displayed even if you delete the file from your computer. This is an Active Desktop issue... read more

  • Reboot, haha posted - 3 comments

    My home computer has been running pretty bad lately. It's obviously due to my lack of rebooting... but I have so many things open that I never want to reboot. So out of curiosity, I downloaded an app to find out the uptime of my home PC: 28 days 7 hrs 3 mins 36 sec. I think I'm going to reboot now, haha. read more

  • That's why they call me... posted - 6 comments

    Slim Shady. I'm back. I'm back. Since my shed is done, I put my webcam back up. Looky! read more

  • It Worked posted - 2 comments

    A couple weeks ago I asked yall to help me get a free iPod. Today I got a $300 20gb iPod in the mail for free, haha. This isn't supposed to happen. I mean, this is an upgrade from my 10gb which I paid $250 for. This one is twice the size, has a better battery life, and is the newest generation... read more

  • Sidekick II'd! posted - 8 comments

    So, finally I got my Sidekick II. Since I haven't told the story on my site, here it is, once more. omg. I ordered my sidekick on November 30 - which was supposedly the last day of the $250 in rebates sale at Amazon. I was super stoked, I even paid for 2-3 day shipping so I could get it faster... read more

  • Help me, Help you posted - 22 comments

    I need your help. I need it bad. Please please, help me get a free iPod. I have 2 completed referrals, and need 3 more (unless Nick and Zach complete theirs, then I just need 1 more - so do it, punks). This really works, my buddy harper just got one... read more

  • Heely Demos, Apple, etc posted - 5 comments

    What a blah weekend. It had the potential to be cool, but turned out pretty weak. Friday I hung out all night, cleaned a bit, watched a movie, etc. Then Saturday I woke up and went to the Jordan Creek shopping center. It was the grand opening of the Apple store so I got a totally rad complementary Apple shirt... read more

  • OQO posted - 3 comments

    Oh man, I hate tech and my want/need for it all the time. OQO is releasing their "PDA" this year. It is so dope. Slightly bigger than I'd want it to be, but I could definitely live with it for all that it does. Although, I might have to carry a man-bag... read more

  • I love Apple and their B.S. iPod posted - 2 comments

    Man, even though I hate to say it, Apple customer service is insanely awesome. I called them a couple weeks ago to see if it was still covered under warranty, and it was (with about 8 days to go). There were a few complications because I didn't have my receipt and part of their system said I was out of warranty, while the other said I was still in warranty. Anyway, they were awesome and got everything straightened out and were able to service my iPod. Every time I called Apple Care their was less than a 5 minute wait and the people were really cool... read more

  • Today is the Happiest Day! I heart Minnis and Clone Maxx. posted - 10 comments

    As most of you know (due to my mood and constant whining) I lost my 120gig Hard Drive 2 weeks ago (pictures, videos, professional work, etc). We tried everything that we could think of to get the data back. Minnis helped me a lot through the whole process. I'd pretty much lost all hope, nothing we tried would recover my files. Well yesterday we started this program called Clone Maxx to try to copy all data from one HD to another HD... read more

  • Light at the end of the Maxtor tunnel posted - 4 comments

    So I had this hard drive crash... here are the earlier details. First of all, Minnis rules. He's been trying a bunch of things with my HD today that I haven't thought of. After being unsuccessful with Knoppix and the linux box, we dropped it into a win2k machine and ran powermax, which is some diagnostic software that maxtor put out... read more

  • I Hate Apple, and their B.S. iPod. posted - 7 comments

    Apple put out this insanely awesome mp3 player called an "iPod." I bought this brilliant device last June. It is so handy because you can put hours and hours of music on it and take it anywhere. I took it skating, I took it to work, I plugged it into my stereo at home, etc. It also rules when you start to come to the conclusion that this dope device is the reason for a sh*tload of data loss. For example, that HD of mine that crashed last week... read more

  • Double Click, Incorrect Function. = Worst feeling ever posted - 10 comments

    Lately I've been really heavy into organizing and backing up all my pictures and video. I recently bought a fireproof safe to keep miniDV tapes and picture CDs in. I also have copies of most picture CDs at work. Last week I even went and had all of my old advantix film rolls converted to CDs (22 rolls - $120). Then, over the course of an evening I organized them all into folders in chronological order on my PC (just like all my other pics are organized)... read more

  • Comedy Club, Cornell Gala, and my Stupid Clie posted - 9 comments

    This weekend was pretty laid back, booo. Friday night, Jason, Jodi, Nathan, Andy and I went to the Funny Bone. The comedian was pretty good... he offended a lot of people, which is awesome... "racism is gay" haha... read more

  • Duo'd posted

    w00t, I got my duo today.. It boots and everything works perfect. The next step is finding a mac that I can use to apple talk to it. otherwise, I could setup a linux box and figure out how to use apple talk through that. Harper found me a good site to help me with that, here... read more

  • New Laptop posted - 5 comments

    Last night on ebay i won an auction for the dopest laptop ever. Seriously, when it came out, it was $3,750, and I got it for $70.44, including shipping. Here are the specs: PowerBook Duo 280c Codename: Yeager CPU: Motorola MC68LC040 CPU Speed: 33 MHz Bus Speed: 33 MHz Data Path: 32 bit ROM: 1 MB RAM Type: unique Minimum RAM Speed: 70 ns Onboard RAM: 4 MB RAM Slots: 1 Maximum RAM: 40 MB Level 1 Cache: 8 kB Screen: 8.4" active matrix Maximum Resolution: 8 bit 640x480/16 bit 640x400 Slots: modem, Dock (152-pin PDS) Hard Disk: 240 MB Serial: 1 Audio Out: mono 8 bit Audio In: mono 8 bit Speaker(s): mono Microphone: mono Gestalt ID: 103 Power: 25 Watts Weight: 4.8 lbs. Dimensions: 1.5" H x 10.9" W x 8.5" D Minimum OS: 7.1.1 Maximum OS: 8.1 Introduced: April 1994 Terminated: January 1996 read more

  • Cellphone plan 586 posted - 3 comments

    Ok, cell phone decisions are some of the hardest and most stressful decisions that i have to make. I really want to be able to be able to have the best possible communication options that I can get. First I was going to get that Danger Sidekick, which is still dope, but there are things about it that i don't like. New Plan: 2 devices, bluetooth, and wifi 1. Upgrade my Clie to the UX50, which has wifi and bluetooth 2... read more

  • T-Mobile Sidekick posted - 5 comments

    Harper always does this to me and I hate it. Step 1: Harper keeps up on new technology big time (which is one advantage to having him as a friend Step 2: Harper buys the new technology Step 3: Harper shows it off to me Step 4: I get jealous Step 5: I read about the technology Step 6: I learn that Harper is right and I want whatever it is that he bought Step 7: I usually buy the product This is cycle really stupid and usually expensive for me... but anyway, Harper was IMing me from someone's car today via his Sidekick, which is step 3 from the cycle mentioned above. So I've already gotten over the Jealousy and read about the sidekick at danger.com. It's got a full qwerty keyboard, AIM, unlimited email via the built in IMAP/Pop client, SSH, and it is not much bigger than my i95cl... read more

  • Internet and AIM posted

    Instant Messaging is one of the greatest inventions ever, it opens a whole new world of friends... literally. I recently got invited to Orkut.com, which is super dorky, but also super fun and addicting. The internet has also helped me meet several other people from around the world... example 1, Mart (a fellow soaper/skater): Derek R Brooks: you are a douche RG7420MC: You are an American Derek R Brooks: haha RG7420MC: Round one goes to Mart RG7420MC: Cheers Derek R Brooks:: you probably know more about the politics of my country than i do RG7420MC: Ahahaha read more

  • Stupid Apple and their dope software posted - 5 comments

    I'm not really a big fan of macs at all, but i will say that they make some incredibly attractive products. I just downloaded the new fimware for my ipod along with itunes for windows. itunes is definitely the best download out there right now for mp3 management. It is so clean and so easy. Go download it! read more

  • iPod posted - 3 comments

    I bought the newest verion of the 10 gig iPod (v3) off of ebay the other day, and absolutely love it. I actually wanted the 30 gig, but couldn't see spending $500 on it. But seriously, this thing is so insanely dope. It looks so nice, it's so thin, all the buttons are touchpads, and the formatting/navigation is just so clean. Sometimes I really think that apple rules because they put a ton of thought into every aspect of their products, especially design... read more

  • Photography posted - 3 comments

    I joined a photography class this block at Cornell and I'm really looking forward to it. I really need more photo experience for work.broox.com, plus I think photography is one of the best forms of art there is. Anyway, we needed an SLR (Single Reflex Lens) camera, so I spent about 4 hours comparing cameras in my price range. I narrowed it down right away to the Canon Rebel 2000 and the Minolta Maxxum 5. I went to Best Buy and talked to 3 of the High School kids that know nothing about any product in the store except for the new 50 Cent CD... read more

  • Top 5 Wallpapers posted - 12 comments

    Let's assume that you have a top of the line, color screen cell phone that can hold 5 wallpapers. What would your top 5 wallpapers be? Try not to put broad answers. A bad example might be: cars, buildings, scenery, animals, and people. A good example might be something like: Estella Warren, an Acura Intrgra, a cocker spaniel, Skateboard Logos, and the British Flag... read more

  • Your Desk posted - 27 comments

    Early this summer, a bunch of friends and i had a little conversation on AOL instant messenger to see what kind of things people had on their desks. It was rather amusing, so I'm going to start it again... but on my website this time. If you read this article, list the things that you have on your desk right now. (sometimes this gets kinda funny) read more

  • My pockets rule. posted - 3 comments

    Yesterday I decided to get 2 new techie toys. The first of which being a Nextel phone (since U.S. Cellular was screwing me around). The second is the new Sony Cli? ?X70V... read more

  • At home for a bit... posted

    If you didn't already know, I'm at home for the month in order to do an internship. Since I'm not at school, and since my parents only have a modem and 1 phone line, you won't see me on the internet too much. However, I did just buy a new computer yesterday, BOMB! and I'll be doing a lot of filming for the DVD I'm making for broox.com. So I'll be really busy... read more

  • It has been unveiled posted - 4 comments

    What is it? If you haven't heard, IT has been talked about since january 10, 2001. No one knew what it was except for a select few, who were sworn to secrecy. All anyone knew is that it was supposed to be some sort of revolution in personal transportation. It was unveiled this morning on "Good Morning America." It is a two wheeled "scooter type" vehicle, but the wheels are on the sides, rather than on the front and rear... read more

  • microsoft's x-box posted - 10 comments

    playStation2, GameCube, and X-box.... you know what I think? I think Microsoft can leave this market alone. Why do they need to take over something else? I mean sure, the graphics and things are incredible... read more