Android and Linux

Sunday, May 22, 2011

No internet

Ugh, if you move into a newly constructed house, make sure to sort everything early. I ended up moving before the cable was connected, but they were scheduled to do it Saturday. When the tech got everything wired up, he found that my side if the street wasn't tapped into the cable on the main street yet, so it's going to be at least another week until I get cable/internet. I guess everyone else on my side of the street is using satellite or something.

I have at least been able to get a little home automation done. I put rope lights above the kitchen cabinets. When watching a movie in the living room, they provide a very nice faint glow in the background. I can get up and get a drink without turning on any other lights.

I'm temporarily using X10 lamp modules to control them and have a cron job on the computer turn them on at 7am so I have a gentle glow to light my way when I wake up and stumble into the kitchen. I'll probably put in X10 outlets all throughout the house later and I already have several X10 switches that I need to wire in.

Not much else to report. I just wanted to check in. With no internet, I haven't felt like doing anything cool tech-wise. It ain't cool if you can't do it remotely.


Monday, May 9, 2011

Yay, new house.

I closed on the house today and it's been a frustrating ride. The builder had to fix a few things and on the second inspection... nothing had been fixed. Last week, they were working on it and no thanks to a lender that couldn't be bothered to do anything, I had to coordinate with the title company myself to get the closing done, and in the process forgot to do a final inspection.

Oh well, I'm sure they took care of it, right? Nope, I walked in to my new home to find that they still weren't done. But I got the keys and they're going to finish tomorrow and I will move this weekend.

With a brand new house and brand new furniture, I think it's time for some brand new computing power. I'm thinking a couple wifi repeaters, a server in the closet to run X10, storage, maybe even media and an Android tablet as a remote control for everything.

Maybe.

I'll soon be moved and hopefully have something worth blogging.

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