Nice pointer from rich -- eCoustics.com - Everything Hi-Fi Online - Audio Reviews Car Electronics Home Theater Video DVD MP3 HDTV – aggregated reviews of all kinds of consumer electronics.

OK here we go – the first poll is out – no complaints about the Buckeyes’ placement, but can’t stand seeing the Wolverines at #7.

* SMC part number decoding. I wish I had had this last year before i applied AC to a DC solenoid. The “-5” that I referred to has nothing to do with the negative 15 VDC terminal on your power supply. I was referring to the “dash five” in your SMC part number, VF3130-5xZ where, 1 - 100 VAC, 2 - 200 VAC, 3 - 110 to 120 VAC, 4 - 220 VAC, 5 - 24 VDC, 6 - 12 VDC, 7 - 240 VAC, 9 - Other * Buy pneumatic couplings online at Homier * OK not that pneumatic but here is a circuit design for driving something with sound – some people suggest hooking this to “a solid-state relay (110 VAC) or a Darlington sink driver (12 or 24 VDC) in order to switch your solenoid valve”.

Found a great company – Deckhand Detailing – did a super job on my boat today. Showed up as scheduled, full crew, whipped thru the boat.

* Best Free Software from PCWorld * first details of MT 3.1. Anxious to play with the category features. * Macrovision CD copy protection. Time to turn off autoplay. * Picasa for free. * Jerry Colonna’s blog * What’s talking all my memory? Great tools * Maxthon. Formerly MyIE2. * Future of PC Audio. Reads to me like all the value is migrating to Intel and Microsoft – a shocking state of affairs. * Bidrobot. I really should try this but the site scares me, I don’t feel like they are going to respect my privacy much. * IE blog. The wiki is even cooler. * Local search, as seen by a tv guy. * McDonalds outsources order handling. Amazing what broadband can do.

Following on bifocals and lipitor, today I had my first colonoscopy. Whee. Clean bill of health so that is good news.

Spent some time this weekend looking at vaca property – goal is something a) on the ocean, b) rustic area, c) within a couple hours driving of seattle so that we will really use it and we can transport the dogs there.

Toured the hood canal area and the near olympic peninsula a little this weekend. South hood canal is way too developed for our tastes. North hood canal started to feel a little better, tho we didn’t fall in love with anything.

I had previously ruled out the San Juans because of the car ferry lineup – I love a ferry ride, but I don’t love sitting in the car queue on busy weekends. But I’ve started to rethink based on a new plan – drive to Anacortes, leave the car there, and take a water taxi out to a location – for instance Island Express Charters or Paraclete charters seem to offer taxi service, there are more in the yellow pages.

I know it is fairly routine up at my folks’ cabin in Pointe Au Baril for cabin owners to take a water taxi out 10-15 miles to their cabins, so I am sure there must be a similar level of service to the San Juans.

If so, this might open up a lot more choices to us. For instance the Windermere office on Lopez has a lot of interesting properties

OK there are a lot of negative comments on amazon about The Rule of Four, but I liked it. The characters had a level of emotional depth and reality that made the story a lot better than a straight adventure story like The Davinci Code. Maybe the action wasn’t as taut but overall a much more interesting read.

I’ve recently discovered uranium glass, cool stuff for halloween – eBay - uranium glass – also known as vaseline glass. I’m concerned that if I order any volume of this stuff tho, someone from Homeland Security is going to stop by.

* Surround sound whispering track up at rustyknife. gets great reviews. * Simsynth -- free program for created synthesized sounds * Some strange ambient noise cds * Need to check out n-track studio, one guy is using it for all sound playback and midi control of his props. Another guy is using cubase and delta cards (101 and 410 models) * A lot of people love these cheap little DVRs – some guidance on using up at haunted illinois

Congrats guys – Product Guides and Reviews - Anti-Spam Tools

Various soundtracks recommended:

* Thunder or Thunderstorm CDs – recorded in Houston * A list of sources * The atmosphere collection – samples available * Another disk up at Gore Galore

* CEOs skim off 8% of a merger’s value. Ugly. * Isaac Hayes’ Three Laws of Robotics. Ha. * RSS Screensaver. Pointcast lives. * Bittorrent traffic surpasses kazaa. And so of course we have… * Bitoogle, the search engine for torrent files. * Doom 3 goes gold. Yeeha! * Commoditization of software. Interesting. * Is .Net stealing Java’s Thunder? Yet again, Microsoft is making the platform very affordable and easy to adopt. * Gates: DVDs obsolete in 10 Years. For me it may be sooner, I am pretty happy with Video on Demand services. * Software that lasts 200 years. Good read.

Some great discussion on forums about creating a fake boarded up window look for your house at Halloween. Some of the many links to ideas and tips:

* One man’s plans: “Picture 1”:http://www.kerlinsoftworks.com/haunt/board/inside.jpg, “Picture 2”:http://www.kerlinsoftworks.com/haunt/board/outside.jpg, “Picture 3”:http://www.kerlinsoftworks.com/haunt/board/layers.jpg, “Picture 4”:http://www.kerlinsoftworks.com/haunt/board/detail.jpg * “suggested magnets to use”:http://www.engconcepts.net/Magnets/Pages/1inch_Sq_Half_Inch_Thick.htm – tho some warnings, they are really strong and can pinch. “Another source”:http://www.kjmagnetics.com/safety.asp * Another suggestion to use curtain tension rods to hang. * “Another set of plans”:http://fast.horrorseek.com/halloween/juggernaut/boards/Boards.html

The new BCS formula is out and I have to agree with the opinion at CollegeFootballNews (exercise caution in following link, this site seems to have really aggressive popup ads):

bq. AP writers and college football coaches don’t watch a wide enough range of college football games to be able to cast a qualified vote. Coaches spend all of their time on their game and don’t have a second to spend watching other teams, and AP voters spend their time on the games they’re covering and trying to reach deadlines.

It is going to be another controversy-filled year in college football – and maybe that is what keeps the game interesting.