Monday, July 12, 2010

Heather's laptop is nearing its end and so she's been using the MacBook. Fortunately with lockbox.com all her dissertation is synced locally on her laptop and the MacBook (as well as in the cloud) so it was pretty seamless for her to keep on working.

We're replacing her dead laptop with a Mac Mini. I also ordered a Dell 24" LCD monitor, which will become our TV, and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The total cost was a little less than a Windows laptop.

Oh yah, so I finally cancelled cable, and we're switching to an HD antenna. Rogers makes you wait (pay) for a 30 day period if you want to cancel your cable, so we have it until July 21st. It wasn't that hard to convince their call centre that we didn't want cable. I just told them we don't watch tv, and I don't think they have a script for that. They tried to offer us cheaper cable, but I just repeated that we don't watch tv. A week later they called us at home, and Heather said the same thing, an it appears Rogers has now given up. We're still keeping our Internet through Rogers, there's no additional cost to have just Internet services. We were paying $70 / month for the cable portion of our Rogers bill, so it's quite a savings.

We bought a Channel Master 4-bay antenna, and the HD HomeRun tuner, which connects into our home network. So now we can watch TV from any computer (well right now, the computer) on the network, even over WiFi. When I get the Mac Mini, I'm going to install eyeTV, which is basically a PVR for the Mac. The antenna, tuner and software will end up costing about $250, so in less than four months it will pay off.

Which means we'll finally say goodbye to my old 27" Sony Trinitron TV. I don't know how to dispose of TVs, as this is the first TV I've ever owned (it's from the 90's). I suppose toronto.ca will have info.

Which also means we'll have more room in the living room, yay! The new monitor (when it arrives) will have to go somewhere, but it will take up far less room. Also the DVD player can go, and Rogers will pick up the cable box. The MacMini will be the radio (via iTunes), DVD player, TV, and Internet. Digital convergence is happening, right in our living room! And I'll be able to control most of it remotely from my iPhone, so there's no single-use remotes cluttering up the coffee table. All of the hardware (except the monitor) will be in the basement, with the wireless keyboard and mouse upstairs. It will all be neat and orderly, just how I like it :)

...

We won the Sunday Spring Ultimate championship yesterday, 18-11 over The Spinners. The game was originally scheduled in mid-June (when it was actually spring) but we were rained out. So we played at 5:30, in the heat and sun. We had our normal Sunday game right after at 7pm, so it was a long afternoon. Fortunately we had lots of water and oranges and so we were okay. We won the 2nd game too, 19-6, but it was just a regular season game. Our Ultimate teams have been doing really well over the last few months.

Well I should get ready for bed.