Aftermarket Wheel Install  - july 24, 2009 01:44am - 63

I finally decided to order Konig Feather 17x7 Wheels with Yokohama S.Drive 225/45R-17 Tires to replace the fugly stock wheels on my 2006 Corolla S.
Went to Harbor Freight and picked up 3 ton jack stands and a 2 ton jack -- unfortunately they were out of the 20" lift height jack I originally went in for.
Also grabbed a 21mm socket and a 3/8" to 1/2" adapter at Lowes.

The stock lug nuts felt about 25% over the recommended torque -- the impact wrench that a neighbor lent couldn't budge them. Then later on in the process after the new wheels were placed, I finger tightened the lug nuts, lowered the car slightly, then torqued all lug nuts to 76ft/lbs, slowly tightening using a star pattern over several passes.
Later that night, I made a half-assed attempt to peel out near Alderwood, and the tires just said NOPE.. *grip*. I'm always amazed with the difference in handling that a set of aftermarket wheels and tires provide.

   

 Edmonds Waterfront Ride  - june 10, 2009 12:47am - 62

Biked over to Edmonds last Sunday and took some photos (shot from here). On the way home, the hill on Main St that borders Yost Memorial Park is really, really brutal. I'm going to conquer it without stopping one of these days.

Here's the panorama that turned out the best.

 Wallace Falls Hike  - may 10, 2009 11:02am - 61

Hiked to upper Wallace Falls yesterday with Kelly and Andrew, and finally got to put my Kelty 3950 pack to use, although it was overkill for this day hike.

Since I had heard of Windows Live Photo Gallery and its ability to stitch photos, I decided to take several shots from the middle falls. These photos all had varying levels of white balance and contrast, but the software stitched them together quite beautifully. I cloned the logs and cleaned up in GIMP.

  

 Dim Sum House  - march 28, 2009 05:03pm - 60

Dim Sum House in the Beacon Hill area of Seattle is easily the best value dim sum I've had.

The food was great, and the price was unbelievable. A buddy and I ordered 4x hagow, 4x siu mai, 4x meatballs, 3x pork BBQ buns, 2x sticky rice, 3x shrimp on bell pepper, 3x egg tarts, mango custard, and 3x lotus seed balls. This was a LOT of food, and the bill only came to $23 for the two of us.

The service was a bit mediocre, probably due to the waitresses delivering everything to your table instead of using carts, but who cares? Higher service headcount would just mean higher prices.
I'll definitely be visiting again.

 Car Stereo to Home Conversion  - february 22, 2009 09:52pm - 59

Finished my car stereo home enclosure a couple days ago, and I'm really happy with the result.

I decided that I wanted something more pleasant to wake up to in the morning than a single 4" full range driver in an AM/FM clock radio, and I had a nice Panasonic car stereo collecting dust -- so instead of buying some $100-200 bookshelf system, I built my own.

Also, my project logs page received a massive overhaul and now includes loads of thumbnails.

 The Lonely Island - Incredibad  - february 09, 2009 02:36pm - 58

This album is so good. Some of it has been leaked to YouTubes, linked below.
Favorites are I'm on a Boat (04), Like a Boss (10), and the interludes -- I'M ON SCHROOMS!

Track 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.

 TVersity  - february 04, 2009 11:12pm - 57

TVersity is a free transcoding package that allows you to play DivX, Xvid, and a whole mess of other formats on your PS3 (and many other consoles/devices). Since I already had a WHS server (this'un) sitting in a closet, I installed the TVersity package, and pointed it to my movie and music collections.

Minutes later, my PS3 discovered the new media server, and was streaming Xvid movies and FLAC music over my network. Very slick. To play FLAC music files in TVersity, you need to install these filters and restart your machine.

It's nice to see they're polishing the product, as I had tried the package several months ago and my PS3 would falsely complain of "corrupted data". Also, the TVersity team has made some popular streams/video podcasts available via the UI, such as G4 shows.. ..and MacGyver!

 Off-The-Air HDTV  - january 30, 2009 03:25pm - 55

The quality of OTA HDTV is amazing.
I'd say better than cable. Flawless 1080i/720p with 5.1 dolby digital surround.
Zero ghosting, snow, or compression artifacts! This is not the rabbit ears reception of yesteryear.

The best part is that the programming is free, and if you live near (~20mi) downtown and own a HDTV, you may only need a ~$30 antenna to get it. Currently available channels include:
ABC (KOMO 4.1), NBC (KING 5.1), CBS (KIRO 7.1), PBS (KCTS 9.1)
CW (KSTW 11.1), FOX (KCPQ 13.1), TBN (KTBW 14.1), and KMYQ 22.1.
There are several other independent channels (and a dozen sub channels, like 5.2, etc) that are available, but usually horrible, with the exception of PBS:Create on 9.3 (and unfortunately in 480i).

If you're like me, and have a tunerless HDTV, grab the awesome Samsung DTB-H260F tuner.
Then, grab the AD-DB4 antenna, and if you're going for an attic/remote install, the AD-P18 pre-amp.
I built a simple indoor mast (~$7 in 1/2" galv pipe at Home Depot, and scrap wood) to test aiming.
Make use of AntennaWeb.org. It's a great resource.

I was surprised that the Samsung tuner had a channel guide that's populated from OTA info. It contains program names and time slots, just like cable.
If you cancel your cable service, the antenna, pre-amp and tuner will pay for themselves in about four months -- I'm going to grab occasional Adult Swim, Discovery, Food Net, Sci-Fi, and Comedy Central shows from a torrent site. A small inconvenience to save nearly $60/m.
For discussion of OTA programming and the DTV transition in the Seattle area: The AVS thread.

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