Moving to FiOS TV And A New Tivo

I have FiOS, the business class service because I wanted static IPs so that I could host things like this blog. In mid-December Verizon had me change netblocks to allow us business customers to take advantage of new products and/or services. Well, it turns out that one of them is FiOS TV. I called them today and spoke to some very helpful people who answered my questions and set me up for an installation. Soon enough I won’t have rain fade during severe weather and the borked up guide data that doesn’t mark repeats as repeats.

After I scheduled the installation I went over Tivo‘s site and ordered a Tivo HD. Why a Tivo? A few reasons. First, I’ve been totally spoiled with the DirecTV one I’ve had for years. Second, I like having the ability to add more storage, and third, having known people with Verizon’s DVR, lets just say I didn’t want to have to deal with those issues!

The installation is set for a couple weeks from now, which should give me time to get the Tivo in and set up. Anything to make the installer’s life easier!

Adventures In Reloading

A friend was selling a Lee 1000 press, and it was a good enough deal that I couldn’t pass it up. I’ve been talking about getting in to reloading for a while now, and this is perfect for my needs. I’ve got to put a bench together and do a bunch of reading before I’m ready to actually start work, but getting a good deal on the press puts me that much closer to my goal.

Grad School Starts

Well… Today’s officially the first day of grad school and I’m busy signing in to resources, posting introductions, and generally getting class stuff in order. I’m taking 2 classes (Accounting and Operations Management) this semester, both deficiencies needed due to my tech heavy undergrad degree. It looks like the learning environment that UIS has implemented is usable in Windows, Mac, and Linux. Linux is the big surprise, but everything I’ve tried out so far has worked perfectly.

King Tut At The DMA

I got to go to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art tonight. The museum does a few nights a year where they’re open until midnight, so I took advantage of that to avoid some of the crowds. That wasn’t to be, the museum was actually really crowded, but the King Tut exhibit wasn’t. It took about an hour and a half (probably a little less) to go through it, but it was really good. Lots of items with good information on them and they were exhibited in such a way that you could see the backs as well as the fronts of most of them. The sarcophagus and death mask weren’t there, because they’re too fragile to travel, but other than that there was a great selection of artifacts.

Making Money

Another one of the books I brought with me is/was Terry Pratchett’s Making Money. It’s almost a sequel of Going Postal, picking up just about where it left off. Except that, as we know in the real world, being successful at one thing means you get more projects. Moist must now take over the mint and clean up the economy. Add in scheming relations of the previous owners, golems, and some missing gold and you’ve got classic Prachett goodness.

The MacBook Pro Just Got Roomier

I went back to the FastMac booth today to get the new drive installed. After a couple hours of moving data it came back with me. I went from 21 to 211 gigs free and looking at the specs of the new drive, it’s faster, cooler, quieter, and uses less power than the drive which was installed when it was made. Now I’ve got room to put the Parallels VMs internal, which will help out with school because I won’t have to lug external drives around.

MacWorld Expo 2009

I got a little time to head over to the expo floor today to look around at what I could find. Snagged a couple iPhone and iPod cases, got some free software including Avery’s label designer stuff, Sun’s VirtualBox, and VMWare Fusion. The only other thing I really took a serious look at was the upgrades that FastMac was offering. They’ve got a sweet deal on a 320g upgrade for the MacBook Pro. I’ll probably be back tomorrow if nobody can talk me out of it in the mean time…