Tetsuo Time

• My local multiplex has rooms a lot smaller than traditional theaters we had in the past. In fact it almost seems like some of the rooms there are about three rows in the front and three rows in the back. Seriously, it seems they have been making smaller theater rooms in order to pack more screens into a multiplex.
• Most people watch movies from the back half of the theater and especially when you are in the back row the screen doesn't seem much bigger than screens one may have at home especially if you are sitting closer to them. I watched prometheus at the theater in 2D sitting in the back half of the room and when I came home it didn't make my own system feel like crap the same way watching Terminator 2 at the theater in '91 did to my then small TV with mono sound. That was in a brand new at the time theater and it was the first time I was aware of surround sound... that being the major new feature of that theater.
• Most movie theater rooms are acoustically treated and most homes are not. Also, some movie theaters have mediocre sound but others have sound that has more dynamic range than the average home theater sound system. This dynamic range makes a world of difference when watching movies at a well maintained movie theater. That being said I've been working on acoustically treating my personal screening room and spending a lot of time calibrating my sound system and right now my local multiplex doesn't sound bigger although their acoustical treatment does give an edge to their bass performance.
• Many people don't know HD when they see it and don't have their displays calibrated properly nor do they even watch actual HD movies instead they watch DVDs upscaled or SD or lower videos in general with bad contrast and blurry colors.

Personally I'm sort of resentful towards 3D because it's one of those carrot in front of the horse type things. I've been upgrading my household to HD but then suddenly they decided to bring 3D back and suddenly HD is not good enough. I've had a sibling downplay our upgrade saying.. "It's not like it's 3D or anything". I have a 2k resolution display that I watch movies on and even though I don't have any movies that match that resolution it has me spoiled against most TVs that you find in the store. I was checking out some 3D TVs and they hardly even look HD to me.

• My local multiplex has rooms a lot smaller than traditional theaters we had in the past. In fact it almost seems like some of the rooms there are about three rows in the front and three rows in the back. Seriously, it seems they have been making smaller theater rooms in order to pack more screens into a multiplex.
• Most people watch movies from the back half of the theater and especially when you are in the back row the screen doesn't seem much bigger than screens one may have at home especially if you are sitting closer to them. I watched prometheus at the theater in 2D sitting in the back half of the room and when I came home it didn't make my own system feel like crap the same way watching Terminator 2 at the theater in '91 did to my then small TV with mono sound. That was in a brand new at the time theater and it was the first time I was aware of surround sound... that being the major new feature of that theater.
• Most movie theater rooms are acoustically treated and most homes are not. Also, some movie theaters have mediocre sound but others have sound that has more dynamic range than the average home theater sound system. This dynamic range makes a world of difference when watching movies at a well maintained movie theater. That being said I've been working on acoustically treating my personal screening room and spending a lot of time calibrating my sound system and right now my local multiplex doesn't sound bigger although their acoustical treatment does give an edge to their bass performance.
• Many people don't know HD when they see it and don't have their displays calibrated properly nor do they even watch actual HD movies instead they watch DVDs upscaled or SD or lower videos in general with bad contrast and blurry colors.

Personally I'm sort of resentful towards 3D because it's one of those carrot in front of the horse type things. I've been upgrading my household to HD but then suddenly they decided to bring 3D back and suddenly HD is not good enough. I've had a sibling downplay our upgrade saying.. "It's not like it's 3D or anything". I have a 2k resolution display that I watch movies on and even though I don't have any movies that match that resolution it has me spoiled against most TVs that you find in the store. I was checking out some 3D TVs and they hardly even look HD to me.

A little back story before I begin. This past month or two I have upgraded my house's network router to one that has Wi-Fi 802.11n. So far we have one computer that is hooked up via Wi-Fi. I put a PCI card into it. We also have two sets of cordless phones in the house. Just the other week however my dad was yelling at me because he noticed whenever he uses the white uniden cordless phones upstairs the Wi-Fi on said desktop PC would disconnect.

( Continued Inside... )

This past month I have upgraded my router to one with Wi-Fi (802.11n, a Cisco\Linksys with DD-WRT installed). ( The geekery is inside..... )

That's it for now I'll write some non-computer related stuff later.

This past month I have upgraded my router to one with Wi-Fi (802.11n, a Cisco\Linksys with DD-WRT installed). ( The geekery is inside..... )

That's it for now I'll write some non-computer related stuff later.

Yup, that's right.. I'm finally back on the internet. I didn't get to say anything before I left because my family just showed up last month early to move me back to Santa Fe with them like we had been planning. I had been without the internet these past few weeks today I got the internet back so now of course I'm back here.

More later...

I told my family that I'm thinking of moving back home to help cut down costs and that may happen when my lease runs out provided I don't get housing first. But it has gotten me started thinking of what I might do at home as far as networking the computers in the house go.

So I was thinking "What would be the best network setup for a mixed computer network (Mac\PC) in a 2 story house?" There's one thing for sure... I don't want any USB adaptors that require drivers. That wouldn't work for my Mac.

A little background. The last time I lived at home I used HomePNA 1.0 network cards to share an internet connection which turned every phone jack in the house into a network jack and that worked pretty good although the downside to it is because of the ISP we had to use I had to use windows internet sharing which meant that I had to keep my computer on and if I had to reboot for any reason it would cause internet downtime for the others on the network. So I would like to avoid having to use ICS if at all possible. I was thinking of going with HomePNA for the networking part of the equation again but I'd have to get new network adaptors\bridges to get it all setup and I seem to have a hard time finding good non USB adaptors for the new spec. A thing that was cool about HomePNA is that even when the phone service was shut off for whatever reason the network still functioned and it was a lot faster than dial-up... also I could setup both internet and networking over the same line (when we had to use dialup).

The simplest and cheapest way would be to tack up some ethernet cable and use my current router... and that wouldn't be too bad at least for one floor. But I kind of don't want to do that between floors. I would have to tack cable up the stairs or have a hole drilled to snake cable to downstairs. So I'm thinking of some kind of bridge for connecting floor A to floor B. But I have a whole year to think of that. The simplest and cheapest way would also be the fastest but I don't relish having to run wire all over the house.

I know my sister might want a wireless network but I've heard that they don't work too well between floors and I don't have an airport card in my Mac Mini so I'd have to have it ugpraded... so again the cheapest way would be the string cable everywhere way. =P

I also thought of power line networking but reading about it the performance\stability seems spotty. There's also a HomePNA and other named standard that uses coaxial cables (like cable internet\tv) but I don't know if the cables in the house are setup properly to allow that to happen... but I know that's gotta have good performance.

One last thing is I have to find out what kind of broadband service we can get if any. I checked comcast's web site and they say they install in our area but I'm not sure if that was correct information. My Dad said he hasn't seen them out there.. but then again I don't think my family stays there long enough to find out with having to work out of town and all. The other alternative is satellite internet but the latency on that kind of scares me off a bit. I wonder if any wireless ISPs are available and affordable.

While looking at wireless ISP stuff I noticed the KOA Campgrounds in my state have wireless hot spot. That's interesting to me... hmmm.. and other campgrounds too.. that's awesome!

Hmmm... it looks like Cable internet is available in my families area! I ran the adress there through comcast's site a few times and they are offering internet packages... hmm..... I want to go for that, man.

I told my family that I'm thinking of moving back home to help cut down costs and that may happen when my lease runs out provided I don't get housing first. But it has gotten me started thinking of what I might do at home as far as networking the computers in the house go.

So I was thinking "What would be the best network setup for a mixed computer network (Mac\PC) in a 2 story house?" There's one thing for sure... I don't want any USB adaptors that require drivers. That wouldn't work for my Mac.

A little background. The last time I lived at home I used HomePNA 1.0 network cards to share an internet connection which turned every phone jack in the house into a network jack and that worked pretty good although the downside to it is because of the ISP we had to use I had to use windows internet sharing which meant that I had to keep my computer on and if I had to reboot for any reason it would cause internet downtime for the others on the network. So I would like to avoid having to use ICS if at all possible. I was thinking of going with HomePNA for the networking part of the equation again but I'd have to get new network adaptors\bridges to get it all setup and I seem to have a hard time finding good non USB adaptors for the new spec. A thing that was cool about HomePNA is that even when the phone service was shut off for whatever reason the network still functioned and it was a lot faster than dial-up... also I could setup both internet and networking over the same line (when we had to use dialup).

The simplest and cheapest way would be to tack up some ethernet cable and use my current router... and that wouldn't be too bad at least for one floor. But I kind of don't want to do that between floors. I would have to tack cable up the stairs or have a hole drilled to snake cable to downstairs. So I'm thinking of some kind of bridge for connecting floor A to floor B. But I have a whole year to think of that. The simplest and cheapest way would also be the fastest but I don't relish having to run wire all over the house.

I know my sister might want a wireless network but I've heard that they don't work too well between floors and I don't have an airport card in my Mac Mini so I'd have to have it ugpraded... so again the cheapest way would be the string cable everywhere way. =P

I also thought of power line networking but reading about it the performance\stability seems spotty. There's also a HomePNA and other named standard that uses coaxial cables (like cable internet\tv) but I don't know if the cables in the house are setup properly to allow that to happen... but I know that's gotta have good performance.

One last thing is I have to find out what kind of broadband service we can get if any. I checked comcast's web site and they say they install in our area but I'm not sure if that was correct information. My Dad said he hasn't seen them out there.. but then again I don't think my family stays there long enough to find out with having to work out of town and all. The other alternative is satellite internet but the latency on that kind of scares me off a bit. I wonder if any wireless ISPs are available and affordable.

While looking at wireless ISP stuff I noticed the KOA Campgrounds in my state have wireless hot spot. That's interesting to me... hmmm.. and other campgrounds too.. that's awesome!

Hmmm... it looks like Cable internet is available in my families area! I ran the adress there through comcast's site a few times and they are offering internet packages... hmm..... I want to go for that, man.