Stuff

Was a pretty productive week last week.  Got my RPi running RBMC working well in the basement and I use the XBMC Android Remote Control published by the XBMC team.

Got 2 more RPis that I have to decide what to do with yet.

Fixed my Wii setup.

Fixed 2 monitors.

And ghosted a 500gb HD to a 1tb HD.

All in all... pretty good.

Joooooy

Got the RPi working with XBMC nicely.  Even works with my wireless keyboard & mouse.

Took me a bit to get it to talk to my file share, I had to reset the password in Samba rather than on the system itself (doh, I knew that).

Working GREAT... very happy with it.  Now to put it in its case, paper for now :)

Mmmmm... Pi....

My first RaspberryPI arrived.  If you don't know what that is, what cave have you been living in? ;)

Total cost was about $42 shipped.  I'm loading Raspbmc on it as I type.

Forgot to connect the Lan cable at first so it was pissing me off until I noticed that.  Lesson 1, connect all cables :)

Da Cube

I started on the other board and as I was putting the pieces on, I found that I forgot to order a few parts :(

I will continue to work on the board as much as I can until the new parts arrive (2 - 3 weeks).  Ah well...  at least I found a new supplier that had less expensive parts :)  (http://www.taydaelectronics.com/)

Cube Progress

I've been ignoring the cube for quite awhile now because I hit a part that just kept confusing me every time I looked at it.  So I brought it to work and had one of my coworkers glance at it and he helped me get past my confusion.

I've now got the first board completed (I think).  I ran through a bunch of the connections for continuity and the ones that should work do.  I did have to fix a couple of broken wires but overall everything went well.

I will be starting on the second board shortly so hopefully I'll be able to get it up and running before April.

XBMC Setup

I recently changed my XBMC server to use an HDMI cable rather than a VGA to Composite connection.  Unfortunately I had many issues getting it to pass sound.

I updated my Ubuntu from 10.04 to 11.10 hoping that would help and it didn't immediately.  I ended up having to build XBMC from source along with installing other crud.  Also ended up losing some source code :(

VERY long story short... I ended up changing my XBMC setup to disable DTS and AC3.

House Stuff

To date, I have done the following things to this house (not in this order):

Replace all door locks (me)
Replaced the well pump (professional plumber did it)
Replaced the well tank twice (my friend and I)
Installed Carbon and Sediment whole house filters (my friend and I)
Replaced the furnace & A/C and relocated within basement (professional installers)
Replaced the Water Heater (my friend and I)
Replaced Water Softener (my friend and I)
Replaced the roof shingles (neighbor, brother, inlaws and I)
Replaced garage side door (inlaw and I)
Replaced garage door (professional installer)
Replaced garage door opener (inlaw and I)
Changed out garage dual plugs for quad plugs (me)
Painted inside of garage (me)
Stained house twice (me)
Replaced all 4 downspouts (me)
Changed out Dishwasher (me)
Removed wall paper from Bathroom and repainted & install new molding (wife and I)
Repainted 3 Bedrooms, Living room and Computer room (wife and I)
Framed out, insulated, dry walled and wired basement (me)
Added inverter to run part of house when power goes out (friend and I)
Installed built in Desks & Shelves, replaced carpeting and rewired computer room (me)
Wired house for network (me)
Replace Fence (Friend, inlaw and I)
Remove fence around patio (me)
Install ceiling fans in 3 bedrooms and computer room (me)
Install storage shelving in basement (me)
Replaced the garbage disposal (me)
Installed RO Filter (friend and I)
Installed TV antenna (me)
Replaced several cabinet drawers (me)
Built playset (inlaw and I)
Dug Firepit (me)
Built garden boxes (me)
Cut down 6 trees (friend and I)
Cut down several bushes (me)
Plant several trees (wife and I)
Plant bushes (wife and I)

Things yet to do:

Replace all windows (professional)
Replace front door (me and someone else)
Replace kitchen cabinets (professional??? or maybe me... )

Jack of many trades... master of some...