Team Esteve

For those of you who don’t know, I got a Droid Eris at the end of last year. One of the reasons I bought it instead of its big brother the Droid was because I heard via the interwebs that there was going to be an upgrade to the Eris’ operating system. Recently that rumor became a reality and my phone’s OS is now the latest and the greatest.

One of the apps that is available for download with this operating system is WorkSmart Labs’ CardioTrainer. If you work out and want to track your workouts, distances traveled, calories burned, etc. this is a great app! It uses the Droid’s GPS capabilities to track where you walk or jog if you’re outside and if you’re on a treadmill or elliptical trainer, it will use the motion sensing technology to track your effort.

One of the coolest parts of the app for me, though, is the integration with the Droid’s music player. You can tell CardioTrainer which playlist from the muisc player to use while you work out. I’m trying to get up to jogging a 5K and using DJ Beatsmith’s PodRunner Intervals podcast. Each one of the 10 podcasts is supposed to be used for a week. I set up a playlist with the current poscast and then follow the cues.

It’s a great app and I look forward to using it more.

Please either drop your present ridiculous position or sue me.

via NFL, Saints fans dispute ownership of ‘Who Dat’ – ESPN.

For those of you who don’t know, I decided to abandon my Tivo and put a computer in our bedroom to act as a media center. I found a good deal on a computer that had a Media Center version of Vista pre-loaded and I already had a TV Tuner card, IR remote and Remote control. A couple of hardware pieces and I was set. Not only am I currently using it on our tube TV via S-video, I’m ready to output via DVI for video and Digital Audio for output when we upgrade our television. The last piece I bought was a bluetooth Keyboard/mouse combo so Kristen can facebook from the bed if she wants (and I don’t have to stay 3-feet from the TV if I want to upgrade drivers or surf the web).

With all that complete, I thought I was set. If I’m blogging about this, then we all know that statement was incorrect right?

Right.

So I’m about to hop on the Elliptical trainer and watch an episode of The Soup from last Friday when the remote stops responding. I had already started playing the episode so I wasn’t worried about it at the time, but thought it was odd. So tonight I decided to tackle the problem. I went onto the interwebs and found a troubleshooting ‘guide’ on HP’s website. I put guide in quotes because it boiled down to this:

1) Did you replace the batteries?
2) Is the IR receiver blocked?
3) Is the receiver in your device manager?
4) Does the red light light up when you press a button on the remote?
5) You’re doin’ it wrong.

So after going through their ‘guide,’ I googled a little harder and found the site The Green Button. Mercifully they actually care about Media Center and its community. I found a lot of helpful information and finally found out the real problem:

One of the battery contacts in the remote has started to rust.

I followed their advice and cleaned the contact with rubbing alcohol and reset the remote by putting a peper clip between the + and – contacts, reinsertted the batteries, and now it’s working again.

Major props to The Green Button Community. You saved me from a VERY frustrating night.

It doesn’t matter whose GrandPa I’m talking about. Just know one thing about him:

GrandPa has the time, brains, and resources to build a freakin’ ROCKET LAUNCHER!

But seriously, my dad saw this PVC-based rocket launcher on TV and went out on the interwebs to find plans. Of course he improved on the original by building the tripod (the original plans had someone holding the launch tube and getting wet when the thing took off). He uses a bicycle pump to pressurize a 2-liter soda bottle with water in it, and pulls the string to send it soaring into the air (and onto the roof and if we’re not careful into the neighbor’s yard).

So while you’re trying to figure out how to be cooler than my dad, here are a couple more videos of launches.

Taking a family-friendly classic like that and doing THIS to it! SHAME! Disturbingly funny video below: