We’ve been slowly getting everything back to where it needs to be in our new place. Right now the second bedroom is setup with my computer stuff and Liz has her computer out in the living room. This kinda of made things a little complicated with networking, but I thought I had it figured out. The modem was in between the two, in a closet, so I had this grand idea…
My router would be in the closet with the modem with a wire going to Liz’s computer. Another wire would then go into the second bedroom and I would have another router* in there so I could have multiple devices back there.
So I went online looking for another router* and saw that wireless routers were not that much more than a regular old router. So I made my purchase from NewEgg** and hooked everything up today. What I failed to think about was that you can’t really plug one router into another router. There’s IP conflicts due to two devices trying to act as DHCP servers. I should have just bought a switch for half the price.
So I finally got things hooked up and working. I’m still using the two routers, but one of them has DHCP turned off. Even though I knew you couldn’t plug two routers into each other, I got it a little confused in my head because most routers you buy these days have built-in switches.
If you really want wireless and you have an existing router you don’t want to get rid of, you need to by a WAP (Wireless Access Point). Those do not have built in switches. The other option would just be to buy a wireless router and be done with it. I won’t even be using the wireless on a regular basis, I just thought it would be handy to have and it would definitely be nice in the future.
* I was thinking “switch” in my head
** NewEgg is one of the best places to buy parts and you can quote me on that
I really feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog lately. It’s not that I’ve just been laying around doing nothing though. I’ve actually been quite busy.
- learning Joomla
- created LebowskiPodcast.com
- been working on finding some more guest speakers
- unpacking and getting the new place setup
- recording and editing podcast episodes
- cooking food
- reading books
- trying to catch a movie here and there
So I haven’t just been slacking off. I’ve still been working on things. Just not this. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I don’t seem to have as much to write when I’m not posting on here every day or even every other day. It’s like I’m out of practice or something.
We did finally get some internet action at home. Scrapped the DSL and went back to cable. Got us a few channels too so now I can watch Carlos Mencia, Dave Chappelle and Southpark w/o having to download them. I don’t really understand how some people can watch TV. Don’t get me wrong - I love TV just as much as the other guy, but I have things to do and people to see. I can’t just clear my schedule at 7:30 on Thursday night because something cool is on. This is where the world of bit torrent comes in. If you haven’t tried it, you should give it a whirl sometime.
In other news, I’ve started melting peanut butter and pouring it on top of ice-cream. A couple of times it’s re-formed into a shell of sorts. Kind of like magic shell. It’s pretty delicious if I do say so myself.
Lebowskipodcast.com is now up and running. Everything looks good in Firefox. There’s a couple alignment issues with IE6 and I haven’t tested anything in IE7 yet. That’ll be my next project.
I’m pretty close to being ready for the initial release of LebowskiPodcast.com. I just need to tweak a couple things. I’ll probably go live with it tomorrow.
I’ve been internet-less at home since Feb 26th. I like to refer to that time as ‘The Flood of ‘07′. That would be pronounced “aught 7″, not “oh 7″. Being the nerdy/geeky person I am, having a connection to the outside world is something I hold near and dear to my heart. It’s how I communicate with friends through emails, forums and instant messaging. It’s how I post on my blogs and work on projects. It’s my source for games and TV. It’s how I find out what’s happening around the world.
I’ve had DSL since 2004. I switched in June of that year as I was switching apartment buildings because they had some great deal if you were switching over from cable. Well, now I really want to switch back. Due to some mixups on “their” end, but DSL wasn’t turned off at the old place, they’ve come to work on the line several times, etc, etc. I was finally supposed to have my internet on Tuesday this week. Then it was yesterday. Now it’s Friday and still no internet.
I called up yet another 1-800 number today and talked to a more higher-up sort of tech support. I told them about the weeks of delay and that I’m just really frustrated. I told them if it wasn’t resolved today, I want to cancel my order and switch to cable. I guess we’ll see what happens after work today.
I know a lot of you out there already know about this, but if you do much web development you might want to check out the Web Developer plugin for Firefox. It installs a toolbar in your browser and with some simple clicks you can highlight and outline areas of your page to more easily see parts of your template and where your content is going. You can also show the file paths of objects and images.
I’ve been working off and on learning the ins and the outs. I think I’m on my 3rd or 4th Joomla install now. I’m finally starting to undertand the hierarchy of the content and how different things work. As soon as I can come up with a decent graphic for the podcast, I’ll get the site up and online. I’ll only enable menu items for what I currently have working and we’ll go from there. This kind of stuff is actually fun. Way cooler than most of those assignments I had in college.
I spent about 5hrs last night going through the user manual for Joomla. It seems to be a somewhat powerful development tool. I think I’m going to like it. Now that I kinda know how to create/delete/edit my content, I just need to pick out a template from somewhere and get started. On Steve’s suggestion I also installed Community Building and SMF - a forum package.
After I feel I have a handle on things I’m going to create the site for the Lebowski Podcast and then after that I’ll also create something for branfeld.com. It should be fun. I just need to figure out how to create some nifty graphics.
Yes folks. I bought the domain. Now I’m going to dive in and try to figure out Joomla. If you don’t hear from me in three days please send a search party. And make sure they have some Mountain Dew on hand.
I’ve never really considered myself anything near a “writer”, but I’m afraid I do have what the professionals call ‘the block’. You see, since moving, we don’t exactly have our internet working yet. That may not sound too terrible, but I’m not the kind of guy that plans out his blog posts. I’m more of a shoot-from-the-hip kind of guy. What I’m trying to say is that I have these great ideas all the time when I’m home, but when I get to a computer, all that genius seems to have eluded me and I’m left with nothing.
So, I guess this is an apology…of sorts. Not a whole lot new going on. It’s spring break where I work so everything’s pretty much dead around here. I’ve been trying to find new and inventive ways to promote the Lebowski Podcast. We’re hoping to record again very soon after everybody is back in town. Episode 3 isn’t bad, it’s just not full of much content to speak of.
Gunner and I have been discussing several things dealing with the podcast. The flood gates are pretty much opening up as I’m thinking about website stuff and whatnot. We might even try to make some t-shirts or other fan-items. I just know I can’t do all of it by myself. There’s a lot I can do, but there is also a lot I’m just not skilled at….like coming up with a t-shirt design. I’m not gifted artistically in the ways of design, layout and graphics. So if you’d like to help, let me know.
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