When I bought my car, one of the first things I did was buy a fancy new Alpine head unit to replace the factory stereo. This gave me the ability to add an XM tuner and an iPod adapter. I ran the iPod cable into the glove compartment, so I could just connect the iPod in there and close the glove box when I hopped in the car.

I've got a reasonably interesting setup of MisterHouse (a nifty Perl-based home automation program) running on a Linux machine upstairs, that does stuff like turn on lights automatically when it's getting dark or when I enter a room, turn lights off when there hasn't been any activity in a room after a predefined time, and so forth. Maybe I'll post more on that later.

I recently decided that the reason I don't like any of the laptop bags I've ever tried to use is because they don't have enough pockets. Cables, adpaters, and everything else ends up in a big wad at the bottom of my bag, which drives me up the wall.

I made one that seemed to fit my somewhat picky specifications, and published a guide on how I made it. Hopefully it will come in handy to someone else out there who's as finicky about their bag as I am. (I hope they like Velcro.)

Using the ideas behind declan's blog post, I recently created unofficial podcasts for two of my favorite WPTF radio talk shows: Neal Boortz (a Libertarian, author of The FairTax Book) and Bill Handel (a true master of sarcasm, delivered in the context of legal advice to callers-in). Though I listen to the radio quite a bit during the day, those shows come on at inconvenient times. Truly, a technological solution could assist here, and declan's blog got me almost all the way there. Though his taste in radio obviously differs quite a bit from my own, our needs were the same in this regard. :-)

Here's an overview, for those impatient. I use a radioShark to schedule an automatic recording of the shows I am interested in. I wrote a Perl script which runs after the recordings finish that converts them into AAC files (with an m4b extension, to support bookmarking on an iPod) using a Nero encoder and sends them via FTP to my web server. A specific URL on my web site invokes a PHP script which scans the directory for those files and creates an on-the-fly RSS XML document. Then, using iTunes or whatever software you may prefer, you can register that URL to download new episodes as you feel the need.

Ready to see how it's done? Good. Let's go.

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Some of you may know that I installed a mod chip in my XBox, mostly so I can run the awesome XBox Media Center (XBMC). This is hugely awesome if you combine it with the XBox DVD Remote, as you can sit on your couch and use the remote to control a home theatre PC! (Actually, I have an RCU810 that I bought in 2001 or so that I hacked to make it JP1 compatible. I programmed that remote to use the XBox codes, and I use that one instead!)

The biggest problem, though, is that you still can't use the DVD remote to control the XBox power. You have to get up off the couch (horrors) and push the power button. No fun.

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My most recent project (which I actually started back in March or so, and left fallow until this past week) has been the installation of a message center in my Ford Explorer.  This is an available factory option, but it wasn't in the vehicle I ended up purchasing back in 1998, even though I really wanted one!  It's a display unit that tells you about your fuel efficiency, remaining fuel, engine oil quality, and other such, and it sits in the center console in the "corner" beneath the HVAC controls and in front of the cup holders.

Apparently, I am not the only other one in the universe who wants to do this, because there are pages on the web that give overviews of the installation process.  It seemed a little involved, but not enough to deter me, so I made a trip to a local junkyard back in March and bought a message center from a wrecked Explorer for $30.  Wedding stuff took precedence, so I put it down when I got back and didn't really get a chance to look at it again until this past week, when I made the first connections.