cygweb

Like many others, I've been observing the effects of Hurricane Katrina through the news. I've been getting most of the information from the Web and NPR, mostly text and audio, and I've seen some pictures on news websites and Flickr. The devastation is astounding. I don't know anyone who lives in the affected coastal region, but I have a cousin who used to live in Louisiana that probably does. I hope everyone affected whose lives were spared are able to regroup and rebuild with the help of the many agencies who react to such disasters.

This morning I've donated $20 to the American Red Cross, earmarked for Hurricane 2005 Relief, and I encourage you to donate as well.

Even though it appears that, adjusted for inflation, our gas price has hovered around $2/gallon for a long time, the current speculation-related gouging is throwing that metric out the window. Double-dipping between the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina's wrath, the gasoline companies have succeeded in getting the market over the psychological price point of $3/gallon. Note how the uncertainty of Desert Storm era (ca. 1989-1991) drove the price over the $1/gallon price point (in the dollars of the day) for good, and the Iraq war did the same for $2. Let's hope the $1/gallon premium we're now paying for gas compared to just a year ago will truly be used in a way that repairs (and hopefully augments) U.S.-based refining capacity, as opposed to being profits raked in by convenience store owners (where gas used to be a loss leader, right?) and big oil. Then perhaps the U.S. petroleum products market will stabilize. Will gas go back down to $2? If the collusion that defines the market continues, probably not.

Been away from the blog the past few days due to real big stuff. Ryan started kindergarten this week, so, well, you know, we did too. ;) He was great getting on the bus for the first time yesterday; he was really ready for it. It's different not to be dropping him off at daycare or picking him up from there. One thing Melissa and I are doing that's different is that we're picking him up from school on alternate days as opposed to using the after-school program. More quality time.

We got together for the BDFL 2005 draft last night. I just put together a podcast featuring our first two rounds and some post-draft conversation. It'll be posted soon. Scott was a great host and made us all feel at home. Thanks for the wings and Foster's! (I was stuffed!)

I bought a Sony Series 1 Tivo unit (SVR-2000) on the cheap, mainly to see if I could use it as a digital VCR, manually setting up recordings without using the Tivo service. I also wanted to connect in to its serial port and play with some of its Linux underpinnings (after backing it up to another hard drive first). It's looking like it'll complain if it can't check in with the mothership via the modem. Anyone that has experience with even lightly hacking the Series 1 Tivos, please weigh in. I'm reading as much online info as I can, but most of the hacks seem to be geared towards those actually using the $12.95/month Tivo service (which isn't for me).

I might tweak my templates here a little more over the weekend. We'll see.

18.6MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 40m 38s (Courtesy of Nitevilla.net.)

This is the sixth Brutal Deluxe football podcast of the 2005 season. Scott hosts our 2005 draft at his house. The first two rounds of our draft are covered, as well as some of our post-draft discussion. It's like you're in the war room!

We'll be back next week to review BDFL activity and to check out the results of the first week of the NFL season.

For you three people who were regularly downloading the podcast via the Prodigem Torrent Feed, please subscribe to the official BDFL podcasts feed. Thanks.

Links:

• Play Yahoo! Salary Cap Football with us! Our group info is here.
• Pick the upcoming season's games with us in our Yahoo! Pro Football Pick'Em group! Details here.
• SportPodcasts.com

Credits:

• Mixed, recorded, edited and mastered by me.
• Music: "One Big Holiday" by My Morning Jacket from the Wired CD.

Tonight's game is a great start to the season, but, alas, I must turn in at a normal hour. Lots of offense so far. I thought the Raiders offense would look nice, and they've delivered a lot of yards in the first half. But the Patriots lead 17-14 in the third quarter.

I'm always reminded why I like the NFL so much when the season starts. You think you can handicap these teams and some of them always surprise you. The two biggest upsets of the day were had by the Niners and the Dolphins. The only one of my upset picks that panned out was New Orleans beating Carolina. The Saints have been through a lot this preseason, undoubtedly the least-practiced team of the lot, but they were extremely motivated to win. Good job, guys.

Tonight's game promises to be fun as well. My Yahoo! FFL game is already won, but my BDFL week 1 game pits Donovan McNabb and 11 BDFL points against Brian Westbrook. You know, the Hellions could win this week... NOT! I went 0-5 to start last season, so to get a win early against my divisional rival would be a good thing. :)

Our Yahoo! Pick'Em group's game has changed drastically this year. The addition of confidence points makes the point totals quite wild. I don't know if I'll recommend using them again. I'm also participating in Rotoguru's Football Pickoff again this season. (Ouch.)

I'm a Windows-Server-kinda guy. It's my job. I also administer VMware ESX Servers and I dabble in Linux. One of my specialties is specifying and configuring hardware solutions, so I keep up on the x86 server hardware front. I'd been alerted to the pending debut of the Sun "Galaxy" Opteron-based servers (which occurred Monday), so I checked them out.

Part One: 19.0MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 41m 33s (Courtesy of Nitevilla.net.)
Part Two: 16.8MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 36m 47s (Courtesy of Nitevilla.net.)

This is the seventh Brutal Deluxe football podcast of the 2005 season. It's our first two-part podcast; I split the show into two to keep the file sizes and times manageable. Scott and I welcome defending BDFL champ Chuck to the show this week. We review the week that was in both the BDFL and the NFL, and look ahead to week 2. Chuck shows off his on-the-fly Google lookup mojo several times. ;)

For you three people who were regularly downloading the podcast via the Prodigem Torrent Feed, please subscribe to the official BDFL podcasts feed. Thanks.

Links:

• Want a free iPod? It's the real deal! Help me out!
• My Odeo Channel (odeo/7d2ff8e710040137)
• SportPodcasts.com

Credits:

• Mixed, recorded, edited and mastered by me.
• Music: "One Big Holiday" by My Morning Jacket from the Wired CD.

FreeiPods.com now has the 4GB nano as one of their choices. I'm waiting for just one more completed referral to qualify for mine. I was going for the 20GB color iPod but the nano is just too cool.

If you are considering signing up, please use my link. Thanks.

I was sad to see Suzie let go last night on RockStar: INXS. I really dig her style, and she seemed like a great fit with INXS's music. Of Marty, MiG, and J.D., I think I like MiG the most musically, but J.D.'s style and energy give him an advantage. Even after all his shenanigans, I think J.D. will win the gig.

Manolas Handmade Soaps is participating in today's Great Road Art & Craft Festival on Market Street in Camp Hill. If you're in the area, please come over and see us!

My parents visit to take care of Ryan on the weekends when we do craft shows, and my dad and I take advantage of these times to get a bike ride in on the following Sunday morning. This morning's weather was gorgeous, and I went with him on my first hilly ride in a few months. I've slacked off since BVA2005. It was great to get back in the saddle, even if the hills are a little more challenging now.

I guess I should take this opportunity to log some activity in the President's Challenge. I've only been doing the occasional swim and haven't logged any activity in a number of weeks.

I know, I know. "Save it for the podcast." Well, I have to have something that I can say "I blogged about this..." on the BDFL review. :)

I was busy with my family (and some other early-Sunday-evening duties) and haven't been able to check out much of the games today. I'm reading about them now and some of them are really surprising:

• I'm really glad I stuck with Donovan McNabb as my starter in the BDFL despite his injury. Another career performance. It was good that he and Andy Reid both insisted he would be playing, or else I think more fantasy owners might have been skittish.
• I thought Chicago might beat Detroit. I didn't think they'd pound Detroit. Note to self: consider picking the Lions again in week 7, when they face the Browns. That may be the only other W they earn this year. All of their other opponents don't seem so beatable. Well, maybe the Vikings do.
• Speaking of Minnesota, Cincinnati is the real deal. This is the year where they go 9-7 or 10-6. No more 8-8 for this club, not with that offense. They and the Steelers will feast on the other divisional rivals, the Browns and the Ravens.
• Can't believe the Bills collapsed in Tampa Bay. Are the throwbacks a good thing or not? Will they wear them the whole season? I remember seeing them play Atlanta at home about 11-12 years ago (maybe longer). When they face them next week, it'll be a much tougher victory to earn than that one of yesteryear.
• Thought the Jaguars might be able to do it against the Colts. The Colts D is the real deal. Glad I have them in the BDFL. Though it's tough to consider benching the Bills D.
• I though Carolina would beat New England. I did not think Cleveland would beat Green Bay on the day Reggie White's number was retired.

Saving the rest for the podcast...

27.1MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 59m 05s

This is the eighth Brutal Deluxe football podcast of the 2005 season. Scott and I review the week that was in both the BDFL and the NFL, and look ahead to week 3. Near the end, we solicit your audio comments; feel free to send them to the email address I mention.

Links:

• Want a free iPod? It's the real deal! Help me out!
• My Odeo Channel (odeo/7d2ff8e710040137)
• SportPodcasts.com

Credits:

• Mixed, recorded, edited and mastered by me.
• Music: "One Big Holiday" by My Morning Jacket from the Wired CD.

Well, Ray's completed offer at FreeiPods.com (that's Keith's referral link) gave me the final requirement to qualify to receive an iPod. I'm leaning towards the 4GB Nano over the 20GB Color for a number of reasons:

• The physical size of the Nano is smaller than my HiMD walkman, so it'll be useful for situations where my HiMD might be too obtrusive. Also, I plan to try to use its PIM capabilities, so it would be easier to keep on my person than the HD-based iPod.
• The Nano has special features specific to Podcasts, which I plan to use it for a lot.
• I don't have plans to make special use of the extra 16GB the iPod Color would provide. Since I plan to continue to keep my digital music on my home computers, I don't need the iPod to hold a good portion of my music at a particular time. I'm weighing the convenience of physical size above the disk capacity.

Think I'm missing something? Comment. Thanks, Ray!

I neglected to mention that Cyg's Bunters are in the championship games in both of my fantasy baseball leagues. I don't think I'll win in either league, but I had a lot more fun with the leagues this year than last year. I didn't do a ton of roster changes over the course of the season, and mainly managed my starting pitchers and watched my batters' trends (in the time domain, rather than the matchup domain) to determine who should start. Am I a bigger baseball fan after this fantasy season? Not much - I still don't go out of my way to watch the games.

I wish I could see the Bills play the Falcons this weekend. That'll be a great game. Luckily, we'll be seeing two of the better matchups of the weekend locally: New England at Pittsburgh and Oakland at Philadelphia. I'm going a bit more conservative in my picking this week - we'll see if that pays off.

Update: Our local listing has the Bills/Falcons game on here at 1PM tomorrow, opposite the Eagles game, which is on CBS since they're hosting the Raiders (an AFC team). Cool!

So I decided this morning, "I've got to try and pick a few upsets this week." I switched two picks: Green Bay to win because of several trends, and Arizona because... when's the last time a Dennis Green-coached team went 0-3? Green Bay's game turned out very close, but the Cards got whacked by the 'Hawks. Don't know what I was thinking.

Got to watch the Bills lose to the Falcons in HD. Atlanta showed why they were the top rushing team last season; they ran all over the Bills. And they got the passes done when they needed to. The Bills offense is definitely suffering, and I can't even put half of that on Losman. Bill Maas (the Fox analyst covering the game; one of my favorites) pointed out early, often, and correctly that the Bills O-line couldn't put up a decent pass-block. The only bright spot was the fact that McGahee had a good day. The downer is that Takeo Spikes came out of the game with an Achilles tendon injury.

I switched between that game and the Eagles-Raiders contest. Closer game than I expected. The Eagles were definitely disrupted by David Akers' hamstring problems; a smooth kicking game would have made it a lot easier for them. Akers is definitely one of the more reliable kickers in the league. After injuring himself last week, the Eagles signed a kicker to their practice squad (the five players who can be under contract but not a part of the active roster). However, they appeared to neglect to have a backup placekicker (whether dedicated or not) on the field today. Akers' FG to win the game was something to see.

Can't believe the Patriots overcame all kinds of adversity to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. That's why they play the games.

I'm also very surprised by Miami beating Carolina. Ronnie Brown had a great day. I did make one good call here fantasy-wise; I picked up Jake Delhomme in my Yahoo FF league and started him over Vick and Favre. He passed for 283 yards, 3 TDs, and 1 INT.

My BDFL matchup against the Hated Legs doesn't look so good. Eddie Kennison and 21 BDFL points against LJ, LT, and NK (Nate Kaeding). C'mon Kansas City passing game!

If you don't check out my linkblog you may have missed my link to the excellent Jedi Trainer game. Lots of fun.

Don't forget to check out the latest tunes from Doug, Ty, & Jerry! The new King's X album comes out tomorrow.

Scott, Chuck, the BDFL, and I were featured in three "4-1-1" articles published in this week's Sentinel. Scott has the details. There are slight inaccuracies about me (I lived in Buffalo for about 10 years, but I'm not a native), but it's not a big deal. Enjoy!

29.8MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 65m 12s (Courtesy of Nitevilla.net.)

This is the ninth Brutal Deluxe football podcast of the 2005 season. Scott and I review the week that was in both the BDFL and the NFL, and look ahead to week 4. We also talk about the rumors that the NFL Players Association wants to charge for the use of player names in fantasy football games. We'd like your feedback.

Links:

• My Odeo Channel (odeo/7d2ff8e710040137)
• SportPodcasts.com

Credits:

• Mixed, recorded, edited and mastered by me.
• Music: "One Big Holiday" by My Morning Jacket from the Wired CD.

Ogre Tones

by King's X

OK, it's official: this is King's X's best album since Tape Head. There isn't a weird format to get used to, like on Mr. Bulbous. There isn't any experimentation with loops like on Manic Moonlight (a disc I dig occasionally). And there isn't a long, wandering song like "Johnny" on Black Like Sunday (a disc I really dig, but skip around a bit on).

But, what is on Ogre Tones, you might be asking? First of all, awesome sound; this album is loud and proud, but it doesn't clip and breathes nicely. I noticed its ReplayGain values were in the -7dB range, whereas an album like American Idiot is around -10dB. Without getting any more technical, let's just say that there's a good amount of depth in the sound. This really lets the music shine. Thank you, Michael Wagener.

Sonic highlights for me are Ty Tabor's acoustic guitar on "Honesty", Doug Pinnick's "classic" vocals on "Bebop" (his screams are as trademark and recognizable as David Lee Roth's, although I wouldn't compare the two further), and Jerry Gaskill's precision drumming on "Goldilox (Reprise)" (note the light roll right before the beginning of the verses). "Goldilox" (from their first album, Out Of The Silent Planet) is one of my all-time favorite King's X tunes (and probably one of the only ones Melissa knows by name), so it was a special treat to hear it done in the current KX sound. It's been dropped down a tone or two from standard tuning, similar to most of their other current stuff. The song wasn't rearranged, but the vocal parts are clearer than the original, and Ty's solo features wah-wah.

It's really hard to pick other favorites at this point; the album flows very well is only 52 minutes long. The guitar solo on "Sooner Or Later" is not a typical Ty solo; he lays it on thick and it sounds great. The first single, "Alone", is KX at their tightest, and features the Doug/Ty vocal tradeoffs that are getting rarer and rarer. The second track, "Stay", features a very hooky chorus ("stay with me/only if you want me to/stay with me/only if you need me too..."). I really dig the main guitar riff on "Fly". "Open My Eyes" sounds like it could have been on Faith Hope Love, which was my first and still-favorite KX record. "Freedom" (a b-side from Ear Candy) has the relevant lyric "freedom/to get elected and set my own salary". And "Bam" ends the record in trademark quirky KX way.

Ogre Tones is highly recommended. Easily one of my top 3 new releases this year. Offhand, I can only rank Deadwing higher, but it's had quite a while to grow on me. ;)

Every few months I go check out Oddsock's site and leech the latest version of his fine Oddcast for Foobar 2000 and the Win32 build of Icecast. I went out checking this week and found and installed Oddcast 3.1.2 and Icecast 2.3.0. This combo supported AAC streaming a while ago, but the free AAC encoders available didn't sound better than MP3 at 64kbps to me, so I didn't implement AAC. Vorbis at 64kbps (quality 0) is quite formidable. When I read that Winamp 5.1 included a free AACplus encoder DLL that the new Oddcast could take advantage of, I was immediately intrigued and had to try out a 64kbps, 44.1kHz, stereo AACplus (which I found out is high efficiency advanced audio coding plus parametric stereo - HE-AAC+PS) stream.

Foobar 0.8.3 refused to play the stream. I don't think it supports AACplus natively. However, the FB2K 0.9 betas do support it, but while it plays the audio beautifully, it doesn't show the metadata. Winamp 5.1 supports the stream fully, and sounds almost as good as Vorbis Q0 to my ears. I hear just a little more high-end warbling with AACplus, but it's very listenable.

One hope I had was that I'd finally be able to stream a 64kbps 44.1kHz stereo stream to my Mac ICYG brethren, but it turns out iTunes 5.0.1 doesn't support AACplus. Ugh. Two steps forward, one step back.