AnotherSuperStar V2.0

My last blog on WordPress

timothydaigle — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:05:31 +0000

You have been good to me but I just can take the photo upload problems and a few other annoyances. Thanks WordPress. Good luck.

My new Blog is located at http://web.mac.com/timdaigle/Site/AnotherSuperBlog/AnotherSuperBlog.htm

The AnotherSuperStar.com domain will be changed in a day or two and you will be automatically redirected to my new and improved blog and website.

See you there,
ANOTHERSUPERSTAR

WikiLeaks Under Fire

timothydaigle — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:11:34 +0000

“The transparency group WikiLeaks.org currently seems to be under heavy fire. The main WikiLeaks.org DNS entry is unavailable, reportedly due to a restraining order relating to a series of articles and documents released by WikiLeaks about off-shore trust structures in the Cayman Islands. The WikiLeaks whistle blower, allegedly former vice president of the Cayman Islands branch of swiss bank Julius Baer, states in the WikiLeaks documents that the bank supported tax evasion and money laundering by its clients from around the world. WikiLeaks alternate names remained available until Saturday, when there seems to have been a heavy DDoS attack and a fire at the ISP. The documents in question are still available on other WikiLeaks sites, such as wikileaks.be, and are also mirrored on Cryptome. Details of the court documents have also been made available.”

New and improved Casa Del Cohete Cam this spring

timothydaigle — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:40:40 +0000

Well there is now a dedicated PC for the Webcam in the Garage. The Camera will auto pan/zoom all of out summer activities in the garden. I should have it up in about a week. Also, the new Casa webpage will have events, realtime weather, and audio (music streaming from Casa Del Cohete)

One of my favorite photos

timothydaigle — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:49:23 +0000

I took this photo a few years back at the Elbow River. Little did I know that I would become friends with the young lady sticking her tongue out at the camera. Her name is Audrey and I asked her one night at the Kensington Pub if she has ever floated down the Elbow with friends on what basically looked like a blow up Island. She said yes. I told her that I would produce this picture to her immediately. This is one of my all time favorite photos. Audrey, here you go :)

AnotherSuperStar sticks it to the man

timothydaigle — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:01:04 +0000

I was fined over $400 for turning right into Rosedale (my neighbourhood) on October 13th after 3:30PM. They are trying to stop people from cutting through our area to Center Street and so this is the way the city deals with it. $400 also included the fine for not producing the correct insurance. The new insurance was on our dinning room table and was not yet in the car. I told the officer that I lived in the area and that I could almost see our house from where I was pulled over and that I could get the insurance off of the table if he could wait a moment. Instead he fined me $400.00. This is the second time I have been charged with turning right into our neighbourhood. Each time I fought it and each time I won. If you ever get a ticket appear in court and fight it !!! Here is the court house. I was in court for all of 30 minutes. Sorry about the dodgy photo but I could not get the iPhone to hold still. I might also mention that now when you go to court you have to go through a metal detetector and you have to put your items through an Xray machine. The woman was a real cow and was rude so I tried to make her laugh by saying “I hope I’m going somewhere warm”. Mission accomplished. She smiled.

All in all it was a great day. I even got my taxes done after 3 years. Molly waited for me in the car while I went in to have them done. I’m doing my own for 2007 as I now have Quicktax and it integrates nicely with Quickbooks Pro. Here is a pic of Molly. She was driving that day ;)

Click for a closer look at Molly driving

VisualHub 1.31 Adds Apple TV 5.1 Support

timothydaigle — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:03:39 +0000

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 – 2:37 PM EST

Techspansion has announced the release of VisualHub 1.31, an update to its video conversion software for Mac OS X. The biggest news with this release is the addition of Apple TV 5.1 Surround Sound support. Videos with 5.1 AC3 audio can now be converted to play on the new Apple TV “Take 2″ update with the new “Apple TV 5.1″ iTunes tab preset.

Other new features and improvements in this release include:

When using the iTunes tab, converted .mp4 videos over 150MB will no longer be FastStart-enabled. This will greatly speed up Artwork tagging for large files not meant for Internet distribution. Files under 150MB will be FastStart-enabled as usual. Files created using the MP4 tab are always FastStart-enabled.

Converting different-aspect videos to TiVo format with stitching on now works correctly throughout the entire video.

Visual Hub 1.31 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later. It is priced at $23.32 and is a free upgrade to registered users. A free trial is also available.

A little sanding and a coat of paint

timothydaigle — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:33:26 +0000

I decided to do away with all of the plastic tracking for my cable management. It looks ok for awhile but now that we have AppleTV we need more cabling run to the TV. 1 HDMI and 2 Component cables to the Flatscreen, not to mention the Audio, power and a few other things. So as it now stands Windows Vista Media Center (for Karen) is non HD and running on the Media Center to the left. AppleTV is on the top to the left (the small nicely designed device). Apple is running at 1080i and then finally the HD Satellite Receiver (top right) also running at 1080i. We are going to keep the Windows Media Center for now. and remove once AppleTV has a TV tuner, There must be a third party out there somewhere able to design one. In case you are wondering bottom right is the Audio Receiver and once I install 5.1 speakers then I will rewire the AppleTV and Satellite with optical out to optical in on the receiver. All devices including the Windows Vista Media Center and Apple TV will be driven by the Logitech Harmony 880 Universal Remote. This way we can finally do away with the remotes. We are tired of the table being cluttered with 5 remotes. So here is a picture. I will be sanding down and painting the wall where the tracking ripped the paint off.Notice AppleTV ver 2.0 that I just downloaded yesterday. Very cool indeed !!!You may also notice one of my plants has been replaced with a dying weed. I had two ferns die on me within a few months. Some sort of Fungus. I will have to pick up another

Apple Releases Apple TV “Take Two” Software Update

timothydaigle — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:18:20 +0000

Apple has released the “Take Two” software update for the Apple TV. The free update is available for existing Apple TV owners by selecting the “Update Software” option under the “Settings” menu. Primary new features in this update include the ability to rent HD and standard definition movies, the ability to purchase items from the iTunes Store directly from the Apple TV, Flickr and .Mac photo browsing, and the ability to browse the iTunes Podcast directory. Movie rentals are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are just one dollar more with library titles at $3.99 and new releases at $4.99. Movies can be kept for 30 days, but expire within 24 hours of playback.

Casa Del Cohete 2008

timothydaigle — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:30:47 +0000

Big changes on the way for Cohete in 2008. A whole new look. Since is -22 and snowing I’m working on the music and colour scheme for Cohete. Got some fun music for this summer. Just getting Reggae2008 now !!!

2nd Anniversary

timothydaigle — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:58:13 +0000

Karen and I had a great trip to Banff over the weekend. We stopped into Canmore so she could visit her friend David who owns a fantastic restaurant called Quarry. If you are ever in Banff you must stop in for a meal. 5 Stars !!! We even ran into a good friend of mine who was having lunch and trying out some new Wines for his Wine shop. Visit Brendan at Canmore Wine Merchants, you will not regret it. He has many uncommon Wines, Spirits and Beers that are sure to delight. I’m proud of you Brendan. Well done !!!We then headed off to Banff and our Chalet for the weekend. Buffalo Mountain Lodge was fantastic. Funny thing was that years ago I used to look after their computer network so it was like seeing an old friend. Our room was fantastic and the Fireplace was well used. On our first night we ended up staying in for a bottle of Wine and then we headed off to St James Irish Pub. It’s a little local dive with a Ship and Anchor flavour to it. The band was pretty good and it was tough not to want to go up and sing a few tunes with them.Saturday was an amazing day. We went for an average breakfast at Brunos (last year it was good but things have changed) and then to Evelyn’s for a triple Cappuccino and Karen’s Vanilla Late. We decided to hit the liquor store and pick up some wine and head back to the Lodge. We basically drank wine, stoked the fire and watched the movie Logan’s Run from bed. We also had a selection of Bear Claws and other treats from a local Sweet Shop. Saturday evening we headed off to Fuze restaurant as recommended by my friend Brendan. We where treated like royalty and the food was fantastic. Check out their website for reviews. After dinner we where charged by hundreds of young expats and skibums heading towards Aurora Nightclub. We thought about going in but we realized that we could have fun elsewhere without having to queue up and paying a cover charge. We decided to try the Rose and Crown. Mistake. The Rose in Banff is a dumpy but popular place with live music. It really was quite nasty and I do not recommend going there regardless of how popular it is. We decided that St. James Irish pub was a better idea for us. We had a few pints and then headed back to the lodge for a fire and some well deserved rest.Sunday we decided to head back to Calgary after we stopped in for a few Coffee’s and a quick walk around the shops. We dropped by to see Brendan in Canmore and picked up a nice bottle of Molly Dooker Two Left Feet wine from Brendan’s shop. I know what you are thinking “Molly” but Bren really did recommend it. We ended up having a bit of lunch at “The Wood” restaurant upstairs from Brendan’s shop. Beautiful dining room and lounge and fantastic food. After lunch we headed back to the city (yuk). All in all we had a great time and it was a fun anniversary.