Remote Start for the Car

I have been researching what remote start kit to get for my car and my sights are set on the Viper SmartStart.
I don't know if it can only be controlled by the iPhone or perhaps it comes with a traditional remote. At least with the iPhone, I will be able to start the car from my office an not worry about the darn concrete walls.

Dear Santa

I know what I want for Christmas. Below is an amazing video of Samsung's OLED prototype. Hopefully by the time I own a home I can use this as my wallpaper.

Garage Door, The 2nd Act

The garage door opener stopped working again last Thursday. It can raise the door but can't lower it. My father happened to come across an inexpensive garage door opener at Sears for $119 and purchased it. We spent 3 to 4 hours yesterday installing it.

Before we installed the new opener, I noticed the support beam it will rest on was cracked. Rather than removing and replacing, we just nailed a new one next to it.

This door opener isn't fancy but it gets the job done. It doesn't have an external keypad nor does it use a rotating code. We didn't much care since the garage is detached from the main home.
While I had the tools in front of me, I secured the safety cable that runs through the spring to the frame with a bolt.
Now, I feel a lot more comfortable parking my car in the garage.

Ghetto Garage

Since my father is home, I have an extra pair of hands to help repair the garage door.
First, we replaced the beam that support one of the rails. I guess the wire got caught against something and rip apart the wooden beam.

Here's a picture of what it looks like after we replaced the beam.
We didn't have any clamps for the wires so we looped it around itself. That's not a big deal as long as the safety cable was secured, which it has not.
I pressed the opener to see if the door will now open but the chain wouldn't move. We removed the garage opener cover discovered two broken pieces. Those pieces held the casing for the gears together. I didn't feel like buying a new garage opener when it's not on sale so we used 2 metal wires to tie them back together. To our surprise, it works! Sure the machine makes an uncomfortable noise when you use it, but this gives me time to shop for a new opener.

It's so ghetto.

I Met The Funny Man

I was stoked when I learned Dave Barry will be a guest speaker at the conference I'm attending. I missed most of his speech because of work, but I did get a picture with him!

IN - COM - PLETE!

Yesterday, I enjoyed a delicious lunch at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado. I ate buffalo sausage, cheddar jap brat, and a hot pickle. They abbreviate jalapeño with jap...
Unfortunately, I snarfed down the food before I remembered to take their picture.

After lunch, I figured I stay and watch the Broncos vs Browns game. This was their home opener and the show started with a retired player, Shannon Sharpe, being inducted into their Ring of Fame.
He and a few others parachuted into the stadium. All the jumpers before him came down fast and pulled up 200 feet above the ground. I thought someone will crash so I filmed what I can with my digital camera. **Everyone landed safely**

A huge flag was unrolled during the national anthem. As the anthem finished, 4 fighter jets flew above the stadium. This was the most elaborate opening I have seen at a football game.
It was an intense game. The Cleveland Browns were trailing by less than a touchdown for the first 3 quarters. In the fourth, the Bronco's pulled ahead to secure the win.
I wanted the Broncos to win or else I'll be leaving the stadium with 71,922 angry fans. Cleveland Browns 6 - Denver Broncos 27

Now, some video for your enjoyment.

Goodbye Gears, Hello Uncharted 2

Thanks to GameDaily.com, I got the highly coveted key to download UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves™ Multiplayer Beta. The game is a blast. The movements are responsive and fluid. For a 10 player game, the maps are just the right size. It's not too big, not too small. You can get from one end to the other in under 30 seconds. It took me over a minute to cross a map in Halo.

I like how they spiced up the matches by limiting what you can do. The first beta gave us Deathmatch and Plunder. Beta 2 introduced matches where you can only use pistols and snipers, have 1 life to live, or use RPG's only. There are also different modes for cooperative play. I tried it out by myself and didn't find it enjoyable. Maybe it will be different if my friends were on.

A note to all who play shooters with inverted, or flipped, controls. I performed horrible in the first few games because I only inverted my AIM view. I didn't realize there were two places to invert in the options, AIM and Look. I think this is the only game I have every played that had 2 forms of inversion.

One of the greatest features Halo introduced was the ability to view your stats on a website. Kudos to Naughty Dog for incorporating this into Uncharted. I can view the wins, loses, kill death ratio, etc. at www.naughtydog.com/stats/meatwad101010.

Finally, a PS3 game worth getting.