Ahhh yes! I am a geek and I am in heaven right now. Today, after humming and hahhing about the cost of a universal remote vs the annoyance of having too many remotes to swap between, I finally succumbed and shelled out $400 AUD for one of these.

Logitech Harmony 785

Impulse purchases are my thing. Unfortunately I spent all day researching these:

Thankfully, my credit card is unable to stretch to the $3000 AUD required to buy one, otherwise I would have ordered it immediately.

Instead, I went to the local electronics store for an S-Video cable. A lowly $13 cable that would hook the TV out of my spare computer up to the TV so I can run Itunes etc from the couch using Synergy to control the spare computer with the keyboard and mouse from my laptop. As I browsed the shelves of gadgets on offer I saw the remote and just had to have it.

Not only does it replace all my current remotes but it has an Activities button. This is where the remote goes to the next level. By configuring an Activity such as “Watch a DVD” the remote will turn on the TV, the DVD player, switch the TV to the appropriate input and press play on the DVD. All that with two button presses!

My two digital set top boxes were automatically configure just by selecting the manufacturer and entering the model number. My DVD player is just a cheap brand and so I had to program the buttons individually. The most enjoyable part was the JVC tv. I entered the model number and suddenly I had a bunch of extra buttons that could be programmed that didn’t exist on my remote.

The capability exists to program multiple commands in set sequences so that you could, for example, press watch DVD and the TV or stereo could be set to your favourite surround sound settings and then when you switch away it could be reset to normal operation.

The programming of the remote happens in a very simple program on your PC that connects to the Harmony website to store your settings, download existing commands etc. That way, if you ever need to reformat your PC or you upgrade, you can still access all your settings after reinstall.

I’m off now to play with my new gadget, and to thank God that they didn’t have Ultra Mobile PC’s at the local electronics store, or I would be extremely broke!

Ok, it’s time to lay out some ground rules. No one ever seems to want to set out the rules of dating. People seem to want them to be a mystery, an unknown. I think it just makes it easier to change the rules on a whim.

So, here are some rules that I present for inclusion in the public record. No more hiding from these ones.

1. When a man calls to aks you out on a date, if you don’t want to go out, say so. Don’t accept the date, and then wait till after lunch the day of the date and cancel. You see, we are probably looking forward to it. Odds are that if we asked you out, we might even have adjusted our entire schedule just to make time for you. In fact, we would likely crawl over broken glass while being showered in vinegar just for the chance to spend a few hours in your company.

2. When you make a date and then cancel, do not have plans with friends on that same night. Strangely enough, we won’t mind as much that you cancelled if you spend the night working, or sleeping, or preferably pining away in your bedroom wishing that you were with us. What is guaranteed to piss us off is a cancellation at the last minute, only to find out that you went out anyway, just not with us.

3. Please try and remember that we have made you our first priority. We spend extra money, shuffle our work schedules around, blow off friends invitations to go drinking, and quite often the most important thing, we miss TV programs that we would normally have watched were we not spending an evening with you. Is it too much to ask that we get the same in return?

And now, on a wider note. Avi posted a list of reasons to date a geek. Not only did I laugh as I read the list, but I identified with each and every point. You see, for years now, I have developed a hatred for those pretty boy, different woman every night, use them and abuse them assholes that populate every nightclub and bar in the world. And somehow the women continue to fall for their lines. They fall for the “bad boy”, get crushed by him, and then cry on the geek’s shoulders at the end of it all.

If they really paid attention they would see that the geek, although not covered in muscles and expensive clothes, knows how to treat a woman right. We will respect you, treat you like a queen, and never cheat. We know what it’s like to be alone. We are in it for the long haul, not just tonight.

So ladies, next time you are looking for a date, try your local geek. I’m sure you know him already. He is probably the guy who fixed your laptop last month, or came and hooked up your home theatre system. And he did it all for free. No games, no debts, he just did it because he likes the gadgets and he probably likes you.

This video is the ultimate in sound guy geek fun. You see, I’m a sound guy, and anything to do with audio that combines the following,

1. Great music
2. Principles of Audio demonstrated in an interesting manner
3. and most importantly FIRE

is right up my alley. The video is of a Ruben’s Tube which demonstrates standing waves. I want one of these on my wall at home, or even better, sitting on the meter bridge of my console at work. It might annoy the theatre goers a little, and Workplace Health and Safety may have their issues with it, but I think it would make for the ultimate “Pimp my Sound Console” accessory.

Manly, or Sensitive

Neil at Citizen of the Month wrote a blog called Strong, Silent Type. He said that he was feeling worried about how he wrote and acted and if it was sufficiently manly and not too sensitive.

I ask myself this question every day. In my head of course, never out loud to actual people (not that anyone reading this isn’t an actual person. The Internet anonymity means I can say what I like here).

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