It may be frugality or indecisiveness, but I’d like to think of it as environmental conscientiousness that drove me to put 100,000 miles on my 2005 Pontiac Aztek. Yes, I am proud to say that earlier this week I got to see the dial rollover (well actually it was a digital readout – so a little less exciting) to the 6th digit position. Allison and I are pretty close to buying a new vehicle, but for now our primary 4-wheel transportation has enough miles on it to have driven around the world nearly 4 times and has outlasted its model as well as its manufacturer (my second to share this sad statistic).

Here’s to the next 100,000!

As noted earlier I began this project with an AV space already roughed out by a previous owner of my house. This created a couple of constraints for the design; the TV would need to be a 37-inch HD in order to fit easily into the space; I would have roughly 15 inches depth from the front of the display to the back of the cabinet; and there would be no direct line of site to devices other than the TV.

Samsung LN37B650

The decision of which TV to buy was fairly easy. Plasmas are more sensitive to heat than LCDs and since I was mounting it over a fireplace I could avoid that much debated question. I’ve always been impressed with Samsung TVs owned by my friends and family, plus reviews on CNET and Amazon consistently back their quality. I would have liked to get a more energy efficient LED backlit display, but at the time of my purchase Samsung didn’t offer a 37-inch model. [a quick note on the "Touch of Color": it is almost unnoticeable and looks good in most rooms.] Finally, I would recommend buying it though Amazon. The delivery service was polite, on-time, and free. He even opened the box and turned it on so that I could make sure there weren’t any display problems.

As the main video source I purchased a baseline Mac Mini (2.26 Ghz) and upgraded the hard drive (320 GB) and RAM (4GB). To minimize cluttering the area with various cords I relied on the built in 802.11 b/g/n wi-fi for network access and bluetooth for the keyboard and mouse. Despite the extra cost I decided to go with the Apple keyboard and the new Magic Mouse. Both look good even in a living room environment and work well from more than 8 feet away.

Apple uses a mini displayport on the Mac Mini for video and unfortunately most TVs including Samsungs rely on HDMI for digital video signal. To further complicate the connection, HDMI is both a video and audio connection, while the mini displayport only transmits video. The solution is to buy a converter. Monoprice sells a cable that connects both to the Mac Mini’s mini displayport and to a USB port in order to send both digital audio and video to an HDMI television input. The result is not only a clean look, but offers much better quality than S-Video or traditional “audio out” approaches.

Mini Displayport Male and USB Male Audio to HDMI Female Converting Adapter

During the planning stage of this project I spent a lot of time looking for other people on the internet who had successfully created a similar setup (in part that is the reason for this post). One of the best assets I found were the reviews for the Monoprice Mini Displayport Adapter. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive and helped me feel confident that I would be happy with the result of my new setup.

I also relied on Monoprice for the wall mount. Prices on wall mounts vary widely and after being satisfied with Monoprice in the past I felt comfortable using them for this crucial piece even though they had some of the cheapest prices.

Prior to installing I was particularly concerned about the geometry and placement of the mount and making sure that both the back was securely installed in a pair of studs and the front allowed the TV to fit neatly into the existing picture frame. In the end while I spent almost twice as much time measuring as installing the numerous adjustments in the mount made this less of a problem than I had expected. My only complaint has been that the stiff arms of the mount, while lending a comforting feeling of stability are really too tight to move on a regular basis.

In case the internet turns off

That completed the Mac Mini to TV hardware setup, but on a whim I also picked up a powered HD antenna at Monoprice, which I have been very happy with. We live outside of Chicago and while the reception breaks up occasionally we can pick up more than 40 different channels, many in full HD.

If you would like to continue reading about the software portion of the setup continue here.

I have thought about this project for a long time and done a lot of research on whether I could do it right and legitimize the cost. The short-answer is yes; you can get a simple clean setup that might not be cable-box easy, but at least seamless enough to make it not feel like a project every time you sit down to watch TV.

We recently bought a house in which the previous owner left a custom designed entertainment room complete with AV closet, in-wall speaker cabling, and above-fireplace TV mount. Unfortunately, before moving out he removed all the electronics.  This left me with a great start to creating a really nice setup, but prior to Christmas ’09 all we had was a giant hole in the wall.

We did our best to make it look nice for the holidays, but we weren't fooling anybody - something was missing.

My dream was to create a setup that would rely on internet video for the majority of the content and set the stage for leaving cable behind. There are a variety of technologies that promise this for a fraction of the cost of a full computer (Apple TV, Roku, as well as Blu-Ray units with internet video built-in), but each rely heavily on either a Netflix account or an iTunes account as the source of most of their content. I have not used all of these technologies, but the problem I see is that internet video is changing too fast for a single-source or even a couple of sources to really promise a lasting approach (as recently noted in an NYT piece).

No matter what the future of internet video brings the central point of delivery is always going to be a computer. I am an admitted Mac fanboy, so for me the choice was clear; the Mac Mini has the right design, cost, and power to be the perfect settop computer (others at Gizmodo might not agree).

Final Setup

The completed design looks fantastic and works really well. The amount of content is immense; from low-quality youtube videos, to mid-quality Netflix or Hulu streams, to stunning high-quality HD iTunes purchases. Navigation is good, although a variety of controls works best (keyboard mouse for some content, Apple remote for others; a wii-mote style controller [or this] would also be a nice addition). Overall the setup has been a success and happily the balance in the house is shifting away from the cable box.

In the spirit of both brevity and clarity, I’m going to break this post down at this point.

If you would like to learn more about the specifics of the hardware setup go here.

If you would like to learn more about the specifics of the software setup go here. (coming soon)

Four movers came to the condo and spent the better part of a day putting forth a Sherpa-like effort climbing up and down the mountain of our forth floor walk-up. Furniture found its places upon which Buddy found his spots. Slowly the cubist landscape of cardboard boxes were broken down and returned to Allison’s parents to wait for the next borrower’s move.

The house has loads of character and has witnessed over eighty-five years of previous owners. Traces of their residence play upon the walls and old wood floor like early morning shadows, which adds to the lingering disbelief that the house is actually ours.

A Rough Setup of the Living Room

The Backyard and Alley Garage

Almost every room of the house needs something to make it a little more comfortable or a little more us, but there are moments where  I get to just enjoy how much this truly feels like our home.

Michigan v. Indiana 9/26/09

• Before the game and after the game the weather was beautiful, but somehow during the game the stadium was cloaked in a misty fog that lent a sense of foreboding to the beginning of the big ten season.

• Often heard #1: “is it just me or is homecoming really early this year?”

• The game was one of the top 3 I’ve ever attended. Unbelievable tension, followed by relief that lasted for hours.

• This is the first homecoming where I felt like we looked like ”alumni” as viewed through the eyes of my pre-graduated self.

• Often heard #2: “we’re getting older”

• Big disappointments on Main St., while all of us were attracted to the slightly more subdued vibe of downtown vs. near-campus Ann Arbor we had a couple of major disappointments. Connor O’Neils expanded and lost some of the great pub feel that made it a favorite. Plus the incredibly loud music made sitting in the old section impossible. Grizzly Peak also failed to live up to expectation, serving a menu that hasn’t changed in years and a waiter that I think might have been hired away from Charley’s.

• Its taken a few years, but our pre-game tailgate is really feeling like something to look forward to.

• I can’t believe we still put 6 people in one hotel room for two nights and its enjoyable (although I didn’t sleep on the aerobed)

The day started with me attempting to update the software that runs leftoutside.com and ended with me moving to a new system all together.

Getting hacked is no fun, but hopefully the change it necessitated will be a benefit in the long run.

Old LeftOutside.com

While America Aged by Roger Lowenstein –
The book is broken into three sections describing General Motors’ pension debts, the pension system of the NYC subways and the city of San Diego’s abuse of its government pensions. On a whole it outlines the difficulty in keeping pension and health care costs down in an evolving population.
In the case of GM Lowenstein shows how unions used the threat of strikes to get GM to promise pension and health care benefits. He explicitly faults the leadership of all of the big three for not seeing that by acceding to union demands the companies were mortgaging their future. The upshot of this story is that a universal health care system is a requirement for keeping US corporations competitive in the global market.
The story of the NYC subways was the weakest of the three and while an interesting history of the system didn’t add a lot to the book.
Finally, Lowenstein described the city of San Diego – a tale of woe. Most interesting from this is that the city was held up by Republicans as a model of low taxes and fiscal discipline, before the abuse of its pension obligations brought the city to the edge of bankruptcy.
In his conclusion there are several interesting points:

• Pensions while probably an inappropriate national retirement solution for the private sector are an important benefit for public-sector workers because it encourages a stable workforce.
• He supports the idea of an enhanced 401(k) federal system and promotes annuities as a solid retirement plan in conjunction with these savings accounts.

Financial debacles are as old as the sun. Virtually all involve some form of borrowing, and borrowing is essentially an arrangement between the present and the future. This is why pensions are so vulnerable.

On Sunday I ran my first half-marathon, thanks to the encouragement of my friend Dan.

I enjoyed the community-like feel of running in a race again – an activity that otherwise feels pretty solitary – and in the end the steady rain that added to the nearly 10 inches we received over the weekend only enhanced the feeling of accomplishment.

I am happy/proud of my time of 1:49:25 and am leaning towards running another some time in the future.

Today an old house across the alley from mine was demolished and I took some video of it. It was pretty fun to watch, although I didn’t really get a “safety first” feeling.

Today was the official re-beginning of my job search and I really don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want anyone to know how little I can get done in a day and still consider it a success. I looked forward to this period when I could blog, social network, and tweet to my heart’s content as long as I kept up a healthy search. But today I looked at posting as a detective’s bright light, exposing my complete lack of societal benefit. Worst of all, not doing anything felt pretty good.