Studio711.com – Ben Martens

Just trying to get through life without looking stupid, so far it's not going very well.

R.I.P. Windows Media Center

Microsoft has announced that Windows Media Center will not be present in Windows 10. Some of you know that’s how I run all the TV in my house and were asking what I’m going to do. The answer? Nothing. It’s not a big deal.

Even though Windows Media Center was shipped with Windows 8, the code is exactly the same as it was in Windows 7. If you’re running a Media Center PC, there’s no reason to upgrade it past Windows 7. Mine sits in a closet with a heavily restricted firewall and I turn off automatic updates. It’s an appliance, not a general use computer. Every few months, I carefully back everything up in case of an emergency and then apply all the patches and driver updates that have accumulated.

So while I’m bummed that a great product is officially dying, I knew it was dead years ago. However, my Windows 7 Media Center box will continue to live and work just fine. I’m guessing that this setup will outlast my desire for cable TV. I’m getting closer and closer to cutting that subscription entirely.

benmartens May 5, 2015 Geek

Like Riding A Bike

I’ve written about the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel previously, but it continues to be excellent. I can’t wait until Elijah is old enough to start watching and understanding these with me.

One of the latest videos is an excellent example of the series. What would happen if your bicycle handlebars worked opposite of a normal bike? When you turn left, the bike turns right and vice versa. Easy right? With a little practice you could figure that out. Or could you?

benmartens May 4, 2015 Geek

Country Isn’t Country

Rant: As if we needed another sign that I’m turning into an old man, I no longer enjoy country music on the radio. Thankfully I don’t have to listen to the radio very often, but when I do, I struggle to find anything to listen to. I’ve listened to country for a long time but today’s country music is ridiculous. Every song is about a party in a field with trucks, bonfires and beer. How many songs about that do we really need? And why on earth are you using autotune in your country songs? This has been happening for the past 5-7 years but it’s completely gone now. It’s a new genre. I’ve given up hoping and waiting for the good stuff to come back and instead, I have my in-house FM transmitter playing a huge playlist of country songs from the 80s and 90s.

Grump grump harrumph. GET OFF MY LAWN!

benmartens May 1, 2015 Music

Shop Smart At Costco

I love my Costo membership (though probably not as much as a few of you do!) I stumbled across a price comparison of a local grocery store to Costco. Obviously you’ll want to verify this for your local stores before changing any habits, but it’s an interesting read. A couple key takeaways for me are:

Better at Costco: frozen and canned foods
Better at the grocery store: fresh meat, fresh veggies

benmartens April 30, 2015 Links

Fresh Fruits And Veggies

As the growing season approaches, prices in the produce section start to swing wildly. I’m regularly confused about what is a good deal and/or what is currently in season. There are a few websites that give this info, but one of my favorites is http://www.eattheseasons.com/ It’s a super simple design that tells you what is in season now. I’ve got it saved as a favorite on my phone’s web browser so I can pull it up at the store.

benmartens April 29, 2015 Links

Uncle Dean and Aunt Sandy

A couple weeks ago, we had a great visit from Uncle Dean and Aunt Sandy. They came out a few years back with Mom and Dad for a week, but that was before we had our house and they had to rent a place to stay. This time we were able to be much better hosts and give them an actual guest room.

Thankfully the weather cooperated pretty well and we were able to go to Gas Works Park and the Ballard Locks on Sunday afternoon. It was great to see them again and introduce them to Elijah!

benmartens April 28, 2015 Family

Safeco Date

Yesterday was a big day for Tyla and me. It was our first time out of the house without Elijah! As a thank you for some stuff I did at work, one of the directors gave me some very nice tickets to Safeco. It worked out well to have Tim and Chelsea babysit after church so we went for it.

It felt weird leaving the house without Elijah, but it was a great afternoon. The tickets were for the “All Star Club.” I didn’t know what to expect but we got VIP parking and a private entrance into the game. It looks like they took about five or six of their private boxes and combined them. There’s a huge buffet and private bar set up. Food and non-alcoholic drinks are included with your ticket. Tyla and I stuffed ourselves! There are only three rows of padded seating and Tyla and I had front row tickets. It was quite the experience!

When we got home, Tyla ran inside and … Elijah hardly seemed to have noticed that we were gone. Chelsea said he was a little confused when he woke up from his nap and we were gone but he never cried and they had fun playing together all afternoon. A HUGE thanks to Tim and Chelsea for giving up their afternoon for us! (And thanks to everyone else who has offered to do the same thing for us in the past even though we’ve never taken advantage of those offers!) Hopefully this is something we’ll get to do a bit more going forward.

benmartens April 27, 2015 Commentary

DataVac Duster

I used to keep a couple cans of compressed air around the house. They’re handy for cleaning out computers and keyboards. When I discovered that they were handy in the shop too, I started going through them pretty quickly and that gets pricey at $4+ per can.

That’s when I found out about the DataVac Duster. At $60, it’s pricey, but I still recommend it. After 15 cans of compressed air, you’d break even, but in reality, since I know it’s basically free to use, I use it a lot more. I keep it on my work bench, and with the extra long cord, I can easily blow off tools, projects, etc. Don’t let the “vac” part of the name fool you. This thing only blows air and it does it very well. There are a couple extra nozzles you can attach to get even narrower streams of air.

When I bought it, it was a few dollars cheaper for whatever reason, but this is still a good tool to have around the house.

benmartens April 24, 2015 Gadgets

Drought

Even though the Pacific Northwest had a terrible ski season, we’re not doing too badly on our water supply to get us through the summer because there was just more rain than snow. But whenever drought rears it’s ugly head (like it has been in California for the past few years), you hear lots of talk about taking shorter showers, not filling your swimming pool, not watering your lawn, etc. But does that really make a difference?

This blog post has a lot of interesting charts and data showing how water is used in each of the fifty states. (Also, the charts are really fun to play with, but make sure you use Chrome because they don’t render well in IE.) There’s a ton of great information in there. For example, did you know that Idaho and Utah use way more water per person than any other state? But less than 2% of that water is used for domestic purposes. If you look at total water used, California uses WAY more than any state but most of it goes to irrigating arid land so it can be farmed.

So yes, taking a 3 minute shower will help, but it’s not even a drop in the proverbial bucket.

benmartens April 23, 2015 Geek, Links

Ken’s Gun Day

A while back, Ken heard about a nice/safe/legal place to shoot out on some federal land. He was nice enough to take Logan and I there and reveal its secret location. We got there around 10am on a Saturday and there was another group setting up. Thankfully, they were friendly and very safety conscious. We had a safety meeting with them before any shots were fired and agreed on some protocols to make sure the day stayed fun for everyone. Aside from making the shooting area a little more cramped, they didn’t bother us at all.

Logan and Ken provided all of the guns and ammo. I can’t even tell you the names of everything they had, but I had fun shooting them. I brought along my shotgun but with the other group there, we decided not to throw any clays.

I snapped a few photos with my camera and also brought my quadcopter along. I figure if we’re going to participate in an activity that needlessly frightens big portions of the population, I might as well throw a DRONE into the mix too. The quadcopter was a little unbalanced producing some jello-y footage. I forgot to set it on 720p60 instead of 1080p30 which would have produced a little smoother video. But it’s still fun to see the site from the air and I popped it up a couple hundred feet high to take a peek around.

Thanks Ken for showing us your secret spot and thanks to both Ken and Logan for letting me play with all their toys!

benmartens April 22, 2015 Radio Controlled Flight, Sports