Brand New Look, Same Great Content

I've finally made some changes out here on the digital frontier. Since most people were either reading my blog or subscribing to the RSS... I thought I'd just go ahead and make the blog the primary interface for my whole site. I'm migrating all my photos to Flickr any way... so no real loss with the photoalbums! Here's a quick run down of the changes,

Changes and Fixes (and bugs):

• Faster load times!
• Simple (mostly static) page
  
• If anyone notices slow load times again, let me know.
  
• Live Web Cam is back
• The web cam updates about every minute or so for now.
  
• Should work with older browsers
• The old webcam page isn't working :(
  
• No archive of images available yet. (in progress) :(
  
• Cleaner RSS feed list (with cool icons!)
• Better picture of me! (a professionally taken one at that!)
  
• Quick access to vides, images and archieves!

Coming Soon:

• Webcam archive (maybe even a movie...)
• Listening/Watching section
• Seperate Movie Review Blog

Homework at the Cafe

Homework at the Cafe, originally uploaded by johnmknight.

Of all the photos I've take in a long while this is my current favorite.

Bot Update...

For those of you who follow my house and computer modification exploits, you'll be pleased to know that the AIM FortKnightBot is now able to send an SMS or email message with the latest picture from my webcam to whatever email addres you specify!
It also allows me to send a quick pic to my phone, Flickr account or my blog!
Monitoring the cat has never been easier!
BTW.. you have to be an admin of the bot to do these things so don't worry about the random lurker take snaps of my home! ;)

This, That and The 360

Ok, so no video post this week and this will barely make a dent in my blog back log. It's been a long week filled with some interesting events. Since Aaron has criticized me for not pointing this out sooner, I now own an XBOX 360. I'm not going to say much about it as I am about the last person in my online community of gamers to get one.. that is except Aaron whom I'm sure will be getting one any day now anyway. It's great. Cool graphics. Awesome Media Center integration. Yada yada yada. Microsoft, you may cash my check now.
Speaking of checks, I continue to pour money into iTunes. It's now official that there are many more people like me than not as Apple celebrates the 1 billionth iTunes download. Ah... the changing of an industry is a site to behold. Meanwhile my latest Battlestar Galactica download continues to download as I type this. heh.
I volunteered today for the National Marrow Donors Program. I met a lot of great people including Kevin, Sue, Toni, and Nancy. We registered over a hundred people for the program this afternoon! I encourage you to read more about donating and joining the program.
Also, I've brought back the Fort-Knight bot! Now, this is a little bit of software that acts like person who is signed into AOL Instant Messenger. The bot's official buddy name is fortknightbot and you can add it to your buddy list. Right now it doesn't do much but I can log in as an administrator and have it turn my lights on and off. Yeh. I'm a geek. What's new. I'm working on having it email me a pic from my web camera on demand as well. If you think of something else useless for it to do, send me a suggestion.
Rules
One useless suggestion per person. We ask that if you've submitted one useless or "stupid" suggestion to this website or to John directly, we ask that you wait at least 30 days before submitting a dumb, useless, stupid or pointless idea again. This is so that you can give someone else a chance!
Also I've gotten my software to control my lights via the web back online. Unfortunately due to misuse I will no longer be sharing the URL with anyone as it seems people on the west coast liked to turn my lights on and off in the middle of the night. This, it seems, passes for humor out in Seattle.. ;) Just kidding about the Seattle dig. My lights url really is back online though.

That's all for tonight. Be good and safe travels!

From the WHAT THE? Files...

, originally uploaded by johnmknight.

I saw this at the mall and was once again reminded that whatever the human mind can conceive may become reality.
So, please use your mind carefully and remember to wear your wicker helmet when ridiing! Yes, it is to scale and the wheels actually turn.

Why Geeks Make Better Fathers

I found this blog and post through Digg.
http://spaces.msn.com/imhelendt/blog/cns!80A987C7370420AB!490.entry
I'm glad someone of the opposite sex has taken the the time to not only observe what we geek fathers have known, but also took the time to write it down and share it with the world! Thank you!

Fort-Knight Tonight, Episode 2

Another thrilling episode! Tonight we tackle Flickr and IMDB.COM
Tonight's links:
www.flickr.com
http://flagrantdisregard.com/flickr/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmknight
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmknight/73726586/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmknight/73725932/
www.imdb.com

Enjoy!


View this clip on Vimeo

First Episode, Fort-Knight Tonight!

Well it's only about three minutes and filled with more technical problems than a Microsoft OS... but here it is, the first Episode of Fort-Knight Tonight!
Enjoy.

View this clip on Vimeo

Fort-Knight Google Button!

GOOGLE BUTTON NOW AVAILABLE!!!! CAPS KEY STUCK!
If you have the Google Toolbar available here, then you can download the new Fort-Knight button! One click access to the latest dispatches from the Digital Frontier!!!
Ok. So you use a feed reader or Firefox or.... aw heck. If you download it you get to see my face in all it's 16x16 pixel beauty! Now that's worth the price! :)

Digital Expectations

I know I'm not the typical consumer electronics consumer. I'm an early adopter. Specifically, I'm a relatively low budget early adopter, which really means I want to adopt early and really tend to purchase things that are mostly new. For example, I've posted before about my collection, ahem, addiction to PDA's. The first one I bought was the Apple Newton which I didn't buy new. In fact I purchased it from my friend Carl. Later, I also purchased my first 3COM Palm Pilot from him as well. (Thanks again Carl!) So... although I may save a buck here and there, I still consider myself somewhat of an early adopter if not an excellent early fan or admirer of new technology. Now all that being said, I'm not one to follow fashion when a technology can be adopted. So when I tell you that my new RAZR phone (Black) from the good folks at Motorola is pleasing to the eye and mostly to the techie in me... well then please listen to the unforgivable piece of crippled crud that is THIS PHONE!!!! My phone which was purchase as my aging Sony-Ericson T616 was slowly dying. Taking into account how I USE/ABUSE my tech, one can certainly give the makers of the T616 some serious credit in the robust design category. Now the wonderful guy at Best Buy who was able to put me in my new phone in about 12 minutes neglected to inform me of a small but critical FLAW in this phone. Nope, it wasn't the 1.2 MP camera, with video. Check. It wasn't the support for MP3 ringtones (I prefer MIDI). No.. it wasn't the cool dual LCD screens. Check. It was.. THE BLUETOOTH. See folks, I'm a fan of this little wireless technology named after an ancient Danish King who was able to bring together the Danes. I have Bluetooth adapters on all my PC's and have setup all sorts of nifty things to work with this nice piece of almost universal technology. Ya see, it all started with the Mac. A friend of mine who will be refered to as Mr. Murphy showed off a cool as heck application called Salling Clicker to me a long, long time ago. With his cool Salling Clicker software, his T616 (seeing the connection?) he was able to lock and unlock his Mac, control iTunes, use his phone as a mouse, etc...etc... With this one piece of software and it's incredible scripting capabilities, he could do almost anything. I wanted it bad.... my Precsssssssssous! Alas my love of tech was easily foiled by dumb fatsy stupid MACKSIES. We HATES THEM! So.. I waited.. and found other software to work in my Bill Gates dominated PC world. Then my phone died. Then Salling Clicker for Windows was launched. Can you not see where this story is going? Is the tragic foreshadowing not getting through here? See. The horror of it all. The plain, sick fact is....

THE STUPID PHONE DOES NOT SUPPORT THE BLUETOOTH SERIAL PORT PROFILE.

I have not given up. There will be a solution be it, a new phone, new firm ware or.. or...
something! So, in all this.... why am I not pulling my hair out? Because Salling Clicker supports 802.11b. That's right folks. My Dell AXIM is rockin the house! Now the title of this post is "Digital Expectations" and I've used it before in my professional career to mean something different. Here, it represents my angst when I (that's me) have certain REALISTIC expectations that my new phone has the same BASE capabilites as my dying OLD phone. It's software bits folks. This is NOT a big cost. So...why would a company or carrier as I'm told whose fault it may me (CINGULAR!!!!!!) do such a silly thing!?!?!?!?! Maybe. Just maybe it has to do with the fact that with BLUETOOTH... you don't need to pay for a monthy service to upload your pics and vids.. you can simply send them through the ether to your PC. How long is this going to go on? I mean it. How long? I don't think much longer because I'm not the only one with "digital expectations". Things should work and getting something new that doesn't do as much as the old device just won't cut it.
So for all you folks out there with a RAZR, lil help?

Fort-Knight Webcam Live! (Again)

After struggling with the technology (read: finding my webcam), the Fort-Knight webcam is back up. Currently you can see my darkened theater in all it's dark and blurry glory! Be sure to check in later tonight for my "Paying the Billls" webcast and late Friday night for my live broadcast of me playing XBOX! Stay tuned.... :)
Incredible pix after the link: http://www.fort-knight.com/cam.htm

Pokagon, Wrapup, LiveIreland

We're back from Pokagon. We've are also wrapping up Thomas' science fair project. This year instead of baking, Thomas decided to put our wiress network to the test and see what material (wood, plastic, etc) would affect the signals. Really, I had nothing to do with the idea. It was his. Mine would have involved projectiles or at the very least rockets... ;) Pokagon was a lot of fun but I learned not to play videographer and film editor while trying to make a vacation out of a busy, busy weekend. I did manage to create a 12 mintute video that most of the guests enjoyed, it sort of kept me from enjoying as much as I would have. I've also noticed that the 100:1 ratio of editing to film is about right. :( For the Taylors and kin fearing that this video will make it to the web, fear not because This latist Knight Time production is a direct to DVD only. :) I missed the crazy spoons games this year but me and the lads (Andy and John W, Thomas and myself) were treated to a guys version of spa night. That's all I have to say about that.

Pokagon was blessed with about six inches of snow while we were there and it did make the whole place take on that classic look. We didn't make the tobaggon run this time for several reasons including the need to recover after a long winter hike. I must remember that an eight year old's stamina may be better than mine, but his legs are still shorter as is his attention span.

On a closing not, I'd like to give a recommendation to the Internet Radio station LiveIreland broadcasting out of Dublin. I've been enjoying their music for the past week...awesome folk and classical Irish music. They also have a contemporary station as well! Check them out at LiveIreland.com

Pokogon Time

This weekend, Thomas and I will be traveling to Pokogon State Park in Indiana for the annual Taylor Family Reunion. Ever since I saved Andy from cutting his finger on that Macintosh LE 256K SIMM back in our IU days, I've been part of the family. :) It's a weekend full of Monopoly, Spoons, tobaggonning, and mischief.
For those who are not familiar, Pokagon is a rare gem and one of my favorite places on Earth. It is a throw back to a different time. A time that belongs to the old inns and lodges from early last century. Where there's a roaring fire in the main lodges stone fireplace and exposed wooden timbers that make up the ceiling. The breakfasts consists of large pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and even grits! The large common room, with it's large tables, is perfect for card and board games and real quality time spent with family and friends. The price of admission to this little time machine? Just the amount you'd pay for a modest city hotel room. Now, that's a deal. Pix from last year.