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December 29, 2003
The gifts that keep on giving...
Other than the disease, one of the lingering gifts is VoIP (Voice over IP) service/hardware. Some hardware from SipPhone.com and a few Vonage subscriptions later we are dipping our toe in the VoIP water the Johnston-way (head first).
The SipPhone hardware( Grandstream HandyTone 286 ATA ) is wonderfully small and portable, but the Vonage Service appears to be the benchmark. Several free VoIP providers (such as SipPhone and Free World Dialup allow straight forward communications between subscribers, but Vonage basically gives you a second phone line.
So, I've wired up my second phone line (in home wiring) for my Vonage service (of course I can plug in the SIP phone too).
Of course, now I need a good 2-line cordless phone!
Posted by KnipSter at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Christmas in general...
Other than the disease, Christmas was a nice time this year. Lobster Stew (a la Grandma Fran) for Christmas eve dinner (after the Lori, her folks, the kids and I hit Christmas eve Mass). Morgan and Nora came to visit and were in my living room before I made it downstairs (and the coffee was made!): Wonderful house guests.
Maura was very excited that Santa Claus ate the cookies and drank the milk and it was all gone. The gifts were generously scattered all over the living room and after the wrapping paper settled and the floor was clear, we enjoyed noshing and grazing until the wonderful beef tenderloin made its appearance.
Nora's mother and uncle came to visit and everyone survived.
Posted by KnipSter at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
The Plague sets in...
So 3 years ago, Lori's Dad was sick at Christmas. Last year, I was sick greeted our Argentinian guests with "Feces Navidad!". This year, Kieran had a little cough that seems to have evolved into the plague. Lori was so knocked out of commission that we barely let her family leave us alone. Now I am experiencing that all-to-familiar tickle in my throat. Maura has booted twice today, lets hope its merely the Johnston gag-reflex.
Posted by KnipSter at 07:36 PM | Comments (1)
December 10, 2003
Christmas Cards
I like the Avery 3268 cards for my ink jet and Christmas Cards. You end up with single fold 5.25 x 4.25 inch cards that are just right for that Christmas card shape, combined with some standard issue envelopes, it beats the shutterfly, snapfish or even costco photo cards for basically the cost of some ink and time, and you get some strong personalization.
I've got a couple of pretty decent templates that I use in Office or OpenOffice.org. But the challenge was actually laying out your cards, it can be a little tricky.
It appears that Avery has begun making it a little easier with a website to generate PDF files that you can print directly to your Avery Paper! Combine this with the ingenuity of tinkerers everywhere, and hopefully soon we'll have Image gallery's with links to "Make a Card out of this picture"
The format of the "saved project" is a zip file containing an .XML document describing the layout and various .jpg files containing the "clipart". That might be one trick to unlock making the Avery Site a useful "Web Service."
Posted by KnipSter at 02:50 PM | Comments (1)
December 07, 2003
Snowed In...
So the second wave of snow has come through, I haven't measured, but we've got to have accumulated in the 10-12 inches. I'll have to rethink the strategy of multiple shovelings. Do you shovel every 4 inches, or wait until it all comes down and shovel then? I supposed it depends on if you want to leave or not, but I've got one more to do...
Posted by KnipSter at 07:55 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2003
First Snow Fall
Lori has been capturing our first snow fall in our new home.
Posted by KnipSter at 10:48 AM | Comments (3)