AvBrand Exploring Technology
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Caving on the Weekend 3:47 PM, February 8th, 2010
I did some caving at Rattlesnake Point this Sunday... here's a video and some photos.
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Taiga is up in Collingwood! 9:42 AM, January 30th, 2010
Puppy loves the snow!

1.


2.



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This is how Taiga sleeps while I am working. 3:05 PM, January 29th, 2010
Taiga loves lying next to the window, because it's cold there. Sometimes I catch him sleeping like this...

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Taiga learns my steps! (New Video) 12:23 AM, January 19th, 2010
(watch in HD on youtube)


In my apartment, I've got this crazy, thin staircase with no back, no railing, and slippery steps. Even my friends are scared to walk up and down it. Until today, my dog Taiga was unwilling to try. With only about 5 minutes of training, he was going up and down it like a pro!

Sorry about the racket in the background, it was my washing machine.
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More Taiga photos 5:29 PM, January 15th, 2010
I know you can't get enough

1.

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A few years ago, a friend of mine gave me an old ViewSonic AirPanel as a gift. "Do something cool with this" he said. And I did! I mounted it into my hallway as a public-info Touchscreen, for passersby. You can see it on the DoorBuzzer page, near the bottom.

Anyway, the backlight inverter recently died. It was a specialty part for a rare screen, so the chance of finding a replacement inverter was slim to nil. I decided to go with LED backlighting.

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Taiga at 4 months 4:32 PM, December 30th, 2009
Here's my cuddly pup today, at 4 months old! He's up to 37 lbs.


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New Canon HG21 3:24 PM, November 24th, 2009
I recently purchased my first HD video camera, the Canon HG21. Expect to see many of my future "behind-the-scenes" videos to be in glorious HD.

Check out my first HD video, a quick edit of a recent exploration. Make sure to click through to Vimeo so you can watch it in HD!


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Puppy meets other husky! 3:14 PM, November 24th, 2009
Here's a video of my puppy Taiga meeting my summer rollerblading partner, a friend's husky named Raine!

Enjoy.

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Taiga is plotting something... 11:59 PM, November 18th, 2009
Look at him plotting!!!


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Taiga at 11 weeks 4:19 PM, November 11th, 2009
He just keeps getting bigger and cuter!


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Puppy sleeping 8:46 AM, October 28th, 2009
Taiga's just taking a quick nap!


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Puppy, Day 2 1:47 PM, October 26th, 2009
Still tired, but the puppy is learning a lot! Look, he's already surfing the web:


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He's finally home... 7:09 PM, October 25th, 2009
As you can tell by this photo, I am extremely tired...


Saturday morning, I woke up in NY, and drove 800km to get home by 3pm. Now, the puppy has arrived and while he is cute, he's also a handful... soo bloody tired.
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Puppy at 7 weeks! 11:33 PM, October 17th, 2009
Visited my puppy Taiga again today! One more week and he will be ready to take home!

Photos:
His mom is making sure he's OK:
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One of my favourite television shows is Dragon's Den. This show airs in several versions around the world, including the U.K., Canada, and as "Shark Tank" in the US. The premise is simply that business entrepreneurs present their business plan to five "Dragons", who are self-made businesspeople worth millions, and ask for their money in exchange for equity in their company.

I love the show because it's great to see all of the crazy business plans and product ideas that people have. Occasionally, the idea is a good one, and I find myself saying "Wow, I'd buy that". The Dragons usually follow suit and offer the entrepreneur an investment.

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Keeping track of twenty TV shows 4:00 PM, October 9th, 2009
There's about twenty TV shows right now that I enjoy watching. However, I really don't have the time to watch them when they actually air, and sometimes I don't even have time to watch them the same week they air. Also, many of them are off-the-air for months at a time, such as Top Gear.

A few years ago I wrote a little piece of software called TVGet, and I've been refining it ever since. Here's what it looks like right now:

Click to enlarge


The software basically tracks as many TV shows as I can throw at it, figures out when the next episode is on, and then attempts to download the episode from a variety of places on the internet. Once the file has arrived, it automagically renames it into the naming scheme I prefer and adds it to the folder where that show lives on my file server. The server itself keeps track of which episodes I've yet to watch.

It's simplified my life and allowed me to enjoy these shows on my schedule, and not on the broadcasters.
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Shower Speaker 1:48 PM, October 9th, 2009
Just for fun, I mounted this waterproof speaker into my shower:


Now, my singing in the shower will sound that much better!
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Upgrading from X10 to Insteon 11:17 AM, October 9th, 2009
For over 15 years, my main home automation technology has been a product called X10. You may have heard of X10: They were famous for super-annoying popup ads involving spy cameras in the early part of this decade. But their home automation technology has actually been around since the 70's.

It's actually one of the most 'available' technologies: Over 15 companies rebrand it with their own name (IBM HomeDirector, Radio Shack Plug'n'Power) but the technology is the same and they're all compatible. However, there's one big problem: It sucks.
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Puppy Updates! 9:52 AM, October 9th, 2009
So, I'm dragging back this ancient journal because I needed a place to post some puppy photos!

Some of you may have heard that I'm finally getting my own puppy. He's a husky/malamute cross, and is currently 5 weeks old.

Here's what he looked like at 3 weeks:


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