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Even puppets aren’t immune – who knew?

Couldn’t find a video 🙁

Thanks to an individual who we don’t seem to be able to keep out of our house, this weekend will see us install a mini-DIY home security system. Rather than buy a package and pay monthly fees for monitoring I decided to do something home-grown that I can expand for both security and automation. A friend of mine is quite the expert (I think everything in his house is monitored and/or can be controlled from his website) and I went with the software package he recommended.

HomeSeer is able to take signals from most, if not all, of the home automation device-types out there, X10, Z-Wave and so on. It is fully programmable thanks to a Visual Basic like language that lets you code to a specific library. For example, it knows about sunset times so you could have lights come on when it gets dark. As well as regular things like lights, sensors etc it can also control telephones, voice speakers, all kinds of things. I saw one page where a guy put an RFID chip in his car and now when he gets near his garage, the door automatically opens.

To start off, I have some door sensors and a couple of cheap wireless IP cameras. I aim to set the system up so that when an external door opens during times where there is supposed to be nobody home I will get some pictures sent to me. What we will do if we see someone we don’t like I am not yet sure, both Teri and I are too far away to go and challenge the unwelcome visitor, but it will at the very least serve as evidence that the person was there when they say they were not.

One reason for not going with a regular security system is that if it gets disabled, or the PIN is shared, then it’s useless, and typically these systems don’t allow for remote internet monitoring (at a reasonable price). If I want to move things around, or change a condition then I can. And since it’s more than just security I can add automation as and when I want.

So we’ll see how it all goes this weekend, and then over the next few weeks…..

Post-Vegas I had vowed to do the following:

1. Seriously start to lose weight – no alcohol during the week, no chocolate, snacks during the week, walk to/from downtown twice a week
2. Go flying – I haven’t flown without an instructor since last September. I seem to have lost the confidence to fly alone.
3. Arrange mandolin lessons, at last
4. Do something in the evenings other than sit, surf the web and watch UFC and CSI repeats on TV.
5. Make some puppet theatre

It’s Thursday night and I sit here with wine by my side, chocolate stains on my lap, walking shoes still clean, no entries in my flying logbook, no further along learning the mandolin than the day I bought it, watching CSI and being looked at by puppets who are saying “you suck”.

Back from the MINI Vacation in Vegas, had a good time and will write something about it soon. In the meantime, here’s a short video clip taken on the Hoover Dam which we drove over on one of the outings.

On the Hoover Dam from Paul Sanders on Vimeo.

Teri and I take a walk around the Hoover Dam.

The footage was remixed using the ‘Film Grain’ filter in iMovie ’09 for that 60’s look.

Over the last 4 days there have been over 30 earthquakes/shakes in the Imperial Valley, including a 4.8 and several over magnitude 3.

My wife says that these are just the fault’s way of letting off some steam, but maybe this is going to be the Big One! I might be sat on some beach front property…..

In the meantime, Teri and I are off to Las Vegas on Thursday for the MINI Vacation in Vegas, over 300 MINIs this year will be in attendance. Maybe see you there?!

This week, it’s a two-fer but don’t get too excited as they both from my own fair hand. Last weekend was the NAF El Centro Air Show and I filmed a ton of stuff which I am about half way through editing. At the time of shooting the footage I was getting frustrated with the camera as the auto-focus was too slow to capture all of the action but, when the Blue Angels are approaching at 450 mph, maybe even high end cameras can’t focus on the right thing that quickly either. Anyway, a lot of it didn’t come out half bad for a $220 camera.

First up today is a combo clip of two B-1 Bombers doing three fly-bys (though oddly one of the planes did only the first pass), and then a demonstration of the aerial capabilities of the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Second is a very short clip of the C-130 aka “Fat Albert” which is the transport plane for the Blue Angels. Most of the video was out of focus so all I have is the takeoff and landing. Impressive performance!

You can find high def versions on my youtube account or vimeo account. Look for two or three more next week.

Ok people here we go again – time to break out the green beer (well, Budweiser), colour your rivers green and wear green to work. Oh, look how Irish I am. Hey, here’s a picture of my ancestor Obama McShamus on our potato farm and one day I will return to the home land and claim my birthright (yeah, and Ahnold is going to save California from the crapper). Ooh, a little politics this year!

So enough with the fake accent, the phony family tree and the beer bragging (though I do envy anyone who can swallow Guinness, let alone do it twice). How about this year you spin your globe and celebrate somewhere different instead. I did, and I’m proud to say today is St. Mugabe day – who knew my first cousin’s pig’s great grandfather’s cat was once petted by the man himself! Hey Robbert, save me a farm!

Don’t make me have to come with this crap again next year!

Back in January I got a call from BMW Financial to verify an attempted charge to my MINI Visa card for Adipose RX. They said that they had denied the charge but wanted to check the card was in my possession. It was so they immediately canceled the card and issued a new one. I checked my Pay Pal Mastercard and found a charge for Adipose RX for $35. I called and filed a fraud complaint.

Thought nothing more about it but at the weekend I got a bottle of diet pills from Adipose and so looked at my credit cards again. What the heck, from my PayPal online transaction log:

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Rather than call PayPal again (they have a terribly long menu system) I called the number on the statement and explained to the rep that they had charged two of my cards a total of three times without my permission and I’d like them to stop. Without skipping a beat or asking me any questions at all he said he’d cancel my account and refund my credit card for the two charges. Within a couple of minutes I received an email confirming my cancellation – how the heck did they get that, too!

If you Google Adipose RX you’ll find a ton of reports of people being signed up for shipments without their knowledge, no idea how they get hold of the financial information but clearly there is a serious fraud going on here. Anyway, I’m hoping the refund will show up soon and in the meantime I am watching my online statements closely.

Update: My credit card has been refunded the two fraudulent amounts