Monday, June 30, 2008

Internet Treadmill Workstation Review, Summary: Product Only

[Note, 12/8/2008: due to popular demand, all internet treadmill walk-station/work-station/desk-station posts have been moved the the following blog, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/. ]

[added 2008.09.26: The Internet Treadmill Workstation, Wired Home Gym, and more generally the challenge of surviving and staying healthy as an information technology professional/knowledge worker have all generated enough interest to merit splitting this topic off onto another blog, which can be found at http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com. Drop by. It might save your life.]

# # #
Hello there.

My name is Crockett Dunn.

I am an over-full-time IT business owner, trying to survive (I mean that quite literally- trying to survive physically- spare my body) in a post-information-revolution world, rather than die young of complications from "sitting on my arse all day syndrome."

In case we haven't met, you might not realize that brevity is not one of my strongest points (as illustrated by the copious number of postings about the Internet Treadmill Workstation (originally inspired by the guitar treadmill station) + Total Internet Home Gym Solution I have refined to perfection over the past several years.)

Note that although these are, raw, uncommented simple product links, these are far from arbitrary. This is the best of the best-of-breed products, derived from years of practice and working with a licensed physical therapist.

I have a graveyard of burnt treadmills, inadequate laptops, too-little Smart phones, key-missing-keyboards, torn mouse cables, and so on. The following products have passed the test.

fitenesss first:

Smooth Fitness 9.45ST treadmill with 60" Deck, Hydra Suspension and Motion Control

txt: Smooth 9.35 HR Treadmill with Wireless Heart Rate Control and Hydra Suspension


Evo 1 Treadmill'

Smooth Fitness 9.45 TV Treadmill with 15" Flat Screen TV




input devices second:

COMBO 88KEY USB RF GO PRO AIR MOUSE and KEYBOARD BLACK 2.4GHZ 100FT (GP6105CKM)




Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-52XBR5 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV












OmniMount MOTION 52 Motorized Cantilever Wall Mount (fits 37"-52" flat panels)



COMBO 88KEY USB RF GO PRO AIR MOUSE and KEYBOARD BLACK 2.4GHZ 100FT (GP6105CKM)

TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder




TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder








D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router












Netgear GS116 ProSafe 16-Port Gigabit Desktop Switch



















HP Pavilion dv9500t 17" Notebook PC (Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7250, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD Drive, 895MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M w/Webcam, Vista Premium)













Linksys SD2005 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch (5-port)



Sony Bravia XBR-Series KDL-52XBR5 52-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV










Netgear GA311 Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Adapter




GA511 Gigabit PC Card






My objective here is to post a concise yet comprehensive product list of all of the ingredients for the totally-connected internet home gym.


Smooth Fitness 9.45ST treadmill with 60" Deck, Hydra Suspension and Motion Control
txt: Smooth 9.35 HR Treadmill with Wireless Heart Rate Control and Hydra SuspensionEvo 1 Treadmill' Smooth Fitness 9.45 TV Treadmill with 15" Flat Screen TVSamsung HPS6373 63" Plasma HDTVOmniMount MOTION 52 Motorized Cantilever Wall Mount (fits 37"-52" flat panels)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

"I said, war, huh- good God, y'all! What is it good for?," or... "a glimpse through the eyes of our elders."

Hey! You! the reader:

You don't have to hang around Crock-Town very long to pick up on the management's views regarding violence as a means to constructively solve problems. Herewithin, it has been said that our world does a worse job of collaborating for productivity than a kindergarten classroom.

And thats is just one example of many illustrations and examples of violence feeding upon itself.

Yet I know there must be things I don't understand, and powers older and wiser than I. Maybe I'm just not a good fighter, so my mind is programmed to dissuade violence, because I am a good thinker. Whatever I'm missing- it has to be something. Otherwise I would have to accept that the whole world, including the leaders of major nations, is composed of a bunch of illiterate, dumb-ass, morons.

Follow me:
After reading, No Ordinary Time, a book about Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and World War II, I was talking with my father about how I never really grasped in my history classes how close a war it was- how easily the allies could have lost. And during this discussion dad sat up straighter in his chair, seemed to be filled with a sort of animal-like, survival fire, and with a serious-as-a-heart-attack look in his eyes, said something along the lines of, "oh YEAH. I mean, they had US ON OUR ASSES there for a while!"

The point being, I have never experienced a world where I felt unsafe in my own country. Maybe for a few months around 2001 and 2002 I came close to that state, but I have never lived in fear of a stranger coming onto the television one day announcing, "I, along with my forces of violence, am in charge of the United States, Canada, and Mexico from now on. A lot of things are going to change around here. Here are the new rules...."

That said, I recently received an email from my neo-conservative/activist/painter/sculptor/friend (yeah I know- if free-spirited neo-con is not the definition of neurosis, I don't know what is) that I found poignant enough to share.

So as promised, a glimpse into the eyes of our elders:

YOU COULD HAVE HEARD A PIN DROP

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of "empire building" by George Bush. He answered by saying, 'Over the years, the United
States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'

A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?'

You could have heard a pin drop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S. , English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, 'whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'

You could have heard a pin drop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?', the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. 'Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.' The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."

'Impossible, replied the customs officer. "Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. 'Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to.'

You could have heard a pin drop
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What Is A Veteran?
A 'Veteran' - whether active duty, discharged, retired, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America,' for an amount of 'up to, and including his or her life.'

That is honor, and there are way too many people in this country today, who no longer understand that fact.





Friday, June 13, 2008

testing hardened-email-to-post, special thanks to the Britany-Bot

This is a test.

 

Super special thanks to the Britany-Bot, which is apparently running out of control (see Your website!, or, "Homer Simpson says, 'Doh! Time to reincorporate....'.").

 

I’ve changed my email-to-post to the equivalent of a strong password.

 

If that doesn’t solve the issue at hand, or if BB begins using MMS, too, this means Britany-Bot is growing too powerful.  In which case Britany-Bot must be terminated.  We shall the CA governor!

 

With love and ire,

Crockett Dunn

http://cdllc.la/

 

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Internet Treadmill Workstation and Fully Wired Home Gym 2008, ultimate, premium, best of breed

[Note, 12/8/2008: due to popular demand, all internet treadmill walk-station/work-station/desk-station posts have been moved the the following blog, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/. ]

[continuation of the following post: http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/2008/02/holy-grail-found-introducing-best.htm]

EUREKA... I've done it! The best, most versatile, internet-wired treadmill workstation, or more generally, internet wired home gym, complete with keyboard control, mouse control, air-mouse control, voice recognition when necessary, and screen reader when appropriate in rare situations (the inversion table, in my case).

Now I have to choices,

  1. eat breakfast on my arse at my desk as I continue to read, respond to, and compose emails until around 1 or 2 PM, when I notice (as sit, still on my arse) , "hey my back hurts... again. And my goodness, was my belly always that size?" [women substitute, "have my jeans always been this tight, or, "NOOOOOoooo, is that cellulite???!!!"
  2. eat breakfast, hop on the treadmill and do my email stuff, surf the net... everything I do on the fat-belly chair, but with a better display, a more natural and ergonomic stance, and doing this all while getting an exercise high, getting in shape, and for you pragmatists, extending the time I get to spend alive in this world!
I've tried it all before- the egg timer to take standup breaks every 15 minutes, change my focal length, walk around a bit. I've to the top-end Herman Miller chair and a garage full of lumbar supports.

But this is the solution.

The secret lies in the flux-capacitor, which coincidentally is also the key to time travel. Just kidding. The key was actually earthquake-sticky goop. Or if you're in an earthquake-free zone, it's probably the same as wall-poster mounting goop, or "stay put- kids don't knock over the vases" goop.

The final ergonomic problem to solve was bringing the keyboard closer in towards my body, and at a flat, perfectly horizontal angle. This has been solved.


IT and knowledge workers of the future, we shall no longer be relegated to a sedentary lifestyle and early death due to poor cardiovascular health! We have been freed to access the internet (and home network if you got it) as we exercise.

And exercise addicts: you're no longer enslaved to your isolation of repetition after set after repetition, with your best case of entertainment being CNN or whatever watered-down station the gym down the road things we can all agree on.

Now I just GOTTA get you the pictures. But alas, I have clients to serve [clients which I now serve more effectively because I can work while I exercise], and CDLLC.la is in the middle of it's largest growth spurt to date.

But that transition has almost settled down, and I look forward to presenting you with photos of the grand creation.

Signing off from the inversion table,
Crockett


P.S. For you do-it-yourselfers, this project is no biggie. All the products, minus the flux capacitor and earthquake goop, are listed at the end of this post:
http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/2008/02/holy-grail-found-introducing-best.html

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Your website!, or, "Homer Simpson says, 'Doh! Time to reincorporate....'."

Dear Crockett,

We can tell you care about your online business by the
strength of your site, but you are still losing a good amount of targeted web
traffic. Give us a chance to show where you can stretch your
budget to produce a better online return. Our consultation
is free and at the very least you will gain savvy online marketing insight
specific to your site. Email us today at britanycohen@gmail.com for your
no-charge site review. Include your URL(s) and the best way
to reach you so we can access your online business quickly and get back to you
with targeted information.

Sincerely

Britany Cohen

britanycohen@gmail.com


Zap Marketing

Yahoo! , Google, MSN, AltaVista

This promotion is only valid forUSA websites
If you wish to be
removed from this list, please type the word "REMOVE" in your
subject line


Dear Britany-Bot,

You have just violated Blogger's terms and conditions either purposely or inadvertently by spam/guessing blogger post-to-email addresses. Not only that, but your messages also reveal the security credentials of your victims.

This is 3 crimes in one:
1) the equivalent of breaking and entering.... y'know, a hacker. I legally this will be viewed somewhere along the lines of SQL injection.

2) this particular means of breaking and entering falls under the identity theft category.
3) publication / dissemination of private security credentials

This makes your offense, if I had to guess, hmmmmmm….. 6-8 times as serious as that of a spammer. Your “campaign” is the equivalent of a spammer + identity thief + web-defacing hacker.

The only thing that could make your position worse would be if you deleted data, planted PPC ads or found another way to generate DIRECT revenue, or stole credit card numbers.

Google is a virtually a small nation nowadays. I do not envy the position you have put yourself in... I'm imagining they've unleashed the Feds on you already.

My consulting rate is $275/hour, and I estimate it will take me between 2 and 3 hours to change my credentials for all of my blogger sites that you have hit. Please respond with a mailing address to which I can send my invoice.

Cheers!
Crockett Dunn

P.S. it’s not nice to do anything cyber-naughty to Crockett before Crockett has had his morning coffee.