Patience for Quality

Last week I bought myself a Veho Muvi K2; a little action camera kinda of like a GoPro. It's definitely not as high quality, but does record a little bit of video like it says it does. I made my first YouTube video with it. Check that out here!

When comparing the video quality, I noticed it is definitely taking 720p video (or worse, it's honestly not very good quality), and upscaling to 1080p. It doesn't do true full HD 1080p like it advertises. I've given it my best shot, and I just can't bring myself to like it enough to keep it. I'm going to return it and save a little more for a something better. Might be a GoPro. Honestly should be what I get for how interchangeable all it's parts are. I'll do more research and see what I come up with.

I know Nikon is releasing a "4k 360 degree" action camera sometime this year. I'm on the email list to receive updates on it. It supposedly shoots full 360 degrees with two cameras. That could provide for some really cool video. Need to focus on what I'm really wanting though. First thing first, I want an action camera that's easy for me to get good quality footage with while I embark on some adventures. I've needed one for a long while, so it's about time I invest in one. Although I did invest in one... It was not the best investment.

Or perhaps I'm wrong and being way too picky, and when I get a GoPro Hero 4 Black or something else expensive and "awesome" I won't be as impressed either. Time will tell. I need to be patient, and understanding.

Almost more to improve on. More to dream about. More to live for. Greater things to discover. I'm happy to see where some of my friends and family are. I want to be like them! I look up to so many people. I'm so proud to have such influential examples in my life!

Every day is a new day

I'm beginning to finally plan my adventures and other endeavours. I'll be revamping this site to an updated look, and try to make it more blog friendly.

I've got quite a few projects in general that I still need to finish. I've finally finished my first water cooled computer! That was quite an exciting accomplishment. It may be just another worldly thing, that will eventually break down and have to be replaced, but it was a thrilling nerd project, and went just as well as I could have hoped! It's keeping my computer quite cool too. Now if only Fallout4 would stop glitching out... I haven't found anyone online reporting the same issue.

Another project to finish would be my LED Black lights. Although my infinity mirror could use some additional work to compile the wires and power supply. I feel like I've got a few more projects, but I really think those are the big things. The top priority is cleaning up some of my clutter. I need to plan my projects better so I can finish them within a reasonable time. I believe wise planning makes for a more content life anyway. Especially if I'm going to be planning to travel more!

Above all, we should remember to treasure where we are, and not just where we want to be. "The pleasure of what we enjoy, is lost by wanting more." I actually don't know a source for this. It was on a meal ticket for work, and a Google search proved unhelpful to find the true originator.

Hacking Skills. Hard Drive ATA Security Unlock

So, I inherited a 2TB hard drive from someone that ripped apart a cloud storage device for fun, and had no use for the hard drive... Random right? I tried using the drive in a server I was making, but the Linux install would freak out any time I tried to format the drive. I figured there was some kind of lock on it, I've never dealt with it before so I've never had to know anything about it. But at last, a reason had risen.

I gave up on the drive, and just a couple days ago decided to use it again. I ordered a second of the same model to use in a mirrored raid setup. Then the true problem surfaced. When I put the hard drive into my computer, and booted up, I was presented with a hard drive password unlock screen from my bios. Answered my previous questions pretty quick on why I couldn't use the drive. First thing I did was try the name of the cloud company the drive was pulled from. I figured if they were going to be as fancy as putting a hard drive lock on it, they weren't going to be that dumb. But why not try? I've prayed on peoples innocent negligence before. Didn't work this time though.

Then it was on to the google searches. For some reason the searches weren't very direct and helpful at first. I had to piece together information on locked drives from several sources, and eventually found a linux work around that did the trick.

Here's a link to a post I made in reply to someone that was the most helpful

Took some work! and about five hours of my time. But I'm glad I figured it out. Since I already have a matching hard drive being shipped to me, I really needed this one to work. The drive was a little on the expensive side compared to another deal I found, but this drive is quiet, and had good reviews. So I figured they could be brothers! And now they will be.

New Year

Never enough time in the day to do all the things you want to. I need to be updating this blog more often, and writing in my journal, and going to the gym, and studying languages, and studying networking, and designing newer better websites...

A change will happen here eventually. I've got a lot of planning and goal making to do.

Top on the list, I need to study for my Ham Radio license. At the very least I need to review the question pool for the first level license. But with how much I've increased in programming capacity, I really want to get the online tests completed. That ought to bring in some site revenue, and attract more visitors for a real cause.

Another reason for thinking of updating this blog randomly, I help a family man change his car tire about a week ago. Maybe two; time fly fast. He was an awesome guy, and I wish I had gotten more contact information from him. He's affiliated with a company or a group that does 5K runs around the country. One of them coming up this year is in my home town, Fort Worth, Texas. I wont spill too many details in the case it's not supposed to be released yet... But it sounded worth driving home for to participate. Depending on when it is, I just might. This is where google becomes my friend!

I'll end this with a link to my sisters blog. She's gotten busier with family responsibilities over the past few months, and her stuff is mostly for women... But I still think it's pretty cool. She designed a calendar for 2015. Check it out here, sherbertcafe.blogspot.com. She's quite the crafty sister!

Ti's the season for another posting

Been a long time since I've posted. I've been behind on a lot of things. The more responsibility you receive in life, the less you spend time on things that are not requisite to life. I still have many projects I want to work on here. There is much good to be done in this world! I really hope to get back to them soon.

As for a new years resolution. That will come soon. I really shouldn't be posting now. I originally got on to host a few files for a friend as we collaborate for a New Years party we're working on. Then I felt sad that my last post was clear in May...

It has been a good year thus far! I have achieved a lot. I have grown a lot. I have learned a lot. And I have done a lot! If not posting here, I should definitely be writing in my journal more. I've become lax and lazy in many a things this past year. My new job has kept me busy, and my mind ever active. On that note, I really have learned a lot more about programming! I've learned how to make my Ham Radio practice tests work much better, and far more efficient. I thank my job for that! My ham radio license expires this coming year, so I really must study up to recertify! Perhaps I'll finally get this project finished, not just to help me, but to help many others that are seeking a good way to learn the hobby.

So much do to. Never enough time.

New services updated

My GoDaddy hosting expired. The renewal was a lot more than I was willing to pay, so I purchased a new one through them and I've migrated everything over. The files transferred much faster than I expected. Had a few issues getting the MySQL database put back in place.. But everything is all there now. I got my sister a domain name too. I'll be helping her transfer her blog to it over the next few months. Fun times to be had!

This past weekend I went camping with an old acquaintance. I think it's safe to say we're actually friends now. haha. It was his birthday slash graduation party. We went to Zion National Park in Springdale Utah. It was a beautiful place! There was plenty to do, plenty to see, and the weather was just perfect. It was probably the nicest camp out I've ever had. Made some new friends, had a great time, spent the weekend very well.

It makes me want to get into rock climbing even more. There were some good places around there to climb, and much more to explore! Maybe I can take Rachel back there some day! I even talked to a guy about his adventure motorcycle for quite a while. Getting a brand new big BMW would be rather sweet, but I'm pondering now starting a little smaller.. It's a hard debate with myself. I could get a smaller bike, or get the big GS1200 and take on anything. It's got all the tech to make my nerd side happy too. including a built in GPS controller to the handle bars (GPS unit sold separately of course). It would be very exciting!.... and very expensive. I suppose I still have a few months to think about it while I save up for which ever option I choose.

I'm glad I love programming so much.. And that my new job is letting me do a lot of programming! I'm a happy camper.

~Taylor

P.s. If you'd like full res pictures in this and future posts. Let me know in the comments below!

Venture to the Valley

Took a trip to Utah for yesterday and today. It's been a fun trip so far. I'm up here for a job interview for a wireless internet company. They make me feel rather special. They flew me up here, and even got me a rental car to cruise around in while I'm here. it seems rather promising. They're a company pretty new to WISP operations, so there's a lot of room for growth and input for improving how things run. I'm quite excited to be a part of this team. There's a lot to do up here in Utah. I hope I'll get the time to do some camping like I'd love to.

Bigger better updates

I took my 13" back and got the 15" with dedicated graphics. And I'm happy I did. The 13" would have gotten me by just fine, but I do love the bigger screen, and the graphics! It's a little different getting used to after having the 13" for two weeks... but I'm managing. I still need a case for it. It's hard to find a good case I'll like. All I really need is the bottom part. I've been looking at stickers to put on the lid. But then again... Why do I need a case? No other laptop I've had has had a case... I suppose when you spend so much money on something so sleek, you have that feeling of not wanting it to get scratched.

Aside from all that. I've finally gotten most of the links fixed on the site. Got the database routes corrected and the style links fixed, everything looks pretty again! Now to start up on some projects again :D

Let the good times roll.

Fruit of the spoils

     I've purchased myself a little 13" Macbook Pro Retina. As expected, I've received some banter from friends on facebook, most particularly those with IT backgrounds. The thing is though, most of them have never had quality time with a Mac. I used to be rather anti-Mac myself.  But after playing with them enough and just being around them, I decided I wanted to try one for myself. If I didn't like it, I could take it back within a few days, or just never purchase one again.

     While no experience in life seems to go exactly the same as it plays over in dreams, my transition into the Apple world has been a rather positive one. It could also be that I came from a 20 pound 17" beast of a computer, which had all the power I wanted, just in way too heavy and bulky a form. The eight hour battery life on this laptop is awesome too! Last night something happened after I used it in the cafe I was at, and it didn't go to sleep... (everything's gonna have some bugs) When I got to work the next morning, it still had 10% battery life, and wasn't on fire (thank goodness). All in all, the Macbook Pro is a sturdy little laptop. Expensive, yes. But durable and very high quality. I'm still kind of debating returning it to get the 15", but in reality the 13" is doing great for what I need. The main thing I expect from screen size is more pixel space. That's why I had the 17" before. It was a 1080p screen. This one is much greater than 1080p. In a way it's 1600p, and in a smaller "per inch" size. The only downfall is no built in disc drive or LAN port... I've already bought myself the thunderbolt ethernet adapter, which really isn't too bad. And I honestly disc drives aren't used too much anymore. Not enough to make them worth the extra size and weight to put into a laptop. For the occasion I need to use a disc, I have a ghetto rigged usb DVD drive I've been using. Eventually I'll get a fancy blu-ray drive. It would be nice to be able to burn blu-rays for file keeping sake. Or watching/copying movies. I was pondering getting an internal blu-ray drive for my server. But if I had a USB drive I'll use it just as much as I would the internal, with the benefit of using it on either my server or my laptop.

    "You can get so much more power for cheaper if you got a windows laptop." In terms of raw power, I could most definitely get more power for cheaper. However, the quality of the laptop is still a key factor... Getting a windows laptop with the same Ram, processor and hard drive space as my mac would run me less than $800 (vs $2000 for this one). But, It would be made out of plastic vs. aluminum. The screen resolution would be about 190% smaller, and the hard drive would most likely be 5400rpm (rather slow). My Macbook has what's called "PCIe" memory. A hard drive at 5400rpm has a transfer rate around 50-70 Megabits per second. A Solid State Hard drive is capable of 300-500Megabits per second. The Macbook's PCIe hard drive is capable of 700-1200

     I just feel legit sometimes! I've got myself a server which I'm saving up to add a few hard drives to for a raid array, and I've got my little portable laptop, and all my devices are synced together in one way or another. All I need now is to jail-break my phone so I can use it as a hotspot on the go...

    To sum it all up. The Apple laptop has been a good investment so far. For the most part it's been easier for me to configure and use than it was to fight my windows 8 laptop to do what I wanted it do. Windows 8 (especially 8.1) has put a very sour taste in my mouth towards windows. I still love windows 7. I have it installed on my apple as well for the few programs I need that I can't use on mac. (some networking tools, educational programs, HTML editing program, Quicken without paying for another license...). It's all working out quite well for me. I am a happy camper thus far. Maybe my standards have lowered? Maybe my previous laptop was a worse experience than I thought. Or maybe I'm being fooled. If I am apple is sure doing a good job. The next time my moms office needs a new desktop I'll most likely be getting a Mac Mini to replace the massive PC.

Fort Worth YSA Dance

DJ'd a good dance last night. I am with satisfied how it went. I'm glad my friend Brock was there to help out. We had a good experiment mixing a couple songs together  It was a little rough, but great for being his first time live mixing. He managed taking requests and finding those songs, which I put the songs into the right places and put in the slow and fast songs according to how I felt the crowd was feeling it. I even got to through in a little dub-step here and there. Krewella's Party Monster was a huge hit! The TRAP genre felt pretty good to hear here and there. My only wish was that we had more power to allow heavier kicks in the bass. I am not impressed with the built in power of the the Behringer Europower PMP2000. But then again, when I DJ'd youth dances in Fort Worth several years ago, we had the PMP3000 which had a lot more power. I'm still frustrated the downgraded without asking me... I'll just have to invest in my own equipment. Those poor speakers are begging for more power. They'll easily handle 80% more than what they've gotten in their lifetime. Sweet speakers.

For those interested, here's the list of songs that we played:

• Glad You Came (Skybearers Dubstep Remix) - The Wanted
• I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) - Pitbull
• Boom Boom Power [Clean] - Black Eyed Peas
• Burn [Clean] - Ellie Goulding
• Ready When You Are - Trapt
• Zoot Suit Riot - Cherry Poppin' Daddies
• Club Can't Handle Me (feat. David Guetta) - Flo Rida
• Sandstorm (Candylands OG Remix) - Darude
• Party Monster - Krewella
• Never Stop (Wedding Version) - SafetySuit
• Here for a Good Time - George Strait
• Roar - Katy Perry
• Cruise - Florida/Georgia Line
• Vivir Mi Vida - Marc Anthony
• No One Knows Who We Are (feat. Lights) [Kaskade's Atmosphere Mix] - Kaskade & Swanky Tunes
• Wake me Up - Avicii
• Live Your Live (feat. Rihanna) - T.I.
• This is What It Feels Like (Radio Edit) - Armin Van Buuren
• Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey
• Gangnam Style (Radio Edit) - Opa
• Beam Me Up - Cazzette
• Harlem Shake (30 Sec Version)
• Airplanes, Part II [Clean] - B.O.B.
• Out Of My League - Stephen Speaks
• Thrift Shop [Clean] - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Royals - Lorde
• Million Dollar Bills - Lorde
• Mambo Swing - Charlotte Swing Band
• What Is Love - Haddaway
• Only One In Color - Trapt
• Lights (Dubstep Remix) - Ellie Goulding
• Bangarang (Original Mix) - Skrillex
• Clarity - Zedd
• Promise - Romeo Santos feat. usher
• A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

We live mixed the Wop and the Wobble songs at one point. If I remember where we played it, I'll update the post.

Hope you enjoyed our performance last night! Hope to see you next time.

New Blog Fantasia!

Many years ago I created a blog using my Google email, and hosted it to one of my first websites. Overtime, this blog was transferred from site to site, until the time came I chose to change my email. Now to make blog posts, I have to sign in to a separate email! Either without the option to transfer a blog to another email, or lacking the patience and determination to find and utilize such a feature, I decided to create a new blog entirely. A new pair of shoes is always nice from time to time. The hardest part was changing the blogger bar at the top of my webpage, www.livinglegit.com. After finally figuring that mess out, here I am writing my new post!!

I also got a new phone a few days ago; the Galaxy S4 Active! Previously I had the iPhone 5. It's been an interesting transition, and to be honest, I really miss some things the iPhone had to offer me. My opinions on the ups and downs of iPhone vs. Galaxy will be saved for another day. But the new phone is was sparked the desire to begin my web log once more. Whilst perusing new apps to install on my fancy new toy, the Blogger app was highly suggested. The brought back old memories of blogging and web scripting. So I immediately took at it to update my website enough to present a newly created blog site.

Still in the works is a new site layout. I may need to find a new domain name for my personal as well... Perhaps I'll take over my clan site for it... Long periods of idleness call for drastic measures of renovations!