the blog has been kind of tech heavy lately. i can’t help it, i’ve been doing a lot of techie things. i just picked up an ice cube maker for the refrigerator (it finally came in, weeks after the fridge!) and i now have to figure out how to install it in our refrigerator.

it doesn’t look obvious how to do this.

i’m just glad it came with instructions.

i hope they are in english.

that’s going to be my fun task of the evening. after i get home, i plan to install the ice cube maker and hopefully not flood my kitchen in the process. we’ll see how that goes, wish me luck!

it used to be that when you thought windows software firewall, you would think ZoneAlarm. in fact, up until a few days ago, zonealarm was the only firewall that i would use on any of my machines. i liked the interface, i liked that it seemed to work, and i’ve grown comfortable with it. it’s like an old trusty friend always there when you need a hand…to stop hackers.

lately, i’ve been having some issues with zonelab’s free product, zonealarm firewall when used with utorrent. i kept getting truevector service errors that would lock up my internet connection and force me to reboot. after finally getting fed up i decided to test out a new firewall. i’m currently using comodo free firewall and it’s been working great. i haven’t had to reboot my computer because of some kind of firewall issue and so it’s been smooth sailing.

if you are in the market for a firewall product, i recommend it.

i’m looking to get OTA HD for the house via a large boom antenna that i plan to install in the attic. from what i’ve read so far, my biggest concern is that there is a large heating system in the attic that may interfere with the reception of the tv signals. we’ll see how bad it is after i do the install. i’m hoping for some good results, though.

i’ve been hearing mixed reviews about antennas and which one to get, but i think that i’ve decided on a cheap radio shack 80″ boom length, 32-element antenna. i’ve read mixed reviews, but i’m not really planning to get analog signals through the antenna, just digital ones. i think this antenna will more than suffice for my needs.

i’ve also read many bad things about attic installations, but i don’t want to install an antenna on the roof, so we’re going to see just how bad it is in the attic and go from there. this is either going to be a smashing success or a $60 waste of money. we’ll see!