In Austin Texas allergy season seems to be a year-round kind of thing. So I was talking to my doctor about treatments and was googling on my phone for a medication called Tobispray that had been super-effective, years ago, in Australia. Turns out that Dexamethasone is used in the USA for interesting things such as promoting maturation of the lungs of an unborn fetus, but alas, not for treating allergies. However, Fluticasone propionate is used for allergies, and (as a non-chemist) does seem bear some molecular resemblance.

On of my all-time favourite computer game music tracks…

On slashhdot: Video Appliance For a Large Library On a Network?
For the past year or so I have been trying (and failing) to figure out a reasonable solution for bringing my large media library to my living room. All of my media lives on an Ubuntu server that sits on my network. It’s been very reliable and it’s fast enough for streaming purposes. My content is exposed via SMB. It’s the living room side where I keep running into problems. I am currently using Windows 7 and XBMC, but the case is too big and noisy, I don’t particularly care for Windows, and the whole thing just seems overkill. What I want is a device that can present a decent UI that the non-Slashdot crowd would be able to use, but that is still powerful enough to stream full-fidelity 1080p. I dream of a small box that can transcode video over a network, but that’s probably a pipe dream. The new Apple TV would be great if it could connect to network shares. What say you, Slashdot? Is what I’m looking for possible, or should I just give in to the iTunes/Amazon/whatever juggernauts?
Indeed with so many choices and trade-offs, it’s no wonder I still havn’t gotten around to solving this.
Observations of our changing TV viewing habits with MythTV:
- With high-definition free-to-air, the more disk space the better. 500GB is not enough.
- Little interest in paying for Cable TV.
- Rarely watch live TV anymore.
- Radio station streaming is a must-have in every room.
- Noisy computer in the lounge room is undesirable.
- Skipping past all the DVD junk is a must-have. No previews, no FBI warnings, no ads. Life is too short.
- Configuring and maintaining MythTV can be a time consuming prospect.
- Still want NetFlix for MythTV
Low Water Use Landscaping – AGAVE
Agaves are beautiful and formidable plants, typically sporting sharp spikes at the tips. They are nearly always VERY low water use plants that need almost no water to survive.
Indeed I think I water mine too much, just to watch them grow!




A warm welcome to our friend “Austin Girl”, and their first story The Jump.
I stand stock still, the fear in the dark recesses, A great animal of prey. I dare not look down but am transfixed by the clear, blue sky so vast and beautiful. …