Dan Murphy's Blog

If You Survive – George Wilson

Dan — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:25:39 +0000

In attempts not to confuse myself with books that are similar, I decided to pick a book that was very different than the last one. This is a non-fiction WWII story, which is the first non-fiction story I have read. Usually I like the historical fiction which is about 80% real and 20% fake for a story line. This book is all real, no story line, it is just about battle after battle after battle. What makes it even more interesting is the main character in the story is about 23 which you forget about 90% of the time except when he mentions something about age. Basically he is the only one to survive multiple battles and is always inheriting new recruits and new officers. He said the green officers would be dead in a matter of minutes because they didn’t have any war sense and would die doing something stupid. There are also multiple instances of friendly fire or some other accident that ended up killing the Allies not the Germans. In one case because someone incorrectly read their map, they had a bunch of bombs dropped on them. Also the author talks a lot about medics, and how amazing they were because they were in the fight without a gun and would just run out there to help someone only to typically be killed by the other side.

Crazyness to think people were going through something so intense at a young age. There is no glorification of war in this book, it’s just about people killing each other and how pointless it can seem and is. I would suggest this book as it does give some very good accounts of all the battles this person was in from Normandy to Battle of the Buldge. A lot of the stories I have read take place in the Pacific not Europe so it was interesting to hear about what went on there. The book isn’t too graphic, but he does a good job of balancing the line of too much information and enough to really make you think about what is happening. War is a horrible thing, and hopefully with things like this book we can really remember how disruptive it is to life and civilization.

Dourado – David Wood

Dan — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:59:33 +0000

So I needed a new book and a new author and this one was suggested to me by Amazon. The story sounded interesting the only thing was that it was way too similar to the last book that I read that I kept getting them confused. It was a super fast read and mildly interesting. I might have liked it more if I spaced it better from my last book as I kept mixing the two story lines together. This story is about the story of David and Goliath. It starts off back in the 1700′s during an exploration that was returning back to Europe when it hit a storm and everything found during the exploration was lost at sea. One of the things lost was from the biblical story David and Goliath and brings in a few interesting ideas about humans breading with aliens long ago.

The main character in the story, Dane, is brought in by his old commanding officer’s daughter who says that her Dad was killed because of what he was researching as far as what was on that ship when it went down. So they trace down where the ship sank as well as where everything off of it went to and end up finding a temple where Goliath is buried along with some other little interesting finds. As to be expected there is a secret society that is trying to keep the lost items of the ship lost forever and are hot on their trail.

Wasn’t really expecting the turn it took but it was still interesting and would probably read another book in the series as I liked the characters and the style of writing. I did learn one important thing do not read two books back to back that are similar!

Power Conditioner

Dan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:23:28 +0000

APC H10BLK

So I read a few articles on what ‘power conditioners’ can do for your system and for the image quality. So I ran to my local Microcenter and picked this up to add to my home theater system. So this keeps the equipment away from power spikes, it reduces electrical noise and it levels out the power. One big plus of this is that it removed 2 power strips behind my entertainment center and freed up a wall plug. Our house is old, built 1973, the electrical was on that cusp of being good but still having some issues. Our power flips on and off a lot here so I thought this would be a good idea. I have a whole house power protector on the fuse box to the house but that covers spikes above 220 volts where most outlets are only 120 volts.

So after installing this I do have to say my blu-ray looks cleaner and there are less ghost artifacts. I wouldn’t say it is game changing but I do notice a difference. I have yet to have the power spike on me yet (the device has some lights to let you know when it does) but I am sure I will notice it with the A/C turning on and off or during the next quick power outage The price was right at $200 so figured that wasn’t too expense to cover the full setup I have now.

Everything else is working great and have to say I love the new entertainment center I have built.

Circle of Bones – Christine Kling

Dan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:00:21 +0000

So I chose this book because it was in the top 25 of the Kindle Lending Library and it was free. The description sounded up my ally so figured why not. The story here is about the group Skull & Bones trying to run the USA again. Here they are doing it by trying to find a submarine that sank in WWII with some important documents on board. The main characters here are a retired Marine named Riley and a ship/treasure hunter named Cole. Riley is on vacation trying to forget her crazy life back home in the States while Cole has been searching for this submarine for a few years using the old diaries his dad left as he was looking for the sub too. The plot was alright but I did find it was a little hard to finish the book and I kept falling asleep, so I think that says something about the book. It was a little predictable but for the price that I paid I am alright with it and would suggest it for anyone else who is out of books to read. There are a ton of shipping/nautical terms in this book that I do not know so when they were describing certain parts of the boats I had no idea what they were talking about!

Scarecrow Returns – Matthew Reilly

Dan — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:50:15 +0000

So I finished this a while ago I just didn’t have a chance to post this. So looks like I missed a book in the series but this picks up with our special forces crew and Scarecrow. This takes place on an island near the Antarctica, and we discover there is an old, but closely watched, Soviet era base. A little more research turns up that this base contains a special weapon that could light the entire Northern Hemisphere on fire and destroy everything. It was a last ditch effort if USSR lost the Cold War. Well it seems that someone has taken over the island and started up the machine and wants to ignite the world. The only crew that is close enough to help is Scarecrow who is in the Antarctic doing some cold weather testing of new equipment.

This was a good action filled book, but very very hard to believe. Just when you think every option is out there is always some crazy new one that pops up and works. It did make for a quick mindless read and was entertaining but very far fetched.

Asus RT-N66U “Darknight” Wireless Router

Dan — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:53:28 +0000

So I ended up getting another new wireless router for the house. The E4200 Linksys I bought was having issues after about 3 weeks the wireless would just stop working and the light on top would flash. This is a common issue and was resolved by rebooting, I hate rebooting routers I shouldn’t have to deal with that. Also after rebooting it always had issues reconnecting with my wireless printer so I decided I would go all out on a new router. I love Asus products so figured I would try their routers. It was a little hard to find this one but I finally did at my local MicroCenter and bought it for the price that NewEgg had on sale.

So far so good with this router. It has 2 USB ports in the back, built in FTP, BitTorrent, VPN, 3 guest networks, 2.4/5GHz bands, gigabit, and can run 3rd party firmware. I updated the original firmware it comes with and have everything working and don’t really have a reason at this point to go to 3rd party. The VPN part is awesome so now I can VPN from my laptop into my home network and have access to my network at home. The DLNA is really nice and so is the file server just like I had with the e4200. It also has a bunch of monitoring options for me to play with so I can watch bandwidth and control a few other little things. The interface is about 100 times better than Linksys and everything works from my iPad.

Throughput seems very good with this router so far, but the ultimate test is time and seeing what happens to it. Pretty excited with all the options and coverage this has so far, just wish it didnt have antennas on top but what can you do…

Harmony 650 Universal Remote

Dan — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:38:50 +0000

So I guess this is what happens when you are a nerd you end up spending about 3 hours to figure out which remote you should get for your house. I am a big fan of Logitech so I knew it was going to be a Harmony Remote just a matter of which one. With prices ranging from $35-$500 I figured there were a bunch of things to consider. So I ended up with this one for about $69 for my entertainment center and love it. After deciding I didn’t want one that was touch screen, and didn’t need one that had RF capabilities I was able to get this along with Harmony PS3 adapter so I could control my PS3. Pairing and matching up brands was easy, they have a web based app that you just plug in your USB to the remote and then open the app select the model numbers you have and then program what you want each activity button to do. Love this thing and highly recommend it to anyone. Also the buttons click when you press them so it feels very high end and lights up at night so its easy to use whenever you want to use it.

Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Dan — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:53:46 +0000

So who would have guessed in a 1000 years that I ended up reading this book. After visiting my mom in Florida and going to the Sarasota Ringling Museum I have to say I was more than interested in reading about this story. The great news is that it was a Kindle Lending Library Book, so that makes it free so double bonus. This was a great story told about the circus from a crazy old man in a retirement home. He details his story about running away and joining the circus and talks about all the crazy hierarchies that existed back then. He ends up falling for one of the performers and they make a run for it eventually. I really liked the authors style of writing and almost fell over when I read an interview with her. I guess that she spent about 2 years putting the book together, although it’s fiction it is a mash-up of about 4 different stories she was able to find. Also I found it amazing that she is a technical writer for SQL Server and things like that. Reading this book you would have no idea that was her background. I really enjoyed this book and it was a little sad, funny, interesting, creepy and a fast read. I am glad I read this before seeing the movie which will be making my redbox queue the next time I am there

New Home Stereo

Dan — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:46:11 +0000

So decided to upgrade the home stereo since the one I had was one that I got for free about 8 years ago. So after doing tons of research online and being talked out of buying the Bose home system I ended up building my own. So the receiver is Yamaha RX-A1010. Plenty of inputs (7 in total) 7.2 surround sound and 120 watts per channel. It is also internet connected so it can stream music as well as HD Radio. Tons more facts are out there but essentially that is the important ones. I was also looking at the RS-A2020 for $500 more but decided I would never setup a 9.2 surround sound system with 3 zones so I decided to stick with this one.

Then came the decision for the speakers and I ended up with Definitive Technology. I wanted a lot more power in my center channel as well as a bigger sub. This comes with 300 Watt 10 in sub-woofer and 4 satellite speakers and a center channel. The range on the speakers is amazing and its nice to finally have no distortion on low hits with the sub-woofer.

After some new speaker stands, 14 gauge speaker wire, new wire strippers, a new ethernet switch (fried the old one when putting everything back together), lots of banana plugs and my center channel bracket bar I bought a few months ago the system is in place. Took me about 4 hours to setup everything and that was mainly because of the task of pulling everything that was in place out and then putting this in as well as wiring and connecting and then configuring. One of the very nice unexpected features is the use or ARC in the HDMI which allows controlling signals to be sent to the receiver and also audio out from the TV to be sent. This means that when I turn on or off the TV the receiver goes with it. It also means anything from my smart TV makes it to the stereo system. This is such a nice feature as now I don’t have to remember to turn off the receiver. The YPAO makes it very easy to setup and get the right sound out of it. I am still playing with the setup but love it and think it was a great addition to our home as we watch a ton of movies. Also nice to have HD radio

Melting Point – Roger Collins

Dan — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 18:23:52 +0000

So continuing on with my WWII theme I decided to read this book. It was a lot heavier than the last one I read but still nothing too crazy. This is a story about WWII told from the German point of view as a regular citizen. The main character in this story ends up working for a furnace company in Germany that ends up winning a contract to make the crematoriums at Auschwitz Poland. I like this story because you get an idea of what it was like on the German side of things and you can understand how Hitler came into power. It is also interesting how about 95% of Germany, even some of the people at the camp, didn’t really know what was going on during this time. There is some great back story on Auschwitz and in the end the author mentions what is real and what is made up. Nobody really knows too much about Auschwitz as it was totally destroyed by the Germans before the Russians took the land back. Sometimes while you are reading this book you keep telling yourself ‘this cannot really be true’ a very interesting way to bring history to life and give it some context of what really happened during WWII.