Zoe Meghan MacAskill

7 pounds, 13 ounces.  20 inches.  1:18 AM today.  Mother and daughter both healthy.  Father and mother both exhausted.  There was a very scary moment during labor that I’m sure Meghan will write about in a separate post.  But it all turned out alright.

More photos.

Happy Halloween!

I like to call our costume idea “Just like Daddy.”

See them bigger here.

7×7x7

So even though we generally use OS X at SmugMug, we still game on Windows boxes and have to test/develop on them as well. So when our copies of Windows 7 arrived, 7 of us went down to In N Out and took on 7×7’s (7 patties and 7 cheese slices).

I generally eat much healthier now than I used to, but sometimes I make exceptions.

Reese’s first date

Reese’s friend Luke took her out on the town Saturday. This was the result:

Video.

Photos.

Bittersweet 9/11

Obviously the news today is all about remembering 9/11.  For me, it’s bittersweet every year since it is also Meghan’s birthday.  Anyways, I thought I would share my favorite media response in the aftermath.  Whatever you may think of Jon Stewart, give it a chance if you have 8 minutes to spare.

Jon Stewart’s response to 9/11

Commuting

Commuting is a bit more fun when you do it in style.

Don’t get scammed

One of the most common scams around right now is the cable scam. Basically, retailers like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. try to sell you various cables for a ridiculous amount. It’s backed up by shady marketing from cable-producing companies like Monster. Don’t be fooled!

So let’s take a look at an example or two. HDMI cables, for those who don’t know, are simply awesome. They transfer high definition video and audio across a single cable. Not only are they considerably higher quality than the older composite and component cables, but they simplify matters by having the video and audio in just one cable.

Composite (video):

Component (HD video):

HDMI (HD video + HD audio):

So why don’t more people know about HDMI cables and use them? Because of the scam. The next time you walk in a retail store like Best Buy, check out their HDMI cables. You will be hard pressed to find any under $40 and most are in the $80 to $250 range. For a single cable. Here’s a standard one listed on BestBuy at $200.

But it turns out that HDMI cables are extremely cheap to make. Want proof? How about the fact that honest retailers like Amazon, or my personal favorite cable store Monoprice, have HDMI cables listed for about $2-5. I generally use HDMI cables about 3 feet long, but for comparison’s sake with the Best Buy 8 foot cable, here is an 8-foot one from Monoprice for $4. So the BestBuy/Monster mark-up is only a measly 5,000%.

The cables are basically no different. HDMI carries a digital signal rather than an analog one. The data either makes it across the cable or it doesn’t. With old analog cables, you could get interference that resulted in a fuzzy image or the like. Every single cable I have in my home theater is either from Monoprice or came with the electronics I purchased and all for less than $60 total. Each cable I purchased was top-notch quality. This morning I quickly calculated how much I saved over going with overpriced junk from Monster: $1,746.

So why does Best Buy not carry the less expensive cables? Because they make a huge profit off selling the expensive ones. It’s a big scam and uninformed consumers are the victims.

Buy all your cables (power, USB, audio, video, ethernet, etc.) from Monoprice and help stop the scam!