Hockey this year?

It doesn't look good for an NHL season this year. Thus far, negotiations between the players union and owners for a new collective bargaining agreement have not gone well.

Fear not though. There will at least be a couple of weeks of some of the best hockey seen since the Salt Lake Olympics. The World Cup of Hockey begins on Monday with the top 8 hockey nations in the world competing (Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and USA). The Canadians and Americans are favoured, but there are probably about 5 teams that have a legitimate chance.

Heading home

My wife and I are leaving on Saturday for a 10 day trip back to Nova Scotia. We'll be spending most of our time in and around Halifax, which is where my wife grew up, and where we attended Dalhousie University (back then though, it was called the Technical University of Nova Scotia - it has since been amalgamated with Dalhousie, and has become the Dalhousie Faculty of Engineering). We'll also make a short visit to my hometown, Port Hawkesbury.

On our way to Port Hawkesbury,we'll pass through the little town of Antigonish, where I spent several years at my other alma mater, St. Francis Xavier University. Although it's a very small university, it has had great national success in both the academic and sporting arenas. St. FX has been selected as the top university in Canada for undergraduate studies for the past two consecutive years, and its hockey team is the reigning national champion.

Random thought

I have lots of these, but I don't post them. I'm going to start, beginning with this one:

Don't you hate it when you go to a public bathroom (like the one at your place of employment) and you go into a stall to take care of business and you sit down and the seat is already warm? I hate that... it gives me a weird, uneasy feeling.

En Francais?

Why the French? Because I was in Montreal last weekend. It's a very cool city. My French is terrible. Luckily, most people in Montreal can speak English, however it depends if they "want" to speak English when they're speaking with you that matters.

My Media Center PC - Part Trois

Back to my video woes...

So I stuck an old ATI video card into my new system to test if the poor S-Video output on my PowerColor card was due to the card, or something else in the system. Well, this old card's output looked immensely better. However, the card is quite old, and not compatible with XP MCE, so I can't use it permanently.

So, I went and bought a new "built-by-ATI" video card at Fry's and installed it on Saturday. Everything looks great now through this new card. I am still forced to use S-Video since my TV won't do 720p, but I'll have to live with that until I can upgrade my TV.

My Media Center PC - Part Deux

Well, the DVI-HDTV converter finally arrived. It sucks. The noise still exists (although to a lesser extent) and the only usable resolution I can display on my TV is 720 by 480. I think this is because my TV is older, and doesn't support a 720p input.

Now this really, really sucks. I have spent too much cash on this system for the results I'm getting. My next step is to go get another video card and hope that its S-Video output is cleaner. If it is, and it's usable, I'll keep it and try to return the PowerColor video card and the DVI-HDTV converter. Ideally, I'd like to get myself a Samsung DLP TV like this one, which has a DVI and VGA input, and supports a much better resolution than my current TV. Unfortunately, I am not about to shell out nearly $4k, just so I can have a better Media Center experience.

At least at the current resolution, it makes for decent TV viewing, and I can take advantage of MCE's PVR functionality. However, I was hoping to do a small amount of gaming on the system, and that does not seem possible. The games I've tried to play thus far automatically adjust the system resolution into a state that is not compatible with my TV. Damn.

FS: One Toshiba 50" TV.
WTB: One Samsung DLP TV.