Clutching and Slinging

This week we finally got around to putting a new clutch into my Saturn. As some of you may remember, back in October we got word that it could die at any moment. Well, we procrastinated and procrastinaed, and it lasted just fine for almost four months. But we figured at this point it was time to stop pushing our luck. I just didn’t need to bresak down in the middle of a tunnel or bridge or anything. So, we sucked it up and got it fixed. It cost money, but still less money than going ahead and buying a new car. All I can say though is that it better last at least another year now! (And… drat, I wanted a new car! :-) I must say though, the clutch now feels COMPLETELY different. I guess it had been “almost gone” for so many years that I got used to how it felt that way. I am having to completely readjust to the new place where the clutch engages. But I’ll get used to it before long I am sure.

Also today, I got my frivolous purchase of the month. I finally got a Slingbox a year and a half or so after I orginally said I wanted it. The main delay was that they hadn’t released their Mac client until just recently. It’s actually still in Beta, but seems to mostly work fine. What I got wasn’t that original Slingbox from my old post, but rather the Slingbox AV which is the more current version. (I didn’t see any need for the Slingbox Pro at this time… maybe next year.) I struggled with getting the networking and such all set up the way I wanted it between my two routers and all that junk. But I got it all the way I wanted to eventually. As I suspected from earlier tests, I can’t watch from my work network, they block it. But that’s OK, I don’t need that kind of distraction at work anyway. :-) My primary use will actually be watching my downstairs Tivo from my computer upstairs, or from a laptop either elsewhere at home, or while off at a Starbucks or Tullys or whatnot (or other random places with Wifi).

So far it is working great. I am sitting upstairs with a laptop writing this post for my blog while watching an episode of Lost from my Tivo in a window in the corner. Excellent. It is much better than the type of thing I’d done before with a wireless video repeater with an IR extender and an old 4″ black and white TV in the office. And other such solutions. This is much nicer.

They’ll be releasing a Treo version of the SlingPlayer in a few months. Almost makes me not want an iPhone. Almost. :-)