I got my RC9800i. Did you?

I recently bought Philips RC9800i Home controller to control all the A/V devices and I am really happy about it after using it for about 2 weeks. Not to mention that I had 5 remotes that I was switching between them all the time. I was initiallly deciding between

1. Logitech Harmony 880 Advanced universal remote
2. Philips RC9800i
3. Philips TSU7000 home control panel

I didn't choose Harmony because it is not future proof and didn't like the big huge remote. But this is the best remote in $200 range. I would have loved TSU7000 but didn't want to spend > $700 bucks for a universal remote. Also, I wanted a simple device without the customizability and programmability as I know I would have time to do anything with it.

I got my RC9800i for $400 bucks which was the lowest on the web at time of my purchase. I initially had trouble setting up the devices but after few iterations mastered it. What I love about it:
1. Form factor
2. Activity based and ease of use
3. Out of the box experience is great and my firmware update etc went w/o a hitch
4. Comes with 802.11b Wireless support and uPnP support. I can connect this to Philips Media Manager and download Pictures/Songs etc to the device
5. Allows Multi-Room/Multi Device configurations.
6. I belive I could use RF Extender to extend the range if I want to

But I still have few issues to sort out which could very well be bugs in the product:
1. It does not recognize my PMM even though it successfully connects to my WAP. Opened up bunch of ports as suggested, turned off the firewall and did all the standard tricks. But no avail
2. It does not turn off my DVD player when I switch to watching other activity.

A Bookful month

Yes, I was able to read 3 books this last month even through the tight work schedule. I would have to rate all 3 as excellent and I would recommend this to anyone. Here are the titles:

Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions

The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

If anyone has any good suggestions on non-fiction, drop me a comment!

Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job

Well, why the heck then the FEMA director, Michael D. Brown was sent back home and not leading the relief efforts? I think the president is making himself look like a fool by making statements like these w/o getting to the bottom of it before putting his stamp of approval. I wonder if loyalty weighs more than anything else in order to get the top notch job in Bush Administration.

An interesting revelation in the light of recent disaster is that the Director of FEMA had no experience or background in emergency management at all. He worked as undersecretary to "Arabian Horse association" before taking the job at FEMA. Didn't the Bush Administration find anyone more appropriate for one of the most important jobs in DHS?

Talking about Katrina, I heart goes for those who suffered and lived (or lining) the nightmare and for those who died, I don't have words to describe my sorrow. It didn't have to end this way.

Longest presidential retreat in at least 36 years

Well, I am talking about Mr.Bush again! Our beloved president made history again. He has done so much for the nation that he thought he deserved a 5 week vacation (yes a little less than 1-1/2 months and not to mention that this is his 49th trip to the ranch!!!) and he didn't miss out the opportunity. I don't know of any employer in U.S that gives its hard working employees 5 weeks a year vacation. I get a pitiful 3 weeks which is nothing IMO.

Here is the more important piece of information. Last time he took a month's vacation, we had 9/11 and this time it was Katrina!

One thing that I still could not understand is that what about those frequent trips to Camp David and the ranches? Do they count as vacation too or are they considered sort of telecommuting like we know in the tech industry? I know he is the dumbest president but he also proved that he is a slacker as well.

Here is the WashingtonPost.com article and on the funnier side, the coverage from TheOnion.com