Featured on "The Home Tech Podcast" Episode #146 "IBM Watson APIs, Cable Modems, Routers, Google Takeout, Please Upgrade Your XP Box and USB 3.0 with Anker"

Jim Collison kindly had be back for another fun and informative podcast, recorded Thursday, Dec 6 2013. Christian talks about cool IBM Watson stuff, and I talk a bit about life at home with 150Mbps downloads, winter preparedness, Anker USB 3.0 hubs, and more. Check it out!

Featuring hosts Jim Collison (@jcollison), with Christian Johnson (@TheWizBM) and me (@tinkererguy) as guests.

For future episodes, for those whose schedules do not jive so you can't join live, then simply subscribe! Listen to the recording later on. All the RSS buttons are right next to Jim's shownotes:
http://theaverageguy.tv/ht146

Here's my own copy of the shownotes I had prepared for Jim before the show. From this list, Jim expertly, on the fly, chose the ones that made sense, and helped the conversation flow. As always, a delightful experience, where time just flew by. A fun way for me to end a grueling work week, hopefully you'll feel the same way after a listen (or watch):

1. What the Cali Lewis and John P. meetupin Harvard Square was really like
2. OpenVPN - free way to safely use mobile device, even if far from home, got the ESXi version of the OpenVPN appliance working with iOS client, even with DDNS
3. Support your favorite blog, with a one-time, two-minute setup, then there’s nothing to remember or do special when you shop:
   TinkerTry.com/amazonaffiliatelink
4. Winter preparedness: generators, safety of gas cans, and UPSs
5. ESXi 5.5 rebuild success this morning (60 day trial ran out), <90 minutes total, including:
   getting my ASMedia SATA3 ports on mobo working again
   getting my Realtek NICs on mobo working again
   getting USB 3.0 pass through to VMs workinglenovo
   RAID5 health monitoring is next, tell story about failure during my limbo
6. Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials rebuild plans, what a pain
   (but has been true for every home server, no upgrade path)
7. fun with RAID arrays (a drive was disconnected, reconnected it, array health restored)
8. nice little Startech.com USB 3.0 to gigabit adapters
9. USB 3.0 hubs (Anker models are a cut above, and cost a bit more!)
10. USB 3.0 “docks” like the Lenovo USB 3.0 Dock I’ve used extensively
    newer smaller models might suit Surface better, giving extra video ports
    see DisplayLink store
11. my latest LED bulb adventure
12. our new TiVo Roamio with 3TB drive I upgraded (saving ~$40)
    streams to iPad outside home, backlit remote with keyboard
13. BYOB 134, briefly revisit major bandwidth boost, requiring new router and cablemodem
    talk about CDNs like Akamai (90Mbps) versus straight MSDN download (10-20Mbps)
    (can make a huge difference for VMware downloads, for example)
14. Local Hartford VMUG visit today, which gave me a quick look at HP corporate Windows 8 devices in various form factors, the corporate stuff that isn't at local retailers like Best Buy, Staples, or Sam’s Club/Walmart