Sam the Rhino Iguana

Growing like a weed.

Are Bromeliads safe for iguanas?

I'm trying to find out if Bromeliads are safe for Iguanas. I haven't seen them on any of the standard "non-toxic" lists. I assume they are ok because I've seen them used in amphibian setups, however, the main difference is that iguanas may try to ingest the plant, whereas dart frogs just live in it. Anyone have any input?

BTW, the species of Bromeliads I'm thinking about are the non spiney variety found in Florida.

My acquisition from Repticon

I'm not the kind of guy who keeps dozens of reptiles at a time. I really only want one lizard that I can care for and train and watch develop into a really cool pet. I've been wanting to keep a Rhinoceros Iguana again for a long time, but I've been holding off for several reasons. The biggest reason was that I had my Savannah Monitor. I put a lot of time and energy into training him and bulking him up. Well, I found someone locally who REALLY wanted a Savannah and had a huge enclosure ready for him. Usually I would have turned them down, but I've been thinking lately that I want to have a lizard that my kids can handle. They are constantly asking if they can pet the Savannah. Even though I have him tamed way down from where he was when I got him, he's still unpredictable (just like any monitor) and I can't trust him around the kids.

Anyway, my Savannah has a great home now and I picked up this little guy at the Repticon show last Saturday. He's a pure Rhino Iguana (Cyclura Cornuta) just like the big one I used to have. As soon as my son saw him, he told me that his name was Sam. So that's his name now. He's eating veggies like a champ and he's quickly learning his way around the big enclosure. He spends most of the day either sunning himself under the heat lamp or eating. He's still a little skittish, but that will change as he gets older. The important thing is that he's going to make a really great pet for the kids to be around. I'm looking forward to it. I picked the one with the biggest horns. He has a nice row of horns above each nostril and one right in the middle, so he'll probably end up with at least 5.

Anybody ever set up a Linux DVR system?

I've been using GB-PVR on Windows for my DVR system for years and it has worked really well for me. Just recently, Windows crashed on me so I decided this was a great opportunity to try something new. I have installed Ubuntu 9.1 on my DVR system (which runs effing great of course) and I've just installed MythTV. Haven't had a chance to test it yet, but I thought I'd give it a go. Anybody else have any other recommendations other than MythTV? Below are the hardware specs I'm working with. As you can tell, the system has been around for a while so I can't run any super-high-end DVR softwares, but it works great for my purposes.

• AMD Athlon 1800+
• 1 GB memory
• 30GB main OS drive
• 80GB data/video drive
• DVD-Rom
• Hauppauge PVR-150 capture card
• ATI video card (can't remember which one)

Ralph Davis's clutch #4 of 2009

Awesome.