Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
Technology
This is the good stuff that makes the world go round.
When Malware Attacks, I Should Listen
Nov 25th
When your computer begins to slow down and then do strange things, you really do need to pay close attention because it is trying to tell you something. In my case Vista was attempting to communicate in a very inept way that it had been attacked by some malware and was in the process of going down the drain.
First I noticed the hard drive LED flashing rapidly all the time. Next I found that the machine wouldn’t stay in sleep mode any longer. Browser windows would pop open for no good reason. It was time to make a trip to More >
Last.fm integration for streaming radio sites
Oct 20th
I was in a mood today to make my music listening habits a bit more social, but I found that my two current music services, Pandora and Slacker, don’t naively support sending data to Last.fm. No problem, I thought, some enterprising hacker out there has solved this problem already. Right I was, and now you too can have the scrobble ability if you use these two services AND also use Firefox with them:
- Pandora plug-in for Firefox: get it here
- Slacker script for Greasemonkey: copy from here
So long as Firefox continues to be friendly with these plug-ins I’ll be using them to share the More >
The Continuing Sadness that is the HR20
Aug 3rd
It has been almost a year since I was forced to give up my wonderful HD-Tivo box for the “improved” DirecTV version called the HR20. Since I’ve had the box I’ve needed to make a lot of adjustments, but one new adjustment just isn’t sitting well with me: lock ups and reboots once per week.
You see, DirecTV doesn’t seem to understand the concept of QA or beta testing. Whenever they get a new update for the software inside the HR20 they just push it out the door to millions of customers. For anyone that has ever gotten a bad update More >
Retail Rip-Off: HDMI cables
Mar 22nd
If you have a new HDTV set and are looking to hook up some glorious Blu-ray or PS3 goodness you know that you will have to run to the store and purchase one special component not bundled with any device shipping in quantity: an HDMI cable.
Unlike the days of old when you could run into your local Radio Shack and pickup whatever cheap cables they had on hand and make the new device work, in today’s digital era you are treated the one of the greatest fleecings in modern retail sales history. You see, Monster, the cable provider of over-priced More >
The Hoopty DTV Antenna
Dec 15th
If someone ever wanted to know what lengths I would go to in order to get high def TV programming, this is it. With a large helping of PVC pipe, fittings, caps, a half mile of coax, an indoor FM antenna, a UHF/VHF combiner, some bolts, wing nuts, washers and a bonafide real antenna (DB2) I have produced this monster eyesore on my patio deck.
It points toward Sutro Tower where most of the Bay Area’s HDTV transmission antennas are located and it doesn’t do half bad, considering I’m more than 50 miles away. It’s reasonably weatherproof and it doesn’t cost More >
AT&T / Cingular: The Final Insult
Oct 1st
Today, as if things weren’t just swell enough (said with tongue firmly in cheek) AT&T ships me a bill for cellular service that took place in September. Funny how they conveniently forgot that I canceled that service on September 3rd. Funnier still, seeing as because their deliberate degrading of the wireless network knocked me completely offline for the entire month of August and most of July.
The sad part is that they wanted another $40 just to part company with them, even though I had already done all the paperwork at the store back on September 3rd. After a lot of More >
Enough Already! Calm Down Apple Fanboys
Sep 5th
I realized today, for about the hundredth time, that there is just way too much hype, marketing, and slickness and not enough reality around Apple and its products (and storied product launches). I mean for crying out loud, this is a computer company that is at 5% world wide market share. 5%! To put that into perspective, how much do you care about Via’s CPU’s (about 1% share), SiS’s GPU’s (about 3% share), or Polaroid’s HDTV’s (about 4% share). These are all examples of others who play third fiddle in their respective markets, just like Apple does in the PC More >
AT&T Sucks (and so I'm done with them)
Sep 3rd
I finally found the final straw, the thing that sent me over the edge and made me get rid of AT&T after so many years of suffering. AT&T (the wireless provider) decided that…
1. my phone no longer will work on their network
2. that my calling plan is not what they want to provide any longer
3. that the new plan they wish to offer should cost much more
4. that I should pay for both a new phone AND a two year contract for the privilege of keeping their company
This, then, would be the final chapter in the long and torrid tale More >
The "Fun" That is Windows Media Center and Xbox 360
Nov 4th
Recently I went through a setup related exercise for work where I needed to get a Windows Media Center PC to talk to a Media Center Extender. An extender in Microsoft’s view is a device that attaches to a TV and enables interacting with a Media Center UI without the PC actually having to be in the same room as the TV. There have been a few of these devices shipping for a couple of years so I thought this would be a cakewalk. Boy was I wrong, really wrong.
I spend nearly two hours hooking up the Media Center PCs More >
Google Picasa Web Album
Jun 20th
I had a chance today to fiddle around with yet another Google beta product: Picasa Web Albums. It is the best demo yet of a blend of local (PC based) applications and web site integration with AJAX.
What this all means is that you can add photos from a web page, from an application, or from an email to your photo album any time you want. It’s pretty nifty. Take a look at the progress so far.