Of course, my Time-Warner cable box is Linux-based, but closed to hacks. My answer to all this was to get a Mac Mini. It's now setup, wirelessly connected to the office server, etc. While the user interface is confusing :-), the functionality is all there. I've even programmed the new remote control to manage the Mac iLife application.
In other news, I've upgraded to the Treo 755p with EV-DO access. I'm still impressed at the Palm interface (even more so than the Mac). I've had an ever expanding Palm contact list and calendar from about 1996, and every new Palm I've moved to has just sync'd and managed that data transfer and application re-installs seamlessly.
Can there be any more absurd idea to be displayed in IEEE Spectrum than the Coleman "Powerworks" power inverter for cars (Resources, Nov 2007)?? Granted, there are by now myriad devices accompanying our auto trips which require electrical support. But there's something drastically wrong with this picture - the engine's alternator generates A/C, that's converted to DC to recharge the battery and is distributed to a cigarette lighter -- a cigarette lighter -- into which we're supposed to insert a cigar-shaped plug to send DC power to an A/C inverter into which we plug our laptops DC power converter. That doesn't seem like sound engineering - it's more like Edison and Tesla are still fighting it out in the backseat of my car.
What's wrong with a simple DC distribution network in our cars, with standard, simple, small, purpose-built DC plugs, into which we can directly plug laptops, music players, GPS units, cell phones, DVD players, tablet PCs, and PDAs?
We've pretty much banned cigarette smoking in cars anyway; why not get rid of this vestigal infernal hack and put in place a professionally engineered electical system? That sounds like a job for the IEEE.
(and then we can put the same thing under my desk!)
And for UNIX-philes, they even have the Lions' Commentary on UNIX book available.
Microsoft announces a new product, and, like an idiot, I run off and install it. Windows Live is a local app designed to make publishing easier. We'll see....it seems to have discovered automagically that I'm using MovableType; ahhh, and it even found the 'categories' I've set up. Next stop, reviews on my todo list: Superman Returns (thumbs up), The Breakup (thumbs horizontal), and others.
update: wow, when software works, it's neato.
Radia: Mother of the Internet. That’s kind of a strange marketing sound bite. I cringe when people emphasize my gender, because it's really a very small part of my life, especially my professional life. Recently a recruiter for a company sent me e-mail saying "We are particularly interested in you as a female thought leader." I didn't reply, because I wasn't interested in a job, but I fantasized replying: "Thank you for your interest. Although my credentials as a thought leader are impeccable, I must warn you that I am not that qualified as a female. I can't walk in heels, I have no clothing sense, and I'm not particularly decorative. What aspects of being female are important for this position?"
Let me know if you sense any problems with your calls. Of course, if IP traffic is really broken, you better send complaints via snail-mail.
Update:
20 Feb 2006 - a few hour outage for incoming calls. Outgoing calls unaffected. Customer support was pretty quick about this, buy saying only that the problem was with their "upstream service provider".
(Actually, the reason I haven't posted is that I've just been lazy)
Spyware is either cookies or executable code which "enhances" ones browsing experience. In my case, this included changing my toolbars, intercepting Google queries, and adding extra links to pages (e.g. "car" and "loan" linked to advertisers).
Some of this spyware was particularly vicious. Certain executables really messed up accessing the net -- even trying to find spyware antidotes. I finally picked up Spy Sweeper and that was able to fix most of the damage. Even so, registry keys from ipend have been difficult to get rid of.
Among the nasty stuff was adware from:
Then, Monday evening, I was hit with the Sasser virus. Windows unhelpfully kept informing me that the lsass.exe exited and that therefore a reboot was necessary. Luckily, after a few reboots I was able to get the antidote.
Useful tools:
I've finally fixed the icons. If you're interested, some were found at Icon Archive
Icons Tree looks good too.
And Icon Town is over the top.
Just replace my old-fashioned digital cable box with a DVR - a tivo-like recordable cable box. Has all the old functions (video-on-demand, etc) plus the ability to record up to 30 hours of video on an internal hard-drive.
So far, thumbs up. I got home with it, plugged it in, turned it on, started
watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- and hit the record button.
No troubles, I can now watch that classic cartoon as much as I want.
Next, I went to the normal on-screen program guide, scrolled over to 11:30pm, selected "Late Night With David Letterman", and hit the record button. Up pops a window to ask if I want to record the one show or, the option I was looking for, the entire series. Next morning, the show is there for me to watch.
Watching is easy: Hit the "List" button and up pops a menu of all the recorded shows. Select one and watch.
Downside: the response time from the cable box is quite a bit slower than with the previous digital cable box (which was slower than the previous analog box).
As the system is (I think) constantly decoding the video stream and preparing to write the stream to disk in case you want to "pause" live TV, then switching channels takes more time. Must learn to be more patient....
more to come.