The Middle

After picking up my Powerbook, I took the opportunity to convert my primary x86 box to a full-time MythTV box. For those not in the know, MythTV is "Turn my computer into a Tivo" software. There are a lot of extra functions, notably viewing other video files, viewing pictures, and playing music, but it's at heart primarily a PVR.

This was all well and good, and I've used the machine off and on for watching TV recordings or shows from other sources, but I've just been unimpressed with the lack of polish and abundance of hassle with MythTV. That, an apt-get update crisis this past weekend, and the Scoble kool-aid have got me seriously considering a switch to the new Windows Media Center 2005 Edition.

Yes, Microsoft is evil, yadda yadda, but the new MCE sure is pretty. And it works. And works quite well, according to the various communities that have sprung up around it. It would basically be a $120 upgrade, just to purchase the OS, as I've got all the hardware already.

Well, the important hardware, at least. As a side note, I've come to the conclusion that I need a 'silent' extender for my x86 digital media hub. Having 3Ghz's of P4 action and half a terabyte of storage in any room other than an office is quite a loud proposition. In either case, an Xbox could serve this purpose (although that still entails some noise). Barring that, I could get a fancy silent Media Center Extender for $250 on the MCE side of things, or cope with the pain of trying to build myself a silent custom job if I wanted to stick with MythTV. Or a Mac Mini. Mmm....Mini.

Is there a terrible imbalance in terms of features? Not from where I'm standing. The Windows MCE option has some artificial ceilings that I'd never hit, such as a limit of 5 extenders. I only have one TV, and one stereo, and they're already right next to each other. Preliminary research indicates the MCE option will play all of the video formats I'm likely to run into (it'll play my bittorrent downloads). The primary lacking features I see are the ability to transcode the video files to a smaller size and auto-tagging and skipping of commercials. These are MythTV killer features, and it's a shame MS has too many lawyers around to let them include the same features. But, I do get a 30-second skip, and hard drives are free, so these don't concern me much.

Is the cost a huge factor? Not really, no. While of course ever-wary of MS, it certainly seems worth the C-note to get the upgrade in ease of use, cheap extensibility, and quality of the interface. Could MS someday force a $500 upgrade on all users? Sure, they could. And MythTV would get a million downloads that day. God bless open source.

The features are (mostly) there, the industry support for plug & play extenders is there, the third party extensions/new features are there, and the cost isn't a factor, so what's stopping me from pulling the trigger?

DRM.

I absolutely loathe DRM. It's the scum of the earth that has the honor of sitting below software patents on the "corporate evil" scale. I have never, ever pulled a TV show that I've recorded from my MythTV box and put it on the internet, handed it out to everyone at work, or broadcast it in a public place for free. I don't have a need to do any of those things.

But I could.

And that's the rub. The MS solution will let me transfer shows to an approved WMP 10 device, or a laptop, or watch it through my media extender. But can I transfer the latest show to my Powerbook for a plane trip? Didn't think so. That's the only conceivable restriction I can come up with, and a feature of MythTV that I've used exactly zero times.

But I could.

In the end, my fever-pitch of curiousity will no doubt lead to me picking up a license and at least trying it out, if only to fall back on MythTV shortly thereafter (the mere fact that a technology exists and I haven't used it is often sufficient to warrant a purchase). The DRM issue will likely end up in the same boat as iTunes. Evil, but not evil enough to stop me from enjoying the product (not to mention likely easily circumvented by utility XYZ). Then again, perhaps I'll get some religion and decide to fall back to MythTV for moral superiority.

I hate settling for things that don't work as well as they should.

Hmm...gonna hold off on that xbox

File under "Hilarious Dorks with too much freetime and a digital camcorder": SEQUENTIAL Pictures \\ Star Wars Episode 3: A Lost Hope [Revenge of the Sith spoof trailer]

What is wrong in the world when I can't but an Xbox from either Amazon.com or Best Buy?? Anyone? Anyone?

Monkey Media Report - February 2005

Brad Templeton introduces the concept of the Telepathic User Interface, and names some examples, such as the keyboard, videogames, and the automobile. The idea describes an interface that is so dead simple, or so oft-repeated, that it attains 'telepathic' status, requiring little to zero thought. He goes so far as to extend the keyboard 'TUI' to often include everyday CLI tools. I know for a fact I can type 'ls -al', 'less file<TAB>', etc, all blindly and without any thought going into what I'm doing, but I think that's a stretch for the more complex (and less repeated) commands. Which was the whole point, one would think.

Why don't all designers strive for this? Is this really that novel of a concept? People often aim to achieve interfaces that are 'easy' or 'intuitive', but why not go whole-hog and shoot for invisible or 'telepathic'?

What other interfaces reach this user-machine nirvana? Your iPod? The beer mug? Your TV Remote?

This just can't be a solid driving principle

There's a new experimental Triangle Blog Aggregator up, pretty cool. Could use some RSS auto-discovery, but other than that, a very cool addition. Subscribed.

And on the notion of Raleigh Meetups, it would seem that they already exist, and have been going on for some time now. Next up is March 16, so start thinking of interesting things to say now.

Okay, Josh has decided that we should take care of some Raleigh meetups to mirror the Chapel Hill crowd. I'm in. We can't let Anton have all the fun.

So, I'm going to talk to Josh and we'll throw something together. Are there actually many Raleigh folks out there who'd be interested in a meetup? And the Cary crowd? Let me know. Josh and I see each other all the time, so we don't really need an excuse to get together.

"Jesus Mother of Fuck, what are you thinking! Do not strap the 'Groupware' albatross around your neck! That's what killed Netscape, are you insane?" - jwz

Series FINALE!?!

Hmm...it's already out that the show's been picked up for a ninth season, but with the changes in this and the coming episode, is a renaming/rebranding in order?

Yes, I was in the U.K. watching TV this evening.

And yes, I really, truly am that much of a dork.

Later sanity check: Is 'Series' one of those words that means one thing in the U.S.A. and something totally different in the U.K.? Like 'chips'?

Later, Later sanity confirmation: Yeah, U.K. "series" == US "season". Phew. Last Stargate Super-dork post, promise.

Strange but true, once in a while my dad and I have a blogging intersection.

In this post, he raves about the 'new' Yahoo! desktop search feature. I say 'new' because was seemingly more of a Yahoo! purchase than a Yahoo! development. A very Redmond-esque move, but nobody seems to have noticed. But hey, when you take a $100 product and make it free, people likely won't complain too much.

I uninstalled my google desktop search software some time ago when I discovered they were doing automatic, zero user-notification software updates, which really bugs me. Google Search is a web application, they control when it's updated/changed/removed. Google Desktop Search is a desktop application, on my desktop, and therefore I control when it's update/changed/removed. A simple checkbox, enabled by default, would've worked, fellas. Anyway, I now have to go out and give the new Yahoo! entry a try based on Dad's recommendation.

Of course, what I'm really waiting for is Spotlight.

Is Anton mocking Charlotte or just trying to get them started? Blog Together.

And the new weekly meetups have a blog now. I think Anton is really serious about this stuff. Raleigh? Durham? Cary? Speak now or forever drive out to Chapel Hill once a week.

Want to get in touch with me? Select the most appropriate method...

Sadly, not the reclusive billionaire.

I'm a twenty-something guy living a relocated life in Raleigh, North Carolina. I grew up in the booming metropolis that is Wadsworth, Ohio, a suburb of Akron and Cleveland. After attending Case Western Reserve University, with a little stint out in Folsom (for Intel, not the prison, thanks), I moved to RTP to work for IBM.

I've moved around a bit, as most people do, and currently find myself working for the 'Special Events' team. When IBM does the websites and scoreboards for a huge tennis or golf event, and releases tons of marketing info about it touting the use of Linux or some other cool technology? That's my team.

When I'm not at work, I'm likely sitting in front of a computer working on some pet project, or hopefully out riding my bike.

But more than likely, the computer. The darn things just get me excited, what can I say?

Update 05/16/05: (Because my employer's army of lawyers intimidates me)

The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.

Old, outdated, and overly verbose about page here

Now it's time for weekly meetups: Triangle Bloggercon: next steps But Wednesday nights are no good for me. Here's hoping the Raleigh/Cary folks go with some other day...

I think I would be breaking some unwritten rule of blogging if I failed to mention the Bloggers Conference that I attended this past weekend, so here we go.

Things started off pretty simply, with intros, thanks all around, and all the usual fluff. We then got a long description of how to drive traffic to your site via the magic of (A)saying something interesting, (B)a lot, (C)for a long time. K.I.S.S., I suppose. Throw in the obligatory Long Tail and Eason Jordan references, and you've got the perfect recipe for an introduction to blogging.

Ed Cone then got up and shared a lot with the audience, including an even K.I.S.S-er method for generating massive traffic: Porn! (What can I say, the man's a visionary). In all seriousness, Ed had some good stuff to say, especially along the lines of generating traffic as well as good will through antiquated techniques like email and phone calls to interested parties. All in all, Ed really ran a lot of the conference, and was extremely good at it as well. He was very well prepared, had a lot of common stories and friends from Greensboro at hand to use as examples, and pretty much showed all of the RTP types what to strive for in community-building efforts. (Please don't let it get out that I said something nice about Greensboro, it would ruin my reputation)

Things wrapped up with a Q&A with Dan Gillmor, author of the recent We the Media. Dan really just facilitated the discussion that followed, and led it back and forth around the role of professional media moving forward into the future. Interesting times ahead for folks that do reporting/journalism for a living, should be fun to watch.

The Bob Young, Dan Gillmor, Sam Ruby, and other 'celebrity' folks were all nice to see, but the biggest shock was Walter, a former office teammate of mine. I had no idea he was into the scene, but wasn't all that shocked when it came to light. He got some good laughs when I relayed the tale of my previous encounter with the GSO bloggers, and was even willing to sit near me, fearless of the impending throttling they would no doubt unleash upon me. Turns out they all got over that debacle pretty quickly, or just didn't recognize me. Either way, a win for Walter, as Ed had a much bigger posse than me.

Sadly, I had to skip the various lunches afterwards, as I had some last minute shopping to take care of, but I assume a good time was had by all in the lovely spring-like Chapel Hill sunshine.

New and improved - Experimental del.icio.us Posting Interface Thing Generator. Gotta love history, recommended, and popular tags.

Please have an intervention for me long before I ever end up on a page like this: "Women will get sterile just looking at you."

House approves electronic ID cards

Un-fucking-believable.

I know we have an incumbant national ID card in the form of driver's licenses already, but legitimizing it and requiring a massive central data store is mind-boggling. When does everyone get an RFID tag in their arm? An HD-telescreen? Is Hate Week coming soon? Soma?

I could at least get behind some Soma.

Un-fucking-believable.

Until about 20 minutes ago, I thought I had accumulated a good deal of Star Wars "stuff" in my life. Then, I stumbled across the Star Wars Collections page. Holy shit, that's a lot of stuff. Personal photos of collections from people all over the world. And I mean collections in the 'museum display' sense of the word, not the 'I loved Star Wars when I was growing up' sense of the word.

Feel free to browse and be shocked and amazed, but be sure not to miss this guy's spread. Wow, two custom rooms, modeled to look like the inside of a ship, filled to the brim with what can only be described as "untold thousands of dollars contributed to George Lucas".

And yeah, I found this little gem devouring news about the upcoming Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (less than 100 days away!). I'm hopeless, I know.

I've mentioned before that bloglines has completely reinvented the way I use the internet, and J$ was kind enough to write down a conversation we've had at least 11 times, so I just had to link to it: The 3 Stages of the Internet.

The days of 'surfing' are over. Trust me on this one, let the internet come to you.

An excellent idea to bring up at this weekend's Triangle Bloggers Conference, Beercasting! Thanks for the great idea, J$!

God as my witness, I will learn the difference between the assignment (=) and equality (==) operators sometime before I die. Man, that's annoying.

When I was a little kid, the only time I ever got to stay home from school was my annual Strep Throat infection that would hit me almost every spring. The good thing about strep was that you'd feel better in about 24 hours, but the doctor would always make you stay home for 2-3 days to avoid spreading the disease to all of your little classmates. Sadly, when I was about 11 or 12, my annual infections ceased, and then I had to go to school every day until I graduated from high school. Not that I skipped any classes in college.

Fast forward fifteen years. All of a sudden spring is upon us in beautiful NC (current temperature: 69 degrees) and I haven't been able to breathe around the two softballs lodged in either side of my throat for 2 days. Now, I'm not much of a beleiver in modern medicine, but I reluctantly decided that a trip to the local voodoo medicine man was in order. This was something of a big deal for me, as I haven't gone to a doctor for something that didn't involve broken bones or stitches in many, many years. Likely not since my last strep throat infection at the ripe old age of 12 or so. Heck, I figured I might even get a good leeching or an eye-of-newt remedy out of the deal.

Fortunately, my doc had a local high priestess in his office who was able to confirm that the diminutive demons in my throat were indeed the aforementioned streptococcal bacteria in only about half an hour. My curse returns! Fortunately, the old wive's tale remedy of "antibiotics" is actually a pretty well-proven method of fighting this particular ailment.

In a new twist, I was offered a choice for my application of an overdose of penicillin. Choice one was ten days worth of drugs, of which I would take maybe one or two days worth, if I even bothered to stop at the pharmacy to fill the prescription at all. Choice two was a horse-shot of penicillin directly in the ass. Sort of the ultimate "One-shot deal". Clearly, I took the shot of magic juice rather than the ten days of placebos.

Turns out they call it a "horse-shot" for a reason: That's a lot of fluid, a lot of needle, and it is likely you will experience some "mild discomfort". But, I've been told that I'll be feeling better within 24 hours or so, and unable to spread this little beast shortly after that.

The choice quote from my higly-trained and over-educated physician? "Wow, that's nasty". Of course, this is the same guy that said to me at my last visit, upon confirming that my ankle was broken, "I told you exercise was bad for you." It's a wonder the guy doesn't write medical textbooks.

It's file management abilities are somewhat suspect as the only sort option is 'filesize', but Disk Inventory X is a great way to waste an hour staring at all those files that eat up your hard disk space. I found a lot of stuff that I didn't realize was even still on my disk.

The coolest feature is zooming around into folders and checking out what's eating all that space. Sure, du can accomplish the same thing, but it's great to be able to zoom around your filesystem, discovering where all those gigs and gigs have gone. Mostly MP3's (red) and movies (blue), in my case.

Let me guess...J$? Who Links Here. Gotta love stupid web tricks.

Gnubbs is back on the blogging wagon! And he finely got a cool kid membership card

Is this claim of a Bloglines acquisition for real?

What about laser-trageted ads? What happens to my subscription list? How filthy stinking rich is Marc Fletcher now?

Then again, if I was going to set up a new blog, and I wanted to link to popular blogs and blog searches, using bloglines functionaliy for that seems like a pretty natural choice. Maybe it's nothing more than that.

What about the much-hyped uber-transparency of blogs? Wouldn't an acquisition of this nature be immediately posted by Fletcher himself? Don't you think this would warrant an entry on the new Ask Jeeves blog?

I'm going under the impression it's nothing but a set of links for now. I don't want to think that bloglines, which has completely reinvented the way I use the internet, got bought by some lame company like askjeeves.

Update: Russel states the obvious. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that refreshes "like a crack monkey looking for the next hit".

This is what I've always needed, something that I can't blindly turn off in the morning: Jigsaw Puzzle Alarm Clock

First off, Google does not want to build it's own browser based on the Firefox code. What in the world is 'wrong' with Firefox that would give them a good reason to do this? Firefox is a giant locomotive going downhill with a full head of steam. Why would Google release another browser today, and start at 0% market share and no momentum, when they can simple push firefox fiercely, and start at 6-7% with a running head start?

Those Google folks know a good thing when they see it, and they aren't stupid enough to throw this one away. What they are smart enough to do, however, is keep some key folks close to the vest, and work on greater and greater inegration with their services in the main Firefox releases (the default search bar was just a drop in the pond compared to what's coming).

So what is coming, you ask? Well, we got a nice hint today from Blake Ross:

My question to you is this: pretend that the Mozilla Foundation had at its disposal anything in the world. Pretend it has access to Amazon’s databases, or eBay’s, or Google’s or iTunes’. Forget that Firefox is just client-side software right now, and imagine that the Foundation could build a massive server-side component to complement it.

Oh wait! It does have access to Google's databases. And Google's stash of a couple billion dollars too! It would certainly help if Google knew anything about that whole "massive server-side component" thing...

Google wants a browser that gives them the same level of default integration that MS gets with IE and MSN Search. Not an entirely unfair request. For now, that browser is Firefox. If that project should go in some other direction in the future, then they always have the option of releasing a tweaked verion. Now if we could just get Firefox on every win32 desktop by defalt...