My Computer 22 | ***Dave Does the Blog

I shouldn’t show this to Margie

An article about how TiVo is running some peoples’ lives ragged. “For something that is supposed to be relaxing and unwinding at the end of the day, you (think) ‘Wow!…

An article about how TiVo is running some peoples’ lives ragged.

“For something that is supposed to be relaxing and unwinding at the end of the day, you (think) ‘Wow! I have a lot of shows to watch,'” said Scott Bedard, technology director at an online media company in San Francisco. “Will I ever catch up?” he worries aloud.
[…] Like an ever-growing stack of magazines on a coffee table, the TiVo glut promises many enjoyable hours of entertainment. But the sheer amount is also overwhelming.
Many TiVo users say they bought the device thinking it would allow them to take greater control of their TV watching. Instead, they find themselves burdened with another obligation in their already filled day.
Kevin Coto, a financial systems consultant in New York City, can relate. “I get to the point now where I skip going to the gym so I can keep up with watching “Dawson’s Creek” reruns,” which are broadcast for two hours each day, he said. “I look forward to when they end so I won’t be stressed.”

The reference article in BoingBoing makes the same case.

When I first got my TiVo, having a lot of programming on the drive felt like someone had done me a large favor; but over time, it felt almost like a nag: here’s all this “work” I’ve got piled up for you to do.

It notes, though:

Of course, this isn’t specific to TiVo — any PVR has this effect, as does an RSS reader, mail reader and so on: the unread/unwatched/undealt-with flags that define my life multiply, and my personal time does not.

Which is an interesting point. I have folders with dozens, hundreds, even thousands of unread e-mail messages, stuff I hate to get rid of because maybe there’s something there I would enjoy, or because it would take too much effort to sift through.

The upside of the information revolution means we have more info than we know what to do with; the downside is that we have more info than we know what to do with.

Phone-y Baloney

I guess I am way too old-fashioned. Taking a Harris Online poll as to what features I use on my cell phone: – Additional connectivity (Infrared port, USB port, Bluetooth,…

I guess I am way too old-fashioned. Taking a Harris Online poll as to what features I use on my cell phone:

– Additional connectivity (Infrared port, USB port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi)
– Send and receive SMS messages (short text messages)
– Built-in speakerphone
– Use phone to listen to music/MP3 player/FM radio
– Send and receive email
– Synchronize email, contacts, calender
– Instant messaging
– Downloadable ring tones/screensavers
– Receive text alerts (e.g., sports, news, stocks)
– Games (pre-existing on the device)
– Downloadable programs (Java/Brew applications)
– Color screen
– View and pay bills from phone
– Access the Internet/Look at Web pages
– Touch screen
– International roaming capabilities
– Multimedia messaging service (e.g., personalized message, voice or email, with enhanced images and sound)
– Voice activated dialing
– Location based service (GPS)
– Address book (e.g., handset contains addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.)
– Memory expansion
– Calender/Date book
– Integrated TV
– Push-to-talk (2-way radio/walkie-talkie capabilities)
– Camera
– I primarily use my phone just to make/receive calls.

I just checked off the last one. Jeez.

Golden opportunity? Or wildly frustrating money pit?

We received some “junk mail” today for “high-speed Internet access” from Suburban Broadband. Hmmmmm. – Faster than comparably priced DSL. – Less expensive than a cable modem. – Equal uploadnand…

We received some “junk mail” today for “high-speed Internet access” from Suburban Broadband.

Hmmmmm.

– Faster than comparably priced DSL.
– Less expensive than a cable modem.
– Equal uploadnand download speeds.
– VPN support – static IP address.
– No phone line or cable TV required.
– No satellite dish or rooftop antenna.
– Installed in 10 days or less.

“And it’s delivered by pigs with wings!”

No, but seriously, it appears that the company deploys non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband. It’s a Castle Rock start-up; they began in Castle Pines (the chi-chi community to the south of us that almost got all burnt up) and are now expanding to the Denver metro area. They use Waverider’s NLOS solution, which is a 900MHz broadband that can be antennaed inside (in theory).

The packages are reasonably priced, it seems — especially compared to the local lack of broadband. $38/mo for 384k up/down, plus $6/mo for the modem, including access to extra computers and a static IP. With the limited time offer, we get two months free and free install ($100 value, sh’yeah right), in exchange for an 18 month commitment. Compare that to $44/mo for Comcast cable broadband, 1.5M down/256k up — plus equipment fees.

The reviews (which are limited) are pretty positive.

I’m torn. I hate that much of a commitment up front. On the other hand, I hate our 42k dial-up. It may be cool to get in on the relative ground floor, but it may also mean that service may dip in the future. No external antenna is cool, but 900MHz is also the range of most of our wireless phones and our wireless speakers, but 900MHz seems to be the best for NLOS from what I read.

Hmmm.

That whole “I hate our 42k dial-up” weighs pretty heavily in here.

Anyone have any words of wisdom here?

Faded photographs

Kids of the “PlayStation Generation” (9-12) were sat down and forced to play video games from my youth. The results were … wildly depressing, not to mention hilarious. EGM: This…

Kids of the “PlayStation Generation” (9-12) were sat down and forced to play video games from my youth.

The results were … wildly depressing, not to mention hilarious.

EGM: This game [Space Invaders] was so popular in Japan that—
John: They made it into a TV show?
EGM: Well, no. It was so popular that they ran out—
John: Oh, did they make collectible trading cards for it?
EGM: Um, no. It was so popular that there was a shortage of the coins used to play it.
John: But you can get this game on a cell phone. Why would you want to pay for it in an arcade?

(via SfAD)

Sync sank, sunk

‘Tis with heavy heart that I confirm the reports that BookmarkSync seems to be on its way to Davy Jones’ Locker, due to scurvy dogs and shivered timbers. Unable to…

‘Tis with heavy heart that I confirm the reports that BookmarkSync seems to be on its way to Davy Jones’ Locker, due to scurvy dogs and shivered timbers.

Unable to afford the many doubloons it would take to rebuild their once-proud craft, instead, they’re turning it into an open source/SourceForge project, that other upstanding types might create similar services. I’ll be sure and keep a weather eye out for such a start-up, as it’s been a fine voyage with this tool, and one I look forward to resuming.

Arrrggghhh.

Defaulting

I take my notebook computer back and forth from work to home. Becausem, well, that’s what I’m supposed to be able to do, right? Trouble is, at the office, I…

I take my notebook computer back and forth from work to home. Becausem, well, that’s what I’m supposed to be able to do, right? Trouble is, at the office, I print to this keen Xerox printer/copier monster, while at home I print to my little Samsung laser printer.

It so happens that I end up with two different hardware profiles — Docked and Undocked — between office and home. So I should be able to associate a given printer as the default with a given hardware profile.

Nuh-uh. XP don’t play that. Microsoft has never quite figured out how one-to-many solutions — one person to many computers, one computer to many persons, one computer to many locations — work quite right. Way too much of its OS is oriented around one person, one location, one PC. Which probably fits 80% of its target audience, but being in that 20% sucks.

So about six months ago or so, I found this little widget called ProfileLink, from Heptasoft. It lets you associate start-up programs with hardware profiles (“If I start with this profile, go ahead and fire up Outlook”), but, as important, it also remembers what you’ve set as the default printer in each profile, and saves that info to reapply it automatically when that profile is invoked again.

Problem is, it only works about 80% of the time. At least the default printer part.

I’ve been trying to get an update (there is one, according to all the shareware products) downloaded almost since then. Problem (a more fundamental problem) is, Heptasoft seems gone with the wind. First the page was “down for redesign.” Now it’s password protected.

No updates, or anything else, available.

So I guess the question is, does anyone else know of a clever widget to do this — associate a given default printer to a hardware profile — in XP? I can’t believe I’m the only person to have ever struggled with this, but it seems like everyone who has, ended up with ProfileLink.

*sigh*

Trace-y

Cool set of online network utiliies — pings, trace-routes, domain lookups, mail validations, etc. A useful thing to bookmark….

Cool set of online network utiliies — pings, trace-routes, domain lookups, mail validations, etc. A useful thing to bookmark.

Click

Our new camera, the Canon PowerShot S230, came in today. It’s about a year old, technology-wise (and, as mentioned earlier, is leaving the shelves even as we speak), but…

Our new camera, the Canon PowerShot S230, came in today. It’s about a year old, technology-wise (and, as mentioned earlier, is leaving the shelves even as we speak), but it uses our current investment in CF cards (and battery packs), and we liked our S110 plenty. The interface on it seems even better than the S110, so that’s all to the good, too.

Plus it comes with this picture of a really hot chick on the display, and … um, never mind.

Of course, it just missed the holiday weekend, dagnabbit.

“GIVE ME THE MAP …”

Two stories, one with a less-than-happy ending. On Monday night, we were going over to someone’s house we hadn’t been to before. I had their address, though, so I entered…

Two stories, one with a less-than-happy ending.

On Monday night, we were going over to someone’s house we hadn’t been to before. I had their address, though, so I entered it into MapQuest. 47 XYZ St., Englewood, CO 80111.

Problem is, I’d put the wrong city and ZIP into my address book. And there is no XYZ St. in Englewood, CO 80111.

Did MapQuest tell me that? No, it didn’t. Or, if it did, it wasn’t obvious.

Did MapQuest tell me it couldn’t find what I was looking for? Nope.

Instead, it put a nice red star in the geographical center of 80111.

Now, I didn’t see XYZ St. there on the map. But that’s not wildly unusual. I assumed it was only visible zoomed in further.

We drove to the wrong ZIP code, and then spend about ten minutes driving around, trying to find the mysterious XYZ St.

Then we used the old-fashioned book of maps, and drove where we were supposed to, half an hour late.

On a less pleasant note, a 911 dispatcher, relying on a new system that didn’t yet have all the streets entered into it, sent an ambulance to the wrong house.

When a 911 call comes from a residence into the Emergency Operating Center, the address and phone number are displayed on the telephone, Salley said. It is like caller identification, based on telephone records.
The dispatcher clicks a box on a computer monitor to transfer that information into the Computer Aided Dispatch system. That system was installed in March and does not yet have all information on Buncombe County roads, Salley said.
At that time, Briarcliff Lane was not in the system. The computer notified the dispatcher of that and asked if he meant Briarcliff Drive. The dispatcher indicated that Briarcliff Drive was the correct street.
That’s where the dispatcher erred, Salley said. When the Computer Aided Dispatch system indicates it doesn’t recognize a particular street, dispatchers are supposed to type the information into the old computer system, which has data on all Buncombe County streets.

The delay cost emergency response half an hour, and the attempted suicide died.

The lessons in both cases? Don’t blindly trust the computer mapping system — and, by the same token, don’t make assumptions about what it’s asking or telling you.

Weekend round-up

Lazy, crazy, hazy days … Doyce’s Star Wars “Prince of Alderaan” campaign came to a crashing halt on Friday, just hours before the game was to begin. He was kind…

Lazy, crazy, hazy days …

Doyce’s Star Wars “Prince of Alderaan” campaign came to a crashing halt on Friday, just hours before the game was to begin. He was kind enough to forward the players a synopsis of What Was Going To Happen in the remaining sessions. Pity — there were some scenes in there I’d have given money to see. And I’d just mapped out how Dag was going to end up prestiging into Privateer. Ah, well.

Instead, the Testerfolk and Randy came over to our house, we sat and chatted, and did some character design for Jackie’s Necropolis campaign. Is it just me, or is anyone else daunted by a campaign distributed as a thick, hard-cover tome. Eek.

Saturday morning and early afternoon somehow just slipped past us. Later afternoon and into the evening we had our Nobilis fix for the week, which was plenty fun.

Sunday, after the usual morning churn, I did up the game notes for Nobilis, then opened up the home theater box to start putting things together. Which is when I learned that it had no auxiliary audio inputs. Feh.

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking it back and hitting the local big boxes. Nothing seemed an automatic win. The runner-up, available in a number of places, is a Panasonic receiver, which has a built-in 5-disc DVD/CD changer. Since we already have one of those, I’m not sure we need another one, nor am I eager to be swapping between CDs and DVDs (it sounds organizationally nasty to me). On the other hand, it does have an Aux port that the current CD changer can plug into. Still, it’s a good $80-100 more than the RCA system, and one more incompatible remote; I wish I could find an RCA system a tick up from the one that won’t work for us.

More searching today.

We then swung past the Testerplace to pick up all the stuff we’d managed to leave behind the evening before when whisking a sleeping Katherine away, and ended up chewing an hour or two’s worth of additional time.

That was an unfortunate chew, because I’d gotten New Character Fever in the afternoon. My original plan for Necropolis had been a scaled-down gold dragon character (recycling Aughto from Rey’s abortive epic campaign). That was fun enough, but I was still fiddling with personality issues. Meanwhile, Margie had been considering a comment by Doyce that we could really use a ~~meat shield~~ powerful stand-up fighter sort. So she was going through Savage Species and looking at the anthropomorphics there.

Well, at first, that struck me as a shame, because the deva she’d come up with had some kick-ass abilities the party could use. And then the penny dropped, and I suddenly got a yen to run an anthropomorphic elephant barbarian sort. I do like simple, straightforward characters (mechanics-wise), and a large humanoid elephant wielding a mongo chopper of some sort qualifies quite nicely.

So I stayed up too late last night doing the initial write-up. Tsk. And decided quite early on that, yes, this is the character for me.

If nothing else, I can always open each meeting with a rousing rendition of “Colonel Hathi’s March.”

Tuesday

It’s This-or-That Tuesday….

It’s This-or-That Tuesday.

Continue reading “Tuesday”

My wife — I think I’ll keep her

So early this morning, being at home watching Katherine for the day, I started checking out some problems we’d been having with Margie’s PC. It’s been showing a lot of…

So early this morning, being at home watching Katherine for the day, I started checking out some problems we’d been having with Margie’s PC. It’s been showing a lot of Internet activity, and ZoneAlarm has been acting very flaky.

Well, long story short, I decided that we were getting some significant intrusions, quite probably the infamous UPnP attacks via TCP 5000 and UDP 1900 (and, boy, doesn’t that sound impressive?).

I screwed around with ZoneAlert for an hour or two, trying to plug the holes, then gave up and upgraded us to ZoneAlert Plus, which has, from what I can see, significantly better controls.

I then spent a large number of further hours, trying to get our home network working again, so that I could access the Internet from my machine. After getting quite tired of walking from one machine to another, I finally moved my notebook over next to Margie’s PC.

Ring-ring. It’s Margie, calling to say she’ll be on her way home soon. Huzzah. “How’s it going?” she asks.

I make various disgruntled noises.

She expresses her sympathy, wishes she could make things better, then runs off to another meeting.

And, hey presto, just like that, our PCs are talking.

The lesson here? If you have a technical problem, don’t call me. Call Margie. I’ve only got the job title. She has the magic.

On a Monday Mission from God

It’s the Monday Mission … (Doyce questions his feelings about these sorts of Q&A posts. I say … coolness. I like structure. Structure is my friend. As long as I…

It’s the Monday Mission …

(Doyce questions his feelings about these sorts of Q&A posts. I say … coolness. I like structure. Structure is my friend. As long as I can get two cents in about the structure, I am happy being a salaryman sort of dude. But that’s just me.)

1. When was the last time your computer crashed? What happened?

At least twice since late February. Check the archives. Mutter mutter mutter …

2. Recommend a movie (new or old) for us to watch.

Undercover Blues, a spy comedy starring Dennis Quaid and Kathleen Turner. Light, fun, and full of quotable lines.

3. When was the last time someone told you that you were attractive (and you actually believed them)?

My wife makes noises about that frequently. On that subject I abstain, courteously.

4. Do you like to sleep in or wake up with the chickens?

I am so much into sleeping in. Unless it means I don’t get home until late. Which is why I wake up early enough to get into the office by six-frelling-o’clock in the a.m. — and sleep on weekends (when left to my own devices) until 10 or 11 a.m.

5. Are you gay, straight or bi? Ever been tempted to go the other way?

I am quite straight, and have never had any serious temptation to swing in any other direction (nor reason to). But I don’t equate that particular aesthetic into a moral direction for the rest of the populace.

6. What will be the next computer-related purchase you will make?

Ooooh. Most likely something on the order of a game. Unless it’s a replacement printer, which would only happen if someone bought the quasi-lemon we recently purchased.

7. What is your role when you are in relationships? A giver, a taker, or is it an equal balance?

Hopefully a balance. I suspect I am something of a taker, net, but that might just be my guilty conscience. Margie would have to answer that one.

BONUS: Would I lie to you?

Now would I say something that wasn’t true? I’m asking you, sugar, would I lie to you?