Skip to content

Technology

Why I love Ubuntu

I installed Ubuntu on another computer today – my gaming box.

Threw in a 20 gig HD I had laying around, threw in the install disc, and 20 minutes later had a fully functioning dual-boot system.

This will enable me to get back to one of my goals – learning PHP and dedicating 2 nights a week to it. Pulled up synaptic, installed screem & bluefish, and I’m ready to go!

I even installed gnome-blog so I can blog to my hearts content right from my desktop.

In 20 minutes I had a fully functioning linux install, up to date with all security fixes, and patches necessary. Apt-get a few things, had MP3 working and I was surfing away.

My only 2 complaints: This brown theme does nothing for me, thoguh I love Gnome’s Industrial theme. And ran into my first major Ubuntu bug. I’m running an Intel 865 chipset board, using the onboard sound. Sound works in Gnome, but a few of the games I installed have no sound. Must be an ALSA / OSS thing. I tried installing a few ALSA plugins, but no luck yet. I’ll have to throw Doom3 or UT2k4 on here and see how it fares.

Upgrade Complete

I’ve upgraded the blog to WordPress 1.5 gamma. Used last night’s nightly build, and everything seems to work. There’s a few bugs in the admin section, but they’re just visual.

I’ll have to mess with the visual settings a little bit, the categories tree structure has been replaced by an alphabetical list which I don’t care for. Oddly enough, in the admin section it’s still in the tree form. Oh well.

Changed the theme. Was using Kubrick for WordPress 1.2 – and they made that the standard theme in 1.5! That just won’t do. So I downloaded ShadedGrey from WP-Themes.info.

Will have to play around with it a bit more, but so far so good.

Paper Sushi

The New York Times has an article up about Homaro Cantu (no registered required link!) who prints edible pictures of sushi on a Canon i560 inkjet printer and serves them to customers.

Mr. Cantu has a vision to make technology enhance the dining experience, including making food levitate, edible printouts (in 3d no less), and edible utensils.

Interesting stuff.

Comment Spam

The Comment Spam I’m getting is out of control. I mention the word “poker” in a post Friday, and I’ve had spam sites try to add over 500 comments in the last 48 hours. I’ve tweaked the site a bit, and even before that, I’ve been lucky enough that none of the comment spam has gotten through yet.

It’s quite annoying to have it all sit in the moderation queue though. Rumor is WordPress 1.3 will be out soonish. I’m hoping it has built-in spam comment control, otherwise it’s time to start looking at some plugins.

How annoying.

MythTV & Filesharing

The New York Times has a decent article up about MythTV, the Broadcast Flag, and Filesharing up. While it’s fairly high level, and some parts are wrong (Bittorrent letting you download a 1 hour show in minutes for example: I’ve downloaded plenty of TV shows and it’s not that fast, trust me) it’s not a bad article.

Even mentions the EFF and how they’re going to fight the Broadcast Flag, which may or may not put a stop to some of the filesharing. I agree with parts – I own Alias, 24, Sports Night, and every season of the Simpsons available on DVD. Purchased them and everything. I don’t mind buying TV I love (though it drives my wife crazy why I buy TV shows on DVD for shows I’ve already seen). But the government regulating even more the TV that comes over the air on what I can record, and how long it stays recorded for I start to have issues. It’s one thing if we’re talking about pay TV, say the Sopranos. But when I miss a week or two of 24, what is the issue if I download it?

If I miss an episode of 24, and I can’t download it, there is a good chance I am done watching for the season. Especially with serial shows like Lost, 24, Alias, and Desperate Housewives. Is it worth it to Big Media to not allow me to download and lose me as a customer for the entire season? I don’t think they always see the forest for the trees.

I’ll be buying a pcHDTV card for my MythTV box prior to July 1st when the Broadcast Flag goes in to effect. Maybe even two since hard drives are cheap now.

Endangered Gizmos

The EFF has launched a new campaign: Endangered Gizmos. As Big Media threatens innovation, reverse engineering, and freedom of invention, the EFF has put up a list of Extinct technology (/wave Replay, DVD-X-Copy), Endangered (HDTV Tuners, Open WiFi hotspots, MP3 players), and products that have been Saved in the court system (from the Betamax which begat VHS which begat DVD to printer cartridges).

Each product carries a link to more information, whether it’s the HDTV Broadcast Flag, information on the court cases that have saved innovation, or the history of the product itself.

This is why the EFF matters. It’s not just the court cases they wage every day, it’s the education they provide, like this, that everyone can understand, not just technophiles.

Go Go EFF!

What was TiVo thinking?

As seen on Slashdot, TiVo is in the news today, starting with a New York Times article (Registration required or visit Bugmenot that paints a bleak future for the company. With TiVo’s CEO promoted out of his job due to failing to close the Comcast deal, many talking heads on the ‘netare pointing to failed negotiation as sealing TiVo’s doom. According to these news reports, TiVo was offered less than one dollar a month from Comcast to license the TiVo technology in Comacst set top boxes. This offer was less than what DirecTV was currently paying, but Comcast has twice as many subscribers – almost 40 million. And it was no secret that with Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of DirecTV that DirecTV was looking at other PVR ideas than TiVO, which has since been announced.

My thoughts? I believe TiVo is the greatest device invented in the last 20 years, eclipsing DVD, CD, and MP3 players (sorry folks, the internet has been around a lot longer than 20 years). TiVo has changed the way I live my life and watch TV. The functionality and features are second to none, including the old Replay I own or any other PVR or Media Center PC I’ve seen. TiVo’s Season Pass functionality to record a show on any channel, by new, repeat or any and all, ranking of what shows to record when, quality, I could go on forever. I would hate to see this company go under, but they just haven’t struck the deals necessary to keep going. By building their own box, and getting away from relationships with Sony and Philips, limited functionality with the TiVo basic service in DVD recorders, and the DirecTV deal slipping away from them, the writing looks to be on the wall.

And this doesn’t even touch on what the Broadcast Flag going live on July 1st could do to their functionality moving forward. Sure, existing devices will be grandfathered in, but will Big Media try and hamstring them after July 1st? Things like the Strangeberry acquisition and TiVo2Go (burning your shows from your TiVo to your PC and sharing them) are steps in the right direction, but is it too little to late?

I know in the future as I move to finish my basement, I have a goal of building a Home Theater PC that will run MythTV, a Linux PVR solution that layers on top of an existing Linux installation. MythTV is in active developement, and with the inclusion of a Linux HDTV card on the market, I will have similar functionality to record DirecTV programming (except their HD signals) and off air HD. MythTV will allow me to save my television shows on one box, and stream to any other Linux PC in my home, say, my den, as I’m gaming. From there, I can easily edit and burn to DVD to archive shows or save on DVD if my HD starts to get full. It also has a series of modules so I can check the weather on my TV, stream my music from the HTPC or my server, rip and back up DVDs or CDs, the list goes on.

I love my TiVo, but I may have to plan for a day they are no longer around.

Bluefish & Screem

I want to dedicate two nights a week to programming / web development. Unfortunately, with the 3 machines I have here at my desk, my Windows box is the only one really set up for any type of long term typing.

The problem is I’m used to Bluefish on linux, and recently I also tried Screem, which was equally impressive. Jedit on Windows is just plain ugly, and feature lacking, and there really aren’t any other good open source alternatives I’ve found. I need to get off my butt, get my server sorted out so I know how many hard drives I really have (and work), and pop one in my gaming box so I can dual boot.

So much work to do, so little time.

In other news, Matt came over this weekend, and we’re 90% done with the electrical wiring. Get the ceiling boxed out, fnish the wiring, get the insulation in and we’re ready for the drywall! I need to keep the momentum going with the basement, so I don’t stall anymore.

Gates just doesn't get it.

Gizmodo has their interview with Bill

Gates Part Four: Communists and DRM up.

Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chariman has been getting flak for some comments at CES where he equates those who don’t favor copyright and DRM as communists. He more than proves that it’s Gates himself that doesn’t get it in the above interview.

Look Bill: No one questions that artists should be compensated for their work. Period. The fact that some of us may choose to create content, say, a blog, and not want to be compensated, and want to share it, is our choice. And when we do choose that, we can choose to use the Creative Commons licenses to share our work.

God forbid a music artist, or the spoken word, or the written word want to be given away at the artists’ discretion. It’s worked in the programming world, and more and more examples in the media world have started.

Viva la revolution.

Firefox

In Firefox news, share has increased to 21% of all browsers. Take that, Microsoft!

I know personally, I’ve signed up 6 people who are using it now. Not a lot, but I’m doing my share!

Over on Silwenae.com, I’ve given Bizet admin access, and he went nuts posting. And I made him download Firefox on his main machine, after he fell in love with it on his backup box. Next thing you know, he’ll be blogging!