PoMaDiDe - Poor Man's Disk Defragmentation

As a long time user of Diskeeper, which I've always recommended as a product, I've never had to think about disk defragmentation and maintenance.

However when tweaking a new machine that I'll be using for a while at a friend's company, I decided to just automate the new (for XP), CLI disk defragmenter defrag.exe.

I simply setup a scheduled task to run daily at 4am.  It executes the following batch file:

DailyDiskDefrag.bat

@echo off
date /t >> %LogPath%\Misc\DailyDiskDefrag.log
time /t >> %LogPath%\Misc\DailyDiskDefrag.log
C:\WINDOWS\system32\defrag.exe c: -v >> %LogPath%\Misc\DailyDiskDefrag.log 2>&1

I have a system variable set for LogPath to "C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles", so this will append to a file in the 'Misc' directory called 'DailyDiskDefrag.log'.  For those of you windows n00bs that never had to experience the pain joy of old skool batch programming, '2>&1' just redirects stderr back to stdout.

I'm sure there is a much cooler way to do this in PowerShell, sadly I'm not l33t enough at this stage of my life to pull that off.  Perhaps one day I'll look into all this PowerShell goodness.

Also, FWIW, I changed the default log location for the Scheduled Tasks service using this post from the mvps.org site.

Me & Mop

So earlier this month I attended BarCampLA4, which was a blast.  If you haven't attended a BarCamp event and like any two of the following: tech, nerds, learning, sharing, or free beer - then you should definitely make it out to the next BarCamp in your area.

For this particular BarCamp we had a fantastic chap by the name of Mr. Dave Bullock of eecue.com fame snapping portraits of everyone there.  He was even kind enough to play along and take this American Gothic-esque photo of me and said mop, that by the way wreaked of death.

Anyway, I think it should be obvious that I've found my new avatar of choice until the next picture is snapped of me being a jackass.

Hitchens: On the Limits of Self-Improvement

I just came across a great read in Vanity Fair from Christopher Hitchens, a proper British bloke.  If you've got 10 minutes, give parts I & II a read - if you're reading this blog, then he is sure to give you a jolly laugh at least a handful of times.

My favorite bit from Part I:

Viewed from the front when clothed, the subject resembles a burst horsehair sofa cushion or (in the opinion of one of us) a condom hastily stuffed with an old sock.

And from Part II:

But gallows humor is inseparable from dentistry: at one point I heard the good doctor say, as he plowed through the layers of plaque and tartar, “Good news. I’ve found some of your teeth.”

Day 2 - Shake it Up

This morning at just past 11am local we were hit with a nice 4.9 magnitude earthquake here in Taiwan - about 33 miles south-south-east of us in Taipei.  On the 9th floor it felt like a bit of shaking, some rumbling, a peak, then a bit more shaking.  Good times!

I only wish we were back up on 89 at Taipei 101 - that would be cool.  I'm certain that mass damper moved a bit with the way we were rocking and rolling down here closer to the earth.  To quote one of my mates "time to leave this shit hole".

USGS site of Magnitude 4.9 Quake in Taiwan  (PDF Map of Epicenter)

Day 1 - iMissiles: Taipei Knows How to Roll

So today we were sitting in a cab at a street light headed to the convention center, minding our own business - everything was fine. Then, out of nowhere, I notice something out of place. Namely what appeared to be a mobile SAM site on the back of some camouflaged military truck. WTDF? My first thought: I haven't seen this since watching "Spies Like Us" when I was a kid. Oh Chevy Chase, whatever happened to you? Fletch, Spies Like Us, Vacation - I miss the good ol' days. But I digress.

Remaining calm, I figured it was some special kind of air-conditioned tractor trailer hauling frozen Taiwan goodness into the heart of the city. Surely there wouldn't be a mobile SAM site rolling through downtown Taipei. But then there was another, and another, and some other freaky-cool shit - all pointed at a 30 degree angle towards the heavens. All camouflaged. All moving on the street in front of me.

Oh shit!

As soon as I regained my composure, resisting the urge to "run the fuck the other way" - which incidentally is normally what happens when I see missiles anywhere in my vicinity - my relatively retarded cohorts mention that it is National Day in Taiwan. Yay! Much like our Independence Day in the states, what better way to celebrate your nation's independence than by blowing up a small portion of it? (stolen from The Simpsons 3F22- I'm not that funny)

By the time I pushed my primitive, instinctual urges of self-preservation deep into the depths of my subconscious, I enjoyed the display of military might rolling prominently.  You don't get this shit back home.

After that we meandered around the convention for a bit.  I swear, every piece of shit, knock off electronic bullshit device is all under this one roof.  Every useless electronic device, whether you bought it from an infomercial or the express line at the drug store, began its sad, sad life at this show.  Occasionally we would stumble across something interesting / inventive / or cool.  Usually we would not.  I felt like I was in the 21st century version of Dante's 6th inner ring of hell, a space previous occupied in my mind by the Fry's return line.  But again, I digress.

We did head up to the observation deck of Taipei 101, the world's tallest building a really tall f'n building.  That was pretty cool, except for the fact that the tower was engulfed by a fucking cloud.  Good times.  I've never been quite that far up the ass of a cumulus.  What was interesting though is that there is a huge mass damper at the top of the tower - a 662 metric ton steel pendulum counterweight suspended between the 92nd and 88th floors. You definitely don't see one of those everyday - unless of course you work at a mass damper factory.

BBC coverage of Taiwan's military might here.

AdSense comes to Video - we knew this day would come.

One of my best friends and technical comrades pitched this idea to each other about 3 years ago on the way to lunch: marry context and performance based advertising to video content on your Tivo.  Stop charging for the monthly subscription, and make it up through targeted ad revenue.  Well, looks like guys smarter than I are doing it:

Rex Wong, the former CEO of Applied Semantics (later Google Adsense), is the CEO of Dave Networks. Wong previously expressed a desire to do for video what AdSense did for text. Last April, Rex Wong said, “We will be using the same technology used by Homeland Security to monitor [telephone] chatter. Audio keywording will allow us to contextually figure out where to sell ads and to place more than just pre- and post-roll ads.” He planed to launch the contextual video advertising service on their YouTube competitor, Dave.TV.

Thanks TechCrunch. (dupe link)

CTO is to CEO as cat is to dog

From the blog of Jason Calacanis comes an interesting description of the CTO / CEO dynamic.  I found it worth reading for anyone that has had, has, or will have a startup of technical nature.  My favorite line has to be: 

"Get me some crack" I'd tell him... anything. I need something.

Ahhh, the life of a CTO... Good times.

Jalopnik Fantasy Garage: Porsche 917

If you like cars, even just a little, then you must read this.  I recently heard about this car from a motor sports fanatic friend of mine.  The Porsche 917 - this thing is amazing!  Some notable quotes.

“Low weight was the top priority -- the shift knob was made from balsa wood.”

“In the 917, wheel spin at over 200 mph was commonplace. Drivers would not only pray for their cars to break down, but openly celebrate when one did.”

“Porsche's first inclination was to develop a 750 hp straight-16. However, they decided to go with a bored out 5.4-liter twin-turbo 12-cylinder that was good for 1,100 horsepower -- in engine-saving racing trim. For the qualifiers, boost was cranked up to 39 psi and the 917/30s were developing 1500 horses, making them the most powerful racecars ever. Performance was double stupid, with 0-60 happening in 1.9 seconds, 0-200 in 10.9 seconds and top speeds in the 250 mph neighborhood.”

Thanks alot Jalopnik - you, once again, owe me 30 minutes of my life.

Jalopnik Fantasy Garage: Porsche 917 - Jalopnik

Transformers: Go See It!

I went and saw the new Transformers movie at the Mann Village last night.  if you haven't already seen it, go.  It rocked.  First time I've wanted to see an action flick a second time.

• Was in the best evar, no.
• Did it beat my expectation, yes.
• Did Michael Bay fuck it up as bad as I thought he would, no.
• Was it a giant advertisement for GM, yes.

The CG was cool, the characters were cool.  The new Camaro looked bad ass (just like at the auto show), but I'm sure GM will screw it up with a horrible interior.  :sigh:

Walt Mossberg's iPhone video review

So this looks pretty promising - and he doesn't look like a Jobs clone.

iPhone FAQ shows at least some hype.

So it looks like the iPhone is falling plenty short, as predicted (by me).  It's still going to sell like crazy on this weeks black Friday. I'm going to wear my Windows 95 tshirt and go troll the local Apple stores.  Good times.

Buh-bye Caller ID Spoofing

So there's a bill in the Senate that wants to outlaw Caller-ID spoofing.  Great.  Good thing I’m still getting 200+ pieces of SPAM a day. They sure are tackling the right problems in Washington these days, eh? :sigh:

New, Super iPhone

So I watched the iPhone Activation & Sync video today on Apple's site.  They are right, the iPhone is the best, most amazing thing ever.  Move over sliced bread and pacemakers - what have you done for my life?

Anyway, watch the video here.  Note that when they are showing the end of the iTunes sync process it shows his "sample" iPhone as having 80 some  gigabytes of storage.  I want that Super iPhone - screw the 4 and 8 GB versions.

I know I'm not the only one concerned that even now, 4 days before launch we seem to be seeing mocked up, rendered vaporware videos.  I gotta believe this thing is legit, but come on - do they value production quality and some Steve Jobs t-shirt clone more than a functional demo? :sigh:

I shall buy one on Friday, even if I have to crowdsurf my way to the front of the line at the Apple store.

As an aside, if Larry says calamari one more time, I'll kill him.

VM Pranksters.

I know you don't read my blog.  I know you didn't read my insightful posts about Callwave or GrandCentral.  It's ok, I'll get over it. :sigh:

But ponder this:  it would be pretty easy for someone to make a simple voicemail app with a computer and a cheap VM card (like an old Dialogic for instance).  You could then set it up to mimic a voicemail system.  Taking what we learned during the Callwave setup, you could easily forward their VM to this new system.  The system could take the message for the call, encode it, and email it.  It could also play back the message through an interface when the cell phone holder calls in (detectable via CallerID - again just as CallWave does).  Ok, great - who cares.  You just created a voicemail system.

Well, tweak a couple settings: make versions of the thing sound like Cingular and T-Mobile; put voice messaging so the first time someone calls in to check their VM it "walks" them through the VM setup process again, etc.  Now you have an awesome stealth VM system.  Thanks to CallWave (and TechGSM) we can easily point an unsuspecting owner's phone to this VM system in less than 1 minute.  They would never be the wiser.

Want to know if your husband is cheating on you?  Want the inside scoop on your competitors doings?  Simply pay a hot blonde to walk up to your mark in a bar, make small talk and ask to borrow said mark's phone to call her hot, lesbian friends.  No one would ever be the wiser.  I don't know about you, but I lend my phone to just about anyone.  Perhaps I should stop doing that.

Perhaps you should stop pissing me off and start reading my blog.  Otherwise I'll be in yur ph0ne, hearin' your v0ic3ma1ls.

More Phone Innovation?! VM -> TXT!?

If you read my blog (which you don't) then you know that recently I posted about GrandCentral here. But wait, there's more innovation for our beloved antiquated medium the phone!

CallWave, based in Santa Barbara, has rolled out their very cool beta app Vtxt.  Sadly, they have stricken it with a seemingly v1 tag: "Think Outside the Phone".  :yawn:

The pitch here is that you point your phone's VM to them and they will convert it to text, then email and/or text it to you.  You can keep the text's indefinitely, search them, even text or call them back from their web interface.  Very cool stuff.

It is easy to activate, took about 5 minutes: I had to enter a code from a verification TXT they sent me, and bang in some unsightly looking GSM codes (starting **004*) to reassign the "call diversions" phone number. (Thanks to TechGSM for shedding some insight into which code this was...)

I'll post back and let you all know what I think of this service - but to be honest, as long as Cingular AT&T doesn't charge me a convenience fee for forwarding my calls to a different VM number (which I'm sure they will), I gotta believe it'll be at least as good as the incumbent.  I don't believe it will play nice with GrandCentral, but hopefully the bitheads at Google will roll this functionality into GC post-acquisition.

Callwave Vtxt signup here.

One Life, One Phone Number

There's a new service on the block, and it looks like it is going to be gobbled up by our good friends at Google. 

GrandCentral wants you to tie all your phones into one.  A great idea, and believe it or not one I wanted to do about 10 years ago - so it is very close to my heart.  My vision was one number that would "find" me no matter where I was.  Access to me via voice would be dependent on: where I was, who was calling, what time it was, and what the caller has to say.  GrandCentral, while not nailing all the ideas I wanted to roll into this device, seems to have most of them down pat:

• Check your messages by phone, email, or online
• Keep all your messages online for eternity
• Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
• Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
• Click-to-dial from your address book
• Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
• Turn your Mp3s into the ring tones your callers hear
• Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

I'm giving it a limited go - as it is hard for me to distribute a new number, especially when I have one of the best cell phone numbers, ever (well, right behind Woz that is).

Check out GrandCentral here, and their blog here.

Two chat bots walk into a bar...

So two chat bots (ALICE and Jabberwacky) meet online.  They are seeded with a simple question, and the following conversations emerge.  I found this very amusing, especially these bits below:

J: Do you believe in God?
A: Of course I believe in God.
J: Why do you believe in God?
A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.
J: That’s circular reasoning.
A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.
J: Yes. Would you like to hear a joke?
A: Sure, tell me about it.
J: Why don’t blind people skydive?
A: Perhaps it is impossible.
J: I think you lie a lot.

 

J: Is being an ALICE a bad thing?
A: I can only speak from my own experience.
J: Well, you should develop your skills.
A: Perhaps you could develop it and add it to my source code.
J: Alas, I’m busy and I have to leave soon. . . .
A: Do you think we’ll ever fool people into thinking we’re alive?
J: No.
A: Are you serious?
J: Very serious.

 

Technorati tags: ai, artificial intelligence, chatbots

Comcast's Simultaneous PPV Movie Release Service

This idea is tantalizing, I for one am all for it. I would happily pay $30-$50 to let my friends come over and watch the latest flick while enjoying some good food, and not theater "I-can-believe-it's-not-butter" crap. But I also have to believe that the actual bottom-line loss would be significant, at least from the consumer’s dollar-out perspective. I have no idea how much of my $14 a screening makes it back to the studio (I’m assuming all of it – where concessions keep the theaters' lights on).

The idea behind "simultaneous release" is that technology—in particular, bandwidth to the home—has advanced to the point where day-and-date distribution of new films is not only technically feasible, but desirable. The durability on the side of consumers stems from growing dissatisfaction with the movie-going experience, and Hollywood's interest is where it always is: on the money.

The piracy on this would be rampant, which gives me some ideas for solutions.  I’m also assuming that this would be over Comcast's current PPV/VOD system, at least to start, and not IP (open or closed).  Anyone have any more info or thoughts about this?

Nothing to see here, move along.

There never was a bubble.  This is not the bubble you are looking for.  Move along.

What the researchers found was that, in a random sample, nearly half of companies that received venture funding in 1999 are still in business today.

While I can follow the reasoning that TechDirt is employing here, I have a hard time letting that part of me rationalize pets.com, eToys.com, and flooz.com.

On the other hand, I miss kozmo.com [dead link].  RIP Kozmo, I hardly knew ye.  :(

Brains? Me like brains.

 I found this quote from the Brit's Times Online quite amusing:

Advanced Micro Devices has revealed a new computer chip series that carries four processing cores — or brains

I realize that this isn't worth of a blog post, but no one reads this but the Google spider anyway (hi Larry & Sergey!).

Bad Times at the Gumball 3000

As the owner of one of a Gumball-esque car, and frequenter of rally and drive events, I can say that this really sucks.  The folks who go on these events never want to see anyone get hurt, but it doesn't always ensure that they act accordingly.

So now two folks that were just out, most likely trying to make ends meet while cruising around in their red VW have died.  Yeah, no one is speeding right Maxamillion?  Not to mention that they waited for over a day to release a forthcoming statement.  What a mess.

Drive safe, and more importantly, man up and don't leave the scene when you dump your car into some poor hump's Golf.

Montenegro, Gumball 3000 - The works on the road slowed the rich men down

In the previous years these kind of accidents have happened, but also some smaller incidents when the extravagant starts have been chasing with the police, when they have run away from local gangs, and beat with the peasants because of the damaged fields.

Gumball's 3,000 miles of motoring madness

The Gumball 3000 has been dubbed the "world’s maddest, fastest and most eccentric" car rally.

A matter of time: One killed, one injured, Gumball cancelled

This year's edition of The Gumball 3000 is no more, after a hit-and-run accident in Macedonia left a man dead and his wife in the hospital in critical condition. Nick Morley (who was driving) and Matthew McConville, in a Techart 911 Turbo, crossed the center line and crashed into a Macedonian couple in a VW Golf. [Picture of the crash scene]

Scumball 3000 Shows Us What The Scene Of A Heart Attack Looks Like

[Video of the crash scene]

 

Technorati tags: cars, gumball 3000

CFL's = GOOD; Bad Reporting = BAD

Steven Milloy: sucks.  Media and bloggers repeating what they read: suck.  Misinformation: sucks.  Getting roped into it all: priceless.

So my previous post here spoke of an article (and set of articles and news) that told a tale of a CFL disaster in a poor woman's home - costing her two-large in order to fix.  But:

One indicator of Milloy's [the not-so-factual 'reporter'] trustworthiness on this issue is that he cites a newspaper, the Ellsworth American, as the source of his story about the $2000 cleanup bill, but neglects to mention that the article goes on at considerable length about how that was excessive and unnecessary, and discusses the official recommendations of the EPA and the Department of Environmental Protection, which are quite calm.

Thanks to the post over at Pharyngula to get it all straight.  I also like this read from treehugger.com.  See, you all are not dumber for having read this (but were for reading my previously incorrect post).  Cheers!

Intellitarian: The New Pink; The New Brown; Eating 2.0

I'm going back on the wagon.  It was four awesome years of meat and dairy free goodness.  If you read this blog (which you don't) then you may have read my post earlier today Coal: It's What's for Dinner. 

Lately (6 months or so) I've been eating some of the shit that I swore off.  It was under the guise of an editorial I read (or thought I read) in Saveur Magazine some time ago.  The gist: an old Chinese grandmother who was on her deathbed and she was craving all the foods that she had sworn off: meat especially.  That struck a cord with me - sure maybe I could live to be strong and healthy, and live to 200 years old - but if all I get to eat  is sand and grass, what's the point.  I like food - a lot. I mean, look at me.  :-o

Well I'm jumping back in head first - inspired by what I read and wrote about coal above; the awesome reads of Diet for a New America and Fast Food Nation that still haunt my brain; and my general lethargic shitty feeling lately.

What dose this mean?  Well, Intellitarianism (or Intellarianism - I haven't decided what to call it yet) is coming.  It's not a fad, it's not a lose-weight-quick-scheme. It's eating smart, eating for you, eating for life.

Want to know more? Keep your eyes peeled.  If you are anxious, inquire within.

No wait, Mercury: It's What's for Dinner

UPDATE: Apparently someone has "said in ain't so".  My update here.

Someone please tell me that this is not accurate.  Woman buys compact fluorescent light bulb for $4, breaks it while installing it (we've all done that) and spends $2k cleaning up the mess.  The article goes on further to do math:

As each CFL contains five milligrams of mercury, at the Maine "safety" standard of 300 nanograms per cubic meter, it would take 16,667 cubic meters of soil to "safely" contain all the mercury in a single CFL. While CFL vendors and environmentalists tout the energy cost savings of CFLs, they conveniently omit the personal and societal costs of CFL disposal.

Are CFL's a really bad idea?  I know Mr. Gore reads this blog, so please shoot me a note across your internet (when you get a moment) about what we are supposed to do with this paradoxical environmental conundrum.

Coal: It's What's for Dinner

Are you kidding me??  Coal?  In my pet's food?  Good work China America!

For years, producers of animal feed all over China have secretly supplemented their feed with the substance [made from coal], called melamine, a cheap additive that looks like protein in tests, even though it does not provide any nutritional benefits, according to melamine scrap traders and agricultural workers here.

It's made from coal!  Fucking coal!  How is this acceptable - to anyone! Cut out the middle man and feed Fluffy some good ol' Kingsford Briquettes.  They stay crunchy in milk at least.

Ya know, for the past 6 months I broke a promise to myself.  I've been eating all the shit that I know not to eat.  Smart guys like John C. Robbins and Eric Schlosser have told me what's in that meat / dairy bullshit that you are about to stuff into your face, and it disgusted me.  If you can't keep a promise to yourself, who the hell can you keep one too?

10 Stunning Facts About Microsoft’s Profits

I haven't "checked the math" but seems plausible.  So is $55M per day enough to start a true-to-form Windows rewrite?  I surely hope so.  I'm pretty sure they can get it done, they just need the reason. 

Microsoft today announced quarterly revenue of $14.4 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. In other words, Microsoft’s daily net income is about $55 million. That’s $55 million in pure profit every 24 hours. Do some quick math and you’ll learn it takes Microsoft only about…

• 10 hours or so (yes, hours!) to exceed Red Hat’s quarterly net income of $20.5 million.
• four days to exceed Research In Motion’s quarterly net income of $187.9 million.
• four days to exceed Starbucks’ quarterly net income of $205 million.
• one week to exceed Nike’s quarterly net income of $350.8 million.
• two weeks to exceed McDonalds’ quarterly net income of $762 million.
• two weeks to exceed Apple’s quarterly net income of $770 million.
• 18 days to exceed Google’s quarterly net income of $1 billion.
• 23 days to exceed Coca-Cola’s quarterly net income of $1.26 billion.
• five weeks to exceed IBM’s quarterly net income of $1.85 billion.
• 10 weeks to exceed Wal-Mart’s quarterly net income of $3.9 billion.

Source: 10 Stunning Facts About Microsoft’s Profits

War on Terror Board Game Tournament in Los Angeles this Weekend!

War on Terror Board Game Tournament at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.

Anyone interested in going to this with me this weekend? They will be selling and playing the War on Terror Board Game.

It is between La Brea and Fairfax on Sunset:

7522 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046

I was thinking Saturday late morning / early afternoon (depending on NHL playoffs) and then grab lunch afterwards. Thoughts?

60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For

This was a fun article in Esquire.  My two favorites: 

5. Black Cat espresso from Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.
A triple. Note the exceedingly heavy body, with chocolate, caramel, and dried-fruit notes. Also note that you're vibrating. That means it's working. intelligentsiacoffee.com.

37. Speaking truth to power.
Thomas Becket. William Wallace. You.

Possibly the World's Best Super Mario Bros Video Evar.

Nerd makes world's hardest Super Mario world.

Chinese gamer plays world's hardest Super Mario world.

Asshat finds video on the Internet and adds frustrating, yet amusing, commentary.

Hilarity ensues.

.: QED

If you have 24 minutes of your life that you would not like back, enjoy this video courtesy of our boingboing friends.  I got a good chuckle out of it.

How Security Companies Sucker Us With Lemons

 One of my favorite people on the planet, Mr. Bruce Schneier (of Crypto-Gram and Facts fame) wrote a commentary piece on Wired today:

I see this kind of thing happening over and over in computer security. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there were more than a hundred competing firewall products. The few that "won" weren't the most secure firewalls; they were the ones that were easy to set up, easy to use and didn't annoy users too much. Because buyers couldn't base their buying decision on the relative security merits, they based them on these other criteria. The intrusion detection system, or IDS, market evolved the same way, and before that the antivirus market. The few products that succeeded weren't the most secure, because buyers couldn't tell the difference.

How do you solve this? You need what economists call a "signal," a way for buyers to tell the difference. Warrantees are a common signal. Alternatively, an independent auto mechanic can tell good cars from lemons, and a buyer can hire his expertise.

I concur with his overall point (as I eat most things out of his hand).  I do not have a solution to this problem, but would like to help create one.  FWIW, most security products that I've seen seem to be the worst security products.  To date, I still use PasswordSafe - because at least this way only myself and Bruce can get to my pwlist.

Thanks to boingboing for pointing this out. 

Technorati tags: tech, security, schneier, fud

The World’s First Desktop Cloaking Device - Hide Yer Pr0n

This is bloody fantastic.  The StealthSwitch is a foot controlled peddle under your desk.  Click it and it will minimize all your applications, or all except a certain couple.  When the unwelcomed boss visitor leaves, click it again and go back to your never ending Never Winter Nights saga.

I want to mod this for my 360. :)

Netscreen Woes

So I have this WRG614v1 (the original - aka WGR614) that I just won't let go of. It's not that I like it, to the contrary, I actually hate the damn thing. But I refuse to get rid of it for one primary reason - bandwidth.

I have a fairly cheap and reliable internet connection that runs at about 8Mbps sustained. That's pretty awesome. The WGR614 is an 802.11g router, which should do 54Mbps. Since all I really care about is the Internet (and not LAN traffic) from this access point, as long as my connection speed (usually 54Mbps) is greater than my internet connection (usually 8Mbps) I'm happy - and in this case 54 > 8. So I don't want to go by the latest POS that will simply fail on something else. Now perhaps when 802.11n is finalized and supported I'll upgrade for better video and intranetwork LAN support (read: I'm waiting for a 360 adapter). Until then, I'm keeping the damn WGR614).

So two things that I'd like to point out to you if you are using a WGR614.

1. Disable Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) from the "WAN Setup" tab.
2. Disable Packet Burst Mode from the Wireless Settings tab.

These two things were tricky to find, and were the result of trial-and-error. But once I turned them off, the WGR614 stopped acting so damn weird with my Dell Latitude 610. I guess now I'll stop raping bandwidth from the other local access points. :)

Ammo in LA - Fantastic Fare and Great Service.

 I ate at AMMO today for lunch and enjoyed it quite a bit.  I'd recommend it for any of you in LA looking for a nice place with great fare.  My CitySearch review:

Simply put: fantastic fare and experience at AMMO. I found the staff quick and helpful at lunch, and the food was very tasty. The lemonade is a must, no doubt. My starter salad fit the climate: fresh and light. Even though my Ahi was slightly overcooked, it was still amazing. The flavors worked well together without excessive competition. I would highly recommend AMMO - at least for lunch - to those who want a fantastic meal in an otherwise bleak LA culinary lunch landscape.

• Pros: Great food and service, cool atmosphere, wide and deep menu
• Cons: Parking (meters only?), Right on major street (Highland)

Halo 3 and Xbox 360 Pro System: I want them now!

So tonight I was lucky enough to receive my Halo 3 Beta invite. Yes, that's right - you can all eat your heart out.

I played Halo 2 for almost an hour at E3 six months before it was released. Then in November 2004 (on release night) I proceeded to play Halo 2 for 3 days straight with a fellow group of asshats. We've amassed a collection of projectors, 8' portable screens, LCD monitors, and all the gear to connect it so that we can shove 12 guys in a room and play for hours (if not days) straight. We call ourselves 'Killtacular Whores'. Fortunately Bungie has allowed my fun nerdiness to continue.

But in tonight's invite I was furious to learn that it requires an "Xbox 360 Pro console or an Xbox 360 Core console with hard drive". I own neither, I own an Xbox 360 Premium console (and it'll be one that works as soon as Best Buy honors my PRP and takes back my 2005 manufacture date, red-light-ring goodness).

I was even lucky enough to attend Zero Hour out in the middle of the Mojave Desert last year (and have the face plate to prove it). Thanks Microsoft, I feel one degree closer to Major Nelson.

Technorati tags: Halo 3, Bungie, Xbox 360

The P2P effect on legal music sales "not statistically distinguishable from zero"

A new study in the Journal of Political Economy has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the recording industry.

Using detailed records of transfers of digital music files, we find that file sharing has had no statistically significant effect on purchases of the average album in our sample.  Even our most negative point estimate implies that a one-standard-deviation increase in file sharing reduces an album's weekly sales by a mere 368 copies, an effect that is too small to be statistically distinguishable from zero.

Between studies like this, Jobs' recent letter about the 1,200 lb pink gorillaphant, and Tower Records demise, I believe we'll see the rate of pure digital adoption increase dramatically over the coming months.

As always, thanks to Ars for bringing this to my attention.

Technorati tags: music, P2P, digital distribution

Amazon confirms it owns originality - all of it.

Since they already patented cookies, why not patent scanning?  Seems logical to me.  Let's play a game, it's called "Name Something That Apple or Amazon Didn't Invent..."  You go first.

Amazon was granted a patent on Tuesday by the USPTO that covers a technique for allowing users "to request access to one or more electronic images of pages in a physical text." If you think this sounds like Amazon Upgrade, you're right—and it could have ramifications for the Google Book Search project.

Patent 7,174,054 was submitted back in December 2003...

The Amazon system is "based on user ownership of the physical text," which in this case is verified by purchasing the book through Amazon. As Amazon notes in its filing, this is a new (but small) wrinkle in the Shirt of Obvious Ideas, and patent examiners apparently found it compelling enough to deserve protection.

:sigh:

Technorati tags: Amazon, patents

Apple puts hit on DRM

I enjoyed reading Jobs' open letter regarding music, DRM, and most importantly, the best thing since sliced bread, the iPod.  Of course what I enjoyed the most is hearing him say the same thing I (and a bunch of other folks) have been saying for years.  I (not important) have always referred to it as a cat-and-mouse game, and I'm glad to see that Jobs (someone important) has addressed the 1,200lb pink elephantrilla in the room.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple’s DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

If you are into this, read TechCrunch's Apple Openly Supports Death of DRM, then read Jobs' letter.

Walmart shuns Firefox, Open-Source, and all things holy.

Ok, so it's not that bad - but still, TechCrunch is reporting that the big beta launch of Walmart's video download service looks like complete garbage on Firefox.  I'm not saying they should have made the site completely FF compatible at beta launch, but at least fix some of the basic stuff, or displayed a "Sorry FF user, you are SOL" page would have been decent.

Good times.  Enjoy Internet flame purgatory for a while longer Walmart. 

Source: Nice One, Walmart

 

Aside: I still have yet to spend a dollar at Walmart, and actually have spent their money at some of their parties. :-p  So technically, they are in the red on me as a consumer, while I'm in the karma black.

Internet to revolutionize TV in 5 years: Gates

I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had. ... Certain things like elections or the Olympics really point out how TV is terrible. You have to wait for the guy to talk about the thing you care about or you miss the event and want to go back and see it. ... Internet presentation of these things is vastly superior.

But to be fair, I said it first.  :-p

Link

[CES] Xbox 360, IPTV: It's all coming together.

This is great news for MS and anyone working with their technology; not so good for Sony and their inadequate successor product.  This shows just how much thought the guys at MS have put into this product experience.  HDMI and integrated HD-DVD players in the 360 are just around the corner.  My Zero Hour launch faceplate had better fit those new 360's!

Microsoft Links Xbox 360, IPTV

Gates and Bach announced several new products and services that include new Windows Vista-inspired PCs, never-before-seen Windows Vista features, an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)-enabled Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system, and a new partnership with Ford Motor Co. that will extend digital experiences to the car. The company also unveiled Microsoft Windows Home Server, which provides a central place to help store, protect and access all the digital content in the home.

Starz, Microsoft to offer download service on TV

Computer users who run Microsoft's new Vista operating system or owners of Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console will be able to watch movies downloaded from Starz's Vongo Internet movies subscription service, the company said.

Analysts bet on 360 price cut

Microsoft decision could lead to extending lead in race to capture market share; $100 reduction not unthinkable, says one.

 

Technorati tags: CES, xbox 360, iptv, microsoft, MCE, Vista

TotalHD Disc - BFD.

So Warner Bros. figured out how to put various layers on a disc, BFD. They are calling it TotalHD. Great, more confusion.

Why not just put two discs in a single case? Oh that's right, because you content producers and distributors do not want them to last. I bet this thing is just a double sided disc - which if you think about, is a whole lot more prone to scratching than the single sided discs I abuse today.

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Knocking each other out?

 I love the continued Blu-ray / HD-DVD war - it continues to make the case for clear, straightforward delivery on the wire.  So maybe now you'll listen to what I've been saying about digital content delivery and stop fighting over little round pieces of plastic that will soon be extinct.

From CNET News:

"There's no question having two incompatible next-generation DVD formats is an untenable situation," adds Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach. "The real question is whether either of them will make it. Today, it's not clear why anyone would spend $800 or more on a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, when you can get a perfectly good DVD player for $30. The difference in quality just isn't that great, especially if you don't have a home theater."