I want e-mail profiles
If you think any of this gibberish looks interesting, you should poke around and subscribe to my RSS feed to keep up with new content.
One of the annoying things about having SBC DSL at my apartment is that they require that all outgoing e-mail go through their SMTP server, despite the fact that I have secure servers to send through that I use everywhere else.
What’s really annoying about this is that when I’m home, I have to change all my outgoing mail servers to one thing, and when I’m anywhere else, on any other internet connection, I have to change them all back just to send an e-mail.
Since there’s no way SBC is going to stop being idiotic about it, I think that it would be great if a mail program (does Mozilla do this?) would let me select a locational “profile” for my e-mail settings.
So while I’m at home at can simply select “home,” and all my e-mail settings would be set up for my home internet connection, and while I’m at school I can select “school,” and, without the massive hassle of changing settings manually, I’m good to go on a regular connection.
Sweet looking HP MediaPC
Engadget has a first look at HP’s upcoming “crossfire” MediaPC running a version of Vista.
Basically, as far as I can tell, this is a huge touchscreen computer designed for shared family use in the kitchen and it doubles as a kitchen TV. WAY cool.
This is the direction that I think a lot of computers need to be going. Eventually, people will read the morning news on a portable touchscreen (or have it read to them), and their calendars will be digitally mounted on the wall, with each person’s schedule fully separable by color. This machine is step one.
Weirdest spam ever…
I got a spamment a few days ago that looks like it’s an ad for capcha or something:
Sorry for this crap:
Nothing personal, just a job, sorry for links…
Maybe it’s time to install capcha filter, anyway sorry for crap…
Hi, sorry for my post…
Probably you are good man - sorry for my shitty links…
Your page is good for search engines, so i have to post my crap here to make some cash…
You may avoid spam messages by installing capcha…
Sorry for this links:
Sorry…
My 5 cents in ocean of spam:
Just delete my post if you care about your web page…
And of course, a host of links followed. I’ve never seen apologizing spam before.
Thinking ahead - TIE Fighter article
A very large part of me wants to pay the hundred-odd dollars for another year of hosting (come May) just to keep this article up, mostly because of the comments.
There are over 60 responses, and the page has really turned into a great resource for people who want to get TIE FIGHTER for DOS running on WinXP machines. It’s things like that that really make me feel good about blogging.
The comment drop
Do you do this? I think everyone probably does this.
I occasionally go through my feedreader (or livejournal friends page) and make sure to leave a comment on some person’s blog or another that is designed to give the impression that I’m a regular reader.
I’m not really sure why I do this. I think it’s because I like the idea of reading everything everyone in my reader writes, but I know that’s impossible.
This is different than the link-comment. If I get linked, I’ll usually drop by and leave a comment if it’s at all appropriate. A lot of people do that. It’s cool - it’s what makes this a conversation. But this is unprovoked comment dropping.
UK Press wants blogers to behave themselves…yeah right
I think this idea of having a voluntary “code of conduct” in the blogosphere is funny on a couple of levels:
Blogs and other internet sites should be covered by a voluntary code of practice similar to that for newspapers in the UK, a conference has been told.
Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin said he opposed government regulation of the internet, saying it should a place “in which views bloom”.
But unless there was a voluntary code of conduct there would be no form of redress for people angered at content.
First, it’s funny because it already exists. If you step way out of line in the blogosphere, you’re gonna get smacked around a little by the rest of the bloggers. If you step out of line too often, you’ll get ignored (which is even worse).
Sure, it’s like a giant collection of emotional schoolchildren, but I can’t think of a harsher group of police.
Second, it’s funny because, like scoble almost says, it really sounds like he’s afraid of bloggers (and he wants them to be more like press). Yeah - we’ll take well to that idea. I think he doesn’t quite get it yet.
PC Gaming vs. Console Gaming: the debate continues
First, a gripe. Take a look at this Joystiq post. Looks legit, right? OK, cool. Joystiq is voicing an opinion (or non-opinion, in this case) on the console vs. PC debate in gaming. Cool. Oh wait, what’s this? A little link somewhere that says “Read.” I wonder what that is. Oh, I see - that’s their link back to the “source.” Oh, this isn’t original content, it just looks like it. Sneaky bastards.
Yes, the image links there. No, it’s not obvious enough for me.
I think it’s poor form to hide your source link like that. If this is a comment on something you read put it at the top of the post very clearly.
/gripe
THIS JOYSTIQ POST, talking about THIS PLAYFULS.COM POST, got me thinking about this ongoing debate. It’s funny that something like this gets people defensive and argumentative, but it does. Something about personal preferences always makes people feel judged.
I’m a PC Gamer at heart. I’ve been playing games on a computer since Number Munchers and The Oregon Trail, and I don’t think I’m going to stop enjoying them anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean I don’t play consoles.
I’ve been gushing about Twilight Princess on the Wii (and with good reason; the game is amazing). I just recently beat Gears of War (quick note - everything I just mentioned technically belongs to my roommate, but I provide the PS2 and N64).
In short, I think any real gamer is going to be properly excited about anything that lets them play cool games.
But it’s interesting to look at the arguments, as they’re thrown about the internet. As best I can tell, it breaks down as follows: (note - there’s an entirely separate question of why a particular style of gaming sells better than the other, but that’s really just numbers and not particularly interesting)
Console Wars Roundup - Wii vs. PS3
After watching the development of the PS3 for the past year, I’ve been wondering recently why anyone would be buying the launch console. But, needless to say, everyone bought the launch console, and ran home with it really fast and put it up on Craigslist.
The Wii launched two days later with a much bigger…eh…print run? of consoles, and as far as I can tell they sold out all over the place as well.
But the question remains…which one is the real winner? Well, let’s have a look at what people are saying about each console around the blogosphere:
(Note: I found basically all of these links by typing “wii impressions” and “ps3 impressions” into google blog search - no personal bias!)
The Wii
- Joystick posted a video of a Wii with a broken disc drive
- The aspidistra goes over his impressions of the Wii, and gushes considerably about the ability to download classic games
- Various and Sundry posted some initial impressions of the Wii, and his complaints seem to be about the launch lineup.
- Firing Squad has a long and detailed take on their Wii impressions, mostly positive, it seems. (Although I have to disagree on one important point: using the Wiimote for setup is not “like a game,” it’s more “like a pain in the butt.”
- Jake at The Game Chair comments on how the Wii works with his projector setup. I have a projector and I have to say that my roommate and I never thought for a second it wouldn’t look and run great, and surprise - it does indeed look and run great. We stuck the sensor bar to the wall under the screen and everything worked on first go.
- Engadget talks about how some unfortunate souls walked out with dead Wiis on launch day, so the console is not entirely error-free.
The PS3
- Tech Digest has a rather non-opinionated first impressions post, but they seem to like the system specs.
- 8bit hero sums up the post in the title - PS3 Impressions: Meh.
- On November 16th, Engadget discovered that the PS3 didn’t support 1080i for them - I have no idea if Sony has responded to this or what.
If you noticed that there are a lot fewer links to PS3 impressions you’re right, and it’s not because I don’t like it (I don’t); it’s because the reviews are harder to find.
I’m guessing it’s basically because of two things: first, that there were less than 200,000 PS3s for sale on launch, and second, that a little more than half of those consoles are now being scalped on ebay and not played.
How to get Firefox 2.0 to use Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” search in the address bar
I’ve complained before about how Firefox 2.0, while better in almost every way than its previous versions, took out the default for one of my favorite features: anything you type into the search bar that isn’t a web address used to get plugged into Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” search.
It turns out that this feature isn’t gone per-se, but disabled. By default, Firefox 2 will do its best to turn anything typed into the address bar into a valid address. If it can’t, it pops up an error.
If that suits you, no worries. If you want the Google search back, the fix is simple.
Open a new tab in firefox and type “about:config” into the address bar. This brings up a page of properties and a “filter” box.
In the filter box, type “keyword.” This should get you down to two entires. Make sure the the “keyword.enabled” one says, respectively, “default / boolean / true.”
Then, double click on the “keyword.URL” entry, and replace the default string with this one:
http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I’m Feeling Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=
Now you’re all done. Close the tab and get lucky.
PS. If you’ve been getting the error “This URL is not valid and cannot be loaded” whenever you type in anything with a space in it, as I was, you probably have the Tabbrowser Preferences add-on enabled. Disabling it should let you go back to the feeling lucky search - don’t know why.
Bathroom accidents
I was at McDonalds today for the first time in ages because they’ve brought back the McRib, which, despite many valid health concerns, I must eat.
But the best part of the trip was the bathrooms in the back of the restaurant. It’s things like this that make you wonder…what happened?
Playing more with BeyondTV
A while ago the people at Snapstream Media were kind enough to provide me with a copy of BeyondTV for my home-built media center.
Anyone who has been over to my apartment or knows me well is aware that this little box of electronics has taken up an inordinate amount of my time over the past couple of months as I am continually trying to tweak it to work better.
Because I built the entire system myself, and use components from all over the place (Windows MCE Remote, BeyondTV, Hauppauge Cards, etc), there are still a few kinks to iron out of the deal.
The largest hurdle I’ve faced with the setup is getting it to work smoothly with my satellite set-top box. Only Windows MCE interacts smoothly with the MCE Remote (duh) to blast to set-top boxes. Using BTV (or Sage, if you run it instead) is tricky, and solutions are sort of hacked together with programs like HIPSend and exeTuner.
Despite the hassle, however, I have to say that BeyondTV has been a great application so far. I actually bought SageTV first, because it is a more complete “media center” package, but an unending stream of errors with HDTV playback, DIVX crashes, and poor support led me to jump at the chance to try BeyondTV.
Aside from the fact that the BTV interface is less “media center” like, and it has less of a community of modding the interface, the program itself is great. My only real complaint is that the real meat of the program settings have to be accessed through a web browser, and not by remote.
At the moment I’m trying to get the built-in ShowSqueeze app (a really *really* cool included feature) to automatically compress my recorded TV overnight. It shouldn’t be that hard to set up.
Duke of URL?
Surfing through the ’sphere, I ran across a post on the tucowsblog pointing to a new little service called, punnily, “The Duke or URL.”
Aside from the fact that I think the name is fantastic, the service itself is pretty cool. In today’s crowded internet, it’s really hard to find a good URL that hasn’t been taken and squatted (or, less often, used).
I’ve run into this problem a number of times: I have a great idea, and no good URL. The Duke of URL takes a name or phrase, and an address type (.com, .net, etc…) and then searches through the available domain names for some clever combination of the ideas to give you a usable URL.
I went over and tried it out myself. The site was a bit slow when I looked at it, but the recommendations were surprisingly good. Cool toy!
It’s podcast time again!
I managed to finagle myself a spot in this Thanksgiving’s GamerAndy Live podcast, and it was a boatload and a half of fun.
The team over at GamerAndy are great people, and it was really fun to sit down and chat with them for the duration of the podcast.
If you have an interest in video games and you haven’t already subscribed to their podcast, go ahead and put this address into your favorite podcast program (if you’re using iTunes, it’s Advanced -> Subscribe to Podcast).
And if you’re dying for an hour or so of my tinny-little voice and opinionated banter, you can grab just this episode.
New iTunes ignored podcast settings?
Has anyone else noticed that the new iTunes seems to ignore my podcast settings? I have it set to grab all new episodes when the RSS feed is updated (for example, Gillmor Gang tends to spit out five chunks at a time, and I want them all, not just the “latest” one) and I have it set to keep the most recent four podcasts.
However, it keeps all my past podcasts until I delete them, and only downloads the most recent episode unless I manually tell it to grab certain episodes (these are the iTunes defaults).
What gives?
PS. I also just noticed that it reset my iTunes music folder location, which screwed up my library so now it’s half on one hard drive and half on the other.
Seriously, what gives?
Seth wants cake
The great thing about Seth’s blog is that most of his posts are a little bit enigmatic and it takes some thinking to get your way through them. But every now and then, he gets all Hawthorne on your ass and hits you over the head repeatedly with his points.
I think Seth is dead-on with TSA’s marketing failure–the failure to tell a positive story–we need a government and a bureaucracy that cares about their image, because it affects not only the effectiveness of the system, but the entire travel industry and the happiness of our country’s people.
The story?
* We don’t care. We don’t have to.
* We don’t make judgment calls. We’re not allowed to and we don’t care that management treats us this way.
* Don’t you dare say anything.
* Be afraid.
* Bothering everyone is smarter than hiring talented people to find the .0001% of the population that’s harmful.No Cake!
Is this the sort of government we want? We deserve? We should pay for?
Someone at TSA should really take him up on that book offer.
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