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  • The RSS Equalizer

    Here’s an interesting product designed to get your site more traffic. It’s sad to see things like this becoming even this mainstream.

    and the winner …
    …of today’s Possibly-a-Big-Pile-of-Puppy-Poop Award is RSS Equalizer – and it’s only $97!  Could it be just a joke?  I sure won’t pay to find out.  According to its Terms of Use, “While we try to include accurate stuff on the site, we’re not promising you it’s accurate. In fact, we’re not promising you anything except fun and entertainment.”  Hmm… ;~))  [link via 0xDECAFBAD]
    [jenett.radio]

    I’m still trying to figure out the ‘fun and excitement’ part.

  • Forbes.com does dumb things

    I thought this was funny.

    Forbes thinks RSS is dumb
    read the “Worst” section of the Standard review [via] 
    [Waxy.org Links]

    What’s even funnier? Forbes.com has RSS feeds themselves. Which I guess don’t really serve much purpose either

  • The History of IMDB

    LA Weekly has a cool feature on the history of the Internet Movie Database. The part of the article I was happy to see was acknowledging the early roots of the database.

    That’s a bit of an understatement considering Needham ended up transforming a small hobby into an international business. But remember, back in 1989, terms like “World Wide Web” were totally foreign. Needham joined a movie discussion group on what was then the fledgling university-linked Internet. The members were almost all American male college students, and their favorite topic was — you guessed it — who’s the most attractive actress and what movies has she been in.

    Soon, the guys volunteered their private databases and actresses begat actors, which begat directors, which begat writers, which begat cinematographers, which begat plot summaries. [LA Weekly]

    I remember when I was at CMU hanging out on rec.arts.movies and people discussing THE LIST. Which was this list of actresses and movies. If you search on Google Groups you can find numerous mentions of it.

  • SMC Bests Airport Express? Maybe not.

    Over on Gizmodo there’s a post about the new SMC SMCWRK-G, which is a portable wireless access point similar to the Airport Express.

    SMC has announced a new portable wireless access point a la the Airport Express. They’re calling it the “EZ Connect™ g 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Traveler’s Kit SMCWTK-G,” but we’ll probably just call it the SMCWRK-G or Dance Panda Mandy, as it suits us. For what it lacks in good looks it makes up in features, as the SMCWRK-G can do everything the Airport Express can do and more (save the iTunes streaming), including act as an Ethernet bridge. It might not be attractive, but it’s $30 cheaper, ringing in at just $100.

    Perennial Wi-Fi smart guy Glenn Fleishmann weighs in with a little more detail at Wi-Fi Networking News.

    Read – SMC Offers Multifunction Traveling Gateway [WiFiNetNews]
    Read – Press Release [SMC]

    [Gizmodo]

    The Airport Express is also a print server, which SMC isn’t listing as a feature for this device. This looks like it is more useful if you just need wireless access when you travel. But for $30 you’re losing a bit of functionality, and you need to carry around a power supply to go with it.

  • Airport Express and the Genius of Apple

    Today while looking for a wireless mouse I picked up an Airport Express. For those of you who aren’t aware of this device, it is Apple’s mini base-station, music streaming, usb printer sharing, network extending device. Currently, I have it set up downstairs hooked to the stereo and had it cranked up while I sat out on the porch. Currently, any mac in the house can stream music to it from iTunes. In some ways it’s not a perfect solution, since in my parent’s case they’d have to go upstairs to their mac to start iTunes. But for someone with a laptop or a laptop and a desktop it just plain rocks. And I’m not the only one who is loving it.

    Here’s where I think Apple was smart with this device. They’ve made it so easy to want more than one of them. I’ve already got one and can easily justify two more. The second I’ll use in my room as a print server/wireless client. The third will go on the third floor hooked into the home theatre setup. At around $130 each it isn’t something I’ll pick up right away, but once I get my laser printer I know I’ll be eyeing it.

    Of course, then I may want one for when I’m on the road. MacMegasite has a neat article about using the Airport Express in a hotel room.

  • Email, PowerPoint, and Breaking Up

    Accordian Guy writes about the growing trend of people getting dumped via email.

    The underlying idea of using email to deliver unpleasant news isn’t all that novel. You’ve probably had to phone someone to cancel plans and were relieved to get their voice mail or answering machine rather than the actual person, and you may have even heard of situations where people have broken up over the phone. Breaking up in writing was common enough for the term “Dear John Letter” to be coined. In these situations, the bearer of bad news is trying to weasel out of having to deal with the reaction.

    Listing the reasons for a breakup, whether the breakup is taking place in person, by postal mail, over the phone or email, isn’t new, either. What is new is listing the reasons in point form. [Accordian Guy]

    Definitely a fun read.

  • : Sysadmin Appreciation Day

    Not being a part of the working world these days I completely forgot that today was Sysadmin Appreciation Day.

    : Sysadmin Appreciation Day

    w00t! It’s Sysadmin Appreciation day! What could be better?

    System Administrator Appreciation Day – A special day, once a year, to acknowledge the worthiness and appreciation of the person occupying the role, especially as it is often this person who really keeps the wheels of your company turning.

    1. Read about the day: www.sysadminday.com
    2. UserFriendly’s cartoon: www.userfriendly.org
    3. Do something good for yourself and join Usenix/SAGE: www.sage.org
    4. Schedule some “me time” and register for LISA in the US, or SANE in Europe.

    [Everything Sysadmin]

  • Make

    O’Reilly has announced a new magazine coming in 2005 called Make.

    make_cover1Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

    Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O’Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere. It follows in line with the Hacks books and Hardware Hacking Projects, but it takes a highly visual and personal approach. [Make]

     

    Sounds pretty cool, I can’t wait to check it out.

  • Real, Apple, and Tethering

    There’s an interesting article over on engadget.com about “tethering”. Tethering is where one product is tied into another, one example given is the little packets of coffee for use in a certain coffee maker.

    So we looked on with enthusiasm at the new pressurized personal coffee makers. They push hot water through a sealed “pod” filled with a precise measure of coffee. It was neat, slick, well-designed, and promised a strong, good, dependable dose. It’s the same technology that supplies those surprisingly good coffee available from coin machines in public spaces in Europe.

    After a half-hour of debating the pros and cons of such a radical “format shift,” we left without one of these cool new machines. We opted out because these specialized “pods” are essentially “tethered” to this brand of coffee maker. [engadget.com]

    The author goes on to mention other devices that are tethered in this way (or becoming tethered) such as printers makers and garage-door opener companies. He also talks about the whole Apple vs Real situation and how it is becoming another example of this. I personally think Apple is blowing it. As much as I’m not a fan of Real this doesn’t seem like that big a deal to me.

  • Philips DVP642: Initial Impressions

    I’d been looking to pick up a new DVD player recently, since my old one croaked on me recently. After doing some hunting around online I decided on the Philips DVP642. I decided on this one for a few reasons.
    First, it supports DivX. This was a big deal for me because I watch a lot of anime that is encoded in this format. Second, the price was right. At $69.99 it wasn’t too expensive a risk. Some of the reviews indicated that the DVD playback wasn’t that great, but I figured at $70 even if it was good I’d be happy.

    Today I picked up my player at a local CompUSA (the only place locally that had them in stock). Initial setup was easy, as was updating the firmware to the latest version. This entailed downloading two files from the philips.com website and burning them to CD and starting up the dvd player letting it read the CD. I haven’t tested a DVD yet, but I did test with a DVD-RW that had a few files on it. The good: it read the DVD-R and could play some of the files. The bad: it couldn’t play them all. I’m trying to figure out what the differences were in the files it wouldn’t play, but so far nothing is jumping out at me.

    I’ve also set up a page on my wiki about this player so that I can keep notes on what works and what doesn’t. If anyone has anything they think would be useful to add, please let me know.