undertakingyou

So to give a back story here, in March my wife and I got a Netflix account after some family members lead us on to it. I was excited to have both one DVD at a time and unlimited streaming but you can’t stream on linux. Like so many before me I tried and failed to get it to run without having a virtual windows machine. We had my wife’s iPad, which allowed us to stream. But who wants to gather the entire family around an 8 inch diagonal screen? So after much discussion we got a Network Media Player to sit atop the television and give us unlimited entertainment.

I had a few requirements. One it had to be able to hook to my old TV through regular RCA cables. I also wanted it to be unusable for when I someday get a nicer TV, so I needed HDMI and/or Component video also. I have a good amount of my personal collection ripped onto the computer. I wanted to be able to play this collection either over a SMB share or DLNA server. Lastly, I had to be able to hook up wireless internet, as I didn’t feel like dragging cords all over the place. So off I looked to see about a player that could do this.

In my search I looked at Roku, Seagate, Western Digital, Sony, and others to try and find something that would do all that I wanted. In the end I actually settled on the Sony SMP-N100. The reason being that it was wireless, had all the connection options that I needed. Could play media off of a USB drive, and could act as a DLNA client. It seemed perfect. Once the box arrived I was of course very excited. I plugged it in, hooked it up, and then the disappointment happened. Here is my list of things that went absolutely wrong:

• Wireless is finicky. I have a Linksys WRT54GL V1.1 running DD-WRT and it would connect, but then not reliably transfer data and I could not watch Netflix. In the end I finally used a Linksys WRT54G v5 hooked just as a wireless switch to my DD-WRT router and then I could get wireless.
• DLNA sucked. On the advertisements etc it gives a long list of supported video formats it can play, and then says it is a DLNA client. What it doesn’t say is that not all supported types are supported over DLNA. So I can’t play 90% of my personal collection to it.
• Interface sucks. They use the Sony media cross. While logically this should work great, because you can narrow by catagory, the problem (or suckiness) comes because you can’t rearrange anything. So my most used features (Pandora, Slacker and Netflix) I had to scroll through a ton of options to get to and it became very cumbersome.
• Sony Proprietary Crap. This one has some subpoints.
• All services must be routed through Sony. So to use Pandora, I had to link it to my Sony account. Because I had a store return player I could not do that until I called and talked to Sony to reset my device. Sony is very interested in locking you in. I reset my player to factory defaults and removed all personal data. I still had to call Sony.
• All Netflix traffic is first routed through Sony servers. Now we all know the problems that Sony has with their servers. I can not say how many times I got a ‘Netflix unavailable: error 300′ message. Netflix doesn’t have an error 300. This is a Sony server error number.
• It seemed to have a memory leak. Not 100% sure on this, but while having the SMP-N100 I changed from 1.5 Mbps DSL to 15 Mbps Cable. This increased quality and speed should have been a good thing. However, after watching one show with no interruption, all subsequent shows would be choppy and have dozens of spooling pauses.

Now aside from not working, the sony media player did have some good things. The remote could also control the TV. So I didn’t need to have multiple remotes. Also … Nope, that was it.

I finally got tired of having a player that wouldn’t play, and so I switched gears and bought a Roku XD|S player. Now the Roku has some things against it. The remote that is supplied with it is simple, so simple it won’t control the TV volume too, so I must have two remotes. Also no option for DLNA client or playing over a SMB share. With that said there are some things that are really good:

• Wireless works. It connects and transfers data over my DD-WRT router. No problems.
• It can play various media off a USB stick. So I could play some of my collection, just one more step.
• Interface is better. Not amazing. It is linear. So you have to just scroll through everything. But you get to pick your ‘channels’ and so you only see what you want. Right now I have just Amazon, Netflix, and Pandora. There are other channels you can add.
• So far I have not run into any connection problems because the Roku servers are down.
• I have watched for hours without any spooling pauses or apparent memory leaks.

In all, Roku, all the way. I have not tried Seagates or Western Digitals players although I looked at them in my research. But at this point I am super pleased with the Roku.

My coworker took this one on the way to work. I thought it was fun enough to be on fail blog. You can see if you agree. This was taken on Victory Road in Salt Lake.

While my brother-in-law was in town for Christmas he had brought his Amazon Kindle 3. I was instantly taken with it. So it comes as no surprise that a few nights later while I couldn’t sleep I got on ebay and bought myself a new Amazon Kindle 3g. Of course, my wife was asleep and was not able to tell me no. Thankfully she is extremely forgiving, quite understanding, and still let me come to bed the following night.

The packaging of the Kindle is actually awesome. The box says something about being no fuss and it is true. I like that it was so easy to open and start using. When you do open the box you have the Kindle on top, a quick start guide, a usb cable and plug adapter for it.

Putting books on the Kindle is of course a cinch. I like to use Calibre for my local PDF books and more books can be bought directly from the Kindle Store on the device. Also many of the classics are available for free. Once books are on the device I found it cumbersome to just have all the books out on the home screen. Scrolling through 7 or 8 screens to find your book was a pain. Thankfully there are categories to organize this. I think that categories for the books are a must and yet, it is somewhat cumbersome to place a book into a category. I would love a bulk add feature. I realize that one you have your device kind of set up just adding one new book and then add just the one book to a category is easy, but still. To start with 35 ‘computer books’ which must be added one at a time to the category was painful.

As far as reading, the Kindle holds true to all that you have ever heard about it. It is very easy to read. No screen fatigue. It doesn’t matter how bring the sun or lighting is it looks amazing, clear and glare free, all the time. It is a truly spectacular machine for this. I have read one book the whole way through, very comfortable.

If I had to do it again I would save the money and not get the 3g version, but get the wifi only model. This is for two reasons. I find that I am not downloading books at every point that I pull out the Kindle. The second I feel there is a conveniently left out caveat with the ‘free’ 3g service. Yes, anything that I download from the Kindle Store, or magazine or newspaper subscriptions through the Kindle Store are automatically sent to the device. But you can also email your own documents to the Kindle directly,(for instance, I have Cablibre download wired magazine and send it to my Kindle) and you must pay $0.15 per meg that is delivered via 3g. That is a little detail left out of the brochure. One other reason, call it reason 2b if you will, is that while there is a browser on the Kindle, it is not exactly what you will use to browse the web. There is a reason that it is in the ‘experimental’ section of the menu.

All in all, very worth the $139 bucks. I want to buy another one for my wife. She has been resistant but at some point I am going to.

I have had this title sitting here for a long while. I can’t figure out why I am on twitter. I really don’t know. I don’t have anything going on that interesting. I think the thing that really pushed me over the edge was ping.fm which allows me to update everything at once. So, laziness has me posting in more places. So, if you want to follow me, you can. I am on twitter and identi.ca as @undertakingyou.

Let me preface this by saying that this is not a discussion about my stance on California’s proposition 8, the legislation that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman. This article is about what I view as the real and much larger issue.

Lets first examine what happened in California’s proposition 8. A proposal was made. Supporters of both sides campaigned by every means that they could to gain even more supporters. Voters turned up at the polls in record numbers to cast their vote on an issue. The votes were counted and like every contest one side lost and didn’t like it.

Regardless of what side of this issue you are on this is what happened. The issue could have been about changing all roads to be painted white instead of black asphalt. To do white would allow more sun to be reflected and city tempratures to come down. To leave it black would cost less and actually prevent accidents because the sun wouldn’t reflect in peoples eyes from the road. The cycle is the same, proposal, campaign, voters, and counting. It has been going on for a long time.

This process of rules being established by vote of the people is the foundation of a democratic society.

Now this is where I get scared. Yesterday the federal court overturned California’s proposition 8 and all I see is people praising this wonderful decision and how awesome it is. I saw it tweeted, on facebook, in newspapers and radio programs. It was even hailed as a huge justice on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ by one of the judges. But what were they praising? The were praising that the democratic process just got overthrown.

Yep, my whole concern with this issue is regardless of how I vote if I don’t do it the way ‘they’ want, my vote will get the ol’ heave-ho and ‘they’ will have it however they want. It doesn’t matter the issue folks. It could be about what color to paint the street. Nope, you did it wrong, and we are going to repeal it. Tough crap!

The fact that people are thinking that this overturning of the law is just about marriage is absolutely beyond me. This could be about anything you find important. From school budgets to gun control to whether to go to war. If you don’t do it the way ‘they’ want they will just find a way to get it done anyways. I think that George Carlin’s words say it best. Basically, ‘they’ don’t care about you, ‘they’ will do whatever ‘they’ want.

What I would rather see, what I am shocked is not happening, what should be done is have everyone on either side of this issue protest with big signs that say “Stop F***ing America!”. Later, we can all play part of the democratic process again. Get a new bill proposed that overturns a previous bill, campaign our hearts out, and then have the voters come out. When it as all done, we can count the votes and see where it stands. Until then, I guess a whole bunch of people are really happy being raped over by Uncle Sam and the broken American System.

Below are some photos that I took with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi prior to and during the fireworks on the 23rd.

The other photos all ended up blurry because it was dark. But these were pretty good.

So I have this theory that in each chat session that we have with someone there are always two conversations going. Maybe always is a bit broad. Lets say, all of mine, and my guess is most of yours. I find that it is because of this phenomena that most effective communication can break down in a chat. Largely due to confusion on what the context is of a specific piece of the communication.

Lets look at a completely hypothetical example:

A: Hey, hows it going? Haven’t chatted in a while.
A: Wanted to ask you if you still had that car.
B: Hey, hows it going? Yeah, it has been a while.
B: What are you up to?
B: Yeah I have the car, Why?
A: I am fine, just up to the usual, Work.
A: boss is really on my nerves.
A: Was wanting to know if you wanted to sell the car.
B: Oh man that sucks! I hate my boss. Work is the pits.
B: I wish I could quit my job.
A: Oh man I know. Work is awful.
B: So you like the car? I need the money, I could sell it.
A: I hate it, it is always on my nerves.

It is at this point that confusion comes in. By looking right at the chat it looks like person A hates the car and it is always on his nerves. We can look at the two conversations seperatly and see that each is a logical, straightforward conversation.

A: Hey, hows it going? Haven’t chatted in a while.
B: Hey, hows it going? Yeah, it has been a while.
B: What are you up to?
A: I am fine, just up to the usual, Work.
A: boss is really on my nerves.
B: Oh man that sucks! I hate my boss. Work is the pits.
B: I wish I could quit my job.
A: Oh man I know. Work is awful.
A: I hate it, it is always on my nerves.

A: Wanted to ask you if you still had that car.
B: Yeah I have the car, Why?
A: Was wanting to know if you wanted to sell the car.
B: So you like the car? I need the money, I could sell it.

Each is a self contained conversation.

Has anyone else noticed this in their own chats? It seems that I am not totally alone in my findings, there is a facebook group about it. It seems too the only way to not have it happen is to wait what seems like an obscenely long time for each question to be asked and answered back.

For those that had been interested I have traded my 1964 Bug. The kid that has it seems like he will treat it really well and I am glad that he got it. As I was getting it ready for him I drove it one more time and just thought about how fun of a car it really was to drive and have. All the looks that I got and people wanting to know about that classic car.

But I digress. I traded it for his 1988 Chevy pickup. I am currently getting the title but then I am going to put that up for sale. If it doesn’t go fairly quick I will take it down to Carmax and see what they do.

So two questions, first does anybody want a pickup truck? If so message me or comment and I can get you the info. Second, does anyone have experience selling a car to car max? Good or bad I am curious to hear it.

I think we have all seen the little Volkswagon Bugs plastered with their oval logo. Or their vans, all decked out in black, white, and orange. If you have ever been to BestBuy you can’t even purchase a DVD player without the offer of a Geek Squad ‘Double Agent’ to come and install the item. They offer in home diagnosis of computer problems and can do computer repairs.

I have heard of others having poor experiences with Geek Squad. My brother Ryan had a computer gone for 12 weeks. Each day a new excuse as to why it wasn’t done. The other day one of the computers at our floral show was on the fritz. In fact, two were. I went to look at the computers but was only able to dedicate a limited time to my diagnosis. Not being able to complete the repair the choice was made to call Geek Squad. They needed to have the computer fixed and it made sense to have someone come over that was a ‘computer expert’ and would make ‘house calls’.

Geek Squad arrived and went to work addressing the problems. First, was a computer that was being plagued by pop-ups. Whenever I went to diagnose the problem no pop-ups happened and I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the processes list. Geek Squad looked at the computer and said that the hard drive had bad sectors and the computer needed to be replaced. Well, that may be true, but bad sectors don’t cause pop-ups. They found the first thing wrong and the first suggestion was to replace the computer. Not even just replace the hard drive, the whole computer needed to be new.

They then spent a few hours looking at the next computer. This computer needs to use the modem, and what was happening was that the modem would work for a short time, and then stop working. When you would try to make a call, it would say the telephony service had an error, and restarting the telephony service didn’t help. Geek Squad still hasn’t figured it out. I am waiting for them to say that we need a new computer or it will take 12 weeks in their shop.

The point is they never did address the problems that we asked them to. It seems they just want to ‘up-sell’ the consumer. In addition their diagnosis cost was enough that I would have expected more. Has anyone had a good Geek Squad experience?

I am selling my 1964 Bug. I really like the car and it is a fun driver. I just own 6 cars, 5 of which are licensed and registered to drive. It is time to cut back.

$3000.00 OBO. This 1964 bug for sale is ready for a great restore project or just to use as a daily driver (which is what I have done for the last two and a half years). Check out these added features:

• All around disc brake kit installed ($800 value)
• New GEX turnkey 1600cc motor with only 21,350 miles on it ($2500 value when new)
• Rebuilt Ranchero transmission.
• changed to lug nuts not lug bolts.
• Radio, works well for my commute music.
• Added fan into the heat ducts to provide better heat.
• The seats, carpet and door panels are new from an interior kit. What isn’t installed will be included with the car.
• Skat shifter

In addition to these great features buyer will also recieve:

• Factory repair manual from Volkswagon
• Book “keeping your bug alive”.
• Parts including oil change gasket kits, new front hood latch, new factory shifter, and more.

Pictures can only tell so much. I am happy to let you drive the car around and see how she does. Call, text, or email with any questions or to see the car. Any reasonable offer will be considered.

The KSL ad has contact information and pictures. Please check it out.