Category Archives: tech

Bad Analysts at Ars Technica

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Ars Technica has an Apple-specific blog. Recently one of the authors provided some analysis of iPhones and netbook rumors. But it’s weak. I don’t really expect more from Ars Technica; I think they promote themselves as more professional than their actual comportment reveals.

The article’s lede includes self promotion, and questionable attribution.

Last month, I posted regarding netbook rumors that were swirling in anticipation of the Macworld Expo. In my write-up, I suggested that in many ways, the iPhone and iPod touch already were Apple’s netbooks. –Ars Technica

The concept of the iPhone being a netbook offering from apple was first suggested half-jokingly on an Apple financial teleconference last fall. For Erica to suggest she has come up with some new analysis of the market by suggesting exactly what someone else has already said is either humorous or sad, I’m not sure which.

Bionic Blogging

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Been a while since I’ve posted.  Not that I haven’t had things I want to write about, I’ve just been allocating my sparse time elsewhere.

There have been articles about blogging being dead.  Baah.  There have been articles about Twitter’s short attention span pushing into blogging’s space.  Perhaps some truth there.

As I was driving home today, the evening commute that takes twice as long as the morning one, it struck me that blogging may get an uptick in the future.  I think that voice recognition may lead to more “writing” on blogs.  I certainly have plenty of time in my car during the commute.  And ideas often come to me while driving.

The ubiquity of audio note taking on cell phones and mp3 “players” (hopefully soon for me, the second generation iPod Touch) will help people to take down their thoughts.  Voice recognition is becoming more common (Google’s iPhone app for searches).  Whether it’s available on the device itself or your home computer, it will be available soon.

I can image a Google Transcribe application that takes the whole recording on your phone.  Sends it instantly or later to the Google farm and delivers the text to you via email or back to the mobile/desktop application.  You wouldn’t need any local ability to transcribe.  (And Google could start indexing your thoughts.)

Until then, I’ll try to write more.  (I really write mostly for myself.)  And when the pocket transcriber gets here, I’ll try not to write too much.

Opening Statement

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“… the code behind a symfony-driven application can seem quite daunting. It consists of many directories and scripts, and the files are a mix of PHP classes, HTML, and even an intermingling of the two. You’ll also see references to classes that are otherwise nowhere to be found within the application folder, and the directory depth stretches to six levels. But …” – The Definitive Guide to symfony, Chapter 2

Never a good sign.

Donna

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So, when you receive a MySpace friend request from “Donna” who doesn’t have a picture, and lives in another state, and who’s only friend is “Tom”, what do you do?

No PhotoYes. And I was just about to delete the invitation, but I noticed some oddities. She wasn’t 18 or 21 or 26, like most MySpace spam, but 41.

And she’s in Geismar, Louisiana. That sounded vaguely familiar, so I looked it up. Suburb of Baton Rouge.

Hmm, I actually know a Donna of that age that lives in the suburbs of the Red Stick. I guess I’ll give her a day or two to put any identifying information onto her account.

But Donna, MySpace is so 2004. Where’s your FaceBook account?

DVD-rama

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I used to use peerflix.com to get DVDs, but I got busy at one point, and didn’t have time to watch the movies I was receiving. So, I let the account go stagnant. They threatened to remove my account for inactivity, and though I can still login, the account page is all wonky.

When I emptied out my 300 carousel DVD player after it broke, I re-discovered all the forgotten movies. The trick is none of them have containers for me to put them in (unlike the CDs which I had in four 100 CD albums).

Watched – If you want to borrow, let me know.

  • The Girl in Lovers Lane – 1959, black and white, almost watchable
  • The Manchurian Candidate – wide screen and “standard” – 1962, Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh, classic
  • Paycheck – Ben Afflec, Uma Thurman
  • Die Another Day – Pierce Brosnan Bond, 2 discs
  • Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle – excellent, I really need to see the second one
  • Anchorman
  • Free Enterprise – an indie geek romantic comedy about two trekkies who meet a messed up William Shatner, funny, with an insane number of sci-fi, comic book, and movie culture references

Unwatched – When will I find the time? Tell me which ones to watch first.

  • Y Tu Mamá También
  • Everything is Illumated
  • Se7en – 2 discs
  • Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  • A History of Violence
  • Spanglish
  • Yes
  • Syriana
  • Paradise Now
  • Nine Lives
  • True Romance – unrated directors cut, 2 discs, started to watch and didn’t like
  • Capote

I had also received a copy of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King via swaptree.com but it didn’t play on my old DVD player, it’s quite scratched up. When I was re-boxing all of the other DVDs, I put it in the new player on a whim figuring it might have better oversampling/correction. Indeed, the $50 player had no problem at all with the disc!

Unfortunately, I put this classically epic movie in after 10 pm on a week night and at 1 am had to turn it off with over an hour left.

More Falling Apart: DVD

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I have an over-large expensive 301 disc DVD/CD player. But it’s fairly old (no HDMI output). The Pioneer DV-F727 got slightly flaky before it stopped working all together.

Some investigation showed that the mechanism to spin the disc is what failed. With all the other moving parts I thought it would have been something else.

Of course, I have the 3rd season of Battlestar Gallactica borrowed and was in no state to be DVD-less (sure, no hot water still, but I can manage). I went to the Target, they didn’t have the one on the shelf I wanted (for $80), so I got the $50 RCA DRC277. It’s tiny. And it upscales for HDMI output, not that I’ll need it anytime soon – my receiver doesn’t manage that format, either.

After some cabling troubleshooting, I finished off the 3rd season. Now I have to wait till the current season is over and for sale.

Also, Pioneer wins over RCA for website customer support!