TechgnosisWeb Prime

So, it was pointed out to me recently that I haven’t exactly been keeping this blog updated much, and I have to say, it’s true. This does not mean I’ve been absent from the Net, heavens no. I’ve been around, and I’ve even been doing all sorts of random things and bits, some of which I really should tell you folks, and some of which you have no business asking about. Shame on you. So, over the rest of the week, expect a plethora (I love that word) of updates, including my adventures with trying to give Skype money (why do they make it so hard?!), a poll on the fate of my hair, ruminations about the X-mas season, and quite possibly some pictures of cats. Because it wouldn’t be a blog without cat pictures, now would it?

In the meantime, however, there’s one easy way to know what I’m up to at any random given moment: Twitter. What’s Twitter, you ask? God.. you people never stop with your goddamned questions, do you? Anyway, Twitter is kinda like a mini-blog. Look over to your right.. under the Flickr picture thingy? Yeah, I embedded a block there that shows my latest entries. Updated randomly during the day whenever I have a few spare moments, and I can update it directly on the site, or over IM or SMS, so I can post up a quick blurb even while I’m stuck in traffic. Just little momentary snapshots, no more than 140 characters long, of how my day is going and what I’m up to. If you’re one of those many, many people who simply must know what I’m doing at any given moment, Twitter is your best bet. Besides that little block there, you can go straight to the site and see my random updates there in a much nicer interface. And if you want to create an account (it’s free and pretty painless) and that way you can ‘follow’ me and receive everything I put up, do let me know and I’ll add you to my friends list and then I can follow everything you put up, in a vicious circle of constant stalkerliness. It’s a real word. Look it up.
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Katharine McPhee

Originally uploaded by Katsushiro.

I will keep my ramblings about my shameful, dirty addiction to American Idol this year to a minimum, but I will take a moment to post about the girl who I’m rooting for: the lovely, talented, and absolutely delicious Miss Katharine McPhee. Go, looky-looky, clicky-clicky, I made a set of her pics.

Natalie and I are both completely taken with her, as she’s a delightful mix of cute, playful, and sexy that just hits all the right spots. Oh, and she can sing, too. Anyway, Katharine, my girlfriend and I have decided that we want to share you. Call me, OK?

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Katharine McPhee

Anyone out there on AIM? I know that most of the folks I interact with are on MSN and know me there as fourthfate@hotmail.com (yeah, I already get a butload of spam at that address, another extra helping won’t kill me), a few more of you know me as 9616049 on ICQ, and a couple more know me as fourthfate on Yahoo. I’m also Katsushiro on GTalk. But I’ve a feeling none of you know me as Katsu42 on AIM. And now, the none of you that are on AIM, can talk to an electronic version of me there: KatsuBot! Just send a message to KatsuBot on AIM and he’ll respond; he’s a little quirky, as you’ll probably notice, but that’s not so different from the real me. He also has a few useful functions, such as weather and theater listings, just send the word ‘help’ to the KatsuBot and he’ll let you know what he can do. I’m also working on adding a few more functions, with time, such as listing the latest postings on the Techgnosisweb Blog Empire memeber blogs, for the future. As for the rest: I’m looking for a good MSN bot program, I’ll be sure to post up here when KatsuBot for MSN becomes available.
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Technorati Tags: AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, GTalk, KatsuBot

… apparently, not terribly sick at all. So, I claimed a few days ago to be putting together a post on the aftermath of my doctor’s visit, and apparently, when I say ‘tomorrow’, I actually mean ’several days from now, maybe’. Let’s get down to it, then so I can get back to ranting about geeky things:

The test results came in, I sat for about 8 hours waiting for the doctor to pay attention to me. Luckily, technology kept me from going insane: I listened to a few podcasts on the iPod, watched all of Corpse Bride on Glitch, caught up on my RSS feeds on Glitch too, used the Katsuphone to check my mail, and even played a couple of games on my GBA using the Flash cart. Finally, just as the batteries were starting to give up on my varied and sundry electronics, the doctor called me into her office. She took a look at my tests results and gave me a mix of good news and bad news. The good news? I’m apparently healthy as a horse. My blood pressure levels are excellent, my cholesterol levels are fabulous with the ‘bad’ cholesterol levels pretty low and the ‘good’ cholesterol levels at a nice number. Everything else from the test showed completely normal levels, or even better than normal. As for my thryoid levels, which were the main worry here, they were also completely normal, so it turns out that there’s nothing wrong with my thyroid after all.. at least, nothing in the levels of hormones and such that they pump out.

The bad news? I’m healthy as a horse. Therefore, I can’t blame my being overweight and my general lack of energy on any thyroid issues. Looks like I’m just a lazy-assed bum, and if I want to get back to the slim(esque) physique of my younger years, it’s a matter of getting off my ass and doing some excercise.

So what’s next? Well, test results notwithstanding, I still have a weird lump on my neck where my thyroid gland is, so that needs to be dealt with. In order to figure out what we’re dealing with here, the doctor ordered a test that’s comic-book-esque in nature: I am to drink some sort of radioactive liquid, and then my body is to be bombarded with additional radiation (whether it’s gamma rays or the more potent ‘cosmic’ rays, I don’t know yet) . She claims this will allow them to determine if the lump on my neck is ‘hot’ or ‘cold’, and what needs to be done from there. Frankly, I think that test is more likely to give me superpowers than anything else.

I just want to point out, right now, that I make absolutely no promises about using my new powers solely for good.
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Technorati Tags: sick, doctor, blood pressure, cholesterol, thryoid, bum, radiation

So, for the longest time I’ve had a dickens of a time getting a good night’s sleep. You see, since I live in a tropical island, the nights can get pretty balmy, and often, a plain old fan won’t cut it. So, not that long ago, we put in an air conditioner in the bedroom. This has generally been a Good Thing ™. However, air conditioners have a certain side effect, besides just cooling the air: they tend to dry it out. This was ok at first, but as time passed, I noticed that I was constantly getting up with my nose and mouth bone dry, and my throat feeling scratchy and uncomfortable. This has progressed to the point where it’s difficult for me to get a good nights sleep, due to having difficulty breathing the excessively dry air. So, tonight, I finally broke down, drove by Walgreens, and plunked down a couple bucks for a little humidifier unit. Cleaned it out, filled it up, plugged it in, and it’s sitting in a corner right now, happily humming and gurgling to itself and spewing out a little cloud of cool moisture into the air. On the other side of the room, the air conditioner emits its own, slightly more ominous hum, as it brings the room temperature down to the high 60’s, which is perfect sleeping temperature as far as I’m concerned. I’m hoping that between the humidifier spewing out moisture, and the AC sucking it in, we can achieve some sort of happy medium that will allow me to actually get some decent sleep again. And if that doesn’t work.. well, surely there’s *some* gizmo or gadget that will save me, no? technology, in thee I place my faith.

Tomorrow: the aftermath of my doctor’s visit, and my upcoming transformation into a superhero.
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Technorati Tags: tropical, air conditioner, humidifier

****START ALERT****

Orange juice rocks the motherfuckin’ house!!!!

That is all.

****END ALERT****

Boy, I’ve been psoting a lot today. Guess that’s what happens when I actually have a day off work and not much to do other than chill and surf the web, read books, whatever. Anyway, I know you’re all wondering what Santa brought Old Man Katsu this year. Not much, unfortunately. Looks like the jolly old elf is having some financial trouble this year. So I’m having to make do with 2 shirts and the Serenity DVD. Don’t get me wrong, Serenity r0xx0rz, and you should go buy yourself a copy right now, but the X-mas treasure trove is pretty light this year. I’m hoping for better things from Three Kings Day, but in the meantime, I decided that I owed myself an Agnostica present, since no one else I know celebrates it, so I can’t expect anything from them.

So I sat down and I thought to myself: “Self, you don’t have much money. And while there’s lots of things that would be neat to have, there’s not that many that you could honestly say you’ll still be using 3 months from now, or that don’t offer the same funcitonality that you already have with Glitch or any of your other gadgets. So, Self, what you need is this: something that straddles the line between geeky and practical. Something that makes your geek side squirm with delight, while still being something you’ll be using a year or two down the line.”

Recognizing the wisdom of.. well.. me, I hit up eBay and started searching. It wasn’t long until I ran across this: the SanDisk 802.11b CF WiFi Adapter + 128MB Memory Card.

For $35, shipped, I could finally give Glitch the one thing it’s been missing all this time: WiFi access! I’d been wanting to upgrade Glitch with some of that sweet, sweet wireless action since damn near forever, but I couldn’t justify spending the $80-$100 that CompUSA kept wanting to charge me for a simple CF WiFi adapter. And those didn’t even bring the extra 128MB of storage room. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find that particular little bargain online, on the last day, with only 4 remeinign and less than an hour to go before the auction ended. you can bet your sweet bippy I clicked that ‘Buy It Now’ button, and according to my email, it was already shipped and should be here within the week.

I’ll be sure and report back on it as soon as I get it and play with it. Wardriving, here I come!
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Technorati Tags: Serenity, Agnostica, eBay, WiFi

Allright, I know the Massively Multiplayer podiobook entry for this week is late. My apologies, work’s been keeping me nuts. Hey, you try installing a full rack of Windows 2003 servers, KVM switches, Gigabit Ethernet switches, 40 client computers, a full Active Directory rollout, and assorted other technobabble on your own with no other backup or help, and then see how much time you have to record a show. But the next part’s written, and ready to record, so I’ll have it out before the week is over. And as a special holiday bonus, this one’s going to be a bit longer, as I introduce a new character or two.

I’m sorta dreading this episode, though, as I finally have some dialogue, and I have no idea how well I’ll do at the voices of each of the characters. But if you’ve ever been curious to hear what my ‘female’ voice sounds like, well, this just might be your chance.

Oh, and on an possibly related note: I’ve decided I really like Heineken Dark Lager. I know, I know, the Michaels and Evos of the world are shaking their heads at me for not drinking something better, at least a Guinness or something, but you have to understand: this is Puerto Rico. They stopped importing Guiness because no one bought it! This is the kind of place where Bass and Foster’s are considered exotic. If nothing else, you have to admit it beats the pants off swill like Bud, Coors, Corona, or, Cthulhu forbid, Medalla. Those of my friends who are making it to the little holiday party tomorrow night: I’ll bring a six-pack or two over and share.
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Technorati Tags: podiobook, servers, Heineken, Guinness, Cthulhu

So, I’ve been using the Mac more and more lately. I still hit up the ol’ Windows box for gaming and work, but my leisure computer use is almost completely Mac-centered these days. It’s taken some time to get used to the idiosyncracies of Mac life, but I’m adjusting fairly well, and actualy enjoying the trip. There’s a certain philosophy to the use fo the Mac that just seems more relaxing. I mean, i do have most of my work tools installed on the Mac, including Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Firefox, and a Remote Desktop applet so I can connect to the office and work as if I was there (which works almost too well: when I full-screen it, it’s just freaky seeing the Windows desktop completely replacing my Mac desktop). Among the many apps I’ve discovered while doing the Mac thing, there’s a few that have quickly become favorites. Chief among them is FireANT. What’s FireANT?

FireANT is an RSS video aggregator and media player. Subscribe to any RSS 2.0 channel and automatically download fresh media content to watch and listen to.

* FireANT plays *any* media format (Quicktime, Windows Media, Flash, Real) and can sync downloaded files with portable media players such as the iPod and Sony PSP.
* FireANT’s integrated Yahoo! Video Search helps you find videos you are looking for.
* When a video is playing, you can make it play big!
* Use the magic Comment button to send feedback to video creators.

Get FireANT and prepare to get addicted.

I’ve been playing with it for a few days now and it’s brilliant. It brings a series of video blog feeds already, but I’ve found quite a few more that I like, and added them, customizing the show list until I’ve basically created a video channel that’s perfectly tailored to what I want to see, commercial free, with the kind of content that you would never, ever see on TV (some of it for good reason, granted).

Much like the podcasting craze, video blogs (or vlogs) are growing in number and variety at an exponential rate. In fact, it may be because of the visual format of vlogs, but I’ve found that there are many more experimental, artsy vlogs out there than there are podcasts. Comedy, news, tech stuff, music, even drama and educational stuff. It’s all out there, and I’ve gotten addicted. And if I want to take a video or two with me to watch on the road, all my vlogs are stored in a folder, so I just copy them over to Glitch and take them to go.

Of course, video files can get pretty big, and sitting in front of the computer waiting for a video file to download is pretty boring, even with broadband. That’s why with FireAnt you subscribe to RSS channels, and it goes out and automatically downloads videos while you sleep! I’ve set mine to do a roundup around 3 Am every day, and every morning I have a fresh batch of videos waiting for me to watch.

If you feel like trying it out, there’s a Windows version too, and I’ve heard it works flawlessly. It does help to have a broadband connection to download the videos, as they can get pretty big, but it’s worth it once you fine tune the channel selection to your tastes. And for those of you with PSP’s (I’m looking at a certain void-dweller, here) it has a one-button ’send to PSP’ option to sync the videos directly to your PSP in the correct format automatically. Nifty!
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Technorati Tags: Mac, FireANT, video blogs, vlogs, PSP

So, I’m noticing a sudden spike in hits and Google ad views. Not a huge one, mind you, but still fairly noticeable at the end of the month. So I go and take a look at my logs, and I see that most of the views are going here: the entry with pictures of the baby rats, a.k.a. kittens.

Apparently Google Images picked up one of the kittens.jpg pics in that article, and all of a sudden I’m being bombarded with visits from people looking for kittens. I’m sure those people must e fairly disappointed when they see baby rats instead.

Still, it did provide for some amusement: one of the web stats packages I use provides me with a list of the search terms that people have used to find this blog, and it reads like this:

1 15663 93.86% kittens
2 262 1.57% pictures of kittens
3 50 0.30% stick shift
4 49 0.29% ninjas killed my family
5 44 0.26% %22kittens%22
6 24 0.14% pics of kittens
7 22 0.13% kittens pictures
8 16 0.10% images of kittens
9 16 0.10% kittens%27
10 13 0.08% case mod
11 12 0.07% kittens!
12 10 0.06% half life case
13 9 0.05% kittens pics
14 9 0.05% photos of kittens
15 7 0.04% kittens%5c
16 6 0.04% captain jack sparrow
17 6 0.04% emma watson 18th birthday countdown
18 6 0.04% thumb kittens
19 6 0.04% violent video games
20 5 0.03% 2 kittens

So, with a 93.86% majority and nearly 16K visits, it seems that ‘kittens’ are the most important reason anyone visits my blog. Not my scintillating commentary, not my rugged, manly features, not even my rapier wit. No, it’s all random web searches for kittens.

Of course, now I have to pander to the kitten agenda. Expect a full redesign of the site within a week, with kitten graphics, kitten sounds, a kitten cursor, interactive javascript kittens, downloadable kitten wallpapers, and, of course, kitten dating services. My pageviews are gonna go through the fuckin’ roof!
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I’m about to pass out, gotta wake up at 5 AM tomorrow ’cause I have to be early at a client that’s on the other side of the friggin’ island, but I just wanted to drop a note to all my droogs for you to check out today’s episode of Rocketboom: stick through to the end, because the Cheney/Edwards debate at the end is easily the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all week.
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It’s exceedingly late, and I should have been asleep hours ago, as I have work tomorrow. But I cannot, in good faith, surrender to the arms of Morpheus without first sharing this beautiful, wondrous gem of eldritchness: The Cthulhu Circus.

Click on the link above for the rest of them, they are a horrendous feast for the senses which you can ill afford to miss!
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I figured I should bring it up before any of my readers and friends do: I like money. I do. I’m a filthy capitalist, and proud of it. Buy low, sell high, all that stuff. Of course, I also appreciate community efforts and the commons, witness my love for and dedication to Open Source initiatives, Creative Commons systems, the EFF, etc.

I bring this up, because it’s likely that any of you who click on the comments or the ‘more’ link in my posts from here on (and I’ll be slowly editing the archived posts as well), will have noticed something new: ads. Yup, I finally broke down and stuck some Google AdSense blocks in my blog. All the cool kids are doing it. Some of them even make a tidy profit with it. I’ve had an AdSense account sitting there, unused, for over a year now, and I figured I might as well try and make some use of it (it was originally for AniGaming, but since that site’s pretty much undead now, I figured I’d plop ‘em in here instead).

Why? Well, I sat down and did some budgeting this weekend (I even dusted off Excel to help with the calculations), and while I’m not broke, I could always use a bit of extra cash. I’m not expecting to make thousands of dollars a month with the ads or anything, but any bit 0f extra scratch I bring in, from anywhere, is a bit of money that can go towards the ‘let’s get my girlfriend back to school’ fund. This fund is in no danger of running dry, mind you (or else I would never have dropped the cash for Guitar Hero), but it doesn’t hurt to bring in a bit more if I can, right?

I’m trying to be as nice and unobtrusive as I can with the ads, so you shouldn’t see any on the main page. I’m only putting them in the individual entry pages themselves, and only at the very end of the entries, not in the middle or mixed in with the text. Yeah, I know I’m ‘leaving money on the table’ by not being more aggressive with them, but I also hate it when i see ads plastered all over an otherwise useful site, so I’m not going to do that to my readers. They’ll only be placed in the individual entry pages, and at the very end of the entry, just above where the comments start. Click the ‘more’ or ‘comments’ links on the previous entry (or on this one, for that matter) to see what I mean. (EDIT: And, no, I’m not sticking them in the RSS feed either, so you can always just subscribe to the feed in your favorite aggregator and get the full entries with no ads as well.)

Hopefully you guys won’t hate on them (and me) too much, and if you see anything in an ad that actually looks like it might interest you, go ahead and give it a click. Doesn’t cost you a thing, and it’s a nice way of helpin’ a brutha out, y’know? Makes me feel appreciated, and gives you the warm and fuzzies all over. Win-win.

And if you do hate them too much, I’m gonna go ahead and assume you’re using Firefox, and point you at the AdBlock extension: there, now you don’t have to see them anymore.
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So you’re all wondering if I went to the doctor today. Yes, yes I did. It was not a particularly pleasant experience, but neither was it as fraught with horror and death as I imagined and feared it would be. Overall, I would sum it up thus: meh. I had some labs taken, some antibiotics prescribed, and now I have to wait till next week for the lab results to come in and see what the next step is.

This is all boring.

Rather than drone on about the intricacies of filling out medical forms and handing my health plan card to about 40 different people, I will tell you the tale of something my dear, wonderful, and loving girlfriend just bought me today, as a reward for being such a good boy: Guitar Hero. Go, click, check it out. I’ve got time.

This is a game where you play guitar. Rock guitar. Like those other rhythm games, such as Donkey Konga, Dance Dance Revolution, or Kareoke Revolution. Except, it’s with a guitar. An electric guitar. For playing rock. It brings a controller. The controller is shaped like an electric guitar.

Holy. Freaking. Crap. This is so insanely cool.

The guitar/controller has a series of buttons on the frets, and the idea is that you hit the buttons on the frets in time with the music and the signals on screen, and strum the guitar in time with the notes. Simple idea, but the execution is out of this world. Once you get a couple of songs under your belt, once you start getting into the rhythm of the music, you’re no longer playing a game. You’re rocking out. This is a good thing.

I’ve been playing it for a few hours now, and I’m taking a break. Not because I want to stop playing, mind you. It’s because my fingers are too tired. And I’m still on Easy. There’s three more difficulty levels. 30 songs. I’ve barely finished the first 5. Excellent.
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… wakin’ up the neighborhood.

Well, not so much, actually. In fact, I’ve been passing out relatively early lately, and just feeling generally exhausted most of the time these days. I’m pretty sure it’s all mostly related to the fact that I seem to be suffering from some sort of thyroid disorder or another. Hypothyroidism, most likely.

Yeah, I haven’t gone to get myself checked out yet. Yeah, I know, I know. Before, my excuse was that I didn’t have a health plan, and so wouldn’t be able to afford the doctor’s visit, much less any treatment. But now I do have a health plan. So there goes that excuse. Then I had to wait until the health plan actually kicked in (for the first month or so I still wasn’t eligible for even so much as a standard doctor’s visit, but I gather that those waiting periods are standard among health plans). But it’s been a month and a half now, and the plan is in full effect. In fact, they even have a clinic close to my job where I don’t even have to pay the deductible for doctor’s visits, lab tests, scans, and most medicines: it’s all included in the basic plan cost. Sweet.

So, why haven’t I gone yet? I could give the standard litany of excuses: work’s been keeping me busy, no time, too much other stuff to do.. and it’s all true, as far as it goes. But the real reason is a certain amount of fear. Yeah, big bad Katsu’s afraid of the doctor. Hear me out, though: I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve been uncommonly healthy all my life. I’ve been to see a doctor maybe 5 times in my entire life (and I’m 28 now). And most of those visits were just standard physicals so I could get into school or college. I’ve never had to take medication for anything (except the lithium I took for a very short time during the Dark Days after coming back from Cornell, but that shrink was a complete quack: I was never in need of medication, but that psychiatrist was one of those that will prescribe a pill if you’re sad, and another if you’re happy). But I digress: I’ve never had major diseases, never even broken a single bone. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend my entire life doctor-free, and, frankly, I like it that way. But, now, I seem to have developed a condition. One that requires treatment, and is quite likely to require me to take medication for the rest of my life. It will mean regular doctor visits, check ups, tests, etc. It’s not immediately life threatening, but it does need to be treated. And I’m terrified. I’m scared that I’ll go into the doctor’s office and he’ll find a million things wrong with me. I mean, I never really did go to the doctor much. They never had many chances to find out if anything was wrong with me. But now they’ll see that not only do I have this thyroid problem, but I’ve also got high blood pressure, soaring cholesterol, male pattern baldness, inflamed organs, and my ass is on fire. I’m afraid that after being so lucky for so long, I’ll turn out to be horribly broken after all. Mostly, I know that going to the doctor now will be the first step in being forced to, most likely, take thyroid medications for the rest of my natural life (at least, until I can finally download my consciousness into a new, superior robot body and then proceed to CRUSH ALL HU-MANS). I just hate the thought of being forced to depend on medication from now on, not just for a short while until the problem is fixed, but forever. And, yes, I know that my friends out there who have diabetes and other life-long conditions are currently playing the world’s smallest violin for me as they read this, and I know it’s an overreaction on my part and I just need to suck it up and be a man and get the treatment I need to be healthy again, but.. I’m just scared. I’ve been very lucky, for very long, and now I’m terrified of what’s to come.

I’m going to the doctor’s on Friday, I’ve already set the day apart at work just for that. I’m dreading it, but I’m going. I’ll find a way to make light of the situation so I can deal, promise.
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So, now that I’ve acquired an iPod, most of my podcast listening is done with it, rather than on Glitch. This means the the couple hundred MB’s of podcasts that I used to cram into Glitch’s SD card are now free, and I’ve got to find something else to put there. So, I’m putting in quite a bit of video.

With the excellent (and free) TCPMP (formerly Betaplayer), I can play pretty much any video format on Glitch, from MPEG to Avi to DivX to Xvid to MOV to mp4, m4v, whatever. And that’s exactly what I’m doing. On the desktop, I use VirtualDub (also excellent, also free) to re-encode videos to an optimal Glitch-friendly file size and data rate, and then I cram a few shows into the SD card where the podcasts used to go.

So, what am I watching? Well, there’s a fair share of network programming, I’ll admit: stuff like Lost, Supernatural, Threshold, Surface; as well as ripped episodes from DVD series, like Penn & Teller’s Bullshit, or Carnivale. But a large chunk of my video watching comes in the form of IPTV shows: shows that are broadcast only, or primarily, over the Net. And I’m not talking just about ‘video podcasts’, these are real, full-lenght shows, some of which give major network shows a run for their money in production values. There’s several that I try to keep up with: shows like DigitalLife TV, commandN, hak.5, thebroken, Pure Pwnage, and Tiki Bar TV. Some excellent stuff in there, and thanks to the mostly non-comercial nature of the shows, they can get away with things that would never fly on network TV, such as targetting extreme geeks, showing drink recipes, or talking about some of the more ‘grey area’ hacking techniques.

However, I’ve noticed something: when you look at sites such as TVspot, which try to list and aggregate IPTV shows, the list of topics offered are as follows: Comedy, Gaming, Hacking, Tech, News (Tech), and Other. Now, this is fine for an ubergeek like me. But where are the rest of the shows? Where’s the IPTV Lost, or the IPTV Desperate Housewives, or even the IPTV Everybody Loves Raymond?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying that I’m aching for the day when IPTV is as bland as regular network TV. And I understand that, since IPTV is still in the early-adopter phase, and most early adopters are alpha geeks like yours truly, so most IPTV shows are going to be tech-oriented. And I understand that without big network budgets, it’s hard to put something up that approaches the kind of quality you might see on a good network show. But I’m just saying: until I see an IPTV Law and Order that’s good enough that my girlfriend will sit down and watch it, there’s no big future in it past the geek crowd.

Stuff like Google Video is a really good start, however. And the new Apple iPod with video might just tip the numbers of folks who carry devices capable of displaying video on the go, so we may see some rapid changes over the next year. But still… I don’t have an answer for how we’re going to produce IPTV shows that might appeal to the non-geek crowd without the financial backing of a network… but I’m hoping someone finds the answer, because I’d love to recommend some of those to people. Until then, I’ve got plenty of content to keep me entertained.

Well, folks, it’s finally happened: I have a Mac. I won’t go into the details of how and where, but suffice it to say that there was blood, sweat, and tears involved. The main point of acquiring a Mac, of course, is for my Significant Other: she’s planning and plotting to go into Graphic Design, and as everyone knows, that’s a world dominated by Macs. I’d been planning to get her one for a while now, but the price tag on a new Mac was pretty much out of my immediate reach. Then, one of those once-in-a-blue-moon opportunities showed up to snag a used iMac, one of the cute lamp-y shaped ones, and I jumped on it.

So, of course, as often happens with tech-toys that I acquire for the SO, I’m the one that’s been mostly playing with it. I upgraded the operating system, installed a few handy apps, and I’ve been happily playing with the new toy all weekend long. I’ll give my girl a chance to play with it tomorrow.

How’s my Mac experience been so far? Interesting, to say the least. First hurdle was where to put the machine. There simply wasn’t any room in the computer room for it, so we decided, since it’s a pretty compact machine, to set it up in the bedroom. However, there was a general concensus that we didn’t want any ugly Ethernet cables running from the computer room to the bedroom, so that meant acquiring a wireless adapter. Now, the lamp-shady iMacs are cute and all, but their unique shape doesn’t leave much room for expansion: regular wireless cards were out of the question. So I tripped on over to CompUSA and took a look at their Mac section. Note to Apple: your AirPort products are way too fucking expensive. After some hunting, I found a Belkin Wireless USB adapter, for a little under $40. Doable. The box said it was Windows-only, but I had a hunch. I knew the employees were gonna be useless (I asked one of them earlier about a Firewire cable and he just looked at me funny), so I found a place in the store with decent celphone reception, hooked up Glitch to the KatsuPhone’s EDGE network, and did some quick googling: turns out Belkin has Mac OS X drivers for that adapter. Neat. One quick purchase later, and I’m at home, plugging the thing in. I download and install the driver, plug everything in, and wait. Nothing. Cute.

One call to Belkin Tech Support later, and I’m well and truly pissed. Turns out they do make Mac drivers, but not for the latest version of the OS, only for 10.3. And no, they don’t know when or even if they’ll make drivers for 10.4. Sigh. Still, I don’t give up easy, and the Mac crowd can be quite resourceful. Google is my friend. A couple of queries later, ad I find a guy who claims that the adapter I bought actually uses a fairly generic chipset, and points me to where I can download the OS X 10.4 drivers for that chipset. I download, install… and voila! We’ve got a wireless connection! And here I thought my days of having to find weird, hacky solutions to hardware and software problems were over now that I’d moved to the Land of Apple.

Other than that, my experience has been pretty great. I like OS X, it’s pretty, it’s interesting, and it’s got lots and lots of little things to discover that make you go ‘Oooh!’. Coming from a mostly Windows/Linux background, it’s a bit of a culture shock, but I’m getting used to it. And, luckily, most of the apps I use on a day to day basis have Mac versions available, so it hasn’t been that hard to get up to speed with doing the things I normally do. Heck, look at me, I’m blogging already! And from bed, too! I hope Glitch and the Folding Keyboard don’t get too jealous, but, really, given the choice between a PDA and a full-on G4 iMac to blog on, well, the choice is easy.

So, I’ll be keeping y’all up to date on further developments from the iSide, but don’t worry. I’m not a Switcher. This will not become MacGnosisWeb. I just have one more (very, very neat) toy to play with.
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… and this is not an opinion, it’s a goddamn fact.

Ever since we had to move to Dorado, I’ve been receiving ‘broadband’ service from Liberty Cablevision. Don’t have much of a choice, really. They’re pretty much the only provider out here. $60 a month for 512 kbps. Highway robbery, I know, but then again, Puerto Rico kinda sucks.

So, for the first few months, all was good, it worked as advertised. But for the past month and a half, almost like clockwork, as soon as the sun goes down, my connection turns to shit. Download speeds regularly dip below dial-up level, and insanely high ping times, in the thousands, make online games like WoW nearly unplayable.

Now, I understand that connection speeds and response times naturally suffer a little at night as everyone gets home and boots up their machine. And if I was getting, say, 450 kbps speeds and 300-350 ping times at night, I’d say that’s what I can blame it on. But it’s ridiculous to expect me to put up with download speeds averaging around 100 kbps, with ping times in the 1000 to 2000 range and higher.

My girlfriend, of course, has had to put up with the worst of it, since she is usually up most nights hitting the WoW pretty hard. With how the connection’s been over the past month or so, it’s pretty much been pointless to even try to log on.

I understand that service goes to shit sometimes, that’s why tech support lines exist. Hell, I make a living out of fixing computers that have gone nuts for some reason or another. But when you call for service and are roundly ignored, when they try to blame the connection problems on your computer or router, and when they make your SO spend 2 fucking days waiting for a tech support guy to show up and never come, well.. that’s going above and beyond the call of suck.

So, to recap: My connection currently blows donkey dong. It’s Liberty’s fault, since I have examined every fucking inch of my home setup, and I make a goddamn living by setting up computer networks that have to be up 24/7, so I would know. And when you try to get them to fix it, the fuckers give you the phone runaround and never show up when they’re supposed to. $60 a month for this shit? I don’t think so. They’re not getting a cent out of me till they fix it. And in the meantime, I’m telling everyone I can to avoid these fuckers like the plague.
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A picture of despair: a man, alone, wanders aimlessly through the halls of San Patricio Mall, in search of a cheap memory card for his PS2. All around him, quacks, con artists, and frauds try to push their wares upon him. Yeah, that’s right, it’s Psychic Week again at the local mall.

I tend to avoid the mall during the all-too-frequent ‘psychic weeks’, when the mall is full of makeshift kiosks chock full of all manner of crystals, incense, angel figurines, and anything else that fits the whole ‘New Age’ theme. And no booth is complete without a sign reading ‘Tarot Reading inside!’, unless it’s accompanied by a ‘Aura Photography!’.

I’ll admit, it was tempting to go from booth to booth getting tarot readings at each one and then laughing at how no two ‘psychics’ gave me the same predictions, but, alas, I don’t have the kind of money that would take. Also, I’d rather eat my money rather than give it to these con artists.

Still, I’m proud of myself. Throughout the hour or so I spent at the mall, I was completely able to restrain myself from running down the halls, screaming “FRAUDS!” and “Don’t give these liars your money!”. I wasn’t, howver, able to keep myself from going by each booth and making sure to meet the ‘psychic’s eyes squarely, before making a disgusted face and looking away while rolling my eyes. Yeah, I know, I’m a jerk. But at least I’m not charging you to listen to my unfocused rambling. All of my false predicitons are free.

Also, you will meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger. He will expose his genitals at you, at a socially crippling time.

And now, in a complete change of pace from the posts of the last few days, it’s time for some of my tradermarked ‘techno-enamored rants’. I’ve got a couple of techie reviews that I’ve been meaning to post up for some time, and I’ve got some time to kill tonight (my main Net connection’s acting up.. Liberty Cable sucks), so let’s get to it.

I don’t usually hide stuff behind the ‘more’ link (witness the unfettered lenght of my last two posts), but since there’s gonna be three of them, and they’re mostly technophile-only stuff, well, there you go. So click on the ‘more’ link below to read about which Sudoku program I chose to go with for my PocketPC, what’s the best software I’ve found for blogging on the go, and what I think of the latest browser to ruffle the Web 2.0 feathers, Flock.
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