Truth Like The Dark

Golly whiz and geez bang! One of the greatest things evah about my new iPod 160 GB is that I don’t have to worry how much video I stick on it. It’ll take forever to fill this mutha!

And I’ve got a really good system setup to get everything on it I want. I use my PC/TV/DVR setup to record TV shows, I rip DVDs with DVD Decrypter, I use Videora to download torrents and video feeds, and I use Videora iPod Convertor to automagically transfer it all to the ‘pod.

Videora iPod Convertor also converts flash videos from sites like YouTube, and I download those to a directory where everything gets converted to the iPod, using the Video DownloadHelper Firefox Extension.

One of the videos I got to watch on my ‘pod’s amazingly sharp screen while flying across the Atlantic was this Google Talks lecture by David Weinberger on his book Everything is Miscellaneous. Really philosphical stuff, and worth watching. I wonder if the book holds up. And I also wonder whether it mentioned Charles Sanders Peirce, which it most certainly should.

“Externalizing Meaning” is my new catchphrase for what’s happening on the web these days.

Now if my iPod was only tag driven.

I’m removing a9 (amazon’s column-based search front end) from my list of recommended software today. Without any announcement to their users, they’ve switched the “Google” web search to “Windows Live”. To understand why this is bad deal, you don’t have to be of the opinion that Google’s search results are better (they are). All you have to do is understand the direction that a9 seemed to be headed in, and how they’ve strayed from that promising path.

a9 worked through the idea of “opensearch” allowing for lots of columns that accessed different search engines. Now, rather than adding Windows Live as a new level of flexibility, they’ve shoved Windows Live down all users throats as the “default web search”, adding no options to still use google as an alternative, and lost other useful columns, like Google Images.

I haven’t dropped a9 completely yet. I’m hoping they haven’t hooked themselves into a restrictive deal with Windows Live, and that they’ll provide renewed functionality (including Google options) soon.

My friend Dave Hoch (inventor of Hokey Spokes) has teamed up with Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry’s fame) to add a computerized EL-wire light display system to Ben’s family of motorized pigs, which illustrate the relative size of the military, education, and world health/AIDS budgets. All is service of Ben’s TrueMajority project.

A couple more pics here.

Well, I’ve had my shiny new Archos Gmini XS 202 music player for about a week now, and I’m glad to report a positive experience. I’m not going to do one of those full length geek reviews here: you can get the specs on the manufacturer’s site. I ordered it from them, and they were unbelievably prompt in delivery. It was here in about 3 days.

The Gmini is tiny (shorter, slightly wider, slightly thicker, and slightly heavier) than the iPod Mini. It costs me a little more, (around $300), and it is clearly not as physically attractive as its iAncestor. The interface isn’t as nice (though it’s very functional). I would like to have one of those wonderous white wheels!

But the XS 202 packs an obvious technical punch the lil’ iPod lacks. It has 20 Gigabytes of storage, and 17 hours of battery life! Compared to the iPod Mini’s 6GB, this is the difference between pondering how to select what part of your music collection to take with you, and just taking everything, and still having half the drive available.

And you could actually use that extra 10Gig with someone else’s computer, since the XS 202 acts just like a disc drive. You will have to have the proprietary cable with you, though. But with that in your case, you’ve got a fully functional external drive, as well as a music player.

The device is not limited by any native DRM, but it does support Microsoft’s WMA Playforsure DRM, if you want to enjoy the impulse buying of online music stores,. You can’t use the Apple DRM, so you can’t shop at iTunes, which is a slight drag, since it’s clearly the best store. But big deal.

It was pretty easy to setup Windows Media Player to sync not only all my ripped CDs, but also the podcasts I setup to autodownload via iPodder. I have my precious NPR automagically! And the sync is blindingly fast.

The player sounds good, and is easy to use. The playlist building facility does the most it can with the screen. The library nicely exploits ID3 tags to organize your tunes.

The only hiccup I had was that initially the device’s library wouldn’t include more than 2094 songs (and it hung when it reached that number, requiring a reboot). But a simple firmware upgrade from the manufacturer’s site fixed that right up.

This is my first MP3 player, so I may be naive in thinking that this thing’s the bee’s knees. But I’m definately happy.

Now, to keep myself from using it so much that I completely shut off from the fascinating sounds of London town.

You’ll know from previous posts that I love NPR. I wanted to listen to the pieces I found via their copious RSS feeds on my PDA, but alas, these are streams, not downloadable files.

But, with a bit of surfing, I figured it out. Should work for anything where you can get RealMedia streams. Here are the steps.

0) Get yourself a download manager that can download “rtsp” links. I’m using Net Transport, which is free, easy to use, and effective.
1) Make sure you’ve configured NPR audio to use RealPlayer (I haven’t figured how to do this trick with Windows Media Streams).
2) Find a “Listen Now” link you’d like to download.
3) Save this link to a file. This file will be of type “.smil”. With Firefox, you can do this saving operation easily.
4) Edit the resulting file with a text editor. Locate the quoted link that begins “rtsp” and that points to something of type “.rm”.
5) Use Net Transport (or whatever download manager you have) to download the “rstp” link.
6) Put the resulting file on your PDA, and enjoy. If you don’t have anything that plays Real files, Realplayer for PocketPC is free. There are also a number of programs out there which will allow you to convert to other audio file formats.

This procedure works, but it is a bit fiddly. That’s why I’ve created a roundtuit, hoping someone creates a GreaseMonkey script that does the whole job.

Hope I’ve helped to share the joy of NPR, and other media that is only available as streams.

I usually don’t geek out here, but I’ve now got so many cool del.icio.us tools that I’m sure to tell everyone about, I thought it was worth recording them here.

If you’re still using bookmarks, you need to put down the cave paints, the mastodon meat, and then move on, Tondor.
Tagging is where it’s at.

I’ll assume you are using Firefox (I’m giving you some credit). Given that, here’s the way to setup del.icio.us.

First, go to del.icio.us and get yourself an account.

Then, put a “post to del.icio.us” bookmarklet on your toolbar.
Drag these words to your toolbar. This is my own modification, combining the “experimental” version on the del.icio.us site, with a post here. Not only does this offer a cool interface, with selectable and suggested tags (once you’ve built a list, you’ll never have to type in tags at all), any selected text on your current page will go in the items “extended” description at del.icio.us.

Setup a bookmark link to your del.icio.us account, as well. Use this syntax: http://del.icio.us/new/yourusernamehere. It’s the cool “hidden” new del.icio.us interface.

But then move on to bigger things. Make a del.icio.us folder for some other bookmarklets (as del.icio.us improves, your sure to have lots more of these, so a folder is necessary). Drag some of these to the folder:

This one prompts for a tag word to search for in your bookmarks account (that’s bookmarks, not tags).
This one prompts for a tag to search for in everyone’s accounts.
Here’s one that prompts for multiple tags to search for in your account.
This one gives a popup of all the people who have tagged the current page.
This one uses the current selected text as the tag to search for.
This one does the same as the previous, but searches popular del.icio.us sites.

Add a couple of “live bookmarks” as well (you may have to use Bookmarks/Manage Bookmarks/File/New Live Bookmark).
“http://del.icio.us/rss/tags/yourusernamehere” will give you all your tags (dynamically updated).
“http://del.icio.us/rss/yourusernamehere” will give you all your recently posted items.
The live bookmark features in Firefox are basically useless for blogreading, but for this sort of thing, they are perfect. For the “my tags” live feed described above, a little-used feature comes in handy: when looking at a long list of items in a Firefox live bookmark, typing a letter takes you to the first item (in this case, tag) that begins with that letter!

This may all seem like geek stuff, but if you bookmark much at all, you should try this out. You’ll never go back to bookmarks again. And just think when the graphical tools start getting cool!

Today Gizmodo blogged the first WiFi enabled tea kettle:

Apparently, the point is if granny misses tea time, it sends you an email, so you can remember to pop by and see if she’s joined the invisible choir.

Reminds me of when my ex worked in medical device approval at the FDA. Apparently there was a submission of a wireless thermometer for infants. The official review submissions documents exclaimed that “this magic device raise your children in safety!”

Sarah politely informed them that the FDA did not believe in magic, and generally would not approve thermometers that claimed to raise children.

Check out my new project, roundtuit.

Roundtuit is a moderated community blog to connect people who have great ideas with people who have the desire and wherewithal (skills, time, tools, etc.) to make them happen. We call these ideas roundtuits, and there are three things we want to help you do with them:

1. Give a roundtuit: You have an idea, and share it here.
2. Claim a roundtuit: You see an idea that you will make real.
3. Get a roundtuit: You do it (and share your success with us here)!

A roundtuit is an idea that you know can be done, wish would be done, and that you’d just do yourself, if you could ever get a roundtuit. Note those criteria! Give a roundtuit if:

* You know it can be done. In fact, you can see exactly how. “Develop transporter technology” or “create a world without war”, despite some merit as ideas, are not roundtuits, and they don’t belong here (sorry).
* You wish it would be done. You, and hopefully the multitude, would find it wonderful, or at least slightly useful, if someone ever gets a roundtuit. Feel free to explain why, with as much entertaining detail as you can muster.
* You, personally, will never get a roundtuit. Specifically, you won’t mind if someone else gets a roundtuit, even if they give you no credit whatsoever! There shall be no legal battles when someone gets a roundtuit here!

A roundtuit need not be a technical idea. We’d like to see roundtuits on art, gardening, literature, juggling, music, whatever.

Roundtuits are submitted by email to givearoundtuit@gmail.com.

Wil Wheaton, formerly Wesley Crusher of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and now a damn good blogger (amongst other things), sent out a plea today. It seems he was being voted Most Annoying Trek Character on an online poll. This was quickly reversed by his blogreaders.

I not only want to cast my vote for Wil not being annoying, I want to weigh in on the whole question of Wesley. I have one word for those Trek Fans who found Wesley’s feckless, smarty-smarmy, dressed-by-his-Mom, naive dedication to the principles of Star Fleet annoying. And that word is MIRROR.

Wesley was a reflection, but one that would get a chance to become a warp traveler, and maybe score with a comely young Ashley Judd in a tight ensign’s uniform. Wesley wasn’t Kirk: something you could only dream of being. He was you, plain and simple, just with a better deal.

And, you know, Deanna Troi was by far the most annoying Trek character! She really only ever had one line: “Captain, I sense the incredibly obvious.”

By comparison, Wesley rocked. I want to know more. I think whatever Hollywood Clout Trek has should be thrown behind a “What Happened to Wesley Next” film. It should be weird, post-modern, Phillip K. Dickensian. If Mr. Wheaton wants to kick around script ideas, I’ve got a few. Besides, I’ve got friends in LA who I think would dig him as a regular person, anyway.

But what I really want to know is if Wil ever read any of the truly disturbing Wesley slash porn out there.

My life is an endless series of coffee shops and downloads. So Seattle is a natural part of my flow, and I’m particularly happy here in the deeply marvelous Crave
Don’t let Crave fool you. It looks like the sort of place where an all-black tattoo on one’s tailbone is a more important employment qualification than any culinary service skill. In any other city, you’d expect such a consciously hip staff to serve you slightly overcooked muffins with a little too much fiber, and to sneeringly lecture you on the political merits of these food items if you dare to complain.

But I defy the snottiest Parisian epicurean to complain about the eats at Crave. I just had the homemade miso-cured salmon platter, and my only comment is “yum.” I’ve had most of the other concotions here, and I’m sitting at the bar watching their lightning preparation as I type. That such speed can result in great taste and world class presentation is a real testimony to how oxymoronic the term slacker is in Seattle.

And Crave has got great free Wifi. Unfortunately, they don’t have enough power points, so I’ll have to wander to one of the other gazillion coffee shops in this town soon.