I'm impressed, I couldn't keep up with everyone's blog posts and comments and ended up with a good list of about 80 items to go through from the past 3 days. Got busy upgrading my computer and getting ready to build a media server/HTPC. With so much activity it is definitely important to use an RSS reader like Google Reader which I outlined
here.
Tagged with: blogging, rss
Posted under: Geek Stuff
I've made a post about Really Simple Syndication (RSS) in the past and alluded to it elsewhere, but I never really went into the details of the best way to adopt this very simple technology (no pun intended). In a nutshell RSS let's subscribe to all your favorite blogs and websites and have all the posts and content show up in one easy to access place. I've got about 40 blogs and sites that I frequent, imagine how long it would take to go through and check everyday for new content; I sure don't have that kind of time. That's where RSS and Google Reader comes in.
I'm going to use Google Reader as a platform for this post but the post will still be helpful to those using a program that supports OPML. I'm a big fan of Gmail which led me to be a big fan of Google Reader. I've done all the work of compiling a list of feeds that includes all of our blogs and their comments; you get to reap the benefits. All you will have to do is create an account with Google (if you don't have one) and then upload the XML file below.
- Save this XML file to your computer by right-clicking and hitting "Save As..."
- Create your Google Account here
- Log into Google Reader
- Click "Settings" in the top right
- Click the "Import/Export" tab
- Browse for the file you saved in Step 1 and hit Upload
- Go Back to Google Reader and browse everyone's posts and comments
I tried to get everyone in there so if there's someone missing let me know and I'll update the file.
And if you want to add your friend's blogs here's how to get their comment feeds since they usually aren't linked:
- Blogger: http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/
- Wordpress: http://blogurl/feeds/comments/default
Got other feeds for sites you like? Post em up and share with everyone else. One of my favorites is
I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?, hit "Add Subscription" in Google Reader and paste in this link:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ICanHasCheezburger
Tagged with: google, rss
Posted under: Geek Stuff
Just posted a comment and realized everything has been off an hour since the switch to daylight savings. Yeah for Wordpress not handling it but like for all WP annoyances there is a plugin,
Time Zone. Activate and set timezone to "America/Los_Angeles" and all is good.
Tagged with: daylight savings, plugin, wordpress
Posted under: Geek Stuff
I'm on the computer pretty much all day and I consider myself a power user; I need my system to behave the way I expect to maintain productivity and sanity. Every so often something comes along that throws a wrench in that smooth operation and makes me want to flip off my monitor. Lately that wrench has been programs that decide to reinvent the wheel and change the order of the options of the taskbar right click menu. What am I talking about? Right click a program in your taskbar and look at the order, close is the bottom option right? Well let's try another scenario, hit F1 to bring up the Microsoft's Unhelpful Help and right-click that. You'll probably see the same atrocity that I see below:
SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL! Thankfully only a handful of programs were developed by morons who thought this modification to the standard Windows experience was a good idea. One principle I follow when I do user interface design is don't make the user think. With this right-click scenario I instinctly click the first option to close. When it doesn't close the program I have to stop what I'm doing and figure out why my computer decided to do something different than I intended. Sorry for the rant, but these flaws are the kind of things I try to avoid in my own applications and have become more aware of.
Tagged with: computers, usability
Posted under: Geek Stuff
Finally. It seems HBO has picked up George R.R. Martin's fantasy series, A Song of Fire and Ice, and plan to turn it into an ongoing series, one season per book. This is the first thing coming to TV in a long time that has gotten me even close to excited.
You've probably heard Nathan or I rave about these books and if you haven't started reading them then hop on it (if you want to borrow a copy just ask). I'm sure the HBO adaptation will be very well done but nothing can beat the books.
Variety broke the story
here and George R.R. Martin has a post on his website
here.
Tagged with: books, television
Posted under: Geek Stuff
A new version of Wordpress (2.1 to be exact) is out and has a fair number of upgrades but if you have a lot of plugins then be careful that some of them might not be updated yet. Since I develop 3 plugins I have had 2.1 on a beta install and updated my plugins but I'm taking the plung right now. I'll be posting new versions of my plugins right now too.
Test
Tagged with: wordpress
Posted under: Geek Stuff
My blog isn't terribly popular but I do have a good number of links to my plugins which has made me a more visible target for comment spammers. The built-in Wordpress spam filter does a pretty good job but it does nothing to stop bots from hammering my blog and eating up bandwith. One of my
friends in my extended blog network had a post that tipped me off to a more active method of spam prevention,
Bad Behavior.
Bad Behavior works by analyzing the HTTP requests made by clients and running them through a set of tests like checking the user agent description. Before installing the script I was receiving about 200 spam comments per day and maybe 1 or 2 would slip through per week. Now I'll get maybe 1 a day in my spam queue. Not sure how much this affects the bandwith the spammers are using but it will definetely save a little on database.
Tagged with: blogging, spam, wordpress
Posted under: Geek Stuff
I promised Angelo some details about my attempt at installing a new headunit and dash kit in my truck. So here's my attempt at installing an aftermarket stereo/radio/cd player and auxiliary input for an mp3 player, Ipod or any other audio playing device in my Tacoma.
Dash Kit Info: I got the dash kit from
SJ Great Deals. It is the SCOSCHE TA2052B Single DIN Color Match, they also make a single DIN in black (TA2052BLKB) and the double DIN possibly color matched (TA2053B) according to the
manufacter's website.
This is the stock stereo I had to work with. The trend has been towards completely integrating the stereo into a car's dash, it looks great but as soon as you want to stick a nicer radio in you might be stuck. I got an aftermarket dash kit that is color matched (not exact but good enough) to the silver around the vents.
Step 1 - Rip out climate control, unbolt and remove dash and stereo, unhook everything.
Step 2 - Wire up wire harness so you don't have to cut any of the factory wiring.
Step 3 - Hookup stereo and test to make sure everything works before putting the whole thing back together.
Step 4 - I've got everything in and just need to stick the climate control panel back on. Getting the head unit and hazards/clock panel into the replacement dash was the most time consuming part of the whole project. First I couldn't get the hazards panel out of the stock dash but managed to pry it out after an hour. Secondly, the installation instructions for the dash kit were pretty brief, I guess you can consider a diagram and a few unintelligible sentences instructions. At this point I had also drilled a hole in the back of the pocket to feed the cable for the auxiliary input through.
Finish - And here is the result of all my effort. With everything put back together I actually like the look of the replacement dash kit more than the original bumpy texture (still on the climate control panel though). Audio quality is marginally better from what I can tell but I still have to tweak but at least I can hook up an mp3 player now. I'll have to stick new speakers in to get the most out of the new unit.
Not a terribly difficult project but I'm glad I did instead of paying an installer a good chunk of change to do it. I probably got lucky since most dashes aren't this accessible and easy to work with.
Tagged with: audio, cars, gear, install, stereo
Posted under: Geek Stuff
Well not exactly like Tivo, but close enough. I had gotten tired of trying to tape shows or download them after they had showed and I wanted a better way to do things. Being the practical person I am (it also helps that I'm cheap) I decided to turn my computer into a High Definition Personal Video Recorder (HDPVR). I had been watching shows on my computer for a while and thought why not make the process easier and get better quality at the same time. Tivo would be nice but I'd rather not have to pay a monthly fee to get full functionality and I'm looking towards the future and an HD tv.
I decided on pulling down over the air (OTA) high definition because I don't want to pay for TV and 90% of the shows I care to watch are broadcast for free. Next I bought a HD tuner card,
VBOX DTA-150 ATSC HDTV receiver, and ran coax from our rooftop antenna to my room. The funny thing is you don't need a special antenna to get HD signals but they'd probably try to sell you an "HDTV" antenna at one of the big box stores. I hooked up the 20-30 year old antenna on our roof and it works great.
Next I had to decide what software to run to manage and schedule all of my recordings and playback them back. I started off with GBPVR, open source, and it worked ok but I just wasn't very satisfied and had to fuss with it. I looked at the commercial offerings, I didn't want Microsoft Media Center so I tried the trial of BeyondTV. Wow, what a difference and the nicest thing about it is that it works great with minimal configuration. Trial was only for 21 days and it was reasonably priced, but they were throwing in a decent Firefly RF remote for free for a limited time so I bit and ordered it.
In this process I also found out that an hour of uncompressed HD video can take up about 6-8 GB on the hard drive so I had to order a new 250 GB Western Digital SATA drive to expand my 160 GB storage capacity to about 400 GB.
So I pretty much have all the functionality of Tivo for a fraction of the price, considering the new HD Tivo they just released is well over $600, plus the monthly $13.
Tagged with: computers, htpc, television
Posted under: Geek Stuff
Things were getting a little old around the blog so I spruced things up a bit. Ditched the nav bar across the top, it was a bit of a pain to work with. Put login stuff in the sidebar like Nathan has on the Blarg, RSS buttons down at the bottom (which you should use, if you don't know how or why please ask) and a thing for my flickr account. There should be more changes and more posts coming.
Tagged with: blogging, theme, wordpress
Posted under: Geek Stuff
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