I just bought some electronics components and received the following confirmation email:
Comments : Your order was shipped by Malaysian Post. Normal shipping time is 1-2 weeks. We thank you for your patience.
Yikes. I’m used to Newegg, where I receive the package almost as fast as the email confirmation.
I really like Google Reader’s shared items. This way other people (hopefully with similar interests) filter the good stuff for free. For instance, I’ve noticed Crazy Bob shared several Chumby links. Which made me think…wtf is Chumby?
Chumby is a little clock radio that gets crap off the Internet via wifi. So I guess you are supposed to put it on the nightstand by your bed. When you wake up, you roll over and look at your Chumby. It’s fun explaining this to your Mom:
No, Mom…I didn’t say I had a “Chumby in bed”…I can’t believe we’re having this conversation. My Chumby is on the nightstand next to my bed.
When you wake up, you stay in bed for an hour to listen to the latest JavaPosse episode. OK, that seems weird to me. I never lay in bed and listen to my clock radio. The alarm goes off, I hit snooze a few times, and get up. Then again…the prospect of browsing certain kinds of craigslist ads while in bed may appeal to some people…if you’re into that sort of thing.
But wait…this article says Chumby is for your desk. That’s nice and all, but my desk already has a computer on it. A real computer with two big monitors, good speakers, a huge hard drive, and a fast wired network connection.
Using Chumby as a digital photo frame makes the most sense to me. The price is fair and they don’t charge a monthly service fee. This might make a nice gift for someone to better keep up with extended family pictures.
I dunno…I guess I’m not really sold. If accessing the Internet from a non-PC-equipped room is your goal, perhaps an iPod Touch makes more sense? At $299, the iPod is more expensive, but offers vastly better mobility. I can definitely see myself sitting on the back patio this summer with an iPod. But dragging a Chumby outside and plugging it in? That’s not nearly as convenient.
Sean O’Driscoll is on to us programmers. Check out his apostrophe exposé. Yep. Our systems suck, big time. We can’t even handle apostrophes correctly.
Here is my java.blogs email alert for this post:
Shape shifting robots:
Also check out squeeze bots. Not exactly T-1000 yet, but I can see where this is heading.
Somehow I find myself in the unenviable position of being completely out of date. My cell phone sucks and is around 3 years old, our main TV is a bulky CRT, we don’t have any HD gear (other than a multiswitch), my fastest computer is more than 3 years old with a single core CPU, and our digital camera is absolutely pathetic. I think my laptop is about five or six years old.
I’d like to upgrade to an XBox 360, but that seems really expensive…particularly if I want games. And what’s the point of a 360 without a TV upgrade? Which makes me think…why get a new TV if my DVR is the old standard def model? Better upgrade that, too. But the signal isn’t HD…I guess I need a new satellite dish. Can you say ka-ching?
I’d like a digital HD camcorder (are they even called camcorders any more?), but my computer is too old and slow to edit HD movies. And then I’d need massive amounts of new hard drive space, followed by equal amounts of backup capability. $$$$
This all started with my brother’s wedding a few days ago. I noticed all of his 22 year old friends had cutting edge phones, cameras, etc. I thought…what the hell happened to me? I’m not exactly old, I make decent money, and I WORK IN HIGH TECH. Shouldn’t I have more gear than these guys?
But when I start shopping, all I see are limitations. Maybe I know too much about what goes on behind the curtain? I see locked-down phones with artificial limitations imposed by carriers, accompanied by super-high rates. “Upgrading” my phone to a plan with unlimited data is literally a 100% increase in my already sky-high monthly bill. I see DRM…incompatibility…monthly fees…proprietary everything.
In the end, the more I know about tech…the less I want this crap. It’s all just too damn expensive, too closed, too complex, and too shitty.
I’ll wait just a few more years, because surely it can only get better. Then…maybe, just maybe — I’ll upgrade everything at once.
Wouldn’t that be a fun shopping trip?
TV has come a long way in the last ten years…
…I’m hoping my ancient TVs hold on for one or two more years.
The DirecTV HDPC-20 is generating lots of buzz. In a nutshell, this product will let you record DirecTV to a Vista PC, which you can then (perhaps?) stream to any TV in the house via Media Center Extenders like the XBox 360. This image comes from the back of the device, revealing several patent numbers:
I thought it’d be fun to track these down via Google Patent Search.
None of this is surprising. Although DRM-free music seems attainable, video is an entirely different battle. Most of the patents describe techniques to prevent analog copies, such as recording to VHS. Patent 6381747 is a lot more interesting, however. This one lets service providers like DirecTV “activate, control and reconfigure the copy protection process”.
You should be very skeptical before buying into this system.
This could be a really kick ass product, but it could also be a nightmare if you spend thousands of dollars on computer equipment and extender devices, only to discover your favorite shows are blocked.
You know the story, compact Fluorescent lamps (CFLs) cost more up front, but consume less electricity. They allegedly last far longer than regular bulbs, so over the lifetime of the bulb, you save money.
Well, two more CFLs just went bad in our living room. Based on my (non-scientific) observations, these things burn out as fast as — or faster than — old school incandescent bulbs. Thus, no cost savings.
I’ll continue using CFLs for the near future just to reduce consumption of coal generated power, but LED bulbs cannot get here soon enough. Unless, of course, low-quality LEDs end up failing as fast as CFLs.
I think the real problem here is cheap manufacturing reality versus theoretical lifespan. A well-made CFL or LED should last a lot longer than an incandescent bulb. But without any regulation or easy way for a consumer to know which products actually live up to the exaggerated claims, your mileage will vary significantly.
I really enjoyed reading Ask 37signals: Installable software?, in particular I enjoyed reading the comments.
(I think) many of the commenters just don’t get it. I’m talking about the people who said things like…”yeah, but what if you supported feature X? My company really wants that feature! Or what about features Y, Z, and Q? Then you could get a whole bunch of new customers!”
I recall reading an article about Google’s constant internal battle to keep crap OFF the home page. Every department wants “just one more link…”. The problem is, catering to this sort of request — trying to please everybody — results in slop that delights nobody.
I think 37Signals is right. Their software is not right for everyone, but if it were, it wouldn’t be great for anyone.
Last week, I wrote about “too many open files” exceptions we saw in our build agents shortly following large Subversion checkouts with the wonderful SVNKit library. At the time, I could not confirm if it was my code or SVNKit causing the issue.
After patching all of my code as described in the earlier post, I checked the SVNKit 1.1.x branch, and discovered they had applied the exact same fix to their own code just a few weeks ago.
I contacted the people at SVNKit and heard back after a day. They let me know that the 1.1.x branch is continuously tested and is considered stable enough for use, so I went ahead and installed in.
I am happy to report our problem is now gone, the number of open files is consistently low. Before this fix, numbers would shoot up in to the hundreds, and would eventually cause the dreaded “Too many open files” exception.
+1 for SVNKit!