It's the end of the class as we know it

As requested by the teach, I'll sum up my thoughts of CTS287 in my final blog post, at the least the last one for class.

I enjoyed the class since it covered a lot of topics I didn't know too much about going in. I think letting the class vote on the topics helped in keeping them fresh and new, without getting bogged down in the same work the previous classes before us have also done.

I would have liked to see some of the assignments reworked, more to utilize the tech where possible, and provide proof of it (like blogging, google apps, etc), rather than having to write a report or such. That just took all the fun out of it for me, but I realize it could make grading the individual effort a lot harder.

All in all, I enjoyed the class, mainly because it was hybrid, and you could truly get as little or as much out of the learning as you wanted, because it was often unknown in popular culture, so you had no preconceptions when researching.

A hard drive that will kill you

Western Digital just announced their new VelociRaptor hard drives, the next generation of their popular Raptor drives. Gamers everywhere are rejoicing, as they now double the size of the previous high-speed drives, coming in at 300GB. What makes these drives so great is their speed, drives available to the consumer today generally top out at 7200rpm (revolutions per minute), but the Raptor drives clock in at 10,000rpm. Other cool factors are a 3.0Gb SATA connection and 16MB cache, and the drive is shrunk to 2.5 inch form factor, but still mounted in a 3.5 inch tray, utilizing a proprietary built-in cooling system.

I want 4, but since I don't have $1200 to hand over to WD, I'll just pretend to have them, like I do with all the other tech toys I want.

Wii Vs YMCA

Ask any Wii fanboy and they'll tell you all about Wii Fit. Just wait another few weeks, and you won't be able to hide from the Nintendo marketing blitz, much the same way you can't get rid of life insurance salesmen in your neighborhood. Wii Fit aims to get people to exercise by playing games on a balance board, with the basic premise of getting your lazy butt up off the couch and moving around.

I for one will buy one in the next few months, and I'm sure to break it when I throw it across the room for "cheating", just like I do all my other controllers when playing any other game. Like completing Titan mode on GoW II. There are still some blood vessels visible in my neck from those late nights many moons ago. I hate you Kratos.

HD 8-Tracks Are Next

Much the same way HD content is changing how we view TV, traditional radio is also jumping on board. HD Radio has been around for a few years now, but it's just starting to really take off across the entire US. Many local radio stations have already started to broadcast not only their main channels in HD, but also added sub-channels of extra content. Of course you will need new audio receivers to pull in the new format, but as with any newly emerging tech, it will become standard in the near future, with all sorts of adapters and such to hold you over.

John Connor hides in fear of....THE GRID

In Terminator 3, that of several Oscar awards, John Connor spoke of falling off "the grid", thus making himself unavailable to be tracked. There is talk of a different grid on the horizon, but one that could lead to John's dismal future nonetheless.

The uber-smart geeks over at Cern have already laid some of the foundation of "The Grid", and promise that is very nearly here, capable of being widespread in just a few years. In fact, they plan to start their massive project of finding mass-generating matter later this year, in their attempt for global domination. Not really for global domination, but it just sounded better. While the goal is for academic institutions and government agencies to get unrealized computing power and speed for research projects, I only care that they think I can download an uncompressed copy of T4 by then, and can let go of Divx rips.

Lastly, in honor of Ahnold, I've embedded a soundboard below. I take no responsibility for who you prank call at 3am. Not that I ever have.

Come Hulu With Me

Internet video has pretty much been the sUck since Al Gore was nice enough to invent the internet for us. Yeah, we've got YouTube and all of it's cousins, but getting quality video of Hollywood-produced media has been hit or miss. Of all the most unlikely to lead the fray into bringing this all together, is NBC Universal, who recently publicly released their new venture, HULU. Browse around hulu.com and you'll find tons of content (all of course ad supported), but they have tv shows and movies that you've long forgotten about, plus ones you've been waiting to see. The biggest surprise in all of this is that it's free, especially considering the amount of content they have. I haven't used it much, but the site is laid out pretty well, and the videos load up fast and look pretty good. Also, they're working on expanding their HD offerings, which will further push the need for HTPCs in the living room.

Sorry this post is so poorly written, but I'm tired and don't feel like even proof-reading. If you have an issue with it, report it to these guys.

Live Your Life In Harmony

As anyone who has more than just a tv knows, remotes sUck. Don't get me wrong, they're great to have for convenience, but they seem to add up, and even when they are "universal", they are greatly lacking in what component-specific functions they can control for all of your devices.

Enter in the fine people at Logitech, as for years now they've been putting the Harmony line of remotes. I myself have a 880, but would love to trade it in for a One. When you get a Harmony remote, you go online, create an account, then download the remote management software. Once installed on your pc, you utilize the software to input all of your components by model name/number, and the Harmony software pulls in all the remote codes for it. Then you define the actions you would like to perform, labeled as "Activities", such as "Watch a DVD" or "Play Wii". The remote takes all the guess-work out of managing multiple components and inputs, the kind which seem to make women turn into raving psychopaths. And yes, that was meant to offend, as many women in my life have threatened to break my home theater equipment because they couldn't figure out the Input Select sequence. For all you men out there, heed this warning when it comes to women and all things electronic belonging to you.

So once you set up all the functions of your new remote, you simply plug it into the pc via USB, click update, and viola! The software will even keep your remote up to date with newest firmware revisions and such, so it makes it completely dummy-proof. I'm not sure how I lived without one before, because I would rather take a beating than be without it now. Case in point, I just got a new tv, and in less than 5 mins, I had my 880 running it just like it was made for it.

Oh, and attached below is an overly horrible picture I took of my new tv while watching The Big Bang Theory, it's hard to distinguish with my camera's flash set to the intensity of the sun, but this baby is freaking awesome in HD, especially when you're on the couch only 10ft away.

If only I had good content on my PC

This is a short post, but one filled with geek joy nonetheless. Orb has been around for quite some time, and I've used it as far back as 2005, IIRC, trying to stream the ACC Tournament so I could watch it at work. While that was mostly a miserable failure on my part, it was a cool experiment, and I occasionally would mess around with Orb some more from time to time.

Just to fill you in so you don't have to click on any of the links above, once you have a pc with Orb installed and running, you can then access your content from anywhere on the net. Except behind company firewalls like mine, because they are the sUck. You can view your pics, stream music and videos, and even watch tv with supported tuners. To top it all off, you can even use the Orb interface to schedule recordings with your tuner, which makes it somewhat like a Tivo in terms of web control.

Recently, I rediscovered Orb, when I was trying to think of how to watch my collection of Frasier Season 2 divx downloads on my livingroom tv. Yeah, my nights ARE that exciting. Sidebar: uTorrent ROCKS!!!!!!!! The short of it is, I reinstalled Orb on my main pc, let it catalog all of my media, then used my Wii's Opera browser to stream it. Streaming media up the net to just pull it back down again 40ft away is kinda 'tarded, I know, but still, it's a cool thing to be able to do. I had it up and running in just under 10 mins, and was watching "Daphne's Room" and laughing like a stick figure on crack.

Oh, and to the PS3 fanboys that want to tell me how great the PS3 is because of it's ability to stream built-in, and how much the Wii sucks, and they are so great and almighty, listen to my friend Chris...oh, and watch him below too. You bastages.




If you're asking why I embedded the video above, well, because it's my blog, and I can.

Buy 2 TVs or a House

Oh man, this is it, the TV I've been waiting for, the "I want it ALL" of home theater goodness, too bad it costs $texas. Rolling in at a staggering $77k per, Samsung has built a 82-inch tv with an integrated computer.

Meant for commercial applications and not the average consumer, this baby uses an AMD dual-core Athlon64, 4GB flash storage, 1/2 GB DDR2 RAM, ATI chipset, and Windows XPe to enable it to be a fully functional display capable of running small apps geared toward its viewing audience.

What gets me hyped is to see this even be produced, as it lends hope to these types of displays one day making it into the livingroom. It's not hard to fathom a 46" LCD sporting a single tuner and 5 HDMI inputs, coupled with USB/SD/MMC inputs, a fast processor, 4GB flash RAM, and 64GB flash storage using an embedded MCE OS. While the price today would still be close to $texas, by the time (2011?) it could be moved into mass production, I could see it down to a MSRP of $3500 or so. That could be well worth it to have a streamlined solution for having a media PC integrated into the home theater. The capability to utilize any and all direct internet viewing/downloading services (Netflix, iTunes, Unbox), built-in DVR capabilities (Tivo), and instant access to pictures, videos, etc loaded on external flash memory....it's too much, my head will explode.

All in all, I'm sure something else will come along between now and then, and I won't be able to afford that either. But until cool devices like this become available at every movie theater across the country, I'd rather stay at home and get all of my entertainment in one place, and it be freaking sweet to boot.

Have your body talk without the smells

There are already examples of Body Area Networks in place today, but many tech companies are working to vastly improve their applications in medicine. Check the link at the bottom for an article at Zarlink that delves deep into the proposed specs of how ultra-low power, high-bandwith devices can be produced and implemented.

The idea is to develop components that can be put into the body, operating on the new MICS (medical implant communication service) band, regulated by the FCC to be between 402-405 MHz. These components will be designed to utilize "ultra-low" power consumption, aided also by a dedicated wake-up sensor, operating at the 2.45 GHz range. This would allow the component to only be in power use mode when required, conserving long-term battery life. Added to the major increases in power cycles, is the improved data flow. Devices can be configured to send/receive data at up to 800 kbps, and be throttled to lower speeds as needed, to also aid in conserving power by using only enough power to get the minimum amount of bandwidth needed.

Advances such as these can lead to at-home monitoring for patients, as they can have home transceivers communicate with devices such as pacemakers and kidney monitors while they sleep, and send the data back to the necessary medical institution. Also, adjustments can be made without invasive surgery, perhaps even without the need for an office visit.

Zarlink Semiconductor
RFDesign.com article

Why I hate a QAM tuner - Part Deux

So if you read my earlier posts, you would know that the QAM tuner in my new tv and I don't quite get along. However, this time I don't hate the QAM directly, I hate it for exposing what I've known, that cable companies are the sUck. That's why Suddenlink has it's name, because it's close to suck, in fact, I think they should re-image their corporate logo as sUckenlink, but that's just me.

When a QAM tuner pulls in digital tv off a cable line, it needs a certain amount of information included in the signal to tell the tuner specifics about the broadcast, most importantly its channel mapping. That is where the Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) comes in to play. PSIP is an ATSC standard designation of how to include channel reference, ratings, program information, etc into a digital tv signal. Where this becomes absolutely vital in a QAM setup, is that whatever the PSIP data contains determines what channel the QAM tuner maps that broadcast to. Typically, digital broadcasts are put on channels consisting of subchannels, or major and minor channels. That's why they will show up as channels like 87-3 and 88-49 after a scan.

Now here comes the great part. The meat, the why, the overwhelming evidence of why sUckenlink and my QAM have banded together to make me cry daily. A few weeks ago, some change, somewhere (I'm not pointing fingers at you sUckenlink), caused all QAM cable channels, that were unencrypted - i.e. FREE - to be sent to channel 0.0. No, that's not a typo, nor a sly attempt at innuendo, but rather the sad fact. So instead of the 20 or so channels I had previously coming in, I now have only about 6, and all of them on channel 0. Impossible you say? Well come over to my house tomorrow night and see for yourself, I can take my remote, turn to channel 0, and then hit the channel up button several times, all while staying on channel 0, but changing the channel. I'm the new Amazing Johnathan, you will fear me.

I won't even bore you with the details of where this has taken me (talking to incompetent CSR's, calling Toshiba, calling a certificed repair center, exchanging the tv for a new model), but I will say I'm getting the shaft in this deal, making me feel like these guys. It all comes down to this, the PSIP data is to be tacked back on the signal after multiplexing, and is open for changes at this point if the cable company so desires (to add custom content, channel mappings, etc). This is where the channels of 87-4 and such are assigned. Well, now they are all being assigned to 0-0, and there is not a thing I can do about it. This also means that I can only receive 1 channel per set, and none of the subchannels. Meaning that tuning to 88-1, 88-2, or 88-3 all revert to 88-1, which reverts to 0-0, which will be whatever is on 88-1, so I have lost the ability to view all those extra channels. I have asked to speak to cable technicians that can actually help me, but they are not willing to admit it is all smoke and mirrors, they only have hamsters in wheels keeping the whole system going.

So the saga of Dave vs. QAM is still ongoing. I want to enjoy tv, and I thought the QAM would help deepen my experience, but it has only thus harmed me in ways I'll never recover from. Watching The View in HD was bad enough, but this new challenge, of wanting to get back what I once had, lots of free extra channels without a set top box (ah, there's the kicker) and drained my will to go on. I shouldn't fault the QAM tuner, but without it, I would have never been cast into Dante's 7th level as I have been recently. So I fault it, and wish it total annihilation. The only purpose it's served is to drive me ever closer to turning into Howard Beale, who you can see below.

Wireless power is here...almost

Wireless power is one of the greatest teases I've ever known. It's been talked around and hashed over and over again for years, but it seems that it may finally come to fruition. The concept is simple, if we can use RF (radio frequency) waves for nearly all of our gadgets today, why not also transfer power without the cord?

I for one hate having to keep up with all of the power cords around the house. My cell phone, my wife's, her Blackberry, my Sansa; they all have a proprietary power cord to charge them. Even my Harmony remote has to be docked, just like my wireless mouse for my PC, since they rely on rechargeable batteries. In order for wireless power to work for all devices, they will have to adhere to a standardized protocol, not much different than the AA's and AAA's we're used to today. However, it could require replacing some components in your current devices, and most likely some couldn't even be upgraded. But to the individual interested in such a cutting-edge tech, replacing gadgets like remotes and cell phones is a common occurrence.

The science is simple on the surface. Sending out mass amounts of "wireless power" could be very dangerous, as with all RF, it would be dispersed, and not sent in a singular direction. The idea would be to add another variable, such as resonance (as found by MIT researchers), that could control how the initial radio waves were sent. In this example, a transmitter and receiver would operate on the same frequency and resonance, so that they would only "communicate" with each other. When the signal is reached by the receiving unit, it actually transfers the electromagnetic charge from one coil to the other, since they are both on the same frequency and resonance. A perfect example given in the How Stuff Works article is of two trumpets, and how one trumpet blown can make another resonate, once it hits the right tone.

There are several companies working to deliver this new tech to the masses, with Powercast being the vendor seemingly on the edge of making all of this a reality.

Why I hate a QAM tuner

I've known about QAM tuners for a long time now, and even had one in my old 53" projection HDtv I sold a few years ago, but I never really grasped how much I despised them. Until now.

I just bought a new 32" LCD for our bedroom after getting the wife's permission. If you're married, you understand, if you're not, you will learn. When I was picking it out, I specifically chose one that included a QAM tuner, as I know the power it holds for cheap people like me. A QAM tuner can tune in unscrambled digital signals on a regular cable line, so you can pull HD content (or SD digital content) without having an external solution, such as a cable box or rabbit ears. The trick is, content that is available via broadcast OTA (over the air), and thus free, is mandated by law to be provided by the cable companies over their lines. So you get your PBS broadcasts, FOX, CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliates, sprinkled in with some others you never knew existed. Now while they won't tell you this, it is a fact, and if you don't believe me, then buy a tv with a QAM tuner, plug into your regular cable outlet, and look for yourself. Only thing is, you'll soon come to hate your new QAM tuner, just like I did. Let me explain...

For a geek like me, there is no greater joy than kicking back watching a show in all of its HD glory. You can often find me switching back and forth between the HD and SD broadcasts of the same show, so I can remind myself every 2 minutes how great it is. Except for when I'm watching Lost, and if anyone changes the channel, they get an evil stare, because I'm a non-violent person, on the outside anyway. This unhealthy love of HD leads you to watch things you never intended to. I now love watching the WRAL news, because it's in HD. That, and now you can see it when they have pimples and wrinkles...just like real people. Just the other night, a Daughtry concert was on PBS in HD, and it was frickin' awesome, especially when I had to turn down the brightness of my tv because of the bright reflection of his bald head.

But just like the force, there is a dark side to all of this HD magnificence. Consider when you're at home on a Thursday morning, and there is nothing on except Judge Judy wannabes. You want to find something worth watching, anything, so you venture over to the channels the QAM picked up...but you know better....but you can't resist the urge. You find someting. In HD. You think, can it be? You watch for a moment, thinking how great it is to not be at work, but sitting at home watching HD tv, then it hits you. You're watching The View. You quiver, you shake, you vomit in your mouth. You look away, but something forces you to look back. You have an internal struggle about what to do. On the one hand, there is something on in HD to watch. On the other...IT'S THE FREAKING VIEW. Matthew 18:9 comes to mind just ask you muster up the intestinal fortitude to extend the index finger up the remote, and slam it down on the power button before you can be further infected. I would rather go through the torture scene in Syriana before having to watch this abomination again.

So there you have it, in one fell swoop, the beauty of having a built-in QAM tuner is ruined by a bunch of sour-faced hussies crying about how miserable they are. They should just all be put in prison and have to live with this guy for breathing. Oh, and for making me stomach them for more than 3 seconds. But I guess it's not their fault, it's all the QAM's fault for finding them in HD. I hate you QAM.

Netflix instant movies in media center?

If you're a Netflix user and already have a Media Center PC, then you know why this is badly needed. Hopefully this guy will be able to figure out the best way to make the two play nicely together.

http://www.hackingnetflix.com/2008/01/video-of-protot.html

I for one would be stoked when it's all up and running, but I would just need to get this TV to go along with the new functionality....

Welcome to the blog that breaks no boundaries

My name is David, and I'm starting this blog for my CTS 287 class, which I'm glad to tell is my very last class! So if I can just keep this think going for the semester, I'll be on my way to finally graduating. Now with a memory as horrible as mine, that could be a challenge. Oh well, read on for a little extra insight into me...

I've been playing in the IT field for almost a decade now, and have become really good at pretending I always know what I'm doing. As anyone else in IT can tell you, that's 80% of the work right there, convincing others that you know what you're doing is another 15%, and the last 5% is unfortunately for the work itself.

I've done all sorts of things over the years, from working with and maintaining ATM's, mainframes, servers, routers, switches, etc on a very large network, to my current job in Information Reporting. All of these jobs have taken place behind the same bank doors, so while sheltered in one place, I've been very fortunate to hold the positions I have. Currently I take massive amounts of corporate data, pull it all together and package to give to various departments for their research and reporting needs. Examples are for strategic marketing, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, and risk assessment. My primary tool is SAS, which with little to no programming experience, was quite fun to pick up and learn from scratch. It's got to be one of the most powerful applications I've ever used, in a megalomaniac sort of way.

Well that should be enough to satisfy the teach, and if I post anymore, I'll start to think you're creepy for reading all this and learning too much about me. Until the next post. I know you're so excited you just can't wait..................