# Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Native QAM in Media Center Might Be Almost Upon Us

This popped up on EngadgetHD and I'm very excited. Naturally, it's unofficial, but this would stop me from being very cranky. Native QAM support in Media Center would mean a much wider audience of Media Center. Mom and Pop could go to the store, pick up their Media Center, and get high def right off the bat.  Naturally, this means if this turns out to be false, I will slip into a deeper nerd depression

Update: Patch released to OEM

#    Tuesday, July 08, 2008 2:33:56 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] |
# Thursday, July 03, 2008

Happy Dependence Day

I'm not usually the type to copy and paste many IMs, but this was too good to fall into the oblivions of IM history

Bryan Jackson: For about 4 hours today I had people convinced that I "didn't support the 4th of July. I believe we should return to Mother England"
Bryan Jackson: and I told them about this whole "New Dependence Movement"
Bryan Jackson: I told them that on July 5th we were going to be holding a rally outside the British Embassy but that Britain didn't support it, so it made it harder.
#    Thursday, July 03, 2008 4:40:12 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [2] |
# Monday, June 30, 2008

Netflix profiles are now staying?

I recently brought up that Netflix was killing off profiles.  Well, now they're doubling back on that. So since you're going to keep them around, how about you allow the second profile to use "Watch It Now"?  I understand I can create 10 profiles and give it to my friends so they can use my unlimited, but I feel that can be programmed around.  Just my humble opinion.


Dear Peter,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix



Edit: Oh ALSO! Please figure out a way for us to delete profiles.  I can help you drum up the SQL command if you really need me to.

#    Monday, June 30, 2008 3:37:30 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [2] |
# Thursday, June 26, 2008

John McCain is Cylon - Sweet!!!!


This came to my attention via a Digg comment and I've been laughing to myself ever since.  There is a pretty sweet resemblance. Though, I do have to admit, this photo below is MUCH better

http://www.adampieniazek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/mccainortigh.png


Update: Shoutout to Bryan & LOTR clan from congaming.com

#    Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:46:53 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [1] |
# Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Opera Mobile 9.5

Opera Mobile 9.5 has been something many have been looking forward to for a long time!! It generates full websites and does NOT need the mobile version that many sites provide.  Some betas popped up on XDA recently 1409 build.  It performs EXTREMELY well for a beta on my Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) running WM 6.1.  I highly recommend it to anyone using Windows Mobile!

Set this browser to be your default via the registry.  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:DEFBROWSER.  I just changed :MSPIE to "/windows/operal.exe".  You should be able to go back to MSIE, but why would you?  I found that reg key from the 1409 link. Thanks ycavan

Edit: Modified pic to show actual screenshot of application. Pic taken with Remote Zoom-in

Edit2: Also like to bleed my memory and not release it, just FYI

Edit3: 1409 build added. much more stable, rapes ram less. Also added regi option for def browser. Why wasn't this in the app?

#    Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:55:10 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] |
# Friday, June 20, 2008

To my fellow nerds... Server collocation

A few of us have talked about renting some dedicated hosting. Primarily collocation hosting. It'd mean upfront purchase and ownership of server, and only a monthly cost for rack space, power, internets, bandwidth.

Personally, I'm very tired for getting pw3nd by shared hosting providers. I do understand that it can't be perfect, but you still have to have a decent uptime, and you can't lie. I'd go into detail about how 1and1 has screwed with me over the years but I'll be brief (tried to cancel webhosting but keep Exchange, but told me I had to get a different Exchange account and transfer my mail, or else it would be lost since the Exchange was 'attached' to the webhosting. Seems like a billing problem, not MY problem. Also, if I call you to tell you your server has been down for 30 minutes, and I call and you fix it while I'm on hold, don't passively treat me like I'm bothering you because everything is working)

Also, their .net app restrictions are not the best.

Okay, it wasn't too brief. But I've played out the numbers assuming I purchase the server, and it'll cost you less than good meal per month.

Update: +1 BJ +1 SP +1PS

Check out http://ntsource.com/web-hosting/colocation-web-hosting.html

Update: BJ and PeterS have brought up cloud hosting options like Amazon's EC2 and GoGrid. I am not very familiar with these, and they seem to charged based on application. But if it were possible to have a single app running windows server 2008 VM, I could see it working.

#    Friday, June 20, 2008 8:52:28 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [75] |
# Thursday, June 19, 2008

Netflix discontinuing profiles (blogging at a ball game... )


I'm at the Sox game. Great game! My sister caught a foul ball and the White Sox are winning.

Onto the nerdy stuff. Just got an email from Netflix. They're discontinuing profiles. They never worked well, so at least they're going away. The main problem was that different profiles couldn't watch instant material. Sox scored. I can understand their hesitation since it could lead to abuse, but this could be avoided with limitations on the number of profiles and length of viewing allowed.
Sox scored. Thome almost had a heart attack.

Sent from my Windows MobileĀ® phone.

Update: Photo added, was supposed to be email-to-blog, but 1and1 blocks sockets.... ftl. Looking for new hosting provider.
#    Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:50:21 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [1] |
# Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Getfirefox.com gets hammered as people look for FF3 - Servers die in process



I eventually got through and Firefox 3 wasn't even on the site at the appropriate time (maybe they took it down to limit downloads? nothing listed on their blog status). The site keeps going down. Hope they bring it up soon, they were putting a lot of marketing into the whole world record download within 24 hours.
As a partial defense to Mozilla, they did mention that you cannot use the self update as it won't count towards their record keeping. But it probably still shouldn't crash, eh.

Update: Finally got it downloading @ 2:00 PM CST (12:00 PDT). 2 hours late, but at least they still have 22 hours to go. Good luck!

#    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:20:51 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [7] |
# Monday, June 16, 2008

Battlestar Galactica vs Star Trek Voyager

Short but nerdy post.
Want a reason why Battlestar Galactica is better than Voyager? The series didn't suddenly end when they entered the orbit of Earth.
Those who know me, know I've complained about this before. BSG didn't make me start jumping wildly,"You've got to be kidding me?!!?!". People tried to calm me with the prospect of a follow-up movie, but wait.. what's that next Star Trek movie? That's right.... set way waaay before Voyager.

#    Monday, June 16, 2008 8:41:26 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [1] |