Finally, the day has come. Analog TV is gone, except for LPTV. Totally makes sense right. Force everyone to change to digital except for those local low power stations. I don't think I've ever tuned into one or have the need to. I'm sure anyone who tunes to LPTV still made the digital transition since everything else changed. Good job FCC. Way to go all the way and fall an inch short.

For the sake of keeping the rest of this post sane, we're going to assume analog tv is gone. Now what do we do? Well for those who escaped the grasp of the cable companies, they're on the all digital bandwagon. TV is broadcast up to 1080i without having to buy a digital package. Yes this is a jab at the cable companies. Cable companies usually give you the broadcast channels over HD for free, but don't market it.

On top of that, cable isn't affected by the DTV transition. The digital signals they get from the broadcast companies will be downconverted to analog. Honestly, I feel that's an unfair advantage. A) get a digital box for OTA DTV from a company you've never heard of (and priced just barely above $40 to get the full value of the government voucher program) or B) subscribe to cable tv.

I get yelled at when I bring that up. If cable companies were forced to go digital, everyone would be forced to get a box. My response: OK!  For YEARS cable companies have been screwing with consumers. Force them to get boxes for more channels. Since you screwed customers by creating a box monopoly, cablecards were brought to life. I personally invested around 1000 USD in a CableCard system. How many United States citizens to you know who have cable and do not have a digital box from their cable provider in their home? Very few! Sure there are some that would get screwed by a digital cable transition, but much less than the OTA digital transition.

On top of that, since they're paying subscribers, there already is a support network setup.

Yes, I've gone on another rant, but isn't that what you've come to except by this point?

Windows 7 E will be the only version to ship to Europe. Similar to versions of XP that shipped to Europe without Windows Media Player, the EU ruled in an antitrust case that MS has an unfair advantage with IE being shipped with Windows.

OEMs that will ship machines with Windows 7 will have the opportunity to install whatever browser they would like to. Pretty much anything is fair game as long as Microsoft is not making the decision.

So if a consumer buys a copy of Windows 7 off of the shelf in Europe, they will have NO BROWSER. So how do you get a browser? You'll need to bust into an FTP site or get it via removable media.

Let's play make believe...

But wait... what FTP client are you using? Microsoft bundles in an FTP client. Clearly this is unfair. Microsoft should remove that to allow 3rd parties a fair shot.

Since you forgot to download your browser installer before you wiped your machine, you'll be getting impatient calling your neighbor to come over with IE8/Firefox/Opera/Chrome. You bust open solitaire. Isn't this unfair also? There are many companies out there that sell games for Windows. Clearly this is also unfair. Microsoft needs to delete solitaire and all other games from the computer.

You want to listen to some music instead. Whoops, sorry, Windows Media Player shouldn't be their either. Go download Winamp or WMP after you get a browser.

You finally get some audio playback software. You don't have your sound card drivers installed yet, so you decide to get nerdy and bust out some bluetooth headphones since the drivers and bluetooth stack were installed by default for your setup. But wait, there are a few companies that sell their own bluetooth stack. Microsoft had better rip that out too and force you to download your favorite choice.

I believe in a free market. If Microsoft actually blocks the installation of 3rd party software, by all means: burn them at the stake!! But as a developer, I use MSDN constantly. As one of many sources Microsoft opens up to the world, they want you to program for their platform! Sure, they'd love to see you use IE, but you don't see them crashing the Firefox installer.

If a 3rd party company like Mozilla or Google wants to compete, a customer will see their choices. Customers will make a decision. If the EU was being truely fair, they would force all operating systems ( all flavors of linux, windows, OSX, etc ) to not bundles internet browsers. It would be a level playing field. I'm assuming the decision passed down by the EU was meant to protect uneducated consumers, won't these customers be faced with a different decision? Buy a computer potentially without an internet browser... or buy that cute green ecofriendly hippie noncorporate machine Apple that has their own Safari browser ready to go?


edit: forgot to add source http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/windows-7-to-be-shipped-in-europe-sans-internet-explorer.ars

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,525835,00.html

Real Life "Final Destination"

image source wikipedia

I was out with my friends Nate and Ryan doing some dinner in Morris. (Side note: Morris is really much further away than I thought. I should look at Google Maps to determine the delay to food entering my belly.)

As I came home, I could hear the smoke detectors blaring as I'm walking up to the front door. I'm fully expecting to see my grandfather and his friend to be sprawled out somewhere. I enter the house and it's filled with smoke. I am having a hard time seeing, breathing, and naturally... hearing.  They're both watching TV with the loudness cranked up. My grandfather mentions he was about to call me for assistance. One of the smoke detectors actually broke since it was sounding off for so long.

Looking around the house for the cause, I notice the fireplace. it is billowing smoke. I don't know if he forgot to open the chimney valve, or didn't warm up the chimney. Either way, the house was completely filled with smoke. In my infinite wisdom, I immediately open windows. I turn on the whole house fan upstairs. As I come down to family room again, the fire is roaring since the fan is actually sucking air back down the chimney.... The room fills back up with smoke. I close the chimney valve. Since I just stoked the fire up, they're actively billowing smoke again. I have to now remove them outside.

Designating a spot on the sidewalk for them to burn out, I create a pile. Once again, I notice that the room is filling back up with smoke. The logs are still smoldering outside and the smoke is being sucked back into the house through a nearby doorway. I shut the door. I then remember that my father had a cover for the fireplace. Using him as my lifeline, he reminds me where he hid it.

Now that I have the a constant stream of fresh air coming into the house, I relax. The woman must have a 6th sense to realize the best time to screw with me. She mentions something about how it is cold outside, and how she is cold now. I had no patience for this and wasn't going to sugarcoat it. I told her something along the lines of,"Too bad, you need to breath".

My room and a few others were protected from the smoke since the doors were closed. But, since the temperature of the house definitely did drop, the heat kicked in and cycled that air all over the house. I can still smell it downstairs.

This morning, I was having issues with my phone not connecting to the 1and1 exchange server for my domain. It was giving an error, "Waiting for network". Google taught me that there are many reasons for this error and generally resetting does the trick. Naturally, after deleting it from my phone and reentering the information, I am met with the "the server could not be reached" error.

I go to exchange.1and1.com. No response
I go to 1and1.com. No response
I go to admin.1and1.com No reponse.
I call all tech support/billing/sales numbers. All circuits are busy.

My web hosting for this domain seems to still be online, but beyond this, I am clueless!

Edit: Roughly around 1300 CST, things are coming back to life, no explanation yet. I'm still getting old emails trickling through.

Netflix dropped me and many other Blu-Ray subscribers an email today detailing a plan to hike the Blu-Ray premium from $1 to $4.

My beef is that Blu-Ray prices really have not changed. I understand that originally it was a free perk they had to put a price tag on. But why now $4? Maybe it really is worth that much, but why didn't they put it at $4 before? Now that they've changed it twice, I'm concerned it won't stop there.

EDIT: The original takedowns were actually posted on this thread. I can't believe anyone took the email address Internet1@microsoft-antipiracy.com seriously.

Main Forums on XDA for Kaiser
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=378

A few problemed threads in forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=428261
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=436503

MS has forced requested XDA-developers to remove links to ROMs that feature WM 6.5's new features. They don't seem to mind if ROM chefs are using the new bases. MS seems to be focuses on the new features like HoneyComb, the lock screen, and new Today screen.

In theory, when XDA hackers gave us WM6.1 ROMs, we knew it was in the works for our providers to offer us the update. But with Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft has already announced that they will not allow device software upgrades to WM6.5.

It looks like Microsoft has contacted XDA-Developers admin and chefs to get all the links removed. I hope something positive can come out of this, but I honestly doubt it. I was looking forward to the new lock screen!

Side note: I'll be up for purchasing a new Windows Mobile phone soon. Microsoft will be sporting their WM6.5 soon to the consumers. They need to tell me if they'll allow an upgrade path to WM7.

We've all been bit by the Cable Companies at one point or another. Lately, it seems to revolve around DRM, TV over Internet, etc.  I'm no fool, I understand everything they're doing, yet I do not agree.

They used to have the only major pipeline for TV into people's home. This is changing:

1. Now people are receiving HD broadcasts over the air (cables' customers who tune into only primetime shows, this is a threat)
2. People are using the internet connection through the Cable Company to obtain LEGAL internet TV. Netflix, Hulu, YouTube all provide fantastic and easy resources to bypass live TV

Somewhat recently, Comcast put a 250GB monthly cap on internet connections. Why would they do this? Naturally for reason #2 listed above. This is still opinion and speculation on my part. Many others agree, others have alternative ideas (mostly revolving around the companies beening ran by zombie devils or something). It comes down them not wanting to change, and force customers down a certain path. this lack of innovation will be their doom.

TV Studios created sites like Hulu and their corp sites to host shows. WHOA! That is a huge sidestep to cable companies! So now the customers and tv companies are both upset with cable companies? Instead of innovating and finding alternative solutions, companies like Comcast are sticking to their positions and solidifying by imposing limits on how much you can download. I've never hit the 250 GB limit, but someday I might with the way things are going!

Comcast said they imposed the limit to stop the few from abusing the service. This is BS. If you were getting so overloaded, why was it that months later you double all of our internet speeds and now offer up to 50mbps? Guess you have the capacity to handle it all, don't you?

Most customers will pass this off as "the limit will not affect me" and "well, whatever, now my speeds are faster!!!".  Screw that, they jacked the speeds up ONLY after they were getting speed competition from Verizon FIOS and AT&T U-Verse. This was done to keep their current customers and to keep the eyes of their customers covered.

I'm sounding like a ranting liberal who hates "the man", but I hate being treated like a moron. I am not. I do not know everything, but I damn well know when I'm being played.

Here is what Comcast and others should do to innovate:

1. They support different channel packages via CableCard. If you pay for HBO, "zap" and now you have HBO. Stop paying your bill "zap!!", all premium channels are gone.  I should be able to go through a checklist and be able to add/remove any channel that I want to. I'd love to get rid of Oxygen and replace it with ESPN7. This offers a fantastic option to customers with a system you already have in place
   
2. You need to go all in on this CableCard fiasco. You're really starting to piss off your average joe of a customer. Why should your Motorola Comcast box with a CableCard get all the channels and On-Demand while my Tivo/Vista Media Center with a Cable Card can only get most channels and no On-Demand? Don't tell me that it's hard to innovate. You need to kick your CableLabs in the butt and have it be much more helpful to 3rd party OEMs. I'm still waiting for my freaking SDV adapter for my ATI Digital Tuners. It is certainly an issue that needs to be worked on by Microsoft/ATI in addition to CableLabs, but don't you think it would go much more smoothly if CableLabs was actively assisting and cared? It has been deemed illegal to force people to use your cable boxes. You're working on borrowed time while Tru2Way is deployed. You'd better be more freaking friendly before everyone has an easy option to ditch your box.
3. Some cable companies are offering video on demand watch shows. But once again, I need your box to get that! But all in all, it's still not ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX,etc's raw show programming offerings. You're offering yet again another proprietary system to add another ball an chain to your customers. Make a system similar to Netflix that allows your TV customers to access it. Maybe even sell the internet only version to people! I'm already paying for netflix to watch TV and movies, why would I be opposed to paying for it?
   

Just got some new Nextel firmware for my Nextel i335

From the read me
Upgrade i335 software to version R7F.00.04
- Upgrade codeplug to version 6A.04.01
- Upgrade flashstrap to version FS7fv00.24
- Upgrade CSD to version CXX.06.14 based on the service provider.
- Upgrade font pack to version 7F.00.07.00
- Upgrade French/Spanish/Portuguese/Arabic/Hebrew language pack to version 7F.00.30.02
- Upgrade carrier pack to version 7F.00.09.00
- Upgrade theme pack to version 7F.00.08.00 but Sprint, So Linc, Asia Generic, Brazil, Telus, MIRS, KTP Korea, Peru, PTC Saudi, Mexico to 7F.00.08.01 and Boost to 7F.00.08.04
- If the user chooses to upgrade phone with default java applications, restores the default java applications (the user must manually delete any previous java applications).

Sprint summarizes the changes as: Addresses issues with HTTP, TCP, and neighbor cell list not being updated

Naturally, I haven't noticed any difference after the upgrade, but I like higher numbers.

I did attempt to do the depot install to not install the default java apps, but they're still there. Maybe they're from the previous install. I just wanted them gone without having to manually "deinstall"ing them

 




edit: added moto link to firmware
Edit: March 15, 2010, added changes as detailed by Sprint