Wallbot

How cool is this?

We bought our Samsung LCD TV from Crutchfield, lured by a special sale that included a $100 gift certificate, free shipping, and a free Samsung WMN-5090A remote control motorized wall mount. The wall mount is normally $800 at Crutchfield although I'm sure you can get it for less elsewhere. The fact that it integrates so well with the TV made it impossible to pass up.

As the video shows, we've mounted the monitor over the fireplace mantel, which is far from optimal. But the tilt feature of the mount mitigates the awkward placement.

We can also program three position settings and move the TV to any of those positions with the touch of a button on the remote control. When the TV is turned off, the mount automagically returns it to its centered and flat-to-the-wall position.

By the way, if you're wondering why we have that ugly cable running from the cabinet to the TV, it's because we just got a 10 meter in-wall rated HDMI cable today which will eventually snake its way up the wall and back down to the Suddenlink DVR that provides the high-def signals. I'm patting myself on the back for running a pull cable when I installed the center channel speaker cable back before the wall was sheet-rocked. However, the HDMI cable is thicker than I anticipated, so I'm still going to have to do some drilling in the attic to get the connector up through the joist or rafter or whatever-the-heck you call that 2x6 that's in the way.

By the way, I am underwhelmed by Suddenlink's high-def offerings. However, the few free channels that are available are just as amazing as the hype would lead you to believe.

Hooray for Blu-ray

I've never used either a Blu-ray or an HD DVD disc, but I'm excited about the news that the former appears to well on its way to becoming the undisputed winner in the latest Format War. With Toshiba's waving of the white flag, there are no heavyweights remaining in HD DVD's corner, and consumers and manufacturers alike can start getting serious about creating and using high capacity discs.

I don't know if the best product won, based on the technical specs, although it's difficult to argue against Blu-ray's 25 gigabytes of capacity per disc, compared to HD's paltry 15. Make that 50 gig for a dual-layer disc and you're talking about serious storage capacity. The important point is that someone (or something) has won, and we can get on with business.

The biggest problem I see with such high capacity discs – regardless of format – is the time it takes to write them. According to this FAQ, a 1x Blu-ray drive takes 93 minutes to write a 25 gig disc, and a 2x drive takes, well, half as long. But 46 minutes is still a long time to wait for a backup to complete (and we all know how those theoretical speeds translate into the real world). Of course, the real question is how far away are we from 40x Blu-ray burners?

For those who have already invested in HD DVD players, you have my sympathy. I'm the guy who's still waiting for 8 tracks to make a comeback.

Utterz Test

Mobile post sent by fireant using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Solid Gold Vinyl

My pal Mark is thinking about digitizing his extensive collection of Slim Whitman albums, but he's leaning toward leaving them on vinyl and buying a new turntable to replace the old and busted Radio Shack model he's nursed along since 1968.

He tells me he's just about decided on this model, which borrows technology from both the Mars Rover and The Terminator.

I can't decide if this is a joke. A hundred large for a 'table? Of course, that works out to just $130 per pound, which probably makes it a better buy than most of the alternatives. Plus, according to the shopping cart calculation, shipping by USPS is only $7.00. And, they take PayPal.

I say, go for it, Mark. And let us know how ol' Slim sounds when spun on bullet-proof wood.

Wiring Banana Plugs

I found myself in an interesting predicament. I had a zip-lock bag (snack sized) full of compression-style banana plugs, all of which begged to be attached to speaker wires even as they defied my attempts to understand just exactly how such attachment was to occur.

These plugs are comprised of three parts: the plug itself, permanently attached to a body which is a hollow threaded shaft; a short cylindrical "slug" of solid metal that fits loosely into the shaft of the body; and a threaded insert, also hollow, that screws into the base of the body, shoving the slug against the plug (providing, I suppose, the compression that describes the type of connector). The non-intuitive part is how the speaker wire was to be routed in order to make optimal contact with the plug.

I saw one obvious way to do it, but it was crude, circumventing the elegant design of the plug. But the alternative wasn't obvious.

Until, that is, I found this excellent set of instructions, in PDF format. (Courtesy of Blue Jeans Cable)

I am, perhaps, the only semi-sentient biped in the galaxy who doesn't know how to work a banana plug, but judging by the number of visits I get from people googling "garbage disposer clogged by potato peels," I suspect there are a few others who might be challenged by the lack of instructions that come with these connectors. This post is for you, dear friends.

Swirlie Life Overrated

I'm a fan of Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs. I like how they run cool, use less energy to provide the same amount of light (to my eyesight, anyway), and I plan to install them throughout the new house when it's completed (which, by the way, isn't an expense that we considered when we kicked off the construction. Whoever thinks about having to buy 75 light bulbs at one time*?). I don't even mind the brief warm-up time required for the bulbs to reach full luminosity.

What I'm not impressed with is the actual life of the bulbs vs. the rated life. When we first started switching out the incandescent bulbs in our house, I thought I observed a shorter life for the CFLs than I felt was realistic, but I didn't have any way to prove it. After all, nobody makes a note of when they change a light bulb. Right? Well, do they?

Ahem. I do. I started using a Sharpie to mark the base of each replacement bulb with the month and year of installation. It took a while, but I finally changed out the first CFL so marked. It was installed in December of 2006.

Now, assuming that the lights in my home office are on 18 hours a day (which is actually not too far off the mark, considering that said office doubles as a workout room and my wife is on the treadmill at 5:00 am most mornings), and further assuming that this occurred every day of the past 12 months (which it didn't, but we're being conservative), that works out to -- um...carry the one...divide the hypotenuse -- 6,570 hours of life before the poor thing experienced an apparent fatal attack of fluorescent epilepsy.

I confess that I didn't note the rated hours on the package for these particular bulbs (anyone else in favor of regulations requiring the manufacturer to stamp that on the base along with the wattage?) but if you visit the 13w CFL page of my favorite light bulb vendor (which happens to be located in Grand Prairie, Texas), you'll see ratings that range between 10,000 and 12,000 hours. My pitifully underachieving bulb fell 36% short of the low end of that range.

Granted, almost 7,000 hours of life from a light bulb is nothing to sneeze at, and the economic advantage vs. incandescents is still significant. I simply wish we had more accurate labeling. It can be done; after all, who questions the EPA's gas mileage ratings for new cars?

OK, never mind.

*Lest you think I'm just being stingy, consider that we'll have about 50 recessed light fixtures, each of which will take one 4.75" reflector flood bulb. The cheapest of those bulbs is more than $8 each. The remaining 25 bulbs will be less expensive, being the standard-size kind used in closets, ceiling fans, etc.

Interview: Bill Lawless, Founder of "Impact Midland"

If you've got a keen eye, you may have noticed a new link in the Gazette's sidebar, in the "West Texas Blogs" category. The link hooks you up with Impact Midland, a relatively new blog beautifully conceived and executed by telecommunications guru Bill Lawless. Impact Midland is unique among the West Texas blogging community in that it's an audio-blog, consisting of recorded interviews and readings, with Bill acting as the producer, director, interviewer, sound engineer, and everything else.

Bill and I were co-workers back in prehistoric times, which emboldened me to turn the tables and request an interview with him, to which he graciously consented. From a geekish perspective, I'm not worthy to even be in the same room with him, so we did the interview by email, instead of a podcast, but I think you'll enjoy finding out more about Bill and his new blog.

Bill – I listen to several podcasts everyday and find that it is a very good way to share information. You can listen while driving, walking, bike riding, etc. I am a technology type and have always been interested in electronics, ham radio, computers, the internet and audio production. Podcasting is a way for me to pull all of those interests together. It's also a way to live out a childhood dream to be a DJ of sorts. When I record I set behind an ElectoVoice RE20 which is a microphone you will find in 90% of the radio stations in the country.

The name Impact Midland is something that I thought long about. I didn't want to build a website that was just for me to play podcaster on. I wanted to build something that would challenge me technically and be useful at the same time.

From a biblical perspective I would like for the readings and interviews to perhaps cause folks to reassess their view of who God is and their own relationship with Him. You can't read or listen to the Psalms without getting a high view of God. The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers. The Puritans had a high view of God and it was evident in their prayers and the way they lived. Today it seems that that we treat God very casually. We use His name in a casual sometimes vulgar manner, we treat Him as though He were some sort of cosmic Santa Claus instead of the high and holy sovereign of the universe. Our casual view of God is not only evident in the way we live our lives form day to day but in the way we worship. In the Psalms we learn how to truly worship. In worship the focus is not on me but on God.

Bill – Interviews are something new for me. I listen to as many as I can because I find that it is a good way to learn about someone or something. The first interview is with my pastor and the second with a pastor friend that is starting a church. I chose them as my first because I know they would be easy on me but also because I felt that they had something to say that would benefit folks in Midland that may be looking for a church.

Bill – Everyone. I know that this is a simple answer but it's true. I do not have all of what I want to do with this website fully developed yet. I have a hundred ideas but need to pair that down to something that keeps my interest as well as useful to other Midlanders.

Bill – I have been involved in 2-way radio and telecommunications for 30+ years and in that business audio quality is always very important. I decided that if I was going to do this that I would do it right. I am in the process of building a recording studio using professional audio equipment. I would like to produce a program that sounds good so that when I compress it to a size that is easy to stream or download that it will sound good on your computer speakers or iPod ear buds. I am staring at 153 knobs, 10 faders, buttons, switches, inputs and outputs, sends and returns, cables, microphones, LEDs, thresholds, ratios, mix, drive, level, filters, speakers, headphones and I could go on. I have a lot to learn but that's what keeps it interesting for me.

I also have a portable set-up that I use when I go to various places to have people read for me or interview. A lot of the portable equipment on the market is very expensive and sounds great or cheap and sounds so so. I managed to finds a portable unit made by Marantz and had it modified by a professional audio company who made improvements to the pre-amps and microphones. This recorder records in MP3 format so that I don't have to do any conversion.

The biggest challenge so far has been to find good music that fits the theme of the website and is affordable. It is very important that I have permission to play the music that I use. I am paying about $30 dollars per minute for a few of the songs and for the others I have been given permission from the artist at no cost. I really like the no cost option.

On the computer side of the process I am using a PC but will be moving everything over to Mac in the near future. The production software I am interested in runs on a Mac. The production studios that I have visited recently all use the Mac.

Bill – I have an interview with Dr. Mark Dever of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC in October that is a huge opportunity. My pastor and I will tag team this one.

Other projects I have in mind are not theological. I enjoy giving safety talks at work and would like to do a recorded audio version of that. I recorded my last talk but it did not come out well at all. I would like to interview various folks in Midland and discuss safety issues.

I would like to find Midland story tellers and capture their tales for others to enjoy. I could go on and on and would be interested in ideas from others.

I would like to do an interview at the food court at the mall. I think it would be cool to have the background noise there part of the recording.

Bill – I have been working in technology for 30+ years. I spent 21 years with ARCO and am now with Key Energy. Prior to ARCO I worked for an engineering firm in Austin building microwave communication systems for MCI, Sprint and others. I think back on my career and the time that I am most proud of was my 6 years in Algeria. We built infrastructure to support a large oil recovery project near the city of Hassi Messaoud, in the middle of the Sahara Desert. There I learned to speak French and enough Arabic to get myself in trouble.

I am a preacher's kid and grew up in a Christian home. I became a Christian at the age of 17 while living in Abilene. I went to Hardin Simmons for a while then several years later attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I struggled trying to figure out what I was supposed to do ministry wise. I preached in my church and other churches in the association where we lived and had a jail ministry. It became evident to me later on that full time ministry is not where God wanted me. My ministry is where I am at; using the skills that God has blessed me with.

Bill – If you are from Midland and would like to read a Psalm or a Valley of Vision prayer for me I would like to talk to you. It would be cool if we could put together a CD that had the book of Psalms read by Midlanders on it.

I have a blog titled Reformed Lawless at billsbible.blogspot.com and I manage my church's web site at colonialbiblechurch.org. Perhaps I should add a bit of a warning to the theological content of the website. I am very narrow minded when it comes to theology. I believe that the bible is the word of God, literally, and believe that it contains everything we need know about life, our relationships, and worship, how we do business, God and our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ, everything. I believe that God is absolutely sovereign. I believe that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and there is no other way. I hold to the 5 solas of the reformation; Sola gratia ("by grace alone"), Sola fida ("by faith alone"), Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone") Solus Christus ("in Christ alone") Soli Deo Gloria ("Glory to God alone").

I appreciate Bill taking the time to reply to my nosy questions, and I hope Midlanders will give him some good ideas for future interviews. And at the very least, visit Impact Midland and help Bill find out if he's really got enough bandwidth in his hosting account!

Two Theories about the Dumbing Down of Digital Music

iFidelity: Why sound engineers are changing their methods, and shortchanging your ears

In yesterday's Portals column, Wall Street Journal writer Lee Gomes describes how the dominance of personal music players and their reliance on the MP3 audio format has changed not only the music listening and buying habits of consumers, but also the way that music is recorded:

In response, engineers are adapting their techniques in ways that include dropping out higher frequencies (that tend to sound harsh on tiny earbuds) and jacking up the volume (in response to the impression – right or wrong – that iPod listeners like it loud. Some of the engineers quoted by Gomes talk about the disappearance of more complex music with rich tonal layers that tend to get lost in the compression required by the MP3 format, or that can't be reproduced by cheap earbuds.

This is nothing new. I remember that the big complaint when CDs were introduced was that the music was cold and harsh, lacking the warmth and character of its vinyl counterpart. Sound engineering technology and techniques eventually overcame those complaints, and I suspect the same will happen with the new ones.

What's a bit disturbing, however, is not that the music is losing quality when it's ripped to MP3 (or AAC or whatever compressed format you pick), but that the source data is being compromised, in the studio. If the tones aren't on the master, they're gone. I had always assumed that digital music was sort of like digital photography. Even though -- or because -- I know that an image will be down-sampled before it hits the web, I want to have the highest resolution possible in my source image, so I can always go back and create a less compressed version if necessary. This principle appears to be lacking in sound engineering philosophy described in the column.

This means that it won't do much good to opt for a higher quality version of your digital music (like that offered in the iTunes Store for a higher price), because the source file was compromised from the start.

I'd be interested to get some input on this issue from a professional musician/recording studio owner like, say, Kyle.

But, that's not the only issue at work here...

The iPod Generation: Mos Def or Mostly Deaf?

Leaving out those tonal nuances may not be a big deal after all, given that the iPod generation is largely comprised of two demographics that share a common trait: hearing loss.

As more boomers adopt the new technology, you can bet they're not hearing those high frequencies with the same clarity they did in their 20s and 30s. There's a good reason why high school students use a special high-pitched ring tone (when they're not using an annoying hip-hop tone instead) on their phones: teachers can't hear it. I've experienced this first hand, watching kids twitch like dogs in obedience class in response to the vast nothingness that intruded upon my consciousness.

But it's not just us oldies that are becoming hearing-impaired. Is there any doubt that the earbud generation will reap what it sows in terms of decibel deficit, and probably sooner than later? Parents, how many of your kids have activated the automatic volume limiter feature on their iPods? Did you even know it exists?

So, it's perhaps a moot point as to whether sound engineers should "dumb down" their musical products or not. The relevant question is when is Apple going to introduce subtitles on its video 'pods for both lyrics and soundtracks?

Top 10 eCommerce Developments

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) last week rolled out its list of the "Ten Most Significant eCommerce Developments of the Last Decade," (PDF). The list includes the following:

1. Google (Sept. 1998)
2. Broadband Penetration of US Internet Users Reaches 50% (June 2004)
3. eBay Auctions (Launched Sept. 1997)
4. Amazon.com (IPO May 1997)
5. Google Ad Words (2000)
6. Open Standards (HTML 4.0 released - 1997)
7. Wi-Fi (802.11 launched - 1997)
8. User-Generated Content (YouTube 2005)
9. iTunes (2001)
10. BlackBerry (1999)

It's a pretty eclectic list, containing items that are almost universally familiar (Google) to those that are downright geeky (Open Standards).

If I'd come up with the list, I'd have put PayPal in there, somewhere (perhaps in place of the BlackBerry). PayPal (started around 2000) wasn't the first online payment system, but it was the pioneer in terms of making the average surfer comfortable about conducting business via the web.

An interesting sidenote is that the SIIA chose YouTube to represent "user generated content," even though blogging is much more widespread and arguably more influential. However, blogs existed long before 1997, and thus don't make the ten-year rule.

Additional observations about the items on this list are found here.

Tip o'the hat to MLB

The Omnivorous Ant

According to the results of the Pew Internet & American Life survey, I'm a Technological Omnivore:

The Pew researchers define ten categories along the tech consumption spectrum, ranging from the aforementioned "Omnivores" to those who are "Off the Network," the latter being quite content to rely exclusively on "old media." You can download the entire Pew report in PDF format.

I can't argue with most of the Omnivore description as it applies to me (other than being almost twice the median age, and not a student [at least, not in the traditional sense]). However, I tend to disagree with the interpretation put forth by Ask The Propeller Heads, from whom I discovered this survey via their column in our local newspaper.

They refer to "Omnivores" as "alpha geeks" who "love technology for technology's sake." That's not me; if it doesn't do a job for me, I'm not interested, except perhaps intellectually. I don't own a Tivo, my cell phone won't talk to the Interweb, I rarely use the Terminal window of my Mac, I enjoy the treeware versions of newspapers, and I don't have a webcam (yet). But I firmly believe that technology has helped me do a better job (OK, it is my job, but, still...) and connect better with family, friends and associates.

PC World's "Best of 2007" List

PC World has released its list of "The 100 Best Products of 2007" (despite our not being halfway through the year; perhaps they know something we don't about how the second half will unfold).

As a completely objective observer (ha) what caught my eye was the absence of one very prominent operating system (which won't be named here but it rhymes with "blista") and the presence of another one which was released in 2005 (Mac OS 10.4). Go figure.

#1 on the list? Google Apps (Premier Edition)

FWIW, Apple has more items (6) on the list than any other manufacturer, followed by Google (5) and Dell (4).

Software Review: DVD to iPod Converter

Note: This post originally began as a third installment of "New Things in Our House," with an emphasis on my new iPod, but it unfolded differently than I envisioned and it seems more appropriate to style it as a software review. I mention this only to demonstrate that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some actual conscious reasoning is occasionally applied to what gets posted here. However, I wouldn't advise getting used to it.

My wife gave me an 80 gigabyte iPod for Christmas, the model with video capability. It's been fun to browse through the various TV shows and movies that Apple offers via the iTunes Store, and I've even bought a couple of episodes of The Office that I missed earlier this season. But that's just child's play when compared to the end game: loading commercial DVDs I already own* onto the 'pod.

This is not an easy process, for reasons both technical and legal. Well, the technical part arises from the legal part, I think, as the copy protection (isn't it more accurate to call it "copy prevention"?) schemes used by the movie studios make the conversion of the DVD content to an iPod-compatible format somewhat challenging. I have to wonder why they bother, as it seems that everybody and their dog has come up with ways to circumvent those schemes.

I'm testing one right now, as a matter of fact. It goes by the unimaginative-but-Google-friendly name of "DVD to iPod Converter", created by a company with another unimaginative name, MP4 Converter. [Side note: Someone really should do a scholarly study of how the increased significance of search engines has affected the approach to the naming of companies and products.] The preceding product link goes to the Mac version but there's also a version for Windows.

This $29 program offers one-click conversion of commercial DVDs to MP4 format, the video flavor of choice for your typical vPod. I was hoping to give you a detailed review of the various options that the program provides, but among its flaws is the lack of a user guide. I emailed the company about that last night, and had a response within eight hours, which is pretty amazing in itself. Unfortunately, the response confirmed what I feared: there is no user guide at this point; the company is presumably working on one, but for now, you're flying the program by the seat of your pants. On the other hand, if their tech support continues to be this responsive, that may not be a huge drawback. And unless you want to push the envelope on what the program will do, the basic controls are fairly intuitive and the default values work well.

Even without instructions, I was able to convert a full-length movie (Serenity, if you must know) to MP4, import it to iTunes and then onto my new iPod, where it performed admirably. However, there are a few bumps in the road:

• Speed: The application's website promises speed...with a caveat: Speed without limits, conversion speed increases with the power of your system. Translation: Our program is as fast as your computer. My 17" PowerBook G4 is no speed demon, but I was still surprised that it took just over four hours to convert this two hour movie. Granted, I ripped the DVD at the highest video setting (the program labels the setting as "Excellent") and I'm sure that contributed to the slowness of the process. The program doesn't come in Universal Binary; there's a separate download for Intel Macs, and I would expect a significant speed boost in that version.
  
  I'm now re-ripping the DVD using the "Normal" quality setting (1200 Kbps vs. 2400 for the "Excellent" setting), and I can't perceive any difference in speed. We're at the 50% mark of the conversion and that's taken two hours.
  
  Update: The second conversion, using the "Normal" quality setting, took the same amount of time as using the "Excellent" setting. However, the resulting file was about 1.1gb, or 35% smaller than the file produced by the higher quality setting. Plus, I could discern absolutely no difference in video quality when viewed on my iPod.


• File size: The resulting video is 1.7 gigabytes. Again, that's a function of the quality setting, and the lower setting will produce a smaller file. However, I'll be interested to see how the quality differences play out on the iPod's teensy screen. I'm thinking that you don't really want to give up much quality considering how much detail you're foregoing to begin with due to the small screen size. In any event, at around 2 gig per movie, my iPod will hold "only" about 40 movies...but that assumes that I don't want to carry any music or photos. Thus far, I can do without the latter, but an iPod without tunes is like a day without rutabagas, IYKWIM.


• Weird stuff: The program split the movie into two segments which appear as separate movies when imported into iTunes. I tried pretending that I was watching a laser disc and the break was just the platter flipping, but I was unconvincing. This is where a user guide would have saved some frustration. As it turns out, there's an option in the "Advance" configuration settings that allows you to specify that the converted video be divided into segments, presumably for copying to CDs or other media with limited capacity. You can specify the segment size by time or storage space (in megabytes). There's also an "Infinite" setting that allows conversion into a single file. Strangely, the default value is a 1 gigabyte segment; you have to remember to select "Infinite" each time you rip a DVD. This is a lesson that should be quickly learned, especially if you have a system as slow as mine.

Actually, I don't hold out much hope for the user guide, when it finally appears. This program was either created by folks who aren't native English speakers, or they let their third graders compile the text not only for their website but also for various dialog boxes in the program. Here's a screen shot from one:

Despite all of these things, the video and audio quality of the resulting file is really quite good when played back via the iPod. You can also choose a conversion scheme that appears to create a file that's optimized for connecting your iPod to a TV (sure wish I had a user guide), although it's not intuitive to me what the difference would be. The "Advance" options appear to provide you with the ability to make the converted movie into "pan and scan" (vs. letterbox); you can also carry subtitles over to the converted file, but I don't see where the software company will reimburse your medical costs for the acute eyestrain that would surely accompany trying to read 'em on an iPod display. And, for you audio buffs, there's an option for retaining Dolby surround sound in the conversion.

Really, for $30 bucks, this is a great deal for anyone who wants a simple way to transfer their movies from DVD to iPod. I'll try to post a follow-up report after I've had time to test some of the options, but if you're looking for a quick and easy method of DVD conversion, you should consider this one. There are some free tools available (Handbrake and MacTheRipper come to mind) but I don't think they offer the same turnkey ease and completeness of this program.

You can download a demo version of DVD to iPod Converter, but it allows you to convert only 5 minutes of a movie. It occurs to me, however, that for some films -- anything starring Rob Schneider, for example -- that's more than enough.

*Don't steal movies. That's just wrong.

Technorati tags: DVD to iPod Converter | Ripping DVDs | Loading movies on an iPod

Firebug for Firefox

If you like to dabble with website design, I'm guessing that you use Firefox as your browser, and you've come to view the Web Developer extension as the greatest thing since sliced bread. (Perhaps I'm projecting, since that describes me.) But if you've ever wished for an even more powerful add-on to assist your development chores, Firebug may be the answer you've been waiting for.

This free open-source application allows you to browse, edit and debug HTML, CSS, and Javascript on any web page via a browser-based interface. It's currently in beta, but seems pretty stable on my installation of Firefox 2.0. It's also available in a "lite" version for browsers not named "Firefox" (as a Javascript that you embed in the pages you want to use it with...not a particularly elegant solution, but I assume it will get the job done).

One caveat: Firebug works best when you have a lot of spare screen space (it supports dual monitors), as its console attempts to convey a lot of information at one time.

I'm not ready to abandon Web Developer, as Firebug doesn't really fit with the workflow I've grown accustomed to, but it's worth checking out if you're not set in your ways and are looking for a full-featured browser-based development tool.

Technorati tags: Firebug | Web Developer

"Avoid the Zune"

I haven't read much about Microsoft's new "iPod killer," the Zune, but rarely have I seen a more scathing product review than Andy Ihnatko's column in the Chicago Sun-Times. And if only half of what he claims is true, the world will be a better place as soon as the Zune is goon...I mean, gone. (I had a Seussical flashback there for a second.)

If you're contemplating buying one of these things as a Christmas gift, you might want to read Andy's take first.

Embedded Media HTML Generator

Here's a nifty little tool for generating the coding required to embed Flash, QuickTime, Real Media and Windows Media movie files in your website.

Embedding is the same technique used for integrating all of those YouTube videos you're now seeing on blogs at every turn nowadays. It's not rocket science, but it does require some non-intuitive code strings that you can never locate if you don't do this sort of thing very often.

One caveat is that the coding it generates is wrapped in a table code container. OTOH, the guts of the embed coding is easily pulled if you want to fit it within your own div wrapper.

I just tried it with a QuickTime movie and it's simple and fast. And did I mention that it's free?

Firefox 2.0

I just downloaded and installed Firefox 2.0 and I like it. This is how all software should be designed.

The first Good Thing it did immediately after installation was to check my suite of installed extensions to see if they were still compatible with the new version. Most of them weren't; the installer gave me the option of immediately checking to see if updated versions were available and if so, downloading and installing them. I was pleased to see that all the most important extensions had already been updated to work with 2.0, including the indispensable Web Developer.

The most immediately recognizable improvements in Firefox are the improved tab controls (including a close button for each individual tab) and an automatic real-time spellchecker (which doesn't like the way I spelled "spellchecker," so I added the word to the dictionary and it no longer nags me). Watch for a rash of posts as bloggers continue to point out "interesting" omissions or quirks in Firefox's spellcheck capabilities. That's just the way we are.

I understand that Firefox now includes a "phish detector" (gee...I figured "phish" would now be in the spellchecker's dictionary [told you]) to warn you when you jump to a potentially fraudulent website, but I haven't yet seen that feature in action. Let me know if the Gazette sets off any alarms on your version, although I doubt that Firefox is set up to detect bloggers with delusions of competence.

I also noted that websites that crashed my old version of Firefox (I was still running 1.0.7) work just fine with 2.0.

Overall, it appears that the good folks at Mozilla have built an incrementally improved version of what was already the best browser on the market.

Technorati tag: Firefox 2

Call me on my rhumba numba

You know those people with the fancy schmancy cell phones and the obnoxious ringtones that play entire songs and annoy you to no end but they think they're really cool? You know -- those people, um, like me:

G'head, give a listen. It's just 62kb.

I've never before had a phone with Bluetooth and MP3 capabilities and when MLB and I got new RAZRs a couple of weeks ago, it set me off on a path that will eventually lead me straight to perdition, but the journey surely is fun.

I used iTunes to snip a section of music from one of our dance numbers ("Sway," by The Pussycat Dolls), which was a bit more complicated than usual since it was in Protected AAC format (purchased from the iTunes Music Store) and I had to get around the DRM protection. I then moved the MP3 over to the phone via Bluetooth and assigned it to my wife's mobile number so I'll be able to quickly recognize her call, not to mention aggravate everyone around me.

But, lest those put-upon souls become too exercised over the ringtone, they should be forewarned: it could get worse. I have a rhumba and I know how to use it.

The one thing I wish I'd done is edit the clip to fade it at the end, not that I plan on ever letting it run that long...

Random Thursday

Let's put a technical spin on this week's edition of Random Thursday, shall we?

• Apple's "press event" slated for September 12 has created a huge buzz over the possibility that it will roll out a studio-to-set-top integrated solution for delivering digital video content. Translation? Streaming movies from the iTunes Music Store directly to your television or monitor...or revamped widescreen iPod. This could be the first move in an inevitable process that will do for full-length movies what iTunes and the iPod did for music.


• More from the wacky world of Apple - Jon Gruber, proprietor of Daring Fireball, has issued a challenge in response to an alleged security weakness in the new laptops: "hijack my new MacBook and it's yours." There's method in his apparent madness, but thus far, no takers.


• Joi Ito previews the mylo, a very small, very cool wifi digital-media thingamajig set to be released by Sony on September 15 and which may or may not be running Linux, is definitely running Opera, and probably won't be available outside of Japan, but you can pre-order it via Amazon, so who knows?


• Via Schneier on Security, this website that allows you to test your bomb-recognition acumen.


• While Apple may be conquering the known media universe, Google is laying claim to everything else, including your company's next intranet.


• And, finally, "tech" shouldn't necessarily imply "high tech," and some of our favorite things might be referred to as "retro-tech." Take mopeds, for example.

Geek out.

The PC's 25th: Most Influential Products

In recognition of the the 25th anniversary of the personal computer, eWeek has assembled a rather eclectic list of "The 25 Most Influential Products of the Past 25 Years."

Number one on the list is probably a consensus selection: the IBM PC. The second place product -- the Mosaic web browser -- is a not-so-obvious choice. The PC was widely and effectively used well before the WWW hit the mainstream, and products such as Lotus 1-2-3 (on the list at #12) were arguably more instrumental in the adoption of the PC as a business tool.

The list is a good mix of geeky (e.g. Nessus, Sniffer, and XNS) and mainstream (e.g. Adobe PDF, Apple Macintosh, and Microsoft Office). It's also refreshing to see a top-whatever list that doesn't include a single reference to an iPod or the mp3 file format.

Batch File Renaming Software

Digital photography has opened up a whole world of creativity for many of us, but the downside is that we're faced with the daunting task of managing all of those files we create with our cameras. It doesn't help that most cameras give us few alternatives to meaningful files names like MVC100012 or JAME-1600. So we inevitably end up with a series of directories containing files with cryptic and often redundant names. Renaming them manually is a royal pain, so much so that we just elect to skip that step and hope that the keywords in our photo management software will help us find what we're seeking.

Renaming of files is also one of the biggest inefficiencies in my daily workflow. I have a number of clients who send scores and even hundreds of photos and I need to get them organized as quickly as possible. Again, manual renaming is time-consuming busy work that keeps me from doing more important -- and better paying -- tasks.

I finally found a solution for this problem, in the form of the awkwardly-named A Better Finder Rename, a shareware program for Mac (the Windows version is called Better File Rename) that does only one thing -- rename one or more files -- and does it extremely well.

I won't repeat the long list of ways this software can make your file renaming chores easier; they're clearly spelled out on the website. What I will tell you is that I recouped the $19.95 shareware fee many times over in the first couple of days after installing it. Even if you don't do file management as a part of your job, you'll be amazed at how it can help you get your digital photos organized.

I recommend it, and for you bleeding-edge Mac users, it's already in Universal Binary format so you can use it on your Intel machines.

Technorati tags: A Better Finder Rename | File Renaming Software

Cool little Firefox tip

OK, I lied...I do have something, after all, and even though it's shamelessly "borrowed" from the current issue of MacWorld magazine, it's still something you might find useful.

This is a one trick pony kind of tip, but if you ever find the need to open a page that you just visited in a new tab, there's a shortcut to accomplish this. Command+click* on your browser's forward or back button (whichever leads to the page in question) and that page will display in a new tab.

When I first read this, I thought that it was neat but fairly useless...but I find that I'm starting to use it more and more. Perhaps you'll find it helpful as well.

*Well, that's the key on my Mac's keyboard; I don't know what the equivalent Windows key is called. But I'll bet you can figure it out.

Technorati tag: Firefox

New Toys

Gotta shut down for a while...just took delivery of a new Mercury Elite 160gb external hard drive (already installed) and a Sonnet Allegro USB 2.0 PCI card for my desktop CPU. Oh boy, oh boy...21st century computing, here I come!

Clearing Firefox's Search History

Just a quick tip for the Firefox users in the crowd (in a perfect world, that would be all of you). If you're tired of Google (or whichever other search engine you have set up as the default) auto-filling search terms and you want to start with a clean slate, just right-click (or control-click for Mac single-buttoners) in the search box and choose "Clear Search History" in the pop-up menu.

This also works in Safari, by the way.

If you want to prevent future additions to the search history, you can toggle that option in Firefox's preferences. Be aware, however, that turning this option off also affects other web-based forms.

Technorati tags: Firefox | Safari

MiscTecNotes

Don't you despise the affectation of concatenating illogical truncations of terms in a pitiful attempt to look and sound cool and/or competent?

Here are a few Random Observations™ from the wacky world of technology, defined as anything I can't explain (see also, Magic):

• Samsung is introducing a cellphone with a built-in 10 megapixel camera, which is good news in that we can now look forward to wall-sized posters of people photographing themselves in bathroom mirrors.


• Apple has issued another security update for OS X. This one "addresses a number of issues with apache_mod_php, CoreTypes, LaunchServices, Mail, Safari and rsync, according to notes from Apple. This update also includes the previous Security Update, which fixed security issues with apache_mod_php, Automount, Bom, Directory Services, iChat,
IPSec, LaunchServices, LibSystem, Loginwindow, Mail, Rsync, Safari Syndication." This action has sent reverberations through the Mac community, as evidenced by this comment thread on Macworld's coverage of Apple's announcement, said thread primarily focusing on the difference between "affect" and "effect." Watch for an upcoming announcement about a new Mac-related "virus" and a firestorm of a discussion about the proper usage of "peak," "peek" and "pique."


• According to the Wall Street Journal, the FCC has signed off on a proposal to allow cellphone usage on commercial flights, and the FAA is heading toward similar approval. The FCC's prior concerns were related to the way high-altitude cellphone usage disrupted ground usage of the frequencies and potentially created disgruntled users. The FAA's concerns were related to the way cellphones disrupted navigation instruments and potentially created crashed airplanes. In the meantime, most passengers are more concerned with the possibility of having to beat senseless the inconsiderate "road warriors" who will raise the bar on how annoying they can be once they're freed to conduct their important business at 35,000 feet.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. Up next: the secret lives of baby squirrels.

Simple Browser-Based Image Editor

Pixoh is a free and simple-but-evolving web application for editing photos. At this time, it allows you to crop, resize and rotate images, and save them in a variety of formats, including JPG, PNG, PSD and TIFF. You can import images from Flickr, from any URL or browse your hard drive, and you can export the edited images to Flickr or back to your computer.

Pixoh provides the option of exporting edited graphics as low or high resolution but in my test I couldn't find any difference in the resulting images. Complete documentation is one of the weaknesses of the website.

If you don't keep Photoshop or a reasonable facsimile thereof constantly open, this might be a useful resource for doing quick on-the-fly image editing, especially when some more advanced features get implemented.

Tip o'the hat to Morfablog

Technorati tags: Pixoh | Browser-based Image Editor

Geek Dreams

This is my kind of software: pzizz..."the ultimate power napping solution."

The company claims that its approach is far superior to other napping technologies:

Are these great times in which we live, or what? Imagine having a system that will create and optimize a nap for you, instead of your having to, well, lose sleep worrying about whether you're doing right or not.

As exciting as this is, I think I'll wait until they start offering customized dreams to go along with the nap.

*This raises the question of what happens if you don't nap on your back or stomach. After all, "binaural" means listening with both ears. This seems to me to be a serious issue that merits further research.

Let me know what you find out.

Technorati tags: pzizz | Power Napping

Email Injection: Possible Solution (PHP)

I'm hopeful that I've found the solution to the email injection problems that have begun to plague form-to-email applications across the web.

After an extensive amount of reading, I've learned that most of the abuse of these forms is achieved when a hacker is able to inject his own email headers into the messages generated by the form on a website. These injected headers are often in the form of additional cc: or bcc: which are then populated with hundreds or thousands of email addresses, and the form itself is then hijacked to send spam to those addresses.

The solution is simple in concept: prevent the insertion of new email headers. As a practical matter, this is not so straightforward, as some "solutions" can have unpleasant side-effects, like preventing the transmission of legitimate responses via the forms. However, the consensus seems to be that for a very simple form, which generates an email message to only one recipient, the following steps will prevent the vast majority of email injection attempts:

1. Hard-code the recipient email address into the form; avoid making this a user-input variable


2. Eliminate all unnecessary header data from the form - It's probably not important to have the name and email address of the person submitting the form show up in the header of the generated message, as long as you're receiving it in the body of the message


3. Prevent the insertion of new email headers - This is most easily accomplished by stripping out linefeeds and carriage returns from the coding. This works because new email headers are identified by a preceding blank line. The downside to this is that you'll need to strip the linefeeds from your message body as well, which can lead to some hard-to-read email. However, you can mitigate this problem by coding in some data separators (like " | ").


4. Test the form submissions for the presence of new and unwanted email headers, and if they're found, reject the submission. This is potentially tricky territory, as there are many different legitimate email headers. In addition, if you're not careful about how you specify those headers, you could reject legitimate submissions.

OK, that's the theory; here's the practice. Following is some PHP that can be placed inside the form processing code to accomplish #2 and #3 above. Included in the comments are the URLs for the origin of this code. I've implemented this approach on one test site and the spam immediately dropped from more than 50 per day to one...and I think that one was actually just a probe to see if the form was vulnerable to abuse.

// Following lines intended to prevent use of form by spammers
// by preventing the insertion of line feeds or carriage returns
// that might allow the creation of new email header data
// See www.anders.com,projects,sysadmin,formPostHijacking
$_POST['email'] = preg_replace("/\r/", "", $_POST['email']);
$_POST['email'] = preg_replace("/\n/", "", $_POST['email']);
$message = preg_replace("/\r/", "", $message);
$message = preg_replace("/\n/", "", $message);

foreach ( $_POST as $key => $value ) {
// Make form string lowercase to compare with the email_injection_filter function
strtolower($value);
// add current post var to $postVars
$postVars .= "$value ";
}

// Function from cyphix on
http://www.codingforums.com/showthread.php?
s=129cf1ecbeb511d27b759e97bff5e87c&t=67546
// Function prevents the insertion of additional email headers

function email_injection_filter($formInput) {
$injectionStrings = array("apparently-to",
"bcc",
"cc:",
"boundary=",
"charset",
"content-disposition",
"content-type",
"content-transfer-encoding",
"errors-to",
"in-reply-to",
"message-id",
"mime-version",
"multipart/mixed",
"multipart/alternative",
"multipart/related",
"reply-to",
"x-mailer",
"x-sender",
"x-uidl"
);
foreach ($injectionStrings as $spam)
{
if(eregi("$spam",$formInput)) {
die('Your message is deemed to be an attempt to hijack the originating email form, and has
been rejected.');
}
}
}
// actually check de vars
email_injection_filter($postVars);

Here's the usual disclaimer. I didn't write this code, and I can't guarantee that it will work for you, or that it will work, period. Use it as your own risk.

I've seen what I believe to be some benefit from it in one specific instance, but I'm sure that it can be improved. If you're fluent in PHP and can spot some things in this code that can make it work better, please feel free to share your suggestions and we'll try to create a better mousetrap...one that will ideally be completely fatal to the efforts of the jerks who are hijacking innocent websites for their own gain.

Following are some additional resources regarding email injection and how to fight it:

• Anders.com - This post is one of the earliest attempts to identify the problem and suggest solutions. From the same site, here's a summary of the issues.
• Secure PHP - More overview of the issues and possible solutions; mostly theory and requires a good understanding of PHP
• New York PHP - This user group article has a good explanation of the issues and some practical suggestions for addressing them.
• If you're using a PERL CGI mailer script, here's a source for an apparently secure version. In particular, if you're using ANY version of Matt Wright's FormMail.pl CGI script, you should immediately replace it with this new script. Why? Read this.

Technorati tag: Email Injection | Email Headers

Technical Distraction

Sorry for the dearth of posts, and the uninspiring quality of those that are making it through. I'm dealing with a particularly nasty email injection problem affecting website forms that generate emails. The sub-human genus known as spammers has found a way to hijack those forms and use them to send mass quantities of junk mail. This has resulted in innocent website owners getting the blame for the spam from their webhosts and/or ISPs, and threats of account cancellation, additional bandwidth fees, etc.

The solution(s) for this problem are theoretically straightforward, but not so easy to actually implement and test, and it doesn't help that I'm not a programmer. Anyway, the search for a practical fix is weighing me down right now, and I have no idea when things will get better. Bear with me.

Technorati tag: Email Injection

Unclear on the Concept

CNN reports that Wikipedia may soon be offered in printed form, presumably for the benefit of those who live in "developing" countries without internet access.

I don't get it. Wikipedia's strength is its online collaborative architecture. Heck, it even describes itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit." This is also its greatest weakness. Without focused and informed editorial oversight, mistakes are made. The feedback and correction mechanism is swift and effective (I think; there are many who are skeptical), but a printed version would ensure that the mechanism never had a chance to do its thing.

Perhaps the thinking is that any reference material is better than nothing, and it's hard to argue with that, assuming that the printed version would be distributed free of charge. But it still seems like an attempt to shoehorn Wikipedia into a shape it was never designed to take.

Technorati tag: Wikipedia

eLook at the eNook

I really wish I could devise a use for Anthro's eNook*, simply because it's such a great sounding idea.

The eNook (which probably has a disturbing Inuit translation) is a wall-mounted work station and when connected to an electrical outlet, provides charging capabilities for all manner of portable electronic devices. Folded out, it provides a presumably stable platform for working with your laptop; folded up, the laptop and anything else you can fit into the relatively narrow space can be locked away.

It's an imaginative use of space, and a fairly attractive one as well. Anthro offers fifteen cosmetic variations for interior and exterior styling, ranging from Ivy League to Groovy. I don't see it as being practical for any serious computing work; I've yet to find a barstool I wanted to sit on for more than 30 minutes at a time. But as a storage unit that doubles as a spur-of-the-moment workstation, it has possibilities. The cost is $399.

*This web page is something you don't see everyday: a page where the only "real" text is the links and the order form. All other text, including product descriptions, is contained in GIF images. Talk about retro... non user-friendly... invisible to search engines... inaccessible. It's a good candidate for the Gazette's Usability Hall of Shame.

Technorati tags: Anthro | eNook

Windows Live and Office Live

Microsoft has unveiled Windows Live and Office Live (so-named to distinguish them from the Dead versions of the products now being used?) and while I applaud the company's timely recognition that this internet thingie is apparently going to stick around for a while, I'm just not very enthusiastic about the whole concept of renting my software.

Windows Live is essentially a portal of web services, so there's nothing earth-shattering or wonderfully innovative (although it sounds like you can let Microsoft manage your machines virus and spyware needs, instead of worrying your little head about it yourself; I can't begin to describe how scary a concept that is).

I popped over to the Windows Live demo site (linked above) and noted that Firefox isn't yet supported. But there's a reassuring "coming soon" note, so we've got that going for us. And the Instant Messenger bit of the suite (called "Live Messenger," of course...as opposed to...well, you know) won't work for Mac or any other non-Windows users, even though the current MSN Messenger does.

Office Live is somewhat more relevant, in that it offers the Microsoft Office Suite of products via internet, so that you don't have to install and run them on your local computer or server. This "hosted software" concept has been exploited for years by other companies and it appears that MS is finally beginning to notice.

I can see how a small business might feel that the risks of tying themselves to hosted applications are worthwhile, but for anyone whose connection to the internet is either tenuous or simply not always available (due to travel, for example), having to do without essential programs is just not acceptable.

Then there's the ongoing costs. MS hasn't indicated what the final model will be. Possibilities include a subscription based approach where you essentially rent the software. The company might also offer a free plan that is advertiser supported (banner ads over your Excel spreadsheet, anyone?). Call me old-fashioned, but I like having a disk in my drawer (or, at the very least, actual code on my hard drive).

Technorati tags: Windows Live | Office Live

If Google did sci-fi mag covers...

I love science fiction, especially the classic stuff. I love old sci-fi magazines. I love interesting uses of technology.

I love this.

Tip o'the hat to Denise at Blue Sky In Texas

Technorati tag: Science Fiction Cover Art

If it sounds too good to be true...it probably is

Wouldn't it be great if you had a device about the size and shape of a paperback book that you plugged into the wall and upon which you could simply lay your iPod, cell phone, PDA, etc. and they would be recharged without plugging them in?

If you think that sounds swell, you'll be happy to know that such a device exists, and it's described here. But, before you run out to place an order, you might want to read through the comments to the linked post.

Tip o'the hat to my Cajun buddy John, who's switched to LiveJournal because his own domain has locked him out. I hate it when that happens.

Presented as a public service for Windows users: CME

According to this article in eWeek, begininng next month US-CERT will issue uniform names for malware (which refers to viruses, worms and other software designed to cause harm). The new program will go by the appropriately geeky name of the "Computer Malware Enumeration Initiative," or CME for short.

It sounds like an impressive bureaucracy in the making:

I suppose there's a certain segment of the IT industry who welcomes this development, and for its sake, I wish it well. But, my reaction would be the same as this one quoted in the article:

Well, that would be my reaction if I didn't use a Mac and therefore view this whole exercise as academic.

Tip o'the hat to Schneier on Security

Technorati tags: CERT | CME

More Google: It has a Blog Search now

Google has rolled out a beta version of its new Blog Search feature. This allows you to limit your searches to blogs (and, yes, they are indexing non-Blogger blogs).

I suppose that Google's entry into this part of the search business invites comparison to the previous big dog of blog searches, Technorati. Now, I realize that there are some who are underwhelmed with Technorati, but I, personally, don't have any complaints other than slow page loading. I still think that Technorati's tags have a useful place in organizing data on the web and, frankly, the Gazette is getting a lot of hits from the service.

Anyway, I did a quick and very unscientific comparison of Google's Blog Search and the similar function over at Technorati. I used the title of this recent post, containing the relatively uncommon term of "Hip Action," as my test case. Even though the post was loaded less than 24 hours ago, it shows up in the results of both searches. In Google, it's the sixth result listed, while in Technorati it's number two on the list. However, when you sort Google's results by date rather than relevance (Technorati's results are automatically sorted by date and there's no way to change it), the Gazette's post is #1.

As you would expect from Google, its blog search has some cool options, including the ability to search only in blogs with certain words in their titles, or to search for certain words in post titles, rather than in the body of the post itself. It also has Google's familiar "Safe Search" option if you want to keep the results family-friendly.

One thing I noticed but didn't attempt to quantify or investigate further is that Google's results appear to have more "spam blogs" or commercial blogs. I'm sure that's because it automatically includes every Blogger.com and Blogspot account in its database and I suspect they are the most frequently used and abused services for those types of sites.

I'm not sure that the world needs another blog search engine, but a little competition is good for everyone. If nothing else, it might cause Technorati to get serious about fixing some of the things that people are complaining about.

Technorati tags: Google Blog Search | Technorati

Google Maps + Demographic Data

Mapping technology company AnalyGIS has teamed up with market and demographic analysis company SRC to create a proof-of-concept demonstration of how Google's mapping technology can be combined with demographic data to provide meaningful visual presentations of that data.

To see it in action, visit this page (it's really slow to load, in my browser anyway). Select one of the two demographic data options from the dropdown menu, then click on the map in order to see how the data correlates to the point where you clicked. The data is presented in tabular form to the right of the map for the regions within 1, 3 and 5 miles of your selection, while on the map colored circles appear to visually represent those boundaries.

I have a feeling that we're seeing just the tip of the iceberg for such applications. (I also have a feeling that our ability to manipulate and present such data will far outstrip the timeliness, accuracy and reliability of that data, but that's another topic for another day.)

Tip o'the hat to Netvibes

Technorati tags: AnalyGIS | SRC | Google Maps

Power Play, Pt. 2

My new Uninterruptible Power Supply arrived today [UPS delivered my UPS. Ha!] and I've just spent the past hour or so carefully unplugging power cords and rerouting them to accommodate the new box. I tried to do some cable management in the process, but it still resembles a rat's nest (whatever that looks like) behind my desk and utility table.

I also took the opportunity to change the layout of some of my peripherals. The scanner I use most often had been residing on the middle shelf of the utility table, the only available space at the time I installed it. This meant that I couldn't raise the lid completely, making for some off-kilter scans because I couldn't tell if smaller items were aligned properly. I pulled the scanner out, placed the cable modem, router and AirPort base station in its place, and reinstalled the scannner on the top shelf of my desk where those three devices had rested. Now I have full access to the scanner and life is somehow more complete.

I've never had a UPS. It's squat and heavy...all business. I've got six devices plugged into the power+surge protection outlets, and another six plugged into the surge protection only outlets. I can't wait for the next electrical outage. With my luck, we'll probably have clean, reliable power for the next two years. Bummer. Where's a suicidal squirrel when you need him/her?

Power Play

We had two power failures before breakfast this morning, continuing an annoying trend that's manifest itself during the summer. These outages last only a second or two, but that's plenty of time to shut down my computer system and wreak havoc with the accuracy of our clocks without battery backup.

I don't know the reason for these outages and, frankly, I don't care. Or at least I won't once my new UPS arrives. I should have done this long ago, for a variety of reasons, but the annoyance factor has now escalated into the danger zone and I'm fearful for the life of my livelihood.

I chose a consumer-level model UPS from APC, one of the best-known makers of such products. APC has a great feature on its website, a product selector that allows you to input your system configuration and power needs. It then provides three recommended products ("best value," "best price" and "best performance") for comparison purposes.

The model I chose provides for 20 minutes of run-time in the event of a power failure, but the time itself isn't as important as the current conditioning and ability to bridge and smooth over those seconds-long outages that now seem to be a part of everyday life.

One more good feature of the APC website: it allows you to create a shopping cart via its website, using its suggested retail pricing, but then gives you the option of transferring that shopping cart and its contents to one of several online retailers (including its own APC Online Store). This is a great example of business symbiosis, and it's good for the consumer. In my case, I chose to transfer to CDW, which sells the APC UPS for almost 10% less than the MSRP. (Of course, the downside is that I'm now an enabler of those lame CDW TV commercials, the ones with the obnoxious one-man IT department whose only apparent skill is dialing up CDW.)

Technorati tag: UPS

Hurricane showcases audio technology

One very trivial, peripheral observation from the ongoing TV coverage of Hurricane Katrina: the current generation of microphone windscreens is amazingly competent.

I just watched one of the clichéd reporter-leaning-into-the-wind reports on Fox News and while the guy was clocking wind gusts of around 50 mph (he was in Florida, well to the east of the hurricane) and was standing in the knee deep white-capping storm surge, his voice was coming through with almost studio quality.

The apparent simplicity of a microphone windscreen obscures the complexity of providing an acoustically pure input of the desired frequencies (primarily the reporter's voice) while blocking the wall of noise generated by high winds and waves. I have no idea how it's done, but I'm impressed.

I need one of these...NOW!

A robot-operated pneumatic drum set is just the thing for rousing weary Blogathoners.

Weary Blogathoners' spouses might conceivably disagree.

DIY Hands-Free Shooting Rig

It's not what you're thinking, but it's probably even cooler. Here's a guide to constructing your own rig that allows you to take hands-free photos simply by speaking a command. Best of all, it runs via Mac OS X.

Found via MakeBlog

I'm too sexy for my lens

Do the lenses come in amber? 'Cause Bono wants to know...

Technorati tags: RazrWire | Oakley | Motorola

Customizing Photoshop's Web Photo Gallery

Part of the fun of working as a freelance web designer is that I'm continually challenged by clients who want me to translate their vision into reality. I long ago got comfortable giving this answer to many of their questions: "I'm not sure how to do it, but I'll try to figure it out." And in the process of "figuring it out," I invariably learn something new that will help me and my clients in the future.

I experienced this again this weekend as I was gnawing on a request by a client to come up with an easy way of creating a gallery of photographic proofs that could be reviewed online by her clients. As a professional photographer, she also wanted to be able to put a watermark on each of the images.

I hit upon Photoshop's automated Web Photo Gallery feature as the best way to proceed. It's relatively simple, allows a fair bit of flexibility as far as the image processing goes, and it also has a very competent automatic watermarking feature built in. The only problem is that the default styles are, well, ugly...and we wanted something that would match the cosmetics for the rest of the site.

One option would be to edit the Gallery HTML files once they were generated, but that seemed like a lot of work. With up to 300 photos per proof gallery, even a global edit would be time-consuming.

Fortunately, there's a much better solution, one that I never knew existed: creating a new Web Photo Gallery template for Photoshop to use.

If you've used this feature of Photoshop, you know that it provides you with a choice of half a dozen or so templates. Each of these templates is stored in a directory within the Photoshop application directory; for Photoshop 7 (Mac), the templates are located in the Presets directory, inside a directory with the non-intuitive name of WebContactSheet. (In the latest version, CS, this directory name has the more appropriate title of "Web Photo Gallery.")

Creating a custom template is as simple as duplicating one of the existing template directories whose basic layout you like, renaming it to match your project, then editing the various HTML files within it to put them inside the cosmetic "wrapper" that applies the look and navigation of the site within which the gallery will reside.

Photoshop uses a series of variables to identify things like next photo, previous photo, photo index, image title, image date, and so on. In fact, these variables are very similar to those used by most blogging programs, and if you've worked with blog templates, you'll feel right at home modifying Photoshop's templates. The variables use percentage signs as opening and closing "tags," so they're easy to identify.

Once you've created your new web gallery style, it will show up in Photoshop's dropdown Styles menu the next time you use the Web Photo Gallery feature.

For more detailed explanations of the function of the various HTML files used by Photoshop, and the associated variables, take a look at this tutorial provided by Private Web Designer. With a little experimentation, you'll be able to easily create photo galleries that blend seamlessly with your website.

Technorati tags: Photoshop | Web Photo Gallery

How sensitive are your ears?

Or, perhaps more appropriately, how deep are your pockets?

I don't know about you, but I don't think either my ears or my pockets justify a pair of 60-watt tube-driven* amps priced at $5,600, however cool-looking they may be. That's about $93/watt, by the way; you'd need gold-plated music to do 'em justice.

Of course, if all you want to do is listen to your iPod, you can go the low rent route with these little jewels for a mere $3,700. And that includes a set of speakers.

Tip o'the earbuds for the Concertino link to Book of Joe, the proprietor of which makes an astute observation about such expensive whimsies.

*Uh, what, exactly, is the function of vacuum tubes in an amplifier? I don't know if "drive" is the proper terminology or not. It's the best I could come up with. It's obvious that in addition to my hearing and my wealth being insufficient for these amps, so is my vocabulary.

TV to go: the new Mount Everest

Sling Media's new Slingbox™ is a device that allows you to watch TV (live or recorded) via your Windows laptop wherever you have a broadband connection. It's not a recorder ("timeshifter"), it's a "placeshifter."

The small $250 device sits between your TV or video playback unit and your router, and works some electronic magic that allows the signal to be streamed to a computer on the downstream side of the router...regardless of location. The Slingbox system uses variable compression technology to ensure steady streaming of the video, regardless of bandwidth vagaries (although it still requires a "high speed connection," equivalent to cable or DSL). The Wall Street Journal's Walter Mossberg tested the device and reports that it works as advertised.

You can even use the Slingbox to control your TV or playback unit...change channels or use any other action on the device's menu, just as if you were sitting in front of it with the remote control.

The geek part of me thinks this is extremely cool, and pouts because there's not yet a Mac version (it's in the works). The sensory-overloaded part of me wonders why we need one more thing to distract us no matter where we are. The practical side of me sees some interesting applications: being able to watch The Big Game while working on a project in the garage; watching local news while traveling far from home; and being able to cheat those stupid pay-to-watch TVs in airports.

You can buy the Slingbox at Best Buy or CompUSA. I have no idea about the actual availability, but based on the initial reports, I think Sling Media probably has a winner on its hands.

Technorati tag: Slingbox

PHP Woes

I'm so covered up with work that if I was a geologic feature, I'd be, like, under the earth's mantle or something. I've got seven active design projects in four cities and two states, plus a major add-on project to an existing site...and clients I haven't heard from in months are now showing up wanting site maintenance.

This is seriously infringing on my blogging.

Plus, I think I've got my mule in an antbed over a form I'm trying to process with PHP. It's got nested check boxes and I'm having a terrible time trying to figure out how to process it. It's relatively simple to process one checkbox array, or even a series of unrelated arrays, but it's a whole 'nother ballgame when they're conditional. If anybody has solved such a problem in the past, feel free to leave a hint or tip or link or full page of detailed code.

I'm getting too old for this script-kiddie stuff...

Sony's flash-based music player is a thing of beauty

I'm an unabashed iPod fan, but not so much that I can't appreciate a worthy competitor...and Sony has [finally!] brought such a product to the market in the form of the unimaginatively-named NW-E507, a 1-gigabyte flash music player packaged in a gorgeous mirrored skin overlaying a too-cool OLED display.

Sony still can't provide software in the same league as iTunes, and it definitely needs some help with its product naming, but this beautifully designed player should serve notice to Apple not to rest on its laurels.

Tip o'the earbuds to Isaac Schrödinger

A[nother] Use for GeoTags

This had me bumfuzzled for a bit, until I hacked back the URL to here and found the More Info link.

It's an interesting, if somewhat impractical use of geocoding and RSS feeds. I suppose the fact that I actually got a hit after my last post shows that it does work.

Technorati tags: Geocoding | GeoURL | World as a Blog

Mac mini spawns Wintel "clone"

Taiwanese computer manufacturer AOpen is showing a Mac mini-style CPU at the the Computex Taipei 2005 tradeshow. The "Mini PC" is actually slightly smaller than Apple's offering, and uses Intel's Pentium M processor. From the Macworld article:

Here's how AOpen describes this "breakthrough" product:

I like that reference to "...a similar model on the market." How very coy. I'm sure that "billions of Win-tel" users are eagerly lining up, now that they can finally get stylish personal computing devices.

Analysts don't think Apple will be sweating too much over this new competition.

Pricing and other specs for the "Mini PC" have not been released, but when was the last time Apple was being touted as a low-cost leader in any category?

Technorati tags: Mac mini | Apple | AOpen

Dead Car Battery Redux: Alternatives

Regular Gazette contributor Brian left a comment on yesterday's post about my experience with a dead car battery, and he pointed to an article on MakeZine.com dealing with possible solutions when getting a jump-start is out of the question. Here's the scenario:

The ezine solicited reader suggestions for solving this problem, and there were a number of interesting submissions...and some of them are worth remembering. Like this one...

The idea of temporarily rejuvenating a dead battery long enough to get one more start is appealing, and one that I've never considered. Read the whole article for some additional suggestions. They might just save you some time...or, perhaps, something of even more value.

Online Music Subscriptions: Color Me Confused

Tomorrow, Yahoo will roll out its new online music service, where subscribers will pay $6.99/month or $60/year to rent music. This service will compete with similar offerings from RealNetworks and Napster.

I just don't understand the appeal of renting music. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but I want to own the music I pay for, and I don't want to have to worry about my entire collection disappearing if I'm a day late with a payment. I'm already dealing with more restrictions than I like by using Apple's iTunes Music Store, but at least it's my music (as permitted by Apple's license and DRM restrictions).

Up to this point, millions of people seem to agree with me on this, as the ITMS continues to dominate the market. So I can't help wondering where the Wall Street Journal comes up with the following assertion, from its story on the Yahoo announcement:

I suppose that there's no harm done if Apple decides to make the subscription model an add-on to its primary ITMS approach, but I suspect the market numbers will have to be much more impressive than they are now for that to happen.

Technorati tags: Yahoo Music Unlimited | iTunes Music Store | DRM

Yeah, but will my Odor-Eaters still work?

OK, here's a test. Fill in the blanks in the following series of quotes, based on what kind of apparatus you think is being described:

Sounds pretty impressive, right? Would you more or less impressed knowing that the following terms complete the sentences: "shoe," "shoe's heel" and "heel."

Welcome to the brave new world of running shoes, where the