Hardware / Toys

Look at the size of that thing!

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 18:46:15 GMT

As some of you know, I've been looking for a second monitor for my home workstation for a while now. I finally coerced my spousal unit to let me buy one, and I finally figured out what make / model I wanted, and saved up enough pennies to get something good. I ended up getting Dell's new 2407 WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD monitor.

My former primary monitor (and my new secondary monitor) is a Samsung 213T 21" LCD Monitor. Although, the Samsung was the best monitor available that I could afford a few years ago, it doesn't hold a candle to the new Dell. Literally, the Samsung only has a brightness level of 250 cd/m², while the Dell measures at 400 cd/m². It's not night and day, but it's like sunset and mid day (a big difference).

Another difference is the color gamut on this thing is amazing (92% of the NTSC standard). For example, on my Samsung it was hard to tell the difference between the light grey context menu and white window background. On the Dell, the difference is much more noticeable.

Another data point, Hamad Darwish's, A Peek at the Peak Vista wallpaper on the Dell looks very life like. I'm sure with some cold fresh mountain air; I wouldn't be able to distinguish it from reality. On the Samsung, it looks like I'm looking through dark & dirty sunglasses.

Both monitors have horizontal and vertical tilt adjustable stands. Even better, both monitors support portrait mode The Dell goes beyond that standard, by also supporting a height adjustable stand, a USB hub, 9-in-2 card reader, S-Video, composite, and component video inputs.

I also considered the Samsung SyncMaster 245BW, although the picture quality was very good, Samsung cut the portrait mode feature from their new monitor (which was a deal breaker for me, since I've used and liked that feature on my old Samsung 213T). I briefly considered a Gateway FPD2485W, which did have portrait mode and many of the features that the 245BW lacked. Unfortunately, the picture quality wasn't as good as the Samsung. I also looked at the Acer AL2416 the local Computer Stop. The picture quality is good, but the Acer lacks every feature desirable (you can't even tilt it) and frankly why get a Hyundai when you can get a Lexus.

Anyway, I just wanted to let the world know, if you're in the market for a new monitor, I highly recommend the Dell 2407 WFP-HC.

Slingbox – The MVP of IPTV, MLB – Strike 2

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 06:26:34 GMT

Although, Dustin has become Joost fan, I just haven't been able to get excited about it. You see, about 6 months ago I purchased a Slingbox and my TV watching universe has been altered forever.

In case you don't know, a Slingbox TV is streaming device that enables consumers to remotely view their cable, satellite, or personal video recorder (PVR) programming from an Internet-enabled computer or phone with a broadband connectivity. It requires a minimum of 512 Kbps upload download speed to be watchable at YouTube quality. If you are blessed to have a very high speed internet connection, the quality approaches that of cable TV.

With Joost, because they are attempting to start a new content distribution model, the amount of interesting content available is limited to content providers who are willing to let Joost redistribute their content. Joost has landed Warner Brothers, CBS & Viacom as content partners, but I don't know what the Joost business model is, so this might just be an experiment on their part instead of wholesale content distribution model change.

However, until I can watch a Seahawks game on Monday Night Football on Joost, I'm not taking it seriously. Of course, with Slingbox you're limited to what your cable or satellite company broadcasts, so if you want to see International programming (say Mexican soccer) and you don't have a Slingbox in Mexico, Joost might be the best opportunity you have to break down international programming barriers. Regardless, the Slingbox is actually useful, and Joost is merely interesting at this point.

One of the many great things about Slingbox is that it enhances your investment in your home media programming and hardware instead of attempting to replace it. For example, I have a TiVo at home, so while I'm on the road, I can watch & control live & pre-recording programming from the airport lounge or hotel room, instead of being force to watch something I don't care about. I also subscribe to DirectTV's NFL Sunday Ticket. So, when I'm at home I have the ability to watch any game being broadcast in the country. Since I've already paid for the privilege of watching NFL games (via my satellite bill), I can watch the game at home or away on any internet connected device that runs the SlingPlayer software.

The SlingPlayer software is currently available for Windows (Vista, XP, 2000), Mac OS X (10.3 & above), Windows Mobile (PocketPC & SmartPhone), and Palm OS. The SlingBox hardware comes with IR blasters, which are placed in front of your cable receiver, DVD player, etc and they allow you to control your device over the internet via an on screen remote control (that is often times a pixel perfect replica of the actual device's remote). This is great touch because you can leverage your remote control visual / muscle memory instead of looking for the play / pause button on your on screen remote. The software also includes the ability to set up channel favorites along the bottom of the video window, so you can channel surf with authority.

Of course not everybody agrees that Slingbox is a good thing. Unfortunately, many content owners appear to want me to pay twice for content (once to DirecTV and again to them for the privilege of watching it over the internet). For example, Major League Baseball has had numerous issues problems with Slingmedia. I think MLB is deploying FUD tactics, and being greedy because it wants me pay twice so I can watch my home team when I'm not watching them from home. Instead, the Slingbox lets fans leverage their existing investment in their cable or satellite TV provider at no additional cost.

MLB has also argued that because the MLB sells transmission rights to specific geographical locations, a cable subscriber in Seattle who watches a Mariners baseball game from his or her laptop during a visit to San Francisco is stealing from the San Francisco cable operator who paid to transmit MLB games in that city. I think that MLB has it backwards; the Slingbox is good for cable operators because it instills loyalty. A fan's home programmer or operator can advertise to subscribers regardless of their geographical location. Besides, the San Francisco cable operator wouldn't be transmitting the Mariners game anyway (they're all Giants & Athletics fans down there) so how can they lose revenue for a game they aren't broadcasting anyway?

To quote Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian

"All the other leagues understand what business they're in," said Krikorian. "All the other leagues understand that their paying fan is their key asset and crown jewel. (The Slingbox) further tightens the relationship between the league and that consumer, and that is a good thing."

Fortunately, the other sports leagues seem to approve of the device. The commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern, invited Sling to present the product a year ago at its NBA Tech Summit, indicating his approval of the device. Going one step further, the National Hockey League, has announced a new agreement allowing Slingbox owners to use Sling Media's upcoming Clip+Sling technology to share NHL programming online.

The NFL has pretty strict internet video policies, but to date it seems to be silent on their opinion of the Slingbox. Perhaps, this is due to the fact they broke DMCA laws earlier this year, when attempted to remove a video clip of a the standard NFL broadcast disclaimer from YouTube, which was posted by Brooklyn Law School professor and staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Wendy Seltzer trying to make a point?

Regardless of what content owners, sports leagues and media companies argue, one thing is certain; the Slingbox is not like YouTube or Napster. The Slingbox only unicasts content, not broadcasts it. The Slingbox only allows one person to watch content remotely at time. Not only that, the Slingbox encrypts the video content it streams, so even if someone could tap into your SlingStream they couldn't watch it! Although, the Slingbox hasn't been tested by a legal challenge yet, the smart money is on Slingbox winning due to the precedent set in the Sony vs Universal Studios case (aka the Betamax case).

Anyway, if you're away from home much (or even if you aren't), I can't recommend this product highly enough. And you just might want to get one anyway, in case some judge makes it illegal in a fit of stupidity. Otherwise, you'll be forced to pony up for DIRECTV® SAT-GO which isn't nearly as cheap or flexible as a Slingbox is.

Building A Perfect Beast

Thu, 10 May 2007 14:08:48 GMT

I recently started the process of building a new machine. Vista has shipped, along with a new Adobe Creative Suite 3, Microsoft Office 2007, and since new and improved CPU cycle sapping – "productivity enhancers" are on the way (Orcas and Katmai) it's time to upgrade. My old AGP based, AMD socket 939 motherboard, with DDR 400 memory and IDE drives doesn't feel fast anymore. My Xbox 360 currently smokes my PC as a game machine at the moment. It felt like a new chapter in the never ending war between Gate's Law and Moore's Law (right now I'd say Microsoft is winning) had dawned. Anyway, here's what Vista thinks of my current machine…

Regrettably, my machine feels like 2.4, despite the fact it has 2 GB of RAM, so it's probably influenced my initial thoughts on Vista. At any rate, a few weeks ago I scored an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU and some Mini-ATX board made in some 3rd world country by 8 year old orphans special from the local Fry's for $229. Apparently the new Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs is putting a world of hurt on AMD. Usually AMD's top of the line chip doesn't sell for $200, 2 months after general release. That's OK, AMD's pain is my gain. I figured at that price, I could throw away the motherboard and come out ahead. So for the past month or so, I've bought a lot of modern hardware to go with my fast CPU (EVGA 8600 GTS - DX 10 – PIC-E graphics card, WD Raptor SATA hard drive, Lian Li 500W power supply, DDR2 800 memory, an AM2 ATX motherboard, etc.) Besides, if I want to switch back to an Intel platform or upgrade to a multi-monitor setup, I needed compatible/faster parts anyway.

So this past weekend, I put everything together, and the machine refuses to boot or post. Lovely… I then play musical spare parts to figure out what part is bad. Unfortunately, since the entire machine is made up of new parts of unknown quality, it takes me longer to figure what's causing the problem. Typically, I just upgrade on component at time, which makes it easier to play PC doctor. Anyway, I eventually figured out that the Asus M2N-E motherboard didn't like my CPU. So go back to Computer Stop and exchange the board out for an Asus M2N-SLI motherboard. No luck either… At this point, I figure I need a BIOS upgrade since all the part combinations I've tried seem to work when I threw the CPU in the Mini-ATX board I got. Unfortunately, I need a slower CPU in the motherboard in order to flash the BIOS. According to the Asus website, the 6000+ is a compatible CPU, although Google-ling for answers led me to many complaints about that CPU/Mobo combo on the various hardware forums and no real answers.

At any rate, after a week of frustration I've dropped the whole thing off with the technicians at the local computer store and let them play the make it boot game. I figure their time is cheaper than mine (I got a Realtor.com feed to implement), and they are more likely to know the ins & outs of modern hardware than I do (like why does my power supply have a 12V 4+4 power connection, but my motherboard doesn't?) Anybody know what the differences between the ATX v2.0 and ATX v2.2 PSU standards? I initial thought my power supply was the problem, but I tried an old Enermax PSU and it had the same problem with that motherboard.

Building your own PC is fun and a relatively inexpensive way of getting a screaming fast machine. Unfortunately, when the parts don't want to play together, it becomes a joyless experience. Ugh, now I know why people buy Dells & Apples.

A Craftsman and His Tools

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 05:47:13 GMT

Mr. Swann recently talked about the tools he uses for his weblogging workflow. Since most craftsman like talking about their tools, I thought I'd let the world know what's on my hard drive these days.

It all begins with the OS, and I just started using Windows Vista. Although I respect Mac OS X a lot and admire Steve Jobs, I've never liked fruit computers since my Atari & Amiga days. I can't bring myself to love a platform with only one mouse button. I've played with Ubuntu, and it's is (by far) my favorite Linux distribution. (I run Windows Server 2003 in the datacenter)

Activity	Tool
Text editing	Visual Slickedit 2007. Ironically, Source Insight is across town and I haven't used their product in ages (I remember it was a life saver in my Outlook days, but code editing wasn't its strength).
Web browsing	Firefox 2.0 & Microsoft IE 7.0
Software development	Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
HTML/CSS hacking	I'm starting to use MS Expression Web, since it rose from the ashes of FrontPage, but I still mostly use Slickedit.
Web debugging	Fiddler, MSIE Developer Toolbar, Firefox JavaScript Debugger, Firebug, and Ethereal
SQL hacking	SQL Server 2005 and Red Gate SQL Comparison Bundle
Bug tracking	Axosoft OnTime
Source Code control	SourceGear Vault
Web development	C# & ASP.net 2.0. I'm currently attempting to master ASP.net AJAX and ComponentArt Web.UI.
FTP / Remove access	FileZilla or MS Terminal Services Client 6.0
RSS feeding	I'm currently flirting with FeedDemon, though I've used SharpReader in the past
Graphic creation/editing	Adobe Photoshop CS1
Document creation/editing	Microsoft Office 2007 – Ultimate Edition
Blog hosting	Subtext
Blog posting	Microsoft Word 2007

BTW, I'm on the verge of upgrading my Adobe software and I don't know if I want Creative Suite 3 Design Premium or Creative Suite 3 Web Premium. They both have the apps I really care about (Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, Flash, and Dreamweaver), and I suspect I'm more likely to use InDesign than all the web workflow stuff that the CS3 Web Suite has. Ugh, Adobe would have to emulate Microsoft's marketing (which makes upgrading software more confusing than it should be). If anybody has any nice things to say about the filler in Adobe's newest CS3 Web Suite, let me know, it might make my decision easier.

That last one will come as a shock. For blog posting, I agree that Microsoft Word has historically sucked as an HTML editor. In older versions of Word you can avoid most of the MSO XML namespace crud by saving the file as HTML 3.2 (which isn't the default behavior and adds to its' reputation as a lame HTML editor). However, a good craftsman never blames his tools. If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Back in the old days (say 6 months ago), I would've used Windows Live Writer or the built-in editor that came with the blog. However, I feel I should mention Word 2007 is a much better tool for blog posting than previous versions. In fact, I'm using it to create this blog posting and it works with Subtext. So Mr. Cronin, there is no gum in my blog's hair, you just need to get some peanut butter.

Too bad peanut butter doesn't go with spam...