11 Aug, 2005
DTV: Internet TV
I just downloaded this new application called DTV. They are calling it an Internet TV application, but it is just a Video Podcast application. It has an integrated guide that lists "channels" that have been submitted. It can also download the video files via HTTP or BitTorrent.
This has the same functionality as iTunes and ANT. DTV does have a better interface than either of those applications. (I still haven't figured out how to display video in a separate window, and not in the preview pane or full screen. I got this to work once.)
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11 Aug, 2005
splunk
I just saw a post mentioning splunk. Splunk is a tool that lets you search through log files for various search terms.
I installed this, and tried it out for a little bit. It looks like it has promise, but I don't think that I will use it. I don't see the need of having a separate process to running all of the time to search though log files. I am happy to do the searching my self with grep.
Maybe if I had to watch over many different machines, this would be more useful. One thing that I would love to see is to be able to network different Splunk installations, so all an administrator would have to do is look at one machine to see all of the log files for the whole network.
Technorati Tags: splunk, system admin
10 Aug, 2005
Black Dog USB Linux Server
This looks like a pretty cool device. The Black Dog is a small USB computer that is running Debian, that when authenticated with biometrics launches a X server on the host computer. Then you can interact with the computer in that way.
I would assume that this will only work if the host computer is set to to support USB networking. Also I assume that if this computer needs access to the network, the host computer will need to install firewall in bridging mode.
[via Gizmodo]
Technorati Tags: Black Dog
10 Aug, 2005
Fuel cell bus
Yesterday, I was running some errands and I saw a strange looking bus. It looked like it has a white exhaust, but then I realized that it was steam. The VTA has 3 fuel cell buses.
I think that this is great. I would hope that as municipalities start implementing these sort of things, they would make the fueling stations available to the public. I think that this would allow fuel cell consumer vehicles to proliferate faster.
Technorati Tags: fuel cell
9 Aug, 2005
Dual boot Windows/Linux
I had to set up my computer to be able to dual boot into both Linux and Windows. I am using two seperate drives that contain the different Operating Systems. I haven't configured a partition that can be shared between the two yet. (I don't know if I will need to do that)
This page has instructions that helped me get this working. I just modified the Grub configuration files to show a Windows boot option.
Technorati Tags: dual boot, grub
7 Aug, 2005
duckdriver referrer
I noticed some strange referrers in my http logs. I saw some entries like:
80.175.64.69 - - [08/Aug/2005:01:30:59 -0700] "GET /imgs/rss20_logo.gif HTTP/1.1" 200 989 "http://lisa.duckdriver.com:3420/cache.px?id=22823" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/3.1; Linux)"
It looks like there is a web site called DuckDriver which states it is a Personal Internet Manager. It looks like it is caching my site. But that is not the bad part, it looks like it is stripping part of my html. One of the things that it is stripping is my Google Adsense javascript.
I have blocked access from clients with this referrer, and from the host that is doing the caching itself (80.175.64.72).
Update: It looks like the site that had a cache of my content has been made inaccessible from the outside, and access are redirected to this page. I found something interesting on that page:
Because the bots do not 'spider' your website (ie. they do not recursively grab pages) they do not check robots.txt before scanning. The ability to regularly scan the submitted page is essential for the upkeep of the Blogwise database and we require this action to avoid delisting blogs unnecessarily.
So if I wanted to prevent the indexing from their spider, I wouldn't be able to use the standard robots.txt mechanism. This seems wrong.
Update #2: Sven from Blogwise added a comment describing that this is the Blogwise cache. It is not intended to be a public cache. I will be removing the blocks that I added before.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, DuckDriver, system admin
7 Aug, 2005
"Today's Destinations" on Navi
This weekend, I noticed something interesting while we drove to Squaw Valley and back. I wanted to enter all of the places that we were going into the navigation unit, so we wouldn't need to add them again later. Also this would allow the navigation unit to calculate the best route between all of the destinations.
After I entered five destinations, I was not able to add amy more. It looks like this limit is in the software itself. Maybe it is too expensive to calculate the best route between more destinations, but this limit seems pretty arbitrary.
Technorati Tags: car, Honda Navigation
7 Aug, 2005
Poor implementation of a web terminal
This weekend, I received a page that one of my servers was down. I was on the way to the wedding, so I thought that I would deal with it after getting back to the condo from the wedding.
When we got to high camp at Squaw Valley, I noticed that there was a web terminal in the building where the cable car drops you off. Even though the directions on the terminal said you had it enter money, I decided to see what happened if I didn't.
When I entered the url, the web page for the site fully loaded, and then after it finished, it went to their home page. It appears that the web proxy might be modifying the http response headers to include a redirect to their web page.
It seems like this would be better if the proxy redirected the dns traffic. Or it could have just redirected traffic on certain ports.
7 Aug, 2005
Condo in Squaw Valley
This weekend we went to Squaw Valley for a wedding. We decided to stay in a condo a couple of miles away, instead of in the complex itself. The condo was very nice. It was in a building that appeared to be 20 years old, but the unit itself was newly renovated.
If you are interested in a place to stay in Squaw Valley, I would recommend this place. You can find rental information here.
The only problem that we had with this place was that it wasn't "child-proofed". I think that next time we go, we would bring outlet covers, and a child lock for the front door.
Technorati Tags: squaw rental
7 Aug, 2005
Culligan installed
A few weeks ago, we noticed that our clothes weren't getting clean. We thought that this could be cause because of hard water. So we called Culligan.
When they came out they stated the the water quality varies in Santa Clara County, depending on how much water they get from ground water vs. surface water. He also tested our water and said it was a 13.5, while normal is 8. (He could be making up these number, and we would have no way to verify these numbers)
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7 Aug, 2005
Upgraded to Tiger
I finally upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4. I bought the box from Other World Computing, which had it for $99. Here are the steps that I following for the installation:
- I booted my laptop with the 10.4 DVD
- Plugged in an external firewire drive
- From the Utilities menu, selected Disk Utitiles
- Restored the internal drive to the external firewire drive
- Erased the internal drive
- Installed the software on the internal drive
- When it finished, and rebooted, restored the data from the external drive
3 Aug, 2005
shower head
It seems like a lot of the new house construction or remodeling includes bathroom upgrades. One that contractors are advertising a lot is showers that have multiple shower-heads mounted on the wall.
I Want That! showcased a shower head that has some of the same functionality, but it seems that it can be installed in an existing shower. The Grohe Freehander shower-head, has to shower heads that rotate 360°. Also the whole arm rotates so that the shower heads can be positioned above or in front of you.
This shower-head starts at $395.
Technorati Tags: Grohe Freehander
3 Aug, 2005
Harmony 880 Remote
Today, the Harmony 880 remote that we ordered arrived. I haven't had a chance to set it up, but it is an amazing looking remote. Even the base looks great. When it is plugged in, there is a blue led in the center of the base to let you know where to put the remote, even when it it dark. Also, the bottom of the base has a couple grooves that let you direct the power cord.
Tomorrow, I will configure it, and will write more about it then.
Technorati Tags: Harmony Remote
3 Aug, 2005
dead bolt
We like watching I Want That! on HGTV. Tonight they showed a pretty cool deadbolt. The Tuner deadbolt makes it easy to lock the door from the outside. When you leave the door, all you need to do is turn the ring around the deadbolt to lock the door. You will need a key to unlock the door.
My wife mentioned that she would like to get one. I know that this would make it easier to lock the house, when chasing after the kids on the way out the door. The lock is available on line for $45.
Technorati Tags: deadbolt