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Paul's Time Sink

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dcc and disk space

Paul Westbrook | 18 October, 2005 10:10

I have been noticing that I have been running out of disk space on one of my servers.  I just noticed that the log directory for dcc has 171,000 files.  I removed them, and that freed 1.2GB of space.

I need to write a script to make sure that this directory doesn't get to large.

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ATSC antenna

Paul Westbrook | 16 October, 2005 20:11

When I set up the DIRECTV HD DVR, DIRECTV doesn't give local channels in HD, so you need to connect an ATSC antenna.  I first tried the Zenith Silver Sensor Digital HDTV Indoor Antenna.  It only worked for some channels.  When I looked closely at the box, it was only a UHF antenna.

I then bought the Terk HDTVi.  This antenna allows me to receive most of the ATSC channels in my area.

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DIRECTV HD DVR installed

Paul Westbrook | 16 October, 2005 19:48

Yesterday, the installer came to install the DIRECTV HD DVR.  Since we already had a DIRECTV installation, all that was involved was installing the triple sat dish, installing a new multiswtich and one additional line to the living room.

 (More)

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detect rootkits on OS X

Paul Westbrook | 15 October, 2005 13:15

This article on MacDevCenter, has some good tips for detecting rootkit attacks on Mac OS X.

[via TUAW]

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Mercedes Minivan?

Paul Westbrook | 15 October, 2005 10:25

Mb R ClassI just saw some pictures of the 2006 Mercedes R-Class.  They call it a "Grand Sports Tourer", but it looks like a minivan to me.  It is funny that luxury car makers do not want to make minivans, even though I think that there is a market for them.

 (More)

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Podcast of del.icio.us videos

Paul Westbrook | 14 October, 2005 19:45

I just saw this post on macosxhints.  It describes that you can create a url for an rss feed for all of the videos with a particular tag in del.icio.us.

For example, here is an example of a url:

http://del.icio.us/rss/tag/system:filetype:mov+funny

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SOCOM 3

Paul Westbrook | 14 October, 2005 19:08

On Thursday, I picked up a copy of SOCOM 3.  I really like the game.  This new version has several new features

  1. Better graphics
  2. Larger maps
  3. 16:9 screen
  4. Customizable weapons
  5. Drivable vehicles

It definitely is an improvement over SOCOM 2, but there are some downsides to it.

  • When enabling Progressive scan mode, the graphics appear to be dithered
  • The controls for driving the vehicles are a little strange.  R1 to drive forward, and L1 to go backwards.  Also using the right analog stick changes the view, so it gets a little confusing for driving.
  • In order to join or create a Clan, you need to verify an account with a credit card.

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Mobile IM

Paul Westbrook | 12 October, 2005 19:43

I just tried out the Mobile IM client, for AOL, MSN and Yahoo, that is available through Get It Now.  It is interesting, but I don't know if I would use it.  It pretty much just sets up a IM to text message proxy.  So once set up, it forwards IM messages to the phone with text messages, so the phone is not always using air time when using Mobile IM.

I did noticed one problem.  There is not a way in the UI for Mobile IM to disconnect from the IM services.  What you have to do is to connect to the IM services from a computer.  This will cause the IM session to be closed.

I don't see using this myself.  I don't want to be connected that much.

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Integrated car computer

Paul Westbrook | 09 October, 2005 20:19

2645319218675165.JpgThe ICEPAC is a pretty cool way to get a computer into your car.  It is has 1Ghz cpu, 256 MB RAM, 40GB hard drive and a DVD/CD-RW drive.  All of this fits in a single DIN unit.  The motorized LCD fits in a second DIN slot.

One cool thing about this is that CDs and DVDs can be played without Windows having to be booted.  With an external GPS antenna, the computer becomes a GPS navigation unit. 

I don't know how well this would integrate with a XM receiver.  It doesn't have line in, but it does have a Firewire connection.  But I don't think that there are any XM receivers that have a Firewire output.

[via Autoblog]

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BugMeNot Bookmarklet

Paul Westbrook | 09 October, 2005 19:52

This post has a pretty cool Bookmarklet that automatically opens a browser window to BugMeNot with the current domain filled in.  This allows you to easily get a user name and password for many sites that require registration.

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The trains are really for our son

Paul Westbrook | 09 October, 2005 19:23

Dcp 3887This weekend our son and I made some pretty cool Thomas the Train tracks.  I keep getting tempted to add more tracks so we can build more complicated setups.

Right now we have the Conductor Figure 8 set, the Up and Away Expansion Pack, and a Cross and Switch Expansion Pack.

Of course, our son has the most fun from these trains.

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Gallery 2

Paul Westbrook | 08 October, 2005 20:02

I just upgraded our gallery software to Gallery 2, from the 1.5.1 version.  This looks pretty cool.  I really like the external modules that can be enabled/disabled individually.

It did a great job at importing the photos and albums from the previous version of gallery.  One things that I found out is that you shouldn't cancell the import while it is in progress.  When I did that, and tried to reimport the data, it failed.  I had to drop all of the tables, and delete the data directory.
 (More)

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Google Reader

Paul Westbrook | 07 October, 2005 20:07

Google has released (I don't know how officially) their web based RSS/Atom reader.  I tried it out, but I didn't have much luck.  It didn't successfully import feeds from my OPML file.  It only imported 47 of them.

It looks like this could be pretty cool once the bugs have been worked out.

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Vienna RSS reader

Paul Westbrook | 07 October, 2005 19:36

This post mentions the new Vienna RSS reader.  It is a new RSS/Atom reader for Mac OS X.  It is pretty cool as this is a open source app, while the other full featured RSS readers are all shareware applications.

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$200 HD DIRECTV DVR

Paul Westbrook | 07 October, 2005 19:05

I flagged this post when I saw it.  When I ordered our new TV, I called DIRECTV to see if this deal was still good.  The person that I talked to knew about the deal, and said that I qualified for it, as an existing customer.  Also this price also includes the needed dish and standard installation.

Unfortunately, they will not install it until November, as this is the first available installation time.

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