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Paul's Time Sink

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Google Reader suggestions

Paul Westbrook | 31 December, 2006 20:36

This post on the Ramblewords blog has some great suggestions for Google Reader.  The ones that I like a lot describes ways to group posts by linked article or topic.

This would allow me to go through my feed list faster.  (I hope I wouldn't add additional feeds.)

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GlowWorm FW Lite

Paul Westbrook | 31 December, 2006 18:49

I had been using Little Snitch to prevent and notify me of outgoing network connections.  Ever since, I have upgraded to my Mac Book Pro, I have not be successful in running Little Snitch.

I just tried GlowWorm FW Lite.  This is an application that has the sam functionality.  When installed, you are notified of any outgoing network connections.  You then can accept or deny the connection, and then same this setting.

 (More)

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2006 Darwin Awards

Paul Westbrook | 31 December, 2006 08:36

The 2006 Darwin Awards have been posted.

[via Slashdot]

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Fedora Legacy shutting down

Paul Westbrook | 30 December, 2006 17:08

I recieved the an email yesterday (included below) stating the Fedora Legacy is in the process of shutting down.  As of now, they are not maintaining distributions for Fedora Core 4 and earlier.

Fedora Legacy provided a centralized place where updates were distributed, even after the OS wasn't officially supported through Red Hat.

Now that this Fedora Legacy is going away, hopefully some other project will fill the space, or maybe I will switch to an OS with support.  I really don't want to managed all patches and upgrades manually.

 (More)

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Valid XHTML embedded YouTube videos

Paul Westbrook | 30 December, 2006 16:09

The code that YouTube specifies to be used to embed videos into html pages, is not valid in the XHTML 1.0 spec.  The <embed> tag has been deprecated in XHTML 1.0.  This page describes valid XHTML 1.0 code to embed YouTube videos.

[via Zeigen]

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DIY baby rocker

Paul Westbrook | 30 December, 2006 15:52

This is great.  Someone took the motor from a microwave oven and is using it to rock a baby chair.  It would be fun to make something like this before the baby comes.

[via MAKE: Blog]

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Cell phone wish list

Paul Westbrook | 30 December, 2006 14:59

I have been using the Motorola E815 for a little over a year, and I have been pretty happy with it.  Recently there have been some annoyances, and some things that I haven't be able to do with it.  For example,

  • The E815 can not run the Gmail for mobile application or any other Java application
  • The built-in browser doesn't retain cookies across power cycle, so you have to re-enter usernames and passwords for web sites.

So now when I am ready for a new cell phone, these are the features that I want:

  • Java capable
  • Full Bluetooth support, including file transfer profile
  • Web client, with persistent cookies.
  • Full iSync support over Bluetooth
  • Camera with lens cover to protect against pocket lint.
  • Voice dialing capable.

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Video On Demand Behavior Change

Paul Westbrook | 23 December, 2006 19:55

I have been playing with Comcast's "On Demand" feature on the Motorola DVR cable box in our bedroom a little bit, and have realized that this will change my behavior.  We used to have some series recordings of kids programs.

Now, I can cancel these recordings, since most of these shows are available on "On Demand".  With this change, the DVR's disk space will not be "wasted" with programs that I don't watch.

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TiVo remote addresses with Harmony remote

Paul Westbrook | 23 December, 2006 19:28

I needed to setup my Harmony remote to be able to control both the TiVo Series3 and the DIRECTV HD DVR.  I thought that there was a setting in in the Harmony interface, but I couldn't find it.  Here is the way that I was able to get this to work:

  1. Configure the remotes and TiVo for seperate remote addresses.
  2. In the Harmony remote application, click on the Settings for one of the TiVos.
  3. Select the "Confirm infrared commands" option.
  4. Follow the instructructions.
  5. Do the same for the other.

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MailBarricade

Paul Westbrook | 23 December, 2006 10:39

In early 2004, I was looking for a solution of reducing spam email or our domain.  We had been using SpamAsassin, but we didn't have a food soluton for training the bayesian database.

Then I found Maia Mailguard.  This is a extension of amavisd-new.  When mail is received it is run though spam an virus filters.  The mail is quarantined or released based on each users settings.  There is a nice web interface for users to mark items as spam, that were missed, or release items that were incorrectly marked as spam.

I installed this on my server, and it really worked for our mail.  It worked so well, that I decided to make this available to other people.  That is when I started MailBarricade.  I mentioned this to my friends, and posted some ads with AdWords. Some friends and some small companies signed up.

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difference between geek, nerd and dork

Paul Westbrook | 22 December, 2006 17:27

This post has a table that describes the differences between geek, nerd and dork.

[via Valleywag]

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Another Series3 issue

Paul Westbrook | 21 December, 2006 19:09

Today, I noticed another problem with the Series3.  About half of the recordings were "partial" with duration of 0:00.  It turns out that only one of the two CableCards were activated.  So all of the recordings from digital cable channels, on that tuner, were failing.

The TiVo should have been able to identify this problem after setup.  The TiVo could have process where it tunes to every channel on both tuners.  Then it could verify that the content on both tuners is the same.

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Podcasts: TiVo vs FrontRow

Paul Westbrook | 21 December, 2006 12:59

With the Series3 installed, we now have two ways to easily listen to podcasts on our main system.  We can either use FrontRow on the Mac mini, or use the podcasting application on the TiVo Series3.  There are good and bad things with both of these solutions.

TiVo:
The podcasting application has a small directory of audio podcasts.  The ones you want to have easy access to, you can mark them as favorites.  For the podcasts that aren't listed, you can, tediously, enter the urls of the rss feed with the remote.  Playing back works by essentially streaming the audio file.

 (More)

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OpenID

Paul Westbrook | 21 December, 2006 11:51

It appears that OpenID is gaining prominence.  OpenID is a decentralized identity system that can be used for authentication for various sites.  When you want to authenticate your identity, you enter a url for a page that you control.  This page contains will contain link tags with the location of the OpenID server where authentication happens.

This solution seems to work pretty well.  Unfortunately, it setting up an OpenID identify is a little complicated.  If you are not on system that natively supports OpenID, you will need to either configure a server your self, or use one of the OpenID identity services.

 (More)

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300GB 2.5" drive

Paul Westbrook | 20 December, 2006 15:35

Fujitsu has announced a 2.5-inch 300GB drive.  With this drive, I would install Parallels with Windows XP, and not have to carry around two laptops.

[via Gizmodo]

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