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Paul's Time Sink

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"Dangers" of Coca-Cola

Paul Westbrook | 20 December, 2006 15:31

Since my body has forced me to stop drinking soda, the information on this page doesn't bother me that much.  But I never realized the affects of cola on the body.  But drinking soda, is probably the reason that I can't do it any more.

[via Gizmodo]

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Harmony Remote problems

Paul Westbrook | 20 December, 2006 14:41

Now that the Series3 is working, I wanted to configure my Harmony remote to control the new setup.  While trying to do this, I had a couple of problems.

There is a new update to the Harmony Remote software.  When the software first started up, a dialog appeared with options to install the update or quit.  Every time that I installed the update, the software would crash.  I eventually found out that the problem was that the Harmony Remote software was not unpacking the update itself, but using the configured helper application. (The Unarchiver).  Once I deleted this app, the update worked correctly.

 (More)

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Comcast video

Paul Westbrook | 19 December, 2006 20:49

This morning two Comcast technicians came over to look at the problem that we were having with the new cable video install.  It turns out the problem was that when we had our cable modem installed, the installer put a filter on our line.  This was causing the CableCards and the Motorola DVR to not be able to get the channel list.

Once the filter was removed, everything worked.

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setting up SSH public/private keys

Paul Westbrook | 19 December, 2006 15:54

This page has some simple instructions for setting up a ssh public/private key pair.

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South Park Season 10 Season Pass

Paul Westbrook | 18 December, 2006 21:02

When season 10 of South Park started, I purchased the Season Pass from the iTunes Store.  Then when Comedy Central resumed South Park from its mid season break, the Season Pass didn't resume.  Then when I looked at the entry in the iTunes Music Store, it listed a new 10B season South Park.  I didn't feel like paying for this new season, especially since I thought I originally payed for the whole season.

Last week, I got this email from Apple.  It seems that a lot of people were upset, so they gave the 10B season to anyone who purchased 10A.  I think that this is a great for public relations.

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g4me

Paul Westbrook | 18 December, 2006 20:07

Now that we are using Google Apps for Your Domain for our email, I have been looking at all of the little tools that are available for the various Google products.  I tried the Gmail Dashboard Widget, but I wasn't able to get it to work with the email for our domain, even though it works with my gmail account.

g4me is a third party Dashboard widget that will display new mail for an account in your domain.

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Give the gift of Safe

Paul Westbrook | 18 December, 2006 07:53

OpenDNS has an good campaign going on.  The Gift of Safe is way to evangelize the benefits of OpenDNS, to your friends and family. 

This can help reduce the chances of phishing and identity theft, for your friends and family.

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128-bit long double support in Mac OS X

Paul Westbrook | 17 December, 2006 23:24

The size of the long double data type is 16 bytes in the version of gcc in Mac OS X 10.4.  Unfortunately printf in the version of libc, included in the OS, only includes support for printing 64 bit long doubles.  So if you want to print the value of a 128 bit long double, the output will not be as precise as the data itself.

I am trying to figure out a different way to print this data.

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Comcast Series3 experience

Paul Westbrook | 17 December, 2006 21:58

About a week ago, our TiVo Series3 was delivered, and yesterday the Comcast installer came to install the two CableCards, and a DVR.  The installation time was supposed to be between 12 and 4.  At 3, the installed called and wanted directions.  I asked him if he had the CableCards, and he said that he didn't have any in the truck.  He said that he could install the DVR and schedule another appointment for the CableCards, or he could come back after 5.  I said that he should come after 5.

When he eventually came, he did bring both CableCards and the DVR.  The installation was pretty quick.  When he left, the DVR had video, but had no program guide.  He said that it would begin to appear in 30 - 45 minutes.  The Series3  was left "Acquiring Channel Information".  The Series3 was supposed to acquire this info in 30 minutes as well.

 (More)

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Charlie Brown Christmas performed by the cast of Scrubs

Paul Westbrook | 09 December, 2006 21:50

This is a pretty funny performance of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special performed by the cast of Scrubs.

[via TV Squad]

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Lexus self parking video

Paul Westbrook | 08 December, 2006 22:31

This is a pretty funny video of some people at Automobile Magazine trying to use the new Lexus self parking feature

[via Autoblog]

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SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault

Paul Westbrook | 08 December, 2006 21:28

I have been playing SOCOM Combined Assault for about a month now, and I really like the game.  Here are some of thoughts and other things that I have noticed:

  1. The briefing rooms for cooperative and "classic" games are in seperate lists
  2. If you use your SOCOM 3 username and password, it pulls over your online Clan information.
  3. The cooperative games can only have up to 4 people in it.
  4. The progressive video output looks better than it did in SOCOM 3
  5. The new "classic" maps are pretty fun.
  6. In the cooperative games, one of the items that you can add to your pack is a MedPack.  This you can use to heal yoursel, or one of your teammates.
  7. In the cooperative games, you don't need to push-to-talk.  This applies to the game and in the waiting room.

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Alpine iDA-X001

Paul Westbrook | 02 December, 2006 21:34

Aline Ida-X001The Alpine iDA-X001 is one of the best looking single-DIN headunits that integrates iPod controls.  Not only does the text of the currently playing track appear on the unit, but also the album art is displayed.  It looks like the iPod menus could also be displayed on the small LCD, so selecting tracks would be pretty easy.

If this head unit has video and audio out, I would want to get one of them for our van.  This would allow the head unit to control the iPod to select a video, and have the video and audio routed to an external monitor in the back.

[via Engadget]

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