This page looks plain and unstyled because you're using a non-standard compliant browser. To see it in its best form, please upgrade to a browser that supports web standards. It's free and painless.

Paul's Time Sink

| Main | Albums |
Next» 

Digitial Commercial Transition Video

Paul Westbrook | 06 November, 2008 15:46

This is pretty funny.

 

[via EngadgetHD]

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Squeezebox Boom

Paul Westbrook | 06 September, 2008 21:20

Squeezebox BoomThe two Squeezebox Booms that I ordered arrived a few days ago, and I have to say that they have lived up to my expectations.

When you open the box, the first thing you see is a velvet-like bag, containing the Squeezebox Boom, that has the Logitech logo on it, and an orange tag that states Sqeezebox.  When you take the Squeezebox Boom out of the bag, I noticed that it has a solid feel to it.

The setup of this is exactly the same as the other Sqeezebox devices.  Once configured for our wireless network, it automatically saw the install of SqueezeCenter running on our Windows Home Server, and was able to play the music.

 (More)

Technorati tags: , ,

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

iPhone

Paul Westbrook | 01 September, 2008 00:28

So my wife and I joined the crowd and got iPhone 3Gs.  Now that we have them, we are enjoying them, but it was a pretty big hassle to get them.

I got to the Apple Store pretty early in the morning, and there wasn't a line for iPhones.  An Apple Store employees got the two iPhones and started activating the first.  The Symbian device lost connection to the service, but after the AT&T Wireless account was created, and after the phone number port started, but before the number was added to the account.

When he got another Symbian device, further attempts to continue the setup kept failing.  It looks like Apple's system to register iPhones will only work if the device actually does the registration, and will not work if the phone is configured via the phone with AT&T support.  We were on hold with AT&T for over 2 hours, talking to 7 different people at AT&T.

Finally we got the phones registered.  What we had to do was add the iPhones to the account with new phone numbers.  Then with the AT&T support rep on the phone, the numbers were switched to the numbers that were were attempting to port.

I do appreciate the time that the Apple Store rep spent with settiing this up.

One other problem arose.  The microphone on my wife's iPhone didn't work so I took it back to the Apple Store and they did replace it, without too much hassle.

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Electronics , Phone :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Squeezebox Boom

Paul Westbrook | 30 August, 2008 10:33

Squeezebox Boom A while ago, I wrote about how I would love a Squeezebox that is integrated with speakers.  This would make it a perfect solution for our kids rooms.

Squeezebox/Logitech just announced the Squeezbox Boom, which is exactly what I want.  With this, we don't have to deal with playing cds that skip because the kids have scratched them.  I am definitely ordering one of these.

 

Technorati tags: , ,

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (1)

Windows Media Center

Paul Westbrook | 23 August, 2008 12:59

I am thinking about installing Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center on our Mac mini, espcially since our Xbox 360 is doing everything that the Mac mini used to do.  I am planning on keeping the Mac mini in the closet, near our Windows Home Server, and then I would view this content on the Xbox 360 through Windows Media Extender.

There are several things that I would be able to do with this setup:

  • Install TVTonic to have access to "Internet TV" and video podcasts  (The 2008 Olympics is available this way)
  • Play ripped DVDs that are hosted on the Windows Home Server (1, 2)

 (More)

Technorati tags: , , , , , , , ,

Computer , Electronics :: Comment (1) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (2)

Series3 update

Paul Westbrook | 29 July, 2008 00:14

After talking to some friends at TiVo, it looks like my Series3 was not getting the 9.4 update.  So I guess that the drive just failed enough to cause this problem.  I am going to get a new drive for the box, and hopefully that will solve the problem.

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Series3 problem

Paul Westbrook | 27 July, 2008 23:32

I belive that my TiVo Series3 was upgrading to the new 9.4 version of TiVo's software.  The problem is that the upgrade was not successful.  The message on the screen states something like "The DVR has detected a serious problem....  This will take about three hours...."

Since I used to work at TiVo, I know what state the TiVo must be in for that message to appear. (And in fact, in a internal development build, I did have a bug in my code that caused this problem.)  Unfortunately, it looks like the TiVo does get past that error, and then reboots, but then gets back in that state.

 (More)

Technorati tags: ,

Computer , Electronics :: Comment (2) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Parrot 3200-LS

Paul Westbrook | 11 July, 2008 02:24

Parrot 3200-LSSince is is now a requirement to use hands-free devices for use in cars, I started to look for a solution for our van.  I wanted to find something that would connect to the main headunit, where it would automatically mute the audio, to allow the call audio to be heard.  Also, I wanted the device, when installed, to look releatively stock. The Parrot 3200-LS looked like it would work perfectly.  

I had it installed a few weeks ago, and the install looks nice.  It was easy to configure with my Samsung iSCH-760.  On the Parrot, I went into the setting menu for pairing, and selected Windows CE, and the Parrot displayed a password.  Then on my phone, I searched for Bluetooth devices, and then selected the Parrot 3200-LS.  Once paired, the phone numbers on my phone automatically appeared on the Parrot 3200-LS, so I could select phone numbers directly from the Parrot's interface.

 (More)

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Cars , Electronics , Phone :: Comment (1) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

HTC Touch Dual

Paul Westbrook | 01 June, 2008 03:10

My wife and I are thinking of switching to AT&T for cell phone service, when the 3G iPhones come out.  When we switch, I was thinking about getting the HTC Touch Dual.  This looks like a pretty nice phone.

Technorati tags: , ,

Electronics , Phone :: Comment (1) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

MSN Direct

Paul Westbrook | 06 April, 2008 22:17

I have been using the Nuvi 680 for several months.  One of the reasons that I bought it was for the traffic information provided by MSN Direct.  I have been unimpressed with the quality of the data.  There are several problems:

  1. There are many areas that don't have coverage.  For example, when driving from San Jose to Sacramento, as soon as we left the local area there was no coverage. Unfortunately, we encountered a traffic delay that we could have been routed around.
  2. Many of the roads that I travel on to and from work are not included in the MSN Direct data.  I only have seen information on interstates and state and US highways.
  3. The data seems to be stale. I have had many occasions when the Nuvi stated that there was a delay, when the delay had already cleared up.

 (More)

Technorati tags: , , ,

Cars , Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Problem with SqueezeBox / SqeezeNetwork

Paul Westbrook | 07 March, 2008 22:44

We have been having a problem with our SqueezeBox.  We normally leave it connected to SqueezeNetwork so we can listen to our Pandora station.  For the past couple of weeks whenever we attempt to play a station, we would get prompted to install a new firmware upgrade. 

Even though the install went successfully, the SqueezeBox keeps prompting to update the software again.  

I just noticed that Logitech released verion 7.0 of SqueezeCenter (which had been called SlimServer)  This version integrates the content that is available on SqueezeNetwork into the local server, so you don't have to switch servers.

Hopefully this will solve the firmware upgrade prompting. 

Technorati tags: , , ,

Computer , Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (1)

DVR revisited

Paul Westbrook | 11 February, 2008 21:19

In this post, I mentioned some problems that I was having with my Comcast DVR.  Comcast has come out an replaced the DVR, and everything thing seems fine.

Technorati tags: , ,

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Recordings on Comcast DVR

Paul Westbrook | 06 February, 2008 22:42

We havent looked at the recording on one of our Comcast DVRs for several months.  Last week, I decided to watch one of the shows on the dvr, but there were no recording in the recording list.  Also, the list of scheduled recordings was empty.  For some reason, the DVR decided to erase all of its settings.

I am annoyed, especially since we are paying Comcast for this box.  Since our Series3 works downstairs, maybe I will look in to replacing the Comcast DVR with a SlingBox/SlingCatcher or a Media Center/Extender combination

Technorati tags: , , ,

Electronics , Hardware :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (1)

Connect 360

Paul Westbrook | 26 January, 2008 20:11

Connect 360 is a Mac OS X preference pane that lets your play/view content from your Mac OS X computer on your Xbox 360.  It uses iTunes to get the list of tracks and playlist, and iPhoto for photos.  You specify a directory to indicate what videos should be shared.

The demo worked for me, though I only used it to view videos.  The demo will let you view a good number of files.

I would love to use this to view all of my content on my TV.  This would allow me to remove the Mac mini from the AV rack and keep it in the closet.  Unfortunately, the Xbox doesn't support all of the video formats that the Mac mini can, so I would have to transcode many of my videos. 

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Computer , Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Squeezebox for kids bedrooms

Paul Westbrook | 07 January, 2008 23:25

Tonight, I was sitting downstairs working on the computer, listening to the baby monitor.  Then the CD in baby's room started to skip, and it woke her up.  This made me think about this post that I wrote a while ago.

The kids have a tendency to scratch CDs and break CD and tape players (cassettes can not be played in one of their radios any more).  I started to think of the ideal solution.  I like the way that the SqueezeBox is able to play my whole colection of music, and I am able to control it remotely (to turn it off after the kids go to sleep, or turn down the volume). And that is without the media being damaged.

SoundBridge Radio The one problem with the SqueezeBox is that it doesn't have built-in speakers.  Ideally Logitech would come out with a SqueezeBox that integrates speakers and an amplifier.  Something like the Roku SoundBridge Radio would be great. Unfortunately the SoundBridge Radio doesn't support the latest version of  SlimServer.

 

 

Technorati tags: , , ,

Electronics , Family :: Comment (1) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (1)
Powered by LifeType
Design by Book of Styles