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Paul's Time Sink

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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

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links for 2008-01-29

Paul Westbrook | 29 January, 2008 00:23

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TV Wall Mount accessories

Paul Westbrook | 12 October, 2007 00:02

Today, I saw these two posts (1, 2)that mention two helpful items when wall mounting a TV.

The PowerBridge is a kit that makes it easy to add a recessed outlet behind a wall mounted TV.  The kit includes all of the items needed, except for the romex wire.

APC offers a wall mounted power filter. This offers surge protection and noise filtering for tvs. The cool thing about is that it is hidden by the TV.

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INSTEON SwitchLinc Relay Countdown Timer

Paul Westbrook | 18 September, 2007 22:22

We are trying to conserve electricity where ever we can.  We have switched all of our light bulbs, that aren't contolled by dimmer, to compact florescent bulbs.  We also turn off all unnecessary lights.

The lights that have been usually left on, are the one down to and in the garage.  Since we normally keep the garage door closed, I tend to not notice that the light is on, so the light gets left on.  The other problem is that when we are rushing out in the morning, the lights get left on

I wanted to find a solution that would automatically turn off these lights, but I also wanted the light switch to look like a regular light switch.  Unfortunatelly, the motion sensing light switch that we used in our previous house wouldn't work with florescent light bulbs.  Also, many of the timer light switches aren't as easy to use as regular switches.

 (More)

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links for 2007-07-11

Paul Westbrook | 11 July, 2007 02:25

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links for 2007-06-22

Paul Westbrook | 22 June, 2007 02:24

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links for 2007-05-29

Paul Westbrook | 29 May, 2007 02:21

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Linksys firmware upgrades with tftp

Paul Westbrook | 24 February, 2007 00:53

I have been having problems upgrading our Linksys BEFSX41 to the latest version of the firmware.  While in the process of flashing the new version of the software, the web page refreshes to a missing page.  Once that happens, the web interface of the router doesn't respond.  This happens with Firefox and Safari on the Mac, and with Firefox and Internet Explorer on Windows

The instructions on this page worked perfectly.  The command line tftp tool on Mac OS X upgraded the router seamlessly.  I used the instructions were the password is specified on the command line.  (There is a space between the end of the file name and "octet".)

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iBoot

Paul Westbrook | 13 July, 2005 21:20

Dataprobe Iboot Remote RebootToday my server became unresponsive.  It looks like apache was eating all of the memory on my computer, as I saw before.  Luckily, my wife was home so she was able to reboot the computer.

I wanted to find an easier way to reboot the computer remotely.  I found the Dataprobe iBoot is a device that can cut power to any device that is connected to the electrical outlet.  It also looks like you can configure it so that a it will cut power and restore it if this devices doesn't receive any network pings.

It looks like this will be available at the end of August for around $250.

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Slingbox questions

Paul Westbrook | 06 July, 2005 21:44

It looks like Sling Media is shipping their Slingbox device.  This looks like a very cool way to be able to watch all of you video content outside of your house.  In fact, I think that this could replaces some of the uses of BitTorrent for video content.  (I think that BitTorrent is used when people already have access to the content at home, but they want to watch it somewhere else.)

I wonder a couple of things about the Slingbox

  • How does the setup software get the list of possible remote codes?  It doesn't look like there is a way to learn remote codes from the Slingbox itself.  Maybe they have a database that is similar to the one used by Harmony Remotes.
  • Would it be possible to learn IR codes from multiple devices?  For example, plug a AV switcher into the Slingbox, and use remote codes for the AV switcher to change video source, and then send commands for that device.

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Raid in single drive bay

Paul Westbrook | 30 September, 2004 12:37

IO Data RAIDEngadget has a post on a interesting Raid1 solution. IO Data Device has a hardware raid that fits 2 2.5 inch hard drives and a Raid controller into a standard 3.5" drive bay. Since this is a hardware based solution, it should work on any hardware and OS that supports IDE drives.

They are pretty expensive: 40, 60, and 80GB models are around $800 USD, $1000 USD, and $1300 USD respectively. Maybe this makes sense for a computer case that has only one drive bay.

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Ethernet Jack Wireless Points

Paul Westbrook | 30 August, 2004 19:42

Wi-Fi Network News has a post about new access points that plug directly into ethernet jacks. These Aruba access points are powered over with Power over Ethernet and connect to a Aruba switch (I assume that the switch has built in Power over Ethernet.)

Also Aruba worked out a deal with Ortronics to make 802.11 access points that are built into the ethernet jacks. This seems like a great product to use when wiring a house. I would have loved to use it when I wired our house. This would solve all of the wireless dead spots in our house, since there would be more consistent coverage

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Hush ATX

Paul Westbrook | 15 August, 2004 14:12

Hish ATX
/. mentions the Hush ATX which is a Silent PC, made by Hush Technologies. The whole case is made from a bunch of aluminum heat sinks, and it is fitted with heatpipes. Here is a review from TrustedReviews.

Logic Supply has them for sale for $1675, for a 2Ghz Celeron model. It looks like they are out of stock now.



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Netgear Access point

Paul Westbrook | 04 August, 2004 19:12

Netgear WGT634U Engadget has an post on the Netgear WGT634U. It is a 802.11g Access Point that has an USB 2.0 port that will let you share a hard drive across a network. I am not sure what protocols it uses to share the hard drive, but I am assuming that has implemented samba.

This would be a good solution for someone who needs an 802.11 access point, but also wants to share files around the network.

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20Gb Hard drive

Paul Westbrook | 08 July, 2004 19:14

SmartDisk FireFlyGizmodo posted about this nice little drive. It is a USB 20 Gb hard drive. It requires no power, as it gets the power from the USB port. The only downsides are that it is based on a 4,200 rpm drive so it is not that fast. Also the case does not have a firewire port. But for $189, it is pretty cheap.

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