Sunday, May 27, 2007

Related plugin for LifeType


I have written a plugin for LifeType that generates a list of articles that are related to a given plugin.  This currently only uses the keywords from the title, so the list of related articles is not that great.  The next change that I am planning on making is to extract the relevant keywords out of the body of the post.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

HP Photosmart C3180 Airport Express Update


In this post, I linked to a workaround to get the HP Photosmart C3180 to work with Airport Express. The reason that this workaround was need, was because the driver wasn't compatible with remote printing. 


Out of curiosity, I decided to download the lastest software for the HP Photosmart C3100 series, and tried to configure remote printing again.  Once the new version was installed, printing through the Airport Express worked perfectly.  In fact, even high quality photos look good printed this way.

New Navigation Mode


Yesterday, it cost $50 to fill up our van with gas.  This got me thinking that I should be using our navigation system to help reduce our gas usage.  The navigation unit will give the most direct route to the destination, so this should reduce mileage.


The only problem with this solution is that the route doesn't take into account whether the route is the most efficient for our car.  For example, the most direct route may be on city streets, while our car may not get the best mileage on those roads.



Monday, May 21, 2007

XM Satellite reception


While driving around today, I noticed that reception on our XM radio was pretty spotty.  I just saw this post that mentions that one of XM's satellites is not working correctly, and their repeaters having problems.



Update: It looks like the problem has been solved. Here is an email I received from XM:




XM Radio Resumes Normal Levels of Service
XM Satellite Radio has resumed normal levels of service for customers who experienced outages or significantly degraded service starting yesterday.
The problem occurred during the loading of software to a critical component of the satellite broadcast system, which resulted in a temporary loss of signal from one of the company’s satellites.
After you turn on your XM radio, please allow five to ten minutes to reacquire the XM signal.
XM apologizes for any inconvenience this has caused.



Saturday, May 19, 2007

links for 2007-05-20

Copy Protection and Comcast Problems


I got this message on my TiVo Series3.





Subject: Information Regarding Your Premium Channels
From: TiVo Customer Support
Date: Thu 5/3
This is an important message that may impact your ability to
receive premium channels. Please read it carefully.
Comcast has recently announced plans to enable their Copy
Protection Management Systsm in the Bay Area.
As a result, in order for your CableCARD(tm) decoders to
continue decrypting premium channels, they will need to be
properly "paired" within the Comcast system.
Here's how to ensure each of your cards is properly paired:
-From TiVo Central, select Messages & Settings. Then select
Settings, Remote CableCARD & Devices, CableCARD Decorder,
Configuring CableCARD 1, CableCARD Menu, Condition
Access
You should not be on the Motorola Conditional Access
CableCARD screen. If your card is paired, you will find a line
that says "Host Validation: Valid." This means that your TiVo HD
expierience WILL NOT be impacted by theic change, and there's
nothing further you need to do.
However, if it says "Host Validation: Unknow" your card is
not properly paired. Pleace contact Comcast Customer
Service and share the information from the CableCARD data
screen with the agent assisting you.
Please make sure to repeat tthe above process with
CableCARD 2.




Even though I was able to record premium channels on both tuners, I checked the status of my CableCARDs.  When I did I noticed that one of them was not paired correctly.  I called Comcast's customer service, and they were not able to get it paired over the phone, so I scheduled a technicians visit.



Printing Across VLANs: A Secure and Scalable Solution

In my previous configuration, I used a CUPS server with multiple network interfaces to enable printing from computers on restricted networks...