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In: Home Theater
With: 27 Comments

Update 2010-Jan-21: For playback of FLAC in Windows 7, use either the xiph.org Directshow Filters or the Shark007 Codec Pack. The Lossless Audio Blog is reporting that FLAC lossless audio files can now be played in Windows Media Center 2005.  This is great news, because every music player I own now supports FLAC, the format I use to encode all of my music files.  So I can listen to my FLAC music files at my PC using dbPowerAmp or one of many players, around the house on my Sonos, in my car with my PhatNoise PhatBox, and now in my home theater with Windows MediaRead More →

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In: Entertainment, Home Theater
With: 3 Comments

I’ve been a Netflix subscriber since 2001 and rented from them starting in 1999. When I received an e-mail about a Netflix class action lawsuit, I knew immediately what prompted it. They promised unlimited rentals but they wouldn’t ship out new DVDs until several days after the movie was returned to them, thus artificially limiting the number of movies you could rent in a month. They would claim issues with the US Postal Service, but I found it strange that the USPS would hold on to every Netflix movie sent to them for several days before delivering it. Of course, this was not the caseRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

The weaknees blog is reporting that the DirecTV  HR10-250 will get the 6.2 software upgrade.  This was supposedly communicated at CES, though not officially.  I hope that this is true, because I really want folders, the speed optimizations, and basic network adapter support (to get around VoIP modem issues).  The HD-capable HR10-250 is currently the best TiVo unit available and  it deserves a newer and more modern version of the TiVo software.  My fingers are crossed.Read More →

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In: Wordpress
With: 3 Comments

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.0 and I’m not all that impressed with the results.  The WYSIWYG editor (that I was so excited to see included) does not work well. In fact, I couldn’t even get it to apply formatting at all in Firefox 1.5. I would highlight the text, click the bold button, and it would flash bold for a brief period before reverting back to non-bold. No idea why. Also, no way to format pictures (float right, for example) or browse images on the server before inserting them. I switched back to ChenPress, which is much more functional. Also, the file-uploader is notRead More →

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In: Reviews
With: 1 Comment

I’ve converted my Linksys WRT54GS router over to the newly released DD-WRT v2.3 firmware. I’m blown away. This is so much better than the Sveasoft firmware I was using. I can’t believe people are wasting money on Sveasoft. I’d complained in the past that Sveasoft was not releasing their source code even though it is based on GPL code. Who cares? Their firmware is now obsolete as far as I’m concerned. BrianSlayer has done some tremendous work with the DD-WRT project and I strongly recommend it to anyone looking to improve the capabilities of their Linux-based router.Read More →

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In: Web
With: 12 Comments

Nothing like arriving home from visiting family to find 6404 e-mail messages in your inbox. All of these were returned / failed / out-of-office error messages because some spammer is using my domain name and random usernames to send spam messages. I’m still receiveing about one returned error message per minute. No telling how many actually are getting through to people. Out of all of these messages, there was one that was different. It was a response to one of my Blog entries. It was, you might have guessed, a spam blog comment.Read More →

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In: Tech
With: 6 Comments

Mozilla Thunderbird is my favorite e-mail reader. I had some problems with the 1.5 beta, so I’m still using version 1.07. Here is a list of my favorite extensions: Header Scroll Extension: If you enable “view full headers” in Thunderbird, the list is way too long and you don’t even have space to view the body of the message. This extension solves that by making the header area scroll. Track Package: Highlight a package tracking number, right-click, and select track. It figures out the shipping service and automatically takes you to the correct status page with no intermediate steps. Virtual Identity: My favorite extension becauseRead More →

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In: Web
With: 3 Comments

This list has been updated for FireFox 2 – Please see this updated list. I’m a long-time user of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers. The base feature set is amazing but the extensions are what really make this browser a requirement. Here are my favorite extensions: Required (I use constantly): Tab Mix Plus: If I had to choose only one extension, this would be it. It makes the tabs behave any way you want them to behave. I use it to make child tabs open beside their parent, for the title text to be blue when the tab is unread, to show page download statusRead More →

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In: Home Theater
With: 0 Comments

I finally purchased a new piece of Home Theater Equipment!  I’m the proud owner of a new Sherbourn 7/2100a 200 watts x 7 channel amplifier.  This is the first step in replacing my 8-year old Onkyo receiver.  First the new amplifier, then the 2 new in-wall Sonance Cinema Ultra II SUR surround speakers to go from 5.1 to 7.1 surround, and then finally a new Anthem AVM-50 receiver to give built-in video processing and true 7.1 sound.  (Still don’t know when that one will be available.) I know, I just got something new, and I’m already talking about the next thing.  But it’s a system,Read More →

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In: Web
With: 7 Comments

I’m looking for wiki software for a project I’m resurrecting and I’m mystified by the overwhelming number of fragmented versions available, defunct or otherwise. My requirements are pretty simple: support my server (PHP4, mySQL, CGI), WYSIWYG editor, and free. Doesn’t sound too complicated does it? Well apparently it is. I’m still looking. Looking at this comparison, MediaWiki is the closest as it has alpha-level support. Twiki is another possibility, as is Wikka. MoinMoin 1.5 has WYSIWYG, but it requires PYTHON on the server, which won’t work for me. Basically, I’m overwhelmed and frustrated. I guess I’ll just have to try a few and see whichRead More →