Category Archives: internet

the internet is huge.

Blogger import

2008.06.20 – 9:36 pm PDT

So today I’ve just been trying to work on importing my blogs from Blogger to here. What a task. It’s a pain to spell check, browse over, then categorize each and every single entry into work comp, pain journal, or other, and there is no shortage of entries. Then try to figure out tagging of each post, if it requires any. I’m not having much luck and have had to restart a few times. Good thing I made a nice clean backup before playing around. Which I will have to create a new one after this post, seeing as it will be lost if I have to restore again.

By px | Also posted in WordPress, blogs | Tagged |

We all love boobs, Google just proves it.

2008.06.15 – 5:10 pm PDT

OK, bored as I am, I’ve been noticing more and more traffic to my blog.  All because of 1 image and a simple search term, anime boobs.  If only I had a real idea to popularize and profit from this #1 listing.

By px | Also posted in thoughts | Tagged , , , , , |

Google Health, a good start.

2008.05.19 – 5:57 pm PDT

I read today first on LinuxMedNews that Google Health has launched.

Upon accepting the additional Google Health agreements for my Google Account, I was shown a list of eight partners where I could link up to for importing data. Nice for now, I want MORE.  I easily linked my Walgreens prescription info thereby adding that part of my medical history.  Which it still hasn’t done quite yet as of writing this.  I highly doubt State Fund Insurance Compensation () will ever become a partner, if they do I can only forsee good coming of it.  I am also populating some other fields too as I write.

I am very impressed with the quality of the interface for adding basic health information, like height, weight, blood type along with Conditions, Medications, Allergies, Test Results, and Immunizations.  It is quite clean and is a perfect example of what I’ve come to expect from Google.

Now for the fault.  There is no way for a person to their own documents, records and images to the system.  Not too sure how much use I will really get out of the Google Health platform until that roadblock has past.  But even then it’s a good start with what information it can collect.  I’d like to see something where a person could scan their document and then batch upload the images to Google for Optical Character Recognition or other processing.

TechCrunch has a more thorough image filled post if you’re interested.

Seeing that they want to host all of my data, it would be nice if I could some how link my Google Calendar which has all of my thousands of appointments and such, so that I can be easily reimbursed for mileage somehow.  Maybe with the Google AppEngine?  /me wishes he could sit down, then functionally design and build such a thing.

By px | Also posted in technology, thoughts | Tagged , , , , , |

a bored, bandwidth, power user

2008.04.16 – 10:34 pm PDT

At one point in my life I considered myself to be a bandwidth power user. Someone who uploads and downloads constantly, maxing out their available bandwidth 95% or more of the time.

Dave’s post early this afternoon got me thinking throughout the day about bandwidth usage. He apparently used around 450GB of data transfer in one billing cycle, pissing off Comcast his provider, so they shut off his cable broadband.

DSCI0306

Flickr gives you 100MB per month upload. I barely even scratch that. I’d really like to take more pictures, but of what, is the difficult question posed to me. I’d like to try and use as much free upload bandwidth I can for any service. For Dave to use even 100GB of traffic to/from Flickr, that would be amazing in my eyes.

2008.04.16 ^ Azureus Seeding Screenshot

I use Bittorrent. I seed probably around 140 different files, +/- 10 for stuff I’m downloading. They certainly aren’t high traffic torrents, but I manage to peak my upload bandwidth, a measly 65KB/s, several times an hour on average. I also try to keep my seed ratio 2:1 or more depending on the content.

In general, while downloading my bandwidth will peak at around 900KB/s from tier 1 sites, which is the soft cap set in place by Cox, my provider, for my internet package, the lowest speeds available from them for $31.95/month.  This is a hell of a lot better than the “high speed” offered in 2001, except today the upload speed hasn’t stayed inline with downloads.

Now my home router keeps tabs on my transfer, and unfortunately it hasn’t been up since the beginning of the month, so much for nice good numbers. But here is 11days of up time statistics.
IN/OUT 37138780/9595423 (3.68 GB/3.64 GB)

My virtual server is allocated 300GB transfer per month, and for the last 9 months I generated virtually no traffic, perhaps only 15GB tops any given month

The source videos of this post is about 66MB, and the images another 2MB.  Do you know how much you use in your tasks?  I wish I had an easy to use bandwidth calculator off hand.

I would try and calculate the maximum possible transfer for both up and down in a given billing period for different speed connections.  I wonder if this widget, bit, chart already exists?  Internet service is already considered by many to be a utility, lacking only regulation.  Customers should be able to know how much traffic they incurred, and like a leaky faucet they should be able to pay for the usage instead of being turned off.

By px | Also posted in blogs, thoughts | Tagged , |

Change Congress launched

2008.03.23 – 12:18 am PDT

The incredibly smart and well spoken Lawrence Lessig, of Free Culture and Creative Commons fame, has lanched Change Congress.

It’s purpose is to change congress for the better. By how do you ask?

Listen, and/or watch the initial Change Congress press release on blip.tv.  Lawrence Lessig explains in plain English the goals of this new organization.  Change Congress simply put is…

I believe candidates should:

Change Congress
Click the Change Congress badge to learn more about my district.  You can get your own badge here.

By px | Also posted in thoughts | Tagged , , , , , |

“Technology is beginning to assail the underlying concepts of our educational system”

2008.03.21 – 6:35 pm PDT

This weeks Robert X. Cringley is a worthy read.  I won’t spoil too much.

…
That’s 30 years to become an overnight sensation, 30 years to finally settle into the form most useful to society, 30 years to change the game.

The key word here is “empowerment.” Technologies allow us to overcome limitations of time, distance, and physical capability, but they only empower us when they can be gracefully used by large, productive segments of our society. The telephone was empowering when we all finally got it. Now it is the Internet and digital communications.
…
Each new technology is difficult for the older generation and easy for the younger, which explains why I am a PC master but a texting idiot. I’m just too damned old.

…

By px | Also posted in blogs, links, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , |

he will be missed

2008.03.18 – 3:05 pm PDT

I don’t read much, if at all anymore.

The books I do remember enjoying thoroughly were written by Arthur C. Clarke, namely “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “2010“.  Seeing those movies and later reading those books as a child opened my mind up to a world of fiction, with creative thoughts surrounded by computers and technology.

Well, I just read something that led to the conclusion he has passed away.

By px | Also posted in books, links | Tagged , , , |

Firefox 3.0b4 under Ubuntu

2008.03.11 – 10:15 pm PDT

It’s pretty easy to try out the latest beta for users.  I’m sure it’s just as easy to try it out on other Linux distributions that are up to date.

2008.03.11 ^ Screenshot

Simply choose your language from the Firefox beta download page to begin your download.  Once completed open up a terminal and run the following commands.

# create a temporary directory if you do not already have one.
mkdir -p ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
# un package the tar ball.
tar -jxvpf /path/to/firefox-3.0b4.tar.bz2

Once the tar process completes

cd firefox
# Launch Firefox
./firefox

Or close your terminal session and launch via the ALT-F2 Run Application method.

~/tmp/firefox/firefox

This new instance of Firefox does not use any plugins which may be already installed on your system. You will need to download any plugins you use such as the Adobe Flash player to

~/tmp/firefox/plugins/libflashplayer.so

By px | Also posted in Ubuntu, software | Tagged , , , , |

Satisfaction is watching television on my own terms using my TiVo.

2008.03.11 – 8:17 pm PDT

NewTeeVee asked a question today. “Does TiVo have A Chance?” I responded with a comment on their blog, and here is more pertinent information.

Please forgive my incessant run on sentences. In continuing with my series about , my cable company. Today I received in the mail a pertaining to my use of the technology on the Cox Digital Cable Network.

Here is an image of the extortion letter from Cox, trying to get me to get rid of the CableCARD technology they developed, in order to access to their networks for use in Consumer Electronics Goods like the, commercial skipping and Televisions with built in DVR functionality, that are far superior even with their basic functionality, to the crap technology cable companies call Set Top Boxes and Advanced Digital Receivers.

Their attempt to offer me a “great deal” or helping me out is quite lame and I hope it does not sway TiVo users into submission.

As I am not a viewer of much of the ethic programming being moved to the Switched Digital Video service it does not bother me, but I am sure it bothers those who do watch this valuable programming which is in their own language.

I do take issue with the fact that they are again making channels I already am able to watch, like G4TechTV, with my current technology unavailable to me. Their continuing efforts to extort money out of me in the form of forced renting their inferior technology, which is never for sale, and isn’t inexpensive to the consumer like the $1.99/month CableCARD, makes me sick.

So if I want the even some of the same functionality as my TiVo HD, I need to shell out $12.99 or more a month, for their piece of shit DVR receiver, not counting the supposed discount they are trying to offer as compensation for the lost access to channels and services I know I’m already not able to receive thanks to the hours of time spent on the phone with the Customer Service people and constant beating in of messages repeated to you while waiting on hold.

Need I even mention the countless ads you are subjected to for their triple play services, of telephone, cable tv, and high speed internet, that they place on every non over the air broadcast channel. If they allowed you to easily and quickly skip their “subliminal” advertising then you would win. At what point does seeing something so often just become embedded in your mind like a catchy song. Is this right? I don’t think so.

Below is the letter reproduced textually in it’s entirety for search engine goodness.

Dear Rob Friedman:

Effective April 8th, 2008, Cox will implement a new technology(Switched Digital Video) that will allow us to maximize our network capacity. As with other services we offer, such as On Demand, and the Cox Interactive Program Guide, this new technology requires a device capable of two-way communication. Currently two-way communication is only availible with a digital set top receiver. Switched Digital Video is not compatible with one-way digital cable ready devices that require a CableCARD.

Due to the limitations of the one-way DCR device that you own, a Cox digital set top receiver will be required in order to view the following channels after April 8, 2008.

  • Pay-Per-View Channels - including movie, events, sports packages, and preview channels.
  • Paquete Latino Tier
  • Foreign Language Channels: TV-5, ART, RAI, ZEE TV, The Filipino Channel, TV Japan, TV Asia and CTI Zhong Tian.
  • The following digital cable channels: CCTV-9, California Channel, CMT Pure Country, C-SPAN2, C-SPAN3, Fine Living, Fit TV, Fox Reality, Fuel, FUSE, Game Show Network, G4TechTV, HRTV, Jewelry TV, Leased Access (Ch. 109), ShopNBC, TVG and WeatherScan Local.

Additionally, new channels added to the Cox Digital Cable and HD channel lineup may not be availible to customers with a one-way DCR device. Cox can offer you continued access to these networks with a digital or advanced receiver. These receivers enable access to the above channels, and any new channels, the Cox Interactive Program Guide and OnDEMAND on Channel 1.

If you are interested in a digital or HD receiver from Cox, we will offer you one for the same price as a CableCARD for the first year ($1.99 a month). Please call us at 1-888-202-2314 if you would like to take advantage of this offer or make any changes to your account.

Sincerely,

Colleen Langer

Vice President, Marketing and Sales

I made an investment in my television watching habits and chose to save money when I purchased a TiVo HD and 3 year subscription just a few months ago. Now I do have a bit of a hard time trying to comprehend how the needed subscription to television guide information, which is public information available via the internet, news papers, and television itself, has to cost so much, hell it’s free to DirecTiVo users. For all the reasons imaginable it is important to develop and support free, as in beer, solutions for everyone in an age where information can be conveyed in the blink of an eye. The mere ability to reproduce something without any loss of quality tells me that it’s time to change the way a lot of companies do business.

Could you imagine if Hollywood would actually allow a company to develop software and DVR hardware with automatic commercial skipping enabled by default?  It is technically possible with all the junk in the television streams.  But already it’s bad enough they forced TiVo to “hide” 30 second skip by making users enter a code via their remote first.

Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select

I’m sure the company would make wheel barrels of cash, only to be sued by and legally stolen by the TV, movie, and other related industry conglomerates.

By px | Also posted in blogs, technology, thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , |

Vote for Negative

2008.02.19 – 4:34 pm PST

Please vote for my dog in this internet photo contest I entered, and mentioned about a week ago. Tell all your friends!

By px | Also posted in personal | Tagged , , |

OpenID + Wordpress = <3

2008.02.16 – 4:52 pm PST

The pun is a little late for Valentine’s day, but I just noticed and installed it today. There is a working OpenID plugin for Wordpress. My previous method for using with Wordpress failed and stopped working several months ago, I forget when, I even left the plugin sitting there broken and activated until I just now removed it. How bad is that? haha, but anyways. You should also drop any old OpenID related tables from your database before enabling the new plugin. Enjoy the OpenID + Wordpress = <3 and always remember to back your database often.

By px | Also posted in WordPress, blogs, software | Tagged , , |

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