Jimmy Zhang is the best Ruby on Rails programmer.  He currently works at Howcast.com where he uses his Ruby Programming skills to advance the backend of the Rails powered Howcast platform.
You can’t actually hire Jimmy to be your Ruby on Rails programmer, because unfortunately while he is the best, he is also spoken for.
Prior to [...]

Filed under : Technical

The Plextor PX-M401U ConvertX MPEG4, USB 2.0, Digital Video Converter, was the foundation of Video Archiving at Akimbo.  In real-time you could capture any video source to a better than DVD quality at 4 megabit Mpeg4.  You could crank it to 9 if you liked but at 4 you could get better than DVD quality [...]

Filed under : Technical

Despite Parallels and VirtualBox both being programs which run virtual machines on Mac OS X, they both use different file formats for storing the virtual machines on disk. Though I believe Parallels will open a VirtualBox disk, VirtualBox cannot automatically import Parallels disks. But it's not impossible…
If the guest operating system, i.e. the system [...]

Filed under : Technical

This Guide will walk you through how to install a firewall on linux using IPCop
 
What is IPCop
The IPCop project is a GNU/GPL open source project that offers an exceptional feature packed 
stand alone firewall to the internet community.  Its comprehensive web interface, well documented 
administration guides, and its involved and helpful user/administrative [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

This guide will walk you through how to install wordpress.  It includes illustrations where useful, and links to everything you should need to get started.
1 Manual Installation
1.1 Getting The Code
First go to http://wordpress.org

From here you can go to all of the different parts of this site, including:
Support (http://wordpress.org/support) forums where you can [...]

Filed under : How To, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Technical

So I got DirecTV2PC working on almost all of the computers in my house, but not with out some effort, so I thought I'd quickly crank out a review.
DirecTV2PC is a media extender which talks to your DirecTV HD DVR unit.  You can watch any show which is already recorded or being recorded, but not [...]

Filed under : How To, Reviews, Technical

I had recently plugged my Xbox 360 in to my 1080p LCD, but now I'm in Hollywood with my Sharper Images Glasses rather than a TV, and they only support 640×480 so I needed to swap the resolution.  Sure I could try the slow button press and pray method navigating the blades, but there is [...]

Filed under : Gaming, How To, Technical

Michael Jackson has been criticized for lightening his skin, but Katie Holmes is a bit darker this week, as the result of a reaction to the Hypervitaminosis which often results from Purif.  Purif is the "cleansing ritual" or Scientology's Purification Rundown meant to detox ones body of all of the drugs stored in body fat [...]

Filed under : Celebrity News, Random News, Technical

If you are going to have your photo displayed on an iPhone, don't show your teeth when you smile, don't look directly at the camera, and don't be wearing white…
I had a "discussion" with someone who I work with who used the "authority by association" argument that Apple was the best platform for video [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

I don't get to pull the Sex Ed instructor card all that often, but there is a lot of news surrounding a German Spray on Condom.  I had actually been sent a "dip in" condom demo a few years ago, and both of these products have the same problems.
The first is that in order to [...]

Filed under : Life Hacks, Technical

Just because someone writes for StreamingMedia.com, doesn't make them an expert in the space.  Most the time it means quite the opposite.  I work for a company that is betting on H.264, but I quite strongly think Jan Ozer's piece (OS) about Microsoft dumping VC-1 is so poorly researched that Jan should consider a change [...]

Filed under : Industry News, Technical

Google is introducing a Web site tool called Friend Connect today that promises to extend the reach of social networks such as Facebook to any site that wants to use the tool.
That's right, now when I Google your name instead of getting your Linked in Page I'm going to see that your secretary bought you [...]

Filed under : Industry News, Rants and Tangents, Technical

I couldn't find any good resources to really show me how easy or hard it was going to be to replace the lamp (bulb) in my Samsung DLP.  So Christina made one, and it was quite simple.
Christina shows how easy it is to swap the lamp in your front or rear projection DLP, LCOS, [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, How To, Technical, Videos

I decided I was going to run Windows 2008 Server on my Asus G2S Laptop.
Not just any version, but the full blown 64bit version with Hyper-V. I found the experience Amazing. My Laptop runs much faster, and is rock solid. I even got Power Management to work the way I would expect. So here [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

For the most part it won't.  Hard Drives are virtually immune to magnetism from all but the strongest magnets. 
While we used to all walk around paranoid a small magnet would destroy the floppy with our term papers these days short of setting your laptop on the Bulk Demagnatizer that is used to deactivate the [...]

Filed under : Technical

Skip all the other specs, this is about why Digital Keystone Correction, sucks and why Optical is the only way to go. (as found in the Sanyo PLV Z2000)

Lets start with what Keystone correction is just in case you don't know.
When you set up your home theatre it is unlikely that you put your projector [...]

Filed under : How To, Reviews, Technical

Windows 98 Optimization Guide:
This tweak guide was written for advanced users. Smart users, who change one of these settings at a time, will find it useful… Those of you, who change all of these settings and then reboot, will watch their PC melt down before them (maybe not, but don’t try and sue me if [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

One of the duties of Dr. Watson, a Windows NT default system debugger, is to take a snapshot of the process space when a user-mode program crashes. Unfortunately, like Sherlock Holmes' friend, Windows' Dr. Watson is well-meaning but dim. It puts the snapshot in a file called user.dmp and saves it by default to a [...]

Filed under : Technical

Peroxide, Mountain Dew, and Baking Soda is all you need to make your own Glow In the dark, not for drinking used to be a beverage nectar of the gods. Anyone who knows me knows I have a small addiction to Mountain Dew, and now I can read buy it. Yes through the miracle of [...]

Filed under : Technical, Videos

Because HDDVD and Blu-Ray both use the same encoding format, and because the only real differences in most of the Dual Format titles relates to the menus, it shouldn't be surprising that you can losslessly convert between the two provided you have the right hardware and are willing to risk a DMCA violation for defeating [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

Well not quite, but close.  Nano Solar uses an inkjet to create solar cells that are extremely thin, and cheap to manufacture. Martin Roscheisen, CEO of thin film solar company Nanosolar, founded the startup five years ago when solar was no where near the hot topic it is today. He managed to fund the company [...]

Filed under : Technical

Greg Sterling posted about Microsoft's response to CapGemini rallying behind Google Apps.
Microsoft responded to the announcement of CapGemini support for Google Apps yesterday with a statement and a list of questions about Google Apps for the Enterprise — or reasons potentially not to use them. Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet has both, and the list [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

I am working on an experiment that uses Yahoo Pipes to start many of my blog posts for me.  This was partly to keep my blog moving while I go on vacation, but it is also turning into a way for me to Optimize my content for Search Engines.
SEO relies on a lot of factors, [...]

Filed under : Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Technical

Using tools that are already in my bag of tricks I could pretty easily ensure that copyrighted material would not stay on a video service, and detect copyrighted material before the copyright holder found it and asked me to remove it.
But if I built it, who would watch?  If you remove all of the content [...]

Filed under : Industry News, Technical

An Italian design company called Keymat Industrie has brought bling into the home by introducing the $130,000 Yalos Diamond TV, which features a diamond studded white gold frame, holding at least 20 carats of the precious gems in its own "grill." Available in 26, 32, 37, 40 and 46 inch sizes, I doubt whether the [...]

Filed under : Technical

I was having a discussion with someone yesterday and they thought that Apple TV was going to be able to work with any Online Video Service that used Flash and that would be huge, but it turns out that YouTube is converting content to H.264 for use on Apple TV.  This should be a higher [...]

Filed under : Technical

Xbox Live is picky about Firewalls, and Proxies.  Most of the time you will see the NAT set to strict not open when you are connecting through a device not on Microsoft's compatibility list.

The Above is what you want to see, but if you aren't here are the steps you need to take to get [...]

Filed under : Gaming, How To, Technical

Found amongst a co-worker's collection of connectors we came across this Disney Sound Converter, complete with Mouse Ears.  Done in shiny chrome, with what looks like a Parallel port, and phone jack. Is this the control device for Walt's Cryo-tube?
Chime in if you know what this really is.
 
 

Filed under : Technical

Downloading Video is getting more and more complex as there are increasingly more formats and more players.  Wrapping your head around it can be a challenge.  To help you out we quickly go over the Anatomy of a Video File

The First thing to know about your File is the File Extension.  Most of the [...]

Filed under : Technical

Screen shot for the benefit of WMtalk

Filed under : Technical

Here is the best answer to each of the questions posted relating to compression from the earlier quiz.
 
 
1. What is the Resolution of PAL?
720×576 is the visible area while 720×625 is the full picture resolution, in some cases the resolution might be 704×625 rather than 720.
2. How many conductors in an HD-SDI Cable?
Two – as [...]

Filed under : Technical

Snooptunes has released a product that claims to compete with Zune… But on closer inspection it really just allows you to Ear Spray over FM.
But that is a social networking method I hadn't thought of. Doing pirate radio a few feet from you using an FM transmitter.  iPod and Zune both tune FM, with the [...]

Filed under : Technical

Comcast is imposing limits on its higher bandwidth users…  I am Seriously concerned I will get a notice.  You see I gave up "live" TV, and have been getting all of my TV via Amazon, Xbox Live Market Place, and other various online place.  No P2P, this has all been legit.  This has partly been [...]

Filed under : Technical

I was reading an article on Jpeg2000 which offers some slight advantages over straight Jpeg which is the defacto standard for Photo's on the web.  Gif and PNG are great for graphics, but for Lossy Image compression Microsoft has created an image codec which offers twice the compression of Jpeg, and has artifacts that are [...]

Filed under : Technical

How many Apple engineers does it take to change a light bulb?  7.  One to design the light bulb and Six to Market it.
I heard this Joke on the Prairie Home Companion the other evening, and it resonated with me.
Combined with the joke about Intel Engineers. 
How many Intel engineers does it take to change a [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

"Your family Must Be Loaded" pretty much sums it up as we play the most expensive game of Uno ever caught on camera. We take Xbox 360 Gaming to a whhole new level as the XYHD crew piles in to my Jeep Wrangler, connected to Google WiFi, and mix it up in a round of Tom Clancy's Rainbow [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, How To, Technical

Tell the girl you are stalking how much you care, with song.  And rather than violate your restraining order serenading her under her window. Instead let all her friends and other stalkers know by using MySpace.
Step One: Pick an object of your affection.
Step Two: Go to InstaSong.com 
Step Three: Create a Custom Song
Step Four:  When you have the song [...]

Filed under : Dating in Cyberspace, Technical

“The result of extended dialogue with the mobile industry,” PlayReady offers PlaysForSure DRM for mobile phones.  This is not to be confused with Zune DRM which at least today will not work on a mobile phone.  PacketVideo vowed to be the first company to implement this content access technology.
PlayReady will be a licensable technology allowing [...]

Filed under : Technical

Google said something very right the other day. “The web infrastructure – and even Google’s – doesn’t scale, It’s not going to offer the quality of service that consumers expect.”  In short.  TV is going to ruin the Internet.  They are right.  We don't have the fat pipes we need for everyone to get their TV [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

NYT has a story entitled. Just Like High-Definition TV, but With Higher Definition.  The problem is it isn't news particularly that their is higher resolution than HD.  2k and 4k displays and Video cameras exist now.  I have equipment that supports Dual Link SDI for this purpose now.  For Cinema Displays you need this, because [...]

Filed under : Technical

It is partially my fault.  I did let the installer "Drive" rather than watching everything he did.  Which was dumb.  The first rule of securing your PC is don't let people you don't trust use it.  And people you do trust watch what they do.  This is security 101, but he was working on a machine [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

Pipes is a hosted service that lets you remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment. The name of the service pays tribute to Unix pipes, which let programmers do astonishingly clever things by making it easy to chain simple utilities together on the command line.
Similar to building a flow chart [...]

Filed under : Reviews, Technical

The One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC), which proposes to give every child in the developing world a computer of his/her own also plans to teach children to avoid multi-tasking, to live in a sterile environment and to expect security to get in your way at every turn… Which if you are a living in a [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

One of my biggest complaints with CDs isn't a fault in the media, it is the fault of the idiots who master them. It seems there is but one goal for them: to ruin my hearing. Great sound and great music require there to be several elements: punch, definition, and clarity.
Think of some of the [...]

Filed under : Technical

Visually lossless. That is an interesting term. We talk about capturing video and that we then use a Visually Lossless codec like Mpeg4, H.264, or DV, or Windows Media, or DivX. And we have all seen artifacts that crop up, but have you ever wondered how much difference there was between your images?
How about the [...]

Filed under : Technical

There is a downloadable upgrade for UMPC's running Vista which gives a very Media Center in less screen real estate experience.  It is actaully pretty cool even on my not quite an Origami.  Very small PC.

 
 
Or see the Demo Video here.

Filed under : Reviews, Technical

Emily's PC was running Vista Beta, so I upgraded her, and it went extremely smooth.  I was blown away.  I expected it to be straight forward but it was as simple as inserting the install disc, entering a key and pushing go.

Filed under : How To, Technical

What do I plan to do with all of those copies?  Upgrade.  My roommate needs a copy she has been running the beta, and my bedroom Media Center is getting the cool Vista UI.  Which for Media Center is Amazing!

I have a 4 gig SD card that I use for ReadyBoost.

Emily is most excited about [...]

Filed under : Site Announcements, Technical

The Guys at Gizmodo did a side by side of the various feeds from the State of the Union.  It is an interesting read.  They gave CBS the highest marks, but overall, I'd say their methodology was pretty unscientific.
I didn't think to try this, because I was busy on some other things that night, but [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

AACSLA the body responsible for licensing of the AACS technology posted to its site the following statement.
AACS LA has confirmed that AACS Title Keys have appeared on public web sites without authorization. Such unauthorized disclosures indicate an attack on one or more players sold by AACS licensees. This development is limited to the compromise of [...]

Filed under : How To, Rants and Tangents, Technical

Now you can video conference while Driving!!!!   I photo blogged once while driving… video conferencing seems slightly riskier.   I'm going to get Jake to install it as I have no phone capable of such shenanigans…
if you do you can get it here.
 
Microsoft Portrait for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC
 
Microsoft Portrait for Pocket PC, Handheld [...]

Filed under : Goofing Off, How To, Technical

Microsoft Research launched a Preview of photosynth which is an awesome technology.   Imagine looking at your Photos as thought they were spatially placed around a 3d world…
Imagine it this way.  You take family photos around the house, and the software uses similarity in the images to position them in a 3d model of your [...]

Filed under : Goofing Off, Reviews, Technical

Disclaimer: If you have a tendency to delete files that Windows 2k needs, thereby destroying your PC, This article is not for you.
If you are the type that rewrites the .DLL’s Windows uses in order to get that extra half a frame per second in Quake, only to have Windows write the old one back….This [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

It won't make your PC faster. It is on by default in Vista. TCP-IP version 6 is available for Windows 2000 here and Linux here.
What is it?
Currently the Internet uses IP Version 4. Version 4 is great for the most part but as it was really designed to handle only government traffic it is [...]

Filed under : Technical

One of the duties of Dr. Watson, a Windows NT/2000/XP default system debugger, is to take a snapshot of the process space when a user-mode program crashes. Unfortunately, like Sherlock Holmes' friend, Windows' Dr. Watson is well-meaning but dim. It puts the snapshot in a file called user.dmp and saves it by default to a [...]

Filed under : Technical

My mom needed a new TV.  Her last TV cost almost nothing and came from Wal-mart. 
The requirements:

Has to fit a 36 inch wide cabinet.
Must have an ATSC tuner
Must cost under $1000
Must have an amazing SD picture because she only has an aerial so there will be a good deal of static on many of [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, Reviews, Technical

Derek Flickinger of CEPro Quotes me in an article titled "Microsoft Misleads on Xbox 360 IPTV".   But we didn't.   We very clearly stated in the keynote that we were deploying IPTV with a long list of partners.  No one thought it deceptive of us when we announced cable card support for MCE that it meant [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Reviews, Site Announcements, Technical

Microsoft has so far not been directly attacked by the Mac/PC ads.  But they are now poking at Vista.  Interesting that a company that makes a product that is basically impossible to upgrade would run an ad implying that PC's were hard to upgrade.
 
For those of you wondering if you need to upgrade your PC [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

PS3 is claiming 1million units equals victory.  The truth is, That isn't even close.
HD-DVD has sold more discs than BluRay, and while the number of people who have purchased the HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360 is only in the 6 digit range, the 9 million unit head start that Xbox has on Units sold [...]

Filed under : Rants and Tangents, Technical

I bought a Microsoft vx-6000 because it promised to do 1.3 megapixel video. Well… it does do 640×480 at 30fps it does 800×600 at up to 15, and 1280×1024 at 15. So this is not the cheap build it my slef HD Cam I was hoping for. Still a cool camera, and not bad for [...]

Filed under : Reviews, Technical

This is a pretty cool way to play with vista, with out taking an hour to install it.  And you don't have to pay anything.
 
Yeah, it is not a Remote desktop, but it does show things off pretty well.

Filed under : Technical

There are always things I know before others that I can't share until someone else does.  (rules suck)  Ars technica did an article that only sratched the surface of the differences in video quality between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
Microsoft learned a lot of lessons from its first console experience, and its second gen [...]

Filed under : Technical

Several people have asked me if I would buy a Vista Ready or Capable laptop, and I tell them no.  While Vista Capable may mean it will run Vista it may not run it well.  My Libretto which I love dearly, has definite power issues under VIsta, because Toshiba doesn't support things like Screen Dimming on [...]

Filed under : Reviews, Technical

Doom9 has a thread on a tool called BackupHDDVD which appears to be capable of removing the encryption from BluRay and HD-DVD Discs.  While the tool does not include the Decrypion Key Necessary to do the actual decryption, those are not hard to come by thanks to google.
This method is apparently not flawless, but it certainly lends [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical

I got it all hooked up, was playing, and the stewardess comes over to tell me the controllers are wireless and I have to stop….
 2 I-suns, a power inverter, a Personal DVD player, and I'm playing Xbox 360 In first class.  12 year old next to me thinks he won the lotto. 
The 767 I [...]

Filed under : Gaming, Goofing Off, Hard on the Pocket Book, Technical

I was doing a search for a the registry key that shows the actual burn speed in Nero burning rom, and came across a site that Google told me was malicsious and I should not visit.  But this was the first hit.  Why would Google return a page it then blocks? And why would that be [...]

Filed under : How To, Rants and Tangents, Technical

Jake released a very good workflow for copying HD-DVDs.  I am planning to put out a work flow for grabbing screenshots from Xbox Games, but this will do until then.  

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, How To, Technical

 I have to point out going into this I was expecting that Xbox Live Video Marketplace to be better than DirectTV, but to pale next to HD-DVD.  This doesn't appear to be the case.
What Marketplace got right:
Lets start with the Basics.  HD-DVD has the potential to be 36.55 Megabits per second, but tends to average [...]

Filed under : Hard on the Pocket Book, How To, Reviews, Technical

High Def (HD), and Standard Def (SD) are the most common acronyms you will run in to, but you may also see ED for Extended Def.Generally HD is 720p or higher, SD is 480i and lower, and ED is 480p +/- 10% (We'll get to this).
For the purpose of this article we are going to [...]

Filed under : Technical

I'm blatantly stealing Images that Jake took with his two cameras, so that no one can say I picked the shots or the cameras to analyze.First the 1 CCD image and its histograms.
You can see how the bell curve is clipped? That is because the 1CCD camera is Not well balanced and so it doesn't [...]

Filed under : How To, Technical