The fiber optic diggers are outside my house today. No sign of the orange covered light wire yet but it is sure to follow. It's a bloody mess but it promises great things in the future. Verizon has a fire in its belly. It's about time. I will be interested to see how long it takes for this FIOS network to be lit up?

Started the new year with a case of the flu. I'm on day 4. I think I am slightly improving.

One of the revelations for 2004 is the wealth of entertainment swirling around on the torrents. Of course, I have been aware of this but I am stunned at the wealth of things popping up on the trackers. I have especially enjoyed the ability to sample foreign content. Part of my success has been mastering the recode to DVD/SVCD/VCD using a tool like Nero. Once I worked out some kinks it has been working extremely well.

One of things that the easy availability of tv torrents addresses is the case of stranded new series viewers. This is the case where a tv series is abruptly cancelled without any recourse for the stranded viewer. For example, I have enjoyed the new Fox tv series House. I like the show on many levels. I am a fan of Hugh Laurie. Most viewers may recognize him as the father in the Stuart Little films. Many may not realize he is british. Anyway it's an interesting show and gotten good review. Still, Fox has the annoying habit of cancelling new series very abruptly. Shows such as American Embassy and Keen Eddie are examples. With the advent of tv torrent downloads, one at least has to option to revisit a series. Of course, a DVD is sometimes issued in the case of a cancelled show. I just purchased the Keen Eddie DVD. But, this is never certain.

The day I anticipate is when a production company that has its series cancelled in mid-stream will go to the net and offer un-aired shows for some small cost to be downloaded via a torrent. Of course there is a tangle of copyright and licensing issues but this really should happen. Copyright laws are strangling innovation and even commerce. There is money to made here for the forward thinking. Some think outfits such as Yahoo will one day start offering content?

Time will tell.

Fairly busy getting ready for holidays.

I've been sampling the future of TV via "broadcatching". Combining Bittorrent with the advanced mpeg-4 compression of Xvid/DivX has made it feasible to share current TV shows in very good quality online. This obviates the need for Tivo like devices. Add in another technology such as RSS and the entire thing is automated just like Tivo. The fly in the ointment is of course copyright and DCMA. Englightened media producers would embrace this technology but instead they will sue their customers until they realize it is hopeless. Then they will get on board with a way to profit rather fight it approach.

I was thinking about how such a service could work and came up with one idea that might be satisfactory. If producers of TV content replicated the P2P, MPEG-4, and XVid/DivX technologies but did so under a pay per download service they might be very surprised how well it could work. If they combined this service with a light layer of DRM and kept the costs to say a dollar a video they could have a winner. They could even embed some sponsor ads as well. I prefer to watch my video on TV so I would like to have a burn to disc option. I came up with the idea of adding a watermark to the video with the purchasers personal info embedded during the burn to disc option. Since most new shows are now HDTV and are letterboxed this information could be placed as a visible but transparent watermark in the black bars on the screen. This wouldn't be too annoying and would help satisfy the copy control of the disc. I wouldn't think that most people would want to circulate pirated videos with their personal information for everyone to see. Undoubtedly, someone would come up with a work around but I think this could work.

One of the best features of the current system is the ability to sample programs from other countries such as Canada and Britain. Of course, most of the content is of US origin but there are some very fun things showing up from overseas. I'd even be interested in non-english content if someone was up to adding subtitles.

Thanks to the Net, the world just keeps shrinking.

Read an article about Firefox in the Washington Post today which mentions a few tidbits of info such as typing in "about:config" in the address bar to access all the options one can change. Decided to type in "about:mozilla" and got this interesting page and quote:

And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon cowered in horror.

from The Book of Mozilla, 7:15

Curious.

Just did a search and there are other "about:" commands. Try "about:cache" or "about:credits" for instance. Or for the minimalist, "about:blank". Here's another good one, "about:plugins".

Continue with technical problems. Tried to burn some DVDs with my Sony DRU-530A recorder. Using updated Nero 6, I started getting "Power Calibration Errors". Did some research and discovered these occur because of media incompatibilities. I had recently upgraded the firmware to the latest version 2.1c. After further research, I downgraded to 2.0c and what do you know no more media errors. I did an online chat with Sony support and suggested they look into this issue. We'll see.

I discovered that one possible reason for the failure of one of my Dell Truemobile 2300 routers was an overnight power failure/surge. Grrrr. Pepco has ruined a lot of electronics over the years even though I use high quality surge protectors.

I purchased a new SMC 2682w USB Wi-Fi G dongle to try out. It seems to be working okay except that it seems to fluctuate wildly with its signal strength. None of my other Wi-Fi devices seem to do this. My Dell laptop is rock solid. It doesn't seem to affect my connection but it's a little disconcerting. I've contacted SMC support. I think it may be a driver issue? The driver is only at 1.05. Room for improvement there?

Argh!. Technical difficulties today. Went to use the upstairs computer rig and found that my Wi-Fi connection was down. Proceeded down to the cellar to check the cable modem status. Rebooted the cable modem checked the wired access on the downstairs rig which was okay. Then checked the dining room Dell laptop Wi-Fi connection and there were still problems. Sheesh. Twelve hours ago everything was working fine. So I reboot the Dell Wi-Fi router and still have problems with the laptop. I finally try changing the channel on the Wi-Fi router from eleven to six. Recheck the laptop and everything starts working.

Back to the upstairs rig which is a bit tricky since I use an identical Dell Trumobile 2300 as a wireless bridge. I try resetting to defaults and then load up saved config file. Still no dice. I try resetting again but nothing happens? I start to notice that when I plug in router that after a brief flash of the LAN led's that no lights appear for power, wireless, etc. Start to wonder if the router is somehow hosed?

Finally call Dell and tell them about the power issue and they agree that it sounds like the router has gone bad. How do these things go bad all of a sudden? There are no moving parts? Anyway, they're going to overnight a new one. Given this state of unconnectedness upstairs, I pull out an SMC USB wireless adapter. This fires up quite easily and once I get the config with my wep enabled network I'm on the net again. Since it's only 802.11b and my net is now 802.11g, I think about an upgrade. I notice a nice 802.11g USB dongle at the SMC website and check out some prices. I find one at J&R for about $40 after rebate. So I order it.

I think I'll bag the wireless bridge for a while since it can be a real hassle to debug sometimes. I will test out the replacement Dell router and then set it aside as a backup for the main router. I think this is a cleaner simpler setup.

I have to wonder how everything went haywire in the span of twelve hours without any obvious causes? I did notice when I was scanning for my wireless network that a second network was showing up intermittently. I suspect it may be my new neighbor trying bring up their own Wi-Fi net? This may be the reason I had to switch channels?

[Listening to: Track 2 - Unknown Artist - The Dowland Project: Care-charming Sleep (03:57)]

The flood of mobile MP3 players is quite overwhelming. I have been surprised that I have been getting a lot of use out of my Tungsten E as an MP3 player. Or, more specifically as an OGG player. Using the free for OGG Aeroplayer I have been quite pleased with this combo and a 256mb SD card. I'm trying to decide if I want to update my aging original Zen music player to an updated model. For casual on the go use, I am finding the Tungsten E a surprisingly effective solution. The advent of Podcasting also allows me to listen to Leo Laporte's radio show on the go as well.

I did watch with interest the release of the new Tungsten 5 from Palm. It was a surprisingly lackluster release with many renaming it the updated Tungsten E. The most glaring omission is the lack of Wi-Fi capability. At a price of $399 it is too expensive for what it offers. When you compare the T5 to the new Dell Axim X30 at about $250 the T5 pales in comparison. The downside is that the Dell is a Pocket PC design. Admittedly, Pocket PC has matured and I'm tempted to pick up the Dell on a whim at some discount and start playing with it to see if it stacks up. The Wi-Fi capability would be quite fun. The downside is that the Dell has relatively poor power ratings. This could be the crux of the problem of why Palm One has been so tardy in releasing Wi-Fi products in their hardware. They may feel that the power consumption for current Wi-Fi circuits is too much to be practical. Maybe they will crack this nut in the near future?

Another advantage of the Dell is it is capable of being a portable video player. I haven't had much need, but I am slightly interested in this use. I have recently began using the Plextor ConvertX DivX compatible video encoder with great success. I successfully converted several rare VHS movies and videos onto DVD for future storage. Just this weekend, I decided to hook up the ConvertX to my satellite output to see how practical this would be for recording various TV shows. I chose to capture a recent airing of the final Farscape movie - The Peacekeeper Wars. While airing for four hours, after deleting all the commercials the program clocks in at under three hours. I was able to burn a DVD in record time from the capture and even used some wallpaper from the scifi.com web site for the DVD menu. The result was very satisfactory. One of the keys to this setup was using a power activated USB 2.0 extender capable of reaching from my TV setup to the back of my computer (about 25 feet). This worked flawlessly. I think time as come that I can finally retire the VHS video recorder that I haven't used for years. I now have a viable recording option for those times I need to record something.

I had been thinking of buying a cheap DVD recorder this year. The Chinese have knocked the price way down. The cheapest I have seen is at Wal-Mart for under $150. If they went to $100 I might get one for kicks. But the advantage I have with the computer recording approach is that I can easily edit material and build full menus, etc. I am also thinking that Dual-Layer DVD recorders may be just around the corner so the days of the current crop of recorders may be numbered. I also have read reports that the current crop of DVD recorders are pretty buggy. Sticking with the computer recording model may be the best course for the present.

2004 is shaping up to be a very good year in musical releases. I'm just getting around to auditioning the new Smile release from Brian Wilson. Much has been written about this American musical legend. I've long held the Beach Boy's Surf's Up album as one of my favorites. A couple of Smile songs were included on that release. Feel Flows, a Carl Wilson song, is just outstanding. Sad that he passed away. Still, it is great that Brian Wilson has clawed his way back to be able to finally release his opus - Smile.

I've been very sluggish this week. Hard to know why. I have lots of projects I'm thinking about.

One project is to run some more wire for future network upgrades. Since learning of the Verizon Fios rollout in my neighborhood, this has taken a new priority. Running wire in an existing house is always a challenge although I have done pretty well so far. Additionally, I want to reroute my DirecTV feed. I've settled on a strategy. I think I'll run two courses of RG6 and two courses of CAT5. This should allow plenty for future updates as they come.

BTW, I scanned a web site yesterday that said DirecTV would be giving away Tivo like Hughes receivers to all their customers. I am a bit skeptical but it sure would be nice. I've had my current DirecTV setup for about seven years and it's been great.

I dropped by my local Tweeter on a whim the other day and actually had an intelligent conversation with a knowledgeable salesperson. Once I presented my hangups with the current HDTV rollout we found common ground and discussed all the latest developments. I have been pretty depressed about the state of HDTV but I am starting to see a glimmer of hope that it will eventually live up to its hype. Meanwhile, I will continue to enjoy my analog Sony XBR TV. I'll keep an eye on developments. I do wish someone would start cranking out $100 ATSC tuner boxes. Eventually these will have to be made to facilitate the mass migration to ATSC. I don't understand why these are not available in mass numbers? The usual refrain is that most people get TV via Cable or Satellite. Still, there will be a market for these.

Just found out yesterday that the new Happy the Man CD comes out on October 26th. It's been a long time coming but it sounds like it is worth the wait.