January ← 2005 ← A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

The clash of the TV Titans

Jan

2005

* First, read yesterday’s (1/27/05) front page WSJ article on the struggle between comcast and the tv networks/producers to deliver on-demand versions of popular programs. Comcast wants to screw the networks/producers, the content owners want to protect their revenue streams, and so users are left with nothing — or more exactly, users are pushed towards ...

Comcast Cablecard Install

Jan

2005

Today’s adventure — getting a cablecard from comcast. As anyone knows, their website is quite silent on how to order a cablecard. If you call them and ask for it, they will provide it finally with some arm twisting. Two techs showed up today. The physical install in my sharp aquos was quite straightforward. The ...

Blog Business Summit

Jan

2005

Attended part of the first day of this. Like many conferences, the audience was very bimodal — a minority of very knowledgeable industry people, and a majority of information seekers who are very new to blogs. Sometimes this made the presentations nonsensical — for instance a long discussion about trackback which the knowledgeable people already ...

Telephony Roundup 1/24

Jan

2005

I’ve yet to move my house over to a full voip install but still collecting lots of interesting links: * Pulver launches Bellster — now driving termination costs for calls to 0. Do I really want people calling out on my analog lines tho? * Prototype phone with zigbee integration — one attempt at dragging ...

Sage advice for the day

Jan

2005

Via Scott Loftesness, William Safire’s advice on his ending his NYTimes columns — “When you’re through changing, you’re through.” And John Zagula had a great meeting last week with Sidney Rittenberg — “Yes, the twin brothers of viability and contribution. Unless what you are doing is set up and made to be a viable enterprise, ...

Cloning your MAC address

Jan

2005

To take full advantage of the Network Magic beta release (i’m on the board), I decided to upgrade my router/firewall from a sonicwall box I’ve had for 3-4 years to a Linksys gigabit ethernet router (i’ll be switching all my nics to gigabit nics as well — $29 for the cheapest GBE nics at fry’s). ...

Net innovations I should/would like to learn more about

Jan

2005

From the last month or so: * Mozilla calendar. Calendaring is what keeps our business tied to exchange, sure would like to look at some alternatives. Webdav required here, I have always found webdav to be impossible to set up correctly. * Johnza finds the latest from 37signals — tada lists. I’m a dedicated user ...

FBI computer systems

Jan

2005

When I first read last week about the problems with the FBI computer system overhaul, I was pissed at our government. $170M wasted, now another $2M to consultants to figure out why. What waste — and in an important system. On further reflection, this is such an immature reaction on my part. It is the ...

Coercing features out of comcast

Jan

2005

Hey rich has been having trouble getting the new microsoft/moto dvr box from comcast — rich here is my blog entry on that. Also I ordered a cablecard from comcast today for my new sharp lcdtv — also impossible to find on the comcast website — call the same number as above and ask for ...

Various business readings

Jan

2005

These have intrigued me recently: * Graphical representation of Apple’s strategy via Gary Turner. Who would of thought 5 years ago that Apple would become oh so relevant again? * Conversely, Charles Cooper grades Bill Gates via the Seattle PI. Ouch and probably unfair, but an interesting take. * Kind of long in the tooth ...

Ignition blog roundup 1/18

Jan

2005

* Jobster is hiring — Web Developer, Core Developer, Lead Program Manager, Lead Product Marketing Managers, and Senior Marketing Communications Manager. OK all ignition companies are probably hiring, but phil is the only guy who’s asked me to post about it. Oh and nice press in the PI about jobster today. * John summarizes recent ...

Recent Books

Jan

2005

* “The Fermata”:amazon by Nicholson Baker. Reardon recommended this book to me, and I am worried for his soul. Very artfully crafted, very engaging, a nice moral redemption of sorts for the main character. And some interesting early discussion on moral relativity that isn’t ever really fully explored. But…all wrapped up in a story that ...

Impressions of Duluth

Jan

2005

Landed in Duluth at 9pm Saturday. Temperature on the ground: -20 degrees F. Airport has one ticket counter, a handful of gates, and a luggage carousel the size of a small bedroom. Hey, everyone here sounds like Frances McDormand in Fargo. Checked in to the brand new Country Inn near the airport. Very pleasant, brand ...

Sharp lc-37gd4u Aquos LCD TV — first impressions

Jan

2005

Just got one of these, in the course of a remodel. What a beast! One astounding part of this beast is the i/o ports available. Input: analog coax a, analog coax b, hdmi, dvi + stereo audio, component input 1 + stereo audio, component input 2 + stereo audio, s-video + stereo audio, center channel ...

The continuing collision of TVs and PCs

Jan

2005

* Sony’s new tv/pc combo — ok is there any reason why every new TV won’t someday have a pc next to it or in it? the cost of a reasonably competent pc core is driving down down down. The new mac mini seems like a great pc to put next to a tv. * ...

I get excited about vm-enabled polycore computing for entirely different reasons than jon.

Jan

2005

Jon Udell points to these great posts about vm-enabled polycore computing. Fascinating stuff. The writers are excited about server-side, datacenter applications. Personally I get way more excited about consumer applications. So not many consumers need to run thousands of vms simultaneously on their machines — but cheap creation of ephemeral vms would be great, the ...

Software history trivia from larry and raymond

Jan

2005

Love the discussions by raymond and larry about computer browsing and enumeration on windows. i worked on the windows for workgroups team back when all this was first created and deployed — i still remember the day that the microsoft IT staff came flying into my office with their hair on fire because internal betas ...

Seattle Blog Business Summit

Jan

2005

Thinking about going to the seattle blog business summit…

Grey winter days in Seattle make me want to go to one of these places

Jan

2005

In the northwest: * On Vancouver Island, the Aerie or the Wickaninnish Inn. Ok probably cold and grey right now too but would be great in the summer. * The Stephanie Inn has always been a winner for us. And we love Cannon Beach. * Further south is the Tu Tu’ Tun, we’ve heard good ...

Judy's Book — Board Meeting

Jan

2005

Had our board meeting today. Man I have to say I like our board. Chris (and Ted) from Ackerley Partners are great guys with domain experience that is so different than ours, and very complementary. I admire Jerry Colonna hugely, his openness and honesty on his blog are inspiring. And of courze the management team ...