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Today we took a nice day trip down to my parents' in Sterling, VA to visit with them and my sister & niece who were visiting for the extended weekend. You couldn't have asked for better January 1st weather - breezy and low 60's this afternoon, and not a drop of rain all day. Made for some efficient driving. ;)
Happy New Year!
15.8MB 48kbps MP3 46m 15s
This is our weekly Brutal Deluxe football podcast. Scott and I review the last weekend of the NFL season, and look at the Wild Card round playoff matchups. Of course, we talk about the Bills-Steelers game for a bit.
Credits:
Recommended podcatchers:
I tried out the MS AntiSpyware beta; on my Windows XP machine that has AdAware and Spybot loaded, it found one additional piece of spyware. Its interface is consistent with the Windows Security interface of XP SP2. It may be a good thing for XP users to use.
I've been working on an hourly script for ICYG playlist generation that takes a different tack than I have in the past. It looks at the live log file for history information, and then puts together an hour-plus long playlist and queues it up in the main ICYG FB2K instance. Previously, I was generating one playlist per day, with no outside history information used. I'm currently limited to a recurring run of a command (in this case, a .cmd script) using the FB2K scheduler plugin, but since my script uses an .ini file, I can play with shuffling around multiple valid .ini files via an outside process to achieve a certain level of programmability by hour. This is a work in progress, so we'll see how it goes.
Melissa and I were happy to see a new "Lost" and the return of "Alias" last night. This is the first time we've been able to see a new Alias in HD since WHTM-DT went live, and it was cool. It's a well-filmed show and shines in HD. Without spoiling it too much, they seem to be going back to the feeling of the first two seasons, although the way they're doing it is a bit hokey (to me). I guess we can discuss spoilers in comments...
Infoworld: HP, Panasonic to support each other's DVD technology
Many articles about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have compared them to Beta vs. VHS, but that's not accurate. Beta and VHS were so physically different that consumers had to choose one or the other. However, since the competing next-gen DVD formats differ logically instead of physically, I think we'll be seeing a detente similar to the one in the linked article very soon after the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles are released. It's already happened with SACD and DVD-Audio; I specifically picked the Pioneer DVD player I bought because it supported both formats. I suspect the same will happen with the next generation of DVD players.
We watched DodgeBall last night and thought it was hilarious. I think anyone who likes Stiller's previous comedies, particularly Meet The Parents and Zoolander, will like this film. It's good for at least a rent.
Besides Stiller's and Vince Vaughn's performances, I thought Rip Torn and Justin Long were quite good. "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." There's a killer cameo near the end of the movie that I won't reveal here. And, hey kids, even William Shatner shows up for some fun as the Dodgeball league commissioner. One of the best things about the movie is how it sets the rules up for "professional" dodgeball and takes them seriously; even though the movie is full of jokes, the dodgeball tournament is quite entertaining because you're believing the notion that this could be a sport. :)
Doug Kaye of IT Conversations wrote a superb essay on the subject of the various stereo modes available when encoding MP3 files. I knew of the "Joint Stereo" setting and how it is different than "dual-channel" stereo, but knew nothing of the tunings one can do to JS encoding. I've been encoding the Cygweb podcasts as 48kbps CBR 22kHz mono MP3's mainly because I didn't want to sound quality to suck too bad. I'm going to go back and try reencoding some of the podcasts with the settings Doug recommends, then compare them to originals.
This was my first trip to the IT Coversations wiki, and I'm finding it has a lot of good technical info in it.
Thanks, Doug!
I'm catching up on some feeds and podcasts while watching the game tonight (which is in OT!). I'm a pretty regular listener of Adam's and was mildly entertained when, earlier this week, he featured excerpts of Madge Weinstein, and he podcast a phone interview with "her". Apparently Madge is really Richard Bluestein (name dropped in the latest Trade Secrets), according to this reference. I'm surprised to find out that Adam and Dave didn't think Madge was an act before today; Madge seemed way over-the-top to me (and certainly like a man) the first time I heard "her". In the referenced TS podcast, they both seem miffed that someone would present a false persona as real in the blogosphere/podosphere.
It would probably be nice to know what's real and what's scripted in this community, but, like many things online, you gotta take it at face value. I think I have more of a problem with Dave and Adam being miffed at Madge (indeed, appearing to subscribe to the notion that "non-real" blogging/podcasting should be noted as such) than the fact that Madge is an act.
Watched most of the game tonight - the Jets stuck it out and beat the Chargers by a field goal in OT. Not the prettiest game by any means - Doug Brien's "double doink" (Madden's words) FG was emblematic of the futility of certain periods of the game. But, they won on the road across the country in the playoffs, and could make a game out of it in Pittsburgh, where I believe they'll be playing next week.
Ars Technica has published some great Monday Morning reading: A guide to ripping and encoding music. It's an excellent summary of the leading formats and methods and I think it gives a fair assessment of what's out there.
Microsoft Text-to-Speech in Python (pyTTS)
This is pretty cool stuff. Three guesses as to what I'm thinking of using it for. ;)
19.2MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 42m 01s (Torrent courtesy of Prodigem.)
19.2MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 42m 01s (Thanks, Scott!)
This is our weekly Brutal Deluxe football podcast. Scott and I review the Wild Card playoff games and look ahead at this week's Divisional round matchups. We also look at this week's news, such as some of the notable finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Credits:
Recommended podcatchers:
Update: I noticed my site's bandwidth was getting close to the limit, so I had to remove the direct download link for the podcast. Apologies if audio.weblogs.com directed you here for the MP3. Please use the Torrent link for now.
The Jets probably should have won yesterday. They had key defense/special teams plays that kept them in the game. Scott points out that Heinz Field may be the toughest place to kick in the NFL; between the wind I've heard about and the sometimes less-than-stellar field conditions (the Steelers share the field with the Pitt Panthers, and sometimes high school teams) I can believe it.
The Falcons rushed over the league's 29th-ranked run defense and kept "The Greatest Show On Turf" at bay. Can they beat the Vikings at home? Yes. Can they beat the Eagles in Philly? No.
Looking forward to today's matchups. My picks are the Eagles and the Colts.
Philly looked like the real deal today against Minnesota (especially on defense); I think there's now an excellent chance of a Turnpike Bowl. I think I called Freddie Mitchell's kicking-it-up-a-notch (2 TDs, 65 yds receiving) in last week's podcast quite well, thank you. It's a pity that his excellent attempt to get into the endzone resulted in a fumble and Minnesota touchback; that was some shifty contortion.
Of course, that means the Steelers would have to beat the Patriots, who completely tore apart the Colts. How many more times will the Colts lose important outdoor, cold games? I'll have to chew on all this weekend's games a little more before the next podcast so that I can properly pontificate. ;)
This is has to be one of my favorite, completely-random-luck ICYG song runs in a while:
Thanks, guys!
17.1MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 37m 23s (Torrent courtesy of Prodigem.)
17.1MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 37m 23s (Thanks, Scott!)
This is our weekly Brutal Deluxe football podcast. Scott and I review the divisional playoff games and look ahead at this week's conference championships. We also talk about being listed on a new sports-related podcasts site and make a special announcement related to podcasting in general.
Links:
Credits:
167KB 64kbps Mono MP3 21s
Podcastech Forum: a central place for the podcasting community to discuss the technology behind creating, delivering, and consuming podcasts. See you there.
Kudos to Google and the other major blogging & search vendors for teaming up to take a major step in the fighting of comment spam. I agree with Dave's assessment; this is cool. The 'href rel="nofollow"' approach seems logical to me; I can't imagine a commenter feeling disenfranchised by a site that implemented this change.
Six Apart has already released a plugin for MT, which I'll check out in short order. I hope it is configurable enough to allow MT admins to select how/where they want "nofollow" to be used. My initial thought is that I wouldn't necessarily need it to be implemented against comments from TypeKey-authenticated users. We'll see how it works.
Update: It looks like selective implementation of "nofollow" isn't available with today's plugin, but it's good to know it's on 6A's radar.
The Practical Superiority of HD-DVD:
Then there are the politics of this - the most interesting aspect. First, the DVD Forum has endorsed HD-DVD and not Blu-ray. The Sony-led Blu-ray consortium probably didn't think this was important, after witnessing the emergence of DVD+RW without any support from the DVD Forum.
Another subtext is the copy-protection mechanism. The HD-DVD system is being sold as uncrackable. True or not, it sounds good to Hollywood. Blu-ray seems more liberal in its approach, with "limited-copy" mechanisms similar to those found on DAT recorders. This factor alone could kill Blu-ray among the paranoid Hollywood types. One copy, even if legal, is to be avoided as far as they are concerned.
[..]
When you put these factors together, along with Sony's track record for being on the wrong side of the technology split, it's hard to see Blu-ray winning this one. Hello, HD-DVD!
So Sony's on the "wrong side of the technology split" and Disney isn't a "paranoid Hollywood type". I disagree. I have yet to read a technical article that explains why dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players can't be produced. Let the content providers worry about aspects like what discs are cheaper to produce and what format customers like better. This seems more like Dolby Digital vs. DTS than Beta vs. VHS to me.
(Note: First manual use of "nofollow".)
We moved our normal grocery shopping trip from Saturday morning to yesterday evening to avoid having to go out in the snow storm forecast for today. The latest news is that we're to expect 8-12" accumulation today. Ryan can't wait to get out in the stuff and play, although it'll be for short periods, since it is supposed to be quite cold today (high of 22°F). There's a chill in the house, even with the gas logs on.
Ironically, Ryan has his first swim class in a while tomorrow; hopefully the storm will have subsided by then.
18.1MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 39m 40s (Torrent courtesy of Prodigem.)
18.1MB 64kbps Stereo MP3 39m 40s
This is our weekly Brutal Deluxe football podcast. Scott and I review the conference championship games and talk about this year's Super Bowl matchup.
Links:
Credits:
Bills: Losman may take over as starter
The Bills are giving strong consideration to inserting second-year quarterback J.P. Losman as their starter heading into the 2005 season, an NFL source told the Buffalo News. Losman and incumbent Drew Bledsoe are expected to compete for the job in training camp, assuming Bledsoe is willing to participate in the battle and potentially serve as a backup if Losman gets the nod. Bledsoe is under contract through 2006 and would cost the Bills $6.5 million if he stays or a $4.3 million cap hit if he's released. Buffalo traded its first-round pick in 2004 to the Cowboys in order to select Losman 22nd overall.
The Bills offense could look much different next year with Travis Henry gone and Bledsoe potentially holding a clipboard. After watching their last game this season against the Steelers backups, I can't say that I'd be sad to see what the Bills can do with Losman and Willis McGahee as starters. J.P. was going to have a lot of eyes on him in training camp regardless of this news, but it's reassuring to hear that Drew is being challenged.
OK, I've been bitten by the Gravatar bug thanks to Scott. I'm using the "Gravatar Injector" MT plugin with a little CSS mojo to insert Gravatars inline with each comment (if available).
Gravatar hosts an avatar for you that will be inserted whenever you reference your Gravatar-linked email address on a Gravatar-enabled blog. Excellent service.
I neglected to mention that last week's Enterprise episode, "Observer Effect", was great. Gems like it are why I continue to stick with the show; besides the fact that I'm a trekkie.
We watched The Village last night, and I'm glad I avoided reading too many reviews of it beforehand. Like director M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, the twist of the movie is so big that it sours repeated viewings. In fact, just when you think you know what the twist is, the "real" twist comes. ;)
That being said, we liked it. The acting on all fronts was great, especially Joaquin Phoenix's stoic "Lucius Hunt". William Hurt's performance really helps sell the 1890s setting. Definitely a recommended rental; only Shyamalan's Unbreakable is a DVD I would recommended puchasing. It has a lot of staying power. It would be hard for me to rank this film against Sixth Sense and Signs. I probably would rank Signs as my second-favorite M. Night film.
I forgot that yesterday was a two-movie day for Melissa and me. We took the afternoon off together for lunch and a viewing of In Good Company, starring Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace. It was a good matinee; an enjoyable character study and criticism of mega-corporations. Definitely not a paint-by-numbers drama/comedy. The characters aren't predicable at all, and the climax of the movie is pretty strong. It's a good date movie.
I feel a little guilty for not having blogged too much in the past week, so here's a little catchup.
Oddcast v3 was crashing the ICYG FB2K source pretty regularly, so I've reverted back to Oddcast v2.0.13 for the time being. This means no MP3 stream for now. The good news is that I'm working with Oddsock to diagnose the problem so that he can attempt to fix it.
I've been playing with the Gravatar support here and I think I have it where I want it for now. I didn't want to do a wholesale redesign of the comments section of entries yet, as I've seen some MT-Gravatar folks do to great effect. I just bought the O'Reilly CSS book by Eric Meyer and will probably let it inspire me to do enhancements or redesigns of my site at a later date.
I couldn't find any local retailer that stocked Hi-MD 1GB discs (although it amazes me how easy it is to find 80-minute MD's), so I ordered 5 from B&H. I am really digging being able to put hours of easily tagged music onto a Hi-MD at its best ATRAC mode (Hi-SP). It sounds great. The reliance on SonicStage to get content on and off the unit via USB is the only real downside I've experienced so far. Since I knew about that when I decided to get it, it's not too big a deal.
Podcastech hasn't really taken off yet, but I haven't really done a whole lot to evangelize it since the announcement. Perhaps the community doesn't need it, but I'd like to think not enough of the community has heard about it. I'm going to post a little more of my own content there before another round of evangelism, which may include direct messages to the "Pod Squad" about it.
This page contains all entries posted to cygweb in January 2005. They are listed from oldest to newest.
December 2004 is the previous archive.
February 2005 is the next archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
