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- Happy New YearNo matter if you come here regularly or just happen to stumble upon this website or RSS feed, please accept my best wishes for the New Year.
Since there isn't much else to blog about, I've added a short PHP function, to the ever growing library that powers this site and feed. It will simply generate all blog entries of the past year on a single page: http://wolfpaulus.com/2007/
Thanks to flickr, photos that I have uploaded during the past year can be accessed through this link:
Wolf
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfpaulus/archives/date-taken/2007/
Enjoy this short throwback, while I'm wishing you and yours all the best for a happy 2008.
- The air quality has improved to poor.At 5:23 PM today, the evacuation order has been lifted for Carlsbad residents and currently Carlsbad is facing no immediate threat from the fires raging around the county.
Like you may have heard, several fires have been burning in San Diego County since Sunday and many of my friends and colleagues had to leave their homes. Fortunately, the voluntary evacuation order for the area I live had been lifted late this afternoon and while the air quality is still very poor and the picture and stories you see and hear on TV and local Web sites are really devastating, there is still some kind of relieve, especially since the forecasted weather seems to support fire fighting measures.
Now, this is far from over and while evacuation order are lifted in some areas, new fires start in others, forcing more people out of there homes. E.g., as I'm writing this, a mandatory evacuation for Julian is issued. Julian residents were ordered to leave by the Sheriff's Department. There is no power or phone service in Julian and the evacuations are in effect at least until Thursday. Also, Palomar Mountain, with the famous Palomar Observatory is up in flames tonight.
Flickr for 'witch fire' to see some impressions, captured by local residents. - iDay in NYCHard to believe - I know. However, it really was not planned and merely a coincidence, but on June 29, 2007, the day Apple launched the iPhone we were there, at Apple's flagship store in New York City.
The media was all over the place, interested only in interviewing people who stood in line to eventually sell their spot. I guess that makes a better story than taking about the new phone or why not only geeks would be waiting in long lines to get their hands on one.
On June 29th, the store was closed between 2 P.M. and 6 P.M. However, we spent a little while in the store a couple days earlier and the all glass stair case really is impressive!
- Why I think newegg sucks
Arguably, we are buying not all that much hardware components and gadgets, still considering all the memory modules, hard-drives, USB-Flash drives, SD-Cards, Arduino Boards, routers, etc. it surely adds up.
Frys is still a place I really enjoy going to but most of the above-mentioned things are purchased from online e-commerce companies such as buy.com, newegg.com, mwave.com etc., among which I had always favored newegg - until yesterday that is.
I had ordered a memory upgrade for a Laptop, a standard 1GB • 200 PIN • PC5300 667MHz • DDR2 SO-DIMM and while the price was not the lowest, I considered newegg a trusted source, worth the few extra bucks.
Unfortunately, the memory did not work. After plugging it in, the notebook beeped twice but refused to boot. After a couple more equally unsuccessful attempts, including reseeding the memory, switching modules etc., I gave up and notified newegg of the broken part. What I hadn't realized until then was that at newegg even broken parts are subject to a 15% restocking fee.
$62.89 - $49.80 refund + $1.30 shipping cost for the return = $14.39
Having paid 14 bucks for a brocken SO DIMM plus a trip to the local post office makes it highly unlikely that I will be purchasing from newegg again any time soon.
Now let's just hope they don't mean the restocking fee literally or somebody else will (due to the very same memory module) go through the same process. Thinking of it, could circulating broken chips and charging restocking fees be a valid business model? Hm..
- Out of Balance
Most programmers, coders, hackers, Software Engineers, call them like you see them, don't eat healthy. There is just no time to leave the keyboard for having a healthy meal and instead we prefer a quick snack or a beer, depending of the location and time of the day maybe.
Despite the popularity of the well-marketed low-carbohydrate diets, a.k.a. Atkins Diet, the Carpentaria, CA based Balance Bar Food Company (bought by Kraft Foods in 2000 for approximately $268 million) stuck to their concept of making nutrition/energy bars that have balanced proportions of 40% carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% dietary fat, and are fortified with vitamins and minerals.
The Balance Bar's 40/30/30 principle, aimed at achieving stable blood sugar levels, is based on a nutritional philosophy popularized by biochemist and nutrition scientist Dr. Barry Sears and has been proven to provide sustained energy and hunger management. A box containing 15 bars costs about US$ 16 and can be bought by retailers nationwide or directly at http://www.balance.com/.
Being a proud member of the above-mentioned group of unhealthy eaters, I have too few meals during the day, don't spend much time thinking about calories and fat, and don't like fruits. I drink plenty of fluids - in the form of coffee and beer that is. However, for the last seven or eight years, I have made the Balance Bar part of my daily diet and while there are plenty of flavors to choose form, I enjoy the Balance Bar Gold triple-chocolat-chaos the most.
Since the Balance Bar is really tasty and has been a consistent and healthy part of my everyday selection of food, I immediately noticed the new designed box and wrapper. Comparing the nutrition facts revealed that not only the packaging had changed but also content and not for better, if you ask me.
- Subscription TVTIVO and ReplayTV introduced us to a new way of watching television, conveniently time-shifted watching. A disposable recording of previously selected content allowed us to consume the TV broadcast whenever we wanted; maybe just 15 minutes delayed, to skip over commercials, the next day, or whenever we felt was a good time to watch it. Anyway, time-shifted watching has changed the way we watch TV today and with the exception of sporting events, long gone seems the time of appointment TV, were millions would tune in to the same channel at the same time to consume the same broadcast.
An even greater change is just beginning to unfold, what TIVO did to the time of TV consumption, devices like the announced Apple iTV will do the the content that we are going to watch. While TIVO and ReplayTV were put between the cable-box and the TV-set, iTV connects your TV-set to the Internet and thereby enabling your TV to display content not governed by TV Networks or cable providers.
Watching TV may soon involve subscribing to a show (not available on any broadcast or cable channel, like a video Podcast for instance), which is then downloaded regularly to a computer at your home and available for you to watch whenever you like.
A couple of days ago, I had the chance to pick up one of the first Intel-based Apple MacMini, which come with an Intel Core Solo processor, 512 MByte of RAM and a 60 GByte Hard-drive; the perfect machine to be converted into an TV-Internet Connector and to try out, how Subscription-TV would work for me.
- Diggnation Comic-ComSan Diego's Diggnation fans were in for a treat this Friday, when Diggnation Episode 55 was taped in front of a live audience at the La Jolla Brew House.
Thanks to the Comic-Con Convention, which is also happening his weekend at the San Diego Convention Center, the whole crew, including Kevin Rose, Alex Albrecht, Keith Harrison, David Prager, and Jay Adelson showed up.
Taping took place in a back room at the brew-house, in front of what must have been the biggest diggnation live audience yet. Spotted in the audience were some very special guests, including Alex's grandparents and Posh from the suicide girls. As always, the guys were really funny and the crowd almost exploded when Johnny Johnny from the TikiBar podcast made a brief appearance, serving some hight voltage beverages.
- Two iDogs rock on stageWe got two new tech pets over the holidays, two iDogs. These cool little toys look very Apple-style but were originally made by SEGA and are now distributed by Hasbro and others. You could use an iDog simply as a speaker for you iPod (or any other MP3-player - in case there are still other players out there) but it is so much more.
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Blogs, Podcasts, and Video Podcasts for December 2005
Here are some of my favorite blogs, podcasts, and video podcasts:
Blogs
- TipMonkies
TipMonkies covers various aspects of technology, from software, hardware, services, hacks, etc. and attempts to bring these topics to the reader in a way that anyone can understand covering tools which you may not know even existed! - Garr Reynold's blog on issues related to professional presentation design
- Romain Guy's playing with Java, Swing and UI Design
- TipMonkies
- Appropo E Solutions and the Digital AgeBank of America has some cool online features available for their checking account customers. For instance, they scan every check and you can view them online when looking at your statement. Credit Card Accounts are a different story.
Last night, when checking my Credit Card statement online, I noticed two transactions I couldn't remember.
- free vs. fairMost of us probably think that globalization is a good thing. We expand the market, develop, produce, and sell more goods and every body wins.
After a couple years into it however, we have a huge trade deficit, above all with China, Chinese companies start buying (vital?) US companies like Unocal, the US's ninth largest oil and gas production company, China and India each produce more PhDs than the US, while we cut back on education and squeeze more children in a single classroom.
Has it ever been more expansive or less attractive to become an engineer in the US?
Would we at least know how to make a flat screen TV that could compete with one build by Sharp?
- Listening to Podcasts .. it ain't healthy.Being a jogger for many years, it's only since I got my Shuffle that I take an MP3-Player more or less regularly with me when running. Before I had one of the cool looking Samsung Yepp players but that didn't have the iPod Shuffle's capacity nor could I operate it without stopping. The display-less and easy to navigate shuffle on the other hand, I can control without even slowing down.
- Podcasting and the law of conservation of modularityFlying to Sunnyvale, meeting up with developer peers is fun, wouldn't there be the flight. Seems like I'm unable to have an ordinary uneventful trip and it wasn't any different this time around. Due to a deadly traffic accident on the I5, driving the 30 miles from Carlsbad to airport in San Diego took me over 3 hours. Usually, I would have considered this 3 hours wasted but not this time. A couple weeks ago I bought an iPod shuffle and discovered Podcasts.
Podcasting describes the technology used to push audio content from websites down to users, who typically listen to it on their iPod or other audio player that supports mp3 - think about this as a time shifted radio broadcasts.
Podcasting uses an (RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, based) XML descriptor to tag the content. This XML-descriptor gets consumed by the Podcast Client Software (PlayPod or iPodder, which is capable of downloading the audio files and placing them for instance in the local iTunes library. From there, the files are easily synchronized with the iPod.
There are quite a few Web sites already offering Podcasts. However, currently the ultimate starting point seems to be Postcast Alley, a searchable directory containing user feedback.
- Taking the iPod shuffle for a runAfter loading up the iPop shuffle with lots of songs, I took it with me running on Saturday and Sunday. Like expected, the Lanyard is not for jogging - at least not if you don't want to injure yourself or fellow runners - and until the Armband arrives, the little pocket inside the runner-shorts will have to do.
- Peaceful and QuietBob came over for dinner on Friday and while we wanted to plan a trip to this year's United States F1 Grand Prix, we were way too tired after a couple German and Austrian beers. Tickets went on sale last week but there is still plenty of time - race weekend is June 17-19.
I resisted and did not visit either of the two Apple retail stores in San Diego and spent Saturday in the Laguna Mountains instead.
- Remember Miracles?I just got an email from TVShowsOnDVD confirming rumors that ABC's Miracles will be released on DVD in April. It will include all 13 produced episodes; the six that originally aired on ABC, plus the seven never-before-seen-in-America episodes.
About the Show
Paul Callan is about to embark on the most amazing journey of his life.
As an investigator of modern miracles, Paul (Skeet Ulrich) finds the result is always the same: a mundane explanation and a crowd of disappointed believers. With his faith dwindling everyday, his only belief is "we're all alone down here."
Then something happens to change all that.
As I have learned by looking through some of the info out there, really hardcore fans of the show call MiraclesHQ their home. Anyway, looks like Shout! Factory will compile the stuff - to keep informed about the release schedule etc., check out TVShow's Miracles page.
Believe in miracles?
..
Believe in miracles!
- A Couch Potato Weekend
While some (or may be even most) of you already have bought HDTV equipment and service, I'm still watching TV on by Philips 27PT643, a very reasonably priced stereo TV with a truly amazing picture quality. It has a 27-inch Real Flat black matrix picture tube and is equipped with a comb filter. The Motorola Digital Cablebox I got from Adelphia is hocked up to the TV's component video input, while the APEX-AD-660 DVD player is connected to the TV's S-video in.
From the kind of equipment listed above, you may have guessed that I'm not watching all that much TV. However, this weekend a Dual-DVD box set I had waited for, for years, finally arrived from Germany: Der Seewolf, a 4-epidode (6 hours long) mini series that ran on German TV in 1971.
- Outsource ThisWatch Jason Alexander looking for all those jobs out there!
- DiaryUsually I keep this Web blog focused on Java, XML, Mac OS X, wireless/mobile embedded-systems, and Open Source technologies. However, every now and then an artist comes along with a song that demands notice.
The last time that happened here, was after the iTunes for Windows launch, which featured Sarah Mclachlan's Song Fallen.
Check my blog entry back from October 2003.
This time it's Alicia Keys' diary.
Enjoy!
- Knight MovesConsolidation is expected after a recession and like the new economy didn't really change the rules, the new recession didn't change them either. Like expected, small fish are currently being swallowed by big fish (i.e. Verity buys Cardiff) and going forward we will see the big fish being eaten by the even bigger fish.
Last year a Towers Perrin and Gang & Gang study showed that tech workers view their employers in an increasingly negative light - most employees in IT and engineering don't seem to be all that satisfied. Donald Lowman of Towers Perrin, said "Organizations may face real risk when the economy improves and top talent begins looking for greener pastures elsewhere."
Now must be the time Donald was referring to. We have seen some signs of an improving economy and companies start to hire again. San Diego based Qualcomm for instance held its first job fair since 1997 this month, drawing an estimated job seekers crowd of some 7000. Engineers burned by the dot-com-bubble seem to avoid risky moves and gravitate towards well known huge businesses.
Then, there is Andrew Binstock of course, principal analyst at Pacific Data Works LLC and columnist for the Software Development Times, telling every engineer who wants to hear and everyone else too, to get out of Software Development and get out now. He wants us to totally concede to the guys in India. Andrew writes "Offshoring is a reality. Time should not be wasted denying, decrying or deriding it. That time is truly lost. Spend the time adapting ... if you want to be coding, then you need to make important moves soon to assure your ability to continue programming. Your first option is to seek work at small businesses that are not candidates for offshoring."
- Is Apple's iTunes client for Windows a hog?As if you wouldn't have guessed, I installed Apples iTunes client for Windows almost immediately after it became available. The sound quality seems to be much better than what I'm used to (RealOne Player) but bringing up Windows Task Manager confirmed my suspicion, iTunes is one resource hungry hog, deploying an iPodSerivce and iTunesHelper besides the player. All together those things inhabit over 35 MB of your PC's RAM and while playing, iTunes accounts for about 7% CPU usage on a P4-2GHz.
Anyway, usually I don't spend time on all these cool and hip music sites but checking out iTunes was the perfect excuse to catch up. Fortunately, when iTunes for Windows launched, the store site features Sarah McLachlan's new CD, which is going to be released on November 4th.