Do You Use RSS?

I think that RSS is one of the things that contributes to the slim pickings here on the TANBI site.  My subscriptions accumulate at a rate of about 800 articles a day.  Really it has gotten a little out of control.  These days most of the time I just click through the que looking for things for the greenpage.  I used to use Google Reader, and when they killed that off I switched to Feedly.

Reader had this feature that I really miss with Feedly.  On the older platform a user created an additional feed with their tags.  That way I could have a tag #Greenpage and there would be an address I could share with others and they would see everything I tagged - even if I didn't eventually publish it on the other page.  I probably identify more that double the articles I actually use.  It'd be nice to be able to point people to the full list should they have an interest.

Recently I've found myself wanting a feature that neither the old or the new platform delivers.  I would really like to have an expert system crawl everything currently unread and group articles with common content.  I subscribe to many feeds with overlapping content.  I guess I could just pick one and delete all the like feeds, but I feel like I would miss content that way.  But it would be useful if the app would automatically boggle the stories down so that I only saw what was unique from each site.  That way if I were interested in a particular story all the coverage would be in one place.  Even better, when I'm not interested I could dismiss all the common articles at one time.

I'm fairly sure the analytics for this aren't too complicated.  Many of the search engines turn up news stories this way on their results page.  I wonder how hard it would be to apply the same idea to an RSS account.

Do You Know What This Means?

Yes?  Well that makes you at least that much more PC savvy than some of my coworkers.

Last week I was at a meeting where attendees are often required to look at online content during the course of business.  I got there on time and plugged my machine into the brand spanking new power grommet in the center of our conference table.  Once I started up I got the lovely update screen and remembered that the computer had downloaded a bunch of updates when I shut down the night before.

All of which is fine.

Fine until one of my esteemed colleagues decided that they were also going to plug into the same power grommet and that their plug wouldn't fit with mine plugged in.  And so with a concurrent "I have to unplug you" my power was cut.

See how above part of the instruction is not to unplug?  Turns out they mean it.  My machine immediately executed a shut down and when I tried to restart it would dump into a DOS screen.

Thanks for that.

The cocked up OS meant I had no working machine, which in this particular case meant I had no Teacher's Machine for the next day's CAD class which I wound up cancelling.  But I didn't cancel until I had maybe 3 hours into trouble shooting the thing.  It seemed like after a while that booting in safe mode and then going back to a restore point would do the trick.

Unfortunately it wasn't the trick I was hoping for.  For a minute it looked like it worked, but then after windows did successfully boot the machine dumped into a Blue Screen of Despair.  That was the moment I decided I was going home and that class wasn't going to happen.

The next day with the help of our IT guy we figured out what the new problem was, and with some fairly good troubleshooting found the correct procedure to repair things.  We had to re-register part of Windows and then change the boot mode to delete the virus software.  That took around half a day to accomplish.

I learned not to unplug things without asking first when I was in high school.  I unplugged a bass players amp without telling him.  He gave me a proper chewing out and I haven't forgotten.  Someone ought to chew out my colleague.

So do your friends a favor.  If you need to unplug their computer, give them a few seconds heads-up first - and maybe glance at their screen in case there are crystal clear and totally unambiguous instructions to follow.

What Happened to Chat?

I used to chat a lot. Every machine I have has AIM loaded on it and has it in the startup so that it boots right there every time I turn on a machine. I went from AOL to AIM when I dropped AOL. I've had Trillian and Pidgin. Recently I added my Facebook friends to my AIM installation and thought that would mean WAY more chatting. But it hasn't. There's so little chatting now I've thought a whole lot about uninstalling the applications. I've long thought that the AIM app was a tiny little boat anchor slowing down everything else I do. I probably won't do anything so drastic. But I do wonder where all the chatting went.

I've read online that chat's been replaced with SMS and Skype. I guess that's possible. People are way more savvy with their cell phones, and the cell phones have much easier text entry. Maybe a lot of what was chat is now SMS. I guess the same goes for Skype. Why would you sit at your computer and type when you could sit at your computer and talk; or even talk with video. AIM had audio and video a long time ago but I think it was software ahead of the hardware curve. For some reason I never used it. But really there's another thing here. SMS and Skype aren't the same as chat. Chat is a different mode. For one thing, you sort of have to put yourself out as being available for chat. SMS is as intrusive as a phone call - well maybe only as intrusive if you expect to converse. If you're just shooting out a message SMS is *perfect* but for talking... pretty much the same as a phone call. Skype is different too. Maybe I'd feel different if I were a regular user, but I don't get the feeling you just leave a Skype connection open when you are doing other things. Chat was sort of the ultimate side conversation. Really I am surfing or playing a game or working, but while I am there's this slow running continuous conversation going on.

Maybe it's that the people I chat with have become busy. Chat does have the handicap of having to be sitting at the computer. Years ago I would sit at this screen for many more hours than I do now. Many of my friends have had kids or changed their work or job situation. Those are all things that would take people out from in front of their screens. I shouldn't begrudge them their quality of life just because it cut down on my socializing.

Could be it is about screens. With my phone and my tablet I don't get in front of my computer all that much anymore. I can even blog fairly well from the tablet. I tend to not run AIM from either of those devices. I'm not sure why - ok really the reason why lately is that there's so much less chat. Why would I? Could be that it's the same for other folks.

I've been looking at the "hangout" thing on Google+. It seems to me that maybe that's the heir to chat. I could see just leaving that open. Although the video dimension of the thing is certainly a game changer.

It's probably not a bad thing that chatting has dropped off. It was in all likelihood distracting and I can say for sure that my Pacific timezone buddies often kept me up much later than is healthy for me (good thing I don't have buddies in Hawaii). Still, I miss the interaction and the ability to keep up with what people are doing and what they're thinking in real time. Facebook really isn't a substitute, even if they are the new AOL.

Expensive

Apple cables are expensive. We've been setting up our A/V here at the new Chez TANBI and the tablets are a new dimension. We have fairly new TVs in two rooms, one's that will take VGA directly or HDMI input, and another older TV that does S, Composite, or Component video. What with Netflix and HBOGO on the tablets it seemed like a good idea to get the cables needed to make things talk to each other.

We already had a VGA adaptor cable. We'd been using it on the bedroom tv in the old place. I wasn't 100% happy with that though, so for the new instance I got an HDMI adapter. Good thing I already had some HDMI cables around (and that I'd spent considerable time sorting cables over the weekend). Wouldn't want to have to buy a cable on top of the near $40 for the adapter. It's a nice compact thing though and does have a USB split off of it so that you can plug in the power while you're using it. That's something I was thinking would be a good idea with the VGA adapter I already had (which doesn't have that capability).

For the old set I got a composite cable/adapter. It was also on near $40. I'm telling myself that there's some electronics in the thing and not just pin switching. Otherwise the Apple folks have been taking lessons from the Monster Cable folk. This cable also has the power split, although if I leave it set up like I think I will I might wind up needing another wall wart for it.

Here's the kicker though. Both arrangements work swell. I even managed to get one of the sets to resize the thing to the screen in a way I hadn't been able to before (in the original setup the picture was sort of narrow and off center and I could never find the right control). The rub? HBOGO disables the external viewing option. So if you want to watch that library you have to do it on the screen on the tablet.

I think this is a little odd as you can use an external monitor for a laptop when doing HBOGO from the web. Its just the apps on the mobile device that has the restriction. We surmise it's because they don't want you taking your 3G mobile device to someone else's home, where there is no HBO, and watching their content on a real screen.

But then there is 3G internet for laptops too, so that's not a great reason.

So a little bit this renders the cable on the old TV moot because we had the capability to stream Netflix through the Wii already. The interface is a little better on the tablet, so we get that, and there's anything else we might want to get on a big screen: photo slideshows and the like.

But no HBOGO.

Makes an already expensive cable seem even more expensive.

I Wonder...

... if this will beat Level 6:


It kicked the shit out of level 5.

When I think about how complicated I made my solutions to this level before. What a waste.

Try it yourself, at your own risk: Xeno Tactic

Want:

Too cool for school.

Troubleshooting

Laptop Slingplayer not working. I...

• checked the firewall - ok
• shut down the firewall anyway
• connected with tech service
• ts has me reinstall the Slingbox firmware

now I should at this moment tell you what I told them, that the players on my desktop and Mrs. TANBI's laptop work fine. Drama school troubleshooting training suggests to me that the problem is with my laptop, but I go with it anyway...

• ts has me cold boot the slingbox
• ts has me cold boot the router (which terminates the tech service session)
• complete the cold boots and restart the laptop for good measure
• reconnect with tech service since it still wasn't working
• ts resets all the settings to their originals
• ts fails
• ts tells me Verizon sometimes squeezes bandwidth - I tell them it shouldn't matter because its all in the home network
• ts tells me to check the system requirements for Slingplayer
• say goodbye to tech service
• check the system requirements, the laptop is fine
• delete and re-install the player software, this was an upgrade but didn't fix the problem
• check the functionality while wired - WORKS FINE, hmm
• check the wireless network connection

and here we find what seems to be the problem. I mean the connection "linksys2" is slow, but connected - but our network isn't "linksys2." Seems that when my laptop boots it defaults to connect to some crappy neighbor network. Who knew?

• disconnect and block crappy neighbor network
• connect to our wireless network - PRESTO!

Can I tell you how happy I am that I am not a tech service operator? How far down their question menu do you think they have to go before they ask "Are you sure you are connected to your network?" I mean "are you connected to the internet?" is obvious, and also impossible in this scenario as the TS is chat based, but "are you connected to your network or some crappy neighbor network?" That would be some seriously phat technical support.

So, the new and improved list of completely ridiculous and yet totally necessary tech support questions are:

1. Can we please first verify the power light is on?

and

2. Are you sure you are connected to your own wireless network?

You know, when they say life has become unnecessarily complicated, they might actually have something.

3

Out With The Old...

And in with the new...


The Slingbox installation has been proving more difficult than anticipated. I'd managed to get it working on our network, but not I nor the tech people at Sling could get it to work over the internet. After some scrounging online I decided it was a hardware configuration problem and before I fixed it I thought I would see if I could upgrade our DSL equipment.

So we've gone from two devices to one and from 802.11b to g. There's a pretty crappy "maintenance fee" Verizon is apparently charging now, but I think I can live with it if everything else works properly.

Still don't know if the internet connection works - have to wait until tomorrow for that.

(ooh, I took these pics with the camcorder instead of my camera. They're only 640x480 native, but I still think they came out pretty good, just peachy for net posting anyway.)

A Few Things

I couldn't do it, I tried but it just didn't happen so we can't cross anything off yesterday's list as of tonight. I did manage to get a couple of things done. I got a haircut I've needed for about a month, and I set up one of the holiday gifts but all that documentation - less so.

The new class is coming together for me though, percolating. I am a strong believer in creative abrasion, the process by which ideas rub against each other in your head even when you're not actively thinking about them. Last night I think I cam to a preliminary content list:

1. Building Materials
2. Tools
3. Shop & Theatre Safety
4. Woodworking
5. Standard Scenery
6. Basic Rigging
7. Fabricating Scenery
8. Installing Scenery

16 weeks, two sessions per week makes 32 sessions. 8 topics and 32 sessions makes roughly four sessions per topic. I think I can work with that. Each of the topics could likely be its own course, but that's not the point of this class. If need be I could swish sessions around some; I don't think I want to talk about materials for four sessions, and "tools" has probably been covered fairly extensively already. That's good though as it will leave more time for some of the other topics.

I think we'll also continue the NewsPage and bring back the materials report, incident report, and add a "new gear" report. I'm also fairly certain we will solve one scenic piece each class. We'll also probably need "crew issues" which I haven't really needed for like two years. On top of that I am toying with the concept of asking this class to attend each put-to-detail and install scheduling meeting - seeing as how the class is "fabrication & installation" I can't think of any more specific means of bringing production to lab than that. Well that and then having the class available for production projects involving building or installing scenery.

So that's almost a class.

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Here's some unsolicited advice for the people running TV.

I know the writers' strike is starting to play havoc with the available content on air. I can tell by the dwindling new shows in the DVR menu. So a few thoughts...

First, don't make Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do their shows without writers. It's not the same. Even they know it's not the same; Stewart said the first night back "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has writers, without them it's just A Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Here's my thought, instead of their normal shows have them do a one hour Match Game in their place. Stewart could host and Colbert and the rest of their reporters could be the panel. They could bring in their writers as contestants. The game phrases could all be political: "Hilary Clinton it so emotional" (HOW EMOTIONAL IS SHE?) "Hilary Clinton is so emotional, when reporters asked Bill how she was holing up he said: It's even worse then when I blanked!" It would likely be better entertainment and it would draw continuous attention to the fact that the strike continues.

Just a thought.

Then also, I believe we ought to get right on the American version of Ninja Warrior. SpikeTV has the Japanese version of this show on right now and I think they could get decent ratings doing an American version...



... the Japanese version has athletes, celebrities, and even regular people; here they'd have a stable of TV actors, athletes, reality stars/champions, Playboy playmates, society celebrities - it'd be WAY cool. Someone get on that.

And another thing.

There are great shows on some of your more obscure cable channels that in all likelihood most of America hasn't seen that could make nice filler on network. Things like The Closer would be cool. I think Ice Road Truckers or Dangerous Catch would have legs - hell, if he could run I would vote today for Sig Hansen for President.

But the show I think would have the best chance would be Hustle...



It ran on AMC up until recently and is just fantastic. I am sure even I haven't seen all the episodes, and I know I would like to.

Of course, I guess there's also something in the idea that if they don't fix things it's better for us all in the end.

Oh, and Doctor Who and Torchwood wouldn't be bad additions either - but that's just me.

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The end of all productivity.

Tonight I installed a Slingbox on the Cable/DVR we have. It was a gift from my parents and should pretty much mean I will never accomplish anything ever again. For those of you that don't know, this is a device that streams the output of a video device over a computer network.

The upshot? Using our WiFi network we now have TV (and the contents of our DVR) anyplace in the house where we have a computer - as I type I have a crappy SciFi movie running in the upper right corner of my display (right over that annoying ad on the AIM console). So without buying another TV we have TV in my office, Mrs. TANBI's library, the kitchen, the workout room, the laundry room, the garage, the yard... you get the idea.

But wait, there's more!

See the Slingbox also serves the media over the internet, so when I get around to it I can download the player app at work and have cable TV (and the contents of my DVR) on my computer at work. I'm going to need Louis to rig me up dual monitors.

Maybe I should look again at that class up top and see if there's a place for episodes of The New Yankee Workshop streamed to class from my bedroom. Could work nice (and my Dad thought he knew how to use TV for class - ha!)

Cooties

Browsers were redirecting to 101links.info - uncool.

Here's how I've spent most of my recent free time...

• Deleted all temp files and cache.
• Run AdAware and deleted everything it indicated.
• Run McAfee Virus and found nothing.
• Run RougeRemover.
• Run Registry Booster.
• Unselected any unusual entries from the "StartUp" tab of MSCONFIG .
• Deleted anything unusual from the scan results of HijackThis .
• Uninstalled all Java instances.
• Uninstalled AdAware.
• Installed Spybot .
• Ran Spybot and deleted everything it indicated.
• Uninstalled all unrecognized apps.
• Uninstalled McAfee Virus and Firewall.
• Installed Symantec Anti-Virus.
• Installed ZoneAlarm.
• Ran Symantec Anti-Virus and found nothing.
• Installed Fixwareout.
• Ran Fixwareout.

Cooties gone. Woohoo!