Beacon Journal | 03/30/2006 | We've lost that sense of identity
This struck a big chord with me. Now I have to admit I have not shopped at any of the places mentioned in the column, for various reasons:
Varca - It is on the wrong side of town and hard to get in & out of. I have been known to go to Bierce Hardware in Tallmadge before it became an Ace Hardware. I still get my glass repaired there.
Ahern's - I am not big on flowers, but even when we had to order them we worked with a store closer to our house. It, unfortunately, has closed as well.
Albright's - Frankly I don't buy that much lighting. One desk lamp and an outside flood light does not make for a great way to support any business.
The Freez - Out of the way for a custard stand, especially when I am about 5 minutes from the original Stricklands. They get 99% of my summer ice cream business.
The Hatterie - I do not wear that many hats. I have not bought a hat in at least 5 years, possibly longer.
However the point is a good one. I do try to support businesses that truely want to become a part of the community as much as I can. One store I do support is Acme grocery stores. My organic stuff is usually bought from The Mustard Seed or Kriegers.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Clooney's Oscar Gift Bag Nets $45,100 - Yahoo! News
Clooney's Oscar Gift Bag Nets $45,100 - Yahoo! News
There are times I wonder about Gearge Clooney, but this was pretty cool of him. This is the first time I had heard of him doing this. It does not sound like it is the first time he has done this. I wonder if it became newsworthy because of him winning an Oscar?
There are times I wonder about Gearge Clooney, but this was pretty cool of him. This is the first time I had heard of him doing this. It does not sound like it is the first time he has done this. I wonder if it became newsworthy because of him winning an Oscar?
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Apple Releases Software to Set iPod Volume - Yahoo! News
Apple Releases Software to Set iPod Volume - Yahoo! News
Why would anyone buy an audio device that they could not control the volume on? Shouldn't volume control be a given in any device that plays audio?
Why would anyone buy an audio device that they could not control the volume on? Shouldn't volume control be a given in any device that plays audio?
Sunday, March 26, 2006
RSS, BitTorrent & more media goodness
I am currently downloading an episode from season 2 of Star Trek:Hidden Frontier. Hidden Frontier is a fan effort of love, so it is not necessarily Oscar level performances, but it is entertaining. Each episode, so far, has been around 50-60 meg. Not huge, but still pretty good sized. Unfortunately so far most episodes require two downloads, plus an optional blooper file. This is an application screaming for BitTorrent. One file to get a whole season.
This is also something screaming for an RSS feed instead of constantly checking the site for a new episode. They do not seem to have an easily identified RSS feed just for the episodes.
Last weekend I spent some time downloading both music & film previews from SXSW. I did this last year as well, and the overall size is up: Just over 3 gig of music and another gig or so of film previews. At the same time I was downloading season 1 of Hidden Frontier and a few other things.
Now I know setting up an RSS feed is pretty much a no brainer anymore. In fact all blogging software has it built in. If the episodes were put on the net in blog form the RSS feed would become a given and there would be media goodness for all the Hidden Frontier fans.
However I am not sure how tough it is to setup a BitTorrent download. I am not a server guy, but I imagine there should be some way to easily get BitTorrent up and running for a site. Zipping the files together may not save space, but would make the season available as 1 file for download. That is what the SXSW people did - zipping MP3 usually results in a LARGER file, but it does make for 1 file for download.
The problem I have is Azureus always seems to bring my machine to a grinding halt. Azureus is, arguable, the most popular BitTorrent client around, but on my machine once I start it up the whole machine slows to a crawl. It also seems to introduce a fair amount in instability into my system, almost always requiring a reboot after extensive use. I noticed a similar problem with the Juice Receiver. Both are great programs, but to leave up for constant use you need to up your system resources a bit.
The true benefit of BitTorrent comes when you can leave your client up for long periods of time. However if your BitTorrent client kills the performance of your 512 meg laptop, you only leave it up as long as you are downloading something. I would love to leave my BitTorrent client up all the time. It helps everyone out, plus I could take advantage of BitTorrent podcast feeds.
I have been use Doppler as my primary podcast receiver. It has a few problems of its own, but it has a much smaller footprint than Juice, which allows me to leave it up all day. Doppler was written specifically for Windows, does a specific job, and does it well. My only real complaint has been it does not acknowledge a system shutdown request. That is small potatoes given all I get in return.
What would be great is a BitTorrent client that worked just like Doppler - small, efficient, and stable. If a BitTorrent client would play well in the background I would leave my running whenever my machine was on. If it played well with a podcast reciever even better. I would gladly switch many of my podcast feeds over to BitTorrent if I could consistently get feeds from small, stable programs that would allow me to use my machine while they worked in the background.
There has been talk about tighter integration between podcast recievers & BitTorrent for as long as podcasting has been around. Maybe both are too new to really make any headway on it. However with video podcasts this integration is becoming critical.
However an even bigger problem is mixed media fees. One of the first mixed media feeds I noticed was The Dawn and Drew Show. Every now and then they would release a video clip on their regular podcast feed. Adam Curry has been doing this a lot of late as well. When I was using iTunes as my player, this was not a problem. I would see the movies come up and I could take the time to watch them. However I now use either Windows Media Player (WMP) or my MP3 player for podcasts. I do this for many of the same reasons I switched from Juice - smaller footprint and it plays better with Windows. WMP handles some, but not all, video formats and my MP3 player handles no video at all (big shock there).
The problem is one player cannot handle all possible video formats, and there are plenty of popular ones out there. And what happens when someone wants to shoot a PDF through their podcast feed?
One of the advantages of a podcast receiver over a full RSS reader such as FeedDemon is that you can pretty much set up a feed and ignore it. You do not have to check show notes, you do not have to click on anything to fetch the enclosure. Of course going that route will let you know when you are getting the odd video. (FeedDemon does do auto downloading of enclosures, but runs into many of the same problems unless you consistently check the feed for what enclosures are being sent.)
So what is the answer? I'm not sure. To keep the asychronous of RSS, I would need some way of being notified when I am getting something "unexpected" in a feed. So, for example, when a video gets sent down a feed something happens to let me know I have something to attend to. Maybe the system tray icon could change, maybe an instant message, or an email. I would not want a message box to pop up every time something weird came through (although that might be an option for some people). It would also be cool if I could get a list of these files through the podcast receiver so I could play them at my leisure. That would be a lot simplier than playing Where's Waldo with these rouge files.
This is also something screaming for an RSS feed instead of constantly checking the site for a new episode. They do not seem to have an easily identified RSS feed just for the episodes.
Last weekend I spent some time downloading both music & film previews from SXSW. I did this last year as well, and the overall size is up: Just over 3 gig of music and another gig or so of film previews. At the same time I was downloading season 1 of Hidden Frontier and a few other things.
Now I know setting up an RSS feed is pretty much a no brainer anymore. In fact all blogging software has it built in. If the episodes were put on the net in blog form the RSS feed would become a given and there would be media goodness for all the Hidden Frontier fans.
However I am not sure how tough it is to setup a BitTorrent download. I am not a server guy, but I imagine there should be some way to easily get BitTorrent up and running for a site. Zipping the files together may not save space, but would make the season available as 1 file for download. That is what the SXSW people did - zipping MP3 usually results in a LARGER file, but it does make for 1 file for download.
The problem I have is Azureus always seems to bring my machine to a grinding halt. Azureus is, arguable, the most popular BitTorrent client around, but on my machine once I start it up the whole machine slows to a crawl. It also seems to introduce a fair amount in instability into my system, almost always requiring a reboot after extensive use. I noticed a similar problem with the Juice Receiver. Both are great programs, but to leave up for constant use you need to up your system resources a bit.
The true benefit of BitTorrent comes when you can leave your client up for long periods of time. However if your BitTorrent client kills the performance of your 512 meg laptop, you only leave it up as long as you are downloading something. I would love to leave my BitTorrent client up all the time. It helps everyone out, plus I could take advantage of BitTorrent podcast feeds.
I have been use Doppler as my primary podcast receiver. It has a few problems of its own, but it has a much smaller footprint than Juice, which allows me to leave it up all day. Doppler was written specifically for Windows, does a specific job, and does it well. My only real complaint has been it does not acknowledge a system shutdown request. That is small potatoes given all I get in return.
What would be great is a BitTorrent client that worked just like Doppler - small, efficient, and stable. If a BitTorrent client would play well in the background I would leave my running whenever my machine was on. If it played well with a podcast reciever even better. I would gladly switch many of my podcast feeds over to BitTorrent if I could consistently get feeds from small, stable programs that would allow me to use my machine while they worked in the background.
There has been talk about tighter integration between podcast recievers & BitTorrent for as long as podcasting has been around. Maybe both are too new to really make any headway on it. However with video podcasts this integration is becoming critical.
However an even bigger problem is mixed media fees. One of the first mixed media feeds I noticed was The Dawn and Drew Show. Every now and then they would release a video clip on their regular podcast feed. Adam Curry has been doing this a lot of late as well. When I was using iTunes as my player, this was not a problem. I would see the movies come up and I could take the time to watch them. However I now use either Windows Media Player (WMP) or my MP3 player for podcasts. I do this for many of the same reasons I switched from Juice - smaller footprint and it plays better with Windows. WMP handles some, but not all, video formats and my MP3 player handles no video at all (big shock there).
The problem is one player cannot handle all possible video formats, and there are plenty of popular ones out there. And what happens when someone wants to shoot a PDF through their podcast feed?
One of the advantages of a podcast receiver over a full RSS reader such as FeedDemon is that you can pretty much set up a feed and ignore it. You do not have to check show notes, you do not have to click on anything to fetch the enclosure. Of course going that route will let you know when you are getting the odd video. (FeedDemon does do auto downloading of enclosures, but runs into many of the same problems unless you consistently check the feed for what enclosures are being sent.)
So what is the answer? I'm not sure. To keep the asychronous of RSS, I would need some way of being notified when I am getting something "unexpected" in a feed. So, for example, when a video gets sent down a feed something happens to let me know I have something to attend to. Maybe the system tray icon could change, maybe an instant message, or an email. I would not want a message box to pop up every time something weird came through (although that might be an option for some people). It would also be cool if I could get a list of these files through the podcast receiver so I could play them at my leisure. That would be a lot simplier than playing Where's Waldo with these rouge files.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Finding drunks in a bar -- what are the chances? - Yahoo! News
Finding drunks in a bar -- what are the chances? - Yahoo! News
Ummmmm....yea, right. I am all against stupid drunk tricks, but I can't believe this is going to fly for long in Texas before EVERYONE starts to scream.
Ummmmm....yea, right. I am all against stupid drunk tricks, but I can't believe this is going to fly for long in Texas before EVERYONE starts to scream.
New 'Spider-Man' Plans Scenes in Cleveland - Yahoo! News
New 'Spider-Man' Plans Scenes in Cleveland - Yahoo! News
Cleveland is actually a pretty cool place to shoot second unit stuff. Skyscrapers, run down neighborhoods, industrial zones, even a port along Lake Erie.
Cleveland is actually a pretty cool place to shoot second unit stuff. Skyscrapers, run down neighborhoods, industrial zones, even a port along Lake Erie.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Spoil A Blogger Joy
I got this before St. Patrick's Day, but a busy week at work and some Internet problems over the weekend kept me from blogging about it. I still need to listen to the CD - just need to find some time to drop it in a player. I lack a CD player in my car. I left it at home today, so probably tomorrow. One thing I did notice is there was only 1 group on there that I have any CDs for - The Irish Rovers.
Beacon Journal | 03/19/2006 | Smoking ban may soon be doused
Beacon Journal | 03/19/2006 | Smoking ban may soon be doused
I hate this. Allow me to say what I said when there was first some communities opting out - what good is county council passing a law if the individual cities can decide to follow them or not? Either the cities within the county must follow the rules as presented or we need to get rid of county council. Otherwise we pay for no service.
I hate this. Allow me to say what I said when there was first some communities opting out - what good is county council passing a law if the individual cities can decide to follow them or not? Either the cities within the county must follow the rules as presented or we need to get rid of county council. Otherwise we pay for no service.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Beacon Journal | 03/14/2006 | Schools double teacher job cuts
Beacon Journal | 03/14/2006 | Schools double teacher job cuts
I'm tired of the scare tactics, and frankly they will not work. Two words - charter schools. Akron Public Schools are making themselves irrelevant.
The School Board flat out lied to us about no schools getting shut down to get us to sign onto the reconstruction plan. You are talking about even further school closing, some regardless of the passing of the levy. Frankly if you are shutting schools down you don't need as many teachers anyways.
I can't afford any more, and frankly until the State legislator gets off its ass to fix school funding in a way that is constitutional according to the Ohio Supreme Court I am not voting for any more taxes for schools. I think we all should do that, maybe then instead of debating the state amphibian we can get our state representatives to do something constructive like fund public schools.
I'm tired of the scare tactics, and frankly they will not work. Two words - charter schools. Akron Public Schools are making themselves irrelevant.
The School Board flat out lied to us about no schools getting shut down to get us to sign onto the reconstruction plan. You are talking about even further school closing, some regardless of the passing of the levy. Frankly if you are shutting schools down you don't need as many teachers anyways.
I can't afford any more, and frankly until the State legislator gets off its ass to fix school funding in a way that is constitutional according to the Ohio Supreme Court I am not voting for any more taxes for schools. I think we all should do that, maybe then instead of debating the state amphibian we can get our state representatives to do something constructive like fund public schools.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Amabassador Blasts Bruce Willis' Comments - Yahoo! News
Amabassador Blasts Bruce Willis' Comments - Yahoo! News
Instead of focusing on closing down the suppliers, maybe we need to concentrate on WHY so many people feel the need to take drugs. Cut on the demand, supply dries up.
Instead of focusing on closing down the suppliers, maybe we need to concentrate on WHY so many people feel the need to take drugs. Cut on the demand, supply dries up.
Beacon Journal | 03/13/2006 | Buzzards' arrival a big to-do in Hinckley
Beacon Journal | 03/13/2006 | Buzzards' arrival a big to-do in Hinckley
You have to love it. I'm sure the Buzzard watch has already begun.
You have to love it. I'm sure the Buzzard watch has already begun.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Bush: Port Deal Collapse Sends Bad Message - Yahoo! News
Bush: Port Deal Collapse Sends Bad Message - Yahoo! News
As a general rule of thumb, I think it is a bad idea to outsource security of our ports to any country, Middle Eastern, China, England, even Canada. We don't outsource our national defense, why outsource port security?
As a general rule of thumb, I think it is a bad idea to outsource security of our ports to any country, Middle Eastern, China, England, even Canada. We don't outsource our national defense, why outsource port security?
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Tribble or Hairball?
There are times I doubt the intelligence of my cat Fuzzbutt. However he has learned that, pretty much, if I am reaching for him from my chair he is either going to a) to get petted b) get wet with flea stuff or c) get combed out, which usually hurts. Fuzzbutt likes to roll around on his back and he ends up with matted hair around his shoulders along his spine where he can't reach while cleaning.
Today he jumped up beside me while I was sitting on my bed. I keep a comb for my cats near by for just such an emergency. The above tribble-like clump of hair was from the combing. If he would just settle down beside me more often we would not have to go through all this hair pulling.
Here he is after all the combing:
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
RIP Doms
Beacon Journal | 03/08/2006 | Patella remembered for character, integrity
I never played for Patella, but I did have him for gym class in his last year of teaching. He was a great guy, and one of the best (if not THE best) coaches at Akron East High. Everyone I know who did play for him had great things to say about him.
I never played for Patella, but I did have him for gym class in his last year of teaching. He was a great guy, and one of the best (if not THE best) coaches at Akron East High. Everyone I know who did play for him had great things to say about him.
WWdN: In Exile: how about a wwdnbot for aim?
WWdN: In Exile: how about a wwdnbot for aim?
Wil had the right idea, but the wrong format. Think SMS, aka text messages. Instant messages still suffer from inter operability problems, however AIM is better than nothing.
RSS is great for pushing out info, but there is a time sensitivity issue. If, using Wil's example, you had an appearance you would need to make sure to get it in your feed far enough ahead to a) allow people to see it in their feed and b) allow people to make plans. B obviously needs a bigger time lead than A, however you still would need at least 1 or 2 days to have a reasonable chance of letting everyone at least know.
However, what if you were asked to do a last minute fill in on Letterman? What if you need to cancel a meeting at the last minute with a group? Not everyone has their IM client open 24/7. Could you drop a quick text message to list and get near instantaneous notification? Not a new idea, but not one done here in the States. Mostly because US cell companies see text messaging as another way togouge their customers get revenue. The rest of the world GETS how to use text messaging - from using it to how to charge for it.
However the flip side to this was a somewhat recent article on 43 Folders. RSS is great, but some of its uses have left us spending too much time managing our feeds sometimes. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way for readers to detect and let you know "we see your delivery of yak hair has arrived. Do you want to remove feed foobar?" or maybe "You have not received something on the foo feed for 30 days. Remove it?" I would not want to automatically whack a feed - some of mine intentionally receive little traffic but I want that traffic when it comes.
I guess there is just a matter of how we get info (there is a timeliness issue as well, but Merlin touches on that at 43 Folders). Think about it - many of us probably have an IM client or two, an email program, maybe a couple of web email accounts checked on the web, and an aggregator (or two). This does not include multiple devices many of us have (cell, PDA, multiple computers, god knows what else) or services we use to keep some of our local data synched amongst the different machines (think NewsGator & Feedburner). For some eliminating one piece of the puzzle is a great help.
Wil had the right idea, but the wrong format. Think SMS, aka text messages. Instant messages still suffer from inter operability problems, however AIM is better than nothing.
RSS is great for pushing out info, but there is a time sensitivity issue. If, using Wil's example, you had an appearance you would need to make sure to get it in your feed far enough ahead to a) allow people to see it in their feed and b) allow people to make plans. B obviously needs a bigger time lead than A, however you still would need at least 1 or 2 days to have a reasonable chance of letting everyone at least know.
However, what if you were asked to do a last minute fill in on Letterman? What if you need to cancel a meeting at the last minute with a group? Not everyone has their IM client open 24/7. Could you drop a quick text message to list and get near instantaneous notification? Not a new idea, but not one done here in the States. Mostly because US cell companies see text messaging as another way to
However the flip side to this was a somewhat recent article on 43 Folders. RSS is great, but some of its uses have left us spending too much time managing our feeds sometimes. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way for readers to detect and let you know "we see your delivery of yak hair has arrived. Do you want to remove feed foobar?" or maybe "You have not received something on the foo feed for 30 days. Remove it?" I would not want to automatically whack a feed - some of mine intentionally receive little traffic but I want that traffic when it comes.
I guess there is just a matter of how we get info (there is a timeliness issue as well, but Merlin touches on that at 43 Folders). Think about it - many of us probably have an IM client or two, an email program, maybe a couple of web email accounts checked on the web, and an aggregator (or two). This does not include multiple devices many of us have (cell, PDA, multiple computers, god knows what else) or services we use to keep some of our local data synched amongst the different machines (think NewsGator & Feedburner). For some eliminating one piece of the puzzle is a great help.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies at 45 - Yahoo! News
Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett Dies at 45 - Yahoo! News
I am not a huge baseball fan, but having someone so close to me age-wise die of a stroke is weird. Granted at 41 I could easily be a grandfather. My old neighbors were, and great grandparents by 60.
About the only time you hear of a stroke in someone this young is in child birth (which I think would have been a bigger story) or some kind of gentic thing. Such a death though makes you re evaluate how you are handling your own health. Time to cut back on the nachos and get back in the walking shoes.
I am not a huge baseball fan, but having someone so close to me age-wise die of a stroke is weird. Granted at 41 I could easily be a grandfather. My old neighbors were, and great grandparents by 60.
About the only time you hear of a stroke in someone this young is in child birth (which I think would have been a bigger story) or some kind of gentic thing. Such a death though makes you re evaluate how you are handling your own health. Time to cut back on the nachos and get back in the walking shoes.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Oscars Ratings Drop 10 Percent From 2005 - Yahoo! News
Oscars Ratings Drop 10 Percent From 2005 - Yahoo! News
Nothing personal guys, but who has 3+ hours to devote to this kind of show anymore? I think the awards are important, but I do not think the show itself is important.
Nothing personal guys, but who has 3+ hours to devote to this kind of show anymore? I think the awards are important, but I do not think the show itself is important.
Joint AT&T-BellSouth Might Cut 10,000 Jobs - Yahoo! News
Joint AT&T-BellSouth Might Cut 10,000 Jobs - Yahoo! News
One question over this merger - didn't the government break up AT&T over anti-trust issues before? Isn't AT&T pretty much back to where they were before the break up? We have accomplished what?
One question over this merger - didn't the government break up AT&T over anti-trust issues before? Isn't AT&T pretty much back to where they were before the break up? We have accomplished what?
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