Extreme geekiness
There are 700 posts filed in X-Geek (this is page 41 of 70).
Martian sunset
It’s not exactly a Christmas song but you can take a peek at what a Martian sunset looks like this time of year, courtesy of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Opportunity rover, still humming along on the surface of Mars.
There’s something comforting to me about seeing our sun set from the vantage point of a different planet.
I am in geek heaven with our new Roku box. This book-sized media player is simple to use and its simple to write applications for it. I signed up for the Roku SDK a few days ago and this evening I began working on a way to get my saved media to play on it. I’m happy to say I succeeded!
I used the homevideo apps by Brian Lane to create the appropriate XML files on my Apache server. It was simply a matter of adjusting the pathnames and everything worked.
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Strap on your geek safety belts: here comes a buzzword-laden post.
When I got my work laptop I promptly installed Ubuntu Lucid Lynx on it, choosing to add the new Linux filesystem, ext4. Over the course of using my laptop I have seen mysterious slowdowns, where the disk I/O seemed to grind to a halt.
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It turns out that Santa’s backhoe won’t be making the rounds this year, after all. Google announced today that they are delaying their site selections for Google Fiber until next year. According to Milo Medin, Google’s new Vice President of Access Services, the overwhelming response received from communities has added to the time needed to evaluate all proposals.
Hey, Google, I hear Google Fiber makes a great birthday present (hint, hint).
I was reminded today that Google has less than three weeks to make its site selections for its Google Fiber project. The post that sparked interest said that the company would be making its selection by the end of the year.
Which communities will Santa’s backhoe visit this year?
Update 15 Dec: Google says it needs more time to decide.
MT.Net weather station file photo
Well, it took me about a year after I set up my weather station in our current house before I actually connected it to the outside world but last night I got around to it. Seeing Travis’s taped-up toy weather station sitting sadly in yesterday’s rain got me motivated to give the kids some weather graphs and statistics to check whenever they want.
Now anyone can check the weather in East Raleigh by clicking on this link. Weather information updates every 10 minutes “on the elevens.” I still have to repair my wind speed gauge but everything else is working. Eventually I hope to upgrade to wireless (and solar) instruments I can mount above the roof but this will work for now.
Roku player
Having long become enamored of the Roku player, we bought our first one this week: a Roku HD that a neighbor was selling. Once again, I am quite impressed by this little box. Roku gets mad props for designing a fantastic user interface. I firmly believe boxes like Roku’s are the future of television, where one will buy individual episodes of shows rather than subscribe to a channel, cable tier, or the like.
Now comes the question of channels. What are the other Roku owners watching out there? Which ones out of the available channels have the more entertaining shows?
Photo by Gray Watson
There is good news today for homeowners who’ve been considering adding solar panels to their homes. Progress Energy received approval today [PDF] from the N.C. Utilities Commission to provide up to $10,000 in rebates for residential solar power installations. The program would begin January 1st and provide a $1,000 rebate per kW of solar capacity, up to a $10,000 maximum. According to the N&O’s John Murawski, a 10 kW solar installation that would normally cost $75,000 could be bought for $35,000 after the rebate and state and federal incentives are included.
I’ve been waiting for this program to materialize since fall of last year, so I’m finally glad it’s been approved. As for our home, I’ve been thinking a 6 kW system would be about right for our needs, though our large, southern-facing rooftop could host quite a bit more. I think 2011 will be the year to finally go solar!
I was doing some Internet searches to come up to speed on some satellite TV technology when I came upon this amusing Chinglish description for an amazing set-top box. It combines many of my interests: amusing, over-the-top Chinglish; Linux; and DVB-S satellite set-top boxes.
DreamBox DM7025 is one of the latest in the serials of wares from Dream Multimedia System. It is highly advanced and scientifically ongoing digital satellite catcher which is obtainable at exceedingly low-cost and sound monetary values from the cyberspace. The device has the fullest and greatest capabilities than some other electronic device from the very same make. Continue reading
I called someone at the city today and my call got sent to what sounded like an ancient voicemail system. I was subjected to a lengthy computerized lesson on how to leave a message and it struck me as so totally irrelevant here in the year 2010.
Answering machines have been around a long time. A man named Vlademar Poulsen invented the first one in 1898. Dubbed the telegraphone, it was a manually-operated means of recording a telephone conversation. It wasn’t until 1935 that a machine that could answer itself was invented by Willy Muller. It was later still (1960) before answering machines were first sold in the U.S.
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