August 2005 Archives

An older hard drive I had slapped in a cheap external USB housing (for MP3 storage) was getting increasingly loud (it's all ball bearings these days, you know), so I had my eye out for a replacement. Not willing to spend $1/GB typical of many pre-packaged USB external drives, I finally found a deal I could live with: a 120GB Western Digital Dual-Option External USB Hard Drive for $80 after rebates at Circuit City.

I have no idea what the "Dual-Option" nomenclature refers to since this is USB 2.0 only (no Firewire/IEEE1394). Perhaps the two options available are that you can lay it down on its side or stand it up on its edge with the included feet. ;-)

This sits in our family room where we watch most of our TV and movies, so noise was a real concern. After reading several reviews suggesting it to be quiet, I bought it with some confidence. Boy, they weren't kidding. Even with my ear next to the unit, I can barely tell it's on.

Setup was easy, although I didn't use the included automated backup software (we're using it just as a media storage drive). The casing looks nice and the entire package seems to be of high quality. If you need more room, then opt for one of their larger drives (up to 250GB at the moment, I believe). And yes, the little buttons in front are dimly lit with blue LEDs (this ain't no disco).

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Now I just hope CC processes my rebates.

Specs:
- Model number: WDXUB1200BBNN
- Spindle Speed: 7200RPM
- Cache: 2MB
- Hi-Speed USB 2.0
- Read seek time: 8.9 ms
- Contents: External drive, USB 2.0 cable, A/C adapter (2-part cord), software CD, plastic feet fixtures
- Physical dimensions: Do you really care? It's a freaking external hard drive.

My fill-up this morning.

Got 10 minutes to kill before that next meeting? Check out Bow Man, a Flash-based game that offers an addictive combination of simplicity and challenge.

The arterial spray is an excellent touch.

Play now

Lost Remote has a great entry about the recent uproar over two murders in Aruba. They compare Aruba's muder-per-capita rate with other places in the hemisphere.

Last year in Aruba there were two murders - possibly just one, depending on which stat you believe. We'll go with two anyway. No tourists were killed. That's a murder rate on Aruba of a little over 2 per 100,000, but we'll call it an even 2. Or look at it this way: The Aruba murder rate is .0002.

Still, you can't go a minute without hearing about Natalee and you're worried. Maybe you're switching your vacation from Aruba to Jamaica. Bring some Kevlar. Murder rate: 32 per 100,000.

Read the entire story.

I installed MT-Blacklist 2.04beta, a comment/trackback anti-spam utility for Movable Type, 13 days ago. Since then, it has outright rejected 1,395 submmited spams, flagged 52 for moderation (of which most have been legit), and blocked 39 duplicate submittals.

I knew I got a lot of comment spam, but I didn't realize it was over 100 a day! Thanks, MT-Blacklist, you're a life-saver.

In what may turn out to be one of the most confusingly branded products in the handheld space, The Register is reporting that Palm will be starting production of a new Treo (the 670?) that will run Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.

If this isn't a sign that the apocolypse is just around the corner, I'm not sure what is. Next thing you know, we'll have Apple selling Macs pre-installed with Windows.

Also, Engadget is reporting that Palm is supposedly readying their newest Palm-Powered Treo (the 700?), which has such yummy goodness as a 1.3MP camera with 8X optical zoom, a revised shape with smaller antenna, and EVDO (for high-speed CDMA data).

Ah, Palm, at least you keep us figuring out new ways to steal enough money to buy your stuff.

I don't know why I find this so funny.

Ever in search of the better baby cam, I snagged an HNC230G Wireless-G Network Camera from Hawking Technologies. There are many wireless network cameras out there, but I chose this one due to the combination of it having 802.11g with a very reasonable price (under $90).

What's a wireless network camera, and how does it differ from a webcam? Good questions. Webcams have to be connected to a computer, usually via a USB cable, and merely send image (and sometimes sound) data to the PC. Network cameras have their own embedded web server built right into them so they can broadcast their signal to the local network (and out to the Internet) without a PC. They have their own IP address, so you can access them independently of anything else on your network.

In the box was the camera (which was surprisingly small...maybe the size of two decks of cards), a short CAT-5 cable (needed for initial setup only), A/C adapter & power cord (the only wire needed when the HNC230G is in wireless mode), ball-joint mounting kit (a very nice bonus!), and the requisite software CD.

On the camera itself are several features of note: a power plug, an RJ-45 plug, an antenna mount, two screw sockets for mounting on the included ball-joint (one on the top and one on the side), and 4 status LEDs (thankfully the config software lets you turn these completely off).

Setup was pretty easy. First, you plug the camera into power and wire it directly into your network router (initial setup requires a wired connection...can't be done wirelessly). Then, install the setup software onto a PC on the network and run through the camera's wireless setup wizard. After that, once the camera is happily talking to your network, you can complete the configuration wirelessly.

As you can see in the photo, I mounted ours underneath a cabinet in the corner of the kitchen. It's fairly unobtrusive...visible, but it doesn't draw your attention. The power cord is tied up in a little bundle behind the camera...you can just see the 802.11g antenna peeking out from behind (ignore the coax cable there...that's unrelated).

So how well does it work? Pretty well, overall. When using the camera's wireless connection to view the camera's video in a web browser (it requires a Java applet), I get 6 frames per second (fps) at 160x120 and 320x240 resolutions and 2-3 fps at 640x480 (note that my wireless network is 100% 802.11g). When using a wired connection, I get somewhat faster video, although not at the camera's advertised rate of 30 fps. Image quality is quite decent...very acceptable, as can be seen in the screen cap below (that's our dog in the foreground). The camera also comes with viewer software that will let you watch 4 network cameras simultaneously (for security applications or, I guess, if you have lots of kids).

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. I had always wanted an 802.11 network camera, but balked at the price. Prices have really started to drop recently, and this budget offering from Hawking Technologies doesn't disappoint.

I'm a greedy, self-centered consumer. I want the best of everything for a reasonable (not necessarily the lowest) price. And you know what, that makes me not even the slightest bit different from the majority of consumers.

As a consumer looking out for my own best interests, I've come to the conclusion that 1 is a sucky number indeed. 1 sucks when there is only 1 company in a market because, more often than not, its products and services start going downhill fast. The firm doesn't have the competition to spur it on to improve and innovate.

For example, I run exclusively Microsoft operating systems on our PCs here at home. Does this suggest that I want Microsoft to be the only supplier of consumer operating systems? Not hardly. In fact, I wish they had less market share than they do now so they'd be motivated to update Windows even faster and better than they have been. Another example is Firefox, the open source browser. When Internet Explorer had like 96% of the browser market, Microsoft essentially stopped improving it (apart from the requisite security hole patching). Now that Firefox has gone from 0% to nearly 10% of the browser market in under 18 months, Microsoft is all of a sudden breaking out Internet Explorer 7. Don't tell me that competition doesn't help us consumers.

ebay is another example. If you want to auction something online, ebay is pretty much the only game in town. ebay knows this and has essentially stopped trying to make significant improvements in their service. Right now, they're just raking in profits and buying other companies (e.g., Paypal). There are lots of things ebay could do to improve their auction services. But, because they basically have no significant competition, they see no reason to spend the money on making these improvements they could otherwise distribute out to shareholders. This doesn't do us consumers any good (unless we also own ebay stock).

1 is a sucky number sometimes even outside consumerism. For example, I'm not devoted to either of the two main parties, Democrats or Republicans. I've voted for both in my life, and may well possibly continue to do so. But, as we see the "balance" of power list dangerously far to the right in this country, we start to see the problems that become even more rampant when there is only one party: corruption, abuse of power, favoritism, nepotism, and a total lack of moderation. Amazingly, the political party starts acting just like the firm with monopoly power and becomes an ineffective, if not outright bad, institution. If the Democrats continue to fall further into disarray and organizational atrophy, we risk becoming a one-party nation. And we know how well those do.

Rooting for the underdog is an American tradition, so I urge my fellow countrymen to go out and support that #2 (or #3 or #4) company/party/organization they've had their eye on. Buy a Mac. Use Firefox. Vote Democrat for a change. Support the underdog and keep potential monopolies from consolidating their power. Do this because, frankly, it's simply in your own best long-term interest.

Wired posted an interesting story about how makers of Christianity-based video games are trying to woo console and handheld gaming platform makers to help them promote their products.

Christians looking to provide alternatives to the sex and violence of video games like Grand Theft Auto are trying to attract some of the PlayStation generation with more wholesome fare.

Fledgling companies from around the globe showed off new titles focusing on morality and stories from the Old and New Testaments aimed at pre-kindergarten to young adults at the Christian Game Developers Conference here last week.

The startup companies hope that games with biblical messages can parallel the recent surge in the popularity of Christian music and cinema. But don't look for multiplayer smiting or wrathful vengeance in their offerings: The games that will show up on retail shelves in time for Christmas emphasize narrative stories and learning rather than action.

I predict these games based on "learning rather than action" will appeal to nobody over the age of 10, and certainly not the segment of the market who is most likely to have a PS/2, PSP, or Xbox. However, if we just look at some recent news headlines, some interesting ideas for novel Christian-oriented video games start to materialize:

• Rudolph Gets Two Life Terms for Alabama Abortion Clinic Bombing -- There's a creative game concept for the action-oriented Christian faithful: bomb an abortion clinic. This has Tactical FPS written all over it, maybe even collaborative online play for taking on the dreaded Planned Parenthood coalition. Bonus points can be scored by taking out morally corrupt "activist judges" as well.

• Thousands Gather to Celebrate Megachurch -- The obvious extension is...SimChurch! That's right, you can be the shepherd of your very own mega-flock. Run marketing campaigns and membership drives, gain sermon skill points to motivate your congregation, and compare your score (a combination of conversions, baptisms, and average weekly donations) to those of your friends. A Catholic priest plug-in allows special counseling sessions with young parishioners, but don't get caught or your total score will suffer (the plug-in is rated 'M' for mature).

• Fanning the Controversy Over 'Intelligent Design' -- The obvious game concept here is to Be The Designer! Design your own planet -- even create sentient beings in your own image -- and then watch how it plays out over an accelerated period of 4,000 years. You decide whether you want to be an activist designer and interact with the planet's residents directly (via the "Miracle", "Flood", and "Plague" buttons) or you can play totally hands-off (although this would probably become pretty boring after a short while). You can even try out different "original sins" and see which combination results in the most corrupt life forms. Think of it as "Civilization" without the interesting bits.

So, I think you can see that with just a bit of creative exploration, the Christian-oriented game biz could come out with some really compelling new concepts. Definitely something to keep an eye on...

I remember people saying with great sincerity that the Internet would connect buyers and sellers directly and cut out the middleman (i.e., retailers). Well, apart from ebay and a few wholesale .coms, this couldn't be further from the truth.

In fact, a whole new breed of middlemen has sprung up because of the Internet. PayPal, ebay clearing-houses, and search engines are all examples of new businesses playing the middleman role...and making money at it.

ExtremeTech has an interesting little article about another Internet middleman whose business is booming:

Commmunications clearinghouse NeuStar Inc. reported its first public quarter of revenues, with a roadmap to 36 percent revenue growth for the rest of the year.

The reason? NeuStar is responsible for managing all telephone portability within the U.S., transferring numbers from one carrier to the next. The company also manages the Common Short Codes governing the SMS service, as well as the directories for the .us and .biz Internet domains.

Ah, yes, the middleman is definitely dead. Long live the middleman!

OK, I'm addicted to Battlefield 2 (a.k.a. Battlefield2 or BF2). It's a terrific game -- very good mix of strategy and FPS action.

Related to that, I just came across an amazing site: bf2s.com. There you can get all the stats on any player registered in the BF2 system (which is required to play online). One of the neatest features is the ability to compare two players: the resulting page shows only one set of numbers, but the numbers are color-coded to show who has the lead in each stat.

Also, you can create your own personal leaderboard, say, for a team, and see a constantly updated summary of each member's stats on a single page. Very cool stuff.

Update (8/8/05): Well, BF2S.com seems to have had its tie to the stats server severed, so in the meantime, check out www.paradroid.net/bf2stats. Not as complete, but very quick to update.

OK, in my never-ending quest to make GearBits easy to leave comments on while keeping the spammers at bay, I've installed Jay Allen's much ballyhooed MT-Blacklist 2.04beta (which supposedly works with Movable Type 3.1x and above).

I'll know if it works in a day or two...and so will you all. :-)

If you notice any weirdness, please let me know...leave a comment or email me at craig dot froehle at gmail dot com.