For nerds only - binary countdown to launch of xbox 360.

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10 myths about HDTV
HD Beat

keywords: hidef high definition HD

Posted 7:54 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Pretty cool site that shows live (?) shot of the earth from above with weather, and day/night shadows.

World Sunlight Map


Posted 10:14 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

TV episode blogs - just found these guys through an iPod article talking about the Lost episode now available on iTunes.

TV Squad


Posted 4:35 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

First few of many links to all things about the new Apple Video iPod.

"First Looks" with many pictures and a run through of the features.

Here's a quick blog post with some links to converting video. Unfortunately it has a slant coming from Mac OS X
Boing Boing: Apple's new thing? Video iPod. But more crap-o copy-blocking.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Thanks to Engadget for a tutorial on how to get video from a DVD to iPod compatible video (on Windows). However, read the comments - the gurus are pointing out that the double re-encode is going to give crap output. I'm sure there are going to be many other paths through the video encoding maze... Maybe watch AVSFORUM.

Here's a HOW-TO from Engadget that shows how to convert video from Tivo to iPod. Although I have the superior ReplayTV :) instead of Tivo, once I have the MPEG2 on my PC (thanks to DVArchive), then I can follow along with this flow.

Another from Engadget - shows length of encoding, quality, etc.

TVHarmony has a product that will move vids from Tivo to iPod, PSP, AVI, MPEG. Haven't looked at it extensively, but can probably be adapted to work on MPEGs from my ReplayTV.

Here is another article from Engadget showing Videora iPod Converter (apparently a command line front-end for ffmpeg), all free tools. The Videora tool uses BitTorrent and RSS to grab shows as they become available.

Sweet looking wireless headphones for iPod. See how the iPod sits on the side?

Here come the iPod speicific torrent sites!
This article talks about Podtropolis

PodGuide.tv -- A guide of links to sites that produce video specific iPod video-casts.

Classic - the "proprietary" Apple A/V cable to output on TV only switches a couple of the leads. Check this out.
Basically, from iPod, Red is video, white/yellow are audio.
iPod red/yellow/white go to TV yellow/white/red

So far, the best iPod docking station: s-video out, remote control, wireless hotspot, internet radio. only $99 Griffin TuneCenter

iPod killers for summer 2006. An article with all the competitors, with their related +/-

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A team from Stanford won the DARPA challenge - a 175 mile course run by robotic cars.

$2 Million to the winning car - "Stanley"

Grand Challenge Home


Posted 8:21 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

While at PDC a couple weeks ago, I saw some demos where they were showing config files, source code, etc. with a text editor that *looked* like Notepad, but had syntax highlighting, etc. The title bar gave it away - "Notepad2".

A quick google search turns up Notepad2 here.

...and there are a bunch of blogs talking about it, with some interesting ideas on how to use it as a replacement to the standard Windows Notepad. (apparently the Windows OS will "repair" your system and put back the old Notepad if you just replace notepad.exe with a renamed notepad2.exe)

A couple links:
Fritz Onion

from a comment to Fritz's post:
To get it to be a complete replacement of Notepad.exe (removing Windows desire to "repair" your "broken" Notepad)

copy notepad2.exe c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386\notepad.exe
copy notepad2.exe c:\windows\system32\dllcache\notepad.exe
copy notepad2.exe c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe
copy notepad2.exe c:\windows\notepad.exe

Posted 5:35 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Top 100 blogs from all different categories.

CNET News.com's Blog 100


Posted 9:09 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

The X05 conference was held recently, so there's a bunch of new info / videos / etc about the launch.

My Stanford Volleyball buddy Shane Kim is shown on one of the videos talking about the launch titles. It's only a quick clip of him, so pay attention! :)

Here's the first video (Call of Duty), then you wait and it will load the next one about X05 big annoucements

Posted 7:40 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

One of my college buddies was asking me about IE support for transparent PNGs. I'm not a graphics guy, so I barely know the status on that.

We poked around a bit, and found some interesting blogs, with some cool info on PNG. At least just go to the first site and see what a transparent PNG looks like when dragged around the web page.

PNG in Windows IE

Here is a blog from a dev on the IE "layout and display" team at MS. Lots of links to sites he consulted when working with PNG support.

Posted 9:05 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Decent starting point for all devices using Windows Mobile OS.

Pocket PC Central - Latest Pocket PC Hardware Software Accessories News Reviews Updates & More

PocketTV - MPEG player for Pocket PC / Windows Mobile

Pocket DIVX Encoder

AVS Forum post on all things involving Windows Media Encoder 9

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SnakeOil Labs ? Top 10 Windows Freeware tools for 2005

Posted 10:11 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

After seeing the i-Mate JasJar at PDC, and not getting to use it as a phone since I have Verizon service, I've wondered what other devices will come close to that same JasJar functionality.

This one has a pull-out keyboard, and Windows Mobile 5.0
Unfortunately, it's not Verizon either...

Sprint Business - PPC-6700

Posted 9:42 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I haven't yet taken the iPod plunge. I've been thinking about it lately, but now am getting greedy and might get a player that supports video.

I don't think there are many options (rumors of a video iPod coming maybe before the end of the year), but here is one from Archos.

The Archos Gmini 402 here
And here is a review of it.
Now that the video iPod was announced, I'm looking at alternatives to see what I'd be missing. Apparently there's a full line of Archos video players. Bigger screen, windows media player compatible, etc.
Archos 420 is in buy.com add in Wired this week (11/29) for 349 (20GB)
Archos Mobile DVR AV 500 ($700) writeup - 100GB in Wired (can record from, and output to tv)

Another choice is the Dell Axim

PocketDish av700e looks sweet. But can't find much for pricing and availability.

The Creative Zen Portable Media Center looks good. My buddy Kral at MS said they can get a deal on this one.

Also in the MS welcome center, they had a Samsung Yepp YH-999 on display. Looked like a nice form factor.

RCA RD2780 20GB Lyra Personal Digital Multi-Media Player

Posted 1:45 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink