Hilarious song called Code Monkey. Jason at work pointed us all to this one. Very soon after, we were cranking it in the cube farm.

...code monkey like tab and mountain dew ...

Jonathan Coulton » Blog Archive » Thing a Week 29 - Code Monkey

Posted 10:07 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I heard about Slingbox a couple weeks ago when they mentioned it on the TWIT podcast. Now here is another alternative...

Move over Slingbox, here comes SageTV Placeshifter - Alpha Blog - alpha.cnet.com

Posted 10:01 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Yahoo apparently joined the "DVR for your PC" race today, with Yahoo Go. From what I can tell, it's FREE software, downloadable now from yahoo.

TechCrunch » Yahoo Launches DVR Service: Yahoo Go

download here

Posted 10:00 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Apparently today Google Maps got an update of imagery with finer resolution than before. Various areas are highlighted in the linked article, including:

Maldive Island Group
Las Vegas (3 inch/pixel data)
Stonehenge

Google Earth Blog: Google Maps Gets Huge Satellite Update from Google Earth

Posted 9:54 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

A couple of quick links from an old TWIT podcast I heard today:

emusic - Patrick's choice for downloadable mp3 music, at apparently good prices and quality.

real alternative - an alternative to real audio player. allows you to play REAL content without their player, since we all know that player installs all kinds of hellish tools, utilities, startup apps, etc. that we don't want.

Posted 10:34 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

On our recent Youth Princesses trip, Avery was asking me all kinds of questions about the earth rotation around the sun. I have been wondering lately how to best explain why the sun sets at increasingly northern positions over the Pacific ocean as we go from spring towards summer.

Here is a decent writeup of all those answers...

6(h). Earth-Sun Geometry

Posted 10:17 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

This is inline with something I've been wanting to do. Make a generic mapping page that will allow you to add any number of pushpins on a map.

I think this would be cool for a number of purposes: places I've golfed / traveled, geocache finds, etc.

I know Google Maps API will let me do this - you just have to provide lat/long coordinates - a geocoding service will tranlsate from street addresses.

Here's a tutorial [unfortunately using Ruby on Rails :) ] that walks through the steps.

Web 2.0 Technologies: Rails, Geocoding, and Google Maps

Scott Guthrie points to this control written in ASP.NET 2.0. Nice long detailed article about it's usage.

After one night of poking around with the sample, I grabbed a Google Maps API Key, and see how easy it is to start mapping. The geocoding service at http://rpc.geocoder.us/service/ is very easy to use, and FREE. (WSDL for this service is here at http://geocoder.us/dist/eg/clients/GeoCoder.wsdl)

(Google Maps API is right here)

So I almost immediately started thinking about the best (or the most fun) way to use the maps API from ASP.NET. First thought - write an ASP.NET 2.0 Server Control.

Well, some dudes beat me to it. Here are some links:
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/LatLaysFlat-Part1.asp
and the 4-part series listed here

Posted 8:39 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Apparently the Video iPod (and nano?) have calendar view. This guy wrote a converter from Google Calendar (iCal format) to iPod format.

the johnnyGizmo Blog: getCals 0.1 Available

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Sweet - now a Firefox extension that will notify you when your Google Calendar appointments come due.

Firefox - Google Calendar Notifier

Posted 8:32 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Some MS dudes mentioned this site during a Channel9 video - apparently one of the main sites for development related to Windows Media Center

The Green Button™ | The Premier Windows Media Center Community Forum

Posted 8:35 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Google recently released their new calendar feature. It looks very cool - using AJAX and DHTML to quickly add events, multi-day "bars" across days, etc.

Apparently, there is even integration with email messages that contain dates -- allowing you to quickly add an event based on the text date in the email body.

You can have multiple calendars and overlay them on each other. Here's a good idea (thanks to Digg.com) - setup calendar of certain sports schedules, US holidays, etc. and quickly overlay those onto your own calendar.

Interesting Google Calendars

Posted 10:29 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Some info here about what's going on between Windows Media Center Edition and Xbox 360 Media Center Extender.

It talks about the audio and video formats that the MCE/360 can play. Also suggests Videora, software to convert other formats to these allowed by the 360.

Media Center Extender: FAQ: Media Center and Xbox 360

Posted 1:27 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

This will be my collecting place for the next couple months as I get my feet wet with streaming audio and video to my tv using Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center.

Videora has this software that converts from many video formats into the format that the Xbox 360 understands.

Best of all - FREE!

Videora Xbox360 Converter - Xbox360 Video Converter

Also, check out this post from Engadget about Videora being used to convert from Windows Media Center Edition format to something the iPod can understand.

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DivX converter for 360. Convert DivX videos (on the fly?) and stream them down to the 360 via MCE.

Jake Ludington MediaBlab

...and Transcode 360 is another choice for converting DivX and XViD

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SWEET! FireFox extension that will send a video link you find on the net to the Xbox Media Center Extender (the 360). Discussions and link here.

Apparently this uses commands exposed by the Xbox 360 (reminds me of the ReplayTV HTTP interface)
/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=playfile&parameter=http://media.com/file.mpg

Posted 1:22 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I am still getting my feet wet with Media Center, especially as it relates to my new Xbox 360.

Here is a list of MCE "applications", seem to be plug-ins to Media Center that extend the functionality. They do things like manage NetFlix queue, CinemaNow downloads, etc.

Someday I'll have to write one :)

Windows Marketplace: Compare prices for My Movies

Posted 4:46 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Just got my Xbox 360 (WAHOO!) and will be trying to setup streaming media to it from my PC.

There are a couple schools of thought, which I'll be trying to proove/disproove. One is that the 360 can only stream from a Windows Media Center enabled PC. The other is that a Windows XP machine can stream to a 360, using the Windows Media Connect software.

update 04/15/06
Well after some initial testing, it turns out that with Windows Media Center, the 360 can play all photos, music, and video from the MCE machine (as long as the media formats are supported). Using Windows XP, you can run Windows Media Connect, but Microsoft chose NOT to support playing VIDEO through this software to the 360, so you're stuck with only photos and music.

Posted 11:28 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

This probably requires a much more studly GPS than the one that I have (~$100 handheld), but very cool nonetheless.

WhereIsMyGPS.net

Posted 9:00 AM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink   

A small windows app that will keep track of Xbox 360 friends that are online.

Nimblesoft.com 360 Friends

Posted 10:24 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Ten video sharing services compared - DV Guru

included: google video, grouper, videoegg, youTube, etc.

Posted 10:22 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Thanks to Scott at work for pointing this out. The Logitech Harmony remote operates your entire entertainment system, including your xbox 360.

Like all remotes in the Harmony line, it's programable via a website, where you enter all the information about your components and it will come up with the correct macros, etc. This one (I think unlike others in the Harmony line) can also learn IR codes it doesn't already know.

Logitech ...Xbox® Gaming Products > Controllers > Logitech® Harmony® Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360

Posted 6:13 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Great summary collection of Oracle (version 10) statements, example calls, etc.

PSOUG Morgan's Library Morgan Daniel Oracle SQL PL/SQL

A site called Ask Tom at Oracle.com with a ton of questions/answers.

... and some random articles that have helped along the way...

MS KB article: how to return an Oracle REF CURSOR to a .NET DataReader object.

Result set retrieval using ODP.NET and Ref Cursors

WIKI Oracle page

Posted 12:15 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

AJAX powered color tool

Color Tool 2.0.1 Alpha

Posted 5:56 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

I've always been fascinated by flying...ok, well at least I *love* MS flight sim. Combine flight sim with a couple friends of mine that are pilots and I can pretend like the best of them. :)

Thanks to Digg for this link to a bunch of videos of extreme crosswind landings. Amazing stuff.

Crosswind Landings - Google Video

Posted 9:46 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Interesting data on how fast certain classes of passwords can be cracked. Obviously, it has to do with the size of the set of chars you use.

Password Recovery Speeds

Posted 9:36 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

The new guy, Ed, at our client was showing us this today. Firefox running via "Portable Apps", where you run FF from a USB thumbdrive or other portable media.

The entire app runs off the removable media, including favorites, history, cache, etc. So you always have it with you and never leave a trace behind.

Applications | PortableApps.com

Posted 12:23 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink