internet

Server hardware upgrade

Submitted by StephTheGeek on September 1, 2007 - 12:21pm

Well, after learning way more about spelunking through server logs than I really wanted to, iWeb finally agrees that the server-crashy problems I've been having as of late are actually hardware (as do ZOP/Spaz/people who know more about these things than I do). The good news is that I was planning on upgrading my server in the very near future, since the dedicated plan I'm on has improved significantly in the year and a half since I got the server, so I can get an upgrade to a shiny new box by renewing my contract. Kinda like cell carriers and hardware upgrades, eh?

So, expect some downtime which will probably not go as smoothly as I'd like, but ultimately needs to be done. Should be within the next few days. Hopefully well before Barcelona...

Speaking of cell phones, I'm so bloody annoyed by artificial limitations. My dream phone/PDA actually exists, yet is held back by the fact that it has the Euro 3G band instead of North America. I should just move to Europe :P

Life stuff

Submitted by StephTheGeek on January 18, 2007 - 12:04pm

Damn this country and its lack of socialized medicine :P I run out of my paid-for-by-the-government-of-Canada cold sore prescription and immediately the cold sore viruses are having a party. Grumble grumble.

Got the new site ready to go and off to Verotel for approval. Should just be a matter of days before that's up.  As this may be of interest to others reading, Verotel just launched a new program that's sort of between their (crappy, IMHO) Ticketsclub service and (expensive) Pro service called Verotel Classic.  Here's a comparison of the services.  "Classic" looks almost identical to CCBill's offering, but Verotel is more kink-friendly and available nearly worldwide.  I almost wish I'd known that before I went through this ordeal to get set up with the Pro service, but at least I get the perks of the Pro account now.

And the US government officially has my fingerprints.  Did the biometrics thing the other day for immigration.  Now it's just the wait until the interview.  According to their processing dates, they're now approving applications received at the end of October, and mine went in at the end of December, so it should still be on track for March.  Then I can actually, ya know, work and leave the country and stuff  :)

I'm all a-Twitter

Submitted by StephTheGeek on November 23, 2006 - 11:13am

I signed up for this delightful new service called Twitter.  The best way I can explain it is "micro-blogging."  It gives you a way to post short blurbs online, and/or broadcast them to your friends (through IM or SMS).  You can update it via IM/SMS as well, and I just wrote a Google Desktop Gadget for it so I could have a little textbox for updating sitting on my screen.  Gonna post it on the new .tv but I wanted to spread the word in the meantime.  I'm having fun with it  :)

Still flat on my back

Submitted by StephTheGeek on September 23, 2006 - 9:04pm

Yeah my back is still in agony, but I've spent the evening in bed doing a network diagram :)

Stable cam program with remote image overlay?

Submitted by StephTheGeek on September 18, 2006 - 12:19am

Okay, ignoring my neverending quest for a cam program that actually does EVERYTHING I want for the moment, here's a request for one that at least does one thing I want:  a remote image overlay.  And one that's actually stable would be nice.  I need to pull an image from a remote url and then have it overlay that to the cam image.  webcamXP's feature for this does not seem to be working.  It throws me an error every time I give it a remote image.  "Webcam Publisher" (uh, great name dude) was promising to do this, but clearly the weather overlay is not actually updating in the image.  I was checking out ImageSalsa briefly, but its lovely Java menu kept crashing FF, and the demos haven't been updated in years, so I'm not exactly jumping at giving them my money.

RE: neverending quest -- if anyone knows a cam program that does all the following things, please send word via email, PM, IM, carrier pigeon, etc. immediately:

  • Network camera support.  In other words, it will pull an image from a remote url
  • Multiple camera support.  Ok, a lot of programs technically do this, but not in the way I need, which is control over the profiles for each camera.  So I can give each cam its own FTP location, upload interval, filename, etc.
  • Reasonably advanced image/caption controls.  I want to be able to overlay multiple captions/images, and apply different effects (cropping, rotation, etc.) to images
  • Relay.  I can run the software on one PC to bounce its attached devices to an instance of the software on another PC
  • A PROFESSIONALLY WRITTEN, STABLE PROGRAM WITH SUPPORT.  Oy.  I've never seen such a bunch of amateurish programs as I have in webcam software.  Can't people design a standard GUI?  Or perhaps NOT requiring me to edit text config files (don't get me wrong, the flexibility is nice... but for the love of god, not for basic things)?  Maybe something that's actually stable and out of beta?  A program that doesn't look like it was written by my grade 11 Visual Basic classmates?  

</rant>

ChaCha

Submitted by TousledElegance on September 12, 2006 - 8:54am

(I don't know if this has been discussed yet... apologies if so.) Earlier this month, a new search engine was introduced: ChaCha.com, which uses live people to sift through results for you so that you [hopefully] save time and get more accurate answers. There's an article about it here.
Thoughts? Opinions?

My S.O. worked for the creator (A bit of trivia: he's a millionaire MIT guy who invented voicemail and one of the components used by Itunes), so I managed to wrangle an invite to become a guide, but haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet because of my family obligations (mother/hospital).
I'm indifferent so far, but I thought I'd at least give it a shot and see if I bring in any significant amount of extra money.
As I actually get into the process, I'll post more about how it works, how it pays etc.

I rule

Submitted by StephTheGeek on August 7, 2006 - 5:32pm

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-08-07 20:31:56 EST:
3511 / 3755

Your download speed : 3511 kbps or 438.9 KB/sec.

Your upload speed : 3755 kbps or 469.4 KB/sec.

Unwired Ltd. fixed wireless ISP in East Bay

Submitted by StephTheGeek on July 17, 2006 - 12:42pm

I thought I'd throw some of this useful information out here in case anyone is looking for an alternative to DSL/cable high speed internet in the east bay. Unwired is based in Berkeley, and I'm signing up with them as a secondary dedicated connection for my cams. Cable and DSL just don't provide the uplink that I need (both maxing out around here at 768 kbps upload) and a T1 just isn't feasible at the moment.

Someone in the chat (I think rojisan) pointed them out to me, then they cropped up again on DSLReports, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to make the leap.  The lingering question was how much setup would cost me, and whether their advertised bandwidth was actually sustainable.  So I entered into an email discussion and got a lot of useful information:

  • They offer four plans with the same radio equipment:  residential 3mbps/3mbps ($50/mo) and 6/6 ($90/mo), and business 4/4 ($160/mo) and 7/7 ($380/mo)
  • Setup fee plus equipment = $285 after rebates for the residential 6/6, $275 for the business 4/4
  • I asked what their usage limits were: "If we see sustained usage above 1 mb/s CIR we usually talk to the user"
  • Setup time is usually less than a week
  • Residential plans have a best-effort SLA while the business plans have a 24x7 SLA with rebates for SLA violations
  • Business plans can be shared and residential plans cannot
  • There needs to be a clear line of sight to the tower (in my case, the Oakland Hills ridgeline)

So, I'll be giving them a try (starting with the residential 6/6), and we'll see how it goes!

Tech celibacy

Submitted by StephTheGeek on June 2, 2006 - 6:34am

It's not like I haven't been on the computer for the past six weeks. Or that I've been offline, even. Heck I even bought a new uber-connected phone. I've been chatting with friends, keeping up with email, and developing like mad. But I haven't been to a constant stream of blog sites, news, and forums like usual. Despite all this connectedness, it feels like I've been through a serious period of technological celibacy... almost cleansing and introspective. I haven't been to an Engadget or BoingBoing or Slashdot or TechCrunch or Lifehacker or Sex Drive Daily or OhGizmo or AdRants or A List Apart in weeks... it feels extremely disconnected.

I'm starting to get the itch for external technology again as the new site prepares to launch (tomorrow)... but it's amazing how one can feel disconnected while being connected.

Digital self-expression tidbits

Submitted by StephTheGeek on May 31, 2006 - 6:29am

"To some extent, self-expression should be viewed as a new industry, one that will co-exist alongside other traditional media industries like movies, TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. But in this new industry, the raw materials for the 'products' are the people." - Robert Young

"Self-commoditization is in the end indistinguishable from self-consumption. And narcissism is a very deep well. Young may be right that 'digital self-expression' is an iceberg. But if that's so, the traditional media business may be the Titanic." - Nick Carr

From Good Morning Silicon Valley.

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