Dec 23 2009
After years of colorful verbal expressions regarding the quality of Microsoft Windows Vista, dad is upgrading his desktop from Vista to W7. Here is a live blog of the process.
7:15 pm: Dad has already tried upgrading once. The upgrade tool sat for about 10-15 minutes, then told him he needed to remove a bunch of [...]
Dec 22 2009
It’s the end of 2009, and time to have a little blog fun. Here are my tech recommendations for things I’ve discovered (or re-discovered) in the last year.
Ubuntu Linux 9.10 (Karmic Koala!): it seems that each time Ubuntu releases a new version of their Linux/GNU/open-source remix, they out-do themselves. Version 9.10 is no different. With [...]
Sep 07 2009
Skype has become an invaluable tool for communicating with family and friends. PC-to-PC calls are free and PC-to-phone calls are cheap. Lately, I have been trying Skype on Linux, Windows, and Mac. As an avid follower of the (not frequently updated) “Skype for Linux” blog [1], I was pleased when the latest beta version for [...]
Aug 30 2009
I’ve been thinking some about my next laptop. I already have a great personal laptop, but I am thinking that I should buy one for work. I would then move work off the personal machine and keep the two on separate tracks. The tablet PC that is my personal machine will still be great for [...]
Aug 23 2009
It finally happened: I setup a Facebook page.
http://www.facebook.com/stephen.sekula
Don’t get excited. My primary means of communication, listed in order of their important to me, are still: face-to-face, phone, IM, e-mail, and social networking. That means that I won’t be spending every waking hour on Facebook, so please don’t get sad if I don’t friend you right [...]
May 22 2009
Over Christmas break, I started tinkering with virtual machines. At the time, I was using VMWare, which is free but not open-source. Since then, I’ve been falling in love with VirtualBox from Sun, which is both free and open-source and multi-platform [1]. Over break, I realized that I had a solution in hand to a [...]
Mar 13 2009
Now that digital cable seems well under the control of sTeVo, my MythTV box [1], I thought it would be helpful to post some of my lessons learned in this process.
Lesson 1: MythTV is robust and flexible. The dedicated team of MythTV developers have made an adaptable product. The fact that the software was ready [...]
Mar 12 2009
Tonight on NPR was a timely story about why we can’t get the internet on our TV [1]. Most of the blame gets put on Cable companies and content producers in Hollywood (and other places). For me, the bottom line is: I DO have the internet on my TV – I don’t have to wait [...]
Mar 08 2009
Today, it became clear to me that the CommandIR was not going to cut the mustard. I aimed my webcam at the emitter, and could clearly see the emitter lighting up when it was instructed to send commands to the Comcast box. That meant the emitter was transmitting, but it just wasn’t doing so in [...]
Mar 08 2009
Yesterday, my IR blaster from CommandIR arrived. After going to see the movie “Watchmen”, I spent the evening setting up the new IR receiver and emitter. Step one: plug in and verify linux saw it. Step one was completed in less than 10 seconds. Step two: add the existence of the CommandIR to the system [...]
Chirp, a microblog Going Up Alleys The Perils of the Ice Queen
