Emil's Wicked Cool Blog

Do I get this page, telling me that I can't get FiOS, when not only is it possible for me to get FiOS, but I'm connecting to the web site over a FiOS connection!

You'd think they would have fixed this in the past 18 months, but I guess they're not interested in new customers.

(I go to the site periodically to find out if I can add TV to my existing FiOS, but I'm not sure why I bother...I apparently need to call to find out. When I originally had FiOS installed, the site said I couldn't get it, but customer service looked in their computers and found out it was no problem at all)

I had some time the other day so I actually looked at the stats for the 2 smartphone applications I wrote a while ago. I was shocked to find that Notepad had 558 downloads and Stopwatch had 275 downloads. I don't know how many people are actually installing and using these applications, but I'm glad I could help make their lives a bit easier.

Even one presentation like this video is too much. Tell me how you plan to achieve actual business results, and give me some realistic numbers. The hockey stick doesn't cut it without significant justification. What really bothers me is when I'm told (especially by my own management), "the numbers are just too hard to get, but there is absolutely a positive ROI to this". Nine times out of 10 it's a cop out, and the translation is that you're just too lazy to do the analysis you should be doing.

In addition to all the recent house changes, I've been reconfiguring the home network to improve a couple things, and it's been quite the saga. Here's what I wanted to fix:

1. Move off of WEP security in favor of WPA2. This is not just for better security, but because, at least for my router, you cannot use WEP if you want to support 802.11n clients. I don't have any yet, but don't want to be prevented from the faster speeds, either.
2. Provide wireless coverage in the kitchen nook. This is the only area of the house I ever have problems with, and while I don't sit there and use a computer, anyone we have over tends to do just that.
3. Provide a stronger wireless connection for the TiVo, which would stop the problem of my mp3's pausing during playback and really, really slow transfers of shows from computer to TiVo.
4. Spend no money
   

One slight problem with #4 is that the wireless adapter I use is not the official Tivo Wireless Adapter (which didn't exist a couple years ago). TiVo doesn't support WPA in adapters other than their official one, so it created a problem.

Well, I had gotten an offer from Fon to "upgrade" my Fon router to a La Fonera for free. I originally signed up in order to get the very nice Linksys WRT54GL, and was thinking about repurposing it once fulling my obligation was over, so this was an opportunity to repurpose the Linksys early.

Unfortunately, what I needed from the Linksys was to create a wireless to wireless bridge. This would connect to the 802.11n/g/b network with WPA2 as a client (direct wired not an option if I were going to solve problems 2 and 3). It would also work as an AP broadcasting on 802.11g/b with WEP to let the TiVo work. I took a look at a wireless distribution system to do this, but all settings must be shared, and I needed to have different security.

DD-WRT did not allow this setup, but I was pointed out to a beta version of v24 that has this bridging feature, which they call the Universal Wireless Repeater. The beta version worked, but in order to get traffic from my main router to route to the Linksys, I needed a static route to be configured. This feature only became available for my DLink router a few weeks before, so I went through the upgrade and I was finally all set up.

In testing, I found one more problem. The protocol TiVo uses for transfer of TV shows (but not anything else) requires the TiVo to be on the same subnet as the server. Bummer. Everything else works great, and at this point I'm resigned to a second transfer (server->Laptop->TiVo) to accomplish that.

As an aside, although I love my TiVo, unless something changes, I'll be forced to move on at some point, based partly on issues like this, and partly on the lack of HD support without shelling out a ton of money on a series 3 and paying a monthly subscription fee (I have a lifetime subscription). While I think that Media Center is complex, expensive, and unstable for consumers, it's likely HD support will be cheaper unless TiVo lowers prices, and I'm sure things will get more stable in Media Center world as we move forward.

Yikes...long post. Anyway, here's a picture of where I ended up.

Kelly and I have been on a tear lately (as much of a tear as us analytical/methodical people can be) getting the house the way we want it. We've been selling some stuff on craigslist and making a ton of purchases. Here's a quick list of what I can remember doing over the last 6 months:

• Had house interior painted (this is huge, considering our two-story formal living room)
• Created a "photo wall"
• Purchased three bookcases, gave one bookcase to goodwill
• Moved some picture frames to a new wall
• Got an entertainment center to replace our old one (known as "Pac Man" after we stuck our new plasma TV into the space designed for a regular CRT)
• Sold floor standing Infinity speakers, center speaker, and rear speakers, purchasing a full set of Polk speakers
• (in process) Selling coffee table and end table, with the intension of purchasing "cubes" for the family room

Well, today I got a hidden IR system, which so far is making me very happy. The problem we ran into after all the entertainment center business is that the center speaker, which clearly belongs in the center, would cover the IR sensor on the TV, rendering remotes useless from one half of the room (the half we use the most). The only way to alleviate the issue was to move the center speaker all the way to one edge of the TV or the other, which no longer placed it in the center. The system has completely alleviated that problem. I've only used it in tests so far, but it seems great.

I recently installed both password safe and foldershare, with the intention of using them together to:

• Maintain my passwords in a more secure way (password safe)
• Have a copy of the passwords synced on the computers I use (foldershare)

The solution works great, and is highly recommended. Foldershare is blocked at work, but my password file doesn't get changed too frequently, so I'm ok with it. Prior to finding foldershare, I actually started coding my own solution - this was a great find, and I can't wait to see what Microsoft does with it post-acquisition.

Yesterday I heard a very strange analogy. There is some political unrest right now in northern India, and it seems as though the cause of the unrest boils down to a certain class of citizens that want to be included into the country's version of affirmative action. The affirmative action system was established when the country was founded in order to end the caste system, and was originally intended to be ended 10 years.

This discussion happened a few minutes after we were talking about how Intel acquired a group of people in India who were used to free cookies, and the near revolt they had on their hands when they tried (unsuccessfully) to end the perk. They got there eventually, but not before having to end the lease on the building.

On explaining the current events, the comment was made that it's actually pretty similar to the cookie situation...once you give people something, they want more, and don't dare take it away...

PS: I couldn't find a good reference point for this URL, but I thought it might be interesting for my reader(s) to have more background on the caste system in India.

I don't know what it is about my body clock, but very consistently, when I travel to India from the west coast, I get crazy awake at 4AM for probably the first week. I arrived in India Sunday around midnight (that's about noon west coast time). Now it's Tuesday morning at 4AM (Monday afternoon about 4PM west coast time) and I'm wide awake.

My strategy here usually involves allowing myself some awake time...usually about an hour, and then going back to sleep. It may not be the best strategy, but usually I find that trying to get back to sleep immediately is pointless anyway, so my real alternatives are to either indulge myself with some awake time or toss and turn for an hour trying to get back to sleep.

I'm only here for a week this time, so my body will probably finish adjusting just when I'm ready to go home.