A fun ride through the cyperspace: technozid

Digital VCR revolutionized my TV viewing habits

December 29th 2006 Posted at General
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Shortly after I moved into this new appartment, the landlord put a shared satellite dish on the roof. Given the technical infrastructure in this house all I could install was a single receiver, so the switch to satellite-TV (all I ever had before was cable-TV) brought some previously unknown inconveniences, especially the need to program TWO devices (the receiver and the VCR) in order to save a movie to tape. I followed developments of PVR’s, but the device I envisioned (combining receiver, harddisk, editing software and DVD recorder) seemed only be possible with a do-it-yourself solution based on a PC running Windows or Linux. This didn’t appeal to me due to the cost and work involved, and the “Woman Acceptance Factor” of such a solution is pretty low.

Then I found the ZapMaster PVR CI, a receiver for DVB-S (digital satellite TV) with a 160 GB harddrive and a USB-2 interface. Programming is as easy as point-and-click thanks to the internal electronic program guide (EPG), and the internal harddrive can hold approximately 40 full length movies. Recordings can be watched off the harddrive (like my weekly Stargate episodes *blush*), and every once in a while I can attach the device to my PC and download the movies I want to keep. Those movies can then be recorded to DVD-R an even be equipped with a menu and freed from ad-sections.

By far the most liberating feature however is timeshifting. At any given point during a broadcast, I can hit “Record” and from then on the current movie gets saved to the harddrive. Then I can hit “Pause” and the picture freezes, until I hit “Play” again while the recording continues in the background. The effect is stunning. I am no more the slave of the stations schedule, but it is ME who decides WHEN a movie starts. I can take bathroom breaks whenever I need them, I can take phonecalls without the need of being rude to the caller, I can grab something to eat without waiting for a commercial break. The digital VCR has freed me, and TV watching has become much more relaxed.

I'm a FONero – finally

December 22nd 2006 Posted at Internet
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Well, that was quite difficult. Timeline of events:

June 2006: In an article on heise.de I heard about FON for the first time. The concept was interesting, but since I didn’t plan to use WLAN at home I dismissed it.

July 2006: A co-worker started to use FON and made me reconsider the idea. As a matter of fact I had issues connecting my Laptop to the internet with my PC as router, so the idea of using FON’s Linksys router seemed a good one.

August 1, 2006: I signed up with FON, and ordered the Linksys router.

August 6, 2006: The Linksys arrived. I spent several hours to set it up, but it never worked. The documentation was “sparse” at best, and in the end I gave up. I asked my co-worker the next day, since we share the same ISP. He told me that there was a bug in the PPPoE part of the firmware, and that I have to get in touch with FON support to get a beta version of the firmware – just as he had.

August 10, 2006: I received the beta firmware, which had exactly the same version number as the regular release. I installed the firmware, and ISP logs show that it has actually connected. Still it was not possible for me to connect either with the Laptop or the PC with the internet. I emailed support again, who began asking the very same questions as before.

August 14, 2006: Again I got the beta firmware sent. Again it had the same version number. I installed it nevertheless (not trusting serial numbers anymore), but again nothing worked.

August 16, 2006: My co-worker gave me the personal email address of a FON support employee, who was told to be very helpful in similar situations. He replied a few days later, asking for specifics. Again a few days later I got the beta firmware again (same version number).

August 29, 2006: After countless emails, I gave up.

September 6, 2006: The FON support employee emailed me that the new official firmware was available on the FON website. I went there, only to find that it was still the same version number. Needless to say it didn’t work either.

September 19, 2006: FON announces the new WLAN access point “LaFonera”. In Germany, you can order it completely free (not even shipping costs). I ordered one.

October 2006: My co-worker told me his LaFonera arrived.

November 2006: Anticipating the arrival of my LaFonera, I downloaded the OpenWRT firmware for my FON-Linksys and flashed it. Configuration took less than 5 minutes, and after that the Linksys did exactly what it was designed for without anymore hassle. Finally, after 3 months, I was able to use the unit to access the internet via WLAN.

November 20, 2006: My LaFonera arrives – obviously from the second batch of units who got delivered.

November 25, 2006: I found time to install the LaFonera. Again I ran into trouble since it used the internal network 192.168.10.x – but this was the same network the OpenWRT-Linksys used. Since LaFonera downloads its configuration from FON’s webpage upon boot, it took me a bit to set it to a different network (I needed to remove the internet connection for that), but finally I managed. But finally I could connect to the internet AND offer FON service.

Bottom line: 3 months, 17.40 EUR, countless emails, frustration and two devices instead of one – but finally it works. Given the fact that I am running a (admittedly small) part of the FON infrastructure, some more dedication in firmware development and a more responsive and skilled support would have made a whole lot of a difference.

30 million vulnerable WordPress sites

December 12th 2006 Posted at Internet
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I had a lengthy email conversation with Brian Layman a few months ago about security issues in WordPress, and the need to motivate WordPress users (who more often than not are laymen [no pun intended] themselves) to upgrade. Brian is a bit desillusioned how security issues are handled by the WordPress core team. He compiled his research and his thoughts into a rather long post, which is a must-read for all WordPress users.

If you have not updated your WordPress, do so, and do it now! Brian has a very helpful script, that allows you to update WordPress in 35 seconds. What are you waiting for?

Orkut went out of beta and nobody cared

December 4th 2006 Posted at Internet
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The most recent issue of the Google Friends newsletter contained an explosive piece of information:

Finally, orkut no longer requires an invite — anyone can sign up for an account.

Sorry, Google, but nobody cares anymore. Orkut was in elitist beta for too long. Now social networks like MySpace have taken the lead. Better luck next time.

Through the fog at 300 km/hour

December 1st 2006 Posted at General
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I had a speaking engagement in Frankfurt the last two days, and I decided to take the ICE train. The ride to Frankfurt was nonstop and took exactly 99 minutes, at a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph), and since we started rather early the better part of the journey was during sunrise. About half of the ride was in fog, and that gave the whole travel a ghostly/otherworldly athmosphere.
On the ride back I was seated immediately behind the “cockpit”. In the image, the bag on the left side on the last seat is mine. The view was spectacular, and the feeling of speed was much more present than from a normal seat. Unfortunately, I could only ride until Cologne and then had to change trains, so that the journey back took almost twice as long as the ride the day before.
The speaking enagegement at the German Reprographic Association went pretty well. I enjoy speaking to crowds as well as to small groups, and the attendees on both days were very attentive, had intelligent questions and were responsive to the subject.

OpenBC dresses up for the wedding

November 22nd 2006 Posted at Internet
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The social networking platform formerly known as OpenBC (read: Open Business Club) has renamed itself, and in the process dropped the old layout and dressed itself in a supposedly stylish Web 2.0 design. Its founders plan to go public next year, and I would be pretty surprised if we would NOT see LinkedIn buying the majority of shares, and a merger later that year. I personally don’t like LinkedIn – they are too restrictive and elitist for my tastes. OpenBC has a much more open philosophy. I hope when the merger comes the openness of OpenBC will survive.

Well, even though OpenBC dresses in a Web 2.0 suit, it’s far from being Web 2.0. Yes, there are tags. Yes, there are RSS feeds. And probably there’s even some AJAX used somewhere. But an aggregation of buzzword-technology doesn’t make an application Web 2.0. What’s missing is actually the possibility to mashup. To take things apart and put them together in new ways. And I personally would have opted for less wasting of real estate on the screen. Probably time to start having a look into user-side stylesheets.

"Alles wird gut!" (Everything will turn out OK)

November 22nd 2006 Posted at Internet
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Today I received Internet Explorer 7 as part of the Windows update. For a professional webmaster this is a significant date, because it means that the majority of visitors (43% for this blog, ~60/65% for the corporate pages under my control) is now in the process of switching from IE6 to IE7. This should make a lot of things easier, but requires some legwork to go and check all sites if they work correctly.
Unfortunately, there are still people out there who continue to use IE6 or even have IE5.5 or older installed. The good news is that there are some smart folks out there who created monolithic, standalone archives of older IE versions which you can install parallel to your IE7. Check those links:

Money hidden on website

November 22nd 2006 Posted at Internet
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A fellow member of WebmasterWorld came up with a clever marketing idea. He (she?) hid US$ 200 on the website, and the first visitor who finds it will receive the amount in cash. Of course this is a shameless attempt on getting links to the site, but I appreciate the smart idea. So here’s the link from me.

Despite staff's efforts I bought a Mac today

November 10th 2006 Posted at General, Getting older
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Hello, I’m a Mac. Not voluntarily though. From my point of view, compared to other PC’s Mac’s are overprized and appeal mostly to design considerations. However to facilitate certain tests for one of our products in the office we needed a Mac. We have a 4-year-old iMac, which we abused to run OS X a while ago, but it turned out to be way too slow for the current task. I tried to rent a Mac for a few weeks, but for rates around 120€/day it was much cheaper to simply buy a Mac Mini for 590€. I was pretty surprised that Apple manages to keep the prices at a constant level. The lowest offer I found was for 572€, but it was from a mail order store which a) would have taken too long and b) looked not very reliable. Even used Mac Minis were not significantly cheaper, with all the risks coming from used equipment at large and eBay auctions in detail.

We have a Gravis store in our town, so I checked availability via the web and since stock was low I used Gravis’ central ordering service to reserve a machine. The telephone rep was quite helpful and when I asked when the machine could be picked up, she said that once she closes the database entry the shop gets notification, and that the machine will be reserved for 48 hours. Pleased at the speed and competence – it was a call-center after all – I prepared to go immediately and was in front of the Gravis store some 30 minutes later.

When I got there, the door was blocked by a Gravis employee in vivid conversation with what must have been a friend of his. Reluctantly, they let me pass so that I could enter the store. It was held mostly in white and light wood textures and must have had some 100/120sqm. Apart from me there was only one other customer, standing at the service counter complaining about some issues with her iPod. Since I had an order number, I went to the service counter too and waited politely. And waited. Politely. Waited. The employee did not send the slightest signal of acknowledging me being here. Meanwhile, the other employee still stood in the stores entrance and talked to his friend. I looked around, bored. I spent some time watching the funny Windows error messages which were projected to a wall. Not only was the projection pretty bad, the error messages came mostly from Windows 95 or 98, one even from Windows 3.x. I thought Apple was all about style and cool superiority? This display seemed rather childish to me. Finally – still being ignored by both employees – I spotted a third employee behind the checkout. I didn’t noticed her at first because she was dressed mostly in white, and because she stood almost still, laboriously wet-cleaning the keyboard of her PC Mac. I went to her, showed her my order number, and – I have to grant her that – she immediately went to the back of the store where she rumbled around a bit until she found employee #4 (#1 was still talking at the door and #2 still sorting out the iPod issue) to process my request.

When I was at the checkout 5 minutes later, Miss Keyboard Cleaning was still performing her task, reluctantly putting it aside to take my money. However the task seemed rather difficult to her (after all it was not only the Mac Mini but also a keyboard and a mouse), so she got Mister iPod Issues to help her. He, in turn, expressed his opinion that Mister Door Conversation could use some practice with cashing and hustled him over. Now that was a surprise, because it seemed that this guy had training in cross selling. And while he tried in a rather pushy tone to sell me a 3-year-maintenance pack, Miss Keyboard Cleaning continued to clean a keyboard. Having made my point that I didn’t needed a maintenance pack, I asked her if the store was a bit more crowded on Saturdays? She admitted that it was a bit more crowded, but that in general they were pretty much bored in here. As if that admission and everything that happened before was not enough unprofessional behavior, they started to make jokes about how bored they were. Slightly shaking my head I left the shop. The whole event took half an hour.

OK, I know that lifestyle is important for the “Apple system”. That’s probably why these employees were really young. Most likely thy were Mac enthusiast (at least the guys – I don’t know if the girl is enthusiastic about anything else than her outfit, her nails, her hairdo and the cleanliness of keyboards), and probably they thought they were working in a cutting edge bastion against mediocrity. But I know that Apple is pretty much about making money too. And if Steve Jobs would have witnessed this “performance”, I’m pretty sure that four twens, and probably their manager too, would have to pursue a career in serving or taxi driving by the end of the day. The only reason I endured all this was because I needed that Mac Mini fast.

So, I’m interested in feedback. Did I choose a bad day, when the B-crew was in? Or is this a little piece fitting into the huge mosaic? What about other countries? Does lifestyle and coolness justify bad service? Maybe I didn’t look “hip” enough, or maybe it was wrong the chose the cheapest Mac available? What are your experiences?

Samhain… again…

October 31st 2006 Posted at General, Getting older
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It’s starting again…

It's starting again...

technozid