karlo.org

Maverick

2009-11-16T03:36:16Z

Maverick, originally uploaded by karlo.

10-week-old French Bulldog seen today on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. Super mellow at being carried around. Posting him here in case the owner visits the site.

links for 2009-11-15

2009-11-15T13:01:24Z

Log in or sign up? - Leah Culver's Blog

Nice little bit of design detail discussion. Everyone who develops web sites should take a look at this pattern.

(tags: ui, design webdesign web authentication usability)

Dell's Zino HD Media Center PC

2009-11-13T19:29:29Z

If you’re looking to build something like my Mac Mini Media Center, but you’d prefer to use Linux or Windows, check out the Zino HD from Dell.

It’s based on the AMD Athlon (the lesser non-HD Zino is based on the Intel Atom) and has an HDMI port built-in, so it’s a pretty good candidate. I don’t know if there’s much else to distinguish it - the graphics are better than the non-HD one, which isn’t saying much, and you can order it with Ubuntu 9.04 pre-installed, which is nice.

Overall the industrial design seems nice, but looking at the web site it seems like Dell has decided that the most important thing to emphasize about the Zino HD is that it comes with a lot of different color options for the top of the case. If that’s really the best marketing strategy they have for this computer, it’s kind of sad.

The price is right though: $229 for a base-level unit. More practically, about $500 total if you bump up the processor and add some RAM, better Wifi, and a Blu-ray drive — one thing the Mini won’t do. You can read more from Cnet’s coverage of the Zino HD.

Just one more sticker...

2009-11-13T18:42:08Z

Just one more sticker…, originally uploaded by karlo.

I had to laugh when I saw this car… was there a moment when the owner said, I’ve got too many Star Trek stickers, but if I add a Harry Potter, maybe it’ll restore some balance?

The Buffalo WHR-G300N and DD-WRT

2009-10-24T03:19:00Z

Last night I was able to get a newly purchased Buffalo WHR-G300N wifi router ($35 from Newegg.com) to accept a firmware install DD-WRT, the Linux-based open source firmware package for wireless routers.

Why even attempt this perversity? It gives you a very cheap wifi router with the kinds of interface features you might only see built into either commercial or premium units.

Quick notes:

This wasn’t really what I’d consider a straightforward or user-friendly process. I definitely thought at one point that I’d bricked the unit. Eventually I got it working, but I’m not sure I could say with 100% certainty I could do it again without bricking a unit.
Before you start, read the DD-WRT wiki page for this router, and the threads linked to it. (I did not.) It will save you some tears, although it won’t make it completely easy.
All I can say about setup is, keep trying. I finally succeeded by pushing the firmware from my Mac using tftp during the router’s boot sequence, which takes advantage of the device’s built-in recovery method. Once the “put” had finished, it took a while, but the wifi light went on and things were good from there.
The WHR-G300N only does 2.4Ghz, not 5Ghz. Given that it costs about $35, half the price of a retail 802.11g router, it’s not a huge disappointment.
The DD-WRT interface is leaps and bounds better than Buffalo’s original software. They should just bite the bullet and sell these routers with DD-WRT pre-installed.
I’ve had the best results by setting wireless security to WPA2 and TKIP+AES
Despite some early problems, my iPhone now connects to the router just fine

To give a few examples, the DD-WRT software has built-in support for about a half-dozen dynamic DNS services, QoS management, and you can SSH directly into it if you want a command line. The interface is much more useful and informative than Buffalo’s own firmware, or most routers.

Network performance has generally been great. My MacBook backs up every hour to a USB drive connected to my Mac Mini Media Center, and ever since I upgraded from my old G router to this one, that process is fast and reliable.

It certainly doesn’t give my favorite router - the Apple Airport with its great management interface, Time Machine support and gigabit ethernet - a run for the money. But it’s also about 1/4th the price.

So, it’s a little hairy - but if you can get past the setup trials, it’s a good deal.

IsAlternateSideParkingInEffect.com Featured in the NYT

2009-10-22T17:31:35Z

My single-serving web site, IsAlternateSideParkingInEffect.com was featured in the New York Times Blog this morning.

Alternate side of the street parking, which was introduced by the city in 1952 to facilitate street cleaning, is one of the more burdensome rituals of New York City life…

So how to keep track of the state of the parking regulations, especially since so many of the holidays are set by a lunar calendar, and thus vary each year?

links for 2009-10-22

2009-10-22T13:02:18Z

HowTo: Design an offsite backup system « scattershot genius;

"RAID is not a backup system."

(tags: backup mac tips hardware raid storage)

Rails Wiki Credit

2009-10-21T15:47:19Z

I worked on the Rails Wiki earlier this year, but I didn’t realize until now that I’d been credited as part of the Rails Wiki team. I have to say it’s a nice surprise to find out it’s there.

links for 2009-10-20

2009-10-20T13:02:40Z

RDoc Documentation for JSON ruby gem

(tags: json ruby)
brianmario's yajl-ruby at master - GitHub

Ruby JSON parser - useful for parsing responses in JSON from web services.

(tags: ruby json library rails)
Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates: SeedCamp 2009 (Sept …

Good presentation on basics of Web2.0 business development and planning.

(tags: analysis marketing strategy web2.0 presentation startup metrics management business)

links for 2009-10-16

2009-10-16T13:03:13Z

Aptonic Software - Dropzone

"The Swiss Army Knife of Drag and Drop for the Mac" - automates common file transfers like ftp, saving to a network share, saving to another computer. I've added it on my laptop and media center PC so dropping a file on it automatically sends it over to the other one. Very cool.

(tags: mac software osx productivity tools)

Teacups, Disneyland

2009-10-05T01:17:44Z

Teacups, originally uploaded by karlo.

Marissa and I took a spur-of-the-moment trip out to Disneyland yesterday - I’ve never been. Went on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Matterhorn Bobsleds but didn’t make it to the new Space Mountain. (Did not ride on the teacups.)

links for 2009-09-24

2009-09-24T13:03:39Z

Create a font from your own handwriting - fontcapture.com

Create a font based on your handwriting by printing a template, completing it in your own handwriting than scanning it and uploading it back to the web site. Works on Mac or PC.

(tags: font, handwriting, typography, free, online)

Buyer Beware: How Big Box Retail is Alienating Customers

2009-09-18T23:27:18Z

Since moving to LA, I’ve had to shop for more than the usual quota of household items - towels, sheets, some electronics, etc. I’m an Amazon Prime customer, so a lot of that stuff has been ordered online, but there are some things where I’m still not completely converted to online buying - sheets and towels, for example, still seem like something I want to touch and see in person before buying. But my experience this month may change that. And I don’t think I’m alone.

It’s pretty clear to me that a lot of large chain stores, like Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, and Best Buy, just don’t understand the new retail reality. Whoever is managing them and setting prices doesn’t understand that they’re being cross shopped with any number of online retailers that can offer similar (and in some cases, superior) service and selection. And they don’t seem to realize that in a world where the friction of cross-shopping has been reduced to nearly zero due to the removal of geographic penalties on shopper movement, pricing strategy has to change, or they risk alienating shoppers permanently.

Let’s be clear: I generally like Best Buy. They’re definitely better than Circuit City ever was. Generally, I’ve found that their pricing and selection on big-ticket items has always been reasonable — maybe not as good as online, but close enough that the immediacy of buying in person made up for it. I’ve generally felt similarly about Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, although I’m far less likely to ever shop at those stores - shopping Macy’s Herald Square flagship is generally enough to make me want to pull out my hair. But that was just part of the charm of the place.

Here’s an easy example, and one I’m choosing because it’s even in place online. Let’s say you buy an HD television at Best Buy. Maybe because you saw the low price in your Sunday paper. And a nice Blu-Ray player to go with it. Chances are you’re going to need an HDMI cable to connect them, because that player doesn’t come with one (even though it’s only video output is probably HDMI — I guess they figure you might not want to actually use it.) The cheapest HDMI cable they sell in their store, a Dynex 6’ HDMI cable (Dynex is Best Buy’s house brand - it’s essentially a total generic product) is going to run you $29. A similar cable from NewEgg, a top online retailer that ships 90% of its orders within 24 hours? $5. Amazon has similar pricing.

That additional 580% markup probably represent as much profit as Best Buy is making on the television (unless you buy the extended warranty - but that’s a whole different highway robbery.) I understand consumers may pay a premium for convenience, but that’s ridiculous.

Essentially, Best Buy is counting on the hope that it’s customers won’t check prices online, or ask a friend what a cable should cost. Rather than delivering a reasonable value to their customers at a reasonable markup, they’re gouging consumers on the follow-on purchases associated with big ticket items. It’s an application of the behavioral psychology principal that once you’ve already made a big purchase decision, you’re less inclined to sweat incremental purchases of a smaller size.

I had a similar experience in Bloomingdale’s yesterday. I’m considering buying a coffeemaker but I’d like a value-priced one (all they really are, after all, is a water tank, heating element and filter holder - that shouldn’t cost $200.) Bloomie’s had one on “super clearance / bargain price” (there were GIANT signs) for $130. I took my iPhone, ran an app called RedLaser and snapped a shot of the bar code on the side of the product’s box (you could also just search by name in the Amazon iPhone app.) Within seconds, prices from several retailers came back - and they were all lower, everyday prices than Bloomingdale’s “deep discount” markup. Imagine if I’d bought that unit /before/ it was put on sale, got it home, and then looked it up on the net.

Walmart and Target, I suspect, understand all of this, with their “everyday low pricing” strategy of simply being competitive on pricing and avoiding the “40%-off, end of season” sale cycle.

If upscale stores don’t figure out fast that their customers are just as much, if not more, inclined to cross-shop them with online retail (especially for big-ticket items), they’re going to have an even worse Christmas than last year. There’s always been a trust between consumers and big retailers that prices had some kind of connection to fair value, even if some items were a bit overpriced. It only takes being overcharged by nearly 6X once or twice to start checking every price online using your phone. And it’s not far from there to simply buying online, because you know that an online retailer like Amazon or New Egg has to compete on price with the entire Internet, instead of just trolling for unwary consumers to gouge.

(Disclosure: I work for a subsidiary of a subsidiary of Amazon.com. Neither my company, nor its parent, is in the retail space.)

links for 2009-09-16

2009-09-16T13:04:25Z

Hot Brick: Network Security: Hardware Firewall, Content filtering, firewall appliance, firewall, firewall security, vpn firewall, firewall router, firewall comparisons, security appliance, network intrusion, hardware vpn

Balance your network load between multiple inbound WAN connections. I may yet need this, given how shabby Time Warner internet in LA seems to be.

(tags: internet hardware sharing hotbrick lan)
Mac Mini Home Theater

Blog covering Mac Mini home theater issues

(tags: mac mediacenter media apple howto hardware home tv mini)

Howto: Building a Mac Mini Home Media Center

2009-09-15T13:59:03Z

Out here in LA I tend to watch less television than I did before, view more feature-length films (especially because I’m working on projects related to the industry) and drive a whole lot more.

Last week I had my high speed modem installed, but I decided not to subscribe to cable television, which saves me about $100 a month in service fees. Instead, I’m going to try using a Mac Mini, along with a number of parts and accessories, as a home media center that depends on the Internet, and eventually Over-the-Air (OTA) digital broadcast television, to satisfy my video entertainment needs.

I want the system to take care of the following tasks:

Play from streaming media sites such as Hulu and Netflix
Play DVDs and downloaded video from services like iTunes
Play edited HD home movies to the television, in HD
Provide an easy-to-use interface to my MP3 collection and streaming audio online

I also require that it:

Be stable as a rock. Never crash. I want continuous uptime measured in months, broken only by the need to restart to install a system update.
Have minimum maintenance and upkeep - this in particular is why I am using a Mac over Windows, it reduces update hassles and hardware compatibility headaches. I want an appliance, in essence, not another system to babysit.
Be quiet. No loud fans - I’m looking at you, Xbox 360.
Conserve energy. At 13 watts, the Mini burns far less power than my Tivo HD and Cable Box used to.

As I work my way through the process, I’ll continue to extend this post with relevant information and links to the parts and software I’m using.

I’m assuming that you have the following existing hardware unrelated to the Mac Mini:

A high-definition television with available HDMI port. A VGA port is also an option, but less optimal. Mine is a 46” Dynex (Best Buy house brand) that I bought used for about $200.
A stereo that can accept an optical, digital input and amplify that for speakers. If you don’t, you can also just use a mini-stereo to RCA cable and connect the Mini to your television’s inputs, but it’s going to be less satisfying. This doesn’t need to be an expensive unit - I bought the one I’m using, with all of the speakers (including a powered subwoofer) for about $225 off of Craigslist. It sounds a thousand times better than the TV alone.
A home network with broadband Internet connection

(Prices are approximate and will almost certainly decline over time following this post’s publication. They’re also there so you don’t get ripped off by Best Buy if you go there and try to buy a cable.)

Hardware:

Mac Mini 2 Ghz ($599)
Cables Unlimited PCM-2296-06 HDMI to DVI D Single Link Cable (6.56 Feet, Black) ($11) - the cleanest, all-digital way to connect your Mac Mini to your HDTV. Works in conjunction with the mini-Displayport to DVI connector that is included with your Mac Mini.
- An alternative display option is Sendstation’s Mini DisplayPort Adapter, which connects directly to a standard HDMI cable without the intermediate DVI connection. At $23 it’s a little more expensive than the option above, but if you’ve somehow lost your Apple mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter, this device along with a cheap HDMI cable is an option. This may also be useful if you need a display cable that’s longer than 6 ft., as those are going to be easier to find in a regular HDMI cable than one with a DVI plug on one end.
Cables To Go 2m Velocity Toslink-to-Optical Mini Plug Digital Cable (27016) ($15)
Elgato Systems EyeTV Hybrid TV Tuner Stick ($130) - allows you to watch and record free Over-the-Air (OTA) HD digital broadcast television on your Mac Mini.
- To receive OTA, you’ll also need an external antenna. Which one you need will depend on where you live.
Keyboard and mouse - any cheap USB units will do, these are just for initial setup and convenience when making changes. I happen to already own the Apple wireless keyboard and mighty mouse, which I bought for my home office, but they’re not necessary.
Apple Remote Control ($20) - this is the tiny, stick-of-gum style remote that comes free with any MacBook. You may already have one lying around or may know someone who does. Definitely not a must-have. It’s worth noting that if you have a programmable remote, it might have support for emulating the Apple Remote - I’m pretty sure all of the Logitech remotes do, for example.

Software:

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Plex - A remote-friendly media center interface based on Xbox Media Center project. It works great - the only caveat is that at present, there’s a few bugs if you use it with Snow Leopard that should be fixed soon.
AirMouse - this is an excellent piece of software that lets you control any Mac from an iPhone or iPod Touch via wifi, providing both trackpad and keyboard functionality. Here’s a New York Times article on AirMouse with a more extended explanation.
Apple Remote app for iPhone or iPod Touch - this is a free app from Apple you can download to your mobile device. It’s best feature, in my view, is the “iTunes DJ” music feature that will let you (and anyone else with an iPhone that’s allowed on your wifi network) to vote wirelessly for the next songs to be played by your Mac Mini if it’s using iTunes. It will also control any remote speakers you have setup using Airport Express units. Very cool.

Optional:

Iomega MiniMax Hard Drive, FireWire 400/USB 2.0, 1TB - 33957 ($130) - tons of extra storage space in a drive that fits right under your Mac Mini. Necessary if you’re going to be ripping your DVDs onto your media center for use in Front Row, or using the DVR functions of the Elgato heavily.
If you’re upgrading an older mini with an 80 GB (or smaller) HD, it’s almost certainly worth the time and money to upgrade to a new 5400 RPM 2.5” drive with more capacity and speed. For less than $100 you can upgrade to a 500 GB of storage. If I wasn’t planning to set up some kind of large network data store down the road, I’d be doing it too.

As many of the products as possible are compiled into a single Amazon store page, for your convenience if you’re replicating this setup.

Initial Setup

Set up Mac Mini with its power brick
Connect the video cable from the mini-Displayport to the HDMI input on the TV
Connect the optical audio cable from the Mini to your receiver / amp.
Turn on your television and your stereo and set them to the appropriate inputs
Connect your keyboard and mouse. (If you’re using wireless, it’s a little more complex - but the OS X installer will walk you through it.)

Here’s my own setup, just for giggles. I know this is one case where an image really isn’t that helpful if you’re actually working on something similar. It’s showing Vimeo via Plex.

Operating System Setup

I strongly recommend updating to the latest version of OS X before starting any software installs. (As I write this, that’s Snow Leopard.) Additionally, I recommend doing a “fresh” install — entirely wiping out any data or configuration that’s on the Mini and installing a clean image of the operating system on the hard drive. Even though Snow Leopard is theoretically an “upgrade” release it will let you do this without using an old OS DVD.

Back up any data and applications on the drive on the drive — the easiest way to do this is to simply use Time Capsule to fully back up the drive to an external USB hard drive
Insert the Snow Leopard DVD, but rather than running the install, reboot the computer and press down the “c” key to force it to boot from the DVD.
Choose the “erase and install” option for a fresh install

Yes, you could just upgrade the existing OS X install and/or leave the applications and user data on the drive. But the objective here is to create a super-stable “appliance” in your media center that runs as smoothly as a turn-key solution. By resetting the OS to a pristine install, and using the latest available release, you’re investing 30-40 minutes in one of the most fundamental ways to insure better performance and a cleaner system. Oh, and if you’re upgrading to Snow Leopard, you’re also freeing up more than a few GB of space on the drive that you can use for media or applications.

Software Installs

Mack the Ripper — for copying DVDs to your hard drive
Boxee
Visit the Airmouse site and install Airmouse on the Mini and on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Perian - this plugin allows Front Row to play extra file formats such as AVI and FLV. It shows up as an extra icon in your system preferences.

You’ll make watching DVDs more convenient if you make sure that the player is setup to automatically play in full-screen mode when a new disc is inserted. That means you won’t need the keyboard or mouse to watch - just the remote. (Good luck ejecting the DVD without them, however.)

What’s Working

Image quality, and audio in particular, is great. I didn’t expect it to make a difference but I can definitely hear the improvement in audio quality using the optical cable in comparison to the analog mini-stereo to RCA cable. I’m usually a skeptic about these things — I just believe quality is driven more by the file compression, and output speaker than the connection to the computer — but in this case the improvement is material and immediately noticeable.

The quality of online streaming video has reached a point where having a box like this is even more compelling. Watching “House” on Hulu in full-screen on a 46” LCD, I’d argue the quality is as good as a DVD. Results on Netflix Instant Play were more mixed — some movies were great (Hang ‘Em High) and some were pretty bad (Point Break.) I blame the quality of the compression on Netflix for that - in particular, scenes in Point Break with a ton of motion, like a surfer inside a wave, were a total disaster. (Of course, those are the exact scenes you want to come through clearly.) Obviously though, it’s likely that the future will bring more experiences like Hulu and fewer bad ones.

Watching HD home movies, edited in iMovie, on this setup is fantastic, as is viewing digital photos. And Front Row provides a terrific interface to your iTunes music collection as well.

Disappointments

There’s presently no way to run Back Row (the AppleTV interface) on Leopard, because it was written for the older “Tiger” version of OS X and hasn’t been updated to Leopard yet. That means you have to use Front Row, which is nice but definitely far less powerful than Back Row - you can’t buy movies or music from the iTunes store via Front Row, for example. I understand why supporting Back Row on Leopard is not a top priority for Apple, but it does seem to me that there must be a sizeable number of folks who use Macs as a media station (even if just via a normal monitor rather than a home theater) and they would probably be very happy to have a remote-control-friendly route to buying media. And they’re probably the most likely buyers of feature-length video content like movies and TV shows. (All of this begs the question of how long Apple is even going to keep selling the AppleTV.)
In light of the absence of Back Row, Front Row (the media interface Apple bundles with Macs) is somewhat disappointing. At the very least, it could include some stronger support for DVD playback. Here’s an example: why doesn’t it have an option to remember which DVDs you’ve played and own, and display them in your media library so you can see them when trying to figure out what you want to watch? The objective should be to provide a single, unified menu for all of your viewing options.

Other Thoughts

I’m considering setting this up as a video conferencing setup. It would require a decent webcam and a good microphone. (Polycom makes some options.) In the past I’ve attached my MacBook to a large TV. It’s a much more rewarding experience than videoconferencing via a laptop screen, because you can see more of the other caller and their entire body language rather than just a talking head.

As noted previously, I’ve compiled as many of the products as possible into a single Amazon store page, for your convenience if you’re replicating this setup.

I’ll continue to extend and update this post as I keep working on the setup.

Updated Oct. 15 2009:

This evening I switched over from using a VGA connector to the HDMI connector with my Dynex LCD TV. Usually, it’s harder to get VGA configured right than HDMI, but in this case it took a good bit of messing around to come up with a sharp image that filled the screen. The problem, I discovered, is that the Dynex has a “overscan” setting in its own menus for the HDMI input, which strikes me as odd — I’ve never seen a reason why an all-digital HDMI signal would require overscan, which intentionally zooms the image beyond the edges of the screen (this made sense back in the analog days due to limitations of cathode ray tubes.) So to get things right, I had to set up the Mac Mini with its display at 1080p and overscan on, and make sure the overscan on the Dynex was off so that the image looks right. I’ve never had any issues before hooking a Mac up to an HDTV via HDMI.

I’ve been watching a good bit of streaming TV using Hulu’s downloadable app. And I’ve also been using Mac the Ripper and Media Fork to make soft copies of my DVDs so I can just pick what I want to watch from a list without getting off the couch and loading the DVD into the Mini. Yeah, I can be that lazy.

Updated: November 11, 2009

For those of you looking for a way to “subscribe” to downloadable television shows, or who don’t have the bandwidth for streaming televsion, TVShows is a great program. It constantly scans for new episodes that are available and will hand of to your choice of BitTorrent client. (Transmission seems to be the favorite choice on OSX.) You’ll want to figure out for yourself what the legal rules are in your region for that kind of thing.

updated: November 13, 2009

If you want to use Linux or Windows instead of OSX, Dell now sells a computer called the Zino HD that is very similar in form factor to the Mac Mini and has many of the same hardware ports - HDMI, etc. It even has an SD card reader in front, which is a nice touch, although the front panel isn’t as “clean” as the Mini due to all the ports. I’ve never been a big fan of front USB / audio ports on home theater gear - I’m really not all that likely to have a setup where there are cables running out the front face of my equipment cabinet. I’ve written up a few comments on it — I think it’s interesting given that it can be ordered with a Blu-Ray drive for less than $500, and also offers Ubuntu Linux 9.04 as an option. (I have my doubts that those two things will play nicely together, however.)

Other Mac Mini Media Center Resources:

TUAW Mac Mini Article
Mac Mini Media Centre on Leopard - Hicksdesign - includes a good discussion on EyeTV / FrontRow integration.