Category: Technology

I just wanter to let everyone know I’m still around.  I had to travel abroad for work and have been working 12 hour days. My hotel doesn’ have internet in the rooms so it is difficult for me to get time to blog when I have access to the internet.

posted from my 3G kindle

Today at work, I had someone ask me about an update that wouldn’t install.  It kept downloading and trying to install from Windows Update but always failed. The update was for KB2539636.

After searching, I came across this MS post describing the same problem.  So, I downloaded the update manually and tried to install it.  When I did this, I got told it did not apply.  ARG….if it didn’t apply, why did WU download the goofy thing.

I went searching again….I went searching again.  Found this MS post where people suggested uninstalling and re-installing.  No sweat.  Head to Add/Remove programs and try to remove the app.  HUGE ERROR!  I got told that this update couldn’t run on a 64bit system.  So how did the stupid thing get installed in the first place?!?!  So now I can’t uninstall the thing.

I went searching again and found this MS tool to remove .Net. Download it and force the uninstall.  That worked.  Reboot and try Windows Update.  No updates found.

I head over to MS Silverlight’s site to check.  WOW….it was already installed.

Root cause:  Somehow a 32bit ONLY app was installed on this 64 bit system and was causing conflicts.  The installer checked for this when I tried to uninstall it but not when it was installed.  Ok…that is really goofy but whatever.

And people wonder why I don’t think normal people should have 64bit OSes on their computers.  There are too many problems that can happen when people don’t know and don’t understand what is going on.

Image from Chris Fritz via flickr

The last time we came overseas, we saved space by simply ripping DVDs and putting them on a hard drive.  This time, I didn’t want to have to either watch the movies on a computer or figure out how to hook the computer up to a TV.  So I went looking for alternatives.

At first, I stumbled across Roku.  I was going to do it just for the online functionality; however, then I saw the Western Digital WD TV Live Hub in a store.  In addition to the online functionality, it included a hard drive.  Ahh!  It even has 2 USB ports you can hook other hard drives up to.  My initial thought was to get it and use it for online streaming as well as a backup hub (it comes with a 1 TB hard drive).

After being here and using it for a bit, I thought I would write about it.  The quality is excellent.  I have it hooked up with an HDMI cable and it looks good.  The movies I’ve put on it…no so good.  Some of them are encoded in a low quality so this isn’t the fault of the WD box.  In fact, the one movie I have that is decent quality looks really good.  The remote is simple and easy to figure out.  You can rate your movies and do tons more I haven’t figured out yet.

There are two things I don’t like about it.  First, it doesn’t have wireless built-in.  That isn’t a problem in our temporary home now; however, it means that I will have to make sure the ADSL modem is installed close to the TV.  Second, the built-in categories (movies, pictures, etc…) don’t seem to actually filter anything.  When I pick movies, I have to browse on the device to where my movies are located.  Either I haven’t figured something out or it doesn’t do it.

I haven’t yet hooked another hard drive up to it.  I think this will be a task for once we move into our permanent house in a few weeks.  Once I do that, I’ll update this post with information about that.

I can’t speak for things like the Roku or Apple TV, but I would recommend the Western Digital WD TV Live Hub to anyone looking for an IPTV solution.  The hard drive is a good bonus and comes in quite handy too.

Full disclosure:  The links in this article are through my Amazon Affiliate account.  if you order the device from that page, I’ll get credit and a small kickback from Amazon. 

I assume this is ok to mention (meaning I don’t think the bad guys can get anywhere with it).  At the start of 2011, Google introduced two-factor authentication.  Over the summer, I enabled it for my Google account.  What’s the difference or extra?  I’m glad you asked.

Basically, two-factor authentication is based on two “things.”  In my case, it is something I know–my password–and something I have–a code from Google.  When I attempt to login using a google account, I am not only asked for my id and password, but I get prompted for a verification code.  Where do I get the code?  Google has an app that I installed on my phone that generates them.  So, not only do I have to have my keypass (what I use to generate strong passwords) but I also have to have my mobile phone.

So far, the only problem this has caused was when I tried to sign-on using Google’s stand-alone talk application.  I spent a good 30 min trying to figure out why I couldn’t log in.  I was trying to sign-on with a google app account so at first I thought that was the problem (it looked like it was stripping off my domain).  After some Googling, I decided I needed to give up and get back to work.  The next day, I decided to give it another go.  This time, I remembered that Google offers to generate application specific passwords for things that aren’t two-factor compliant.  I generated a new one and, sure enough, it connected straightaway.

If you want to know what I did to enable two-factor authentication, let me know, and I’ll post a HOWTO.

Image from Richard Parmiter via flickr

I was reading this article on Fox News about alternative fuel.  Towards the bottom, I saw this

Wood chips can be used to heat your home, but why not use them to propel your car? That’s the idea behind the Wood Powered SUV, developed by Beaver Energy. The company’s converted 1988 Isuzu Trooper turns wood chips into an organic fuel, and can drive about 20 miles on 25 pounds of chips. The truck uses a process called pyrolization, which converts any organic compound (including wood chips, grass clippings, and even garbage) into hydrogen and carbon molecules. The fuel, produced in a contraption on the back of the SUV, is then used in a modified internal combustion engine.

I then thought of the video below I had seen a couple of years ago.

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Direct Link 

There are 2 more parts to the video linked above.  Part 2 and Part 3.

Why not make the car just run on woodgas?  Sound crazy?  Read the whole article….there were about a million cars converted to run on the stuff during WW2.  My guess is that woodgas isn’t popular because it burns the wood.  And then you have the whole deforestation thing.  But we can farm trees just like any other crop (corn, wheat, etc…).  When you cut one down, plant a new one.  Then, in 10 years you can cut that one down too.  Burning wood is also carbon neutral (the carbon released when you burn it is the same carbon it absorbed when alive).

[Update 2012-12-26 15:33:45] The videos were taken down so I’ve removed the dead links to youtube

Image from moosicorn via flickr

I geotag all of the pictures I can.  Why?  Well because I think it is cool to be able to go back and see exactly where I took the pictures.  I don’t have to remember.  Now, I’m careful about pictures I take at home, etc….

but, as an example of the usefulness of this, check out what this guy did. He made this map showing how many pictures are in each lat/long square in the earth.  Pretty cool.  The image above is what he made.

Image from Oxford Internet Institute via my flickr account;

Today, I was trying to mount a truecrypt volume on my ubuntu machine.  Even though truecrypt wasn’t running, it kept telling me that truecrypt was already running when I tried to open it.  I found this article on the Ubuntu forums talking about the same problem.  The solution?  Simply delete the .TrueCrypt-lock-username file in my home directory.  It worked just fine.

Want to know what truecrypt is?  Want to know how to use it?  Take a look at these articles about creating a truecrypt volume and email encryption. I also have a HOWTO on encrypting your e-mail.

[Update 2012-12-26 15:25:23] Some of my links were bad.  I’ve updated them.

Image from hherbzilla via flickr

My Nexus S got the 2.3.2 Update on Monday evening.  I didn’t experience the SMS bug–well, atleast not that I can tell–nor have I experienced the reboot bug.

Image from saad irfan via flickr

With my new mobile/cell phone purchase, I needed to update the list of cell phones I have owned.  If you are curious, it is a complete list of the phones that I have owned and used on a daily basis.  I also have put down what I remembered about the plans.  In 20 years, I think it will be interesting to see what exists….the market has changed so so much in the past 10 years!

Image from Rubin110 via flickr

In this article, I blogged about some annoyances I had with my new MacBookPro.  Well, I found out today that one of them doesn’t have to be.  In my article, I said:

Touchpad. The guestures are great, but why do I actually have to click it? Why can’t I just tap it like on a PC touchpad? And don’t get me started on the click noise.

Well, today, I found out you can make the pad act like a pc touchpad.  Here’s how:

Go to system preferences->trackpad.
Check the Tap to Click option

That’s it.  You can now simply tap the touchpad to click…you don’t have to actually depress it. Now, I’m just going to have to break myself of the click habit I picked up  🙂

Image from huskermania via flickr