Mark Turner Dot Net

My friend Chris O’Donnell linked to a wonderful online history of the Atari company, makers of the first wildly-popular home video games. It tells of how Nolan Bushnell, Silicon Valley legend and founder of Atari, sold the company to Warner Communications and then regretted the move when he was forced out. Warner went on to squeeze billions of dollars out of Atari but also squeezed the creativity out of it too, chiefly by not giving game developers a cut of their creations’ huge profits.
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I’m forced against my will to use Microsoft Outlook at $WORK. Frequently, Outlook will pop up a message balloon informing me that its accessing the network.

“Well, duh!” I say. “That’s what you’re supposed to be doing! Thanks for interrupting my work so you can bring me that critical information!” Talking to my computer is no use, though, as it just stares blankly back at me like a stupid dog.

Luckily I’ve found the recipe to turn off these useless messages for Outlook 2003. I made these registry changes and, voila, problem solved!

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Display Types\Balloons]
“Exchange”=dword:00000000
“NetConn”=dword:00000000
“NetWarn”=dword:00000000

(Hat tip, the Microsoft forums)

Here are the commands I’m using for importing DVDs into the iPod. Shown is the script for the Muppets DVD. It requires the libdvdcss libraries to be added, as well as the MP4Box app. MP4Box takes the mencoder-encoded file and stamps it with the appropriate iPod bits to make it show.

GUEST="Vincent_Price"; time mencoder dvd://8 -dvd-device /dev/scd0 -sws 9 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -vf scale=320:240 -ovc x264 -x264encopts bitrate=1381:vbv_maxrate=1500:vbv_bufsize=2000:nocabac:me=umh:trellis=1:level_idc=30:global_header:threads=2:pass=1:turbo -oac faac -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:br=160:raw -channels 2 -srate 48000 -o Muppets-$GUEST.mp4 && MP4Box -add Muppets-$GUEST.mp4 output/Muppets-$GUEST.mp4 && [ -f output/Muppets-$GUEST.mp4 ] && rm Muppets-$GUEST.mp4 && echo “done.”

Also see this helpful Ubuntu forum post for other cool tools.

My experimental MythTV server has been deemed a success. In fact, its a necessity! We watch so little live TV anymore that it took until Wednesday to notice the cable connection I put on our main TV a few weeks ago is bad!

Now that my surplus MythTV backend server has proved its mettle, its time to plan the next Myth setup: one for HDTV. So, let me put it out to my readers: how would you build the ultimate MythTV frontend and backend systems?

As for me, the backend’s only requirement is the ability to house multiple tuner cards. It should use PCI-E slots for this. I’m considering AVerMedia AVerTVHD MCE A180 HDTV PCI cards for my tuners.

I’m a little pickier about the frontends. I want both analog and HDMI connections so I can drive both analog and HDTV sets. I also want them to be quiet and unobtrusive. What would you use for these?

A local company is seeking volunteers to go to the moon. the volunteers won’t themselves go the moon, but they will help in the effort of local group TeamSTELLAR to win the Google Lunar X Prize by being the first private company to land a rover on the moon.

TeamSTELLAR is made up of a number of local businessmen and N.C. State engineers. The group is seeking volunteers to assist in a number of tasks, including administrative, fundraising, legal and engineering roles.

If you’d like to find out more, TeamSTELLAR will hold a presentation from 7 to 9 PM Tuesday, August 19th, on the first floor of Engineering Building II, Centennial Campus, N.C. State University (map here).

You’d have to be looney to pass up this opportunity.

Our upcoming vacation has got me thinking it might be nice to be able to take our TV viewing with us. The kids watch their PBS shows daily and might miss them. There are also a few city meetings I’d like to keep up with while we’re gone. This has led me to see what it would take to make our MythTV server act like a Slingbox, so we can watch TV remotely.
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I’m now on Twitter as @mtdotnet. Don’t know what that means yet, but there it is.

Kelly figured out that her daily errands take her six miles each way from home. She wondered if we might trade one of our gas vehicles in for an all-electric one, which would comfortably fit that range. If we can find one thats affordable and doesn’t roll to a stop just outside of walking distance from where it started, we might give it a try. But there is another drawback to an electric car (or benefit, depending on how you look at it): they’re whisper quiet.

One thing I’ve noticed in my months of biking to work is how attuned people are to the sound of an approaching car or truck. Many times I’ll cringe as people open their car doors or walk out in front of me, paying no attention to the bike closing in on them. And its not just a matter of of not seeing me: they don’t even look for me. My bike is not loud enough.

If your vehicle isn’t making a racket, expect to brake for all kinds of chaos.

Local geek Andy Withers had an excellent point of view piece in today’s News and Observer regarding Raleigh’s lack of bandwidth. Withers compares Raleigh’s options to nearby Wilson’s, which has blazing-fast municipal Internet service.

I wonder if Raleigh could take on municipal Internet some day.

Just got a scam email into my $WORK inbox. Someone claiming to be from an Asia domain-name registrar says someone named Karl Fischer is trying to register domain names related to my employer (where my company’s name is xxxx):

Dear Manager,

Asia Network is the company of internet services that the domain registration is one of the major online style of our service range. Now we have something need to confirm with you. We hope you to cooperate with us. On July 21th 2008, we received an application from one person named “Karl Fischer” who wants to register some domains(xxxx.jp xxxx.kr xxxx.pk xxxx.co.in)and internet brand(xxxx). According to our investigation, we found that domain names have relevance to your company’s name and trademark, so we send this email for you to confirm it. We are dealing with this affair in these days, so we wish to get the confirmation and the assent of your company. If Karl Fischer doesn’t belong to your company and you don’t authorize him to register these domains, Pls contact with me soon in order to prevent some guy from abusing your trademarks and the company names.
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