April 2007 Archives

Logitech's Harmony line of remote controls (I have both the 880 and 550) are the first and only universal remote controls I have ever used that are functional and elegant. By functional, I mean that the remotes actually do control every single feature of every single IR-controlled device that I own, and by elegant I mean that they are simple to set up, easy to use, and have a form factor befitting a remote. If you're looking for a universal remote, look no further. Simply choose which of the Harmony remotes suits you best and never look back.

I just read a post that Fox cancelled Drive, another serial drama in the vein of 24, Lost, and Prison Break.

Update 5/3/2007: It turns out you can in fact share recorded tv seamlessly on Windows Vista Home Premium. It took me a while to figure it out, and it's still a much bigger pain in the ass than it should be (thanks again, MSFT product planning), but I finally found the right registry entry.

One of the coolest features of Windows Media Center is the ability to share recorded tv to different computers (and therefore TVs, if you're using HTPCs). By sharing recorded tv, you can record something on one htpc and it will show up on every other machine on your network.

Yesterday, a friend of mine e-mailed me a blog post he had read about Rudy Giuliani's SAT score, which was apparently 1073. The blogger questioned why we don't consider standardized tests like the SAT or IQ when selecting a president.

A friend of mine who works for one of the Democrats running for president just e-mailed me asking for my thoughts on this evening's presidential debate in South Carolina. Although I've recorded it, I haven't watched it yet, so I don't have any real thoughts about it. My friend told me that his candidate, who has been a national politician for decades, got fifty percent less time than both Obama and Clinton. Perhaps that's because each of them need more time to explain their deeply flawed candidacies?

You have to check this ad out. It's too funny not to.

Yeah, I know I'm a left-wing, liberal nutjob, but man oh man do I like watching videos of jet airplanes crashing into concrete walls. (Don't worry, it was an experiment to test the safety of nuclear power plants, and nobody was hurt.)

Everybody with a pulse knows that on average women earn less than men, and it's not because they are dumber or less competent. On that much, there isn't any serious disagreement. Today, the American Association of University Women released a report exploring this topic. It’s a useful contribution to the national discussion on pay disparities between men and women.

Last week, I installed Nvidia's new 158.18 beta drivers for Windows Vista. The two biggest improvements are in WMV playback, which is now quite smooth (most of the time), and with the control panel, which is now far less buggy. I still have several problems, however.

I've never liked George W. Bush, but after the 2000 "election" I couldn't imagine liking him less. Sure, conservatives will defend the stolen election by arguing that it was Al Gore who tried to steal the election. They'll wildy wave their arms in fits of anger trying to argue that Mexican citizens are voting with reckless abandon in this country. (To be fair, some offer a more cogent, yet still cherry-picked, analysis.)

HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher might just be the greatest show ever broadcast on television. Why? Last Friday, former Bush flack Scott McClellan was on the show and Maher called George W. Bush “President Shit-for-Brains.” Right to McClellan’s face. And Maher meant it.

Much has been written about double standards in the wake of the Duke lacrosse rape case. Take, for example, this article by Jack Dunphy in the conservative National Review:

The case was simply irresistible to our sophisticated betters in Manhattan and the tonier zip codes of southern California. The “victim” was black and a single mother, each in itself a shield against criticism, but taken together an impregnable defense against any judgment of her own behavior and motives. Furthermore, she claimed to have been attacked by a group of southern white elites, thus justifying the low opinion of such elites held by those who live within sight of the Pacific Ocean or the Hudson River. (Never mind that none of the accused were actually from the south.) Only when the evidence of the defendants’ innocence and of the prosecutor’s misconduct accumulated to an undeniable critical mass did the media slink off to await the next Big Story.

I just downloaded Nvidia's new ForceWare drivers for Windows Vista. Hopefully, the new drivers will fix the problems that users of Nvidia graphics cards have suffered through on Windows Vista.

No promises folks, but it looks like I've gotten the blogging bug back. I've got no idea how frequently I'll be updating this thing, but if you check it every six months or so, there's bound to be at least one new post (maybe).

One of the common refrains that I have noticed while perusing conservative blogs focused on race differences and genetics is that they offer insight into issues that the mainstream media won't cover, presumably because the liberal ideologues who run the media squelch free and open debate. As a left-winger, my first reply to them this is: if you think that your point of view gets squelched by the mass media, welcome to the club! There is no doubt that the mass media of this country does some things well, and unfortunately one of the things it does well is constrain debate about important issues. Fortunately for all of us, internet allows us to bypass mass media and have open discussion on those topics.

I recently ordered Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, and Faded Dreams: The Politics and Economics of Race in America.