Nathan's Occasional Blog

Microsoft’s TBox auto computer road-ready?

Remember the old joke about what would happen if Microsoft made cars? Well, it looks like the joke may be on us. Word is that Microsoft’s in-car computer, the TBox, is good to go, with functionality that includes GPS, music control, electronic yellow pages, and access to vehicle diagnostics.

Anybody want a Fiat? I’m betting that’ll be the hot new car around these parts (I live and work near Redmond). I still want to make sure it’s not going to reboot at 75mph. On the other hand, if the MS technoloy really is cheaper than what’s out there these days ROCK ON!

10 Features Longhorn needs – A WinCustomize Article by Brad Wardell

Great list of stuff to see in Longhorn. Reading the comments looks like this is definitely a thorough top 10 that most can agree with. Personally, I think XP SP2 WiFi made great strides and I’m pretty happy with it. What I’d love to see in #6 (networking) is the abilitiy to make IP stack config changes from the command line.

I often find myself doing testing from my laptop between multiple VLANs on my network and the ability to turn on/off DHCP, specify static IP addresses, subnet, gateway, DNS, etc. from the command line would make my life a lot easier. It’s pretty darn slow to go to the Start Menu, Connect to…, Show all…, right-click on the interface in question, properties, make changes on multiple tabs, hit OK and wait 60 seconds while Windows figures out what the hell it’s doing. But I’m not bitter. 🙂

Google Feature Incorporates Satellite Maps (AP): “

AP – Online search engine leader Google has unveiled a new feature that will enable its users to zoom in on homes and businesses using satellite images, an advance that may raise privacy concerns as well as intensify the competitive pressures on its…

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This is pretty sweet! If you just want to cut to the chase, go to http://maps.google.com, search an address, and then click “Satellite” in the top-left corner.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Christian and a pretty strong believer. That being said, this is hallarious. Good blog too.

Red Falls Out of Favor As Teacher’s Choice

AP – Of all the things that can make a person see red, school principal Gail Karwoski was not expecting parents to get huffy about, well, seeing red. At Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Conn., Karwoski’s teachers grade papers by giving examples of better answers for those students who make mistakes. But that approach meant the kids often found their work covered in red, the color that teachers long have used to grade work.

Parents objected. Red writing, they said, was “stressful.” … [So the principal] has instructed his teachers to grade with colors featuring more “pleasant-feeling tones” so that their instructional messages do not come across as derogatory or demeaning.

This is among the worst panzy-assed ideas I’ve ever read! Maybe teachers use red because it stands out from black or blue text and makes their marks easier to find!
Wussies!

MobileTracker – Ride along with a Verizon Wireless test man

This is a pretty interesting article to read. And here we all thought they just made up their coverage maps. [Honestly, I’m still not convinced – I have a great friend who’s a senior engineer for a VZW competitor and I’ve seen some things heard some stories]

Talking about RSS aggregators — which one do you like the best?:

Onfolio recently released its Onfolio 2.0 Release Candidate. For new news aggregator users, this is my second recommendation after Bloglines. Bloglines is easier, but Onfolio is much more powerful and, because it stores everything on your hard drive, opens up new scenarios (like you can read and search your feeds even when on a plane unconnected from the Internet).
[continues @ Scobelizer]

Hey Scobel, the answer to your question is complicated: I’ve been using RSS Bandit for quite some time and love it … but after your post I decided to try Onfolio 2.0 RC. So far I’m pretty impressed. I’ve been struggling with the idea that I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to post to my MSN Space has long been aggravating – they don’t currently support an API to allow external publishing. I started looking at Blogger the other night and found I can use Blogger to manage a blog on my own server (which I already have). What you’re reading is the result. But here’s where the really cool part comes in … with Onfolio I can now reply to an RSS feed item right from my aggregator!

Now I hear the argument, “But you can do that from RSS Bandit too.” Quite true, and I’ve tested that using W.Bloggar (great tool – writing in that now). But here’s where Onfolio beats RSS Bandit for me … I can read articles in a “newspaper” view and still have access to item-specific action buttons (file, flag, email, blog, etc.). In RSS Bandit I can only do those things if I right-click on the article in the feed’s posting list – it’s simply more cumbersome. Another plus for Onfolio is that if I choose to email an article to someone it actually includes the whole article, not just a URL link.

The bad about Onfolio? Obviously I’ll have to transfer all my feeds over, but beyond that it doesn’t seem to want to allow me to use W.Bloggar as my blog post tool – it opens an empty window. It worked twice right when I set it up, and then no more. 😦 Work around for me is to use the Blogger interface to start the reply, save it as a draft, and then use W.Bloggar to grab that post and edit it.

PS – W.Bloggar’s web site was hacked a few days ago and is currently unavailable. Bummer! If you Google for “wbloggar download” though you can find the installer.

MyVirtualBand playing MyVirtualMusic:

I’ve been listening to some of the music over on MyVirtualBand.com. Pretty cool. Here’s what it is: “MyVirtualBand.com is on a mission to bring together “virtual bands” comprised of musicians and recording hobbyists from all over the world to collaborate…
-Scobelizer

Okay – so I have to admit that this is pretty cool, but I don’t think I could ever do it. Now let me explain – I’m now an official recording artist (drummer on 5 tracks for Upside Down). It was a great experience, but a very different one. While you, the discerning listener, hear a cohesive band that’s pretty darn good (I’m biased, but we’re not bad either) in reality each layer of the song (individual vocal and instrumental takes) were recorded all on their own. I would lay down the drum layer while listening to a CD recording or a “scratch track” and a click “ping” to keep good time against. Then a guitarist would play on top of that, then a bassist, then a vocalist, then… you get the idea. This is where I can see MyVirtualBand working (assuming each of us has a recording studio at home).
BUT, I can’t see MVB turning out a viable solution for a band that never sees each other in person. You see, our group gets together every week to play 2 services at church so we were able to work out arrangements, tweaks, etc. to our songs before we recorded them. We also built a sense of camaraderie that has made us a “family”, if you will. While I can see MVB (in the right hands) being a platform to put out good music, I have a hard time believing that it can lead to a cohesive unit, nay a family, that enjoys close knit relationships. Music for me is a conversation amongst musicians through our instruments (can you tell I’m a jazz-trained drummer?) – it’s hard to have that conversation if you’re not all in one place playing live.

Let’s see if this puppy works, eh?