I have been working on a mythtv dvr box lately, thus the lack of recent postings. I have the hardware mostly together and I am starting on getting the software working. As soon as I can, I will be putting together several articles detailing the project so you can replicate my efforts should you so choose. Keep checking back for updates!

Internet Radio received a stay of execution on Thursday with a new deal arranged with SoundExchange, the group responsible for collecting music broadcasting royalties. According to a statement from SoundExchange, "SoundExchange has offered to extend 1998-era below market rates to small commercial webcasters, and to keep rates at 2003 levels for thousands of noncommercial webcasters. This would mean that the vast majority of Internet services would have no rate increase of any kind from 1998-2010". In addition, Richard Ades, a spokesman for SoundExchange, said the organization has offered to cap the minimum fees to be paid by large music webcasters at $50,000, a figure that will last through 2010 or for the life of the new, higher rates.

So, what does this mean? Well, at least some of the big names in internet radio will not shut down in the immediate future. I am not sure about smaller broadcasters and how this will affect them. The thing to remember is that this is basically a concession from the music industry to not kill the internet radio broadcasters yet. They are most likely still in negotiation with broadcasters to reach a long term agreement.

In order to keep the broadcasters safe, what really needs to be done is for the Copyright Royalty Board to set the rates to prevent the music industry from imposing outrageous fees. Whether or not this will come about remains to be seen.

What is clear is that our government has once again shown that they don't understand new technology. If they had, they would never have allowed the high rates in the first place.

Of course, it would have been rather interesting if the rates had gone through, the internet radio stations would have all shut down because they couldn't pay them, and SoundExchange would get no future payments. Then, most likely, some of the broadcasters would pop up in countries outside the U.S., and would carry on without paying any fees at all, and the music industry would have shot themselves in the foot.

If you want to read more about the new agreement, check these out.

Wired Article
Computer World Article

As I reported earlier, the Sony Playstation 3 has been reduced in price to $499, if you want a 60GB model. On July 13th, it was announced at the E3 conference that the reason for the price reduction is that that model is being discontinued. There are plenty still available, but further 60GB models won't be produced. This is just a heads up if you are considering a purchase in the near future. More details on the announcement can be found here.

I recently purchased a used book over the internet, and while it is in good overall shape, it does have a definite smell of cigarette smoke to it. I don't smoke, and I don't particularly like the smell, so now I am in the process of trying to get the smell out. If I have great success, I will pass on what I did to you with an update.

If you are ever in the situation where you need to clean up a book, I recommend checking out the rec.collecting.books faq. It has lots of tips regarding book cleaning and repair.

This is an update for those of you who have a Microsoft Xbox 360 game console. As many owners have experienced various failures, indicated by 3 flashing red lights on the console, Microsoft has decided to extend their warranty period from 1 year to 3 years from the date of purchase. It appears as though this may only cover the 3 flashing light errors, and not any other issues. Other issues will still be covered under the 1 year warranty. More details here.

Also, on or about July 12th, the Sony PS3 will reportedly drop in price from $600 to $500, so hold out for a bit longer if you are planning a purchase!

With all of the buzz lately about the iPhone, I thought it would be a good time to clue in those who don't know about first revisions. Anyone who has spent enough time with computer software knows that it is always wise to wait for the first update or the second version of a program before plunking down your hard earned money. The initial release is almost always either buggy, or lacks the features to make it worth the investment. Let's see if I can recall a few examples for you all.

Windows 1 and 2. Initially buggy and very limited in usability. First good release was Windows 3.1.

The Apple Newton. The first PDA, it never really caught on with the public. The first big success came later in the Palm line of PDAs.

Cell Phones. Initially large, clunky, and expensive, it was several years before they became handy and popular.

There are many more examples, but you get the drift. This is why I recommend holding out on Vista and the iPhone until the first one or two service packs. You will likely see an increase in stability, and some new features, plus, they may be a bit cheaper by then.

It wasn't very long ago that in order to learn a new language, you would have to either take a course at a school, buy a learning cd or cassette, or get a book from a bookstore or your local library. Most of those options required money, or at least some effort in tracking down a book. With the advent of podcasts though, learning a new language has never been as convenient and free as it is now.

Below, I've listed several websites where you can download podcasts in mp3 format for use on your mp3 player or to burn to a CD. Some of them also offer reading material to go along with the episodes. All of these podcasts are also available through iTunes. I recommend using whatever is easiest for you, but do consider when you might have free time to listen everyday. If you go running in the morning, or have a long commute, those are excellent times to fire up a lesson. Many of them are short, so even if you only have 10 minutes, you can get through most of an episode.

CoffeeBreak Spanish
French For Beginners
Learn Italian Pod
Learn German
Learn Japanese @ Japancast.net
English As A Second Language

Obviously, there are many many more languages than what I have listed here. Do a search in iTunes podcast directory, or on Google or Yahoo, to find the language you are looking for.

This is a website that I stumbled across today, that I just had to share with you. It is the SteamPunk Workshop, where one guy builds some beautiful creations from current and past technology.

As Wikipedia defines it, Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. And so, the basic gist of the Steampunk genre is that everything (vehicles, computers, robots, etc.) is steam powered, and they look as though they use the technology and styling of the Victorian era. If you have seen 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Back To The Future Part III, Steamboy, Howl's Moving Castle, or Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, for example, you have seen a bit of what it is about.

While it isn't generally practical to build actual steam-driven devices, you can modify the devices around you to resemble an object from a steampunk world. This is what this gentleman has done, and I think he has done an excellent job of it. I would like to point you to his The SteamPunk Workshop Monitor Mod. Here, he has taken an LCD computer monitor and converted it over to look like a 19th century piece.

This may not be something that just anyone would want to attempt, but it is an important reminder that cheap plastic is not the end-all be-all of enclosures or case design. We tend to live in a Wal-mart kind of culture these days where we don't care so much what it looks like as long as it is cheap and it works. Or, there are those of us that want to have a nice high-tech device, such as a new HDTV, but because it doesn't fit into their decor, they then hide it in a big wooden cabinet behind big wooden doors. This goes to show that, when it is done right, technology can have both a lovely form and total functionality.

Be sure to peruse the other projects on the site, such as the keyboard mod and the steampunk guitar. Now, where did I put my can of Brasso.....

First of all, if you haven't at least tried the Mozilla Thunderbird email client, you should because it is a very good piece of open source software. I have been using it for a couple of years now, and I haven't had any trouble with it, except for one thing. It doesn't have a way to back up your emails to various other formats. It does use an open format for storing your emails that will allow you to import your emails into another email client if you should need to, which is excellent. The one thing it doesn't do, is allow you to select a bunch of emails and store them in formats like .eml or .html for long term backup.

Now, when I talk about long term backup, I am talking about digital archiving. In the old days, we used to have copies of everything on paper. As long as you kept the paper safe, you had your records for as long as you needed them. Now, however, we are keeping digital copies of things more and more. And a lot of the important receipts and invoices we get are being kept in our email accounts. If you are a compulsive sort of person, you may print out all of your receipts and store them away, but if you are like me, you tend to forget or just don't know better. The truth is that software and hardware change over time, and if you don't pay attention, you can lose access to things. I know I have some 5.25" floppies that I have no way to read now. Fortunately, there is nothing important on them. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to back up your emails to some form of text file, as those should always be readable.

The best way I have found to back up masses of email from Thunderbird is to use an excellent extension called ImportExportTools. You can find out more about it and download it from here. The best thing it allows you to do is to export your emails in EML, html, or plain text file format. Once you have downloaded it, open Thunderbird and go to Tools, Extensions. In the box that pops up, select Install, and open the file you have downloaded. Click Install Now. Close the Extension window and Thunderbird and restart Thunderbird to finish installing. If all went well, you should now have a new option on the File menu. To save your emails, highlight the ones you wish to save from your email list and click on File, Save selected messages. From there you select the format and where you want them saved. When complete, you should have a directory full of individual email files. As far as what format to use goes, I recommend EML as that will have a better chance of storing attachments. If you don't want your attachments saved, plain text would be better for you.

Also, if any Thunderbird developers are listening, this should be a feature built in to the program.

Sorry, it has been a couple of weeks since my last post. Things got a little busy, but hopefully I can get back on track now. :>)

I imagine you have all seen the commercials or in some way or another heard about DVD's by mail. This is a system where you jump on a DVD rental website and select a rental plan, select the movies you want to rent, and they send them to you via the mail. Once you are done with it, you mail it back in the prepaid envelope, and they send you another one from your list of movies. It is simple and effective.

Would you want to use this? If you live near a very good rental store, or you don't watch very many movies, maybe not. If, however, you are a movie or TV buff, you may find this both convenient and cost effective. I know I am saving a little money versus using Pay-Per-View, and I have a much wider selection to choose from. Also, this is a great way to catch up on TV shows you might have missed. About half of my rentals are TV shows. You will generally get 3 to 8 shows on a DVD, and you can plow through an entire season quickly if you like, with no commercial interruption.

The two big players in this market are Netflix.com and Blockbuster.com. Both are very similar in their offerings. I have used both at one time or another, and I found them both to be good services. In fact, I haven't seen any others that I would seriously consider right now. I'm going to cut to the chase and give you my impressions of the similarities and differences between the two.

Similarities

• Selection of Titles. Except in a few odd instances, I have found them both to have the shows I want. I suggest going to their websites before signing up to see if they both carry what you are interested in. Netflix claims to have more different DVDs on hand, so assuming that is true, a slight advantage to Netflix.


• Responsiveness of customer service to lost DVDs. It is inevitable that a DVD will go missing in the mail at some point. I have never had any trouble with either service in getting the lost DVD cleared from my queue, and a new one sent. And I have never been billed extra for the lost DVD. I would say this is a tie.


• Return envelopes. They both seem to work ok, and mostly hold up to travel through the postal service. I have had 2 or 3 disappear in the mail, but who knows why. Again, I would say this is a tie.


• Throttling. This is a practice where the company intentionally slows down the shipping speed of your DVDs. So, say you usually have a turn around on your DVDs of 1 day out and 1 day back. If you send a lot of DVDs back and forth during the month, they may delay the sending of your next DVD by a day or two to save themselves some shipping costs. This is generally known as throttling. Both companies appear to engage in this practice, unfortunately for us.

Differences

• Shipping Centers. Netflix appears to have more locations from which they ship the DVDs. This means that you are more likely to be near a Netflix shipping center, and you will receive your DVD faster, as it has a shorter distance to travel. Advantage: Netflix.


• Website Usability. In the past, the Netflix site had a noticeable advantage on Blockbuster in both speed and ease of use. Recently, Blockbuster has upgraded their site, and it has improved, though it can still be slightly slow. Also, Netflix has a means by which you can have multiple queues for different members of your household, if you might find that useful. Advantage: Netflix.


• Downloadable Movies. This is a service only offered by Netflix as of this writing. As it is relatively new, I haven't had an opportunity to try it out, but it sounds like a good idea. I think that as we get faster and faster Internet access, this will gradually become the normal way of getting movies. Advantage: Netflix.


• In-Store Offerings. As Blockbuster is the only one of the two to have stores, only they offer this service. If you bring your DVD into the store, you can exchange it for one from the store. Your next DVD is also shipped from your queue immediately. Also, they offer monthly coupons for free in-store movie or game rentals.Advantage: Blockbuster.


• Pricing. There isn't much difference between the two in prices, as they have been in a price war for some time now. They both offer the same plans and rates. However, blockbuster recently lowered their online rental rates if you are willing to fore-go their In-Store rental services. Slight Advantage: Blockbuster. UPDATE: Netflix has reportedly lowered their pricing to match Blockbuster's, so you can now consider this a tie.

My recommendation is that if you live very close to a Blockbuster store, take advantage of their free coupons for the best deal. If not, check out where their shipping centers are located. Use the service that is closer to you. If they are about the same, and you might want the downloadable movies, go with Netflix.

List of Blockbuster Shipment Centers
List of Netflix Shipment Centers

The U.S. EPA has changed the way they test and measure the fuel economy of cars and trucks. Starting with the 2008 model year, they will use this new test to more accurately calculate the average MPG of new cars and trucks. Over the past few years, it has become quite obvious that the old method of testing cars was inadequate. It really came to head with the introduction of the Toyota Prius, which is a hybrid electric car. The EPA estimated the highway fuel mileage in the 50's, when in actual use, owners were only seeing mileages in the low to mid 40's. That can be a big disappointment when you expected an additional 10 MPG.

The good news is that the EPA has finally listened to those complaints and has done something about it. They have updated their tests to include higher speeds, faster acceleration, air conditioning use, and cold temperature use.

Additionally, they have updated their results for all cars and trucks going back to 1985. So, if you have an older car, you can see how the original MPG compares to the new rating, and how that compares to your experiences. I think you will find that most vehicles have lost 1 to 2 MPG off of their old ratings.



Finally, there are also downloadable/printable guides for vehicles going back to the year 2000. Great if you want to spend a lot of time pouring over the currently available vehicles when you are looking at your next purchase.

To find all of this fun stuff, go to www.fueleconomy.gov, or to jump straight into the ratings, go here.