January 25, 2007
My wife and I both have reasonably busy schedules, but we never had a way to keep track of each other’s schedules. We’ve both carried PDAs for a long time and maintained our schedules electronically, but we still didn’t have an easy way to view or edit each other’s schedule.
As part of a larger shift (which is the subject of a future post), I moved both of our calenders to Google Calender. We still use our PDAs (Palm/Treo), but we use Companion Link’s synchronization tool to keep them in sync with the Google Calendar. Using Google Calendar we can view each other’s schedules, and easily copy appointments from one to another.
Google Calendar also allows you to view other public calendar’s on your calendar as well. I use the US Public Holiday’s calendar, the Illini basketball schedule (although this year I wish I didn’t), and the Chicago Bear’s schedule (much more fun to watch this year). You can turn on or off any calendar, so it doesn’t clutter up your views.
I don’t sync the other calender’s with my Treo, so it is maintained as my clean primary schedule.
It has been a great solution for us, and while it isn’t perfect, is a very good low maintenance approach.
January 25, 2007
I’ve been a LinkedIn user for a while now, and I like to look around and see who people know, but it never had a big payoff. However, that all changed recently.
I was going through my address book and checking to see if I had linked to all my known contacts. I came across Aaron, who I worked with several years ago but no longer had a valid email address. I did a quick search and found out that he was in my network. I had my contact ‘forward’ the request on to him, and we got back in touch.
It is easy to lose track of people, and often hard to get back on touch.
One interesting side node to this. One of the bigger uses for LinkedIn is for recruiters to create huge networks and use it to identify resources. This is useful, but some people may feel that it is an abuse of the system. They don’t REALLY know all their contacts well, they are just people they talked to at some point. However, people like this are useful to the system. When I reached out to Aaron, one of the links between us was a recruiter. People like this help ‘grease the skids’.
Anyway, if nothing else the experience justified my further upkeep of my network.
January 25, 2007
I released a new version of my iTunesExport utility.
iTunesExport exports your iTunes playslists as .m3u files, allowing you to setup playlists in iTunes and use them with other software or devices.
This release fixes issues with playlists that include \ / or : characters.
http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport
January 24, 2007
My previous post points out the frustration I have with lengths companies go to to ‘protect’ their content. They add DRM to disks and encryption to interconnects. In order to truly secure the content, you have to protect it at every level.
The problem is, it isn’t possible.
The news that HD-DVD has been broken came out just before Christmas. Not, it appears that Blue Ray has been broken as well.
So the industry has now spent a ton of money to create a new standard (HDCP) to protect content, only to have the content cracked in a different place in the chain (right off the disc).
So now I can’t distribute high quality content within my own home, but Johnny down the street can sell bootlegged copies of HD-DVD and Blue Ray discs.
Maybe if they had invested hiring better writers than foisting a horrible DRM scheme (HDCP) on us, they’d make more money.
January 23, 2007
What is HDMI?
See Wikipedia for a full definition, but it is essentially a way to plug your high definition video sources into your display device. Decoded: plug your HD-DVD to your TV.
Is it Better?
HDMI touts several advantages over the existing alternative, Component Video. It is digital instead of analog, carries audio as well as video, and does it all in a single cable. These all sound great, but are they really true?
Digital v. Analog - Both Component and HDMI are capable of carrying signals up to 1080p. There are no obvious performance differences, and an unscientific analysis from people who have tested both have produced mixed results. The bottom line, no clear advantage.
Easier - No doubt, HDMI is easier to plug in than Component cables and digital audio cables. Of course, most people do this once a year at most, so I’m not sure this should carry much weight.
Disadvantages
Not only are HDMI’s advantages minimal, but it has some purely technical disadvantages as well.
Short Runs - HDMI’s max length is generally stated to be about 50’, although this can only be achieved with high quality cables. This is great if you are plugging your DVD player into your TV in the same entertainment center, but when you start talking about home theaters with projectors or hooking up your second TV, there are major issues. Component cables can be run much longer (100’ or more). (I’m a fan of Blue Jean Cable, and you can see their thoughts about why HDMI is broken)
Incompatibility - There are many reports about sources and display devices having computability problems. One ‘feature’ of HDMI is that is uses HDCP to protect the content. This means that the two sources exchange keys and then use those keys to encrypt all data transmitted. When this works fine it is seamless. However, many people have reported issues with the signal dropping, causing them to have to ‘reboot’ their source and/or display.
But EVIL?
This issue really hit home for me recently as I started investigating a way to do ‘whole house’ distribution of my High Definition DVR. I currently do whole house distribution of Standard Definition signals using an RF Modulator (topic for a future post). However, as I now have a second High Definition television, I’d like to be able to watch my DVR’ed shows on either TV.
What I’ve found is that while there are a ton of ways to distribute component video signals using Cat5 cable, there is no way to convert HDMI or DVI sources to Component. Additionally, there are no ways to distribute HDMI over long distances.
The issue lies with Digital Rights Management (DRM). It is illegal (in the US at least) to sell equipment that will convert HDMI or DVI signals to component (or any other analog) signal. This is part of what is known as ‘closing the analog hole’.
So What?
So why does this matter? After all, most sources can output their signal on either Component or HDMI right? Well, sort of. My existing source (High Def DirecTivo) will output its signal in full definition on any output. However, many new devices will not allow the full signal on Component cables.
Upconverting DVDs - Most (all?) current Upconverting DVD players will only output full High Def (1080i) on the HDMI inputs. The Component outputs will only output up to 480p. See the OPPO DV 970HD as an example. I have found some that have work arounds, etc, but by and large the component outputs are already locked out.
XBox 360 - While it does appear that you can output High Def on the component output (it does not even have HDMI), there are a few catches. Basically, it won’t upconvert DVDs on the Component output (only on the VGA output), and it will downconvert HD-DVD to 1080i (from 1080p) on component, although full 1080p will be available on VGA. This seems odd as the VGA output should be unprotected.
Regardless, the bottom line is that studios and manufacturers are locking down and limiting the capabilities of the Component outputs, and while there are some work arounds today, these will continue to be harder to find and implement.
In the future, it may become impossible to distribute High Definition signals to multiple TVs in your home.
January 1, 0001
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