27 Dec 2006
Got a couple new pieces of technology for Christmas this year.
- 4GB 2nd Generation iPod Nano – Replaces my on-again off-again Creative Zen Micro. The Zen was working last week but it seems to be particularly flaky after fixing the headphone connector. After using the iPod for a day or two, there’s a reason why Apple dominates the market and I see no reason to jump back to the Creative.
- Logitech Harmony Remote Control – This is a strange one b/c I don’t have a lot of equipment. I’ve got a TV, HD Receiver and DVD player… a grand total of 3 remotes. Nonetheless, the harmony is a pretty cool device that was able to support my devices out of the box. I didn’t read the instructions so it was mostly trial by error but it really didn’t take that long to figure out how things were supposed to work. It’s an activity based remote which is rather interesting. Instead of simply allowing me to operate multiple devices (which is does as well), it provides a mechanism to say ‘Watch TV’ which will turn on the TV and Digital Receiver as well as making sure the TV input is set correctly. Selecting ‘Watch DVD’ will make sure the DVD player is on and the TV is set to the correct input. It seems like a pretty powerful tool of which I’m barely scratching the surface.
20 Dec 2006
I happened to notice that the Windows Defender on my Windows laptop wanted to update itself. The following is my experience trying to do what should be a simple task in the today’s world of anti-piracy and WGA.
What the hell I figured, this should be a simple download and install (not as simple as an apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade but trivial none the less).
I begin by performing the obligatory click-through on Microsoft’s download site and am immediately presented with a dialog wanting me to download the Windows Genuine Advantage plug-in. WTF?
This machine is genuine so there really isn’t any harm in doing this… just the annoyance. After installing it, I find myself presented with a prompt requiring to download yet another little utility to generate a unique WGA code that will then be inputed on the download page. After finally downloading and running the update executable, it notified me that it was going to (re)verify the genuineness of my system. What was the point of checking prior to downloading if you’re just going to check at installation time (if you’re going to check you might as well check at run time rather than download time).
All this for the privilege of updating my Microsoft software. In all honesty, it feels like a step backwards. I understand the need to combat piracy, but is this really the way to go about it?
caveat – This was the first time I’ve attempted to download a WGA-protected update so it’s possible that subsequent updates won’t be such a hassle.
20 Dec 2006
If I had a Wii and smashed my plasma TV up like this poor fellow?
Actually it wouldn’t be… but that still doesn’t necessarily stop me from picking one up once they’re a little more accessible. But first I’m still pretty keen on picking up a mod’d XBox and using it as a media center (with the High Definition AV pack).