October 2006 Archives

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Disassembly: Installing First Look - MacBook Parts

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Installing First Look

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A pretty interesting inside look at the MacBook

Well, the fall 2006 Canon rebates are finally here as expected. They are valid 10-15-2006 through 01-13-2007 so just in time for those of us going on Christmas vacation. Significantly, they aren't discounting the new Digital Rebel XTi, but some of the tasty hardware I've been eyeing include. Also the rebates double if you buy two or more eligible products, so if I got the 70-200 and the 16-35, then the total rebate for both is $200.

Canon EOS 5D. This is a gorgeous full frame 12 megapixel professional camera. $300 off

Canon EF 70-200 F2.8L IS USM. $50 off of this really expensive lense

Canon EF 16-35M F2.8L USM. $50 off.

Both Sony and Apple have updated their lines with some amazingly cool laptops. I'm really drooling over them because they both have the ultra fast core duo. Here are the recommendations:

My new top recommendation is the Sony SZ Series. It is the 13.3" widescreen version of the TX series. The value model looks liek the VGN-SZ370P/C listing at $2450, it has Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2GHz), 2GB Ram, 120GB hard drive, EDGE access. They also have a build to order option in the VGN-SZ340 that lets you get a nice priced (because it uses XP Home and not XP Pro) similar model but most importantly that option lets you get free engraving on your machine. It even has a biometric fingerprint reader for security and a webcam for skypeing. This is a good regular machine. You can travel with it and you can also use it daily. It won't work well in coach, so turn on your ipod and relax if you do a lot of that travel. It weighs only 3.5" which is what makes it truly great and portable. Pricegrabber has the SZs at a wide variety of places with the SX370P at $2250 and the SZ330P at $1850.

the big news though is that Apple just updated their Macbook Pro line to have the Intel Core Duo 2 chip on it. This has an amazing 17" screen, but it does weigh 5 pounds and is big to carry, so it is best if you mainly are just transporting and not O.J'ing through airports. Cost is $2600 academic or $2700 online. Ships with 2GB, Intel Core Duo 2 2.33 GHz, 160GB hard drive and of course runs both Windows and MacOS.

Sony TX Series you really want the most ultra portable, then my old favorite has been the Sony T and now update to the TX line. I've had the VGN-T140, VGN-TX650 and the VGN-TX750. They've been remarkable good especially because they are light (2.7lb) and have a long running battery and integrated DVD. Their main plus is that the screen is small enough to use in the miniscule coach class on U.S. airlines, but that also means the screen is really too small for everyday use. I only recommend it if you really need something, tiny, tiny. The latest models the VGN-TXN15P/W have switched to using EVDO, so it is faster in the US but actually less useful for international travel where the GSM standard is more prevalent and useful. The -15 lists for $2300 and has 1GB Ram, 80GB hard drive,

OK, in cleaning up MovableType I learned quite a bit about how it works. Here are some important notes on:

A nonobvious thing is that is a category in a tree, say portfolio is the category and the subcategory is semiconductors, and there is nothing in portfolio, then the category software won't build an index page for portfolio. There has to be at least one live entry, so even though there are entries below, the portfolio page won't build. The solution is to always have at least one blank entry or something that is perhaps the title at at each level you want to build.

The way that category archives work is that, it assumes everything that is emitted in MTEntries and MTCategories has that category tag, so if you are in the category called Press, it looks for every entry that is just equal to "Press" but not the subcategories. So to emit the whole thing, you actually need to sets of MTEntries, the code looks roughly like this. I've gotten rid of all the angle brackets to prevent because it is late!

MTEntries
...All the code to process the entries which are just equal to "press"
/MTEntries

MTSubCategories
MTEntries
....All the code that processes every sub category that is here
/MTEntries
/MTSubCategories

PluginManager. This handy manager helps you keep control of all the addons to your movabletype system.

MTSubCategories. We use this extensively on the site, so for instance, every person has their own blog entry with is in the category person and their position is in the sub category. So to generate code to show each, it's pretty easy to do.

Sorting Categories. The way that categories come out is pretty wierd and doesn't appear to be alphabetical. Of course, there is a plug in that helps. The simplest way is to take advantage of the fact it is sorting alphabetically, but you should actually use MT-Regex from Brad Choate to do this.

Sort_Method is the advanced way to do this where you get to write your own script and stick iit there to sort the way you want.

MT-Collate appears to be the final way around this. It is powerful and general.

I've had the rare opportunity to actually buy something based on a pricing scheme I was part of creating. In this case, we use Microsoft Small Business Server at Qiming and now we've run out of users. We got the software from the Microsoft Company Store, but it only supports 5 users. I remember all the discussions about pricing this SKU and the limitations (only one SBS in a network, etc.) and it has really stuck over the last seven years.

The CAL pricing by the way is $100 per user which hasn't changed much either. That was based on the price for a file and print CAL at $20 and the price of an Exchange CAL at $80. Things have gotten more complicated with the product line but that pricing hasn't changed much.

We finally got this from "Pricegrabber": which recommended "Viosoftware":

Shanghai actually has a reasonable number of high end shops. There is the Trek store near Thumb Plaza and there is also Bicycleshop.cn. The prices are the same as the U.S. it looks like at least from the site. They have two locations one is in Pudong. The new shop is on Zhang Yang Lu and is supposed to be the biggest in China and just opened October 3.

No.357 Yin Shan Rd (银山路357号),Pu Dong New District,Shanghai
No. 2068 Zhang Yang Rd (张杨路2068号),at the corner of Nan Yang Jing Rd
Telephone: 021-50751084, Contact Person:Stella
Mail: sales#bicycleshop.cn(when you mail to us please use @ instead #)
10.00am till 8.00pm every day except
Weekend: 10.00am till 9.00pm

However, Shanghaiist.com points out there is a dealer call Speed Cat Bicycle and they rent for the day for 100 RMB. Biketrip.org says that Zhu Wei Du is the owner and he speaks English and is ther ein the evenings. They have nice frames and there are many foreigners there. They have a very active forum site that is pretty interesting, but is mainly in Chinese. Its a tiny shop, but does a good business. Apparently, most titanium frames are actually made in China or Taiwan, so you can get a reasonable frame for 5000 RMB if it is made in China.

Speed Cat Bicycle shop is located at 404 Xiangyang Nan Lu (上海市襄阳南路404号).
Tel. : 86-21-64671586
Email : speedcat_sh@126.com
Website : speedcat.net

On the other hand, suits are much cheaper in China than in Hong Kong. W.W. Chan is in the Jin Mao Shopping Mall. They actually have three locations in Shanghai. You can get the finest Italian material and get it made essentially anyway that you want. A really high end suit with two pairs of pants is about $1,000 and is probably comparable to a $2,500 suit in the U.S. They also do custom shirts that are supposed to be amazing.

Also got to love the hours. They are open every day 10AM to 10PM at all these shops:

The Hilton Hotel, Shanghai
250 Hua Shan Lu, Shanghai 200040, China
Phone: (86-21) 6248 2768
Fax : (86-21) 6248 2618

Maoming Lu, Shanghai
129-A02 Maoming Nan Lu, by Huai Hai Zhong Lu, 200020, China
Phone: (86-21) 5404 1469
Fax : (86-21) 5404 0539

Jinmao Shop, Shanghai
2/F, Shop 2C-09, Jinmao Tower Side Building, 88 Century Blvd, 200120, China
Phone: (86-21)5047 2633
Fax : (86-21) 5047 2635

According to Roland, if you want a fancy watch, you should go to Hong Kong. There is a 30% luxury import tax in China, so it makes more sense to go to Hong Kong.

While driving from the dinner, I saw a Trek store in China. Apparently late in 2005, they opened a store. Giant (the big Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer is here as well, but only sell low end bicycles), but Trek is going to seel more. Other interesting tidbits are that Trek itself has 35% of the US market and less than 4% of the worldwide market. It has $600M in sales and 1500 employees.

The Chinese Trek site is pretty broken with a combination of English and Chinese, but they appear to have both road bikes (公路车，gong lu che) and mountain bikes (山地车）. I'm not sure a pure road bike really works in China given the quality of the roads, but I saw one fellow with a Trek 4500 hard tail that looked like a good choice. They don't have their full line, but appear to offer, road, mountain, cruising and kid bike On their site, some bikes to consider

• Trek Top Fuel SL. Dual suspension, carbon fiber OCLV 110 looks like its way too expensive to use twice in China, but is pretty cool

In terms of hard tails, they have their aluminum series:

• Trek 8900. ZR9000 alloy, Fox 32 F100 shock, Shimano XTR so lists for a breathtaking $1900. A 5' 11" with a 31" inseam rides a 19.5" frame size by the way which is a large.
• Trek 6500. This is the $780 MSRP or $680 US street price midrange alternative for Trek which is just a little bit lighter than the 4500.
• Trek 4500. AT $460 in the US, I don't know what the Chineser price is but its pretty reasonable and its gotten 4.23/5 from mtbr.com which is pretty amazing given the price. The main beef is that it is heavy.

The higher end carbon alternative is the Elite 9.8 with XTR components at $3000 street, its an amazing bike, but probably at that level a dual suspension makes more sense. Its just 21.5 pounds!

Click fraud sounds like an amazing scam. Make $300 a year by clicking on various links. Sign me up!

Sonicare is literally the only consumer electronics I've seen in the last five years that doesn't have a universal input. It only takes 120VAC and so we've blown two out in China by accidentally plugging them into 220V.

Also it is impossible to find just the charger, so you call 1-888-666-5765 and have them delivered only in the US. Get international Sonicare!

We've had a bunch of build problems with Qiming Ventures, so back to looking at PHP and MovableType scripts. Here are some resources:

• PHP Editors. If you can believe it there is an entire website devoted just to PHP editing. They even include a reviews section where the best freeware editor is PHP Designer currently in its 2007version to make us all feel old.
• Movable Type Tags. Much of what happens is controlled by a complex tag environment that MovableType creates. I'm constantly wondering what a tag means. Now there is a way to find out easily from Firefox

1. # Go to the menu item Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks...
   1. Create a new bookmark with the following information
      * Name: MT Tag Reference
      * Location: http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mt%s
      * Keyword: mt
      * Description: MT tag reference search.
   2. Type in your address bar (without the quotes): mt entrytitle

Barbarossa is a pretty amazing spot. We had lunch there but it is clearly a great place to see and be seen. It is right in the middle of People's Park (人民公园）although the address is actyuall on Nanjing Xi Lu, it is really right in the middle of the park and is surrounded by a pond (bring mosquito repellent in the summer!).

The decor is Morrocan and they definitely have the bands and so forth at night. During the day though, it is mainly a hangout for European tourists for some reason. Try the weekend brunch. The pancakes are really like cakes and taste great without the orange marmalade they give you place of maple syrup. Also the pasta is surprisingly good there. Anyway a fun place for lunch when you are wandering down the shopping mecca that is Nanjing Xi Lu.

Barbaross Club Restaurant
231 Nanjing Road West, People's Park, Next to the Shanghai Art Museum（南京西路231号，人民公园内（）
(86) 63180220

No. 50 Moganshan Rd; （莫干山路50号 not dry mountain） is a renovated power plant that has some amazing art and sculpture that is at the cutting edge of art in China. It is mainly post-modern stuff and really interesting. The artists live in their galleries, you can see the little day beds and things everywhere.

It is quite hard to find in the Putuo District （普陀区）so get good directions, but there are amazing hutong everywhere that are being rapidly demolished for high rise construction.

Some of the cool artist there include Xie Rong (谢戎) in No 113, Building 4 with really amazing photographs contrasting modern and old china in Shanghai. Also, Mr. Iron (mr-iron.com) has some amazing iron sculptures in Building 4, First Floor,

Green T. House is amazingly confusing to find because, for one thing, its chinese name (紫云轩 zi3 yun2 xuan1 or purple cloud pavillion) has nothing to do with its English name. It is a violet flower in Chinese. Also, it is on the side of a gigantic mall area call 100 Gongti Xi Lu where there is a big bowling alley. Some of the real locals at BeijingEats think it is way over-rated though.

Still it is incredibly chic. I felt like I was in London at a nouveau Asian place. You need reservations and the seating is actually family style. The crowd doesn't get there until late. John did the smart thing and took the recommendations of the waitress there. We got delicious beef, lobster and a really neat noodle dish that I'm still not sure what it is.

This is nouveau food, so don't expect lots of it, but the presentation is just amazing. The nice thing is that since it is on club row, there are lots of cabs outside to take you home.

6 Gongti Xi Lu, Sanlitun, Beijing, China
Phone: 010-6552-8310
朝阳区工体西路6号

We didn't actually go there, but Phil told us the Angel Club is one of the hotest restaurants in Beijing. Its actually right next to an enormous bowling alley and a bunch of other clubs. Its part of a group of clubs owned by http://www.tangclub-bj.com/

No. 6 Gongti Xi Lu,ChaoYang District(South to Gongti 100 Bowing sport center), Beijing. Phone +86 (010) 6552 8888

The Hilton Beijing When Natalie booked us, we were a little worried about what this hotel would be like. We've stayed at the Grand Hyatt Beijing (amazing but incredibly expensive) and the Kerry Center Hotel (functional, but not pretty). The Hilton Beijing is much closer than both of these hotels to Qinghua and Beijing University and it is amazingly nice having just been renovated. It's in the northeast on the third ring road.

There is a huge construction project going on right next door, so you really have to make sure to get as high as possible. We were lucky enough to be on the 22nd floor and the jackhammering was tolerable. The concierge level is very good for business meetings although a little cramped. The service is quite good and the folks are attentive, so for instance, when we needed to find a restaurant they were great about finding a great one (The Green Turtle), and when the taxi cab guy didn't know where it was, the valet called and found out and finally when I left by glasses there, they sent them the next day. Very reasonably priced for a business hotel too.

1 Dong Fang, North Dong Sanhuan Rd, Beijing, China 100027
Tel: +86-010-5865 5000 Fax: +86-010-5865 5800

Well, the food at BinJiang One (滨江壹号楼 bin jiang yi hao lou) here is pretty good, but what makes this just an awesome restaurant are two things.

First, they have a real "ice" bar that is cooled to -5C and where the vodka tastes just amazing. They must have 200 different kinds of vodka including John's favorite, some sort of buffalo vodka, and a really great espresso vodka that is perfect for after dinner. It just opened this summer and I think anyone who gets really hot in August while walking on the river side had better head over here. They actually have Northface parkas that you put on when you go into the bar and, yes, there really is snow and ice all around.

The second thing is that they have just an awesome view being right on the river. The wine cellar is nice and in fact it can seat 20 for a private dinner. I had the black cod and it was terrific as was the soft shell crab appetizer. The food is what I'd call fusion as the sample menu shows.

Finally, the setting is pretty amazing, it was built in 1902 and was called the You Long Road Garde Residence and they did a great job of renovating it. Its sleek and grey but they

It is actually owned by the same folks who own the Pauliner breweries, so go figure. Turns out that its owned by the Shanghai BaoLaiNa which is itself owned by the Taiwan group called the Namchow Group which is a general consumer product company

Fucheng Lu (, Shi Bu Jie, You Long Garden (由隆花园), Pudong
near Bin Jiang Da Dao Phone is 5877 7500

I'm probably a softie, but I finally had a chance to see this episode of Cold Case. It is about someone on death row with three days to go and what really happened. I loved the music and the ending was just incredibly intense. They don't rebroadcast often, but catch it if you can.

I thought the music on that episode was particularly good with cuts like:

Shine - Collective Soul
This Ain't Living - G. Love & Special Sauce
Come Undone - Duran Duran
I Know - Dionne Farris
Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm - Crash Test Dummies
Satellite - Dave Matthews Band
Hallelujah - John Cale

They should make it easier to buy tracks IMHO.

With Apple shipping Macbook Pro's with the Core Duo processor, they are really super viable notebooks. In reading Anandtech, the really big thing to give up is that they only have 2.5 hours of battery life. I'm spoiled by the slower, but very long lived Sony VAIO VGN-TX750B that I've been using (actually, I've had three variatns, the VGN-T140, VGNTX650), they are perfect for just everyday computing, and are incredibly light.

The incredibly nice 17" Notebook is $2600 with 1GB memory, 120GB hard disk and a nice glossy screen. With it, performance is good enough to run photoshop, etc. A dream machine and what is even cooler is that with Parallel Workstation you can run Windows XP applications in a window under OSx. Now that is cool!

His main recommendation and caution is to check the Apple Support Forums as there are lots of geeks out there looking at the many Apple problems, like the fact it whines or gets very hot, etc.

Also to save some money, you can get a refurbished MacBook Pro at a nice savings,m so for instance a $2500 MacBook Pro 15" sells for $1949 and folks on the forums have good experiend with them.

The refurbishined MacBok Pro 17" with 1GB and 120GB is $2400 compared with $2800 list and $2600 academic price for a new machine.

Well, finding age appropriate games is pretty hard. Most of the action is in console games or in violent ones, but Gogamer has a pretty good list of what's left out there.

Well, I seem to have misplaced my beloved Etymotic ER4-S headphones, these are In Ear Monitor headphones that plug into your ear canal and really offer amazing sound quality.

So here's an update from headphone.com, ""Head-fi.org":http://www4.head-fi.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2 ilounge and headphonereviews.org on the best in-ear monitors. In short, the ER6i seems best for just plugging into an iPod and has fallen in price to about $85 (expensive, but worth it!) while the ER-4S remains good, but has major competition from Ultimate Ears and Shure now for deluxe $200 headphones. These $200 headphones by the way with a good headphone amplifier like "Bithead": rival $20,000 speakers.

I still have my ER6 which set the stage and were one of the first very amazing headphones and the :"ER6i":http://www.headphone.com/guide/by-headphone-type/in-ear-monitor-type/etymotic-er-6i.php is the variant that has more bass so is perfect for the iPod, but the ER-6 is more accurate. These are about $120 from Headphone or $95 from Discountheadphones.com including shipping. Or you can goto Mpire and find it for $80 from Amazon which is an amazing deal.

The next is the ER-4 series, with the ER-4P if you mainly use it unamplified directly into an iPod and the ER-4S if you want the flattest response and use a headphone amplifier.

ER-4S go for$180 delivered according to Pricegrabber, Mpire shows auctions at $174 delivered for the ER-4P $214 from Amazon

As you can see from the reproduction chart both the ER-6 and ER-4S are amazingly close in reproduction, with the ER-6 having slightly less at the highend and the ER4-S slightlky more. The ER-6 is about $100 and the ER-4S is $200 so take your pick.

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Scion has released its fourth limited edition car. I've looked at all kinds of cars, but keep coming back to the box on wheels, it is just so practical and isn't expensive, you can buy 4 Scion xBs for the price of a single Lexus 400h for instance. It has a paint job that changes color depending onthe angle that you look at it which is pretty cool according to Scion Life

The other features are color-key taillights, spoiler and so forth. Unfortunately, it doesn't come with any performance upgrades and is $1950 or so over the sticker price. It doesn't have a DVD navigation system in it, so you'd have to add that.

The economy cars to think about though are the 2009 Prius and the 2008 Honda Fit Hybrid. The Honda folks are planning on doing a Fit with just a $1700 cost differential compared with the standard model. The Fit has gotten great reviews as a regular car. Too bad it is too small for our family. The goal for the 2009 Prius is to get even higher gas mileage and up to 30mph on electirc mode. Check out Allscion for more information.

Of course all of this is kind of bogus EPA and Japanese EPA statistics, so go to Fueleconomy.gov to see what peopleare really getting. Its a great site and I wish more folks would use it. It shows for example that in the real world, an Acura MDX 2004 model is suppoed to get 18mpg, but the user average is 16.8mpg and personally our car gets 14mpg because we mainly do city driving. The 1996 Volvo 850 Turbo is supposed to get 20mpg, but in the real world, our Volvo gets 16mpg.

Most interesting is that the Scion xB Manual gets 31mpg according to the EPA and interesting the average for real users are actually higher at 32.4mpg, so actually quite close, while the Camry Hybrid has an EPA 39mpg, but the average user is getting 37mpg, so pretty close as well. In any case, either the Scion or the Camry Hybrid will get you well into the 30mpg range, which is essentially double the fuel economy of our Acura MDX and close to that of our Volvo.

There is a great hybrid comparison up there for current cars

But the real news IMHO is that the high efficiency diesels are coming with Mercedes in 2008 about to field a 50mpg diesel. With biodiesel that's an alternative if you can stand the maintenance costs (personally, I'm sticking with Japanese cars, even though I just love BMWs and the like because I can't stand going to the shop).

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Went to the Global Partnerships luncheon the other day. Sounds like they are doing amazing things. Two great soundbites, first is that 70% of the world lives on less than $2 per day. Second is that 95% of all the loans made are repaid. Amazing.

Also an old classmate, Rick Beckett now runs it after a stint doing venture and ten years at McKinsey.

And of course everyone now knows the Grameen Fopundation won the Nobel Peace Prize.

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Now that Musicmatch has really broken on my machines (Yahoo bought it and it isn't supported much anymore), I really need to find a good tagger. Musicmatch is still my favorite because it has very easy Album finding and also it lets you rename files from tags automatically and put in tags based on filenames. So the search goes on. I tried DBpoweramp tagger, but it doesn't have these features. Neither does Windows Media Player nor iTunes, so now I'm trying MP3Tag

MP3Tag is shareware and does this magical file to tag and vice versa. It doesn't have a cover art finder, but I head iTunes 7.0 now has this.

Nero 6.6 leaves all kinds of video directshow filters that really screw up my machine, so back to finding a simple program that just does burning, like the old Nero 5.5 but is free. I can't use Nero 5.5 because it doesn't recognize my newer Benq 1640, but does find our old Ricoh 5125

CDBurnerXP Pro is one that I've heard good things about, but when I tried it, it crashed when trying to erase a DVD. I also noticed all the copyrights are 2004, so don't know how up to date it is.

When I google:"dvd burning freeware", the top pick was ImgBurn but this really need a full .iso image file whereas out of DVD-Lab, I just get a bunch of files. I really want something that takes a bunch of files and pushes them onto the disk.

I got this error message, proving again that something is wrong in my codec configuration. This only happens with Musicmatch, iTunes works and everything else does. A quick google query reveals this answer. Thank you mp3machine!

mp3machine - A solution to the MMJB Waveout format not supported problem

1 Go to control panel 2 Add hardware
3 At "Welcome" screen, press next
4 Select "Yes, I have already connected this hardware". Press next
5 Scroll down, and select "Add a new hardware device"
6 Select "Install the hardware I select from a list"
7 Select "Sound, video and game controllers"
8 Select "(standard system devices)" in pane 1, and "Audio Codecs" in pane 2
9 Press "Have Disk"
10 Enter "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32" in the drop down box and press "OK"
11 Select "Microsoft Audio Compression Manager" and press "Next" , then "Next" again.
12 At the security screen, press "Continue anyway"

It will install, and require a reboot

If it still does not work, then follow the same procedure, but at point 11 choose "IMA ADPCM

Audio CODEC" and on the next run select "Microsoft ADPCM Audio CODEC"</blockquote

I've had this problem just about forever, many times I will get a can't playback anything message and I have always thought it was something to do with the video codecs. I logged onto the Sony Vegas editing forums and found this issue from way back in 2003. It says that the problem isn't with playback, but with the sound driver settings. In looking through the properties, it wouldn't let me set any sound resolution or bit rate in the File/Properties menu, trolling through the Options/Preferences/Audio Device, I randomly changed a setting for "Audio Device Tape" from Microsoft Sound Mapper to Nvidia ASIO Driver and everything works.

Seems like there are bugs and issues with the nVidia sound on the motherboard of my DFI LanParty, so hope this might help someone else!

Sony Media Software - Forums - Vegas Movie Studio Messages

Part 1: When I click play on the transport toolbar i get an error...

An error has occurred while starting playback.
An invalid device was specified.

The details read:
The playback device does not support the current output format

Part 2:
When I save a project's properties, I get this message:

Warning: one or more audio playback devices does not support the current sample rate ard/or bit-depth.
An invalid device was specified.

The details read:

does not support 44,100 Hz at 16 bits.
Preview Port () does not support 44,100 Hz at 16 bits.</blockquote

DD-WRT needs an actually IP address rather than using the NTP pool servers. YOu need this to keep the time accurate on your router. I pikced theUCSD time server arbitrarily at 132.239.254.49

I need to VPN back to home, it looks like with the DD-WRT firmware load on a Linksys WRT-54GL, this is quite doable. Here are the steps:

• Install DD-WRT. This is open source firmware for the popular Linksys WRT-54GL router. These routers have 4MB of nvRAM and can run a nice version of Linux. Its a little complicated, you have to first load in the mini version of DD-WRT, then the VPN version.
• Configure OpenVPN. This is an open source project that turns your home router into a VPN server, pretty neat actually gives a good overview. The only problem with these instructions is that it assumes you can use JFSS (journaled file system) which only works WRT54GS Version 3 or lower routers with more memory
• DD-WRT OpenVPN. These instructions are work with any WRT54G v3 or WRT54GL where you put the key for the VPN into the script itself. The only change is that to create the key, you can telnet to your router and run the _openvpn --genky --secret static.key" command there instead of having to load the Windows verson of Openvpn.
• BSR-Clan.de has specific instructions on how to get this working on a low memory WRT54G v4
• Windows OpenVPN Client. YOu do need to load OpenVPN on each machine, it is SSL based and Windows doesn't have a built in client for it. You get it from Openvpn.net

Here are the instructions that seem to work, it is the simplest in that it uses a single key and only allows a single client to login, which is all I need:

1. Create a static key by downloading OpenVPN and on Windows running Start/OpenVPN/Generate a static OpenVPN Key which dumps it into c:\program files\openvpn\configs\key.txt
2. Go to your routers web page (typically at http://192.168.1.1) and go to Administration/Commands and enter into the Commands text box and click on Save firewall
bq. iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
3. Now enter the code below and insert the text from key.txt into the echo command and click on Save Startup

openvpn --mktun --dev tap0 brctl addif br0 tap0
ifconfig tap0 0.0.0.0 promisc up
echo "
-----BEGIN OpenVPN Static key V1-----
...INSERT YOUR OWN KEY.TXT HERE...
-----END OpenVPN Static key V1-----
" > /tmp/static.key
ln -s /usr/sbin/openvpn /tmp/myvpn
/tmp/myvpn --dev tap0 --secret /tmp/static.key --comp-lzo --port 443 --proto tcp-server --verb 3 --daemon

4. Reboot the router and go to the web interface Administration/Commands and look for mypvn when you type in
5. Because your router is probably on an ISP with rotating, connection, create an account at dyndns.org so that you get a DNS address for your home that looks like "myhome".dyndns.org
6. Create an openvpn config file on your client computer (see the openvpn instructions)

# Use the following for simple connections: remote XXXX.dyndns.org
port 443
dev tap
secret key.txt
proto tcp-client
comp-lzo
7. Start Openvpn on your windows machine and click connect.
bq. ps | grep vpn

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"http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/10/apple-about-to-announce-wireless-video-ipod/

Apple about to announce wireless video iPod? - Engadget

Supposedly they're preparing to announce the device in the very near future, which we've been told is both wireless and widescreen (both features we've been waiting for the iPod to take on, since, well, forever)

John asked me about a camera that really does IR well. While Sony has a pretty good IR mode in its camcorders (remember the famous Paris Hilton video ;-) for true high quality, there isn't much you can do. Now Fuji has a announced a camera that John and anyone from CSI:Miami will have to love.

They use a special sensor that is very sensitive to both UV and IR spectrum. It is a special sensor that is very fast as well (We have three Fujifilm F10s that use it and it is remarkable, great ISO 400 shots in available light). What they did was to remove the filter on top of that sensor that masks out UV and IR, so now John can take his night pictures at ultrahigh resolution. It should street at $1600 and will be compatible with Nikon lenses (I have a bunch John if you need it).

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Nikon is now way more competitive, while they had trouble with the 8MP Rebel XT vs. the 6MP D70, now both Nikon and Canon sport 10MP sensors. While Canon makes its own sensor, Sony supplies the 10MP sensor for the Nikon D80, the Sony Alpha 100 and the Pentax K10D. Net, net, there's never been a better time to buy a DSLR. They have finally reached an amazing maturity level. The 8MP were IMHO the first that didn't have too bad a tradeoff, but these cameras are now mature enough that everyone should pretty much upgrade.

The net is that the image quality of the Nikon and the Canon are both truly amazing. They resolve 2200 lph which is really very, very good and they are both low noise, so you can take pictures at ISO800-1600 with only moderate noise on both. Where they distinguish themselves is that the Canon has an automatic dust reduction system to keep the insides very clean while the Nikon has really great images and a 2700 shot battery (you'll never charge it!) and is about $200 more expensive. The standard lense they both come with is amazing, basically a 10x zoom that should do for most uses unless you are a serious amateur.

As usual it comes down to what you already own. If you already have Nikon, you stay Nikon, if you have Canon, you stay Canon. If you have neither and are a newbie (almost by definition), the lower cost of the Canon is probably a pretty big deal.

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The Nike site is now so sales oriented you literally can't tell anything about the shoes and where they fit in terms of new features, who they are for, etc. In that way other sites do a better job, so here's a list of everything you ever wanted to know about the new NIke Free 5.0 V2 (what a name, why aren't they just V6?): There is an slight update to the older Nike Free 5.0 for this fall. I mainly love them because they are comfortable and weight only 9.5 ounces. I suspect that there are V6s around the corner btw.

he midsole is unchanged and there have been only minor tweaks to the outersole for improved durability. The upper has less synthetic suede and more mesh and stretch polyester to hug the foot, while allowing the foot's motion to go where it will. The original's caveat--use the Free as a training aid--still holds true, though many runners who have run in it frequently have found it useful for faster-paced running or races, as well as some longer runs. For a person with good biomechanics, these can be a great shoe for daily training. The new design makes the shoe grip your whole foot" and "Not for everyone--this shoe takes a much-needed place between racing flats and big-mileage, control shoes."

David Boles has probably the best review of the shoes originally. I agree that walking in them feels like a pair of slippers. He does note, these shoes are meant to be worn sockless (ugh the smell!), but he like me, uses socks. Also you need to go up a jhalf to a whole size (my 8.5 go to 9.5)s. This seems to be true for all Nikes according to him and I know my Asics Gel's have to go up a half size as well.

As an aside David says go up a whole, but Runningwarehouse says go up 1/2. I got 8-1/2 without knowing this and they are actually too small since according to them there should be 1/4" to 3/4" between the endo fyour toes and the end of your shoe. These are by the way only good if you don't pronate and are other wise average in wdith volume, etc. The shoes retails for $90.

By the way, there is a clearance

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I had lunch with Geoff at an awesome Singaporean place in Menlo Park and he asked me a bunch of geek questions, here are the answers for one and all:

iLounge iPod Recovery Guide as iLounge points out there are a bunch of iPod recovery tools around. Most cost a nominal $15. I use the shareware podutil and it works great.

For scanning photos or 35mm, this is a big task. I use the Minolta DiImage 5400 Elite which scans at an amazing 5400 dpi and cost $500 and can scan 4 slides for 6 negatives at a time with amazing quality. My main regret is I didn't get something with a batch loader on it with all the photos I have. For that, Gary has recommended the Nikon family and I kind of agree with him. You should have someone do the raw scan and then you can spend hours with Vuescan or Photoshop CS 2 to improve and enhance the images. The main thing is that you run the scan and then you give it to your brother, sister whatever as its a batch job.

Here are the latest on the hardware, basically, I'd recommend the Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 ED as the scanner I'd get today. You can get a 50-slide adapter ($320 at Pricegrabber) which is great to scan lots and it has an amazing specification including 4000 dpi (most slides and 35mm negatives won't need that), is fast and is relatively inexpensive at $1000 street according to Pricegrabber (just amortize that against your memories and give to your friend or neighbor when done). This is a prolevel tool, so the scans will be great. Part of what makes it worth it is that the scanning software it comes with is actually very good. Otherwise, you have to spend $2-300 for Vuescan or Silverfast to get good a quality.

By the way, the quality of the scans far exceeds that of a el cheapo desktop scanner because it has much better color range (technically it has a D of 4.8, which refers to the lightest vs. the darkest colors) and it has automatic dust and scratch removal. This is truly amazing software called Digital ICE that really does remove all the aberations. You'd be amazed what a 10 year old slide has on it.

We had a great dinner with Chef Nance last night. It is a great idea, to learn to cook while having a dinner party. It gives folks something to do and people like hanging out in the kitchen anyway. Nance does a wonderful job and she's worked for the McCaws and another prominent Seattle family, so she knows how to do it right. Give her a call at 206-725-9125 or check out her web site. You can basically have a dinner party where youset hte menu and then you cook the food and learn a few things.

Here's her tip of the day: when you are cooking shrimp, take them out just when the shrimp curl and make a "C" this is the point where they are just cooked and don't turn to rubber. It isn't about the color, but about the shape. Useful and she was sure right!

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This could be the perfect consumer camcorder, it has a 30GB hard drive and records in high definition video. Also it has a 4 megapixel camera. We have the earlier version, the DCR-SR100 that has 3 megapixel still and 480/60i image using a HAD CCD sensor and only standard definition and it is really convenient and small. As an aside on this camera, widescreen 16:9 and 4:3 aspect have essentially identical pixel counts (2060 and 2050 respectively), so for most uses, set it for widescreen. With older camcorder, widescreen actually had less resolution like our old Canon MC-100. As an aside, if you have steady hands turn off the electronic image stabalization as this reduces effective sharpness.

Camcorderinfo has a nice first preview of it. It uses a new codec called AVCHD which is derieced from MPEG-4 H.264 codec (are those enough acronyms for you). It also uses a new CMOS sensor which is 1/3" and had 1.43 effective megapixels in 16:9 and 1.07 effective in 4:3 aspect, so widescreen is a real widescreen. Its the same imager found in their top of the line standard definition DVD camcorder, DCR-DVD505, their new AVCHD DVD camcorder, the HDR-UX1.

It also has a gigantic 3.5" LCD screen and can capture stills to MemoryStick or the 30GB hard drive like the SR100 and it has dedicated microphone and headphone jacks, which the SR100 doesn't and which is really needed for good quality recording I've found.

The big issue with all hard disk camcorders is that the picture quality isn't that good compared with tape based. Standard definition camcorders record in MPEG-2 at 9Mbps and I can say that the quality isn't as good as a miniDV camcorder that is recording at 24Mbps but with uncompressed DV format The new HDV has a maximum bit rate of 15Mbps so it isn't clear how much better it is, although it using a much more advanced codec so we'll have to see how good it is. It is shooting 1080i at 60 fps which in SD mode, it shoots 480/60i (480 lines at 60 fields per second interlaced).

The new MPEG-4 H.264 is suppoed to be twice as efficient as MPEG-2, but of course, you need video editing software that can deal with it.

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Legos Star Wars II has to have my vote for the most unlikely combination, but it works. We down loaded the demo and it is so cute to see all those legos in the Star Wars world, plus there are puzzles everywhere and by definition it isn't gory, the legos just break up :-)

The original Legos Star Wars was great and the sequel is just as good, so get them both :_)

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