Geeky-Poo

*Geek alert*

In completely unrelated random news, tons of geeky stuff to cover.  On the movie/TV front, BSG has finally starting up again.  I can’t wait for the final episodes!  The first episode was a doozy! 

I’ve also seen several trailers for the new Star Trek movie.  I’m mixed on the latter.  The last attempt at jumping backwards [1]Enterprise: The series was the lowest and worst rated in the franchise. didn’t go over so well.  However, Silar from Heroes is playing our favorite Vulcan before he embraces his Vulcan side.  I’m assuming this means we will see lots of emotion from Spock.  heehee 

True Blood on HBO has quickly become one of my favorite shows.  The storyline is a very nice twist on the vampire genre with decent acting from a whole crew of virtually unknown actors.  The homo-erotic imagery is significant to say the least.  Sookie’s brother is HOT!  You see him in various states of undress all the way down to his butt.  I’m bummed the first season is over already.  However, I was very happy to see HBO picked up the series for at least 2 more seasons. 

Sanctuary on scifi is another good watch.  Amanda Tapping from Stargate: SG1 plays the lead role. [2]She is also the director  Amanda plays an entirely different character and does a superb job.  While the supporting actor roles can be a bit lacking at times, the overall story line and acting is very good.  The series offers an interesting twist on a variety of horror characters throughout history and neatly ties them all together.  

And speaking of, the Stargate: Atlantis series has ended.  I was very sad to see’em go but I think they had beat the plot to death and it was time.  The last episode was a bit rushed IMHO but still a good end to a fantastic series.  I’ve seen a couple very vague teasers on the website and TV about a new series so I’m all ears on that!  Up until BSG, SG1 and Atlantis were the highest rated shows on scifi.  They would be stupid to retire their money cow too soon considering BSG was never written to go beyond this last season. 

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On the hardware front, I’m still loving my new G1.  For a first generation OS, Google gets props for a job well done.  And while there are a few annoyances, overall I’m pleased.  My original complaint was the lack of stereo bluetooth.  It is being rolled out in the next update from what I’ve read.  My other big annoyance was the battery life.  I would easily churn thru the original battery in about half a day.  I bitched and moaned and Tmobile finally sent me a better one.  Its on par with my old Wing now so I’m happy.  The battery will also charge up to a full charge in about 45 minutes.  Oh and Tmo’s new 3g network is pretty damn good.  It isn’t quite what I’d call DSL speed but pretty damn close. 

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In complete and utter geekiness, I recently purchased Netgear’s HDXB101 Powerline HD Ethernet Kit.  I have wifi at home but because of interference, wifi in my room is a bit slow.  It gets the job done but I want it to the max.  The kit is designed to route your existing internet connection thru your electrical outlets.  I was skeptical but figured it was worth a try.  So far, I’m pretty happy.  Setup was a breeze, virtually plug and play.  There were some more advanced setup options available via a CD but I didn’t really see the need.  Plug one device into an outlet, plug your router or modem into it.  Plug the other device into another outlet (preferably on the same circuit but not required) and then plug your device of choice into that.  BAM!  Instant connection.  It automatically encrypts network traffic to avoid tampering too.  My connection is consistently faster than my wifi ever was.

References

References
1 Enterprise: The series was the lowest and worst rated in the franchise.
2 She is also the director

Work Around

Not being a PHP guru, I have given up trying to figure out why the import/export function of WP didn’t work correctly.  After an exhaustive search of the forums, it seems to be a bug.  It could also be related to the very reason I decided to start a fresh install of WP.  In my first attempt, I was able to import 2005-2007.   This is exactly where I encountered problems a couple years ago (and ever since) with upgrading WP versions. 

Luckily, the old archive page was rendered with the full links so I was able to just copy/paste into a new page here.  This neatly solves the problem w/o a whole lot of fuss!

New and Improved?

It looks like my reasons for starting with a fresh install were justified.  When I imported last night, I got all of the posts thru 2007 but nothing beyond that.  Obviously, that wasn’t gonna work so I deleted them from the new installation.  I’m still tinkering with ways to import so they may come back into this installation.  

There was a point during one upgrade around that time something funky happened.  I think my DB got corrupted somehow.  Every upgrade on my old blog since has had problems.  The irony is all my old categories came thru onto this one. [1]Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories  WordPress as a blogging platform has matured signficantly since then so I’m happy with the newest version.  

Never fear the old blog is still active under blog.mobius.name (or the long url of www.mobius.name/blog/) and will remain so.  I’ll probably come up with a way to pull the archive into this blog.  After reading the support forum files there were some serious issues w/the export/import option for larger blogs like mine.  I knew that going into it so no surprise there.  

Anyway, it is a new year and a new blog.  This template is only temporary until I settle on one I really like.  Things will be missing or odd for a couple weeks till I get settled probably.  

I also plan to manage the user list more closely in this one.  The last group got so weildy as to be a mess.  There will still be content restricted to registered users but that will be a few weeks. lol   

Wish me luck?

References

References
1 Remember, my last upgrade lost a ton of categories

Update Request

If you link here in any fashion, please take a moment to update your link for me if you haven’t already done so.  I have decided to fold my main domain and my blog into one site.  I will keep the old .name link active but only as an archive in the event the export/import of my existing posts fails.  Once I switch over completely, no new entries will show under the old domain(s). 

The new link is http://www.sfmoby.us 

While I’m at it, I am working with a fresh installation of WordPress.  My current DB has become quite cluttered with old tables left behind by deleted and unused plug-ins.  With the advent of v2.7, this will become obsolete as they are incorporating an option to “uninstall” a plug-in vs just deleting its operating files. 

I will attempt to import all of my existing database however, if that doesn’t work I will simply keep the old link alive as an archive.  [1]I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee  

References

References
1 I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee

Update Request

If you link here in any fashion, please take a moment to update your link for me if you haven’t already done so.  I have decided to fold my main domain and my blog into one site.  I will keep the old .name link active but only as an archive in the event the export/import of my existing posts fails.  Once I switch over completely, no new entries will show under the old domain(s). 

The new link is http://www.sfmoby.us 

While I’m at it, I am working with a fresh installation of WordPress.  My current DB has become quite cluttered with old tables left behind by deleted and unused plug-ins.  With the advent of v2.7, this will become obsolete as they are incorporating an option to “uninstall” a plug-in vs just deleting its operating files. 

I will attempt to import all of my existing database however, if that doesn’t work I will simply keep the old link alive as an archive. 1  


  1. I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee

New Look?

I’m tinkering with a new theme. Whaddya think? Yes, I know the links on the side are dead at the moment. If I can add the header images back and update the sidepage tabs I might just keep it.

OH, and if you use an openid login, please try it and see if it works.

*update – people seem to be having trouble with the comments AND the design so back to the old one for now.*

Netflix on Tivo

The marriage of convenience and technology in my household is now complete.  I got a nice surprise the last time my Tivo downloaded a system update.  Netflix!  It has only taken 3 years to finally come to fruition but it is finally here!  While the selection is currently a bit limited for downloads, [1]you can still have movies unavailable for download mailed to you but that is so 90’s. the quality is on par with standard def. TV broadcasts.  Surprisingly, when they say “watch instantly“, they mean it.  I’ve watched about 10 movies so far and every single one started within minutes and played thru to completion w/o pausing or hanging on the download.  Fast forwarding is a bit slow to start and stop but not unexpected for on-demand content. 

Of course, I’ve been able to stream Amazon movies thru the Tivo for about a year now.  The Amazon service is quite different though. For one, Amazon charges by the movie vs a flat monthly fee for unlimited downloads.  Amazon’s downloads also take quite a bit longer as the content is uncompressed and not optimized for streaming.  Usually, for a 2 hour movie, I have to wait 30-45 mins before I can begin watching if I wanna watch all the way thru w/o the movie pausing.  To be fair, Amazon does have a much larger selection of movies for download.  However, if they hope to compete, they’d better get their act in gear because I can easily see Netflix kicking their ass soon. 

I have yet to try HD content as I’m still streaming over a 54g wifi router.  You need a hard line connection or the newer N speed wifi routers to really stream HD content seamlessly.  I’m sure as the availability of movies increases, I’ll spring for faster wifi.

Once the selection improves, it will also give cable companies a run for their money.  Seriously, imagine having almost any movie or TV show ever made available to watch instantly for a low monthly fee.  No more exorbitant cable bundling fees to worry about.  No more getting stuck with 100’s of channels you don’t watch just to get a few you do watch.  If I were the cable companies, I’d be shitting in my pants about now.  Of course, they’d still make money on primetime channels, first-run content, and broadband so their money stream isn’t totally screwed just yet.  That said, I’ll quickly dump all of my movie packages once Netflix boosts their downloadable content. 

Yes, I know, I’m a geek.  But you knew that already.

References

References
1 you can still have movies unavailable for download mailed to you but that is so 90’s.

Twitter me this

I got the opportunity to make a new friend this weekend.  Slickdome aka JJ from twitter was in town for a conference.  He currently lives in frosty Chicago.  I didn’t realize at the time this was his first trip to San Francisco.  Anyway, I was more than impressed and came away wishing we lived closer as I really enjoyed hanging out with him and definitely feel like I made a new friend.

We met up Friday night at Firewood for dinner and some good conversation.  He had a lot to say as I grilled him on every aspect of his life.  What?  I couldn’t help it.  Having only interacted with him in a limited capacity on twitter, I didn’t know much about him and let’s fact it, I’m nosey. *giggle*  Seriously though, I didn’t have any real expectations about our meeting but I had a blast.  I will say his twitter pics do not do him justice.  He was much more handsome in person.  He was also very nice and came across in a very unaffected genuine manner. 

After the inquisition, I decided to take him by Daddies, aka 440 Castro.  We hung out talking and oggling menz.  I think he really liked it.  Not being fed up with me by closing time, we hopped over to Orphan Andy’s for a late night fatty snack.

Saturday, Adam joined us for a late dinner and a movie.  They talked shop a lot as they work in somewhat related fields while I gorged myself on food.  Afterwards, we watched the new James Bond flick, which I loved.  I thought it was just as good as the first. 

He leaves tomorrow but my weekend is over so he was left to wander the City on his own today.  He finally made it over to the Golden Gate bridge and I’m gathering from his tweets he enjoyed it.

Other than hanging out with JJ, there wasn’t much to my weekend.  I hung out with the roomie a bit and got a few chores done.  That pretty much sums it up. 

Oh and one of my regular readers sent me a box of homemade cookies for Christmas.  That was very sweet (literally).  The roomie and I have all but polished off the lot of’em. lol 

Weekend “Stuff”

This past weekend was rather fun.  I went for a 150 mile ride two days in a row.  The first day I went solo and the 2nd day I rode with a friend from the sports bike group.  The 2nd day was the most fun as we drove down to Big Basin park.  The views were awesome and the windy roads even better!  There was a moment when we were taking a break where this very friendly guy came over to chat with us.  I first pegged him as gay…well until his wife sauntered over.  He was very friendly.  One might say too friendly for your average straight guy.  My friend and I both thought there might have been a ‘story’ there. lol  Anyway, the rides were awesome.  I’m loving the new bike more and more every day. I am kicking myself for waiting so long to upgrade.  As for the shoulder, it is healed up nicely.  I still have some numbness around the wound from nerve damage but it is better every week. 

Friday night I also had dinner with Adam & Brad.  I hadn’t seen them in ages and it was nice to catch up.  They seem very acclimated to life in the big city now. heehee  Brad is looking rather hot as he has been hitting the gym pretty hard.

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I finished Gears of War on the first 2 difficulty settings. The hardcore mode is proving rather difficult.  I can only imagine what “insane” mode is going to be like. lol  The online mode for this one is way ahead of the previous version.  I have to admit the game has consumed a lot of my free time as of late. 

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TFA was in town this past week as well.  We had an awesome time, as usual.  He gave me the nicest compliment w/o even realizing it.  While I was undressing (get your mind out of my gutter), he casually mentioned, “someone’s been working out“.  It was so unrehearsed and off-the-cuff I knew he meant it vs just trying to flatter me. hehehe  So…he got it extra hard just for that, twice!