Jacken's Blog

Update: I now got a beta version of the software that partially fixed some of the problems. It still does not seem to work correctly with an other antenna.

I was out shopping yesterday with my family. And sometimes you just have to get some new gear. So I bought a Pinnacle PCTV USB DVB-T receiver. I used a computer in the store to check that It was compatible with the EyeTV software. As usual there was no Mac compatible software included with the Pinnacle hardware. But when I connected it all, I had really bad reception of the TV signal. I tried a lot of different places in the appartment (including standing in a room that has line of site of the broadcast antenna for the DVB-T broadcast) but still only got a 46% signal quality. So the video was choppy or nonexistent. Fortunately I now got a Macbook Pro, so I tried to install the Pinnacle software in Windows, and naturally I got a 100% reception and it worked like a charm. My conclution is that there is a bug in the EyeTV software. Here’s a funny tidbit, If you remove the antenna you actually get marginally better reception.

So I guess my adventures with this continues. Let’s hope the support at El Gato can help me.

I got a new Bluetooth Apple Mighty Mouse a couple of weeks ago, and let’s face it, Apple can not design a mouse. The Bluetooth reception is good, and so is the battery life, but it has several problems. To get it to right-click is a gamble. Yes, I know you have to lift your finger from the left side, but it still works erratically. And the side buttons is to hard to squeeze to be useful, and it feels really uncomfortable to use. Read more…

I found this great bittorrent client called Xtorrent. And what a lovely application. It’s still in beta, but it works like a charm. This is now my preferred bittorrent client.

So what’s so nice about it? Well, how about being able to do torrent searches inside the app? A very nice interface? Easy handling of downloads? The list goes on and on…

I stumbled across this great webmail application called RoundCube. If you ever used Apples Mail program, you feel right at home. It’s still an early beta version 0.1, but already it’s very usable. Even on my over crowded G4 server it feels snappy. So this is a project I will keep my eyes on. First on my next feature wish-list is the ability to import address book data with VCARD.

You need a server with PHP and MySQL to set it up. Installation is really easy. You can configure it to automatically create accounts according to your IMAP login information.

Two month ago I bought a used Nintendo DS for the kids. And guess what, last month I bought a DS Lite for myself. After playing MarioKart DS and the new SuperMario bros I was hooked. But I also spend a lot of time with Brain Age and Big Brain Academy. And I have realized that I really suck at math. But the build in statistics shows improvement. The best score you can get is a brain like a 20 year old, and the first time I tried I was 80. At least now I’m down to 26. I guy at work caught me playing in the coffee room and he asked me if I borrowed it from a kid, and I said no. So he gave me this funny look, like you can’t be serious. But I don’t care, you need to nurture your inner child he he.

I looked at Sonys PSP, but the load time is to long.

I so I finally caved in and bought the web statistics program Mint. I’ve stumbled across articles mentioning it, but I haven’t caved in, until now. It costs $30, which I think is a bit steep. My first impression was a bit disappointing, because the standard package is quite limited. But after installing several plug-ins, called Peppers, It’s now a great logging device. A great source for information about Peppers is this blog called Peppermint Tea.

Here’s a list of my current favorite peppers:

User Agent 007 Outclicks Fresh View Trends Sparks Session Tracker

I don’t know how many times I have read a thread that’s interesting, and then forget the URL. But now I use co.mments and it’s great. I have put an icon on posts on this site, so all you have to do is to press the co.mments button to keep track of a discussion.

There’s been a lot of buzz on the internet about a method to Getting Things Done. I use an simple and elegant solution called Tracks. It’s made in Ruby on Rails, so to set it up can be a pain for the more technically challanged. Here’s a quick tutorial on how to set it up using Locomotive. No terminal commands needed! Read more…