i-rant
Moving through time and overthinking every minute of it.WP to Twitter
Posted on June 01, 2010Now I’m going to try the WP to Twitter plug-in for my wordpress.org blog. I’ve created a post and now will go ahead and publish it – should go to my twitter account with a shortened url.
Just installed Twitter Tools
Posted on June 01, 2010My weblog i-Rant is updated. So I’ll start writing again. Changed the theme to a simple one that can be read on a Blackberry or other smart phone. I’m experimenting with Twitter Tools to automatically update my Twitter status as well. Want to do Facebook as well. We will see
Replace the Color Wheel on my Samsung DLP TV
Posted on September 05, 2009Weeeeeee…. that’s the sound of the color wheel on my Samsung DLP 43" TV. Its been good to me, had it for years and have yet to replace the bulb. Amazing. But the sound is just too much. Scott Jangro’s blog has instructions. The PartStore has the part – should be all in for less then $120 and a few hours of labor. Thank you Scott
What’s the point of Tweeting
Posted on August 30, 2009Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We Asked Over 10,000 of Them.
I was directed to the above article via a Tweet on FB that appeared as a "friend’s" status. I don’t tweet but was considering getting into it again after I tried it and gave up. It is too much work. I have to go see who is out there and then think of important things to write. I just don’t have that much jam.
I suppose it would be useful if I was in consumer marketing or PR. But I get my info from reading online journals and papers; direct contact, the people I work with. And while some of them apparently tweet its not a critical part of our lives. So I think this is a starting fad that will become something else. I think someone has already said – when is FB going to buy them. When is Google going to buy FB… that’s the real question – what’s this going to become.
There are two aspects to consider: Technology and Application. The technology is constantly changing: Java portals, ruby on rails, cloud computing platforms – all great stuff. Then the Applications like FB, Twitter, Mint/Quicken, iGoogle. iPhone. So you hear the buzz word "Web 2.0" and depending on who you are it means any of those things. Focus on the Applications – not sure where it will take us and you don’t have to use them all. I don’t think Twitter is that important to me, yes there is that nagging feeling like I’m missing something but I have to get over that.
JimmyC
Insignia 5.0 Digital Camcorder – on Mac OS X – Quicktime
Posted on January 02, 2009Daniel just got a really cool flip camera from his grandparents and has been enjoying it as he is into video and pictures. Its an Insignia 5.0MP Digital Camcorder with 2.4"
Swivel LCD Screen.
Problem is – its video is: MPEG4 (DivX) in AVI wrapper. This would not play on his eMac and isn’t supported in Mac OS X Quicktime. Enter a few smart developers named David Conrad, Alexander Strange, Augie Fackler, Allan Hsu, and Graham Booker. They developed the Perian – Quicktime Plug-in: Perian – The swiss-army knife of QuickTime® components This is extremely helpful and has made it possible for Quicktime to not only play DivX format but many others. So if you get this camera go to their website and download the component. It installed directly into the System Prefrences control panel and gives you the ability to not only play the video in Quicktime but also use it in iMovie as iMovie uses native quicktime components for its file conversion.
About the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update
Posted on December 29, 2008About the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update
Lots of fixes in this one. It appears to have fixes for both the Airport issue with 802.11N networks and the Address Book sync issues on Mobile Me. Also the mail not quitting and junk mail staying problem. All issues my Mom has had with her new iMac.
If you are having problems with the update – such as a start-up loop (never stop restarting) or issues with Bluetooth then check out these suggestions at MacFixIt http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=2008121622093232
FireWire Developer Note: FireWire Product-Specific Details
Posted on November 08, 2008FireWire Developer Note: FireWire Product-Specific Details Mac Pro Computers (January 2008) The Mac Pro computers with Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 Series microprocessors were introduced in January 2008. The Mac Pro provides two FireWire 800 IEEE 1394b ports and two FireWire 400 IEEE 1394a ports. The four FireWire ports are on the same FireWire bus and share a single 12V DC-regulated power supply that can provide 18 W per port, for up to 28 W total. If a device is added that exceeds the power limit, the port will be disabled but the other ports will continue to function. Unplug the device, and the disabled port will recover in a short amount of time. FireWire port power is provided when the computer is on, in sleep, or off. The Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI) connects to the South Bridge IC via a PCI Express 1-lane 2.5 GHz bus. The front and rear FireWire PHYs interface via the OHCI. The Mac Pro provides front and rear port repeating when the computer is powered on or asleep. Front and rear repeating is also available when the computer is off, unless the computer was shut down from Mac OS X with no FireWire devices connected.
So I wonder, can you add a PCI card for Firewire 800/400 to just power the front ports so that the power limitation can be increased?
Obscure Tax Breaks Increase Cost of Financial Rescue – WSJ.com
Posted on October 20, 2008Obscure Tax Breaks Increase Cost of Financial Rescue – WSJ.com The biggest beneficiary so far is likely to be Wells Fargo. The big San Francisco-based bank recently agreed to buy Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., which has been hammered by huge losses on mortgage-related securities and loans. Wells Fargo has said it expects to take $74 billion in write-downs on the Wachovia portfolio.
Bank Merger’s continue with Wachovia next?
Posted on September 29, 2008
Several factors are behind the shakeout in banking. But the overarching reason is that bankers, governments, investors and customers simply have lost faith in the lending system on a number of fronts.
A potential new area of concern is the speed with which retail bank customers are moving deposits, sometimes by using the Internet, challenging the most stable source of funding that banks have. In recent days, Bradford & Bingley customers pulled out several billion pounds and moved them to bigger banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and HSBC Holdings PLC.
IndyMac Bancorp Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., was already struggling with heavy losses from mortgage defaults when worried depositors started pulling out their money. The mortgage lender’s depositors withdrew $1.3 billion in late June and early July, leaving the bank with roughly $19 billion in deposits when it was seized by regulators on July 11.
Banks are also facing looming repayments of the short-term and medium-term loans that many have come to rely on in recent years to finance a bigger chunk of their operations. This month alone, $95 billion in so-called floating-rate notes mature, according to a recent J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. report. (Floating-rate notes are borrowings with variable interest rates that run for approximately two years.)
Among the big borrowers is Wachovia. This week, Wachovia faces some $3.5 billion in debt repayments, according to J.P. Morgan’s debt analysis. Wachovia has said it has the ability to handle the refinancing of debt given its prudent liquidity strategies.
The troubles at Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., and of Fortis, based in Utrecht and Brussels, signal the first time that major commercial banks are now at risk of being forced into sales or breakups since the onset of the credit crisis a little more than a year ago. Wachovia is a big lender to midsize U.S. companies, and at the end of last year, it oversaw a commercial-loan portfolio totaling $190 billion. In the real-estate industry, Wachovia had signed off on $35 billion in loans. More….(wall street journal)
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