NSLU2-Linux looks like a fun little project. The Linksys NSLU2 is a “Network Storage Link” which means you typically attach it to your network, add an external USB hard drive, and it’s a file/backup server for the computers on your home network.

Pick one up at Amazon for about $80, and while you’re there grab an 80 GB drive for under $100 and you can build a nice little (and quiet) server running Linux, and once you’re running Linux, well, you open up a whole new world of possibilities…

Some links:

• Fun with SLUGs
• Turbo Slug
• Brainwagon Radio: New, but Still Noisy Recording and the NSLU2
• TomsNetworking: Hacking the Linksys NSLU2
• Linux on the NSLU2
• nslu2-general Yahoo! Group
• nslu2-linux Yahoo! Group
• How to Set up an NSLU2 with a Mac
• Use a Linksys NSLU2 on Mac OS X 10.3

Need more info? It’s all over the place, just search for NSLU2 linux.

(I have a whole nother post on the trends I’ve noticed in small, cheap, hackable devices. So stay tuned…)

I’ve been testing out the WordPress.com service over at RasterWP.

First impressions… Nice, but that’s not surprising, WordPress itself is very nice. It’s Ajaxy for sure. It seems aimed more towards the newbie users, nothing wrong with that, just making an observation.

I’ve had problems with the “visual rich editor” so far, but that is to some degree me trying to break it, which I did. Anyway, I’ll test some more if I get a chance. Results will be over there, and I’ll try to add a summary over here.

Face it, even though Excel is a spreadsheet, the vast majority of users think it’s a database. Sure, why not? It’s got columns and rows and you can type data into it. Isn’t that what a database is?

In the olden days it was common to let people think this way, and then just dump the data out to a tab-delimited file and use Perl to rip through it. That was the olden days, because now we’re used to the new days, and Spreadsheet::ParseExcel

The Spreadsheet::ParseExcel module makes it pretty easy, and those people can keep sticking their data into Excel, and we’ll keep right on ripping it out with Perl. (Thanks Kawai Takanori!)

Even after all these years, when PHP and Java got bigger and stronger, and Ruby showed up and what not, Perl is still a great language for processing text and data, mainly due to the huge amount of useful modules available.

Those crazy kids! First there was Mobile Monday, then Tag Tuesday, and there’s even Wiki Wednesdays!

But what about the rest of the week? Could we have Templating Thurday? Free Software Fridays? Wait, maybe Feed Friday? Firefox Friday? Syndication Saturday? Scripting Saturday? Search Sundays?

When will the madness end!?

Dave does like to go on about the River of News, and he does once again. What’s a “River of News” you say?

…there’s another kind of reader, an aggregator, that works differently, and I think more efficiently for the human reader. Instead of having to hunt for new stories by clicking on the titles of feeds, you just view the page of new stuff and scroll through it. It’s like sitting on the bank of a river, watching the boats go by. If you miss one, no big deal.

I sometimes think Dave’s thinking is clouded by, well, by being Dave. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just what I’ve noticed. Maybe it’s just because I, and most people I know, are not like Dave. We have jobs we go to everyday, and other responsibilities that take precedent over spending hours watching a river go by…

I’ve used “river of news” aggregators in the past, and what I didn’t like about them was that they seem to take the approach that you’ve set aside a huge chunk of time for reading, or that if you miss something, that’s ok. In some cases it is ok to miss things, but there are some feeds I never want to miss an item from. Like the ones from friends of mine who publish less than once a month. I want to see the name of their site in bold text on the left side of my aggregator. As for the time factor, I also like the fact that I can use my aggregator to show all sites/feeds I rate as 5 stars, with how many new items they have, and selectively view a few if I have just a minimal amount of time to spare, like on a lunch break.

I’m not against the “river of news” but it’s just doesn’t work for me at this time. Perhaps when my daily responsibilites are reduced and my focus is almost completely on writing weblog posts, I’ll reconsider it…

The folks at Participatory Culture just released DTV Beta 3, most likely because I just installed Beta 2. That’s ok, such is the upgrade cycle of life… (They even got a shorter url with dtvmac.com now as well.)

On the flipside, the latest beta releases of the Mac version of FireANT have also been very impressive. They’ve both got features that the other one is lacking. Competition is good, I think they’ll both find dedicated users.

(As far as licensing, DTV is open-source, released under the GPL, and FireANT is free right now, but may become commercial in the future.)

(Update: See comment from Josh below about FireANT.)

If I’m lucky, a “CVS Disposable Digital Camcorder” will arrive at RasterWeb! World HQ later in the week…

Fun! Fun! Fun! Let the hacking begin!

One year ago this week marks a point in time when podcasting really started to take off, and when it got it’s “official” (still widely complained about) name…

What? You want to see what I had to say? Take a look at these messages: 52, 64, 82, 85, 144, 146, 149, 187, 201, 215, 211, 264, 282, 288, 322, and 339.

It seems like I was the “reluctant evangelist” suggesting that “we” or “someone” should work on evangelizing podcasting… Well, I’m an idea man, I can’t be expected to take action on all of my ideas! (Luckily others did…)

One more, the first mention of “podcasting” on the list (courtesy of Dannie J. Gregoire) one year ago today…

I found this to be disturbing…. I found a major error as well… From CNN: Hold the phone: Trump on your cell (via ringtonia):

“When Donald Trump’s voice is coming out of your cell phone, everyone around you will know you mean business,” Trump said in a statement to the paper.

I’m pretty sure what that should say is:

“When Donald Trump’s voice is coming out of your cell phone, everyone around you will know that you are a complete jackass doofus loser,” everyone said.

Doesn’ t the second version sound better? I thought so…

Doug Ward (of Fourth Rotor) is an old friend of mine, and I like the things he’s done…

I really wish I would have known that he released all of the 8 bark music on 8bark.org over two years ago (since I spent a lot of time digitizing my copy of Structurally Sound about 2 and 1/2 years ago) but that’s ok, I’m just glad he did it…

Sure, I may have to talk to him about applying a nice license to the recordings, but dammit Doug, you done a good thing! Thank you my friend…

Oh sure, I thought perhaps Spatulacasting would be the Cool New Thing, but now it looks like Speedvlogging is going to be it…

Well, those wacky videoblogging fools at We Are The Media did a Speedvlogging Challenge!

The results:

• Josh’s Submission to “Vlog Idol”
• Bre’s Music Video
• Bre’s Limes
• Josh’s Submission to “Food”
• Josh’s final submission
• Bre’s Final Speed Vlog

I like the speedvlogging idea because over time, as you create something (be it text, audio, or video) I think you sometimes tend to become too critical of your own work, and almost hesitant to put it out there, perhaps for worry that it doesn’t live up to your previous work, or some level of standard you’ve set for yourself. The important thing though, is to keep creating. Stay creative and productive in your work! If something doesn’t turn out exactly how you wanted it to, that’s ok, move on to the next idea. Isn’t there a saying about ideas being useless, because it’s all in the execution of those ideas?

I stumbled upon an item at Lifehacker about turning a printer into a shredder…

This reminded me of an old idea I had, The Shrinter.

Bascially, The Shrinter is a printer that, upon completing the printing of a page, immediately shreds it so that no one can read it. It’s the only way to print sensitive documents! (The Inventgeek.com guys mention this idea as well: “You might build it to print the pages, and directly feed them back into the shredder“)

Who would need such a device? Well, I figured every government agency and corporation could use one. And Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft. Didn’t they propose some sort of DRM thingy where you would be prevented from printing a document? Well, here ya go! Let that loser in HR print that sensitive document, but shred it after you do. That’ll show him you mean business!

(I’m also working on a new CD drive that allows you to burn copyrighted material onto a CD or DVD and then immediately burns it - I mean literally burns it - so that the disc is unusable… VC ’s please contact me.)

As you may know, I’ve mentioned Apple’s various iPods on this site for years… All those words about a product I’ve never even owned, let alone used for more than a few minutes in an Apple Store.

Now that there is another new iPod (Hello nano!) it’s time for all the geeks and nerds with a few hundred bucks burning a hole through their wallet to do the upgrade dance to the newest version of the iPod.

Go on, you know you want to… And by all means you should! Get yourself that new nano, you deserve it!

But… don’t just throw that old iPod in a drawer somewhere, donate it to RasterWeb! - Our “iPod Recycling Program” is in full effect, and we’re accepting any and all old iPods, just get in touch with us for the details.

We thank you for your contributions…

Hooray! Google Blog Search!

I am searching for Oconomowoc…

Hey, a related blog! It’s a Blogspot blog…

Oh, another spamblog… :(

Quite a while ago I ordered a DVD drive for my old PowerMac G4, and after sitting in a box for roughly two months, I finally installed it. (It was the drive sitting in a box, not me.)

What’s that now? A screenshot of a DVD playing on my Mac? But how? I remember telling my cousin years ago that Apple’s DVD Player application prevented you from taking screenshots, but there were some 3rd-party apps that could probably do it. Much to my surprise, none was needed! I’m still using 10.3.x but the following worked for me:

screencapture ~/Desktop/dvd.pdf

And bango! A PDF on the desktop. It’s the whole screen, not just the DVD being displayed, but it’s a start… (I probably got the idea from macosxhints.com, as there are many other capture suggestions there as well.)