Before I get to the actual point of this post, allow me to rant just a little. What's up with the increasing number, and more importantly the duration, of public radio/television pledge drives? Our local public television station, UNC-TV, will be starting their Festival drive in February, and it will last for more than a month (February 21 to March 29)! If this kind of thing happened just once a year, I wouldn't care so much. However, two months ago, the station had its Winterfest drive (November 30 to December 14). Occasionally, they'll even have a drive in August! Public television clearly needs commercials. I would suggest having commercials between the television shows they offer, so as to keep the 'commercial-free' feel of today. Just my 2 cents.

Back to the real topic. Driving home yesterday, I listened to a little bit of our local public radio station. They are currently in the midst of their pledge drive, so programming is light and begging for pledges is heavy. In the midst of their asking for donations, you often hear the sound of telephones in the background. And I'm talking old school telephones. Let's take a quick walk down memory lane and have a history lesson.

Back before the digital revolution, telephones had bells in them. Yes, physical bells. When someone called you, a small hammer oscillated between two of these bells, causing the telephone to 'ring' (hence the term 'ringing' someone). I haven't seen one of these telephones in probably 20 years or more. Yet, during these public entertainment pledge drives, you hear them ringing constantly.

The funniest circumstance of this is found during the public television pledge drive. Volunteers can be seen in the background sitting at computers with their operator-style headsets. No telephones can be seen during this time. And, occasionally, none of the operators are talking. Yet the ringing goes on. So where are those ringing sounds coming from? Are the computers synthesizing the sound? Or is it a gimmick being pulled from the control booth?

I like to think it's the latter. On my way home yesterday, while listening to the radio, I got thinking about this phenomenon. There must be a point at which this ringing trickery yields the greatest ROI, right? And someone must have figured this out. I'm no statistician, and I'm no psychologist, so the following logic is simply me thinking aloud. If the 'phones' were constantly ringing off the hook, with no breaks in between, it seems to me that listeners would be less likely to call in and pledge (why pledge, when everyone else is doing it for me?). Likewise, if the phones were too silent, listeners again might be less inclined to call (silence won't prompt the listener into action). So the answer certainly lies somewhere in between. I'm guessing that, if the ringing is indeed a trick, the frequency of said ringing is somewhere on the lower end of the spectrum. As a radio station, you want to sound needy, but not too needy. Others are supporting us; why won't you?

I'd love to know where the middle ground really is. Maybe an influential politician will happen upon this post and decide to funnel some of our country's economic stimulus package into a research program on this topic. Our nation's public media outlets might depend on it. ;-)

Time Warner Cable recently announced that it will be bringing bandwidth caps to more cities, after apparent success in their trial area of Beaumont, Texas. The upper bound on the cap is 40 GB, considerably lower than the 250 GB cap used by Comcast. Go over that amount, and TWC will charge you extra overage fees. I'm completely against this. If caps come to our area, I will seriously consider ditching TWC for some other means of internet access (perhaps the recently mentioned WISP network). Note to Verizon: start rolling out your FiOS service to the Triangle area; I will happily subscribe!

Anyways, while chatting with my dad about these caps, we got wondering about what our bandwidth usage rates really are. I recalled that my router (the oh-so-wonderful Linksys WRT54GL), which I flashed with the open-source DD-WRT firmware, supports bandwidth monitoring (beginning in v24). Happily, I flashed v24-SP1 right before I moved into my new house, so the data has been collecting ever since that time. There are some very interesting trends in the graphs, so let's take a look at them:

I moved in on September 30, so October of last year is the first month I had data for. As you can see, I transferred just under 31 GB for the entire month. Though it's not as apparent on this graph, the peak daily value was 4204 MB. One interesting trend in this graph is that you can see how busy I was with unpacking my stuff at the beginning of the month. As the month went on, I was online more and more.

The graph for November is a little misleading. Note that the units on the y-axis are on a different scale. This is thanks to the largest daily transfer (a clear outlier): 7223 MB on November 15. I purchased a game on Steam that day, which accounts for the majority of that bandwidth. Overall, this month was pretty light, though you can see that I was home at the end of the month (for the Thanksgiving holiday). November's bandwidth total was just over 30 GB.

I was home for over half of December, thanks to all the vacation I failed to take throughout 2008. As such, my daily bandwidth average was much higher, with a monthly total of 34.6 GB. I was out of town from the 27th to the 31st, which explains the lull in that period. The largest daily total was 4780 MB, on December 15.

January's graph is very interesting. Again, take note that the y-axis values are different. Can you identify the day I received my Roku player? It's pretty clear that January 17th is the beginning of a new trend of bandwidth. I've been watching a bunch of stuff on Netflix watch instantly, which accounts for the daily spike in activity. The monthly total for January was 31.6 GB, with the largest daily peak of 2428 MB occurring on January 31.

All in all, these graphs are pretty interesting to analyze. Watching my bandwidth usage over the next few months should be an educational experience. Surprisingly, I have yet to break the theoretical 40 GB limit. However, I have not yet had my Roku player for a whole calendar month. After February has come to a close, I will post an update on my bandwidth usage. That should give me a better clue as to what my 'real' bandwidth totals will be going forward, seeing as I watch Netflix content more than I watch broadcast TV.

Do you track your bandwidth? If so, share your findings!

It appears that Microsoft is quietly slipping in a Firefox extension with updates to the .NET framework. The extension is named "Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant" and, based on the description, "Adds ClickOnce support and the ability to report installed .NET versions to the web server." According to reports, this extension:

• Cannot be uninstalled through Firefox
• Changes the Firefox user-agent string
• Does God knows what else

Happily, people have figured out how to uninstall the extension. This move seems pretty dirty to me, but Microsoft has been pointed in this direction for some time now. If you find yourself 'infected' with this piece of malware, do yourself a favor and remove it.

A week or two ago, I was introduced to the Eye On Springfield blog. For a Simpsons nut like myself, the site is pure enjoyment. According to the site's official description:

Eye On Springfield is a retrospective of Simpsons hilarity spanning from seasons 1 to 9, when it was still funny.

I would disagree with the "still funny" bit; there are plenty of classic episodes in seasons 10 through about 18, though the most recent seasons have definitely fallen off. Site posts range from scenes in an episode, sometimes with an accompanying quote, to sound clips. It's a great site, and I highly recommend it for a laugh.

I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only one who, in the words of Patrick Cassels, has:

that annoying habit of beginning half my sentences with, "Remember that Simpsons episode where..."

This meat sauce recipe makes for an excellent spaghetti sauce, sloppy joe filling, or "meat pie" filling.

• 1 pound ground turkey or beef
• 1 small onion
• 1 small bell pepper (optional)
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 or 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp basil
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Pepper
• Ketchup
• Grated Parmesan cheese

Mince both the onion and bell pepper. In a skillet, combine the olive oil, minced onion, bell pepper, and meat, and brown over medium-high heat. Once the meat is fully browned, reduce the heat to simmer. Add the can of tomato soup and, using the same can, 1/2 a can of water (don't add the water if you want a thicker sauce). Add the Worcestershire sauce, sugar, and a good squeeze (or dollop) of ketchup. Mix the ingredients together well. Now add the spices: basil, oregano, dried parsley, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, about 1/2 tsp salt, and ground pepper. Shake Parmesan cheese over the top of the sauce, and mix everything together well. Taste the sauce; more salt and pepper may be desired.

As a part of its recent layoffs, Microsoft closed Aces Studio, the team behind Microsoft's stalwart Flight Simulator line of games, and the upcoming Train Simulator 2. According to the report, Train Simulator 2 is officially dead, and will not be revived. The Flight Simulator counterpart may be brought back at some point, but even its fate is undetermined at the moment.

I know I'm one of the only people on the planet who cares about it, but I was looking forward to Train Sim 2. The graphics looked great, and I was really looking forward to the migration to the Flight-Sim game engine. But, alas, it's not to be.

Onward and upward, I suppose.

Twenty five years ago today, the oh-so-epic 1984 ad from Apple debuted during the super bowl. This ad is as powerful today as it was back then. If there's one thing Apple can certainly do well, it's marketing. They have perfected the art of making their products cooler than the rest, something lots of other companies would love to learn how to do. If Microsoft had learned how to market as well as Apple, perhaps there would be no Apple at all. But alas, that was not to be (and we're all the better for it).

Here's to one of the best advertisements in the history of advertising!

I just completed the final season of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and all I can say is wow. This show is, without any doubt in my mind, one of the top 5 television shows I've ever seen. It ranks up there with The Simpsons and Pushing Daisies, in my opinion, and that's saying something (seeing as how big a Simpsons nut I am).

The series finale takes place across four episodes, each more epic than the one before it (and the episodes leading up to this finale are just as good). There are some excellent surprises throughout each episode, with the vast majority of the lingering mysteries finally being resolved. A surprising twist occurs in the finale's climax, and it's safe to say I was thoroughly surprised. The ending was fulfilling beyond anything I imagined.

If you haven't checked out this series, I cannot recommend it highly enough. I will definitely be purchasing the entire series on DVD (Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3).

There are only two things that could have made the series better. First, I was disappointed that we didn't learn more about the air bender society. If Aang is the only one left, what becomes of their heritage? Has this nation therefore truly become extinct? Second, there were still a few strings left dangling at the series end. I won't list them here so as to avoid spoilers, but I'd love to know what becomes of these threads. Another episode (or two ... or three) would have been really appreciated to see where everyone ends up. Perhaps the creators of the show will come back in the future to wrap up these threads.

All in all, I had an enjoyable time with this series. Even though I'm a little sad to say goodbye to it, I'm oh-so-glad I took the journey. I now have other shows to catch up on, both old and new, and that's what I'm off to do next. So long, Aang and company. It's been a wonderful ride.

It seems that Circuit City is closing for good. Deep down, does anyone care? Part of me does, and part of me doesn't. I've been to Circuit City probably twice in my life; both times were to pick up games that Best Buy didn't have at the time. Since that time, I've come to hate stores like that (hence the part of me that doesn't care). At the same time, with Circuit City exiting the market, the market for certain things becomes that much smaller. That bothers me, especially since the competition is so lame. What do you think? Will you miss Circuit City?

I never thought I'd get around to saying this (especially so early in its lifetime), but Windows 7 is really starting to appeal to me. Over the past few days, both Gizmodo and Lifehacker have been showcasing some of the cool new features. Several have caught my eye:

The New Taskbar

The new taskbar inside of Windows 7 looks great. Gone is the separation between the quick-launch menu and the standard list of task buttons. Instead, the two have been merged into one entity; very clever! However, I wonder what it's like with a large number of icons. I'm a huge quick-launch user and couldn't live without it. For instance, here on my laptop, I've got 28 icons at my disposal, with another 7 squirreled away in a sub-menu. The screenshots at the Gizmodo story only show the large icons in use. At those sizes, my taskbar would clearly take up a lot of screen real estate. Hopefully, the icon sizes are either settable via a preference or scale down on the fly.

20 New Themes

Windows 7 ships with a total of 20 themes, all of which look fantastic. This will be a welcome change from the 3 ugly themes in XP.

Problem Steps Recorder

Being able to create a web-based slideshow of a problem recreation scenario is awesome. My only fear is that, if it's like any other web-based stuff Microsoft has done, the resulting HTML is bloated, ugly, inaccessible, and devoid of validation.

Improved File in Use Messages

Knowing exactly why a file is in use is totally rad. Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?

Improved performance looks like it will be making its way to Windows 7, another great reason to look forward to the new OS. The sound virtualization introduced in Vista is a great feature, and one I wish existed in XP.

With all of these great new features, there are still a few things I'm apprehensive about. The graphical intensity of it all still seems ridiculous, especially the 'Aero Peek' feature, which feels like a cheap gimmick. I'm not a fan of the ribbon interfaces, simply because it's an entirely new paradigm (I can work with menus just fine, thanks). And what of the new user security model introduced in Vista? Are the problems solved?

If Microsoft continues to head in their current direction, I'll seriously consider upgrading once the OS is released. That's a far cry from my opinions in the early Vista days.

The contact form here at this website has been fixed. I did some debugging after my recent breadcrumbs issue, and managed to forget to restore things back to their original state. Many thanks to Archaeopteryx for finding and reporting the issue.

I'm really on a roll for bugs this month, huh? :oops:

Dry Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1-1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

In a bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a suitable measuring cup, measure out the buttermilk. Add the egg and vegetable oil to the measuring cup, and mix together well (beating the egg in the process). Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring until blended, but slightly lumpy. Add additional buttermilk to thin the batter as needed (not too thick, and not too thin). Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto a lightly oiled (e.g. PAM cooking spray), 325 degree griddle. Cook until the pancakes are golden brown on the bottom, turning them over when the surface shows bubbles and the sides are slightly dry. Makes around 10 large pancakes.

It's incredible to me that over 2 years after the debut of the Nintendo Wii, you still can't buy one. Several of the "in stock finders" online indicate that everyone is out of stock. I'd like to get one, but I can't find them anywhere. Does anyone know of a place that might actually have one in stock at some point?

I was in the grocery store last night cursing the paper shopping list I had written out. The list had grown messy from scratching out stuff I had already picked up, and items weren't organized in any fashion, resulting in my backtracking across the store three or four times. So I got thinking about how this is a perfect solution for a PDA. I want a PDA that:

• Can handle customized shopping lists, saving entered items for future use (perfect for groceries)
• Can organize said list into categories
• Has a user-friendly interface
• Is not an iPhone

Does anyone have any suggestions on what might fit the bill? I'm not terribly interested in using it to do any networking; I mainly want something that can handle data input and the like. Ideally, the device would be affordable, but I'm willing to explore most avenues. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

I am really enjoying the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. This cartoon, which was launched in 2005 and wrapped up earlier this year (for a total of 3 seasons), is outstanding. It appeals to all ages, and is a joy to watch. Here's a brief premise, as taken from Wikipedia:

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world that is home to humans, fantastic animals, and spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each nation has its own natural element, on which it bases its society. Within each nation exists an order called "Benders" who have the ability to manipulate the eponymous element of their nation. The show’s creators assigned each Bending art its own style of martial arts, causing it to inherit the advantages and weaknesses of the martial arts it was assigned. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.

The Avatar is the one person who is able to bend all four elements. He (or she) serves to ensure that the nations all live together in peace. One hundred years before the starting point of the series, Aang, a young airbender, learns that he is the next incarnation of the Avatar (each generation yields one Avatar to preside over the nations). He disappears out of fear of his looming responsibility. With the Avatar gone, the Fire Nation attacks the others, and essentially takes complete control.

As the series begins, two water nation siblings, Sokka and Katara, happen to find the Avatar frozen in a block of ice. They remove him from the ice, along with his giant flying bison Appa, quickly become friends, and set out to help the Avatar master the four elements, so that he may restore balance and order to the world.

I'm currently half-way through the second season, and I'm greatly anticipating the rest. The overall story-arc is wonderful, and each episode also has a great side story. Action scenes are incredible, the animation is fantastic, and the dialogue is very funny. I highly recommend this series to anyone even remotely interested in animated series' (or good television for that matter). I'm really looking forward to finishing out this season and the next!

I have had to turn off the breadcrumbs feature here at this site, due to an unfortunate bug causing my contact form to stop working. My contact form is not a part of WordPress (it's a standalone package), and I'm sure that the root cause lies in that fact. I'll work on fixing this issue after the holidays.

Many thanks to Ingo for pointing out this problem.

Well, four years later I'm finally catching up on LOST (hat tip to Dustin). So far I'm enjoying the show: I gave the first season a 4-star rating ("I Really Like It") at Netflix. There's obviously a lot left for me to catch up on, but so far, so good. Mystery abounds, the characters are interesting, and the plot twists and turns all over the place. Hopefully things will start making a little more sense in season 2. Here's a brief rundown of my current opinions of the main characters:

Jack

Probably my favorite character and the most practical (which is why I think I like him best).

Kate

I started out liking her, but the more I see, the more I dislike her. She's "peas in a pod" with Sawyer.

Sawyer

Not much to like about this con-man, though I do feel a little sorry about his childhood trauma.

Locke

Meh.

Jin

I'm liking him more and more. His "business" dealings with Sun's father are mysterious and pretty violent.

Sun

I'm enjoying her character more as well. She's becoming much more independent, and is stepping into a leadership role. Here's hoping that continues.

Sayid

Moderately interesting guy. Definitely someone you want on your side.

Charlie

Another of my favorite characters. I came to enjoy Dominic Monaghan in the Hetty Wainthropp series, and he shines here as well. I know how this character ends up, so it's a bit of a bummer.

Michael

Started out a jerk, but has improved a great deal.

Walt

Along with his dad, he's improved as a character. Gets abducted. Oh no!

Hurley

Another of my favorites, and great for a laugh. Has some of the best lines in the show, and a great back story.

Shannon

One of my least favorite characters. Snotty, boring, and someone I wouldn't want to be around.

Boone

Again, one of my least favorite characters.

Claire

Always seems to get the short end of the stick. Very likable, however, and the kind of person that would be fun to get to know.

Rousseau

I know she's been stranded on this island for 16 years, but someone needs to shoot her. Multiple times. Now.

I'm looking forward to season 2. Do you follow the show? If so, what do you think? No spoilers please.

I ran across a thoroughly engaging article at the Netflix blog that discusses the various encoding techniques they use for delivering "Watch Instantly" content. It sheds light on a number of the issues they face, and some of the decisions they are making. Silverlight is apparently their future player platform of choice, and the article discusses a little bit about why they chose this path. The technical details are appreciated, and it's cool to see them being open like this. Maybe they'll share similar information about other aspects of their business in the future.

Oh, noes! Steve Jobs is skipping MacWorld! Not only that, but this will be the last time Apple attends the event! What ever will we do? Can Gizmodo survive? What about Digg? The end is nigh. Run; run, I say! Oh, what a world!

I recently ran across an interesting implementation of the classic Arkanoid game. The game is coded completely in object-oriented JavaScript / DHTML. I'm really impressed with what the author was able to do. The game has all kinds of features: a level editor, power ups, decent sound effects, and more.

I found this via a handy list of other JavaScript Games. What a good way to waste some time!