rwandering.net
The blogged wandering of Robert W. Anderson
Archive for February, 2009
February 25, 2009 at 5:16 pm · Filed under Miscellaneous
Here are my initial impressions on my new Vado HD:
Pro:
- Quality of picture and sound are pretty good (haven’t tested it much).
- Fast startup.
- It mounts as a drive.
- Movies can be viewed and the drive managed without running the Vado Central software.
- The software / codec are installed on the drive making it easy to plug it into any computer and use it without going through a painful installation step.
Con:
- The battery door is pretty flimsy. One of the benefits of this device is supposed to be its replaceable battery, but I wouldn’t trust this door to last for a long with frequent battery changes.
- The battery door doesn’t actually close fully with the battery inside. This problem is solved by putting on the included skin.
- Like the Flip, this has an extendable full-sized USB adapter. While I understand the benefits of this approach, I would much rather they used a mini USB port instead. This would allow for either a smaller device – or my preference – room for a stereo microphone input and output.
- Documentation is bad. Normally I don’t care about that, but there is no information about the different quality settings. This can be easily found online, but it should be in the manual.
Bonus Con:
- I bought the Creative branded waterproof pouch assuming it would be sized for the Vado. While it will work, it could be much smaller. The Vado swims in it. With the skin on the Vado it keeps stationary inside of the pouch.
So far I’m happy with it.
Tags: Flip, Review, Vado
February 18, 2009 at 12:56 pm · Filed under Attention, Web 2.0
Yesterday I posted about the change in Facebook’s TOS. I thought they might back down, but I didn’t think it would be this fast.
The old terms are back in effect: delete your account and so goes your data.
A minor success for users everywhere – even those who don’t think this stuff matters.
Tags: Attention, Facebook, GestureBank
February 17, 2009 at 6:58 pm · Filed under Attention, Web 2.0
Plenty of people are up in arms about the recent Facebook TOS change.
The change? Before Facebook relinquished their rights to your data if you deleted your account. Now they don’t.
I don’t have a problem with this new policy. I do have a problem with the new part.
Of course, I’m not arguing whether Facebook can legally make this change, but it does violate their user contract. I’m not talking about a legal TOS, but of an understanding with their users. What is the problem?
- Facebook has just asserted ownership to something that they didn’t claim ownership to before. And this isn’t future data, this is past data. Data you already contributed to Facebook with an understanding that they wouldn’t keep it.
This is another example of what I call the user-beware contract – where the TOS can change at any time without notification.
So, what is the user-aware way to make such a change?
- Maintain their old policy for data in Facebook before the change. This bifurcates user data between before and after the policy. Delete your account? Old data goes away, new data does not.
OK, but this is still a user-beware contract. What else should they do?
- Require users to opt-in to the new policy. If they opt out, either delete them or let them continue the old policy.
I’m sure Facebookians (and any one hosting a large service) is rolling their eyes at this point. But just because being user-aware is inconvenient doesn’t make it infeasible.
And a shout out to Ned Sykes for prompting this post: no, I’m not concerned about Facebook stealing my tweets, but as a voice in user rights, I am interested in promoting TOS that are pro user.
BTW: The user-beware/user-aware terms are defined in my post User Contracts – Part II: User Beware.
Tags: Attention, GestureBank
February 17, 2009 at 6:29 pm · Filed under Attention, Web 2.0
I just recommended the new Live Writer for having a “check for updates” feature, but apparently that feature didn’t work. From Joe Cheng of Microsoft:
Well… this is embarrassing. We just released an update that’s newer than 14.0.8050.1202. One of the two bugs it fixes, is that our “Check for updates” mechanism broke irrevocably in 14.0.8050.1202 and earlier builds. 
If you download the new version from http://download.live.com then “Check for updates” will work again. Sorry for the inconvenience!
So, if you aren’t at least at version 14.0.8064.206, then you should upgrade again.
Tags: blogging, Live-Writer
February 17, 2009 at 7:14 am · Filed under Attention, Web 2.0
I just upgraded to the latest Windows Live Writer.
It looks better and now it renders my blog template correctly. Maybe there are more features I’m missing.
It is worth upgrading it just to get the “Check for updates” feature. So you never again have to figure out how to upgrade it (see Jim’s rant here: Sighcrosoft – Why Can’t I Just Love Live Writer Without Confusion?).
Strangely enough, its now easy to upgrade here: http://download.live.com/writer.
Tags: blogging, Live-Writer
February 11, 2009 at 9:02 pm · Filed under Grid Computing, Miscellaneous
I’ll be at the University of California, Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium (BEARS 2009) tomorrow, February 12th.
Looks like it will be an interesting program.
If you are going and want to meet up, email me at robert at digipede dot net.
Tags: BEARS2009, Digipede, Events
February 10, 2009 at 6:49 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
In December, I blogged about National Bankruptcy Day. That was the term coined for today, February 10th, 2009. Why? Because of a piece of very bad – and according to these claimants, illegal – legislation: the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). A law intended to make our children safe by requiring companies to test all children’s products to prove they are free of lead and phthalates.
The problem with the law is mainly that the tests are unnecessary in so many cases and the tests themselves are expensive and produce hazardous waste. Lead in metal toys? Reasonable to test. Lead in fabric clothing and linens? Unreasonable.
A great many businesses are already endangered in this economy, but these extra costs would drive many under.
Good news?
On January 31st, a stay of enforcement was granted (Stay of Enforcement of Testing and Certification Requirements). This is because the CPSC has recognized that this law is a bad one and that they need to spend the next year providing guidance for a reasonable implementation of the law.
It is clear that the CPSC is attempting to provide clarification to and a reasonable framework around this whole issue. Further clarification of the current policy was released yesterday.
So, no National Bankruptcy Day?
The answer is mixed. Much damage has already been done. The confusion created by this law and the CPSC’s poor handling of it has already hurt many small businesses. In some cases this is merely the loss of productivity while the founders divert most of their attention to compliance. In other cases, companies have already chosen to close their doors.
So, today is significant in that the law does go into effect today. The limits are in place, egregious violators can be punished. All good, but there has been much collateral damage along the way.
So I’ll say yes, today is still National Bankruptcy Day. The new, as yet undrafted, policies will go into effect and be enforced on February 10th, 2010 – and they may be just as unreasonable as the current ones.
You can celebrate by giving a giant air-quoted thank you to the politicians and environmentals who rushed this terrible law into being. I’ll keep my invectives to my self.
Tags: CSPC, Government, HR4040, kukunest, PSIA, Startup
February 9, 2009 at 11:03 am · Filed under .NET, Grid Computing
I have been taking a closer look at IronPython for a prospective customer. Never being happy with “shoulds”, I am going to show how to distribute IronPython objects on the Digipede Network.
The first thing I did get our old Python sample running in IronPython. This was the first user-contributed sample (thanks to Sean True). That sample (see it here) uses Python COM libraries to invoke a job with the Digipede Network COM APIs. This didn’t submit objects, just executed a command-line application.
I’m happy to say that the code required very little modification to run under IronPython. The only difference is in the syntax of the “import” commands. Kudos to the IronPython team.
I’ll post the working code once I get a little farther.
Next step: distribute IronPython objects. Fairly straightforward, but I’ll write a reusable C# Executive to load the IronPython class definition.
Tags: .NET, Digipede, IronPython
Here are my initial impressions on my new Vado HD:
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