Matt Fusfield - fus.net

New blog

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:29:46 -0400

I’ve moved my blog and as a result, you’ll need to resubscribe if you are reading this via RSS. The new feed location is feed://www.fus.net/blog/rss.xml.

Seat Buddy

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:51:51 -0400

Seat Buddy:

This may just beat out the MovieWedge and MiniRizer for bring-your-own in-flight movies.

The wide variety of Apple knockoffs available via coin-op crane...

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:05:30 -0400

The wide variety of Apple knockoffs available via coin-op crane machines on the boardwalk is rather amusing

Air France Concorde, at the Air and Space Museum. Panorama by...

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:45:00 -0400

Air France Concorde, at the Air and Space Museum. Panorama by Autostich for iPhone

So what's next?

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:23:03 -0400

As much as we are all enjoying iPhone 3.0, here’s a completely random list of mobile technology I’d love to use:

Parallels/VMware for the iPhone - no, not to run Windows 7. It would be great, though, to run a virtual Blackberry. It could be isolated or as integrated as the iPhone user and/or the BES administrator would allow. Right now, I carry a Blackberry for work and an iPhone for everything else; this would give users the best of both worlds. (likelihood of happening: slim to none)
Mobile docking station - rumors of an Apple mediapad or small tablet continue to fly. But why do I need another computing device to carry? The iPhone already has enough processing power; all I need is a larger screen (8-10") and some way to connect the two. There should also be USB ports for external keyboard and mouse, if I don’t want to use multi-touch.
iPod classic with Bluetooth - while the Bluetooth connection wouldn’t benefit iPod-only users, it would be great if iPhone could see the contents of an iPod. I like to have a large media library with me. Imagine keeping a 320gb iPod classic in your bag and having all that media available to your iPhone, wirelessly
WiFi in airplanes (all of them)
CDMA handsets that do simultaneous voice and data. Very geeky, I know, but my iPhone can be in a call and still get on the ‘net. As far as I know, no CDMA devices can currently do this.
WiFi tethering. The MiFi is great in that it is a small battery powered device and any WiFi device can connect to it. Since iPhone, Blackberry, and many other smartphones have WiFi, why not turn them into portable access points?

Public Service Announcement: Crystal Reports 2008

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:10:47 -0400

I spent more than a few hours today fighting with the Crystal Reports 2008 Enterprise installer. For some reason, no matter what options I selected for installation, the thing hung up with the following message:

“Please wait while the installer finishes determining your disk space requirements”

After fiddling with settings, checking Windows installer, and the general registry/.dll hacking that makes Windows tick, I found the answer:

Install the Crystal Reports French language pack.

I had no idea why, and wasn’t able to find any reason why installing the French language pack makes any difference in how the installer works, but it installed without a hitch afterwards.

Hopefully this post makes it to Google and saves someone else several hours of banging their head into the wall.

Merci, BusinessObjects

Finding a happy media(um)

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:43:00 -0400

This post started as a rant about how Netflix announced a rather large price hike for Blu-ray disk rentals. Starting in late April, access to Blu-ray disks will cost an additional $5 a month (up from $1/month) on the 4-at-a-time plan. While their timing is simply perfect - I purchased a Blu-ray player about a month ago - Netflix is claiming that the increase is due to the increased cost of Blu-ray disks.

While retail prices for Blu-ray disks are in fact higher, producing a high def disk simply cannot be that much more expensive that producing a DVD. Its more of a matter of new technology being priced higher than older, established technology.

I think the Netflix price increase has to due with the problems inherent with physical media, and is a sign that Blu-ray may be the last mainstream physical video format we see. For the first 11 years or so of its existence, Netflix only had to stock one version of each movie in its catalog: the DVD. Of course, they had multiple copies at each distribution center, but each disk was identical, and it didn’t matter which customer got which physical disk. Bringing in Blu-ray, they must now stock two versions of each title: one DVD, and one Blu-ray. Only customers who request Blu-ray should get that format, everyone else should get DVD. Now, their entire distribution model is split in half - the scalability of all of their systems relied on only have one set of disks per movie. Now, they need to manage two.

Where is this leading? Speeding up adoption of digital distribution! Netflix has a growing collection of movies and other video available for streaming to computer as well as televisions. As of yet, there is no additional charge for this service, and Netflix has seemingly gone out of its way to make it easily accessible. While it started on PCs, streaming is now available on Macs, too. They also have a $100 box to connect to your TV and formed partnerships with companies like TiVo to make Netflix easy to view in the home theater setting. All for “free” with your Netflix subscription.

Digital distribution is much more scalable than having to effectively double physical inventory, and thus, can be offered less expensively.

Digital video distribution still has some problems, of course. Netflix doesn’t currently offer offline access - their offering is streaming only - not useful on an airplane, for example. Competitors like Apple offer some movies for rental in digital format, but come at a higher price and some serious restrictions (only a 24 hour viewing window) Of course, none offer the same quality as Blu-ray - not even the “HD” offerings on iTunes. I suspect this will change as bandwidth becomes cheaper. Considering my home cable modem gives me the same bandwidth that just a few years ago would have required a T3 costing thousands per month, this will only continue to get better. In the meantime, Netflix will collect a few extra bucks from some of us - and hopefully invest further in their digital offerings.

GrandCentral is back!

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 21:09:45 -0400

GrandCentral is back!:

GrandCentral is a service I’ve blogged about before. It was a web-based service that assigned you a single phone number, and allowed it to be forwarded to other numbers. Calls could be routed based on caller, and the service had other great features like visual voicemail.

Google purchased the developer a few years back, and the service seemed to stagnate. Today, however, Google announced Google Voice, based on the GrandCentral service. In addition to the original features, Google Voice now has voicemail transcriptions, SMS support, conference calling, and support for international phone numbers. I’m looking forward to trying this out when it goes live.

Impressed with Comcast

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 16:58:44 -0500

I know, the headline is hard to believe. I just found a problem on my Comcast bill and decided to give their online chat service a try.

A agent was connected to me nearly immediately, didn’t type entirely from a script, and knew what she was talking about. Further, I got a six month promotional discount that will save me about $40 month on my bill.

Comcast has historically not had the best customer service (actually, from previous personal experience, they have been the downright worst) but based on this brief encounter I’m hoping they are getting their customer service act in gear!

Get ready for bigger sounds from the X-mini II

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:21:47 -0500

Get ready for bigger sounds from the X-mini II:

Looking forward to this - the 1st generation X-mini has pretty good sound!

Is Palm back?

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:43:09 -0500

Is Palm back?:

I was recently reminded of my fondness for PalmPilot that occurred about 10 years ago. Palm hasn’t done much in the “neat cool innovative” category in a while, but today at CES they announced the “pre” - their new competitor to the iPhone.

Eye-Fi for iPhone

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:59:14 -0500

Eye-Fi for iPhone:

Its Macworld & CES week, which means all kinds of new product announcements. EyeFi, who make a cool SD card for digital cameras with built in WiFi, announced an upcoming iPhone app that will upload photos to your computer and/or photo sharing site, without having to sync your iPhone.

30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM, December 31st

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:52:09 -0500

30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM, December 31st:

For the 11 people that bought Zunes, it seems a bug of some sort has caused all of them to stop working as of earlier this morning. Engadget has the full scoop.

Be thankful for technology this holiday season!

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:24:00 -0500

Be thankful for technology this holiday season!

Switched On: MiFi pushes 3G past the router limits - Engadget

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 21:07:20 -0500

Switched On: MiFi pushes 3G past the router limits - Engadget:

The MiFi is a WWAN router that has a built in HSDPA or EVDO modem. I currently use a Cradlepoint router, but this looks better as you don’t need a USB modem hanging off of it.

DVD Madness

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:06:14 -0500

My wife and I are preparing for a trip, and one of the most important steps is loading up our iPods with stuff to watch and listen to on the plane. This is usually an easy, but time consuming task using software like Handbrake.

I went to transfer “WALL-E”, and found it included a digital copy. I had heard and read about this new technology, but never ran into it until now. I popped the disk into my Mac, and it showed up in iTunes, prompting me if I wanted to move it to my library. I entered a code included in the box, and about 30 seconds later, I had an iPod ready copy to watch.

I do find it mildly annoying that it still includes DRM, but for the moment, everything I would use to watch it is in the Apple “ecosystem” (all part of their master plan, no doubt…). It plays on my iPod and AppleTV with no problem. Why it is called a “digital copy”, I have no idea. (folks, DVD is ALREADY digital. oh well.)

I continued through several other DVD’s the “traditional” way. My wife put “Sex and the City” in the pile, and, it too, included a digital copy. Cool. I popped it in, but iTunes didn’t pick it up. The card in the DVD box had a similar code, but this time referenced a website to go to. Ok, different studio, maybe different process. Visiting the website revealed that they want an additional $1.99 for this digital copy. Arrrr!

I believe media piracy is wrong - it is stealing and is inexcusable. But I don’t believe that I should have to pay a second time for something I already own, just to watch it on a different sized screen. While I credit Warner Bros for capitalizing on a new idea, they are hurting themselves long term by not simply embracing the fact that consumers want to be able to listen and view their media anywhere!

Boxee

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:28:29 -0500

I recently came across Boxee, a media center application that runs on a number of platforms, including the Apple TV. The Apple TV is a pretty capable box on its own, but only within Apple’s garden of iTunes. There were only few options for viewing content outside of what iTunes supports.

Boxee changes all that and brings content such as Hulu and the Comedy Central video library to your TV. It is pretty easy to install on your Apple TV, and even though in only in alpha release, works pretty well. There are some bugs here and there, but being able to view nearly any video from the Internet on my TV is a great feature. Video quality is certainly not HD, but is watchable.

Chris Breen at Macworld has a good set of instructions for how to install it on your Apple TV, and more information about Boxee is here.

iPod won't charge in your car?

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:05:29 -0500

iPod won't charge in your car?:

My iPod car adapter has great sound but won’t charge the iPhone 3G or any of the new nanos. The same problem also affects my Bose Sounddock. After a little research, it seems Apple removed the firewire-based charging capability from their latest products, and many older accessories that charge via the dock connector emulate a firewire connection. The passPORT from Scosche is a little box that has a female dock adapter on one side and a male on the other; it simply converts the firewire power into the pin and voltage configuration used by USB, which is supported by the newest Apple gear.

Free iPhone WiFi? Not so much

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:22:36 -0400

Free iPhone WiFi? Not so much

Easy GeoTagging

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:44:56 -0400

The concept of GeoTagging - adding metadata to a digital camera photo that includes that latitude and longitude so you know exactly where a photo was taken - is pretty useful and neat. However, getting the GPS data merged into the files requires special equipment and takes a bit of time.

I found out that Eye-Fi, makers of the WiFi SD card, now have a service that for $15/year, will automatically GeoTag photos. It does so by looking for nearby WiFi networks that are mapped by Skyhook wireless. I was a bit doubtful that this would work, but was pleasantly surprised by the results. This isn’t “real” GPS - no satellites are involved - only WiFi, but the location data was remarkable accurate; certainly “good enough” for casual photo taking.

The Eye-Fi “Explore” includes unlimited GeoTagging; other models require the $15/year service plan.