I spent a while researching and decided to update the firmware to the latest version. After the update I was able to view Inglourious Basterds.

For any of you Panasonic BD-60 people out there with troubles – update your firmware either via the internet or burn a CD with the file from Panasonic support on it.

Satellite TV/Internet exist. GPS devices fetch your location and map the location you’re heading to via satellite. It seems entirely plausible that one could make a portable device or a car head unit that is capable of accessing the libraries of your paid subscription service such as Rhapsody and stream that to you anywhere you are, regardless of lack of an internet connection.

We love being able to have virtually any track at our disposal while using the Sonos or downloading it to an MP3 player with Rhapsody to Go. It would be pure audio utopia to stream tracks to your car wherever you are. Get a song in your head – search it and play it instantly.

What do you see as the major hangups in this scenario? I’m not seeing satellite “bandwidth” as an issue as they already push HD channels out with full 5.1 audio tracks and high bit-rate video. Is it a safety issue where companies don’t want drivers distracted searching for a song? (Disclaimer like the GPS units would solve that!) Costs for deploying the satellites? Maintenance? I think the idea is great…but why have we not seen it yet?

Fast forward three years and i have since ditched the bug laden Omnifi. However – the open source simplecenter that powered the interface to the PC is awesome…perusing the source made me very happy to see their technology choices. The replacement? A Sonos system! Since seeing this incredible whole home audio system in action at the owner of my company’s house i had to have one.

Now that I’ve got a system that is totally bug free and supports lossless audio formats I’m rethinking my decision to go with the uberstandard. Now that hard drive space is ubiquitous and my player supports it FLAC with its own DAC has peaked my interest.

What say you audiophiles? FLAC or go home?

Hit the jump for the xml.

<beans>
	<bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean">
        <property name="jndiName" value="jdbc/DB2"/>
        <property name="lookupOnStartup" value="false"/>
        <property name="cache" value="true" />
        <property name="proxyInterface"	value="javax.sql.DataSource" />
    </bean>

    <!-- Hibernate SessionFactory -->
	<bean id="sessionFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.LocalSessionFactoryBean">
		<property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
		<property name="mappingResources">
			<list>
				<value>User.hbm.xml</value>
			</list>
		</property>
		<property name="hibernateProperties">
		    <props>
		      <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.DB2Dialect</prop>
		      <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
		      <!-- 			IBM WAS SPECIFIC			 -->
		      <prop key="hibernate.connection.datasource">jdbc/DB2</prop>
		      <prop key="hibernate.transaction.factory_class">org.hibernate.transaction.CMTTransactionFactory</prop>
			  <prop key="hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class">org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereExtendedJTATransactionLookup</prop>
			  <!-- 			/END IBM WAS SPECIFIC		 -->
		    </props>
		</property>
	</bean>

	<bean id="transactionManager"
		class="org.springframework.transaction.jta.JtaTransactionManager">
			<property name="autodetectTransactionManager" value="false" />
	</bean>
</beans>

Reinvigorate presents another look at stats with slick graphs and ajax based UI. Enter wordpress.com! Since I’ve switched from b2evolution to wordpress, I’ve used my wordpress API key to utilize Akismet. Now the crew offers a stats collection for all blogs registered under my API key. Andy Skelton released a plugin that logs all hits appropriately.

I guess you can never have TOO many stats apps, unless the javascript they load adds to your user’s page load times.

I travel frequently and I come across all kinds of people. Here I will try to classify them and give you tips and tricks on how to make your flight an enjoyable one (From worst to best)

1. The over-sized wind blower: Yep, you can consider yourself unlucky if you get stuck with one of these. When they aren’t farting they are snoring, breathing heavily or sweating.
   Tip: None really
2. The talkative granny: Ahhh, sit on your seat, watch all the passengers walk in, see this stunning blonde who looks at you smiles at you. You pray that she sits next to you. She walks right past you goes and sits with this dork in the seat behind you, and walking right behind her is a 80 yr old granny who comes and sits right next to you. 3 hours of ‘How are you sonny’, ‘How old are you?’, ‘My…my I reached puberty before you were born’
   Tip: When you see one of these just put on your ipod and dont ever remove them off your ears. There are cases when she will tap your hand and still want to talk to you. Well just pretend to fall asleep. If all else fails just endure it through the rest of the flight.
3. The religious/ business guy: They usually will begin talking to you with a smile and are confident and go ‘Hi my name is Tom, your cologne smells great by the way’. And after a few lines of talk they get right into the middle of the talk whether it be the lord that is here to save us, or the great opportunity that I should not miss.
   Tip: I’ve tried everything believe me…nothing works, just ask to be re-seated
4. The sleeper: Not as annoying when they are awake, these guys spread their legs out far wide so that it touches your leg and they fall side to side and keep hitting your shoulders only to reload and fire again.
   Tip: Get to the seat first and relax your leg out first, that way the person will keep his legs within his seat. The arm rest is crucial, take it and you win!

A nice article is here at Ryan Stewart’s Universal Desktop.

Hat tip to Nick for sending me the article.