Erik Ankrom dot com

New Toys

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 01:54:22 -0600

After trying unsuccessfully to repair my Onkyo TX-SR606 HDMI board, I decided rather than replace it, I would just route my HDMI directly to my TV and keep my audio (which was still working just fine) routed through my receiver. This however meant that I would have to do all kinds of input switching, several remotes, and in general more frustration. So, I decided to get a single remote that would handle it all for me.

I settled on the Logitech Harmony 700 Rechargeable Remote, which is very cool. It took a little bit of setting up, but I added my Plasma, Receiver, Apple TV and Cable Box to it without much hassle at all. My favorite thing is one button, and it powers everything up, switches to the right inputs, and knows what controls the volume, what controls the channels, etc. Add in favorite channels at a few button presses, and it became Mallory’s best friend as well.

One thing I noticed while browsing related items to the remote was a Lutron Maestro Infrared Light Dimmer, which just happened to be compatible with the remote. With a bit of programming into the Logitech Harmony, and installation into the wall switch, I was setup. This thing makes you feel like you are in a theater, or have a whole home automation system. If you have a media room, or a light switch dedicated to the room where your TV/Movie watching happens, you should check it out. Very cool.

I’m a sucker for electronics, and handy stuff like this that is both geeky and functional. I haven’t posted here in a while, but I hope you enjoyed it. (Mallory is probably cringing at my grammar right now, sorry babe!)

High Schools Are Step One Of Two

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:42:56 -0600

High Schools Are Step One Of Two:

mckaythomas:

MG Siegler in his latest TechCrunch article posits that although Apple’s new iBooks strategy is admirable in its effort to fix problems in public high schools, that it’s not realistic and that their market strategy should revolve around colleges and college textbooks.

Apple, by going high school first, is applying the heat to university textbook publishers and bookstores. They are saying “Fine. If you won’t work with us, then we’ll empower a generation to change your industry for you.”

And they will.

"Yes, we were a bit disappointed that Kansas City companies did not win more of the awards,” Sih..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:58:23 -0600

““Yes, we were a bit disappointed that Kansas City companies did not win more of the awards,” Sih said. “The reality is that the judging panel picked the companies that they did, and other than creating the competition and convening the judges, we had no role whatsoever in the results. I think this means that Kansas City must continue to build out and support more local startups and entrepreneurs, and perhaps next time we will have more local companies participate with a better chance of winning.””

- Gigabit Challenge shows demand for network, short supply of local winners - Kansas City Business Journal

Liquipel Waterproofs Your Phone

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:56:13 -0600

Liquipel Waterproofs Your Phone:

This product looks amazing, if it works as advertised. They don’t seem to be willing to stand behind their product though.

Due to the nature of our business we are unable to offer any refunds on our Liquipel treatments. We do however cover situations in which a manufacturer defect was found in the device. Should you need to return your device for any type of manufacturer defect Liquipel will treat your new device at no cost for 30 days.

"I’ve had little experience travelling in Big 10 country, and I assumed the storied conference..."

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:31:34 -0500

“I’ve had little experience travelling in Big 10 country, and I assumed the storied conference would have fans with the grace and civility that usually comes with a tradition of victory and respect. But we came as tourists and invited guests and left questioning if we should return.”

- Benjamin J. Coleman: Disrespectful fans a shock to visitors

"If they had hired a private investigator for a day, it would have been the easiest job that guy ever..."

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:53:21 -0500

““If they had hired a private investigator for a day, it would have been the easiest job that guy ever had,” Shapiro said. “It would have been over in five minutes. You would have had all the information you needed. Follow me to a nightclub or a strip club. Lunches. Dinners. The boat. Hotels for parties. All the outings at Lucky Strike. These guys were at my house. There was all kinds of (expletive) going on in. Gambling. Pool tournaments. Prostitution. Drinking.””

- Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players - Investigations - Yahoo! Sports

(via The State of IT Consumerization [Infographic])

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:54:06 -0500

(via The State of IT Consumerization [Infographic])

Lion Breaks Time Machine NASes - SmallNetBuilder

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:03:34 -0500

Lion Breaks Time Machine NASes - SmallNetBuilder:

In case you have a NAS (Network Attached Storage), Mac OSX Lion doesn’t support AFP Authentication via DHCAST128. Manufacturers will need to update their firmware.

osx - Why does MDS run wild in Mac OS X 10.6? - Super User

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 23:49:47 -0500

osx - Why does MDS run wild in Mac OS X 10.6? - Super User:

If you find your Mac’s fan working extra hard, and CPU spiking, it may be due to spotlight trying to index data it doesn’t need to. Run the command below to see what Spotlight is actively indexing.

sudo fs_usage -w -f filesys mdworker | egrep "open"

"The only company that has even come close to being in a position to compete with more than two of..."

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 20:29:07 -0500

“The only company that has even come close to being in a position to compete with more than two of Apple’s core business strengths is HP. Its acquisition of WebOS is the primary reason, because now it can make hardware and the operating system software, and ultimately have more control of the user experience.”

- Why Competing with Apple Is So Difficult - Techland - TIME.com

Major Internet Incidents and Outages of 2010

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:17:26 -0600

Major Internet Incidents and Outages of 2010:

Almost all services are subject to outages. Some are much more impactful than others though.

Tumblr Staff: Downtime

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:02:14 -0600

Tumblr Staff: Downtime:

I am in the IT industry, and we experience downtimes, but every company communicates them differently. I’ve always had the view that transparency is better.

staff:

Yesterday afternoon, during planned maintenance that was not intended to interrupt service, an issue arose that took down a critical database cluster. This brought down our entire network while our engineers worked feverishly to restore these databases and bring your blogs back online.

While you…

Christmas Tree after decorations (Taken with instagram at Coffee...

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:03:16 -0600

Christmas Tree after decorations (Taken with instagram at Coffee Lofts)

Christmas Tree before decorations (Taken with instagram at...

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:22:47 -0600

Christmas Tree before decorations (Taken with instagram at Coffee Lofts)

Nimble EMR for iPad

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 21:12:16 -0500

Nimble EMR for iPad:

This is by far the best looking EMR that I have seen, especially for mobile devices, which are extremely popular in health care right now.

New Apple TV

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:54:37 -0500

New Apple TV:

A couple of observations I have related to today’s Apple TV announcement: It has the new A4 processor, which will help with better processing, and HD video support. It is NOT iOS based (like iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch), and keeps the same general menu structure as the current version, with some minor enhancements. The current Apple TV version 3.0.2 is built on top of Mac OS 10.4.7 (Tiger). The latest version of Mac OS is 10.6.4 (Snow Leopard). This is important for a couple of reasons.

Some software like Plex, require at least Mac OS 10.5, and hardware accelleration is also built into the latest OS versions.

If developers want to hack the AppleTV to install third party programs, they will continue to use methods like the unsupported Backrow SDK. Apple has never opened the AppleTV to developers. Think of how successful the iOS devices have been for the developer communities, the AppleTV is still lagging behind. I can see though, how the AppleTV may not fit well with the iOS for a couple of reasons.

The AppleTV isn’t a touch device. It’s a whole different experience for the living room, not a portable device. You don’t have to worry about battery, you don’t have touch controls, the visual elements would be different all together. I just think they need to make a developer ecosystem with an app store for the Apple TV, with the same concepts of iOS.

It will be interesting to see what Mac OS version they built this latest version of the Apple TV sofware on top of. Let’s hope it’s at least 10.5, I would like to see some of the new features of the Plex app, (including iOS App), running through my Apple TV!

Your Antivirus Software Hates You

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:24:18 -0500

Your Antivirus Software Hates You

ryanselvy: Step into the shoes of a day into my life during the...

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:46:42 -0500

ryanselvy:

Step into the shoes of a day into my life during the week.

9 41 9 42: The secret of Apple's recurring numbers

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:44:52 -0500

9 41 9 42: The secret of Apple's recurring numbers:

Further evidence of Apple’s perfectionist approach.

How The Average American Spends Their Day |

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:37:09 -0500

How The Average American Spends Their Day |