Steve Sizemore's Weblog

I switched to vonage last weekend. I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I finally made the switch. So far it's awesome. The calls are clear, and it uses very little bandwidth (about 100 KB both ways). Many in my inner circle are dropping their land lines in favor of cell phones. I'm not a big fan of this approach. As much as I love my cell phone, I kinda like talking on 5.8 Ghz cordless phones. They work anywhere in my house not matter what. I don't have to remember to charge it everyday, and they're in every room in my house (how convenient). I'm on the 14.99/ 500 minute plan. I think that will be fore than enough minutes for us (incomming calls are free), and it more than cuts our phone bill in half.

I'm pretty happy with the service so far. If you have high speed cable internet, it's a good alternative to canceling your phone altoghter. Just transfer your existing phone number to vonage, and you're all set.

Posted by at 4:32 PM | Permalink

It's always bugged me that Verzion disabled DUN on there highend EVDO phones. Welll, good news, Verizon has finally given in to customer demands. Now you can connect using USB.

read more | digg story

Posted by at 6:02 PM | Permalink

This is kind of old news, but I thought I would mention it on my blog. Call for help is back on G4 in the US. The first episode aired last Monday. I've really enjoyed watching it. I really like the gmail tip of the day as well as the os x tip of the day. It's really more like the old Screen Savers than Call for help, which is fine my me. I still fast forward through 50% of the show, but there is a ton of great tech content. Check it out.

read more | digg story

Posted by at 10:29 AM | Permalink

I've been thinking about it for a while, but now that comcast increased the bandwidth, I'm finally making the switch from DSL to Cable. For $55.00 / month I'm getting 8 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up. It's getting installed on Thursday, September 8th.

Posted by at 1:11 PM | Permalink

via 4colorrebellion.com:

NOA vice president George Harrison confirmed that downloading classic NES, SNES and N64 titles on the Revolution will be free.

I dont understand the reasoning behind this…but I cant say Im complaining. I love free stuff. That said though, I know that many people, myself included, would pay a small fee for each game. Nintendo will also have to be careful as to how many games they are offering so that people dont simply play old games and not buy any new Revolution software.

I'm definetely getting a Nintendo Revolution. I'll get the XBOX 360 this fall, and then the Nintendo at lauch. There are a ton of old N64, SNES and NES games I'm dying to play again, like the first 007 game and every Mario Kart game. This is going to rule.

Posted by at 6:01 PM | Permalink

When Mozilla implemented tabbed browsing, I created a folder containing 20 links of sites that visited every day. Serveral times a day I would open this group of tabs and get updated from all my favorite news sites and blogs.

With the implemetation of RSS, I find that I rely on that more on RSS than the daily tabs. There are only a few websites that I actually need to see. Most have a lot of graphics or photos.

Because of this, I've redone my daily tabs:

-Urban Pug
-The Unofficial Apple Weblog
-Jacksonville Weather Daily Details
-Flickr: Photos from your Contacts
-UserFriendly Strip Comments
-MacCast
-PodcastAlley.com
-del.icio.us/popular
-FlickrBlog
-MAKE: Blog
-Google Sightseeing

Posted by at 9:08 AM | Permalink

Tivo ToGo is working great. I'm moving a lot of old shows off of my Tivo (60GB) to my PC. It takes 20 minutes to transfer a 30 minute show recorded in Medium Quality over my wireless network. I'm using a linksys 802.11b USB adapter connected to an Linksys WRT-54g 802.11g access point.

After the shows are transfered to my PC, I'm burning them to DVD using Sonic's My DVD 6.1. The DVD's are playable on my home DVD player and my Apple Powerbook.

Posted by at 10:38 AM | Permalink

My wife just called to tell me that tivo finally gave me the new service upgrade last night. This upgrade will allow me to transfer programming off of my Tivo and on to my computer's Hard Drive. Finally I'll be able to move shows that have been on my tivo for two years. Stuff like the last ep of M*A*S*H, Tales of the Gun: Guns of Valor, and all my "News Radio" eps can find a new home on my PC. This is going to awesome. The only thing I'm worried about it the time it takes to transfer video over the usb 1.1 powered 802.11b adapter.

Posted by at 8:32 AM | Permalink

I just put our linksys WRT54G on lock down.

1. Updated the Firmware
2. Changed the IP Address
3. Changed the password
4. Changed the SSID
5. Turned off SSID broadcast
6. Set mode to G-Only
7. Enabled WPA encryption
8. Enabled MAC address filtering
9. Disabled UPnP

Linksys puts some professional security features in a consumer product.

Posted by at 8:49 AM | Permalink

It looks like there will be some changes The Screen Savers on G4 Techtv. Alex, Dan, Yoshi, and several behind the scene producers will no longer be on the show.

According to Kevin Rose the show will be refocused have more tech content. Although I'm sad to see Dan and Yoshi leave the show. I'm looking forward to the show returning to it's Tech roots. I really miss the old Patrick Norton TechTV days.

Posted by at 7:05 PM | Permalink

Anyone out there still need a Gmail account? Post your firstname, lastname, and email address in the comments section.

Posted by at 8:23 AM | Permalink

I've received 25 gmail invitations. I gave a bunch of them to Kevin Rose and he will be distributing them live on the screen savers on Tuesday.

If you can't wait until Tuesday, I still have several initiations. If you want one, just post something funny to my blog. Tonight I will give out my remaining invitations to the best posts.

Posted by at 8:25 AM | Permalink

This was very useful today. It allows you to manipulate select boxes with javascript.

http://www.jelnet.co.uk/cv/jeljava/example34_selectedindex.htm

Posted by at 7:44 AM | Permalink

I found a tool that will allow you to reset local NT accounts in the SAM Database.

It's a linux boot disk that will allow you to open the SAM Database from a linux prompt and over write the password you forgot, or unlock accounts that were locked out. This should be in every sys admin's tool kit.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Posted by at 12:33 PM | Permalink

I really hate it when simple things get needlessly complicated. Our MOC uses Microsoft Internet Explorer pretty much no stop throughout the day for access to several military web applications. Most of the sites are https.

For some reason, https browsing just stops working randomly. To fix it, I have to launch gpedit.msc to click on disable system cryptology, enable it, and then reboot. I have to do this once a day.

Today the problem got worse, instead of having all https sites break; only one did, and the usual fix didn’t work.

I’m not sure how to fix it. I’d like to re-install IE 6.0, but that’s not going to happen, because the browser is so integrated with windows xp. You could even say the windows XP IS Internet Explorer.

So the fix was to install Mozilla Firefox. I really like the fact that if Firfox breaks, I can simply delete it, and re-install. Its one of many great things about Firefox, you can re-install it.

I’m not trying to sound like one of those Mac switchers that make simple personal computing tasks sound like brain surgery, but in this case a simple task was way too hard!

Posted by at 4:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday was Patrick Norton's last live show of G4TechTV's: The Screen Savers. On July 16, the TSS crew will be moving to their new set in LA. Patrick and his wife-to-be have chosen to stay in the Bay Area rather than make the move to LA. No word on who will be replacing Patrick as co-host.

G4 TechTV has approximately 20 new pre-recorded episodes with Patrick as co-host that will be aired over the next few weeks.

Posted by at 7:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Gmailster allows you to check if your intended username is available on gmail.

Here are some screenshots that show the features of gmail.

Posted by at 7:52 AM | Permalink

Ben Goodger has announced that Firefox 0.9.1 will be out soon. This will be a bugfix point release, mostly fixing Extension Manager bugs. Winstripe (the default theme) will also be updated.

Update: Here is a screenshot of the new version of winstripe that will be in Firefox 0.9.1. This the theme is awesome. I'm really looking forward to the official release of Firefox 0.9.1.

Posted by at 11:49 PM | Permalink

Someone on Ebay is using my pictures of dad's Honda ST 1300.

This is kinda like false advertising. The person on Ebay is trying to pass my father's bike off as his own. The pictures I took of the ST 1300, when his bike was BRAND NEW.

Here's a quote from the guy. "This Bike is in like new pristine condition, and is ready to ride as the pictures will indicate."

That's just wrong.

Posted by at 10:56 AM | Permalink

When I opened my gmail this morning, I noticed I have 5 more invites to give out. If you're interested in getting a gmail account, post something funny to this entry. The five best entries will receive gmail accounts. Make sure to leave a valid email address so I know where to send the invite.

Also, I would appreciate it if you also click on my google ads. Thanks!

Update: I just gave out my last Gmail invitation. Thanks to everyone who participated. If I get more invitations (and I'm sure I will) I will distribute them in the same fashion. Feel free to check back soon. Also, check the trackback for this entry, my brother is also giving away gmail invites.

Here are some screenshots that show the features of gmail.

Posted by at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (39)

Here's a comparison between Camino 0.8 and Firefox 0.9 for the mac.

Posted by at 6:21 AM | Permalink

I've been given 5 GMail invites. Most everyone I know has one now. If you're interested in getting a GMail Invite from me, post something interesting or funny and click on a few of my google ads, and I'll hook you up.

FYI: Gmail Machine is back up.

Update: I just gave out my last Gmail invitation. I had a great time giving them out today. Thanks to everyone who participated. If I get more invitations (and I'm sure I will) I will distribute them in the same fashion. Feel free to check back soon.

Posted by at 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)

The Roadmap for Mozilla Thunderbird was just updated. It shows the upcoming features for 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0. The release date for 1.0 is early September 2004.

The Mozilla Firefox roadmap also forcasts a release data of September 2004.

Posted by at 10:12 PM | Permalink

Thunderbird is a stand alone mail program based of the mail component of Mozilla 1.7. This is yet another example that the future of mozilla is not in the mozilla suite, but in small, user friendly apps.

Scott MacGregor writes "The Mozilla Foundation released Thunderbird 0.7 today. New features include a smaller download size, significant performance improvements on all platforms, a new themes and extensions manager, and many bug fixes and other improvements. More on what's new can be found in the Mozilla Foundation's press release.

"Thunderbird now has promotional website banner images and a signature campaign which users can leverage to help spread the Thunderbird word. Read More."

"Builds are currently available from the Thunderbird releases page, along with the current set of Release Notes, or directly from the 0.7 directory on ftp.mozilla.org."

Posted by at 6:27 PM | Permalink

Mozilla Firefox 0.9 was released last night. This is a huge release of an already great web browser. If you are not already using firefox, you should definetly download it now, and get rid of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Additonal Coverage
Why You Should Switch to Firefox
Release Notes
Press Release
The Bigger Picture
Mozillazine.org
The Burning Edge
New Theme
Minutes
Firefox Roadmap
Firefox on Slashdot

Posted by at 6:59 AM | Permalink

The Mac Version of Firefox has new version of Pinstripe. I didn't care for the last version on Pinstripe on the Mac, but this new one is beautiful. The new icons seem to flow much better with Mac OS X. It looks more like a Mac application. I now understand what the firefox developers where after when the decided to switch themes from qute to winstripe. Excellent work, guys!

Posted by at 6:35 AM | Permalink

... well sort of

"G4techTV Canada is excited to share some great news with its viewers... the return of Leo Laporte to the Canadian schedule."

I'm glad Leo's on the air again. Hopefully the show will catch on, and make it back to the States!

Posted by at 6:33 AM | Permalink

Scott just hooked me up with a gmail account. Thanks, Scott!

sizemoresr at gmail dot com

Posted by at 2:22 PM | Permalink

I just picked up a new dual layer DVD Burner for only 88 bucks at newegg.

Shipping status

Posted by at 9:20 AM | Permalink

Today, Apple released a water cooled dual 2.5 Ghz PowerMac. The new powermacs will be available in July.

iTunes 4.6 was released today.

Posted by at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Ben Goodger writes: "A testing candidate of Mozilla Firefox 0.9 is now available from mozilla.org. There are a couple more bugs we'd like to fix for the 0.9 release but want to get as much feedback on the app in general before we go out. Please download this build and test with it and report any show stopping bugs that you find. We are still looking to do a 0.9 final sometime Monday." Builds can be found on the FTP site.

This new release is awesome. It has a new default theme. The profile directory has moved from Phoenix to Mozilla\Firebird. The release notes are available.

If you miss the Qute theme, you can download it from Arvid's website.

getfirefox.com

Posted by at 7:17 AM | Permalink

I just upgraded to Moveabletype (The software the powers this weblog.) version 3.0D from 2.74. The upgrade went off without a hitch. A free version with limited support is available.

The new version has a much improved management interface.

Posted by at 7:38 PM | Permalink

It's official. There is a new default theme in firefox. I've downloaded the lastest hourly build from BEAST.

I've done a screen by screen comparison between today's build and a build from 6/3/2004 that sported a new version of Qute.

I must admit I was disappointed when I heard that Qute was to be replaced. However, the new theme is slowly growing on me. I hope they do the same thing with thunderbird.

Update: Firefox 0.9.1 will feature a new theme and several bug fixes.

Posted by at 10:59 AM | Permalink

Ben Goodger's post on mozillazine forums gives an estimated release date of June 12 or June 14 for firefox 0.9. Here are the minutes for the last meeting.

In a recent interview with neowin, Ben Goodger, the chief developer of firefox, said that this would be their "biggest release yet."

Firebird 0.9 will feature a new default theme. The new theme closely resembles the pinstripe theme developed for the Mac OS X version of firefox. A decision was made to develop a homegrown theme developed by Kevin Gerich and Stephen Horlander instead of using the one created by Arvid Axelsson. Here's an email from Ben Goodger to Arvid Axelsson on this matter.

If you can't wait until June 14th. You can download the lastest nightly branch build which sould be pretty close to Mozilla Firefox 0.9. There are only 14 open bugs that block the release of Mozilla 0.9. I also expect an RC on Tuedsay.

If you're not already using Firefox as your default web browser, check out this article by Ben Goodger that explains why you should. Also here is an excellent introduction to firefox.

Posted by at 10:54 PM | Permalink

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.3 has been released. This is probably the best spyware detection and removal tool out there, and it's free.

Posted by at 12:46 PM | Permalink

I found a great article on how to use Sprint PCS vision with Mac OS X. I tried it just before I left of a family road trip, it works great!

Right now we're in the van headed to Leesburg, FL. Suddenly, this trip just got a whole lot better.

I'm getting about 256kbs with:
12" Powerbook
Sanyo SCP-8100
FutureDial USB cable purchased at Radio Shack

This is awesome.

Posted by at 10:56 AM | Permalink

I just installed CenterICQ on my Linux Box. It allows me to communicate via all the major IM clients (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc).

This works great on Drill weekend when I work behind a pretty tight firewall. I can SSH into my linux box, and do pretty much whatever I want.

Here's a link to the installation instructions. I used the RPM's.

Posted by at 10:05 AM | Permalink

G4TechTV Website
Merger FAQ

Looks like G4 TechTV will keep: Anime Unleashed, Body Hits, Eye Drops, Fresh Gear, Future Fighting Machines, Invent This, Nerd Nation, Robot Wars, The Screen Savers, Thunderbirds, Unscrewed, & X-Play

Posted by at 8:56 PM | Permalink

Posted by at 3:49 PM | Permalink

I found this program that lets me export my Outlook calendar to a ICS (iCalendar) file.

Outport aims to be a generic program for exporting date from Outlook (Outlook + export = Outport. Original eh? :-) ) to various email/pim programs. It currently it can export to the Contact, Calendar and Task formats of Evolution, plus a number of generic formats supported by Outlook itself (Rich Text Format, HTML, vCalendar, vCard, iCalendar, etc).

--http://outport.sourceforge.net/

Posted by at 3:04 PM | Permalink

Okay, here’s the deal.

TechTV has been bought by Comcast. The Screen Savers and XPlay will be carried by Comcast’s G4 Network based in LA. Existing (Tech TV) jobs will be posted for those willing to relocate to LA. The San Francisco will be shut down by July. (I hope Kevin Rose moves to LA.)

more info on SlashDot
more info from Leo
info from Kevin Rose

So here’s the info on G4:
“ Q: What will a typical programming day look like?
A: The merged network will be the nation's premier 24/7 television network all about video games, technology and the gamer lifestyle. The G4 programming day will showcase many existing G4 and TechTV series such as G4's ICONS; PULSE; JUDGMENT DAY; PLAYERS, and CHEAT! as well as TechTV's ANIME UNLEASHED; X-PLAY; SCREEN SAVERS; FRESH GEAR; and ROBOT WARS. G4 will also premiere new original programming which will be announced at a later date.”

G4 / TechTV merger FAQ

“EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) will have an equity interest in the combined entity and has agreed to make the channel available to its DISH Network customers who subscribe to its mid-level America's Top 120 programming package or greater.“

Comcast press release

"EchoStar Communications also will have a financial stake in the combined company, terms of which were not disclosed. EchoStar will distribute G4 on its Dish Network satellite TV service."

Coverage on CNet's News.com

I guess the good thing about all of this is that "The Screen Savers" will no longer be produced by a company owned by Microsoft's Steve Allen (Vulcan Ventures). I hope to see more Linux and Mac OS X coverage.

Posted by at 8:11 AM | Permalink

Posted by at 9:24 PM | Permalink

I installed this last night on my 12" powerbook. This is a big improvement for both speed and stability. One other nice fix is that DVD+R media now plays in Apple's DVD player software!

Now I can watch "Fear and Loathing" on the Mac.

Apple KB article: Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update Released

Posted by at 7:36 AM | Permalink

I just received my new video card from Newegg. This made a HUGE difference on my system. My frame rate in Command and Conquer Generals has tripled. It's awesome that a $100 upgrade can extend the life of a system for at least a few years!

Posted by at 7:40 AM | Permalink

Newegg has Radeon 9600's for $103.00 with free shipping and no tax. I couldn't pass this offer up. Tom's Hardware has a nice list of recent video card benchmarks, so you can see how present card performs. It should be a nice improvement over my Nvidia Geforce3 Ti 200. This is another great deal I found on Techbargains.com.

Posted by at 8:19 PM | Permalink

Mandrake Linux 10.0 Community Available for Download from the usual mirrors. I'm going to install this one on my Dell 333 Mhz file server. I just got a 180 GB Western Digital drive for it.

Torrent File

Mandrake 10.0 Install Screen Shots

UPDATE More Reviews:
Mandrake 10.0 Review
OS News Review
Mad Penguin

Posted by at 1:30 PM | Permalink

http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/download.html

New in 3.4:

* Client no longer complains of connection to tracker problems when transfers are still working
* Lots of bandwidth savings
* Lots of bug fixes

UPDATE: Current version: 3.4.1, released on 2004-03-11. This is a bug fix and performance release. Everyone running large trackers should upgrade and encourage all of their users to upgrade.

Posted by at 2:41 PM | Permalink

I finally finished setting up my new work notebook: the Dell Latitude D800.

I took a few pictures of it next to my Apple PowerBook G4.

So far I'm enjoying my new notebook. Its nice to code in a large 15" wide screen. The dell replaced my old IBM A21. The IBM was the first notebook I actually enjoyed using, so I was sad to see it go. After I got used to the Dell's ultra-high resolution, I really started to enjoy making it my primary work computer.

This won't take the place of my 12" Powerbook at home. The powerbook is just fun to use. So when I'm not at work, it's my primary computer. Its great to just throw in my back back and take on trips. On vacations I use it to check email, and up load pictures. On work trips its great when all I need to do is show a power point presentation.

But I'm not one of those people. I have room in my life for both mac and pc. :)

Posted by at 4:52 PM | Permalink

Posted by at 7:51 PM | Permalink

I'm counting down the seconds until I get my new powerbook g4 later this week. To kill the time, I found this great web site with tons of OS X hints: macosxhints

Most of of the tips are really UNIX hacks, which I think is awesome. I really bought a UNIX workstation. Here are some of the more useful tips:

• Start SNMP
• Share iPhoto libraries with multiple users on one machine
• Block VeriSign's attempt at internet domination
• Ambush an offline iChat buddy
• Use a PlayStation gamepad on OS X (I should get Tony Hawk 4 so I can grind on the road.)

My powerbook should ship on the 30th. I can't wait.

Posted by at 7:56 PM | Permalink

Continue reading "UNF just deleted my unix account" »

Posted by at 6:57 AM | Permalink

The waiting paid off: Apple unveils 15-inch PowerBook, updates 17 and 12. Apple just updated their entire powerbook line with DDR memory, 512K L2 cache, and faster processors. I'm so glad I waited.

Video: Steve Jobs - Apple expo 2003 Keynote
Apple - PowerBook G4 12" Specs

My System:

PBG4 12.1/1GHZ/512/60/CMBO/AP/BT/LL

• 1GHz PowerPC G4
• 512MB DDR266 SDRAM
• 60GB Ultra ATA Drive
• Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
• Airport Extreme Card
• Keyboard/Mac OS

UPDATE: I just upgraded the IPOD to 20 GB.

Posted by at 1:44 PM | Permalink

This is a pretty prestigious award, and it’s the second time I’ve received it. This time, I was awarded the Air Force Commendation medal for building an ASP website for the Air National Guard Personnel conference.

It’s really nice to be recognized like this, but at the same time I feel pretty guilty about it. I work with some extremely dedicated people that work a lot harder than I do. I get awards and decorations a lot more frequently than they do. I guess the reason why is that everything I do (like web and database apps) are extremely visible. Another thing I have going for me is that I’m a workaholic. I check my ANG email even when I’m not at work. I connect remotely and work from home often. People notice this stuff.

As for the inspection this weekend, it’s really going great. This is because of the all the hard work of my co-workers out there. I hope they get some serious recognition for this one, because they really transformed the Network Control Center (NCC) into something great. I just hope it stays that way, and continues to improve.

This drill weekend with the Air National Guard has been great. Drill weekends sort of feel like family reunions. These people have seen pretty much ever side of me, and we’re really close. A big part of the monthly drill weekend is catching up everything that’s happened in the past month. We talk about work, motorcycles, football, school, and my future career plans. It’s pretty nice. About all else, it’s the reason why I stay in the guard.

Tomorrow is the last day of the September UTA and the UCI inspection. I plan on riding my bike in and staying pretty low key.

Posted by at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by at 1:06 PM | Permalink