zhrodague blogs

Econojacked

drewzhrodague — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:19:09 -0500

Econojacked - adj. - The forceful seizure of one's economic system.

Zhrodague Television Channel Aggregator

drewzhrodague — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 13:59:43 -0500

I propose a method for displaying channels across the world, collected from users everywhere. This scenario, would be similar to sites like WiFiMaps.com, Flickr, and others, where users upload their content, which is then aggregated with other users' content, to form a large set of data for display. Users can see what channels are actually there, whether VHF, UHF, HDTV, QAM, 8vsb, Cable, Satellite, FiOS -- whatever -- in a non-marketing-hype kinda way. This could be coupled with sites like Zap2It, or SchedulesDirect, to provide an additional layer of clarity in what is advertised, versus what is reality, and even different package-plans or antenna types. Coverage maps can be provided generated and overlayed with Google Maps. This should prove to be an interesting feature for the Internet.

Free Satellite TV in North America

drewzhrodague — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 16:40:55 -0400

I've been monkeying around with FTA Satellite for MythTV, and I have having two hells of a time. I have collected the appropriate hardware, a 30" dish, universal LNBF, and a Hauppauge NOVA-S DVB card -- and all the required cable. I even have a signal meter, compass, mounting hardware, and some other crap. But I can't find any discussions on Google of other people doing these things from the US. I've found discussions about Linux driver issues, Microsoft Windows configurations, non-USians, dish-aiming, signal-strength issues, and even information about the same tools I am using. None of the discussions are of MythTV users aiming their dishes in North America -- so here's mine.

Intertainfo

drewzhrodague — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 19:20:10 -0500

Intertainfo, n. Thinly sliced information, entertainingly slathered atop Internet detritus fillets.

Soylent Crime

drewzhrodague — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 17:37:09 -0500

I suggest the phrase 'soylent crime' should be used to describe a crime, where the body is consumed by something -- as if I were to grind up my neighbor, and use the result as a fertilizer. Soylent crime is a crime, where some act of soylency has been performed.

the automated recording of a television show

drewzhrodague — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 11:55:41 -0500

I had decided to automate television shows in a few specific ways, after taking a trip with a friend to pick up a used and decommissioned television studio. I thought about it for a long time, and came up with a long document describing how to do it. Unfortunately, some kids at some university whipped up an implementation before I was able to do it, and so I kinda backed off a bit. One thing that has been a result of my thoughts, is to automate the recording of a live news/talk show, without the need of a cameraman, or editing.

I propose to do this with a couple of scripts -- one that does the recording, and one that does the timing for the audio and cue playback. This doesn't seem too hard, except that I can't figure out how to record from any of the (now numerous) collection of webcams.

washing machine hack: fruit centrifuge

drewzhrodague — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:18:02 -0400

I intend to dump a whole bunch of peaches into an old "Easy two speed spindrier" washing machine. The six peach treas in my yard produce more fruit than I know what to do with. The only solution is to ferment it all.

The washing machine has two chambers: an agitation chamber, and a centrifuge chamber. The agitation chamber contains a spindle and rotor, which is shaped like a screw tapering towards the top. The centrifuge chamber has a basket of sheetmetal, which has holes drilled into it. The washer was probably intended to fill the agitator and go through an agitation cycle, and then start the centrifuge.

I am a spam fighter

drewzhrodague — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 19:18:01 -0400

Everybody hates spam. From penis pills, to texas holdem, to phentermine and hoodia, to asbestos lawyers. As a systems administrator, part of my job -- part of my lifestyle -- is to fight spam. I fight spam at work, I fight spam at home -- it is required of me, as a node on the Internet, as a human on the Internet, and as a consumer of Internet. I fight spam at every level, from email, to web, to the information that I seek out. There's a lot of it out there, and there is even more than that.

I've been plagued by spam email for over 10 years now. Having established my permanent email address that long ago. I posted on Usenet. I've posted in mailing lists. I've posted web pages, blog entries, and comments on other people's blogs. None of my previous dealings is any contribution to the usefulnes of my mailbox. Unfortunately.

Camping with Static

drewzhrodague — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 20:29:30 -0400

I posted the pictures from my camping trip with Static, and a couple of other people. Neat stuff going on, though I need to take more pictures. when I do. staticcamp

G4TV's Banzai - no play show?

drewzhrodague — Sun, 21 May 2006 00:03:05 -0400

This sucks. I absolutely love Banzai on G4TV -- this is interactive TV. This is that which they promised us in the '80s. Unfortunately, it's 11:00 PM EST, and Banzai is on -- and I can't play. According to their site, I can only play on Tuesdays at midnite, but the show is on NOW, and I wanna play NOW! Bastards!

G4 TV's Star Trek 2.0 Crashes

drewzhrodague — Wed, 03 May 2006 10:57:05 -0400

G4 TV has this new game, Star Trek 2.0. This is an example of interactive TV, where an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, is displayed with a stock ticker. Throughout the episode, various facets of the Star Trek universe -- as companies on what they call the 'Spock Market' -- are bought and sold. The show features trivia facts, a stock ticker, and a live chat with the topic of the hour. Players watch the show, and buy and sell these stocks while the show is going via the Internet. Seriously a neat idea, until you look at the implementation.

Of course, being a big Captain Kirk fan, there's no way I can avoid playing this game, in spite of its shortcomings. Trek is Trek, and when it's on, I'm there to watch, even if it is just on in the background while I do other, seemingly more important things. Its quirky, and the idea that this show is now an interactive game, played against other players, is just too good to pass up.

Printing on Cement with Concrete Ink

drewzhrodague — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:46:40 -0400

This is the description for a method of printing on concrete or cement with a concrete or cement ink. This is a DIY hacker project concept that has resolved itself into something large enough to write down.

I intend to print on concrete for the purpose of creating tiles for the garden or patio which contain a continuous image across the tiles. I propose to use a generic form of cement that is very cheap, and can be cured in a tile-shaped mold. This cement should be easily mixed with an ink or concrete dye, which can then be squirted onto the top of the initial tile mold. Images can be pre-rendered, and sequentially printed onto the tiles in order to make a larger collective image.

recruiter in a haystack howto

drewzhrodague — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 15:24:00 -0500

I've been a UNIX sysadmin for 10 years now. Usually I get contracts through recruiters. Most of the time spent in job searching is wasted communicating with people who won't respond. In order to cut down on the number of recruiters I have in my rotation, I posted their company's contact information online, at Recruiter Rater. There wasn't another website for rating recruiters, so I created one. I also post the job board SPAM and scams I get from Monster, and other mailing lists. This is a public forum, so users can use a star rating system, and post their experiences, and additional recruiters.

Burning hard drive video

drewzhrodague — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 22:56:05 -0500

Yes, I did actually set fire a hard disk. It was a while ago, my friend Gus was over, and we were playing with this ancient 10MB full-height 5.25 disk drive. We took the cover off, and got the computer to run some sort of disk testing program, which made the head flip back and forth a bunch of times. Then we squirted lighter fluid on it, and set it alight. It didn't work very long afterwards.

This file was originally in my home directory, but I moved it over to the CMS, as I wanted to capture discussion, and import it to my permament repository. I mentioned this in a slashdot post about hard drive mutilation, and that brought this file to light (read: I went and dug it up).

Brewing Mead - Home Biotech

drewzhrodague — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 12:56:50 -0500

Brewing is an ancient art form, dating back more than 8000 years. Brewing mead involves only water, honey, and yeast -- and sometimes spices or fruit. I started to read some of the Wikipedia articles on the topic, and rather than distill their descriptions, I will just include a couple of links: Cookbook Mead and Wikipedia Mead. Two friends of mine, Lord Hector, and Will have made meads which, having now tried a few commercial varieties, blew my mind.

Canon A620 Hacks

drewzhrodague — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:21:09 -0500

I just got myself a new Canon Powershot A620 camera, and I have been having a blast with this thing. I've had a chance to monkey with it, and take a few different pictures in a variety of situations. This thread isn't a review, but tips, tricks, and hacks, for what had been a truly great digital camera.