The Connected Circuit » Life

Focused Attention

Peter To — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:37:28 +0000

I got to go home for the holidays and one of the most undesirably parts that I hate about being home is how slow the internet connection is. But what I didn’t realize it at the time was how much I got done online. It was an odd paradox, since slow connection to the information super highway (does anyone call it that anymore) would normally equal death to all productivity and multitasking, but I soon learned that it was just the opposite. To cope with the slowness of my DSL line at home I started to choose where I visited a bit more meticulously knowing full well that if I choose something that I didn’t like and started clicking on an absurd amount of links it would just equate to me watching that little spinny thingy in my Firefox tabs spin over and over and over again. I was able to finally catch up on the awesomeness that is The Daily WTF and read up on the beauty that is of the new Core i7 from Intel (AMD too?) and it is sweet. So if you think that having a “slow” internet connection means certain doom and gloom, don’t, think of it more of a blessing in disguise.

New Year’s Resolutions

Peter To — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:25:09 +0000

The new year is fast approaching and is much more important to me and my family than Christmas ever was. I was never into the whole New Year’s resolution, improvement *blah, blah, blah*, but I feel like I should really set new goals for the new year and actually accomplish them. So here it goes, in order of priority

Find a job I love
Putting myself out there
Meet more new people by myself
Meet new people
Actually save a decent amount of money by spending less on my beloved tech gadgets
Catch up with old friends
Be more fluent in my family’s native tongue, Vietnamese
Program something I am actually proud of
Read much more
Write much more unique content
Using my computer much less

The top one will probably involve moving out of NYC, which I am perfectly fine with since that would help to accomplish goals 2-4. In regards to goal 7, I am already set to take Vietnamese language class for the first half of the year, which I am extremely psyched about. Goal 4 will probably be the hardest, since I decided I want to build a new gaming desktop and a few other items, but we’ll see how this all goes. Goal 8 is a work in progress with a friend and is in its beginning stages, but the hardest part is actually getting things done. If all else fails, I’ll just buy an unlocked G1 and go to town with it. Last goal will probably never happen (I love the interwebs too much), but one can hope… So here’s hoping I accomplish at least one of these goals.

The Perfect Entertainment Setup

Peter To — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:12:19 +0000

Now that I have my own place, it is time for me to trick it out media-wise. My goal here is to create the perfect media setup in my place. I’ve thought long and hard and here are the rundown of my preliminary specifications:

42″ Plasma or LCD HDTV
Slingcatcher w/a 1 TB HDD
Either a Sonos setup or a Slim Squeezebox Boom
Either a Bluray Player, Upconverting DVD player or HD DVD Player to replace the Panasonic one that broke.

Having my own apartment = having my own network. So with all this in mind, I chose this setup because it seems to be one of the easiest to setup and fits what I want to do perfectly, which is streaming from multiple computers and devices to just one particularly type.

My original choice for a TV is the Panasonic Viera TH-42PZ85U, which I can get for an ironic $1080, but I am still looking since I hear, from all my first-hand accounts, that LCDs are def the way to go and the Panny plasma isn’t as good as I had originally thought. I’m going with the Slingcatcher because of its support for just about every single format available as well as its ability to stream internet content. It isn’t out just yet, so there aren’t any reviews of it yet, but it is out for pre-order for $300. I’m leaning towards the Squeezebox Boom because of its support for a plethora of internet radio services, Rhapsody and media resources and its alarm clock so I can wake up to my favorite tunes. This too will cost $300. So the total cost will be roughly $1680. But I’ve still not decided yet. With the Fall update of the Xbox 360 dashboard software and the ability to be easily software modded, it might save me on the cost of a Slingcatcher since it can also be extended as a Media Extender and has support for DivX/Xvid files and of course DVDs. I’d just need to purchase the absurdly expensive $80 or $40 on eBay, 20 GB hard drive and mod it with my own or get the $140, 120 GB drive, which would save me $60 or I’ve

Other configurations would be buying an Apple TV and modding it with aTV or Boxee, so $230+$50 for the aTV. For those who don’t know, aTV is the software mod for Apple TV that unlocks its use for different media products. Boxee is this cool social network media hub, it is in alpha testing right now, I signed up for it, so let’s hope I get one. I’m also taking into consideration cost and easy and nice UI, since I would not be the only person that would be using all of these devices. The TV would be a definite ~$1000, so my other cost reductions would be for everything else. If I get HDDHacker to work with my 360 I wouldn’t need to purchase a $40 hard drive and use my own with this nice software hack and install Windows Media Player 11 on my computer and just share all the content.

This is also keeping in mind what I have currently, an Xbox 360 w/Rock Band and hopefully Rock Band 2 and of course a Wii and good old PS3. Overall I’m looking to speak around $1500+ for this setup. If anyone has any suggestions for me, let me know.

Update time

Peter To — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:51:27 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve actually wrote a post, been a tad busy with graduating and trying to figure my life after college. Well I’ve amassed a bunch of new gadgets (new for my use that is) and I’ll try to post a review of one gadget a week along with one or two posts of related software. First up is my Tilt aka HTC Kaiser aka HTC TyTN II. I think eight months is a good amount of time for usage to review it.

Technological Luddite

Peter To — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:09:49 +0000

Everyone has problems with technology even the most tech-savvy person has had a few problems which has driven him to the point of, either step on it until you can’t even recognize it anymore, or just buy a new one to replace it. The democratization of technology has given the everyday-man the ability to do something, such as creating a website, that a even a few years ago would have been out of reach for a plethora of individuals. But I see more and more everyday, people are taking this technology and never using it to its fullest extent, it just goes to waste. A few months back, I returned from my half year “finding myself” journey in Vietnam, to come to the realization that I need a cellphone again, since my plan was up (or so I thought, which is a story for another day) I began my search for the close to perfect, bestest cellphone with the cheapest price. I settled on dropping my current carrier Sprint in favor of selling my digital soul for two years to AT&T for the AT&T Tilt aka HTC Kaiser aka HTC TyTN II aka a whole bunch of other names. A month or so later, my roommate decided that he was in need of a phone upgrade, whilst trying to stick to his carrier of Sprint he decided that paying $400 for a brand spankin’ new phone, also from HTC (he opted to get the HTC Touch) was a good way to be on par with myself and my phone.

Months later I have hacked, read dozens of forums and reflashed my phone to slightly near-perfection and am loving it. But my roommate’s main uses for his device are as follows, texting (on a non-qwerty only touch screen device), phone calls and watching the broken web on Pocket IE. Calling it a waste in a great piece of technology is an understatement. For what he uses his phone for he should have stuck with his previous device the Moto Q, which has an awesome full-qwerty keyboard for texting and can make calls. As disappointed as I am right now, it was expected that he was never going to ever “use” the device.

I “work” in a computer lab, where students and faculty come in with work and occasionally (read: all the freaking time), have problems accomplishing tasks, you know things like printing color copies or copying and pasting a formula from one cell to another, so I usually get asked for assistance in these items. While helping I get the expected thank you’s and such, but I also get the “Why isn’t this working?” or “This should just work”

I guess my main point in this matter is that people are just becoming lazy and complacent and either think that technology should “just work” or just buy something to be chic and stylish. I think one way to solve this is to go back to doing things the hard way, then one can fully appreciate technology and its usefulness. Although there is a growing number of modders out there, their still a very niche population. By simply taking something apart, say a radio, one can learn so much about it. This is my call to bring back the past, bring back the times when things were “hard”, where messy html ruled the universe instead of discombobulated facebook and myspace pages. Go back to your computers and instead of asking your tech-savvy friend to figure it out for you, do it for yourself. Take out that screwdriver, open it up and just mess around with it until you have a mess of screws and wires laying around and just try to put it back together. If it doesn’t work, then take it apart again and redo what you did.

After Graduation Thoughts

Peter To — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:31:55 +0000

So graduation is fast approaching and I have to figure out what I am going to do with my life after graduation. Currently my plans are as follows:

Step 1: Graduate
Step 2: asdofjasoidjf;as
Step 3: …
Step 4: ?
Step 5: Figure out what to do with my life

So yeah, I am pretty confused at the moment. I have thought it over many times over, but still unsure with which path to take in life. I hope to figure this out soon, since I graduate in less than two months. Grrr…