All posts by tim

Netflix Watch Now on Linux

Ramblings

So I got Netflix Watch Now working on my Playstation 3, and I thought, why wouldn’t this work on Linux? So I started monkeying around and got it working. It’s not great, but it works. I see no reason this wouldn’t work on MacOSX either.

First you’ll need to download and install the Play On! Media Server on a windows machine. It costs $30, but has a free trial so you can figure out if it’s worth it for you. You still need a windows machine, you just don’t have to watch movies on it. Once it’s installed and working download djmount and install it using your system appropriate method. In my case:

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
sudo make install

Once it’s installed you can run djmount to mount your playon server in a directory:

mkdir ~/upnp
djmount ~/upnp

If you cd into the directory you should see your PlayOn server and you can navigate down the tree to your Netflix Watch Instantly queue. To watch a movie, try:

mplayer -ao none -vo sdl -nobps -ni -forceidx -mc 0 -cache 8192 -playlist myMovieName.m3u

That’s it. mplayer likes to bomb out if you try to fast forward past the end of your queue. There might be a player that’s happier with these streams, but I haven’t found it. Totem works, but seems to have too small of a buffer and so buffers constantly for me.

Sorry for all of you non-linux types reading this blog. We’ll get back to non-technology randomness at a later date.

3-D Ultrasounds

Ramblings

So this post over at Daddy Types got me thinking about how 3D ultra sounds will eventually make the static fuzz of current ultra-sounds seem as prehistoric as taking x-rays and using special rulers to determine the size of in-utero fetuses.

From what I can tell 3-D ultrasounds are just an algorithm. The ultrasound machine just takes pictures at many different depths and angles. Have an algorithm to tell what the “outside” of the baby is, and stitch together a 3D image from all those pictures. Here’s an illustration of how it works:

The hard part is knowing what is the skin and what is, say placenta, and then just rendering all those “skin” points. The theory is a lot easier than the actual implementation I’m sure. But I think that in the future we’ll go in for an ultrasound and it will look like the clear plates in an encyclopedia. The ones with a plate for skin, then muscles, a plate for nerves, and one for the vascular system, and finally the skeleton. I think once the algorithms advance we’ll see all that, in 3D. We’ll have to explain to our kids how we used to go into the doctor and it was like a Rorschach test to figure out where your baby was in the snow.

Note: I will return to the Lego Advent Calendar. I really need a quick point and shoot camera that hooks into my computer for blog pictures. Anyone know where I can find a cheap memory stick/camera?

Lego Advent Calendar

Updates

My lovely sisters bought me a Lego Advent Calendar. It has an awesome city scene inside with some beautiful architecture. You get a small set each day, so I was really looking forward to it.

Day 1: We opened the first day and out popped a little man. Hmm… with a chicken leg. Is this Thanksgiving themed?

Day 2: This one took a bit of figuring out, as its shape is not readily apparent. Gas grill!

Day 3: Nice little sidebar for the grill. You’ve got your beer mug and a frying pan.

Day 4: Our first guest arrives. She’s a bit trashy looking though. What’s with the perpetual wink and the ice cream cone that’s larger than her head.

Day 5: The beer cooler arrives with portable umbrella. The party has really started!

I’m waiting for around Day 18 when the police and fire department show up after Virgil’s lighter fluid experimentation gets out of hand.

Proposed East Riverside Corridor Plan

Public Transportation

It\’s available now. You can read their presentation.Lot\’s of nice pictures. Most of what I\’m seeing is really good. The anti-light rail people at Country Club Creek Trail seem like they didn\’t sway the opinions much. It\’s still one of the top priorities. I attended a meeting where there was talk about how light rail would bring in an undesirable element. Unless they\’re referring to rich yuppies I don\’t see what they\’re concerned about. If the element they\’re referring to is the element I think they\’re referring to, they\’d be better off rerouting the #7 away from Riverside drive.

Country Club Creek Trail is still a major part of the plan which is great. Once they get the trail under Riverside setup they\’ll have a great arterial for getting bike traffic from areas south of Oltorf into the commercial zones at Riverside and Pleasant Valley.

Modern architecture fares worse than traditional which is probably attributed to the fact that the participants were quite a bit older than the average Austinite.

The graph explaining what income groups people think should be represented is fascinating and representative of Austin in general I think:

I\’m glad the desire is there to keep the mix, and hopefully they\’ll be able to do so. But I hope no one\’s under the illusion that as many poor families will be housed there in the future. I honestly think that the mix of Moderate and High income is wishful thinking and that the High Income Only is more than likely where this is going. Lakefront property in Austin next to a light rail line is not going to be cheap.

I think one of the big issues we see time and time again is a wishful thinking on the part of advocates for the poor and middle income. We saw this with Mueller. There was this expectation that it really wouldn\’t be that popular. That rich people really wouldn\’t want to live in East Austin so it wouldn\’t be a big deal for low and middle income housing. I think we should be planning that anyone who makes less than $75k/year is not going to be able to find housing within a 10 minute walk of the Riverside corridor within ten years time. Setup our affordable housing plans with that in mind. I think this is going to move faster than anyone thinks. Those east riverside commercial slumlords have been holding onto their property specifically waiting for the transformation to start. They\’re going to sell the minute things look good. And the first half-mile looks like it will be transformed within a couple of years. If you like the Baby A\’s on riverside you might want to drink up.

If the light rail plan actually goes through, even Canyon Oaks might get a fresh can of paint and a couple hundred dollar hike in rent.

That said, I think the plan looks great. Now I can\’t wait for them to zone Oltorf for mixed use and start getting rid of all the ugly strip malls.

On an only lightly related note I found this great resource on a CapMetro blog today. It shows you every bus stop on a bus route, so you don\’t have to guess where the bus goes. It would be better if they interfaced with Google Street View, but still very nice.

Dismayed by Prop 8?

Politics

I just read this in a CNN article and was startled. Our attitudes are changing very fast:

A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 75 percent of respondents supported allowing gays to serve openly in the military, up from 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

31% change in 15 years. My guess is that these marriage bans have a few more years of life and then will be overturned quietly and without much fanfare.

And yes, I\’m also as depressed as you that 1993 was 15 years ago.

Cooking FAIL!

Recipes

Oh goodness. What a week already. Monday night lentil soup was on the menu. I find that I enjoy soups once they’re made, but I don’t really enjoy making them. So I dutifully boiled the soup. Then I was supposed to put it in the blender to puree it. I should stop here to say that I hate our blender. It looks pretty cool, which I’m sure is why we put it on our wedding registry. But it sucks. None of the pieces are particularly water tight. The lid doesn’t completely cover the spout, so if you turn it on a high setting with something fairly liquid you’ll get whatever’s inside splashing out of the lip. It’s awesome for making margaritas. You cannot have enough sticky syrup coating your kitchen.

But back to the soup.

The New PC

Politics

So, we were watching the election on CNN and I realized that we’ve now entered a new world of Political Correctness. The new minority group not to offend are conservatives. More specifically conservatives who use terms like the Main Stream Media, to describe non-partisan media outlets. Watching CNN on election night was ridiculous. They were constantly letting their Republican pundits talk. Constantly asking them for their opinion, even though a few were obviously delusional. They wouldn’t in any way analyze any of the elephants in the room. When Pennsylvania and Ohio went for Obama they asked the Republican pundits whether there was any way forward. They both replied that it was “hard”. Which was one of the most ridiculous statements of the night. Hard? Are we really at the point where we can’t even suggest that we don’t think it’s going to happen? Fox News was even reporting more honestly than this.

I think some of this was respect for people who hadn’t voted on the west coast. But some of it was just stupid. Conservatives aren’t going to start watching CNN because it’s ridiculously well-balanced. It’s always been pretty well balanced. There are a lot of people now who want entertaining news tailored to their bias. That’s fine. We have Fox News and the Daily Show. But when I want real news I don’t want silly pandering. I want you to report that it looks like Obama is going to win, when it looks like Obama is going to win. Otherwise you just look like ignorami who can’t do math.

A Truly Scary Halloween

Updates

So for those who came to our Halloween party on Saturday night and sat as we were buzzed by helicopters, we probably should have been in the house. Remember when I joked that if someone came in our back gate, it was probably a bad sign? Yeah, that joke was probably in bad taste.

One of the landlords in our neighborhood rents 4 properties out as sort of halfway houses. This particular home houses a woman we know is a prostitute and who has been seen smoking crack by many neighbors. While we were partying

Great T.R. Quote

Politics

Because of things I have done on behalf of justice to the workingman, I have often been called a Socialist. Usually I have not taken the trouble even to notice the epithet. … Moreover, I know that many American Socialists are high-minded and honorable citizens, who in reality are merely radical social reformers. They are opposed to the brutalities and industrial injustices which we see everywhere about us.