Strombotne.com

With the Cover View feature on the new iTunes 7 release, I was motivated to catalog my misc music files. Improperly tagged files will not pull the album art. Correct file name standardization helps but also one must be sure that the meta data gybes. I discovered several utilities that assist. Picard and Magic MP3 [...]

I do have some windowz only apps and didn’t want to mess with emulation or be without so I’ve committed sacrilege and installed the Microsoft OS on my new Apple notebook using virtual machine software called Parallels. SMS thinks that I am going to go to hell for doing that

Convergence is underway amongst the peripherals. A sucker for a slick gadget, this one is a $29 iPod accessory attachment. Its receiver measures the beat in stride using 2.4 GHz wireless telemetry. [photopress:IMG_0567.jpg,full,alignleft] Data translates to distance traveled, pace, and calories burned all the while playing musical incentive through the ear buds. In theory, to [...]

Making a visit to the Apple Store, on a Saturday, was a less than ideal choice in timing. The place was wall to wall with customers. Apple has been enjoying a swelling interest in their newly released Mactel machines. Still, what a contrast in presentation compared to the plain ordinary BestBuyCircuitCity drab. A helpful staffer, [...]

A rental disc arrives on Wednesday and I’m able to have it back in the mailbox for pickup on Thursday. The postal service, and an efficient local distribution center, can get me the next selection from my queue two days later for viewing over the weekend. Unless there’s a Monday holiday, this cycle permits 8 [...]

Back in the day, before FastForward on the VCR and a Mute button for the remote, one suffered through the annoying commercials about cigarettes and head or stomach pain pills. As a work around we fabricated a simple clicker switch from the hobbyist parts bin at Sparky’s. This was a simple hardwired interrupt to one [...]

While waiting for my day job to begin I’ve found a new project / time sponge. Most of my flight logs (circa 1975-1988) are pen and ink ledger books. So, now is a good time to update the media and bring the old archives into the new millennium. Using mouse, keyboard, and Excel spreadsheet to [...]

I’m using SageTV to timeshift favorite TV network programing. Since I am on the road 50% of the time, I need to spaceshift this video as well. FTP will deliver the entire file to a portable device but here is an alternative solution: ORB live streams the media over the internet. You need a broadband [...]

A newspaper article today describes the behavior, that of using some one’s bandwidth, as akin to reading someone else’s newspaper over their shoulder. Ethical or not, WiFi makes this practice easy and many out of town road warriors have begun to depend on its availability. Experts estimate that only 30 percent of all WiFi installations [...]

A laptop portable would be the preferred and graceful means to retrieve fault codes from this vehicle’s onboard computer. Unfortunately, the proprietary serial interface cable dongle from my tool box needs a COM port and (all my) computing devices have evolved toward USB 2.0. The only machine in the house with a vestigial serial port [...]