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Da Vinci Code Solved! 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0

May 2, 2007

The Da Vinci code has been solved. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 09-F9-11-02-9D-74-E3-5B-D8-41-56-C5-63-56-88-C0 - the HD-DVD decryption key that Hollywood doesn't want you to know about. This number will let you copy your HD-DVDs as well as play them on Linux.

Posted in Home Entertainment

Microsoft Silverlight takes on Adobe Flash

April 16, 2007

Scobleizer talks about Microsoft throwing down the multi-media gauntlet with a new software called Silverlight that aims to take on Adobe Flash, the predominant video media format on YouTube and other websites due to its better cross-platform support. Microsoft's Silverlight faces an uphill battle against Adobe Flash since the Adobe Flash Player is installed on more than 700 million computers and content developers are used to Adobe's media creation tools. Not to be outdone, Adobe introduced Adobe Media Player, a standalone media player that can play content "offline", as opposed to streamed "online" like the current Adobe Flash player does. This is in direct competition to the popular Windows Media Player bundled with most Windows PCs. This brings back the glory days of the Microsoft vs.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Microsoft, Video Hardware & Software

iTunes streaming to mobile phone using Slingbox and Apple TV

April 10, 2007

Apple TV has become the ultimate hacker magnet allowing users to use the Apple TV in ways Apple hadn't intended. As discussed recently, Apple TV was hacked to allow Asterisk, the open-source IP-PBX to run on it. Check out the Apple TV Asterisk tut. Now it appears that just a few weeks after launch, CNet is talking about an intriguing new feature for that will allow you to stream music from iTunes on your home computer to your cell phone leveraging Apple TV and Slingbox.

Apple TV

It's a bit of a kludge since the iTunes music has to sync from your PC to the Slingbox and then to your mobile phone.

Posted in Gadgets, Home Entertainment, MP3 Players & Digital Audio, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, Wireless

Asterisk on Apple TV Tutorial

April 2, 2007

My Apple on Asterisk blog post immediately drew a response from several Asterisk fans, including the person that "hacked" Apple TV to run Asterisk (l0rdrock). I emailed l0rdr0ck and Steven Sokol about how to get Asterisk running on Apple TV and they provided me with the information on how to do this. The Asterisk 1.4.2 on AppleTV "soup to nuts" tutorial is courtesy of Steven Sokol from Sokol & Associates, Inc., who was the initiator behind this project when he proposed a "bounty" on loading Asterisk on Apple TV and which successfully won by Jeff Gambera (aka l0rdr0ck). The information below is a combination of material from www.appletvhacks.net (for the SSH stuff) and emailed information from l0rdr0ck and Steven Sokol for the main tutorial on loading Asterisk on Apple TV.

Ok, let the fun commence.

Posted in Asterisk, Home Entertainment, Linux, TMCnet, VoIP

Asterisk on Apple TV

April 2, 2007

An interesting Apple TV hack from the AwkwardTV project features Asterisk running on an Apple TV box. The Asterisk story was Dugg over 500 times, as well as several other AwkwardTV posts, which caused the website to go gown (the Digg effect). Yet, when I go to the article, the screenshot of Asterisk running on Apple TV linked via Photobucket.com doesn't work and the article is devoid of any specifics on how this Apple TV / Asterisk "hack" was done.

I'm not doubting l0rdr0ck was able to get Asterisk to run on Apple TV, I'm just disappointed I can't see the screenshot or learn more on how he did it, so I can try it myself. (Once I get my hands on an Apple TV).

Posted in Asterisk, Home Entertainment, TMCnet

Clocky the alarm clock hides to block your snooze addiction

March 15, 2007

Do you hate getting up and the blaring alarm clock only results in you hitting the snooze 5 times and arriving to work late? Surely, you curse the alarm clock and accuse it of snoozing for only 9 minutes instead of 10, robbing you of 1 minute extra sleep. (Actually, little known fact, most alarm clocks snooze for 9 minutes not 10.)

Truly, you want to make it to work on time, but ohhhhh how tempting hitting the snooze button just 1 more time is. More Americans suffer from "snooze button addiction" than any other.

Posted in Gadgets, Home Entertainment, TMCnet, Technology and Science

Scramby disguises your Voice over IP voice

March 14, 2007

RapidSolution Software has a cool add-on product for VoIP and online games called Scramby, which "scrambles" your voice to sound like Darth Vader, an evil warlock, an android, child, and many more voices. Scramby is a vocoder add-on for VoIP softphone clients, such as Skype. It can work with any VoIP softphone application or any Windows sound application for that matter.

Essentially, it allows users to use distortion effects to give their voices another sound or personality, and to add background noises and "fun-sounds" into the audio stream like a nuclear explosion or Terminator's "I'll be back".

According to RapidSolution Software, players of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) usually communicate with each other using headsets and VoIP technology like Teamspeak. With Scramby, players are able to alter their voices to take on the voices of the characters their game figures represent.

Posted in Android, Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Video Games & Gaming, VoIP

American Idol Banned!

March 9, 2007

Sundance Head

Sabrina Sloan

Chris Daughtry - Season 5

American Idol will soon be banned from being recorded on my Tivo forever - or at least until America gets her act together. Last night, the American Idol elimination round just set me over the edge when America voted off Sabrina Sloan (powerhouse singer) and Sundance Head (bluesy rocker). Yes, I admit it, along with loving gadgets, VoIP, and consumer electronics, I'm also an American Idol fan - along with some 34 million other fans. The sad thing is after the Chris Daughtry shocker last season when he got voted off by idiotic voters that somehow thought Elliott Yamin was better than Chris Daughtry, that I am no longer surprised by the voting results.

Posted in Asterisk, Home Entertainment, VoIP

FCC adopts video franchise rules and overrules states that allow rural phone companies to block VoIP

March 5, 2007

Some interesting news from the FCC with regards to net neutrality, as well as VoIP. The FCC today adopted a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that establishes rules and provides guidance to implement Section 621(a)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits franchising authorities from unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises for the provision of cable services.

In the Order, the Commission concludes that the current operation of the franchising process constitutes an unreasonable barrier to entry that impedes the achievement of the interrelated federal goals of enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband deployment.

The Order addresses several ways by which local franchising authorities are unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises.

Posted in Home Entertainment, VoIP

Verizon VoiceWing VoIP FiOS service

March 2, 2007

Verizon has partnered with OpenPeak to create a new all-in-one voice, data, and video center for the home riding on top of Verizon's FiOS (fiber) service along with Ethernet and WiFi capabilities. Dubbed the Verizon One, this all-in-one communications device will allow users to make VoIP phone calls, access email, search the web, view a calendar, stream music from the web, and even preview images from a digital camera. Here's a photo of the Verizon One:

Unfortunately, the Web browsing experience is tad limited, since you can only get specific Web content that Verizon has enabled. Some of the approved web content includes categories such as news, weather, and movie listings.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Reviews, Triple Play, VoIP

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