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Google TV – Meh….keep Mythtv

I bought a Logitech Revue with Google TV the other day from Amazon at a knock down price of USD99.99.

I really wanted to like Google TV but in the end, when I received the package I didn’t even get it out of the box, instead I sold it on eBay unopened. It’s a shame I had real hope of being able to make the box fit into my life somehow but even I could not justify it.

Why, I hear you ask, bare in mind I am in Australia:-

  1. Have to pay for a VPN subscription to circumvent geo-blocking on US content providers like Netflix and given there is no option except DHCP networking on the box had to hack a work around for DNS providers for the unblock-us.com service.
  2. Have to pay for content providers like Netflix, Amazon instant videos or some other services like that.
  3. Doesn’t record TV.
  4. Can’t access network shared media unless you are prepared to set up a DLNA server.
  5. Netflix doesn’t have the most recent TV episodes in any event, looks like they are 1 season behind or something.
  6. Can’t access Hulu to watch the most recent TV episodes as they have blocked GTV’s browser.
  7. No integration with any cable TV boxes here in Australia (that I am aware of).
  8. Can’t get content through GTV that you can’t get “elsewhere”.

So basically, its the lack of anything new and of content providers that make it easyier to watch stuff that is going against GTV.  For anyone that already uses some thing like Mythtv (like I do) I can’t see any reason to get a Google TV.

I’m not sure how the much talked about Honeycomb upgrade will change things, perhaps it does which would be great and perhaps I sold it to soon but I can’t justify this box over Mythtv.

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Mobile Phones

I just mentioned this to a few friends tonight. What is it with people and mobile phone. They go out, buy something that looks great, is small and oh so stylish then stick a massive ugly phone cover and screen protector on it and it becomes a thing functional ugliness.

Please, everyone, throw away the cover and the screen protector, use the phone as it was intended, naked. You know it will be worth nothing when you all finish your 24 months contract don’t you……

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Just moved my blog to EC2

Hello all.

If you are reading this you are in fact reading it from my new snazzy EC2 instance at amazon, sweet hey!  With luck it will be a cheaper way to host my websites as opposed to the power bill that I seem to be incurring at home with my dual Xeon CPU old clunker.

 

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Bitcoin again and Sundays crash

I can understand MtGox shutting down there exchange after it appears to have been compromised but then another exchange (Trade Hill) shuts down temporarily?

I cant help thinking they freaked that if the exchange was allowed to stay open people would actually have finally realised that Bitcoin is not actually worth anything and dumped the rest of there holding at knock down prices. When prices fall so to will the exchanges commission – its in a Bitcoin exchanges interest to keep exchange rates high.

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Music Beta by Google on your Android and 2 Step Verification

After I had updated Google Music on my Nexus S and had uploaded music to my Music Beta by Google account I noticed that my Andorid phone failed to “see” the uploaded music.

If you use Google 2 step verification you may have the same problem, this is how I got around the issue.

1. Go to your google accounts settings page and revoke the authority for you Android device, wait for your device to error out saying it can’t access your google account.
2. Go to Applications manager on your device and clear the cache then reboot your device.
3. Back on your computer create a new password for your device again.
4. Input the new password created by Google into your device for the account that your music is on.
5. Wait for device to access your google account again, give it a minute to sync.
6. Fire up Google Music on your device and wait a couple of minutes.
7. If it all works when you tap the menu button on your device while in Music it will show you the option to link the device to your Music Beta by Google account
8. Enjoy.

Let me know if this helps you.

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Mythtv and sudden DB crash

My wife calls me while I was in my man cave tonight and tells me our mythbox has crashed and didn’t come back up with a reboot. I have a look and the thing it is asking me for the DB details (ie, location, password etc) – as if we are setting the mythtv installation again from scratch. This understandably throws me into a bit of a panic especially when she tells me she has already seen the screens and just entered through them!

I wasn’t able to log into the mysql tables using the cli client. Manually starting the mysql db FAILED as did restarting it or even stopping it, they all FAILED.

After digging in Google I noticed that the mysql.sock file that is created in /var/lib/mysql and which the mysql client must use to connect to the mysql db server was appearing and then the next moment it was gone, very very strange.

I looked at the size of the mysql.log file, it was over 3 GB! Looking in the mysql.log I see “Can’t start server: can’t create PID file: No space left on device” then the penny drops, I had run out of disk space on the root partition.

Deleting the 3GB mysql.log file gives me back 34% of /, rebooted and then off I go.

So the moral of the story kiddies is to check your log files for a hint to what’s going on and make sure you have enough space left in / or mysql will bomb out,

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Bitcoin – I think I was wrong

I have been thinking more about Bitcoin and what it could be used for and why the exchange rate of Bitcoin may actually mean very little in the real world. Here is what I think.

Given there is relatively few places that are actually accepting Bitcoin to purchase their goods the only thing I can think of that Bitcoin is good for is to store value; anonymously!

Lets pretend I’m a crook and I want to launder money that I have gotten through less than honest means, I could purchase Bitcoins through a place like MtGox and hold it there for a period of time and then either exchange it back to USD – or what ever the currency you purchased it for in the beginning.

In the above situation it doesn’t really matter what the exchange rate is when you buy Bitcoins, it could be USD1000 for each Bitcoin, as long as the exchange rate doesn’t move against you when it comes time to change it back to a common currency you are OK; in fact the higher the exchange rate the better because the percentage change would reduce if the rate was fluctuating by a few dollars up and down. To explain, at USD10/BTC a $2 change is a movement of ±20%, the the exchange rate was USD1000/BTC a movement of $2 is only ±0.20%. Now, sure the $ value may also be moving by large $$ values but up and down $200 would appear to the market as fairly extreme.

Further, I would even think that given the funds being laundered were ill gotten perhaps the launderer (if there is such a word) is prepared to take a hit of a certain % because, lets face it, they probably stole it to begin with.

The other explanation is that there are a bunch of guys (and girls) ripping each other off for fun, kind of like a game of musical chairs, and who ever holds the Bitcoin at the end of the game actually looses (because you have been the one most ripped off).

These are just my thoughts that help explain the exchange rate crazy-ness going on. No doubt there is some dodgy-ness going on by someone in the back ground driving the rate up anyway.