A little while back I asked if anyone knew about an audio player that met certain specifications. Web suggested ZoomPlayer, which I have used for video before but never audio. Before trying that, I finally got around to trying XBMC. For those of you that don’t know what XBMC is, it’s the software package for the XBox Media Center. They have a release for Windows, Mac, and Linux free for downloading. It was the comprehensive solution I was hoping for to set up a better PC for my TV. Up until now, I’ve been running regular Windows, which does the job but does not have an interface remotely friendly to TV. I tried Windows Media Center Edition only to discover that it ridiculously required special drivers that I did not have. Then I beefed up on Linux to try MythTV, but the video out wasn’t functional for my laptop video card and since using a laptop is part of my eventual plan that scrapped that. So all that was left to try was XMBC.

It’s very impressive. In fact, it comes achingly close to having everything I could want and a little more on top of that. I say “achingly close” because there is nothing more frustrating than that one missing feature that would otherwise make for the perfect app. Or a handful of missing features in this case. So wonderful is the interface, though, that a handful of defects seems like only a few. And none of them are deal-breakers. They’re just frustratingly absent.

XBMC has a beautiful interface that’s extremely easy to navigate. The vast majority of my concerns prior to installing the program were not only addressed, but were addressed in ways far superior to what I had envisioned. For instance, creating the “library” was supposed to be a headache but was instead a breeze. Not only will it give me easy access to an emulator, but it even has a special place designated for it. File management was going to be an issue where I thought I would have to go outside the app, but what they provide is far superior to the ways that I was figuring I was going to have to rig it up. It’s got easy-to-access options for music, videos, optional libraries for each, emulators (installed separately), and more. Very nice.

Unfortunately, there are the absent features. Whenever features are absent from an otherwise excellent program, I figure that usually (a) it’s one of those areas where I use a computer differently than the average user. I have a special setup or a special way of doing things. Or (b) there is a way to do it and I just can’t figure out. There are probably some of each. Part of the problem is what I call the Linux Disease. Linux, by virtue of having different distros and desktop environments, provides good choices of things to pick between but none of them have everything. XBMC likewise has various “skins” you can install, some are superior to others, but with each one having something the others lack I have to choose between functionality. And because of the different versions and whatnot, you can’t just pick something and install and have it work. I keep running into compatibility issues.

The most troubling problem I’ve hit so far are fast-forwarding and rewinding audio and video. For audio, you can’t. It’s just next/prev track. Worse, on some skins, there’s no button for it and you have to select the next song you want to play. For video, you can jump forward 30 seconds or 10 minutes. Neither work for me. If I want to go back a little bit, it’s probably because of a line of dialog that I didn’t hear. So I just need to go back ten seconds or so. Likewise, if there’s some big plot point I missed, I don’t want to go back ten minutes. I usually want to go back five. And there doesn’t seem to be any way to easily change this setting.

The secondary issue is alluded to in the first. The options for music are limited. You can’t move backwards or forwards within a track. And on most skins, you can’t even tell it whether you want to shuffle or play straight through or whether you want it to start back at the beginning when it’s done. This is some pretty basic stuff.

Thirdly, it doesn’t accept a large number of buttons on my remote. This really isn’t that big of a deal because I can still do what I need to do. Does anyone know of a good remote control programming application? There’s got to be something like that out there. Or maybe I just need to buy a remote with all-assignable buttons.

Ordinarily, either one of the first two of these might be enough to get me to say “screw it” and move on, but the rest of the application is so impressive that I am trying to figure out how to work my way around it. I’m going to the trouble of researching it to see if there are options that I’ve missed.

If you can accept these limitations, so far I endorse this application.

The latest show that I’ve been consuming through my earpiece (as well as watching when I have a spare eye) is Grey’s Anatomy. So far I’m enjoying it. One of the more interesting aspects is the non-romance between lead Meredith Grey and her rejected suitor George O’Malley. In some ways it’s the classic case of a chick rejecting the sincere beta in search for her alpha. The alpha, in this case, being the unhappily married Derek (“Dr. McDreamy”) Shepherd. But it’s clear from the outset that Dr. Shepherd is not the only obstacle in George’s way. The primary obstacle is the fact that Meredith doesn’t even notice that he’s interested (or acts as though she doesn’t). This is problematic not just because it means that O’Malley has to do the heavy lifting to make anything happen, but in my experience if you’re hot for someone chances are good they either know it or the way that they see you is completely devoid of any sexual attraction.

O’Malley stands by in utter frustration as Meredith gets her heart broken repeatedly by the conflicted Dr. McDreamy while he knows that he would love her and never hurt her if he just got the chance. O’Malley gets some disingenuous advice from their mutual friends to go for it. I guess it’s something that people are expected to say, but it’s pretty bum advice when it’s equally obvious to everybody that it’s going to end badly.

And, of course, it does. As O’Malley is about to make his move, he catches Meredith having sex with somebody that she absolutely, positively should not be having sex with. He flies off the deep-end. Things tumble for Meredith until she is feeling beyond miserable about herself. In a moment of weakness, she receives O’Malley’s sexual advances. Long story short, the whole incident ends in a way beyond humiliating for O’Malley and he moves out (the two of them were living together with someone else), everyone takes his side, and Meredith is left feeling lower than dirt. Which, in his mind, is what she deserves after the awful way that she humiliated him. And most of her friends are willing to give her no quarter (their mutual roommate says flat-out that if it comes down to it, she’s siding with him). She apologized again and again, but he would have none of it.

As I watch and listen the whole situation unfold, it’s hard for me to experience too much sympathy for O’Malley. Of course, I can completely and entirely relate to the guy that loves the girl that doesn’t love him back. His hurt was understandable, as was a fit of rage after the humiliation, but a little perspective casts a pretty different light on things. He circled around her like a vulture. At her greatest moment of vulnerability (some of which caused by him), he made his move. Things didn’t work out like he’d known all along they wouldn’t until he saw his moment to strike, and he is indignant. None of this is to suggest that Meredith is free of blame. Though her reactions were the product of her own torment (much of it self-inflicted), self-destructive behavior becomes less tragic and more unforgivable when it has a radius beyond the self-destructive individual. And to be honest, O’Malley’s actions themselves were also the product of his own hurt. The main difference, in my mind, is that she has apologized repeatedly and neither he nor anybody else acknowledges the role he played in his own destruction.

This makes me think of the plight of a lot of beta males. The source of his pain was not entirely his own doing. It’s not like there was something that he could have done in order to win her over the “right” way. He had no chance. And to some extent, you can’t help who you are attracted to. But what you can help is (a) how much you cultivate that attraction and (b) how you respond to it. O’Malley followed the path that a lot of us do. He at once acknowledged that she was out of his league and so didn’t make his move but then did not acknowledge that the next move was his… the move away. Moving out of the apartment or trying to tackle his futile emotions. The romantic in all of us says that love is not something that can be contained, but to say that of O’Malley is also to say that of Meredith. The main difference being that she at least had a shot at her dream at one point.

There is supposed to be a romantic tragedy behind the love of the unattainable. I think that popular entertainment presents us with it so often (and make it love actualized sometimes) because we can all relate to it. But I view it as a truly destructive force. The inability to get someone out of your mind or to let a former lover go is one of the greatest sources of self-inflicted misery I’ve seen in those around me in my somewhat privileged life. It’s human and to some extent unavoidable, but I find Hollywood’s exaltation of this impulse to be problematic. I’ve complained before about how Hollywood misleads men by making them thing that persistence counts. But it misleads women into thinking that men will come around, too. And it misleads all of us into thinking that there is something beautiful about unrequited love and dreaming the impossible (Mc)Dream(y).

There isn’t.

And it isn’t just that it makes people unhappy. It’s a contagious sort of unhappiness. It leads to O’Malley the Vulture and Meredith the Succubus. It leads us to overlook the options that we do have. It makes us less pleasant for our friends to be around. Unless you’re a tortured artist, there isn’t much positive that can come from it. I think that we search endlessly for the bright side so we invent one. And though it never makes the pain stop, it makes us endure abuse and neglect and it makes us deal it out to people that are not the ones abusing and neglecting us. And, for that matter, exactly to the one abusing and neglecting us for the same reason that we are doing the same. Of course, that assumes that you’re in a position to deal the pain you’re experiencing. These people can be the most insufferable because they think that a dearth of available victims makes them benign.

Update: As if to make a fool out of me, O’Malley apologized in the episode I listened to today, outlining a significant portion of what I said above. He has regained his status as my favorite character. Most excellent.

My main entertainment center is a computer attached to an old-school television set. I can view video files, DVDs, Hulu, and play music on it. I even have a nifty mouse-remote. The problem is that I don’t have a good audio player for it. For video I use Media Player Classic and it works like a charm. My default audio player has always been WinAmp. The problem with WinAmp is that the buttons on it are waaaaay too small for my TV set. Aiming it with the mouse-remote is difficult. Reading the text from the Now Playing bar is next to impossible. So I’m looking for an audio player that meets the following specifications:

1. Large buttons (or a skin that I can apply large buttons on) – Very important
2. Easily viewable playlist with a font-size I can change – Very important
3. A way that I can sorta-minimize or fold the application but still have access to the buttons but it doesn’t take up much screen space. – Moderately important
4. No visualizations. I don’t want to watch lines dance with my music As long as I can turn it off and have it not take up desktop real estate, that’s fine. Otherwise, it’ll take up space I’m going to need for super-size fonted playlists – Very important
5. Does not catalog and organize my music. My folders change too frequently and they almost always organize it incorrectly. – Very important if I can’t turn it off.
6. Fits within standard windows. I don’t like the tendency of some applications (including WinAmp and Windows Media Player) to try to make their design sleek at the expense of the standard bar and menus up top – Moderately important

Anyone have any ideas?

I have now joined Facebook and Twitter. I’ve been late to the party on a lot of the social networking sites like Facebook. I created a MySpace account maybe a year ago. I guess I have a LinkedIn account, though I never really use it. The tipping point on Facebook was that Clancy joined it and started talking about it. When my wife is talking computer stuff, it simply will not do for me to not know precisely what she’s talking about. So I took the plunge. I also created a Twitter account. I don’t think that I’m remotely concise enough for Twitter to work for me, but we’ll see. My motivation there was similar except that instead of it being about my wife it was about my brother Mitch. It’s not like I take a whole lot of pride in being “ahead of the curve”. In fact, compared to most of my friends I’m a relatively late adopter. But there comes a point I guess where I feel at least a little embarrassed to say “No, I haven’t tried that yet.”

I wanted to have some short post up tonight since Web is going to be posting tomorrow, but twice I’ve tried to write a short post and twice I’ve found myself starting a longer post. I suppose this is why I will never migrate entirely to Twitter.

Speaking of Web, you may have noticed that he is no longer Webmaster. Well, he is still the webmaster, but he has finally been given a name. It’s not much of a departure. I think we lack imagination.

Trumwill: Hey Clancy, if someone was born on October 18, 1990, how old would they be?

Himmclan: It’s not October yet, so 18.

Trumwill: That’s what I thought…

Himmclan: Did the rules of mathematics change?

Trumwill: No, I was just wondering if I suddenly got stupid.

Himmclan: I don’t think you have, sweetie.

Trumwill: Next question: When you graduated high school, you were 18, right?

Himmclan: Yeah.

Trumwill: Aren’t most people 18 when they graduate high school?

Himmclan: Pretty much. Unless they turned 18 over the summer…

Trumwill: Or they were placed early, skipped a grade, or were held back. But other than that, 18 right?

Himmclan: Right.

Trumwill: That’s what I thought…

Himmclan: Why are you asking these questions, dear?

Trumwill: Half Sigma has a post accusing Sarah Palin’s daughter of graduating late because she’s 19. But the date he gives for her birth seems like 18 to me. But then he says that people graduate when they’re 17 and not when they’re 18. Absolutely none of this post seems right. None of it. And not in the way that Half Sigma is usually wrong.

Himmclan: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Trumwill: Yeah. Hey, wait, I just hit response and the post disappeared. Did he delete the post? He must have deleted the post.

Himmclan: Maybe he realized that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Trumwill: That would be a first.

I finally got around to returning these dead hard drives to Seagate. This is months after doing the same for a couple dead hard drives from Western Digital. As mentioned, the difference in customer service between the two was truly remarkable.

And has yet become more remarkable still.

One of the many things about my service with WD was the fact that they charge me $200 for the hard drives to be refunded when I sent mine in. That they would take money out and put it back in is not unexpected. Nor is it unexpected that they would charge you more than you could get the drive elsewhere to compensate for their inconvenience. But the price they would have charged was 2.5x the cost of the drive at Newegg. It’s hard to paint that as anything but excessively punitive or ugly profiteering against those that either forget to send the drive in or fail to send it in a package meeting their onerous packaging requirements (requirements which WD’s packaging itself does not meet).

Even so, I expected something similar from Seagate. Maybe not $200, but something like $150 on a drive that I paid $120 for. Yesterday I found out that not only do they not take any money out of your account until the time-period to send your drive back in has lapsed, but worst-case scenario they charge you $82.50.

These are the same drives that I cannot find anywhere. I would gladly pay $83 for a few more of these drives. Completely worth it. It almost makes me want to call in a bogus RMA in the future and keep all the drives and let them take that money. I’ve been contemplating the best way to do that, but I can’t escape the feeling like I would be taking advantage of their good faith.

Being a big fan of Kafka as well as having some bad airport experiences recently, this may well be the funniest Onion video I have seen to date. It’s not often I actually lose control of my laughter.

Prague’s Franz Kafka International Named World’s Most Alienating Airport

The Times of London has a scare article about the coming collapse of the Internet:

Internet users face regular “brownouts” that will freeze their computers as capacity runs out in cyberspace, according to research to be published later this year.

Experts predict that consumer demand, already growing at 60 per cent a year, will start to exceed supply from as early as next year because of more people working online and the soaring popularity of bandwidth-hungry websites such as YouTube and services such as the BBC’s iPlayer.

It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an “unreliable toy”.

Pretty scary stuff!

Before I get too scared, though, they insist that I be confused:

While the net itself will ultimately survive, Ritter said that waves of disruption would begin to emerge next year, when computers would jitter and freeze. This would be followed by “brownouts” – a combination of temporary freezing and computers being reduced to a slow speed.

Computers are going to be reduced to slow speed? Like servers somewhere or my computer? I would assume that they mean my computer will be slow on the Internet. But freeze? Do connections “freeze”? Computers freeze. Software freezes. Connections? I don’t think I’ve really heard it put that way except for a YouTube video or something like that which pauses while waiting to move forward. That could be “freezing” I guess. Jitter? Again, we’re talking about connections here and not computers.

How bad is a jitter, though? I work for one of the highest tech companies in the world and I get that at work all the time. We survive. The people that are hit most by that sort of thing would be those doing things where jitters are most problematic. Videos. Songs. Stuff that they say is causing the problem, but the stuff that we can survive without. Part of the short term solution here would be better disconnection-handling. That’s something that needed to be done a long time ago. There is also a lot that can be done to throttle the unnecessary stuff or direct traffic (which I can’t deny I suspect is the motivation of the sky-falling fear merchants who want to be able to pocket more money for “everybody’s good”) before we have to worry that medical records and business communication will get blocked or lost in the shuffle.

“Today people know how home computers slow down when the kids get back from school and start playing games, but by 2012 that traffic jam could last all day long.”

Okay, that’s obviously more of a concern. But computers don’t slow down when kids get back from school. The internet “slows down”, but computers do not. At least now I think I better understand a couple paragraphs ago, but can the writer of this article be so daft as to not be able to differentiate between the speed and reliability with which a computer connects to the Internet and the speed and reliability between which a computer does every other thing a computer does? When did computers become identified solely by their ability to connect to the Internet? I mean, am I being super anal here? It makes me think of a former receptionist at a job I had who would scare me half to death by saying “The such-and-such folder got deleted” when she meant “I closed it and can’t remember where the icon was.”

Engineers are already preparing for the worst. While some are planning a lightning-fast parallel network called “the grid”, others are building “caches”, private computer stations where popular entertainments are stored on local PCs rather than sent through the global backbone.

People are building private computer stations where they are storing media locally? OH MY F*ING GAWD! Whoever heard of such a thing! That’s like collecting guns and canned beans and heading for the bunker! That’s madness! Before you know it people will start creating some sort of download service where they can suspiciously keep files stored locally so they don’t need the internet to retrieve them! This is surely proof that everyone is terrified of the coming apocalypse!

Seriously, does this writer know anything about anything relevant to this article? It feels like it was written by a fourth grader with no relevant experience who is trying to remember how Dad explained it to him.

I guess maybe it’s partially a terminology thing. Maybe in Britain they say “computer” when they mean “connection”. But even that’s a little odd because Ritter, who is quoted in the line about kids coming home from school, was at least educated in the United States.

What’s a little bit funny about this, I guess, is that back before the Internet when I used to meet people on the BBSes, the word “online” (as in “we met online”) wasn’t in wide use. We would usually say something like “We met on the computer.” The difference between then and now, though, is that the words to describe this exist. I can guarantee you there are some nitwits reading this article thinking that the Internet is going to reach out and give their computer the jitters.

Hey Dad, if you’re reading this, shoot me an email.