Insomnic Dreams

Today, TPB announced that they are going trackerless. This is a newer function of BitTorrent sharing that allows a site to provide links to torrent swarms without actually hosting torrent files – so it’ll be even harder to prosecute sites for peer-2-peer sharing because they host even less data. It also allows for cheaper site hosting without loosing some of the beneficial functions such as file details and comments.

This is all done using a function called magnet links. This allows you to join a torrent swarm without truly using a torrent file or a centralized tracker. TPB has converted all of their torrents to magnet links. TorrentFreak has a good article about the changes. This is why many people will be commenting about “problems” at The Pirate Bay. It’s not a problem but a change – a major change for the site but for most people it won’t affect them much at all.

Many of the popular clients can already use magnet links so the change won’t mean much for those using Azureus/Vuze or uTorrent, but those using the popular client Transmission on OS X and Ubuntu may have to grab a different client for use with TPB (and uTorrent is still working some bugs out of magnet link usage).  You can also try Magnetiser, a Firefox extension for using magnet links.

Other sites may be switching over as well (torrentz.com site started with a trackerless system), especially with TPB’s considerable influence on the peer-2-peer community. Hopefully client development will quickly include the magnet link function.

TL;DR – it’s a change. Grab a client that works with magnet links and The Pirate Bay will be back to normal for you.

UPDATE: Transmission devs have already stated they are reworking the new 1.8 version to include magnet link function. That was fast.

There’s a weird bug in Firefox that when watching videos on YouTube or Hulu you will see a little video lag every 10 seconds or so… and luckily someone figured out how to fix it.

The fix was presented quite some time ago actually but I only just came across it and it has made watching online video so much more pleasant – and it’s an easy fix.

1. Open Firefox and in the Location/Address Bar type in about:config and hit Enter.
2. You are now looking at some of the advanced functions that can be customized.
3. In the “Filter” line at the top of the list (where your cursor should already be blinking) type in session and it will automatically reduce the listings.
4. Now find “browser.sessionstore.interval” and double click it.
   That number is how many milliseconds between the times that Firefox saves your current browsing session in case of a crash and 10000 milliseconds equals 10 seconds – the same amount of time between video freezes.
5. Change that number to something different. 300000 is 5 minutes and 120000 is 2 minutes. I actually switched mine to 600000, which is 10 minutes, because I don’t worry about session saving much.

That’s it. You should now have much smoother video playback at YouTube.

UPDATE: With HTML5 being used at YouTube and Vimeo now, it would be beneficial to switch to an HTML5 compatible browser such as Chrome and Safari (at the time of this writing). Firefox will be supported on those sites soon as well.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a happy Kindle 2 owner. The availability of titles, being able to read manga scanlations, and the 3G basic internet access have made it completely worth the purchase price for me.

Is it right for you?

If you browse around blogs or comment threads about ebook readers you’ll see a wide range of comments about their value and it may be difficult to make a choice. I’m hoping I can help a little bit.

Let’s start by setting the expectations for an ebook reader. It is designed to easily read and store text information in a portable format. That is it. In other words – it’s an electronic book. It sounds strange to say that because it seems redundant but it really needs to be emphasized.

Now let’s say what an ebook reader is not – it is not a portable media player, it is not a mobile phone, and it is not a portable computer.

This is where the confusion (and sometimes contention) seems to come into play with ebook readers. Some people want them to be more than their design allows. Remember, its main design function is to make a large library of text available in a small, electronic format that is easy to read. Any thing else is just a perk.

If you are looking for a portable media player, I recommend the iPod Touch or a PSP. If you are looking for a mobile phone I recommend the iPhone, a Blackberry, or a G1. If you want a portable computer then I recommend a netbook – perhaps a Dell Mini or Asus Eee PC. All of those devices can display ebooks (one way or another) but can also do other things that you may want to do that can’t be accomplished with a dedicated ebook reader.

One thing those other devices cannot do though is display text in a comfortable reading format with extensive battery life. If that is your priority then the ebook reader is for you!

Unfortunately, it is hard to debate the readability factor until you use an ebook reader extensively. You don’t notice how different it is using the dedicated display type of an ebook reader (commonly called e-ink) versus a screen on a computer or portable media player. It’s a very drastic difference.

Now, the other major factor to consider with an ebook reader is the number of books you read. Ebooks are generally cheaper than the published version of the book so you can save money in the long run. This really is only true depending on how you do your reading. If you only get books from your local library then this is not going to save you money (nor save shelf space for that matter). If you read a book every couple months then this is not for you either. If you are an avid reader or like to have books with you regularly then an ebook reader is probably a good investment for you.

The last question then, if you’ve decided to get an ebook reader, is which one do you want? This is tricky and I’m not going to answer for you. The popular ones are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony PRS series. A little less known but gets very good reviews is the BeBook. They each have different features and price options so be sure to comparison shop.

An excellent source of information about the different ebook reader options are the MobileRead Forums. They provide a ton of reviews, references, and a very active community that will help you make an informed decision. They also keep up with the latest trends so it may be good to wait on a purchase for an upcoming release (like the WiFi enabled BeBook due to be released soon).

Either way you choose make sure it’s a choice that’s right for you and if someone else chooses differently – let it be up to them. Personally, I think it’s very cool to have so many choices on how we can travel with our media be it Kindle, a PSP, or a Dell Mini – or a combination of them all.

If you have any further questions or want more details, feel free to comment and I’ll be happy to elaborate.

UPDATE: A friend recently wrote up their experience with trying out an ereader for the first time. Read her review on Murmur.

Via Current

Also found this video showing the first appearance of the Death Star in San Francisco:

via Current

I recently purchased a Kindle 2 and I am very, very happy with the product. I know discussions of the Kindle can spark some debates so I’m going to avoid all of those by stating “I like it but if you don’t that’s fine too”. So lets skip along happily now and discuss what I wanted to discuss with you which is specifically about reading manga on the Kindle. Yup… you can read japanese comic books on the Kindle very easily. You can also load your own images for viewing as well using the same process.

So how do we accomplish this amazing feat? Actually, very easily. The program to use is called Mangle.

Mangle does an awesome job of converting images to be optimized for the Kindle display and processed to work correctly with the navigation system of the device.

See for yourself. The following image was converted using Mangle and loaded onto my Kindle 2. The left side image is the original, the middle one is the converted, and the right side image is displaying on the Kindle 2. Click on the thumbnails to see the original sizes.

So as you can see it looks pretty darn good. You can see a couple other examples at the Mangle website.

Mangle runs as a stand alone executable so you can run it directly with no installation necessary. It’s a very basic layout so it’s very easy to use. You pick either a set of images or a directory of images, click the gear icon to get it started, tell it where to put the converted images and then it converts them for you. That’s it!

Once it’s converted, you will plug in your Kindle and create a folder on it called “pictures”. Put the new book you created (the folder with all the images) into the Pictures directory and you are all set. It should show up in your book list using the name of the folder as the title.  If you don’t see it, press Alt+Z to refresh the listing.

You can also use Mangle to convert pictures into a photo album or convert pictures to use as custom screen savers.

Yes… custom screen saver. It requires hacking the Kindle a bit but is very easy and can be reversed. Go to the Kindle 2 Screen Saver Hack wiki page at MobileRead and it will walk you through using it. The image you see above is one of my custom screen saver images.

This program works on Windows and Linux and is free to use. Feel free to post any questions and I’ll be happy to help out.

UPDATE: The Kindle 2.3 update breaks the screen saver hack. The updated version can be found at JYA’s site.

UPDATE 2: The Kindle 2.3 update has some new image viewer options. For some it has caused issues and for others it has not. If you have any issues, the new PDF support has worked pretty well for manga. IrfanView does a good job of converting the Mangle converted images to PDF (process: thumbnail viewer->select all->print to PDF using CuteWriter).

UPDATE 3: After speaking with Amazon customer service and tech support it seems the “developers” have decided that any use of the built in image viewer is considered a hack and therefore note support. After bothering them over and over about it though I was told an image viewer would be developed in a future release. I’m assuming that it will be part of the new active content  that is coming to the Kindle (think “App Store”) and the recent release of the Kindle KDK (Kindle Development Kit). This could easily mean a dedicated comic book reader as well.

I recently switched hosting of this blog to this new site. The full address is now www.insomnicdreams.com for those keeping track.

All previous entries and blog listings and posts will automatically redirect to the correspoding blogpost and hopefully RSS feed here.

There may have been a comment or two that was lost but feel free to re-comment.

There will likely be a couple changes here and there as I get thing working to my liking so please bear with me as I work through some of these fun new toys at my command. If you notice anything that is broken please let me know!

Thank you for your patience.

Hotmail (also used under the name MSN and Live) used to be the leader in web based email. Then Yahoo and Gmail came online and pretty much wiped Hotmail off the map. Unfortunately, it can be a real pain to switch providers but luckily Hotmail has now made that easier. They offer POP now.

No… not cola or soda. POP is a function of web mail that allows you to access your email from another place besides that company’s web interface. So what does this mean for Hotmail users? Well it means you can switch to Gmail with ease because you can still get your Hotmail emails after you switch! It makes the transition much easier.

If you are interested in switching then head over to the How-To Geek for detailed steps to swap your Hotmail/MSN/Live account for a Gmail account. Once you have setup your email then it’s time to go through some of the other Gmail switching tools like contact and email import. Check Lifehacker’s article about the Gmail switching tools for more details.

Why switch to Gmail? My main reason is that their spam filtering is top notch and there’s just something about the different options and tie-ins with other Google services that it has become extremely useful. A good example is a function they just added to allow Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, and Yelp to be previews in the email itself. Check out the Official Gmail Blog post about this update for more details. Look through some of their other posts to see some of the other recent updates and features.

The other feature I like but is hard to grasp for some new users of Gmail are the function of labels instead of folders to organize your email. Labels show up as links on the left of the Gmail interface similar to how folders would show but they work differently. Instead of moving an email to a specific folder, it can be assigned a label – kind of like applying the folder to the email instead of the email to the folder. The advantage of this is that an email can have multiple labels without having to be duplicated in order to be in multiple folders. Lets go over an example.

Pretend I run an anime viewing club (whee!) and I order Cowboy Bebop The Movie for an upcoming viewing. I get an email confirmation from Amazon about my order. I apply the label “Orders” and the label “Anime Club”.  Now I can find that email if I click on Orders or if I click on Anime Club. If I used folders it would only appear in one or the other. Add the power of Google search and I can do a quick search to show me all my emails that are labelled both Orders and Anime Club and I can see all my anime club orders!

That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as organizing is concerned and luckily the Gmail help is very good at working you through all of these options. Another good place to check for getting the most out of Gmail is Lifehacker’s directory of Gmail tips, tricks and hacks.

Sorry about all the text of this post (the links have lots of screenshots though). To make up for it here’s a couple videos to watch that may brighten your day just a bit:

Cute (awwwww factor 11):

Kinda Dirty Funny:

UPDATE: Gmail has now also added an “Undo Send” function that allows you to recall a message within seconds of sending. A very useful function for those accidental sends.

Google has released a new product for their mobile suite of software called Google Latitude. It is an updated version of Google Maps that allows for location awareness to be shared with others. This can be useful for seeing when your friend is in the mall with you and then you can send them a note to meet up, a useful feature. The downside is it can also show when you are going to the strip clubs or at the ball game after calling in sick.

Here’s a quick video overview of the service:

The good thing is that you can be selective on who can see your location and you can turn it on or off as you wish. I can see a few useful functions though and hopefully it will have a few more fine tuned controls as it matures.

You can install it into an iGoogle page using this link or go to http://www.google.com/latitude from your mobile phone.

UPDATE:
Privacy settings are more advanced than I originally thought.  Here is a good video about the privacy levels available:

Just in time for the holidays, Ars Technica has written up an excellent guide to the three major game consoles currently on the market. The three are Playstation3 (PS3), XBox 360, and the Wii.

PS3

XBOX 360

Wii

Each console has features that the others don’t and it is those specific features that will make your decision for you. Looking through the Ars Technica run down will give you an excellent overview of the different options and will give you access to the details. Be sure to keep an eye out at Ars Technica for their holiday gift guide as well to find some of the best deals.

UPDATE: The Ars Technica 2008 Holiday Gift Guide is up now.

The Internet has evolved and so must the browsers. Innovations from Firefox, Safari and Opera along with their growing popularity have shown that Internet Explorer is no longer the only kid on the block. Google has decided to jump in as well with their own browser called Chrome. Ars Technica has a good rundown on what Google will bring to the table with Chrome. It seems like Google is going to try and take what is good about the different browsers (Firefox’s add-ons, Safari’s rendering speed and accuracy by using Webkit, and Opera’s technical savvy), throw in some of their own adjustments and try to make a new front in the browser wars.

I’ll be interested to see what happens. I’m glad they are using Webkit as I think it’s one of the best and fastest rendering engines around. Unfortunately, I wanted more from Safari than it could give me so have switched back to Firefox. No matter what happens, having another well backed browser pushing for web standards can only be good for the rest of us.

For the full details on the Google Chrome release check out Blogoscoped’s full coverage – the info is in comic form so it’s easy to follow and not nearly as boring as many software tech specs. There’s also some good pictures and videos at TechCrunch.

UPDATE: Google Chrome has been released for Windows and there’s much to-do over the browser even on zero day. Here are a couple links.
Lifehacker’s First Look
Downloadsquad’s “Why Google Chrome Really Matters”
BBC News First Impressions
FactoryJoe’s Rundown on Chrome and the Future of Browsers