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Nintendo has announced its new console, codenamed Revolution, has been officially named "Wii" (pronounced "we"). What. The Hell. Were. They. Thinking???

A patent recently filed by Philips for technology that would prevent a user from changing the channel or fast-forwarding during commercials has cause some (obvious) controversy. You would be required to pay a fee on your own TV to change the channel or skip a commercial. Need I say more?

via CNet

Five teenage boys accused of plotting a shooting rampage at their high school on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre were arrested Thursday after details of the alleged scheme appeared on the Web site MySpace.com

via digg

Finally, people are using MySpace for catching REAL criminals.

read more | digg story

This one's all about TV.

I like TV. I have a healthy number of TV shows that I enjoy and watch regularly, but lately I've been having to make do without a lot of programming.

I have a complex logistics problem. Coupled with my mild OCD where I don't want my parents/brother touching my stuff, it can be a big hassle to have a completely self-sustaining bedroom where I only have to leave to use the bathroom, go to school, and eat (major) meals. A recent example: I hate leaving my room to answer the house phone when someone calls. So what's a guy without a phone jack in his room supposed to do? Purchase a $50 phone-over-power adapter to plug in near the closest jack. Hey, at least I got a good deal on the phone to go with my new adapter ($10 after a mail-in rebate). One of the reasons my room is so messy and full is because I am supremely hesitant to leave my stuff laying around. This is due to the paranoid notion that my family is gonna steal it. Thing is though, I'm the klepto that thinks that way, not them, so I guess I'm overly cautious. (Yeah, I know what all my personal problems are. But like a drug addict, it's hard to fix them.)

For the past year or so, up until about about 3 weeks ago, I used a VCR in the basement with a tiny 10-inch TV to record my shows (my own 22-inch TV stays in my room, because I don't want anyone using it but me... even though I'm the only one in my family who ever watches TV/spends a good deal of time down in the basement). Sure, it was a hassle to go up/down two flights of stairs while a huge file is downloading/when I'm bored and want to watch TV. But hey, I can't use the VCR in my room because there's no cable jack, and the first-floor VCR is used by too many other people (three, to be exact: mom, dad, brother). I don't want them watching my tape. Not that I have anything to hide, really, I'll admit to anyone who asks that I enjoy watching some quirky shows, but it's just... bleh. NO TOUCHING MY STUFF!!

So things go awry when my dad decides to get rid of the TV in the basement. Now I've been forced to beg him to record my shows onto my limited supply of DVD-R's with his DVD recorder in his cable-enabled bedroom. Begging my dad isn't easy, nor is it fun. Promises of "good behavior"-- which of course means zero swearing, and those of you that know me best know that my tounge slips quite often when angry. Or aggravated. Or happy, for that matter :-P.

Now I'm out of DVD-R's, my dad's been in a foul mood these past few weeks, and it takes three weeks of constant "good behavior" before he'll consider running cable to my room... which he'll find some excuse not to do anyway. Kinda like my bike that he broke 4 months ago, promised to take to a shop to get fixed, and never has. Or the computer cathode case lights that he stepped on in January, and promised to replace, and never has (even though he works less than 10 minutes from where I bought them).

So now I have to watch TV in the family room. The first floor. Where they all "live." So now it's back to fighting with my Food Channel-obsessed brother, my HGTV-obsessed mom, and my ESPN-obsessed dad over the TV. Blech, not fun. I've barely managed to keep up on my 24 these past few weeks.

So I have this idea. What if I can get the content from the basement (cable jack) wirelessly sent up to my room over my network? (Wired is out of the question, since running wires through this house is strictly forbidden by my mom-- "What happens when we sell it [implied: in 30 years]?")
There are a lot of options/methods/ideas running through my head, and they all sound cool, but some of them sound involved and/or costly. I've posted on a few message boards asking for ideas, but this posting is gonna help me organize my thoughts, as well as solicit recommendations from you guys.

I'll try to structure this as separate ideas, but most of these methods can be mixed.

Idea 1: A computer (Linux or Windows?) that sits in the basement and has a TV tuner card (a high-quality HDTV tuner card or a cheap $20 one that gets 30 fps?) running a PVR software of some kind (MythTV-Linux or Windows XP Media Center Edition-Windows or some other PVR?) that either:
a) has a monitor sitting next to it that I can go down and watch TV on
b) periodically, automatically sends my content upstairs to my room (Cron-Linux or Scheduled Tasks with a VB prog-Windows or a backup program to an upstairs "FTP server"-Windows?)

Okay, so maybe I only have one major idea, but there's a lot of variables. Do I want to just get a DVR instead of using a whole PC? Slingbox, which I've been hearing great things about?

BAH! TOO MANY QUESTIONS!

I have no idea where this is going, but I want my TV.

Wait, what about the multi-format DVD recorder I've been "saving" (sort of) to get? What purpose will that serve then?

STILL MORE QUESTIONS! WAAAAAHHH!

I hate this. Time to listen to some music. It can be quite soothing, if you know which playlist to hit. Can't wait for school tomorrow... :-/

Okay, I realize this has been a very complain-y post. Bear with me, I'll get over it.

A DEA agent who was demonstrating gun safety to a group of kids shot himself in the foot. video

Now he's suing the DEA. story via TSG

What an idiot.

No other death could make me happier.

In a Microsoft KB article outlining the new web design tools coming soon from Microsoft, there's a small footnote at the end that has made my day.

After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006.

I've had my fair share of FrontPage experiences over the years. Every web dev has. A LONG time ago, I used it as a basic "wiki" of sorts to drop tech articles from sites I visited into a collection of web pages for my perusal. Basically it was my Furl, before there was Furl. Then I had a hell of a time getting the FP server extensions to work on a VPS I was leasing at the time. After that, I was forced once again upon FrontPage by my school, since that was what I had to use in order to work on the school web site. Now I am proud to hear that Microsoft has given in and gotten rid of FrontPage. Hopefully their new development tools will be more standards-compliant than good old FP.

I wonder what DGS will do without their beloved FrontPage?

The latest piece of literature to gain my perusal is John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise, an "almanac" of "COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE." Unfortunately, this is misleading. The only knowledge you will obtain from this book is that John Hodgman should never write again. Granted, I did find myself laughing out loud at two or three points duirng the book, but even a mute man has a good two or three jokes in him. Such topic titltes as "Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks for Hands," "How to Raise Rabbits for Food and Fur: The Utopian Method," and "Seven Hundred Hobo Names" were merely reasons for this book's publisher to kill several trees. And I'm no treehugger, but this book really sucks. John Hodgman's "hodepodge" (no pun intended) of bizarre, untrue information is useless to the point that it fails to be funny. I could barely compel myself to finish this book. Werewolf Transformation Timetables that preface each chapter are about as useful as a pocketknife in a laser tag arena. Aside from Hodgman's claims that there is a 51st state that seems to only appear after rainstorms, that Chicago does not exist, and that hoboes infiltrated the White House, the single fact that his book is titled The Areas of My Expertise tells me that John Hodgman has no expertise at all. This book is quite frankly a poor excuse for a human being to purchase (even if I did only check it out from the library).

I must give this book 0 out of 5 for a poor "almanac" that is useful to no one.