Current News: We pick through it, so you don't have to.
Archive for May, 2009
How to Upgrade Your Comcast/Time Warner DVR
May 28th
I’ve recently upgraded my Comcast DVR’s storage space (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD) and after reading several articles, I thought I’d share with you how to do it. It seems that others are having problems with the steps involved.
- Buy an external hard drive or an internal hard drive and an external hard drive enclosure (I chose the internal hard drive and external enclosure since there are more options). Hardware I chose: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB HDD; Eagle eSATA/USB2 external enclosure
- Make sure the drive is not formatted NTFS because this will not allow your DVR to use it and you will get errors. I’ve read that you can have it formatted Fat32 and it will work. However, I just hooked it up to a computer and used a Disk Manager (built into any operating system) to delete the partition on the hard drive and leave it as unallocated space.
- Unplug your DVR
- Plug your external drive into a power outlet and hook the eSATA cable into the eSATA port on the back of the DVR
- Wait about 15 seconds to make sure the drive is fully powered up
- Plug the DVR’s power cable back in.
- Press the “Power” button on the DVR.
- Let the DVR go through it’s initialization process. At some point during this process it will inform you that there is an external drive attached and ask you to press the yellow “A” key to continue and format the drive.
- Watch TV for about 5 minutes (to be safe) while the drive formats. It will not tell you when it is done, and the space will not show up immediately. After 5 minutes turn the power off to the DVR.
- Now you will need to reboot the DVR again. You should be able to just unplug the DVR as you did to begin with. I, however, chose to do the button combination for resetting. If you want to do it my way then you need to press the “Info”, “Volume -”, and “Volume +” buttons on the front of the DVR simultaneously. This should do a soft reset.
- The DVR will go through it’s initialization process again, except this time after it boots up, go to your recorded program list. From there you should be able to hit the blue “B” button to go to preferences where it will tell you your available space. If done right you will see something like mine below.
My Comcast DVR after adding an external eSATA hard drive (used space for my recorded programs changed from 43% to 3% thus increasing my available storage by 13 1/3 times the original available space):
I’ve read reports that Time Warner has prevented the use of external storage by disabling the USB2 and eSATA ports on the DVRs in some regions of the country. The reports say that when asked Time Warner technicians say those ports are used strictly for “diagnostics”. Since I have only done this to my own DVR, I obviously cannot guarantee it will work for your DVR. The best way to check this would probably be to borrow someone’s external drive that is formatted NTFS or Fat32. When you plug that into your DVR, if you get any message regarding “External Storage” (either asking to format {Fat32} or saying you can’t use it {NTFS})then the ports are obviously active. If you borrowed the drive, make sure you don’t format and erase your friend’s data. From this point, just follow my steps. If you have any questions simply reply to this topic in the forums.
Xtreme Technologies Xlink Reviewed
May 27th
I finally decided to review the Xlink Cellular Bluetooth Gateway (BT). I’ve been using it for about a month now and I have to say, for what it is, I’m impressed. Basically the device plugs into an outlet, then you run a normal phone line from this unit to your home phone. Then you pair the Xlink via Bluetooth connection with your cellphone much the same way you would handsfree devices such as bluetooth headsets. After the connection is made (the blue light stops blinking) you are able to make phone calls from any phone in your house using this unit and your cellphone, taking full advantage of the minutes on your cellphone plan.
Now, I bought this for one major reason. I simply DO NOT get cellular reception in my kitchen. If I walk anywhere within 10 feet of my kitchen while on a call with my cellphone the call will absolutely get dropped. Not that this is limited to the kitchen, it’s just the place where you are guaranteed for this to happen. Anyhow, since I get reception and am able to use my cellphone fine near the window, I decided one of these units might not be a bad investment. I had looked around for “repeater” type devices to improve cellular reception in so-called “dead” areas but every one I found seemed far too expensive. This Xlink solution can be had for $99. So, I figured it was worth the try.
Here’s the unit as I have it set up:
So far, so good. I am now able to lay my cellular phone anywhere in the apartment that it gets reception and it will automatically connect via bluetooth to the Xlink. Then I can make/receive calls using my normal house phone. One of the features I was sort of skeptical about is the caller ID function. I mean I had no problem believing I’d be able to make phone calls but I figured transferring caller ID information was asking a little much. Well, I was wrong. That works great. Every time a call comes in, the caller ID info is sent to the display on my home phone.
All in all, I have to say I’m very pleased with this device. It seems to function exactly as advertised. Anyone with the same problems I was having that want cellular reception in the rest of their house would surely benefit from the Xlink. Also, it’s an obvious way to cut down on monthly bills by completely cutting out the home phone service.
Any questions?
The Future of Data Storage
May 26th
Today’s Knowledge Can Last Forever
“Digital storage devices have become ubiquitous in our lives but the move to digital storage has raised concerns about the lifetime of the storage media. Now Alex Zettl and his group at the University of California, Berkeley report that they have developed an experimental memory device consisting of a crystalline iron nanoparticle enclosed in a multiwalled carbon nanotube that could have a storage capacity as high as 1 terabyte per square inch and temperature-stability in excess of one billion years. The nanoparticle can be moved through the nanotube by applying a low voltage, writing the device to a binary state represented by the position of the nanoparticle. The state of the device can then be subsequently read by a simple resistance measurement while reversing the nanoparticle’s motion allows a memory ‘bit’ to be rewritten. This creates a programmable memory system that, like a silicon chip, can record digital information and play it back using conventional computer hardware storing data at a high density with a very long lifetime. Details of the process are available at the American Chemical Society for $30″
Link to Article
Entire Movie Studio Libraries on One Disc
Scientists unveiled new DVD technology on Wednesday that stores data in five dimensions, making it possible to pack more than 2,000 movies onto a single disc.
Link to Article
May 14, 2009
May 14th
Now you see me…Now you don’t
“Metamaterials are synthetic substances that can steer light in any way imaginable. Their most famous incarnation is in invisibility cloaks which work by steering light around a region of space making any object inside that region invisible. But invisibility is just the start. A team of physicists in Hong Kong (the same guys who recently worked out how to cloak objects at a distance) have worked out how to create a cloak that makes one object look like another. Instead of steering light to make a region of space look empty, the illusion cloak manipulates light in a way that makes a region of space look as if it contains a specific object. So any object within that region of space, a mouse say, takes on the appearance of an elephant.”
Link to Article
CPU Scaling according to the actual User
“The Empathic Systems Project a Northwestern University demonstrate up to 50% power savings by controlling CPU frequency scaling based upon the end user. They measure the user with eye trackers, galvanic skin response, and force sensors to find a CPU frequency that the user is satisfied with. They are currently studying user activity and system performance on mobile architectures, specifically the Android G1 phone.”
Link to Article
Office Prank Gone Wrong?
“An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday, after the flagrant fumes prompted someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in. Just another day at the office.”
Link to Article