The Changelog

I finally purchased my first iPod: a black 60GB iPod video model. I had been holding off for years. The iPod sounded nifty, but I just didn't quite go there.

The thing that finally won me over was the camera connector. It lets you plug your iPod directly in to a digital camera. The iPod can download photos from the camera to its internal disk without the need for a PC. Very slick.

So anyway, we got the iPod and the camera adapter at the Apple store in Cambridge -- a quick subway ride from Usenix. They were out of stock on the FM tuner, so I ordered that online.

The next step was to get the iPod working with Linux. I currently have it working with both music and video. Here's how I did it.
Continue reading "An iPod under Linux"

In addition to the MythTV and HDTV projects we've been doing lately, I also started looking into online DVD rental places.

My wife and I don't watch many movies, either in the theater or at home. But we have exactly zero decent video rental places within a 30 minute drive (and the Blockbuster 15 minutes away doesn't count because it is a bad Blockbuster.)

I'd looked into Netflix before, but it always seemed expensive. This time I did some more checking. I found a nice comparison on Netflix vs. its competitors, I checked out some websites. I didn't want to pay more than about $15/mo for this, and Netflix's site lists only a $22/mo plan. It turns out Netflix does have other pricing plans, but their cheapest option has a limit on rental amounts per month. AND -- I think it's shady of them to not post this information up front.

I eventually signed up with GreenCine.Com. Apparently they started focusing on independent films but now also include mainstream titles. They appear to have the second largest collection out there, beaten only by Netflix. And they have a fiercely loyal customer base -- which is a good sign. Oh, their staff also blogs.

I signed up for their $15 account and started browsing. Wow. I haven't been this excited about renting movies ever. Our queue has over 100 items in it now, most of them I could not find locally -- and a good number of them aren't on Netflix either. GreenCine puts a lot of emphasis on their user community, and have a lot of neat features such as shared lists, ratings systems, etc.

There is something really neat about the idea of a DVD showing up at our mailbox, watching it, popping it back in the mailbox, and then having another one show up in a few days. I could like that system a lot.

As an aside, here are some related links:

• Netflix Bluffs a Price Increas (Kuro5hin). It's things like this that make me not want to give them any of my dollars, ever. Oh, and the fact that if you take full advantage of the service, they intentionally increase your wait times.


• DVD rental review with nice comparison grids