A couple weeks ago, I bought the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Network-Based Dual Digital HDTV Tuner from Woot. At $84.99, it’s one of my most expensive Woots ever but well worth it.

SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDTV Tuner

The device allows me to watch TV on my PC without installing a PCI tuner card. Instead, the HDHomeRun works over my network. I connect it to an open port on my router with the included ethernet cable, screw on a pair of rabbit ears to one of the two tuners, install some drivers, open up Windows Media Center, and bam!, I can watch over-the-air HD television on my PC. There’s a great program guide and I can schedule it to record a particular program or even an entire series.

Recently, KTLA (channel 5 here in L.A.) moved its airing of Star Trek: The Next Generation from 12:30 AM to 1:00 AM! It was already pretty late for me to stay up and then they go and make it even later! Fortuantely with this wonderful little device, I’ll have an HD recording of every episode of TNG that airs from now on. I can’t even begin to explain how excited that makes me! I looooooove TNG and in addition to the first season which I own on DVD, I’ll have other episodes to watch again and again!! ::happy dance::

Although the $84.99 was a bit pricey for me personally (though a steal compared to what it’s going for elsewhere), I’m very happy with this purchase! Of note for anyone who stumbles upon this: I had to turn off my public firewall before my Windows 7 PC actually showed a TV signal. ‘Twas quite frustrating until I figured this out and now everything works perfectly.

Here’s a short video clip of the TV tuner in action streaming the evening news on my computer:

After neglecting it for the past 6 months, I started using my pedometer again on Friday. I’ve been slacking off in the exercise department and needed a bit of motivation.

I have the Omron HJ-720 Pocket Pedometer. Whenever I need to push myself to get more active, I take along my pedometer and aim for a healthy goal of 10,000 steps a day. Having instant visual feedback of my progress really gets me going.

My Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer

This particular model is one of a few approved devices that work with the Microsoft HealthVault Connection Center.  It’s a service that downloads data from your health device, uploads it to your Microsoft HealthVault account, and then that data can be used in a variety of applications and third-party websites.  There’s only a few that currently use this beta service but the possibilities are very exciting.

Here’s my Microsoft HealthVault data used by a service called WalkMe, which I had created a free account at and then allowed it to access my HealthVault:

WalkMe working with Microsoft HealthVault

It’s trying to be somewhat social with groups and rankings, but there aren’t very many registered users. There’s only a couple hundred from what I could tell.

I tried some of the other websites but nothing interested me until I came across MSN’s My Health Info (beta).  This application has a very sleek interface and though it wouldn’t work in Firefox, it was a pleasure to mess with in IE.

I signed up for a free account and authorized it to access my HealthVault info.  That data was used to populate highly customizable widgets.  I really like having the ability to drag and drop widgets, change the layout, and resize widgets.  Here’s my homepage that I created:

My Health Info (beta) at MSN Health & Fitness

Widgets are easy to customize and drag around.

The Exercise Journal widget lets me add activity not uploaded by my pedometer.

The Food Journal widget tracks meals and calories.

Part of the Food Journal is the option to set a meal plan and get recommendations.

So far, I really like the fluid interface of the My Health Info service but despite the prettiness, I’m not sure if I need all that information. I don’t really track my food or activities and just want to log my daily steps from my pedometer.

I can use WalkMe for that, but the default view shows weekly steps when I prefer to see it on a daily comparison basis. Right now, I’ll probably use My Health Info and maybe force myself to pay a bit more attention to my food and exercise journals.

I love discovering fancy new websites! Now I better make sure I continue to give my pedometer data to upload. I plan to be using this in conjunction with the Nike+ running program to keep track of my walks and runs. Let’s do this!

I have a smartphone right now (HTC Dash). Most people with a smartphone have web access through their wireless carrier. I do not because I just don’t need it. I can’t justify paying an extra $30 a month so I can browse Facebook while on the bus. Yeah, it might be a bit nifty, but there are things I’d rather do with that money.

However, despite not having true web access and a data plan, I still stay connected to the internet.  Here’s how.

SMS and MMS

SMS = Short Message Service = Text Messaging
MMS = Multimedia Message Service = Photo Messaging

I can access most social networks through either SMS or MMS from my cell phone.  My mobile plan includes unlimited messaging which covers both text messages and photo messages. Most social networks will require to you to enable SMS in your account first by sending a code to your cell phone that you have to enter on the web.  Once your accounts are SMS-enabled, there’s a lot you can do simply by sending and receiving texts.

GOOGLE SMS

Google offers a great SMS-based service that I use quite often. It’s almost like I have real web access!  You just send a properly worded text to 466453 and Google will text you an answer in less than 10 seconds.  Here’s some of what you can do with examples in brackets:

Find a business near you:
type-of-place location [pizza 90027]
Compare prices for something you want to buy (great for when you’re in a store):
price product [price oster 6812 blender]
Get the current weather conditions plus the next two days:
weather location [weather los angeles]
Get a definition (love this feature!):
define word [define unagi]
Get sports scores:
score team [score boston red sox]
See what movies are currently playing and get show times:
movies location [movies 90027]
Get an answer to a simple question (wording is very important here and doesn’t always work):
text your question in simple terms [capital of vermont]

You can also get driving directions, airline schedules, stock quotes, snippets of wikipedia entries, and more.  Check out the full list of commands at Google.

TWITTER

You can set it up so you’ll receive SMS tweets from people you specify.  Here’s other things you can do:

What to send - what it does

Any message within 140 characters - Posts to your account as your latest tweet
FOLLOW username - start following someone and subscribes to SMS notifications of their tweets
LEAVE username - stop SMS notification from a particular user
@username MESSAGE - reply to a particular user
D username MESSAGE - send a private direct message to a particular user
RT username - retweets the user’s last tweet to your followers
WHOIS username - gives you the profile info for a particular user
GET username - gives you the latest tweet from a particular user

Click here for a full list of Twitter text/sms commands.

FACEBOOK

Like Twitter, you can set it up so you’ll receive SMS copies of wall postings, picture comments, private messages, and more. Replying to these texts in return posts replies to Facebook.  Other things you can do:

What to send - what it does

sometext - updates your status
MSG full name - sends a Facebook message to the person
CELL full name - gets the cell phone number of the person if it’s something that’s already public to you
EVENT - see current/upcoming events
WALL full name sometext - writes on the person’s wall
ADD full name - sends a friend request to the person

Click here for a full list of Facebook text/sms commands.

I use a service called Ping.fm to update my Facebook and Twitter at the same time by simply sending a text to them.  I can integrate a lot of other networks with my Ping.fm account, but I’m mainly active on just those two.

BLOGGING

I can post a blog message from my phone by sending an MMS message.  For most services, it’s not a phone number (or shortcode) I have to send a text to, but rather, it’s an email address.  In order to text an email address, I have to send it in MMS format.  I have contacts in my phone that are just email addresses and it works great though I very rarely want to blog via texting.

UPLOADING PHOTOS

I also send MMS messages when I send photos from my phone. There are specific emails provided by both TwitPic (photo hosting for Twitter) and Facebook where I can easily send my photos to be shared and uploaded.

CHECKING EMAIL

If there are any urgent emails I want or email alerts I need, I just use my T-Mobile email address.  This is my cell number @tmomail.net.  For example, if I want a text as soon as my UPS package arrives, I’ll give the UPS notification system that email address instead of my regular gmail one.  This is becoming unnecessary as more and more services are now offering direct SMS-based alerts and notifications.  If I’m waiting for an important email to my gmail and won’t be near my computer, I create a filter to have the email, whenever it arrives, forwarded to my T-mobile email which, as I mentioned above, goes to my cell phone.

Below are the main phone numbers, shortcodes and email addresses I have saved to my contacts.

Google: 466453
Twitter: 40404
Twitpic: unique-email@twitpic.com
Facebook: 32665
Facebook Photos: unique-email@m.facebook.com
Ping.fm: 1-918-814-4042
Ping.fm Photos: unique-email@ping.fm

Unless you have a job or hobby that requires constant, real-time web access, I think most people are paying for data plans they don’t really need. I’m quite happy not having one.

My phone, a T-Mobile branded HTC Dash running Windows Mobile, has been acting up for a couple of months. It would turn off whenever I tried to send a text picture. Sometimes, it would turn off immediately after I took a picture or after I signed on to AIM. Very frustrating!

Today, it completely died. Blue screen of death. Kept cycling during boot-up. I was finally able to get it to turn on by plugging in the AC adapter. I had to do a factory reset and lost all my preferences, photos, and contacts. I don’t know yet if it’s gonna make it. Still in the ICU.

Two days ago, my netbook’s battery refused to charge beyond 7%. I have no idea why. It’s been perfectly fine up until then and is only about a year old. It hasn’t been acting up at all.  I can’t use my netbook now unless it’s plugged into the wall.

The day before that, my MP3 player, a Sansa Connect, completely lost its charge after playing only 3 songs.  It had been fully charged before then.  I charged it again that night and it works fine now and won’t have to charge it again for at least a couple days. I don’t know what happened.

So… am I a virus?

Though I really loved how CommentLuv allowed people to easily share linkbacks, I have switched my comment system to Disqus.

In the past few weeks, I’ve personally experienced the convenience of being able to leave comments on other sites using Facebook Connect.  Since I’m usually already logged into my Facebook account already, one click allows me to easily post my info.  I’ve switched to Disqus because not only does it give readers the option of Facebook Connect, but it also supports Yahoo, OpenID, and Twitter. People on the web, myself included, expect things to be fast, easy and connected. Disqus brings all that to the table nicely.

A few months ago, while walking the dogs, I noticed the Google Maps van making passes through my neighborhood.  At the time, I wondered if we would be caught on camera.  I forgot about it until tonight and I decided to go see if I could find myself.  Check it out!  Heheheeeee

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