This weekend I added support in DasBlog for Gravatar icons/images next to posted comments.  When I have time later this week I will send Scott the information to see if they are interested.

It didn’t help much that the Gravatar dns lookup failed all weekend.  But I was able to do a whois on gravatar.com and get their name server and query it for their ip adders.  Ahh the things us developers do to implement even the silliest of features.

Update:  7/30/2005 Well I've been a little too busy to get the source code off to the DasBlog folks, but in due time. :)
Update:  7/31/2005 Ok, I made it a point to get the source code sent off today for review. Click here for a screen shot.

First off let me tell you how much I love this remote control. I got rid of my 5 remote controls and now just use the Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control. It's a bit pricey but considering my wife can now use the entertainment system, it's well worth it!

Now back to the Tivo situation. After first setting up the remote to work with tivo I noticed that the quick button response/performance that i was used to from the tivo remote was now slow with the harmony remote. After doing some digging around I found 2 settings that make the remote work just as well as the tivo remote...

1. Setting the Inter-Key Delay to 0
First set the Inter-Key Delay to 0. If this causes problems you can set it a bit higher, but 0 works for me. I also have Inter-Device Delay set to 500, but this is not important for what we are trying to do here. So to change this setting, which defaults to 500, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'More Options' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Device Options page should appear, from which you should select 'Adjust the Delays (speed settings)'. In the Inter-key Delay box, enter 0 and click Next, then click Next again from the next page.

2. Setting command repeat count to 0
Secondly and lastly set the command repeat count to 0. So to change this setting, which defaults to 3, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'Troubleshoot' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Adjusting Setup:Device Problems page should appear, from which you should select 'Show me more problems' radio button and then click Next. On the next page, choose 'TIVO doesn't appear to receive every command correctly.' and click Next. On the next page select 'The device responds too much to some commands (for example, volume up increases the volume too quickly).' and click Next. A list of numbers 0 to 5 will appear. This is the number of times the remote will send a command to Tivo which defaults to 3. Set this to 0 which works fine for me. If you have problems with this try increasing it to 1.

And that's it. Once I changed these settings, my tivo responded to my harmony 880 remote as quickly as it did to my tivo remote.

A couple more little tricks

To facilitate quicker fast forward and rewinds, I mapped the up arrow and down arrow respectively.  I just found it a little difficult to quickly locate the fast forward/rewind and play buttons.

Since I also have a ‘Tivo Stereo’ activity, I added a custom button to lower the volume on the tivo.  This also works with other activities like DVD.  I tried just muting the tv, but the tv leave the word ‘MUTE’ on the screen.

Thank you Harmony for providing my best gadget purchase in quite some time.

Ok, I admit it, I'm a Tivo addict. I can't amagine going back to watching tv with out it... commercials? what commercials? A few months ago I installed the Tivo HME SDK and after some wierdness I took a look at some pretty cool applets running on my Tivo. I thought I'd give it another whirl here in July and ran into the same problems as before. My applications just don't want to be seen by Tivo. Ok, ok, so I use a wireless usb adapter to connect my Tivo to my home network which has given me nothing but trouble. I have to unplug the usb adapter at least once a week since tivo seems to forget it's there. But beyond that problem I was not able to get the HME stuff u[ an running again. Kudos to you out there that don't have a problem with this, I envy you. In any case I am looking forward to some of these applications maturing and getting the apparent connectivity quirks worked out of the system.

Recently I ran across some rants and raves about replacing table tags with div and span tags altogether.  I did some research and practicing with this concept and although I like the concept … a lot … in practice I find it to be much to complicated than it should be for complex/well table embedded web pages.  For simpler pages it seems pretty slick, then again for simpler web pages what’s the big deal in using a table?

I’m sure I’ll need some more practice to fully appreciate it, but for now I’m sticking with the old trusted table tag.

If you are interested in some nice links regarding this topic.

http://www.healyourchurchwebsite.com/archives/001403.php

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/practicalcss/

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum83/5428.htm

http://www.pragmaticprose.com/PermaLink,guid,9c6bd17f-c2c6-4b1f-9701-38d35043f7e6.aspx

We all love the simple little applications that come with the Windows OS, but while we use them we inevitably want just a little more out of them.  I’ve started replacing some of them…

Notepad:  I’ve been using Notepad++ but Notepad2 is ok as well.

Task Switcher:  TaskSwitchXP Pro (it appears this link is dead right now, so try this one.

Task Manager:  Sysinternals Process Explorer (I do wish it would start up quicker though.)

Windows Explorer: xplorer² is small and fast (updated).  I tested Directory Opus, which was awesome!!! BUT it was just too slow to use and it is not freeware.

Web Browser: Firefox (I just love the extensions.)

Virtual Desktop: Virtual Dimension (updated)

Windows File Name search:  Locate32

Windows file contents search and replace:  Inforapid Search and Replace