My Life and Code

One of my hobbies is building my own streaming video library. I've been meaning to blog about it for awhile. Unfortunately, my intro to doing so is this . Last week, Roku OS 15.0.4 found its way onto my Roku TV and Roku Ultra 4800R. And while the TV took it fine, the Ultra did not . Playback of HEVC video is now hampered by pixelation and freezing. I wasn't sure if the Roku OS update was the culprit, or if it was the Jellyfin client for Roku that I use to stream videos from my Jellyfin server. But putting one of the (now) problematic videos onto a USB drive and playing it via Roku's own Media Player resulted in the same problem. I found my way to the Roku community forums where the most recently updated post was about this happening when using the Plex  app. As of today, that post is 17 days old. The response from Roku support has been...lacking. Very lacking. "It's under investigation." I left a comment mentioning this was unrelated to Plex and relayed my USB...

When I was a kid, I loved whenever I would happen across Siskel and Ebert’s TV show. I think it was shown at 7pm on Saturdays in my area, but I don’t remember ever setting out intentionally to watch it — I’d just happen to catch it. I always enjoyed getting to watch clips from the new movies they’d be reviewing, and hearing them give their thoughts — and often debate — about the films. It was one of two movie review shows I was aware of, the other being Sneak Previews  (which I learned only relatively recently had originally been their  show). But I preferred Siskel and Ebert’s At The Movies  (and later Siskel and Ebert and The Movies ). It wasn’t just the format of the show, but its hosts. And thanks to YouTube, I’ve been able to revisit a lot of their reviews, including a lot I’d never seen before. I’ve had a blast watching these clips and checking out their reviews of movies I like. We didn’t always agree, but I always enjoyed hearing their thoughts. Sometimes, they wo...

(Hat-tip to theforce.net and the contributor of this information, Luke) I still need to confirm this, but apparently the Boba Fett cartoon from the Star Wars Holiday Special is part of the new Star Wars Complete Saga Blu ray set. To view it, go to the following menu in the Original Trilogy Bonus Disc: epiV > Bespin > the collection > concept boba fett armour > click on first look

It's been a few months since I've written anything here. Things have been extremely hectic, and any downtime has usually been spent trying to relax and recharge. In fact, I haven't had time to think about what to write here, so this blog entry will be a hodge-podge of miscellaneous thoughts and updates. I've been playing the new Mortal Kombat game. When I heard it would be moving back to a 2D fighting plane, and doing a "Let's go back in time and have an alternate history of the first three games (a la the latest Star Trek film)", I had absolutely no interest. But the pulled it off very well. Yes, I do miss the strategy and depth allowed by a 3D plane, and miss the multiple fighting styles that the characters have had in the last 3 games, but what's there is really good, and I love the addition of a 2-Player tag team co-op mode -- my son and I enjoy playing this together. I like the focus on characters from the first 3 games, though the downloadable ...

I've been on a bit of a Star Trek kick lately, and on my drive in this morning I was considering writing a bit about it here on my blog. And then I learned that today is William Shatner's 80th birthday, so that pretty much convinced me that it had to be done. I'll be writing in more depth a bit later, but for now, here is a video by Maurice LeMarche, a voiceover actor (along with one of his Futurama cast mates), instructing us all on the intricacies of sounding like William Shatner. Enjoy!

Lately I've been on an old comic book kick, reading a lot of old issues from the 60s, as well as some from the 70s and 80s. I don't care at all for the current state of comic books, but I love the old stuff. Recently I read the 2nd issue of Marvel's What If? series. This series would take an alternate history approach by proposing what would happen if certain key moments in the Marvel Universe had occurred differently, or if a character had been different in some way. They brought the series back a few times, but it's the original issues from the late 70s to mid 80s that I enjoy the most. What strikes me as I read these old issues is how much attention was given to accurately portraying the original histories of the characters. For example, in the issue pictured above, elements from the first Hulk comic are incorporated. It's not that they modified the Hulk's origin in general terms: they actually used specific dialog and characters from his first issue. Having...

There's something to be said for the simple things in life. As life becomes more hectic and complicated, I find myself looking for those simple things to find solace and relaxation in. When I need to wind down, I like to have something simple to find some enjoyment in. The taoist book "Tao Te Ching" mentions teachers who "teach without teaching", and during my early twenties, I had two friends, Ed and Rob, who did just that. From them, I learned an appreciation for the simple things in life, not through anything they said or told me, but through their example. I soon learned to appreciate the simple things myself, and from time to time (when I have time), I put this to practice to take a break from all the commotion in life. One of those simple pleasures for me is old comic books, specifically those from the '60s through the mid '80s. I'd probably enjoy comics that are even older, but haven't read any that I know of. This isn't to say that c...

Oh the humanity...

I recently picked up Your Shape Fitness Evolved for Kinect on Xbox 360. There aren't currently a lot of Kinect titles, but this one is one of the best I've tried. Having used Wii Fit, Wii Fit plus, and EA Active for Wii, I can safely say this game gives me a better workout than any of them, though it isn't perfect. The game offers 3 different types of workouts: a personal trainer guided workout (of which there are several regimens to choose from), fitness games (for example, Virtual Smash, which has you punching blocks that appear in front of you), and Zen workouts (Tai Chi). After messing around a bit with the games and zen stuff, I decided to get down to it with the personal trainer workouts. I thought I was in pretty good shape. Well, at least not bad shape. I'm relatively active, and do a lot of walking, including a daily lunchtime walk that lasts about half an hour which I've been doing for almost 10 years. So I was surprised when Your Shape decided to destro...

I don't watch much TV, but one of the few shows I do watch is History Detectives on PBS. Each episode features three investigations, each one centering on the history of a specific item and its historical significance. For example, someone may have a family heirloom that they believe may have belonged to George Washington. The person contacts the History Detectives and one of them travels to the person's home, listens to the information the person has about the item, and then, in most cases, takes the item with them as they travel around the country to fill in the missing blanks in the item's history and find the answers to the questions the owner has about it. Watching the show, I have to wonder if anything bad has ever happened to one of the items being investigated. Have any of the History Detectives accidentally damaged (or utterly destroyed ) one of the items when taking it with them to investigate? I can only imagine how that would go over. It'd be like "So...