Sun - March 27, 2005

New Home


Vincit Veritas now has a new home on blogspot.com. All future posts will be made to this site, so be sure to change your bookmarks. All of my old posts will still be available on this site, with a link to this site from the new one. Thanks for the support, and I hope you enjoy the new Vincit Veritas.

Posted at 04:58 PM     Read More  

Tue - January 11, 2005

Macworld: San Francisco, 2005


For those of you out there lucky enough to be at Moscone Center in San Francisco this morning for Steve Jobs's keynote address, congratulations. You're likely going to be part of the biggest day in Mac history since the 1984 Super Bowl. This years expo looks to be the launching pad for numerous Apple and 3rd party products that will help Apple move into new market segments, increase revenues (and, potentially, profits), and continue to dominate the digital music world. Unfortunately, like many of us not fortunate enough to be there, I will have to wait to enjoy Steve's RDF until tonight, around 8pm CST, when the webcast of the event will become available. It's unfortunate that Apple hasn't at least provided a satellite feed of the event. Anyway, here's what I'm expecting to see as part of today's announcements:

1. Flash-based iPod, similar to mock-up provided around a month ago by TheMacMind.com.

2. Demo of OS X 10.4, Tiger, featuring never-before-seen features.

3. A sub-$600 system to replace the eMac in the low-end consumer and educations spaces, to directly compete with low-cost Windows® PCs.

4. A new version of iLife, iLife '05.

5. A new Apple productivity suite, featuring Keynote and a previously unseen word processing/spreadsheet application.

That's what I think we'll see, but here's what I hope to see (wishful thinking):

1. Some type of Apple-branded set-top box/Home Media Server. This could simply be a modified version of the low-cost machine mentioned above, with TV-in capabilities.

2. .Mac updates, including scheduling for the above-mentioned set-top box, as well as Dynamic DNS for computer to computer synching of files and web hosting.

3. Updated QuickTime TV service utilizing the new H.264/AVC codec to be debuted in Tiger.

4. And last but not least, the Powerbook G5 announced but not shipping until late spring. This is the most anticipated piece of Hardware from Apple, from my point of view, and an early peek and announced shipping date would allow people to make purchase plans instead of waiting in a holding pattern. Those who need a laptop now could go ahead and buy the G4 if they can't wait that long.

Well, that's it. I hope that I'm right about all the first four, and partially right about some of the others. I also hope that his Steveness has some surprises up his sleeve for us, as well. Here's hoping for an exciting day!

Posted at 07:50 AM     Read More  

Thu - January 6, 2005

Review: Alias Season Four Premiere


As promised, here is my review of last night's Alias Season Four Premiere. As the detailed review will likely contain spoilers, I'll throw out my general thoughts here. Click "read more" for the full review. I thought this episode was an interesting reboot for the series. It reset many of the relationships and storylines that were taken in what many saw as the wrong direction last season, while at the same time adding new conflicts and new characters. I think it was an interesting balance of exposition and action that gets the show off to a good start for the season. I'm going to give it four stars out of five. Should be a good season.

Posted at 04:40 PM     Read More  

Tue - January 4, 2005

Alias Season Four Premiere Tomorrow Night (January 5, 2005)!


Just wanted to remind everybody that season three of Alias starts tomorrow night on ABC, following the new hit series Lost, at 9pm ET/8pm CT here in the U.S. This will be a special two-hour episode, picking up right where season three left off. If you haven't seen the third season, then I recommend heading out to Amazon.com or your favorite Brick 'n Mortar store to pick up the DVD set (and support Vincit Veritas). I'll try to post a review of the premier tomorrow night. If not, check back on Thursday. Happy viewing.

Posted at 08:16 PM     Read More  

Donate to South Asian Tsunami Recovery Efforts


Hello, everyone. I hope that all of you had a safe and happy holiday with your families, and my heart and prayers go out to any of you affected in some way by the tragedy that struck South Asia on the 26th of December. If some of you haven't heard yet, a giant Tsunami (aka Tidal Wave), spawned by a 8.9 magnitude undersea earthquake, devestated many countries in the Indian Ocean the day after Christmas, killing over 100,000 people, with many thousands still unaccounted for. Clean-up and re-building efforts will cost into the billions of dollars, so any financial assistance you can provide will be much appreciated, I know. To help facilitate your giving, I have added a Amazon Honor System and an iTunes Music Store link for direct (100%) donations to the U.S. Red Cross to the navigation area of my site, as well as a Link to Apple's "Give" site, where you can find links to a number of other relief organizations. 100% of the money donated through these links will go to the Red Cross, I will receive none of it. Hopefully, we can all do our part to assist the thousands of people affected by this disaster. Good day, everybody, and God Bless.

Posted at 05:21 PM     Read More  

Sun - December 19, 2004

Gold Coins in Salvation Army Kettles


Just a little tidbit I thought some of you might find interesting. This is from a CNN.com article.

In Kirksville, Missouri, someone donated a gold coin that was minted 20 years before the Civil War, worth nearly $1,000.

That's my neck of the woods, so I thought it was cool. Click here to read the entire article.

Posted at 12:50 PM     Read More  

Now Accepting PayPal


Some of you may have noticed the recent addition of a PayPal button to this site's navigation bar. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you why it's there. My hope is that if you enjoy the content that you see on this site, and you want to make sure that I can keep publishing more, that you'll make a small (or large) pecuniary contribution. My goals for this site are fairly ambitious, but first, I need to move it to a new hosting service and switch over from iBlog to something a bit more dynamic, but those things all take money, and right now, funds are tight. My wife and I just moved into a new apartment, and she's going to be student teaching in the spring (i.e. no work). I'm also planning a re-design of the site, to something a bit more appealing to the eye. I happen to like the current look, but it could use a little tweaking. And I'd also like to make it pure XHTML and CSS, ridding it of the tables that templates in iBlog use for layout. So, if you'd like to help me out, feel free click on the PayPal button in the "Powered by" section of my navigation bar. In the mean time, Happy Holidays, everybody!

Posted at 12:13 PM     Read More  

Sat - December 11, 2004

ReplayTV or Build Your Own PVR?


Well, I recently had plans to purchase a friend's slightly-used ReplayTV, but they fell through at the last minute when his wife put a kibosh on the idea. Now, I find myself with the desire for a Personal Video Recorder, but no reasonable purchase options in sight. One of the features that I have to have is the ability to download program guides over a broadband connection, as I do not have a landline phone, so TiVo is out, for me. That leaves me with the choice of a ReplayTV (Preferably a 50xx series) or building my own. I'd like to have at least 160 hours of recording time on whatever I end up with, but to get that out of a Replay, it will cost me about $450, and that doesn't include a $13 monthly subscription or $299 "Lifetime" fee (only good for the lifetime of that particular unit). If I build my own, I could probably do it for just about the same money (minus subscription), but at the added cost of my time and energy to build and configure the machine. Also, I have no real idea of where to start such a project. There are a few sites out there dedicated to this topic, but none, yet, that I've found, that really give you a set of specific parts and instructions on how to put them together. I'm currently considering a Via mini-itx motherboard , Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250/350, and MythTV software running on either RedHat or Fedora. I'm also open to using a Micro ATX motherboard with an AMD Athlon XP processor. I just want to stay away from Intel, if I can. If anyone has any suggestions--motherboard, processor, encoder/tuner cards, cases, software, set-up, etc.--I'd be happy to hear them. Keep in mind, though, that I DO NOT want any Windows®-based solutions, so stick to Linux/Unix. Hope to hear from some of you soon. Thanks.

Posted at 06:43 PM     Read More  

Fri - December 10, 2004

Support Vincit Veritas


Hello, everyone. I just wanted to offer you a little update on one of the recent changes to the site that you may have noticed. In an effort to supply some supplementary income, thereby giving myself more time to devote to this site, I have joined the Linkshare Referral Program. As of right now, I don't plan to use any banner advertisements, relying on text or small image links. There will be persistent links in the navigation area, and links to particular items or collections in future posts. I will also be looking to join the Amazon affiliate program, so expect to see links to some of my favorite DVDs, books, and movies, along with reviews of said items. I appreciate any support that you can offer. Have a good day, everybody.

Posted at 08:30 AM     Read More  

Wed - December 8, 2004

Re: Politics and Religion


Yes! I have finally received some feedback from someone who is not a relative! Our lucky winner is M. Douglas Wray of macwebguru.com. What does he win? A chance to have his response published here! So, here you go...

Posted at 01:06 AM     Read More  

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