I can’t say much about the installation other than I imagine that the $50 Best Buy charged for it was well spent. My factory radio looks and performs exactly as it did prior to the installation – with the expected added functionality. I’m guessing that might not have been the case had I attempted to install the thing. ‘Nough said about installation.

Once plugged in you can control the volume and skip tracks using your factory radio. The gateway provides two alternate modes for browsing your media library:

• iPod Mode allows you to browse your library using the factory radio’s controls. The preset radio buttons (typically numbers 1-6) are used for this, which is anything but intuitive. You are also restricted to viewing the library through your radio’s “screen”. Overall not the best experience, but in iSimple’s defense, this is about as good as I’ve seen on the market.
• Aux Mode requires you to browse your media library from the iPod/iPhone. Not as safe while driving, but infinitely more usable. Once you’ve playing a track you can still skip forward/backward using the radio controls.

The sound is excellent. I cannot tell the difference between sound from a CD, XM Radio, or the iPhone. I’m happy as a clam now that I can listen to podcasts on my commute. Overall this device gets a B+ from me. I expect that better implementations will be available in future generations, but for now this seems to be state of the art when it comes to integration with factory radios.

Here are a quick list of features I’d like to see in the next generation:

• View video on navigation screen. Yes I realize there are safety concerns here, but I want the functionality.
• Browse media library using navigation screen. This would make iPod mode much more functional.
• Use navigation touch screen while browsing media. Need I say more? This would provide the iTouch interface from my car’s existing navigation screen. We’re a long way away, but this would be cool
• Wifi. As long as I’m dreaming, why not include wifi with the gateway. Add iTunes software and I could leave the iPod in the car, but still be able to update media. This really brings us into the realm of a new device altogether – call it the iCarStereo. You listening Steve Jobs? I want one.

So that’s about it for the iSimple. It definitely gets my recommendation. The device cost $150. Add $50 installation and the total package was $200. I will very likely be canceling the XM Radio subscription now that I can listen to podcasts and my own music on demand – which would pay for the gateway in about 15 months.

You’ve probably heard about Chris Matthews’ gaffe, commenting that during the Sate of the Union address he forgot the President was black. Other talking-heads have jumped on the bandwagon and many are resurfacing the thought that race was a defining issue in the 2008 election.

For many of us 2008 wasn’t about race; it was about putting an intellectual in the white house. Coming on the heels of Bush, the anti-intellectual, and running against a ticket that included Sarah Palin (do I even need to say it) this was a vote of confidence in the American population. It said – a majority of our country believes that intelligence is a valuable attribute for our leaders to possess. The fact that Obama is a man of color served to further validate the point since intelligent people would not allow race to determine their vote. 2008 was about Americans prioritizing the needs of the country as a whole ahead of their personal financial needs. Obama’s victory said that the America you believed in as a child – the one you think of when you sing the Star Spangled Banner – is alive and well. It said that snarkiness, sarcasm, partisanship, and religiousism have not killed the dream. Race was riding shotgun.

I cannot recall a time in our nation’s history when we were in more dire need of serious thought, and honest dialog of the very serious issues facing this country. This is precisely the moment that we cannot afford the lazy thinking encouraged by myopic hatred of a race or religion. Nor can we afford to blindly consume the crap fed to us by both parties.

Internationally, we are less liked, less respected as a nation than perhaps ever in history. We are fighting a war in two countries while we slowly lose the respect and support of even our staunchest allies.

Domestically we are seeing critical indicators of our standing as an “advanced society” slip; a rise in infant mortality, a rise in the # of people living in poverty, a drop in mean income, rising illiteracy rates, and a falling aptitude in math & science even among our college graduates. All of this in the midst of one of the most far-reaching financial crises we”ve ever seen. We are a divided people, intentionally split by the major political parties over polarizing issues such as abortion. All the while, our president elect makes bad jokes and spends us into oblivion. Our national debt has reached 70% of our Gross National Product – a level not seen since just after World War II. We are indeed a nation in crisis.

These are the facts we face heading into this election. Forgive me if I cannot base my vote solely on the fear that some wild-eyed Muslim might attempt to fly another airplane into another tower somewhere in the US. I am scared that we are going to take ourselves out. I am scared that my children will grow up in a poverty-stricken, ignorant, scared, and violent society; crumbling from within.

I am voting for Barack Obama in November because I believe that he represents our best hope on the ballot. I believe he has the intellect, courage, and demeanor to lead us out of this mess. I am disappointed in the way in which John McCain and my party – the Republican party – has handled his campaign. They were given a once in a lifetime opportunity to campaign on these incredibly important issues, and instead they’ve chosen to platform on rhetoric and disgusting innuendo. I respect the hell out of John McCain, not only for his years of service in the military, and the 5 1/2 years he spent in a Vietnamese POW camp, but for his service as a US Senator. As a senator he’s proven himself to be someone who does give careful thought to the issues, and is not afraid to buck the party line. Unfortunately, as a presidential candidate, he’’s shown a willingness to play dirty pool, to accept politics as usual, and to let the far-right party elite dictate his strategy and his words. Note that these are the same knuckle-heads that have dug the hole we find ourselves in today. I cannot cast my vote for someone who willingly subjugates his own personal beliefs to the gamesmanship proposed by his political advisors. With Barack Obama I see a man who wants to lead. Someone who fully understands the dire situation we find ourselves in, and who wants to give the best of himself to right the ship.

I am a registered Republican and I am voting for Barack Obama. And I do so fully understanding that I will pay about $100 a month more in taxes for each month he is in office than I would if John McCain were elected. I’m not sure a Republican anywhere can give a more glowing endorsement, except maybe Colin Powell as referenced above.

The PS3 can act as a media server client, allowing you to stream audio & video from a computer to your PS3 and thus into you home entertainment center. I’ve got a pretty big iTunes library (nearly 600 albums), and so streaming my iTunes library to the stereo in my family room is something I’ve wanted to do for sometime. Unfortunately, the proprietary format that Apple has chosen to use for iTunes has stymied most of my previous attempts. This is undoubtedly a critical part of Apple’s master plan and not a simple “if you want it done right, do it yourself” thing. One more thing to blog about when I get the chance. Anyway, back on point, I’ve finally found an app that’’s allowing me to stream my iTunes library to my PS3 – it’s called Dot.Tunes.

Unfortunately, Dot Tunes doesn’t really use the PS3’s media-server features, but instead relies on the PS3’s web browsing capabilities to deliver a music playing flash client. The client is functional, if somewhat annoying – you can”t browse your music, only search for artists, albums, and playlists. Once you find an artist, album, or playlist you can browse the songs in that list and play one or all. So why not just create a single playlist with all your songs in it you ask… Yea, problem is that Dot Tunes seems to not like very large playlists. It doesn’t crash or anything, it just won’t “publish” them, meaning that you can’t get to them with the client.

The Dot Tunes server is free. All the interesting plugins, including the PS3 plugin, cost a little – $10 I think. Getting the server up was time consuming and required me to open up a slew of ports in my firewall, but after a few hours of tinkering, it works with the exception of large playlists. The server has a small footprint when no one is using it, only taking up 3M of memory. But it’s a pig when users hit it – memory usage climbs with the size of the selected playlist. For instance, a 133 song list jacked the memory footprint to 206MB. Hmmm, maybe this is why large playlists won’t load. Another pain is that you have to reimport your library and then publish all the songs every time you restart the server. Even with all its warts, Dot Tunes is the only software I’ve found that”ll get the job done, so I’m happy to have it.

Dot Tunes has many other features, including the ability to stream music over the internet and to publish playlists as podcasts or RSS feeds. The web interface is much more usable than the PS3 flasah client, providing full search and browse features. It’s not half-bad for these uses. If Siteground allows it, maybe I’ll put a music server up here one day.

Here’’s the set list for the show on the 23rd:

• Pantala Naga Pampa
• Rapunzel
• Satellite
• When The World Ends
• Time Of The Season
• Hunger For The Great Light
• Dream Girl
• Say Goodbye
• The Idea Of You
• Louisiana Bayou
• I’ll Back You Up
• Down By The River
• Crush
• The Maker
• Jimi Thing
• Stay [Wasting Time]

What I love about DMB is that they somehow manage to help me achieve two seemingly opposing states; self-reflection while living in the moment.  I always find myself reflecting back on my life at Dave’’s shows.  A song will make me recall a past event with absolute lucidity – such memories almost always trigger some self reflection; thoughts of how lucky I am, how much I love my wife & child, how a few seemingly random events, had they turned out some other way, could have lead to a dramatically different life for me.  Self reflection certainly feels like an important thing – it’’s a shame that most of us don”t find more time for it.  I don”t mean this to sound too heavy – don”t get me wrong – I have a great time at Dave’’s shows, and the show in Vegas was no exception.  I”m able to completely unplug and live in moment as I soak-up the positive energy that a DMB crowd can deliver.  While I will take some time to reflect on my life, I”m also going to have a few beers, sing my fool head off, and generally enjoy the hell out of myself with few thoughts of my immediate problems.  As Jack Kerouac would of said, I”m able to “tune-in, turn-on, and drop-out.”  Only difference is that I manage to achieve this state for only about 2 hours during the show – then it’’s back to the real world.

Anyway, maybe I”ve ranted too much on the topic.  My point was, or is, that DMB shows make me feel great and this one was better than most – which is saying something.

It’s appalling to know that this ridiculous, I mean truly silly, argument is what passes for serious discourse in one of our nation’’s most prominent newspapers.

—– Original Message —–
From: xxxx
Sent: 2005/12/11 15:23:16
To: support@pokerstars.com
Subject: hand generation question

Thanks in advance for your answer,

—– Response —–

Hello,