After much poking around and too much unnecessary expense, I finally managed to get TiVo shows to play on my Treo. And the results are very satisfactory! In addition to the file sites being rather small -- only 123 megabytes for an hour of video -- they look and sound great (for a screen that small, that is). You can find detailed instructions on how to do this yourself at the bottom of the comment thread on the original post.

This has been more than a geeky pastime for me. I've been obsessing about watching my favorite shows and movies on the plane ever since I sat next to a teenager who was doing the same from his Video iPod. This kind of activity makes a lot of sense for times when you have to sit in a confined space for any length of time. I jumped through all these hoops because this solves a real problem for me -- travel boredom and fatigue! If I can pass the time by watching an old Seinfeld or South Park rerun wherever I am, that means a lot.

What I find fascinating is how TiVo, a company whose name has practically become a verb because of its power and ease of use, can make it so hard to reuse content on mobile devices. They've obviously spent a lot of time and money to allow it, but there are so many hoops that I doubt the average consumer will ever do what it takes to get there.

I suspect that this is just a skunkworks project designed to gauge interest for future, more consumer-grade mobile products. If I'm any indication, there is a definite market for it, too! There are very few things that I would go to this much trouble to make work.

TiVo may also be treading carefully for legal reasons. When they first announced that they would be allowing users to transfer shows to iPods, NBC immediately began threatening them with lawsuits (find a good overview of that on PVRblog). To quote PVR:


That and an Engadget interview with TiVo VP Jim Denney pretty much sums it up. And here's the danger for TiVo. I recall another pioneering company -- Napster -- getting bullied by the entertainment industry to change its business rules. The result was that Napster was replaced by Morpheus, which was replaced by Kazaa, which was replaced by a number of other services that did the same thing as Napster while introducing more ways to avoid lawsuits (like true peer to peer sharing with small groups of people).

It was a real pain to use those services, which in addition to being clunkier than Napster, also turned into Spyware dens. Then along came Apple with $99 cent downloads, and they have since made MP3 and iPod nearly synonymous with each other.

So what I wonder is -- who will take advantage of TiVo's struggle with the entertainment industry? I think Apple has a good shot at it. But of course, I really hope TiVo avoids that fate and finds the magic bullet all on its own, because they're the ones who started the digital video recorder craze.

For the second time in two weeks, a software developer I work with has decreed in a team e-mail that "Dan is indeed not crazy."

Shwew, what a relief! This amazing finding was in response to some obscure bugs I'd filed for some new stuff we're working on. For whatever reason, I'm the one who manages to discover that bizarre combinations of actions cause things to go "boom." A real-life analaogy would be something like this:


This new decree about my sanity is a huge relief, as I've been starting to wonder. Especially at those times when I go to work with my underwear on the outside of my pants, wrap my head in aluminum foil to keep out the voices and things like that :-)

Yes, I am kidding. No, I don't hear voices.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have two passions when it comes to consumer technology.

One is my TiVo, which I remain devoted to until the bitter end -- even though the company's poor financial footing and cable competitors make it more than likely that the company will eventually be sold or, worse, shut down. But like a die-hard football fan, I'm loyal to my TiVo team through thick and thin!

The other is my Treo 650 smartphone (which until recently was a Treo 600, but which Sprint upgraded to a 650 for $50 because they were tired or replacing my defective 600s, of which I went through 6 in just one year.) Yeah, as much as I like my Treo, I have to admit that even I was starting to wonder if my devotion to it was more a matter of religion than science. I just love it for reasons that defy explanation.

So imagine my excitement when today I learn that my TiVo and Treo can now converse, go on dates and probably even have children together! To be more precise, TiVo to Go -- a program that lets you download TiVo programs to your computer -- now lets you transfer recorded videos to an SD card that a Treo can play. Apparently I need to buy a $20 piece of software for my Treo to play the videos. Done! I'll let you know how it works soon.

Any other TiVo and/or Treo fans out there? If you've tried this, let me know how it works for you.

The new Search box at the top of this screen lets you search for people and things that interest you. Just make sure the "People" box is checked next to the search form. Then, enter your search terms.

The search goes across all public information in user profiles and blogs and sorts everything based on where it came from. For example, try this search on the term "dogs" and you'll see people who like dogs, followed by blogs where people mention the term "dogs".

The Davinci Code, Cars and X-Men. Oh my!

What's your favorite summer movie so far? I have to say that at this point, I found X-Men: The Last Stand the most enjoyable, although I'll agree with anyone that it's of low nutritional value.

A Prairie Home Companion was OK. It was fun to see Lily Tomlin on the screen again. The whole thing with the Angel Alphodel or whatever her name was got really old though.

If you're among the throngs of people who has already seen The Davinci Code, you may remember a scene where the two main characters barely escape the French police in a comical looking automobile that bears more resemblance to a Coke can than to a car. It's a Smart Car, an incredibly fuel-efficient novelty that has been zipping around the cramped streets of Paris for years.

A company called ZAP (which stands for Zero Air Pollution) is now selling these in the U.S. What's more, they now also sell a more ridiculous looking car called the XEBRA, which is all electric. The XEBRA is even more ridiculous looking because it has only three wheels and comes with a big old plug that you use to recharge it every night. (But then again, maybe its looney nature is part of the selling point).

A few years ago, my wife and I visited a friend of hers in Paris, and she drove us around in her bright blue Smart. My first inclination was, "There's no way I'm getting on the streets with crazy Paris drivers in that piece of tinfoil!" But after using the Smart to go practically everywhere, including the market and the Louvre, and being able to park in little spaces between cars where even some motorcycles couldn't fit, I changed my tune. I was a Smart fanatic by the end of that week! If I'd been able to, I would have toted it back in my carry-on.

Now that gas prices are at an all-time high in the U.S., I find myself wondering: would I be caught dead on the streets of Bakersfield in a Smart? Or to ask a more poignant question -- might I actually find myself dead after driving a Smart onto the 99 and getting run over by an SUV-driving mom or squished between two 18-wheelers? The choice -- safety vs. low gas prices and environmental impact -- is a big one, and it will ultimately determine how successful the Smart is in this country. My guess is that it will gain some popularity in cities like New York and San Francisco with short driving distances and big parking problems, but not much further.

What about you? Would you drive a Smart in Bako?

Summer must be here. It's gonna get even hotter soon, too!

If you're just ga-ga over your user profile and blog, you can share it with your friends in two ways.

First, whenever you update your profile you have the option to send an e-mail to your friends so they can check it out. Just click the "Tell my friends" button that shows up after you save your updates.

If you REALLY like your profile and want your friends to have profiles too, invite them as friends. They'll get an e-mail with a link to your profile, and also an invitation to create their own. If they respond to this invitation, they'll be taken through a quick setup wizard that lets them create a profile which appears as a link on yours. Your profile will also appear as a link on their profile.

So you have your Bakersfield profile and blog. Cool! Now you're at a cocktail party and trying to remember the URL. Never fear -- friendly URLs are here! You can get to anyone's profile and blog as long as you know their user name. Just use this convention:

For Profiles: http://people.bakersfield.c...USERNAME
For Blogs: http://people.bakersfield.c...USERNAME

Replace the USERNAME with your own and you'll go straight to your blog!

Since my user name is pachecod, my URLs are:

My Profile: http://people.bakersfield.c...
My Blog: http://people.bakersfield.c...

And of course if you can only remember one of those, that's fine since you can go back and forth between your profile and blog by clicking the buttons below your photo.

We make it easy to add photos, or any type of file, to a blog post. Multiple images show up in a little viewer that people can scroll through and click to view larger.

But did you know that you can also add images into the body of your post? Here's how.

• First, make sure the image is already uploaded somewhere. It can be on any Web site.
• Open that image in another browser window.
  
• In the other browser window, add a new post. Then, drag the image from the other browser window into the Body field of the editor.
  
• The image should show up inline. You can copy and paste it, move it around the screen, and even resize it.
• To set the alignment of the image, click the icon in the editor's toolbar that looks like a photo of a mountain. You will see advanced options for inline images there.

You can add your own graphic header to your blog, which will appear under the Bakersfield.com logo and above your blog posts. We limit the size to 900 x 400, but only because we don't want you to create a blog that looks bad that nobody wants to see.

To add a custom header, you must first create it in a graphics program, like Adobe Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. Once you have a Jpeg that's no larger than 900 x 400, simple click Edit Profiles & Settings and Blog Settings. Then find the section that says Upload Custom Header Image and click the Browse button. Find the image on your hard drive. Then click Update Settings at the bottom of the screen.

After you upload your image, check out your blog to see how it looks by clicking the View My ... Blog tab on the left. If you don't like it, you can return to Edit Settings at the top right of your blog and keep working on it until you get it just right.

You can add text and other links to the sidebar of your blog, and you don't need to know any HTML to do it. Just do this:

1) Click the Edit Profile & Settings Tab.
2) Click Blog Settings.
3) Scroll down and fill out the Title for Your Sidebar and Text for Your Sidebar sections.
4) Note that you can add full rich text, fonts, bullets, and even hyperlinks to other sites in that area.

Have fun!

You can get your blog on your Yahoo! home page, too (and so can your friends). If your friends use Yahoo, tell them to try this.

1) Go to your blog, then look for the Subscribe section in the lower lefthand sidebar of your blog page. 

2) Click "Add to Yahoo!" and follow the instructions. Within a few minutes,  you will see your blog on the Google home page. (See an example in the embedded screen shot).

This is a great way for your friends to stay on top of what you're talking about. Who knows, they may eventually stop going to Yahoo to search for directions or web sites because they want to find out what YOU have to say!

You can get your blog on your Google home page, too (and so can your friends). If your friends use Google to search, tell them to try this.

1) Go to your blog, then look for the Subscribe section in the lower lefthand sidebar of your blog page. 

2) Click "Add to Google" and follow the instructions. Within literally seconds, you will see your blog on the Google home page. (See an example in the embedded screen shot).

This is a great way for your friends to stay on top of what you're talking about. Who knows, they may eventually stop going to Google to search for directions or web sites because they want to find out what YOU have to say!

If you click the Add to My AOL button and you have an AOL or AIM account, you can get links to your blog right from an AOL page. No kidding! See the screen shot here for an example of this blog on AOL.

This is not your father's Bakersfield Californian!

We know it's really different for a newspaper to let readers post stuff all on their own without going through editors, but we're different from other newspapers. We recognize that people are able to publish their own thoughts and ideas through an increasing variety of methods. We have been at the center of this community for 140 years, and we love the idea of members of our community being able to take a larger role in publishing the things that are important to them and each other.

So go ahead and publish your own thoughts, ideas, stories, photos and more. As long it's legal and in good taste, it's all good with us!

You can add multiple photos, music files and any file to any post.

How to Do It

• After you click the Add Media button and then OK, click the button to choose more files (or files you uploaded previously) and add something else.
  
• You can keep doing this over and over until you're happy with your post. Just be sure to click the Post to Blog button when you're done!

It's easy to get caught up in reading other peoples' stuff, especially when you start clicking around on profiles, finding people who share your interests, and finding blogs by topic. While wandering off to read about someone's muscle car project, or another's rant about the Middle East, you may ask yourself  ...

   "This is not my beautiful blog. "

And you may say to yourself,

   "Well, how did I get here?"

(Yes, I'm quoting Talking Heads).

Thankfully, we have lots of breadcrumbs to help you get around.

First, if you ever get so lost that you don't know where to go next, click the People tab above. From there, you should see a My Stuff box which may or may not have your photo. You can edit your profile, edit your blog, sign in, sign out and a host of other things.

If you're looking at someone else's blog, look at the upper right to for a roundish box that may have your face in it. You can get to your profile and blog, your settings and sign in or out in one click.

Of course, if you do get lost it's probably because you're having a lot of fun clicking around. So be sure to enjoy yourself!

It's not every day that The Bakersfield Californian launches blogs for everyone in town! If you have any questions about how to use the blogs, or feedback or even complaints, please let us know. Feel free to e-mail them to registration@bakersfield.com, or post them on my blog here.

Don't have time to write a blog post you started, but don't want to publish what you have so far? No worries. Simply click the "Save Draft" button at the bottom of the post editor.

When you have time to continue working on your post, sign in and go to the Edit My Content tab and click Blog Posts. You will see your draft posts clearly labeled. Edit one, then save as a draft again or publish it right there.

We also have a new way for you to track comments you post on other peoples' content. Simply sign in, then click on the Edit My Content button that appears at the left. You'll see a section for comments. You can edit or delete any of your comments from there.

You can also add any file as an attachment to your blog, and later re-attach those same files to new posts without needing to upload them again! Photos show up in a nice embedded photo viewer, music in an audio player, and any other file as a link that people can click to download the file.

To upload new files, simply add a new post, then click the button at the bottom of the editor labeled "click to add Pictures, Audio, or other media!"

To add files you uploaded before, click the button below that labeled, "Click to add files from My Media."

This post shows how an MP3 and photo look together. This is a sample MP3 from my brother, Nelson Pacheco. You can check out his other music at http://www.napynap.com

Did you know that people can subsdcribe to your blog to receive updates on sites like Google and My Yahoo? Simply go to your blog and look for the Subscribe section in the lefthand sidebar. Click the Add to My Yahoo, Add to Google, Add to Bloglines or Add to AOL buttons and follow the instructions. The end result will be that links to your latest posts will automatically show up on those pages. Pretty neat, huh?

Your blog also works as a Podcast. Just upload an MP3 file (which you own -- no posting of copyrighted content is allowed). Then, go to your blog and check out that post. The music file can be streamed right from the page!

People can also subscribe to your blog as a Podcast through a service like iTunes. Look for the RSS 2.0 link in the sidebar under Subscribe. Right-click that link and choose Copy, then go to the iTunes Advanced menu, then choose Subscribe to Podcast and add that URL into the box that comes up. From that point onward, any time you post an MP3 in your blog, it will automatically download in iTunes.

You may notice that when you add a new blog entry, there's a field at the bottom that says "topics for this post." When you add things there, separated by commas, your posts will show up on this page showing all blog topics. Click into your topic, and you'll see the post you added with that topic in there. You don't have to agonize over the topics you enter -- just enter a few key words or very short sentences, separated by commas, and they'll be added automatically.

Another fun site:

http://beer.trash.net/
As big business beats the Web into submission, it's easy to lament the days of two guys in a garage changing the world. But don't give up on them yet. The trash.net virtual beer server -- run by five guys in Switzerland -- lets you e-mail a cold one to your pal in a split second. While the beer is obviously a mirage (a glitch that's sure to be solved by future garage dwellers), the effect on the soul upon receiving free beer is nothing less than liberating. Unfortunately, it also makes daily e-mail memos that much more boring.

Here's a funny site I found almost 8 years ago. Amazingly, it's still up!

http://www.stairwell.com/st...
Sally mercilessly mocked you with her plutonium green eyes after blowing the curve of every high school math test. With her unnaturally symmetrical widow's peak and perfectly plucked brows, you knew she was the evil wunderkind incaate. Ready for sweet revenge? Try to stare down Sally without blinking. The computer-generated 1950s witch may stare you back for several seconds or an eteity, depending on her mood. But even if you win you lose: after all, you just flushed several minutes of your life down the toilet while Sally went on to run a high-tech company.

Now every user on Bakersfield.com get s a free blog that comes with your user profile! We also have a new Community page that highlights the most recently updated user profiles and blogs.

This is a new feature with lots of functionality, so don't hesitate to ask for help if you get lost or confused.