Tek Mgt

I Miss my "Grown Up" Browser

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 20:03:00 +0000

Yep, I've gone tablet crazy. Just love the little critters. I have an original iPad, I have an Android Tablet (Acer Iconia A500) and I even have a Windows Tablet (Acer Iconia W500). See what they did with the Iconia model numbers? Darn clever these folks!

The iPad is definitely prettier. The Android has lots of options. The Windows is Windows, but with teeny tiny buttons to try to press. Good thing it comes with an attachable keyboard.

But time and time again, I find myself being forced to use the Windows tablet simply because I want to use a "Grown Up" browser, rather than the limited, constrained, features-missing browsers from IOS or Android. (You know, like making a blog post, etc.)

I haven't been a coder in decades, but I've gotta ask, is it really so hard to make a full-featured browser for either IOS or Android? The look is different, the feel is different, and the rendering is different between the desktop and tablet versions.

I downloaded Opera for the Android, and gave up with it after just a week or so. It seemed a little unfinished.

I really do see the Windows based tablet, with the keyboard attached (yes, like a cheap laptop or netbook) as the 'go to' machine for when I really want to get something accomplished, and not just browse within the limitations the tablets lock me into. If I want to see some video, I have to have FLASH available. If I want the pages to render well and not give me the stripped down 'mobile' version, I either have to try to fool the sites by changing arcane settings in the mobile browser, or by just going to the real, desktop, made for grown-ups, browser.

I know these limitations, and I work with them so I can be on the bleeding edge of technology. But I have many friends and family who just want the silly things to work, and let them see the content they want to see. Make that happen with a decent battery life, and the sales of the tablets might REALLY take off. Then again, I'm just a low-level functionary and not a tech company mogul who makes billions with every brain wave. I just know that every time I extol the virtues of a tablet to one of them, and let them try it out, they invariably go to a website that shows the flaws of these 'little brother' browsers. I can explain with lots of great reasons why that particular website didn't work right, but my friends and family don't care. They just want the silly thing to work and show them EXACTLY what they are used to seeing on the desktop/laptop screens.

Oh, and Google? A touch interface (that makes sense) for the desktop Chrome browser would REALLY help. I've got a machine that can handle it, and IE 9 can do it (with some IRRITATING limitations). So maybe you might want to try to make my life more wonderful? Please?

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:13:00 +0000

If you're looking for a Google+ invitation, here's a link

:https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3DwEIOhUfYpsI%3AmTlUwmNNcd4

Tech and A Senior Citizen - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:18:00 +0000

My Dad retired 20 years ago, after working for the same company for 33 years. He was raised during the Great Depression and served in the Navy during WWII and the Korean Conflict (War). This series is about his technology needs.

He is an Electrician, and was quite the tech person in his prime. He built our first TV set from a kit he ordered, and for many years one of the fun things I remember was 'helping' him take the tubes out of the back of the set and going down to a local store to test them, and then replace the ones that were the problem. That stopped after we got our first color set in the early 70's.

A few years prior to his retirement he bought a used Motor Home for use during his camping and hunting trips. Then after he retired he used it for longer trips to neighboring states and joined some RV clubs. Almost a decade later I discovered Microsoft's Streets & Trips program (why I don't remember). One day while visiting him, I showed him the basics of the program. He was interested and we spent a few hours working with the program. I had visited before with my laptop, but he showed almost no interest in computers at all, so this was something kind of new from him.

After the visit, I thought ahead to his upcoming birthday, and decided to get him a computer with the program installed. So I did the proper Depression Era thing and ordered a used computer from uBid. OK, in reality I couldn't afford a new laptop for him, and since my laptop was also from uBid, I did the same for him.

On his birthday (or as near as I could visit) he received the laptop and software that I had installed.

Let the fun begin!

When More Tech Just Won't Help

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 23:57:00 +0000

This morning I stopped by the local Super Walmart to pick up a few things, and like always, I wandered around a little. I found a nice cover for the new Acer A500 Iconia Tab I bought several months ago. So I picked it up along the stuff I really came for and headed to the checkout.

The Tablet Cover has four different barcodes on the back, none of which were in the store's computer checkout system. So they were completely flummoxed. Rather than ask for a price check, or call a manager, the cashier asked if I remembered the price and was willing to take whatever I said as the truth and enter it manually. Of course I thought about saying $5.98 or anything other than what I thought I remembered as $39. But I didn't. I just said I thought I remembered $39, so she entered it and was willing to move along. But then I balked. What if I wasn't remembering correctly? I had looked at a lot of stuff. What if it was only $29 - then I'd be the one out of the money.

However, no one wanted to walk way to the back of the store to price verify this thing, including the 'manager' who came over to help. The goal seemed to be to get me through the checkout line, no matter if it cost me or the company to do it. So I asked to have the item removed from the list (she had already entered the $39 price). Well, that took a manager's override too, so again I waited.

After the purchase - without the Tablet Cover - I put the stuff in my car and went BACK into the store for the cover. I had the time, and I wanted the cover, but I wanted it all be on the up-and-up. So I hiked to the back of the store (the most exercise of the day so far) and found the covers again. They were $39.99. I took one and headed for the checkout lanes, and chose the Self Checkout. Again, the item wouldn't scan, and I needed assistance. This time it took even longer, involved a cashier and manager, and this time the manager made the trip to the back of the store to look at the item. She came back and tried more things on the checkout, but it still wouldn't register correctly. At this point, all the waiting around totaled about 40 minutes for me.

So I was wondering if the new RFID systems being touted would have helped. As I picked up the item and put it in the cart, it would have been scanned or not, and I would have had to deal with the issue right then and there rather than at the checkout. But this addition of tech probably wouldn't have helped.

First, I didn't use a cart. I only had a few things and I carried them. Second, there was no one in the section of the store where the Tablet Covers were located, so even if it hadn't RFID scanned correctly, there wasn't anyone around to help, and I would have had to wait until someone did come around, or once again head to the checkouts and deal with it all over again.

Nope, can't think of a way tech could have helped with this issue, because the main tech that should have worked, the barcode system, had failed at the start - the store's computers didn't know about the physical product in the store.

CNET: The nitty-gritty details of the Bloom box

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:58:00 +0000

The nitty-gritty details of the Bloom box: "Bloom Energy CEO K.R. Sridhar spells out how the fuel cell works."

Touch Me in the Morning

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:46:00 +0000

The iPad is here. That is exciting, another device in the touch tablet arena. Apple has entered the fray, bringing more publicity and notice – it can’t help but make things better. Let me give you a few words of experience from someone who owns a touch pc – the HP TouchSmart TX2 with Windows 7.

Things in the larger world of the PC and internet are not as touch friendly as things on a touch enabled phone like the iPhone or Blackberry Storm, or other device. Those devices have applications written specifically for that interface, with limited web browsing. We use those devices for the web, but it isn’t a very satisfying experience because we can’t do all the things we want on our larger systems. It is the same with using the TX2 as just a tablet. Your finger just can’t get to the fine detail of the mouse our touchpad, and you often find you need to go back a screen or two and try again.

Using the onscreen keyboard is not as simple as it may seem. For a touch typist like me, it just isn’t natural, and again I keep missing the keys I want to hit. Even for someone who uses ‘hunt and peck’ believe it or not, your finger aim just doesn’t quite work as well as you might think.

Using the web is not quite straightforward either. The browser might support touch and gestures, but the site probably won’t, and every time you need to log in with a name or password means more typing. There’s a reason why Apple wants to offer you an optional real keyboard. Having a ‘third’ device between computer and phone is good, but most of us like to use all three types of features at the same time in the living room. A Hulu video, while browsing or posting (like I’m doing right now) is a good thing, and having a tablet doesn’t help this process in any way – it is only because the TX2 is a full computer, and can run multiple applications, that I can get this all done at the same time.

As long as you stay in the touch world, with applications specifically designed for touch, you’ll be fine, but venturing out into the general computing world, like the web, gets a bit more dodgy. But I do like playing Bejeweled 2 on the touch screen.

Idle Speculation

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:54:00 +0000

Since Google’s Chrome OS has been announced and the idle speculation of what this will mean for Microsoft has begun, I want to share my two cents worth, as the owner/user of a netbook, and someone who supports several non-tech netbook users.

Recent articles have said that this is an aim by Google to take over the low end of the market, by targeting the underpowered netbooks. Maybe. If so, it is going to be harder going than the pundits are realizing.

The tech oriented users, like me, have more on their netbooks than just the OS. I have a few simple games that I like, as well as a few productivity tools, such as Windows Live Writer, which I’m using to create this post. (Some would argue that posting to a blog isn’t productive, but that’s for a later post.) The games in the Linux world are certainly available, and similar to what I’m currently playing (card games, slot machines, puzzles), but they aren’t as polished and professional looking for the most part. I like what I like, and playing the game I’ve grown fond of on the netbook as well as on my desktop machine is important to me. Since Microsoft owns my desktop, I want to play Windows based games, and use Windows based tools.

For my non-tech friends for whom I am their user support, they want something familiar. They don’t like learning new ways of doing things. Even I complain about the Microsoft UI and how things work in Internet Explorer, but getting them to switch to Firefox or Chrome isn’t going to happen. I know, I’ve tried and I’ve suffered for it. Tech types also know about the problems with Microsoft’s use to web standards in rendering pages, but when users get used to seeing something, they always want to see the same thing. Complain as much as you like about the way the web portal for Outlook renders on Internet Explorer versus the other browsers, but my friends want to see the IE version, not the Chrome or Firefox version. They will never install a game on their netbook (unless they make me do it for them) and will probably never consider any productivity tools. They truly will just use it for surfing and email, but they want the surfing and email to look exactly like, and work exactly like, their desktops at work and home.

Apple has aimed at the top of the market, and this gives them an income and some bragging rights. Google might be aiming at the bottom of the market where they will promote speed and simplicity. Microsoft might be in the middle of the market, but just like my body, it is a HUGE middle, and the folks there are comfortable with what they have, and want that same comfort and experience.

For Google to succeed, it has to convince the buyers/users of the devices that they are doing something “different” just like they do something different when they use their smartphones for email, texting, surfing, etc. On the phones the UI is different, and folks learned because they were told they had to learn, there was no other way. By the way, when users get to see Windows Mobile, and see that it works very much like their desktop, they do get hooked.

It is going to be fun to watch.

Lords of Content – Update

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:29:00 +0000

Jim Louderback from Revision 3 has an interesting tale of paying for content to be delivered anywhere. It is a cautionary account to compliment my earlier post of wanting to view the content I pay for on the devices of my choosing at the time of my choosing. I wasn’t thinking of live events, but Jim was.

Kindle for PC

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:27:00 +0000

If you’ve gotten the bug, or been bugged by someone to look at or get the new Amazon reading device called the Kindle, you can now do the same thing for free from your PC (sorry Mac lovers, that version is coming soon but not yet ready.)

Of course if you must have the actual Kindle device, please do buy one from the links below, or just buy the books and use the free reader for the PC. One of the big attractions is that they sell the electronic version of the book generally for about 1/2 the price of the printed book. It makes sense. It costs them next to nothing to churn out another electronic copy to you, so they are making even more profit than selling and shipping a real book.

But now you can increase Amazon’s bottom line by using the free software from them and still buying the electronic book.

The software can be found at this link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000426311

The devices and books can be found at these links:

Caught a Wave

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:39:00 +0000

Well, I got my Google Wave invitation. When I heard about Wave, I went to the Google site and signed up. I guess my patience paid off since I got my invitation just the other day.

I really see potential here as a workplace collaboration tool. Right now, with the very limited participation I'm mostly seeing very familiar instant messaging/email type usage. I'm also watching some different groups form, so it will be fun to watch what kind of collaboration starts up between people who hardly know each other. Until some friends or co-workers of mine get on the system, I'm kind of stuck watching and reading the public waves.

Youtube XL

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Youtube has released a couch-size version of their site at www.youtube.com/xl

I can use my media center remote to navigate the site, but not for input. I’ll have to play around to see what else I can and can’t do. But this is definitely a move in the right direction for Youtube as more and more PC’s get hooked to televisions in the living room.

Roomba Pac Man

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Too much fun

iTunes vs Cable vs OTA

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Might this be the end of cable TV and the resurgence of the broadcast networks?

I’ve been reading that Apple wants to start a $30/month subscription TV service through its iTunes store. I have no inside knowledge what that might mean and how it would work, but it does make me want to juggle some numbers around right now.

I just made a list of all the shows I watch regularly. I took this list from the DVR list I’ve got on my cable box. It comes to about 12 shows that I watch regularly. So I went to the iTunes store to see if these 12 shows were available. They were. I can purchase almost of them in individual episodes and most in high definition. I can also purchase a ‘season pass’ which automatically downloads the next available episode for me.

So I put together a little spreadsheet for costs. If I purchase the season pass for each show in HD when available and SD when not (which comes out a little cheaper than individual episodes), it will cost me $357.73 for everything for a year which averages to almost $30/month.

My current cable bill (which includes my internet service and all the sundry set top boxes I need plus some movie channels that I almost never watch) is almost $186.00/month. I can save over $100 a month, or $1,200 a year by dumping the TV portion of cable, buying the shows I want, and using the free over-the-air (OTA) to watch local programs and sports (go Cardinals – Suns – Diamondbacks - Coyotes) and just channel surfing.

I went to go see the Microsoft Store

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:06:00 +0000

I had a very rare Saturday morning free, and since we’re one of two places that has a Microsoft Store, I went for a look-see. But I didn’t go inside. Even after driving 15 miles to see it, I just didn’t feel the need.

If you’ve seen an Apple Store, you’ve seen a Microsoft Store. It was a blatant rip-off. At least from the outside looking in. I didn’t venture inside for a number of reasons, most of them having to do with it being a blatant rip-off of Apple.

It was Bauhaus and chic and seemed designed for the ‘pretty people’ of Scottsdale. I lived in that area for many years, and know the ‘pretty people’ well. One magazine writer said it best. Watching the mommies and nannies pick up the school kids is like watching a Playboy tryout. He was right.

Microsoft, I’ve gotta ask . . . why the Apple envy? For all intents and purposes, YOU’VE WON. I know those “Mac/PC” ads sting a little bit, but you can almost buy and sell them in an afternoon with your spare cash. You dominate the desktop and office productivity software. They only thing they choose to compete on is image. They even switched over to YOUR hardware platform with the Intel move. Image, that’s it – ephemeral opinions, that’s all. So if you want to live and die by image – here’s the image you painted with me.

It is that image that turns me off about their stores, and now your stores. I’m not Bauhaus or chic. I’m middle aged, overweight, and decidedly unbeautiful. I don’t walk around like I grok the whole Apple image/mystique thing. When I look at the Apple store (and now the Microsoft store), I feel unwelcome. First it reminds me of Grandma’s formal living room, covered with plastic slipcovers that put you on notice that this room (and these products) are not ever for ordinary use – keep your grubby self out of there – you don’t measure up – this is for important people – and you ain’t it. Second it oozes that smug gnosticism that those inside are among the enlightened few. The fact that the Microsoft workers wore the minimalist uniform of pants and a colored t-shirt (colors taken from the Windows flag) didn’t make it folksy, warm, or inviting – just the opposite for me.

Microsoft, what about ditching the image thing and showing us what you really do – how the software is going to make my life as a small business owner or consumer all the better for using it? I’m guessing that a retail store is not to attract large businesses with giant I.T. staffs.

Show me your business platforms. I’d like to learn more about this Sharepoint stuff. I’d like to see how your Hyper-V technology will help me save money and do more with my meager server capabilities.

What about showcasing all the ways that Windows 7 will help the family with multiple PC’s? How about showing off in a decent way the wonderful Media Center you’ve buried inside but never really gotten around to showing the world. Don’t get me started on Windows Home Server and the ways it has saved my bacon countless times already with its backup feature, and how it can be used in the home.

Educators are the biggest sheep on the planet. Convince one of the braver ones that your products help schools save money and prepare students and they’ll beat a path to your door.

Sure, if I walked inside I would probably have been met by the super-friendly staff who could have shown all this to me – but I just didn’t want to run that gauntlet. The minimalist decor also made it possible for everyone to see everything that everyone was doing. That way the customer can also be treated to the experience of the car lot – something we all love – where you are seen approaching a mile away and can be descended upon like a gazelle in a pirahna pond while the manager watches through a minimalist monocle and sniffs disapprovingly.

Am I being fair about this? Probably not. Am I showing that I am a disturbed individual with obvious issues of confidence? Probably. Am I going back to the Microsoft Store? No.

One Device to Rule them All

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 23:03:00 +0000

In a previous post, I mused on letting me move video and watch it on any device I might own.

In this post, I want to conjecture on having one device that I carry with me at all times. Ideally this device would have:

A phone
Access to mail and calendar (if I so choose) from AOL, GMail/Google, and Outlook (yes, I use all three, don’t ask, you don’t have time for the story).
Music/mp3 capabilities.
Audible.com support (for my DRM audiobook collection from them – grr).
A game or two.
Various and sundry other applications that will emerge and tickle my fancy.

Right now to get all this done well, I have to carry both my phone (Blackberry Storm) and an iPod Classic 80.

The Blackberry was getting close to this capability with the Blackberry Audible application, but alas it seems this has gone bonkers with the release of OS 5. I was trying to use it today and frustration was the key feature. The audio kept dropping off no matter if I stored the book locally or streamed it from Audible. It was maddening because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it. To restart the audio, I had to stop the playback then start it again. If I did it right away, it would pick up where it dropped off, but if I was doing something nonessential, like driving, and had to wait for the work-around, then I missed the portion that was read during the worthless driving activity.

You might say that the iPhone does all this. Yes, it appears to, but I haven’t seen the mail & calendar integration that I would need, and I just hate being trapped in the Apple-only ecosystem. Today it all works with Audible, but if Apple decides that its best interests are to kill the Audible cooperation, it won’t hesitate to do so (as would any self-respecting capitalist institution). I applaud this approach, for I believe in our system, but I just don’t want to get trapped by it. I could continue to do what I do right now by buying only DRM free music, but I like the Verizon network I have and have been hearing bad stories about AT&T.

Windows Mobile might be the answer, but I got burned pretty badly by their upgrades not supporting whatever recent purchase I had made, and the fact that Windows CE-then PocketPC-then Mobile seems to have a hard time deciding what it wants to be, so for now I stay away.

I’m hoping that maybe the Verizon (my current phone carrier) and its new embrace of Google’s Android might be the answer. The Navigation application looks like a real winner no matter what. I’ve seen the demos of the mail/calendar integration, but the kicker is whether or not Audible is going to support the OS with player. It took them a while with Zune, so I’m hoping for Android. Of course by the time I wait, and am rewarded, some new version or new application will be out there that I want to have, and it won’t be supported by whatever current device I carry.

I don’t mind upgrading the hardware every few years or so, but balk at being locked in to a DRM situation that won’t be supported in a future release or new devices. (Yes, I know I’m locked into Audible, but I was young, and needed to save the money, etc.)

Hacking your way through life's jungle

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Hackers - despite the negative media connotation, they are simply folks who like to see how far they can take products in a new direction or beyond the listed limitations. There are also social hackers, who "bend" social conventions to their own purposes. Not necessarily always evil purposes.

But my favorite hacking site is Lifehacker at www.lifehacker.com. At the site they have everything from making your own detergent and saving money, to evaluating and setting up, or building up, your own home server.

It is just a great site to browse through, and a great site to get daily updates from their RSS feed.

Can I switch to 7 yet?

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:11:00 +0000

I've been using the beta and RTM versions of Windows 7 for a while now (thanks to my Technet subscription.) But I haven't switched over my main computers (yes more than one - I'm a geek!) to 7 yet because I'm waiting for the free upgrade software from the manufacturer. The computers are new, but were heavily discounted to make room for the preloaded 7 machines - so I took advantage of a sale.

But now I'm chomping at the bit to get 7 loaded on them. One of the cool new features I found is right clicking on the folder that contains the music I want, and choosing to add all the songs in that folder to the Windows Media Player - rather than opening the folder, selecting all the songs, and adding them by right click.

The new feature saves me clicks - and I like it. So I'm thinking of putting on a temporary version of 7 on the machines until the upgrade software comes - just so I can use that, and some other great new features.

Blackberry OS 5 - Where have you been all my life?

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:38:00 +0000

On Monday of this week, I got the notification from Blackberry that my Storm's OS has been updated, and that I might want to do the update.

So I did. At first I regretted the effort. I grew to dislike the Storm more and more over the year that I've had it, and the process of upgrading was horrendous. It didn't work at first - or second - or fourth or fifth. It just kept stopping in the middle telling me a fatal error occurred, and left me between the old OS 4.7 and the new OS 5, and a non-functioning phone. I was not pleased.

Patience and time, and really nothing to lose, had me try the upgrade over and over again until finally late in the afternoon it worked. I restored my personal data from a backup that I had, and then took the upgraded phone out for a spin.

WOW. If this thing had acted like this over the past year, I would not have been so strident in expressing my hatred to family and friends. Quick and responsive - the two things I wanted most have arrived. This phone now actually does what I want, when I want! No more push the thing and wait, wait, wait, until it finally figures out what to do. The hated lock/unlock feature now works immediately!

Not only do things work quickly, but there is a bit of eye candy with screen opens and closes, and fast scrolling that "bounces" when you reach the end of a list.

I actually like this phone much, much more. I might even be able to wait for my "new every two" time before switching to an Android phone.

Update:

This morning when checking a voice message I noticed that the number pad remains on the screen when you make a call so that you don't have to call it back up to tap in your access code. Gosh what a novel concept - at least for the Storm. That was one of my pet peeves all along - the minute you send your call, the number pad disappeared. Thank you again!

But I am looking around for access to the App store that I had under 4.7.

What I just read and liked

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:23:00 +0000

A great book for someone who wants to know what it takes to move peacefully through life. You probably won’t become a multi-millionaire by using it (or maybe you will), but you will make life more pleasant for everyone around you. The book is "The Go-Giver" and the link below will take you to the Amazon description.

Lords of Content & Delivery, have Mercy on me, a viewer

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:16:00 +0000

St. Amazon, hear my prayer

I want to watch what I want, when I want, on the device(s) I want. For a resident of the U.S., this seems like something that goes right along with individual freedoms, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I can now listen to what I want, when I want, on the device(s) I want - thanks to DRM free music that can be legally purchased through Amazon and other sites (which is why I call them St. Amazon). I can even pay a slightly higher fee on iTunes for the same opportunity on some music. The recording industry is not happy about this, even though studies have shown that it actually increases music sales.

But you can’t do that with television.

I can’t purchase just a few cable channels that I want. I have to purchase “packages” that contain 80% of what I don’t want in order to get what I do want. What is free over the air does not contain the content from the cable channels that I want.

I can record to a VCR (remember those?), a DVR, or to my home PC (via Microsoft’s Media Center). But I’m kind of stuck viewing on those devices only - unless I want to go through some rather arcane and time consuming steps to move that content to other devices, or just to other TV’s. By the way, this recording and viewing later was fought against by the content producers until they were handed a final and stunning defeat. Much like the recording industry, they aren’t happy about our choices.

I can only watch the great new high definition shows on approved devices (my cable company DVR, and a limited number on my PC) and sometimes those even have time limits before they self-destruct and lots of anti-copying restrictions. If I want to watch on other devices, I have to purchase copies of them for those devices only, or go through some arcane and time-consuming steps again to try to move them around to other devices, and probably do some illegal circumventing of the Digital Rights Management (DRM) that comes along with the content.

So what do I want? What is the content of my prayer?

I want to purchase (legally purchase!) a single show (or season of shows), or movies that are digitally delivered to me that I can watch on any device that supports the format. I also want these shows to be free of DRM so that if a new whiz-bang-must-have-device comes out, I can move the shows over to it with a minimum of problems. I want to keep the shows as long as I want, to watch whenever I want, as often as I want.

Right now I can lock myself into the Apple DRM world and purchase most of the content I want from Apple and watch it on an iPod and even dock that iPod with my TVs to move the content around. This is most of the way there. The only problem is being locked into the iPod ecosystem.

Yes, lots of questions arise, and maybe in the future I’ll add my own two cents in to the issues. But for now, I just offer my prayer and hope the Lords of Content and Delivery hear and consider it.

Nerd-vana?

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:57:00 +0000

I'm sitting on a flight, 35,000 feet over Oklahoma, using a netbook running Windows 7 Ultimate, connected to free Wi-Fi (to get us interested in the service) while accessing my Windows Home Server and posting to a blog.

Does it get any better than this?

Tim Ferriss & Kevin Rose

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Tim and Kevin from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.

IE8 and Internet History

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:55:00 +0000

An amusing look of how we got here. Yes, a commercial for IE8 too, but tolerable.

Is it over yet?

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:06:00 +0000

This coming Friday is the finale of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series that’s been limping along for the last four years.

I was a fan of the original Battlestar series that ran for just one season back in 1979. I hid my eyes and pretended I saw nothing (Nothing!) at the Galactica: 1980 mistake. So when the revival was finally real, I looked forward to it all, even with the casting choices and gender changes from the original.

I’ve never gotten used to the whole seizure inducing, stomach rolling, jittery camera technique. I have no idea what it adds to the storytelling, but hey what do I know, I’m just a consumer of the product, I’m not a visionary producer or something.

Overall, after staying with this slowly dying show for four years, I can’t help feeling like they never really advanced the show from the original 1979 version. Last vestiges of humanity looking for Earth. We got lots of fraks (but oddly few felgercarbs) to make us all grin like adolescent schoolboys who got away with a thinly veiled fart joke. We got to see some smootching and flirting and almost interesting sexual innuendo scenes. We got to see a few more flying around and shooting things scenes (but again with the stomach rolling camera movements). But how did the story really advance. OK, we got the ‘skin job’ Cylons, but that’s just a way around having to spend some money on CG or guys-in-costume Cylons. Personally I still think the original “By your command” Cylon voice is far more interesting than all the nearly naked Six and Eight views.

I think we had a lot more material in looking at the Cylon society from the first series – which was never really played out but could have been interesting and a good metaphor about authoritarian structures verses democratic ones, etc. Instead we got “the final five” who somehow used to be super geniuses who built up the entire ‘new’ Cylon race, but are now just drunken, lovesick, addled members of the fugitive fleet.

Oh, and by the way, the original series never really figured out if the Cylons were our machines who rebelled, or an alien race of machines who rebelled. The new series “our mistakes made this problem” is just so much more 1960’s ‘down with the man’ retread.

The whole “Earth is poisoned so let’s move on” thing just seemed like a cheap way of not satisfying the viewers and not having to deal with the whole “are they in the future or are they the Chariots of the Gods” angle. I noticed the new series started out leaning heavily on Glen Larson’s original Egyptian theme, switched over to some Greek and Roman themes, then just dropped it all. At least Stargate SG-1 did a better job of explaining the old gods of the past.

I’m glad and grateful for the DVR technology that lets me speed through the episodes, especially this last season, hunting for a few moments of interesting or relevant dialogue.

Will I watch the finale. Actually I’ll record it and yes I’ll sit down and try to pick through it for something interesting. But I’m just as glad it is ending. They’ve been stretching out the last few good ideas for almost 3 years now and filling in with mind-numbing angst-ridden dialogue.

Thanks for reviving the series just to show how dead-end it really was.

How the Netbook is changing the industry

noreply@blogger.com (TekMgt) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:45:00 +0000

I own a netbook and it is really as good as they say. It does everything I need, weighs nothing compared to a laptop, and unlike what the article says, runs Vista Ultimate like a champion.

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks?currentPage=all

If you’re wondering what netbook I use: