TechLore - Mind Over Matt'er

What Ever Happened to the Basic Audio Tower?

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:20:59 GMT

Since the day my child was born, I knew I'd inevitably have to take measures to protect my home theater gear once she was mobile enough to press buttons and turn knobs. My taste in style has always been what I would call "understated contemporary," meaning plain, simple, and functional. I'll also admit I have little desire to spend a fortune on something that holds my A/V components. I'd rather buy new gear. My prior solution was the pinnacle of cheap, yet functional. Many of my components are stacked on top of my big 55" CRT rear-pro HDTV, while the others are stacked neatly under my left and right speakers using a stackable desktop wire shelf/organizer system I picked up at an office supply store. It doesn't support the bulk of my larger components, like my 65 pound receiver, but it does handle my light weight devices like my cable box, DVR, DVD player, component width surge protector, and my VCR. On the right side, I've used the same shelving to house several game consoles. I think I spent twenty-five bucks in total for my current solution, and it has performed far better than expected for over 8 years. Unfortunately,...

Google Voice Rejection Ignites FCC Probe Into AT&T/Apple iPhone Exclusivity Agreement

Matt Whitlock — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:17:42 GMT

Earlier this evening, word spread that the Federal Communications Commission is investigating Apple and AT&T regarding the recent rejection of Google's Voice application for the iPhone. At the heart of this investigation is the very nature of the exclusivity agreement between AT&T and Apple, and whether or not that agreement is hurting consumers, limiting choice, and hindering innovation. According to reports, the FCC sent a letter to each of the three involved companies, in which contain all of the tough questions Slingbox owers have been asking since the SlingPlayer app for iPhone was apparently stripped of any ability to use AT&T's 3G network in order to be approved. Here are just a few of the tough questions being asked: Does AT&T play a hand in which apps ultimately get approved? Does Apple and AT&T have standing contracts or agreements in regards to what apps can use the AT&T 3G network? What are the standards for considering and approving iPhone applications? Do any devices that operate on AT&T’s network allow use of other applications that have been rejected for the iPhone? There are more... a whole lot more. TechCrunch managed to obtain copies of the three letters and posted them on...

Xbox LIVE Should Never Be "Down" for Maintenance

Matt Whitlock — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:29:59 GMT

A few days ago, Microsoft took the entire Xbox LIVE Service down for around 24 hours to complete scheduled maintenance and perform upgrades. Sounds innocent enough, but for a paid service like LIVE, I'm finding it more and more difficult to accept these scheduled downtimes. Xbox LIVE is no longer a niche service for hardcore gamers to frag each other in HALO 2. Today it's the backbone to an entertainment experience that families, moms, dads, and kids rely on. Now, I'm a reasonable guy. I understand that systems like LIVE, which are always being pushed to their limit, need maintenance, patches, and expansions. However, Microsoft's approach needs to change; they need to ensure a basic level of service for all their paid customers. What do they need to do exactly? 1. Tell Users Xbox LIVE is Down for Maintenance on Their Console I'm not even sure why I have to suggest this. On Tuesday I attempted to connect to the LIVE service, and of course, it failed. My Xbox told me I have a problem with my Internet connection, apparently my router or the gateway has an incorrect MTU setting. I know that's not true, but I did waste 10-15...

Matt's Tech Law #5 - Filter Your Own Spam Without Punishing Others

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:10:02 GMT

Spam. It's the e-mail you don't want, but is sent to you anyway. In fact, Spam has been around since before the Internet and e-mail became mainstream. They even celebrated the 30th birthday of the first known Spam message last year. I've been able to watch the evolution of Spam fighting techniques over the years, and while I understand the need for inbox protection from nefarious spammers, I'm fed up with the laziness of e-mail users. More and more I find myself being challenged to send someone an e-mail. I fire off an e-mail, and you send be back something automated that makes click through to a website and pass a Captcha (the box with a picture of letters, words or numbers that look scrambled where you have to recognize it and enter it into a box), fill out a form, or reply to some automated e-mail by sending you another e-mail. The latter I find hilarious I have to send two e-mails to get one through? Actually, what I really want to do is have my spam filter send a challenge to their spam filter to prove that it's a real spam filter before my spam filter lets me...

See Ya Firefox, I'm Switching Back to Internet Explorer

Matt Whitlock — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:50:41 GMT

Yep. You read that right. I know, everywhere else you're reading that Firefox is soooo much better, and that people are switching to it in droves. For me that was three years ago, but now I'm going back. I'll admit that I don't rag on Microsoft anywhere near as much as other people do. I just don't hate them merely because they're big and control the majority marketshare of desktop and notebooks PCs worldwide, nor do I despise them because Mac people say I should. That doesn't mean I "love" everything Microsoft does or every product they make. For example, one thing I idn't like was Internet Explorer, which (at the time I originally switched to Firefox) had stagnated at version 6 for quite some time. And I didn't look back... even when Microsoft (finally) added things like tabbed browsing in IE 7. I was happy with Firefox, and though I've used IE for various things over the past few years, it's never been my browser of choice... until today. I'm doing something I never thought I'd do.... I'm switching back to Internet Explorer. More specifically, Internet Explorer 8. I'm doing it for one reason, crash recovery . Not 30...

Apple: 'A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want.' Huh?

Matt Whitlock — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:56:25 GMT

Apple finally responded to Microsoft's latest ad campaign for Windows, which shows various fake shoppers walk through the computer buying process, and finally settling on Windows PCs made by HP. I don't want to get too off topic here, but while the MS ads are obviously scripted and fake, I do think they are accurately highlighting the computer shopping experience for many consumers. Macs are expensive, and if the OS isn't what you're shopping for, you'll definitely get a much wider variety of hardware and price points to choose from on the PC side. Apple's comment took me back a bit. "A PC is no bargain when it doesn't do what you want." It's a pretty stupid comment if you ask me. Other than run OS X, name one thing a Mac can do that a PC can't . Go ahead. Hit me in the comments area...