I've been working with big companies in one form or another for 2 decades. The number of times I've seen pure, unadulterated genius in decision-making, is few and far between. Much, much, much more likely that genius gets a chance to see daylight at a small company. For all sorts of reasons.

But this isn't a rant. This is a foot-stomping, hand-clapping, head-shaking kudos to NBC. That big network television dinosaur.

Why? Because they let me get 4 free pilots: Bionic Woman, Chuck, Life, and Journeyman on my Tivo.

Not when they're broadcast. But NOW. For FREE. I'm watching them tonight. With no commercials. Find out more here: http://www.tivo.com/mytivo/domore/movieandtvdownloads/freepilots.html

This is simply elegant and breath-taking; I'm very impressed that someone (a) thought of it, (b) got it approved by senior management, and (c) actually DID it. I can list all the reasons why this is genius, but I'm sure you can too.

Amazon Unbox. Unreal. I ordered them here, from the office, and they'll be waiting for me on my friendly Tivo when I'm done playing tennis and sitting down for dinner with a glass of wine. I'm gonna start loving TV again...

It's been over six months, so I will likely soon abort this blog. I just can't find myself getting excited about new consumer products. The big guys are doing flankers and brand extensions ad nauseum, and living in Evergreen, Colorado is not conducive to some ballsy folks doing limited market launches to prove demand. If someone knows of a way to see more consumer products, I'm all ears as my life here in the Rockies is very mundane...

So, I'm resorting to higher-tech innovation that is simply genius. To whit: Amazon Unbox. Simply the most enjoyable experience on television since the original Tivo.

Want to watch a show? Or a movie? Don't want to leave your house? Rent it. And have it downloaded to your Tivo. In minutes. Order from your office, order from the UAL Red Carpet Club. And when you're home, it's happily sitting there, on your Tivo, with no commercials. TV shows are $2 and movies are the same as anywhere else -- $4 on average (methinks).

I'm a new fan of Heroes, and Amazon Unbox has made it all possible. I download a couple at a time, watch them with SuperShar, and we're done with the episode in 43 minutes. The time savings, alone, is worth $2 to me per episode. Sheesh, if I'm not worth $8 an hour (saved 15 minutes I can/should bill to someone else), I have really big problems. Even if I Tivo it live and skip commercials, I can only get down to 50 minutes if I'm superman w/ the remote. So this is a no brainer since I'm easily worth $16 an hour. If you doubt it, try to hire me for less :)

Next up: disconnect my cable service in my vacation home, and just buy what I want to watch when I'm there. I save money, watch what I want at a fine resolution, and I'm happy as a clam.

If you have Tivo, this is a must try. If you don't have Tivo, hang tight. I'm sure others will follow. This is the future of television. And it will be blogs that tell me what to watch :)

While I'm striving to find killer consumer products, kick-ass Internet and high-tech products that change my life are worthy of blogging. I don't know about you, but many great thoughts occur to me in the car. At least I'm convinced at the time they're great... Sometimes they're just "to-dos". But either way, if I don't capture them in the moment, they're lost forever. Until I think of them again. Usually too late...

I used to love sending emails to myself to remind me of my brilliance.

But when I almost literally crashed and burned, I decided that typing with fingers on a Crackberry or Crackjack while driving is just plain stupid. One of my goals for 2007 is to be less stupid (uh, more intelligent? Perhaps just not stupid then...)

Jott.com has changed my life. I call with a speed-dial to a number. And I leave a voicemail. They transcribe it and send it to me via email. In plain text (with a link to audio if I'm so obtuse they can't convert me to text). In theory, I can even Jott to my wife or my business partners. But that would likely annoy them...

Check it out. Change your life. Save yourself from yourself while driving...

Anyone out there? I'm embarrassed it's been 4 months since my last post. While atom-based consumer products tempered by a 60 day holding period may move slowly, that's no excuse for waiting 120 days...

So, without further ado, I hereby pledge to update (or kill) this blog in the next 60 days ;)

So here's the new product of the 4th quarter: Chef'n Switchit Dual Ended Large Spatula.

You can sometimes find this on Amazon or just google the thing. If you cook, at all, this is the best spatula out there. I'm a morning eggs guy sometimes, and this is the best spatula I've ever used for scrambled eggs... I love it... I just bought the Chef'n Switchit Batter Spatula and I'll keep you posted...

So when you've got 9 PCs across homes and offices, you get pretty good at figuring out what software you really use and need to install. While this blog is high-tech light, I get asked enough about "what do you use on your PC" that I figured a simple dump could be useful. I've pared it down the essentials. :) In no particular order:

Skype - I'm a complete convert. Skype-to-skype is better than any phone call, Skype-out and skype-in work great. Essentially my business phone line now rings on whatever PC I'm working at (home, vacation home, office), and I /never/ have to use call forwarding... Genius...

Activewords - whether it's signature lines, handy keyboard shortcuts for programs, or commonly used phrases, if you're a keyboard shortcut fan, this is the best thing going for PCs. Has saved me hours and many brain cells.

Textpad - I've learned that when it's time to focus on quality of writing (or when I want to go fast), dumbing it down to a plain text writer does wonders for limiting the amount of time I waste trying to make a document "pretty" and jerking around with formatting and fonts. I estimate I'm 50% faster and 200% better when I start writing in plain text. Nothing like cold, hard text staring you in the face to tell you when you've written crap.

Snagit - Screen capture heaven. This is one of those apps that once you start using, you can't imagine how you lived without it. To the clipboard, a file, the printer, you name it, if it's on your screen somewhere, this will grab it (including scrolling windows, timed capture, video capture, etc.) and output it.

Stuffit - simply the fastest, most flexible, best file compression tool for the PC I've found. Whether it's been compressed on a Mac, PC, or Unix box, this sucker will open it and expand it.

Groove - an incredible way to share files across PC and to collaborate with small, trusted groups (on PCs) with some great collaboration tools. Best part of Groove is that it syncs everything to local folders and on your hard drive, so it works on airplanes. I couldn't work without it.

Picasa - simple and straightforward image archive. Fast and sweet.

Mindmanager - when you want to visualize a problem, some thinking, or a conversation, a bulleted list often breaks down and imposes vertical structure onto your thinking. Which implies priority. Not always a good thing. This is a great visualization tool that creates branch and tree bubbles. Love it!

Microsoft Desktop Search - I love this magical little tool. I no longer worry where I've filed something since I can always find it in seconds with just a few keystrokes.

Connected - even with multiple copies of my files scattered around, you always need a good remote storage service. These guys rock.

FTP Voyager - I love how simple and good this program is. Profiles, background transferring, etc.

TuneUp 2006 - I'm no longer the uber-geek I once was, but my sense is that this little program keeps my PC working faster and better by cleaning out all the gunk that used to slow down my boxes...

Office - I use MSFT Office on the main boxes and Open Office on the secondary and tertiary boxes. If you don't need office docs with high frequency, Open Office is surprisingly good. Not so good for fancier formatting... I use Outlook Live for contacts and calendar.

If you have favorite software I haven't listed above, please tell me about it. Near-future post will be my online sites...

I've been living in the digital music world for over a decade. I still recall the days of '99 when the whole concept of WinAmp and "skins" first came onto the scene. My music was all ripped, and it could go wherever my laptop went. And then, of course, the whole iPod craze and the iTunes store was incredible.

But nothing has changed my music listening life as much as Squeezebox (originally the SlimP3 player) and their SlimServer. Despite my love of my PCs (I have 9 of them scattered through my homes and offices), nothing is like music playing through real stereo speakers (not to mention a real stereo). And this is what a Squeezebox does -- it accesses your music files on any of your PCs or Macs and connects via RCA or optical plugs to your regular amp. Glorious, wonderful sound without the need to select a CD on your jukebox or whatever. Control it with a remote, or from any PC on the network. Tres cool.

But the magic moment in 2006 was when Squeezebox integrated Pandora into the system. You don't need a Squeezebox to see the magic of Pandora, but that's when it really shines. Pandora is based on the music genome project, which essentially tags over 10k songs with over 200 attributes. And you build up to 100 of your own "radio stations" by saying what kind of music you like. Much, much better than collaborative/social ranking/AI stuff that Yahoo Music Engine and others have tried. And you get to tune and improve it over time. Try it out at www.pandora.com (and see my stations at http://www.pandora.com/people/john.funk)

The cool thing about Squeezebox + Pandora is that with one box I get all the music I already know I love, and for like $36 a year I get to listen to (and discover) all sorts of new music that I never would have heard any other way but have a high probability of liking since it's the "type" of music I already know I like...

You can google both of these services to your heart's content and buy them (or not). My goal in this blog is to make you aware of great things; not to dissect, diagram, review, or compare.

My next wish is to be able to "archive" a bunch of my Pandora stations on a USB stick (or whatever simple flash medium is appropriate) and just plug it into my car stereo... I know I can hack it, but it would be neat to just push a button and make it so...

I discovered Nokian tires when I started asking around for the best snow tires in the world. The answer from those who had a reason to know was consistently Nokian (out-scoring Blizzak by a reasonable margin). As we head into fall in Colorado, snow is not too distant (likely first snowfall in less than 30 days).

I have been absolutely delighted with my Nokkian Hakka tires our on Caddilac SRX and am going to buy a set for my Audi S6 this fall (likely their new all season ones). If you need snow tires (or all-seasons), check these tires out...

I love making breakfast for my family and for guests. Something about the smell of fresh waffles and the wow factor of big and deep Belgian waffles makes for a great start to a day of biking, skiing, golf, or just hanging out.

The Waring Pro is tops -- the best trick is after you put in the mix, you spin it upside down just like a professional chef. Next time you want to cook for your family or friends, use this beauty. And don't forget to buy special Belgian Waffle mix (we like the Preferred Select brand) as you want them to be light and fluffy on the inside...

http://www.amazon.com/Waring-Pro-WMK300-Belgian/dp/B00009K3SY