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01/28/10
Is the iPad a joke? An experiment to see how superfluous a product Apple fanboys are willing to buy?
OK. Let's say I want to:
1. Browse the web. I can do that with a cell phone- that fits in my pocket, and that I, and any potential iPad owners, already have.
2. Watch flash video. Nope. Can't do that. My less expensive laptop can. my Droid will soon be able to.
Motorola DROID A855 Phone (Verizon Wireless)
3. Read an ebook. I can do that on my phone and/or laptop (which together are less expensive than the iPad). But, then again, why would I want to read a whole book on an LED screen? The Kindle and Nook have "e-ink" screens which are specially made for long reading sessions. Instead of banning transfats, people should ban iPads.
And, the Kindle and nook books are cheaper! Am I missing something?
Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
Barnes and Noble NOOK ebook reader
4. Take pictures. uh uh. Can do that with laptop or phone.
5. Video chat. No.
6. Work. Well, I can take a keyboard with me. Woops, there goes the portability. I can use real, grown-up apps or Google Docs on my laptop mini.
7. Make a presentation. Limited to 640 resolution. Need to carry some extra stuff.
8. Move stuff around. I need the dock. No USB or SD card. Seriously.
9. Find something. No GPS.
10. Do two things at once? Ha! No multitasking.
11. Impress squid friends for 90 minutes. Yes!
12. Look like a total dweeb to people who actually do useful stuff. Success!
01/21/10
SBR-02E1S-U Bd-rom 2X USB2.0 Galaxy Blue
Every time a new optical disc technology emerges, products related to it become interesting: One reads reviews, investigates features, considers the price. For a while, and then the drives commoditize and nobody cares. I remember agonizing over which CD burner to get. Then, I spent $300 dollars for a DVD burner that burned both + and - (!). Now, it's more complicated to buy a mouse than a DVD burner. I don't think they even sell cd burners anymore.
Blu-ray is the latest optical technology. Blu-ray isn't a huge deal for me, but it only costs a couple bucks more to get Blu-ray discs on Netflix, and if I ever do purchase a movie, it will be Blu-ray.
Another change has been the emergence of the multi-PC home. In the Asymmetric household, we have a desktop running the TV in the living room. The kids use that one. My wife and I each have our own laptops.
We bought a Sony BDUX10S internal Blu-ray reader for the desktop. It worked well. Not every Netflix shipment is kid-friendly, however, and my wife wanted to see some of the movies on her laptop.
Sony BDUX10S SATA Blu-ray Disc-ROM Drive (Internal)
I needed to buy an external Blu-ray drive. The only reason this review is slightly interesting is because one really can't be sure if Blu-ray will work on their computer. One's PC has to have a compatible video card (My wife's Intel 4500 MHD video on her Dell Vostro 1320 qualifies, the "HD" standing for "High definition.") and a 2 GHZ or thereabouts processor, amongst other issues. You have have the benefit of my three hours of research below:
There are surprisingly few models available, maybe having to do with the cost of tech support. I disqualified the expensive ones that burn (as opposed to just reading) Blu-ray, as I didn't anticipate using that feature.
The portable readers I investigated were pretty cheap, under $150.00. A caution here: Many of them don't come with software. Blu-ray will not play on Media Center or any free player, and purchasing the software separately can be as expensive as the drive itself.
I chose the Asus SBR-02E1S-U. It comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD. It's an attractive shiny black and can set up to operate horizontally or vertically. It's different then some of the other drives in that it doesn't run completely off of the USB bus- you have to use an AC adapter. This fact is more comforting than an annoyance to me. If Asus engineers felt the need to require AC power, they must have had a good reason. Who am I to argue? I also noticed that some people on Amazon complain about other drives not working well under USB power.
The most important thing is that it works. After a software update, I successfully saw a Superman cartoon, both of the watchable Batman movies, and Independence Day ( I doubt the 100Mhz Powermac in the movie could have played Blu-ray). It worked so well, that I'm selling the internal Sony and sharing the Asus player with all three computers in my house.
Another question I had was whether the VGA connector (also RGB connector, D-sub 15, mini sub D15, and mini D15 connector) would be able to export the Blu-ray image to an external monitor (my wife's computer doesn't have DVI). It works fine, for now. Movie studios can turn on ICT copy protection which would require blu-ray to play through a digital connection meeting that DRM standard, and then we'd be sunk.
I doubt that this would happen, however. Media companies are rarely that inconsiderate.
01/06/10
My latest article on Technorati. Please visit.
I have an article on Technorati. Check it out here.
01/01/10
Acer H233H bmid 23-Inch Widescreen LCD Display (Black)
Acer X233H bd 23-Inch Widescreen LCD Display - Black
This monitor has been a source of conflict in our home. My wife and I each have laptops (I use it for important things, like Dragon Age and bringing important world events to your attention; and my wife piddles around, selling stuff on eBay and communicating with her family). On a lark (what's a lark? why would I be on one? why would it encourage irresponsibility?), I decided to buy a monitor. Well, now we fight over who gets to connect their internet rig to it.
The monitor:
It's truly a wonderful experience going from the 14" screen on my E6400 or 13" on my wife's Vostro to a large monitor. Everything's bigger, brighter. Since we use our computers for watching TV and movies, the extra size is especially welcome.
The Acer's a very solid monitor. It's full 1080P and 16:9, ideal for Hi-def movies. I like the semi-touch controls. It has Digital (DVI- with HDCP), HDMI and standard analog VGA inputs so you can hook up your Blu-ray player, but not your old VCR or portable media player (like mine, below).
IOGear GMD2025U 120 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)
I like that it's a matte screen, as the new, low-energy light on the ceiling would make viewing impossible otherwise.
I got the one with the speakers. The sound from my laptop is better than the Acers' so plan on using external speakers. There's also one with USB ports. It arrived with no dead or stuck pixels and all necessary cables.
The International Academy of Digital Arts and Science (IADAS), home of the Webby Awards, chose the ten-best web moments of the 2000s. It's a good approach to take, to concentrate just past the primordial websosphere, since a complete survey of the internet would have dwelt on such wheel-and-fire-level developments as email, Navigator, the first online forum, newsgroups, Drudge, etc.
I thought it would be fun to list the ten best web sites of the 2000s. The criteria? I use them every day, in most cases. A couple I don't, but recognize those sites' influence. I avoided sites that promote piracy, which are really variations of a trend that started in the 90s with Napster anyways. Online dating grew in the 2000s. Again, a practice that started in the 90s.
1. Wikipedia.
Every technological advancement brings benefits and harms. Whatever derision the Internet may receive, there are two undeniable society-wide benefits to that vast series of electronic tubes: information and communication.
The king of online information is Wikipedia. Online encyclopedias like Encarta and Britannica have been around since the nineties. Wiki holds its own against those established info-peddlers. It's Wiki’s user-generated content that makes it stand out. Wikipedia has in-depth articles on important but unjustly-ignored subjects like Stargate. Does Britannica have a picture of weapons-grade Naqahdah? Want to find the third song on Debarge’s second album (“I Like It”)? No problem.
Stargate SG-1: The Complete Series Collection
Some people deride Wikipedia as an unreliable collection of yahoo-generated ephemera. My experience has been different. It's well-written and factual, in most cases. It's also pretty fair, politically and world-view-wise, which makes ideology-based imitators like Conservapedia, ridiculous crybabies.
2. eBay.
True-life situation:
I’m a squid (nerd, to the layman). I got deep into James Bond for about six exhilarating months in 2002, reading all of the books and watching the movies. One of the items mentioned in the books is a Ronson lighter. I don’t smoke, but I’m a squid: I must have one.
James Bond Ultimate Collector's Set
Pre-eBay:
I go to garage sales, look in papers or the yellow pages. Cost: gallons of gas, hours of time. Probably wouldn’t get what I wanted. Surely, wouldn’t if I lived in a small town or another country.
Post-eBay:
Search, buy, happy squid.
My wife and I have sold hundreds of things on eBay, some of which would have ended up in the trash.
Bottom line: The time saved lets you spend more time with your product and it's good for the environment.
2b. Paypal.
Now we can bypass greedy credit card companies and pay fees to other greedy people.
3. Youtube.
Like all of the services in this list, I didn't understand what Youtube quite was when I heard about it, nor did I anticipate using it. Well, at least a half hour a day, now. My friend Noel was the first person to show me a youtube video. I think it was late 2006 or early 2007. He's into Call of Cthulhu and wanted me to see this video.
H. P. Lovecraft: Tales (Library of America) by H. P. Lovecraft
4. Amazon.
Sells everything. Good service, prices. Interactive, with many competent reviews and instructive playlists. DRM-free mp3s. I can see myself using the movie service. I've also sold stuff online when I was too lazy for a full eBay write-up. When/if I get a Kindle, I'll spend even more time on it.
Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
5. Daily Kos.
The Huffington Post has since surpassed it in popularity, but The Daily Kos was the one that started the blog craze. It spoke for a large group of people and served as a gathering place for a large community of like-minded individuals. It birthed the term "netroots" and held real, as opposed to virtual, gatherings called "Netroots Nation."
6. Facebook/Myspace.
These two services basically do the same thing. I've included both because while Myspace was first, Facebook has more momentum, at least with people over 17. They extended the blog format to allow participants to find and acquire "friends," keeping each connected to each other and automatically updated of their goings-on.
Being mostly interested in my blog, I don't use Facebook often; however, it can do something impossible otherwise: connect me to friends of whom I only remember a name or graduating class.
Sarah Palin's "death panels" comment signaled that Facebook had become a serious influencer. Rapes, murders, suicides, child molestation, and various crimes seared social networking sites into the consciousness of even non-techies.
7. Craig's list.
I used a site called Recycler to sell things that were impractical to send over the mail, like my brother's motorcycles. Craigslist's taken off and rendered that site and the newspaper classifieds obsolete.
8. Netflix.
Another service that's greatly enriched my life. I tend to only watch movies once** so a movie collection would be a complete waste. Renting takes time and resources, if you can even find what you want. Enter Netflix. Everything I could ever want to watch- documentaries, drama, comedy- and some I don't, just a couple of days away. Could anybody have imagined such a thing just 30 years ago?
Netflix has rebuffed challenges from Walmart, Blockbuster, and disposable DVD formats like Flexplay, DVD-D and EZ-d. The former never had the homey feel of Netflix and the disposable DVDs were just dumb. Blu-ray and on-demand content will keep Netflix relevant for years to come.
**Exceptions for Lord of the Rings (Extended, of course), Star Wars, and a few others.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Editions) [Blu-ray]
9. World of Warcraft.
Not a website, exactly, but influential. It's wasted more time for more men than anything since pyramid-building. It proved the viability of MMORPG and gave the green light to X-Box and Playstation gaming.
10. Google.
Google revolutionized search by ranking pages by "authority," how many other sites link to it, rather than their repetition of keywords. It's continued to grow, adding the marvelous Earth in 2005, tools that I incorporate into my classroom like Google Docs, and stuff for almost every web task one can imagine- all for free.
It's hard to imagine that the 10s will have as many breakthroughs as the pre-tens.
Tags: best internet sites, best websites ever, websites12/20/09
I bought my wife a Vostro 1320, which reproduces audio worse than my son's old crib mobile. Turned all the way up, Youtube is barely audible. DVDs? Forget it. If my wife wanted to maintain her routine of watching El Gordo y la Flaca while cooking for her devoted husband, she needed external speakers. The Logitech USB V-20s I have didn't seem the right solution considering that she uses her laptop all over the house and on different furniture- kitchen, sofa, bed, as well as the desk.
Logitech V20 Notebook Speakers (Black)
Husband to the rescue! (Technology is a plot by men to stay relevant to women)
Criteria: The speakers had to be of one piece and USB or battery powered. Mini-plug (3.5mm), USB, and Bluetooth were all acceptable connections: The miniplug allows one to use the speakers with cell phones and iPods. I didn't want the miniplug and USB combo- too many wires. Bluetooth was cool as it would have allowed my wife to take a call and use the device as a speakerphone. She could also have placed the speakers anywhere and listened to music with the computer in another room.
Fire up Amazon.
Tags: extreme, sound bite extreme, soundbite
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