Tequila Technology Ramblings

Format wars speculation

2006-03-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

Although speculation gets us nowhere in the end, it's rather enjoyable. The format wars are quickly approaching, and the rumors are starting to heat up. Many believe that Sony's Blu-Ray is the cause behind their PS3 launch date getting pushed back. This comes with speculation that the Blu-Ray standard is difficult to manage. Microsoft's decision to incorporate HD-DVD was apparently partly due to this problem (although you should take that with a grain of salt). However, if HD-DVD comes out with a lower price point, and earlier, it will have a huge advantage. Between the two formats, there is not enough differentiation to justify higher prices. So although on paper Blu-Ray may hold some advantages, the consumer doesn't necessarily understand or care.

Right now I give the edge to HD-DVD.

Computer Prices

2006-02-22T13:50:00.000-05:00

Short random thought for everyone, but isn't it amazing how inexpensive computers have gotten? You can get a fairly good desktop for around $500 now.

Simply amazing

RIAA is Run by Idiots

2006-02-16T16:56:00.000-05:00

Now they're changing their minds again. They're currently attempting to tell people that ripping their cds onto their computers for use on their portable media players is against the copyright and is piracy. I'd like to see them try and enforce this. I'm under the impression that once I pay for a song, I have the rights to use that song in any way I please. If I want to make 18 copies so that every single room in my house and every compartment in my car has a copy that's my business.

The RIAA needs someone to give them a sanity check. Either someone there has been smoking crack, or they've completely lost their minds and should be thrown into an asylum.

Ridiculous.

Sorry, I've been distracted....

2006-02-15T16:10:00.000-05:00

By my new Google Chat integrated into my e-mail account. Seriously, this thing is cool. Google might have out done themselves this time. However cool this product is, will it backfire? The move is clearly an attempt to enter the IM market to compete with Yahoo! and AIM. Google also hopes to enter the VoIP market through their chat interface. My question remains though, will adding chat to their email end up working against the company?

The answer isn't simple. I think they will lose a lot of their email "customers". Adding chat to their gmail application may mean more companies will be banning the gmail site from usage by employees. As an email website only it may have been allowed, but with chat integration it may be seen as too much of a time waster and thus blocked by the corporate powers. However, Google will also see a lot more people using their chat than ever before. The usage statistics will be skewed, since most people viewing their inboxes will show up online regardless of whether they are chatting or not.

All told I think it's a good move by Google.

PS3 to do everything?

2006-02-10T10:50:00.000-05:00

Recent stories about the PS3 (BusinessWeek article) talk about the capabilities of the upcoming console that Sony hopes will revive their consumer electronics business. The linked article asks the question, "Is Sony trying to do too much?" This is in fact a difficult question, their console sounds like it's trying to do a lot, at a low cost. Microsoft's console price and resulting money loss is well documented. If Sony sells their console for $350-$400 as expected, how much money will they lose on each console? And if people use their console as a media center and not just a gaming center, will they be able to sell enough software to make up for any losses? And furthermore, is the 1 year head start by Microsoft's Xbox 360 enough to limit sales of the new console?

Sony has a lot of questions concerning the launch of this console. I'm curious to see how things will play out.

Blu Ray prices

2006-02-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

With the recent announcement of Blu-Ray prices comes a wave of backlash. The supporters of this new technology seem to feel it's a fair premium to pay for high definition content. Those who oppose the technology take the stance that it's expensive.

My take? Clearly I'm pro-BR. It would be great if the prices weren't so high, at an expected $30/movie I won't be running out to get my entire collection in HD. I'd really like to see how these things look before I start pumping money into them. If it's amazing as it could be, I'll probably get my favorite 6 movies in HD, and then wait for prices to drop for movies that I care less about. The price doesn't bother me much, it's too high, but this shouldn't be a big surprise to anyone.

Slow Day in Technology

2006-02-08T15:44:00.000-05:00

Slow day today in terms of technology news. Just an interesting comment is that I watch the major tech blogs (Gizmodo, TechDirt, Slashdot, Engadget) daily, and it's amazing how much they watch each other. Articles propagate through them very quickly.

Just a random thought today.

Google Chat

2006-02-07T10:52:00.000-05:00

As many of you have already seen, Google has added its chat logs to their email service. Coming soon they apparently will allow for chatting inside the gmail window. The logging feature is a good one, but nothing groundbreaking. Chatting inside the email interface... now that is a neat idea. I think part of the reason Google Chat hasn't caught on is that many people don't want to download another application. Those who are running AIM use that, Windows Messenger users have their application, and Yahoo Messenger has theirs. There are a number of users who combine these services with Trillian or GAIM. However, with Google Chat you would lose many of their features by doing so. Nevertheless, I think this is a good first step for Google to take in order to start getting a larger share of the chat user base.

Super Bowl Monday

2006-02-06T11:20:00.000-05:00

Hope you all enjoyed your Super Bowl Sunday and are recovering nicely on Super Bowl Monday. The game itself wasn't exactly a thriller, and the commercials were fairly disappointing as well. However, it was still the biggest television event of the year. The clear winner is FedEx, their caveman commercial was hilarious. A close second goes to the numerous Bud Light ads (the one with the bear was hilarious). Ameriquest did a good job with their don't judge too quickly gags.

Frivolous iTunes lawsuit

2006-02-03T14:37:00.000-05:00

This really got me going yesterday. So angry I had to wait until today to write about it. Some dimwit is suing Apple because their iPod damaged their hearing. Their claim is that it's too loud and there's no warning. There is a warning, but that's besides the point.

It's not like the thing comes with the volume defaulted to max. If you're dumb enough to listen to your music too loud you deserve hearing loss. Next people will be suing Metallica for their concerts being too loud. It's Metallica, they're going to play loud music. Deal with it. People's need to pass their problems on to corporations makes me sick. You slipped on ice outside McDonalds, it's not McDonalds' fault. It's yours, you slipped. Get over it. Everything cannot possibly come with a warning label. The entire world will be covered with them.

I hope this suit gets dropped. It's an insult to the American court system and a waste of taxpayer dollars. People want taxes to go down, stop wasting our time with this crap.

Cisco to acquire Nintendo?

2006-02-02T11:45:00.000-05:00

I saw CNET spinning this rumor, which of course made its way to the blogs (gaming and technology). This one seems a bit far out there. Cisco, a company which only touches the consumer space through their acquisition of Linksys, really has no experience in the consumer electronics market. Even Linksys is selling devices that allow internet access, not utilize it. Yes, the new Nintendo Revolution is supposed to use the internet in a completely new way, however, I don't see this happening or making much sense if it does happen.

A better move for Cisco would be to enter the consumer electronics space in an area in which their expertise would be useful, perhaps in the set top internet TV market which is still ripe for the picking. They could also be the first ones to get the whole home audio streaming through the house right. Plenty of companies have tried, but none have succeeded to my knowledge.

I'll keep an eye on this rumor, however I don't think there's much to it.

Portable Video

2006-02-01T11:25:00.000-05:00

Although this won't come to a surprise to anyone, the next content to be made portable is video. More and more video is available online and can be downloaded. Portable players are able to have larger hard drives, bigger screens, and long battery life. It's only a matter of time before portable video is a reality. However, it most likely won't be the first product that comes to market. If you recall the way the music industry worked, the first players were large and bulky, had mediocre power life, and had unwieldy interfaces. We'll most likely see a lot of the same until one company gets it right. For music, it happened to be Apple. The iPod just hit the problem square on the head and remains the best product out there in my opinion. I'm extremely interested to see who ends up making a video product that does the same thing. Will it be Apple again, or maybe Microsoft this time. Perhaps it will be a startup company, or even a PC manufacturer. No matter who ends up getting it right, I have great anticipation for the new products.

Good Blonde Joke

2006-01-31T14:26:00.000-05:00

This site usually isn't meant for good jokes, but this one is pretty good so I couldn't resist:
Link

Format Wars Getting Closer...

2006-01-31T11:02:00.000-05:00

Another step has been taken bringing us closer to the format wars: Amazon has pre-orders listed on their website for HD DVD and Blu-Ray content. Still a very limited selection of movies and products, but a very promising start. It will be interesting to see how big of a difference the new formats make in picture quality. As I mentioned yesterday, the quality of the Xbox 360 is stunning, so I can only guess how amazing movies will look in true HD (assuming we get to see it in that quality).

Although I won't be lining up to pre-order any of the new technology, I highly anticipate it's arrival and hope someone I know buys it... after all, it's going to be pretty amazing.

Xbox 360 Hands On

2006-01-30T09:50:00.000-05:00

The next-gen must-have console is truly a remarkable experience. Say what you want about shortages and hardware problems (I've experienced neither), this thing is amazing. The games look spectacular in HD, and the interface is very well done. One of the things I've really enjoyed about my system is the ability to stream media from a home PC. I have mine set up to stream both pictures and music. Last night I was playing around and set up a nice picture slideshow with some of my tunes playing in the background. Let me tell you, the 3 megapixel photos I shot look spectacular in full size on my HD TV. A lot of times I am in my apartment listening to music, now I can do so with a beautiful slideshow playing in the background.

This is just a small feature of a truly powerful console, but it's one that I am enjoying immensely.

Blog Statistics

2006-01-27T14:02:00.000-05:00

One of the aspects I've really enjoyed about writing for this blog is taking a peak at who is reading it. Right now, that's you. The amazing thing about the internet and technology is that it's quite easy to keep some basic statistics about web page visitors. One of the most interesting aspects is when international readers visit the site. I also am able to see what path they took to get there, which is a good way for an web site owner to check the effectiveness of their HTML Meta tags.

A lot of my traffic comes from other blogs in the Blogger network, most likely people who hit the "next blog" feature. Fairly interesting to see the variety of different subject matters that are in this domain. Also interesting is that I can even tell which company some people are visiting my site from if they are at work, since some companies have their own internet service.

Keeping track of site traffic is a good for any website, if I keep getting international visitors I will most likely start to try and cater to their tastes more. Knowing geographies can also be beneficial, as there are many regional issues that affect the technology world. I use stat counter for my statistics keeping, I highly recommend your checking them out if you have your own personal page.

Update on Microsoft

2006-01-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

According to BusinessWeek, Microsoft may be planning a portable device with the aim to unseat the iPod. Speculations are that the device won't be xbox branded, but may be able to play games.

Here's a link to the full article from BusinessWeek.

Not quite what I was expecting from Microsoft, however it's a very interesting move. Going after the iPod right now is a huge project, and they will definitely need some differentiation. Creating a combination gaming, video and music player should sound familiar, that's the PSP. The PSP has certainly seen great sales, but has not come close to competing with the iPod. This may be due to consumers avoiding it for various reasons; gamers don't want it because it has too many features and is expensive, pure media fans don't want it because it looks like a gaming machine. There's a large market that Sony may not be able to reach with their product for that reason.

However, if Microsoft can somehow create a device that appeals to its Xbox audience and the general media audience, they may be able to create some space for themselves and begin taking market share from the iPod. One of the main limitations of the iPod is its video playback, the screen is far too small to realistically watch movies. Video is indeed the next generation of content, if Microsoft can get in on the ground floor with a great product they could easily dominate that market.

The Xbox 360

2006-01-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

I've really enjoyed reading stories about the Xbox 360 and the pitfalls of the low availability. Yes, having a product that nobody can get is in fact a problem. However, can you remember a time when more people were talking about a product? The console is in the news all the time, whereas the PS3 and Revolution barely get any press at all. The "limited" availability has really only affected casual gamers and those without HD sets who'd prefer to wait. Everyone I know who is obsessed with the system has one by now. By limiting supply, M$ has actually increased the demand for their product. It's simple economics people. And it has worked brilliantly.

Another added bonus for Microsoft is that by offering limited quantities of their system, they have increased sales of the games and accessories. Many stores offer only huge bundles including 6 games. Best Buy had a bundle listed that include an HD television, which sold out by the way.

It's an interesting strategy, one that Microsoft is utilizing well since they currently have no next-generation competition.

Rant

2006-01-24T13:35:00.000-05:00

So I'm at a basketball game last night. Lots of fun, the home team won which is always a plus. They always have those "do you know the trivia answer" things, where if the fan gets it right he gets a player worn warmup suit. They ask the question and the crowd tries to get the answer. The crowd says "c", the dude's friends say "b", he says "the answer is b". The girl asking the question responds, "let me give you a hint...".

Ok, wait, stop right there. He guessed wrong. He doesn't get the prize. That's it, boom, done. Sorry, try again next time. But instead, he gets another shot and ends up winning the prize. This kind of thing just drives me insane. It's a mentality in our society that everyone is a winner. It needs to stop.

If this sounds familiar, it should. George Carlin has had a similar rant in one of his books and in his act. He's right. He's dead on right. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it raises kids to feel entitled to everything instead of making people think they have to work for things in life. It needs to stop. Our work ethic is diminishing, and people are becoming more and more rude.

End rant.

Stumble Around the Web

2006-01-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

We all know how much useless information there is on the web. We also know that there are countless pages up, many of which are interesting. Finding ones you might find interesting is daunting. Particularly since Google search results are so enormous (generally in the millions unless a very specific topic is queried) that it's hard to find what you're looking for.

StumbleUpon is a neat Firefox add in that lets you jump to a random page on the web that someone has flagged as being interesting. There are many categories available to choose from, so if comedy is your thing it can take you to a random site that someone has found funny. If you're more into photography you can find random photographers websites.

This has been a fun little tool to help pass the time when I've had free time, and I'm sure it can be useful as well. Definitely a good Firefox add in. Here's a link to their site for download and more information.

Reader Tip - EPOS

2006-01-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Thanks anonymous user for the great tip on EPOS. That technology is simply amazing, and very much makes having a tablet seem silly (particularly, as you said, since they are expensive). I can also see why this device got a lot of buzz at CES, although I'm surprised that the main tech blogs seemed to miss it (where were you Gizmodo and Engadget?). More about the technology behind their devices can be found here if you are interested.

Basically, their devices allow a pen or other device to be located with pinpoint accuracy. This means that it can be used with a normal laptop to transform it into a tablet style laptop, aka: write on the screen. It also can be used to write notes and transfer them to the computer without a special writing surface. This, I think, is one of the truly neat and intuitive features. Although I like having my notes saved forever on my computer to avoid clutter, I don't always like typing on a computer. This is particularly true if I need to diagram, arrange my notes, etc. Instead of messing around with cumbersome Microsoft applications, being able to draw a box and have it appear would be extremely useful.

I will definitely be looking to learn more about this product, and probably see where I can pick one up. Thanks for the tip!

What Happened to Tablets?

2006-01-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

Weren't tablet PCs supposed to be the next big things in the PC market? What happened to this trend? Maybe people realized that they really don't care about writing on their screen since they already have a keyboard and can type faster than they can write. Or perhaps the novelty was just overhyped by the media.

No matter what the reason is, this went from the hot product to have to being used only in certain professional areas (they're still great for doctors). Kind of puts everything into perspective.

When Will M$ Join the Fray?

2006-01-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Microsoft (or M$ as they are affectionately referred to) is now on their second generation gaming console. Their claim is that it's more than just video games, it's a unified central media center connecting the computer and TV. Fine, I'll buy that. Now, what I'm wondering is how long before M$ decides to join the mobile media market. If their 360 gets penetration into people's homes, won't M$ want to follow those customers everywhere they go?

Their biggest competitor in the console battle is Sony who has the PSP. The other rival is Nintendo who has the DS. Where's the M$ product? Isn't this an untapped market? Perhaps they're waiting for the 360 to gain greater penetration, but I really wouldn't be surprised to see a portable video game and media player from M$ in the next few years.

Court system and technology

2006-01-17T09:59:00.000-05:00

I went to jury duty the other day. Not the best experience in the world. It's a lot of sitting around, doing nothing. My sole entertainment was my trusty iPod and looking around the large room. I almost felt like I was in an airport waiting for a plane that is delayed. You don't know when it's going to arrive, and you have no choice but to sit in the same area with no real food and no real entertainment for hours on end.

Now, my thought is that somehow technology could fix this situation. I happen to live in an urban area. That means there are a lot of things to do around the area where the courthouse is. A simple SMS messaging system in place could allow me to show up at 8am for my appointed court duty. They can then get a sense of what juries they will need for the day, and have a system in place to call jurors back when a case is nearing completion.

I don't know the inner workings of the court systems, but I have a feeling that using our modern technology to make jury duty less painful would not be expensive or difficult.

Some Speculation

2006-01-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

There have been a lot of products coming out, and some services, that aim to bridge the gap between one's home television and one's computer. People have quite different content on each, so some of the products are designed to get computer content to your TV while others want to do just the opposite. Kind of a grass is always greener syndrome in a way.

However, I'm curious about how long it will take before we see a merge between TV and PC (picky MAC users deal with the fact that I'm using the term PC to mean Personal Computer). With the sales boom on LCD, DLP, and Plasma televisions which can accommodate a computer input, is it really that long before we see some kind of merge in these devices?

My opinion: it'll never happen. People use the two devices too differently for them to become one device. There's no way I'm going to try and word process or browse the web on my TV, and similarly I'm not likely to watch TV shows on my computer. However, the convergence of these two devices is interesting and worth keeping an eye on, as I think more and more products and services will help to bridge the gap between them. The prominent one right now is Microsoft's Xbox 360 which lets users stream content from their PCs to their video game console attached to their TV.

I'll be sure to keep an eye on this and provide updates as new developments occur.

Online Magazines

2006-01-13T09:22:00.000-05:00

Magwerk (http://www.magwerk.com/) has three online magazines to choose from. One is a gaming magazine, one an art and design magazine, and the last is music and lifestyle. The choices make sense, if you're going to have an online magazine, why not have it include content that can utilize the internet and be dynamic.

I read through the gaming magazine and was actually able to play a game or two inside the magazine. Really rather neat. The music magazine was similar, when they featured an artist I could listen right in the magazine. No need to go to an external site or anything. This seems like a great idea, one that I think has the potential to catch on. There are some bloggers who have been as bold as to predict that all magazines will be online at some point and the print versions will be obsolete. This is a little far fetched. Newspapers have been available for download for years, yet the majority of subscribers are still to the print version. Why?

One of the main reasons is that people don't read text on a screen the same way they do text on paper in their hands. It's hard to explain, and I'm no scientist or psychologist. Yet there it is. Which is easier for you? If someone sent you an email with a 10 page paper in it, I can almost guarantee that you would print it.

Eventually, our tendencies might change and we may become more comfortable with text on a computer, but I highly doubt that. Still, the Magwerk magazines are fun to read and quite informative. If they can start publishing a bit more frequently I think they could grow into quite a nice company.

Their only real problem is that they have no "subscribe me" button. For those who would like to read their magazines, constantly checking their site to see if a new magazine is published is annoying. I couldn't find on the site where the release dates for future issues are either. So I'll most likely forget about their site in time and never read it again. Believe me, I'll be emailing them to suggest a subscription service. It's the easiest thing in the world (just ask the spammers).

Long Time No Post

2006-01-12T15:27:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry. I'm bad. I had a good streak going, and then I missed a day, and then it became two, and now, how long? Months. Anyway. As any tech nerd knows, the consumer electronics show just finished up in Las Vegas. There is some very exciting technology there, including a ton of information on the heated format wars. Get ready, ladies and gentlemen, cause in the next 6 months the format wars will finally be upon us. I've been anticipating this for about 2-3 years now ever since I first saw Blu-Ray technology at CES when it was first unveiled.

I'll start posting regularly again. I swear....

Music Pricing Rumor

2005-11-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

The newest rumor to hit the music industry lately is that iTunes might start adjusting prices for different songs. Instead of every song on iTunes costing $0.99, the more popular songs could be sold for more and the less popular for less. Or even the other way around. I only took a couple of economics classes in college, but I seem to remember that if you raise prices it can lead to lower profits, since volume will go down. So perhaps this will be good for consumers, if popular songs are cheaper more people will buy them and fewer will pirate them. Of course, this may cause rarer and hard to find music to be more expensive. I'd be OK with that.

However, if they start charging more for popular songs I have a feeling that more and more people will just continue pirating music. Most of the reason people began pirating music was that they didn't want to pay $16 for a CD that only had one good song on it. Or pay $6 for a single with one good song on it and 3 other crummy songs.

This is still a rumor, but hopefully Apple will make the right decisions on this one.

Next Generation Computer

2005-11-17T14:42:00.000-05:00

Venture Wire has come through with another great company. This time the company is Oqo, and the product is what may very well be the next generation computer. The corporate website is www.oqo.com, worth checking out. They just received about $20M in Venture financing.

The picture below is the best description of the product:

That's right. This thing is tiny, but fully capable. The shortcoming of PDAs is that they're difficult to use and interact with, because they don't behave at all like computers. This handy device is a computer, just much smaller. It has a 1GHz processor, Bluetooth, and 802.11b built in. Uses Windows XP and can even handle Office.

The great feature is the dock, since now the computer is ultra-portable between multiple locations, and can be used just like a normal desktop. Wow. That's big stuff.

The current price point is $2000, which is a bit steep but hopefully will come down. Definitely check their site for more information.

AIMing at Robotic Friends

2005-11-16T15:14:00.000-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I'm an AIM addict. It is simply the best way to connect with people sometimes. Like many other addicts, this morning when I fired the computer up and logged into AIM, I received a strange message: "A bots group has been added to your buddy list!" My first thought: "$*&% you, AIM!" Seriously. That's great that they have bots. Bots can even be useful - one of the ones they added to my list was Moviefone. I can see how that could be helpful. But, like many other AIM users, I'm a bit touchy about my buddy list. I have it set up the way I like it, and I don't like it being messed with. So I immediately deleted the new group. It's not useful anyway. Then, I got popup messages regarding the windows. This drove me over the edge. Not only did they announce that they added this group, now they're bugging me about it. Guess what AIM, I don't care about your new group! Anyone who does care can easily setup their own group and add all their robot buddies. For the rest of us, go away! Stop bothering us! GAIM is starting to look very attractive...

Sorry for the rant people, but I had to get it out of my system.

Flickr

2005-11-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

Yesterday when I heard about Riya, I ended up also researching and discovering Flickr. Flickr is another service that allows for sharing of photos. I've tried snapfish and ofoto in the past, but have never really liked their service. I decided to give Flickr a shot while I wait to see if I get a trial of Riya (hasn't happened yet).

First, the good. Nice organization of the site. Very easy to use, easy to tag photos and browse through others' photos. There are some incredible and very professional photographs on the site. I was quite impressed with some of the work people have done. I am also a big fan of the groups, as it's a good source of information and a great way to share photos with others. You may have noticed the Flickr add displayed on the sidebar, if you follow that link you will be able to view some of the photos I've uploaded.

The bad: Unless you become a pro subscriber, there are very strict limits to how many photos you can upload. Because my pictures are high resolution, I was only able to upload about 15 of them. This is my monthly quota, so at the current rate, I'll be able to get all my pictures uploaded by 2022 - assuming I don't take any more in the next 17 years. Good incentive to become a pro subscriber, but too stringent a limitation for casual users. The other problem they have is that their search feature is not very good yet. There are a couple of groups I belong to that have very poor search capabilities. Sometimes the tag searches cannot be performed.

Conclusion: Nice site, good capabilities, but in the end it's not worth $30/year to belong unless you are a very serious photographer. For amateurs just looking to share photos with friends, stick to ofoto or other such sites.

Riya

2005-11-14T15:28:00.000-05:00

I discovered this new image search company this morning (VentureSource announced that they received $4M in financing). I thought to myself, hm, image search. Wonder what they do. Apparently, they have technology that performs face recognition. This allows those with large collections of photos (I have nearly 3,000) to search through them for their family and friends.

Unfortunately, the product is still in alpha test phase, so until I actually play with it, I'll hold back on forming an opinion.

Tiny Displays Update

2005-11-14T10:41:00.000-05:00

Well, finding more information took less time than anticipated. CNET had another article about the microdisplay goggles right on their site. Very convienent. The goggles allow for viewing of a 105" screen tv through a pair of goggles. This is great for movies, especially for those who travel. Portable DVD players are becoming more affordable, and add on a $900 pair of goggles and you're in business.

However, for most people these are too expensive to purchase. Their applicability is limited, and for that kind of money the portable DVD player is probably sufficient. I've tried out similar goggles in the past and find them disorienting. They are essentially tricking your mind into believing it is viewing a large screen. But you are not viewing a large screen, so I've found with other types of goggles that I have a hard time focusing on the screen.

Although I have not tried these specific new goggles, I will remain skeptical until I have an opportunity to see them for myself.

I have to say though, that if I was travelling and the airline rented me a pair of these for the feature film, it would still be much better than their current solution: tiny screens often 4 rows away. Unfortunately, the price point has a long way to go before these are added as a standard feature into airplanes.

Tiny Displays

2005-11-14T10:27:00.000-05:00

While browsing through Cnet news I ran across a couple of very interesting new products. The first is covered in this post, and concerns micro-displays.

As you can see from the photo, these things are incredibly tiny. This is yet another marvel of recent technology. Here's CNET's review:

The 22nd annual Flat Information Displays conference in San Francisco this week showcased the latest advancements in LCD, plasma and projection technology. Among those on hand was video display maker eMagin, which has created microdisplays smaller than a quarter to power stereovision goggles for viewing movies, games and other content in 3D. The .59-inch screen is based on Organic Light Emitting Diode, or OLED, technology, which is made of carbon-based molecules. The screen adapts to 800 by 600 full color pixels and is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.

Credit: Michael Singer

Apparently, these microdisplays will be used for goggles. I suppose that makes sense, since the displays are too small for other applications. Still not quite clear how a .59 inch screen will be viewed. It seems to me that that would be too small for the human eye to follow. I'll check for updates and see if I can find a prototype of the goggles.

Gmail Drive

2005-11-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

You've got a Gmail account. You've got 2.6GB of data storage. And you've got a 10MB outgoing e-mail limitation. What to do? Get Gmail drive (http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm). This handy application allows you to access your Gmail account is if it were another hard drive on your computer. Now that 2.6GB of free space can be turned into a handy file server. This is a great way to send files to family and friends. If both of you have Gmail drive installed, you can upload the files into your Gmail drive and then let someone else log in. That is why I created an additional account for myself as rick.server to act as my file server.

Only two problems with this service: one is that it limits the size of filenames. I believe it is a 10 character limit. The other issue is that it does not allow certain file types. The second limitation is in accordance with Google's policy and must be observed. The way this application works is be enumerating the emails in your account. Those that are marked as GmailFS or something similar and have attachments are added to the Gmail drive.

The best way to use the program if it is in your main email account is to set up filters for files from the Gmail drive. This way you can archive them automatically and find them easily from a web interface if you're away from your computer.

This is easily one of the best applications I've seen.

Cooking Steak at Home

2005-11-11T12:51:00.000-05:00

This is a post that's not even close to being related to technology. I came across this tidbit last weekend at the Big Smoke in Las Vegas. As part of the Q&A with a professional chef, someone asked how to prepare steak at home without a grill. As I currently do not have a grill, I found it very interesting and useful information, so without further ado, I will share it with you.

The first step is to get a good heavy bottom pan. This is essential. Heat the pan to medium high heat. It is important to leave the steak you're cooking in the fridge as long as possible, and hold off on seasoning it for as long as possible. One of the biggest mistakes people make when cooking steak is seasoning it too early. Salt is especially dangerous, as it will dry the steak out and you will be left with a dry steak.

Once the pan is heated, add a small amount of oil. DO NOT use Olive Oil, as it has a low boiling point and you will be left with a lot of acidity. Instead, use a canola oil or any other oil with a higher boiling point. At this point, take the steak out of the fridge, season, and toss it into the pan.

From here, cooking will depend on the thickness of the steak. For a steak that is an inch to an inch and a half, cook each side about 3-4 minutes. This will char the outside a bit but leave the inside a bit rare. This is perfect if you like your steak medium or medium rare. If you want it rarer, just cook a little less on each side. For steaks more well done, cook it more.

I haven't had a chance to try this out yet (don't own a good heavy bottom pan), but once I do I will be sure to inform you of any problems I had or tips I might give.

Podcasts

2005-11-11T11:34:00.000-05:00

Podcasts are a developing trend - one that gained a big boost when Apple began offering them through their popular software program iTunes. Podcasts are very similar to blogs, except instead of static text their content is audio, and sometimes video. I'd heard about these a while ago, but was never impressed. The content is generally available from other sources, and I never had the time to go through the thousands of available podcasts to find the 10 I might actually be interested in. Unfortunately, not much has changed. The interface is still not very good. Browsing through all of the podcasts to find the few that might be interesting takes a long time. A lot of the podcasts are also very long, so listening to them takes a lot of time as well. Unlike music, which I can listen to while I focus on other things, most podcasts take my full attention to appreciate.

Clearly, they are perfect for those who have a long commute and can update their iPod, or other mp3 device, before leaving in the morning. This is a great way to get news about sports, technology, or current affairs.

I'd like to see integration between TV shows and podcasting. I know Apple is trying to sell TV shows for about $2 a piece the day after they are aired, so they won't want to cut into that business. But TV shows work by having ads on them, so why not offer podcasts with ads in them and then offer them for free? If it was a show I cared about, I might purchase it. If not, I'd be willing to sit through (or fast forward through) some ads. Anyway, something I thought was interesting. ESPN is a prime example of a show that has short segments perfect for podcasting to a large audience. TechTV's The Screen Savers is another great example.

For now, I'll continue to be mildly interested in podcasts.

Corporate Technology

2005-11-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

For a long time now, businesses have struggled with banning or allowing certain programs or web sites. As the web develops, this becomes an increasingly common topic. Since I work at a very small firm, it isn't as large of an issue. Our tech department consists of one guy who is also a full time consultant. For that reason, there aren't any restrictions at my company as to what web sites can be viewed and which cannot (leading to one of my colleagues mistyping the Dilbert web site and encountering a porn page... Oops).

However, I want to start a discourse briefly about this hot topic. One of the programs at the center of this debate is AOL Instant Messenger, as well as other messenger services. Corporations believe that users do not focus on their work but rather will spend time sending instant messages to each other. Other corporations are concerned over possible data leaks, as the IMs are not encrypted and can easily be intercepted. Some companies ban IM all together, while others simply monitor the conversations for certain keywords and content. My take: I think that IM is a good communication tool for companies to use for internal purposes. I know of a few start-ups that are attempting to sell corporate IM platforms. These have not been met with much success, since most of the conversations are with those outside of the company. IM is most definitely a distraction, but I think the best solution is for a company to monitor their employees use of the program. If they find that someone is using it too frequently then the appropriate action would be to confront them. IM is very useful in that it allows one to have a conversation quickly over the internet, this saves the time of making phone calls for making dinner plans for example. In some cases, it actually saves time.

Another program that has come under fire is Gmail. Obviously, most employees have personal accounts. Gmail happens to be web-based, meaning employees can access it from anywhere. However, some companies have banned the use of Gmail. IM is easy to monitor, but Gmail is not. The same concerns apply, company secrets must be kept safe and employee time is valuable. Instead of using their personal account, employees simply use a corporate account to send their personal emails and the company monitors those emails. My take: I think this is an appropriate solution. I understand the concern over Gmail, and believe the companies are simply protecting themselves. In this day of Sarbanes-Oxley, it is important to keep records of old e-mails. Gmail takes control away from the company and gives it to the employee.

Many of the other blocked applications and websites make complete sense (like www.addictinggames.com which serves no useful purpose). My belief is that I agree with companies inconveniencing their employees to protect themselves. In the end, it is better for everyone that corporations actively protect themselves, especially from government regulators

Ten Tips, Tricks, and Applications

2005-11-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

While using my computer, there are numerous programs I use that some people might not be aware of. Some of these I've already written about. There are also ways I use my computer that everyone might not know about. Without further ado here's a list of ten things (in no particular order) I think are good to know for the average computer user.

1. Alt + Tab
This is something I use at least 50 times a day. When multiple windows are open, you can easily switch between them by hitting alt + tab. This is great if you copy and paste a lot, or reference multiple sources at the same time. For those who use programs that utilize tabs, you can easily switch between tabs by hitting CTRL + Tab. This is an extremely useful feature.

2. Defragmentation
Windows comes with a built in defragmenter. It's OK, not great. Fortunately, a better option exists. Diskeeper Defragmenter is a very nice application. You can download a free demo at www.download.com. Aside from having a nicer interface, the main advantage of this program is the set and forget ability. Keeping your computer defragmented will keep it running as efficiently and quickly as possible.

3. PrimoPDF
Most home users, and a lot of business users, don't want to spend the excessive money it requires to get a full version of Adobe Acrobat. However, PDFs are extremely useful since they allow you to create documents that cannot be edited by others. They're also a nice way to preserve favorite articles. PrimoPDF allows you to print to PDF directly. After installing the program, it shows up as an additional printer.

4. Gmail
Yes, I know I'm not the first to come across Gmail, nor the first to write about how great it is. There's a good reason why: this really is one of the greatest e-mail accounts. I've certainly never had a better one. In fact, I have multiple Gmail accounts. In case you don't already have a Gmail account somehow, send me an e-mail at TequilaRamblings@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to send you an invite.

5. LogMeIn
This remote access software I've already written about. It really is a great feature to have, especially if you travel a lot, or if you have both a home and a work computer.

6. Picassa
Perfect for the user who has taken a lot of digital photos. If you do have a lot of digital photos, you'll have already realized that the file naming system is useless. I have a Sony, so every photo has a name such as "DSC0000042". I can tell only that it was the 42nd photo taken with my camera. Keeping photos organized takes an extraordinary amount of time. Fortunately, Picassa makes this process much easier. Labels can be applied to photos easily, so that you can mark a photo from your trip abroad with your family as belonging to both categories.

7. FireFox
I already wrote an entire column about FireFox. All that's left to say is: switch. It really is better than Windows' built in browser.

8. Thunderbird
Another Mozilla application, this time for e-mail. The Thunderbird e-mail application is a rival to Outlook and Outlook Express. However, there is no competition. Thunderbird is just a much nicer program. Give it a try.

9. Carbonite
This is another program I mentioned in a previous post. Just like Picassa, this is something that is necessary for anyone who has a lot of photos on their computer. I almost lost all my data once, and did in fact lose a lot of it. Fortunately, I had hard copies of a lot of my pictures. Had I lost them they truly would have been irreplaceable. Backing up is not glamorous, but definitely necessary. Carbonite makes backing up simple.

10. Use Anti-Spyware programs
I'm not sold on any one Anti-Spyware application. Every time I run a different scan (after having some kind of problem) each application finds different problems. I've found that the best solution is to use more than one application. SpyBot Search and Destroy finds different files than The Cleaner which finds different files than Microsoft's product which finds different files than Lavasoft Ad-Aware which in turn finds different files than Webroot's SpySweeper. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but the point remains that each program has its own quirks.

I hope you've found at least one out of these 10 things useful. None of it is new and exciting, but they are all things I think everyone who uses a computer should be aware of. Perhaps sometime in the future I will have an advanced user Top Ten list.

YouTube - Online Videos

2005-11-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

YouTube is a website (www.youtube.com) that allows its users to upload and view videos. They have a large collection of movies already, ranging from Arts and Animation to Sales and Auctions. The site also allows you to share videos with friends, comment on videos, and of course, upload your own shots.

This interstice site came to my attention as it recently received a round of venture financing. Video sites have been around for a long time, but none have really had a good method for sharing the clips with family and friends aside from emailing links to each other. The YouTube site allows you to see which videos your friends like, as well as send videos to watch to friends.

A very interesting service that I plan on checking out to see what it's like.

Wireless iPod Headphones

2005-11-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

Headphones, but not earbuds. There are wireless headphones for the iPod available from Logitech (link) . The headphones are the behind the head style, which I detest. Wrapping headphones behind your head is absolutely useless if you want to sit down with these headphones. So although Bluetooth is great and all, I'm still waiting for something more impressive.

Perhaps having Bluetooth built into the iPod will help the move towards more Bluetooth devices being available. The reputable Mac Rumors website has an article here on that topic where they anticipate some companies attempting to add Bluetooth to the iPod built in.

Either way, it's exciting to see the start of Bluetooth and the iPod together. Hopefully, remote controls and wireless ear buds aren't too far away.

Technology Free Post

2005-11-07T14:46:00.000-05:00

Greetings everyone. As I've been writing this blog over the past month or so, I've thoroughly enjoyed doing research on all of the technology I've written about. Some things I heard about from friends, others from the work I do, and yet others from news stories. However, my life is not all about just technology. So I'm going to try branching out every now and then to mention things that are interested that aren't necessarily related to the world of technology.

First, sorry for the lack of posts this weekend and Friday. I was away for the weekend in Las Vegas. This weekend was Cigar Aficionado annual Big Smoke in Las Vegas. It was a blast. I gained new insight into the world of cigars. I've always been a casual smoker of cigars, but never knew that much about them. I only smoke one every month or two. Not enough to become a habit but enough to know what kinds of cigars I like. The even this weekend opened my eyes to the whole industry and how complicated it is.

Basically, if you are a casual smoker or are interested in getting to know more about cigars, I highly recommend both the magazine Cigar Aficionado and the Las Vegas Big Smoke. It was a truly wonderful experience that can't be described.

Google Print

2005-11-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

Google has out done itself again. Google Print is a new service available in beta at http://print.google.com. The project allows you to search through the full texts of a large number of books (for example, a search for the term "them" yielded over 48 million results). The real nice feature is that Google Print is great for searching for obscure references or texts. This service will allow those doing research to find information that was previously thought not to exist.

Let's take an example. In an earlier post on AJAX the web language, I mentioned the Greek heroes Ajax the lesser and Ajax the greater. Perhaps you, as a reader, wanted to get more information on this Ajax the Lesser character. He apparently stars in the Iliad, so that might be one place to look. But what about other sources? A good place to start may be the Greek mythology section at the local library. However, you'd be forced to search through the index of hundreds of books in the hopes of finding a reference to this character, and once you did, who's to know without looking whether it's helpful. Now with Google Print the same search takes minutes and can be done from any web browser. My search, as an example, came up with 28 pages that referenced this character. Since it is all copyrighted material, I can't give you screenshots of what the results look like. Google allows you to view the entire page the reference is on, allowing you to determine the context of the reference and whether the book is worth buying or taking out of a library.

My initial reaction to this service was that it has been available for years from Amazon, so who cares? It's not new, nor is it exciting. Here's what makes the difference: Amazon only catalogs certain books, and only those that they sell. So far, Google has gotten a huge number of books from such well known and respected libraries as Harvard University, University of Michigan, The New York Public Library, Oxford University, and Stanford University. These 5 sources represent a huge percentage of the books in print today. Eventually, Google will be able to catalog nearly everything in print. This is an amazing feat.

I challenge you, the reader, to find some good examples of helpful rare searches that you performed to test the system.

Firefox Beta Version

2005-11-03T10:07:00.000-05:00

I'm unsure how long the new beta version of Firefox has been available. However, I do know that is has some very nice new features that I think people will be very excited about. Well, really it has one prominent feature which is that it allows for re-ordering of tabbed windows. I've yet to come across a time when I've actually needed to re-order my tabbed windows, but the coding and technology feature is one that I think is fairly robust. This is certainly the first application I'm aware of that allows the tabbed windows to be moved around.

Firefox has also been working to continue improving security of their browser. Firefox security is already vastly superior to that of Windows Internet Explorer (IE). Firefox has also worked to improve their performance on the Mac OS, which many of my MAC readers will be happy about I am sure.

If you are still using IE as your primary browser I strongly recommend you consider switching to Firefox.

Photoshop CS

2005-11-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

Photoshop has been considered one of the best, if not the best, photo editing software applications. The program can do almost anything. Photoshopping something has entered common vernacular. I imagine it's close to gaining admittance into Webster's anyday now. I decided to play around with the program a little bit to see what kind of new features CS had over 7.0. Here's one picture I modified:

As you can see, the top left picture is the original photo, taken in Rome. I applied a few different touches to the other three. In one I used the highlights/shadows feature. This is the new feature in CS that is absolutely amazing. It really brightens the picture while maintaining its realistic qualities. Obviously, the bottom right picture I made into a black and white and applied a feature to make it seem old and worn. I'll leave it to you to decide which of the 3 color pictures really does look the best.

Unfortunately, the major drawback of CS is still the price tag. This software is extraordinarily expensive. Fortunately, there's still the light version of the software that is good for most home users.

Carbonite - Backup for Everyone

2005-11-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

A new product was released today that finally serves to answer my backup woes. It's called Carbonite. Right now, a free trial of it comes with cameras purchased at Staples, but the product will be offered as a stand alone in the near future. The current product just backs up photos, but I'm told that an office product will be available soon.

So why is this one different? For one thing, it works. I've tried other backup services and have found them unreliable or cumbersome. This one sits on my computer and gives me confidence that my files are backed up. Another great feature is that someone has finally gotten it right with online backup products and has found a way to make it cheap for large amounts of storage.

I highly recommend getting this product as soon as you can. Take it from someone who's lost all their files before, it's worth subscribing to a safe service like Carbonite.

Windows Vista

2005-10-31T15:34:00.000-05:00

Vista, formerly known as Longhorn, is the new Windows Operating System set to come out, well, sometime. Microsoft has a good amount of information about the new offering here (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista). Some interesting new features, a lot of which are already available and are most likely moves by Microsoft to keep others out of their domain.

A couple examples. They are offering a sidebar with applications and customization. Sound similar? It should, Google has had a sidebar available for a month or two now which essentially does the same thing. Microsoft is also changing their Explorer product. It will finally allow tabbed windows, something that is long overdue. Firefox and Netscape users have been able to used tabbed windows for quite some time now. Microsoft is also planning to enter the RSS feed era. Good for them, they're right on top of that one. Not like RSS has been popular for many years now.

Essentially, some of the new features are exciting, but it's a lot of smoke and not much fire - as usual. The new operating system will mostly just draw on power and do little that XP doesn't already do. The system requirements for the new operating system promise to be twice as bad as XP.

However, it's a new operating system and it should help reduce some more of the security threats, at least until the hackers discover even more vulnerabilities in it. It should be a nice upgrade for those running systems older than XP, but for those who already do have XP it won't be worth the high upgrade price.

Home Theater Update

2005-10-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

The home theater room is coming along nicely. Floor is down, walls are starting to come together, and now decisions have to be made. Of course, it's not easy to make these decisions because nearly everyone I talk to has a different opinion. My partner in this venture spoke with one sales clerk at a Tweeter who told us that LCD projection was superior for sports. However, someone else at Tweeter said that DLP was far superior for sports. Someone else entirely said don't bother getting a projection, just got a 61" TV. Needless to say, this is all very confusing.

No matter what opinion happens to be, I think the projector is still going to be the optimal choice. The obvious benefit is the size, at 96" or so, it's basically the entire wall. Great for sports. The other advantage is that the room doesn't have to be a TV room. If nobody is watching TV, the screen is up and there's nothing in the room (aside from a projector hanging from the ceiling) that would indicate the entertainment capacities. This is nice to help the room double for entertaining guests.

The LCD versus DLP battle is a bit different, and that will be my project this week.

iPod Nano Up Close and Personal

2005-10-28T13:39:00.000-04:00

I finally got my first chance to see the Nano up close today. I have to say, I am very impressed. I knew from the ads that it was small, but I didn't realize until I actually held it just how small it is. It's almost like holding a credit card, except that it has 4GB of space. It's amazing, a remarkable piece of engineering.

The only feasible drawback to the Nano is that flash memory eventually wears out. However, considering the small capacity of the player, it's unlikely that a lot of transfer of files will take place. The flash memory mostly wears out when it is being written. Generally, after about 1,000 uses the memory will start to lapse. But, as a backup player or a small travel player with just favorite music, it should be good to go for a long time.

If you haven't yet seen one up close, it's really quite an experience. Just not sure how Apple could possibly top this, but I'm sure they will.

Commercial Free TV

2005-10-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to make up for lost time (I apologize for the lack of posts this week), I'm going to go out on a limb here. Not sure how many of you are like me, but when I watch TV I'm forced to find two or more programs that run at the same time to reduce the number of commercials I have to watch. Perhaps I'm getting older, or perhaps advertisers are getting worse, but I've noticed a steady decline in the quality of TV commercials. To reduce this effect, I switch between multiple shows. Frequently I'm forced to watch things I have no interest in whatsoever, simply to avoid commercials. Yes, it's a bit extreme, but there are some extremely irritating commercials out there.

The point is this: with DVRs and TiVo, along with shows being offered online (the next day for now), when will we see an option for commercial free TV? Satellite radio has provided us with numerous channels ad free, so why not TV as well? Granted, radio is much easier. Songs are variable length and can be played back to back with no problem. Given that an average show is about 20 minutes out of the scheduled 30, programmers would have space for one extra show every hour. That's 24 more shows every day, and 168 more every week. That's a lot of extra TV to find. Already we're inundated with re-runs, even from shows that have not aired for years and never will again.

Chances are that because of the extra programming required to remove commercials from TV, it will never happen. However, many of the channels you have to pay for are already commercial free, such as HBO and Showtime. So what's stopping FOX from having a channel or two without commercials? They could simply add filler for the other 10 minutes, give me the weather or a news brief. I'd be perfectly happy with that. I'm sure ESPN would have no problem filling the extra time, as the sports reporters can't seem to ever stop talking.

Hopefully, sometime in the future, we'll see a few free channels without commercials

Google Base

2005-10-28T10:17:00.000-04:00

Well, despite the fact that everyone else is posting about this topic, I feel I should as well. In case you haven't yet heard, the newest news coming from the Google giant is that they are planning to offer a service directly competitive with eBay. The service is suspected to allow people to post items for sale, possibly using Google Wallet. This move also would provide competition to the popular Craigslist site.

The real reason I'm excited about this move is that it helps to integrate even more services into one place. Google will bring their expertise on search into the private auction and private sales space, and this can only be a good thing. Currently, eBay and Craigslist have sub-par searching abilities, particularly Craigslist.

I'll update more once I've actually used the new Google Base.

Spyware Removal Beta

2005-10-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

Normally I'm opposed to most Microsoft products, and therefore all new Microsoft applications are viewed with some amount of skepticism by me. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post this week, I have some serious virus problems. I either have a trojan or some kind of worm, and it's nasty. This thing spends its time downloading other trojans. It's as if I'm King Priam (King of Troy) and instead of bringing in an enormous wooden horse full of Greek soldiers, I've instead brought in a huge wooden horse filled with many huge wooden horses all of which are filled with Greek soldiers. In other words: my computer is no longer my computer. It's got everything. I've found eight different types of trojans on it so far. All of those have been removed, yet I still get pop-ups.

What's this about a new spyware tool, and how does Microsoft fit in? Well, Microsoft has a beta out for their own spyware removal tool. The reason I actually like it is that it found spyware that Ad-Aware (from Lavasoft) missed, that Spybot missed, that Norton missed, and that Trend Micro missed. Rather impressive really. Just do a Google Search for "Microsoft Beta Spyware" and it will come up. I highly recommend downloading it. One of the nice features is an active spyware watch that prohibits spyware and malware from installing on the computer. Saved me from having a few more trojans than I already do have installed.

ROKR iTunes phone

2005-10-25T03:03:00.000-04:00

Although this is certainly not breaking news, the ROKR iTunes phone is still an important topic. In case you haven't heard, ROKR is a phone with iTunes that can hold up to 100 songs. Yes, that's right. Just 100 songs. Apple allowed the phone to have iTunes on it, but by limiting the number of songs it could contain, it ensured that the new phone would in no way compete with their iPod line of products.

My take: kudos to Apple. However, by enforcing such a strict limit, Apple doomed the ROKR from ever being successful. Anyone who cares about music that much will get an iPod, and those who only care a little bit about having music on their phone will just continue downloading ring tones. There is a very small niche market for those who are willing to pay for a 100 song phone. I am not one of those people.

Instead, I will continue to see if Apple decides to release their own phone with combined iPod functionality and normal cell phone capabilities. This probably won't happen anytime soon, but at the same time, if it does happen I won't be surprised. The iPods keep getting smaller, and eventually they will be small enough to be incorporate with a cell phone.

Until this happens, I will continue to carry around multiple devices.

Blu-Ray Revisited

2005-10-24T16:23:00.000-04:00

After re-reading my earlier post on Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD I realize that I did not clearly describe either technology. In fact, the post gave very little information at all. Well, I apologize. Without further ado, faithful reader, here is the informative post.

Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of leading consumer electronics and PC companies

The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold 25GB, which can be used to record over 2 hours of HDTV or more than 13 hours of standard-definition TV. There are also dual-layer versions of the discs that can hold 50GB. TDK has released a prototype that can hold 100GB of data at double the rate, 72Mbps

The new formats use a blue-violet ray instead of a red ray to read data. This method is backwards compatible, so your old DVDs will still be playable on the new devices. The blue-violet ray has a shorter wavelength which allows for more data to be stored. Due to the laser, the disks can be coated with a much more protective surface which eliminates data loss due to surface scratches. Another benefit of the blue-violet laser is that multiple layers can be used on the same disk which further increases the amount of data stored on each disk.

So now you might be wondering where you can find this new format. Very soon, Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) will be found in most consumer electronics devices.
DVD Players: high definition requires greater storage capacity
Computers: today's consumer has greater storage demands which can be met by integrating larger disk drives into computers
Video Games: high definition video games require enormous amounts of data storage which can only be satisfied by high capacity disks
Camcorders: there have been plans for smaller Blu-Ray discs which could allow camcorders to record in HD and store far more data

As I mentioned in my previous post on the subject, Blu-Ray is currently in the midst of a turf war with HD-DVD. Although the victor has not yet been crowned, it appears that Blu-Ray has the early lead. However, before you run out and purchase a shiny new Blu-Ray device, I'd wait for the dust to settle.

Really though, what's the difference? Does it matter? In the end, it won't matter much to the consumer. My thoughts are that Blu-Ray is the "better" format, although in the end, both formats will yield high definition, so no matter what happens I'll be happy. If you're curious, here's the breakdown of the technical differences:

As you can see, Blu-Ray holds a slight edge in terms of technical capabilities. The HD-DVD advantage is that in the short term the disks will be cheaper to manufacture.

Now you have the information. Hopefully this answers some questions about what will be going on between the two formats. Please feel free to post your questions as comments and I will be more than happy to answer.

Audio Spotlight

2005-10-24T09:43:00.000-04:00

The audio spotlight is an innovative new technology that allows sound to behave like a beam of light. The speakers are designed to be audible only if you are directly in front of them, and nowhere else. The Holosonics web page (www.holosonics.com) has a very good description of how the technology works, and what the history is behind having a source of audio that is directed, so I won't go into that aspect of the technology.

You're probably wondering whether it works. The answer is, yes, it does. It's amazing. When the speaker is pointed directly at you there is sound. When it is tilted away there is absolute silence.

So far, the widest adoption has been in museums. When I first saw the technology two years ago, I was extremely impressed. My first thought, of course, was that it was perfect for a museum. Imagine, instead of carrying around those little "wands" and dialing in numbers based on where you are, each exhibit has its own audio that is audible only when directly in front of the exhibit.

What other applications are there for this? Aside from the strictly academic purposes, it's difficult to understand where something like this could be used. Obviously, every museum in the world could use a speaker like this. And trade shows could benefit greatly as well. But what about other uses? Certainly the military could have some measure of applicability, when in combat being able to communicate with one's troops and not have the nearby enemy overhear.

I'd be interested in getting reader opinion about other applications. Please feel free to leave a comment with your thought.

New Look AIM Triton

2005-10-21T16:09:00.000-04:00

I was wondering how long it would take AOL to release a remodeled version of their popular instant messenger service. However, this latest move seems more like an act of panic than of one to reinforce their strong position.

I've been an instant messenger user from nearly the beginning. I still remember the early versions of AOL (including the familiar "You've got mail!" soundbyte). As the years have progressed, AIM has added more and more features. At first, each new release held the excitement of great new things, including the ability to send pictures and files between friends, share files, and others. Then AOL got into adding voice capabilities, video, transferring to cell phones, among other features. The program has gotten large and cumbersome. The features are now overwhelming and often confusing. I've resorted to spending time on Older Versions (www.olderversions.com) to find a past copy of AIM I like. I also am a fond user of DeadAIM, an add-on to AIM that removes advertisements, enables logging, and puts multiple messages into one tabbed window.

AOL's newest move seems like one that is made due to pressure from competition rather than a drive to gain dominant market share with confidence. Many of their "new" features have been around for a while, but with Google and Skype focusing on talk, AOL feels they must too. The look and feel of the program is shifting more towards how Yahoo! Messenger and programs like Trillian behave. One of the reasons I've stuck with AIM for so long was that I liked the simplicity and overall feel of their product. Most of that is due to familiarity. However, now that they have changed their look and feel, there's very little to motivate me to stick with them. As long as I'm changing how the client behaves, I might as well make the switch to Trillian - a far superior product.

For all the flash and pizzazz that the new AIM site has, the actual product release holds very few new features, and none that are worth my downloading the new program.

MEMS

2005-10-21T13:18:00.000-04:00

Michromechanic Systems (MEMS) are essentially small chips that can be placed into devices (such as consumer electronics devices) for a variety of applications. These systems are extremely sophisticated and are poised to play a large role in the way consumer electronics work.

One of the large early players in this field is Bosch, who has released a product called a SMB 360 triaxial accelerometer. On their website, the SMB 360 is described quite well: "The SMB 360 is an acceleration sensor measuring over three axes and basically universally applicable. Potential areas of applications include entertainment electronics, mobile handsets and computer technology, but may also include health care systems, security systems and life sciences. For instance the sensor could trigger a (radio) alarm if a person remained motionless or if some unauthorized person removed a notebook. Other products such as pressure and yaw sensors are being developed."

That provides a nice summary of what these systems can do. Here are some other concepts, courtesy of Bosch's press release:

Cell phones could be switched off with a slight shaking movement. Perfect for those inopportune times when your phone rings unexpectedly
Video game enhancement and new controls - more on this later
PDAs and Smart Phones could allow for scrolling through contacts simply by tilting the device in a certain direction

Of course, there's really no limit to the applications. Bosch has done a very good job of discovering many of the benefits already.

Although I can't be certain of who is providing the technology, Nintendo is rumored to be releasing a revolutionary new controller with their system. Article can be found here. The controller appears to be equipped with MEMS capability, as its movements will allow the user to control screen actions. Couple this with Bosch announcing video game controls... And well, I for one wouldn't be surprised if there was a correlation and not just coincidence.

Look for plenty more devices with similar capabilities coming out soon.

Woot!

2005-10-20T15:34:00.000-04:00

Woot (www.woot.com) is quickly gaining popularity. The site started in 2004 and has a very interesting business model: they sell one item a day. Most of what they sell is refurbished, allowing them to sell it at bargain prices. Just the other day they had a package for sale for about $700 that included a projector, screen, and Matrix DVD set. Quite impressive. Their product offerings generally fall under the consumer electronics category, and frequently sell out early in the day.

It's a fun site to return to once a day just to see what is new. They've even had items for sale that are not available to the general public yet, so it's a very interesting offering. Their writers do a great job of making the products interesting by adding humor while still relaying important information.

Definitely worth checking out.

About That Time

2005-10-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

The end of the day. One of the greatest feelings is knowing that you've almost finished another productive day at the office, and will soon be on your way back home for a good meal. Not sure if you've noticed, but I'd estimate that one in five people I see on the streets has an iPod. How do I know it's an iPod and not another mp3 player? Well, because of the marketing strategy and foresight that Apple had. When all other headphone wires were black, they made theirs white. That's it, that tiny little change, and immediately you recognize the iPod from other devices. It's remarkable.

However, this post is not concerning the marketing intellect of those working for Apple, it's concerning the fact that we have wires. I realize that ear buds are small, and that they have much better sound than they used to, and are more comfortable (especially if you get these), but enough with the wires. Where are the wireless buds?

I imagine this is something that's being worked on. I would definitely pay $50-$100 for a nice pair of wireless ear buds. That wire is irritating. Especially for those who work out, go running, etc. Nothing worse than running on a treadmill or elliptical and accidentally snagging your headphone chord. One of two things happens, either your ear buds get yanked out of your ear which is both annoying and sometimes painful, or your chord is ripped out of the mp3 player. Neither are the end of the world, granted, but in this age of technology I'd appreciate a wireless connection to my mp3 player.

Alas, I am unaware of a product like this, so I will have to wait and hope that it comes along soon.

Remote Access

2005-10-19T12:35:00.000-04:00

Remote access has been around for a long time from companies like GoToMyPC, but it's always had problems. Security is one large problem when allowing outside users into your PC, especially if your computer resides on a company LAN. However, a company has been offering a better way to access your computer. The company's name is 3amLabs, and their remote access product is called LogMeIn. I've been using their product for a year now, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I like it so much I even upgraded.

The reason their product is different is that it's free for basic remote access. Immediately, it's affordable for everyone. Their security is much higher than the competition, and the access itself is superior. I did a comparison using free trials, and they had by far the fastest and best looking connection available.

Now, with my Pro status, I can invite other users to view my computer, share files, synchronize multiple computers, and more. The invitation feature is very nice. I often find myself helping someone with a computer problem, and it is much easier to assist them I can take over their computer to show them how to perform certain tasks. As a web designer, I've trained people on how to maintain their own sites. Therefore, it's much better to show them how to make complex changes so they'll learn than to just make the change and update it for them.

I strongly recommend downloading the free version of LogMeIn.

Home Theater Day 2

2005-10-19T10:42:00.000-04:00

Made some good progress yesterday on the home theater. I scoped out the future site - which is still in construction. Since the room isn't done yet, I'm holding off on final decisions for projectors and screens for the moment. Already have a stereo, so that's all set. The stereo I have for the home theater is a Denon with capability for video selection and, of course, surround sound. Speakers are going to be a set of PolkAudio bookshelf speakers. Since these have great bass response and incredible imaging, a sub and surround system probably won't be needed. However, just in case, we're putting the wires into the wall so that it can be added if we deem it necessary.

Speaking of wires... They are extremely important, which is why we've created a soffit to make wiring easy should it need to be changed. Even with the soffit, we'll still do some wiring in advance to facilitate the whole process. The wires I'll be including are two component video cables, a DVI cable, and also the computer monitor cable. Since the stereo also has two component inputs, we'll have space for three HD inputs plus the DVI (plenty of space for HD cable, DVD player, and even video games).

The monitor cable is key. Especially with the trends in video offerings online, including the update to iTunes to purchase television shows, having a computer attached to the screen will be a huge plus.

Home Theater

2005-10-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

The home theater has been a dream for many years. There have always been barriers, though. Now, a lot of those have been removed. I've recently started making plans for my own home theater. I figured I'd share the experience. Thus, over the next few days, my posts will be mainly concerning home theater and the various needs.

Today, I'm going to start with the projector. The projector is obviously the center of any good home theater. Bad projection, bad picture, bad theater. So we'll need something that's high quality. Since mine will be mounted on the ceiling, size and weight are irrelevant (if you wanted a home theater to go you might care).

My choice for a projector is a DLP projector with 720p resolution. These things are insane. I saw a few of them a number of years ago at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, and they blew me away. Once you've picked the quality, the next most important thing is the brightness. Is your home theater going to be perfectly dark, or will there be ambient light? The lumens are crucial. At least 1,000 is necessary, and closer to 2,000 is a bit better. Since my projector will be in a room with very good (dark) lighting this isn't as crucial to me, but still important.

The next customization is a screen. How big? I've decided that I'm lazy, and don't want to be walking around to get up and move the screen down, automation is king. So I've picked out a 96" automatic screen. Only $500 too, which isn't too bad at all.

This is all just preliminary research so far. The next steps in my project will be to actually choose a projector, find a stereo (can't have home theater without insane sound), and then make a good wiring plan to connect all the gadgets (HD cable, HD up-conversion DVD player, etc).

Should be a fun week. Check back later for updates.

Video iPod released

2005-10-15T16:08:00.000-04:00

Apple has most certainly been working on this one for a while, and it has finally arrived. The highly anticipated video enabled iPod is a disappointment though.

Yes, it plays home movies. Yes, you can purchase select television shows the day after they are aired for $1.99, but what about my DVD collection?

No dice. Even legally ripped DVD's will not be compatible with the new iPod. Now that is a big disappointment. Obviously, the offerings from iTunes for TV shows will increase, and they might begin offering movies as well. But why not my Hollywood produced DVD's? I understand the concern over copyright protection. But think about it this way, what if the iPod had come out and didn't allow playing of music from CD's? Would you have purchased one? I sure wouldn't have.

When I saw the release of the video iPod I was at first very excited, and began to contemplate running out an getting myself a nice big 60GB version if it was available. Then I read that my DVD's wouldn't be compatible... And my desire to spend the money vanished. Why bother? I have my music already, and that's all I really need. It would be great to use the iPod as a portable video player without attempting to hack the system at all which most people will not do.

In conclusion, a good move by Apple falls short, for now.

AJAX - The language, not the Greek Hero

2005-10-14T14:57:00.000-04:00

Although I am a huge fan of The Iliad and the two lovable Ajax characters (Ajax the Greater and Ajax the Smaller), this post is concerning Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX). AJAX is a new technology that has been developed that allows web pages to contain dynamic content. This means the entire page does not need to be reloaded as content changes.

What does that all mean, in English and non-tech jargon you might ask? Well, this means that applications (such as word, excel-type, powerpoint-type applications) can run off of web browsers.

So how does this affect the future of the web? Well, this is the first step towards not having to purchase that enormous and expensive Microsoft Office we all love and hate. Most office users, particularly home users, have no need for the powerful and robust suite of applications beyond simple tasks. For them, having a free and easy to use version available online, or even for download for free online, is very promising. It's only a matter of time until Google and Sun's partnership has Google hosting the OpenOffice application suite on their site.

So... This is the first in a series of steps aimed at tackling the elephant in the living room. Google's immense popularity will greatly help to achieve this end. I for one would use a Google word editor for my personal use in a second. I'm hoping that the days of paying $100 for Office are gone.

Now, here's the leap... Why just applications? Why not an entire OS? What is stopping an operating system from running entirely on the web? The complexity doesn't help, but does it need to be that complex? What is an operating system, and why can't it be contained entirely in a browser window? So far, the trend for the OS has been to take on more and more hardware requirements, what if the opposite happened, and Google came out with GoogleOS that required only one piece of software to run the entire OS... Your web browser? Oh, and by the way, that will be provided by Mozilla's FireFox. I've heard that the new version of Windows, Vista, is going to require copious amounts of computer architecture to run... 512 MB of RAM at the least (with 1GB preferred), a super fast processor, video card with its own RAM (64MB to 128MB), a very large hard drive that is at least 7200 RPM... etc, etc. Why? This is getting ridiculous. So if Google develops this new OS, and sells a Dell system equipped with it for $200, are you saying you wouldn't try it?

Think about it. The need for memory and hard drive space would be drastically reduced. Processor speed would be reduced. All the hardware needs could be much smaller, allowing for streamlined, inexpensive PC's to dominate.

This is all speculation, but I'd be more than happy to jump on board. I tried to switch to Linux at one point, but found it cumbersome and slow. Too difficult a switch. But in the web enabled world we may be seeing a glimpse of the future.

Think about it.

Goggle AdSense

2005-10-14T10:12:00.000-04:00

If you're reading this post, you've most likely noticed the Google sponsored ads on the top of this site and to the right in the toolbar. I've also added a Google search feature. All of this is provided to me for free by Google. By displaying Google ads on my site, I get a small portion of the revenue generated by clicking on the ads, or when a sponsored link is clicked through a search done from my site.

This is yet another example of Google's ingenuity. The cost of giving any one sit (e.g. mine) a portion of the revenue for a click is much smaller than the revenue generated on Google's side. They have in essence allowed for their click-through ads to be displayed not only on search results, but on any website. And it costs them practically nothing, they do none of the work (I had to manually copy and paste the code into the proper location on my site).

The only problem with the AdSense feature is the their algorithm for placing content driven ads is still not quite perfect. Unfortunately, most of the ads are irrelevant or just not interesting, and therefore have a low probability of being clicked.

Still, it's a nice feature and is just one more example of Google's smart way of thinking and good business sense.

Sype-eBay

2005-10-12T09:34:00.000-04:00

Just this morning I saw an article concerning this very topic. When eBay decided to buy Skype, I was rather confused. I did not see an immediate link between the business of selling various (and often useless) items online, and a free internet telephony product. The article (from Forbes) did help to shed some light on the applications... But not a lot. $2.6B (with a possible $1.4B to follow based on certain performance incentives) is no small amount of change for any company.

Apparently, eBay wants to create a new platform for internet telephony, and focus their offering based on specialized services. The service that is mentioned in the article is one that allows people making international conference calls to find translators through eBay and then make the call through skype. This is appealing, but how often does it really happen? I would have to think that that is a small market. Most companies that are making international calls frequently hire their own translators, and those that do not will not represent a ton of revenue.

This move clearly tries to draw eBay into the circle of the giants, Google and Microsoft. But is it the right move? My thoughts are that it is not. It seems like eBay's direct target for competition with this move is Google, Microsoft is still another giant. Of course, Google is attempting to tackle Microsoft, and therefore their offerings are constantly changing and growing. To keep up, eBay will need to evolve and grow at a rapid pace. Internet telephony will be just the beginning.

Here are some ideas I had for eBay to try and keep up. One is to offer email. eBay, eMail, makes sense, right? Google helps pay for their free email service by selling ads on the sidebar. eBay has the same potential, they just need to place sponsored auctions on the sidebar. Of course, getting the infrastructure in place is a whole different beast, but cannot possibly be that difficult.

Next, they need to become a more integral part of people's desktops and thus, their lives. Google did this with the deskbar, toolbar, and other useful applications. eBay could easily do the same thing. Simply allow users to search for products instead of the web in general. Very simple.

Another service they don't currently offer is the alert. Let's see I want an item that's only occasionally available on eBay. Sometimes, the price is too high and I won't bid, but often I will. If they sent me an alert when I specified (for example, an item with keyword "x" has 1 day left and is below $50) I'd be much more likely to spend more time on their site, and that would generate more revenue for them.

These ideas, much more than skype in my opinion, would help eBay to compete with the giants.

TV to go

2005-10-05T13:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it doesn't exist yet, but my guess is that it's not too far off. Broadband penetration is increasing, portable media players are getting smaller with larger capacities, and internet enabled devices grow more and more powerful. Clearly, there are a number of things that need to happen, but my guess is that in the future we will be able to watch Television from nearly anywhere. Here's how.

First: Increased wireless access to the Internet
Verizon is already offering high speed wireless access in a large number of US cities. It's not long now before the number of access points is increased and the price drops (I believe it's about $60 now. That will drop to $40 eventually in order to compete with DSL and Cable). Another trend that will help this is the proliferation of WiMax. WiMax has been heralded as the next great thing, and hopefully we are seeing its arrival.

Second: Video media players
This is also beginning to happen. Apple has announced that it is working on a video version of its iPod, and there are a few other players rushing to be the first to market with a large capacity player capable of playing movies. The battery life and screen size is yet to be seen, but the PSP certainly performs well with video games, so expecting similar performance from a portable movie player isn't too far fetched. If an average movie is about 1GB of data, then a 40GB media player could hold 40 movies, or even four times as many TV shows (160)

Third: Merge Technologies
Bring the internet into media devices. The first steps have already been taken on this one, with iTunes entering cell phones. Cell phones equipped with the internet are common, so the next step, adding the internet to an iPod, can't be far away. Instead of waiting until one arrives home to download a song on iTunes, why not do it on the fly? Download instantly the second you hear a song. Of course, this will do a number on battery life....

Step Four: Increase battery life - dramatically
If you are going to watch television, particularly high definition television, on the road, you're going to need a serious battery. The good thing is that batteries last longer than ever, and the chips inside these devices are growing more and more powerful while requiring less power. For example, the nano is tiny, yet has a fairly good battery life. No coincidence. This is by far the most difficult step in the process, but is one that is achievable down the road.

Step Five: Get TV on the Internet
This step shouldn't be too far off. Streaming content on the internet is done with frequency. As computers get more powerful and Broadband access becomes more common, internet TV shouldn't be far off.

Well, there are clearly a number of barriers before watching TV on the road happens, but in time, I believe it is possible and even likely to happen. Might not be for another 10 years or so, but still exciting to think about.

Google Earth

2005-09-27T08:50:00.000-04:00

Google Earth is a free application than can be downloaded directly from Google. It displays satellite imagery of certain areas of the globe (mostly those that are populated). My first thoughts were "neat" and "wonder what the house I grew up in looks like from a satellite".

After playing around with those types of queries, I began thinking of possibly applications of the product. For one, getting directions is amazing. Being able to see the roads, angles, and so on makes driving the chosen path much easier. I'm also a big fan of the straight line distance feature, as I've always wondered how far I walk to work everyday (the answer: it's not as far as I thought). However, what other applications are there?

There's certainly the travel factor. A tourist visiting a new city can use Google Earth to scope out their surroundings, or better plan their walks through the city.

The true question is, why would Google provide something like this? How does it fit into their information based offerings, and where are the ads? The answer: there aren't ads. This is something slightly different. Google is diversifying. They've always been innovative and creative, and to me, this is just another example. They do offer a version of the program with more features that you have to pay for, however, I do not know of anyone who has done so.

Overall, a very interesting and fun program. Try checking out Rome, London, and Paris. A few of my favorite cities to visit.

Xbox 360

2005-09-22T11:24:00.000-04:00

That's right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the Xbox 360 is coming! The next generation in gaming, as Microsoft (evil evil I know, but it's a nice system) releases their new system... This time before rival Sony has theirs on the shelf. PS3 is expected for March of next year, the same date that Halo 3 is expected to be released.

Onto the system itself. It can be expressed by one word: nasty. Wireless (or wired) controllers, 20 GB HD (optional), and ridiculous video specs. But the wow comes from this: HD. That's right, HD gaming. I cannot wait to see how this looks. Yes, games right now have 480p, but the system does not do a very good job, and the HD cables are not sufficient. Games look great, but a far cry from how good it could be. I cannot wait to see what this system looks like.

Samsung DLP TV

2005-09-16T14:55:00.000-04:00

These Tvs, for the money, are amazing. I broke down and bought one, best thing I ever did. Huge sports fan, and the HD looks stunning. During baseball games you can see the individual blades of grass blowing in the wind. They show the lights and instead of a big white blur you can makeout each bulb and the streak coming out from each is perfect, no bleeding at all. It's unbelievable.

Video games are also amazing on it. See post about Xbox 360, coming soon.

For those who don't know, DLP is Digital Light Processing. It's a technology developed by Texas Instruments. It's a chip that contains millions of tiny mirrors. The position of the mirrors determines whether they are "on" or "off" and thus it's a binary system, and digital. More can be learned from the DLP web site at www.dlp.com. The site features a theater search, I highly recommend going to a big screen to see a movie in DLP, you'll be amazed at the difference in quality.

Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD: The Format Wars

2005-09-16T14:53:00.000-04:00

Here we go again, another format war. Some of you may remember the previous format war between DVD and LaserDisc, or VHS and BetaMax. So here we go again. My take? I like Blu-Ray, just think it's superior technology. BR has the advantage in manufacturers while HD-DVD has the advantage in the major film companies. Get ready for an interesting year... personally, I can't wait for HD movies and video games

2005-09-16T14:52:00.000-04:00

Nano.

That's all I got on that one. Very tempted, even though I already have an iPod with 40 gigs.

Hard Drive Crash

2005-09-16T14:45:00.000-04:00

Been a while. I've now discovered that the worst thing that can possibly happen to a computer is losing the hard drive, which is what happened to mine. So, to help people prepare, here's a log of my experience:
Left the computer on over the weekend, was able to access it remotely using LogMeIn from home on Saturday, so no problems then.

Come back to work Monday, blank screen facing me... Reboot... computer starts coming on, then crashes again. Not good.

Call Gateway, still under warranty, they think it might be a broken cable, new one in the mail to me.

One week later, the cable arrives. Problem still exists. Call gateway back, hard drive is dead, they'll send a new one.

Of course, my data will die, so I need to try and get it. First attempt was to try and mount the drive by running off of knoppix on a cd. No luck.

Next step was to purchase an encasement to allow me attach my hard drive as an external. Still, no luck.

Get a call from Gateway: you have 15 days to return your old hard drive.

What? Haven't gotten the new one yet. Mistake, never sent out the hard drive, sending one now, another week.

I decide to use this time getting professional help, so I bring my hard drive to CompUSA to see if they can get the data.

$50 and one week later: no luck. So I try BestBuy. 30 mins later, still, no luck

Now I'm looking at $300+ to get my data, and it ain't worth it. Gone. Everything. Backups weren't up to date.

Suggestion: Subscribe to a back-up service. They work, they're good. And take my word for it, in the near future someone will have one that will be cheap and store tons of data. When that happens, don't hesitate, subscribe.

2005-08-08T15:20:00.000-04:00

I've recently started using the Google Deskbar for quick searching. It sits on my taskbar and allows me to search without opening a full browser window. What's really nice about it is that I can add customized searches. For example: as part of my job I'm always searching on Yahoo! Finance and the SEC. Instead of having to go find the search pages for these frequently used sites, I can now just hit either ctrl + y or ctrl + s and immediately get access to those searches. Very convienent. Other searches I've added include Amazon, Best Buy, and Desktop. Highly recommend using this convienent Google tool. Link.