Monthly Archives:

November 2005

Happy Holidays and all that. Plus, where the hell is my Xbox 360?

Posted on November 28, 2005

greetings and all that. i have returned from the wilds of down south after eating just about as much turkey, stuffing and apple pie as any human has ever done. i’m not saying that i ate a lot last week. i’m saying that entire families could live off of my plate from last week. i told myself that i wasn’t going to fall victim to the whole thanksgiving “thing” where you spend time with relatives you really don’t like, eat and drink too much and generally ruin your health and negate any real gains you have made all in a matter or days. sadly, i didn’t listen to my own plan. mostly in the eating arena. i kinda like my relatives. plus, drinking is pretty fun too.

actually, i have to say that to my surprise, i really don’t feel that bad about it. i guess you could say that life really is too short to worry about this kind of thing. everyone eats and drinks too much during the holidays. its a national pass time like baseball. in fact, how does that saying go? baseball and apple pie, etc. that’s what america is all about. so, let’s say that i did my duty as an american and over-consumed as much as possible last week. kudos to me. i feel great.

speaking of over-consuming, how about that xbox 360? either Microsoft way underestimated the demand for this device or they really are the demonic spawn that many say they are and did this just to make it seem like demand was so big. granted, there were many thousands of people camped out in front of their local bast buy well in advance of the xbox release but really Microsoft, would it have killed you to make a few more so we could all buy one? plan ahead, that’s all i’m saying.

if this was a marketing ploy, its seems like it might actually backfire on you as people get more and more pissed that there are no xbox 360 consoles to be had anywhere. plus, now it seems that there might be a glitch with a few of them. maybe more than a few. that doesn’t help the bottom line either.

sadly, we will probably never know the real story. Microsoft will continue to do whatever it wants and people will continue to line up a day or two early to buy cutting-edge products. that’s american too. we have a right to buy stuff, even if its probably overpriced, overhyped and may very well be defective.

dammit, i sure hope i can find one soon.

TV Downloads, XMas Shopping and some history

Posted on November 18, 2005

NBC has entered into a deal with online commerce and digital delivery guys Wurld Media to make selected movies available for download via protected peer-to-peer network Peer Impact beginning in early 2006.

No word yet on the price for this but here’s the best part: you pay for the download, watch the content and then 24 hours later, it deletes itself. You can’t keep the show more than 24 hours. Seriously, why would i want to do that when i can record it on TiVo and delete it when i want to or keep it if i want? This is a really dumb idea that i hope will fail miserably and all who thought it was a good idea will get flogged. (well, maybe not flogged but at least they should get a stern talking to).

And, here’s the best places to shop this holiday season, at leat according to CNN money. Its pretty much the way i feel too. I hate Best Buy and Wal-Mart unless i absolutely need something in a hurry. As for Amazon.com, don’t get me started. I took a look at my Amazon order history the other day and I have to say it was a little scary. Although, being an Amazon Prime member does cut down on the shipping costs but damn you one-click ordering!

Also, as the holidays are fast approaching I just wanted to comment about the decor of my usual Starbucks in Studio City. Yes, they have the damn Christmas decorations up already and its not even Thanksgiving yet. When I asked about this I was told that the comromise they made was not to have Christmas music playing until the day after Thanksgiving. What a bunch of good guys.

Actually, Thanksgiving really isn’t next week anyway. When it was originally declared a holiday by President Lincoln in 1863, it was on the LAST Thursday of November. However, in 1939, FDR decided that people needed an extra week in order to make sure they could get all their shopping done in time for Christmas. So, he moved it to the third Thursday in November, thus giving us an extra week to shop and have to deal with the holidays. Thanks FDR.

Please don’t get me wrong, I like the holidays. I just don’t like them quite so soon. Besides, Thanksgiving is important. It deserves a little time of its own so people can appreciate it before they get bombarded with Christmas stuff. Don’t you think?

New Business and some old New Business

Posted on November 15, 2005

we are considering many alternatives and are getting together a new business venture that promises to bring many exciting things (at least for us). we are working hard and are not ready to reveal all the sordid details as of yet. however, it will be pretty cool and has the potential to make some pretty good returns. so, anyone out there want to be our angel? (sorry, shameless plug but really, we could use some more startup dough).

in other news if you have a TiVo Series2 box connected to your home network, you’ve likely noticed that TiVo is testing a new feature that allows you to download programs to your TiVo box over broadband. as part of this test, they’ve got a special offer for their network-connected subscribers: a free movie! can TiVo Netflix be far behind? sign me up.

also, popular science magazine showcases their 18th Annual celebration of innovation or best of what’s new for 2005. a.k.a. the 100 most impressive technologies of the year. check it out. i like some of the choices but the airbus a380 does nothing for me. besides, their french.

and, the first reviews for Xbox 360 games are starting to hit the web. 1UP has reviewed Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 3, FIFA Soccer 2006, NBA 2K6, and Amped 3, while IGN has reviewed Madden NFL 06, Kameo, and NBA 2K6.

last but not least, the battle for the new DVD standard still rages. here’s a summary of the arguments and features in favor of either. go nuts!

How CBS and NBC got it wrong

Posted on November 9, 2005

even though they seem like they are trying to do the right thing. it appears that greed trumps innovation yet again. i’ll let om tell it like it is.

all i have to say about this is that the apple business model seems to make more sense to me. i think you should be able to record content and time and place shift it at your convnience, as i have said before.

also, in case you missed it, sony has been up to no good selling cd’s that install a rootkit on your windows machine. what does this mean? well, its an attempt by sony to monitor and control in what way you can use their content. here’s a more “tech” explanation.

i don’t like it when sony (or anyone) installs something on my machine that i don’t want and didn’t agree to. or even did agree to but didn’t know exactly what i was getting. that’s not very nice. good thing i use a mac. also, here’s a partial list of the cd’s that have this problem. can you say boycott?

and finally, good old steve ballmer, ceo of microsoft, on why apple computer is seen as “good” and microsoft is seen as “bad”. interesting read and with good play-by-play from mac daily news.

Over 1M people switch from Windows to MAC

Posted on November 7, 2005

mmmm, this is an interesting development. who can blame them? thank you iPod (now with video). i know i love mine. even though i only got the 30gig, its still cool. i can even watch movies on it. its not so bad, really, the screen is a little small but it looks great. maybe santa steve will bring a horizontal iPod video with true 16×9 screen? commence breath holding.

also, not on a related note except that i’m writing this post and its about video (sort of), have been busy putting together a little horror film with some friends of mine. soon, i will allow the waiting masses to view the carefully crafted trailer. but for now, a photo will have to suffice. say hello to the bad guy.