Category Archives: Tech

I Want My DTV

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February 17, 2009, came and went without anyone freaking out because their TV channels mysteriously went away. That was the day that TV broadcasters in the United States had originally been mandated to switch to digital over-the-air signals from the analog signals they’ve been using for over 50 years. That date was pushed out to June 12 by Congress, and as best as I can tell, they did that primarily because it turns out that U.S. citizens are really good at procrastinating.

I know what you’re thinking: “Jeff, this whole digital TV thing totally snuck up on everyone. It was so frakking sneaky that it could have slit our throats in our sleep! We’re lucky to still be alive!” Continue reading →

YouTube Rocks, Just Not for You

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You really can find anything you want to see, and even more that you wish you never had, at YouTube. There are some amazingly cool videos available, and some that make you want to push a wire brush through your ear and scrub the memories out of your head. Really. Actually, there are a few videos I wish I could scrub away right now.

Aside from the brain-scrubbing videos, YouTube rocks. It’s packed tight with entertainment, training, video blogs, promotional videos and more. You can’t ask for a better deal as a viewer: YouTube rocks.

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Damn, Them Apple Guys Are Smart

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Friends have been hounding me for years — actually, two seasons, but who’s counting — to watch The Big Bang Theory. Everyone kept telling me how amazingly funny the show is, how I’d be able to see my world played out in the characters, and how the geek and nerd factor would be right up my alley. Yes, they were all right, but it still took no end of cajoling on the part of my friend Lesa Snider King and the gifting of season one from the iTunes Store before I started watching.

It’s true: The Big Bang Theory totally rocks and I should have started watching it sooner. But that’s not the point. The point is that those guys at Apple are frakking smart and anyone that’s worried the little Cupertino-company-that-could will lose relevance now that Steve Jobs is on a medical leave of absence needs to take a big step back and look at the bigger picture. Continue reading →

Living In a Blu-ray World

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Well, there you have it: Toshiba finally rolled over and showed its belly to Sony. Blu-ray is now officially the high definition successor format to DVD.

OK, I’m sorry. That roll-over-showing-the-belly analogy was kind of creepy. How about “give up the ghost,” or “took its ball and went home,” or maybe “threw in the towel” — which is what I settled on for my article at iPodObserver.com.

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On Microsoft and Funky Installers

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Here’s the deal: Microsoft released Office 2008 for the Mac, and the installer does its own thing with file ownership and permissions. The end deal is that some users are winding up with non-admin users having absolute control over Office’s components — a potential headache for IT crews. That was back in January, so I’ve had plenty of time to mull this one over, and the bottom line is that I just don’t get it.

OK, I get what is happening, I just don’t get how it could have happened in the first place.

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