"Do you have your blaxx?"
"I've got my blaxx in my pocket."
"My blaxx never leaves my hand."
"I love my blaxx."
"Once you go blaxx, you never go baxx!"
Yeah, great product name.
August 2007 Archives
Just when you think the high definition format wars are starting to shift in one camps favor, something like this happens. Paramount and Dreamworks Animation have decided to no longer offer movies in both Bluray and HD DVD formats. Instead they are siding with the HD DVD group for all future offerings.
I've owned the Xbox 360 HD DVD player since its release, and have been enjoying the Blueray player that is my PlayStation 3 for the past month. When it comes to picture and sound quality the clear winner is ... well, both. There's no perceptible difference in quality between the two formats. However, I do enjoy HD DVD's menu system more than Bluray because you don't have to stop the movie to see what other options are available.
In any case, I have no interest in which format wins, except for the fact that I own more HD DVD movies. So maybe I am a little more biased that I thought. Anyway, the clear loser in this battle is the consumer. As long as there's a format war, confused consumers are going to stay far away from the battlefield. Let's hope this is more of a drawn out skirmish than an all out war, otherwise we all may be looking for an exit strategy several years from now.
James Fallows over at theatlantic.com has a "Jim Louderback" like post on switching from Windows Vista back to Windows XP. It's a big mea culpa on his part for recommending Windows Vista to his readers. Hats off to you James.
After five years at the helm of PC Magazine, Jim Louderback is leaving Ziff Davis to become CEO of Revision 3. For those not in the know, Revision 3 produces some of the best online shows available today: Diggnation, The Totally Rad Show (a personal favorite of mine), InDigital, and many more.
While I respect Jim's work at PC Magazine, he's frustrated me over the past year with his blind devotion to Windows Vista. He was banging the "Vista is the best OS" drum before the final product was launched to the public. Granted, Vista may be the best Windows to date, but it's far from perfect.
His final goodbye to the PC Magazine readers devolves into a fantastic rant about Windows Vista's negatives. I applaud him for his candor, but why couldn't he have been more forthcoming over the past 9 months?
In any case, I'm excited to see what he does over at Revision 3. Good luck, Jim.
If I told you companies edit their own Wikipedia entries, would you be surprised? Probably not. What is surprising is Virgil Griffith, the genius graduate student that wrote the Wikipedia Scanner, has found the proverbial smoking gun. His handy new tool has found out who's anonymously editing the entries. For instance, someone at Diebold deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on the Diebold e-voting machines. For shame, Diebold!
Virgil Griffith is my new hero.
What's the greatest invention of humankind? Fire? The Wheel? The Airplane? No, no and no. Without a doubt in my mind, the greatest invention that we as a species have ever created is the Global Positioning System (GPS).
Putting hyperbole aside, GPS systems are one of those "how did we ever get by without it" technologies. GPS is working its way into many consumer level products like cellphones, cars, and other portable devices. One of the leaders in the industry is Garmin, and I've been using one of their Nuvi 360's for about a month.
Build & Design
Unlike the Roadmate line of Garmin GPS devices, the Nuvi line is small and portable. It's meant to be a travel assistant no matter how you get around (walking, biking, motorcycle, car, etc.) The device can fit in a large pocket and is extremely light weight. The built in battery makes the streamlined device possible, but is not user upgradable. Nothing feels cheap about the Nuvi, and it gives the impression that it can take some good shots and keep on ticking.The Maps and Points of Interest
The cost of a GPS device isn't in the hardware, but is in the maps. Much like previous Garmin GPS units I've used, the maps are excellent. It's a rare occasion that I'm directed to a dead end or road that no longer exists. Garmin updates their maps about once a year, which will cost you anywhere from $75 - $150 to upgrade.However, the part that makes the Nuvi stand out from the crowd is the Points of Interest database. No matter where you are, you're only a few clicks away from finding a place to eat, fill your gas tank, or catching a movie. When I was in Brooklyn recently, I found that the database was a little out of date. My wife and I tried to find a place to eat breakfast and one of the entries was out of business. I can't say we've had the same issue with the Boston area.
You can also load in your own Points of Interest using the included software. I found a website that offered a walking tour for the Boston Harbor. The tour takes you to a dozen different points of interest, and plays specific MP3 files when you reach each destination. Imagine the possibilities.
Accuracy
The last two Garmin units I've used have both been in the Roadmate line, and while they served their purpose well, I found that they could be somewhat slow to respond. After bootup, the Nuvi usually finds the satellites in 20 - 30 seconds. I've also found that it is able to keep a GPS signal through tunnels more readily than the Roadmate line. In fact, I've used the Nuvi while in my house without any issue. Don't ask.Calculating routes also appears to be much faster. Speed can sometimes be essential when you've missed your turn and the GPS unit needs to recalculate your route on the fly. Depending on how long the recalculation takes, you can sometimes miss the next course correction. This results in another recalculation. The Nuvi 360 isn't a powerhouse, but calculates the routes with ease.
Text to Speech
Remember when I said that GPS was humankind's greatest invention? Well, coming in at second place would be text to speech software. Yes, you heard me right. Most lower end GPS units will say things like, "Turn right in .2 miles." That's great, but what happens if there's several roads close together and you're not sure which one to take? That's where text to speech comes in. "Turn right on to Main St. in .2 miles." Much better! The Nuvi 360 offers this wonderful addition, and gives you several voices to choose from: Jack, Jill, Australian Jack, Australian Jill, and several other languages to boot.Conclusion
I imagine that GPS has saved more marriages than a licensed therapist. At least I think it's saved my marriage about half a dozen times. The Nuvi 360 is a top notch GPS device that I would recommend to any would-be buyer. If you're interested in routing yourself around traffic, you should consider the Nuvi 660, which also adds a larger screen. The Nuvi 360 can add the same traffic functionality with a $150 add-on.Toyman's Take: Highly Recommended.
Have you ever opened a cable, telephone or utility bill to find a collection of flyers promoting additional services? What do you usually do with those flyers? Probably the same exact thing I do, throw them out.
Well, two days ago I received my Comcast bill which had a glossy black flyer enclosed. As I walked to the trash to throw out the junk flyer included with my bill, the words "Arbitration Notice" on the front of the flyer caught my eye. Standing next to the kitchen garbage can, I read the flyer and discovered that Comcast is changing the customer subscriber agreement to include mandatory arbitration for any dispute. My mood went from "time to sort the mail," to "you've got to be kidding me."
So what does this actually mean? Any dispute with Comcast must be resolved through arbitration and cannot end up in court. Comcast says that the word dispute, "is to be given the broadest possible meaning that will be enforced." In other words:
"The term 'Dispute' means any dispute, claim or controversy between you and Comcast regarding any aspect of your relationship with Comcast that has accrued or may hereafter accrue, whether based in contract, statute, regulation, ordinance, tort (including, but not limited to, fraud, misrepresentation, fraudulent inducement, negligence or any other intentional tort)."In essence, Comcast customers wouldn't be able to join class action lawsuits or escalate the dispute by taking the company to court. What ever happened to the sixth amendment or the due process of law? Clearly, Comcast believes more in the bottom line than the American way.
However, it's not the "you can't sue us" part alone that angers me. It's the "you can't sue us and if we don't hear from you in thirty days you agree to these terms." Comcast customers are given thirty days from notification of the service agreement change to opt-out of the arbitration clause. What if the flyer title hadn't caught my eye? I would have been opted-in to the arbitration clause. My silence becomes a binding agreement. How does that make sense?
I was pleased to find out that one town is trying to take a stand against Comcast. Montgomery County, MD is urging all residents to opt-out of the agreement. Read more here.
There are two important things I urge everyone to do: 1) All Comcast customers should visit www.comcast.com/arbitrationoptout and opt-out of this agreement, and 2) Look at the "junk" included with your utility bills before tossing them into the trash.
Karl Rove has an iPhone.
Karl Rove has an iPhone!
So many jokes going through my head ...
I've got to go lay down.
Macworld is reporting that Apple is going to be holding a "mac-focused" presentation next Tuesday (8/7) for a select group of the press.
