I am wondering when the other movie rental companies will wake up and get on the ball.  At this time, it looks like a Netflix world.  LG and Netflix announced they are working together to bring new HDTVs from LG which you simply hookup to your Internet and you have streaming HD movies.  It is all built in, no boxes to handle the streaming! With all the rush that is going on with set top boxes for VOD (video-on-demand), I would if there will be a standard coming out any time soon that will allow these...

Late comer to the set-top box market is Blockbuster.  Netflix has been on the scene for while now which may have been eating into Blockbuster’s profits in more than one way.  Blockbuster’s new set-top box and service through MediaPoint will charge you $99 for the box which will include 25 movie rentals.  Here is a “gotcha”, unlike Netflix’s subscription based viewing where you play a small rate each month (lowest at the moment to have access to online media and even includes one DVD out in the mail at a time, is only $8.99 per...

It seems Plastic Logic has shown a demo this fall of their new Plastic Logic Reader, which is a tablet which uses Electric Paper (some refer to as electric ink) which is a monochrome display which is lightweight, flexible and low power.  Here is a little more on their new reader:   Would be nice to have, but sure would great to have color! http://www.plasticlogic.com/product.html

Microsoft has released a new product of SysInternals called Desktop V1.0.  It is a simple utility to visualize your desktop offering up to four virtual desktops.  You can activate different desktops by either using the icon in the system tray or by hotkeys.  When you first install it,  you have the option of setting the hotkeys for desktop switching:   As mentioned you can also active a different desktop by selecting the icon in the tray:   When you click on the tray icon it displays a panel to select the desktop you want:   When you switch to a different desktop, all your...

Unless you are under a rock somewhere, you have probably heard and may have even tried Google's new web browser called "Chrome".  Yes, it is fast, if only all the others were this fast, but... First their is the EULA, their terms of service which I would imagine they will change: http://tapthehive.com/discuss/ This_Post_Not_Made_In_Chrome_Google_s_EULA_Sucks They basically are saying that everything you post with the web browser automatically gives Google copyright license to use that content forever for free.  Probably just something left in from some other EULA, but watch out. How about security?  Do you...

Microsoft really hit the ball out of the park with WLW (Windows Live Writer).  It is hard imaging running a blog without it.  Now that SubText blogging software and BlogEngine.net both fully support WLW. Today I ran I got a message that the version of WLW I am using (the tech preview) will end in October.  While browsing to see if there was an updated version yet, I ran unto the following blog: http://www.live-writer.net/ It has quite a few more plug-ins listed, although most of them are not have the great of importance to me, but they...

Was actually searching for something else and ran across a few plug-ins to try with Live Writer. First is the Dig This plug-in:  http://www.download.com/Digg-This-Plugin-for-Windows-Live-Writer/3000-12777_4-10796049.html?tag=lst-5       I would show you what this looks like, but SubText does not currently allow script tags.  Waiting for next version.  Might get around this weekend, adding that ability to my current version if I have the time.   Another one is Insert Polaroid:       http://www.download.com/Polaroid-Picture-Plugin-for-Windows-Live-Writer/3000-2379_4-10794601.html?tag=lst-7 That could be handy!  Would be even better if could have several overlapping.. 1: public class MyCoolClass 2: { 3: MyCoolClass () 4: ...

I decided today to try Windows Live Messenger again.  Back a ways, I used it all the time, but found I was offline due to being busy more than I was online.  May still be the fact, but I thought I would give it a looksy.  After installing, I wanted to try using a different account.  All I could find was it wanting to create a Windows live account and forcing to either a .live.com or .hotmail.com account.  A quick search for "Microsoft passport" (since I knew that was how it started out) and the first link was:...

Found a post about this product on CodeProject today, so I tried it out.  Was surprised to see my largest folder was C:\Users and more specifically, my user profile in at just over 50 GB.. The utility is called TreeSize Free: http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml    

Not long ago, I saw an interview with an fascinating man, “Sir Richard Branson”, which is not your typical billionaire.  For those that do not know him, he is the founder of Virgin Records, followed by Virgin Airlines among many other businesses.  More information about him at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson During the interview Branson mentioned an answer to our current fuel issues may be helped by Syntroleum, synthetic fuels based on the Fisher-Tropsch process which can use natural gas, coal or biomass as feedstock.  I decided to check out this a little more and found: http://www.syntroleum.com And interesting site to say the least.  You...

Looks like we offically have a new legal music downloads.  Well, sorta free, they are ad supported.  You can even use them with some MP3 players and take the music with your!  Note: Not iPod friendly.. Hip-Hop, Electronica, R & B, Rock, Easy Listening, Reggae, Blues, Latin, Country, World Music (??), Jazz, Classical, Gospel, Cajun, Celtic, Vocal, Avant-Garde, Comedy, New Age, Folk,  and World (??).  Those are just the top level Genres.  Check out: http://www.SpiralFrog.com  

I have read about the new feature in Windows Vista that will help increase your machine's performance by using space on a ReadyBoost compatible USB flash drive.  It is supposed to help systems that have smaller memory kick up the performance a bit (not as good as adding more RAM, but it suppose to help). My main development machine has a bad motherboard in it where one bank of memory slots will not work.  It currently has 1 GB of high speed RAM.  For Vista Ultimate running Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, Developer version of SQL Server 2005 and MS Office...

Here is a different one.  At eSnailer, you can compose a message and send it through postal mail, no stamp required! Yep, there is a catch as usual, you have to select ads to include with your letter.  Cool idea thought to get ads pushed through the front door of someone's house, bypassing the typical human junk mail filter to the trash bin... http://esnailer.com

Microsoft showed of some cool technology at the D5 conference that will help bring touchscreen technology closer to the masses.  Thier new device is a coffee table type system (much like the HP system) and acts quite a bit like the "Frustrated Total Internal Reflection-FTIR " post a made a while back. With this new system  you do not need a mouse and perform most tasks with just your fingers.  Not only is a touchscreen type system, but it also acts as a manager for other wireless devices such as cell phones and cameras.  In the following demo it should how...

Got this in an email today and actually found one program I plan to use for sure, "Vista Firewall Control" which asks you to approve applications that try to make outbound network connections.  You might find some applications that are of use to you also: Security SpyCatcher Express a-Squared HiJackFree VistaFirewallControl Tor System Tools What's Running Eusing Free Registry Cleaner Undelete Plus Advanced WindowsCare System Information for Windows Graphics...

In my previous posts you will see more about Joost.  They seem to have set the invites available at 999.  So, I will go through and send out 25 invites this week to the first 25 requests.  I would give them to people who have already requested, but I do not know if they need them anymore. Either make a post here with your first and last name along with your email address or send them to me in private using the Contact button at the top of the page.  

A few months ago, I spotted a new video-on-demand site starting up called Joost (you can click on the image above for the link).  At the time I signed up for their beta program and after a while, it was accepted and they sent me the links to sign and and download the client. Joost is a provider of "streaming" video, but they are trying to move into the direction of a "community" of viewers.  Features such as chat to allow you to carry on conversions with others who are watching the same show as you.  They have a few features now, but...

I was browsing around today and came across information and videos of multi-touch panels using Frustrated Total Internal Reflection or FTIR as it is known.  These panels can be made at home with mostly simple parts.  The most expensive part is a digital projector to see on the panel what is should on the computer screen, but even without, it could be a cool interface for a computer to play way. Here is more information on who you can use some Infrared LEDs, a web cam, plexiglass and a few other inexpensive parts. http://multi-touchscreen.com http://tinker.it/now/2007/02/28/multitouch-table-experiment/ http://www.multitouch.nl/ http://www.youtube.com/groups_videos?name=multitouch Also in the multitouch world: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaKehq6qsdY http://www.onthetabletop.eu/categories/4-tabletop/ http://news.com.com/HP+Labs+marks+40th+with +high-tech+coffee+table/2100-1008_3-6041758.html      

I heard about the new Corel Lightning beta program.  The program is designed to keep and organize your rich text notes or web clippings with the ability to view and link other types of documents such as PDF's, MS Word files and Word Perfect files.  http://www.wordperfect.com/lightning/ Well, I registered and downloaded the beta.  I was suprised at the bland user interface, really not much to look at.  But that aside, I started to play around for a bit.  After a couple minutes it looked as I had just about seen everything it had to offer, so I went to look at the online...

For some time now, BitTorrent goes hand-in-hand with illegal file sharing.  Now, they have decided to try reaping some of the cash out there for legal media downloads.  Welcome the new BitTorrent Entertainment Network to the fray of media download sites: http://www.bittorrent.com As with all the other legal media download sites, BitTorrent will charge expensive prices for movies.  While their price on new movies is cheaper than some, they still are higher than you local video store at $3.99 but at least you can watch the film for up to 30 days (only 24 hours to watch after you first start watching...

Today, the topic of energy generation came up and I decided to go back an look a bit over the Stirling Engine and see what is happening lately.  Much to my suprise (although it happen a year and  a half ago), Southern California Edison contracted Stirling Energy Systems, inc to build a huge 500-megawatt solar power plant using an array of 20,000 37-foot Stirling solar dishs.  I would not mind having one of those dishing in my backyard! http://www.edison.com/pressroom/pr.asp?id=5885 One my quest for more information, I found many examples of the Stirling engine being used in power generation.  It seems to be a...

It appeas that Charter Communications (my IP) has, without my permission, overroad my options for dns failure by redirecting me to "their" Yahoo! search site when I type a keyword in the browser and it is not found.  I was never asked if I wanted them to override Microsoft Live Search, which is the default in IE! When you get automatically redirected to "their" page, there is an option at the very bottom "about this page" and when you click on it, you have an option to "opt out".  Hey Charter, how about an option to "opt in" and let me...

Do you want to learn the concepts of programming a computer?  Maybe you just want to play on your computer more than just email and web browsing...  Here is a program that can be quite entertaining for kids (ages 13-120 ).  It is called Scatch and it allows you to make all kinds of things using simple drag/drop methods: http://scratch.mit.edu/ If you are at all creative and have a little time on your hands, you should love playing with Scratch!

Ran into a need to convert files from one format to another?  I did today, while visiting a site, they had all their files in QuickTime mov files.  Since I no longer want to have QuickTime on my machines, I searched for a file converter to change those mov files to WIndows Media files.  Here is a site I found that  does the conversion online (slow, but useful), best part is that it is free: http://media-convert.com Not only does it convert video and audio files, it can convert: Archive files (zip, tar, etc) Movie files (wmv, move,...

For years now, I have been waiting for Video on Demand to take off.  There are currently a number of players in the market, but costs as expensive and availability of content small. There is a sound moving around the tech world though that change is on the way.  Rumors abound of major corporations such as Microsoft, TiVo, Apple, Google, etc. all having plans for your TV.  So far though, much of it is based in paying a premium price to download certain episodes of major network shows.  This does not work for me, as I will never pay $1 per...

Many may bad mouth Microsoft, usually driven by a mob mentality, but Microsoft has done more for the computer industry than any other company on the planet!  Now, Microsoft is doing it again!  Doing what?  Bringing excitement back to the industry and raising the bar of computing! Back in the early 80s, the computer industry was moving so fast with new advancements, the excitement just could not die.  Every other month seemed to be a new announcement from someone that your computing experience would change and never be the same again.  This happened on the consumer, business and even game industries...

Looks like the computing world is moving up another notch in the numbers for storage.  Hard Drives holding 1 terabyte are moving into the market place.   How about a $399 1 TB hard drive?  Will the next couple of years see 10 TB or 40 TB drives...  Think about the movies you could store on a 40 TB drive :) http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070105-8559.html  

Today I watched an interesting video clip of a new form of solar energy power generator.  It is from a company called “Enviromission” who plans to have a test model up and running by 2008. The basic idea is to use a large round greenhouse type collector with a huge tower in the center rising 500 meters (in the test model).  The greenhouse collector portion has a slightly angled roof to help move the hot air inside over to the opening of the tower.  The updraft of the hot air moving up the tower powers turbines to produce the electricity.  Additionally,...