RSS Feeds and Sharing

I have been using Google Reader for about 6 months now, but not to it's fullest extent. Until recently (about two weeks ago), I still visited many web sites each night to read the day's news. Now, I have set up numerous feeds and am simply reading in Google Reader. I know, this is not new technology. But, as I am catching up in this space, I really love it. I save a lot of time each night, can share items I feel others may also enjoy, and have opened myself up to more sites as it is much quicker to "skim" the web.

Any of my acquaintances out there care to share their personal feed with me? I am still on the hunt for interesting news sites.

Any tips and tricks?

Web Hosting

I am curious of everyone out there - who hosts your website and are you pleased?

I have been a user of ipowerweb for a couple years now. I have been having problems recently, but didn't think anything of it for a few days. Now, as I started googling ipowerweb, I see the news. They have been having major problems for months and there are talks of lawsuits and massive movements to other web hosting solutions.

So, I am just getting ready to move...

I know some of you out there appear to have a small hosting of a blog, and then use flickr for photos. Photos is my major use of my website, so I am now considering this route too.

Warner Bros. Makes A Decision, For Now

(January 4, 2008 – Burbank, CA) – In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros.
Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the
Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry
Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner
Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

from deadlinehollywooddaily via engadgethd

Geeks Love Foxtrot!

From Foxtrot.com today

Beautiful!

Google Street View has come to Indianapolis

Google Maps has added Indianapolis to Street View. But, they have not stopped at just downtown, no, they have added the greater area, including many cities and towns within 50 miles!

Greenwood, IN

So, this includes Martinsville, Terre Haute, Greenwood, Brownsburg, Shelbyville, Bloomington, Lafayette, Kokomo, Muncie, Anderson, Columbus, Crawfordsville, the list goes on (sorry Ft. Wayne, you were just barely missed).

Now, if NAVTEQ would only add my subdivision! (My battle continues with them, as they supply map data for nearly ALL online map services for Indianapolis and Greenwood)

PS3 to get DivX Support Tomorrow

According to a thread on neogaf.com and Engadget, Playstation UK leaked the updates to v2.10 scheduled to come out tomorrow.

Among them, DivX support! This is one of the last things that XBox360 had that PS3 did not have (that I want). So now when I am streaming my mp3s to the PS3, I can watch those TV shows I have as well!

I'm Back, and its Time to Rock (afire)!

I have been gone for work for about three weeks. While I am enjoying a little time off and trying to catch up on news, I found this on Engadget. Before even watching, I knew I would love this.

So this guy, Chris Thrash, got his hands on this set of the Rock-afire Explosion from an old Showbiz Pizza. He has posted a few videos on YouTube, but I have created a link to a couple of my favorites.





See his YouTube link for all the videos.

Calamari anyone??

Unless you have been living under a rock, you are familiar with the iPhone commercials. This commercial has created such a stir in the area for calamari, that this restaurant added calamari to the menu!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/seasick/iphone-popularity-forces-calamari-on-menu-275940.php

PS3, Finally In the Game

Today I ordered my PS3 from Costco. Costco still has the fantastic repair/return plan built into their gaming systems, so this is the best way to go (only recently was the 90 day part added due to abuse). We have already changed our BlockBuster selections over to Blu-ray in anticipation. Also, I have my copy of Planet Earth in Blu-ray on its way.

Guitar Hero 3, here I come!

Update - Safari

I hope to read about other people's experiences regarding Safari on their PCs. Here were my 3 strikes that led to setting Firefox back to my default browser

1. Safari did not import my Bookmarks from IE or Firefox - Firefox imported my Bookmarks from IE when installing and Safari didn't. You would think that is a brand new deployment of a browser to the PC world, that is something that the average Joe would want to take place automatically.
2. Gmail.com crashed Safari and continues to do so - Not much more information than that, I still can't get on gmail.com using Safari.
3. Hotmail.com crashed Safari - although I am not a huge fan of Hotmail, I still use it for certain things.

So, for now, its Firefox for me (although I am still looking forward to a couple of Safari's other features)!

Apple Announcement That I Care About

Safari was announced today for Windows. I am going to give it a try on my desktop, because I am thirsty (read the story). To my mac fanboys out there, tell me your thoughts on Safari vs. Firefox

Two New Things

Browsing some news today, I found two cool technologies worth sharing.

A sound way to turn heat into electricity

University of Utah physicists developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. The technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars.

MIT's wireless electricity demoed, dubbed WiTricity

A team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers reported in Science Express, the online publication of the journal Science, that they had demonstrated wireless transmission of electric power by magnetically coupled resonators. They dubbed their technology "WiTricity" for wireless electricity. -via Engadget

Cingular or AT&T? Who cares, neither works!

I have been a Cingular customer for a few years now, and have been generally happy. You know, inexpensive phones, nice coverage, and good plans. As of Friday afternoon sometime, if you too are a Cingular customer, you can not call me.

Sound weird?

Well it is to me, and to Tier 3 Tech Support at Cingular. After 45 minutes and multiple tech support levels, they don't know what is wrong. A trouble ticket is getting logged, and that is it for now. Great, glad that my wife, all my family and some friends are all Cingular.

We learned because my neighbor tried to call me Friday afternoon, and was told that his call could not be completed as dialed. So, he called my wife, who is also a Cingular customer, and got through just fine. So after talking to him, I tried to call my phone from my wife's cell phone, and no go. But, I can call all of them just fine!

I am guessing they magically fix it tonight and the problem just goes away. If not, I am guessing they give me a new phone (which I wanted anyway).

BOOOOOOOOO!!!

Its not fair, I have been free from Comcast for 3 years now since we moved in to our house, as we are served by Insight here. With this story, Comcast is taking over most of Insight's business.

<sarcasm>Com-freakin-castic!</sarcasm>

Insight has bumped us up to 10 meg for quite a while now. Insight has been good to its customers. Comcast has not. I still recall getting yelled at by Comcast representatives because I was frustrated that their technician missed the 4 hour window. I really can't stand Comcast.

Please, AT&T, hurry up! I am watching...

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=6325419

Hot Or Not

Remember Hot or Not? I am sure you do. My favorite thing to do there was vote 1 for everyone. Its mean, I know, but who cares!

Well, this is a little different. Fetcho, get your systems up!

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/macbattle-hot-or-not-for-computer-nerds-245969.php

http://www.macbattle.com/index.php

Your Choice in Tech News

I am just curious what people prefer, so please respond with your favorite site for tech news.

Me personally, it is close between Gizmodo and Engadget. I have read Engadget longer, but like the spins and occasional off-the-wall stories of Gizmodo.

Please, share your insight, even if I don't know you!

Best Buy or OK Buy

This story is interesting. As we all know by now, Best Buy sometimes has different (lower) prices on their website than the intranet site you can view in the store. And what response do you get when you ask for the lower price???

We don't match our online store prices.

I assumed this was correct, but I always asked anyway; you know, just in case I could get the lower price. But, now that I see that "company policy is to always offer customers the lowest quoted price". I think this could be a big deal. Best Buy claims that they have dropped the ball when it comes to training employees to give us, the consumers, the lowest Best Buy price. But, considering that all of their employees always say the same thing, this has got to be what they are told to say! We will see as this unfolds.

Considering stories like this, could Best Buy be hurting as well in the near future?

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-15009112.htm?cnn=yes

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/cheap-lcds-to-blame-for-compusa-store-closing-242244.php

Hello, I'm A PC

I would prefer to be using an Apple at home, but atlas, work pays for my laptop, thus making me a PC. These are funny, enjoy.

Bill Gates on the Daily Show

I am sure you have all heard about this or seen this by now, but I still must link to it, as it was quite amusing.

Let the Hacking Begin!

HD DVD was cracked, somewhat, a few weeks back.

This just came in yesterday. My favorite quote:

Oups, I did it again!

In less that 24 hours, without any Blu-Ray equipment, but with the help of Janvitos, I managed to decrypt and play a Blu-Ray media file using my known-plaintext attack...

Not perfect yet, but moving along nicely.