| | Viewing entries in Technology | | Posted by Michael on 06/11/07. | |
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| Caron Schwartz Ellis wrote a nice piece for the Boulder County Business Review on the resurgence of web companies in the Boulder/Denver area.
The companies she mentions are a hop or two away from me. While I don't know them all personally, I think that they're all doing great work. Being involved in the startup scene has been a wonderful experience, and this article reminds me of that.
Sure, at one point we would have been in the list, but times change, as do priorities. How about you save some space for me in the followup article next year Caron? Deal?
BCBR ARTICLE: The return of the dot-com |
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/06/07. | |
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| John Gruber has a great post about the silly stuff going on around meta-data embedded in iTunes Plus music tracks.
Listen, let's put this in terms anyone can understand. You own the tracks and can put them on any device you want. They are DRM free tracks. DRM free however, does not mean it is suddenly OK to "give a copy to your friends" or to Limewire.
Check out John's post |
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/04/07. | |
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| At first glance, ustream.tv looks like another way to stream a live webcam. Look a little deeper and you'll see that they're changing the live broadcast model.
I was introduced to ustream.tv while listening to a podcast called net@nite with Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur. They mentioned a live video feed, and that feed was done with ustream.
At the time (April 07) ustream.tv wasn't able to keep up with the traffic demands that a Leo Laporte required. Now they've grown and scaled to handle that and more.
As an example, former TechTV show host Chris Pirillo has a live (sponsored) feed from his office. Though the largest number of simultaneous viewers I've personally seen there is tiny (70), they claim they're ready for Leo.
The fact that this company exists was inevitable, but that they started the company in February of this year is nothing short of amazing. Talk about a zero to 60 entrepreneurial experience.
With the new version about ship, I'm positive they're going to play a major role in redefining what live broadcasting is and who has access to it. Their features are geared toward monetizing live video streams and the subsequent archives. Incredibly cool.
Watch for ustream.tv. |
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/04/07. | |
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| [This entry originally appeared in the old blog on 03/25/07. I've reposted it here for those that requested it. Enjoy.]
When Apple mentioned the AppleTV last fall, I wanted one immediately. It was made by Apple, it connected wirelessly to my Mac, connected my HDTV, and frankly that was enough. I bought one Friday night.
To watch video content on my Samsung DLP before Friday night I'd have to move my laptop to the TV, plug in the DVI -> HDMI cable, plug in the stereo 1/8" -> RCA cable, switch the receiver to video 4, switch the TV to HDMI input 2, then sync the video settings on the laptop/TV (and in the process hose my application's window sizing).
It was such a PITA that I'd removed all but one video podcast from my subscriptions (The Merlin Show).
Today watching video podcasts on my TV is as easy as grabbing the tiny Apple remote and finding the podcast I want then clicking play.
And watching video podcasts I have been. Lots of them. The Merlin Show, GeekBrief.tv, DL.tv, MacBreak, Cranky Geeks, teXtra, Diggnation, David Pogue, etc. It is like having my own custom tech TV station.
Watching these with the AppleTV means I no longer have to dedicate my laptop (or any other computer for that matter) to the cause. Sure the XBox has a similar feature set, and there are other solutions to the problem. Those solutions may work for you, but the tight integration with my Mac, and the ability to hack (new video formats, larger hard drives, SSH, AFP) it make the AppleTV a great purchase for me.
Next up is ripping Z's DVD collection to his G4, then connecting his iTunes to the AppleTV. Kid's TV On-Demand. You can connect to up to 5 iTunes libraries.
I don't anticipate using the AppleTV to watch movies or TV shows. Downloading TV doesn't fit in to our television workflow at all. We watch TV two nights a week by time-shifting our favorite shows with our Comcast HD DVR. As for movies, we hardly find the time to watch the 3 Netflix DVDs we have in the queue as it is. |
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/04/07. | |
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| As my friend David says, good ideas are a dime a dozen. Well David, here's another one I had, then found. I hate when that happens.
"Data de-duplication, also called data de-dupe, removes duplicate information as data is backed up or archived. It can be done on the file level, where duplicate files are replaced with a marker pointing to one copy of the file, or at the sub-file level, or byte level, where duplicate bytes of data are removed, resulting in a decrease in storage capacity requirements of several magnitudes."
OK, so the idea isn't unique, but if someone wants to bring that tech the desktop and you're interested in my UI ideas for it, I've got plenty. |
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/04/07. | |
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| [This entry originally appeared in the old blog on 04/30/07. I've reposted it here for those that requested it. Enjoy.]
About a year ago I published a post entitled "If you know me..." where I let everyone know that bought a set of rabbit ears for my television viewing. I didn't want cable, or satellite, since most of what we watch is (was?) broadcast television.
While the purchase was interesting from the "retro" perspective, I ended up going with cable anyway as the signal just wasn't consistent at all.
Later in the year I bought an HDTV, and since I had Comcast internet I decided that I'd give Comcast's HD service a go. It was a great decision, the HD detail makes a major difference.
The Comcast setup process took about 3 days. It was a painful 3 days let me tell you. I had this great TV and no content... until I remembered the rabbit ears. They were "HDTV Ready." We've got a match.
We used the rabbit ears for those few days to watch a little football, some CSI, etc. Good times.
This post was about my experience with HDTV and rabbit ears... which was about a year early... according to this story 'Rabbit ears' find new life in HDTV age.
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| | | Posted by Michael on 06/04/07. | |
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| [This entry originally appeared in the old blog on 03/23/06. I've reposted it here for those that requested it. Enjoy.]
... you'll know just how funny my latest technology purchase was: an analog amplified indoor antenna.
Why? Frst of all... we only really watch local tv. Sure we'd likely watch more, but who really has time for that? Would I rather spend that time with my family... or maybe in front of my laptop?
Second, and most importantly really, Z likes PBS in the morning, and doesn't watch TV outside of that. We watch Survivor and Desperate Housewives pretty much.
Third, why should we pay $55/mo to Comcast to watch what we can get free?
Fourth, we're going to be watching more and more shows from iTunes, at our convenience.
Fifth, it was $24.95 @ Walmart... which is less than two months of Comcast's "basic" cable service.
Sixth, we have Netflix.
I'll keep you posted on how this works out. |
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