Reports by Consumers

Harmony Remote's SST-768 universal remote control uses Smart State Technology, pioneered by Intrigue Technologies, to control your home theater devices through commands focused on activities rather than on the devices themselves. Just scroll through the Harmony's screen and click with the convenient thumb wheel to choose an activity such as "watch television" or "watch a DVD," then let the SST-768 figure out how to configure your entertainment system for your desired activity--you don't have to first program the device with complicated macros.

“…in the past firms have mostly resisted customer innovation or not known what to do with it. American farmers were lobbying manufacturers to make cars with detachable back seats as early as 1909. It took Detroit more than a decade to “invent” the pick-up truck. Even now, carmakers respond to customer modifications such as performance-exhaust systems by voiding the warranty. Within three weeks of launching “Mindstorms”, a build-it-yourself robot development system, in 1997, Lego was facing around 1,000 hackers who had downloaded its operating system, vastly improved it, and posted their work freely online. After a long stunned silence, Lego appears to have accepted the merits of this community's work: programs written in hacker language may now be uploaded to the Mindstorms website, for example.”

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261."

A few states and municipalities offer tax credits and other financial incentives to developers of green buildings or buyers of green products, such as efficient clothes washers and water heaters, that might go into such buildings. New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Oregon are among states that offer significant green building tax credits. Also, a growing number of local municipalities offer incentives for green building.

In November 2001 the Georgia Supreme Court ruled in favor of two State Farm customers who asserted that wrecked cars are worth less simply because they have been wrecked — no matter how expertly they're repaired — and that insurers are liable to pay the difference. Because of that ruling, all auto insurers in Georgia must now pay diminished value claims. In January 2002, Allstate settled a similar class action case in Georgia, agreeing to pay Georgia policyholders a total of $59 million for the diminished value of their cars repaired...

Albright says that in several flood-damaged cars his group has seen, a vehicle's entire electrical system was damaged and the insurance company did not total the vehicle. Instead, insurers paid for repairs to "substantial portions" of the electrical systems. "The problem is that this type of work is almost always done at a dealership, which identifies the vehicle in a nationwide computer network as a flood-damaged vehicle. The resale value of that vehicle immediately plummets to pennies on the dollar," he says.

While I'm on the thought of home entertainment and geekiness. I didn't buy an integrated home entertainment system. Each component, stereo, TV, DVD player, satellite/TiVo receiver were all acquired separately. I have worked at the connections and layout until its at the point where I only need 3 remotes and everything runs through my stereo, both sound and video. All of my video is digital except for the video game consoles (and I expect the next generation of them to be digital too). All of my sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and/or DTS running across...

Apart from the charities I have mentioned (of which there are so many more but I mentioned the ones here as an introduction) and writing to your local member of government, there are other ways in which you can reduce the amount of animal testing that goes on. By buying organic you are reducing the amount of revenue that goes to agrochemical testing on animals. Other ways include buying cruelty free cosmetics, household products etc. Investing your money in ethical companies/ financial institutions, although this is not always transparent with regards...

Nokia announced plans to patch the holes in their handhelds, and has now released details on when those updates will be available”.

Fannie Mae “provides financial products and services that make it possible for low-, moderate-, and middle-income families to buy homes of their own,” according to their website.

They have a lender search tool that lets you search the Fannie Mae-approved lenders by state.

On the balance, we are witnessing the demise of the PDA as a separate device. That is what the numbers show in the field of consumer electronics. Within a few years, those who can afford to purchase a PDA will buy a smartphone that can its special content into hard drive space provided by the networks.

Including a CD player in every car was probably a pretty good idea seven years ago, but that was before portable music playing devices became fashionable again. Remember those tape deck adapters you had to use just so you could enjoy your favorite CDs instead of hastily creating a bunch of mix tapes? Now in most cars you don't have access to a tape deck, and so the FM transmitter becomes the solution.

…Macs are less expensive. That’s not what you see in the PC press, but it’s reality. The explanation for that, besides dishonesty on the part of PC reviewers going as far back as 1984, is primarily that Apple’s product cycles resemble those of other consumer electronics manufacturers, not those of the PC industry.

Sony is supporting Blu-ray disc technology along with most consumer electronics makers including Samsung and Matsushita.

This colorful toaster will brighten up your mornings as you are toasting breakfast. With oozing personality, they are decorated in bright stripes, flowers and cowprint.

ZDNet has word that Tivo is in talks with Google and Yahoo over a deal that could bring search to TV.

One scenario that's been discussed would see TiVo partner with Google or Yahoo on a new service that would let consumers search for videos on the Web and then watch them on their television sets, according to one person with knowledge of the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second person familiar with the talks said TiVo has held talks with both Google and Yahoo about a potential equity investment, including the possibility of an outright acquisition.

I put off purchasing a TiVo for as long as possible, even in the face of the rave reviews of friends, because I feared it would increase my TV watching habits dramatically. That didn’t happen - the quality and not the quantity increased, but it did make TV watching feel like more of a chore and a responsibility; I worried that if I didn’t keep pace with the recordings, I would lose the chance to watch what I wanted. Still, I wouldn’t trade my TiVo for anything. It has become an absolute necessity, in the same way that once color...

On or around September 25, 2004, I registered my Kryptonite locks with their product recall program. (September 25 is when I first got email from them, anyway.) On November 14, I received email containing a “Trans. Id” number, and on November 20 they sent me a prepaid UPS shipping label. I packed up my two locks and shipped them the next day.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard cut fees for their recycling programs this week in advance of Friday's Earth Day observance.

Tech companies have come under growing pressure in the past few years to address the growing mounds of dangerous waste created by outdated computer hardware. Gear such as monitors and circuit boards are full of hazardous chemicals that can leach into the soil and groundwater if dumped into landfills. Groups such as the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative have successfully pushed computer makers to responsibly recycle more and more of their obsolete goods.

HP announced Thursday that it was temporarily cutting in half the fees it charges customers to recycle old computer hardware. The promotion runs though May 31 and works in conjunction with a rebate program that gives customers as much as $50 off the price of new HP equipment if they recycle old gear through the company.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) granted a petition for a new standard for home refrigerators in a letter released yesterday. The petition, submitted by a diverse coalition including state governments, utility companies, consumer and low-income advocacy groups, and environmental and energy efficiency organizations, requested that DOE commence a rulemaking to strengthen an existing national standard.

"We are very pleased DOE has granted our petition," said Steven Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). "DOE's action recognizes the enormous energy and dollar savings at stake in making home refrigerators more efficient."

"It is encouraging that DOE has granted our petition," said Mel Hall-Crawford, Energy Projects Director for Consumer Federal of America (CFA). "Refrigerators are a major consumer appliance. We look forward to a process that clearly looks at establishing strong, cost effective energy efficiency standards for residential refrigerators that will benefit consumers."

Manual transmissions are usually more fun to drive, cheaper to buy and maintain, and offer improved performance and fuel economy versus automatic transmissions. Yet many cars are only offered with an automatic, and their numbers are growing. This site has been created to entertain and educate dedicated standard shifters and the curious alike.

Interested in learning how to drive a car with a manual transmission? See the F.A.Q.. The buying guide lists all of the new cars and trucks that come with a manual transmission in the American market. In the press links you to a forum section on stories and articles about automobiles.

The campaign, “Recycle My Cell Phone” aims to make recycling cell phones, PDAs, and pagers as easy as recycling bottles, paper, and cans! It’s simple, easy and free to recycle your cell phone. Just go to the website and print out a postage paid mailing label; put your old cell phones, PDA’s, beepers and chargers into a box, tape the label on it, and give to your mail carrier.

The driving factor behind my wife’s purchase of the device was the large catalog of medical software available for Palms and the ubiquity of the devices in her hospital. She’s a medical student, and has seen the use of PDAs (mostly Palm) become pervasive enough for her to feel like she’s missing the boat if she doesn’t have one. She also wanted to be able to deal with her email and do some IM on breaks during her longer rotations.

It’s also worth mentioning the hypocrisy of AARP’s deriding diversified bond and stock investment as too “risky” in other ads, while at the same time profiting by putting its brandname on various investment funds of its own. AARP sells 38 mutual funds, and makes north of $300 million annually by such co-branding of financial products.

Sony is the main backer of Blu-ray Disc, a format that has picked up the support of many major consumer electronics makers, while HD-DVD counts NEC and Toshiba as its main backers. Both formats have been designed to hold high-definition movies, and both are being promoted as a replacement for current DVD-Video, which cannot support high-definition TV.

Broadcasters are reluctant to have their customers' screens go blank. Consumer electronics firms, on the other hand, are delighted to replace all those 284 million analog units with slick, flat panel and HD-ready digital sets. (The CE people point out that digital TV sales are booming, with some 20 million units expected in 2005, but a new digital divide is clearly on the horizon.)

Upstart automakers in China are making blatant copies of vehicles like the Honda CR-V and Nissan Frontier - and one company, Geely, is building small economy cars that look like three-quarters-scale Mercedes-Benzes.

Which is probably the most encouraging thing for western economies competing with the Chinese juggernaut. China is still a component producer rather than a finished product supplier. The Chinese don't have so much as a toehold in western consumer markets for any big ticket items. When we start seeing American showrooms being flooded with Chinese TVs and cars (because they're good stuff), then we should all commence serious worrying.

Did you ever want for the ability to turn your lights on and off. Have full control (Play, Stop, Pause, Menu) of your DVD player, TIVO, and High Def TV, all wirelessly from your PSP? If so, click on this link:

We found this blog entry on how to port your Tivo to Go programming to your PSP (scroll to near the bottom of the page to read your PSP requirements).

Spring clean with a conscience and recycle your old or unwanted cell phones for a good cause.

With the highest owner satisfaction of any 2005 model, according to an owner survey by Consumer Reports magazine, few Prius owners will part with their cars. But some will -- for a price.

Ad Age . Consultancy firm Accenture which claims on demand and ad skipping will cost the television industry $27 billion over the next five years. Additionally, the company reports 70 percent of DVR users already skip ads and that DVR penetration will hit 40 percent by 2009.

Ben Edelman knows a lot about the lawyers and money part. He’s a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard School of Economics and a student at Harvard Law, and a frequent commentator on Internet-related legal issues.

He wrote me this morning to comment on my post, in which I noted that when I downloaded and installed the Kazaa-Skype bundle yesterday, I obtained more than 2,500 adware files.

Ben sent a link to an artice he wrote, in which he notes that in their license document, one of the leading spyware hitchikers on Kazaa-Skype downloads fails to list anti-spyware utilities as an authorized means of removing their files from your PC.

He quotes: "You agree that you will not use, or encourage others to use, any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer, or any GAIN-Supported Software from a computer."

It all about me(TV). ipTV, P2P, PVR/DVR's, and VOD

Someday, ads will find their way into (or around) video on demand (VOD) or internet protocol television (IPTV) or digital video recorders (DVR). These non-linear television vehicles are also equipped to provide targeted advertising. One question is this: will advertisers use the context of the video to guess at who is watching or will it be necessary to use a demographic profile of the viewer to determine which ad is relevant?

This is an idea that transcends VOD, IPTV, or the DVR. In fact, even for digital cable today it would not surprise me if Comcast and Time Warner Cable started selling commercials to the set top box instead of to the show. In that way, no matter what each viewer’s tastes are or what mood they are in that night, the targeted message would still be shown.

Today we stopped out at the local Comcast office and traded in one of our digital cable boxes for the new DVR capable box. Got it all hooked up and activated in just a few minutes and have been happily pausing, rewinding and recording live TV all afternoon!

There are certainly things Tivo can do that this box from Motorola doesn't, but for $9.95 a month without having to buy a box up front, it's not a bad deal at all. I'm figuring this is our way to ease into DVR, after 6 months to a year of this we'll be ready to upgrade to the newest Tivo offering to get all the extra features.

ParkScan "is a project of San Francisco's Neighborhood Parks Council.It presents volunteers and the public with user-friendly tools to help monitor park conditions and help improve maintenance in San Francisco's neighborhood parks". Further "park groups and volunteer observers rate park conditions using handheld computers,specialized forms and digital cameras. Their observations help managing agencies improve park maintenance".

My theory? Bespoke everything. The tech pretty much exists to have anything and everything custom fabricated at a price nearly in line with mass-manufactured products. Once we move beyond micro-brands to designing, producing and consuming everything on a personal level, I suppose the only brands worth talking about will be which fab shops have the best pricing, turnaround, tech support and customer service.

Not everyone has the time or inclination to design their own socks and toasters etc, so there'll still be room for exceptional designs from people like Philippe Starke, or whoever. On the other hand, when 200,000 *have* designed their own toaster, I wouldn't be surprised to see open source and file sharing of product design specs flood the bulk of the market. Whether these will be free or just really cheap is up for grabs. Probably both.

One of the best means of avoiding exposure to house- hold hazardous materials is to use safer alternatives whenever possible. Included in this section are time- honored recipes and suggestions to help you make the switch toward safer household products. Ingredients followed by instructions will guide you through an array of easy-to-make, easy-to-use safer alternatives. Some ingredients recommended as alternatives are safer, but not nontoxic.These...

• Eighty-one percent of owners say they “like” or “love” using their TiVo/DVR, while 78% of owners say they “like” or “love” using their iPod.

Not to be outdone by frying pans that explode when you use them for frying, Nature's Finest Candles has issued a product recall because the candles catch fire when you light them.

This is not to be confused with birthday candles that catch fire and explode.

The company said its new Tungsten E2 will sell for $249 and is available now. The Tungsten E, which it replaces, was at the low end of its Tungsten series of PDAs, which were aimed at power users and enterprises.

Portable devices completely dominate - 90% of the students on campus have laptops, and 98% of the incoming class of 2007 purchased wi-fi equipped laptops. Wi-fi PDAs are everywhere. Someone at dinner at the conference actually complained about the poor connectivity on his Blackberry and was wishing for wi-fi instead! One generation from now, you will hear the phrase, "Daddy, what’s a desktop computer?"» »

» Location based services emerge - Students here are already running calendar applications that alert them of their next appointment based on their current location and estimated travel time. People can walk up to a printer and hit "print," with the computer automatically routing the job to the physically closest printer. At UCSD, students with PDAs can see each other walking around campus, projected on real time maps and offer to get together, go eat, etc..»

All major tax preparation firms do offer e-file, but “rapid refunds” and similar products (yes, as in financial products) are really just high-interest loans. Here’s how it works.

Identity theft is the new crime of the information age.

A criminal collects enough personal data on someone to impersonate a victim to banks, credit card companies and other financial institutions. Then he racks up debt in the person's name, collects the cash and disappears. The victim is left holding the bag. While some of the losses are absorbed by financial institutions--credit card companies in particular--the credit-rating damage is borne by the victim. It can take years for the victim to clear his name.

Unfortunately, the solutions being proposed in Congress won't help.

Most major gas or electric appliances such as refrigerators, washers and dryers require special servicing to ensure safe transportation. All parts should be professionally secured prior to transport. Gas appliances in particular need professional disconnection and reconnection.>

Customers earn points towards the purchase or lease of GM vehicles, and GM says more than 4 million GM cars have been bought or leased by Rewards customers since the card was launched.

Giving Hybrids A Real Jolt. Suggests that future hybrids will be mostly electric cars, for most day to day, in-city travel, and switch to gas power only on longer trips.

What if Opra invited Harry Potter and Pokemon on to her show to explain how to use a Macintosh, an iPod, Voice Over IP, Bluetooth, Skype, and Vonage? SURELY it would be a hit episode?

Which stand alone DVR should you buy? Neither, says Stephen Speicher.

I've been using the same system more than 15 years: keeping an empty (and washed, of course) two-litre milk carton by the sink, ready for peels, grinds and all that rot. In summer, it's a slice to trot out and dump into the two composters I have running; when it's cold, I wimp out, and keep them piled in the thankfully freezing garage. More recently, I've been stacking them around the corner of the house, waiting for a fine enough day.

This commercial is hip & has a great message. It makes Kia look like a real player in the auto industry (which they are proving themselves to be with great cars) and they will sell a lot of cars from it. Check it out here.

There have been a couple of improvements with the Motorola 6412 HD PVR in the past couple of weeks. First off, Mediacom updated the software. The horribly ugly interface from 1991 is gone and replaced with a much more polished looking UI. It still can’t match Tivo’s UI, but at least it doesn’t hurt to look at it anymore.

Second, last night I discovered they had activated the 2nd tuner. So now I can record and watch something else at the same time, which my Tivo could never do.

My father-in-law, Tom, is considering a PVR and I told him to check out what his cable company had to offer first. As much as I love Tivo, they aren’t keeping up with the marketplace.

What I've found disturbing is that the folks I've talked with generally don't understand issues related to 911 service, the need for back-up power, the difficulty of connecting VoIP services into existing home wiring, or the lack of quality guarantees from VoIP service providers. They also don't understand that some services don't support fax, and none of the services that I'm aware of support home alarm systems or devices like TiVo that need to call home for updates.

That's Fox News playing on the new HP desktop. I've had the DirecTV box hooked into my Sony for a long time, but Microsoft's new Media Center is way better than Sony's Giga Pocket. It's really pretty much like having TIVO in your computer. It downloads the program guide off the Internet and keeps it current, so you can pick programs to record ahead of time, or, even have it record regular programs whenever they're on. You can pause and rewind live TV, etc.

"But walking is free, natural and we all know how to do it, so why pay thousands for a Segway?" he says. "And if you don't want to walk why not get a bike, again it's much cheaper. The Segway doesn't seem to have massive practical benefits over other products or our own legs.

The first of an avalanche of applications I imagine, but is it safe? The history of Lead and Mercury in household products is the first thing that springs to mind, I need to see some reassuring science I think.

Users in the UK with an existing online banking relationship are more likely to use the Internet for a range of financial activities. 70 percent of online banking users versus 52 percent of online users pay their bills online. 37 percent versus 30 percent of online users have applied for a loan or a credit card online and 33 percent versus 27 percent of online users have bought insurance products online.

However, online mortgage applications tend to be low even among online banking users. Only 4 percent of them have applied for a mortgage online. The complexity and the financial commitment involved with a mortgage refrain also more experienced users to adopt the online channel for these types o financial products.

After finding no real reviews on the Elgato EyeTV 500, an HDTV DVR, I thought that I would write up my own review of this excellent product.

I thought this was really interesting. ITFacts.biz breaks down some interesting statistics about consumer electronics showing that 75% of US homes have DVD players. Other statistics include:

$125.7 bln of consumer electronics will be sold in 2005

Best Buy recently announced that they are phasing out the use of rebates over the next two years. I couldn't be happier. I think those things are such a blatantly deceptive marketing ploy. Sure the price is lower, but you have to read the fine print and jump through a bunch of hoops to get it. It was getting out of control. I'm glad Best Buy has taken notice and is making a change. Hopefully, other consumer electronics...

On India’s part, China already represents a threat: China already has a marked global superiority in offshore manufacturing. It produces nearly 50% of the world’s refrigerators and television sets and about 30% of its washing machines. And a great deal of its products go to India.

I searching for a PSP everywhere I could think of: Fry’s, Bestbuy, Target, EB Games, etc. But it was at a music store called Fye, where I finally got my PSP, only catch was that I had to buy a game. Bad thing was that they only had three games left: Gretzky Hockey, Ape Escape and Need For Speed Underground. I got NFSU and was so excited to get home and open it or possibly make some mad coin selling it on ebay.

On the drive home I did some heavy thinking and decided to do a little more reseach before keeping the system. First I checked out Fye’s return policy and they said I had 30 days but the package had to be sealed. So I read about hacks and bugs with this first batch of PSP’s, I weighed the pros and cons and decided to wait for the next price drop and returned it. It was tough since the PSP was the new hottest thing out right now, but I knew it was the most sensible thing to do. I barley had time to play my xbox, there wasn’t any...

For those of you who thought I was an idiot for returning the PSP, I felt better after seeing 15 PSP’s Irvine (Jamboree) target earlier tonight and my friend who lives in Houston, Texas said they have PSP’s for sale all over the place.

However, when the big router companies had the decision of whether to make Wireless Routers easy to install or secure, the chose easy to install.

What does this mean?

This means that rather than having you go through a lengthy process of encrypting your signal and preventing outside users from taking your internet connection, the big wireless companies (Microsoft, Intel, Linksys, D-Link, and Netgear) wanted to make installation a snap! Did you ever notice how easy it was to get up and running with a wireless router right out of the box? Once you power up the router and connect your DSL line or Cable Modem, that signal is being broadcasted in every direction up to an average of 300 feet. That means your next door neighbor can easily pick up on your signal and surf the web for free!

Takeaway selling, for the uninitiated, is a way to limit the supply of a product or service in some way to increase scarcity of an offer. Because it's a proven fact that scarcity sells. It's the age ol' law of supply and demand. The less the supply, the greater the demand, as people don't know how much they want something until it's about to be taken away from them.

This Customer Advisory (CA) is designed to assist HP iPAQ Pocket PC series handheld customers whose devices have cracked displays.

A recently filed class-action lawsuit against alleged spyware king DirectRevenue of New York claims that the company has deceptively downloaded harmful and offensive spyware to unsuspecting users’ computers.

The suit, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, alleges that DirectRevenue LLC “unlawfully used and damaged plaintiffs’ computers to make money for themselves while willfully disregarding plaintiffs’ rights to use and enjoy their personal property.”

Yea, I know, VoIP is a hot “buzz” topic now, but there’s some value I’m seeing in it for my future. I can sign on with a company like Vonage, and have them transfer my current phone number. I can also select any phone number in any area code in the USA I want, if I wanted a new number. Then, I can take that and move wherever. So, for example, I could move to a city in central Europe, and have people phone me as if I were still in the USA, and I can phone them as well. As long as I have a strong, broadband internet connection...

That's what both AOL and AT&T seem to have gotten, both with their technology and with their marketing. While Vonage takes a very Darwinesque or Jackass feel to their marketing, they have really not made VoIP as easy as either of the BIG A's.

911 service has been in the spotlight recently after a young girl was unable to use her family’s Vonage phone to call 911 during armed robbery in Texas. This has prompted the state of Texas to seek a court order to stop Vonage from advertising it offers "911 calling", and for Vonage to outline the steps need to turn on 911 service. In Canada, the CRTC has stepped into the 911 void with a decision that requires VoIP service providers to offer the same level of 911 service provided by ILECs to their existing customers within the next 90 days....

I used Skype for the first time today, it was amazing! I'm serious, it was the clearest telephone conversation I've ever had in my life. Talked to my friend Filup in Sweden for a long time and it was completely free! All I needed was a $20 head-set (Altec AHS-202), that I picked up from the local computer store, plugged it in to the sound card, installed the free Skype software....

If you happen to be one of our friends, and want to call me or Jessica in Europe sometime, my skype name is markmcgaa. Just remember I'll be seven hours later then Minnesota.

Posted on March 18, 2005 in Web/Tech | Permalink

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Call me...no, Skype me:

(Updated 2005-3-26: The new Skype 1.2 can now export/import contacts in vCard format, making most of this post irrelevant.)

My partners and I use Skype pretty heavily to do calls and conference calls via Voice Over IP, as we’re all located in different countries.

One annoying thing about Skype though, is that as opposed to most IM networks, where contact info is stored on a server on the network somewhere, Skype stores contact info client-side. This is a major pain for when you need to re-install your system, or when you have two computers and want to have the same contact list on both. In these situations, since there’s no built-in import/export facility, you typically have to write down and manually reenter the details for your contacts.

Let’s hope Skype get’s a real built-in import/export facility at some point. It’s hard to believe it’s come so far without one.

Find a folder that has the same name as your skype user name here:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Application Data\Skype

Thank copy the entire folder to a freshly installed Skype on another machine (make sure skype is not running on either machine while copying)

Start Skype, et voilà a rebuilt contact list in seconds.

$HOME/.skype

Commercial refrigeration manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates announced today that they have reached an agreement on consensus federal equipment efficiency standards for commercial refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerator freezers used in restaurants, convenience stores, grocery stores, and other commercial buildings that, if enacted by federal regulators and Congress, will avoid the need for 2 new 300 MW power plants.

Anyway, the combination of these two influences has convinced me to try organic meat, and maybe other products as well. I don’t really like meat much and wouldn’t eat it at all if I had to cook it. But my husband is willing to cook it–he’d be a carnivore I think if we let him. But I shy away from buying meat because of the high prices. Now that I know a bit more about where it comes from as well…I think I’ll have an even harder time buying it at Pick ‘n’ Save or Festival.

To buy music these days, I have to make all kinds of choices. If I want to buy downloads from the net, it’s like trying to figure out which mortgage to take out on a house. Now because of the cost, but because of all the rules and regulations. Do I want to limit myself to 5 computers. Do I want to always keep my subscription live. Do I want to store the music in a proprietary format that only a couple devices can use. Those are all tough decisions to make when the only thing I know with certainty is that the device I’m using as an MP3 player...

Verizon and AOL on Thursday each unveiled new Internet-based phone plans. Verizon will charge just $29.95 for unlimited calls; AOL's monthly fee is $29.99. While these two giants duke it out, they will also face competition from cable companies like Comcast, telcos such as SBC, and startups Vonage and even Skype. Call it the Internet phone wars.

You might want to check out the discussions on the Vonage VoIP Forum, www.vonage-forum.com

You may recall my Vonage rant a while back. I sent them mail to clarify the situation at that time, but didn’t hear back. (In the interim, I’ve settled on Delta Three’s iconnecthere service).

Almost two months after I sent my query to Vonage Customer Service asking about the activation, shipping, and termination charges, I finally got two responses. Taken together, they fall into the “heart is in the right place, but head is up their ass” category. Compare:

Additionally, Vonage is now advertising using popunder adds that defeat the popup controls in Safari. I haven’t checked for the same in Firefox. In any case, it does not increase my desire to buy service from them.

Solar energy radiation incident on the surface of the earth can be conveniently utilized to meet a major part of our energy requirements. In a solar water heating system, the energy absorber is the flat plate collector measuring about 1x2 m. This flat plate collector has the capacity to absorb solar energy equivalent to about 5-6 kWH per day. Solar heat absorbed by the absorber in the collector is transferred to the water circulating inside the riser pipes bonded to the absorber assembly. The circulating water gets heated and is delivered to an insulated storage tank. Re-circulation of the same water through the absorber panel in the collector raises the temperature to 90°C(max) on a good sunny day. The entire assembly of the solar flat plate collector, inter-connecting piping and the insulated hot water storage tank makes up a solar water heating system. “Avin” offers solar water heaters either as (a) thermosyphon systems or (b) forced-flow type solar water heating systems. In a thermosyphon system water circulation is by pressure from an overhead cold water storage tank located at least a foot from the top of the outlet of the system’s hot water tank. This type is best for most applications as power consumption is nil. In a forced- flow system water is circulated by means of a water pump. This type of system is recommended where constant temperature of water is required.

Countertop microwaves seem to fall into 3-4 categories these days: Tiny, cheap utilitarian models, slightly larger units with various gadgets like toasters incorporated, normal 1-1.5 cu. ft models, and stainless-clad uber beasts. All I wanted was a mid-size microwave with a few sensor features and a reasonable price. No one had these in stock - they were all the $40 tiny models, the Swiss-Army microwaves, and $170 "designer" styles. To me, a 'wave should be just a 'wave - not a coffee machine nor a fashion accessory - and should cost between...

I wish I had this Home Theatre PC Guide [via] when I was putting together my little HTPC/PVR. This guide pretty much gives you everything you need to know to put together your own wannabe TIVO. All you need is a an old computer, some software and a TV tuner.

The technology, voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, is offered by telephone and cable companies as well by as instant-messaging services like those from Yahoo and MSN. Skype says that it has over 2.8 million users in the United States and 30.6 million worldwide, and is adding users at a rate of 155,000 a day.

I originally purchased the PSP, (that’s “PlayStation Portable” for anybody not in the loop these days) just to try it out. I had no intention of keeping the thing. I just needed to know what all the buzz was about.

Yeah, the PSP is the ultimate drug, the killer gadget narcotic that I doubt anyone -- geek or civilian -- would be able to resist.

I love it most because I can play the PSP anywhere. I can play it in bed, at the doctor’s office, in line at the car wash, on the plane. I played it while I was waiting for my tires to get changed the other day. Heck, I could even play it on the can if I ever wanted to; ahem -- not that I ever would.

The truly brilliant thing that Sony built into the PSP is its ability to play interactively via WiFi right out of the box. You can either play with someone else in your local vicinity or with a group of people over the Internet. Set up is a no-brainer and completely wireless.

Plus, unlike Microsoft’s XBox Live online game system the PSP’s online environment is free. All you need is an Internet connection and you’re good to go.

Another problem I’ve had with the PSP is frequent photosensitive seizures. I’m prone to them with my XBox, but only after extended gaming sessions and under certain environmental conditions.

With the PSP I’ve found that I experience photosensitive seizures more often and after much briefer gaming sessions, sometimes only an hour.

Despite these physically debilitating experiences, however, I can’t give it up. Like a drug addict who chases junk through nausea, depression and self-hatred, I answer the siren call of my PSP.

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Sony’s PSP is a Game Freak’s Crack Pipe:

There are many personal care products that carry the organic label and claim they are “all natural and organic” but they are not chemical free. How can a product make this claim and contain synthetic chemicals? The government does not require the cosmetic industry to test the chemicals they put in their products for safety. Additionally the cosmetic companies are not monitored by the government thus allowing questionable synthetic chemicals to find their way into personal products.

Yet the question remains, does the government take into consideration repetitive, long term, exposure to these chemicals on a recurring daily basis? Scientists are now finding that the human body stores many of these synthetic chemicals for life and can not eliminate them. The skin is the largest organ of the human body and what you put on it is absorbed into the human blood stream. Just as you carefully pick organic fruits and vegetables, one should carefully consider the personal products you put on your skin and in your hair.

Defective products injure millions of people every year worldwide. These products include everything such as dangerous toys, automobile design, sports utility vehicle rollovers, gas tank explosions, seat belt failures, improperly designed consumer and household products, industrial machineries and equipment, farm machineries, tractors and equipment, products causing explosion and burns, and aviation products.

Matsushita, the owner of the Panasonic Brand, has unveiled four new portable digital-music players in an effort to boost its presence in a market that is dominated by Apple’s iPod MP3 player. The world’s largest consumer electronics maker unveiled two models with built-in flash memory–one capable of storing 512MB of data and the other twice the size at 1GB–and two that work with SD (Secure Digital)...

I’ve been in the mood to write and my laptop decided to die on me. Dell has been good to me over the years- the only “new” computers I’ve owned have been Dell and I’ve always raved about the customer service and support. It looks like my luck has run out. My laptop has a power issue and instead of actually fixing the issue Dell keeps replacing the motherboard which will eventually burn out over and over again because of overheating. The laptop has been great and problem free until the the thing burns out on me over...

Drivers have been running an “arms race” on American roads by buying increasingly large vehicles such as sport utility vehicles and light trucks. But large vehicles pose an increased danger to occupants of smaller vehicles and to pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. This paper measures both the internal effect of large vehicles on their own occupants’ safety and their external effect on others. The results show that light trucks are extremely deadly. For each 1 million light trucks that replace cars, between 34 and 93 additional...

Yes, they’re appalling figures. Sadly it’s not a new issue. The road safety community has been concerned about this for as long as I’ve been aware. Even more sadly, the response from aggressive road users in the US has been that drivers of small cars are contributing to their own fatalities. They also extend this criticism to include government measures aimed at reducing fuel use by making vehicles lighter.

Current thread on the Vonage VoIP Forum started with a poster who complained that he received an email offer with the subject line: "MAKE THE SWITCH NOW!!" (sorry, all-CAPS are his, not mine).

The bottom of the message contained the text "Vonage.com," and included the company’s snail-mail address.

As several respondents pointed out though,the message contained an identifier for Mesa Media. Company has no Web site I could find but as far as I can tell, they are the spammer- not Vonage.

Brooke Schulz, spokesman for VoIP provider Vonage Holdings Corp., said the company has been working to provide enhanced 911 to its 500,000 customers for the past two years. So far, the company has only been successful in providing enhanced 911 service in Rhode Island because of hurdles it has run into with getting access to 911 through traditional phone companies.

Vonage provides traditional 911 service to customers who must provide an address of where the VoIP phone will be kept and must activate the service.

After some rumors that a large WISP was blocking Vonage's voip ports, it appears as though Clearwire is the WISP Vonage is investigating.

The fact remains that Vonage could have easily leveraged the ISP channel a long time ago to build their service and gain several network allies along the way. They've gone the other route and appear to be sticking to the strategy. Seems myopic to me, but I guess if you have strong profits and growth early on and have a successful IPO before the port issue turns into a court issue, you can afford the battle.

Vonage, a provider of VoIP services, complained that two broadband providers were causing traffic problems for them. One of the broadband providers was identified as Clearwire, while the other provider, a certain cable operator, was not named.

The VoIP provider said that last month, both companies were suspected of blocking calls and not letting some home-phone adapters work properly. Since the complaint was issued to Clearwire, Vonage calls have been able to come through uninterrupted, but the issue with the cable provider remains unsolved.

Before Vonage filed this complaint, Madison River Communications, a telecommunications provider, stated that it would refrain from “blocking” VoIP calls and was willing to pay a $15,000 fine to the government.

Engadget has found their way to a beta version of TiVo Desktop 2.1 and they give it a once over.

The good stuff they find includes better support for TiVoToGo on portable devices and a TiVo-branded video player complete with the green playback bar and sounds we're all used to. They also are getting rid of the playback password, which sounds like good news, but...

Also, what's up with the UI? The TiVo remote works because my fingers can feel around the rewind/pause/fast-forward buttons. Great physical UIs don't make for great software UIs. Or maybe I'm just bitter over the whole DRM thing and taking it out on a poor, defenseless UI.

I have a tivo and a pc running BeyondTV 3.52. My pc's encoder is a Hauppauge PVR-250. Tivo records everything in best quality. I have recorded the same show on both the Tivo and BTV. I must admit that the quality of the BTV (also recorded at best quality)is far superior to the TivoTogo files. That said the BTV files are about three times the size of the Tivo files). Not sure this addresses the article here just thought to mention if anyone else has experienced this?

"So this "upgrade" removes my ability to strip the DRM on .tivo files so that I can watch _my_ .tivo files on _my_ mac laptop?"

If you really hate Tivo so much because of their DRM, then maybe you should stop using / subscribing to Tivo. But you won't do that, will you .. ?

I know it's not a TiVo, but it *is* a valid alternative if you are truly passionate about controlling your environment.

TiVo is legally covered, those who want to get around the DRM will do so, the rest of us won't even notice, and life will go on.

"You need to realize that there is simply no way that TIVO can provide a TTG-like feature _WITHOUT_ DRM - they will simply get their asses sued off by the TV/Movie industry"

I can video tape any show, and import that show on a cheap video card, without DRM. Why should a TiVo box I paid for and pay monthly for be programmed to let me do less with the files in my own home?

They wouldn't be helping folks spread them online or try selling shows on discs. I think the assumed evil in TiVo customers is totally unfair and unrealistic.

Furthermore, your assumed "good" in Tivo customers is unrealistic.

Get real. These files get out unrestricted and all of the sudden people are sharing/emailing/etc them all over the place. People dont like that, it is called "stealing" (see mp3's). Generally stealing is considered not "good" and ultimately someone will have to pay. Tivo does not want people stealing nor do they want to pay for enabling them to be stolen.

Engadget? Are you kidding? Why in the world would you quote an outfit that posted the ludicrious "Tivo Death Watch" junk only weeks before Tivo signed a deal with Comcast? Engadget has been totally discredited; the sooner its owner and his 386 computer go belly-up, the better!

There are more than a few problems with DRM and DRM with TivoToGO... Matt's 99% honest user figure is pretty close to the mark I think.

DRM seems to only stop honest users from performing actions previously allowed as "fair use", but does nothing to actually slow down actual pirates. True pirates and TV rip distro groups don't use their TiVo to rip stuff anyways. They rip from the actual network satellite transmission feeds or DTV broadcasts...

Just the other day, I tried to use tivotogo and the Sonic myDVD tivo suite on trial to burn "the contender" for a friend who missed it. I dutifily typed in my t2g password, it transcoded for hours (which drives me nuts) and then "unknown error" bork/coaster... I took an unDRM'd MPEG2 off my SageTV box and it burned it without issue. Both are mpeg2 files, but only the DRM one locks me into a specific buggy DVD burning software platform.

I suggest everyone that is rallying around TiVo's DRM to check out one person's experiences with the last ten years of DRM:

Anyway everything is already out there DRMing on the Tivo to go end means nothing. This is just Tivo doing it's usual belly flop dance to placated the media powers at the expensive of their real customers.

How are you watching .tivo files on your Mac?

Mark - I strip the DRM from the file using the process outlined at http://www.evillabs.net/tivo/ and a Windows system. Then copy them to my PowerBook for when I want to watch a show away from my TV. Isn't that what TiVoToGo was designed to allow me to do?

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Engadget plays with TiVo Desktop 2.1 Beta:

Comcast Corp. is working with TiVo Inc. on an advertising system that will insert new, updated commercials into already-recorded programs, the company said.

Comcast Chief Executive Roberts told cable executives late Monday that under such a system, programs that were recorded weeks ago on a TiVo digital video recorder would have their old commercials replaced with new ones.

There’s a new independent (and inofficial, AFAIK) web site at www.skypetips.com which lists news, a FAQ, ratings on addon hard- and software for Skype and many other things. Looks to me like they might be sponsored by somebody, but then it’s the only site I know of which offers this combination of information relating to Skype. Check it out!

UPDATE: Right after writing this, I found another site that accumulates information on news about Skype: http://skypecentral.jyve.com/. It seems to employ several automatic mechanisms to search news sites, blogs and other sources for Skype related information, so it’s probably quite current but not moderated. Will have to watch that for a while.

Connectotel has introduced a service (currently in beta test) where mobile phones can be used to send messages to Skype users. If you use Skype and you want to be able to receive messages sent to you by SMS, all you have to do is add a pseudo user to your contact list.

skype johndoe This is a message to johndoe

The original instructions can be found here.

Last night on TV it was shown how many on EBay are selling bad products. Some people bought some Addidas articles, and of those five items only one was real. This is not right! Many will point out people “borrow” because music and other products are overpriced. Well, there is a simple answer, DON’T BUY IT! If you do not want to support “the man", then buy from smaller lesser known companies. By doing that you will support capitalism, a free market economy, and create jobs! By buying from lesser known companies and artists you are supporting innovation! Stealing, or “borrowing” only fuels the arguments from larger companies for more draconian DRM and other protection schemes.

Lead is a highly toxic metal used for years in many household products. Pregnant women and infants are the most vulnerable to lead, which can cause kidney and brain damage and, in some cases, death.

(NIH) National Institutes of Health. Household Products Database, Material Safety Data Sheets, http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/health.htm, 2003.

Yes you need a DVR. We have one and it just broke and now I am lost!!!! They are sending me a new one though. Somehow my disc in the hard drive got scratched on its own. Very peculiar.

In MGM v. Grokster, the Court will decide whether copyright holders can veto consumer electronics and computing innovations that upset the content industries' prevailing business models, even where the technology's non-infringing uses provide substantial benefits to consumers. The question is whether consumer demand for new and better products will drive technological development, or copyright owners' demand for control will retard it.

Three players are vying to grab the lion's share of this rapidly emerging market. The first, obviously, are the traditional phone companies like AT&T and Sprint. AT&T has even stopped offering traditional phone service to concentrate on its Internet telephony offerings. The cable companies like Time Warner, Cablevision and Cox have also joined the fray. The same cable that brings HBO into homes can also deliver phone service. Finally, a host of start-ups are also staking a claim to this market, including Vonage and Skype. Skype has...

This guy has Skype figured out, I’ll need to try some of these when I get home.

I just finished a great book, and was thinking about what I would be doing on the plane. Then suddenly I got up, and went out to buy a Sony PSP. I am a FIFA fan, but since I have so many of those, I went for the World Soccer game. I also grabbed Wipeout, which seems really fun.

DaimlerChrysler AG, the world’s biggest maker of luxury cars, is recalling 1.3 million Mercedes- Benz brand models worldwide to fix electrical and braking-system faults, marking a big blow to the brand’s quality reputation, they had been guarding for so long since Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) delivered its first Mercedes on 22 December 1900.

Acc. to Germany-based Daimler Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and CLS-Class cars built between January 2002 and January 2005 will have battery-control software replaced to enhance the on-board power supply, and E-Class, SL- Class and CLS models built from June 2001 until this month will receive updated braking systems. DaimlerChrysler will also check and, if necessary, replace alternators’ voltage regulators on Mercedes-Benz models equipped with six- and eight-cylinder engines built between June 2001 and November 2004.

Two companies are recalling about 88,000 portable propane heaters because a defect can cause gas to leak out, creating a fire hazard, the government said Tuesday.

DESA Heating LLC of Bowling Green, Ky., and Scheu Manufacturing Co. Inc. of Upland, Calif., are aware of four people who suffered hand burns and two cases of property damage, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said.

The propane heaters, made in China, have a plastic ring that can crack and allow gas to leak. The following models are being recalled:

_All-Pro (SPC-15R and SPC-30R)

_Master infrared (TT15A and TT30A)

_Reddy Heater (HD15A and HD30A)

Heaters imported by DESA bear serial numbers 016,000,000-016,159,999. All-Pro heaters imported by Scheu have serial numbers beginning with C or D.

Home centers and hardware stores nationwide sold them from September 2002 to January 2005 for $45 to $120.

My wife has been using a Toshiba tablet for a while at home and this weekend we replaced it. When it comes to consumer electronics, I am not picky. What can I say, I am just not a hardware guy.

Navigating and searching cable TV, let alone dealing with a variety of devices (how many remote controls do you have?) and sources for content, is still in the Stone Age, and will be for years. Katzenberg mentioned how Moore's Law is helping improve the quality of high-end animated features with better tools, but there's isn't a Moore's Law equivalent for the user interface, especially in the tangled consumer electronics world. The solution won't come from any single vendor, but from many different groups working on similar problems over decades....

Consumer Reports magazine is taking renewed aim at a popular air purifier made by The Sharper Image two months after it fended off a libel lawsuit filed by the machine's retailer.

Panel Democrats criticized the bill for failing to improve the fuel-efficiency of US cars and trucks, and doing little to promote energy conservation.

The Texas attorney general yesterday sued Vonage, the nation’s largest Internet-based phone provider, saying the company failed to clearly tell consumers its service doesn’t automatically allow them to dial 911.

The lawsuit follows an incident last month in which a 17-year-old Houston girl was unable to call 911 on her family’s Vonage service after a home invasion robbery left her parents injured. The girl ended up calling from a neighbor’s home.

The lawsuit – filed under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act – seeks to make Vonage more clearly inform consumers that they must sign up separately for 911 service. The lawsuit also seeks US$20,000 per violation of the act.

Vonage, which is based in Edison, N.J., offers details about its emergency service only in fine print on its Web site and buried inside its users’ guide, Abbott said.

Internet-based phone services such as Vonage have grown rapidly by offering low-cost calling plans to consumers with fast Internet connections. The company offers service in San Antonio and has more than 500,000 subscribers nationwide.

Even so, Abbott said Vonage’s television commercials and brochures don’t address its 911 requirements. And customers who contact the company’s call centers are not told they have to separately sign up for emergency service.

-- By the way, I switched over to Vonage to save some dough and so far, so good. It's $25 a month for unlimited calling and by the time I get all the rebates back for the $59 phone adapter I had to buy to get it to work, the adapter will be free. Oh, but had one heck of a time getting TiVo to download updates on it. It took a lot of patience and a lot of configuring. But, this isn't Slashdot. Heck, Slashdot isn't Slashdot anymore.

Toshiba's versatile SD-H400 is a home entertainment marvel! It combines a full-featured progressive-scan DVD player and a TiVo Series2 hard disk recorder with 80-hour capacity! Toshiba has always been a leader in DVD technology, and the SD-H400 delivers superb DVD picture and sound. In fact, if you own an HD-capable TV, you can enjoy an ultra-clean progressive-scan signal through the component video output for both DVD and TiVo playback!

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp which no decent human being would eat?

Continuing with the Skype theme I've been running - I've been really getting interested in all things Skype and the Skype Journal is a great blog source for all the latest news in the Skype world. It really hit home how much of an impact Skype is having when I found that both my parents are using Skype, but not just to keep up with me while I was in Canada. My parents, while being reasonably computer savvy (for their age, heh) aren't quick to adopt new technology. The fact that they have learnt to use Skype...

The second picture is of the new kitchen. You will notice a large oven, a dishwasher, and ample floor and counter space. What you don't see in the picture is the three refrigerators and the additional counter space to the left of where I took this shot. (If you look closely, you'll see the bread and salad that accompanied my lasagna.)

Here's further proof of the impact that bloggers can have on companies and that corporate blogs/podcasts can have on audience interaction. The first is the lead article in PR NEWS in which Matthew Schwartz covers the Kryptonite product recall debacle, which reputedly cost the company $10m. Matthew interviews Kryptonite's PR Manager, Donna Tocci:

Here is a great discussion about converting from DVD to an MPEG file for playback on your PSP.

Getting on the Internet is easy with the V551. It supports the GPRS protocol, as well as the new, high speed EDGE data protocol. When used with a Cingular data plan and the phone’s Bluetooth or USB data capability, the phone can be used as a wireless modem for laptops and PDAs.

1GB Secure Digital card for MP3's, PDA's, handhelds, digital cameras and digital camcorders that have a Secure Digital card slot

Sorry, building a DVR is not difficult, as the cable companies have shown. They don't even have to resemble good, they just have to timeshift and people will accept them. The crappiness of cable company DVR's has hardly driven TiVo sales.

Yeah, well, Apple isn't exactly suffering from a lack of brand identity. And, in this case, I'm not sure that buying the brand name that has come to mean “recording something with a DVR” would really be such a coup.

The other day I took my car to Tires Plus to get an oil change and have the tires rotated. I usually change the oil myself, but the prospect of writhing around on the dirty, wet and cold concrete in sub-zero temperatures wasn't too appealing (of course this week the temps are in the 30s so it wouldn't have been so bad). While in the shop I noticed a "rainy day" special they had to change your oil and your wiper blades--which reminded me that I needed to change my wiper blades. Their "rainy day" service cost $50--more than twice the price of an oil change. I decided to stop at AutoZone on the way home and do it myself. The wipers cost $12 (but only because my wipers come in two different sizes--wha?!--and I had to buy two sets. Though next time I won't have to buy them, so they really did cost only $6.) and trying to install them in the parking lot took maybe 15 minutes.

Last week I bought the first brand new car I've ever purchased, a 2005 Ford Focus. I picked it partly because I found it on Edmund's list of good small cars for tall people. Then when I turned to Consumer Reports, and found it (the '04) to be the recommended small car, it was just about a done deal. I rented one just to make sure. If you look at it you can clearly see why it has some extra headroom. I got the ZX4 SES, which is a 4-door sedan. I've had it a week, about 400 miles, and so far so good. Really is a treat to have a brand spanking-new car. The kids admonished me not to eat in it, not even my customary apples. Having driven ponderous vehicles for so long, having a nimble little car is pleasant. Especially with the tight, parking garage spaces around here.

In an interview with Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom published by Mathaba on March 29, 2005, Niclas said,

“The telephone is becoming a computer. See my telephone, I have Skype on a mobile phone with a 200 MHz processor and an operating system, and it's connected to the Internet with different types of radio access, whether its GPRS, WiFi, 3G or WiMax, it uses different radio technologies. Then telephony becomes a software application that just lives on the network. Skype is that software application, there will certainly be others...”

It just so happens that 200 MHz is the processor speed of my Linksys Router! Talk about Skype “just living on the network”. Now my cordless portable phone will connect to my Linksys router running Skype. My computer can be turned off and I can be always on. A dream? Nope. A 2005 possibility.

Well things just keep getting better for the Sony PSP! An IRC client has just been developed. Currently it only lets you access the #pspirc channel located on FreeNode but developers plan to extend that.

Check out PSPIRC.com for more info!

Not to be outdone by frying pans that explode when you use them for frying, Nature's Finest Candles has issued a product recall [pdf] because the candles catch fire when you light them.

What I want to do here is put things in context, from my standpoint of course. In understanding the advantages and disadvantages of both products (and many other available already) you need to consider its origins and target audience. MythTV originated on the web, as an open source project which many highly technical people have committed their time, effort and knowledge. There's no formal organization -as far as I know- and thus not clear liability in case there are violations of patents or copyrights. Who can the networks or the studios sue if...

Ok, I just downloaded Skype, a free VoIP service. I don't have a microphone on my computer, but when I get one, I will happily use it.

Best Buy Co., the nation’s biggest consumer electronics chain, said Friday its fourth quarter earnings rose thanks to a February sales surge but offered a disappointing forecast for this quarter. It also said it will phase out using mail-in rebates over the next two years, bowing to customer complaints. Its shares fell more than 5 percent.

Vonage will now let you keep your phone number in Canada according to this story. This is great news for Canadian customers and should help grow the Canadian market for VoIP products and services.

If you want to read a posting about experience with customer service at Vonage, Lingo and Packet 8 as well as other experiences check out Philip Greenspun's real life type of post.

Vonage says it's been blocked; Company's terms of service "prohibits" use of certain high-bandwidth applications.

The company in this case is Clearwire. According to the article, "Clearwire says it reserves the right to prohibit the use of a wide range of bandwidth-hungry applications, a list that apparently includes VoIP as well as the uploading or downloading of streaming video or audio, and high-traffic Web site hosting. According to the company's terms of service, Clearwire reserves the right to restrict access or terminate service to customers who don't comply with its rules."

Dr Bowyer's 'machine could … make a complete set of plates, dishes and bowls out of plastic, coloured and decorated to a design. It can also make metal objects out of a special alloy that melts at low temperatures which allows it to produce printed circuit boards for electronics'. It would 'not be able to produce glass items or complex parts such as microchips, or objects that would work under intense heat such as toasters. But a digital camera could be made for a few pounds, and a lens and computer chip bought separately and added later. The machine would be useful for producing items that are now expensive, such as small musical instruments.'

Most of the shows I watch, I watch on TiVo so that I can fast forward through the commercials. Well, I watched The Bach*lor last night and I think some of those girls were ‘plants.’ Meaning all that drama could not have been real. The girl with the sun glasses calling the other girl a slut. And the girl leaving and coming back and the girl crying saying she loved him. Get real!!! I realize there are some stupid women out there but what are the chances that there are that many in one show. Makes great teevee don’t ya think? And this new Bachelor, Charlie, grosses me out! Come to think of it, I haven’t really liked ANY of the Bachelors.

...Instead of bothering with setting up the Griffin iMic and Lapel Mic for using with Skype... I'm going to connect my Plantronics DSP 400 foldable headset permanantly to my USB hub. I'll disable it for use within Windows, but in Skype, I'll set the options to use it instead of the default Windows device. That way the only application on my laptop using the headset will be Skype.

Walmart on Main St. has PSP's. For $259. Doesn't include a game, better memory card, or carrying case, but if I limit myself to a $300 budget, I'm still doing way better than if I ordered it online...... hmmmm.

Dave, a friend just sent me mail telling me that Sony has licensed iTunes from Apple and today has announced that they've ported iTunes to the new Sony PSP unit. iTunes for PSP? Man, that'd be cool. Where can I find out more about it?

Licensing and porting iTunes to the new PSP is such a logical move that I figured it couldn't possibly happen. So instead of guessing, I called Sony of North America and rather to my surprise was put through to their new CEO , Howard Stringer. Their PR department has lots of regard for bloggers, it appears.

Dave Taylor: I'm calling to inquire about the new Sony iTunes/PSP launch. What can you tell me about it?

Howard Stringer: Ah, whatever. So you want to know about the Sony iTunes/PSP, yes? How did you learn about that anyway?

Dave Taylor: Us bloggers have our sources, Howard. When will the iTunes/PSP ship, then?

So there you have it. If Sony can get final approval from Steve Jobs and the team at Apple, they'll be announcing iTunes on the popular Sony PSP today, April 1, 2005.

A paralysed man is able to control household appliances through an implanted brain chip (story from Guardian and BBC).

Mobile Knowledge "provides advanced GPS, wireless and mobile data communications technology to optimize the operation and security of vehicles and other mobile assets for enhanced fleet management applications". Tranware provides "Transportation Software for Taxi, Paratransit, Courier, Limo and Airport Shuttle". Vettro "mobile applications transform wireless phones and handhelds into powerful, enterprise-connected computing devices".