Moving As Fast As I Can

It’s no secret that DVR (Digital Video Recorder) owners terrify the ad industry. This device makes it simple to skip commercials. As the number of DVR owners approaches fifty-percent of the TV viewing market, the value of an expensive commerical drops drastically. Oddly, those of us who have DVR’s are learning how networks schedule those commerical breaks.
There are two major advantages in having a DVR: the machine records programs without a lot of hassle so that you can view you favorite shows anytime you want, and you can skip over commercials. DVR’s allow you to pick a program from an advanced schedule and automatically record it (or an entire series). Most let you search for programs of interest. This is great for you, but not so good for the networks. They sell ads based on “prime time”. If it is as easy to watch a program that was broadcast at 4am as it is to watch one at 9pm, it’s hard to convince an advertiser to spend more money for that 9pm spot. Also, there is the matter of skipping commercials entirely. More »

May 26th, 2009 | Tags: Digital Video Recorder, DVR, tips and tricks, TIVO | Category: Technology | Leave a comment

One of Chuck Lorre's vanity cards

Have you ever noticed the very quick (1 1/2 seconds) at the end of a tv show there is a logo shown. In showbiz speak, that’s a vanity card. It’s called that because thats where the shows creator and executive producer gets to put his corporate logo. Chuck Lorre is a sitcom producer. A producer who also writes occasional episodes and who is available to help during filming if there are problems is called a “show runner”. A more technical description is that the show runner is a combination writer and producer.

Chuck Lorre has been producing sitcoms for years. Dharma and Greg was one of his creations. For reasons unknown to anyone but Mr. Lorre, he decided to fill his second-and-a-half of fame at the end of each show with an original, and sometimes very funny essay. DVR’s weren’t available in the Dharma and Gregg days, so if you wanted to read these essays, you had to tape the show and then “pause” when the vanity card appeared. The type was small and the image jittered. Nonetheless, Mr. Lorre convinced himself that people were reading. More »

May 24th, 2009 | Tags: television | Category: Home | Leave a comment

A 2006 Toyota Prius similar to mine that has unintended acceleration problems

(Updated 5/24/2009) I love my Prius. I have owned it nearly three years and over 30,000 miles. Two days ago it tried to kill me. Love can be cruel at times. It was a sunny Friday afternoon. I was on my way home from work. It’s a seven mile drive I do twice every day. I was stopped at a light. When the light turned green, I gently eased the brake pedal up. Immediately the Internal Combustion Engine rev’d and the car started surging forward. I jammed my foot back down on the brake. The engine stopped screaming. Again, I gently reduced pressure on the pedal  with the same frightening result. Next, I checked the floor to make sure that my heavy rubber floor mat wasn’t touching the gas pedal. The mat was safely under all the pedals. I tried shifting to neutral. No dice. Now , starting to get desperate, I turned the cruise control on and off. That stopped the crisis,

This wasn’t the first time I experienced this problem. On several occasions while stopped at a flow control traffic light on the interstate ramp, when I removed my foot from the gas, the car surged forward. Since I was in the clear and needed to accelerate, I didn’t give it much thought. Once I got my foot on the gas and pressed down and eased off, the problem disappeared. I admit that the behavior was so strange I convinced myself I was imagining things. Now, after the traffic light incident, I realize I wasn’t dreaming. More »

May 3rd, 2009 | Tags: auto safety, car defect, Prius, Toyota, unintended acceleration | Category: Home | Leave a comment

PC Magazine columnists spend a lot of time writng about Windows. No wonder, over 90% of the world’s personal computers use it as their operating system. John Dvorak wrote a column wondering why nothing has replaced the 25-year-old Windows operating system. This is a remarkably stupid comment from someone who surely knows better. The only thing that hasn’t changed about Windows is its name.

Over 25 years ago, Windows emerged as a shell that sat on top of the DOS operating system. This is very similar to the current Apple Macintosh OS that is a user interface on top of the freeBSD Unix operating system. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this concept. In fact, Microsoft pioneered it. As Windows evolved, it followed two paths: the consuemr version, like Windows 98; and the server version, Windows NT. While both looked alike on the surface, they were very different. NT was designed as a very solid operating system that resembled Digital’s mini computer OS VMS. It should. It’s architect was hired away from Digital.

Windows NT was designed as a powerful kernal (the heart of the OS that interacts direectly with the hardware), surrouned by various services that performed work. The user interface was one of those services. Like VMS, Windows NT could perform true multitasking. The consumer version remained a single threaded OS that continued to evolve on top of DOS.

Why does this all matter? Without getting too technical, it matters because Windows was evolving, not remaining the same operating system over all those years. Microsoft planned to merge the desktop OS with the more advanced server technology with the release of Windows XP. It didn’t quite do it, but made a lot of progress. The old bit-mapped DOS file system was replaced with the much more robust NT file system. File names could be longer. File extensions could be more than three characters. The interface with the outside world was made stronger and safer. That’s why there was so much pain getting printers and other peripherals to work with XP when it came out.
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March 30th, 2009 | Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Win 7, Windows, Windows 7, Windows XP | Category: Technology | Leave a comment

Bush Administration forces companies to surrender stock in exchange for bailout loans

Hasn’t anyone noticed that the federal government is taking over industries? Once more the Bush administration is taking advantage of pubic panic to do the unthinkable.

Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler

This isn’t the first time the administration used public panic to cover questionable decisions. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attack, Bush used the resulting panic to start an ugly war that has cost thousands of American lives. He also created the office of Homeland Security which has compromised some of America’s most coveted personal freedoms; all under the cover of public dismay.

Now, as people lose their homes over bad mortgages, the Bush administration once more under the cover of this new financial panic is taking over companies. That’s right, the Bush administration is exchanging ownership of companies for badly needed loans.

The first victim of this government takeover is AIG, the world’s largest insurer. In exchange for an $80 Billion loan package the company had to give the government 80% of its stock. Who got hurt? People with 40iK’s, retirement funds, schools and other institutions as well as individual stockholders. AIG traded at $70/share before it got in trouble. On the brink of bankruptcy the stock fell to $2 a share. After the Federal bailout, the stock hovers at $2.00, never to go much higher. Why? The math is simple. Before the crash, AIG traded at $70. When the government forced AIG to give up an 80% interest, the stock instantly lost 80% of its value. So now your $70 share has an adjusted value of $14. The current price of $2 is a lot lower, but unless the market goes completely insane, it is unlikely that AIG will ever go over $14 a share.

Congress passed a $700 Billion bailout program. The intention was to buy back mortgage-based securities; the so-called “poison” securites, thereby defrosting the frozen financial markets. The Bush team doesn’t want to do that anymore. They want to “give” the money to banks in exchange for stock. That’s right, our conservative Republican administration, you know, the guys who tell us we need less government, is taking over banks.
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November 13th, 2008 | Category: Home | Leave a comment

It’s rare that a truly major breakthrough becomes publically available and absolutely free of charge.  Microsoft has done just that with Live Mesh. Most of us use the Internet via a browser. You are reading this article in your browser now. However, the Internet is far more than the world-wide-web. It’s a network that connects your desktop to over a billion other computers. In practice, that boils down to instant messages, web pages, and email for most people. That is about to end.

Got a home PC? A laptop? A smart phone? Are you sitting in front of  your office computer now? You probably have three or more devices that are connected to the Internet. How would it be to change your current view from this web site to your home computer’s desktop? Cool. You can do that now. Live Mesh is a new free service from Microsoft. The Live Mesh Web Site provides simple instructions to build your own mesh. You can create your own network of computers that can be accessed from one another’s desk top. It’s all encrypted and secure. The experience is nothing short of amazing. More »

November 12th, 2008 | Category: Home, Technology | Leave a comment

Publishing, particularly newspaper publishing, is a funny business. To get a job as a newspaper writer requires good writing and reporting skills, and sometimes expertise in a subject area. Reporters gain fame and salary dollars by digging up news and reporting it well. These writers, as they age, find themselves doing things they were never trained to handle. Take Walter Mossberg. Here’s a guy, who in 1991 was assigned the technology column of the Wall Street Journal. Mossberg characterized himself as a “non-technology technology reporter.” He fancied himself as the common man’s technology guru.

Walter Mossberg

Over the years, lots of people read and enjoyed his column and as his popularity grew, so did his income. Some say he is the highest paid reporter at the Journal. Wired magazine did an article about him and dubbed him a “technology king-maker.” Clearly this guy is a heavy hitter.

Like many people who find themselves thrust into the role of pundit, Mossberg begain believing his own publicity. This became visible in his writing. In 2000 he started talking about his (young female) assistant’s adventures with various tech toys. Every week, we would read how he gave her an assignment and she would blunder her way through it. It seemd that this was Mossberg’s mid life crisis and his assistant the target of his lust. Of course we can’t know for sure if he actually scored, but very abruptly she disappeared from his Thursday columns. His prose got less purple and he started reviewing products again

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November 7th, 2008 | Tags: apple, macintosh, technology review, walter mossberg | Category: Home | Comments (1)