Tag Archive

Netflix Watch Instantly comes to the Mac

On October 27 (last month), Netflix started testing a new way to stream movies for its Watch Instantly feature. They began using Microsoft’s Silverlight player, which is platform-independent and can still handle the DRM that movie studios love so much. This meant that Mac users were no longer left out of the picture, and could [...]

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Use a Nokia N95 as a Bluetooth modem on a Mac

One of the reasons I bought a Nokia N95 was the ability to tether it as a Bluetooth modem on my MacBook Pro. I wanted to access the internet via my mobile phone if I’m away from home or from a WiFi spot. While Nokia’s PC Suite of applications includes an option to tether the [...]

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How to get T-Mobile Total Internet at 42% off

It’s easy: sign up before 11/1/2008. Why? Because the price will apparently go up to $35/month on or around that date, according to T-Mobile Customer Service.
Updated 10/27/08: Please see this comment below for an up-to-date clarification of the planned price increases. It’s not as bad as I originally thought, but a price increase [...]

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How I got cheated on eBay

Last week, I placed bids for an unlocked Sony Ericsson K810i mobile phone on eBay. I was very happy when I won it at $192.50, considering that the phone sells around $230-240 in stores, and the Buy It Now price was $228 on the auction. I even felt bad for the seller that I won [...]

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Where are the Condensed Knowledge posts?

Good question. Some of you have gotten quite accustomed to those daily Condensed Knowledge posts, and they’ve gone AWOL since last week. On the other hand, others have told me they were distracting, and detracted from the substance of my site.
I’d been giving the matter some thought myself, and in the end, sided with the [...]

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Condensed knowledge for 2008-03-12

Stocks Rocket on Fed Rescue Plan http://tinyurl.com/yvhcfb #
The IPv6 experience: Are you experienced yet? http://tinyurl.com/38nddr #
JPEG v. RAW - TWIP http://tinyurl.com/yvv4qq #
Green light for Northrop Grumman Airborne Laser Mine Detection System http://tinyurl.com/2k6kdq #
Researchers develop smell based fire alarm to aid the deaf http://tinyurl.com/2jpnzx #
Funny Animals, Part 10 http://tinyurl.com/32rfrd #
EXIF and Beyond: Mastering Digital Panoramic Photography [...]

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Why do I dislike social networks?

I’ve written in the past about my dislike for MySpace or Facebook, though I haven’t really articulated why I dislike them so intensely. The reasons I gave at those times were and still are valid, but there’s more. I read and commented on a post recently, and it helped me articulate what it is that [...]

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Thomas TimberWolf

Back in 2001, you could see some wonderful and innovative cartoons on the Internet. I’m talking about Thomas TimberWolf, an (unfortunately) short series made sometime in 2000-2001 by Chuck Jones and company. This series is possibly the last animation work of Chuck Jones, who died in 2002. This was about the same time that you [...]

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A look at culture and technology through sound effects

I was listening to the radio one morning, and realized the sound effects they were using to advertise a website were the clicks of a keyboard likely made in the 80’s — you know, long key travel, spring-loaded action, hard clicks. But it worked.
More importantly, it is the only sound that can approximate a keyboard [...]

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Windows Family Safety

Windows Family Safety (WFS) is a new offering from Microsoft that aims to offer protection from questionable or indecent websites to families or individuals. I tried it out for a couple of weeks, and found it to work fairly well, except for a few hiccups here and there.
It is a software-based internet filtering mechanism. The [...]

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Google bought Jaiku

Around noon today, I saw Scoble’s Twitter about Google’s purchase of Jaiku, and left two comments on his blog post. Basically, I said that Jaiku’s purchase made sense, but that Google probably considered Twitter and found Jaiku to be less expensive. I use both Twitter and Jaiku myself. I tried using Jaiku as my primary [...]

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ISPs to become IT providers for home users?

Bruce Schneier makes a solid point in his recent post entitled “Home Users: A Public Health Problem?”, where he states that computers and computer security are much too complicated for the regular home user. That’s most certainly true. No matter how much you “educate” the average user, they’re still going to mess up big time. [...]

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