Category Archives: Media

Where every social networking service is wrong, and how to do it right

You join a new social web site. You invite all your friends. You rejoice that all your friends are here. You multicast some information. You lament that some of your friends don’t share enough while others share way too much. … Continue reading

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In Search of Online Video Standards

Over 4 years ago I cut cable out of my monthly bills: I downgraded from the $80 basic digital cable package to a $13 option that includes little more than local and public-access channels. Since then I’ve saved a couple … Continue reading

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The Media Box Has Arrived!

After two months of delays, the hatbox-shaped Sony VAIO VGX-TP1 PC is finally shipping. Mine arrived last week, and I took a few photos of the various components as I unboxed them. Just like the initial photos showed, this is … Continue reading

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TV Without Cable: April Review

Last month I spent just under $20 on Internet-delivered video versus $70 for my typical cable TV bill. Year-to-date, my spending is $127.14 versus $280 for cable. More than half of my spending last month came from the Xbox Live … Continue reading

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Amazon EC2 to Encode Video?

I just got an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) account. With EC2 and Simple Storage Service (S3), I think I can convert my DVDs into iPod-video-sized files much more quickly than my desktop and laptop could do. Here’s one person’s … Continue reading

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TV Without Cable: March Review

As my DVD stockpile has grown and as I’ve spent more time at work, I didn’t buy very much video in March. In fact, I’m still working through the $50 of iTunes Store credit I bought at a discounted price … Continue reading

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TV Without Cable: February Review

February has come and gone. 24 is getting more intense though I still like season 5 better than this season. The Office continues to stand out as a great show in its own right. In February I spent $33.67 on … Continue reading

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TV Without Cable: January Review

In January I spent $61.94 on video, all of it from the iTunes Store.  Compared to a baseline digital cable rate of $70.00, I’ve saved $8.06 year-to-date. Most of my expense this month was for a season pass of 24, … Continue reading

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Joost Looks Amazing

The Joost user interface features several unobtrusive widgets that disappear when the user stops using the mouse and keyboard. (enlarge) The folks who brought Voice over IP to the masses with Skype are at it again, making Joost the punchy new … Continue reading

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Media Boxes: No Good News at Macworld

Today was the hugely-anticipated keynote at the Macworld Conference & Expo. As expected, we saw the final version of the iTV (now called Apple TV) which streams video from five PCs and syncs with one. For $300, as much as … Continue reading

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