Posts Tagged ‘store’
Day Off - Sort of
A late Ramblings this week as I decided to stay offline last week. It was a long week and I was playing all weekend. It has been a while since I last took more than 24 hours off a computer, so that is a big feat for me.
HP Tech Forum
I had a fun time talking and working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten with SDRNews. We had such a blast. We also put forward the mobile interview booth rig. We call it the “MacGyver” rig. Nonetheless, it was connected to uStream and we were able to conduct a few interviews for the event. Check out all the info on the Twitter log at #HPTF.
Great to meet some new bloggers: Shane Pitman of Neowin, John Obeto of AbsoluteWindows. We had a great week along with Halley, Tom, Calvin and Rebecca from HP and Buzzcorps.
Fryes at Vegas
Also got to go to Vegas again. While we didn’t run around town as much as with CES (everything was contained in Mandalay Bay), we did venture out to go to Fryes. It’s actually my first time at Fryes and I was pretty impressed. Of course, it was Vegas, so the store has a big slot machine up in it’s store front and stacks of coins as barrier posts. The inside was very big and complete. Andy had to get a new scratch drive since the one he brought died. We got what we needed and headed back to the safe Mandalay Bay
Mandalay Bay
Wow. This is a city contained in a building. That is, if you have the money for it. My room – which I call the “Bob Newhart” room – was decked with all the amenities. TV in the bedroom and the bathroom. You can connect an external device easily and be watching a movie while soaking in the tub.
The casino area was always hoppin. There were bands both on the “Sushi Pop” and “House of Blues” stages. Restaurants all over the building. A small walk and you are at “theHotel”. They even have their own beach – where we watched the Beach Boys play a set. Well, it was a short set for me, since I had a flight to catch.
Podcast on the show floor
I had the unique opportunity to record the show from the HPTF Expo floor. It was great because I didn’t have to set up a rig, do a show, rip it down and go to another area to post. I would also like to thank Simon Calder for helping out with the show notes so I could focus on other things.
What I got out of the show
Of course, there were a lot of things I have learned from this event. I have run server rooms before, but I was a little out of touch with the current technologies. FCoE was the big one I learned about. Also building a server is a lot different than before. Greener, more powerful and reliability were the best parts.
The Keynotes were just amazing. Learning about how these big companies are working on green technologies is amazing. Dr. Michio Kaku and his views for the future were amazing. A “Smart toilet” is definitely something to get excited about.
The Weekend
I got back to Madison at 8 AM on Friday. It was a long trip (5 hours, turned into 7 due to timezone changes). What was worse was on the trip back, I was not really impressed with the airline I flew. The one thing I noticed is they were not really friendly.
An example: We flew through a couple storm fronts during the trip. Most airlines would say “This is the Captain. We are seeing some turbulance, so please remain in your seats and buckle your belts. Thank you.”
The airline I was on? Well: “Please buckle your seatbelts”.
The airline also had screens drop from above. While I would normally invite this, I was in a evening flight. I had difficulties sleeping when something like a video monitor is playing. Of course, I didn’t pack my sleeping mask. Therefore, I was stuck watching “Confessions of a Shopoholic”. While other people loved this movie, I didn’t find it as interesting.
I got home around 9 AM, in which I proceeded to collapse on the bed for a couple hours. Woke up, caught up on some work I missed during the week, then headed off to play a show. Since it was out of town, I had to pack for another night away from home.
Band Gigs
Saturday was a day of playing. We played a friends graduation, then it was up to the Dells for our regular show at the Baja bar. There were 4 different Bachelorette parties that night and they were not in the Baja at the same time. As one party left, the next one showed up. Crazy.
New Guitar
While we were in transit to the Graduation party, we stopped at a local music store. There, I found a used Acoustic / Electric guitar. I picked it up as a spare for future shows. It needs some work to it, but not much to make it ready to play out.
Lazy Sunday? Not.
Of course, the day started out with this post. A quick breakfast, then it’s getting things ready for the week. Have to work on “Week in Tech History”, then I have to figure out how to put together the new video studio. Lots of soundproofing to do.
I suppose I should get to it. Thanks again to everyone for a great week. How do you top that?
No Comments »Commandment #1 – Thou shalt maketh thine iPhone App compatible doth 3.0 versions….
OK, it does make sense – If you make an iPhone app or if you want to keep the iPhone app in the store, you must update it for the new version of the software. For some, it may not need any real updates – just someone to test and say; “Yeah, it’s 3.0 compatible.”
It does get frustrating when you look through something like Firefox plugins and see an add-on that hasn’t been updated in a very long while. Even the plugins for this site: sometimes you have to watch what you install, or else you might just break the system.
Therefore, we submit this: These 1 Bitstrips for you all to obey… or at least get a chuckle out of.
Wow. It was about a year ago I asked for people to send in thoughts as to what to expect in 2008. I also made some Technology predictions. But the real question was – How far off was I?
This is actually part 1 of a 2-part story. This first part reviews the predictions I made last year and how far off I was. Part 2 will have this years predictions, including predictions from CEO’s CTO’s TechPodcasters and even a Psychic.
So without any further ado, let’s pick apart my idiocy from last year:
OLPC will have some growing pains. The first part of OLPC will be the easiest. Maintaining the machines will be the trick. Microsoft coming onboard will muddy the water, but they might be able to do things like offer a better support network to third world countries.
No Comments »Yesterday on the Podcast, I talked about an email I received from iTunes. The story is an old podcast I ran up until last year was still up on their site. I took everything down to make it go away and the listing stayed up on the site. I continued to get 404 errors (page missing) from my site error page, so I put the XML back up.
Finally on Monday I recieved the take down notice. It was really surprising since iTunes never really cleaned up the mess before. I had a few people ask me to post the letter, so here it is:
Read the rest of this entry »
No Comments »
I passed by the old Comp USA store in the area yesterday. It looked so lonely. The other shops in the mall were bustling – the Party City next door was getting ready for Halloween and the Target was doing it’s normal influx of customers.
It would have been nice to see Tiger Direct purchase this outlet, alas they didn’t and therefore there is a big “For Lease” sign on it. I am intrigued as to why the sign is still up. Maybe there is still a lease on the space from CompUSA? Maybe Tiger Direct is getting some free advertising off of this? After all, it does overlook a main traffic vein of the west side.
I started remembering the rise and fall of the store. I also remember what I was able to get here. I had a CompUSA Wireless B router at one time. I also got a great deal for me and my brother on a HP CDRW drive with free MP3 player. That was years ago and the CDRW pretty much has gone in the spares bin.
The fall was kina sad. I walked into the store to see areas blocked off by torn down shelving units. They tried to sell a 486 for $100. Not sure if they sold it to anyone…
So I snapped the picture, reminisced and moved on. I suppose it’s the way we live life – things come and go. Or as the great saying goes: Things change. People Change. Hairstyles Change. Interest rates fluxuate….
That’s great, it started with video tapes, movies in the home at 8, Lenny Bruce is still not afraid. I remember when we got our first VCR. It was a Betamax and we had some of the coolest movies. Of course, the Beta went the way of the do do bird. Then it was VHS. Come and almost gone.
Now it’s the DVDs turn. Earlier in the year the big question was “Who was going to replace DVD’s: HD DVD or Blu-Ray?” Now we know that answer – but does it matter? Blu-Ray players really haven’t been selling like hotcakes and if you have one, you know that it’s not the fastest thing on the planet. The ultimate irony is that Sony owned Beta and lost to VHS. Now Sony won with Blu-Ray, but will that only be a small win as alternate formats are entering into the market?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)
Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:33 — 2.1MB)
No Comments »3G iPhone Announcement on June 9
Feature: Getting XP after the cut-off date:
Change. Some love to do it, others would like to stay where they are. Sometimes change is needed – newer, faster, more powerful to take over old and un-updatable. Still, within time change happens like it always does in life. Its really a question of whether you want to change with it, or stick with the same.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.3MB)
No Comments »The story of Exploding laptops is not a new one. The Lithium battery in your laptop expands to the point where it breaks the encasement. Dell, Sony and IBM ended up recalling a series of batteries to prevent computer loss.
Today scientists announced they had made a solid, non-flammable polymer to replace the liquid electrolyte that is used to make the batteries. The science is new, and wont see the light of the public eye for 3 to 5 years, mainly because the polymer needs work to hold a longer charge. However, will this help the laptop not explode?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.3MB)
Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:00 — 2.3MB)
3 Comments »Hear it here – http://vocalo.org/play/?playerID=14352
Feature: Is it time to get a Mac?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)
No Comments »The show is here: http://vocalo.org/play/?playerID=14126
This week in Geek
-1983 IBM XT announced
- 1991 WWW goes online
- 2007 iPod gets Patent
Sprint unlimited Bundle
Meet Men at the Apple store?
10 Great iPhone Apps
Feature:Wikileaks gone, Wikileaks back again.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.4MB)
No Comments »HBO announced today they will be putting content online for their subscribers. CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and CW have full episodes of shows online. Even pay cable channels like TBS and Spike TV are putting shows online. Even Netflix has increased the limits to watching movies online, and new services are starting to do the same subscription movie viewing.
No more having to go to the video store and get a movie or season of a popular TV show. No more waiting for the next time it broadcasts. It will be there at your fingertips. This is just another example of how the internet is replacing TV and DVD as we know it. But can the internet handle it?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.4MB)
Podcast (quickcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:15 — 2.4MB)
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