Saturday, November 08, 2008

Less is More

Five gadgets you can get rid of now because they're obsolete. 

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cheapskate


The cheapskate blog from cnet could otherwise be called dealz, dealz, dealz!
Rick Broida scours the web for cheap gadgets. Just remember: the cheapest isn't always the best value.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Conserve, Conserve, Conserve.

Drilling for more oil today will yield zero oil, but changing our behavior in simple ways can easily yield a savings of ~1 million barrels/day. Painlessly. Ultimately the adoption of more efficient vehicles in the form of smaller vehicles, hybrid vehicles, diesel vehicles and electric vehicles will allow us to decrease oil consumption while still growing the economy. As always, technology is the tool. We just have to have the will to use it.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Patience is a virtue...


The new iPhone now features:
- 3G (fast) data connection.
- built-in GPS
- enterprise-grade support (e.g. Microsoft exchange)
- available in 70 countries
- starts at $199

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Why don't you own a video camera?


Often times we look at techies and shake our heads because we can't understand why they have that latest gadget. What does it do that's useful, really? It costs how much?!!!!
But sometimes the techies are on to something. The early adopters of digital cameras, for example were right on. Today, there is almost no reason whatsoever to use a film camera . Quality, cost, convenience, compactness... Eight years ago, digital cameras were an expensive novelty, but today, one would be pretty much a fool to not own a digital camera. 
Today, I would argue that the same could be said for owning a camcorder, or more accurately, a video camera. If you weren't paying attention, until recently, video recorders were the size and heft of a hard-covered book and could cost close to $1,000. Now, a video camera that can give you passable video quality delivered straight to your computer (no more tapes! no more tapes!) is closer to the size and heft of a deck of cards and costs less than $150(!). If you have kids, or have some other event that you'd like to save to video, you'd be hard pressed to find a reason not to buy a video recorder.
Sure a high-end video-camera can still cost uite a bit, but low-cost video recorders such as the Flip which are good enuff for friends and family are the ultimate option. Why don't you own a video camera? They're too big and clunky. Not anymore. They're hard to use because there are too many wires, tapes and stuff to handle. Not anymore. They're too expensive. Not anymore. If you're dead broke, charge $150 on a credit card and pay it off over 10 years. The video you get in return should be well worth it.

Save the planet, save some money

One myth out there is that environmental responsibility takes a financial sacrifice. 
I would propose, that more often than not, environmental responsibility either requires no financial sacrifice, or yields financial gain.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Tax preparation: CPA or CPU?

There have been a number of comparos in the press lately. Should one use a human accountant, TurboTax or a service such as HR Block?
First off, it should be obvious that the answer depends on your employment/job situation. If You're self-employed, business owner, freelancer, contractor, etc, you most likely would benefit financially and perhaps professionally by using a trusted CPA.
But if you have a "regular" job where you get a salary and your real estate consists of only your own home TurboTax should definitely be the first option. There is no math involved. The hardest part of the whole process is getting your records organized, which is something you would have to do for an accountant or H&R BLOCK anyways. Then all you have to do is follow the instructions and basically type in data from your various tax forms and receipts. The only drawback is that as you go through the step-by-step process, you'll probably find that a lot of the questions don't apply to you so there's a lot of pushing the NEXT button.
Benefits:
- TurboTax is 100% online. If you get tired of working on your taxes, you can log out and pick up where you left off.
- Federal and State taxes are filed for you electronically when you're done. (If for some reason you want to print out the forms and mail them, you can do that too.)
- Your records are stored online and you can save and/or print copies of the forms at will.
- When you use TurboTax for the SECOND time, huge time savings are realized because data entry is reduced (address, SSN, tax staus, etc are all saved from the previous years' session).

New York magazine and Gizmodo (below) have CPA vs. Turbo Tax showdowns while Cnet has a generally favorable (8/10) review for Turbo Tax
New York Magazine
Cnet
Gizmodo

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hulu: It's not ready for prime time.


There's been some hype about the new video site Hulu. It's exciting because like YouTube, all the videos are searchable and FREE. Unlike YouTube, the content is from the major TV networks and major movie studios. The concept is tantalizing: This FREE service could potentially usurp cable and Netflix. But alas, it's not quite there yet. The graph above summarizes Hulu's shortcomings, despite the fact that (or maybe because it is?) FREE.

This isn't a full review, but in summary Hulu:
- offers FREE movies and TV shows to view on a computer
- links to other sites that do have the video you're looking for even if Hulu doesn't have it.
(e.g., searching for 'LOST' and 'One Tree Hill' gives you links to the ABC and CW sites, respectively.)

- The video quality is sub-DVD resolution and does not look good connected to an HDTV
- searching for 'Iron Chef' returns links to 'Top Chef'.
- searching for the Russell Crowe classic 'The Gladiator' leads to about 8 links to the not-exactly-classic 'American Gladiators'
- searching for 'The Titanic' leads to 'Wildboyz: Thailand 2'


In short, searching for stuff on Hulu is hit or miss...or miss completely.
To those using Hulu now, I say: Good Luck!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Haggling: for the Best Buy

Who knew? Everyone knows that the sticker price on cars is strictly for suckers. But how about the price tags at your local electronics retailer and your local big-box retailer?
At Megastores, Hagglers Find No Price Set in Stone-The New York Times

Monday, March 17, 2008

Flash-based hard drives: Like Ryan Leaf.


Jeesh. Flash-based hard drives a.k.a., SSD (solid state drives), are like the Ryan Leaf of computer tech. Flash-based drives showed so much promise, yet has delivered nothing so far for notebook computing. They are expensive (~$900 for an SSD upgrade on a notebook computer) and unreliable.

In theory, SSD's have many advantages over conventional hard drives:
- energy efficiency (due to lack of moving parts)
- silent operation
- compact size
- fast

So far, the potential benefits have yet to be realized. Performance gains have been minimal and in some cases are actually WORSE than standard hard drives. Compact size has been a non-factor so far since they're usually used inside of standard notebook casings. Energy efficiency gains have also been minimal.

Now, adding insult to injury, a recent analysis shows that "a large computer manufacturer" is getting around 20 percent to 30 percent of the flash-based notebooks it is shipping sent back because of failure rates and performance that simply isn't meeting customer expectations.

About 10% of the SSD notebooks are defective (compared with only 1% of standard hard drive-based notebooks). Another 10% or so are reporting performance issues with basic functions such as video streaming.

Of course we're just in the beginning of phasing in SSD drives, but here's to hoping that you don't make the mistake of buying an SSD-based computer. Here's also to hoping that I'll be writing about SSD's being like Eli Manning in the near-future...

Monday, January 07, 2008

Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD: Much ado about nothing.


Most people bring in the new year with a positive salutation like "Happy New Year!". Well, no one told Warner Brothers, because the first thing they said to the HD DVD consortium was "$%&# off!"

Indeed, the top tech news as the CES 2008 gets underway is the most recent development in the Hi Def "format wars": Warner Bros/New Line drops HD DVD like Microsoft dropped Plays For Sure.

Ostensibly, this is a major development in what is ostensibly a major format war because it tips the balance of content to Blu-Ray's favor. Columbia, Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, Miramax, Warner Bros., New Line, and Sony are all committed to releasing movies on Blu-Ray while only DreamWorks, Paramount, Universal, and the Weinstein Company remain committed to HD DVD.

So which type of player should the consumer buy? The answer is obvious: Neither. Am I saying this because of the price? Blu-ray and HD DVD players are down to $199...surely not too much for even the thrifty, right? The price is fine, but the utility isn't.

First of all, if you're one of the majority of people without an HDTV, don't even bother. Your $30 DVD player will deliver a picture every bit as good. Even if you do have an HDTV, chances are pretty good that you have a 720p set. In that case, an upconverting standard DVD player will get you a picture so close to HD that you may not be able to tell the difference. Says who? Says Andy Parsons, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Also, for HDTVs 32" or less, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between standard DVD and HD DVD or Blu-Ray.

So that leaves Blu-Ray and HD DVD useful for those with 40"+ 1080p HDTVs, right? Well, kinda. As mentioned earlier, if you own an HD DVD player, you're just praying you'll be able to see any movie given the lack of studio support. The selection for Blu-Ray isn't much better: There are about 400 titles available in Blu Ray compared to about 90,000 standard DVD titles. In other words, Blu-Ray and HD DVD display awesome resolution, crystal clear 1080p resolution pictures for a few movies/TV shows, but for 99.96% of the content out there, Blu-Ray and HD DVD players don't do a damn thing.

Bottom line, a few things have to happen before this "format war" comes to a conclusion:
1) The movie and TV studios have to get behind either Blu-Ray or HDTV or both formats must be universally supported. Otherwise the consumer is left in the lurch and neither type of format is useful at all.
2) 40" HDTVs must become common place. Before that happens, neither Blu-Ray nor HD DVD offers any appreciable benefit.
3) HD DVD and/or Blu-Ray players must drop to below $100 in price.

It is easy to see how the above three conditions may not be met for one or two years. So it is entirely conceivable that the consumer will choose neither Blu-Ray or HD DVD. In one or two years, there's a high probablity that digital delivery of movies via on-demand and internet downloads will become the choice for viewing movies at home. Netflix and LGare teaming up to offer movie streaming service and an expanded movie rental and download service is expected from Apple within weeks.

So basically, if the question is Blu-Ray or HD DVD? The answer is: Who cares?