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November 7, 2005

The Future Of Download TV Looks Very Bright

A flat-screen television with sunglasses on I’ve written in the past how much I enjoy Broadcatching, but since that article it’s become harder and harder to use BitTorrent to successfully download content. On the other hand, it could also be that broadcatching has the same hurdles it always had, but I’m just now finding it tedious. Whatver the case, downloading TV isn’t what it use to be back in the day – like 9 months ago. Of course, I’ve also been a big proponet of the broadcasters selling their content online via download. In fact, for the record, I wrote about the viability of this content distribution channel back in May 2005. So you can imagine my elation and sense of validation when Apple announced that they were now distributing television via iTunes.

In case you missed the announcement, Apple released its next generation iPods and one of the new features was the ability to play videos. In addition, they announced that they were now making available for sale music videos and select television content from ABC and Disney. This was HUGE news, because it was the first step in what will probably become an avalanche of content. For now though, there’s only 3 shows from ABC (Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Night Stalker) and 2 from Disney (That’s So Raven, and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody), but with those two large networks signed up, it’s only a matter of time before other broadcasters belly up to the bar.

Now I could lose myself in the possibilities and the excitement of what’s to come, but given that the menu that is currently available for TV is fairly small, I think I’ll refrain. Why? Because it’s clear that the powers that be want to make sure that this model is viable. By releasing only three shows a piece, the broadcasters clearly want some proof before they go whole hog and provide more content. I was expecting to have to wait six months before the results came out, but Apple announced on October 10^th that they had sold over 1 Million videos in 20 days. Whaaa?!? :O

November 5, 2005

Thinking About Thanksgiving

A young boy wrestling a turkey Holly’s folks are coming up to visit us this Thanksgiving, so this morning I thinking about what to cook for the big holiday. I really like to cook and I don’t have a chance to do big family dinners much, what with it being just Holly and I, so when a holiday comes around, I tend to get a bit excited.
My first thought was to do a more traditional southern style dinner. It’s a style that Holly and I are quite familiar with and it’s just good comfort food. Then I got to thinking that since her folks are coming up, they’re kind of used to this style of cooking for the simple fact that they are from the deep south. So the idea of doing something they’re already used to, didn’t seem so exciting.

So I did what I always do when I’m at a loss for a menu – I went to Food Network.com. I’ve garnered a lot of excellent recipes from there and it’s the first place I turn to when I’m looking for something new. I found that they had a whole section devoted to Thanksgiving and with it a whole range of recipes to choose from.

Since the meat choice is the centerpiece of the dinner, I figured that was the first thing to nail down. I’ve done pheasant and quail for past holidays, but I thought going with the traditional turkey would be fun this year. So the next step was to determine which way to cook it and that led me to wide array of choices, but I was able to narrow it down somewhat and was down to two choices: Italian Style Turkey (Roasted with Fennel Spice Rub), or Deep-Fried Turkey.

What was nice though, is that once I make a decision on how to prepare the Turkey, there is a whole menu already associated with each recipe. That certainly makes it easy to plan the whole meal. The problem is, they both sound delicious and I can’t decide which one to go with.

August 2, 2005

TV.Com

Screenshot of TV.com Do you like TV? I mean really like TV. If you do, then if you haven’t checked out TV.com already, you really should. In my opinion, it’s one of the best examples of a community web site I’ve ever seen and it’s so chock full of content that if the idea of a “web community” makes you want to change the channel, there’s still no reason NOT to check it out. TV.com has everything there is to know about your favorite shows in a easy to use format that will have you quickly bookmarking it for future reference.

Before TV.com, there was a site called TVTome.com and it was a great resource for finding out everything there is to know about your favorite shows. Well, it seems that C|Net purchased the company behind TVTome awhile back and on June 1st of this year they relaunched the site as TV.com. At first, I was pretty apprehensive given the fact that some “big corporate entity” took over my once beloved site, but after playing with it a few months, I have to say that it’s better than ever.

June 13, 2005

The Frothy Monkey

The Frothy Monkey Logo Since getting back home from the PalmSource Mobile Summit & DevCon 2005, I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been, this morning being no exception. I had an appointment first thing this morning, but after taking care of a couple of small items, I ran into a snag. For me to finish up the work my client needed, I had to wait for a return phone call. Since my office isn’t all that close to where I was working, I opted to do a little nomad computing and setup shop in a nearby coffee house.

My usual haunt is at Caffeine. It’s a fantastic coffee house and I was sorely tempted to go there since I know what to expect. However, I spotted a new coffee house last week when I was driving down 12th avenue one evening. Feeling a little bit adventurous and up for something new, I headed to The Frothy Monkey instead.

The Frothy Monkey is located at 2509 12th Avenue South in an area that’s just south of Belmont University. The building is a converted house, typical of the businesses in the area. And like most businesses in this area, parking is a challenge as well. There are only a couple of spots out front, so more than likely you’ll have to find the alley that runs parallel to 12th street and make your way to the back of the building. If you’re familiar with doing this it’s no big deal, but if you’re not it can be a bit confusing.

Once inside you’ll find a nice open layout with a hodge podge of seating to choose from, ranging from high tops, booths, tables and even a sofa. If the weather is nice, there’s always the porch beckoning. If you’ve ever been to Bongo Java, the setup is very similar, but the clientele is a little bit different. It’s a mix between business and students and as such gives off a hip, professional vibe.

May 10, 2005

The Wing Basket

A basket of buffalo wings The other night Holly and I were feeling like “being bad” and getting something not on our South Beach diet. As we sat there on the couch, I threw out the idea of going to a new place that opened up near us called “The Wing Basket”. Much to my surprise, Holly took me up on my suggestion and we headed off in hopes of finding a place that “does wings right.” Although buffalo wings are now fairly common, most places don’t prepare them “right” in my book. Sure I can order wings from Dominos, but that doesn’t mean that they are any good and in Domino’s case, they aren’t. Usually there’s something wrong with the sauce, or they’ve prepared the chicken itself poorly – this is especially true when the wings are breaded. I’m sure there are others who prefer their wings breaded, and to each his own, but when I go out for wings I want a nice spicy experience with nothing between me and my chicken. 😛

As Holly and I walked into the restaurant, I could instantly tell that Wing Basket was a chain. Growing up in Louisiana, I’ve been spoiled by family owned restaurants and I try and steer away from chains whenever possible. Having someone local cook up a nice dinner will always be head and shoulders above what a restaurant chain can offer 9 times out of 10. Preferences aside, Holly and I stepped up to the counter to see what was on the menu. Other than a couple of side dishes, the only item on the menu were buffalo wings. That was fine by me and I was rather pleased to see that they were so specialized. Yet wings aren’t the focus on the menu. According to their slogan, “It’s all about the sauce”.

The Sauces
With a slogan like that, I figured it’d be best to sample as many of them as I could. Typically the wings are served coated with sauce, but we asked them to put it on the side so that we could try the whole range of the menu. We started with just two sauces, but we kept going back for more to try different ones. Here’s a run down on the ones that we tried:

April 22, 2005

The Computer Outlook Radio Show

Antique Radio I was in Baton Rouge a few months ago and my friends and I were at the City Cafe enjoying dinner and catching up on things. I was elbows deep into a tray of boiled crawfish when I thought of a story that I wanted to share. As a lead in, I said, “You know that radio show I’m doing…” I wasn’t even looking up when said it. My focus was on the tails in front of me, but instead of “Uh huhs and “Yeahs”, there was complete silence. Looking up from my platter, I was met with nothing but puzzled and confused faces. Duffy was the first to respond by saying, “Um… no? WHAT radio show?” Now I was the one that was confused.

“I told you guys about this didn’t I?”, I said in a somewhat pleading manner. I mean these were some of my closest friends and I would have shared something like this with them right? In a half-laugh, Ken Harelson said, “No, I think I would have remembered that!” No one was mad or anything, but it made me feel a little bit silly. You’d think I’d share something like this with my friends. I searched this weblog and I did find that I made a small mention of it here and here, but I’ve never really shared the whole story, so here it is.

April 11, 2005

Look For Me On The CMT!

The 2005 CMT Awards

On Friday I had to meet Holly for a late lunch at 3:00pm so that we could go through the “security process” for the CMT Awards. Yes, you read that correctly, Holly and I are going to be part of the Country Music Television Awards tonight. Ok, it’s a small part – a very small part, but for a couple of kids from Baton Rouge, it’s pretty cool to us. We are going to be on the floor right in front of the stage. We have to stand there from 5pm – 10pm, with no chance of sitting (hence the apt nickname “the mosh pit” ), but we’ll probably be on camera throughout the broadcast. How cool is that?

So how did we get this opportunity? Well, Holly’s a member of the “Women in Music Business Association (WMBA)” organization. This group is a fairly connected group and because they work in the industry, and they come across unique opportunities and often pass them along to the group as a whole. This was one of those times. Holly received an e-mail and quickly submitted our names for consideration. We were selected and received an e-mail telling us what we needed to do, where and what the rules are (no cameras, cell phones, etc.).

The first order of business was to show up on Friday to go through “security.” I’m using quotes because it consisted of nothing more than showing your ID to prove you were who you said you were. After that 5 second process, our names were checked off a list and a plastic wristband was attached. We were then told that this wristband was all that we needed to gain admittance on Monday. However, we were not to remove it and if we did we would not be allowed on the floor.

February 11, 2005

Broadcatching

From TV To Computer
There’s a new phenomenon happening on the Internet called Broadcatching, which is the act of downloading TV to be viewed on your computer. Some call it the poor man’s Tivo, but whatever you call it, it’s becoming more and more popular. After having discussed this topic with several of my clients and friends, I thought it might be helpful to give a brief overview of just what Broadcatching is and how you too can enjoy this new technology. The best part is that it’s all free!

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your local, state and countrys laws–In some cases you may be downloading (and uploading) copyrighted material. So far, there hasn’t been a legal case that we know of where broadcast TV networks have stopped or wanted to stop BitTorrent downloads of their shows, but we have heard that pay networks like Showtime, HBO, etc. have sent letters to some individuals for sharing recorded TV. This is all new territory for the most part, and it will be interesting to see what happens and if the TV networks realize that this could be their future distribution chain.
Engadget

The disclaimer above came from an article from Engadget entitled How-To: Broadcatching using RSS + BitTorrent to automatically download TV shows. In the article, they go into great detail regarding using Azureus. Personally I find that client a bit too technical, so I’m going to discuss a much simpler method. That being said, I do recommend reading Engadget’s article because it is an excellent overview of Broadcatching as a whole.

February 9, 2005

iTunes Toolbar For Windows

I had some security updates to apply for Windows XP this morning and after a reboot, I saw this weird little iTunes like toolbar for all of 2 seconds before it disappeared. Doing a little digging, I found that for Windows users, iTunes 4.7 has a small toolbar to allow you to control iTunes without taking up any desk space. Here’s how you do it.

January 10, 2005

I’m A Coffee Snob

A cup of coffee with a bag of beans. I gently pour my coffee from my french press coffee maker into one of my favorite coffee cups. I let it cool for a few minutes and let the air permeate with the smell of freshly made coffee. I lift the cup to my lips and take a small sip to minimize burning my tongue if the coffee is still too hot. It’s not and the hot liquid easily slides past my taste buds and down my throat. Getting the full taste of today’s brew, I make a small grimace as the sound “Eh…” pops out my mouth. It’s then that I finally admit to myself – I’m a coffee snob.

From Humble Beginnings
That’s right, I admit it, I’m a bit of a coffee snob. I suppose it was always this way in some form or another. When I was younger and began drinking coffee, only Community Coffee would do. The difference between then and now is that back then (and still to this day), Community Coffee is considered the State coffee of Louisiana. It’s served everywhere and is a staple of the coffee diet in the deep south. So I really wasn’t being a snob per se, I was just going with the natural order of things.

Then came the coffee house boom of the 90’s, where Starbucks began popping up on every corner along with mom-and-pop shops and alternative chains. All of a sudden it seemed you weren’t cool if you didn’t frequent a store that specialized in coffee. Naturally, I stopped into near by Perks, since Starbucks hadn’t made it to Baton Rouge. It was there that I was introduced to such coffee drinks as Cappuccinos and Espressos. There was a whole world out there that I had yet to experience, so I sampled everything they had to offer.

Category / entertainment