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The Album: For the past couple of weeks, I anticipated the arrival of the latest Dave Matthews Band album: Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. For the first time since I was in college, I sat down in a dark room and listened to an entire album, start to finish, with no interruptions. For the [...]

I've created stand-alone clips for demos in my home theater.  Instead of switching discs and skipping chapters, I've created/edited video files that are stored on my media server and played-back using a Home Theater Personal Computer.
I think the ideal demo scene is comprised of the following:

lots of action
some setup before the action so viewer [...]

I've been a TiVo user since 2001 and I've owned 7 TiVos. It's a great product because it is extremely easy to use yet offers an impressive array of features.  However, I think TiVo can offer even more functionality without compromising, and perhaps improving, the simplicity of the user experience.  Here are my ideas:

Seamless multi-room [...]

I purchased a MSI Wind netbook (i.e. small, cheap laptop) for my wife to use as her personal surfing-the-internet device. Overall, I'm very pleased with the performace and size, making it perfect for casual use.  Here are my pros and cons lists:
Pros:

Small Size: I knew this was going to be a tiny little PC, but [...]

I received an e-mail from Netflix today informing me of yet another price increase, due to the fact that I rent Blu-ray movies. I was paying $11.99 for 2-discs-at-a-time and 4 rentals per month. And this did include the Watch Now online viewing. But over the past few months, Netflix removed the Watch Now from [...]

I just implemented a new theme on my WordPress website. I've been wanting a new design for well over a year but couldn't find what I wanted: a simple design with lots of subtle transparency, rounded corners, and a simple color pallet. Then I found the Aeros theme (created by Joe at TheBuckMaker.com blog) and [...]

I just unboxed and installed my Vudu XL evaluation unit, connected it to the flat panel TV in my family room, and started played around with it.  Here are my initial thoughts:

This is a very nice looking set top box; possibly the most attractive design I've seen, with lots of glossy, high-quality plastic. The bottom [...]

I installed the Windows 7 beta (32-bit) on my wife's MSI Wind netbook with great success.  In fact, it was flawless.  So I decided to give it a try on the second Media Center computer (HTPC) that I just finished building using the 64-bit version.  My results were as positive this time.  Here a summary [...]

I was sitting at work wishing I could go somewhere for lunch and watch the inauguration. Then I went to CNN.com to see if I could catch a live stream. I was surprised that a Facebook application popped up beside the video and I was able to view my friend's comments in real time. [...]

After a couple of years of searching for a great deal on HermanMiller Aeron chairs, my wife finally found one, and we've been enjoying them for the past 8 months.  Unfortunately, her chair developed a crack in the back (most likely due to mis-assembly by the store.) I feared an expensive repair, but started searching [...]