Technology Blog

Last week, I talked about my feeling on the obvious shortage of Wii’s available to the market

In my previous article I mentioned the biggest draw for me personally to this console was that it would help my get off the couch and up and active again (during those times where I actually have free time to play games). I still think it’s a brilliant idea, especially when I’m facing roughly 3-5 months of fall/winter rain on the west coast of Canada.

Apparently this idea is striking a chord with others as well, as Seniors trade walkers for Wii

The article also touches on something that’s close to what I’ve witnessed as well with my mother-in-law who is a dependent to us. Playing games of some description provides the kind of brain stimulation that television watching alone does not provide. Puzzles on the computer, like bejewelled helps her to focus more and think. I’m just not sure that the Wii would be a good idea for her after seeing all those home accidents that teen boys posted in the early days of Wii on Youtube. At least not with me.. I’m too competitive.

I’ll be the first to say that I’m a 35 year old guy, who loves gadgets and the night sky, but never owned a telescope. The primary reason for that is, I never owned a house in an area that afford good night time viewing of stars. That however, has changed. I’m also aware that astronomy requires a lot of knowledge of the night sky, and serious astronomers get heavy into math, which has not been an strong area interest of mine.

I have a funny feeling that’s all going to change with meade telescopes. And check out the specs on this point and shoot meade telescope. Claiming you need no previous knowledge of the night sky, all you need to do with this gadget is point to a celestial object and it will identify it for you.

There’s no other way to describe this gadget as far as I’m concerned: it’s just plain cool.

Let’s face it, most of us are becoming more and more dependent on technology and the world wide web. More and more I see technology merging. Over the years one can see the uses of the internet become common place in our daily lives.

Photography is a prime example of that. Digital photography slowly started to become available to the average consumer in the early 90’s however film photography it’s almost unheard now.

So where does one store all these files? What about music files? I look at my desk and see clutter sprawled amongst 2 laptops, a desktop and about 3 external hard drives. Given my passion for sharing pictures, videos and music files amongst family and friends I need to look at other solutions.

One such solution is online backup services. IDrive.com offers encrypted backups for your important files. Not only do they offer free backup services for anyone looking at using 2 GIGs, but also have affordable pricing for unlimited backups for as little as $4.95 per month. The list of features are extensive, providing many user friendly features including an interface that’s similar to native Windows Explorer.

This website is definitely worth a look at. For more information, you can check out their online backup demo

My 74 year old father has been involved in technology for over 55 years. His patience for technology “advancement” however is wearing thin, let me tell you, I tend to agree more and more with his observations and frustrations.

“Logic has disappeared.” I think anyone who’s ever choosen a PC over a Mac can well understand this. Anyone who’s worked as a technical support person can WELL understand this as well. Beta test software anyone? I have. You’ll KNOW all types of logic are disappearing.

Maybe I’m not making any sense. Many might disagree with me (and the thoughts of my old man). However, this week I feel like I’m putting myself through a crash course in audio visual concepts that just *boggle the mind*. With all the “advancements” these days, we’re also dealing with many incompatibilities, many file structures, formats, conversations, encoders, decoders, codecs, … whatever techy techy catch phrase you feel like using, it’s all there.

Is it ANY wonder why my wife’s eyes start to glaze over when I get even remotely techy with her? My late mom used to say to my father “one of these days I’m just going to get a hammer and smash everything into tiny bits.” I really feel like she was onto something there.

So I’m in a sea of .VOB files, painstakenly ripped out of corrupted mini dvd’s from my dad’s camcorder that weren’t finalized properly. And it dawned on me what these camcorder manufacturers are trying to do. They have mini DVD cams for people who want to record, finalize the disc, and plunk the mini dvd’s into theorhetically any dvd player out there to share with friends and family. A perfectly simple concept: unless you have errors.

The bundled video editing software that’s included in the package doesn’t happen to read the DVD files (.VOB) format outright. you have to convert to mpeg or avi and THEN reauthor to dvd. If you’ve followed through this far, let me know because I’m confusing myself just writing about it all.

Sometimes the intent to be simple ends up being more complicated and the discussions that have ensued since with my father have been enlightening to say the least. We speak the same techy languages but just with different experiences and perspectives. As the appetite for technology of the average consumer increases, the dysfunction between hardware and software and “standards” will continue. As a quasi tech support person (because I still provide a lot of free technical support to friends and family) this frustrates me even though its this very dysfunction that helps me earn a living.

My dad has a lot of conspiracy theories about the manufacturers having built-in inconsistencies and incompatibilities. After the hellish week I’ve put myself through this week, I’m inclined to believe him. In the meantime, my personal crash course continues.

Yes folks, by now, I’m sure there’s tons of blogs writing about The USB Absinthe Spoon Do a search on technorati, do a search on google, you’ll find it. But my fascination with this started thanks to a simple link share with a friend of mine on MSN.

This really struck my funny bone. And no, I wasn’t chasing little green fairies at the time, I swear. But having experienced a little absinthe ritual fun both in europe when I travelled there last fall, to recently when I returned I couldn’t but laugh at this gizmo, gadget, or… hoax?

There’s some speculation that this fantastical gadget is nothing more than an email grab. Create a buzz about a fake product, collect some email addresses while you’re at it. The makers of this supposed gadget “didn’t know” that the response would be so positive and so global. The deal was (and is), for you to write to them on their site, as to why you think you deserve a prototype of the USB Absinthe Spoon.

I couldn’t resist. I wrote. My comment was somewhere in the 400th mark. My reasoning for “needing” an absinthe spoon was simple: I’m left handed.

In any case, this is a fun little buzz that I’m following. I sure hope they make big bucks regardless of whether this product is real or not.