Category: Thoughts

  • Cheaper noise cancelling head phones work pretty great

    Last year I bought my wife a pair of pretty high-end Sony MDR-NC50 noise canceling headphones to take on airplane (business) trips. They are amazing — pristine sound quality for your music (or anything else on your iPod) while tuning down, down, down environmental sounds like jet engines, train whooshing or even construction equipment working…

  • Apple forgets to ask Civ creator about Missing Mac version

    I have to admit that even though I occasionally play computer games on my computers, almost always Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, I had no idea that Apple had started a dedicated web site about gaming on the Mac until I caught this link over at Inside Mac Games. Three cheers for Apple for encouraging and…

  • That terrific, cheap Flip video camera’s getting updated

    I was checking out a post over on CNet’s techno trends blog and I came across an item about the cheap-o digital video camera called simply The Flip. It reminded me to rave about ours, which my wife ordered a few weeks ago from Amazon for $150. This tiny cam runs on a pair of…

  • Great stuff in June Wired Magazine but where’s the web extras?

    Wired Magazine has gone through many phases since 1993, when it seemed like the greatest and most original periodical of the day. Over the past few years, I’ve been feeling less excited reading the issues — it was getting a little stale, kind of predictable. But the June issue, which arrived on Saturday, stunned me…

  • Next version of Firefox gets ready for prime time

    Seems like the Mozilla project has been working on the 3.0 upgrade to free, open source browser Firefox since time began but really it’s only been since the Pleistocene Era. Finally, we’ve arrived at the so-called release candidate (download here), or the almost, not quite but really almost finished beta version. I was hanging around…

  • What to pack in your computer bag?

    Dan Frakes has an awesome piece over at Macworld’s “Mobile Mac” blog today about gadgets and junk that he carries around with his laptop. I hadn’t seen Kensington’s rechargeable Portable Power Pack for Mobile Devices before. Only $60 and 3.5 ounces for 14 hours of additional VIDEO playback on my iPod? Sounds like I need…

  • Apple’s big new Back Bay store

    As part of the day job, got to attend the press preview of Apple’s new store in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. It’s on Boylston Street across from the Prudential Center Mall. It’s also Apple’s biggest. First floor is all Macs, second floor is for iPods and iPhones while the Genuis Bar and room for training…

  • John Markoff needs a new job or at least a new beat

    Ever know someone who got laid off or otherwise had an involuntary job change mid to late in their career and ended up feeling re-energized and renewed at their next job? Happened to my dad, thanks to Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House, but that’s another story. It’s that time for New York Times…

  • Trying out Disqus for comments

    Web 2.0 guru and venture capitalist Fred Wilson posted today about the blog comment service his firm has funded. It’s called Disqus (Get it? Sounds like discuss!). It allows commenters to maintain a single “identity” that can be followed around when they respond to posts on disparate participating blogs. It also lets you know about…

  • Adventures of Sarah Jane’s a throwback to great scifi TV cheese

    When I was a kid, you watched what was on TV when you wanted to watch. No Tivo, no on-demand, no downloads. There were some shows my bro and I watched because they were just on, like say, Gilligan’s Island. But there were only a few shows I went out of my way to be…