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Surviving CES in Las Vegas: A few helpful hints (reprised)

(A brief post whilst I clean up my OS drives, deleting window.old folders using the disk cleanup wizard, as noted here.)


Attending CES in Las Vegas this week? Then check out my post on Surviving CES in Las Vegas: A few helpful hints from last January. 



I’ve been to my fair share over the years — since the days of Comdex — and thankfully will be at work in Redmond next week.

My hat is off to the many folks we will have at CES this year. 

I was asked today for a couple of restaurant recommendations, so here are a few tips for those heading off to Vegas this weekend for the event…


I should revise and add a few new sights and places to eat.


Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360, CES 2008, CES, travel tips.


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Happy new year, and a reprise on being thankful

For the last post of 2008, I thought to reprise my post on being thankful, as I am fortunate enough to spend my holiday with my family. In that past post, Of interest: Being Thankful, I noted the Seattle P-I newspaper’s slide show on "Words of Thanks."

"What are you most thankful for? P-I photographer Meryl Schenker profiles six local residents who have different reasons for giving thanks on this holiday."

At home, we’re thankful for many things, primarily for good health, family, and our community. The philanthropist W. Clement Stone said that "If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share."

So I’ve included this link on how to help over the holidays from my previous hometown paper.  Or just pay it forward.  I’ll do my part for 2009 starting this week. 

As we noted to friends, family and associates on our Christmas card list, with the severe weather we’ve had over the last week, we’ve been a bit challenged to keep the boys from going stir crazy at home, spending our less-than-abundant free time occupying theirs.  So this year, rather than rush to send out cards, we decided to reprise our electronic Christmas card effort of a few years ago: to donate the money we would normally spend (towards postage, cards, photos and the like) to the local chapter of the United Way. 

Have a wonderful new year, and best wishes in 2009.

Tags: what I read.

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The snow sticks through the weekend, so we built a huge snowman

With snow comes shoveled driveways.  And with that extra snow, you have to do something…

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So we built a near six foot tall snowman.

[Added 5:30PM 12/20/08: as noted on Twitter, and an update for my friend Kent in sunny & warm SVC, we found that our snowman had been vandalized… some hoodlums had moved the carrot, not pictured. My wife said that "I would love to catch the vandals in the act & show it to their parents." The carrot has been returned to its appropriate location.]

To all: as the weather turns vicious tonite, try to stay safe and warm this weekend.

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NBC Video Direct restores world order at home, saves my bacon

As I Twittered (tweeted? I’ll get this right), sometimes you forget to do something: pick up milk on the way home, feed the cat or empty the dishwasher.  On the whole, not so serious.  And with a digital vide recorder or a Media Center PC, you shouldn’t have to worry about missing an episode of your favourite show.

That is, unless you forget to program the system to record your favourite show. 

That happened to me this week, as I neglected to restart recording of The Office on NBC.

Luckily, imageNBC Video Rewind is available on the NBC 24/7 Video page, where you can view full-length episodes of NBC shows (posted the morning the day after they air), including 30 Rock, Heroes and others.  You can also watch quick recap, two-minute replays that provide a Cliff Notes video clip of the show.

As we found with Hulu.com, we were able to find episodes of The Office on the web, available for streaming for free to your computer, live over the web.  ABC and CBS also make many of their popular shows available for viewing on ABC.go.com and on CBS.com respectively, with many available in HD.

But most interesting over the compressed streaming video (fine for travel and desktop viewing) is full SD and HD video, downloaded to your PC.  Normally relegated to Bit Torrent file downloads, we’d rather have a network blessed (read "legal") way to get vide to our Media Center computer (or any PC for that matter). 

Thankfully, there’s the beta for NBC Video Direct, where full episodes are available for download. Using NBC Direct (now in beta), you can download full episodes to your Windows PCs.  We first installed the NBC Direct player (available free) and then after registering were able to download HD versions of current and past favourites (do you miss Erin Gray in Buck Rogers?).  For The Office one hour premier, it took about 10-15 minutes or so at home to get the full HD file.

Last fall, the New York Times said that the NBC Direct Beta was "not quite ready for prime-time" but a lot changes in a year.  There’s a full list of shows available, the performance was flawless and overall our experience this week has been quite positive.

So, next time you neglect to program your DVR or PC to record a show from cable, satellite or broadcast, remember that there is a fallback for many of your favourite shows. 

I'm a PC I'm a PC Life without Walls

Tags: NBC, Windows, Media Center, television, DVR.

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The OpenX plastic package opener saves me again from nasty plastic cuts

A repost from 2006: I just reread an editorial from John Dvorak that he was ticked off at the plastic packaging that encased most gadgets at retail these days.  Timely, as I was about to open a package of PC memory with a pair of old scissors, a package that you’d think was being packaged for long term storage for the next mission to Mars…

Is anyone other than me sick and tired of the hard plastic packaging that far too many products are encased in nowadays? You need metal shop tin snips to open them. Knives will not cut the stuff. If you tear it you risk cutting your hand wide open, as the plastic turns into a razor blade when torn. Some of these packages have perforated tear-open doors, but often they do not fully release the product. Whose idea was it to develop this sort of crappy package? I hate it! Now I appreciate the fact that in certain European Union countries the law limits the amount of plastic that can be used for packaging.

If we get lucky, a few of these companies will be sued when someone nearly bleeds to death when the plastic slices someone’s wrist. A few lawsuits will do the trick. I’ve cut myself a number of times.

I recall a post I made in late 2006 (during the holidays, actually). I’m mentioning this with no professional endorsement: purely a personal view here.

How many gifts given this year come in those form-fitting clear plastic packages? I know that one present Santa brought to our five-year-old — a new ATM machine — came in such. You know the type: no matter what you do, or what tool you use, you are bound to either a) cut the item or instructions securely bound in the package, b) injure yourself or others in the family to a degree requiring a holiday trip to the urgent care clinic for some holiday-coloured stitches, or c) return the product to the store without opening in quiet protest of such packaging.

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I saw that Steve was worried about the same thing, and thought that I would offer this inexpensive, innovative tip: get an OpenX. This is the best thing to hit since the Olfa touch knife I tried to master in my days doing graphic design oh so many years ago. This little device now saves me agonizing injuries (I still have one little scar on my wrist from a plastic shard that continues to give me the willies) and is easy enough to use.

There are packages that are a dream to open (as I wrote about my zune OOBE), and then there are packages that double as medieval torture devices.

IMHO, the OpenX is awesome.

Tags: openx, gadgets.

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