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JUST BEFORE THE OPENING CEREMONIES of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Brian Williams spent a moment touting a remarkable technological achievement: NBC would broadcast its coverage of the games in HDTV. Williams went on to espouse the virtues of high-definition: 16×9 aspect ratio, richer, fuller colors–the whole sales pitch. I was very excited. After all, Continue Reading →

MY VIDEO IPOD LOVES ME! Unfortunately, I only like it “as a friend.” It all started last December when we met at a holiday party–the chemistry was extraordinary. It was sleek, beautiful and full of mystery (“Lost”), drama (“Law & Order”) and intrigue (“Desperate Housewives). It had a sense of humor (“SNL”) and even a Continue Reading →

THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO have had some very sub-optimal experiences with PayPal. Personally, I have only had good experiences with the service. But, according to some of my closest friends and advisors, I may belong to a pretty small club. The following admonition comes from a very trusted source, my techno-geek brother, Jason. Here’s Continue Reading →

TO LISTEN TO HOWARD STERN’S new radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, you need a satellite radio receiver and a paid subscription to the service–or do you? The show is being rebroadcast (albeit slightly delayed) on a bunch of “pirate” radio stations. It’s all over the Internet in the form of podcasts and progressively downloadable Continue Reading →

On February 5, 2006 the ABC Television Network will broadcast its seventh Super Bowl live from Detroit’s Ford Field.  Since the 10 most-watched television broadcasts in history have all been Super Bowls, one can assume that this year ABC will also enjoy a very large live audience.  Last year’s game was viewed by 133.7 million Continue Reading →

The most interesting thing about CES 2006 (The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) was my cab ride home from Kennedy Airport.  I struck up a conversation with my cab driver, and here’s what I learned. Amir Ramin, originally from Persia (the country we know as Iran) has been in the U.S. for over 22 Continue Reading →

It’s the dawn of a new year–filled with excitement, possibilities and promise. By now all of the new HDTV sets are hooked up, new iPods are formatted, iTunes accounts are set up, and BitTorrent 4.2.2 is properly installed. Let the media frenzy begin. Just one problem … according to studies by SA and Leichtman, over Continue Reading →

Some major telcos have started lobbying our elected officials for the right to create a two-tiered Internet, “regular” and “premium.”  You guessed it, not only would the telcos get to charge everyone more for the faster service, they’d also get to deny the faster service to competitors.  Ouch! As you can imagine, the prospect of Continue Reading →

Outlook didn’t just crash, it crashed and burned.  Nobody I know had ever seen this kind of a problem before.  I called my IT guru and described the problem–dead silence on the other end of the phone.  This was bad, and I knew it was going to get worse. The nuclear option: a low-level hard Continue Reading →

Cable and Congress are at it again. During a hearing that was supposed to be about indecency, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin brought up a study which “concludes that purchasing cable programming in a more a la carte manner in fact could be economically feasible and in consumers’ best interest.” The idea of a Continue Reading →