Category: Digitoy

  • Politics is to beer as poverty is to Wi-Fi

    I’ve been way too busy to blog. But today, while my kid was drilling analogies in preparation for the SSAT, the blog muse struck. It’s Sunday, and I’ve just reviewed my retirement account statements from September 30. That was bad enough. But with the miracle of Quicken, I was able to see specifically the carnage…

  • I finally get some security religion and discover how easy it really is

    With all the news lately about the fundamental flaws in DNS and the fact that my digital life is on my laptop, I decided to take a few hours today to reconfigure my router to use OpenDNS and to encrypt the whole drive in my laptop using TrueCrypt. After months of listening to Leo and…

  • Sorry, that fat lady never really did sing

    Years and years and years ago (OK, I’m feeling Boomer today), I was involved in the sale of a GUI-based application to the phone company. They resisted and resisted, despite our (and, unsurprisingly, Microsoft’s) ever-more-urgent importuning. We kept telling the executives that this was the future, it was the way they had to go and,…

  • Deelip drinks Autodesk’s Kool-Aid

    After Revit was purchased by Autodesk in 2002, I spent a grand total of a few months there. I’ve not written much publicly about my experiences there because they have a reputation for long institutional memories. I am sure that this post isn’t going to make them love me any more than they already don’t.…

  • A nasty surprise: FiOS and HDTV on demand can crash your Internet connection

    You know all those commercials Verizon is running with a young boy talking about “30db hot” and in which in open-mouth wonderment, he seems to be awash in light? Well, fudgedaboutit, at least when it comes to multiple HD video on demand streams and high-speed Internet. Not many people realize that FiOS uses a hybrid…

  • Apple, take my $20 please, or someone is finally paying for Google Maps?

    Please forgive my non sequitur in the title of this post. But I think it’ll make sense as you read on. I’ve been raving lately about what a transformational device my new iPod touch is. And I’ve been struggling to put into words exactly what’s why that’s so. At first, I wasn’t convinced that it…

  • The best music video you’ve never seen

    So, I was playing around on my iPod touch the other day, searching YouTube via the iPod’s Wi-Fi capabilities. I’ve never been a fan of YouTube, mostly because watching video on my laptop seems inconvenient to me. But on the iPod touch with that screen (there’s no other way to describe the quality of the…

  • (get a) Rule(r), Britannia

    Tonight, after a long day at work, for fun, I turned to an issue of Auto Week that I’d been saving to read up on the new Aston-Martin DBS. The only Aston-Martin I’ll ever come close to is the silver DB9 that some show-off uses as a daily driver (in the freakin’ snow!) to drop…

  • Verizon FiOS: Tribbles Make for Troublesome TV

    Remember the Star Trek episode entitled “The Trouble with Tribbles“? Remember how the furry creatures ingratiate themselves with the crew, then multiply so rapidly they nearly overtake the ship? FiOS TV is like a tribble. With apologies to Dr. McCoy, FiOS TV is born pregnant with problems. I spent most of 2006 and part of…

  • OK, I admit it…the borg have won

    Those of you who know me well know that on one topic I have been completely consistent: for years I’ve considered Microsoft the ultimate market bully who simply assimilated (or copied) any technology or company it wanted to. To this day, the blood feud between IBM and Microsoft on the messaging and desktop application battle…

  • Porky Pig will love the new iPod Classic

    I was in the new Natick Collection Apple store tonight. (Yes, the “Natick Collection” is just a mall — but to be tragically hip it had to become a “collection”.) The place was mobbed and we finally got a chance to try the new iPods. I immediately went for an 80GB iPod Classic to compare…

  • Brand building, BMW style or…how to make your community go crazy with desire

    I am well-known to be car crazy. And BMW is well-known as one of the most desirable brands in the world. So, it’s no surprise I draw many lessons from them and try to apply them to high-technology marketing in general. Trust me, this brand has enthusiasts (“a community” in Web 2.0-speak) to die for.…