There have been a number of attempts to stream television shows and other types of video programming over the internet. All of these efforts have run into problems of one form or another – some technical, some legal, some monetary, and some a combination of all of the above. All of these attempts had one thing in common, however: they offered poor-quality internet TV service containing little or no compelling programming.

The latest attempt to deliver quality TV over the internet is called Joost. It’s still in beta but it’s far enough along to demonstrate that its creators have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors. Joost may even offer a glimpse at the future of television.

Let’s take a look at what Joost is and what makes it different.
[Read more →]

I can’t cook.

Well, I suppose that’s not completely true. I can cook a bit, but only if I can follow a set of simple directions or a basic recipe. If I have to somehow deviate because I have a 9″x13″ casserole dish instead of an 8″x12″ casserole dish or because I can’t find the oregano I’m in trouble.

My wife, on the other hand, knows how to cook. She uses a recipe as more of a vague suggestion rather than as a detailed set of instructions. If she can’t find a specific ingredient she can simply substitute something else using logic like “It’s in the same family” or “It’ll work — they’re both red”.

When my wife looks into the pantry she sees a hundred different meals just waiting to be made. When I look into the pantry I see a bunch of ingredients without knowing how they could possibly combined to make anything.

I find this ironic because, when it comes to technology, I’m the cook. I can look at all of the “ingredients” that I have (hardware, software, network) and have no problem coming up with ways to combine them to make a technological meal. Sometimes I can even make a meal and a dessert. [Read more →]

If you’re already a subscriber to Netflix, the DVD rental website, you also have access to a new feature they’re rolling out called “Watch it Now” which allows you to stream content from the Netflix site to your PC. And you can’t beat the price: free. Let’s take a look at what Watch it Now is, what it does, and how you can activate it on your account.
[Read more →]

In the past I’ve written about two easy-to-fly radio-controlled planes (the Aero Ace Biplane and the Aero Ace Jet) and a radio-controlled car/plane/boat hybrid (the Storm Launcher). This time around I’d like to introduce you to something a little more — um — natural: a radio-controlled insect. Well, to be precise, it’s a radio-controlled dragonfly, and it flies by flapping its wings like a real dragonfly. Really.
[Read more →]

Bookmarking sites like del.icio.us give you the ability to bookmark your favorite websites and use tagging to make it easier to find them later on. Since the bookmarks are stored on the servers at del.icio.us instead of on your local PC you can bookmark a website while you’re logged onto one PC and retrieve those bookmarks while you’re looged on at a differnet PC. For people who end up accessing the internet from a number of different PC’s (like at work, at school, and at home) using a service like del.icio.us is much easier than trying to keep your list of local bookmarks synchronized across all of your comptuers. But what if you also have a long list of RSS feeds that you want to keep tabs on across your many computers?
[Read more →]

CrossLoop and LogMeIn Free are free software packages which allow you to control a PC’s desktop remotely. Both work well and both are easy to install and use. There are some differences between the two, however, and it’s those differences that we’ll look at here.

[Read more →]

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to remote-control someone else’s PC? Maybe you’re the family “go-to” guy when it comes to computer problems. Maybe you’re a tech-support guy in your company. Maybe you’ve been in situations where it would just be easier to show someone how to do something rather than to try to explain how to do it. There are many ways to remote-control a user’s PC but few are as simple to set up as CrossLoop and LogMeIn Free. I’ve already written an article on using LogMeIn Free so this time we’ll check out CrossLoop.

[Read more →]

You may have heard of MythTV, the free TiVo-like application that can handle just about all of your multimedia needs. It can record and play back TV shows, including HDTV programming. It can be used to view your pictures, your weather forecast, and your favorite RSS feeds. It can rip and play back your music CD’s and your DVD’s. It can even display the list of movies you have in your NetFlix queue.

And it only runs on Linux.

So what if you’re a Windows user who wants to find out what MythTV is all about? Up until recently you couldn’t, but now you can. Here’s how.

[Read more →]