A Monitor Made for Gaming

Accessories

The last time I had a real job it was working for one of the world’s largest tech companies.  It was both the culmination and peak of my Computer Networking career.  I was fortunate to join the company when the Internet was just taking off and everything was still unexplored and exciting.

I ended up working in the Games group at Microsoft at a time when the company was expanding in all directions.  Like many of the tech companies at that time, Microsoft was hungrily pursuing all opportunities on the Internet and gaming was high priority.  The Xbox had not yet been invented and the big dog of our division was still Flight Simulator.
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Webcomics and the Ugee UG-2150

Accessories

If you’ve only recently started reading this blog you’re probably unaware of it’s previous incarnation as a Webcomic called “Panoptia“.  My wife and I started that Webcomic a few years ago after a hot afternoon of weeding.  I think the heat must have clouded our judgment.  After drawing a couple of seasons of the strip we abandoned it in favor of other interests.

To those of you who don’t happen to have your own Webcomic, I can tell you that it’s both a lot of fun and also extremely time consuming.  We’re fortunate to live in an age where the bulk of animation can be done on low-cost computers, but the fact is that somebody still needs to power that mouse.
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Careers and Improving Performance with an SSD

Accessories, Information

I was fortunate to be in college right as the personal computer revolution was taking off.  The IBM PC had not yet been introduced and the Apple was the king of the desktop.  My undergraduate college work/study job was in fact managing a lab of Apple II computers for the school of Architecture at UT Austin.

After giving Graduate School all of two weeks before calling it quits, I landed a job at the first Software-only store in the country.  I knew it was the perfect job for me before I even interviewed. One of the owners said he hired me because I stuck my foot in the door and wouldn’t let them close it until I gave them my resume.

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Bubbles and Mania

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We’re coming up on twenty years since the original Dotcom bubble.  Many of my readers and for that matter the bulk of the current Internet influencers were not around for the first edition.  In case you aren’t aware of what that was, simply know that exuberant entrepreneurs discovered you could start anything, but couldn’t build a business simply around page views.  Profits were hard to come by.

The pinnacle of the late 1990’s version of the Dotcom bust was typified and exemplified by Pets.com.  It seems that the founders and financial backers of this ill-fated startup failed to understand that you couldn’t make a lot of money selling 25lb bags of dog food over the Internet.  Especially when you tried to do it with free shipping.

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Learning Guitar on the Rogue RA-090

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I wrote previously about how musically challenged I am. I admire my wife’s ability to play the piano and for that matter am jealous of anyone who can play well. I’m a dedicated consumer of all types of music and really wish I had more talent in that area of life.

From time to time I get the urge to try again, always thinking this time will be different and I’ll finally be able to play. When that impulse strikes, I usually lean toward the guitar, somehow believing that only six strings makes it easier to master. Were it only so!

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Headphones, Dad Ears and the Cowin E-7

Accessories, Home Theater

From the day I got my first pair of headphones I’ve maintained a love/hate relationship with these apparatus.  I love that I can listen to my music without anyone else complaining about the song choice or volume level.  I hate that I have to put something in or on my ears to accomplish it.

You see I share a little bit in common with Warren from “There’s Something About Mary” in that I don’t like having my ears touched.  Weird, I know.  I won’t fly off the handle and pummel you if you accidentally touch them, like Warren does, but I will certainly let you know I’m not loving it.

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The Echo Show Preview

Accessories, Information

When Bill Gates and Microsoft first ventured into consumer software and electronics, Mr Gates famously said that they were going to “Put a computer on every desktop and in every home”.  It was a vision that spurred the development of Windows and launched Microsoft into a variety of consumer electronic ventures.

That vision evolved sometime in the late 1990’s. Microsoft realized that the onset of portable devices and computing everywhere was going to require a different sort of mindset and a broader approach. That revised thinking still drives the company today and is also the driving force behind most of the other major consumer electronics vendors.

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Top 3 Selling Products for April

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This blog hasn’t been around that long, (actually it had a different focus for some years before this new format) but I always find it fascinating to see what our readers are interested in purchasing.  If you’re a regular reader, you might want to know what other readers are buying as well.

It goes without saying that most of you are interested in Home Media products!   I get a little report each month that tells me what was actually bought through our affiliate links.  Don’t worry, we have no idea who bought what.  That’s between you and Amazon.  Thanks to all who clicked and bought something! It helps us to continue to review great products.

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WowWee it’s MiP the Toy Robot

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The great thing about covering technology is that we get to be like little kids in a toy store.  I can’t wait to get my hands on new products and the only time I’m unhappy is when there isn’t enough new stuff to review.  I want, no I need to have new tech.

Speaking of kids, among the many things I wanted as a kid were a personal airplane, helicopter, submarine and of course a robot.  Having grown up watching an imagined world of television and movie robots, I couldn’t wait for the year of their arrival.

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Projector, Projector Mapping and Holograms

Accessories, Home Theater

Computer interfaces have evolved slowly over the last 40 years. As soon as we were able to produce affordable display graphics, the Windows-type environment became the standard. Since then, we’ve only had refinements of the same basic interfaces. Windows, Icons, Mice and Pointers, better known as WIMP have been the defining characteristics of our interactions.

I won’t open a can of worms about who pioneered this paradigm, but suffice to say it originated somewhere within the halls of Silicon Valley. Others might add it came to maturity further north in Seattle, but that’s a whole other post. The important thing is that it’s the accepted standard and you’ll find little argument about that. Arguably the only thing that has been added over the intervening years is touch displays.

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