Work In Progress

Category: Technology & Entertainment

  • Ringing Out the ‘OO’s

    What are you doing to ring in the New Decade? My wife and I normally do something low-key on New Year’s Eve; something that usually consists of having friends over to the house. Going out and having to drive on a night like December 31st is just too risky. Similar days include Forth of July, Memorial Day, and Saint Patrick’s Day. You get the idea.

    This year, however, we’ll be in Tempe, Arizona. Our hotel room is booked at the Mission Palms (got on their waiting list in April). It’s not Times Square or Vegas, but the Fiesta Bowl is that day, and we have tickets for the Fiesta Bowl Block Party after the game. So, really, what are you doing to celebrate? I’d like to know. Whatever it is, have fun, be smart, and stay safe. See you next decade!

  • Jay Leno at Wildhorse Pass Casino

    Stop and consider a few of the great non-sport rivalries in history. Ford vs. Chevy. Fox vs. CNN. Coke vs. Pepsi. All have folks taking sides. Now consider where Leno vs. Letterman ranks. Recent news aside, I had always more of a David Letterman fan (especially Late Night on NBC). Dave is also a Sigma Chi, as am I, so he’s also got that going for him too.

    That said, my wife and I went to see Jay Leno at the new Wildhorse Pass Casino in Chandler, Arizona Friday night and he was awesome. If you ever get to see Jay do standup, take advantage. It’s much funnier than any of his television monologues. He really killed it. What was equally impressive is that the show started at 9:00 pm and went strong until ending at 10:30 pm. Now maybe I’m relatively new to standup but that seems like a solid set. Consider me a Jay Leno fan!

    That’s the end of the story. However, if you will indulge me on a side note, we learned that the Casino, which is visible from I-10, is not affiliated with the Wildhorse Sheraton Resort. If you’re booking a room at the Casino, make sure you book a room at the Casino, and not the Sheraton. Lesson learned. There was an unexpected upside, however. As luck would have it, the Sheraton happens to have a Five Diamond Restaurant, Kai, that was able to fit us in for dinner. We were really lucky because halfway into dinner the place was packed. It was an unbelievable two hours. Already planning our next trip.

  • Twitter 101

    Social media coming at you like a big wave? A former professor put it into perspective. “It seems technology is like that huge wave you try to catch and stay on top of, but eventually, and inevitably, it washes over you and either pushes up on shore where you will forever remain, or you will drown, or if you are one of the exceptional and fortunate ones, you will pop back up to ride the next wave.”

    Now, the 101 part: This is a blog. You likely understand blogs. Twitter is a micro-blog. What makes it micro? It allows 140 characters a post. I’d suggest a simple strategy to get started. Sign up at twitter.com. Then search for folks you’re interested in following. Celebrities (@lancearmstrong), friends (@owenwbrown) and people in your industry (@mashable). The gist Follow first and then decide how you will use the tool to communicate what you have to say.

    Got an iPhone? Get the Tweetie app and get Twitter in your pocket! For everything else see http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/

  • It’s Vonage but Wireless

    One of my 2008 New Year’s Resolutions was to become an early adopter of new technology. If that sounds like an excuse to buy stuff, you would be right. My wife saw right thru that one too but I do get my way from time to time. I’ve shared a few of the gadgets here, though I still do not frequently qualify as an early adopter. I am pretty certain that I still lag well behind the curve.

    One technology for which I certainly don’t qualify for early adopter status is VoIP. This super geeky term refers to Voice Over Internet Protocol and is telephone and related voice services carried over the Internet as opposed to the old phone system. While not an early adopter, I may, however, qualify as super creative in the category of setup. I’ll let you be the judge.

    VoIP is unique in that, instead of connecting your telephone to a wall jack and getting service from the local telecommunications company. In my case we connect the telephone to a vendor provided little black box which acts as the middle man, connecting your phone to the internet.

    Vonage Device

    After taking the device out of the box I soon realized that I was in trouble. You see, the device is designed to be connected directly to your home internet router.

    The problem with that is my wife also has a home office and the device the router (which brings the internet into our house) is located in her office. I would be needing a really long cord to connect the VoIP device to the router in her office.

    Thinking like the creative problem solver I like to think of myself as, I asked myself how I would accomplish connecting the device to our home internet wirelessly. It occurred to me that a wireless gaming router might work; similar to how we have our XBOX-360 setup with a wireless adapter. Think of the grey device like you would an antenna.

    Cisco Wireless Gaming Router

    From there it was simple.

    How Vonage Works

    After a trip to Best Buy all that was left to do was to (1) the Cisco wireless gaming router connects to the Internet, (2) the Vonage device connects to the Cisco wireless gaming router, and (3) the telephone connects to the Vonage device. Presto! Vonage Wireless!


  • Netflix and X-Box 360: Match Made in Heaven

    Now that the Netflix add-on has been upgraded it’s safe to recommend. To begin, the X-Box 360 came to our house as a Christmas gift in 2007. Hooked it up to the 62″ HDTV 1080P and geeked out. Now we know the video games enjoyed back then were just scratching the surface of what this console can do.

    xbox360

    Discovering X-Box Live was fantastic. Go online and demo the latest games for free? Sign me up. Some of the games that where the most engaging actually ended up being puzzle games as opposed to first person shooters. Braid and Puzzle Quest are two household favorites.

    Extremely inexpensive (approx $13.00 per month) and dependable, one can pick from 17,000 movies and television shows, all commercial free, and on demand. To begin, setup a Netflix and X-Box Live Gold Membership and connect your console to your home network. Login to your X-Box Live account, download the Netflix app on your X-Box, and start watching!