Archive for April, 2007
With two little kids, we don’t go out to the movies much. It seems we don’t even get to watch TV that much either. Our TiVo has helped manage our TV watching, but even with the “Silver” cable package, there are very few good movies available to watch–unless you like “Mindhunters” as it has been on at least eight times a day for the last few months.
Like many people, we grew tired of the back and forth transporting of movies to the video store, and although I always thought NetFlix was a good idea, I never brought myself around to joining.
Amazon has partnered with TiVo to offer a pretty good service called “Amazon Unbox
.” Quite simply, you buy, or rent, videos at Amazon.com, and instead of waiting for a DVD, you can download the movie to your computer or directly to your TiVo DVR, and you can start watching almost as soon as you start the download.
I rented “Borat,” (I like) placing the order at work, and the movie was fully downloaded when I got home. It’s kind of like on-demand NetFlix.
When you buy a movie (around $14.99), you own it and can watch it as much as you like. Even if you remove it from your TiVo (presumably for space issues), you can re-download it from your Amazon library. If you rent a movie (around $3.99) as I did, you have thirty days to start watching it before it is removed. After you start watching, you can watch it as much as you like within 24 hours. After that, it is deleted.
The video quality was very good, probably equivalent to the “best” resolution on TiVo, and overall, the viewing was a good experience. I can’t be sure, but it didn’t seem that there were any DVD extras available, which is one of my favorite things about DVDs.
The ease of use and integrating digital media into the living room makes this service a potential hit. The Apple TV is attempting to do this, but it seems a little like trying to shoehorn iTunes from your computer to your television.
If you have a TiVo, I would recommend giving Amazon Unbox a try.
April 30th, 2007
A tree fell in my yard last week. I didn’t see it fall, so I can’t be sure it made a sound. However, I was sure that it was big and I needed to remove it. There was nothing tricky about it that would require any tree “experts”, however, it would require a bigger chainsaw than the small electric one I had used for clearing bushes. Like a true man, I don’t need too much of an excuse to buy a power tool.
Since women think that power tools are the male equivalent to their love for diamond jewelry, my wife assumed that a chainsaw must cost a few thousand dollars. Imagine her shock and disappointment as I showed her I could be outfitted for around $150.
Using the Sears.com site, I searched for chainsaw and got a good sampling of results that demonstrated this fact. However, looking a bit closer at the search results page gave me a bit of an eerie feeling that you can see for yourself:
Kind of an odd juxtaposition, but another example of what can happen on the dynamic and diverse web.
The story ends well, as I purchase the chainsaw and made much saw dust out of the tree. My next endeavor is rent a chipper to clean up the rest of the mess. I just hope I don’t run into that scene from Fargo.
April 19th, 2007
I have never been on a cruise. Those years of watching The Love Boat on Friday nights simply never compelled me to try. As I got older, I heard stories of all the fun people had on cruises. Actually is was mostly about continually eating.
It seems that more and more, cruise ships are turning in to death traps. Maybe it’s not as bad as Titanic or The Poseidon Adventure , but over the past years it seems the list of dangers has made me avoid this form of vacations.
9 Reasons not to Vacation on a Cruise Ship
- Pirates
- Falling Overboard
- Fire
- Mysterious Disappearance
- Contagious Illness
- Giant Waves
- Violent Tilt
- Collisions
- Isaac, Gopher, and Doc
Bon Voyage!
April 6th, 2007
One of the big issues between creationists and evolutionists is the age of the Earth. Adding up all of the “who begot who” in the bible has the age of the Earth being around 6,000 years old. Science tells us that it’s at least “a bit” older than that.
Many of our notions about the Earth’s history are shaped in our early childhood. I think we can all recall toys, stories, and cartoons depicting “cavemen” coexisting (often not very peacefully) with dinosaurs. I mean really–the Flintstones even employed dinosaurs as household appliances. It’s no better today. My son has some toys called “B.C. Builders” built on this very premise. I am trying to figure out how to expain that dinosaurs and cavemen were not around at the same time. How is my 3-year old son to realize this major historical inaccuracy when he doesn’t even appreciate the irony that his plastic parasoralphous is derived from actual dinosaurs? Irony is wasted on toddlers.
Things haven’t changed much since we were kids–except maybe that the Brontosaurus is now the Apatosaurus. And although there actually were flying dinosaurs called Pterodactyls, all I hear about is the Pteranodons. What’s up with that?
I am ready if I every get asked why Noah didn’t bring any dinosaurs on the ark–”there wasn’t enough room.”
It’s no wonder so many are confused.
April 5th, 2007
