Saturday, December 29, 2007

Did Santa remember the batteries?

Did Santa bring you another box for your entertainment center -
Something that promises to display web media directly on your HDTV?

Of course "the box" doesn't require batteries, but it may require a subscription fee, or it may only allow to watch pay for view movies or pay for view channels. What if you want to watch Olympic coverage for the Italian team, broadcast in Italian? What if you want all those nifty channels in Joost or the Indie movies on Jaman - are they included?

On the other hand, your remote control does require batteries AND if you want to view something that isn't on their list, you have to enter http://www.whatwasilookingforagain.com
O-N-E C-H-A-R-A-C-T-E-R
at a time.

How lame, and yet a solution does exist. If you can find it on your laptop, you can find it on your TV with a W2TV enabled computer.

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Fixed-gear Ciocc


I ride a new steel Ciocc roadbike configured as a fixed-gear.
Dedaccia steel with carbon fork, Campi record levers, DuraAce crankset and brakes. The hub is a White Industries "eccentric eno" that allows perfect chain tensioning with vertical dropouts. The gear ratio is 42:15. A relatively high gear number allows me "spin up" to almost anyone on flats and slight uphills. On a 2 to 3% grade I am 10% faster than on my full geared Trek. On 7% grades, I stand the entire climb, which equates to 250 one-legged squats per mile. At 12% you're walking.
The bike weights 18lbs and it is so quiet, you can sneak up on a cat.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

I want YouTube on My Tube

Every day I read about a new video site on the web.
But when will these videos stream to my widescreen digital television?