Alt-This.com - your technology podcast

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Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that Episode #0002 has been recorded and is "in the can" as they say. I hope to get it edited tomorrow and up later tomorrow or Saturday.

I want to point out that I opened a brand new bottle of Bushmills 10 year old Irish Whiskey single malt for the show and REALLY enjoyed it. I thing everyone will be able to tell that by the end of the show. Hey, we're having fun, so sue us!

Thanks for listening, I just wanted to drop a note saying the episode was recorded so you know we are serious this time about keeping a schedule!!

Cheers,
Darren

Now, I wasn't one of the lucky few Netflix subscribers who saw their account displaying the brand spanking new tab to view content on-line content today, but after reading this article by Om Malik I don't really care.

When I heard that Netflix was going to offer content online, included in the price of my existing subscription I was pretty psyched. Netflix is the best there is in dvd movie rentals so I figured they'd probably do ok here as well. After reading Om's article, I am no longer excited about what Netflix is offering at all.

The reasons are pretty simple..

1. It's NOT downloadable content - it's ONLY streaming content. Which means I guess that I can't actually watch what I download on that thing I have called a television set. I can't save it to my hard drive or PC for later viewing.

2. Only about 2% of the Netflix titles will be available online (I'm sure to start anyway) and I'd need a 3 megabit connection to get the best quality video. As Om said, I guess the cheap DSL crew are kinda screwed here.

This is a major step backward in online video offering to me. To not be able to download and save the program it's pretty worthless if you ask me. A time limited DRM crippled file would have made a LOT more sense for everyone. People could download the content at their leisure and watch it on a *gasp* television. As it is, Netflix has dropped the ball. Seems like it's still much easier to go out and find a torrent of what you want to watch and go that route. Not that we'd suggest you do anything illegal in your area!

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Well here we are starting 2007 and Alt-this is once again back on the Internet airwaves. We've decided to start at episode #0001 again, as the few shows we put together last time seem so far in the past that it's hard to consider these a continuation. I still have the old episodes on the hard drive, so they may wind up somewhere in the archive section at some point.

The first show of the new year has been recorded and we expect to have the show notes done and the mp3 posted within the next 24 hours. Thanks to everyone who has offered encouragement along the way and major props have to go out to Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht over at diggnation. Those guys put out one hell of a podcast and inspired us to do things the right way. I'm sure everyone knows about diggnation, but if you don't be sure to check it out here.

We only hope that we can live up to the bar set by diggnation, and speaking of bars, we've decided to take Kevin and Alex's idea of drinking a new beer every show and convert that into drinking a new Irish Whiskey for myself and usually a Bourbon for Mr. Krasky. We don't know if the hard stuff will make the podcast more entertaining, but I do know it will allow us to have a lot of fun recording it!

Here's to a great, tech filled 2007! Cheers!!

Just wanted to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone out there in Alt-This land, all three of you!! I believe murmurs of our impending return may have been a little premature. I am expecting some new recording gear for Christmas, so you never know, a new podcast might pop up here at some point. Then again, it can't be guaranteed.

In the meantime, I don't mind using the text medium to get the tech stuff I need to off my chest. Podcasts are nice, but let's be honest, they're still a far, far cry from most blogs as far as people who actually take the time to read / listen to them. To me the written word is actually better for information and the podcast is more suited for entertainment. Not saying that's a bad thing, Jeff and I can be entertaining when we want to be, and well, even sometimes when we aren't even trying!

As I sit here plugging away on this XP box I started giving some thought to just what I'd have to do to switch over entirely to Linux. I've tried out Ubuntu on a 2nd machine of mine and I have to tell you that I really like it. It's fast, it looks good, there's plenty of free software modules available for it and it just plain works.

So why, you ask haven't I switched my main machine over? For a few reasons really. All of which I hope eventually have a solution. Let me break them down for you.

1. Photoshop - I use it, a LOT, and there's no easy way to run it under Linux. I know, there are cases of people using WINE to do it, but it seems like too much of a hassle for me to go through all that. Especially just to get something that probably won't ever work as good or as fast as it does under Windows XP. I know there are alternatives in Linux, but nothing comes close to this beast.

I’m pretty sure that everyone who likes technology and has an internet connection knows about the website digg.com. It was created by ex-TechTV dark tipper Kevin Rose (yeah, I know he hates that nickname, sorry Kevin!) and was created on the simple premise that giving control to the community would create a better tech news site.

Without a doubt digg took off like a rocket and has never looked back, with well over a half million registered users after just two short years on the web. The site is alive; users are posting, voting and commenting on stories left and right. The community has formed and digg is a huge part of the Internet landscape.

This blog entry is coming to you from the Windy City. That's right, the return of Alt-This.com is going to be recorded live from Chi-Town. We've already made one recording but I doubt it will ever see the light of day. It's the end result of what happens when you drink entirely too much whiskey on the rocks and then turn on a microphone. Who knows, maybe someday it'll be out there for those of you who can take the insanity. With that said, it was fun and got us going again so get ready for the return podcast soon.

It's time to get back to work. Peace out people. We will be talkin' to you soon.

If you don't have your machine hooked up to an uninterruptible power supply then stop reading this right now and go get one. For those of you who don't have a UPS and don't know what they are you can think of them as a surge protector on steroids. They provide the same protection against power fluctuations that a surge protector does but they also have outlets which are protected by a battery. If the power goes out then the battery instantly kicks on and keeps the machine running for a short period of time so you can safely save your work and shut down.

If you are familiar with these devices and own one to protect your computer take a few minutes and check to make sure the battery is still good. It's one of those things you stick under your desk and forget about. If you want to really give it a good test pull the plug from the wall with your machine on to simulate a power failure. This will give you a good idea of the condition of your battery and the amount of run time you can expect under a normal load. I shouldn't forget about my UPS. I live in California and it's well known that we have our share of power issues. Because of this the battery on my current UPS obviously was not in as good of shape as it should be. Last night I woke up to the horrid alarm noise that my UPS generates when the power goes out. After cursing everything on earth for being woke up at 2:30 in the morning I took a look at my main computer. The power was only out for at max a minute or two. Unfortunately, the battery on my UPS kept my system running for about half that time. I once again thanked the world for auto save as I helplessly watched my machine power down. I didn't lose anything but it did remind me that it's time to buy a new UPS. My old unit just isn't rated strong enough to run the amount of machine I throw at it now. On top of that the battery is old and tired. If you're running a modern machine with multiple hard drives, a powerful graphics card, a power hungry processor, and a 19 plus inch LCD monitor then you're going to want to look for a unit with a VA rating of at least 1200. Many hardware sites will tell you to go quite a bit larger than that with a unit rated 2000VA or so. It's never a bad thing to have additional juice in that battery to keep the machine running longer but in all honesty unless you're planning on sitting in the dark and working on something for 30 or 40 minutes (you're never going to get that kind of time anyway, don't buy into the company published numbers which are always for a light load) save your cash and get a 1000-1200VA rating. And if you are going to sit in the dark and try to finish a level of F.E.A.R in a "race against the clock" manner then please get some help.