Monday, September 27, 2010
Why does CW's web site suck
OK, forgetting for a moment that CW has mostly chick tv shows... it has the occasional Gem like Nikita and Hellcats (Whats not to love about a bunch of nubile young women bouncing around for 45 minutes? But serious, when it takes 1.5 hours to watch 45 minutes, even 20 nubile bouncy women aren't enough to make anyone but the truly desperate hang around... why does their site suck so much? Did they buy all their hardware from the google garage sale? Yeash, anyone else have a bad experience with CW?
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
More miss adventures in nj transit...
Walking to the bus stop this morning, ok fine I drive to the bottom of my street then walk 20 feet to the bus stop, I managed to miss 2 busses... Then the next one was full and the bus driver declines to even slow down and give us the option of standing...
All this for a low low 230$ a month, a real bargain.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Rain + nj transit = long trip home...
Seems like for every 1/2 inch of rain that falls in ny I add a 1/2 to my commute, anyone else having a long commute tonight?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
iPad: hulu plus problems on iPad
Not sure about the rest of you but I am having a lot of trouble with hulu plus on the iPad these days. I have been trying to connect for the last couple of days and it just sits on hulu plus splash screen and I get no further.
I tried using my bb to tether to iPad on the way home one day, and the quality was weak at best. This is probably because I wasn't in 3G coverage area, and I was impressed that hulu would step down the quality of video to keep you moving along, but over the 1 hour bus ride I only managed to watch30 minutes of video, extremely frustrating.
Over al, I am not impressed with hulu plus at all, however I have tried to use netflix to complete my review of heroes back seasons, and netflix on the iPad sucks pretty bad too... Starting to wonder if my iPad is borked...
I tried using my bb to tether to iPad on the way home one day, and the quality was weak at best. This is probably because I wasn't in 3G coverage area, and I was impressed that hulu would step down the quality of video to keep you moving along, but over the 1 hour bus ride I only managed to watch30 minutes of video, extremely frustrating.
Over al, I am not impressed with hulu plus at all, however I have tried to use netflix to complete my review of heroes back seasons, and netflix on the iPad sucks pretty bad too... Starting to wonder if my iPad is borked...
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
iPad: Hulu Plus a week in review
OK so I've been playing with Hulu plus a little more and there are some additions to my first post that I need to make.
1. Yes you can add things to your Queue as well as subscribe to a show... its kind of nice how they were seperated, but you have to visit the shows page in order to add episodes to your queue. I now have 150+ back episodes waiting for me to watch.
2. I haven't been watching it on my iPad as much, I got an iMac and have been using that ever since I put my Lazy boy in front of it... hard to beat such a large screen though I will be trying to tether watch a show tonight to see how that goes... ran out of pre-loaded content.
3. There are still commercials, and they are still really annoying... There are less commercials than if you had watched it live, but I was having internet problems the other night and Hulu was having trouble getting commercials to me, so they put up this message for 30 seconds that tells you how you need to allow them to show you videos to support the free content... but wait, I'm paying you for this...
Over all, I'd say that Hulu plus would be a good summer investment, when there is little to nothing on tv and you want to back fill your tv with old content you may have missed, but I am not sure I will stick with it for too long.. there are still shows that you can't see anymore than 5 episodes of because of Hulus contracts with the various networks, so its not an open all you can see buffet as its hyped to be, its still limited and a little lame. Still for 10$ a month, its not a terrible deal.
1. Yes you can add things to your Queue as well as subscribe to a show... its kind of nice how they were seperated, but you have to visit the shows page in order to add episodes to your queue. I now have 150+ back episodes waiting for me to watch.
2. I haven't been watching it on my iPad as much, I got an iMac and have been using that ever since I put my Lazy boy in front of it... hard to beat such a large screen though I will be trying to tether watch a show tonight to see how that goes... ran out of pre-loaded content.
3. There are still commercials, and they are still really annoying... There are less commercials than if you had watched it live, but I was having internet problems the other night and Hulu was having trouble getting commercials to me, so they put up this message for 30 seconds that tells you how you need to allow them to show you videos to support the free content... but wait, I'm paying you for this...
Over all, I'd say that Hulu plus would be a good summer investment, when there is little to nothing on tv and you want to back fill your tv with old content you may have missed, but I am not sure I will stick with it for too long.. there are still shows that you can't see anymore than 5 episodes of because of Hulus contracts with the various networks, so its not an open all you can see buffet as its hyped to be, its still limited and a little lame. Still for 10$ a month, its not a terrible deal.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
iMac: Manual of Shortcuts for a PC owner
OK so its been about a week since I got my iMac and I'm still impressed... I tried out iPhoto (which i will review later) as well as surfing, Starcraft 2, and watching hulu. On the 27 inch screen its hard to find fault with anything. Remote controlling another computer does usually require that you zoom in to be able to see the entire screen from 4 ft away.
This brings us to the first of the short cuts. Holding down control and rolling your fingers forward on your magic mouse will zoom in on the mouse cursor. Repeat by pulling back and you zoom out again. This isn't some lame make the font bigger bs, it really is zooming in on your screen. Clarity remains the same and it is handy for those wtf moments when you can't read something on a web site, or when trying to find Waldo. If you don't get that last reference, go ask your mom.
Other things that are annoying as a hard core PC geek, there is no Home, End, Page up or Page down on the mini wireless keyboard that I have. Control to the rescue again...
Page up: Control key and arrow up
Page down: Shocker here, control key and arrow down.
Home: Control __ and back arrow
End: Control __ and end arrow.
The universal use of the delete key for backspace or delete is annoyingish too, for example when trying to get to a new web site in safari you have to clear the contents you can't just click inside and start typing, so you have to backspace through the contents. At least that is until your wife (who did I mention has had a mac for 5 years and is Tickled pink to be MY IT department for once?) says just click three times to select everything.
Now for text editing and other uses:
%A: Select all
%C: Copy
%X: Cut
%Z: Undo
%V: Paste
There are some really wild short cuts in the mac, with keyboard symbols I have never seen before and can't find for the life of me.. once I figure out how to represent them, and how to use them I'll update this post, and hopefully you'll see what I mean....:)
This brings us to the first of the short cuts. Holding down control and rolling your fingers forward on your magic mouse will zoom in on the mouse cursor. Repeat by pulling back and you zoom out again. This isn't some lame make the font bigger bs, it really is zooming in on your screen. Clarity remains the same and it is handy for those wtf moments when you can't read something on a web site, or when trying to find Waldo. If you don't get that last reference, go ask your mom.
Other things that are annoying as a hard core PC geek, there is no Home, End, Page up or Page down on the mini wireless keyboard that I have. Control to the rescue again...
Page up: Control key and arrow up
Page down: Shocker here, control key and arrow down.
Home: Control __ and back arrow
End: Control __ and end arrow.
The universal use of the delete key for backspace or delete is annoyingish too, for example when trying to get to a new web site in safari you have to clear the contents you can't just click inside and start typing, so you have to backspace through the contents. At least that is until your wife (who did I mention has had a mac for 5 years and is Tickled pink to be MY IT department for once?) says just click three times to select everything.
Now for text editing and other uses:
%A: Select all
%C: Copy
%X: Cut
%Z: Undo
%V: Paste
There are some really wild short cuts in the mac, with keyboard symbols I have never seen before and can't find for the life of me.. once I figure out how to represent them, and how to use them I'll update this post, and hopefully you'll see what I mean....:)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
iMac: Wall Mounting your iMac 27"
So the smaller version of the iMac does not support wall mounting, but this bad boy does.. Have I mentioned how large this thing is? Man, anyways, getting it up on the wall and getting yourself about 4 ft away seems to be in order, of course then the fonts too small, so you need to increase your perscription lenses...
Mounting it on the wall is simple enough, you need a Vesa compliant wall mount. There are any number of those out there from 15$ to 100$. Not sure about the rest of you, but mounting my over priced iMac on the wall hanging off of a 15$ vesa mount makes me a little nervous...
Getting the mount on is no problem, there is a little "access key" in the kit that you buy from Apple or Best Buy. This is basically a blank credit card... You slide it up the base under the screen until it hits something, then give a small push and the screen flops forward. Don't worry, it doesn't fall off, it just leans all the way forward.
Now lay the screen down on a protected surface and remove the stand with the tool provided. 8 screws later, and you are ready to attach the hinge portion of the vesa assembly. 8 more screws and the hinge is on. Ok for those of you looking at the kit atm, its not really a hinge, but you'll agree that's the best way to describe the small piece of metal that sits in the middle of the kit.
Once the Hinge is on the computer, you attach the vesa adaptor to it with the 2 screws provided. For those of you doing what I did, and swearing that the holes don't line up, in the back middle of the plate there is another screw you have to screw in, this basically pulls the holes into alignment, its not for decoration..So, 8 screws to hold this little piece of metal onto the back of my computer, then 2 screws to hold that to the plate.. the plate will be attached to the vesa mount by 4 screws... anyone see a weak link here?
Wall side prep is easy, locate a stud or two and attach the mounting bracket to the wall. Make sure its level, make sure that you measure so that you don't hit that bookshelf above your old monitor etc.. Now make sure that you use whatever washers etc are required to ensure that the thing doesn't pull out of the wall, and don't use a dry wall plug to secure this, it weighs 20+ lbs, not something you want dangling off of drywall imo...
Once all thats done you just have to "drop" it into place, plug it back in and enjoy. If you didn't buy the apple remote you'll be kicking yourself, this thing really is bad ass.
Mounting it on the wall is simple enough, you need a Vesa compliant wall mount. There are any number of those out there from 15$ to 100$. Not sure about the rest of you, but mounting my over priced iMac on the wall hanging off of a 15$ vesa mount makes me a little nervous...
Getting the mount on is no problem, there is a little "access key" in the kit that you buy from Apple or Best Buy. This is basically a blank credit card... You slide it up the base under the screen until it hits something, then give a small push and the screen flops forward. Don't worry, it doesn't fall off, it just leans all the way forward.
Now lay the screen down on a protected surface and remove the stand with the tool provided. 8 screws later, and you are ready to attach the hinge portion of the vesa assembly. 8 more screws and the hinge is on. Ok for those of you looking at the kit atm, its not really a hinge, but you'll agree that's the best way to describe the small piece of metal that sits in the middle of the kit.
Once the Hinge is on the computer, you attach the vesa adaptor to it with the 2 screws provided. For those of you doing what I did, and swearing that the holes don't line up, in the back middle of the plate there is another screw you have to screw in, this basically pulls the holes into alignment, its not for decoration..So, 8 screws to hold this little piece of metal onto the back of my computer, then 2 screws to hold that to the plate.. the plate will be attached to the vesa mount by 4 screws... anyone see a weak link here?
Wall side prep is easy, locate a stud or two and attach the mounting bracket to the wall. Make sure its level, make sure that you measure so that you don't hit that bookshelf above your old monitor etc.. Now make sure that you use whatever washers etc are required to ensure that the thing doesn't pull out of the wall, and don't use a dry wall plug to secure this, it weighs 20+ lbs, not something you want dangling off of drywall imo...
Once all thats done you just have to "drop" it into place, plug it back in and enjoy. If you didn't buy the apple remote you'll be kicking yourself, this thing really is bad ass.
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