Chris Kinsman told me to look at the Tivo Announcements today. Awesome! I can't wait to network my Tivo.

I'm playing with my templates a bit. Sorry if things go screwy.

Speaking about wireless, Reiter writes about Apple's snubbing of 802.11a. To me, it doesn't really matter that much. 11 megabits is way faster than any of us really are using anyway. Hell, I'm hooked up to a DSL line that only gives me a few hundred kilobits per second down. Getting more bandwidth to my DSL router ain't gonna help me at all.

It took me a bit of digging to figure this stuff all out, but it really is quite simple. There are three 802.11b standards:

1) 802.11b. This is the one that most everyone in the world has already. It's in our houses. It's at Starbucks. The airport. And all around. It has ubiquity and acceptance. It ain't going away.

2) 802.11a. This is much faster than 802.11b, and it operates at 5GHz, which means that it won't be interfered with by microwaves and portable telephones (I have a wireless telephone that, when I pick it up to talk, keeps my 802.11b network from working). Problem is no one I know has 802.11a equipment yet.

3) 802.11g. This is similar speed to 802.11a (much faster than "b") but it operates at 2.4GHz, so phones and other devices can interfere. The pro is that it's compatible with all the 802.11b equipment out there.

Does any of this matter to you? Not really. If I had an 802.11a network here, and you had an 802.11a card, you wouldn't notice any difference when surfing the Internet (because my DSL line is the gatekeeper).

Future laptops and Tablets will support dual standards. Apple has gone with "g" and "b", while many PC manufacturers are gonna go with "a" and "b."

It's too bad that Apple and Intel couldn't have picked the same standard (or that we couldn't all support all three, which would make the most sense). There are advantages to all three formats, but it really doesn't matter who wins. 802.11b is good enough for almost all computing purposes.

Oh, Microsoft announced some wireless stuff (a watch?) today and Alan Reiter takes it apart on his weblog. Alan, for those who don't know, is my favorite authority on things wireless.

Gnome-Girl says I don't give her enough link love. Hey baby, here's a link. Mmmmmm, doesn't that feel good? If you come a little closer I'll give you another link. Oh, yeah, that's it! Just don't tell Maryam that you'll do anything for links, OK? Of course Maryam doesn't have a blog, so she can't get link love. Her loss!

Notes of an evangelist: I've been evangelizing the Tivo to anyone who'll listen (aren't Tivo bigots annoying?) and I almost always get this response:

I don't want a Tivo cause that'll make me watch more TV.

To that, I say: bullpuckey.

Since getting the Tivo, I've been getting laid more often. I've been blogging more often. I'm more popular.

OK, the fact that I am married to Maryam might account for most of that. But, I'm not watching more TV, believe it or not.

Well, if I'm not watching more Tivo, why is Tivo so cool? Because it improves the quality of the TV I watch. How's that?

Well, I watch TV for two hours a night three times a week. Before I'd be stuck watching two hours of what the networks wanted me to see. So, on Wednesday night, I'd watch West Wing and Law and Order. Well, now I record a variety of shows all night and all day long. So, last night I watched Charlie Rose, along with West Wing, and Law and Order, all in about 2 hours.

Whoa, did you catch that? While you guys were watching two shows, I watched three. How's that?

Well, I recorded Tuesday night's Charlie Rose (Tivo does that automatically now, since I setup my Tivo to do that). When I started watching at 9 p.m. (same time the rest of you "don't watch too much TV types" started watching West Wing) I fast-forwarded through Charlie Rose, since I wasn't too interested in his guests that night. Then, I started watching West Wing at about 9:40 p.m.

West Wing ended at about 10:20 p.m.

Whoa, how's that? Because each hour show has about 20 minutes worth of commercials. My Tivo just fast-forwards right through them. By the time Law and Order ended, it was just about 11 p.m. -- the same time you stopped watching, unless you also have a Tivo.

Now you know why us Tivo owners are totally freaking out about the device. It gives +us+ control of our TV viewing experience.

This thing is gonna destroy the business model of TV.

OK, I have a question for the blog world. I'm working on a potential story and wonder if any other journalists have worked on something like this and can help out. I know someone who works at a particular Ross Department store in Northern California and she and other workers there are being forced to work extra hours without getting paid. The store's manager is rumored to be getting bonuses based on the number of hours worked at the store (the fewer hours, the more bonuses). Other employees are asked to work all day long without breaks. Clearly illegal and immoral behavior, but these employees are powerless. Most are recent immigrants. Most are in fear of losing their jobs (which have medical benefits) so they don't say anything (the job market in Silicon Valley really sucks). These are people at the bottom of the economic scale and I think they have a case. But, now the question:

How do you prove it? How do you document it? How can that be done by a Weblogger with a "day" job and no resources to buy small digital cameras and such, ala a 60-minutes kind of thing? Is this something a bigger news organization might be interested in? (I note that other retail stores have been successfully sued for such behavior. I wonder if there's any lawyers who worked on these class-action lawsuits that might have blogs and might have tips. This behavior is on-going. At minimum I've asked my source to start keeping a diary of what happens to her.

Hamburger dinner Saturday night. Who? You. When? Saturday night. Where? Barney's in Noe Valley in San Francisco (it's cheap and good). Why? Fun. How? You show up at 6 p.m. Send me email if you're interested. Oh, think dinner with Scoble sounds like a bore? Guess what, it is, but there are other cool people already coming. Chris and Gretchen Pirillo, for instance. Dave Winer. Marc Canter. Gnome-Girl (I think). Lori from Lockergnome. Jake from Lockergnome. Why don't you join us? Sorry, no sex, (at least with me, or my wife will kill me) but what the heck, it's San Francisco, so I'm sure something wild will happen.