Doc Webster: You are what you have not choice about eating
Doc nails this issue. Yep - I agree. Can't argue about it :-)

I bought a ReplayTV a few years ago - ours is an old 20 hour model. We've had very few problems with it. Maureen didn't like it at first - because she used to read during the commercials (I'm mute them and we've both read for a while). Now we skip commercials (30 seconds forward until we skip them all and 10 seconds backwards until we get back to the show - it usually takes about 10 seconds and with a remote with the buttons in the right spot, this is pretty easy).

When I heard about the auto-skip ad feature, I was just about all set for a new replay. But I knew it couldn't last - way too much inertia from the old media companies. So, replay was the first to have this feature squashed. Replay lost because they were selling a product that beat the old media companies at their own game and the old media companies had lots of lawyers to protect themselves.

Translation: ReplayTV commercial skipping was a warning shot across the bow of the media industry.

Turner CEO Says Bathroom Breaks are Theft (the original news story is in the NYTimes archive... but not easily viewable now)

What happens when a PVR is available for free that does the same thing? MythTV is an open source PVR for linux systems that just happens to include automatic commercial detection and skipping.

I was thinking that it was time to setup a MythTV system... guess I'll be doing it sooner than I had originally thought.
3:03:37 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

NYTimes: Apple Co-Founder Creates Electronic ID Tags
The idea for this company is interesting - make a little gadget that is cheap and can be used to find someone within a mile or two by tying together the global positioning system and using a low data rate radio transmitter. Think of this as the little id tag that can always find your lost dog or little kid. You would have a box in your house which listens for this radio signal and can alert you when the id tag goes to certain places.

I like the idea.

There are privacy concerns because these gadgets could be used to monitor more than just kids and dogs...

I'm also wondering if there will be a little box to attach to your car or a laptop computer so that you don't have to have someone at home directing you to the right place to look when you need to find your dog or kid.
11:43:15 AM  #     comment []  trackback []

Fire retardants...
I saw a news article about these two fire retardants a few months ago and just dug up my note about their names. They were: FireFree 88 and NoBurn. I can't remember much more than the example which showed a test wall for three tests. One test was without any retardant on it - and it burned down quickly. The other two tests were one for each of these fire retardants - and they burned down a LOT slower. Using either of these two fire retardants could get you an extra few minutes to get out of the house with everyone.
10:08:52 AM  #     comment []  trackback []