I rented my first movie via iTunes rentals this weekend. Overall it was a fairly positive experience. I browsed the catalog, picked my movie, clicked the rent button, and with in about 20 minutes I was watching the movie (Superbad - hilarious!). The way it works is you have 30 days to watch the movie once you download it. However, once you click play, you have 24 hours to watch it before it is automatically deleted. I'm not a huge fan of that. If your movie it interrupted, you either have to watch the rest of it as soon as you are done with your interruption, or you have 24 hours (or 22 or 21) to complete it which is not always feasible.
So Apple, if you have your finger on the pulse of the blogosphere, change it to 36 or even 72 hours. That way we have the whole weekend to watch it.
At the end of the day as long as the video it output to a device (like a tv) the content can be captured, which makes the whole DRM/Deletion scheme mute.
1.21.2008
iTunes Rentals
1.18.2008
Goodbye Canon, Hello HP!
Today we say goodbye to our old friends, the Canon printers. Despite the frustrations they caused to many of us, the served a long and useful life at SRG. Collectively those 3 printers printed almost 3,000,000 copies. I'd break down after a while as well. Be well as we send you off to the twilight of your printing years. The Canons will be going to a sunny locale in retiree friendly South Florida.
1.17.2008
The Keyboard of Shame
With the recent outbreak of keyboard spillings, something had to be done. As a result, we have introduced the keyboard of shame. If you spill water on your keyboard, you have to use the keyboard of shame. They keyboard of shame is water/coffee/thanksgiving dinner/warren proof, and says to the world "I'm using the keyboard of shame."
Warren Ng, you are the first not-so-proud recipient of the keyboard of shame.
Sony's Thoughts On the MacBook Air: They did it First/Better
During the Keynote, Jobs compared the Macbook Air to Sony's TZ ultraportable, implying it had a small keyboard and screen, was too thick, and was not that good. Here's what Sony thinks of the Apple MacBook Air:
Read Here.
1.15.2008
Email Spoofing
There have been a rash of particularly irritating viagra related email making it past our spam filters over the past month or so. The most irritating part is that they are spoofing email addresses, meaning putting someone else's email address in the from field even though it did not come from that person. Like spam itself, there is no way to prevent spammers from spoofing. The best thing you can do is educate yourself and know how to spot a fake. This article should be a good place to start. Read more.
1.11.2008
Free Beer!
Whenever I meet someone new, and they ask what I do for a living, the next questions is usually something computer related.
Matt: "I'm the IT Manager for an ad agency in boulder"
Person: "Oh, really, I have computer question for you."
Usually people offer nothing in return for my expertise. Once in a while my wisdom is appreciated and repaid with things like free dinners, concert tickets, and indentured servitude.
Today I got a call from an old friend at the New Belgium Brewery. She said that if I answered a few questions from her IT Guy, she'd give me my weight in beer. All of a sudden I'm wishing I wasn't so skinny.
1.10.2008
Not for Sale
About once a month, I get an email something like this:
>>Dear Sir/Madam
Please let me know if you would consider selling your domain name srg.com. We are a small business based in California and would be willing to pay a generous amount to acquire this name.
If you would be open to selling please let us know and we can discuss further.
Regards,
Name Withheld>>
In case you were wondering, srg.com is not for sale. Ok, if someone wants to pay us enough that we can all retire comfortably, I'm in. How does $5,000,000,000.00 sound?
