Obama the Restaurant Critic
In 2001 State Senator Barrack Obama reviewed Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop for “Check Please”, a show on WTTW (a Chicago PBS station). The segment didn’t air at the time but will air on the shows 100th episode on January 16, 2009.
Speed Reading
Posted by: Chip in Featured, Technology on October 24th, 2008
If you’ve ever wanted to learn to speed read, here is a site for you. Spreed allows you to read the latest news stories in a way that helps you read faster and faster. You can also use it on your iPhone.
Mac won’t start, check your Drobo
Posted by: Chip in Gadgets, Technology on September 16th, 2008
This morning, my Mac would not start. It sat for a long period of time on the light blue screen but wouldn’t move on. There was no hard drive activity during most of this time either. After unplugging USB and FireWire devices one at a time, I tracked it down to my Drobo. I unplugged the power from the Drobo for a few seconds to restart it. After it restarted, and I plugged it back into the Mac, everything works fine.
Website Lesson
Posted by: Chip in Marketing & Advertising, Technology on July 23rd, 2008
I heard that Speck Products sells iPhone cases. I don’t know this for a fact though because their website does not work on my iPhone. Make sure your website can be viewed by your target audience.
Can 30-year-old sitcoms still be funny?
Posted by: Chip in Entertainment, Video on May 5th, 2008
When I was young, I thought the funniest episode of any TV show I had ever seen was a Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. A few weeks ago, I noticed it was on Hulu. I wanted to watch it but I was worried that it might not live up to my memory. Saturday night, my wife and I watched it. It was still funny after 30 years.
Switching to Apple TV and away from NBC
Posted by: Chip in Featured, Gadgets, Technology, Video on April 9th, 2008
We don’t watch much television. When we added up how much the shows we watch regularly would cost on iTunes, it averaged less than 14 dollars a month. It just doesn’t make sense for us to pay 60 to 70 dollars a month for satellite or cable.
With a new version available we bought an Apple TV. With it, we buy individual TV shows, rent or buy movies, watch video podcasts and YouTube videos and listen to our entire music collection from the couch.
NBC is the only problem. NBC pulled their shows off of iTunes which means we can’t watch The Office and Battlestar Galactica on the Apple TV. To watch those shows we have to fire up the Vista Media Center and either watch low-quality versions of them on Hulu.com or buy them from Amazon Unboxed. Either way the simplicity and ease-of-use is lost.
I will not be watching any new NBC shows and when The Office and Battlestar Galactica lose their appeal, NBC will be dead to me. The amount of content available online makes NBC unnecessary. If a network wants to compete when viewers have lots of options, they should make sure their content is everywhere their viewers are.
Science and Technology Debate
Posted by: Chip in Politics, Technology on February 12th, 2008
Many science and technology issues don’t seem to be discussed much in the current election campaigns.
See how the candidates stand on science and technology issues here.
Kids are valuable customers
Posted by: Chip in Marketing & Advertising on February 9th, 2008
Our 5 year old son excitedly rushed to participate in an online contest promoted on a recent box of GoGurt. His excitement turned to disappointment when he learned that he had to be 8 years old to play. After a period of great anxiety and self-pity, he declared that this was not fair and he did not want GoGurt ever again (maybe when he’s 8 he would think about it again). He asked us to write an email to the company to express his dissatisfaction. My wife sent this email to the manufacturer… Read the rest of this entry »