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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Your smart phone may be your new PC

This is not going to be your typical rundown of who has what, or who does this or that better. No, this is something a bit less ... tangible. It is time for some speculation. Specifically, is Android poised to wipe the virtual walls of the internet with iOS?


Friday, February 24, 2012

Lilyhammer ... Sopranos in winter


    Lilyhammer is a new series created by Netflix. I was less than three minutes into the first episode when my wife asked me if I was watching The Sopranos, and she wasn't far off. 



The official descriptions is:
    "After he testifies against a Mafia boss, ex-gangster Frank Tagliano enters the witness protection program and asks to be sent to Norway. Despite the peaceful surroundings, it's not long before Frank strays from the straight and narrow."

 The role of "Frank Tagliano" is played by veteran actor Steven Van Zandt. This show is very well produced and has a solid cast of characters. All I really say is wow! I am defiantly hooked.

    Netflix decided to release the show without any fanfare what-so-ever. It didn't even show up in the list as a new TV show; I had to search for it after hearing about it at work. It makes me wonder if this was an intentional marketing move, or simply a test of "word-of-mouth" advertising? Whatever the case, I am now a bigger fan of Netflix than ever was. If they can keep producing top quality original programming on this level, I will be customer for life.

    The entire first season now available on Netflix for streaming, and if you ever watched any "mobster" types shows or movies, you have to see Lilyhammer.

Upgrade MacBook Pro Hard Drive

    Yesterday I finished upgrading the Hard Drive in my mid-2010 MacBook Pro. The hard drive I chose was the Western Digital 1TB Scorpio Blue. Trust me when I say that a full Terabyte huge, and coming from a mere 320 gigs, its like moving from an apartment into a new house.

    As with all things digital, especially computers, there is always those few pieces of information that never seem to make it in to the "how-to"'s of the internet. This certainly was no different. I did however get it done, after a few failed attempts that is.

    Before we go any further, I should mention that there are two ways to accomplish a Hard Drive upgrade. The first is easy, but takes forever. Its just a matter of swapping the drives and re-installing everything from scratch. Put any backed-up documents or photo's back in and your done. But what about your setting? All of the pages that your browser auto logs you into? Your desktop background? Screen Saver and music? Yes, you can backup and restore all of those things, but it takes a lot of time. There is, however, a better way.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Ubuntu, an affordable media server

    Ubuntu is a Linux operating system that is both free and open source. It is also a great way to serve media to your home network and even your television for next to no money. 

Saturday, February 4, 2012

On Star Trek ...

    

    One of my favorite things to do lately is to sit on the couch and watch re-runs of Star Trek on Netflix. Specifically, I am currently going through the entire series of Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and that got me to thinking about a few things.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Physical Fitness

    Its that time of year again, to begin my train up for the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT). Most people who see an active duty army unit awake at 6 A.M. will see them conducting PT (Physical Training). However, what most people don't know is PT is designed only to maintain physical fitness, not enhance it.