Tretakoff Musings
Spreading an Internet phenomenon
Listen to this, when you have a few minutes. Safe for work.
Here is the story behind the audio:
An operations manager for Jack in the Box was late for a meeting and called his boss to tell him he was running late. As he was leaving the voice mail message, he witnessed an accident and went on to provide a hilarious "play by play" of the incident on the voice
mail...
This is the actual voice mail message. It was forwarded so many times within Jack in the Box, it crashed their voice mail server.
Jigsaw: the cold call holy grail?
An interesting new service, called
Jigsaw, combines Plaxo with eBay, with a splash of Netflix and Salesforce, to make the ultimate cold call dream system. Take a look at what the
New York Times says about it, and
check it out for yourself; it's free.
Tivo saved from death...and I get to benefit!
Ok, so I switched to Comcast: the 15 year fight with me and cable companies is over. The one thing I was sure I'd miss (and I was right) was Tivo: I had a DirecTV/Tivo box. I bit the bullet, and Comcast sent me my Motorola HD DVR, complete with "WannaBeVo" software. Works, but could be improved. Now,
Tivo and Comcast are teaming up:: "The new deal calls for TiVo to create software that can be downloaded and run on the Motorola video recording set-top boxes. It would be offered for a higher monthly fee than the generic Comcast version, which would still be available. Currently, Comcast charges about $10 a month for the video recording service. TiVo currently sells a stand-alone service for $13 a month. The TiVo service will not be available to Comcast customers until the second half of next year."
Nice to see I still may have Tivo in my future.
Why I'm happy to live in a blue state...
Star Spangled Ice Cream Sells Nationalism Star Spangled Ice Cream, which promises "no wacko liberal politics" included with flavors such as Iraqi Road, Gun Nut and I Hate the French Vanilla, is being sold in Farm Fresh stores in Virginia and North Carolina.
And THIS is why I love Gizmodo:
Quoted from one of today's articles on
Gizmodo: "I have nothing to say about the MDA IV that hasn’t been said before, except that if HTC finds it in their heart to pair up with an American 3G-capable provider (preferable Cingular, if I had to pick a steaming iron with which to be internally seared), I would—wait for it—buy one."
Some technology musings
- I recently bought a new Windows laptop:
HP DV1000. I have to say, this is a heck of a sexy machine for about $1100. Fast, light, GREAT screen, and goes forever on a single battery. The backlit bluelights on the feature keys makes this a sleek machine, but cheap too! It also has a unique feature: if you have a CD or DVD in the drive, you can play it without starting Windows, further extending the battery life! If you are in the market, I can say I spent about 2 months researching and trying: this one is the best for the price. And after owning, I STILL feel that way!
- I was all set to get a
Treo 650, but I found out the Bluetooth is poorly implemented. For instance, I cannot click a button on my Bluetooth headset and voice dial, something I can do with my
Sony Ericsson T616. Not only is that bad, it's unsafe. What was Palm thinking? They say a fix will be worked on, but probably not until another model! So much for convergence...
- I'm using
AT&T's CallVantage voice over IP service now. If you aren't familiar with it, if you have a broadband web connection, chuck your phone service, and run it over your high speed internet service. Neat? Yes, but CHEAP: $30 for unlimited local and long distance. And the quality seems the same to me!
- After 15 years, cable finally seduced me. So long DirecTV (I was subscriber #893); the lack of HDTV support on the broadcast networks, as well as $1000 for a DVR (Tivo) that would record HDTV was too much to bear. Comcast, for $50 a month for 12 months, gives me HDTV, DVR, HBO and On Demand. The On Demand is great, especially if you subscribe to a premium service (HBO, Showtime), as every special, movie, or series is always available for you to watch, free, whenever you want!
Ok, enough for now. I'll jump into more as I have time!
