The Downside of Medical Technology
It seems like every day we hear about some new medical advance, whether in the form of a new surgery, a super-drug, or some treatment made possible by advances in chemistry and nanotechnology. It’s not uncommon to hear about people living to 100 years old or beyond. But there is a definite downside to the ability of modern medicine to keep people, or at least their bodies, alive.
Technorati Tags: Healthcare
iTunes Store Inundated On Christmas Day
Have you tried to get out and buy something on the iTunes Store this morning? It’s slooooow, which tells me that the Store must be getting hammered with visits from new iPod owners. I’m trying to get Movable Beast Radio listed in the iTunes Store and so far it’s been impossible. Arrrggggh. 
Movable Beast Radio now listed in Podcast Alley
We’re getting the word out about Movable Beast Radio by posting info about it in all of the directories. One of the big directories next to iTunes is Podcast Alley:
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-58f8ffb50900f5065fd4478ef5a5fd5f}
That garbage listed above is how the podcast was validated on Podcast Alley. 
Merry Christmas from Movable Beast
A Very Merry Christmas to all of you from Movable Beast.
Rather than talk about all of those nice tech gadgets we got today, I’d like to ask everyone to spend lots of quality time with their loved ones. I found out the hard way this last week that we don’t often treasure the time we have with our relatives the way we should. My mother-in-law, who is a total pain in the ass a lot of the time but is also one of the most generous people I’ve ever met, had a stroke a week ago Sunday and is still in the Intensive Care Unit at Denver’s University Hospital. My idea of a great Christmas gift would be to have her come back to consciousness today.
Please give all of your loved ones a big hug today. You never know how long you’ll have them around.
Movable Beast Radio Episode 1
This is the introductory episode of Movable Beast Radio, my new podcast to accompany the website. This week I talk briefly about the Edirol R-09 MP3/WAV Recorder and the Ultimate Ears Super-fi 5 earphones. I also gripe about iMate not supplying those of us who attended Mobius 2006 our promised JAQ3 Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phones.
To listen to the podcast, you can either click on the player below, download the file, or subscribe to the feed. I hope you enjoy Movable Beast Radio!
Press Release: Simple Checkout for Club Astraware Members
THE MIDLANDS, UK - December 22nd 2006 - Astraware would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and Holiday Season! If you’re away from your computer over the holiday break and want to pick up a new game to entertain yourselves during long journeys, or even to share some fun with the family, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve made a couple of changes to Astraware’s mobile site to make purchasing a little easier.
As Club Astraware already stores address and device details, you can now login to Club Astraware via our mobile site and this makes the checkout process easier - plus, of course, you can access all the usual Club Astraware discounts!
Simply connect your device to the internet, via your phone or PDA’s data or wi-fi connection, and the Astraware mobile site is formatted to detect a mobile web browser. Once connected you just need to put in the regular web address - http://www.astraware.com - login to Club Astraware and you’re all set! Download the trial of the game you want, and then checkout in the usual way. Have a fun-filled Holiday!
Technorati Tags: Games, palm, Windows Mobile
HTC Athena Pics and Info
Both The::Unwired and PDAClub.pl are featuring pictures and specs of the new HTC Athena Windows Mobile Pocket PC.
Arne Hess at the::unwired noted that he believes the new device could be the 2007 Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone! While this looks like a Windows UMPC, it runs WIndows Mobile. The rumored specs include GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS, Bluetooth 2.0, 802.11b/g, a 624 MHz processor, an 8 GB drive, 3 MP camera with flash, GPS, VGA out, Stereo speakers, and miniSD expansion.
Drool!
Technorati Tags: GPS, GSM, Laptop, WiFi, Windows Mobile
Greetings from Blizzard Land
In case you’re wondering why the daily posts just stopped a few days ago, I wanted to let you know that my mother-in-law had a severe stroke on Sunday night and she’s been in critical condition ever since. While the hospital has public WiFi for visitors, they’re blocking every port except 80 and 84 - in other words, everything but web access. You know my feelings about THAT - blocking ports for public access is just plain obnoxious!
Things may be a little sporadic until we get into a routine or until my mother-in-law gets better. This may also affect my plans to do a “start it off” podcast for Movable Beast Radio this week. Your patience and understanding will be greatly appreciated.
In other news, we’re socked in here in Denver. Basically the entire city is shut down, although we were driving around a while ago and it wasn’t too bad (I have a Toyota 4Runner so getting around was easy).
Technorati Tags: WiFi
Will It Blend? iPod Edition
Too bad it’s not a Zune in that bad boy blender…
Only Fools Embrace An IT Monoculture
Something that happened to me last week got me thinking about how foolish some people are.
I installed a new Apple Xserve running Mac OS X Server 10.4.8 at a client location. This company is an enterprise-size firm and this was the first Mac OS X server to be installed. To their credit, this company has a handful of Linux servers in place. But for the largest part, the entire organization is built around Windows. Windows XP on the desktops, Windows 2000 and 2003 Server in the data centers. (More after the break)
Technorati Tags: Apple, BlackBerry, Laptop, Linux, palm, RIM, smartphone, Vista, Windows Mobile
No More Gift Ideas / Online Snowstorm
Friday’s gift idea for Christmas was the last in the series. If you don’t have shopping done for your favorite gadget geek by now, you’re going to have to face the crowds at the local tech stores to buy these items if they’re even in stock. Next year you’ll know to visit Movable Beast first for your gifting ideas!
Since there’s a week to go before Christmas, I’m turning on the snow machine so you can have a White Christmas wherever you may be.
And don’t be surprised if you hear a podcast from me this week! I want to get Movable Beast Radio up and running prior to going to Macworld Expo in early January, which means getting all of the various bits and pieces working.
Technorati Tags: Podcasting
Christmas Gift Idea #20
Hey, you! It’s getting near Christmas and you haven’t bought a present for your dad, brother, boyfriend or husband yet? Here’s a great idea for the schedule-impaired geek in your family; a Casio Atomic Solar watch.
This watch listens to the WWV time broadcasts from the National Bureuau of Standards to maintain tremendous accuracy, and it also charges itself via solar power. That means your favorite geek is never going to have an excuse to be late again!
This is much more stylish and practical than those damned MSN Direct Smart Watches…
“Casio GW1000DJ-9AJ Atomic Solar Ana-Digi G-Shock Men’s Metal Watch” (Casio)
Christmas Gift Idea #19
OK, I’ll say it.
I love my Roomba.
I’ve had these little devices for almost 3 years now (I’m on my second) and they do a great job. Since we’ve put in hardwood floors for the lower level of our house, the Roomba cruises around and keeps things in order between visits by the maid service. Other companies have tried to imitate the Roomba, but nobody does it better. It’ll make a great gift for the slob or robot geek on your family!
“iRobot Roomba 4230 Remote Scheduler Robotic Vacuum” (iRobot)
Technorati Tags: Robotics
Christmas Gift Idea #18
Give the gift of light.
Yeah, these things have been around for a few years, but they’re really starting to pick up steam. The “shake and bake” flashlights use the Faraday principle of moving a magnet through a coil of wire to generate electricity. The result? You can shake one of these flashlights for about 60 seconds and have light for up to two hours.
Where this can be really handy is if you’re in a situation where your power is going to be out for quite some time. You don’t need to worry about batteries - just give the flashlight a shake every once in a while and you’re set. It’s a cool gadget that’s also a good idea for the environment. I’m personally holding out for the “shake and recharge” iPod…
Christmas Gift Idea #17
Gadget geeks have a problem (well, a problem that’s more prevalent than the rest of those problems…). They usually have a stack of remotes to handle the large pile of electronics gear that they have in their homes.
My wife and I have exactly this problem. We have a remote for our TV, another for our Cable Box/DVR, another for our Bose Home Theatre system. Yeah, some of those are supposed to be “Universal” remotes but none of them work as advertised.
My suggestion today is the Sony RM-AV2500 Fully Editable Universal Remote”. This device not only learns from your other remotes, but you can actually create strings of commands to turning on a system that now requires three remotes and a number of button pushes can be accomplished with one tap of a virtual button on the LCD display. Cool!
“Sony RM-AV2500 Fully Editable Universal Remote Control with Touch-Key LCD Screen” (Sony)
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Joy of Tech!
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MacLevelTen
