1. Buying a HDTV: 720p vs. 180p & Seating Distance – Here I go over what 720p and 1080p are and how seating distance can play a role in buying an HDTV.
2. iTunes/iPod Tips & Tricks: Recap – This is a list of articles that were written about various tips on using iTunes and an iPod. Many are applicable to the iPhone as well.
3. Artist versus Album Artist – In this article I explain the difference between the Artist and Album Artist ID3 tags that can be utilized in iTunes and other Mp3 tagging tools.

If you missed these articles (not all of them are from 2009, they were just the most read) feel free to give them a nice read over.  And look forward to new and exciting content in 2010.

Look at the bigger picture.  It’s a simple means of allowing a worker to do whatever is necessary to get the job done.  Human nature alone dictates that I will never know everything, but someone out there is going to (more than likely) have the answer to my question.  Being able to send a blast out on Twitter or even read a news blog can save me hours of work I might have to on my own as part of a trial and error process.  The internet is an extremely useful tool.  Yes, it can be used to waste time on, and some people would rather surf the internet and watch stupid YouTube videos all day than do actual work, but realistically most workers are going to use the internet as a tool to find answers more than they are going to use it to waste time.  And hey, lets be honest, no one works all the time.  You have to have a mental break, otherwise you’ll go crazy or make bad decisions.  So taking 10-15 minutes every so often to do something that might be considered “unproductive” will actually result in better productivity.  I know I’m going against all sense of general manager logic here but think about it, if an employee wastes 30-60 minutes doing the occasional unproductive things like watching YouTube videos or reading non-work related websites but has solid quality output, what does it matter?  Does someone have to go back and fix his work, is she constantly behind schedule?  If not, what’s the harm?  If you have a slacker, deal with them.  Give them warnings and if necessary, fire them.

As an example, I once worked with a guy who constantly touted his productivity, but it was well known that all he did was play web games, listen to music on his PC, and browse the internet.  It looked like his numbers were great, as a support guy his number of closed tickets rivaled other “less productive” members of his team.  But when we started looking at how many of his tickets were reopened after the fact because the problem was not fixed, it opened management’s eyes to a much larger and more costly problem.  So while he appeared to be a very productive individual, he was in fact the least productive as he generally created more work for the rest of the team.  The problem here wasn’t his browsing the net, it was his work ethic as a whole, and this was eventually dealt with (he was let go).  The point I want to make here is that if the company had used hard rules about internet access and began blocking sites as a result of this one guy, it would have decreased the moral of the other team members and even less work would have gotten done because they would have all been upset with this one guy who didn’t do his work and caused the rest of them to lose privileges.

The key here is, everything in moderation.  Reading blogs, following certain people on twitter, even the occasional look at LinkedIn Answers helps me stay up to date.  And as a consultant, being up to date is extremely important.  However if my work starts to slip, that’s a problem, but if I’m getting my work done on time and it’s quality work, there should be zero issues from management when I take a few minutes to read a news article, look up something on eBay, or watch a music video on YouTube.  In the long run you’ll see more work from me if you allow me to work the way I like to work than if you force me to work in a way I don’t like.

Draconian access rules like blocking web blogs, social network sites, or video sites will only lead to lower employee moral overall and a higher turn around rate on employees, meaning higher costs overall because you’re constantly having to train new people on your practices, policies, and routines.  Like I said, open the internet up to your employees, deal with those not working and you can have a productive and happy team.

If you read this article from CrunchGear, you’ll see that the article and the people commenting that “physical media is dead” and pointing to the fact that they “stream from netflix” or “use bit torrent” to watch their movies.  And while this is most definitely the case, that geeks are streaming/downloading movies more than buying them, the rest of the non-geek population is not.  We as geeks live in our own little world and regularly forget that the rest of the world doesn’t think like us.  They also do not (for the most part) act like us either.  Which means, when they want to watch a movie they either buy it from the store, rent it from Blockbuster or Netflix, or watch it on Pay-Per-View off their cable/satellite boxes.  Watching on Pay-Per-View is about the closest to streaming a movie onto their television that the average consumer gets.

The average consumer of audio/video mediums prefer having the physical media.  That’s just how it is.  Now, in reference to this and the article’s attack that people aren’t buying Blu-Rays I say if that was true, the Blu-Ray section at my local best buy wouldn’t take up an entire front and back of a very long store shelve.  Also, people aren’t buying Blu-Rays because they cost more than DVDs and in case you forgot, we’re in a recession and that means that people are watching their spending.  If they can get a movie for 12-15 dollars on DVD or spend 25-30 on a Blu-Ray, chances are they’re going to buy the DVD over the Blu-Ray.  And since the report in the article mentions that people are buying fewer DVDs, in this particular recession it looks like that most people are opting against both movie mediums.  We’re in a recession, so people buying less is no great shock, but lets keep it in mind when we’re looking at the purchasing of a non-necessity okay?

Just to reiterate, physical media is not dead.  It is also not dying like we geeks think it should.  The average consumer is buying fewer DVDs and skipping Blu-Ray because we’re in a recession.  Before you count physical media as having bit the big one, consider all the pieces.

My last journey into Linux was about 3 years ago when I ran it at home for a solid year or so. The Linux world moves a lot faster than it use to so i figured now was a good time to jump back into its waters. I began by installing OpenSUSE. The reason being is that it was sponsored by Novell and I really want to focus on Mono and have full compatibility with the Mono stack. Since Mono is also sponsored by Novell, I figured it would be my best bet. While I was in fact able to have the latest version of Mono (even used a nightly build), configuring other parts of my system were more complicated than they needed to be. Specifically I’m talking about wireless networking.

In my house, all the computers connect wirelessly. The router/AP is in the center of the house (in the entertainment center) and gives decent signal to the rest of the house. I hadn’t always been connected wireless, this is a recent development that came about due to the birth of my son. Having wireless connectivity is now essential to my set up. OpenSUSE required that I compile and load the wireless drivers manually. While this is fine, and it is a process I’m comfortable with, I knew there had to be a better way.

Enter Ubuntu. The last time I ran Linux, I had ran Ubuntu. While I can’t remember the exact version, I’m pretty sure it was at the most 7.04. Back then, wireless connectivity wasn’t perfect either (better than most other distros though). But having read that the latest Ubuntu (9.04, Jaunty Jackalope) was getting rave reviews, I decided to burn off a live CD to see what happens. Behold, the second it booted into the live CD environment, and I saw the list of wireless networks, I knew this was how it should be. Bye, bye OpenSUSE.

The lesson learned here is that Ubuntu, which has set out to be the distro for everyone, really does seem to be the distro that “just works” on most computers and most hardware. I did not have to manually compile wireless drivers and load them into the kernel, the network device just worked from the get go. Sure, I’m going to lose out on using the absolute latest Mono (unless I want to compile my own, which I could do), but my system works without having to jump through hoops. To me that’s a big step in getting people to like Linux. You can’t expect people to have to compile custom drivers in order to get something like wireless networking operating. There is something to be said for having a Linux operating system that “just works” from the point of installation on.

Now, to be fair, the rest of my OpenSUSE experience was good. The wireless configuration just really annoyed me. I also found that the user community for OpenSUSE was lacking compared to Ubuntu’s. Not sure why that is, but it was my observation. My wireless issues might be resolved in 11.2 version of OpenSUSE, currently in beta, and if that’s the case, I might switch back. It seems to be easier to manage alternate repositories in OpenSUSE than it is in Ubuntu, making it easier to install newer versions of software.

While having the latest and greatest version of some software is not always important, when it comes to development libraries it can be the difference between a lot of code and a lot less code. For now, the version of Mono in Ubuntu is usable so I can live with it.

Daily Photo (2008-09-28)

Originally uploaded by mkoby47 ]]> http://www.mkoby.com/2008/09/28/daily-photo-2008-09-28/feed/ 0 http://www.mkoby.com/2008/07/02/links-for-2008-07-02/ http://www.mkoby.com/2008/07/02/links-for-2008-07-02/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:30:18 +0000 Michael Koby http://www.mkoby.com/2008/07/02/links-for-2008-07-02/

Edit (2009-01-16): The original author,  Lori Borgman, of this piece has commented with a link to the entire piece.

Below is the obituary for Common Sense:

‘Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn’t always fair; and maybe it was my fault.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended
from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an
abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I’m A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

I find this very interesting, because I derive some form of pleasure from keeping up with everyone and with what’s going on in the world of technology and the social web.  There’s just too much to keep up with though.  Or at least it appears that way.

What about you my dear reader, are you experiencing a burnout on social media?  How are you coping with this consistant flow of information?  Have you cut back or are you still diving head first into the social (and I don’t mean the Zune)?

I apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused.

“Why are talented people so busy?”

“They’re fixing the problems made by people who have time.”

me: LOL!

Check out this little conversation on this Dilbert animated comic.

For you coders out there, I will eventually upload the project to SourceForge so everyone who wants to can hack on it.  It needs a lot of work to be what most would call “feature complete” but for now it does exactly what I wanted it to.

There seems to be a lot of debate over whether the criminal in question is actually having his rights revoked. His appeal was denied because it was filed late. It was filed late because the convicting judge told him he had 18 days to file rather than the legal 14 days. In my opinion, the guy’s lawyer should have known better and filed the appeal on time. Secondly, the guy can file another appeal within a legally allowed timeframe. Much to my dislike, the United States justice system allows for what seems like unlimited appeals for convicted criminals.

I really dislike that people are standing up for this guy, his rights have not been stepped on. He did not file his appeal on time. Period. That should be the end of the discussion. If I went to court and told them that I did not know about a law that I had been given a citation for breaking, I would be told “ignorance of the law is not justification for breaking the law” and I would be dealt a punishment. There would be no argument over this issue. But because a man had his appeal denied, everyone is going “oh, poor guy, his rights are being trampled on”.

Seriously, is that what this country is coming to?

read more | digg story