Chet Davis - Your Technology Tutor

Wal-mart Enters Online Entertainment Arena

Wal-Mart, the nations largest retailer,  plans to acquire Vudu, an online video service that offers movies to buy and rent through partnerships with makers of Internet-connected televisions and Blu-ray players.

The fact that Wal-mart has their eyes (and their pocket-book) on Vudu suggests to me they must be doing some things very well, and that Vudu stands poised for a successful future.

One of the primary factors that sets Vudu apart from another streaming video provider - Netflix - is the fact that Vudu is available without a monthly subscription or contract. You can rent or buy high definition and standard definition movies on what is essentially a pay per view system. As they put it "only pay for what you watch".

Ok - but how do you 'get' or access Vudu? There are two methods to access their movies & programs:
1. VUDU is now available built into products from LG and Mitsubishi (DVD players and TV monitors)

2. Or you can use a 'Vudu' box -- they have two models:

• The VUDU box ($149.00) may be purchased at Best Buy

• The VUDU XL model ($499.00), designed for high end home theaters, is available only through our authorized installers.

You can learn more about Vudu from their website:  http://www.vudu.com/

Rods & Mods: Kustom Kulture of Radical Computer Modification

This past Saturday at the Exploratorium - The Museum of Science, Art and Human Perception in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to take in a special exhibit with my sons.  We experienced 'Rods & Mods'.  Now this sounds like an event that happens at a custom car show, where auto restoration experts show off their awesome restored cards... but no, this was a show highlighting the work of experts who have modified computers!

It was actually very cool - there were some true craftsmen displaying their talents and their art.  Believe it or not, this picture at left is a computer! To be specific, it is the 'Decomatic HTPC Series' with plenty of power under the wood-hood and even a DVD drive (note the slot above the large silver knob). This and several beautiful wood designs were displayed by their artist,  Jeffrey 'Slipperyskip' Stephenson - you can visit his website for additional photos and specifications.

Then there were computer modifications built into all sorts of interesting cases... for example, this photo at right shows the 'Battlestar Gallactica' created by Brian Carter of Bods Mods. 

One of my favorites was this early TV by Philco that was converted into a computer (the CPU is in the base) while you view your monitor on the... well, on the monitor which is now in color but still retains that cool early period techno-rounded shape!

In addition there were exhibits of ear-r-r-r-ly computing history like the TRS-80 from Radio Shack, an Osborne 1, a Commodore 64 and a 'TVT-1' This is one of the very first low cost video display system for the computer hacker and experimenter.

You can see this and other early computers at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

We were on our way out of the Exploratorium, when we saw the commotion and went over to the live stage area -- and this is what we observed...

Experts from Team IRONMODS were performing live demonstration of 'Extreme Overclocking'. This is where you push the physical limits of your computers processor to make it run faster.  Sounds like danger to me -- "don't try this at home kids"

They were getting their computer to perform at amazing powerful speed - which causes common processors to over-heat.  While some would add more fans, or introduce water-cooled apparatus -- these guys were cooling their processors with liquid nitrogen!  This allowed them to display beautiful 3D imagery at high-definition resolution, which was being rendered in real time by their computer. 

Now, this is not something I am going to be providing a tutorial for your to replication but this was very cool to see!

Google Announces the Future of Ultra High-Speed Internet!

News this week from the Google campus in California is exciting for those of us who use the internet for business, for communicating with family & friends, for sharing photos and viewing streaming movies... for pretty much everything and anything.

  We are likely already accustomed to the speed of our internet connection being sometimes slower than we would like -- I think there is this, oh I wish it would hurry up but I can just start the download/streaming video and come back later when it's done.

Google's announcement this week is that they are stepping into the ISP business, and in a fast way (read speedy!). They are planning to build and test ultra high-speed internet broadband networks in a number of areas around the country. 

 The plan is to offer 1 gigabit per second speed using fiber optic connection to your home. To give you a sense of the speed increase we are talking about, think 100 times faster than your current internet connection!  In another way, this speed/service would allow you to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes.

This suggests to me that Google has either on the drawing board or already in development a bag of cool applications or improvements to existing applications to take advantage of this higher speed delivery system.

In fact they point to some of the possibilities on their Google Blog:

Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.

Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic, streaming three-dimensional medical imaging over the web and discussing a unique condition with a specialist in New York. Or collaborating with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture

You can read more about Google's plans and proposals for enhanced, speedy internet service on the Google Blog - click here