1/22/2009 - How to Piss off a Geek

Yes, there's nothing more annoying to a geek than talking to someone who thinks they know tech stuff, but really don't. What else annoys us? Being told to restrict our bandwidth usage. Put both elements into a recorded phone message, and you have one pissed-off geek:



Oh, and his last name is pronounced pi-ri-loh.

7/30/2008 - Is iPhone 2.0 Worth It?

After playing with the new iPod Touch 2.0 software, I can confidently say that mobile computing has finally arrived. I have played with software on my old Palm before, but that's exactly all I was doing... "playing". Compared to the robust nature of the iPhone/iPod Touch applications, Palm software is child's play. Sure, the hardware and interface of the iPhone is years ahead of my old Palm, but it's the architecture and ecosystem that Apple has presented with the App Store that is a true revolution. Chris Pirillo has a good demonstration of what can be done with the new iPhone Apps:



Now how cool is that Midomi app? I had an idea to program something like that once, but never did I imagine the use of voice recognition in that way. It's too bad my iPod Touch doesn't have a microphone... otherwise I'd have fun with that. Speaking of which, this video doesn't even cover the games that are available in the App Store. Most of these games use the accelerometer as steering controls, but some of them use the touchscreen as well. I wouldn't go as far as saying that it will outdo the Nintendo DS or the PSP, but it's always fun to see how the gaming industry takes on the challenge of new hardware.

3/11/2008 - Telemarketing: Comcast's Traffic Shaping Feature

One of the things on the 'net I've been watching recently is Chris Pirillo's 24-hour/day live feed. Chris is a former Tech TV personality who did a tech-support show for that channel. He is now the "star" of a live internet show where you can see him working on his computer, taking live tech-support questions, and talking about technology in general. It's very Truman Show-esque, and sometimes you can witness him doing mundane things like unboxing gadgets and, in this video, taking a call from a telemarketer. Well, the joke's on the Comcast guy calling, because Chris knows his tech stuff and he's not about to let a clueless telemarketer off the hook: