Archive of entries posted on 4th April 2014

Sadly, Not Real

Posted by on

April Fools Day from ThinkGeek:

Laser-Guided Tactical Necktie

Don’t settle for a tie when you could win

This necktie is guaranteed to give you the tactical advantage. Use the MOLLE attachment system to bring along a set of your own whiteboard markers (because nobody ever throws the bad ones away), a first aid kit for those nasty handout papercuts, even your travel mug via carabiner (quick-release for those caffeine emergencies mid-meeting). But the best part is the built-in Class II laser, which you can use to bring attention to your important points, entertain office cats, or blind the random meeting-interrupting zombie. Once you experience ThinkGeek’s Tactical Necktie with Laser Pointer, you’ll wonder how you ever survived a meeting without it.

I’m with the commenters – there’s no reason for this not to be a real thing.

Wisdom of the Day: Spade Jedi Hate Chairman

Posted by on

How Democrats Can Win Running on Obamacare

Posted by on

Hey, it’s been a while, but I have a new column at PJ Media explaining how Obamacare can be a winning issue for Democrats in the midterms.

You may point out that Obamacare is hugely unpopular, to which I say, “Exactly!” And you may also note how it’s so flawed that it’s constantly being delayed, which is precisely my point.

Read. Enjoy. Discuss.

So, do you think Obama can effectively rule America through fear?

Amazon Fire TV

Posted by on

Got a new toy. Yay!

This week, Amazon introduced a streaming box. They call it the Amazon Fire TV.

Now, I already have a Roku. And an Apple TV. And a Chromecast. Oh, and a TiVo. So, why do I need another streaming device? Well, I don’t. But I got one anyway. And, I spent a good deal of last night looking it over, trying it out.

Unboxing the Amazon Fire TV

Unboxing the Amazon Fire TV

I opened the box, hooked up an HDMI cable (not included), plugged it in, and was ready to play.

Of course, there’s the updates that it has to download. Seems even a brand new item — released on Wednesday, connected on Thursday — has to have updates. So, there’s that irritant.

But, the device itself? Yeah, it’s a good little streaming box.

Couple of things I noticed. The remote has no dedicated 10-second rewind button, like you get on Roku. Rather, the standard rewind mode is in 10-second leaps. To rewind 10 seconds, you have to hit rewind and then very quickly hit Play. At least, on Hulu Plus and Netflix, you do. On Amazon content, pressing Rewind a single time (a single click) achieves a 10-second rewind. Not a major deal, just something to get used to.

The selection of apps is kinda sparse, compared to Roku, but it has more available than Apple TV, although there is not a complete overlap. It does have Netflix, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, Vevo, Vimeo, YouTube, Crackle, Bloomberg, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Showtime Anytime, TuneIn Radio, Plex, plus a decent selection of games.

Some major missing channels include Sky News (Roku, Apple TV), The Weather Channel (Apple TV), PBS (Roku, Apple TV), WWE (Roku, Apple TV), Yahoo! Screen (Roku, Apple TV), HBO GO (Roku, Apple TV), Watch ABC (Apple TV), MLB.TV (Roku, Apple TV), VUDU (Roku), Dailymotion (Roku), and some others.

Oh, about the games. I don’t care about games. But, if you like playing games, it lets you. There’s an optional game controller you can buy, if you want to play games. I don’t. But you go ahead.

Again, Roku is king of content. It has almost everything, including a lot of stuff with limited appeal. Apple TV has limited content, but most of it is good content with wide appeal. Amazon Fire TV is closer to Apple TV in the limited content, but most of the good stuff, but it seems it really wants to be Roku.

Hulu Plus and Netflix, two of the biggest subscription services, don’t come pre-loaded. But, they’re easy enough to find and add. Especially if you already have them installed on a Kindle Fire tablet. Even if not, they’re easy to find.

Both work similar to the way they work on Roku. The experience of navigating the menus is consistent. Once difference is that, unlike Roku, you do have the “Play from beginning” option on Netflix content.

The Amazon Fire TV is also very responsive. You press a button, it responds. Quickly.

They do a very good job of integrating the non-Amazon content in the menus. For example, on Roku, if you go to Movies or TV on the Main Menu, you are essentially in the M-GO app. However, on the Fire TV, while the emphasis is on Amazon, you also get access to non-Amazon content.

For instance, I’ve been watching the old Doctor Who episodes. So, when I go to TV, then scroll to “Your TV Shows” section, I see shows I own or have in my Watchlist, including The Mentalist, Star Trek, Major Crimes, and, of course, Doctor Who. When I select Doctor Who, I see episodes that are on Amazon Prime, and episodes that are on Hulu Plus. I didn’t see any Netflix episodes, but I think that’s because all the episodes available on Netflix are also available on Amazon Prime.

Again, they did a good job of integrating non-Amazon content into the menus, but only for content that other services offer they Amazon doesn’t.

Let’s get right to it: is it worth it?

Well, if you already have a Roku or Apple TV, it would be hard to make the case for a Fire TV box. It makes more sense to add it to an Apple TV setup than it does a Roku setup. But replace either? I wouldn’t give one up for it.

If you were interested in your first streaming box, I’d still recommend a Roku (particularly the Roku 3), if I had to pick just one. But, if you chose an Apple TV instead, you’d be making a good choice. And, now I’m comfortable saying that if you chose Amazon Fire TV, you’d be making a good choice.

Before this week, online streaming boxes were Roku, Apple TV, and then everybody else. Now, it’s Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and then everybody else.

Random Thoughts: Gay Marriage Bullies and Mr. Rogers

Posted by on

It’s really hard to fat-shame cats, but I’ll never stop trying.

The other late night hosts should all pull pranks on old man Letterman.

So in the time of Noah, everyone died from the rain? Not one person had an umbrella?

The biggest thing holding minorities back is not bringing up white privilege enough.

So are the bigots the ones trying to bully certain opinions out of the public arena or the other ones?

Where did the religious nuts come up with the man/woman combination for marriage anyway?

If you have a rational, coherent argument for gay marriage, then you don’t need to bully and silence everyone who disagrees.

Problem is with gay marriage, is it’s been mainly an emotional argument — successful, but more emotional than rational.

Part of that is there is nothing really rational about marriage. It is a religious ceremony at its heart.

It all seems less and less about civil right and more about being able to punish people who disagree.

There little respect for the spirit of free speech. We should value dissenting opinions, not crush them.

If you think there’s no argument for the concept of marriage that’s been the norm for thousands of years, you have a small mind.

You can disagree with the concept of traditional marriage, but to act like there is no argument for it is pure idiocy.

Problem with self-driving cars is that when two of them stop next to each other at a stoplight, their algorithms end up in a race condition.

Repeatedly told my daughter today not to be bossy. I banned her being bossy.

Found out that Amazon Prime has Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, so goodbye all you new children’s show crap.

She actually really likes Mr. Rogers. Says it reminds her of Daniel Tiger 🙁

How do I explain to her that compared to Mr. Rogers, Daniel Tiger is but the shadows on the cave wall?