The Woes of Vista - Preformed by Apple

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Comedy, Software, Technology, Video, Vista

Now, I’m not an Apple fan. I would prefer to use WindowsXP or even a Unix based system. But I have had to deal with Windows Vista on my sisters computer and so far I’m not a big fan, so here’s a little fun at Vistas expense.

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Because of all the problems with Vista in the last 11 months since it’s release some people are asking to switch back to XP. I would be one of them until all the bugs are worked out of Vista in 3 years

Tags: Comedy, Software, Technology, Video, Vista

A Successful Black Friday

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Deals, Technology

Well at least for me. My goal was to find a desktop to replace my 4 year old system. After careful review of the ads I decided on the HP Pavilion m8226x at Circuit City. I believe it will give another 4 or 5 years. Here is what it is loaded with.

Dual core/64-bit processing: The 3GHz Athlon 64 X2 6000+ This processor is also capable of processing 64 bits of information at once, twice as much as standard 32-bit processors.

• This desktop features 3GB of DDR2 system memory—enough for the most demanding users, vista, gamers and multimedia professionals.

• HyperTransport technology works like a fully-integrated frontside bus that increases bandwidth, reduces bottlenecks and enables processors to work more efficiently.

• Processors search for the same data over and over. L2 caches keep this data neat, organized, and nearby so it can be retrieved more quickly. This 2 x 1MB L2 cache is large, providing a potentially strong boost in performance.

Tags: , Black, Black Friday, Friday, Sales, Technology

Extensions for Firefox Reviews - Part 1 Gmail Extensions

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Extensions - Addons, Firefox, Software

While looking for new extension add-ons for Firefox (can’t remember why exactly now), I noticed that many extensions preformed the same function, yet have different features. So I decided to start a new series of posts reviewing and comparing Firefox extensions. Hopefully, these reviews will remove some of the confusion over which extensions you want to use.

Before I begin, let me say that if you are not using Firefox I highly recommend that you download it. Here are just a few reasons to choose Firefox over IE7:

1. The Mozilla developers are quick to issue a patch for any bugs found in the system. IE7 was released with holes, bugs and exploits and when Microsoft finally issued a patch it still left holes.
2. Firefox is not part of the operating system, but a separate application. Was is this important? Think of it as a separation of powers. You don’t want your web-browser causing problems for your OS, and vice versa.

Tags: , Extensions, Firefox, Gmail, Software

Best Deals from Black Friday

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Deals, Electronics, Technology

These are some of the best deals of the 2007 Black Friday weekend.  The items are divided by store.

Circuit City - If you don’t want to wait in line most of the deals are available online starting at 12:01am on 11/22

• Acer 22″ Widescreen LCD Monitor  — $169
• SanDisk 2GB SD Memory Card –$6.99
• Sandisk 4GB High Capacity SD Memory Card w/ Free Reader — $27.99
• Element 7″ Digital Picture Frame — $49.99
• VisionTek ATI Radeon HD2400 PRO 256MB 16x PCIe Graphics Card –$49.99
• Seagate 500GB FreeAgent External Hard Drive –$79.99
• Wii Remote & Nunchuk Gloves –$2.99
• Wii Sports Set — $9.99

Best Buy

• SanDisk 2GB SD Memory Card — $2.99
• Seagate 320GB 3.5″ Internal SATA Hard Drive — $59.99
• Western Digital 500GB 3.5″ External Hard Drive — $99.99

Tags: Black, Black Friday, Consumer, Friday, Sales, Technology, Websites

The Best Desktop Computer Deals - Black Friday 2007

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Electronics, Technology

As the American consumer prepares for Black Friday, it is often difficult to determine which deals are the best and which stores to actually visit. With the help of sites like bfads.net the consumer has a chance to find the best deal. I’m looking for a computer this Black Friday season and have been scouting the sales to determine which system that is truly the best deal.

Here are my sale recommendations for a desktop computer sorted by stores.

Best Buy -

$399 - Compaq Dual-Core with a HP 17″ monitor. This is a basic system with 1gb memory, a 250gb hard drive, and a CD and DVD burner. This is a bare bones system without a lot of frills. The only obvious downside to this machine is the 1gb of memory supplied to run Windows Vista. I would highly recommend double the memory to 2gb if you choose to purchase this machine for a 56% savings.

Tags: , Black Friday, Computers, Deals, Electronics, Hardware, Reviews, Sales, Technology

Net…(work) TV

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Culture, Websites

This September, Nikki and I started watching NBC’s “The Office” starting with season 1 which we rented from Netflix.  We zipped through the first 3 seasons and were left wanting…. You see we don’t have a tv to watch the new episodes as they air.  So all we had was the anticipation of season 4 on dvd in 1 year.  However, the idea popped into my head that maybe in our new fangled age of the internet maybe they aired the episodes online.   I was in luck. NBC Video Rewind allows fans watch most of their shows repeatedly online using a flash player.  And without most of the annoying advertisements. They do typically advertise one product per episode during the regularly scheduled break. It’s typically 30 secs and can be muted.  You can also resize the player inside your browser to normal, large or full screen.  However, the full screen option typically locks up my entire system and forces me to close my browser and reload the page.

Tags: Culture, Flash, Office, TV, Websites

Black Friday Preview

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Websites

Black Friday - Every year stores try to allure prospective shoppers with early bird specials, door-busters and incredible one-day-only deals in hopes of pushing their revenues into the black in their ledger books for the year. The local paper will be consumed by Thanksgiving Day advertisements, offering the consumer a one day peak at the deals spread-out before them. If you have ever attempted to go Black Friday shopping you know that the stores will be hectic and the lines will be long many hours before the sun even rises. Some avoid the day not wanting to have to wait in long lines and endure early hours to get the deals. Others will prepare for the early morning frost, wait in line and hope they made it early enough to get that door-buster special.

Tags: Black, Black Friday, Consumer, Friday, Sales, Technology, Websites

Important! Alert Level Code Green!

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Global Warming, Politics

Code Green

This is not a test! This is a real emergency of the Code Green system.

That’s right, NBC Universal is celebrating going green for the week of Nov. 4-11th.  All the programing will have a green theme and they will be running public announcements about how to be more green friendly.  I first noticed it during the Sunday Night Football pre-game when Bob Costas cut to Matt Lauer who was somewhere in the “Arctic” to witness the effects of global warming. I wonder if he flew on a plane to get there?  Individual NBC shows will each have their own little hint at being green.  Whether its a “Green” wedding on “Days of Our Lives” or supporting an eco-rally on “Chuck”.

Tags: Global Warming, News, Politics

A New Camera and New Plugin

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Blogging, Electronics, Flash, Plugins, Technology, Video, Websites

This weekend Nikki and I purchased a new hard disk Digital Camcorder, the Panasonic SDR-H18 Palmcorder . We have been eyeing hard disk camcorders for a couple of months and had it narrowed down to either a Sony, which was the choice of all but 2 salesmen that we talked to, or the Panasonic that we ended up purchasing. We liked both of them for different reasons. The Sony is considered the main brand, and it had night vision for low light situations. However, the brand name was going to cost a premium. We liked the Panasonic because of it’s clear LCD screen, excellent zoom features and it’s O.I.S. (Optical Image Stablization) system. The O.I.S. system is a free floating lens to help stabilizes the recording of a scene, where as the Sony Camcorder had digital image stabilization that resulted in a fuzzy picture when zoomed in on a subject.While we are still learning all the features, we have been pleased with the results thus far. Once I’ve learned more about it’s uses and given it some more testing in real life, I’ll write a more detailed review. Don’t miss our first video.

Tags: , Electronics, Flash Player, Plugin, Technology, Wordpress

The Inaugural Thought

Posted by Jonathan | Filed under Uncategorized, Websites

November 1, 2007 - Today is the inaugural post, my inaugural thought on ThoughtStook.com. I wanted a place to share my passions and interests with other people. And what better way to share them than to use one of my passions - blogging and websites.

Stook (stûk) refers to a grouping of swathes of grain that are stacked in a circular or rounded patern. ThoughtStook is a grouping of ideas gathered together for the benefit of others. ThoughtStook.com is a place where you can read about my thoughts and those of others regarding technology, websites, blogging, software, politics, culture, comedy, philosophy, religion, worldviews, and books.

Don’t be surprised if you see this site change from time to time. Like I said one of my interests is websites, which includes design and encoding. I will try to post on a regular basis and would encourage you to subscribe and setup a RSS feed to stay up to date.

Tags: Blogging, Ideas, ThoughtStook, Website