July 26th, 2007
Easy to setup
By
tomslick from
Las Vegas, NV on
7/26/2007
5out of 5
Pros: Interfaces Well With TV, Intuitive Controls, Easy To Setup, Clear Sound
Cons: Bass a little boomy
Best Uses: Surround Sound Solution
Describe Yourself: Practical, Musically Inclined, Tech Savvy
This system is a pretty good deal at just over $500. You get a full complement of speakers, iPod dock and upscaling DVD player. The wireless surround and sub-woofer work perfectly and make setup so much easier. Sound quality is decent but this system is more about the convenience factor. My only complaint is that the sub is a little boomy at higher levels and as result I end up leaving it on the lowest setting.
(legalese)
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July 25th, 2007
A few friends recently visited Slicksta and brought with them a nifty new device: The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It’s a slim and portable internet-browsing tablet with a generous and bright screen and built-in WIFI. Web pages rendered in full and were easily readable and at under $150, it’s an inexpensive alternative to toting a laptop around everywhere. CNET was harsh in their review of the Nokia 770 citing sluggish performance and missing features as major faults. Slicksta liked the device but thought a QWERTY would be easier to use than the included stylus.
Regardless, the Nokia 770 gives Slicksta hope that we’ll soon see more portable web devices with bigger screens and other bundled options like camera, music/movie player, GPS and data storage. Throw in a phone, pair the device with a Bluetooth headset and you’ve got an all-in-one dream gadget.
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June 26th, 2007
Slicksta has been getting lots of telemarkting calls lately - on the cell phone! He thought these annoyances were a thing of the 90s, left behind along with the useless land-line he abandoned years ago but he was wrong. He’s been called several times in the past week with various “exciting offers” and “important messages”.
Not one to live in fear of newspaper subscription drives or loan brokers Slicksta made a quick visit to the Do Not Call Registry website. He found registering his number incredibly easy. All he had to do was enter his number and email address. A message was sent to the email address to confirm the registration and that was pretty much it. Slicksta will now be undisturbed for the next five years.
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May 5th, 2007
Slicksta made a big move recently: he is now a resident of Las Vegas and he is unemployed. Read about the why and the how at Sin City Living.
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March 28th, 2007
Woo-hoo! Slicksta is thrilled with yesterday’s announcement that Yahoo! Mail is now offering unlimited email storage. Never having to delete an email ever again is a pretty nice perk. What would make Slicksta really happy is free POP mail access (Google’s Gmail provides it). But this would take away from the many ads Yahoo! shows Slicksta while he’s reading email so he understands why this is the case.
Here’s a run-down of how Slicksta uses the major email services:
- Gmail - Primarily for business emails. Slicksta appreciates the good SPAM filters that keep junk out of the inbox. Also, since POP access is free, Slicksta uses Mozilla’s Thunderbird as a desktop client.
- Yahoo! Mail - Website subscriptions, purchase receipts, newsletters and forum / blog memberships. This is basically where the bulk of Slicksta’s email goes that is not from a real person. A few die-hard continue to send missives to Slicksta here (you know who you are!).
- Hotmail - Slicksta doesn’t receive much here besides notificaions from Netflix and an online stock-trading account. Both of these can and should be moved over to Yahoo! Mail. What say you Mr. Gates? How will you get Slicksta to use Hotmail more often?
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March 22nd, 2007
Steven Bochco, the creator of L.A. Law and Hill Street Blues joins other Hollywood heavyweights with the release of a series of clips on video-sharing site Metacafe called Cafe Confidential. Listen to everyday people (girls next door and guys across the hall) talk about embarrassing situations, weird family members and losing their virginity. It’s voyeuristic and Slicksta finds it incredibly addicting. Each clip runs between one and two minutes long which seems like just the right amount of time.
Slicksta applauds Hollywood’s efforts to bring professionally produced content to the web. This is a new medium and requires new formats. User generated stuff is cool but gets boring pretty quickly and Slicksta prefers professional story-telling.
» Read the LA Times artcle about Steven Bochco’s latest project (registration required)
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March 11th, 2007
Thunderbird is the newest and most appreciated application on Slicksta’s computer. Put simply, Thunderbird is an open-source alternative to Microsoft Outlook created by the folks at Mozilla.org (the makers of the Firefox browser). Slicksta found it super easy to configure and is now using it to access six different webmail accounts including gmail.
It also comes with an integrated RSS reader so Slicksta can have the latest items from his favorite blogs delivered to an inbox. Bloglines is still Slicksta’s RSS reader of choice, but the convenience of email + news in one place just might tip things in favor of Thunderbird.
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March 6th, 2007
Business 2.0 has published an updated list of startups to watch in the coming year. The author predicts that there will be flame-outs with too many newbies chasing different ways to bring traditional media online.
The losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles. The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party: instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users.
ISHO it’s more about creating real businesses vs. cool products or features. Cool products and features get featured on Slicksta’s blog while businesses get written about in the NYT or WSJ.
StumbleUpon and Meebo are two of Slicksta’s favorites from the list.
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February 20th, 2007
This cool little gadget makes it super-easy to watch television on your computer. Here’s how the manufacturer, ADS Technologies describes it:
Using a regular TV Antenna or cable connection, you can now watch TV right on your computer screen. It’s simple to install and no extra cables or power supply to carry around.
Slicksta likes the portability-factor. You get similar functionality from a TV tuner card but can’t easily move a TV tuner card from desktop to desktop — definitely not from desktop to laptop. Slicksta only wishes the necessary software and drivers were stored in flash memory on the device itself (it is USB afterall). That way, it would be completely plug-n-play!
» Compare prices and buy the ADS Technologies MiniTV USB
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February 17th, 2007
Christorpher Null does a good job summarizing five ways to watch tv online for Yahoo! Tech:
- TivoToGo which requires Series2 or higher. Of course you’re SOL if you don’t have a TiVo.
- Official streams from the major television networks: NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox
- AOL’s In2TV for classic (read: old) television programs
- Beeline or wwiTV for international programming
- Downloads from iTunes
These are great options for viewing television on your computer and when away from home. Another option is Slingbox which Slicksta convered several months ago.
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