GNC-2008-12-08 #430 Who turned off the heat!



Apologize for the squeaky chair and had a rude awakening with the cold weather getting off the airplane this morning. As usual bandwidth in this hotel sucks really bad someday hotels will figure it out to win tech users they need big fat pipes.

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Show Notes:
HD Quality Comparison
YouTube Strategy
NYT Electronic Options
Did Meteorites Spawn Life
Obesity Reduction by Worms!
Apple to Sell iPhones
Newspaper on Verge of Collapse
Google G1 Phone
Obama Broadband & Computers part of Relief Package
Google Reader Enhancer
USB Bear Gloves
Bendable Electronic Displays
Netflix HD Streaming
Google Operating System
New Macbooks Buggy!
Power Washer for your mouth!
Vista and Parallels Version 4.0
Zune Hybrid Coming
Ad free websites
Wii King Sales
Software Pirate Underground
Facebook Worm
Vista SP2 Beta
Laptop Searches at Borders

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Now I Remember Why I Don’t Buy ATI…



So I decided I wanted to update my TV Capture card. I use it only for one thing – to capture my camera for live streaming. I don’t care about remote controls, I only care that it had an antenna and S-Video input. I got a deal on an ATI Theatre 550 capture card – which is a PCI Express card – And should push the video better than my old Hauppage card I bought years ago.

I have yet to be impressed.

Let’s start out in saying I stopped buying ATI years ago because their video has always had problems. I had an ATI Rage 128 card and the performance never hit what I expected. I ended switching up to NVidia graphics cards and never looked back. NVidia has some solid hardware and software that has never really failed me.

But my last ATI card I bought was years ago. Maybe things changed – ATI was bought out by AMD, new technologies and advancements could make things better. It didn’t.

I got the card yesterday. I need to preface this by saying it is a OEM card. I was able to download and install the main drivers. However, the other software wouldn’t install. It kept telling me I need a specific piece of software.

I went to the webpage and scoured for software. The pages took me from ATI pages to AMD pages and back. When I finally got frustrated, I found the customer support phone number. Only thing was it is AMD’s support, not ATI. I called the number and AMD said that there was another phone number, but it wasn’t on the website. He gave me the number and said that they were on the East Coast and are closed for the day.

This morning I called to find out what I can do. Instantly after I mentioned the card the support agent goes “This is an OEM version”. He then told me that ATI doesn’t support and there is no way to tell me who I can get the drivers from.

I was floored. Not the fact about the OEM part – OEM items are sold to companies like Dell to put in their machines. There is usually no support from the main company. I WAS floored that he couldn’t turn me in the right direction.

What is more annoying is in this day and age software and drivers don’t take up much webspace and could easily be cataloged for customers. So what if it’s OEM? Put it all on one FTP site.

I did download some free software that lets me tune into my video feed. When I went to broadcast, the video was latent. When I spoke, the audio came through first, then 2 seconds later the video pushed through.

The funny part is after this guy pretty much locked up his stance on the card, I said “Ya know, I stopped using ATI years ago because of quality and support. I guess things haven’t changed”. He replied with “Thank you.” We ended the call there.

I took a chance at getting an OEM card. Granted, I didn’t spend that much, however, when I ever bought other OEM cards I have always been able to find drivers and software and never had a problem. I am switching back to the old card and taking that ATI card back.


GNC-2008-12-05 #429 Jam Packed Show Tonight



Podcast Awards Ceremony is this Saturday been working all week on the event. I will be in DC the week of the 8th would like to do dinner Friday night if your up for it let me know via email. Lots of things cooking here tune in and get informed.

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Mogulus Pro Offering Way to Expensive



2008mogulusThis morning I received an email from the folks over at Mogulus announcing their pro-streaming service. When I looked at the price of the Mogulus Pro offering I just about fell out of my chair.

Their prices start at $350.00 a month with only 25gb of bandwidth allowance, plus if you bust your 25gb cap you will be charged $1.50 per gig. Someone over there is smoking crack.

They must think content producers are stupid. I have used a variety of paid streaming services for about 1/3rd the monthly cost they are planning on charging, and have been able to have my own branded player and many of the other options that are offering with this pro-offering.

This is a opportunity for all of those companies that have been streaming live content for years to step up and compete with Mogulus on their pro-offering.  I was fully expecting Mogulus or Ustream to come out with pricing that was aggressive, not pricing that is more expensive than many competitors in the space.

They will have to come up with an offering that makes sense. I think in order to get people like me to consider signing up for their pro-service it is going to have to be an offering a monthly price range in the $100-$150 range along with a healthy initial bandwidth offering.

I hope that Ustream.TV does not make the same mistake as Mogulus has made, because it is evident to me that with their pricing scheme they have not targeted content creators like me.


Even With Technology, It’s Harder to Work when Your Sick…



I have been beefing up my websites. I also have been working on some external projects hard. But all of that came to a crashing halt last week.

Why? I got sick.

I felt this illness coming down on Monday (Nov. 24th). I didn’t think much of it, but after my Podcast on Tuesday, I pretty much knew I should take some downtime and relax a bit while ingesting something like lots of Liquids. (Here is a keynote – If you have a fever and your lips start to dry out quick, you might want to get some water in your system. )

By Thursday I was pretty much on the back and forth thing – Morning I would be OK, but then by evening I was burning up and freezing at the same time. Saturday I had to play with the band and by the end of the 3rd set I was hurting more than I ever hurt before. If it wasn’t for the little catnaps between breaks, I would have probably not made it.

Monday – Feeling better but coughing entered into the mix. Still did my shows. Tuesday – Coughing getting worse. Still did my Podcast – then took a 3 hour nap before going to a local Podcasters meeting I started up here. Wednesday – After 3 PM I went downstairs, plopped in front of the TV and stayed there all evening.

Now it’s Thursday and although I am still not 100%, I have to catch up on everything I’ve missed. I planned to post some videos, but they’ve been sitting on the back burner. I planned a couple GeekNewsCentral Articles, but once again, back burner. Even the contract stuff I do pretty much was set aside as I couldn’t focus or concentrate.

The funny thing is that I could have done any of the stuff in question. With technology today I could have laid on the couch and put the videos together. I might not have been able to write the articles, but I could’ve at least put together some notes.

It’s interesting how an illness can debilitate a person. Thinking “I can do it when I’m better”, then when you are more level headed you realize how much more stress you put on yourself. Still, when you are sick, you really need to put some attention to getting better.

I am not sure how much longer this will go on. I keep hearing “Everybody’s getting this bug”. Hopefully it’s not something that might warrant a doctor visit. But I do know that it’s time to start catching up on my projects or else I might find myself in a hole I can’t get out of.