Tek++

Surf the Channel

2007-10-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

This is as good as TV. Tons of shows that are all available for streaming over the web. Its free give it a shot.
http://www.surfthechannel.com/

Sword and Laser

2007-10-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Book Nerds Unite....Veronica Belmont and Tom Merrit started a kickass SciFi and Fantasy book club, which is free to join. This is a great place for people mingle with others of the similar intrest for free. http://swordandlaser.com

10 great freeware programs

2007-09-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

click here for the page with 10 great freeware programs that you should eaither have or know are there if you need them.

The RIAA has gone to far...again

2007-06-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

Read this article to see that tactics that the RIAA is using to get to people that download music "illegally". Its funny and depressing at the same time.

RANT:Microsoft REALLY sucks at customer support

2007-06-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

Like almost every other person that owns and XBOX360, it broke in under a year, and it needed to be sent back to Microsoft in order to repair the dreaded, "Red ring of Death". Having a broken console sucks, but the real lemon juice in the wound it the shameful technical support that Microsoft offers.

It all starts with a phone call, after dialing the support line you get a automated guy name "MAX" who shouts instructions at you about which console you would like to try and repair. Supposedly this phone system uses voice detection, but i have found no truth in that so far. After continually telling the system that I wanted to get repairs for the XBOX 360, and being told that it could not understand what I was saying, I decided to start screaming at the phone spurting out strings of profanity. Eventually "MAX" had enough and defaulted me to a live agent.

Well after the only Hindu woman named "Sally" answered the phone I knew that I was going to be in for a truly delightful experience. In order to get your console service you need to register the unit with Microsoft over the phone, simple enough right? Well not if the person that you are talking to has no concept of the English language. IT TOOK SIX MINUTES TO GET MY NAME, and as you will learn later on it was still spelled wrong. The registering process took about 15 minutes total, and was extremely frustrating because they spelled everything wrong every time! At this point I am getting annoyed and "Sally" is starting to see that. The rest of the process was a little bit better and they told me that they would send a box to my home with packing instructions and padding in order to send the console back to their service center for repairs. The whole process can take up to 35 business days! Oh well at least at this point the process is started.

I received the box four days later in the mail, so I unhooked the XBOX and prepared to pack it in the box. When I opened the box there was one sticker in it which is the return postage, that's it! No instructions, no padding, nothing! So it was back to the phones. After screaming at "MAX" again and finally getting a Representative, they informed me that they were very sorry about this mistake and in order to correct it I would need to get the console packed at a local UPS store or pay the shipping for a new box to be sent to my home!! Because the screwed up they are going to make me pay for it...WHAT THE F*@$!! I asked for the manager at this point in which the person that I was talking to insisted that they were the manager. Fed up, I told them I would go to the UPS store and have them package it if they will reimburse the packing fees, which they said they would.

The next day I went to the local UPS store and paid ten bucks for them to pack it and ship it, finally I felt like the hassles would end. Why am I always wrong?

Online at the XBOX 360 website you are suppose to be able to track the progress of your repair, so I waited four days and logged on to check it. It asked for your name and serial number associated with the damaged console. Remember when I said they didn't spell it correctly? Well shit, its time to talk to "MAX".... again! "Sally" managed to spell both my first and last name wrong, I'm not joking she really did! After fixing that I inquired on the status of the repair, and the Representative told me that the repair had been cancelled! Now I am livid! Eventually a new repair order was processed and it seemed it could only be smooth sailing from there. Again, I am wrong....

Five days pass and I logged onto the service center website to check the progress of the repair, and nothing has changed. So its back to the phones AGAIN! Cursed out the automated "MAX" and talked to a Representative who said that they never received the console! Now I am having a full system melt down! The representative must have been terrified and transferred me directly to the service center, which was clearly in the united states because the person I talked to spoke clear English, not engwrish. He found the console, told me that it was repaired and this it would be in the mail back to me within a day.

So this has been going on for over three weeks, I still haven't received a console, and every time I call I get the same answers, it is an endless cycle of stupidity, because of this I will most likely sell the XBOX 360 when it arrives and buy a Nintendo Wii. I hate you Microsoft, I hate you so much!

Top 25 sites you cant live without

2007-06-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Time Magazine in partnership with CNN published a list of the top 25 internet websites that you cant live without. Suprisingly there are some pretty cool ones up there, here is the link. Check it out!

Well the iPhone was a good idea but...

2007-06-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Everyone is going bat shit about this iPhone that is being released tommorrow morning. If you are only interested in style, and benig the cool guy with the newest hippest gadgets, then go pick up the phone if you can find one. If you are a good nerd who actually wants functionality accompanied with style and convinence I would advise you to look elsewhere. No 3G?, No picture messaging?No voice recording? No replacable battery?...... O.K. ill stop, read the gizmodo artical for the whole list. I pity the fool who buys the first generation of the iphone. It looks cool, but thats about it, and did I mention that it cost a shit load more than other phones that have more features for half the price?

DIGG Rebellion!!

2007-05-02T14:27:00.001-07:00

Click hereto learn for about the fight for DIGG as they battle the DRM mega giants.Kevin Rose himself says that if DIGG is going down for DRM infractions, then its going down fighting. Cant watch a site this good go down without at least trying!

Mice and remotes will soon be obsolete

2007-03-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

Check this Video out. It displays microsofts newest innovation which is going to be pretty amazing. They are doing away with mice and moving to camera recognition. The video will explain better than I will.

Performancing add-on now called ScribeFire

2007-03-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

The popular blogging tool previously called Performancing has changed its name to ScribeFire with its newest 1.4 update. With the newest FireFox update the old performancing add on was removed, so you will need to click here to install ScribeFire. So far everything is still great in the add on and there are a few new features that hardcore bloggers might appreciate.

Check it out

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Trailer

2007-02-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/aquateenhungerforcecolonmoviefilmfortheaters/hd/

no words...so happy... *tear*

Umm..Life cant get better then a Beer Launching Fridge!

2007-02-26T11:05:00.000-08:00

Click here to view a homemade mini fridge that catapults beer at you from 13 feet away. Please market this product

New Toy in the Mail

2007-02-26T10:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115361

This bitch is in the mail, review will soon follow

Foxy Tunes for Firefox 2.0

2007-01-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

Lots of people like to listen to their music when they surf the web, I
know I do. What sucks is when a song comes on that you want to change
but then you have to stop viewing the website and switch to your
default media player in order to switch the song. The good people at
Mozilla have fixed that problem with their new plug-in named Foxy Tunes. With
this it adds a media control center to the loading bar on the bottom
right of the browser. This Allows for a volume control,your basic
forward, backward, previous song, advance song, pause and play
functions. It is compatible with every major media player out there
such as iTunes and WinAmp. Another nice feature that the developers
implemented is the ability to search the music that is currently being
played by allowing you to search lot of information about the band,song
or record being played, you can even just click on button and it will
lead you to any site that would have its lyrics. Over all this is a
must have for heavy web surfers, especially the ones that love music,
what are you waiting for click here to install it in your Firefox 2.0 browser

ASCII Starwars

2006-11-20T03:57:00.000-08:00

Go to Start, then run and copy in :telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl and press enter and you can watch the entire Star Wars Episode 4 done in ASCII in a command prompts. Pretty cool stuff

Scientific Proof Nickleback sucks

2006-11-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

Oh My God Nickleback sucks so bad! I hope that clicking here will prove to you that every Nickleback song is almost identical. Shame on anyone for supporting this repetitive garbage!

Walmarts Black Friday Shopping List Post

2006-11-12T14:25:00.000-08:00

For those of you that are insane and go shopping right away the day after thnksgiving, this is a list of Walmarts super deals that will take place. There is a 42" Plasma televison for UNDER 1000 dollors! Check it out

For those of you that are looking for faith...

2006-11-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Well the title says it all. May you find the comfort you have been looking for with The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster! This site is pure comedy. It came about when the Kansas school boards were arguing about teaching evolution and religion in the classroom. The creator of this site decided to mock the hell out of them by demanding that if they will teach those topics, they also must teach the ways of "Pastafarianism". This site is fantastic, but lots of people are offended by it as well. In my opinion if this pisses you off, you need to shut you stupid mouth because you are dumb. Also there have been Spaghetti monster experiences captured on film and can be found all over the internet.This site was also mentioned in a recent episode of South Park. Enjoy!

DIGG!! All the News you can handle

2006-11-10T07:21:00.000-08:00

I get lots of content off of digg.com. If you are not familiar with digg, you should be. Its a site where people come to share the news that they have found out and depending on what people think about,they can "dig" it or "bury"it if they choose. The more "digs" the higher rating the story will get, so topics that draw the most interest are the easiest to spot. There are also some GREAT features which are really cool ways of watching the way that the system works. Under the Digg Labs link you can choose to watch it in Swarm or Stack. They are very difficult to describe so check them out. This site is FULL of awesome stuff, so stay with it and really see what it has to offer. Becoming a member is free as well, who dosnt love free....come on!
Its a simple idea that Kevin Rose and friends have turned into a internet phenomenon that should not be over-looked by anyone.

Big Bird is DEAD!

2006-11-09T05:16:00.000-08:00

Check out these photographs, a Real large bird that know one knows what it is was found dead in Russia. Pretty bizzare. Click here to check it out

Laptop of the future

2006-11-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

Check out Samsungs new beta project, this is what laptops should become. This thing is freaking sweet!Click here to check it out

BestBuy Black Friday Ad Posted

2006-11-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

The BestBuy Black Friday ad just leaked out! Some of the bigger deals are a HP Core Solo 15.4" Notebook for $379.99 and a Westinghouse 32" LCD HDTV for $479.99.

read more | digg story

Amazing Line Rider video

2006-11-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

If you have played the lLine Rider game posted previous to this one, you will appreciate the greatness of this vide. Honestly who ever made this video needs to get a job. Click Here to see it

Line Rider For the WIN

2006-11-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

Click Here to check out this cool little flash game, many hours of life will be wasted on this, its pretty damn cool. You draw a sledding course and let physics do its job...sounds stupid, but its not check it out

R rated Mythbusters bloopers

2006-10-31T13:20:00.000-08:00

I love that Show Mythbuster, and always wanted to know about the bloopers from that show because I know the hosts are NOT as politically correct as they claim. Click here to see some R rated bloopers from Jamie and Adam.

Apple' Letter to Pirate bay... and the reply

2006-10-29T13:05:00.000-08:00

Very funny! These guys at Piratebay Fear No one!

read more | digg story

The Wizard of Floyd

2006-10-29T12:40:00.000-08:00

Everyone always argues about if the Dark Side of the Moon album from Pink Floyd really matched up to the Movie The Wizad of Oz. Here is an opportunity for you to check it out
Click Here to check it out all synced together for you compliments of google video

Free Futurama

2006-10-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

http://allfuturama.com/
From the same guys that give you all the South Park they also have every Futurama. Check it out its pretty sweet

Firefox 2 is finally released

2006-10-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

is finally here

Mozilla - Home of the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email client

Let me know what you guys think, becasue IE 7 was just released and i have
not had a chance to check it out. If anyone has drop us a line

Every Apple 2 game for free!

2006-10-25T10:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Podcast Twit with Leo Laport for this one. Using internet explorer and going to http://www.virtualapple.org, you can play every Apple 2 game from when you where younger for free. take a look

Free South Park

2006-10-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a site with a ton of free south park episodes runing off the youtube platform its pretty cool, the quality is good enough to enjoy. Nothing beats free
http://www.allsp.com/
thanks for the heads up estaban grande

REVIEW: SAMSUNG Black 32" 16:9 8ms Wide HDTV LCD with Integrated ATSC Tuner Model LNS3251D

2006-10-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well here is the newest toy in my collection I have had it for a few days now and feel like I have sufficiently played with every feature that the TV has to offer.

There is one main reason that I decided to purchase this TV over my 22” Flat screen (not flat panel) CRT. I need to join the legions of people already well into the HD universe, I cannot be left behind any longer.

I had never really experienced true HD till I visited a friend with a television very similar to the one currently being reviewed. After seeing what true High Def looks like, and then switching back to normal TV it is...heart breaking. While visiting my friend we spent countless hours playing X Box 360 on his Sony HD TV and I was shocked. No ghosting, brighter colors, faster refresh rates and a list of improvements over CRT television that goes on and on. That was it, I couldn't go back, at this point it was only forward into the future of televisions for me. My mission was to find the best HD television on the market for the average Joe like you and me.

I think Best Buy Employees knew me by name after the first two weeks of me walking in and out of the TV section and harassing every salesman on the floor about the differences between Plasma and LCD or A/V vs. HDMI. I was able to round the selection down to a few televisions in the right price range. It was down to the SONY my friend had, the Samsung being reviewed and LG's comparable model. After tons of research by both picking the brains of the employees in stores and surfing the web to see every possible review it came down the the Samsung. Now its off to find the best pricing.

My colleagues and I search in every imaginable tech store you could go to and almost every where the price was $1599, which is pretty high for the size of the television compared to others of similar style and quality. The LG which was a close second choice was a good $200 cheaper. Finally the searching payed off on line. The price would fluctuate between $1699 and $1199. Newegg.com was the lowest price around. Now my search was over and my new TV was in the mail.

The doorbell rang in the middle of cooking dinner and everything in a 5 foot vicinity of me when flying when I heard the deep rumble of the UPS delivery truck. It was here. I reemerged into my spaghetti sauce covered apartment and immediately began tearing open the box.

The insulation on the box was weak at best so be careful when handling this product if you receive it via a parcel service, make sure you don't accept a damaged product. Lucky this one was in pristine condition. The setup was a piece of cake besides mounting the swivel base TV stand, it is a two person job. The back of the TV was clearly labeled with 2 A/V ins, coaxial cable in, audio ins, and outs, VGA inputs and all the other fancy accessories. Very simple to setup and understand, even for people that are not to tech savvy.

Pushing the power button started the TV up after a small warm up cycle and brought up the setup menu. Again very easy to navigate and find what you where looking for. The remote was no different it was well thought out in the design process. So far no complaints everything is what I had expected.

With the good comes the bad though. Not much but enough to make one main gripe. After looking at the TV you will notice that you can't see the speakers on the front of the screen. They are well “hidden” in the bottom of the screen. The only Problem is that when you bury speakers that are already small to begin with behind a sheet of plastic thing start to sound weak. Some pitches will be audible at any level while others are very difficult to hear at any level. It leaves you feeling like you can never find that perfect volume. Its fair to say that if you are looking for an amazing audio experience you will need a separate sound system, if thats not in your price range i would suggest looking elsewhere for your entertainment needs.

When Push comes to shove I would say that this is a pretty great TV, the colors are the brightest out, it offers every imaginable hook up on the backside, has a very sharp design and its an easy setup process. If it wasnt for the weak sound setup I would say that this is the best HD TV on the market in the 27”-37” range. There are cheaper alternatives out there, so make sure you look around first, with so many choices there is a “right” TV out there for everyone. With this Purchase I can definitally say that this is mine.

Click here to view spec's for this model

A-

So it begins

2006-10-24T22:12:00.002-07:00

Well I know that I blow lots and lots of money on the newest gadgets and forms of entertainment. The only thing left for me to do now is to bring you the news and reviews for the items that may cross my path. Of course all comments and reviews from other will be available here too. So please share in your experineces to make everyone's technology and entertainment selections the right one for them.