Ask Jason Personal Tech

Question: Can I Get a 6 Foot TV?

2008-08-11T14:35:00.000+01:00

Shown to the public at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Panasonic showed off a 6 foot by 11 foot Plasma display. That's 180cm by 330cm TV! So how much for this monster of a TV? Try about $150,000. But don't worry -- the price should drop once a 20 foot model comes out. If that's too rich for your blood, just pony up $9000 and buy this 65" model from Panasonic!

Question: How Can I Win Free Furniture?

2008-08-11T14:29:00.005+01:00

If you haven't seen it on TV or on the Internet yet, Boyle's Furniture is giving away a $10,000 Dream Room Furniture package. All you have to do is register online (click the image below). Its free and easy. You have from now until August 31st, 2008 and you can register to win once a day to increase your chances. You could get over a dozen entries easy, upping your chances of winning this amazing $10,000 furniture prize.

Boyle's is a leader in providing amazing discount furniture to people across the country. You don't have to break your bank to get a room full of nice furniture and now you have the chance to get it for free!

Question: Is It Over for the Compact Disk?

2008-08-11T14:29:00.001+01:00

CDs may be on their way out. Physical music sales are continuing to decline as digital music sales expand. On the data side of the equation, more and more people are using DVDs to back up and store data at home. So does this mean the CD is on it's way out? Maybe but not likely within the next 5 years. We might end up seeing CDs go the way of the ZIP disk or 3.5" floppy.

Question: How Can I Support Multiple Monitors?

2008-08-11T14:26:00.002+01:00

Sure having a 22" screen for your computer at home is better than a 20", but if you really want to step up your game, you probably want to have multiple monitors hooked up to create a single giant display. With monitor prices falling, this can actually be very affordable to do. First you'll want to check if your computer already has multiple video outputs. If not, you'll need a video card with 2 or 4 channels. From there, install the card and then go to your control panel. You should see the option to use multiple monitors. Its as easy as that!

Question: Do You Have $34 Trillion to Spare?

2008-08-11T14:25:00.000+01:00

Yikes! You thought a $4 Trillion problem was big. You haven't seen anything yet. A new article on CNN Money sheds light on the $34 Trillion Medicare problem looming on the horizon. What's the dilemma? Well as the article puts it "Sometime in the next President's first term, Medicare Part A (hospital insurance) will go cash-flow-negative, and it's all downhill from there." Yikes! That soon? Well think about this one "they show that if Medicare had to be accounted for like a company pension fund, it would be underfunded by $34 trillion."

Question: Will The Laptop Ever Replace the Desktop?

2008-08-11T14:22:00.005+01:00

Thats an interesting question. No, I don't think the laptop will ever replace the desktop computer. Instead I think the laptop computer and the desktop version will merge into a single classification of machine. Why? Well unlike the last 20 years, the desktop was needed because you could put a lot more stuff into its box. A smaller, lighter version (both in terms of power and weight) was the laptop. Well I feel as computer tech becomes smaller and less focused on the machine itself (and more on the Internet), we won't need the larger form factor of the desktop anymore. One small portable machine will be enough.

Question: Who Invented Bullet Time?

2008-08-11T14:22:00.001+01:00

Well let's go back to perhaps the first famous example of it in popular culture -- the film The Matrix. Remember those amazing scenes which slowed down time and even froze and rotated angle in the middle of action? That's bullet time!

Question: What is the Deal with Zeno?

2008-08-01T04:23:00.002+01:00

Have you seen this in stores? Zeno -- its a cross between regular acne treatments and high tech electronics. Zeno is a device which heats up your skin in a small area to a preset temperature. Sounds weird? Well, it gets weirder... At this temperature, the acne (and the bacteria) performs to a heat shock response which helps heal the acne! Its high tech battle against bad skin. Bizzera!

Question: What's the Story Behind Google X?

2008-08-01T04:22:00.000+01:00

Back in 2005 a new application was released by Google Labs. It was called Google search and basically was Google Search in a Mac look-and-feel. It only lasted one day before it was pulled. People have speculated that Apple threatened lawsuit over the style. No on knows for sure -- here's a screenshot to peruse.

Questions: When Should I Buy New Tools?

2008-08-01T04:19:00.004+01:00

There are some periods of the year where tools go on sale. Fathers Day is one of them. Labor Day is another. But my favorite time to buy tools, whether they be air tools, hand tools, machines, or painting supplies, is Black Friday. The day ofter U.S. Thanksgiving is awesome for deals and tools are no exception. I love going to Sears and finding great Craftsman tools 50% off!

Question: Where Can I Buy the Best DVDs?

2008-08-01T04:19:00.001+01:00

Taiyo Yudens are supposed to be the best quality CD and DVD recordable media in the world. They are the company that helped invent recordable media and have remained the world leader. The trouble is that you can’t really buy Taiyo Yudens in stores. Instead they sell their media to 3rd part companies like Verbatim and TDK. The trick is figuring out which company uses them. Luckily CD Freaks.com offers a great posting about where to find TY FAQs.

Question: What Are Some Other RFID Applications?

2008-08-01T04:15:00.002+01:00

Ok, we all know about WalMart's inventory tracking systems, but what are other applications of RFID? Well I can think of a few. The first would be with moving companies. Think about it -- cross-country or international moves make for higher concerns for loss and theft. Also, when you get to the destination, unpacking boxes and placing them in the right rooms is a time waster. So, RFID could come to the rescue and make both processes a lot safer and more effective. What other applications can you think of?

Question: Will China Become a Tech Power House?

2008-08-01T04:09:00.003+01:00

It is the way for industrialized nations -- first manufacturing, then intellectual and tech production. China has done a great job with the manufacturing, but now even in China factories are closing because labor is cheaper elsewhere. China will only be able to maintain their growth and march to world's number 1 leader if they move to a tech-based economy of so-called Knowledge Workers.

Question: Where Will Microchips and RFID go Next?

2008-08-01T04:06:00.002+01:00

I really think that we will start to see soon the embedding of RFID chips in all consumer products. From packages of toilet paper bought at WalMart to handcrafted jewelry purchased at your local boutique, this technology will be used to track inventory and reduce theft. The only concern I have is that the RFID chips are switched off at the gates and do not continue to track your movements or whatnot after you've left the store!

Question: What Will Apple Do Next with iPods?

2008-08-01T04:02:00.002+01:00

Look -- if Apple Inc is going to keep their shareholders happy, they need to boost iPod sales. News out this quarter is that iPod sales are down and experts think they could only head lower. Why? Mobile Phones! Even Apple Inc is getting in on the switch (i.e. iPhone). Eventually people will start wanting to carry fewer devices and have their music on their mobile phone!

Question: Who Needs Technology!

2008-07-24T04:40:00.002+01:00

Less of a question than a battle-cry, many people out there want to eschew technology for simpler times. Need a good example? Well just picture the people who buy renaissance clothing... Yup, the Renaissance Festival is a cultural affect which will not go away. These people may not all be techno-phobes, but they can appreciate simpler times without the clutter of technology.

Question: Can I Get Google WIthout the Avertisements?

2008-07-06T03:38:00.001+01:00

Yes. Love to search Google but hate seeing those advertisement? Well beat Google at its own game using one of the several plug-ins or proxies available. One for example is Scroogle. Yes, Scroogle as in Ebenezer Scrooge. Scroogle does several things including disables Google from placing cookies on your machine, disallowing Google to record search patterns, and, of course, removing the advertisements from your search results. Yikes, what if this caught on. Would Google go bankrupt?

Question: Where Will MP3 Players Go Next?

2008-07-06T03:33:00.002+01:00

I think the next big product for Apple will be embedding iPod in the strangest of places. Think about having an iPod in your baseball cap or embedded in your bluetooth headset. Wearable MP3 players will turn into MP3 players embedded in your clothes. I just can't imagine how much smaller Apple can make the iPod. I mean, the Shuffle is just plain tiny. The only thing to do next is embed it in clothing or make it into just a pair of headphones.

Question: When is So-Called "Cyber Monday"?

2008-07-06T03:32:00.000+01:00

Cyber Monday is the name of the first Monday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. It's called Cyber Monday because that's the first day back in the office for millions of workers. And what do millions of workers have at work? That's right -- a fast Internet connection -- perfect for shopping online. Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, BN.com, you name it -- they shop it!

Question: How Heavy is a 60" Plasma TV?

2008-07-06T03:20:00.002+01:00

A friend of mine is wanting to buy a 60" Plasma TV but he is concerned about having to move it up 3 flights of stairs in his apartment. Sure you could find a mover NYC to do it for you, but that's pricey. It's better to know what your getting yourself into and see if you can manage yourself. The NEC PlasmaSync 60XC10 for instance weighs a large 154 pounds! That's no piece of cake, but could be manageable for a team of two friends.

Question: How DoesThin Client Computing Work?

2008-07-01T04:02:00.001+01:00

It works as follows -- Thin Client Computing allows you use computing services and resources from a server unit. So what's the point? Well it allows the client machines to be very underpowered while the central unit has all the juice. In a classroom environment, there could be one central computer with a fast processor architecture with all the the thin clients loaded with low end CPUs. In this configuration, the equipment costs can remain low without sacrificing usage.

Question: What is RAM?

2008-07-01T03:58:00.002+01:00

No, its not a truck by Dodge. In this case, ram stands for Random Access Memory and is a type of memory storage. Why is it called Random? Because the data on it can be accessed in any order (i.e. Random) instead of through stacks or ordered. In computing, RAM is typically the type of memory used to store programs during execution. The more RAM your computer has, the more programs it can run at the same time (usually).

Question: Why Can't MP3s Be Packaged with CDs?

2008-07-01T03:57:00.000+01:00

Here's a novel idea - sell CDs packaged with the MP3s already included. Would this sell more records? The MP3s could be protected so they could only be copied one. They could be delivered on a second CD or a SD Media Card along with the music disk. I'd buy more CDs if I didn't have to go through the extra step of ripping the WAVs to play on my Zune.

Question: Will Nano Robots Revolutionalize Healthcare?

2008-07-01T03:54:00.002+01:00

Short answer -- Yes! Nanorobots, machines so small that they act on the nano-scale, will certainly revolutionalize health and health care. Imagine tiny robots which can be ingested to fix stomach ulcers and perform colon cleanse. Or ones which can be injected in the bloodstream to clean plaque and repair damage! It is the future -- the only question is how long do we have to wait for the future to come.

Question: Is Greenwashing Bad?

2008-06-20T00:47:00.001+01:00

Well thanks to CNN's The Browser blog for an article highlighting this buzzword. Basically Greenwashing is when a person or company pretends to be "Green" aka energy conscious when they really are not. It's more hype than substance and thus it's called Greenwashing. So who's greenwashing and who's really serious about the environment? Well keep reading and find out! I will start to focus on these tech companies.