I realized this tonight as I stood in line at Best Buy. The line snaked around the store out past the DVDs and into the appliance section. I was fixated on a refrigerator from LG that had a gorgeous 15-inch LCD screen on the door and another 3-inch LCD above the ice/water dispenser. With this baby in my kitchen I could watch “World’s Craziest Police Chases” while I’m at the dinner table. On second thought, Kim would never go for that. It retailed for a cool $3500.

As I was standing in line I realized that over the past five years or so I’ve spent more on annual Turbo Tax Deluxe purchases than on Microsoft software. Just going back five years I’ve purchased at least $300 in Turbo Tax software. That doesn’t include a few add-on such as the State version I purchased last year when I lived in both Utah and Washington. I’m pretty sure I’ve also purchased “It’s Deductable!” a couple of times so that total is probably low.

Looking back five years I can only remember purchasing Digital Image Pro and Photo Story from Microsoft for a total of around $120.

As a follow-up this post, I ventured into Car Toys intent to end this foolishness once and for all. The traffic from Auburn to Federal Way was terrible this afternoon so I had nearly an hour to rehearse what I planned to tell Car Toys. As I entered the store I could see it was packed which makes sense given the proximity to Christmas. But I was greeted almost immediately by a young man who asked how he could help me.

I explained my situation of having come to Car Toys last June in order to replace a broken CD player. I mentioned that I specifically asked for a deck that was compatible with my iPod. As I continued to explain my situation I could see this guy was taking down notes rather than arguing with me like the last guy I spoke with over the phone. When I finished he asked me, “What can we do to fix this?”. I told him that I just wanted someone to install this cable (which I also purchased last June from this same Car Toys) so I could listen to my iPod in my car. He took down some information about my car and said he’d return. About 2 minute later he came back and said he’d take car of it right now for about 20 bucks. I was shocked to hear this given the hassle of my last two phone calls and one visit to the store. I left my car there and twenty minutes later I was good to go.

I’m thrilled with the sound. I didn’t like the idea of using an FM tuner plug due to crappy sound quality. Car Toys ran the iPod adapter to my glove box. It not only gives me the ability to control the iPod from the Alpine deck but it powers/charges the iPod as well. Very very cool!

I’ve been asking this question since I installed iTunes when I bought an iPod video last year. iTunes does the job getting music and podcasts onto my iPod but it’s a very poor day to day mp3 player on the PC. I can overlook it’s size and general ugliness. But the one thing I can’t overlook is it’s terrible sound.

I’ve used Quintessential Player for several years now with the iZotope Ozone DSP plug-in and it just sounds incredible. Comparing it to iTunes is like comparing a good quality stereo system to a $15 AM radio. I’m not kidding, the difference is really that noticeable. If you ask your friends to compare them side by side, I’ll guarantee your friends will pick the Q-Player/iZotope combo 10 out of 10 times.

I wish I could find a DSP plug-in for iTunes that would put it in the game with Q-Player but I’ve not been able to find another other than a really lame one from Volume Logic. I’m surprised that given iTunes seemingly ubiquity, there isn’t more competition in this area.

Does anyone have suggestions for making iTunes sound better?

The ‘kicking a’ Q-Player

Michael Robertson who created mp3.com, Linspire, and now Ajax13 had this to say about desktop applications:

Desktop software programs are slowly dying and being replaced by web based programs as the world moves to “the cloud” (the net). The best example is communication programs such as Eudora and Outlook which are being replaced by Gmail and Yahoo Mail. But now another type of desktop software is starting to make the shift, productivity software. Programs like MS Word and MS Powerpoint will soon be replaced by browser driven programs. Through use of AJAX technology these web programs have the same level of responsiveness, no up front cost, availability from any computer with net access, and an expanding feature set. These advantages are hard to ignore.

I’ve discussed this very topic with a number of friends, one of which thinks this whole notion is BS. He wants the feature set only desktop applications can provide today and doesn’t like the idea of saving his personal data in “the cloud”.

I tend to agree for most applications. I continue to use Outlook for most email and Excel for spreadsheet duties. But I do this not because they offer more features. I choose this route because I’m lazy when it comes to applications. Once I understand the idiosyncrasies, limitations and tricks to a various product like Outlook, I’m slow to move to another application. There could very well exist a perfectly good ajax-based email or spreadsheet program. But if it doesn’t act exactly like those I’ve learned to use over the past ten years, it’s highly unlikely I’ll switch.

That’s how I feel today but that could change over time and I believe it will. I’m not a big Gmail or Hotmail fan although I used Yahoo Mail for a few months and found it worked well, probably because it felt the most like Outlook. This past year I installed Roundcube Webmail on my server and I’ve been very impressed. It’s slick, fast and easy to use. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Outlook but that’s a good thing when I’m at work or on the road and just want to check my email. It feels years ahead of Gmail or Hotmail and I even like it better than Yahoo Mail. It wasn’t very easy to setup which is a big negative. Not a single friend of mine in the technology field had even heard of Roundcube. That needs to be worked out or it will remain a niche product. But if you run your own mail server I can highly recommend this very polished product.

Roundcube screenshot

Since discovering WordPress a few years back I’ve also spent far less time in Microsoft Word. WordPress is a phenomenal piece of software written by Matt Mullenweg. When I first started blogging, I’d write my post in Word, spell check it and then copy and paste it into Greymatter, PMachine, Radio or WordPress. But with the advances made to later versions of WordPress and Firefox’s built in spell checker, I have little need for Word anymore. I seldom write letters to my friends and family anymore. In fact, I seldom send them email. Now I fire up WordPress and write a blog entry because I know they will see it there.

–Link to full Robertson post

And I’m sick of being tired all the time. I’ve had a sinus infection and bronchitis now going on two weeks. I went to the doctor last Friday who put me on an antibiotic. I figured I’d take that for four days and be done with it, but I don’t feel all that much better. I’ve been trying to go into work this week but have been pretty much worthless with my constant cough and need to sneeze or blow my nose every 15 seconds. I also lost 10 lbs in less than 3 days. I’ve wanted to lose some weight but this isn’t worth it.

I’m tired of this!!!!!

I guess it’s time to see the doctor again. My sinus infection has improved a lot but my chest is really sore. I was sick last Christmas and don’t want to be miserable this Christmas.

You knew it was coming and it arrived today. Cuban blasts Trump for his really lame blog among other things. There’s something funny yet sort of sad about two billionaires with so much hatred for each other.

“Trump the chump, on the other hand, well Donald, your blog sucks. Its actually pretty embarrassing. First of all, rule number one of blogging Donald is that you are the one that is supposed to write the posts on the blog. Less than half the posts on the front page of the blog have your name as the author let alone are written by you . Blogs are supposed to be personal, not corporate Donald”

–Link to full article

I came across Dave Winer’s website back in 1998 or 1999. I don’t remember exactly. I’d never heard of a blog before. But I started reading his site because I enjoyed the way he writes. Some of his best posts have nothing to do about technology. He writes about politics one day and baseball the next. I’ve been thinking the past few days about what makes a good blogger. What drives me to return to certain blogs each day while others I can go weeks without visiting. What I’ve realized is that I visit those blogs which are created by my favorite writers. I ultimately decided to blog because I wanted to improve my writing skills. I probably would have eventually started a blog but it wasn’t until I came across Winer’s site that I felt interested enough to install Greymatter. Noah Grey created the first software I used to create a blog nearly 9 years ago. I’m really bummed I lost a lot of my early posts due to a hard drive failure years ago. I’ve since moved to WordPress, but it’s certainly worth a visit to Noah’s personal website to check out his amazing photography.

Here is the list of my top 6 favorite writers:

1. Dave Winer – This is the first blog I ever read. I enjoy those posts that have nothing to do with technology the best.

2. Malcolm Gladwell – You know him as the author of Blink and The Tipping Point. I only recently came across his blog. Gladwell has the skill to take a complex idea and make it simple to understand. It’s as if every single word is carefully chosen to describe exactly what’s in his brain.

3. Seth Godin – Seth is a man of few words and his blog entries reflect that minimalist philosophy. I liked his writing so much I bought every single audio book of his I could find on iTunes this past year and listened to them all at least twice. He can tell a captivating story in very few words. He’s clear and concise while using interesting examples to get his point across. This is the first blog I check every single day.

4. Kathy Sierra – She is a breath of fresh air. Kathy has her own style that’s for certain. She has a wonderful sense of humor and creates some of the coolest and funnest graphics you’ll find anywhere. Is there anyone who puts more effort and thought into each post than Kathy? Every single post is quality. Don’t expect numerous daily updates but when Bloglines tells me she just posted, I drop whatever I’m doing and go read her.

5. Scott Adams – Yep, the same guy that created the Dilbert cartoon is an amazing writer. Sometimes his topics are a bit too serious for me (all the war articles) but I really enjoy most of his writing. His sense of humor comes through his posts as does his humility. He just seems like a guy I’d like to catch a movie and pizza with and then sit around and talk about all the weirdos walking around.

6. Bill Simmons – Simmons is an ESPN columnist, otherwise known as the “Sports Guy”. If I could wave a magic wand and suddenly be able to write like anyone…it would be Simmons. I wouldn’t even have to think about it. I just love the way this guys writes. He writes mostly about sports but is tuned into about any area of pop culture you can imagine. Like this post about the best of You Tube. I tried to read his book about the Boston Redsox on the train into work but kept embarrassing myself when I’d begin laughing out loud.

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed my 60 gig iPod video wasn’t holding a charge for more than 2 hours. I used to go a couple of days without charging it. This week I’d unplug it before I’d get on the train and about 90 minutes later when I got into work there was very little juice left. I’ve only had the iPod for about a year. Apple’s warranty covers the battery for a year but I’m fairly sure I’m just over that, and I don’t want to send my iPod in to be repaired and have them swap it out for another one.

So I went online and ran a search for “Best ipod battery” and walked through several websites that sell the battery and tools for a do it yourself installation. I ended up ordering a battery kit from iPodjuice for about 40 bucks.

I’m sort of bummed the battery didn’t last longer than a year. But, from what I read, the replacement batteries tend to be better quality than the originals. I sure hope that’s the case with this new battery. I’ll let you know how the installation goes once the kit arrives.

I bought one of these for my Grandma today who doesn’t own a computer. I live about 900 miles away from her but my father is going to be the on-call service technician if she needs anything. One feature that impressed me was the ability to check the ink and paper levels from the presto.com website.

The early episodes of TWIT were great. It felt less organized but more authentic than today’s show. I’d be happy to just kick back listen to Leo, Kevin, John and Patrick talk about anything. I liked when Calacanis came on and ruffled a few feathers. Things started to go downhill when the Woz came on and talked about green lasers. By far the worst episodes are those that include Jerry Pournelle. This geezer won’t shut up. You gotta checkout his website. This guy is stuck in 1975.

I hope things work out for Leo as he seems like a great guy. But I miss the less polished feel of the early versions. Leo and the gang used to speak their mind much more freely. Now we have Leo making sure everyone stays on topic while he tosses Dell ads around the podcast.

I’m going to give TWIT a few more weeks and see how it goes. If it doesn’t improve I’ll delete it from my iTunes podcasts.