What! VHS tapes still exist?

So, Wal-Mart and Target are going to stop carrying VHS tapes? This is a total surprise to me. I thought they stopped carrying them years ago!

Circuit City and Best Buy dropped them in 2002 and 2003, but Wal-Mart and Target have been holding on. But now, they are planning on only carrying them for new releases and kids' videos. Now that DVD players are in some 75% of US households, it is about time. The only reason I even have a VCR is to play old 1990's recordings of the Headbanger's Ball and My So-Called Life. The last actual movie I bought on VHS was Speed. You know, from 1994?

Since Wal-Mart is responsible for 1/3 of home video sales, I can now rest assured that VHS tapes will die the death I presumed it already had.

NOTE: Strangely, The two VHS tapes I have with my DVD archive are the aforementioned Speed and my Allsop VCR Cleaner. My VCR is practically moth-balled, but just in case I keep VCR Cleaners around.

The Mouse Pads Are Alright

I have this awesome Memory Foam Mouse Pad sitting on my desk.

It is sweet. I used to have an old gel mouse pad, but it just felt weird. Like I was resting my wrist on a big gob of goo. But this Memory Foam feels right. It's made from the same stuff that those Tempur-Pedic matresses. I do a lot of work with spreadsheets and graphics and Power Point, which requires a lot of mousing. And after a while my wrist starts to ache a bit. The first couple of times I used the memory foam, it seemed strange because it got warm. But that is good! It retains my body heat to help with blood flow to my fingers. The pad also raises my wrist about an inch, keeping my arm more straight.

Allsop has a whole page of information on selecting Mouse Pads. Even if you don't want one with ergonomics they have them for PC Gamers, for executive mouse pads and tons of image mouse pads.

They even have this monster pad that is part of Allsop's Metal Art line. It has a heavy metal frame with a rigid textured surface. Its great for PC Gamers because it won't move. It is a solid Mouse Pad.

Check them out.

Apple vs. Microsoft. Yawn.

So, Microsoft opened an online music store, the MSN Music Service, last September. Yeah - I didn't know about it either. It was/is rather similar to the Apple iTunes music store, selling songs for $.99. Just like Apple, MSN's songs are encoded in a proprietary format (in this case WMA files). Ostensibly, the reason for the special format is to help protect the artists; it limits your ability to make illegal copies of the song file. The real reason for this is to lock you into their operating system and player. Of course Apple does this with the ACC file format, but not surprisingly, I'm OK with this practice. Whatever - that's another story.

So, Microsoft opened an online music store last September. Well, let's say it hasn't had a ridiculous level of success, since in the meantime Apple has grown to a high of 82% market share of the online music store market. Meanwhile other services have cropped up based on a subscription model, ala Napster. Sure, all of these are snipping at Apple, though none are making a dent yet.

Here's the new news: Microsoft has abandoned its initial price-per-song model for a subscription model. In an attempt to win back Windows users, Microsoft is even thought to be planning an offer to let new users download Microsoft versions of songs previously downloaded from the iTunes store. You might say it's a direct attack. So let me get this straight: MS goes from copying Apple to copying Napster and they think they're going to win? Even if they aren't planning on winning, they think they'll carve out enough market share to be viable? And even if they aren't planning on carving out enough market share to be viable, do they think it will be perceived as cool? Even if Apple and the iPod is becoming slightly less cool, it is firmly entrenched.

And sure somebody out the is saying: But Fej, remember the Sony Walkman? It's dead! Apple and the iPod's days are numbered!

Yeah, I remember the Walkman. I had one. But here's the thing. I used it until a new technology came around: The compact disc. So here's my prediction. When the next music format comes along, Apple might temporarily be on the sidelines. But Microsoft will still be snipping at the heels of innovation.

But until then, my iPod is cool.

Home Office = Lame

You know? When we moved into our house in 1999, we had this extra room. Most people would have used it as a guest bedroom or a workshop or, well, anything other than a home office. But me - no. I had this big-ass desk, I got book shelves, hung manly pictures on the wall and put my computer in the center of the desk like any intermediately technical person would do. While this did give me a great place to surf the internet (at dial-up speeds, thank you very much), I did little else in the room. It was essentially storage. Even though the room did little else that house my computer, I didn't have anywhere else in the house for it.

That was six years ago. Now, having owned only laptop computers for four years, the desk now serves as a resting place for my Powerbook to charge. And the only time I sit at the desk is when I have let the battery get too low when there are still web pages I want to visit, or blog entries I want to write, or emails I just must return NOW!

So, here's the deal. Home office - gone. Of course I still need somewhere to put my printer, but I still have my Allsop Metal Art Jr monitor stand for that. I need someplace tidy to leave the computer when it's charging. And on the occasion that I let the battery get too low, I might have to get the charger and plug it in while I'm sitting on the couch. I found this little desk: it's kind of like a old school secretary, as it has a front panel that folds down if you absolutely need a work space. Otherwise it serves as a resting place for the laptop, the cell phone, the digital camera. But the whole thing is only like four feet tall, and 16-inches wide. It's approximately 1/6 the size of my desk. It will fit in the corner and look like a coffee table or something. The bad thing is that I now I've seen it. It was on something like Crate and Barrel, or Pottery Barn or HoldEverything, but I can't find it anymore. So I'm on the prowl.

My new plans for this room? Home theatre, baby. Flat panel. Recliners. Little refrigerator. Sweet.

NOTE: I try to be unique, but alas - I'm not alone. According to cnet other people want laptops for their home offices, too.

Keeping Buffy Clean

It doesn't matter what I do. I complain about other people leaving CDs and DVDs all over the place, but I do it too. When I'm tired, in a rush or lazy, occasionally when putting a DVD in the player, I take out the Buffy the Vampire Slayer disc (the TV Show, not the movie) my wife left in there, and leave it on top of the player.



Here is the danger. My wife is a little obsessed with Buffy. Actually "obsessed" is really not the right word. It's not like she carries wooden spikes around with her or stalks Sarah Michelle Gellar. Let's say she is just really, really devoted. When I take one of her Buffy DVDs out of the player and leave out in the open, it's going to get dirty. And the value my wife places on Buffy is a little higher than the food she eats, so the key to household tranquility is a little DVD cleaning.

Allsop has a few different DVD Cleaners that have saved me more than a few times. Whether it was Disc 2 of Buffy season 3, or the copy of Pieces of April I just got from Netflix. The CD and DVD cleaners and DVD scratch repair kits have rescued movie night.

A Partnership in the Making

So, first let me say that there are many things that I do not know. But for the sake of this post I am going to focus on this: I do not know how many DVDs Netflix purchases of new releases. For example, when The Aviator was released last Tuesday, I don't know how many copies they purchased to meet their subscribers' demands. Since they have more than 3 Million subscribers, I am going to be assume it is a substantial number.

Now you might remember that a few weeks ago Wal-Mart gave up on the mail-order renting-DVDs thing. Wal-Mart actually partnered with Netflix, agreeing to refer customers to Netflix for online DVD rental, in exchange for a link on the Netflix site reminding people that they can buy new DVDs at Wal-Mart.

So here's my thought: What is Netflix doing with all of their previously viewed DVDs? Netflix does offer an opportunity to buy previously viewed movies on their web site, but it's on a select group of titles. and I can't imagine they move a ton that way (of course, I'm sure it's more than I would guess). Are we going to start seeing bargain bins at Wal-Mart filled with previously viewed movies from Netflix? This would be a pretty smooth move, since Netflix could also stuff a coupon in with the movie for a discounted membership and Wal-Mart can cross sell new releases. The Netflix/Wal-Mart partnership door has been opened. There has got to be more action on the way.