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Zune hardware, software and community first impressions

This post continues the Zune review series. I received the device for free as part of a Matchstick promotion. My goal is to provide a technically engaging and impartial review for people interested in MP3 players. Other posts include

Marketing in action: Matchstick sends out a Zune
ChatThreads follows up on the Zune feedback sweepstakes

From futility to [...]

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2008 07 07 Jake Billo review
tech Comments (2)

Western Digital disables .avi, .mp3 sharing on external drives

From Boing Boing:
Western Digital is disabling sharing of any avi, divx, mp3, mpeg, and many other files on its network connected devices; due to unverifiable media license authentication.
The support page on the issue effectively notes that the ‘license authentication’ nonsense blocks any type of media from being accessed by anonymous share users.
I don’t own any [...]

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2007 12 06 Jake Billo tech Comments (1)

Unique situation: Asus P5B Deluxe, Vista x64, 4GB RAM

Quite a number of new systems I’ve built have included the P5B Deluxe or P5B Deluxe-WiFi motherboards. After an aggravating experience with a new build today – really out of the ordinary for the hardware – I figured I’d write up my experiences to save other people a potential issue.
Symptoms: When installing Vista x64 on [...]

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2007 09 09 Jake Billo tech Comments (4)

SharePoint/Project Server: almost the bane of my existence

It’s been about 20 days since I was last able to crank out a post for the site – I’ve started a few entries but haven’t been able to finish anything of substance.
Work has primarily been what’s on my mind. I’ve finished – or at least stabilized – a large custom application for my [...]

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2007 08 21 Jake Billo me
tech Comments (0)

1:1 pixel mapping and full 720p on the Sony KF42E200A TV

Over the past few days, I’ve been trying to achieve the proverbial “holy grail” of display resolutions with my Sony KF-42E200A television. These series of TV’s also go by the series name E2000; the A in E200A indicates the Canadian model of this set. They use LCD rear projection technology, and are nearly deprecated in [...]

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2007 07 29 Jake Billo tech Comments (1)

SysAdmin Saturday: potential future upgrades and network changes

It’s “System Administration Saturday”, which is my new informal term for all the maintenance and hijinks required to maintain a stable home network and computing environment each week. I have a significantly overcomplicated LAN, but it’s necessary to maintain the concept of “access from anywhere” that I enjoy being able to use.
Along with the usual [...]

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2007 07 21 Jake Billo me
tech Comments (2)

Wireless data in Canada: my opinion and followup

In recent months, I’ve often complained about the state of wireless data access in Canada – that is, how expensive it is to use the Web, access email and operate instant messaging over mobile devices. These incredibly high data rates make access to devices like the BlackBerry, HTC TyTN, and the obligatory iPhone limited to [...]

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2007 07 09 Jake Billo tech Comments (10)

Microsoft eats crow on the Xbox 360 defect situation

This conference call transcript should explain everything, as well as Larry Hyrb’s podcast feed.
When they have to bring in Peter Moore to explain things, plus offer a $1 billion-plus loss on financial statements, you KNOW that there was something seriously wrong that Todd Holmdahl couldn’t weasel his way out of.

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2007 07 08 Jake Billo Uncategorized Comments (2)

Networking adventures and roadmaps with a new TekSavvy DSL account

I figured that it might be a good idea to draw up a network diagram of my home setup in preparation for a DSL installation later this week. Since about January, I’ve been investigating alternate internet service providers, since there’s no way I can afford having a slow or disconnected Internet line. If Rogers decides [...]

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2007 06 20 Jake Billo me Comments (0)

Safari 3 and OS X Leopard, with some new hardware too

Apple’s huge WWDC was today, and the Steve Jobs speech, while devoid of any new hardware, was fairly interesting in that it heralded the announcements of two huge features for OS X 10.5.
A new Desktop was nice to see, considering Apple’s effectively had the same Desktop UI since OS X 10.0. The improvements to the [...]

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2007 06 11 Jake Billo me
review Comments (2)