OK. I understand that the iPad is flawed. It doesn't run Flash, it doesn't have a really usable keyboard, it isn't a phone, it's missing USB and a video camera, blah, blah, blah. All right! I get it!  All my life people have been telling me, 'Your too small Pre', 'Your not fast enough Pre', 'Give up your foolish dream Steve'. But they forgot something, I HAVE TO WIN....whoa. Sorry. I kind of went all Prefontaine for a minute there....

As I was saying, I u...

So, when you live not even 2 miles from the ocean, in a place where other people drive hundreds/thousands of miles to come and visit, where's the perfect place for you to drive 12+ hours and nearly 700 miles to go on vacation? Why a different, way further away beach of course!

This week finds me -- once again -- on the road, this time in Destin, Florida with Dana and Lauryn and much of Dana's family...

There are certain bits of personality douchery that I just do NOT understand.

One is the guy that somehow manages to slip in front of you when the road narrows from two lanes to one. Then once you are trapped behind him, imprisoned in a single lane with no hope of passing for miles, this mystery man likes to dial the speedo back to a real cool and legal 50 or so. He just loafs along for miles as you sit on his bumper, white knuckling the steering wheel and contemplati...

As we live in Myrtle Beach and my parents live in Florida, we have traveled I-95 South – surely the closest thing that the US has to an all out autobahn where driving 80 will get you little more than a shrug from the highway patrol – a few times a year for the past 12 years. And the one constant during each of those 12 years is construction at the SAME exact stretch of highway in a Georgia.

Now, I’m not talking about them slowly redoing the entire 150...

At the risk of sounding like someone complaining that his foie gras is too salty, or that his Cristal isn't adequately chilled, or that the DBS logo-stitching in my Aston driver's side is too tickly on my back, I'm going to make a complaint about movies that, admittedly, will only affect those who on a truly high-end home theater. (I know, I have so few problems, that I am going to complain about the trials and tribulations of watching a movie on our mid-five figure system...)

Last night I made it to the halfway point in my quest to read through the Bible cover to cover this year, putting me at Psalm 84 and at page 765.

One thing you *really* pick up on reading the Old Testament is that death and tragedy were never very far away. Never was the phrase "here today, your entire people gone tomorrow" truer. If you think thatwe have global overcrowding issues today, then thank the Old Testament for the ma-hillions that aren’t around due ...

Last night we had a visit from our Definitive Technology rep, Woody. He drops by every few months to check in on us, show us new product, shoot the breeze and then take us out to dinner. It’s a pretty decent deal all the way around.

The product du jour was Def Tech’s new XTR-50. Now that practically any TV worth buying is sub 1.5-inches thick, all those old on-wall, 4-inch thick speakers that had the indu...

There comes a point when the area around my desk at home becomes so cluttered with discarded papers, random CDs disenfranchised from their jewel cases, strewn notebooks and villages of Lauryn's littlest pet people, that I just have to stop what I'm doing and fully clean. (This is usually preceded by a few moments of mumbled swearing and "Why can't I just have one place in this house that's all mine!") But when cleaning John shows up, it is all business. It is....business time. (Sadly, not ...

Last night was the culmination of 6 seasons worth of one of the most daring, innovative and well-written TV shows ever. A show that wasn’t afraid to kill off favorite characters on a regular – and shocking – basis. If you didn’t watch LOST, then you missed out on a groundbreaking TV series that never pandered and dumbed it down to its viewers. A series riddled with elusive clues and pop culture references and rabbit holes buried deep inside even deeper rabbit holes. If...

Being in the A/V business, when I’m watching TV or movies, I totally notice product placement, and A/V gear pops up ALL the time. And if you think this is just random happenstance, then take a look at the buzz created by Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw switching her beloved Mac to – the horror! the shame! – a PC!

Tech companies work hard (or pay big) to get their products used in a m...

Getting ready this morning, I went to swipe on my deodorant and was SHOCKED to see something that I’d never noticed before. Forget about stupid 3D TV; my deodorant is 3D, baby! I've been livin' the 3D life for weeks and didn't even know it, playa!

How could I have never noticed this? Why haven't I ditched ALL of my Po...

As I’ve mentioned before, I am fascinated with my Website’s analytics. How many visitors do I get, where do they come from, what do they read, and how do they find me.

Google is the giantest repository for finding stuff, and I get my share of Googlers. Usually they wind up to me by searching “3D” or my name or (most recently) anything about Kaleidescape. But I do get the occasional random (and awesome) searches like “flower of dasvidaniya plan...

For someone who has really done SO much for this industry, who battles a debilitating physically challenging condition, and who has been nothing but likable on the several occasions I’ve met him and heard him speak, Noel Lee, Monster Cable’s “Head Monster” is frequently vilified and treated like, well, a monster.

CE Pro recently ran an article where readers could pos...

In most things, I have a pretty strong opinion, and those opinions are often only slightly more flexible than the rock face of Half Dome. And if we talk long enough, at some point, you’re likely to experience a stream of consciousness so honest (OK, so brutally honest) that it might feel refreshing – like a backhanded pimp slap. This is probably why I have a small – but fairly loyal – band of friends, and that my dropout rate of making new ...

Growing up, my mom let me win all the games we played. I’m sure she thought she was doing me a kindness by letting me win, but what it did was teach me how NOT to lose. And now, while I like winning, I *hate* losing. HATE it. If I think that I’ll lose, I’ll choose not to play. (Ask I’m-never-playing-Boggle-with-you-again! Malia...) To me the phrase, “It’s just a game! Let’s have fun!” will always wreak of loser talk.

I’...

At the end of the day, we went to a local place called The Market Commons. I have a special place in my heart for the MC for a couple of reasons. 1) We (Custom Theater) installed the entire outdoor audio system there. It includes like 156 speakers and *miles* of cabling and stacks of amplifiers. It was a great job, and it turned out terrifically. So every time I go out there, it is nice to hear the music playing and see the system working. (I'll give kudos to our salesman, Andrew, who totally...

It's my turn to be off on Mondays this month, so that meant a day of errand running. The day started by taking Lauryn to her 3 year pediatric check-up (only about 6 months late thanks to an H1N1 back-up when they weren't seeing anyone who was just having a regular visit), and we had been telling her for days leading up to it that the doctor was just going to measure her and talk but absolutely NO shots.

So, after about 5 minutes with the nurse, she informs us that there ac...

If you've been following my Kaleidescape posts, you'll know that I've recently questioned their plans for the future, covered their new Blu-player announcement, posted K'scape owners concerns over the new players, and most recently posted an update that included a personal response from K-CEO, Michael Malcolm. Amidst all this, i've been waiting for my rBlu-player review system to arrive, and I can say, that wait is over! (I knew they were totally committed to getting ...

Tonight is the finale of what has been – in my opinion of 20 seasons worth of viewing – one of the best Survivors ever. It was a terrific reunion cast, with very few notables missing. (The only villain noticeably absent was Johnny Fairplay, who, let's be honest, is *such* a douche wad that he really isn’t missed. His last appearance was SO pathetic, asking to be sent home after 3 days, and then Probst went on record saying he would *never* work with JF again, so, re...

I'm sitting at work on an especially gruellingly slow Saturday -- I've already plowed through my book "Know It All," listened to several albums on Napster, cleared out 4 separate spam e-mails for "medications you want"" surfed a good portion of the Internet, posted a blog entry, virtually finished my review of Russound's Collage system and done a bit of *actual* work, all by 3 PM leaving a seemingly unending 180 minutes left to fill until my parole -- when our store's front door opens. In wal...