Looking to suprise your family with a new Blu-Ray player, well you are gonna need some Blu-Ray discs for that. So head on over to Amazon wherre they are having a super Cool Blue Ray Movie sale! Get your favorite one today. Or two… or three… or…

Check out the link below for great savings of up to 56% or more!!

Cool Blue Savings

Don't have a player, well I have a link for that:

Sylvania NB530SLX

All setup for recording #423 when issues with my 10 year-old cropped up. We’ll see you Tuesday morning. Thanks for understanding.

Another non-podcasting night. looks like this week is a bust. Was “recovering” from my vacation, aka – laundry, cleaning, preparing for tomorrow at the day job, etc. No time for podcast today. Maybe tomorrow, if not we will release again on Monday morning. Sorry folks.

Hey, what cool tech have you spotted lately? Are you using anything “techy” that you just can’t live without? I do, my Blackberry. All my email, texts, and the “information super-highway” right at my finger tips any where I roam. Gadzooks, how bad is that? I wonder if I could really get off the “grid” for any extended period of time? Can you?

- Norbert

“Where is the podcast?” you ask. Well, I have been on vacation these past few days, since Thursday actually and am currently at the San Diego Airport. Our flight home is delayed by about 2-1/2 hours. Great. At least I had the forethought to take an extra day off work for recovery.

So my wife and I wanted to take our boys on an airplane flight after we went to Vegas and the New Media Expo. This summer Southwest Airlines had a super special fare sale and we jumped on it. So we booked our flight and decided to stay a few days.

We took off from Sacramento on Thursday and immediately rented a car and went to Legoland! Wow, what s place if you are a Lego fan, young or old. Then we went to Disneyland the next day for a one day whirl wind excursion. I don’t recomended it at all. You need more than one day no matter if you have been there before or not. What a nightmare, but that is another blog post.

Saturday my sister and brother-in-law took us around the San Diego Bay.

Sunday we went to the San Diego Zoo and then to the Hotel Del Coronado. That is always beautiful. I highly recommend it and bring your camera.

Monday, today, we went back to the harbor to look at more sights and shops. Then we went to Cabrillo National Monument where there is an historic light house and where the first European, Juan Cabrillo, landed on the West Coast of North America. It was really cool checking out the high tech lens (at the time) that they used. The other interesting activity that was going on at the tie of our arrival was a tow truck winching up a vehicle from the cliff it accidentally drove down. They used the accelerator as a brake. Bad decision.

Well we then tuned in the rental car and went to the airport. When we checked in at 5:30 PM, we were told we that our flight was delayed, which is why I’m writing theis post. Instead of having a 7:45 flight (which would be boarding right now) we have to wait another hour and a half. This means I will not be podcasting tonight as I had hoped but maybe tomorrow.

So if you were wondering where the podcast is, now you know. Sorry.

- the roving techie,

Norbert

In a NOT too surprising, but very quiet move, Verizon has discontinued the ill-fated Verizon Hub. The page on the Verizon website that once touted the proud “Land Line Killer”, has quietly disappeared like a terrorist target taken out by Navy SEALS.

Verizon only had the Kitchen counter top device out in the market for 8 months. The Hub was supposed to be a new touch screen based home phone system designed to replace old-style home phones. It had a souped-up home communications system, bridging wireed and wireless connectivity in one simple service, that would run on any broadband connection. Looking like a smartphone with a touch screen dock, the Hub would allow the user to enjoy such features as:
* Check local traffic and weather in the morning before leaving the house.
* Update your calendar and automatically receive a text when an appointment changes or as a reminder not to be late.
* Get directions to the new site when the location for soccer practice is moved.
* Find the number of the new pizza parlor to order a pie.
* Preview the trailers from an upcoming movie that you might want to take the family to over the weekend, then purchase tickets using the Verizon Hub.

So as cool as this sounded, Verizon was oblivious to the fact that people like me, to whom this product was aimed at, had my wireless home phone right next to my wi-fi enabled laptop that basically did everything the Hub did, and more. Try downloading a bit-torrent and watching a it on the Hub.

Well, like most products that are about 5 years late hitting the market, this just withered up and died, whether from lack of advertising, bad economy, or just being marketed at the wrong time. Had Verizon really looked at the market, I think they would have seen that consumers want better pricing right now, on any product, and when the economy gets better, then bigger and better gadgets. Oh yeah, and the ability to download torrents!

Missing!! Have you seen me?

Want to be like Tom Hanks in “BIG” and dance on a piano keyboard on the floor? Well check out this cool keyboard for Hammacher Schlemmer – $40

OK, if you have been reading this blog for a while you know I love gadgets and sepecially those from Jakks Pacific. I bought my boys the Eyeclops Bionic Eye magnifyer that you hook up to the TV and it lets you see things blown up to 200X. Or the Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles that were just so freaking cool I haf to do a video and put it up on YouTube. We also have another Eyeclops waiting in the wings, its the Bionic Cam. This is like the origional Bionic Eye but has an onblard LCD screen and uses batteries so its portable! Cool! I can’t wait to break that out. But I did talk about another product from Jakks Pacific that I was wanting for a while back in February in Post #345, the Eyeclops Pocket Projector. This thing was to be under $100 and project an image up to 70". Well, that day has come and QVC has it! They are offering the Eyeclops Pocket Projector with exclusive Eyeclops Speakers for $94.32 + Tax S&H (3 – Easy Payments of $31.44 are available). Yeah, mine is coming on Sept. 5th or there abouts.

Now this unit comes with a base and an adjustible swivel mount to tilt the projector (like up on the ceiling to watch while laying on the floor on your back). The base will house the ‘D’ batteries, or you can use the included AC adapter. There will also be external speakers that come with this exclusive set from QVC. The projector does have a speaker built in, but these are like your simple PC speakers, not Hi-Fi, but they will do the trick. Now it only has tthe 3 RCA (yellow, red and white) composite video connectors that hook into the projector, so no HDTV here, but you will be able to play video from yout iPod to this device and project it onto anything, anywhere when using the base and batteries. Now you can take your videos when camping in the great outdoors (nice way to ruin that outdoors experience). This could be the hit of a slumber party or stayover.

Now you parents are probably saying "Why would I get one of these for my kids?" Well, if you don’t let your kids have a TV in their room and the game console is hooked to your big screen TV in the living room or family room and you have adult guests over that you just want ot have a convresation with ot actually watch a movie with, but the kids are bugging you to play the XBOX, well, use this and they can project the game onto any wall in the house!! Sweet!! Or better yet, be the hit of the block party and have a movie playing on the side of your house or garage door. Sweet huh? You might even be able to project from your video camera while filming the party fun. Hey, what about projecting the Pre-Game show when Tailgating!? There are so many cool things you can do with this.

I will definately let you know how this sub $100 projector does when I get it some time next week.

- Norbert "incureable tech geek" Davis

This is a copy of the email I sent to McGraw Hill company, the publishers of the book "iPod Repair QuickSteps: 1st Edition" by Brandon Jones and Marc Campbell. Mr. Jones is the owner of iKaput.com, a now defunct iPod repair company, to whom I sent my beloved 5th Generation white 30 gig iPod with a broken screen early last year. The rotten bastard took my money and my iPod and never sent it back nor repaired it.

So, being the person that I can be at times, when I feel I have been wronged, I Googled the hell out of him again today. And what did I find almost a year after my Better Business Bureau complaint was closed, a PDF with his name as an author of a book about repairing iPods. Yeah, the irony! So that led me down many other Google results and to some forum posts that gave me a contact at the Utah Consumer Fraud Dept. I am hoping that I can get McGraw Hill to give me his royalties from the book to reimburse me the cost of the iPod and the repair and shipping costs that I was swindled out of, or get this guy busted.

While I know this creep is not going to have anything done to him, at least I’m not sitting down and taking it… Well, O.K., I am sitting down, but I’m Googling and emailing and doing something. That rat bastard can not hide forever. He has to come up for air and I will be their waiting.

So, if you are interested, not that you would be, but if you are, please read the email I sent. Yeah, it’s long winded and a bit whiny, but who cares. If it gets me any result, even just a look by the Utah Consumer Fraud Dept., then I would be happy.

To Whom it may concern,

My name is Norbert Davis and I live in Elk Grove, Ca. I am a former victim (customer) of iKaput.com, an iPod repair company owned by one of the authors that McGraw Hill pays royalties to, Mr. Brandon Jones, co-author of iPod Repair QuickSteps (ISBN: 978-0-07-149866-1) and I would like to make a claim on Mr. Brandon Jones’ royalty payments. See page 4 of the McGraw Hill flyer for verification of Mr. Jones’ being the author and owner of iKaput.com.

Early last year, Mr. Brandon Jones, owner of and DBA iKaput.com, took in my 30 gig iPod 5th Generation last year (on or about March 13, 2008), with the agreement to replace a cracked screen and ship back to me via FedEx. I paid a total of $92.31 (repair & shipping) but never received my repaired iPod. After months of limited success in contacting anyone from iKaput.com, I entered a complaint to the Utah BBB. Immediately after entering the complaint Mr Jones stated he would send me a replacement iPod but Mr. Jones never returned my iPod nor did he send a replacement. Mr. Jones provided me with an explanation of what happened to my iPod was almost verbatim to another former victim (customer) months before, that a former employee stole the iPod.

My email from Mr. Jones: "I apologize for all the delay and and confusion. We recently had and employee steal a bunch of iPods from us, and I believe yours was among them. We are trying are best to get through this. I am going to replace your iPod with a full functioning one of the same model. We should be able to get one shipped out in a weeks time. Again I apologize for this, and I hope this is ok for you.

Thank you,

iKaput"

Their email (forum post) from Mr. Jones: "I apologize for all the delay and confusion. We recently had an employee steal a bunch of iPods from us, and I believe yours was among them. We are trying are best to get through this. What I can do, is either replace your iPod with a full functioning one of the same model with all new parts and a new front without scratches for the price of a general repair of $149.99, or you can choose to donate the broken iPod we would have received. We should be able to get one shipped out in a week’s time. Again I apologize for this, and I hope this is ok for you."

Since I am located in California, I have had a difficult time resolving this situation. I am asking for the assistance of McGraw Hill. I am also sending a copy of this email to Mr. Mike Pitts of the Utah Consumer Fraud Dept. in hopes of obtaining some assistance from him as well.

I would like to make a claim on Mr. Brandon Jones’ royalty payments to the tune of $92.31 plus the replacement cost of the iPod, $320 (plus tax about 8%) at the time. This would be a grand total of $437.91 USD. I believe that since this person has willingly taken my personal property and my hard earned money, as well as the same from many others, that they are a scam artist and are due a forfeit of their royalties from the sales of this book to reimburse me.

I would appreciate it if this email could be passed along to someone in the McGraw Hill organization that could address my complaint/concern and let me know if there is any way that McGraw Hill can help me with making a lean or claim on any royalties that Mr. Brandon Jones is receiving from the book.

Yes, this is just an iPod, however it is more the principal of this person being a scam artist and thief and that he is getting paid while he steals from others that makes me sick. I would greatly appreciate any assistance that McGraw Hill could provide to help assist in my effort to obtain a resolution to my situation.

Sincerely,

Norbert H. Davis

Elk Grove, Ca. 95624

To my loyal listeners. I have been experiencing a huge spam attack lately that has flooded me with hundreds of comment spam messages a day. I do not have the time to deal with these, so for the time being I have turned off the comments. This will be turned back on after whatever “bot” learns that we don’t take comments any more. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It appears that my site hosed up a while back due to an unknown reason, but the plugins were suspected. So I yanked them out by the roots at the suggestion of my web host (Dreamhost) and verified the site would come back up and one by one re-install the plugins that I use and leave the unused ones off the site completely.

Seems to have worked, but we will see in the morning