Elevator Hack

A tip from the "Real Tech News" blog has me eager to ride an elevator to test this out.

When you're in the elevator, push the "Close Doors" AND the "[Floor]" buttons at the same time to enter "Express Mode", which will skip all the other floors and go right where you want. A pretty selfish thing to do unless you have a semi-emergency that requires you to commandeer the elevator, but good to know nonetheless.

Thanks for the tip Alice! (realtechnews.com)

"Elevators that have been tested and worked on:
–Otis Elevators (All But The Ones Made In 1992),
–Dover (Model Numbers: EL546 And ELOD862),
–And Most Desert Elevators(All, But Model Numbers ELD5433 And ELF3655)"

If anyone is able to try this out, please let us know how it goes in the comments.

Now you know,
Garrett Woodroof

Top 10 Video Blogs

For those of you that watch video blogs via Miro or even Google Reader, I've compiled my top 10 favorite feeds/channels. These aren't the top 10 most popular world-wide, but rather my humble opinion as to which have the best content. Feel free to disagree, and please share your favorites in the comments.

And without further ado:

10. Harvard Business Video Ideacast (feed - info)

The Harvard Business Review is one of the most respected business magazines in the world. Some of their writers also have blogs. Some of those blog postings are turned into an interview with the author and/or another subject matter expert.

9. WallStrip (feed - info)

The host, Julie Alexandria, spotlights another stock each episode. She gives an executive summary version of the news related to that particular stock. Occasionally, she conducts interviews.

8. Onion News Network (feed - info)

A satirical news show, the Onion will make you laugh as it observes life, news, politics, and business. On 1 episode, the "breaking news" was regarding human feed-bags. Hilarity ensues.

7. Mahalo Daily (feed - info)

Mahalo Daily is a variety news and story show. They interview experts and regular folk about cars, puppets, hot air balloons, and anything else that tickles their fancy. Formerly hosted by the internet-famous Veronica Belmont, Mahalo Daily is now hosted by the talented Leah Demilio.

6. GeekBrief.TV (feed - info)

One of the "Top 50 Most Influential Female Bloggers" (list), Cali Lewis, hosts a "shiny, happy tech news" show. Her and her husband, Neil, seem to do the whole thing themselves and they do a great job. They seem to really get geek culture and have quite a following.

5. Loaded from CNET TV (feed - info)

Loaded is another tech news show. It's done by Natali Del Conte, former host of TeXtra, who has also been a writer for TechCrunch. One thing that's great about Natali is that she doesn't really pull punches. In her own humble way, she'll tell AT&T that they're being evil and urge them to change.

4. Tekzilla (feed - info)

"Tips, tricks, product reviews, and how-to's" is their motto, and they do it well. Hosted by Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont, the show is very informative (see my last post) and the hosts obviously have a lot of fun. This show actually has two varieties, "Daily" and "Weekly". The Daily version is about 1 minute, and the Weekly version is about 40 minutes. Both good.

3. Scam School (feed - info)

From the revision3 website: "If Harvard offered a PhD in deceit, this would be it. Award-winning magician Brian Brushwood takes viewers on an inside tour of bar tricks, street cons, and scams. If you watch carefully, you'll never have to pay for a drink again!" Great tips and tricks abound on this show. I don't know how much the host gets paid, but I would think that this would be a magician's dream gig.

2. TED Talks (feed - info)

From the TED website: "TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds." TED has since broadened their horizons to include several other industries and ideologies. Speakers are instructed to give the talk of their life in less than 18 min. Many deliver.

1. Experiment of the Week (feed - info)

Robert Krampf, "The Happy Scientist", comes out with new video every week demonstrating something really cool about physics, chemistry, optics, or other sciency topics. He has a real knack for explaining using everyday words and analogies. Most of the time they include an experiment that you can try at home. Never stop learning.

Well, there they are, now you can check them out via the aforementioned Miro.

Feel free to plug your favorites in the comments.

Honorable mentions:

• Diggnation (feed - info)
• Dilbert Animated Cartoons (feed - info)
• Google Tech Talks (feed - info)
• TERRA The Nature of Our World (feed - info)
• The Totally Rad Show (feed - info)
• Timo's HD Movie Trailers (feed - info)
• TWIT (This Week in Tech) (feed - info)

Now you know,
Garrett Woodroof

California: Driving and Talking

As of July 1st, 2008, those of us that call California home will no longer be able to use a mobile phone while driving unless we employ a hands-free device (CHP - FAQs). And, for those of you under 18, you won't be able to use a mobile phone at all while you drive (yep, no texting either). See this informative video on the CalTrans website. (You need to download the .asx video from Internet Explorer and then watch it in Windows Media Player ... lame, I know)

For more information about driving and cell phones, see:

• Harvard School of Public Health (press release, pdf)
• CBS (article)
• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (article)

Some people say that this new law goes too far ... some say it doesn't go far enough. What do you say? Please let me know in the comments.

Although there seems to be a lack of research to indicate that using hands-free devices is more safe than not using them, it seems that common sense would tell us that 2 hands are better than 1.

And with that, maybe it's time to do some shopping...
Newegg.com (iqua solar powered)
TigerDirect.com

Drive safe,
Garrett Woodroof

Miro - Better Than TV

In short, Miro is a free, open-source, RSS driven, bit-torrent using, video downloading and organization software that just might have you canceling your cable service soon.

Miro lets you subscribe to RSS feeds that contain video content and will either let you know when there is new content, or will download the new content automatically. It plays almost every video format you can throw at it, and does it all in an interface that's intuitive and fairly smooth (as long as you have about 200 Mb of RAM to spare).

Got content? You bet. Not only have many of the mainstream media giants embraced RSS technology for some of their content, but the hobbyists and the semi-pro players are coming out of the woodwork! And although they may not have "connections" in the industry, in this youtube/digg/facebook reality, only content really matters. And a lot of the content out there is really good, and some of it in HD!



Why not give it a shot? There's a version for Windows, OS X, and even Linux. Check it out at @getmiro.com. There's a download link on the home page. Or, you can watch the intro video below.

If you decide to try it out, here are 3 good RSS channels to subscribe to:

• Loaded (Done by CNET - Tech news)
• Experiment of the Week (Robert Krampf - Practical Science)
• Harvard Business Video IdeaCast (Enterprise and Management Strategy)

(Top 10 coming soon ... give recommendations in the comments)

Who wants to be tied down by a tv schedule anyway? And who wants to pay $13/month for a Tivo?

Happy viewing,
Garrett Woodroof



Question: What's the real difference between DVRing your favorite TV show, and downloading it via bit-torrent? Please share your thoughts in the comments.