Jammer's Blog

After two years, the war is finally over. I’m talking, of course, about the format war between rival high-def next-generation DVD formats HD DVD (manufactured by Toshiba) and Blu-ray (Sony).

The writing has been on the wall for about a month now, as media companies — some that had remained neutral until recently — have been slowly aligning themselves into Blu-ray’s camp and tipping the scales of the stalemate. But today Toshiba made it official with their announcement that they will discontinue all manufacturing operations for HD DVD players. (Read more…)

The Internet is the future of video, as has been proven by the WGA strike (which looks to be officially ending this week). But watching movies on the Internet is still not a particularly good option, in my opinion. It can provide a substitute in a pinch, but with current technology and bandwidth, it’s not a way I would ever choose to watch a movie, given the alternative. (Read more…)

With some technology, for some reason or another, I end up being a slow adopter. This includes two of the most mainstream and useful media technologies of the past decade: RSS and DVR. (Read more…)

Spam is one of the scourges of the Internet. (How’s that for the most obvious statement of the year?) There was a time not long ago, before I eliminated one of my constantly-spammed e-mail addresses, that I was getting upwards of 250 spam messages a day. I’m sure that number is low by some people’s standards, but it was absurd by mine. (Read more…)

Check this shit out (Fig. 1). McAfee tells you how vulnerable you are with handy red thermometers that might as well say “You suck” so that you go out and buy more of their increasingly annoying products.

For years and years and years, I’ve been a loyal customer of McAfee for their virus protection and security software. Lots of people swear by Norton, but I’ve never been one of their customers; just didn’t happen that way. There’s a saying in retail that if you can get a customer early in their buying days, you can have them for life because they’ll practice brand loyalty. I happen to believe that’s true, because if you’re comfortable with something, why bother changing? (Read more…)

Disney is a corporate media juggernaut, like Viacom and News Corp. As such a juggernaut, Walt Disney Company has more arms than, uh … well, a six-armed man. Yeah.

The Internet portal for all things in the Disney conglomerate is GO.com. What I can’t figure out is what the point of GO.com is. It’s your classic web portal … featuring a layout that looks like a cybersquatter’s default hosting page and the worst identity logo that I can think of. (A long time ago, the GO.com logo looked like a green traffic light, which was far better than that ugly, scripty, awful … thing they have now.) (Read more…)

Remember in the 1980s when VHS and Betamax duked it out? Apparently the manufacturers of the future of home video have not learned from past mistakes (or, more specifically, they don’t much care that consumers will by and large stand on the sidelines while they duke it out), and we’re doomed to repeat the Format War for the future of DVD. (Read more…)

Working in a building where there are still plenty of people who are behind on the whole web/technological curve, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people say “backslash” when they really mean “slash.” (Read more…)

I just read the most vitriolic and hilarious anti-iPhone post that’s probably possible. Read it here. (Read more…)

I’ve heard enough about the iPhone. This must be the most overly hyped thing since Paris Hilton getting out of jail. (Good thing there’s something we can over-hype just about every single day.) Speaking of Paris Hilton, if you watched her interview on CNN last night, shame on you, because you have given in to the pandering of this nation’s mass media and their decision to prioritize the utterly irrelevant. (Read more…)