Internet

The Death of TV

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I haven’t had much time to watch television over the past few years. My charity work kept me from having any big blocks of hours available, at least during my regular work week.

The Internet connection I have is through the local cable company, and I had a standard package of channels for my viewing pleasure. A few years ago that meant I’d watch The History Channel and the news channels, with the SciFi Channel on Fridays to see what new happened on Battlestar: Galactica and Stargate.

My interest in The History Channel has been on the wane for some years now, mainly because they endlessly replay old material. It seems that every time I turned it on, there was something playing that I had already seen. Why bother, then?

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Log Me In

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I suppose I am WAY behind the curve here, but just today I have discovered a product that will make my life much simpler.

As of late I have taken on some additional responsibilities wrt my career, and the extra load requires that I need to work at home on occasion. I didn’t really have a way to access my work computer, where pretty much everything I need is located. Well, I could have paid some people to set up secure layers and such to enter the private network, but this solution is cumbersome.

A tech services guy said to just do it the easy way, and use Log Me In. This is a program that you download into your PC. After you do that, you can access that PC from anywhere you have an internet connection, as long as the PC is powered up and has an internet connection. You are literally controlling and working with the PC from wherever you are, real time. My only stumbling block was that I didn’t remember my Windows username and password – I just changed them and everything worked out great.

Like I said, I am probably WAY behind the curve here, but this is like angels singing for the use I am going to get out of it. And the price can’t be beat – zero.

I am not much into pushing products, but this one is a winner if you need access to a remote computer that may have a document on it that you need.

As a birthday/Xmas present I plan on getting a Blackberry or other device like that – I hope Log Me In works as well with that as it does on my home laptop. But I bet the small Blackberry screen will be some sort of challenge. We will see.

Cross posted at LITGM.

Rehabilitating Bush

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Let the  rehabilitation  of Bush begin! For the past 8 years, the most strident and hysterical leftist  criticism  of Bush has centered on his  intelligence  policies which leftists assured us arose purely out of a callous disregard for civil liberties and human rights, if not outright evil.  

Now we read this from the WSJ [h/t Instapundit]:

President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say…They say he is likely to fill key intelligence posts with pragmatists.

Whoa, whoa whoa! Pragmatic? Bush’s polices are suddenly pragmatic? What about the  incessant  ranting for years that Bush had gone far beyond any practical  necessity?  

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Good Idea, Wrong Place to Advertise It

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This morning on the radio I heard a promotional advertisement for Feed the Pig.   I have heard things about this site before and decided to check it out.   It is outstanding.   They have calendars so you can see ways to save money throughout the year, and there are  many tips on how to pinch pennies.

Basically the concept is to teach people how to save, knock down their debt, and generally help them to not waste money  (things that many modern day Americans are horrible at).   I can’t really see a downside to this.   The site is sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs.   I am not sure why they put up the site, but I wholeheartedly support it.

I give the site a big thumbs up, but think I will give their choice of advertising venues a small thumbs down.   I was reminded this morning of  Feed the Pig  while listening to Bloomberg Radio on XM  on the way in to work, getting my business news for the day.  

**Quick aside:   I have three choices of business news to pick from on XM:   Fox Business, CNBC and Bloomberg.   I choose Bloomberg because it is just the facts, with interviews sprinkled in – and the interviews are with interesting and smart people.   In addition, the interviews are always respectful and low key even if people are disagreeing, unlike some of the other places where there are a bunch of idiots yelling and screaming at each other.   In other words, Bloomberg Radio seems more professional to me.**

I really don’t think that anyone who seeks out Bloomberg Radio doesn’t understand the simple concepts of saving and debt that Feed the Pig is trying to teach.   I just think that these are wasted advertising dollars.   A better target IMHO  would be radio stations, magazines  or TV networks that reach places where the people are perhaps not educated or are  unaware of the concepts that Feed the Pig is educating people on.

It is almost like putting ads up for scrap booking during an NFL football game.   Not the right demographic.

Cross posted at LITGM.