On this final day of the year, it seemed fitting to post up the links to the most popular stories over the past year. (Fitting because I see so many other sites doing it, so, well, it must be the meta, blog recap thing to do.) So with a couple of clicks through Google analytics and some custom date range adjustment, I was able to quickly compile a list of the most viewed stories for the past 365 days.

The popularity of some stories surpr...

As we reach the end of another calendar year – and head into what the Mayan calendar promises to be the final waltz of this little ole thing we call civilization – it’s only natural to look back. Not just on these past 12 months, but way back. Like turning the telescope the wrong-way-round way back.  And as I peer down that long, dusty trail of my life what I see is a lifetime that has been closely intertwined with technological changes, advances a...

Twas one year ago, nearly to the day. There was a wet chill in the air, and the promise of a rare, Myrtle snowfall and chapped lips was reiterated in every whispering, wintry gust. Five men gathered together, near the roar of a fire, the crumpled wrappers of 88% dark chocolate and the oily, discarded paper boxes of recently devoured Chinese littering the room. Each presented bottles of his finest and oldest liquid wares to tempt the palate of his fellow-man and cajole them w...

As a writer you hope that you can make some kind of connection with the people that read your work. This is especially true when writing a blog where you share all manner of personal things and give readers a glimpse behind the curtain which is my daily life. (Because, frankly, if you don’t like the blog, you really couldn’t like me. We are one and the same.) For readers that continue to return, I hope to be able to create some kind of reader-writer connection that ...

AKA: Why Sony is uniquely positioned to deliver the next level of home entertainment.

Some of the biggest news out of CEDIA this past September was talk of higher resolution – 4K – projectors; namely the new model from Sony and the four offerings from JVC.  And whether you l...

Often my blogs are long, rambling affairs that discuss some topic while frequently meandering about to other points of interest (well, in my mind at least) along the way. But, the other day I happened upon a couple of things that combined to inspire today’s missive.

First, was a blog from The Bloggess (@TheBloggess). It was a li...

I’ve been sitting on this story for like 9 months now, because, well, frankly I just kind of forgot about it. Then when I remembered it last night -- "Oh, yeah! That would make a great post!" -- I came in to work this morning and promptly had about 45 minutes of panic where I thought I had lost my damn notes as I clicked through all of the spots and folders where I generally save stuff on my hard drive. (And thanks for NOTHING little searching puppy dog guy in Wind...

For our anniversary a couple of years ago, my parents sent us a copy of our wedding video transferred from a no-longer-possible-to-play-in-out-modern-system VHS tape to a still-barely-tech-current DVD. (Sadly, the picture had so many artifacts and scratches that it appeared that someone may have first pulled the length of the decomposing tape from the cassette and then used it to rub against stones and chunks of wood possibly trying to start a fire.) Still, despite the l...

Often times after some heinous crime has come to light, neighbors will start slowly coming forward. You know. They’ll talk about the guy like, “Oh, that Norm. He was a great guy. Ideal neighbor. Kept to himself, always picked up his dog poop, kept the yard nice and tidy. I really had NO idea that he was collecting human heads in his freezer and knitting a giant skin suit.”

Then after a few more minu...

While it’s true that I’ve written some less-than-flattering things about Netflix in the past, and that I am now in the routine of daily check their stock price to garner some twisted and sadistic satisfaction when I see that the share price is once again showing red numbers, the fact is, I’m STILL a subscriber and still have an interest in seeing them survive and continue in business.

I just wonder ...

Remember that old Aesop fable about the ants and the grasshopper? (Or, for you modern, hipper readers, the Pixar retelling, A Bug’s Life.) The ants, they’re a hard working bunch; they’re out all day in the fields, sweating or whatever it is that ants do under the hot sun, harvesting and gathering and storing up food and working and bragging about who got to service the Queen more and biting the heads off of non-tribe member ants. Then there’s the ...