Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

With the fall television schedule in full swing, many of us are back in the habit of plopping down in front of the tube at night to catch the latest installment of our favorite show when it's scheduled to air. That means clearing your schedule to watch the show and then sitting in front of the TV for a whole hour just for 43 minutes' worth of programming. That doesn't seem very productive, does it? Luckily, this viewing season there are more ways than ever to catch the latest episodes of your best-loved shows without becoming a slave to the prime-time television schedule. So forget the fall lineup as you know it, because this year you're going to watch TV on your terms.

Six Ways to Catch Your Favorite TV Shows

HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signals

As cable TV companies pack ever more HD channels into limited bandwidth, some owners of pricey plasma, projector and LCD TVs are complaining that they're not getting the high-def quality they paid for. They blame the increased signal compression being used to squeeze three digital HD signals into the bandwidth of one analog station.

HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV's crunched signals - Yahoo! News

Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Ben Stein's extraordinary presentation documents how the worlds of science and academia not only crush debate on the origins of life, but also crush the careers of professors who dare to question the Darwinian hypothesis of evolution and natural selection.

Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists - Yahoo! News

Joint Nokia research project to capture traffic data using GPS-enabled cell phones

Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, and Nokia today (Friday, Feb. 8) tested technology that could soon transform the way drivers navigate through congested highways and obtain information about road conditions. In the unprecedented field experiment, transportation researchers tested the feasibility of using GPS-enabled mobile phones to monitor real-time traffic flow while preserving the privacy of the phones' users.

02.08.2008 - Joint Nokia research project to capture traffic data using GPS-enabled cell phones

Back Up and Reorder Your iGoogle Page

Google doesn't offer a drag-and-drop method of reordering the tabs on your personalized iGoogle page, but you can manually move the tabs using an XML backup tool provided on the settings page. The basic trick should be pretty simple to anyone who's edited web code before, but Google Blogoscoped has a thorough explanation of what you're looking for and what to move. It's also worth a spin just to grab a copy of your iGoogle XML data, which you can restore at any time if that new experimental gadget takes over your whole page (which has been known to happen on occasion).

Back Up and Reorder Your iGoogle Page

PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.30 Brings DTS-HD Master Audio

Today, SCEA announced that the latest PS3 update, 2.30, would bring the ability to decode DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio tracks, that is to say, Blu-ray audio at variable bit rates up to 24.5Mbps, and 7.1 streaming of 96K/24-bit tracks. Does this make PS3 the best Blu-ray player ever? If you've got a receiver that can take an uncompressed audio stream of that magnitude via HDMI, then we think it does. The upgrade also contains new PlayStation store functionality—more details after the jump.

PS3: PlayStation 3 Firmware Update 2.30 Brings DTS-HD Master Audio:

'God particle' expected to be found soon - Yahoo! News

The father of a theoretical subatomic particle dubbed "the God particle" says he's almost sure it will be confirmed in the next year in a race between powerful research equipment in the United States and Europe.

'God particle' expected to be found soon - Yahoo! News

Verizon announces 700MHz LTE plans -- can you wait 3 years? - Engadget

Verizon just announced its plans for the "C block" chunk of 700MHz spectrum it purchased from the FCC for almost $10B. As expected, it's going to provide high speed, 4G services in the form of LTE in the newly acquired spectrum. Of course, the 2010 launch is the same target stated by AT&T. Verizon also claims to have increased its spectrum inventory by about 60%. Before and after auction coverage shots in the gallery below

Verizon announces 700MHz LTE plans -- can you wait 3 years? - Engadget

You Might Want to Wait on that DTV Converter Voucher

As you're probably aware, with analog TV signals being killed off next year, you'll need a converter for old and crappy TVs. The government is offering up DTV converter vouchers worth $40 towards the devices, which you can get now. You should be running for yours now, right? Wrong! CNET gave us a few reasons to wait, and they're good ones.

You Might Want to Wait on that DTV Converter Voucher

Comcast Compressing HDTV Signals to Fit Three Shows into Two Shows' Bandwidth

Comcast has begun compressing HDTV shows in order to deliver more HD channels to you while using the same amount of bandwidth. They didn't use to do this before, but now, when compared to Verizon FiOS, the channels are grainy and blocky and full of artifacts—a result of shoving three channels into a space where only two previously occupied. A guy at AVSForum measured how the new bitrate stacks up against Verizon.

Comcast Compressing HDTV Signals to Fit Three Shows into Two Shows' Bandwidth

Protect Your Privacy When Downloading

Whether you're downloading copyrighted material or not, no one likes to have their activities online monitored. Let's take a look at ways you can protect your downloading and file sharing privacy, and prevent the big media companies and other anti-P2P organizations from spying on your file sharing habits.

Protect Your Privacy When Downloading

Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster

Commercial DVDs are far too expensive to let scratches turn your video into a glorified coaster, but most people still don't back up their DVD collection. Once upon a time, the four to eight gigabyte footprint of a DVD on your hard drive was prohibitively large. But since the price of a gigabyte has plummeted, ripping your entire DVD collection to your computer is not just possible, it's prudent—and it's easy. Let's take a look at the best ways to back up and play any DVD rip on your home computer, along with how to burn a DVD rip back to a playable DVD.

Feature: Turn Your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster

Share your phone's internet connection, through WiFi!

CradlePoint has just introduced the PHS300, a pocket-sized unit that does the same thing—make the EVDO from a 3G-capable device, like a USB stick or compatible phone, into something you can easily connect to with any device that uses Wi-Fi. And it's battery powered. (Although it can plug into a wall, too, of course.)

CradlePoint PHS300: Pocketable EVDO to Wi-Fi Bridge

How to Detect Lies

The following techniques to telling if someone is lying are often used by police, and security experts. This knowledge is also useful for managers, employers, and for anyone to use in everyday situations where telling the truth from a lie can help prevent you from being a victim of fraud/scams and other deceptions.

http://www.blifaloo.com/info/lies.php

Best of: Jon Stewart (not on the daily show)

Here are the best videos of Jon Stewart that aren't of him on The Daily Show. Appearances on Letterman, Dennis Miller, Larry King, Crossfire and more.

check them out

From 1945 to Google 2006: the Complete History of Search Engines

Want to know about the history of search? This article covers the search engine wars from As We May Think right through to current day Google.

read more

Antimatter discovery could launch new era of physics

The discovery that a bizarre particle travels between the real world of matter and the spooky realm of antimatter 3 trillion times a second may open the door to a new era of physics, Fermilab researchers announced Monday.

read more

Where have my posts been going?

This blog is a collection of articles I've found interesting and they all have come from digg.com. However when I switched over to the beta version of blogger, all of the articles that I thought were being posted on my weblog haven't been posted. hmm.
In looking into this, it seems that digg hasn't updated their code to talk to the new beta version of blogger. So it looks like I'll be manually adding these interesting articles until digg gets their act together. :)

Eric

Fascinating Video: Nanotech Assembler

Imagine being to fabricate at home anything you can fathom, be it a carbon nanotube or a television. That vision may become a reality in the not too distant future, thanks to nanotechnology. This video explores that possibility.

read more | digg story

Create an API for any site with Dapper

A new service called Blotter from startup Dapper (dappit.com) is getting some good coverage around the blogosphere today. Blotter graphs Technorati data for any blog over time.

read more | digg story