RCA PVR Will Use Free Guide+ Program Guide

"RCA has announced (among other CES goodies) a PVR/DVD player for this year that uses the free GUIDE Plus+ program guide rather than requiring an oncoming program guide contract. Once we bring the price down (yes, I work there) I may break down and get one, as I don't like the program guide fee required on current PVRs. (This may be the first no-program guide-fee commercial PVR.)" [Slashdot]

Now this would be a big step forward into the mainstream for DVRs - no monthly fee!

TiVo Is God's Machine

"FCC chairman Michael Powell discovered what everybody who owns a TiVo already knows, which is that it's God's machine. He received a TiVo for Christmas and seems to be a rapid convert. Hopefully FCC rulings will reflect how nice it is for consumers to be able to watch programs at a time of their own choosing." [rc3.org Daily]

Whoo-hoo! Excellent move on someone's part. Why haven't we thought of this before? Give every legislator a DVR and watch them fall over themselves to switch sides in the copyright debate! Brilliant!

From the article, since it's on Yahoo News and will disappear in a week:

" 'My favorite product that I got for Christmas is TiVo,' FCC chairman Michael Powell said during a question and answer session at the International Consumer Electronics Show. 'TiVo is God's machine....'

Powell said he intended to use the TiVo machine to record TV shows to play on other television sets in his home, and even suggested that he might share recordings with his sister if she were to miss a favorite show.

'I'd like to move it to other TVs,' he said of his digitally recorded programming. A number of products already allow that."

The Study of Googlology. To Google or not to Google is Never the Question!

"Due to the way Google has captured our collective attention in the simplicity of delivery and the excellent results in locating documents across the web, people who are truly 'googlites' have begun working words into our vocabulary. Primarily this expresses their feelings of belonging and oneness to what is considered to be an excellent search engine. Amongst others, there are the verbs 'googling' (appears 19,800 times in Google Search), 'googler' (3,850), and recently I found 'The Art and Science of Googlology' ('googlology' appears 5 times in Google Search).

Googlology is the study of origins, history and structure of Google....

I would like to put it forward that this study be one of the central elements of this site along with the matter I will be bringing forward tomorrow Googlosophy. In bringing forward the term 'Googlology' I seek that we can shortcut some of our previously long descriptions necessary because we were foundering in obtaining a term to point at things associated with Google -- the super electronic text. It is inside the electronic text of Google that we find the Google Village where caricatures, icons and listings of you and I reside that make up the searchable world of Google. Googlology is therefore the study of how you and I are represented in this text and how the structure of Google makes meaning in the wider context of the complete Internet.

This study is not only a great new place to construct theory, it is also a place to apprehend electronic reality. This is the study of Googlology. Enjoy as we proceed." [Google Village]

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what blogfame is or is doing, but I have to love any site that is attempting to rank blogs based on something called "authority" (a sacred word to librarians) and has the chutzpah to name the truth-in-advertising help section the Pathetic FAQ. Maybe I'll figure it out after the beta period.

Interesting things I found at this site:

• I'm at the top of the list because I've linked to myself so many times, which makes me my very own link-whore;
   
• Ernie the Attorney has a twin;
   
• I have the same number ranking (of what, I don't know) as Southern Appeal. I'm not really related to that blog, but I like being able to equate Jenny appeal with Southern appeal!
   
• "A convicted killer serving time in Florida has sued the state because lightning knocked out the prison's satellite-television service. The inmate must now watch network television programs, which he claims often contain profanity, violence, and other offensive material." (check out the other (f)lawsuits!)

Please, oh please, oh please - never let me have the need to post anything ever in any way at the Palm Graveyard.

"Welcome to the Palm Graveyard, the Internet's special resting place for desceased PDA's. This page was founded and inspired by the death of my first Palm III, and has grown into a haunted digital wasteland of broken handheld devices. Rumors abound that the ghost of Windows CE frequents these very grounds. Have a horror story or a picture of your dead Palm or PDA to share? Submit your tombstone to: The Palm Infocenter Webmaster Images are encouraged but not required. The latest 5 gruesome deaths are listed below. The tombs of the Palm Graveyard is always open to browse."

Punk Rockers Turn to Opera

"Opera is the only traditional performance art form with an audience that is getting younger. And some Gen-X fans have found the musical genre via the peculiar route of punk rock. They're drawn by opera's high drama, high volume and intellectual challenge. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports."

Two from today's eMarketer Daily:

Outlook for Online Customer Service
"Based on data from Q1 2002, Dieringer Research Group predicts more customer service inquiries in the US will be made online than on the phone in the first quarter of this year. " (For the record, I prefer online customer service and self-checkout lines most of the time. It's all about the convenience, and it's much easier to multi-task online or scan my items myself.)"

Consumer Reports Reports on Online Content
"ConsumerReports.org, one of the oldest and most successful paid content sites, surpassed 1 million subscribers. Marketing Director Michelle Rutkowski discusses its growth with editor David Berkowitz."

"Franklin Covey has announced it will start selling Bluetooth-equipped pens.

'Franklin Covey Co. plans to sell pens and paper-based planners using Anoto Group AB's technology that let customers transfer handwritten text to mobile phones, hand-held organizers or computers. The pens, made by Logitech International SA, will be sold starting next week for about $199, said Jeff Anderson, Franklin Covey vice president of technology products on Thursday. Planners and related software will cost about $45 at stores run by the company, which is named for efficiency proponent Benjamin Franklin and Stephen Covey, author of the bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.' " [The Bluetooth Weblog]

Of course, I don't actually write long-hand anymore.

Addendum: On another front, 3M is making Post-It Notes for Digital Pens, and you can upgrade to their Office Edition software for free if you buy a LogiTech io Personal Digital Pen before April 30th.