July 4th, 2008
Interesting approach to customer service you’ve got there, HP! Hot tipper Zack, who sent his still-under-warrantee HP laptop in to be serviced for a bad hinge, writes:
Well today I received a call from an HP Tech Support guy. I was informed
that liquid had been inside my keyboard and when they opened the computer to
diagnose it, [...]
June 30th, 2008
Linux to the rescue!
Long story short, Comcast uses an application called Sandvine to disrupt certain BitTorrent traffic. That is to say it’s not always Sandvine preventing your from seeding “distros,” but sometimes. Using the old standby iptables firewall, you can configure your system to, in layman terms, “defeat” the Sandvine nastiness.
Best of all, what you’re [...]
June 25th, 2008
All credit unto Gizmodo for spotting this tragic ad. In anticipation of the new Batman movie, which does, in fact, look pretty good (and I hate stupid action/adventure movies), there’s a cute “fake” Web site for Gotham Cable News, presumably the fictional city’s source of fair and balanced news.
And wouldn’t you know it, [...]
June 25th, 2008
Charter Communications will not go forward with a controversial plan to monitor its customers’ Internet surfing habits in order to target advertising at them. The cable company, which is the fourth biggest here in the US of A, was slated to begin tests in four smallish cities (including Fort Worth) of a system that would [...]
June 22nd, 2008
Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable are all sniping at each other, emphasizing the minor advantages their overpriced service has over the competitor’s overpriced service. They’re trading whiny potshots over whether the fiber goes to the house, what “compression” means, and so on, when they should be doing that other stuff cable companies do, like [...]
June 21st, 2008
Good news for P2P fans! It seems ISPs were touting their new bandwidth control methods at a recent Las Vegas convention!
Most seemed to have distanced themselves from Comcast’s scorched earth policy of traffic management, though.
For example, several companies discussed “Smart” routing technology, which works by routing your requests to the closest physical location. So, [...]
June 16th, 2008
Back in December 2007 it was reported that Klausner Technologies was suing Apple and others for stealing its patent on visual voicemail.
Today, Reuters is reporting that Apple will finally settle and license its patents on the technology. Details of the deal were not disclosed, but I’m sure it’s less than the $360 million suit [...]
June 10th, 2008
I live in a building that has a contract with Comcast and refuses to allow its residents to use satellite dishes, which I guess is fine. I think they’re ugly, and the industry has done little to disguise them. In fact, during a recent Best Buy trip I noticed one carrier is now branding its [...]
June 10th, 2008
Iomega wants to make sure you never run out of DVR space with its just announced DVR Expander Drive, a 500 gigabyte external hard drive that plugs right into your DVR, thus expanding your storage. Compatible with eSATA Scientific Atlanta DVRs, the drive should be of use to people with Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Rogers [...]
June 5th, 2008
Sony’s new HDTVs have another feature you’re not going to find on many other models: YouTube. Using the optional Internet Video Link, users can browse and view almost all of the content on YouTube with their remote.
YouTube isn’t the only vieo content available, with other providers like AOL, Sports Illustrated, Comcast’s FEARnet and many others [...]
