Tech; Digital Home

Okay, it's not printers, but I found an interesting article in MaximumPC this month "The Digital Domicile". MaximumPC is my favorite technology magazine - highly recommended. The article was alright and there's an online version.

There are interesting pieces to it and some boring parts. I found the video surveillance interesting and the streaming media portion of the article in the magazine. I'm intrigued by streaming, but really haven't figured out why I'd want to make it part of my life. Then again, tubed monitors and TV's still dominate my household. Maybe I'm just too cheap when it comes to the visual experience in the house.

You know what I've been digging the past few months? Being able to catch re-runs online. Did you know you can pop into http://www.abc.com/ and pick up the lastest episode of "According to Jim"? (... same applies to NBC, CBS, etc.) I wonder just how much content can be found online and if it could fill all my viewing needs. Actually it doesn't matter, the other occupants of my house would be up in arms if I disconnected the cable. However, I have been stuck someplace out of town, hooked up to a local WiFi and watched one of those According to Jim episodes to kill time.

Tech Lust: What do I want right now?

• NAS - Network Attached Storage. I want a big hard drive on the network that I can back everyone's stuff up onto, RAIDed to some extent (2 drives, Redundant data.) I need a really stable place to put family pictures, Taylor's art and a spot to share music.


• Slingbox - I don't need one, but it really seems cool. I'll probably get one as my empire grows. Basically it lets you stream your home cable to wherever you are on the 'net. Cool, but I really don't need one right now.

Tech tip for the day: Have an old hard drive you don't know what to do with? Buy an external USB hard drive case. They essentially end up acting like a gigantic thumb drive to your computer. I had a few old laptop drives I did it to. My daughter was the coolest kid in tech class the day she brought one of those in! Cases are all of $20-$30ish bucks.