greg hughes - dot - net
The contents of this site represent my own thoughts and opinions, not those of anyone else - like my employer - or even my dog for that matter. Besides, the dog would post things that make sense. I don't.
 Sunday, 09 May 2004
There are a number of technological leaps I have not yet made, many of which are pretty commonplace nowadays. Most who know me look at me as one of those guys who's always first to acquire and use new technology, but in some cases that's just not true.
Here are a few facts about me and technology adoption, and where I see myself in the near future with regard to each:
- I don't own an MP3 player - In fact, I never have. Sure I've listened to MP3s on my computer before (but not nearly as much as everyone else I know). I have not jumped on the MP3 wagon yet. I do digital media for sure - I've run Windows Media servers at work for a few years now, I have a hacked TiVo at home and have even put together my own PVR before, and I've used a Pocket PC and Smartphone in the past (both of which can play MP3s with Mobile Windows Media Player), but never have I actually owned an MP3 player. My boss once told me about how he uses audible.com, which is a cool service where you can download electronic books and stuff. That may be what eventually gets me to buy one. We'll see. iPods are looking pretty cool to me.
- I don't yet do IP telephony - This is an area I was exploring earlier today, and it's what got me thinking about the things I have not yet bought into. I was researching Vonage phone service and features, after I started playing with the idea of audio blogging (Maybe you can see the connection, I know it's a stretch, but that's how I got from virtual-there to virtual-here, so to speak). This is something I am seriously considering trying out. Vonage not only now allows you to have a IP phone bridge device for your normal phone to plug into, they also support installing and using a software phone on the laptop (or whatever computer you like). I like the idea of being able to travel and have my phone ring on my laptop when I am logged in. They also have some cool voice mail features, including delivery of voice mails as email attachments and the ability to access your voice mail on the web. Now, how cool is that?
- Picture/Audio/Video Blogging - I know this is not exactly something that everyone's doing, but when it comes to my list of things I think I should have done by now, this is definitely on it. I've wanted to do picture blogging for some time, but I don't have a camera phone (I use a blackberry phone since that's what really meets my hectic needs and work-style). The idea of being able to record an audio blog entry, however, is pretty cool to me - and if I could combine a camera-phone image with called-in audio recording and post them together, well that would be really cool. I'm definitely looking into this. Not sure what practical use it has, but it sounds like fun to me. Oh, and it has to work with dasBlog, which has a number of interfaces for getting remotely submitted blog entries created. For audio blogging on the road, I am looking at AudioBlog.com (Looks awesome and just went into closed beta release - I've applied) and AudBlog.com (which I have already tried, and while it's kind of cool, it just doesn't seem to work too well for my needs - and it's a bit limited in terms of what you get for the buck). Fun stuff, coming soon I hope.
- Windows XP Media Center PC - I have been saying I want to get a Media Center PC for quite a while now, but still have not done so. With the new possibilities created by Microsoft's planned releases of new networked/connected Media Center “extender” devices, the level of desire has been continually increasing on my part. I need to buy a new computer for home anyhow (mine's pretty much dead), but I guess my only fear is that before too long some new OS and the accompanying mega-hardware requirements will replace what's on the market now. I dunno - I'll have to keep thinking about this one.
© Copyright 2006 Greg Hughes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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