If you’ve wondered about buying HDMI cables at monoprice.com rather than buying expensive cables at retail, PC Magazine did some testing, and came to a conclusion: they don’t matter.
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How to save a fortune on cables
Don’t use gadget buyback programs
MSNBC consumer reporter Bob Sullivan does a thorough analysis of how gadget buy-back programs work, and why you shouldn’t use them.
There’s no need for me to rehash everything that’s wrong with them, because Bob covered all those bases admirably. I’ll just run through his hypothetical scenario and tell you what you should do instead.
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Meet Chrysalis, the future of Bit Torrent
What do you think of when you think of Bit Torrent?
I think of the place to quickly download ISOs of Linux distributions. My coworker one cube over calls it “that pirate thing.” Most people probably agree more with him than me.
But it seems the creators have come up with a novel use for it, by adding social networking elements to a new client called Chrysalis.
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Microsoft buyouts that worked
On May 10, 2011, Microsoft surprised a lot of people by buying Skype for $8.5 billion. The deal closed October 13, 2011. I think most people thought Facebook would do it. Now I keep hearing pundits say that this will fail, because Microsoft buyouts always fail.
Thing is, I can think of 11 Microsoft buyouts that worked out really well. Over the years, I think Microsoft has proven itself to be pretty adept at both cloning products and buying products. They don’t always improve them all that much, but they frequently remain popular.
Sometimes I think Microsoft is better at buying products than developing them. After you see this list, you might agree.
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More on the new Intel 320 SSD
A few weeks ago, my security go-to guy, Rich P., bought a new Intel 320 SSD for his netbook. With my encouragement, of course. It finally arrived this weekend, and he installed it. Rich reports not only faster speed, but also a 30-minute improvement in battery life over the WD Scorpio Black it replaced.
He told me the secure erase function, to enable AES, had a snag. But he solved it. I’m documenting it here in case you ran into the same thing he did.
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Marketing or Engineering?
The topic of marketing and engineering came up today. I won’t go into details. I’ll just share what I said about the two, by throwing out a few company names and just a little snippet about each company.
The Cars got back together?
On the radio this afternoon I heard something completely out of the blue: the DJ said The Cars have a new record coming out on May 10 and are doing a small tour. So I came home and checked it out, and, indeed, The Cars, minus the late Ben Orr, are releasing a new record called Move Like This next week. You can listen to it online here.
I have seen the future, and it’s cheap
Apple-Intel ARM partnership makes sense
Rumor is that Apple is shopping around for a new manufacturer for the SoCs that power its mobile devices. And that Intel is interested in the business. I think it makes a ton of sense.
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A firewall to defeat Android location tracking
That didn’t take long. If you want more control over Android location tracking, Whispermonitor is for you.
Basically, any time an application tries to hit the Internet, it tells you where it’s going and on what port, and you can allow it once, always, or until reboot. Or deny it entirely.