Jeremy Castro

My whole life, just like many of you I’m sure, has been filled with a constant procrastination for this and that. I think it’s one of the problems with trying to always keep busy with something to do – even if it is nothing in particular.

Since moving to Philly 11 months ago, I wanted to take some pictures of the Ben Franklin Bridge. There’s something about how it stood out at night on the drives down Columbus Blvd on my way to Home Depot, Ikea, Rugby Practice, the bank or the airport.

I would tell myself, “Man, I need to get a picture of that at night.”

So this past Friday (the 13th of all days) I took my bike, tripod and Canon EOS for a ride around Center City. This is what came out of my multi month procrastination.  Procrastination met my old friend, Opportunity, to fill my Friday night with a little this and that.

(click the image for the gallery)

Once again, we’ve (we meaning Undrcrwn) with Mos Def to drop a special tshirt that will only be sold while he’s at The Rock the Bells Tour.  We printed a limited batch last week for his shows in Boston and
Columbia, MD this weekend.  Many thanks to Mos once again for the opportunity to be involved.

The Rock the Bells Tour

Saturday – July 19th – Chicago, IL
Sunday – July 20th – Toronto, ON
Saturday – July 26th – Boston, MA
Sunday – July 27th – Columbia, MD
Saturday – August 2nd – Miami, FL
Sunday – August 3rd – New York, NY
Saturday – August 9th – Devore, CA
Saturday – August 16th – San Francisco
Saturday – August 23rd – Denver, CO
Saturday – September 6th – George, WA

I think I’ve managed to use Apple’s new MobileMe service to solve part of this problem.

First off, if you only have one cell phone (like a normal person) and it’s an iPhone – I highly suggest you use the MobileMe service.  It’s absolutely sick and does just about everything they says it does with the exception of handling your other email accounts.  If Apple can figure out how to cross this service over to other email providers and calendar applications, this will be a real killer app.

Here’s what I did for my iphone, windows vista PC and blackberry…

Sync Your Blackberry With Your PC Using Microsoft Outlook

I personally deleted all my Outlook contacts and Calendar entries so I could start from scratch since my Blackberry had the most accurate and current info.

1. Download & install the most recent Blackberry Desktop Manager from Research in Motion (currently v4.5)
2. Connect your Blackberry to your PC
3. Once connected, choose “Synchronize” from the Desktop Manager main menu, then “Synchronization” on the left menu and then the “Synchronization” button (Apple doesn’t follow the redundancy mantra that PC developers do huh?)
4. Choose the applications you want your Blackberry to sync with.  Their options are VERY limited (Outlook, data files and Yahoo)
   
5. Double-Click the “Microsoft Outlook” text so we can make a slight change to how it handles the sync.  This will make sure if you make changes on your Blackberry, Outlook or iPhone it won’t automatically overwrite one or the other without you knowing.
   

   

   

6. Once you complete that, click “Synchronize” and all your Blackberry contacts/calendars will be synced with Outlook.

Setting Up the MobileMe Service On Your PC & iPhone (Windows Vista)

1. Sign up for the MobileMe service.  There’s a 60-day trial period for those that want to give it a test drive.
2. Log into your account at www.me.com
3. Download and install the most recent iTunes from Apple.
4. Go to Control Panel -> Choose Classic View -> Double click the MobileMe icon
5. Login to the MobileMe application and it will link your computer with your iPhone/iTunes.
6. Set the applications to sync your contacts, calendars, etc to Outlook.
   
7. Now, your iPhone and Outlook will sync AUTOMATICALLY when you make changes on either device.  This works amazingly well.  Test it out for yourself.

The Final Step – Using Outlook to Connect the Data Between the Devices

1. Your iPhone and Outlook will automatically synchronize themselves using the MobileMe service.  You won’t have to do anything manually and it all happens in near real time over the internet and your cell phone’s data service.
2. The Blackberry must be manually synced by plugging it into your PC and then using the Desktop Manager to perform the sync.

Overall, this is a pretty simple fix once you get it installed and operational.  I think this will save some people serious headaches and will help keep the data on your various phones and devices relatively organized.

Please note, I haven’t even begun to deal with how to synchronize emails because I don’t use my iPhone to handle email and I don’t plan on using the MobileMe email address/service quite yet.  I already have my work account, gmail and a yahoo.  Too many emails to manage.

Hope that helps.

Over the years, I have been following the happenings of an old friend Jason Paul who runs a successful touring symphony based around classic and soon to be classic video games.  The show is called Play: A Video Game Symphony and I finally caught up with it last night in Baltimore.

Essentially, this symphony takes the nostalgic sounds of games like Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy, Legend of Zelda, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Shinobi, Castlevania and newer games like Halo and Metal Gear Solid to life through the complexity of a full orchestra and choir.  See the full list here under “Program”.

Jason’s show has been selling out all over the world – from the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Sweden, Czech Republic and Norway.  Last night’s show was performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in front of nearly 2,100 people with each song followed by a long lasting standing ovation.  Even if you’re not an avid video game head, the sounds were amazing enough to be enjoyed by anyone.

After the show me, Jason, Jacob and another fellow Alamedian living in Virginia (Loretta) went back to the hotel bar to celebrate Jake’s 33rd bday.  Def good times.  Next show I’m gonna go dressed up as Mario.

First off let me say this – Netflix has mastered digital streaming media on the computer and not to your TV too.  Fuck what iTunes is doing & sure you can get everything off bit torrent or www.surfthechannel.com but Netflix is the king with their “Watch Instantly” feature (that
comes free with your Netflix account).  Noted that the selection isn’t the greatest but give them time, it will get there.

And now, to put the cherry on top, they introduced their Roku device that streams their Watch Instantly films directly onto your TV without a computer – all with DVD quality pictures.

Well, last month I took a small chance and impulsively spent the $100 (no additional monthly fee either!) and pressed “Buy Now”.

WATCH INSTANTLY

Since early in 2007, whether at home or on the road (as I often am), I’ve been using the Netflix Watch Instantly feature on a daily/nightly basis.  Their overall selection is not the greatest but it has gotten better and better each week as they continue to add 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s classic movies and TV shows.  Mixed in with random “classics” (Author, Legends of the Fall, Purple Rain, Basketball Diaries, Ghostbusters, A-Team series, Leave it to Beaver series) are some seriously horrible B-movies (King Kong Fu, Karate Dog, Like Mike 2) which unforunately make up most of the catalog.  Hey, they gotta start somewhere right?

Their instant PC streaming technology shines through a small (10,000 plus) online catalog and delivers unbelievably well.  It loads quick and the quality is determined by your broadband speed in order to optimize the speed.  On my widescreen 19″ laptop, it was portable bliss – especially when they got Heroes (seasons 1&2) followed by Weeds (seasons 1&2) and 30Rock (which could be the greatest show ever).  Hours and hours of entertainment built into my already great Netflix account.  At the end of the day, I used Watch Instantly was more than I did using their DVDs.

BUT WAIT…INTRODUCING…ROKU…STREAMING VIDEO TO YOUR TV FROM NETFLIX

When I saw this device advertised on the Netflix site I was intrigued and had to get it.  It was only $100 and there were no additional fees for the service.  The Netflix interface used to select movies on Watch Instantly always sucked and I was def curious when a new “Watch Instantly Queue” suddenly appeared a couple months prior to th Roku announcement.  Little did I know, it was the precursor to the new Roku device that would link streaming media directly to your TV.  Ahhhhh shit!

So, I ordered the device and waited about 6 days for it to show up.  When it showed up via UPS, I almost forgot that I even ordered it because there wasn’t much talk about it online or in real life for that matter.  The box it came in was probably 8″ x 8″ x 4″.  Not big at all, which meant the device was pretty small itself.  Was that a good or bad sign?  Did I waste my money buying something too early?  NOPE.

Like most men do, I opened the box and didn’t read the instructions before trying to set it up.  My excitement was crushed because I didn’t have a cat5 cable long enough to go from my hub to my TV (35″ flat screen) and couldn’t test this new bad boy out.

But, little did I know (would have if I read the info booklet) it had built in wireless!!!!  SICK.  A simple plug in and an easy menu popped up…

• Find a wireless netword & enter the network password
• The device connected and gave me a code to enter in my online Netflix account to link the devices
• Waited like 5 minutes to set up and…

BAMN!!! A cool scrollable visual menu came up with my complete Watch Instantly Queue (from my Netflix account) appeared as DVD covers going from right to left.  You click on a cover with the Roku remote control and it shows you a synopsis of the movie, a rating and options to watch, resume, etc.

I was completely shocked at how fast and responsive the device was.  After clicking a movie, it took less than 20 seconds to begin playing.  And like DVD menus, you can skip to scenes, fast forward, rewind, pause and quickly leave the movie for the home screen at any moment.  And, if you want, you can resume playing where you left off at even if you start watching a different movie/show.

THE VERDICT

As an self-proclaimed early adopter to technology this could have been a gamble.  But $100 isn’t a bad gamble for the potential payoff.  For $100, I got true On-Demand television and movies.  Not bad if you ask me.

In the end, the device has worked flawlessly…

• Easy installation (there’s no way it could be that easy, right?)
• Intuitive and informative menus
• Quick response/loading time
• Great picture quality
• Resumes quickly with cable broadband

But there could be some improvements…

• The movie/TV catalog def needs to improve
• Adding movies to your Watch Instantly Queue is easy enough, but organizing them is near impossible (i suggest using the numbers to order them)
• Finding movies is a pain in the ass because you need to scroll left/right and can’t organize
• The remote doesn’t yet work with a universal

All in all, this device could be the future.  For those of you that sit in front of the TV for hours, it would be a good investment.  But for many of you, give it another 6 months or so and I’m sure it will only get better and better.