Netflix Outages and Google Phones on WebbAlert

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/18/08 at 03:08:47 pm

Blogging from my Moleskine

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/18/08 at 05:08:58 am

Apparently the Moleskine notebooks have been around since the beginning of time. According to Moleskine “The Legendary Notebook” has been the medium of choice for famous artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, Hemingway, but it seems like the notebooks have only just recently exploded in popularity - especially with the elitist geek community which serves as somewhat of an oxymoron since the concept of a notebook is so low tech. Be that as it may I still know a few people who swear by their Moleskine.

I don’t want to include myself into the elitist crowd but I wanted to find out why these little books are so great. So this weekend I purchased a Moleskine of my own at Barnes & Noble. What’s interesting about this entry in particular is the fact that I am really writing this in the notebook. If I were to lose the book and the person that found it starts reading its contents they will find the first ramblings to be about the very notebook they are reading. I know that if I stumbled across this my mind would be blown at this point.

Anyways, I do see the appeal of owning a good notebook, there’s just something about creating content on paper instead of a big bright computer screen. Ironically, with a blog entry such as this one the worst part is typing it all in and editing it. The only thing this Moleskine notebook is lacking is a ‘submit’ button. Since I’ve had this blog I’ve worked a couple jobs where I didn’t have access to a computer or the internet, so I’ve actually done quite a few entries from a notebook to be submitted when I had time. It’s fun because you can essentially blog from anywhere, and any good blogger knows that the best entries are the unplanned spur-of-the-moment ones.

I think it will be handy to make the Moleskine notebook a part of my daily toolset; I’ll always have a place to jot down ideas, shopping lists, and notes. I just have to remember to not use a gel pen as this one is making a mess.

Hardware Review: Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/17/08 at 10:08:46 am

Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW

I use a 22” monitor at work every day and I feel that it’s the perfect size for light multi-tasking and general use before having to cross over into a dual screen setup. I had dual monitors at home for the longest time, up until just recently I had a really nice 19” Samsung 940BW and a standard 17” Dell E176FP as a secondary. The problem with having dual monitors is even if they are compact LCDs they can still take up a considerable amount of desk space. In my case, I don’t use my desktop PC at home enough to warrant the space used by two monitors when I could just as easily get by with one larger screen. So this month I decided to ditch the two smaller monitors for one Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW.


The 2232BW has arguably high-end specs for gaming and multimedia with it’s with 2 ms response, 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1680×1050 native resolution, and HDCP support. The monitor also sports a nice glossy black casing and anti-glare screen. The 2232BW features Samsung’s exclusive MagicBright3 technology that automatically adjusts the monitor’s brightness according to the content it’s displaying making for a smoother viewing experience, otherwise the monitor has an impressive maximum brightness of 300 cdm2.

It’s hard to find flaws with this award winning monitor but there are some things that could use improvement. The first little issue I noticed is the odd construction of the stand and how it’s attached to the monitor. The plastic stand doesn’t actually ‘attach’ to anything, instead you have to force this round plastic knob into a rubber cup. While the stand looks nice when it’s put together I think it could have been thought out better as the whole forcing process could potentially damage the screen. Another problem deals with the screen itself, while the colors are amazing if you are a professional designer looking for an affordable screen with decent calibration this isn’t the monitor for you. The 2232BW has a tendency to wash out light colors with its brightness, which is strange because I use a much cheaper LCD at work and its calibration is far more accurate out of the box.

With that in mind, from an overall performance standpoint the Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW is an exceptional product. The screen lives up to Samsung quality and for under $300 you get an excellent monitor for a good price.

Lifehacker: Top 10 DIY Videos

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/14/08 at 10:08:28 am

Lifehacker has compiled a list of their top 10 ‘How To’ videos. Get ready to fill up your upcoming weekend, these clips will teach you how to do everything from sucking less at Photoshop to opening a beer bottle with a phone bill.

Like most geeks I find lock picking to be fascinating, so this video on creating a bump key was my personal favorite:

Dammit Wednesday: E-Mail

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/13/08 at 10:08:20 am

Until just recently I’ve never thought of e-mail as anything more than a means of receiving a few messages from family and friends, and perhaps a newsletter or two. As you could imagine, E-mail is HUGE in the business world, it blows my mind every day when I look at all of the messages I receive for work. My Outlook and BlackBerry are going off constantly with ticket updates, alarms, memos, newsletters, forwards from co-workers, it’s freakin’ endless. I tried to count how many e-mails I received yesterday alone and it’s easily pushing 200 messages, 70% of which get deleted off the bat, others are filed away for later and a handful I need to get replies out to right away.

Staying on top of all this e-mail is something I’m slowly getting used to, if I ignore them even for a little while it gets out of hand quick. I’ve already ran into a couple instances when I deleted messages that I should have held on to and completely lost others just because they get buried under the little alerts and ticket updates I get every few minutes. But why does e-mail warrant its own Dammit Wednesday? Well, it’s annoying. E-mail has become both a part and a nuisance of every day life. I remember when e-mail used to be fun and informative, now it just gives me more work to do. It doesn’t matter if your organize it, move it around, set up rules and put it into folders, send it off to others, if you work in an office e-mail will inevitably become your worst enemy.

Best Buy, Mall of America

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/11/08 at 08:08:35 pm

Best Buy - Mall of America

Best Buy has to be my favorite retail store. I can’t figure out why that is either, I mean everything is overpriced, the sales associates are not knowledgeable about their products and they have turned the Geek Squad into a joke. Despite all of that I still enjoy making a trip to Best Buy almost every weekend and this weekend was no exception.

You could almost call me a Best Buy connoisseur - I’m very familiar with how they do business, the company’s history, how the stores are laid out and why. I have a few friends that actually work for Best Buy Corporate (which isn’t saying much since the company is based out of Richfield) and at times I know more about what’s going on in the company then the retail employees. Best Buy is a retail giant that’s going to be around for a long time, they know how to target their demographic far better then stores like Circuit City, Sam Goody, FYE, and CompUSA, that’s why their so successful.

You can believe that Best Buy does it big in Minnesota, most of the stores are flagship quality and they often test new ideas here before implementing them in other areas. An example of this was the new Blaine location that I wrote about earlier this year. Sure enough, a lot of the changes that Best Buy was ‘testing’ at the Blaine store have found their way into the new Mall of America location. In addition to those changes the new store at MOA sports a brand new logo for the company and a (currently) one-of-a-kind musical instrument store, like a miniature Guitar Center within the Best Buy. The opening of a Best Buy store in Mall of America is a big deal because out of that entire mall there were only a few specialty electronics stores, I think they needed a place like Best Buy to fill the gaps and I have no doubt they were thinking the same thing.

The new 45,000-square-foot store inside the nation’s largest shopping center will be one of 8 within 10 miles of Mall of America and it’s the 2nd store in Minnesota that’s located inside of a shopping mall, a trend that Best Buy hopes to grow over the next couple years. Mall of America has also dedicated its events rotunda to Best Buy for future performances such as the celebrity appearance of Earvin “Magic” Johnson and musical guest New Kids on the Block that went on during the grand opening celebration Friday.

Bad times for Bennigan’s lovers.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/08/08 at 03:08:50 pm

Bennigan's Closed

I’m a Bennigan’s fan. A good friend of mine recently turned me onto their Americanized-Irish cuisine and every time I’m down in the suburbs I’m finding myself wanting to hit Bennigan’s for lunch or dinner. When I heard the news about the sudden closings of the corporate stores last week the first thing I did was call the restaurant in Coon Rapids to see if they were still open. I guess I’m lucky that my local store is franchised but who knows for how long. The corporation filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy which means they are looking to completely liquidate assets. I would imagine that process would eventually include franchise stores and their ability to use the Bennigan’s branding.

In my short lifetime, I’ve never seen our economy get to the point where huge corporations and banks are seemingly successful one day and completely collapsing the next. Bennigan’s is a popular restaurant, if you don’t have reservations during the dinner rush you’re not getting in. I think most people knew how popular they were and that’s why it’s such a shock to see them close their doors like this. However, Bennigan’s is only one small example.

Take that same mindset and apply it to the massive banks that run our housing market and the economy in general. Think about Bear Stearns, one of the largest investment banks and brokerage firms in the world - doing fine one day, falling apart as if it never existed the next. There’s no question that we’re already living in a recession, in my opinion a modern depression, and I’m just flabbergasted when people say that it’s anything less.

BlackBerry: More to do.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/06/08 at 10:08:56 pm

I stumbled across this video tonight, it’s a stop motion advertisement that was created for BuiltForBlackberry.com. It was conceived, shot and edited in just over two weeks by Helios Design Labs. This company has done a number of interesting online animations for companies like RIM and Coca-Cola that you’re not going to see on television, check it out.

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