Where is my content? For decades content became available on many mediums. The phonograph, record, the reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, mini disc, DAT, mp3, radio, TV, etc. The list is long and seemingly without end. Some mediums have come at the blessing of the recording industries (vinyl) and some with them fighting tooth and nail (hello mp3). But inevitably digital content took over and now there is a relatively new breed of content becoming more desired; Streaming. Now some audio and video purists cry foul at the thought of “renting” content. The thought of not owning content drives a...

So Apple has had one of it’s worst kept secrets unveiled about iCloud and iTunes Match. For those not in the know, Apple is essentially doing a Dropbox-like service of 5GB free data, and if you want for $25/yr have the ability to sync your iTunes library (legit and otherwise) to the iCloud and have access to your music at 256kbps sample rates (for many this is an upgrade in bitrate). All this for a $150M advance to the record labels. Some ask why would the record deals settle for what seems to be a pittance, but they don’t realize that there are millions of customers out there who have...

Preface For some time now I wanted to get a head unit that would be able to not only connect up my iPod, or any other external device, but I was in search for the elusive head unit that could control an iPod at the head unit itself. This search literally began years ago and there were only a couple units out there that could achieve this feat and for those that did they required an additional module to control an iPod. Now that the demand for this feature is constantly increasing, many manufacturers were finally getting into the game developing head units that have a direct USB connection to their head...

I recently purchased some new Dell Optiplex 755′s and ran into an issue with one of my most tried and true tools, Ghost. I have used Ghost for a very long time but there is a growing issue with SATA drivers that rendered using ghost useless since it wouldn’t recognize the DVD-R drive. In a quick rush I started to research alternatives and ran into Windows Deployment Services (WDS). I used it’s predecessor (RIS) a couple times in the past and really didn’t like it, so I was walking into this project with the notion that I could dislike it. I can say that ended up being farthest...

I haven’t been able to post much of late thanks to a lack of time. The daily grind of work has been insane the last couple weeks thanks to us switching over to a new pipe (from 1.5MB to 4.5MB) to our CT office and switching over to a hosted VoIP solution with a company called Smoothstone. The transition went pretty smooth considering and as of Thursday night the majority of things had finally completed. Over the next couple months I will keep an eye on the system and give a real work view of what they offer.