Kudos to the customer care people at HP. Seems my new baby didn’t like the USB-connected wireless media adapter. Good news, it’s easily fixed; bad news is that each and every time I boot up, I have to disconnect and then re-connect the wireless adapter. I’ll live.

I struggled figuring out how to burn the TV programs to the DVD recorder. I looked in the documentation and went to all the logical places but could not find it. One call to my colleague Van Baker, and I was good to go. Van is the ultimate gadget guru and our group’s expert in consumer electronics. I think Santa Claus visits Van on a regular basis will all sorts of electronic goodies.

Now working on figuring out which camcorder to buy to start making short video clips using Media Center to put on my blog. I am also wondering if my Coolpix 990 digital camera can make short clips.  I am looking into MPEG4 editing software and creating video-mashups to put on this blog. In the meantime, I have figured out how to make an audio mashup, so I may start there. Wonder what songs I can put together….

Stay tuned.

I have hit a snafu—cannot get the new WM machine to boot as it’s currently sitting there like a beautiful paperweight. Well, I am noodling on how to wake that baby up so I can get to my advanced video tasks, I am reflecting on the state of modern TV. If you look back to the ‘50s, in the days of the blacklists, any actor, writer or producer who even knew how to spell the word communist was kicked to the curb. The fear was triggered by advertisers who didn’t want their products associated with these pinko-Commies.

One of today’s most original shows is MTV’s "Pimp my Ride." We are huge fans and I know my wife would like nothing more than to pimp my ’92 Honda accord. Last night, we watched as XtotheZ helped a cool young man, who teaches inner-city youth, pimp his Accura. The end result was sheer magnificence.

One of the keys to the show is how X keeps his personality in tact (street cred, that is) yet somehow is accessible to the public at large. It’s sheer marketing genius on his part, MTV’s part, etc… In contrast, I was just listening to "Weapons of Mass Destruction," the unedited version of Xzibit’s new "album." Whoa. The rather provocative opening in which he takes a Bush speech and edits it to the point where The President says he’s turning weapons of mass destruction on the American people, is quite mind-blowing.

This is not a comment on the merits of X’s work. He’s talented and truly has something to say. This is to show how we’ve changed as a culture. X is the commercial pitchman for Right Guard or some similar deodorant. Obviously, the sponsor either doesn’t know of or care about X’s political bent. That's to be admired.

I recommend the film, "The Front," starring Woody Allen, for more insight into the blacklisting of the ‘50s. I guess 50 years is a LONG time