TiVo launches iPad app for Premiere

Last week TiVo finally released its iPad app that it had announced back in November.

The TiVo® App for iPad is a fun and FREE new companion for your TiVo Premiere box that lets you search, browse, discover and share without ever interrupting what you’re watching.

Now you can quickly surface new content, view guides, schedule and manage recordings, get recommendations, or investigate a particular actor’s entire resume—all using intuitive, gesture-based iPad interaction. It even enables you to post comments about a specific show or movie on your Twitter or Facebook page. It’s an innovative new way of interacting with your TiVo while you’re kicking back on the couch, or on the road.

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WIJFR: The Foundation Trilogy

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future—to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire—both scientists and scholars—and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the Galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for a future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation. But soon the fledgling Foundation finds itself at the mercy of corrupt warlords rising in the wake of the receding Empire. Mankind’s last best hope is faced with an agonizing choice: submit to the barbarians and be overrun—or fight them and be destroyed.

I just finished Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation Trilogy which consists of three collections of stories: “Foundation,” “Foundation and Empire,” and “Second Foundation.” I’ve read a lot of Asimov’s work in the past (“I, Robot”, “Nightfall”, “Fantastic Voyage”, even “Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids” back in grade school) but somehow had never picked up this Hugo Award-winning classic series until now.

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A year of using Mint

After using Microsoft Money for almost 14 years, last January I started using mint.com to keep track of our personal finances. I wasn’t looking to move my money management into the cloud but was forced to when Microsoft decided to discontinue the online banking portion of Money in February 2010. That pretty much forced me to look for alternatives and after trying out a few, I settled on Mint. It’s been a year … how has it been?

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Bucs finish strong, but miss out on the playoffs

After finishing with only 3 wins last year, my Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints 23-13 to close out the regular season with a 10-6 record. Unfortunately, with the Bears losing to the Packers and the Giants defeating the Redskins, there will be no playoff games for the Bucs (I blame the OT loss against the Lions two weeks ago … thanks for the apology but I’d prefer the 11-5 record and a trip to the post-season instead).

The turnaround from a 3-13 season to 10-6 is a franchise record. Too bad a lot of local folks didn’t get to see a lot of those victories. Unfortunately, the Bucs set another record this year: the only team to have every home game blacked out.

And my Cleveland Browns had another disappointing season, finishing 5-11 just like last year. 🙁

Time to switch to winter sports … the Tampa Bay Lightning are currently leading the Southeast Division and are #2 in the Eastern Conference. I’ll be heading to a game in Chicago in early April to see them play the Blackhawks, but next up is Spring Training  … only 74 days until my annual trip.

1-1-11

Happy New Year!!

Like last year, we did our traditional dinner New Year’s Eve dinner at Melting Pot and then headed to First Night for some activities and fireworks before watching the ball drop in Times Square from the comfort of our living room. I can’t believe Dick Clark is still hanging in there!

After spending last week up in cold northwest Florida with family for Christmas, it was nice to be back home and the weather was beautiful (low 70s). Watching the winter storm in the northeast on TV was enough snow for me this year. I like being able to take the Christmas lights off of my house in shorts. 🙂

What a cool date: 1/1/11. And in a few days on another cool date, 1/11/11, the Dali Museum here in St. Pete opens up in its brand new home.

And what would a new year be without a new tech problem? iPhone users might have overslept today due to a software bug that caused one-time alarms not to ring today. Oops!

Full moon + lunar eclipse + winter solstice = wow

Did you catch the lunar eclipse this morning? My daughter and I got up at 3am to check out the red moon through the telescope.

I think the coolest thing was being able to see stars around the moon through the telescope. Usually it’s so bright it will block out everything else nearby, but this morning there was an amazing amount of visible stars. This was also the first lunar eclipse during a full moon that occured on the winter solstice since 1638. The next time that will happen will be in 2094.

Baseball off-season: training and trades

Usually around this time of year my mind turns to baseball. Spring training is only three months away and I’ve already started planning for my third annual trip out to Arizona in March to see my Cleveland Indians (I’ve already got tickets to two games in-hand!).

But this past week I watched the Rays start to disintegrate before my eyes.

First, Carlos Pena signed with the Chicago Cubs.

Then Carl Crawford was acquired by, ugh, the Boston Red Sox.

And finally Jason Bartlett went back to the San Diego Padres.

OK, yes, that’s only three players (although we lost some pitchers as well) and the Rays still have players like Longoria, Upton, and Zobrist. But it’s still sad to see those other guys move on. Looks like both of my teams will be rebuilding next season (a mode the Indians have been stuck in for quite a while, unfortunately).

Those birds … they’re so angry!

I have been hooked on Angry Birds since I first played the lite version on my iPhone back in April (and then immediately purchased the full version). I started over from scratch when I bought the HD version for my iPad in October. The other week I finally completed all of the released levels with three stars and found 17 golden eggs! Take that, piggies!

Now, someone is trying to broker a peace agreement between the birds and pigs. You can guess how it turns out. 🙂

Rumor has it Angry Birds 2 will be told from the pigs’ point of view (Angry Pigs?) and support multi-player! It might be out by the end of the year … just what I need.