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Rick

Beijing Olympic Coverage on the web

My name is Rick, and I am addicted to watching the Olympics. Since 1976 with Bruce Jenner, I look forward to the Olympic games. My favorite events to watch include weightlifting, swimming, gymnastics (although I abhor the subjective judging), rowing, and bicycling (track and road).

However, being a working stiff and having family obligations means and with the Olympics being held half a world away, I need to find a way to catch some coverage in other ways beside my DVR.

The web is starting to feel that gap, but only if you have a super fast Internet connection. NBC is offering nearly 2000 hours of coverage on their web site, but most of it is raw video and little audio with no commentary. I have the medium speed DSL (1.5mbs) at my home and it can barely keep up with the video stream…especially if my kids are watching YouTube or streaming Pandora at the same time.

If you have a cable or fiber Internet connection, you should have no problems watching the Olympics online via NBC’s site. You can also try watching some video at the official Beijing Olympic web site or the China Central Television web site. Interestingly, because of contractual and legal problems, YouTube cannot show their Olympic coverage in the United States. Hve you found any other reliable sites for streaming video from Beijing?

Asus started a whole new trend

I just returned from visiting my brother and his new baby and traveled, again, with only my phone and my Asus Eee PC. As usual, the little laptop did not disappoint. I was able to keep up with email, work with my spreadsheets and word processing documents and do other web research as well. All from a little marvel that cost less than $400 and weighs less than 2 pounds.

What I learned in the first 4 days of my iPhone 3G

I picked up my new iPhone late on Thursday night, worked with it on Friday, then left with it for a quick trip to see my brother and my first and only nephew. Prior to this phone, I have used some sort of smartphone since 2000…all Palm software based. Prior to that I used Palm handheld computers since about 1997.

I decided to move to the iPhone because I felt that the Palm innovation had stagnated…about 5 years ago. Plus, with all the innovation and development happening around the iPhone, I knew it was a great opportunity to take my smartphone usage even further than the Palm based systems had. A real quick word about any smartphone; they aren’t met for every cell phone user. Smartphones are designed for people who want to check email, lookup information on the web, get maps, send text messages, add specialty programs like conversion programs, time trackers and much more to their phone.

Enough blabber, here are some of my thoughts about the iPhone after only four days of use:

  1. The screen is absolutely stunning…clear, bright, and responsive.

  2. I really miss being able to select text

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 007

I had some trouble syncing up this video with the narration today, but there are at least 11 questions answered in this episode. Questions in this edition include questions about Ubuntu, printers, a proposition (?), Windows Media Player, Firefox, and two questions I couldn’t fully answer. No AVG questions this time around.

Enjoy!

My iPhone 3G is on its way

Finally, after an almost 4 week wait (between working with my current provider and ordering the new phone), my new iPhone 3G is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Last year when the first generation iPhone appeared on the scene, I spoke up and said that the iPhone was too expensive, too slow, and not expandable (lack of add-on applications).

Being a long time Palm user, then the Palm smartphone series user, I saw that the first iPhone, though compelling, lacked some features to justify its high price ($599 last year). I made the move this year because Apple and AT&T added the high speed 3G network, add-on application support, and reduced the price to $199 and $299.

More Firefox 3.0 Features – Video Tip

I’ve posted some tips already demonstrating some of the power of Firefox 3.0. In today’s tip, I demonstrate how Mozilla has improved Firefox’s tabbed browsing, improved the ability to find and manage 3rd party add-ons, customize your address and search bar box lengths and more.

Take a look at the video and learn why Firefox 3.0 remains at the top of the Internet browsing mountain.

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 006

In today’s episode, I answer a lot of AVG and Firefox questions. An Ubuntu question slipped in as did some AOL questions, HTML questions and others. Here you go…thanks for writing and keep those questions coming!

Increase the speed of your computer

If your computer still performs all the functions you want it to do, there is no need to replace it. However, no matter if you’ve been using the same computer for a month or seven years, all computers need and crave RAM (Random Access Memory).

RAM provides the ‘umph’ for our computers and an abundance of it helps Windows’ performance tremendously.

Hard drive space (physical storage of your data) and RAM (temporary memory for running programs) utilize two distinctly different types of technologies. So, don’t equate free hard drive space with RAM. Instead, use these guidelines for figuring out your RAM needs.

Because of the dramatic drop in price over the past two years of RAM, here are my current recommendations for your computer system (the numbers are in megabytes):

Telecommunications Bundling

Almost two years ago, I wrote an article (click here) about knowing how much you pay for your telecommunications every month. Telecommunications costs include cell phone, long distance, land line phone, cable or satellite TV, and Internet costs. I use the method I described in that article to help people get more of a handle on their tech costs and features  and often save them money while getting better services.

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 005

I’m almost caught up with the email in the Questions Inbox here at HelpMeRick.com. Keep them coming by clicking the link above that says “Email Us”.

In today’s episode, I answer questions from users about converting from Vista to XP, many Firefox questions, and some others I don’t remember, but you will find out shortly when you click the Play button on the video.