Your Tech Weblog

More on Bemidji State and its Big Mac Move

I recently cited Minnesota's Bemidji State University as a hot-for-the-Macintosh school, one of many in the state that have moved over to Apple computers in a big way.

BSU did something interesting: It went dual-boot with Intel Macs in its big student Superlab to save space previously occupied by separate PCs and Macs.

Now BSU fleshes out the story on its Web site.

Apple has taken notice, a BSU public-relations honcho tells me. The Mac maker will reportedly profile the school and its Mac efforts in the coming weeks.

Related: Mac sales on the rise at Penn State

Update: BSU featured in Campus Technology

It's "A Klingon Christmas Carol" I kid you not

Shakespeare, it has been said, is best enjoyed in the original Klingon.

Now, members of that furrow-foreheaded warrior race are turning their attention to Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," staging a local production almost entirely in the guttural Klingon tongue. (Yes, there will be language help for puny humans.)

The Dec. 8 production of "A Klingon Christmas Carol" is a creation of Commedia Beauregard, a local theater company that produces plays translated from one language to another. This is their first work to be translated from English into another tongue.

It's a science-fictional tongue made famous since the late 1970s on "Star Trek" movies and TV series. "Star Trek" fans have further developed the Klingon language with a dictionary, an academy, and translations of such works as "Hamlet" and "Much Ado About Nothing." Indeed, you can practically live your whole life speaking nothing but Klingon.

The adapted Dickens tale, per a press release, is that of a Klingon who has no courage nor honor, two cardinal virtues of Klingon society. The spirits that visit Scrooge try to help him regain his honor and become a worthy warrior.

A four-person team from the theater is adapting the play and doing the translation. Here's more on the play (done for just one night as a fundraiser on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus), including photos, a sound clip and a video clip.

St. Paul Pioneer Press theater critic Dominic Papatola will have his take on this in Sunday's paper.

Bonus "Star Trek" link: "ST" fans converge in downtown Minneapolis.

Elgato shows a little skin to promo new site

Elgato Systems has debuted an EyeTV Lounge forum area for users of its television-recording and video-encoding gear.

Cool. I'm an Elgato fanboy.

But did they really need to festoon the site (plus a promotional e-mail that just hit my inbox) with cleavage and a crotch shot?

Update: Turns out a local man I really respect, former Apple honcho Mike Evangelist, helps Elgato with marketing and product development. He also oversees the EyeTV Lounge. He just wrote in:

We saw your post about our header image and decided we agree with you; it's needlessly provocative. So we changed it. Thanks for keeping us honest.

The updated image above replaces the old one. 

Do-gooder LaserMonks get into coffee, gifts

Those wacky LaserMonks are at it again.

The Cistercian priests in Sparta, Wis., made a name for themselves a few years ago with their printer-cartridge online store, with all their profits going to charitable works.

Now they've debuted two new e-stores, one selling coffee and the other reselling a variety of gift-style products from other monasteries and convents around the world.

Both sites are just dandy for holiday shoppers who want their money to do good.

I revisit the LaserMonks in today's Pioneer Press.

I wrote a more extensive story about them several years ago (read it after the jump), and that piece merits a mention in "LaserMonks," the new book by business managers Sarah Caniglia and Cindy Griffith. My article apparently had quite an impact on their operation:

In March 2003, a writer from a Minneapolis/St. Paul newspaper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, wrote what would turn out to be the catalyst for the media's interest in LaserMonks...Of the many newspaper, television, and radio stories that have been done on LaserMonks, I think this story really resonated with us and with readers because of the writer's passion and understanding of our mission...

With the publication of this article (distributed widely via the Associated Press), the two of us were hard-pressed to answer the hundreds of phone calls daily, and literally thousands of e-mail inquiries we received as a result. Our orders at that time were somewhere beteween 50 to 100 per day, and for the few weeks after the article came out, orders skyrocketed to more than 300 per day...

Because of the nature of the AP, our story was picked up by various newspapers across the United States, and over the next several months we saw a ripple effect. The daily orders settled in at 100 to 150 per day, after the initial publication, but we would see a rise and fall when it was published in a new market...Customers would call from all over the country, and comment on our news story, which ran in papers from Miami, Florida, to Anchorage, Alaska, and every large market in between.

Note that the Slashdot Effect also greatly magnified my article's impact. (This was pre-Digg.)

Here's my original LaserMonks story, published in January 2004. It's a favorite of mine, partly because it garnered a finalist nod in a major local journalism competition:

Here are eBay stats on top electronics items

My last post got me curious about eBay traffic for the most-coveted gadget-type items, including the Nintendo Wii, so I asked eBay for a few numbers.

Here are the top five searches for consumer electronics over the past week or so. The items are listed from most searched to least searched. This is as of 2 p.m. Central, and it's all gaming or Apple.

Note that the biggest markups by far are on the superhot Wii, which retails for $250:

1. Nintendo Wii 

- There are currently 13,808 Nintendo Wii gaming systems available on eBay.com. 

- Over the past month 14,920 Nintendo Wii gaming systems have sold for an average price of $407.78. 

- Over the past two weeks 8,613 Nintendo Wii gaming systems have sold for an average price of $416.03. 

- Over the past week 4,978 Nintendo Wii gaming systems have sold for an average price of $420.50. 

- Over the past day 922 Nintendo Wii gaming systems have sold for an average price of $407.86. 

2. iPhone

- There are currently 3,229 iPhones available on eBay.com. 

- Over the past month 25,146 Apple iPhones have sold for an average price of $487.95. 

- Over the past two weeks 8,603 Apple iPhones have sold for an average price of $473.76. 

- Over the past week 4,017 Apple iPhones have sold for an average price of $472.67. 

- Over the past day 688 Apple iPhones have sold for an average price of $481.11. 

3. iPod Nano 

- There are currently 4,576 iPod Nanos available on eBay.com. 

- Over the past month 17,509 iPod Nanos have sold for an average price of $193.74. 

- Over the past two weeks 8,772 iPod Nanos have sold for an average price of $188.76. 

- Over the past week 4,763 iPod Nanos have sold for an average price of $191.78. 

- Over the past day 647 iPod Nanos have sold for an average price of $204.37. 

4. PlayStation 3 

- There are currently 2,065 Playstation 3 gaming systems available on eBay.com. 

- Over the past month 13,266 Playstation 3 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $303.31. 

- Over the past two weeks 5,823 Playstation 3 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $289.47. 

- Over the past week 3,196 Playstation 3 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $302.13. 

- Over the past day 722 Playstation 3 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $350.65. 

5. Xbox 360 

- There are currently 3,524 Xbox 360 gaming systems available on eBay.com. 

- Over the past month 18,833 Xbox 360 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $324.29. 

- Over the past two weeks 8,141 Xbox 360 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $323.96. 

- Over the past week 4,130 Xbox 360 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $328.11. 

- Over the past day 665 Xbox 360 gaming systems have sold for an average price of $308.41.

Related: Wii flies off shelves, but supply scarce

Co-worker fumes about Wii, LEGO markups

A co-worker has tried to buy a Nintendo Wii for his kid on eBay, and become incensed at the markup for the hard-to-find item:

... it really ticks me off that money-grubbers have bought up all of the Wiis in the U.S. and then turned them around on eBay to sell them at a $100 to $200 markup. Did you know that a Wii is selling on eBay every five minutes right now? Most are sealed and even come with the receipt from Wal-Mart or Target or wherever. The price keeps going up, too...

I guess what struck me as new was the frequency and intensify of sales. Literally, every five minutes eBay sells another Wii. And they're all selling in heated bidding wars with 20 to 30 bids before the final sale ...

I bid on Wiis from Twin Cities sellers on eBay, so I could pick the console up myself and eliminate the 30 to 40 in shipping costs. But I wasn't going higher than 300, and I got outbid every time.

The heck with that, he said, so he switched to something else:

So, I turned to the really big Star Wars LEGO sets that my son also wants. (Heck, they're almost as expensive.) It should be no surprise that the same phenomenon is happening. Some of those popular sets are being bought out and resold online...

Several of the sets are big, more than $100, and some of the sets are collectors editions that retail above $200. One example is the LEGO set of the Hoth Rebel Base (from Empire Strikes Back) that is nowhere to be found anymore. It's available at twice the price online, though...

This is a little different than the Wii thing, in that LEGO brands some of these sets as limited edition collector sets. However, some of the sets that are currently available through the retail chains are being marked up as well. Current examples include the Trade Federation vehicle and the Imperial Star Destroyer. They retail at $99 but sell at eBay for $130 to $160 plus "handling" fees.

Madness. Classic supply and demand, but, still, insanity. I'm never so desperate for a consumer product that I'd pay through the nose for it instead of simply waiting until prices settle down.

Update: There's quite a bit of local Wii activity on Craigslist, as well, not surprisingly.

AT&T deploys data network with cool tricks

In my recent cell-phone spread, I mentioned AT&T's high-speed data network and how it's new for Twin Cities users.

My biz-tech-reporting colleague Leslie Brooks Suzukamo gets into a bit more detail on this, noting the network's cool live-video-sharing and simultaneous-voice-and-data features.

These work with the cool new Tilt, one of the handsets I reviewed.

I boycott high-def discs, snag DVD recorder

Some have decried the VHS-vs-Beta-style format war between the incompatible Blu-ray and HD DVD high-def movie-discs -- only to salivate profusely and pull out their wallets when HD DVD players recently went on sale for as little as $100.

I ain't caving. No sir. I'm boycotting both formats on principle in my own tech-gadget buying until those turkeys do the right thing and settle on a single format for all movies (though I will continue to look at Blu-ray and HD DVD products in my tech-reviewer capacity, since that's my job).

Yes siree, I steered clear of all that high-definition gear over the weekend to buy a $120 DVD recorder (It's the Philips model in Best Buy's Sunday circular).

It has a nice upconverting feature via HDMI to make regular DVDs look spiffy (though not as stunning as high-definition Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, admittedly), and it replaces my junky old VCR for recording TV shows. (No, I don't TiVo, I'm waiting for the Comcast version.)

Yep, like it fine. That'll do me for a few years while those Blu-ray and HD DVD imbeciles slug it out.

Missed 'BG: Razor'? Buy the 'extended' DVD.

No geek should have missed the fan-frakkin-tastic "Battlestar Galactica: Razor" over the weekend (read my review), but there is hope if you somehow did.

An "unrated extended edition" is now available on DVD. Heck, it's the first thing that comes up in a search for "razor" on Amazon.com.

I've got a copy and will watch soon. Stand by for my take.

Update: Write tight. Good rule. That's what the "BG" folks did with the original "Razor," leaving everything not absolutely necessary by the wayside.

This included a brief scene of Kendra Shaw planetside on her way to her Pegasus posting; a Baltar moment with his yummy imaginary girlfriend; a young William Adama in a fighter battle; a Helena Cain-as-a-child flashback; and a bit of Shaw-vs.-Starbuck verbal jockeying.

It's all good, all enjoyable -- and all expendable to keep the story taut. One of the bonus scenes even spoils an otherwise priceless scene later in the movie. Another of the extended segments is a bit hard to swallow.

Good thing the "Razor" DVD gives you the choice of watching the original or extended version -- start with the former, I'd say.

Related: "Battlestar Galactica" fans Get Much Needed Fix with Striking Writers Blog

Related: "Journeyman" will probably end in December or in January (good riddance)

I've tested lots of cell phones: iPhone is best

I don't own a mobile phone, as I have mentioned before. I can't justify the expense. Besides, I don't care for cell phones. They feel kludgy.

Yes, modern mobile phones do a lot. I took a Palm Centro on a recent trip to Puerto Rico, and it served me well on the mail- and RSS-monitoring front. But I never really liked wielding the plastic-y handset. It didn't feel right, somehow. No handset does, and I've tested lots of them (a bunch of 'em in just the past few weeks).

Apple's iPhone is the big exception for me. It's the only cell phone I like (no love) to use because manipulating it feels so natural. It's all thanks to that gorgeous, responsive touch display, which lets me do so much, so quickly, with simple finger flicks and other gestures.

For comparison, I recently borrowed Verizon's new Voyager. That handset is very iPhone-like on the surface, with a big touch screen. But as I note in this week's Tech Test Drive column, the Voyager is no iPhone killer (though it does have its good points).

My review-unit iPhones have been indispensable companions, ones I've hated to give up once my press-loan terms expired (I never felt that way about any other cell phone,ever).

I've used them as iPods to keep up with podcasts; as e-mail and RSS terminals via the iPod-flavored versions of Google Gmail and Google Reader; as video viewers to stay caught up with computer-recorded episodes of "Heroes" and "The Big Bang Theory"; and as terrific phones and address books with all my contacts from my computer just a tap away.

Little things about the iPhone do bug me.

Though the Safari browser is fantastic, its inability to display Flash content is irksome. I've never become comfortable with the virtual keyboard. Online access via AT&T's EDGE network is pokey, while the Wi-Fi is useless away from hotspots. The iPhone screen is remarkably scratch-resistant, but keeping it pristine is a pain -- and the shiny metallic border around the screen is not scratch-resistant.

At $400, the iPhone is way out of my price range. But if I had my pick of any phone, the iPhone would be my choice.

Related: LG Voyager UI vs iPhone: Spot The Difference