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Hark! My co-workers are serious about Risk

Turns out a bunch of my co-workers get together periodically to play Risk. They seem pretty serious about it, too.

I got permission to share this recent recap (it's priceless), which included the above image. (For bonus points, try matching the playful titles below with the official bylines in our newspaper.)

That's right -- Orrick the Weasel was victorious in Saturday morning's St. Paul Skirmish #2. 

His success grew early roots in South America, which he gained in his first turn by wiping Friedrich the Great's tired armies off the continent. His cancer spread from there. 

In just the first couple of turns as well, Henderson the Young Turk had Australia, from which he launched a nibbling campaign against the Shaw of I Ran, who was slowly building a force of homeless Mongols in Asia — and brow-beating Henderson to leave him alone. 

Hapsburg Hoppin spread throughout Africa, but dreams of mastering the Dark Continent suffered from several raids by Orrick's Brazilian Brigade, which he'd beat back and pursue into Brazil. 

In what will forever be known as "The Dawn of Deceit," Henderson encouraged Friedrich's offers of peace and treaty — before suddenly and maliciously attacking his peaceful encampments in Europe. With Friedrich's elimination, the last wisp of liberty and enlightenment evaporated from the board. 

From there, the board sank into chaos, as Henderson, Hoppin and Shaw fought like children — leaving themselves unable to stop the global tunneling of the Weasel.

Comcast customers: You are being watched

I recently wrote a page-one story about how some Comcast customers got vague or flat-out-wrong information about whether they'll be affected by the coming transition to digital television (short answer: they won't).

Comcast today followed up to say that the customers quoted in my piece got the runaround because customer-service workers weren't properly trained at the time. Now they are, a spokeswoman claims. Gee, I hope so.

But there's a slightly creepy aspect to Comcast's follow-up: This means it was able to identify all the folks quoted in my piece, and when they called.

It turns out companies are serious when warning you that your calls might be logged or recorded for future reference.

Update: Comcast responds to this post, via Twitter.

Massive "GTA IV" coverage includes my take

Too much "Grand Theft Auto IV" coverage today? David Brauer seems to think so.

But I believe I took a thoughtful, not-very-predictable tack in today's newspaper.

Shopping for an iMac could be a mite easier

I've been in the market for a new iMac for a while (my G4 model is getting oooold), so I was excited about this week's new-iMac announcements.

One of the new 20-inchers just arrived here for review, and I mostly love it.

But choosing among the models -- some with 20-inch screens, others with 24-inch displays -- will take a bit of thought once I'm ready (soon) to plunk down money for my own computer. Some of the issues:

Display. I've just swapped out a Mac Pro review unit for the iMac, and I noticed right away that its shiny screen isn't nearly as nice as the slightly-more-subdued one on the Studio Display that came with the Mac tower. (the iMac screen is brighter.)

This is a glossy-vs.-matte, apples-vs.-oranges comparison, I know. But even so, the iMac's display has a slightly washed-out quality that is a bit disquieting. The screen on the 24-inch iMacs is nicer. This is the subject of a lawsuit.

In a call with Apple, it was made clear to me that the 24-inch iMac has an 8-bit display with millions of colors while the 20-incher has a 6-bit display that "blends colors into multiple shades, effectively getting millions of colors." Hmmm, that's not the same thing.

Speed. While all the iMacs have Intel's new,faster "Penryn" chips, the 24-inch iMacs are zippier than the 20-inchers. So forget about custom-configuring a 20-inch iMac with the 3.06-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors in highest-end 24-incher (also available in the next model down as a custom option).

Ditto for video; you can't put the high-end iMac's pumped-up NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS card card into a lower-end iMac.

Apple has effectively sliced it's iMac lineup in two. This is not so great for customers, one tech blogger writes:

What I find really surprising is that there is an increasing gap between the 20" and 24" units...if you're in a space-constrained environment, you can't get the fastest unit. I can understand the need to differentiate products but surely a better customer outcome would have been 20" and 24" units with the same top specification. There's no option to upgrade the video card or processor in the 20" units.

Memory. Random-access memory from Apple used to be obscenely expensive, but the company has cut a 2-gigabyte upgrade on an iMac from about $400 to about $200. Just do a custom online order, and you're golden. That's the good news.

The bad news: You can still get memory for much, much less elsewhere. 

But doing this is tricky because an iMac with a standard 2 gigabytes of memory has no open RAM slots. You have to pull out two 1-gig modules and replace them with two 2-gig ones. Then you're left with the original modules, for which you have to somehow find a home. (Is there a market for these things?)

Storage. Apple imposes a cascading series of storage ceilings on its iMacs. While you can get up to a terabyte of hard-drive space at the top of the line, the entry-level iMac only goes to 500 gigabytes and the next model up only goes to 750 gigs. 

Sheesh, Apple, I wish iMac shopping were just a teeny bit easier. I don't want a big iMac, but I do want a souped-up smaller one to fit into my cramped working space. I can't get that.

Mario Kart for the Wii is here. Two kids try.

I just received Mario Kart for the Wii, which includes a steering-wheel attachment for the motion-sensitive Wiimote along with a Wii-based version of the classic game.

I rounded up a couple of kids who put it through its paces. Download a short video here (or subscribe to such videos in iTunes here). A YouTube version is embedded below.

Jon, Julio and Dwight weigh in on Chumby

I recently reviewed the Chumby, a cute little Linux computer in a beanbag.

I've prepared two videos to go with my write-up. One, for TwinCities.com, will be up soon (check this post later for an embed below).

The other is a chat with Jon Gordon, my tech-journalist counterpart at Minnesota Public Radio, who also has looked at the Chumby.

My chat with Jon is embedded in YouTube form below, and available for download here. (If you subscribe to my podcast, you can get these and other videos automatically in your iTunes.)

Jon recently prepared a Future Tense segment on the Chumby with Houston Chronicle tech columnist Dwight Silverman, who has blogged about the Chumby and written his own review).

A recap of my digital-TV-transition coverage

Given intense interest in my coverage of the digital-television transition, we're reposting my two earlier Tech Test Drive columns on the topic:

• Upgrade your old set to digital TV. 
• The rabbit-ear crowd has spoken.

You can also find links to these on my Tech Test Drive page.

In today's paper, I have follow-up coverage on the free federal coupons to use when buying digital converters, and what Comcast is telling its customers (correctly, in some cases, and incorrectly in others) about the digital transition.

This post is preceded by four other posts on the topic. See two older posts here and here.

Radio Shack explains the digi-TV transition

With the digital-television transition looming, amid some consumer confusion, retailers say they're getting the word out (while getting scolded and fined for sometimes falling short) about this huge consumer event.

I recently blogged about a Best Buy video (available in English and Spanish) that did a nice job of explaining this. So it's only fair that point to a similar Radio Shack effort. This digital-transition video clip is part a company Do Stuff podcast.

Subscribe to that podcast in iTunes here. Subscribe to my podcast (featuring Radio Shack's digital-television segment) here. Grab the QT file directly, if you prefer, or watch the YouTube embed below.

My digital-converter coupons have arrived!

It's not every day Uncle Sam gives me somethin' for nuthin', so I'm tickled to finally have my two free $40 coupons for defraying the cost of two digital-converter boxes.

The coupons actually resemble credit cards, per this earlier post.

I plan to use my coupons in short order. I'll probably spring for two of these. Here's a look at the various converter boxes available at Twin Cities retailers.

Digital-TV converters - A quick local survey

I write today about digital-converter boxes, the devices that allow older analog TVs to continue working after the Feb. 17 transition to all-digital over-the-air broadcasts.

During my research, I did a quick survey of models available in Twin Cities stores. There isn't a staggering variety of the devices, but pricing does vary a bit. In all cases, you can't order on retailers' sites (you're directed to physical stores).

Insignia/Zenith. Best Buy sells one converter, the Insignia-branded model NS-DXA1. An identical box is sold as Zenith model DTT900 at Radio Shack, Circuit City and Plaza TV and Appliance. This device costs about $60 in all cases.

I've been testing this box here for a while and it's worked well for me, but one reader has a very different story.

Digital Stream. I've never heard of this brand, but the DS-branded DTX990 at Radio Shack is my fave converter thus far because of its flawless operation (at least in my brief testing) and its extra-cool remote (see above). It's also about $60.

RCA. Converter model DTA800 is available at Wal-Mart and Plaza TV and Appliance. It's about $50. I haven't tested this one.

Magnavox. Converter model TB100MW9 is available at Wal-Mart. One local man likes it. It's about $53.

If I missed any local options, please let me know.

Lots more converters (the kind eligible for purchase with free $40 federal coupons) are listed here.