CNET has always been one of the better known names, at least when it comes to Tech reviews and news. So when I ran across this headline on TechCrunch, it really caught my attention.

CBS is set to acquire NET for $1.8 Billion Dollars, and TechCrunch says that the move is aimed at expanding CBS’ reach.

Not too long ago, I posted about how much I liked CNET.TV, and the more content I see, the more I like what they’re doing. Here’s hoping that CBS doesn’t mess it all up.

Heck, maybe they can get more money and a higher production value, since CBS has to have more resources than CNET did.

I’ll be curious to see what happens.

Posted in CNET, Interesting, Internet, Tech-News, TV No Comments »

I can’t honestly tell you that I’ve been regularly checking out the web site of the long time Tech giant CNET. Although I have ran across it from time to time, I just don’t visit it that often.

Until now.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I just can’t seem to sit down in front of the computer and watch videos for more than a few minutes at a time. I’ve talked about some of my favorites, like Webb Alert and Textra, which are both short duration, but I hadn’t looked at CNET TV before now.

CNET TV is also short little clips, but there are a whole bunch of them, and you can even see what’s coming up next. Not to mention the ability to skip ahead if you want.

Pictured to the right is a closer picture of their player, and you can see the upcoming clips listed in the red highlighted section below the video.

This works well, because instead of one short video, I can watch several short videos, which do a better job of keeping my attention than a longer duration video would.

Since it is only tech news, and most of the time I just need the audio, I’m pretty happy just jumping to another application to keep working, while the clips continue to play in the background.

Now, I do this with the video podcasts as well, but let’s face it, like Steve Jobs at the mock turtleneck store, iTunes and/or QuickTime decides to throw a fit once in awhile if they aren’t the center of attention.

On the other hand, my web browser isn’t as picky. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen it in a mock turtleneck.

Back to CNET TV, I did notice one strange thing though, there are music videos thrown in to break up the tech clips. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but the nice thing about the player is that you can skip right over them if you want to. Of course, if you aren’t a tech news junkie just hurting for a fix, you can watch them too.

So if you want to see some tech related content and news, check out CNET TV.

Posted in Podcasts, Recommendations, Tech-News 3 Comments »

I posted recently about TeXtra, but there is a second video podcast that I have been watching lately to get my tech news fix, Webb Alert.

Like Textra, Webb Alert is generally under 8 minutes long, and has a surprising number of stories about what is happening in the world of Technology.

The host of Webb Alert is Morgan Webb, who I first saw on The Screen Savers on Tech TV, and on Extended Play. I had heard that after G4 bought Tech TV, that she remained on that network. I don’t know this for myself, because I haven’t watched G4 since they killed all of the Tech TV shows.

One aspect of Web Alert that I liked is that she shows commercials for blogs that she likes, without payment from those blogs. What a great deal.

Check Webb Alert out, I bet that you’ll like it.

Posted in Podcasts, Recommendations, Tech-News 1 Comment »

I recently started watching a couple of video podcasts, and I think that the key, at least for me, is that I want a short format show.

If you want to catch up on your tech news, I would have to suggest TeXtra. The Podcast is part of the podshow network, and hosted by Natali Del Conte. I’m not particularly good with names, so the name didn’t really ring any bells with me, but if you read her podshow page, she has actually written for a number of well known web sites and / or publications.

As I mention in the title of this post, every episode I have watched to date has been right around 8 minutes long. This is a really great length for media on the computer.

I haven’t watched the last several episodes of Internet Millionaire because it’s just too darn long. At least it’s too long to watch on my computer. I would watch it if I had an easy way to get it on my television. I sure hope that the slingbox is going to be as good as it sounds, and I hope it comes out soon.

Back to the topic on hand, check out Textra, good news, short duration, and entertaining. I also have to thank them, because this is where I heard about TorchWood.

Turns out that I picked a bad time to post about this, since the host of the show is going on vacation for 2 weeks. You can still watch the most recent shows though.

Posted in Podcasts, Recommendations, Tech-News 3 Comments »

  Ok, maybe this is a cheesy way to get a post out, but I have a awful lot of links that I wanted to mention, and I spent much of the weekend hip deep in my Jeep, replacing a valve cover gasket. Doesn’t sound too hard, except that a small portion of the engine in under the firewall (not a computer security device). But enough of my woes… 

- Phil over at Thought Sparks, started posting a CSS tutorial. This week he posted Part 1 – The Body Tag and Part 2 – Horizontal Tabs. Really good stuff.

- I also joined Pownce this week, and I really like it. Combination mini-blog meets chat meets email. Really a cool idea. If you are on Pownce, let me know.

- Yesterday, I found Secure Cyber. What a great site! The author commented on my post about chasing Microsoft Certifications, it turns out he has been in the IT field just a wee bit longer than me, and he has really written some great stuff. Great resource for IT pros.

- I found out about Free Remote Access with Log Me In. They give away the free remote access so that you’ll want to buy their other products. Always a winning deal for me. I saw it in Redmond Mag.

- I spent a little bit of time looking for an online To Do list service, I settled on “Remember the Milk“, but don’t take my word for it, check out these “25 to do lists to stay productive“. Going through the list should prove an excellent way of dodging work.

- If you worked your way through that list of to do lists, here is another one over at Tech Crunch. Use it as an excuse to procrastinate some more.

- All right, this is the last “to do” list for this post. If you have your own server or hosting account, you can always install “Task Freak“. It’s open source. It’s GTD.

- Redmond Magazine released their 12th Annual IT Salary Survey (registration required for the full report), and it looks like the IT sector is still doing well. It got me a little curious about some Microsoft certifications though.

I run across a whole bunch of good stuff that I just don’t have to time to do full fledged posts about, but I still want to share it, so I think I’ll start making these roundups a regular feature.

Posted in Certifications, free stuff, How To, Microsoft, Tech-News, Web Tools 2 Comments »