Welcome to Smuggle Me

There was a great article about how the Colorado Rockies staff has implemented using the video iPod to watch game film before the start of the game.  It really is a unique concept and great use of technology.  With the video iPod, a pitcher can watch each of the batters he is going to face quickly in the dugout before the game starts.

What’s going to come next?  I have a feeling it’s going to be embedded chips in balls that are able to track motion and force hitting the ball.  Might be good information to see if an older player really is slowing down.  Would be an interesting way to scout players if you see that there bat swing is so much slower.  Of course all of this is just qualitative.  I’m sure Michael Jordan jumped high, but not the highest.  What made him special can’t be calculated with a computer.

It is finally unofficially official that Microsoft is working on a product to compete with Apple’s iPod. I think it is great that Microsoft enters the iPod fray. It never hurts for Microsoft to join as long as they don’t take over the market completely and that is never going to happen with the iPod cults that have come about. My real question is how different this iPod will be from a watered down version of Windows CE. Only time will tell.

Here’s a good list of ways that you can get good music legally. I don’t agree with all of the ideas, but I do agree that I don’t like giving a dime to the Music Industry. I love supporting artists, but buying CD’s supports the music industry and not artists.

One thing they didn’t suggest is instead of registering for these music services you should just use BugMeNot.

I ran across a very nicely written article comparing WengoPhone and Skype.  While the article is obviously bias to anything that follows standards and runs on linux I still enjoyed the comparison.  I think the point system deployed is a bit of a farse.  Some of the points weren’t worth giving.

More importantly, I think the article is right that WengoPhone could be a serious competitor of Skype.  I hope it is because competition can’t do anything but help us the consumer.  I love using Skype and have done so with great success.  The best part of Skype is that it is free in the US now so I can use Skype for long distance calls at work and not worry about having to pay my work for a long distance phone call.

I still think WengoPhone has a long way to go to build their user base and to build the featureset of skype, but they are well on their way.  VoIP is the best.