Thanks to NEENZ, champuru.net now has a place beside the Internet’s top Mom Blogs at Alltop.com, a new Guy Kawasaki brainchild. What is Alltop, you ask? It’s an aggregating service that brings you the top picks of popular topics such as celebrities, fashion, sports, gaming, Mac, moms, and much more.

Be sure to check it out. You’re sure to discover a ton of new websites to add to your favorites list.

It’s no secret, I love gadgets. Especially those that promise to make my life more convenient and entertaining — both of which the Vudu promises to deliver. The Vudu is an internet-based movies-on-demand system, currently offered by Hawaiian Telcom.

I’ve done the Netflix thing and I’m a card-carrying member of Blockbuster, but there’s nothing like being able to turn on your TV and have 5000 movies available for instant viewing at the scroll and click of a remote. Besides that, there’s the added benefit of not having to return the videos on time and avoiding those late fees.

The factor that differentiates the Vudu from other video-on-demand services is that you can own your favorite videos. No need to buy another rack to store your DVDs, it’s all stored electronically on your Vudu box. Buying a video will cost you between $4.99 to $19.99. A 24-hour rental will cost between $0.99 and $3.99, and you can replay the movie as many times as you wish during that period. No subscription or monthly fees apply, it’s pay as you go. The box normally costs $399, but Hawaiian Telcom is running a special: get 50% off and a $50 movie credit.

So, let’s talk about the equipment. The beauty is in its simplicity.

The “getting started” sheet is nicely illustrated and the instructions are concise and simple that anyone, no matter how low-tech, can follow. Even if you can’t set the time on your VCR, you can hook up the Vudu. Promise!

Inside the box, you get a power cord, ethernet cable, composite video cables, and an HDMI cable. If you’re like the droves of crazies who went out an bought a big-screen LCD HDTV to watch the Sugar Bowl (like me), you would use the HDMI cable. Non-HD folks, the composite cables work just as well. Other connection options also include component video and S-video.

Pukas galore!

Basic hook-up: 1) power, 2) video connection (HDMI, composite, component, or S-video), and 3) ethernet cable. How easy is that? As easy as 1, 2, 3. Literally. The hardest part was getting an ethernet connection to the television, and even that wasn’t too difficult. You just need to find a long enough cable — and borrow a staple gun, if you’re particular about that sort of thing.

The ergonomically-designed remote control is compact and only has 5 buttons and a scroll wheel. Again, sleek and simple. So zen, I love it.

The clickable scroll wheel is like the one on your computer mouse, except you use your thumb to fly through Vudu’s menus and movie listings. While you’re watching a movie, the scroll wheel is a variable-speed rewind/fast-forward shuttle control. It’s so intuitive and handy. Why every remote doesn’t utilize a scroll wheel is beyond me.

Within minutes, the Vudu was up and running. Take the short tutorial and follow the on-screen instructions as it takes you through the process of checking your network connections and downloading updates for the box.

With our high-speed connection (clocked at 4.5 Mbps), the videos are available for viewing immediately. If you’re running a slower connection (less than 2 Mbps), video delivery will be slightly delayed. Picture quality is good — and for HD folks, don’t worry, you’re covered!

My take on the Vudu? Convenient, simple to use, awesome movie selection (it’s Blockbuster in a box!), and cost-per-movie is reasonable. My nephew who works at Blockbuster may not be seeing us around the store much anymore. Now all the entertainment we crave can be found in that little black box.

[tags]Vudu, video-on-demand, gadgets, television, Hawaiian Telcom, Hawaii[/tags]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my pleas for advice on wireless routers via comments, twitters, and e-mail. I appreciate everyone’s suggestions as well as the gracious offers for free equipment and those who even volunteered to come to my house to set up my wireless network! I feel so loved!

Ryan S. was kind enough to drop off a Netgear wireless router to me today, which made my decision pretty easy. My main motivation was to provide connectivity for my iPod Touch, so I’ll save the purchase of the AirPort Extreme for when I take the plunge and buy a Macbook. By then, there will probably be a better (and cheaper?) model out. But, for now, since my wireless needs are few, the free option was the most attractive.

When I got home from the day’s activities, I fought off the afternoon lethargy and promptly set up the router, switching out my “crusty Linksys” as Derek so aptly put it. After securing my network, I fired up my iPod Touch and it immediately found the network and prompted me to login. Then, bam! I was online, just like that.

The touchscreen keyboard takes some getting used to due to my fat fingers, but the predictive texting feature is pretty handy.

With my wireless connection and iPod Touch, I can now blog from bed and tweet from the toilet. What more can you possibly ask for?

I’m doing a test run. I’m actually blogging from bed right now from my iPod Touch. In less than two weeks, this will be my modus operandi until I am off of bed rest.

It works pretty well for a tiny wireless device with no keyboard. My only gripe? My fat fingers. It’s going to take a little getting used to. But at least I’ll have my connection to the world while I’m in bed urging the snowflakes to stick.

I’m thinking of setting up a wireless network in my house mainly because I’ll be on bed rest for a week and I’d like to be able to surf the web, blog, and twitter from my iPod Touch.

Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with wireless and would love to get some feedback on the best way to do it. Would you use a wireless router? If so, what brand? etc. The router/access point would be in the room adjacent to my bedroom, so range shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Tips, tricks, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! You can either leave a comment here or contact me by filling out the form to send me an e-mail. Thanks in advance.

Seared Ahi and Furikake Encrusted Honda Tofu Salad
Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room, Ala Moana Shopping Center (Honolulu, Hawaii)
Photo taken with Palm Treo

First of all, I feel compelled to comment on the poor quality of this image. Quite frankly, it disappoints me and gives me serious iPhone envy. I love the functionality of the Treo’s calendar, contacts, memo pad and ability to save to SD, but I don’t like the way the phone works and the touch screen is sometimes slow to respond. And, let’s not even compare the photos taken with a Treo vs. an iPhone. Certainly, the Treo does a good job keeping me organized, but it isn’t really a joy to use. The only reason I used my Treo to take this picture is because Hubby was borrowing my Canon Powershot SD550 and I can’t fit my digital Rebel in my purse. (Doh!)

But, enough gadgety ranting, let’s talk about the day!

After my dental appointment (no cavities!), Joyce and I went shopping at Ala Moana Shopping Center. The first order of business was lunch. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice, sit down lunch at Alan Wong’s Pineapple Room located on the third floor of Macy’s. Our growling tummies were promised a 15-minute wait for a table, which ended up being closer to 45-minutes. I’m convinced that it must’ve been an evil ploy, because by the time we were seated, we were both ready to order everything on the menu. In spite of my initial inclination to order a big, fat, juicy burger or the Kalbi Loco Moco, I opted for the Seared Ahi and Furikake Encrusted Honda Tofu Salad (seen above). Upon initial inspection, I was a little disappointed at the lack of seared ahi, which appears first in the description. (I suppose you can’t read a menu like you would an ingredients list. Just because it appears first doesn’t necessarily indicate the quantity of the said item.) However, in hindsight, I believe that including more of the seared ahi might have overpowered the delicate balance of the components of the salad. I couldn’t have asked for more delightful salad. And the chili soy dressing, (oh, the dressing!) had just the right amount of spiciness to add a little kick to the dish. It had to be one of the most palate-satisfying salads I’ve ever had. This, coming from one who isn’t really keen on salads, gets a solid thumbs up. Of course, feeling totally entitled since I had a salad for lunch, I followed it up with dessert: mocha chip ice cream with fresh fruit served in a ginger tulip. All that and a bladder full of plantation iced tea, lunch literally had me waddling out of the restaurant.

Our shopping trip was also very productive, allowing us to check some folks off of our Christmas list. We ended our day at Ward Centre where I picked up a t-shirt for Hubby from Rainbowtique that proclaimed the University of Hawaii as WAC Champions. Now, he can wear that shirt to church with pride tomorrow morning to celebrate tonight’s victory against the Washington Huskies and UH’s perfect (12-0) season.

With all of that accomplished, I even managed to get us back home before the first kick-off of the big game.

So far, I have not found an effective way to import PowerPoint slides into iMovie / FCP. After much trial-and-error, I have still found that taking a screen shot, pasting into Photoshop, and saving as a PNG seems to produce the best (of the worst) results — and even that produces substandard images, in my opinion.

Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
1. From PowerPoint, export to JPG. Produces a crappy-looking JPG file for each slide.
2. From PowerPoint, “make movie.” Produces a crappy-looking MOV file that mimics your presentation’s settings.
3. From Keynote ‘06 and ‘08, export to movie (DV/DVCPRO - NTSC). Produces a slightly less crappy, but still unsatisfactory result.

The presentation that I’m trying to bring in to my video has quite a few “spreadsheet” slides with lots of small text as well as charts with lots of data and lines all over the place. Those slides are pretty much completely unreadable using all of the methods indicated above. When making a screen shot, I notice that image gets all funky when you import it into iMovie, and although it’s readable, it looks blurry, like the camera went out of focus. Distracting and annoying to say the least.

I can’t believe that there isn’t an easier way to do this. Anyone out there making graphic slides for your iMovie/FCP videos? If so, how the heck do you do it?

Day 13 of 30