Author: Mike Pihlman

  • VUDU Integrates Technology

      Rating:  5 WaterTowers (awesome integration of technologies in the home) What is VUDU? VUDU is a device that uses peer-to-peer video streaming to deliver high definition (or standard definition) movies to your TV via the Internet. As you may know from my previous posts on VUDU, I think it is one of the best technologies to come…

  • URL Shortening: A Quick Peek

    Since I have started using Twitter (see my twitter posts to the right) I have had to learn to live with 140 character messages. Quite a feat for me since I am struggling to keep my blog posts to 500 words or less. 😉 Rating:  4 WaterTowers (perfect for the Twitter generation) Looking at my…

  • Lifesize Desktop Review

    Lifesize Desktop Review

    June 2023: Enjoy this History Lesson on Videoconferencing! 🙂 Rating:  4 WaterTowers  (for leading the SIP only charge) UPDATE August 24, 2011: Read all about the latest LifeSize products, services, here. If only everything I have tried in the past 20 years were this easy, I’d be a millionaire several times over!  🙂 Lifesize has entered…

  • Windows 7

    This article on CNN states that Windows 7 has been “finalized” and will be arriving Oct 22 (Hmmmm…they did not say 2009, I wonder?).      😉 I just bought an emachines (great computer!) at Costco with Vista on it.  Wow, that is / was a really bad OS.  I had the hardest time getting…

  • Teaching and Engineering

    As many of you know, I have been studying to be a teacher the past two years after working for a very long time as an engineer. I have been subbing (an absolutely terrifying experience for the first 80 or so classes, but, especially the first) for 2 years.  I then started Project IMPACT (a…

  • Ruminations on Desktop Videoconferencing

  • Applause Videoconferencing

    Applause Videoconferencing

    UPDATE August 2023: Consider this a HISTORY lesson in videoconferencing. Enjoy! Rating: 4 WaterTowers (high quality video w multipoint for everyone) As you are aware from previous blog entries, the latest round of desktop videoconferencing applications, while very good, are aimed at the corporate infrastructure and user.  If you are a small business standing out…

  • Tandberg Movi: A Quick Look

    Tandberg Movi: A Quick Look

    UPDATE: June 2023: The following is an interesting HISTORY lesson in videoconferencing. 🙂 Enjoy. Rating: 3 WaterTowers (corporate infrastructure needed) Making a Point-to-Point Call After installation (which was easy even with the Beta version Sean Lessman from Tandberg gave me access to), I decided to give Movi a whirl by first calling an H.323 Endpoint.…

  • Phoenix Duet Executive USB Speakerphone Review

    Rating: Preliminary 4 WaterTowers (super easy to set up and use) Phil from Quagga sent me the Phoenix Duet Executive USB Speakerphone to look at as a possible replacement for the Chat 50 I have been using for a couple of months now. Installation Of course I am not reading the instructions…..yet.  😉 Interestingly, the…

  • Vidyo Introduces Mac Client

    I normally don’t put out press releases in this blog, preferring to test a product to see how it works. BUT, in this case I will make an exception for two reasons: 1. The AltamontCowork has been keeping me very busy and a new post has been long overdue.  But, since opening day is May…