First of all, Maki was on the Nissan Leaf waiting list for 18 months. 18 months! We kept getting these teaser e-mails and brochures about how the car was coming, but then there would be one delay after another. When Passport Nissan finally started taking orders, Maki was the first in line. Thank goodness we weren’t in a hurry to get a new car.

Actually buying the car once it became available was a snap. But then again, buying a car these days is pretty easy. You go in, you get financing through the manufacturer, you sign a bunch of paperwork and you’re done.

This is a photo of Maki during the assessment, which took place in August. The installation finally happened in November.

Getting the charging station installed so that we can charge the car overnight (using a regular AC outlet would take over 24 hours) turned out to be quite challenging. Nissan gave us a list of contractors, but then they all dropped out of the program. We finally got a company to come out and do the assessment and give us a quote, but they didn’t actually have any installers/contractors available in our area for a month. When we finally got a contractor, the company took forever to file the permit and then they missed their appointment (just never showed up, never even called).  When the contractor finally bothered to come out, actually installing the charging station was a snap because all they did was hook up the equipment to our already-installed 240 volt circuit and mount it on the wall.

Okay, so now we have the car. It’s pretty, it’s quiet and we feel super hip and green. But first generation products come with a price.  The Leaf’s range is less than 100 miles on a full charge. A few days before Thanksgiving, after driving our son around town for some errands in the afternoon, Maki headed out to Dulles airport to pick up my brother. According to the gauge, he had enough charge to get there and back. But he didn’t count on the gauge not being super accurate because range is affected by driving conditions, e.g., going fast on the highway lowers your range. So Maki is at Dulles and he realizes he can’t make it home. Remember all those TV ads about charging stations up and down the East Coast? Those charging stations don’t exist. Period. End of story. I called the dealer, I googled, I made calls. No charging stations. Maki even left a message with a woman who has a home charging station to see if she would help out. No answer.  I finally found a My Organic Market in Herndon that has 2 free charging stations. They’re not quick charge stations, but they’re charging stations nevertheless. So Maki, my brother and his girlfriend shopped at MOM and went to dinner. After an hour and a half, the Leaf had enough charge to get home. Phew. I guess we’re keeping my Honda Civic Hybrid for a while.

Do we expect to save a lot of money by driving the Leaf? Eh, not really. Our commute to work is short and we can’t exactly go on long road trips with this car. Do we think we’re saving the planet? Eh, not really. We know it took a lot of energy to make the car, especially the gigantic battery. But we do think that if we keep the car long enough, it will be a net gain for the environment because the Leaf does not pollute. We also know that companies rely on early adopters like us to lead the way, share our experiences with others, and pave the way for greener cars.

So far, we LOVE our Nissan Leaf.  If you’re in the DC area and you’re dying to get a ride or learn more, contact me or Maki at work. Maki is always happy to talk about his new car. :-)

• For the gamers in your life, a Playstation Move or an Xbox Kinect will let them interact with games in a whole new way. With these accessories, your body becomes the controller and you can run, jump, punch and dance to a new generation of games. My favorite Move game is Everybody Dance, which teaches you cool dance moves and provides quite the workout. I’m dancing every morning to try to lose the last of the baby weight. Hey, if Kirstie Alley can dance her way to a new figure, so can I!
• If you’re looking for cool game titles, check out Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Batman: Arkham City.
• In my office, we’re all about the techie toys and all things Star Wars are cool. James thinks the Lego Super Star Destroyer is super cool.
• For a different type of game experience, Tanya recommends Dominion Card Game. This game is so geeky, it won a MENSA award!
• If you want to shop for unique gifts that give back, Jessica likes The Greater Good Network Store. For example, shopping in their Hunger site raises money to fight world hunger and promote peace on earth.
• Jenny loves to hop on Etsy.com, which features mostly handmade items from individuals.  I especially like the reusable paper towels and storage box and wallets made from duct tape of different colors!
• Since zombies are all the rage, it’s important to be equipped with the proper zombie gear. Kelly has some great suggestions: a tactical vest, a zombie survival guide, and survival tools.
• For the kids in your life, a Nintendo 3DS will endear you forever (well, a few months at least), and a Mindflex Duel Game will let them test their powers of concentration and use their brainwaves to levitate a foam ball (no kidding!).
• For the movie lover in your life, we love the Roku LT streaming media box.
• And finally, since we all mostly have everything we need and want in our lives, how about making a donation to a local charity? There are so many good ones in every community, we hope you’ll think of them during this holiday season. Maria likes Oxfam USA and Heifer International.

How about you? What’s at the top of your list this year? What are you gifting and what are you hoping to receive?

My story is simple. My many Apple products made it easy to share the wonders I call my sons and made technology easy at home. I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time and have slowly accumulated a collection of Apple products.

Apple Should Have a Campaign About How Macs are for Moms

My Mac is my mommy machine. I use iPhoto to store and manage my over 30,000 photos, mostly of my sons and photos from our travels around the world. And when I want to share photos with my family, I select the photos I want and then ask iPhoto to send lower resolution versions, so I don’t clog e-mail inboxes with photos that are 4MEG each — no need to resize the images first, which means my mom gets photos nearly every week!

At the end of each year, I made video slideshows of my children’s activities using iDVD. The themes make it easy to put together a great looking DVD and I get a terrific keepsake from the year.

My older son learned how to use a computer on our Mac (the baby isn’t old enough but he’s definitely interested). He immediately understood the intuitive user interface and can play games, watch videos and surf the web.

iChat and now FaceTime make it easy to stay in touch with Grandma, who lives in California. She loves that she can see the boys, although she often frets about how she looks (as if the boys care, they love her!).

Apple Devices Make Home Networking Easy(ier)

I joke with my techie husband that setting up a home wireless network is not for mere mortals, although I have to admit that Apple has made it easy. We have Airport base stations around the house to ensure that have a good wi-fi signal thoughout our 4-story townhome.

We’ve set up speakers in the different parts of the house and downloaded an app that lets me control the Mac and send music or radio programs to different parts of the house.

We’ve owned an Apple TV for many years. We use it to watch movies, watch YouTube videos on the big screen, and enjoy our photos. We were worried that Apple would discontinue the Apple TV for lack of sales but it looks like this device will be around for a while. Thank goodness!

I don’t think I could live without my iPad at this point. My husband, older son and I were vying for iPad time so much time that we now have 2 of these tablets at home. I use my iPad to check my schedule, check weather, check e-mail, surf the web, find recipes, play games, manage my user manuals, listen to music, watch movies on Netflix, and so on and so forth.

Finally, I love how all my Apple purchases (music, apps, games, movies and shows) are done through my one iTunes account. And I absolutely adore how synching my devices regularly means I can enjoy these purchases on all (or most) of our devices — PC, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. Thank you, Apple

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m a huge Apple fan and a big consumer of Apple products. I’m passionate about Apple products because the products clearly were developed with end users like me in mind. I love the form factor of the devices, I love the easy user interface, I love the diversity of the apps and functions, and I love how all the products work together.

Thank you, Steve Jobs for making my life as a mom better.

Well, I’m going paperless with my user manuals because they’re all going into my iPad.

Just imagine this: all (or most) of my manuals in one portable device, searchable, and including a dictionary and ability to write notes. Here’s how to do it:

• Download the PDF to the computer that you use to synch and back up your iPad.
• Drag the PDF to your Books collection in iTunes
• The next time you synch your iPad, voila!, the user manual is now on your iPad

This means I can get rid of the ugly stacks in my house and I never have to worry that a manufacturer will remove a user manual for an aging device.  Want to learn more? This article from MakeUseOf shows you how to paginate, bookmark and annotate in iBooks. Love it!

• Everyone who doesn’t have an Apple iPad wants one. At least a couple of staff members want an Android tablet.
• A bunch of staff want the new Amazon Kindle, while a few are getting or giving the Nook Color e-reader.
• The gamers in the office are getting the Kinect for Xbox 360 and/or the Playstation Move. Both devices take gaming to the next level because your body becomes the controller. Watch out, Wii!
• For the PS3 gamers who get the Move, we like Sports Champions and R.U.S.E.
• The L5 Universal Remote turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote. Very slick.
• The Roku Player lets you stream Netflix to your TV, for a lot less money than an Apple TV, PS3 or TiVo.
• The Parrot AR. Drone Quadricopter powered by your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad is ridiculously cool. There’s even a live camera feed from the quadricopter to your Apple device so you can see the view from above.
• Is it possible to have a cool vacuum? Yes if it’s a Dyson. I want the hand vac but it’s always out of stock!
• The Flip UltraHD video camera can record high def video and surround sound with the press of a button and automatically convert your video to be YouTube compatible.
• The Logitech Google TV lets you stream videos from various providers and run Android apps.
• We like this USB car charger for when your devices run out of power and you need to charge them on the fly.
• You’ll love this Spy Net secret mission video watch. Very James Bond.
• I recently got a Panasonic Lumix G2 DSLR camera. Love the touch screen, the smaller form factor and of course, the gorgeous photos I’m now taking.
• If you’ve got a Lego lover in the family, the Lego set of the Death Star from Star Wars will make them happy. It’s got over 3,800 pieces so someone will be busy for a while!
• If you want a non-techie gift idea, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust lets you adopt orphaned animals and receive e-mail updates throughout the year. Kids will love this one!

If you want more ideas for geek gifts, visit Ars Technica’s holiday wish list of gizmos, gadgets and gear.

How about you? What are your top gifts ideas this season? What is on your Santa list?

I had an early meeting in Hyattsville this morning.  I was armed with my Garmin GPS and printed directions from Google Maps — I still got lost.

How is this even possible?  For the last nearly 20 years (how did I get so old?), I have been in sales in the DC area.  I feel like I have driven to most corners of the region.  I know this region and I do not get lost!!!  How on earth did I get lost this morning?  And how did I get lost when I had so many tools at my disposal?

I have a hunch that all of these digital assistants are making me stupid. How and why?

Well, long before cell phones, GPS systems and Google/Mapquest maps, I would get directions the old fashioned way.  I would call the prospect or client and get detailed directions. Mr. client would ask me where I was coming from and he would give me directions that included navigational clues like:” go 4 lights then turn right; if you see the Giant, you’ve gone to far; or go about 3 miles and then get on 95 on your right.”  I would also get really helpful suggestions, like “don’t go through the City at that time of day, take the Beltway.”  I would heed these directions and almost never get lost.  And if I did get lost, I would find a gas station and ask the always-friendly attendant for help. Oh yeah, I also used to carry around maps with me, but I tossed those when I got my GPS; silly me!

I can’t remember the last time I called for directions or the last time I stopped at a gas station for directions.  Along the way, while using my digital assistants, I lost the important navigational clues that helped me successfully navigate from one sales call to another.  I have come to rely on my Jane the GPS and Google maps so much that I feel like I have lost my ability to navigate on my own! Now I wonder what other abilities I’m losing as a result of my reliance (some would say over-reliance) on these electronic devices and online services.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not giving up Jane anytime soon and Google maps is one of my best friends.  And to be truthful, I *know* I got lost because Jane could not get any satellite reception and the Google maps directions were confusing.  But perhaps next time, I’ll call for directions ahead of time and avoid giving my husband another case of navigational heartburn.

How about you? What electronic device do you rely on?  What have you given up as a result?  And how’s your driving these days?

• Mini USB Monitor – Need a little more real estate on your monitor? You’ll love these mini monitors.
• Lego Death Star – If you have a little one who loves Legos and you love Star Wars, you’ll enjoy making the Death Star together.
• Our Network Administrators say that NetBooks are super hot this season.  NetBooks are a class of laptops that are super small, lightweight and inexpensive.  You can get them from Dell, Acer, HP and Sony.
• WikiReader – This little device puts the 3 million+ articles from Wikipedia in the palm of your hand, along with regular updates.
• PS3 Rock Band Precision Bass – If you love Rock Band, you’ll love this upgraded bass.
• The Geek Handbook – This handy little reference is a great user guide and documentation for the geek in your life.
• A Slashdot Cap – If you get the reference, you’ll love this cap. If you don’t, don’t worry about it.
• HD Flipcams – It was bound to happen. Now you can take HD videos with a teeny device.
• Portable Solar Charger – This universal charger will keep your portable electronics charged anywhere there’s sun. So you can go camping and still keep your phone and iPod fully charged. Sweet!
• Simon Game – This is a through-hole soldering kit for the true geek in your life who needs a little soldering practice.
• Dragon Age – This is the latest video game from Bioware and it is hot, hot, hot.

How about you?  What are you giving the techie in your life?  Got a good lead on a fab gift?  Please share!

Cooliris lets me scroll through images and videos on my computer and sites that support Cooliris.  For example, if I want to browse photos from my son’s birthday party, I point Cooliris to the proper directory and the photos will appear as a wall of photos in my browser.  I can scroll through the images by using my mouse to drag images, or I can use the Cooliris scroll tool.

It turns out that many of my favorite sites now support Cooliris, like Flickr, Facebook, Hulu, images from Google,and Getty Images.  I can tell if a site support Cooliris if I hover an image and the double squares appear in the lower left corner of the image.  I can then click on the double squares to launch the photo album, collection of photos or RSS of images and videos in Cooliris.

It’s super fun to browse friends’ albums in Facebook in Cooliris without having to press Next, Next, Next.  And I love being able to surf hundreds of images in Getty Images in one long wall of photos.

Is Cooliris here to stay?  Who knows?  It’s free, it’s cool, it’s convenient and it’s fun to play.  Check it out and let me know what you think!

What do the iPhone, Facebook, Twitter and Google have in common?  They have great platforms

Wikipedia defines a platform as “a place to launch software. It is an agreement that the platform provider gave to the software developer that logic code will interpret consistently as long as the platform is running on top of other platforms.”

I’m convinced that Facebook zoomed past MySpace because it launched a developer platform earlier.  The developer-friendly platform lets developers create zillions of cool apps and suck more of our time, energy and loyalty.  How many quizzes have you filled out on Facebook?

The iPhone is no different.  Apple opened up its platform, hosted a user-friendly store and nine months later, iPhone users had downloaded 1 billion applications, most of them free or under $5.  My husband says he can purchase or download apps for his Blackberry but it’s not easy and the apps are on multiple sites.  No fun at all.

Twitter’s platform lets developers capture streams of data from the millions of tweets posted every day.  Born from these streams are apps that let us visualize tweets, manage tweets, search tweets, map tweets.

Finally, the Google  app engine lets developers build and host applications on the Google infrastructure. Here at Matrix Group, we created a Google Earth app that lets us visualize where network traffic is coming from and we use the Google Maps API to plot the location of association members, George Washington portraits, and more!

There are lots of other companies that host platforms, but to me, it’s been interesting to see how a company like Apple, a company NOT in the phone business, redefined the mobile phone.  The open platform movement also feels like an extension of the open source movement; both capitalize on the skills and interest of lots of dispersed developers to create a larger, more dynamic and more interesting whole.

So how did I become a cool kid?  I had been coveting the iPhone for a long time but I refuse to switch my service to AT&T.  For Mother’s Day, my husband and son got me an iPod Touch.  Yep, I spent part of Sunday downloading apps for my sleek, new Touch.  Yippee!  I’m officially a cool kid.  Don’t forget to send me your favorite iPhone apps.

I don’t know about you, but my power and gas bills  shock me each month.  At home, we upgraded our HVAC system to high efficiency Trane units; we have turned our thermostat down to 68 this winter; we have window film on bedroom windows; all of our light fixtures and lamps use compact flourescent bulbs; well, you get the picture.

But we’ve completely overlooked the phantom loads used by: the laptops that get left on at night; the PS3, Apple TV and Wii that are on standby all the time; and on and on.  So I dug a little deeper and found these suggestions for reducing the phantom load at home and at work.

• Purchase Energy Star appliances. For example, if left inactive, Energy Star labeled desktop computers enter a sleep mode and use 4 watts or less.
• Put devices on a power strip and turn the strip off when appliances are not in use; battery charges and laptop power adaptors continue to draw power even when the device is not plugged in or when the device is fully charged.
• Turn off your monitor at night. Many monitors go to sleep after xx minutes of inactivity, but I noticed that many monitors around the office didn’t go to sleep properly, which meant the screen saver stayed on. Make sure your monitor goes to sleep properly; better yet, turn it off before you leave for the evening.
• Many offices have a policy that staff should leave their computers on at night so that security updates and patches can be applied.  If you have this policy, ask your network administrator to turn off computers after updates have been completed; yes, this can be done over the network.
• Unplug major appliances when you go on vacation. This way, your game consoles, cell phone charger, etc., are not drawing energy.  Plus, you’re reducing the risk of fire, or so I’m told.

BTW, even if I never see the power bill at the office, I want to do my part to reduce my energy consumption. What other suggestions do you have and do you think it’s made a difference?

I guess it’s possible this is a true story.  I’m married to a guy who can install Linux (I mean NetBSD) on practically anything.  But I’m suspicious about this story for one reason: there’s too much laundry being done.  There were 3 loads done on December 30 and two loads on December 29.  That’s too much laundry, especially for a guy (no offense, guys!).

However, I’m excited about the idea of appliances and gadgets communicating with humans.  If I had the engineering chops, I would design the following:

• A refrigerator with a special slot(s) for milk.  When the fridge detects that we are low on milk (based on weight?), a text message would be sent to my phone. I don’t want e-mail or a tweet, I get too much data on those devices.  But a text message, preferably scheduled for around the time I’m driving home, would be perfect.
• A shopping cart that has an inventory of products that I can access with a touch screen. If I’m looking for pesto, I touch pasta sauce and the cart tells me which aisle to visit.
• A microwave that reads cooking instructions from the bar code on a package and cooks the food perfectly.  (I think this is in the works but I haven’t seen it).
• An electronic recipe box on my fridge that lets me enter my own recipes as well as access and store recipes from my favorite Web sites.  If the box would read the recipes and respond to voice commands, that would be gravy.

So Maytag, GE and KitchenAid, are you listening?  How about you?  What would be your dream gadget or appliance?

• Japanese toilet – I’ve asked Santa for a Japanese toilet this year.  Japanese toilets have heated seats, front and back sprays (heated, too), blow dryers, and even music.  I cannot understand why they are not more popular here in the US!
• XO laptop – The OLPC (one laptop per child) movement works like this:  $400 pays for one laptop for you and one for a child in a developing country.  The laptop has a nice screen, terrific software for kids, and it’s virtually kid-proof (love the sealed keyboard).
• Nerf Vulcan Automatic Heavy Blaster – This is the biggest, baddest, Nerf gun ever.
• Yoda Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber – Harout got one and it looks, sounds and feels like the real thing; love the lightsaber hum!
• If you’re on the Dark side of the Force, you’ll love the Darth Maul double-sided lightsaber.
• Drobo storage device – This is a nifty storage device that lets you add drives as you need them; Maki loves the online calculator.
• Eden, the latest game from Pixel Junk for the PS3 – You’ll jump and swing through beautiful gardens; there’s no shooting in this game, but you’ll have to know your geometry and physics.
• iHome alarm clock – Works with your iPod, nuff said.
• Garmin and TomTom GPS systems; Maria added a free voice to her Tom Tom – Angus, the Scot – which makes getting directions super fun. You can also get Darth Vader, John Cleese and other famous voices.
• Broken image necklace – Yep, it’s a necklace with an image of a broken image on a Web page; perfect for the Web designer in your life.
• Clocky Robotic Alarm – This is for the person in your life who hates getting up, um, for the person who can’t get up in the morning.
• Micro R/C 4-Channel Flying Saucer – Palm-sized flying saucer for the X-Files fan in your life.
• Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers – Coffee table book with pretty pictures of old hardware.
• Ubuntu mug – For the true Linux fan in your life (fyi, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution).
• USB turntable – Hard core music lovers love vinyl records, right?
• Wii Fit – We got one a few months ago and love it; I love the cheeky reminders to keep moving.  I’m a Super Hula Hoop fan!
• Leapfrog Tag Reading System – CJ is getting one; he’ll love using the special pen to read the special books.
• Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium – This device lets you point at a constellation or planet and it will tell you what you’re looking at; works well only if you can see the stars.

How about you?  What are your favorite tech gifts this season?  What are you hoping Santa will give you?

Earlier this year, Microsoft released Silverlight, their answer to Adobe’s Flash. The official Web site describes Silverlight as “a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.” I downloaded Silverlight in order to watch the Democratic National Convention live, in HD. The picture was unbelievably crisp and the audio was terrific. BTW, I checked; no HD feed on the official Republican Convention site.

I didn’t realize it, but the NBC Olympics Web site had videos powered by Silverlight (not in HD, however). Here’s a link to a video feed of the closing ceremony and a PC World article describing what Silverlight allowed the Web site developers to do.

On the personal front, we just got an HD video camera. After a lot of research, we settled on the Sony HDR-CX12. Here’s why:

• It’s small and lightweight
• It records HD video directly to a memory stick, which makes it easy to transfer video to my PC
• I can take photos while shooting video; the photos are 10.2 megapixel
• Automatic face detection for videos and photos
• Fantastic reviews on Amazon.com

The verdict on the camera? I love it. I took some sample video while at the National Aquarium in Baltimore on Sunday. Once home, I easily transferred the videos and photos to my laptop, then used the Sony software to burn a DVD and watch the video on my TV. The image was stunning, even though I didn’t burn it in HD. The camera even took automatic photos whenever someone smiled, no kidding! Even more impressive, we took video in super low light and camera performed like a champ. The price tag under $900 (+ the $100 instant cash rebate) puts HD within reach (it’s even less on Amazon).

Finally, I’m enjoying all the HD podcasts that people are putting up on iTunes. I’ve subscribed to HD podcasts related to travel and feng shui. It feels so luxurious to watch these podcasts in HD and I love it.

Apple TV vs. Sony PS3

Let’s start with the Apple service.  We have an Apple TV (we bought ours for $199), which is a device that hooks up to your TV and connects via wireless to your Macintosh computer.  Using the Apple TV, we can stream photos, music and podcasts to our big screen TV.  Perhaps most fun of all, Apple TV has a custom interface for surfing YouTube!  Surfing YouTube as a family, on the big screen, from the comfort of my couch, is wonderful.  And now, we can rent or purchase movies from Apple.

The Sony service is available on the PS3.  I love our PS3 because I absolutely love Blu-ray.  The Sony service has a good selection of movies, although you’d think that a company like Sony would have a much bigger selection than Apple because it is in the entertainment business, but what do I know about these things.

My comparison of the services:

• Both have a reasonably wide selection of movies in both standard and HD.  Sony, of course, has Blu-Ray offerings, which is fabulous.
• On both sides, it’s $3.99 to rent a movie, $4.99 for the HD version — for new releases.  It’s less expensive for older titles and shorter, children’s movies.  It seems to be $9.99 to purchase a movie.
• We rented “Bucket List” (because it’s kid-friendly) in HD via the Apple TV.  We rented “The Tigger Movie” in standard definition on the PS3 because CJ insisted it was his turn to pick a movie.  It took an astonishingly fast 20 minutes to download both movies (less for the Tigger movie).  The picture quality was great, no glitches, great sound, even for the Tigger movie.
• Apple has a much better user interface, big surprise.  It’s hard to get to the Sony store, and it’s not clear which titles are available in HD unless you navigate to the HD menu.
• On the Apple TV, you have 30 days to watch the movie, and once you start, you have 24 hours to finish watching.  On the PS3, you have 15 days to watch a movie.

The Downsides to Video on Demand

Okay, so video on demand, for less than $5, is fabulous.  But there are some drawbacks.

• CJ wanted to watch The Tigger movie again, as kids are wont to do.  We tried to watch the movie a second time within the 24 hour timeframe but we ran out of time.  For kid movies, rentals are the way to go because we can watch a movie several times before returning it.
• We thought about purchasing The Tigger movie after watching it, but didn’t want to pay the full purchase price, after having rented it.  It would be great if the companies would give me a credit for my rental.  I’m dreaming, I know, but a girl can hope, right?
• For a mom with a young kid, 24 hours is sometimes not enough to watch a full-length movie.  It took us 3 days to watch Casino Royale a couple of months ago.
• I love the extras available on DVD and at this point, you can’t get them on the downloads, whether you purchase or rent.

BTW, the Apple site has tons of great information on the Apple TV and the video of demand service, while the Sony site had nothing that I could easily find. So, Sony, if you want to market this new service, make it easy to get information on your site!  Even the news section of the PlayStation site had nothing on the video on demand service; a search on the overall Sony site was fruitless, as well.  Egads, another terrible site search!

Will I use these new services?  Absolutely, particularly on rainy or snowy days, or when I’m just too lazy to go out.  But for movies I want to watch a few times, I’m still headed to my local video store.