Alex Albrecht

The Boys are back in town...

That's right boys and girls, as of about 8:30 this morning Kevin Rose and myself are going to be the new hosts of the official digg.com weekly pod-cast!  I know it's been ages, and dark ages since I've posted to my blog so let me catch you up on things.  First off I'm still working my butt off to make it in Hollywood.  This acting thing is a bear.  I've been auditioning for commercial, film and television work pretty much non-stop, well it's been a little slow as it's the summer.  Nothing too great to report but like the Hollywood guy that I am there are lots of things up in the air.  I started performing Improv again.  As most of you know I was the leader of an improv comedy troupe in LA for about 3 years before the whole TSS thing.  Now I've gone back to my roots performing pretty much every Friday night at 8pm at the Empty Stage Theater in West LA.  It's been a blast!  I'm not always there so if you come down to see me, and please if you are in town come down and see me, call ahead and ask if I'm going to be there.  So that's acting, improv, pod-cast... what else...  I'm also still working on my sitcom pilot.  I've been working with a great group of writers, some from the movie side some from the TV side one is a writer on Malcom in the Middle great group.  We've been touching up the script and are planning to shop it around in the fall.  Also I've been asked by Kevin to host some stuff for his new site Systm... not sure when that will come out but it's always nice to work with the Dark Tipper and gang.  As far as everything else all I can say is life is good. 

Well that's all for now... I'll keep you posted on when/where to get the new pod-cast...

- Alex

PS - It's nice to talk to you all again and I hope you've been well...

Scott v. RIAA

Hey everyone,

So as most of you know my buddy Scott from Plasticbugs.com is the Line Producer on the Screen Savers.  He runs a nice little site called Plasticbugs... well he got a plastic bug up his butt about the RIAA and he's actually doing something about it.  Please take the time to head over to his website and download the "Silence" in protest... here's the link... and be patient his sites a little slow this morning...

Much Love Scott!!!

- Alex

CellPhones for Kids!!!

Hey everyone,

So today geek.com is reporting that SunCom is going to be offering a cell phone designed for kids age 8-11!?  What the heck?  Do kids 8-11 need to have cellphones?  I think this is a little bit too much.  I mean I didn't get my first cellphone until college and I can understand Highschoolers having them to help their parents keep in touch with them.  Also for emergencies... but 8 year olds?  One who the heck will they be calling... and two, at 8 what do you have to say over the phone?  I don't know what do you guys think?  8-11 year olds... cellphone users or not?

Here a link to the article...

- Alex

Broken a Brewing???

Hey everyone,

I just talked to Kevin and he was saying that he's trying to get some more web content going.  The problem is of course funding... Head over to his website and donate what you can.  Lord knows I was a fan of the broken before I was his friend.  Please help bring back good tech content to the web...

- Alex

Click here

This is too good...

Hey this was too good a rumor not to pass on... a friend just sent me this e-mail talking about a new "iHome" product from Apple.  I don't know if this has already been rumored but he sent some pictures so... here's what he said...

"...Okay, my friends brother inlaw works for apple.. I've been getting
some info on Mac Expo..

He said this product will be priced at $499 to $799. he said it
will record video from your TV.
Also has bulit in DVD. Can you surf and email with it??? YOU BET!

He did confirm this is shipping to all APPLE STORES for Tuesday
after the keynote!
The Applesite will be also selling these at 12 noon on tuesday!"...

I guess we'll know Tuesday if this is true or not...

- Alex

Belkin, Belkin, Belkin...

::UPDATE:: 

Well the one thing they do good is returns... I just called told them I was returning this BOS KVM and they credited my Moms card right then... It's in the mail!!!      
::End UPDATE::

Well all I just wanted to share a little story about Christmas... it has all the intrigue and suspense of a Hollywood thriller, well not really but I hope it can save you all a few hundred dollars...

So as most of you know from my Moblog I got a new Samsung SyncMaster 213t for Christmas.  In a word it rocks.  Now I made sure I got a digital LCD so it has a DVI connection.  There I was Christmas morning looking at my Flat panel and thinking "Hey I have two computers with DVI... my cheap Belkin KVM I've been using won't do the trick."  Then my Mom steps in, bless her heart, and say "Oh yeah and I know you wanted a new KVM thingie so why don't you order yourself one."  Wow the love... I hoped on to the Belkin website and ordered a two port DVI/USB KVM ($244).  That's not cheap...  I waited with baited breath for the day it arrived, this morning!  Yay!!!  Well I've been using my G5's USB keyboard with my old Belkin KVM as it is the only USB keyboard I have and it worked great.  I plugged everything in and they new KVM wouldn't stop beeping...  I unplugged and replugged everything, beeping...  And then I noticed that the Keyboard wasn't working.  Real quickly the new Soho DVI KVM's have a specific USB port for the Keyboard and the mouse.  I noticed that my G5 keyboard worked fine in the "Other Device" port just not the Keyboard port, still beeping.  So I check the manual and the on-line FAQs then I called.  The "technical support person" said "Oh yeah that KVM doesn't support the G5 keyboards... you just need to buy any other USB keyboard and keep it in the "Keyboard" port so it will stop beeping then use your G5 keyboard anyway... This to me is not how to solve a problem!!!  So I decided I would forgo the G5 keyboard and buy a random USB keyboard... we that one didn't work either!!!  For what I've gathered any USB keyboard that also has a built in USB hub won't work... now call me crazy Belkin but don't Most USB keyboards come with USB hubs in them??  Isn't that something that people look for in a USB keyboard now a days???

Two words... "Boo Belkin!"  for that money this thing should do what it's supposed to do...  I will keep it... I'll just have to grin and bare the flashing warning light telling me my keyboard is not connected... Damn...

- Alex

Xbox II...

Hey all,

So in my travels this weekend I came across a Microsoft employee and talked him up about Xbox II... here are the facts I found out.

1) Hard Drive... Yes!  There was some speculation that MS was going to take the HD out to make it more difficult to Mod.

2) Flash based HD... Yes!!!  It was told to me that the HD was going to be flash based... small size fast access... BAM!

3) No Stupid Dongle DVD playback... Yes!!!  The reason that the first Xbox didn't have built in DVD playback is a simple one, Sony owns the Intellectual Property rights for DVD playback.  Nuf said...

4) Xbox II at E3... Hell Yes!!!  There will be an Xbox II maybe more at E3 this year...

5) Xbox II release date announced at E3... another Hell Yes!!!  MS will be announcing a release date for Xbox II...

Now this is not like the "rumors" about IBM before these are hard cold facts from the horses mouth...

- Alex

Google Suggest?

Hey all, the googling monkeys at alexalbrecht.com just turned me on to the beta of "Google Suggest."  I know it's been around for a little while but I just tried it and it's really cool!  It uses predictive text for google searches... so if you are looking for apple ipods just start typing "app" and the second suggest down is the apple ipod... very slick!  Now this is still beta so it can be a little slow but try it out and let me know what you think...

Here is the link...

Alex

Xbox live and Halo 2...

Well it looks like the rumors are true... if you have a modded Xbox even with the mod chip off you can get caught!  I was just about to hop on-line for some hot Halo 2 Xbox live action when I couldn't connect to the server... I ran the network troubleshooter and it gave me an error that said "The software or hardware might be modified you cannot connect to Xbox live"   Well damn, looks like I'm going to have to buy a second Xbox...

- Alex

Rumor...rumor... rumor...

Everyone, this is a rumor...

A well placed source within IBM let something slip to me the other day... and he doesn't know I'm writing this... but I just can't keep this in. This person who shall remain nameless is working on the physical architecture of the CPU for the PSIII and the Xbox II. Wow I said what's that like? Then he drops the bomb... he says "Well I shouldn't be telling you this but the CPU's we are selling Sony and Microsoft are the SAME!!!" It turns out that what IBM is doing is moving around parts on the CPU to make them look different but the technology is the same!!! Also he said they are hoping that Sony and Microsoft don't figure it out...

Now again, this is a rumor... so no Slashdoting, this is just for you guys...

Stay tuned...

- Alex