Barb's Connected World

Computer World is reporting that job search sites, including the highly trafficked Monster.com may have compromised visitors who click on malicious ads. Yesterday the report was 40K+ users, now it's 1.6 million.

I've been waiting for a consumer priced OCUR/DCT for Vista MCE CableCards to point people at who want the High Definition experience from US Cable Companies at a low price. This isn't a multi purpose screaming gaming machine/video production machine like the much higher end Velocity Micro machine I use here, but it appears to offer all the pieces necessary for the High Def experience. I don't see any option to order dual DCTs, which is the one drawback.

I priced a machine today, to see if the $$ were more reasonable than the Dell $1700+ for a friend. I was pleased to see that the price is now under $1300. No monitor included. You can beef this up when you customize. No option for no installed crapware though (unlike Dell who doesn't force you to take Norton, etc.)

I'm still very happy with My Velocity Micro Home Theater dual OCUR machine. And I still recommend this one to anyone who asks about Media Center High Def support.

Alienware is apparently entering the market on the super high end side with a dual OCUR machine. Cost unknown. Here's a quote from Cedia News:

"Shortly, Alienware will be delivering a higher-end Media Center product with CableCard capabilities and other premium features that are best sold through specialists.

The product has yet to be named but we know it will come standard with four swappable hard drive bays for up to 4 TB off storage. A Blu-ray option will be available, as well as an option for distributing audio to four separate zones.

“You could put it in a party mode where all rooms get the same audio,” says Kaminski.

The high-end Media Center will accommodate two CableCards via internal receivers."

This looks to be an enhancement to the Hangar 18 HD computer, based on the AMD Live platform.

More info is here.