Houston.BloggersPub

The blogging bat signal has been put up on blogHOUSTON:

IT'S BEEN A WHILE, so we thought we'd have one of our blogger/beer/BS gatherings.

We'll be hitting the Stag's Head Pub on Saturday from 2pm - ????

Come on by, have an adult beverage, and say hello if you have time Saturday.

Houston is about to get some electric cars and charging stations:

The Renault-Nissan Alliance today announced that Nissan is entering into an agreement with the City of Houston to advance zero-emission mobility in the city by promoting the development of an electric-vehicle charging network and policies to support widespread adoptions of electric cars.

The announcement, made at the Houston stop of the Nissan LEAF Zero Emissions Tour, helps pave the way for the 2010 introduction of Nissan LEAF, the industry's first all-electric, zero-emission car designed for the mass market. Nissan already has a similar working agreement with Reliant Energy, of Houston, one of the largest competitive electricity providers in Texas. Today's announcement paves the way for public-private collaboration to foster electric-vehicle growth and development.

"For more than 100 years, Houston has pioneered advances in the energy field. With the same spirit of innovation, Nissan and the Renault-Nissan Alliance are committed to lead the way in the field of zero-emission automotive technologies," said Carlos Tavares, Chairman, Nissan Americas. "We are the only global automaker bringing an electric-vehicle lineup to drivers on a mass-market scale and at an affordable price."

As part of the agreement, Nissan and the City of Houston, along with Reliant Energy, will develop plans to promote a charging infrastructure for electric cars that encourages home and workplace charging, as well as a public-charging infrastructure. The partners will work to coordinate the establishment of policies and help streamline charging infrastructure deployment. Nissan also has agreed to make available a supply of electric vehicles to the City of Houston and in and around the metropolitan area.

Houston is one of 14 cities that have joined the Clinton Climate Initiative C40 in a commitment to make their cities more electric vehicle-friendly. To that end, the city intends to add 25 electric vehicles this year, bringing to 40 the total number of plug-in cars in the city's fleet.

Sad news from San Antonio as the owner of The County Line barbecue restaurants was found dead:

It took emergency workers more than three hours to pull a small black car from an area of Cibolo Creek near Specht Road Thursday. Inside that Acura, was the body of a man workers from The County Line restaurant are identifying as the business’s owner Randy Goss.

“The guy was a lover of music, and used to mingle with the people all the time,” said musician David Saldana of the restaurant owner. Saldana’s band, The Crayolas, performed at The County Line on I-10 numerous times.

Restaurant workers say they were concerned and told Goss, 55, not to drive home from work in heavy rain Wednesday night. They say he insisted on driving in the dangerous weather. Goss never made it home. Workers say a couple of managers spotted Goss’s car partially under water as they were retracing his route home along Specht Road. READ MORE

More on the man from The San Antonio Express News:

Goss wore the “Rib King” title proudly as an executive with the company he helped open. County Line has nine locations — seven in Texas, one in Albuquerque and one in Oklahoma City. A restaurant in El Paso is called The State Line.

Goss started as dishwasher at the original County Line in Austin, opened by his late brother Rick Goss and friend Bruce Walcott in 1975.

When the first San Antonio location opened at Loop 1604 and U.S. 281 in 1982, Goss became general manager of the restaurant and a partner in the company. Two more locations opened, the one on Interstate 10 and another on the River Walk. The original San Antonio restaurant closed in 1999.

A fixture at the Interstate 10 location, Goss was active with the live music series that has been going on there since 2001. On the restaurant’s Web site, a listing for the music series gives Wednesdays from next week through March 3 as “Open mic night with the Rib King.” READ MORE

We are now in the era of Internet television. Consumer Reports has done the testing and rating of the latest TVs and gizmos to hook up to them:

A growing number of Internet-capable TVs and Blu-ray players allow consumers to stream video from the Web to the big screen via a broadband connection. Consumer Reports latest Ratings of TVs and Blu-ray players that can stream movies online includes more than 20 sets from $1,000 and four players from $150. Lab tests also revealed that set up and access to online content was easy and picture quality was decent if not quite up to the claimed resolution.

Consumer Reports tests also found another dozen or so TVs that can stream other types of content aside from movies; however, Internet browser capabilities on Web-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players are limited. Viewers can watch videos from YouTube; news, sports and more from Yahoo!; digital photos stored on Picasa and Flickr; and music from Internet radio stations such as Pandora and Slacker. Some of the content is free. Movies and TV episodes are pay-per-view or, with Netflix, included with a subscription. Other online streaming services include Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster on Demand and Vudu.

Aside from Web-enabled TVs and Blu-ray players, there are other devices available that offer access to streaming movies and online content including the TiVo HD DVR, $250 and two game consoles: Microsoft's Xbox 360, $200 and up, and Sony's PlayStation 3, $300, which includes a Blu-ray player and a Web browser. There are also dedicated boxes that connect to an existing broadband service via a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) hookup. Some of the streaming services, such as Vudu also offer their own boxes for a fee.

Things to Consider
-- Which Net-cable gear? Each hardware brand has partnered with specific services; content may vary for different players or TVs within a brand. Consumers who are upgrading from a standard DVD player to a Blu-ray player should consider an Internet-enabled model as it costs much less than upgrading to a TV that can receive the Web and gets the same content. Boxes dedicated to streaming video are available from Roku, HD, $80, and MediaPoint, free with $99 worth of Blockbuster movie rentals. AppleTV, $229, allows access to the iTunes video library, and Vudu has a box for $149. Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3 can stream content from Netflix.
-- Which brand? Each hardware brand has partnered with specific services; content may vary for different players or TVs within a brand. Consumer Reports' March issue identifies which online streaming services have partnered with what brands of TVs and Blu-ray players or other devices. Just because a TV or Blu-ray player is Internet-capable, it may not be able to stream content from a desired service. For example, Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players that are Web-enabled can stream content from all the service providers Consumer Reports looked at; however, Panasonic enabled devices can only stream content from Amazon Video on Demand from among the streaming services Consumer Reports looked at.
-- Which movie services? The major streaming movie services offer immediate access to tens of thousands of titles and most are available on demand. The vast majority of offerings are standard-definition, but there are some HD videos. Vudu's HDX movie format was the only movie stream that looked like real HD but required the high end of most broadband providers' standard service (4.5 to 9Mbps). Most charge per rental except for Netflix which offers unlimited streaming which is included with monthly plans starting at $9.

The complete report "TV meets Web" is available in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports available wherever magazines are sold. Portions of the story are available for free online at www.ConsumerReports.org.

Jeanne Jakle of the San Antonio Express News posted the fact that a popular KSAT 12 anchor team is back:

KSAT anchorman Mark Austin, after an uncomfortable and frustrating recovery from sinus surgery, is back in the saddle. He returned to the noon news today and resuscitated the famously fun chemistry that makes the team of himself, Leslie Mouton and weatherman Mike Osterhage such an audience draw READ MORE

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It appears that BizRadio is off the air in Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Here is more from bizradio.com:

We are off the air for the first time since 2005, but at our headquarters, we are as busy as we have ever been. We are using this time to make some major improvements in our operations that will benefit our audience and our investors.
We will be back on the air very soon, and we will make an important announcement about the future of BizRadio in the next week.
For the latest update, please continue to check back here at BizRadio.com SEE IT

You can hear the BizRadio network in the Dallas/Fort Worth on 1360 AM KMNY, Houston 1110 AM KTEK and San Antonio Area 1130 AM KTMR.

UPDATE February 05, 2010
BizRadio off the air and into court

The REAL Situation (Feat. MTV Jersey Shore's The Situation, Snooki, and Pauly D) - watch more funny videos

OK made you look but this is a very funny MTV Jersey parody video with The Situation, Snooki and Pauly D. Season 2 starts taping soon for a summer release and guess what...this article says the cast won't be in Jersey this time.

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Remember my Comcast post from earlier this week? That is the one where I was told a big event would be announced by the cable/Internet company soon. Well here could be that big announcement not available in Houston yet:

Comcast will roll out its new Xfinity offering to 11 markets starting next week, the company announced during a Wednesday earnings call.

The service, which promises new HD channels, faster Internet speeds, and the ability to watch shows online, will initially be available in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Hartford, Augusta, Chattanooga, and parts of the Bay Area and San Francisco. More cities will be added later this year.

With this roll-out, Comcast will also re-brand its offerings as Xfinity TV, Xfinity Voice, and Xfinity Internet, though the company name will remain Comcast. READ THE REST

(Thanks Sid)

RELATED
- http://xfinity.com/
- Comcast Rebranding Itself As "Xfinity"
- Comcast Internet DVR scheduler in Houston?

I passed by Brennan’s of Houston two times in the last few weeks and saw the parking lot full of work trucks. Seems like the building's final restoration work is almost complete.

You might remember that the iconic Houston restaurant caught fire and mostly burned down in the middle of Hurricane Ike. I actually live tweeted the event on @ktrkhouston.

Now the restaurant is placing ads on Craigslist for employees and has a note about reopening on its Web site. The official Web site says the place is reopening 'early 2010' but the Craigslist ad says February 2010.

Glad to see Ike could not deliver a final blow to this Houston dining institution. If nothing else... Terms of Endearment was shot there!

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(Thanks Christie)

Which big screen TV to buy always seems to be a hot caller topic when I am on with Michael Garfield for the "The High Tech Texan Show" on 950 KPRC.

The March issue of Consumer Reports includes ratings of over 130 LCD and plasma TVs and advice on what features are worth the price. The magazine has been nice enough to provide us with some helpful advice when selecting that HDTV:

Things to Consider

-- Resolution: 1080p vs. 720p. 1080p resolution, called full HD, is now very common, but some 50-inch and smaller TVs still have 720p resolution. Salespeople may suggests that 1080p sets have better picture quality overall, but it's not always the case; however, a 1080p set does have the potential to display finer detail than a 720p TV because the screen has more pixels -- the elements making up an image. The price premium for 1080p has shrunk but still runs $100 to $200. Consumer Reports recommends buying a 1080p set if the TV is 50 inches or larger, and price isn't an issue.
-- Less Blur: 120Hz & 240Hz. Ads make a big deal of 120Hz and 240Hz technologies, which promise to reduce blurring and the loss of detail that can occur when LCD TVs display fast-moving images. 120 Hz technology doubles an LCD TV's usual 60Hz frame rate, and 240Hz quadruples it. (Some models combine a 120Hz frame rate with a scanning, or flashing, backlight, to create a 240Hz effect.) Purchasing a TV with anti-blur technology can cost an extra $200 or more and results varied in Consumer Reports lab tests. A 60Hz set should satisfy most casual viewers, but it's worth considering a 120Hz TV now that the feature is available on lower-priced sets.
-- Screen Size. Consumers in the market for a TV may opt for a smaller screen size to keep costs down. Consumer Reports suggests that consumers purchase the biggest screen their budget and space allow, rather than a smaller model with extra features that will be rarely used.
-- High-priced HDMI cables. Retailers will try to talk consumers into spending $50 or more for an HDMI cable to use with a new HDTV. Consumer Reports recommends buying decent-quality cables with sturdy connectors, but not expensive ones. A 6-foot HDMI cable should cost $10 or so. Even so-called high-speed cables designed for 1080p throughput shouldn't cost more than $20 for a 3- to 6- foot cable. If low-priced HDMI cables aren't available at the store, look online.

Consumer Reports Best Buys: HDTVs

Most of the TVs featured in Consumer Reports latest Ratings have excellent or very good picture quality, so there are many fine choices. Below are is list of CR Best Buys which are mainstream values. (Sets are listed from largest to smallest screen size).

LCD TVs

-- Vizio VF550M, $1,400
-- Toshiba Regza Cinema Series 52XV648U, $1,400
-- Toshiba Regza 46XV645U, $1,000
-- Insignia NS-L42Q-10A, $650
-- LG 42LF11, $700
-- Sanyo DP42849, $630
-- Vizio VO320E (720p), $390
-- Sanyo DP26649 (720p), $300

Plasma TVs

-- LG 50PQ30, $800
-- Insignia NS-P501Q-10A (720p), $650
-- Panasonic Viera TC-42PX14 (720p), $550
-- LG 42PQ30

The complete report, "Best TVs for the buck," is available in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports.