I recently purchased a new MacBook Pro. I can not say enough good things about the laptop. It is solid, fast and stable.  One of the new features was the mini DisplayPort. It is this "feature" which causes the problem. I recently sat down to watch a movie on my Apple Cinema Display. This movie was freshly purchased from the iTunes store. I click play and what do I see? A black screen and en error box "This Movie Cannot Be Played Because A Display That is Not Authorized to Play Protected Movies Is Connected"!

You have got to be kidding me! I could play them when my ACD was connected via DVI on my old MacBook Pro. Now just because I "upgrade" to a newer "better" laptop I can't play it. I tried several different movies and TV shows to no avail. After a little checking it seems that this is a widespread problem and the only solution is to buy a new native DisplayPort monitor. Currently Apple does not even offer one (the new 24in has not been released). Worst there are no 30in alternatives. Apple it is not wise to tick off a customer who just spent several thousand dollars upgrading then take away features and the only solution you give him is to stop using your products and use a competitor. 

If you have experienced this problem please leave a comment

Great video of the Presidential candidates having a good time roasting each other at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner.

We are in the midst of one of the most important election seasons in the history of America. Now is the time to practice the great responsibility of voting and select the leader who will guide us through these difficult times. Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent you should vote on November 4 but you won't be able to unless you register. Depending on your state it may be too late so time. If you have moved since the last election you need to register again. If you are not sure you should contact your county registrar. Google has setup a great site to help to find out more registration information.

Google Voting Information

Here's a tag cloud to visualize it. Wordle via EricLee.us

Tonight I watched the 2nd 2008 Presidential debate moderated by Tom Brokaw. During the pre-debate commentary it was made very clear that every aspect of the debate had been carefully crafted, negotiated and agreed to by both candidates, nothing was left to chance. Throughout the debate Brokaw reprimaded the candidates for not staying to the format at the expense of actual debate. The questions were very targeted and completely against the spirit of the "townhall" format.

Gone are the days of true debates when the League of Women Voters kept the debates neutral and did not let the parties dicatate every aspect of the event. Today's debates are nothing more than inspiration for Saturday Night Live writers and a fraud on voters.

Join me and make this the new "Rick Roll"

With disk in hand I was about to start a dark and dangerous road of evil. It started one night many years ago...(cue dream effect) I had been up to the wee hours of the night playing Wolfenstien 3D on my best friends computer. I had just killed the 134th Nazi on this particular level when I realized that I had better get home. Oh how I longed to play this game on my shining new Gateway 2000 but alas, I could not afford such a game. Then it struck me why not copy the game to the floppy that I was holding. It was so simple yet so genius. Why had I not thought of it sooner. So I placed the floppy into the drive and what to my amazement did appear on the screen...

Video of another potential pirates experience

<RANT>

Watching last night's debate I became enraged whenever Sarah Palin would say "Nucular"IPA: /ˈnjuːkjələr/ (NEW-cue-lurr). Now as many of you know I am a Republican and McCain supporter but the widespread misuse of the word is driving me crazy! I hear politicians and regular folk alike using the incorrect pronunciation every day. Why is it so hard to pronounce it right??? It's so widespread it even has a Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucular .

Lets try it together:

Nuclear /ˈnjuːkliːɚ/(NEWK-lee-urr)

</RANT>

Thank you Steve for setting the mood.  As many of you know I am a .NET developer for Highmark Technology . In my job one of the greatest assests I have is the wondeful developer community and I want to give back. So over the last few weeks I have been working on a new website targeted at .NET developers, www.objectreferencenotset.com (If you're a developer you are chuckling at my cleverness, if you aren't it makes no sense). The site will begin as a place to blog articles, how tos and screencasts. Phase II will add a forum and social networking to help connect developers. I can't do this without you though. I want developers from the community to serve as guest bloggers and contributors. If you would be interested in doing this send me an email at blake@blakehelms.net

I have just finished changing my blog to a new blog engine. For you the reader there should be no change. You may find that old blog entries appear as unread in your RSS reader, I appologize for the inconvienence. Let me know what you think.