I've been spending some time optimizing my Windows 7 Media Center installation, and in doing so I've found some good information that has helped me pinpoint why I don't always see perfectly smooth video when streaming to my Xbox 360.

Most of you probably recall the Photosynth project by Microsoft that gave us some breathtaking 3D navigation of popular areas. We haven't heard from the Photosynth team in almost a year, but the University of Washington and Microsoft Reasearch have collaborated on some more awe-inspiring technology.

Yesterday was a big day for Amazon as they began rolling out to beta testers Amazon Video on Demand, a video streaming service. This is the successor to Amazon Unbox, a video on demand service launched by Amazon in 2006. Unbox hasn't become the hit they suspected, partially because of the hassles involved with downloading the movies before being able to watch them.

About a year ago, we wrote about a site called Expert Village which claimed to the the World's Largest How-to Video Site. They have a team of experts who contribute videos explaining how to do something in categories like automotive, beauty & fashion, and parenting. It's a great site and they have all kinds of information available to their site visitors.

It's not often that I come across a Firefox extension that does so much that it actually warrants its own CyberNotes article, but Tab Kit is one of those extensions. The only thing is that the extension is so new that it's still in the Mozilla Sandbox, and therefore requires an extra step or two to actually get it installed.