I came across the links over at Live Crunch. Personally I paid for the wife's upgrade the day it came out but for those of you that want to save $10 here are a couple of links...
Go check out Live Crunch if you get the time...
There are some pretty cool additions to the software which includes the app store.
I came across the links over at Live Crunch. Personally I paid for the wife's upgrade the day it came out but for those of you that want to save $10 here are a couple of links...
Go check out Live Crunch if you get the time...
There are some pretty cool additions to the software which includes the app store.
Slowly but surely I am reimporting the archives. All of my posts from the last year and a half were lost a couple of months ago in an upgrade but of course my static html pages are still there. I have to copy and paste into posts each and every one.
I have February 2007 finished now and will start on March pretty soon. Hopefully by the end of the year I will have them all finished :)
The biggest problem is time. I never have enough time in the day to finish everything that I want to, particularly with blogging. With all of the sites I run I just barely get everything finished that I want to.
Today has been no exception. After work I had to go to the store and pick up a couple of baby gifts for a friend of ours and then just came home. Originally I had planned on stopping at the gym and working out but I felt terrible so just came home.
After The Dark Knight one of the movies I am really looking forward to seeing the new X-Men movie. The "superhero" genre keeps on getting better and better every year as writers and directors learn that it's not just about "up, up and away".
The Associated Press interviews Hugh Jackman and Stan Lee at Comic-Con 2008 and talked about the film with these guys.
I have been writing a bit about the Caylee Anthony case and am now doing daily updates at Shadowscope
Please come over an join in the discussion if you have an opinion on the case. There are also pertinent links and phone numbers if you have information on the case.
Technorati Tags: Caylee Anthony,Casey Anthony,Cindy Anthony,George Anthony, Lee Anthony,Florida,Kidnapping,Missing Children,Jose Baez,Caylee Anthony Updates,WESH,Orlando Sentinel,Orange County,Mark Fuhrman.
Pete was on the cell phone a couple of days ago chatting with one of her friends as girls do when she dropped it in a bucket of water.
She was watering the plants out front.
And talking on the phone at the same time.
It was the wife's phone since neither of us believe that the kids should have a cell phone.
oops.
Needless to say the wife was not terribly impressed by this. We set it up with the blow dryer on it for 40 minutes or so but no go. It was on when it got dropped and it didn't have the chance to dry out properly before it got turned on again so the circuit board is fried. A couple of the keys work but you can't dial out, answer or make calls or do anything else useful.
Luckily I took insurance on her phone when I got it, and the same on mine. In general I believe that you shouldn't take any type of extended warranty on any kind of electronics as it's not worth it but with each phone upgrade we get the phones are more expensive and if you are in the middle of your contract and the phone dies you get to pay full retail rather than getting the deal that new folks do.
Luckily for us I took the insurance. It's a $50 deductible and they have already shipped her new phone out. I did manage to back up her pictures and contacts using Bitpim rather than pay the extra $10 that Verizon rips you off with charges you for transferring the stuff to a new phone, so she won't have to pay for it.
I still have a bit of phone envy for the new iPhone 3G but I am pretty sure that I won't get one. AT&T doesn't offer 3G where I live or work, the iPhone has useless GPS and no Bluetooth so it would just be an expensive MP3 player. What a waste. Maybe I'll get an iPod Touch instead for Christmas or something. I'm leaning toward one of the touchscreen Blackberrys that's supposed to be out before the end of the year though. I've really grown to like my Blackberry and while the HTML browser leaves a lot to be desired it's still the best game in town. The only problem with upgrading is that I'll have to upgrade my accessories as well. Cell phone holsters, extra battery, memory card, USB cable if it doesn't come with it, the list goes on. The case or holster is particularly important for me. I would prefer to just keep the phone in my pocket but it gets such heavy usage at work that I have to wear it on my belt or hanging out of my pocket. The only issue with that is that I beat the crud out of my phones. My current case has paint all over it, scratches, grease and all sorts of other nasties.
We had a cookout for some of our friends last night. It was a great time. A couple of my blogger friends showed up as did some of our coworkers and friends. We had ribs, burgers, brauts, cake and all kinds of other stuff.
On thing we have been serving at our parties the last few months is a Conch Salad. We got the recipe from a guy that was making it fresh in the Bahamas and while you can't get fresh Conch around here, we've substituted clam in place of conch. It's terrific!
Fresh firm tomatoes, green and yellow bell peppers, jalapeno, garlic, clam, lime and orange juice all put together. It's sort of like a slaw only better. Conch Salad is the bomb. I've found several different recipes online but the one we use I much prefer over the other ones.
CNN Technology has a pretty thorough iPhone 3G review online that you need to check out if you are considering getting an iPhone. They have tested it pretty well and I think it's a fair review.
I was very interested initially in getting an iPhone 3G but unfortunately the only network available to me where I live and work is EDGE.
Not only that but the lack of good GPS features, lack of Bluetooth, crappy camera, etc...pretty much were a deal breaker. I think I will just stick with my Blackberry and wait for the touchscreen version to come out which should be available through Verizon later this year.
Have you gotten the new iPhone or are you considering it? Do you think it lives up to all of the hype? I love the touchscreen as well as the browser.
Image via Wikipedia
I used Opera Mini for a while on my Pocket PC phone before I finally got smart and got rid of the darned thing (the Samsung, not Opera) and I really liked the program. Opera Mobile is along the same lines but a bit more robust. Some of the new features include:
Speed tests show Opera Mobile 9.5 beta loads Web pages 2.5 times faster than Internet Explorer Mobile.
Opera Mobile 9.5 defaults to full Web page viewing and allows users to pan and zoom into their desired content in just a few clicks.
Opera has completely renovated its user interface. Cleaner and more intuitive, the new UI is designed for quick and easy navigation.
It's a developer's toolkit right on the mobile phone.
Opera Mobile 9.5 is the most standards compliant browser available. Opera Software remains steadfast in its commitment to make the Web accessible for all.
With a click, simply save your selected content and view it later offline.
Multitask with tabbed browsing, view content in widescreen, and enjoy small-screen rendering.
Browse with the full richness of AJAX.
Save time with address auto-complete, Password Manager and pop-up handler.
Pick up past browsing sessions and bookmark them for next time.
Upload to Web sites such as online mail services or blogs.
Technical problems and some delays have come along with the release of the iPhone this past Friday. CBS news reports.
I have pretty much decided against the iPhone since AT&T doesn't offer 3G access out here where I am but we did update my wife's iPod Touch this evening with the new software. She likes some of the additions and particularly likes the app store.
Image by karitsu via Flickr
What's MobileMe? It is a way to sync and push email, contacts, calender, etc between your iPhone, iPod Touch, PC and Mac. Very nice and one of the things that have been lacking on the iPhone. Thus far the iPhone can't replace my Blackberry but there are some things that the iPhone does much better, such as the web.
I am going to upgrade my wife's iPod software at some point this week and may go ahead and get MobileMe as well if she thinks she can use it. The only downside is that it's $99 a year. Not $99 for the software, $99 a year. Still not a bad option if you love your iPhone but still need to sync with Outlook. It makes the iPhone much more business user friendly.
This year my daughter has decided that she wants to have her birthday party on Halloween. It's pretty close to the day anyway so I think it's a grand idea. I love Halloween. I usually have the best decorations in the neighborhood and generally add to it each year.
In years past I have used Homeseer, my home automation program, to run the sounds and music but this year I think I will go a bit further. I want to automated some of the lights and my fog machine. I should be able to hook everything up to lamp and appliance modules and have it all scripted so that the music and sounds coincide with the lighting as well.
In addition to her birthday we are combining it with a Halloween party as well. I am really starting to look forward to it. Guess it's time to start getting birthday invitations ready!
Image via Wikipedia
So do you know anyone waiting in line at one of the Apple stores, or perhaps you are planning in camping out tonight?
I can remember camping out for concert tickets as a teenager but I don't think I'm going to be one of the fools doing it for a cell phone, particularly when it will be out of date withing a year.
I do want an iPhone but unfortunately 3G is not available where I am :(
I've been using Charter internet access ever since it became available out here in the boondocks a few years back. Prior to that I had DSL through Bellsouth. While I liked having a static IP address (which I had to pay extra for) Charter High Speed is certainly much faster than DSL ever was, at least for me.
One of the other things I liked about it is that in order to get Charter High-Speed I don't have to have any of their other services. I do have cable of course, but they don't force you. With DSL, the phone company said I would have to pay for a phone line in order to get DSL. What the heck is up with that? We have two cell phones here, why would I want or even need a land line?
Anyhow, they have this limited-time offer thing going on right now that I wish I were eligible for. You can get Charter High-Speed for $14.99 a month, try the first 30 days risk-free and when you sign up online you get a $25 Shell gas gift card. The 30 day risk-free thing is a 30 day window for cancellation just in case you aren't happy with their service.
Some other benefits to being a Charter High Speed customer include:
Go check out the web page if you get some time and see what I am talking about.
If you will remember, one of the things I was doing earlier this year and last was to publish some of the public domain books on here, one chapter at a time. It had been years since I had read either of the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories that I was posting and I certainly enjoyed it even if anyone else didn't.
I still haven't restored 90% of the entries from before the site crash but I will try and get around to restoring some of them in August. All of the pages are still there and accessible, they just aren't listed in my archives any more.
This is pretty cool. I just came across a news report about Emotiv, a startup that's combining neuroscience and computer engineering to create this headset that lets gamers control play with their minds.
There are a couple of product demo videos at their web site to check out as well as other information. I must say that it looks pretty cool. I would love to eventually play Half-Life using my mind. Of course the games have to be written to support it but still...the possibilities are endless. The next step is control of your PC using only the headset.
I am getting ready to take another plunge and upgrade Movabletype 4.2 release candidate 2 to 3. I made a full backup of the system last night in case anything gets hosed so if the sites go down shortly, they'll be back up eventually.
Still can't get the friendfeed comment importer to work, I am hoping after the upgrade that it might...
After I strangle someone...
An overhaul in the way we navigate the world wide web has been approved in paris...Currently there are so many domains that can be used for URLs on the web, this will add more flexibility to the system.
ICANN is going to be taking applications for the new domains starting in April and might include such domains as .ebay, .atl, .NYC for example. The suffixes look to be pretty expensive from what I have read about them.
A couple of the things we are going to replace in the kitchen are the lighting fixtures. I like the ceiling fan we have over the dining table but the overhead light leaves something to be desired. Regardless of what we pick I plan on putting in Zwave switches although I may end up going the cheap route and just using X10. It's not quite as reliable as Zwave but it is pretty much tried and true and Homeseer offers support out of the box.
This has been an extremely busy week at work as well as here at the Miles casa. The wife was in San Antonio Texas last weekend for a blogmeet and this week the girls are driving down to Panama City Beach. It's three families, all total about 11 people staying in a pretty decent condo right on the beach.
Ah...the redneck riviera. Back in the '80s I really enjoyed going to PC Beach but it has grown out of control and is so developed with high-rise condos and hotels that it is nothing like it used to be. I can remember when the 'strip' really WAS a strip. It was a blast back then. Now there is no strip, at least not one you can walk down and enjoy hanging out with the locals. I think I would prefer Daytona Beach were it my choice. Since it's not they are going to the Panhandle. That's OK, I have to work this holiday weekend anyway and couldn't go even if I wanted to.
As I mentioned in another post somewhere else I picked up a new restaurant this past week. I spent a bit of time there getting to know some of the people. I've definitely got a job ahead of me cleaning it up. The good thing is that I have a good manager there who has really put a lot of hard work in and they are in a sales increase over last year. Now if my other two stores can keep up the same rhythm I will make some decent money.
We had to stop yesterday afternoon and look at equestrian clothing. One of the families that is going to Florida with my wife has a daughter that rides in shows. Her birthday is coming up and the wife wanted to see if she could find something decent for a gift. We didn't see anything that really stood out, maybe next time.
I was reading a story earlier on CNET which I will link to later. It was talking about the fact that Apple has sent a couple of demo units to CEOs in the cell phone industry that have slideout keyboards. That would just be too cool. Most of the iPhone nazis insist that you don't need a keyboard for an iPhone, the built-in touchscreen should be sufficient but I disagree. Right now I am using a Blackberry but a slider iPhone with a QWERTY keyboard would be great. If they do release one it won't be this year but I am a patient man and can wait to see what they bring out...
Image via Wikipedia
I came across the article Building a Quiet PC by Jeff Atwood recently and there are some pretty good tips in there. Even though I don't game much that doesn't mean I don't enjoy an occasional pleasant evening of F.E.A.R. or Half-Life 2 so whatever I build is going to have to be fairly high-powered as well as dual-boot from Linux to Vista to XP. Triple boot I guess I should have said.
Why Linux? I like it. I used to run Debian when I was doing nothing but web stuff back at the end of the 90's but the more I got into gaming and wanted to expand the more I realized that I needed to be running Windows. Heck, for that matter I wouldn't mind getting a MAC and the Parallels software (I think it's called) and checking that out. Needless to say whatever I start running will have to be powerful and versatile but it doesn't mean that it has to be LOUD.
Cross-Posted at MyHTPC.
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