So Microsoft has released IE8. I ran it for a while during it's beta phase, prior to my computer biting the dust but just have not cared enough to reinstall it on my new laptop. I just don't really care. It doesn't seem to offer me anything that would get me to switch from using Flock.

I'm sure I will eventually install it, if only to test my crime site when I finish rebuilding it, but for now I'll stick with what I have. Anyone else running it yet? Pros or cons?

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

That having been said I am currently running version .103 right now, the last official Verizon release being .75. I tend to wait a while myself and let everyone else find all of the bugs before I upgrade myself simply because my phone also doubles as my home and business line and I don't need a non-working device if the bugs are too ugly.

If you are still interested, head over to the CrackBerry forums where you can find more information.

It's been quite some time since I posted over here. I've been putting all of my energy into my crime blog and now it's time to rectify that. I will attempt to start posting here at least once a day. Anyone else interested in helping out is is more than welcome to shoot me an email to rm_blogger@yahoo.com as well.

Anyhow, on to the post. Once of the places I've been hanging out at online since picking up my Blackberry Storm back in December is CrackBerry, and one of the folks over there has released a fun 'game' for the Blackberry entitled Crackberry Smash. Check out the video after the break...

The AP video below tells you a little bit about AT&T's HomeManager which is basically a little touchscreen that allows you to access the internet. I was not particularly impressed since it doesn't do anything I can't already do with any tablet PC hooked to my network, my Blackberry or the wife's iPod Touch, or my old Audrey that's sitting unused in the closet for that matter. Still, it does show that slowly but surely some of the behemoths like AT&T are trying to move into the 21st century even if it is with the wrong choice of hardware.

BTW, I know it's been quite some time since I posted over here. I'll try and rectify that and not stay so busy at the crime blog.

Just wanted to take a brief moment to wish everyone a Happy New Year! One more time 'round the sun. I probably won't be posting much later today (possibly this evening) as I am getting ready to go in to work and don't get off until 1pm this afternoon. Ugh. Not much fun.

If you have used computers for any length of time, think about how many companies you know of that have been around for over a decade. I'm not talking about companies like Microsoft or Apple or even any of the application companies like Intuit. All of them have proven histories of course but I'm talking about the smaller guys, in this case PKWare. I've been using their products since the early nineties, most specifically PKZip for DOS and then Windows. They have really come a long way over the last 22 years since they were founded. PKZip was a must-have for old BBS system operators like myself back in the days before the World Wide Web came along and even now Zip is the standard for compression amongst most PC users. Linux fans will take issue with this and while I also like running Linux and use GZip compression Zip is much more well known.

Anyway, on to the reason for the post. PKWare is giving away a free non-commercial license for SecureZIP Express for anyone to download and you can also win some pretty cool prizes in the Decrypt and Drive contest such as a Honda Scooter, bicycles, a Nintendo Wii and Mario Kart for the Wii, gas cards and iTunes gift cards. You can play the game daily in order to try and win one of the great prizes but it needs to be on the computer that you have installed SecureZIP Express and the digital certificate.

To enter the giveaway you need to download SecureZIP Express at www.securezip.com and then go to www.DecryptandDrive.com to register.

One of the really cool things about using SecureZIP Express is that you can compress and encrypt your files using a digital certificate so that whoever the file was encrypted for doesn't need a password. It's a nice way to carry around files on an SD card or USB drive. Remember the old days of carrying around files on floppy? Thank goodness those are gone :)

Anyway, head on over and download SecureZIP and enter to win their giveaway.

I run a tech site. It's just a small blog where I will occasionally post news and videos and such. I have never intended for it to be one of the huge gadget blogs, don't consider it a 'contender' or anything like that. I just enjoy writing. I also run a very specific site targeted toward HTPCs and home automation, two of my hobbies. As a result I surf tech sites a couple times a month looking for cool new gadgets or software that I might be able to use or that I might want to post about.

It's about time they took the gloves off and released this. H/T to Red Alerts Blog for pointing me to the video. I'm cross-posting this to several sites as well.