Recently in Technology Category

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.

So I decided to check out Google Chrome and downloaded it the other day to check it out. I am back to using Flock again as of this morning but I am still not happy with it.

I really liked Chrome and probably could have come to use it as my default browser. As a matter of fact I had even set it as default until last night. It is faster than Firefox, Flock and IE 7 (and 8) on my system and used quite a bit less memory. I also like the way it compartmentalizes the tabs and memory usage. If one of them became non-responsive the rest were fine and I could kill the task without crashing down the other 25 tabs that I might have open at the same timr. I was very impressed with it. Using Flock, Firefox or IE for a couple of hours and a bunch of tabs and windows open I usually have to kill the whole process after a couple of hours and forget using iTunes and actually listening to music at the same time. WIth Chrome I was able to not only listen to iTunes but keep several different windows open and working at the same time.

So why the switch back to Flock?

I spent two and a half hours working on a post last night. Several thousand words. Shadowscope was apparently offline for 40 minutes or so for some reason so the last autosave Movabletype had done missed 3/4 of the post. I wasn't aware of it because my connection was fine. Anyway, I went to publish the entry and of course got a DNS error. When I tried to go back to the previous page most of the entry was gone. I wanted to cry. With Firefox and Flock I can spend an hour or two working on an entry and if for some reason my draft isn't saved on the server I can go back to the posting form and most or all of it will still be there. I have even used Task Manager to kill flock and when I reopened a new browser window it has saved my entered text. That in itself is worth sticking with to me.

I don't even mind not having access to plugins. If Google would add in saving of text entered into forms I would switch back in a heartbeat. It's just not worth losing two frigging hours of work.

I used to use Windows Live Writer to post blog entries but it's too damn buggy, which is why I switched back to the MT interface in the first place.

Technorati Tags: Google, Firefox, Flock, iTunes, Windows Live Writer, Google Chrome

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...

(Mirror 4) Download

(Mirror 5) Download

Go check out Live Crunch if you get the time...

There are some pretty cool additions to the software which includes the app store.

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.

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:

• Get the fastest and most reliable Internet speeds available- Get speeds up to 5Mbps to surf up to 90X faster than 56kbps dial- up and 3X as fast as 1.5Mbps DSL!




• Automatic protection from viruses, hackers and spam - Charter High-Speed Security SuiteÆ has the fastest response to new virus threats and best virus detection.




• 10 e-mail accounts - enough for the whole family plus 20MB of Web space.




• Download in seconds, not minutes plus a reliable always-on, always-fast connection.




• Exclusive content on charter.net- get your news, weather, local movie listings and more!

Go check out the web page if you get some time and see what I am talking about.

I've got a thing for gadgets, specifically PDAs. I'm not sure what it is but I like the idea of being connected and being able to do my computing in the palm of my hand. It's not all it's cracked up to be though. I've gone from a Palm M100 to a Palm Vx, HP iPaq, Motorola Q9m, Samsung i730 and finally a Blackberry Pearl. My favorites are the Blackberry, the Moto Q and the Palm M100 believe it or not. My Palm's were a much more intuitive and easier to use interface than any of the Microsoft WIndows CE offerings. The Windows Mobile gadgets also tend to lock up and once I combined them with my cell phone they really make a mess of things when they are having memory and lock-up issues and you are trying to use the phone at the same time. Not fun.

I like the blackberry as well. I'm not sure what benefits the bigger Blackberrys have over the Pearl other than more screen real estate though. That's what I miss using it. A bigger screen and a touch screen interface. Eventually if Verizon ever gets the iPhone I may go that route. I like the iPod Touch that I gave the wife for Christmas and as long as I can sync my calendar and contacts with it I would be good to go.

Anyhow, I like to check out accessories to go with my PDA as well. Preferably cheap PDA accessories although I prefer the quality to be something I am willing to use. SFPlanet.com has plenty of Cheap PDA Accessories for my window shopping as well as when I get ready to order stuff. There's nothing better than being able to find cool stuff for my phone/PDA than being able to find it while I'm sitting on my rear end :)

They've got some pretty neat stuff as well. Stuff that I haven't seen in the local Verizon store either, like an official Mickey Mouse finger strap thing with a flashing LED that lights up when you get an incoming call. Sweet. I have a pen that does the same thing but Mickey is even cooler. I also found a Krusell leather case I want. It has the thing on the back that will fit on a swivel clip. I hate the belt clip on the back of my Verizon Case. It's a decent quality case but when I asked if they had one with a swivel clip the dude told me that they pretty much quit using them because they break. That's not an issue for me (well, not much anyway) but I like being able to clip it on to my pocket and get it off easy. The last couple of days I have just been carrying the phone in my pocket. It's about a third smaller without the case and if I can't have one I like I just won't use it. I may just have to spend the $22 and but the Krusell case when I get paid, well, maybe in a couple of weeks. It may take all my extra money for the next few weeks to pay off the IRS :(

Supposedly my Freedom Keychain GPS device that I picked up last year while I was still using my Samsung i760 will work with the Blackberry Pearl. I know the GPS device does work because I have gotten it to partner with my computer as well as my old cell phone, but for the life of me I can't seem to get it to work with my Blackberry. It's not a hugely important detail in the grand scheme of things, but I have spent several hours off and on over the last week trying to get the thing to sync up and just can't do it. I am at a loss right now and seriously considering getting something else. The idea of having a GPS receiver and being able to use it with mapping programs is just really cool.

Something else that's pretty cool are the devices that Land Air Sea produces. Their GPS Tracking Key is a small device that picks up signals from the DOF GPS satellites and records the location every second. It's pretty cool that it can get your location within about eight feet. Eight Feet!

You download the data by plugging it into the USB port of a computer and using something like Google Earth you can see where someone or something has been. Since it's small it's easily concealable and the magnet is strong enough to be placed under a car. It's also water resistant as well.

Last year the GPS Tracking Key helped to solve a murder. George Ford's wife thought that he was having an affair and placed on in his car. Originally he had been charged with reckless endangerment but after getting the data from the GPS Tracking Key the Chenango County Police charged him with murder.

There's other reasons to have something like this besides cheating husbands. Three words. Teens with cars. That's enough to make me want tracking devices, cameras, all kinds of stuff on a car. I can also see where it would come in handy if you have a fleet of cars or trucks as well. The device records how fast you travel, the directions you are facing, how long you are stationary and the route you travel. Using just those four things you can extrapolate all kinds of other information as well. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I received this email earlier while at work it best to just reproduce it here in it's entirety. If you are in favor of the act make sure and contact your congressional representatives.

Last night, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House that would stop Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from controlling the free flow on information on the Internet.

The only way we can stop these gatekeepers is if we all take action to support this crucial legislation:

Tell Rep. Phil Gingrey to Support Internet Freedom

In 2006, your voice helped stop mighty phone and cable companies from gutting Net Neutrality. In 2007, you pried open their cell phone networks and gave users a choice.

This year, we're going to stop Internet blocking and censorship once and for all.

Why This is Important: Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) introduced the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act" (HR 5353) to stop relentless corporate attempts to set up roadblocks on the information superhighway.

It guarantees Net Neutrality by restoring it in the foundation of communications law. This bold move promises that the public -- not phone and cable companies -- will control the fate of the Internet.

The legislation also calls for a nationwide series of public hearings before anyone in Washington hands these gatekeepers and their lobbyists more power. (Read more about the bill here)

Take Action Now: Save the Internet

How Far We've Come: In 2006, more than 1.5 million Americans called on Congress to keep gatekeepers off our Internet. Last year, more than a quarter-million people sent comments to the FCC and opened up cell-phone networks to user choice and innovation.

This new bill was made possible by our amazing grassroots movement. SavetheInternet.com has brought together Democrats and Republicans, consumer groups and small businesses, bloggers and video gamers, in a new bottom-up majority that's shaking up the status quo.

What You Can Do: For too long, communications policymaking has been rigged against us. But by taking action to support this bill, you're telling Congress that high-priced lobbyists will no longer set the agenda.

Tell Rep. Phil Gingrey : 'Support the Internet Freedom Preservation Act'

The purpose of the Internet is to give power over information to everyone. The role of our elected leaders is to protect our basic right to communicate from those who want to take it away from us.

We've started a new chapter in the fight for an open Internet. We realize that it takes more than one piece of legislation to reverse decades of corrosive telecom policies.

But with this bill -- and your help -- we are on our way.

Thank you,

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
SavetheInternet.com

P.S. Bloggers, activists and Internet experts are logging on to the Free Press Action Network to discuss Net Neutrality, an open Internet and people-powered broadband policy. Join the discussion at http://www.freepress.net/action/

My web host has suggested that I move to a new server they have online. That will be nice as it should make things a bit faster. I received this email earlier:

Hello,

Richard, after our monthly server evaluation we've identified that your account is one of the top 10 in terms of traffic, and hence server usage. To offset some of the load on the server we would like to move your account to our newest server called Chanel. There will be no planned downtime during the move, and you'll benefit from the speed the new server has to offer.

Please let me know when you'd like us to schedule the move to the new Chanel server.

Thank you

That will be pretty darned nice. I have had to disable 90% of the plugins and addons for MT due to CPU usage and the fact that I couldn't even log in. I even had to disable my server stats plugin, MT-VisitorStats because the MT dashboard refused to load even after upgrading to the newest release. It will be nice to be able to use some of them again.

RecordNations offers a document scanning service as well as storage for your important documents. Their records storage lets you free up space on your servers and keep them in a secure off-site location.

Not keeping proper records cost business millions of dollars every year and sometimes entire companies go down because of lack of proper planning. Look at the woman just arrested in Florida last week. Her employer was looking to replace her and she found out and then erased 15 years of architectural records, costing the company something like $8.4 million. Had they used proper storage management and had their important records stored in a secure off-site location it never would have happened.

I used to do a bit of maintenance on a local attorney's network but he was too cheap to buy proper storage and ended up losing his server and quite a few records in the process. I was able to recover most of them for him as added cost to his office, but had he kept his records secure somewhere else, losing a server would not have been such a big deal. He did have to reproduce most of his payroll records by hand since that was one of the things I was not able to recover.

There are plenty of document scanning services out there, so make sure that you are using one such as RecordNations. Dependable and extensive data backup experience is what you need, in addition to through security procedures.