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This blog has moved

2011-01-16T11:45:00.001-05:00

USPS problems

2010-11-14T10:48:00.005-05:00

The US Postal Service wonders why people are finding other ways to communicate, which reduces their market share, which forces them to (try to) raise rates. I've had two problems with them recently that I think bear on this.

The first is Netflix. I recently opened a Netflix account at my PO Box at the main post office in Merrifield 22116. I thought this would be a good thing since one of the Netflix distribution centers (the address on your return envelope) is run out of a PO Box at Merrifield VA 22116. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Just this past month, I've had three separate problems:

1. discs that never arrived. in my Netflix account summary, it says that they sent two discs to me on Sat 11/06 (expected delivery Mon 11/08). I never received them, but Netflix says that they received the discs back on Tue 11/09 and sent the next set of discs to me. Two things -- evidently, the post office at Merrifield saw a Netflix envelope and lazily just dropped them into the Netflix box, thinking it was a return. I don't understand this because it's easy to tell if it's a send or a return. When Netflix sends a disc to a customer, both sides are RED. When the customer returns a disc to Netflix, one side is RED and the other is WHITE (the side with the address). I mean, how hard is it to tell the difference between an envelope that is red on both sides and one that is red on one side and white on the other?

2. discs that were delayed about a week. Another disc was sent to me on Fri 10/15 (expected delivery Sat 10/16). I reported it missing on Mon 10/18. Netflix sent me a replacement on 10/19. Imagine my surprise when BOTH discs arrived on 10/20 !! I sent one of them back and it arrived at Netflix on 10/21. The other, I watched and returned and arrived back at Netflix on 10/22. How did that one disc get lost for a week? I'm thinking that the same thing that happened in #1 happened here, but with a twist -- the post office saw a red Netflix envelope and lazily thought it was a return and sent it back to Netflix. But this time, when Netflix got it, someone must have realized that it had never gotten to me (both sides red, still addressed to me and not to Netflix) and put it back in the outgoing pile to come back to me, and this time, it got to me.

3. discs that disappeared. three discs were sent out on Tue 11/09 (expected delivery Wed 11/10) and never arrived. Because of the holiday, i gave everyone a little slack and didn't report them missing until Sat 11/13. Netflix has said that replacements are scheduled to go out on Mon 11/15 (and therefore should arrive 11/16 if coming from another local center). I will update this when I get more info.

In case you're thinking that these are just three little problems in a sea of "we did it right", here are my stats:

11 discs were sent to me on-time (or within 1 day of on-time) -- includes reshipped discs: 10/04, 10/19, 10/22, 10/26, 10/29, 11/03, 11/03, 11/03, 11/15, 11/15, 11/15

5 discs arrived 2 or more days late: 10/08, 10/15, 11/09, 11/09, 11/09

2 discs never arrived: 11/06, 11/06

UPDATE: 11/09 discs arrived about a week late - at the same time their 11/15 replacements arrived - upped the "as expected" stats from 53% to 61% - whoopee :-P

That's about 61% "as expected". Compare this to --

I used to have an account that went to my street address. I had some problems there but nothing worth mentioning. for several years, it worked the way it's supposed to work. with almost no exceptions, i got discs when Netflix said i was supposed to get them. actual stats:

over 7 years, an "as expected" rate of 97% --

854 discs arrived as expected

2 were in the wrong envelope

18 arrived damaged

3 lost but eventually showed up

5 lost and never showed up

so it's not a Netflix problem. the problems only happen when i try to get the discs at a post office box -- the very solution that the post office suggests if you have trouble receiving mail !!

(i'll be moving my po box soon - at a not small cost) to a different post office (one that does not have Netflix returns going there) and will update this with my experiences with the new PO. my suspicion is that it's the Merrifield PO that is the problem (because they also handle returns).

I tried to complain about this on the USPS web site today (Sun 11/14), but ran into problems. The complaint/compliment/suggestion form comes up and i can fill it in, but when i try to press "continue" to go to the "who are you" page, the browser does nothing. i tried this on Mac/Safari, Mac/Firefox, PC/Firefox and finally, PC/IE -- only on IE did the "continue" button take me to the next "who are you" page. we're 10 years in to the 21st century and the post office still thinks that everyone uses IE. They probably don't even know that they are stuck in IE since the web page says nothing about "IE only" (I don't like web pages that require me to use IE, but I do appreciate it when they know enough to tell me that I have to use IE, i.e., they'd rather I take my business elsewhere).

I have no sympathy for the post office's dilemma. If they can't even do their current job right, why would I trust them with a 21st century job?

Flashtards

2010-09-01T11:20:00.004-04:00

I guess I understand why these people are trying to get other people to believe that Flash is important. They probably make a living at it and don't want to learn something new. But anybody that is developing to web technologies should have understood a long time ago that developing for the web means that you are learning the "next big thing" every year or two.

I always hated the intrusiveness of Flash. All of these companies that believe that I want to sit through a 30-second commercial just because I wanted to visit their web site. And even after the commercial, the site is still crap. When Safari got Click-to-Flash and Firefox got NoScript/FlashBlock, I was so happy. I could ignore all of the crap (well, most of it) that people were putting on their web sites and get right to what I wanted to see/buy.

I don't miss Flash at all. And I don't get why all of these companies and developers are complaining that they can't get Flash onto the iPhone/iPad. It's not going to happen. And if it does, I'll be waiting for the Click-to-Flash/FlashBlock feature that removes it (or even better, a Setting).

These companies/developers should be focused on one thing - their bottom line. Do they want to sit around with their thumbs in their mouths complaining ? Or do they want to spend that time and effort building a web site that appeals to the few consumers that are still spending money in this economy ?

When I hit something that requires Flash, my reaction is "I guess they don't want my attention/money - let me go to the next thing in the long list of things screaming for my attention/money and see what they have to offer".

5-Hour Energy (2 oz "chaser") review

2010-08-16T17:10:00.002-04:00

Don't bother.

Didn't experience the niacin flush, but did feel mildly jittery (barely worth mentioning, except to say that if you have trouble handling stimulants or have heart problems, you should ask your doctor first). Pro: It did keep me awake, but con: my brain was still tired.

I think that this would be good for people that have something mind-numbing to do and just need to stay awake to get through it. But if you need to think creatively or analytically, I recommend you take a walk, find a way to get a power-nap, or something similar. The 5-hour energy drink will keep your body awake, but your brain will be on cruise-control.

iPhone sync problem with Photos and Camera

2010-07-27T09:36:00.003-04:00

Found this problem with iOS 4.0 with iPhone 4 and it has persisted into the current release (4.0.1). The Camera Roll can get out of sync between the Photos app and the Camera app. Here is how to reproduce it ...

0. iPhone is set up to sync photos to iPhoto through iTunes
1. get the iPhone to a known starting position:
- open multitasking bar (double-press the home button)
- find the Photos app (you may have to swipe to the left a few times), hold it for a few seconds, press the minus sign to remove it from the multitasking bar
- find the Camera app and remove it also
- close the multitasking bar (press the home button)
2. open the Camera app and take at least two pictures
- press the lower left icon to go to the Camera Roll and see your pictures there
- press Done in the upper right to return to the Camera app
- exit the Camera app by pressing once on the home button
3. open the Photos app
- look at the pictures you took in the Camera Roll
- exit the Photos app by pressing once on the home button
4. sync your iPhone with iTunes
5. double click the home button
- find the Photos app and press the icon to bring it up
- find one of the pictures you just took and delete it
- look at the Camera Roll preview screen - the picture you deleted is not gone - instead, it is a black square
6. double click the home button
- find the Camera app and press the icon to bring it up
- bring up the Camera Roll (lower left) - the deleted picture is gone in this version of the Camera Roll
- take a new picture
- bring up the Camera Roll - the new picture is there
7. double click the home button
- find the Photos app and press the icon to bring it up
- look at the Camera Roll preview screen - the deleted picture is still a black square and the new picture is missing
8. double click the home button to bring up the multitasking bar
- find the Photos app, hold it, and press the minus sign to remove it
- do the same with the Camera app
- exit by pressing the home button once
9. Go back to the Photos app and look at your pictures - all is well
- the deleted picture is gone and the new one is visible
- the same is true from the Camera app

So, you don't actually lose any pictures, but something goes wrong across an iTunes sync event.

Anyone else see this?

iPhone 4 white balance off

2010-07-21T23:33:00.004-04:00

Seems that the iPhone 4 camera's white balance is a bit off. See pictures below. The first is from the phone, the second is from a Sony DSC-W1 (5.1mp point-and-shoot) camera, and the last is a color-corrected version of the first picture. If you are having the same problem, I corrected it with the free Photoshop.com Mobile app (from a suggestion on this page) -- except instead of lowering the saturation, i shifted the tint to the "left".

At first, I thought it was a hardware problem since when i rotated the iPhone 90 degrees to the right, the green tint rotated 90 degrees to the right. But, googling the problem, it appears that it may be a white balance problem -- which should be correctable in software.

On another note -- has anyone noticed that if you leave the camera and photos apps open (don't close them using the multi-tasking bar), then sync the phone, then take more pictures and delete a few, that the photo library app and the view of the photo library you have through the camera app will get out of sync? i found that closing them in the multi-tasking bar brought everything back in sync, but i wonder how many other apps may have this kind of syncing problem?

EVO 4G vs iPhone 4

2010-06-29T15:28:00.003-04:00

Two funny YouTube videos (warning - plenty of NSFW language [not safe for work]).

An EVO 4G Salesman Confronts an iPhone 4 Shopper
and the rebuttal
An EVO 4G Owner Walks Into an Apple Store

iPhone 4 or iOS 4 features

2010-06-29T11:44:00.002-04:00

Three features that I find invaluable - folders, multitasking bar, and strong password. If you don't know how to use them, here is a quickie ...

To create folders, just go into screen edit mode (hold an icon until everything vibrates) and move an icon over another one - they will both be put into a folder. The OS will give the folder a name, but you can rename it. Each folder can hold up to 12 apps, but only the first 9 icons will show. You can remove an app from a folder by dragging it out of the folder. I've heard that some people have put almost everything into folders so they only have one or two home pages.

I had to look up how to get to the multitasking bar -- double-click the home button. A new row of icons will show up at the bottom of the screen. These are your most recently used or currently running apps. Since most apps have not been recompiled to make them pause when you navigate away from them, when you click on an icon, that app will start up just as if you had clicked its icon on one of the home pages. When an app gets recompiled to make it multi-tasking-aware, then when you navigate away from it, it will pause, and then when you click on its icon in the multitasking bar, it will resume right where you left off.

To remove an icon from the list (to to kill it if it is paused), just hold down one of the icons until they all start to shake and click the minus sign to remove it. You can swipe to the left to see more icons. If you are at the beginning of the list and swipe to the RIGHT, you will get quick access to your ipod controls PLUS the hidden orientation lock button.

Finally, if you want more than a four digit passcode, go into Settings, General, Passcode Lock and turn "Simple Passcode" to OFF. It's a bit of a pain, but some of you may want this.

Multiple Home Pages

2010-06-28T17:41:00.004-04:00

Here is a little javascript trick [if you use NoScript, click here to skip to that section].

I have been using isc.sans.edu as my home page for some time. But today, I wanted my home page to alternate between isc.sans.edu and also infosecevents.net. So, I used a little javascript:

Open Tools / Options, paste this into "Home Page" and click OK:

javascript:var d=new Date();var h=d.getMinutes()%2;if(h==0){document.location="http://infosecevents.net"}else{document.location="http://isc.sans.edu"}

[It should paste as a single line - if not, you may have to copy/paste in pieces]

Now, click on the home page button in your toolbar and see what comes up. Then wait a minute and do it again. Cool, eh?

There are some tweaks you can make:
1. if you want the home page to change less often, you can use getHours instead of getMinutes (or go the other way with getSeconds).
2. if you want to alternate between more than two pages, try something like this (i tried a switch/case instead of the if/else, but it didn't work):

javascript:var d=new Date();var h=d.getMinutes()%4;if(h==0){document.location="http://infosecevents.net"}else if(h==1){document.location="http://isc.sans.edu"}else if (h==2){document.location="http://iamneurotic.com/"}else if (h==3){document.location="http://starnull.blogspot.com/"}

The NoScript section

Obviously, none of this is going to work if you have disallowed javascript (say, if you're using NoScript in Firefox) on the page you're on (which includes the page that opens in a new window). In that case, you can put the javascript into a local file (say, on your desktop) -- this is the equivalent of the previous example:

<xxript>
var d=new Date();
var h=d.getMinutes()%4;
if (h==0) {document.location="http://infosecevents.net"} else
if (h==1) {document.location="http://isc.sans.edu"} else
if (h==2) {document.location="http://iamneurotic.com/"} else
if (h==3) {document.location="http://starnull.blogspot.com/"}
</script>

Call it something.htm and double-click it. When Firefox opens, it will not recognize the xxript on the first line, but that is a good thing. Open Tools / Options and click "Use Current Page" under "Home Page" and click OK. Now, go back to your file and change "xxript" on the first line to "script".

Test it by starting up Firefox the way you normally do (desktop icon, quick launch icon, whatever). Ta da. The home page comes up. The only caveat here is that if you're on a page on which you have disallowed javascript and you try to hit the home page button, nothing will happen.

Have fun!

On the BS of Positive Thinking

2010-06-13T23:49:00.000-04:00

Barbara Ehrenreich on the BS of "positive thinking" - neat video clip: http://ping.fm/dO0yK. her book "Bright-Sided" is fantastic. (via Twitter @hypatiadotca)

iPhone / iPad screen films and cases

2010-06-12T12:16:00.006-04:00

I've tried screen films for both iPhone and iPad, not so much for protection, but for glare reduction and finger gook reduction.

By far, the best was the anti-glare film for iPhone 3G from Power Support (was in the green package when the Apple Store was still selling screen protectors); they also have clear ones. It was, by far, the easiest to install, never noticed any fingerprints, finger feel was exceptional, and the artifacting from the matte screen was minimal.

Eventually, after 18 months, it started coming up at the edges due to an ill-fitting pong research case that continually scraped the edge of the film, causing crud to build up under the edges, so i had to replace the film (I removed the case and have not replaced it).

Since I plan to get an iPhone 4, i didn't want to waste money on a film i was only going to use for a few months, so i tried the clear film that came free with my old ifrogz case. Very decent film, although it isn't quite clear (some rainbowing if you look at it closely from the side), finger feel is acceptable, but not as good as Power Support, and the smudge protection isn't as good, but it will do for the next month.

BTW - I had the ifrogz case before the pong case - it lasted about a year but I had to replace it because the thin piece of plastic between the home button and the recharger slot cracked and eventually came off. This was probably due to stress from putting it in the dock every night for recharging. That shouldn't happen, but I would still consider them for my iPhone 4 case. The case had an excellent hand-feel and looked very nice. My wife has the crystal clear ifrogz case, loves the way it feels in her hand and has had zero problems with it (the crystal case is slightly thicker than the color cases).

On to the iPad. I'm using the Apple case and like it primarily for the thinness. I've considered others but they all add too much bulk to it. As for screen films, I haven't had much luck.

At first, I tried the highly-regarded ZAGG invisible shield. It was impossible for me to install properly and had really poor finger-feel (finger drags and skips across the screen), so i returned it. True to their word, they do refund the film even though I tried to use it and failed, so if you want to try it anyway (because other people seem to like it), i would still recommend them for that reason.

After that, I tried a cheap ChiTek film which went on well, but i'll replace it soon. The finger feel is acceptable, but there is a lot of rainbowing that you can see, even head-on. For $5, you can't beat it if you want a cheap film.

I've decided to replace the iPad film (and get one for my 13" MacBook) with anti-glare films from Photodon since I had a lot of success with their anti-glare film for my wife's 20" iMac. I'll let you know how it goes.

BTW - has anyone out there used the ZAGG smartBuds? I like the idea of the buds hanging close to my ears, even when they're out, but I have a 20" neck and it looks like it might be a tight fit.

How does Fortinet filter web sites ?

2010-06-11T09:36:00.006-04:00

I don't know about you, but I have gotten a lot of really bad results from Fortinet's web filtering service; the most recent is in the picture below. The link mentioned goes to a web site that offers the Google Books Downloader app for Macintosh. Even looking at the upper level domain (from a machine outside the reach of Fortinet), there is nothing there that is even remotely racy, much less pornographic.

I wonder who they hire to look at these web sites and rate them? Maybe this site happened to fall into the hands of a Google-hater or Mac-hater for review? I don't know, but my own experience tells me that I were ever in the position to buy such a service, Fortinet would be at the bottom of the list.

One could argue that maybe the web site was hacked and showed porno for a short time and that's why it was rated the way it was. I would counter back that Fortinet has a responsibility not to slander employees of the organizations that use their service. They are a security firm and could, for porno and other "bad" tags, send the web site to a level 2 person before applying the tag. The analysis would go something like this:

1. Did the web site ever have a different rating? If so, it probably deserves a rating like "Hacked" which means that it temporarily goes somewhere "bad" but the person who went there did not intend to go somewhere "bad".

2. If they never saw the web site before, then can they infer anything by looking at the forensics (whois, archive.org, does anyone link to them, etc).

3. Then, if they do say it was "Hacked", come back regularly to see if the rating should change.

This lets the organization block "hacked" web sites, while not impugning the reputation of those who innocently go to those web sites.

Seems like something a responsible organization would do. I hope that Fortinet would consider such a course of action for themselves since I believe that they want to do the right thing (proactively try to apply responsible ratings) vs doing the make-a-quick-buck thing (report whatever they want and let the users tell them when they make a mistake, or hide behind "the organization is not supposed to take the ratings literally and should do their own investigation" - like that ever happens).

Update: after reporting the problem to Fortinet, they corrected it in less than an hour. That normally does not happen this quickly when I report errors to them, so maybe it was the fact that I publicly tweeted it to their Twitter address @Fortinet that got them to act quickly (hint for others out there who have rating problems). In either case, I appreciate their quick action, but wish that they acted, in my opinion, in a more responsible manner to start with.

Moved passwords to 1Password

2010-06-01T23:52:00.007-04:00

Finally. I've wanted to do that forever. I moved 333 passwords from work and 530 passwords from home (both Firefox/PC) to 1Password/Mac. How to:

install secure delete on PC (heidi.ie) and Mac - you will be exporting your passwords to the disk (hard drive, USB, whatever), so you want to be able to securely erase the part of the disk that those files were on. i use Eraser (free) on Windows ( here ) and, of course, Secure Empty Trash is part of Leopard on the Mac.

export passwords out of Firefox - there is a free add-on for Firefox ( here ) that allows you to export your passwords to a file. after you install it, go to tools / options / import/export / export. i chose to export as a csv file instead of xml, but either one works.

merge the password files - i brought my work password file home and used the Import feature to merge the two password files ( tools / options / import/export / import ).

check your errors - you will get a number of errors. most of them are duplicates and some are other types of problems. make note of all of them, especially the "duplicates" since they may not be duplicates. huh? well, the web site and username will be the same, but the password may be different -- maybe you changed the password and only accessed it AFTER the change at one location. you will have to check the csv or xml file to see what the two passwords are, and if different, fix things. the easiest way to do that is to log in again, using what firefox thinks is the right password and if it does not work, then use the one from the imported file.

Move profile to Mac
Fix 1Password (false start) - Firefox setting
Import into 1Password
Backup
Copy keychain to USB
Copy into PC area
Bring up 1Password
put iPhone, iPad, Mac on same wireless
Bring up iPhone 1Password
turn on wireless sync
follow instructions for Mac
repeat for iPad

want:
all - option to leave userid out of title (and only in details) in GUI (i know why its needed in the dialog)
iPad - option to sort by domain
PC - auto fill without Ctrl-\

next steps:
go back to Firefox and clean out profile (dups due to formName, fields)
reimport

tests:
powweb

pictures:

Police Offer Home Security Tips

2010-06-01T00:45:00.001-04:00

Click here (via @RobertSiciliano).

What your email address says about your computer skills

2010-06-01T00:43:00.000-04:00

picture is here.

What I need

2010-05-31T12:28:00.004-04:00

Someone to create a utility for the iPhone that sends the ads to a wasteland. I like the people who set up nice mobile versions of their web sites that limit the number of ads (or remove them completely), but many still send you to their ad-laden pages, which slows down browsing considerably (jerkiness in scrolling).

Want to know how bad it is? Go the Washington Post article mentioned a couple of posts back (Top 4 Social Engineers) with Firefox and NoScript and see how many sites wanted to run scripts on your page (sheesh).

Wireless settings

2010-05-31T12:12:00.002-04:00

Made the jump recently to add wireless to my home network (vs all-wired) due to the arrival of my iPad. Conventional wisdom (SSID) got in the way though.

All you need to set is a LONG & STRONG WPA2 (AES) password. I was telling the router not to broadcast the SSID, but that does little to stop hackers and makes the network almost unusable -- devices (iPad/iPhone) can't see the network, even if they remember the SSID/password. Once I set the SSID to broadcast, the devices automagically saw the network and joined. Just make sure you choose a unique SSID.

One potential problem I have to investigate. What is someone chooses the same name (SSID) and no password -- which one will the device choose?

GPS turn-by-turn apps coming down in price

2010-05-31T12:06:00.002-04:00

but really, why do you need them? Can't you figure it out from the (free) Google Maps app?

I'm not talking about Google's turn-by-turn -- once you get off course, it won't correct, so pretty much useless. But just having a map with my position (as a blue pin) and the target (as a red pin) and a suggested course is pretty good.

One thing I'd like (that Google has on the Maps website) -- the ability to drag the course to a different road (if I know that the road they chose is no good).

Security's Top 4 Social Engineers Of All Time

2010-05-31T11:39:00.003-04:00

Click here for the article.

On this, Quit Facebook Day, I haven't quit Facebook since there are reasons to have a presence there. However, to protect my privacy, I've removed every shred of profile information, including using a fake birthday (was already doing that). Basically, i treat it like Twitter - I'll read stuff, I'll contribute not-too-personal stuff, you can figure out who I am by my associations, but I won't provide any specific personal information (it's enough that Google is trying to get all of that stuff :-/ ).

Another interesting article here (bit.ly link) or here (direct link to Washington Post).

What am I up to?

2010-05-30T15:56:00.003-04:00

Things on my to-do list:
- transfer passwords being kept by Firefox to 1Password (Mac) and KeePass (PC)
- get music off of CDs and into digital form (around a terabyte to go @ 192-256K bit rate)
- test backing up a DVD to digital and playing it
- backup DVDs into digital form
- consolidate data from a dozen 100-200GB (WD & LaCie) external drives into TB drives
- set up WD NAS drive
- set up TimeMachine backups for MacBook (to LaCie d2 quadra)
- upgrade MacBook to SnowLeopard
- find a decent multi-account Twitter client for iPad (use Twitterific on iPhone and Seesmic Desktop on PC, nothing on Mac)
- find a decent newsreader for iPhone & iPad (use Google Reader on PC, nothing on Mac)
- finish transferring most of my work from PC to MacBook
- wait for Henge Docks docking station to become available for my 13" MacBook
- try to load OpenBSD on my old PowerPC chip iMac (currently running OS X Tiger)
- wait for the new iPhone coming in June

Lost meets Avatar

2010-05-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

click here for the picture (via @jlist").

Steven Fry on "What I wish I'd known when I was 18"

2010-05-30T15:32:00.003-04:00

Take 30 minutes out of your day to listen to this (via @chockenberry). If you'd prefer to listen to it offline as an mp4 (instead of streaming it), bring me a USB stick.

Creative minds 'mimic schizophrenia'

2010-05-30T15:18:00.002-04:00

Interesting article here (via @samkrishna).

Mac & Cheese

2010-01-20T13:16:00.003-05:00

If you love soft mac & cheese with lots of cheese, go to Panera. I tried them and Noodles & Co and surprisingly, Panera was far better -- even better than my prior favorite -- Stouffer's frozen (the one I went to was on Lee Hwy in Fairfax, just west of Rt 123 - near the H-Mart).

if you use a MiFi (Verizon/Sprint) with your iPhone ...

2009-10-21T12:11:00.004-04:00

... then you need this app.

Thanks to Andy Ihnatko for the recommendation.

free 800/888 number for your iPhone

2009-10-20T15:30:00.003-04:00

You can get a free 800/888 number for your iPhone through AT&T Ring Central. This is a link to someone else's blog post about the application - he does a good job so I'll refer you to his blog rather than repeat the information here. You will have to install the application on your iPhone (FREE) and set it up from your iPhone. Overall, it is pretty straight-forward and you will get 4 choices for your toll-free phone number. If you want more details, they are here.

My summary of the terms:: - You get 60 minutes a month. period.; - if they run out, you get no more 800/888 service until next month.; - and if you have no activity in 60 days, your service dies (presumably, you can sign up again, but with a different 800/888 phone number).
There are paid plans available (of course):: - 100 minutes for $5/mo; - 500 minutes for $15/mo; - unlimited for $25/mo
With the paid plans, two things are different:: - when you run out of time, you automatically buy another 100 minutes for $5 - unused minutes will roll over for 12 months just like your other AT&T minutes; - you can receive inbound faxes and forward faxes (if you're into that) - it doesn't say anything about originating faxes though

They say that they will warn you before you get to the 60 minute/60 day limits, but I'd check the app periodically to see where you stand.

Upgraded MacBook hard drive

2009-10-14T23:31:00.003-04:00

Updated drive from Hitachi 120GB to WD 500GB. SuperDuper! made the job a breeze - no hitches whatsoever.

New laptop skin

2009-10-10T17:12:00.003-04:00

I really like my new laptop skin for my 13" white Macbook. This is what it looks like with the laptop turned on and the Apple logo shining through the skin. You can get it here [pvpstuff.com] .

Things I didn't know about the iPhone

2009-10-10T12:40:00.002-04:00

... and you might not know either ...

the built-in Calculator app appears to be a standard calculator, but turn it on its side (landscape) and it becomes a scientific calculator - no need to click a button to change between scientific and standard !

Live as a geek, die as a geek

2009-10-01T18:38:00.002-04:00

An interesting choice for a cremation urn at Flickr.

Guy Kawasaki's 10-20-30 rule for presentations

2009-10-01T13:48:00.001-04:00

Simple, elegant, brilliant ... on YouTube

New FeedDemon 3 for Windows -- TERRIBLE !

2009-09-25T15:50:00.003-04:00

For a long time, I have been using Firefox Live Bookmarks to keep track of my RSS feeds, but I noticed that I never seemed to go and read anything. It was always too inconvenient to click through each of the folders and subfolders, looking for a feed that had changed, read the new items, and then repeat for the next feed.

I had heard good things about NetNewsWire for the iPhone and Mac (where i would also like to read my RSS feeds) and its ability to keep all three (PC, Mac, iPhone) in sync. But, they were in transition from their old way (their own sync) to using GoogleReader as their sync platform. So I waited patiently for them to complete their betas and release the new stuff.

In the meantime, I moved all of my feeds from Firefox Live Bookmarks to Google Reader (exported the OPML file). I didn't use GoogleReader to read any of them though - I didn't want to get used to it if i was planning to use NNW/FeedDemon instead.

So, today, I just installed the new FeedDemon 3 for Windows. What a piece of junk. I heard people who complained about the ads, but that is a very small space in the lower left corner (where nothing else is) and is easy enough to ignore. What I couldn't live with is the navigation through the posts.

What I want to do is read the unread posts in oldest-to-newest order and have some way to easily mark them as read. Should be easy enough, right ? What a piece of junk.

Fortunately, they have a "watch" in the left pane for only unread items. I had thousands, so I told it to mark them all as read and came back in a few hours -- 35 items. Good. I brought up the unread items and spent some time selecting a view that looked like what I wanted -- "Surfer" (as in web surfer). I told it to show the entire post, to sort by date, and found the option to reverse the sort. So, I had the posts in the right order. So far, I was happy. Not with the amount of time it took to do this, but I was new to RSS readers and could excuse that as my "newbie"-ness. But what happened next ? What a piece of junk.

There isn't a good visible break between posts that I could use when scanning forward to the "next" post, so I started looking for something that would let me just click to the next post. Ahh, there it is at the bottom of the screen "Next Unread". I clicked it and did it take me to the next unread post ? NO. It took me to the next PAGE of unread posts (the 35 items were spread across 2 "pages" -- at the bottom, it also said "Page 1 of 2" next to forward and backward navigation buttons). I don't quite understand why they are spread across "pages" since each "page" is multiple (10?) screens long, but there it was.

Anyway, when I clicked "Next Unread", it didn't mean next unread post, it meant next unread PAGE. And when it went there, it marked everything on the previous page READ. What a piece of junk, but not the end of the world, so I went back and manually scrolled down the page and got through those posts and returned to "Page 2". For some reason I hit "Next Unread" again on this page and the results were incomprehensible. Since there was no next page, it took me to the home page and marked everything on that page READ (like before). BUT, this time, I could not back up to the previous page. Further, there is no way to create a "watch" that says "show me everything that was new in the last hour" so I could recover. No dice.

I went immediately to GoogleReader and discovered that FeedDemon had not sync-ed with it yet and the last page of posts were still marked as "unread" in GoogleReader. So I decided to see if GoogleReader would meet my needs.

I was able to set it up the same way as I had it under FeedDemon and started reading the posts. Two things that I noticed:

1. Posts were automatically marked as read as I scrolled past them. For me, that is a good thing. Under FeedDemon, you would have to either wait for it to mark the whole page as read when you finished the page, or click the envelope icon that was under the post's headline. That seems to be a good idea, but if the post is a long one, you don't want to have to scroll all the way back up to click the stupid icon. With GoogleReader, it marks it automatically, but if you don't like that, there is an box in the BOTTOM line (after the post) to keep it unread - at the BOTTOM where it belongs (top and bottom would be even better). And if you don't like the automatic marking, there is a menu option to stop it from doing that.

2. There is a "previous item" and "next item" button that takes you to the previous or next POST, just like you would expect.

3. If you are going to change to change the sort order (from newest first to oldest first), one word of advice. At the beginning of the line you will see "x new items - all items" where "all items" is highlighted. Click "x new items" first, then change the sort order. Otherwise, it will try to sort EVERYTHING when all you want to see are the new (unread) items.

Overall, FeedDemon is not even worth the price (free). Just stick with GoogleReader.

iTunes 9

2009-09-10T13:25:00.004-04:00

One very good thing that has been added to iTunes -- there is now a wish list for music, movies, etc -- but NOT for apps (yet?). Access it through the down arrow to the right of the "buy" button.

Another nice feature is explained here re: folder organization.

Updates to iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1

2009-09-10T02:13:00.002-04:00

... and all went well except for two problems:

1. if you view your music in something other than "Albums" view, the first thing you will notice is that you appear to be forced into "Albums" view since the "Albums / Artists / Genres / Composers" selector is gone. no problem - you can get it back at this menu option: View / Grid View / Show Header .

2. if you use "Smart Playlists" and sync them to your iPhone, then you have a bigger problem. the sync works fine, but the playlist comes over out of order. nothing i tried worked to get it in the right order. others have had the same problem as well -- click here. the method documented in the link works well -- after you get your playlist in the order you want, select all of the entries, then use the menu option: "File / New Playlist From Selection". this will create a REGULAR playlist in the same order as your smart playlist. now, instead of syncing your smart playlist, sync the regular playlist. i ran a quick test on a machine with iTunes 9 and the old iPhone OS (3.0.1) and smart playlists worked fine there -- so the problem appears to be in the iPhone OS, not in iTunes. so, if syncing smart playlists is important to you, you have two options -- live with the workaround or wait to upgrade until iPhone 3.1.1.

Hate Office 2007 ribbons ?

2009-09-03T16:03:00.002-04:00

Do you have to use Office 2007 at work, but absolutely hate the ribbon menus ? Wish you could use the Classic 2003 menus instead ? There are some solutions around $30, but there is one for FREE.

Patrick Schmid of Germany came up with a solution around 2 years ago (yes, I know this is old news, but i was only forced to move from 2003 to 2007 today) in this blog post. The required files that contain the "Classic UI" customized menus are in later blog posts for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

There is a catch -- the PRO version of the software is $30 and offers useful functionality, but if you only want the 2003 menus, that part is available in the STARTER version. You never have to start the 30-day PRO trial if you don't want to (and if you do, it reverts back to STARTER after the 30 days).

Hurricane candle shell

2009-08-13T22:19:00.008-04:00

I have been looking for a spherical hurricane candle shell but cannot find one. The last one I bought was from Illuminations, but they stopped carrying them long ago (and sadly, they are now out of business). If you know where I can find one, please leave a comment or email me. The one I have now (pictured) is 8 inches in diameter, although I will consider smaller or larger ones.

Over-the-counter vs Prescription drugs

2009-08-13T20:47:00.000-04:00

Some drugs that are prescriptions in the US, like Phenergan for nausea, can be purchased over-the-counter (OTC) in Canada. Also, some US OTC drugs are available in different strengths in Canada, like Chlor-Trimeton (an antihistamine) - which was available in 4-hour and 12-hour strengths until Spring 2008. Today, you can only get the 4-hour dose in the US, but it is available in Canada in the 12-hour dose. The store that i use for Canadian OTC drugs is NorthWest Pharmacy in British Columbia. There is a flat $10 shipping charge and it usually takes a week or two to arrive. Of course, it may be more expensive because it may cost more than your Rx insurance co-pay, but when you factor in the cost of the doctor visit co-pay, you usually come out ahead.

Should you worry about data rot?

2009-08-12T12:53:00.001-04:00

If you're archiving your data to CDs and DVDs, maybe you should. For an interesting interview with the curator of the Computer History Museum, click here.

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

2009-08-09T23:13:00.002-04:00

An interesting article that came out today at Time.com -- seems that low intensity activity throughout the day may be better for you than high intensity visits to the gym. The article, complete with sidebar ads, is here and a "just the words please" print version is here.

google

2009-07-24T14:02:00.003-04:00

It seems that Google is not without a sense of humor. Ever notice that Google will sometimes add a line at the top of your search results that says "Did you mean ...", particularly when it thinks that you misspelled something ? Try searching for 'recursion' and follow the link.

iPod Touch coming with mic (Skype-phone) ?

2009-07-22T14:46:00.002-04:00

Interesting rumor about the new iPod Touch(coming this fall ?) -- click here for 'Wired' article. In short, it will add a camera and microphone, which gives you a Skype phone whereever there is a WiFi signal.

The new issue of Hakin9 is on the stands now

2009-07-20T21:23:00.003-04:00

The latest issue (2009/4) of Hakin9 (an IT security magazine) is now on the stands (I've personally seen it at my local Borders and Barnes & Noble stores -- not MicroCenter though). The current issue looks at computer forensics. There are also articles about self-signed digital certificates and malware analysis. Get more information by clicking on the cover below (if you cannot see the cover, then go to http://www.hakin9.org/en.

Memory cards for DSLRs

2009-06-30T13:41:00.002-04:00

If you use UDMA memory cards in your DSLR, consider this real world test (spoiler - Lexar Professional UDMA 300x Speed CF won): http://photofocus.com/2009/06/30/long-term-test-udma-flash-memory-lexar-won/

Fun with Adobe update

2009-06-22T18:07:00.003-04:00

If you let Acrobat or Acrobat Reader update itself, you may have to check your preferences. When I let Acrobat Reader apply the latest update, it changed my JavaScript preference from OFF back to ON. If your preference is to leave it OFF, then verify this preference every time you update Acrobat or Acrobat Reader.
Very few PDF documents require JavaScript. Leaving JavaScript OFF helps to protect you from JavaScript exploits -- when a document does need it, Acrobat will ask you whether you want to turn it back on and YOU can decide for yourself whether you want to turn it back on, rather than letting the document decide. But ... if you turn it on, remember that it is not temporary - you will have to turn it back OFF manually.

DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

2009-06-12T12:36:00.001-04:00

Accepted into and started downloading the files for the DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge. I have until November to submit my results.

Need to protect your PDF document ?

2009-06-10T23:05:00.005-04:00

Click here for the post that tells you the easy two step process.

Air Duct Cleaning (again)

2009-05-14T15:03:00.002-04:00

When I think about it, I wonder how it could have possibly worked. The guy hooked up the vacuum hose (looked like around 5-8" across) from the truck to the space where the air filter was (20 x 25 x 4). Then he went to each register with something that looked like a leaf blower without the long tube and blew forced air into each register. He spent extra time with the main cold air return since he could see inside of it and blew loose what he could see (none of the registers were removed). I can see how the vacuum (what little there was) would suck up the loose dirt from the return side (air sucked into the wall and down to the filter), but could not see how the operation could have possibly worked on the supply side (after the filter, through the heater, the A/C, ducts and out the registers). Any dirt loosened there would have fallen on top of the A/C fins and I know he didn't go in there (I looked in there after he left and no dirt was visible on the fins).

So, does anyone know where that dirt went ? Maybe it's still in the ducts ... I'll have to take some pictures down the ducts tonight.

Clear drain trap (bath / kitchen)

2009-05-13T18:43:00.003-04:00

I saw something interesting today - a clear drain trap (for the bathroom or kitchen) that works better than a traditional drain trap and, more importantly, that you can clear by turning the knob on the side. You can get more details at their web site. You can order them online too (don't know whether you can get them at your local Lowe's or Home Depot); they are in the neighborhood of $40 each.

Air Duct Cleaning

2009-05-13T18:20:00.002-04:00

Getting your air ducts cleaned ? If you have sensitivity to chemicals or perfumes (or even if you don't, but don't the lingering smell of having an orange stuck up your nose), make sure that you tell the guy(s) not to spray anything into the ducts after the cleaning. It never occured to me that they would do something like that, but after the guy was done vacuuming out the ductwork, he sprayed a ****load of orange-y smelling stuff into the system while it was running (presumably to spread that orange-y smelling goodness in all of the just-cleaned [now, not so clean] ductwork). It took a few hours (with the A/C running and the windows open) to get the smell down to a reasonable level. Sheesh ...

Like the new picture ?

2009-05-07T14:57:00.002-04:00

The South Park web site has a feature that lets you create a South Park character for yourself; that's where my picture came from -- I use it everywhere. A friend from Twitter, Ryan Waughon, uses a Simpsons character as his avatar. Both web sites use Flash, so you will have to enable Javascript and Flash when you get there.

Other avatar creators are here.

Steve Jobs

2009-05-06T17:10:00.002-04:00

For all you discerning Apple fans out there, here is a picture of a plush Steve Jobs I recently picked up. He's sitting next to my wife's iMac (out of frame to the right) and holding a circa-80s(?) Macintosh pen that I got from a trade show a long time ago. You can get your own here (without the pen and chair, of course).

"Drop dead" phone number

2009-05-06T16:03:00.005-04:00

Sometimes you want to give out a phone number but don't necessarily want to talk to the person -- like web forms for companies that want to try to sell you something when you only wanted to get the info. In some cases, a fake phone number suffices if you never ever want to talk to them, but that is not always the case; sometimes it's ok if they call you, but you want them to just leave a message. Giving out your real number is a bother since you're constantly screening the incoming number, which is a waste of time.

Ultimately, Google Voice *should* do the trick, but for now, they're still transitioning Grand Central users and are not accepting new users (you can get on the waiting list from that page though). So, in the meantime ...

For me, I found the answer in a second cell phone that is almost always turned off and sitting in a drawer. Every now and then, I can call it up and listen to any voicemail that was left. Up until recently, this was an expensive proposition since even the pay-as-you-go plans wanted you to buy new minutes every couple of months, even if you still had plenty.

The answer is the 7-11 cell phone. If you have a 7-11 convenience store nearby, they sell two types of cell phone -- a candy bar type for $40 (see picture) and a flip-top one for about double that. Since it's going to spend its life in my desk drawer, the cheaper the better. While you're there, buy a $10 card to recharge it (the phone is supposed to come with $5 on it, but I wouldn't depend on that - mine was empty). These appear to be popular, so be prepared to visit a few stores to find one -- I had to visit three.

ONE BIG GOTCHA -- when you take the refill card from the rack, make absolutely sure that the grey scratch-off box on the back is still there (covering the code number beneath it). If it is not, get a different one. I'll tell you why later.

The thing that makes this phone perfect is -- checking voicemail from another phone is FREE -- and -- more importantly, refills last one YEAR. It doesn't actually work that way in practice, but it's miles ahead of the others. Here are the gotchas -- 1) there is a $2.14 monthly charge (supposedly a 911 fee), and 2) if you don't use your phone for 120 days, your phone number is canceled and you have to call customer service for a new one (haven't run into this - just going by what they say).

So, every three months, you charge the phone up (the phone is almost certainly dead after 3 months) and make a short call (15 cents a minute). At the end of the call, it will show you your balance. If it's too low to get you to the next quarterly "save my number" call, top it off. You can also get your balance by calling *777# (unfortunately, you can't program this number into your phone list - well, you can, but it won't work) from the phone. If you save the card you got from the first top-off and put the refill on that card (instead of a new one), then the phone automagically gets the money you refilled the card with with no action on your part (except forking over the money).

Here's where I explain about the "ONE BIG CAVEAT" from above. By now, you should realize that since money put onto the card is automagically sent to your phone, it doesn't matter WHO puts the money on the card. So, theoretically, after refilling your phone with the card (and associating the card with your phone), you could put the card back in the rack. Then when someone else refills that card, the money goes to your phone instead of theirs. Now, I know that all of you reading this post are honest and would pull a trick like that, but it pays to know what kinds of exploits that other people might be trying to pull on you. So, as long as the grey box was undisturbed when you bought the card, you're ok. After that, even if you lose the card, who cares? The money was already transferred to your phone, and worst case, someone finds the card and refills your phone for you.

One last thing - the 120 day limit may work to your advantage if you don't like the number you were (pre-)assigned. You could let the time expire, call customer service, and get a new number. But don't count on it; like I said before, I'm just going on what they said. For all I know, they may give you the same number right back and there may be a fee for this.

So, bottom line, for $40 up front, about $30 a year, and a few minutes every season, I have a phone number I can give out to people that I don't want to be bothered by or that I think may give (sell) it to other people (but who, in the odd situation, might need to get in touch with me for legitimate reasons). Like my hosting provider, my domain records, almost everyone I buy from online, companies that want my phone number to get their white paper, etc etc. Seems like a bargain to me.

Moment of Zen

2009-05-01T15:28:00.002-04:00

For a nice little break from your ((semi-)serious) tweet-stream, follow this guy/gal. Maybe it's because they're fixtures on our back porch, but I smile every hour or so when (s)he tweets.

Tweetie & DevonThink Pro -- FREE

2009-04-29T14:26:00.003-04:00

AppStorm is giving away copies of Tweetie (Twitter client) and DevonThink Pro (paperless office). See their web page for more information. These are Mac applications, but if you're using Windows -- no problem -- see this well-written page from Devon Technologies.

Twitter - getting started

2009-04-29T10:39:00.004-04:00

I saw an interesting article by David Coursey; he writes "People Try Twitter One Month, Then Fly". That may indeed be true for many people, but they probably haven't found a way to use Twitter to their advantage.

I find that there are a lot of people on Twitter who are looking to monetize it -- primarily marketers looking for the next big thing. I try to avoid those people. You can tell who they are fairly easily -- you get an email (from Twitter [you can turn those off if you want]) that says that someone has started to follow you, but a couple of days later, if you haven't "returned the favor" by following them, they stop following you. These people aren't interested in you - they are looking to create a "following".

To me, Twitter looks like a public IM agent. But instead of directing your message to one person, you publish it to anyone who wants to listen. People who think you're interesting "follow" you (think of it as - they subscribe to your tweets) and you "follow" people you find interesting.

Of course, what constitutes "interesting" is up to you. Personally, I tend to follow people (and organizations) that are into computer security and iPhone/Mac. Sometimes, I have something to say, but usually, I just watch the flow.

So, how do you get started? Check the blogs and web pages that you read. Many will have a twitter link where you can follow either the author or the organization. Start there - follow them. If you know someone on twitter, follow them. After a while, you may find that you're not interested in what that person has to say - easy - unfollow them and you no longer see their tweets.

Next, visit the profiles of the people you follow. Check out the list of people that they follow or the list of people that follow them (if you are interested in them, you may be interested in people that are one degree away from them). Visit their twitter page (click on their name) and see what they tweet about. If you are interested, you can follow them too.

If you have opinions about what is being discussed, join in. You don't have to express every thought that is in your head (unless that's your style, of course); you don't have to say anything at all.

Try it. You may not like it, but you just might.

Kindle = kindling ?

2009-04-29T10:31:00.004-04:00

I'm finding more stories on the Internet where others have come to the same conclusion that I did on April 2 in Thinking about a Kindle ? Think again .... A particularly interesting one appears in Apple iPhone "Mediapad" Could Be a Kindle Killer where the author thinks that Amazon may have developed the Kindle just to kick-start the e-book industry and will eventually abandon the Kindle to re-focus on the real moneymaker (e-books).

Here's another similar article from Slashdot that talks about the Apple MediaPad and Verizon.

And one from Fortune.

The Woman in the Window (1944)

2009-04-27T23:55:00.002-04:00

Just finished watching "The Woman in the Window". I'm not ordinarily a fan of old movies, but this one is a "must see". Reviews are at IMDB (but stay away from the "more" plot keywords) and Netflix. I'd steer clear of the detailed reviews - you don't want to spoil the ending.

Star Trek Limited Edition Titanium Spork

2009-04-22T18:07:00.002-04:00

Yes, I ordered one of these and you can get one too from ThinkGeek.com. Only $23 and only 1701 of them will ever be created. While you're there, get a tribble for your desk ($15 small or $20 large).

Mophie Juice Pack Air ? No thanks

2009-04-20T13:17:00.003-04:00

As I wrote earlier, I was considering replacing my iFrogz case for a Mophie Juice Pack Air when it came out. Well, I read a review about it, and although it appears to be a nice gadget, it's not for me.

The deal-breaker is the lack of easy access to the docking connector. I sync every day to refresh my list of podcasts and taking the case off every day doesn't cut it. It's bad enough that the iPhone+case doesn't fit in the 3G dock and I have to plug the connector in and let the iPhone just lie on my desk. I'll let you know whether the universal dock works for me (as a replacement for the 3G dock) later.

As for powering-up away from the dock, I'll still need a solution for that. I was considering the Kensington mini-battery pack, but reviews for the 3GJuice indicate that it provides much more juice to the iPhone (for only slightly less money). I'll let you know how it works out.

Photodon anti-glare screen for new 20" iMac

2009-04-19T16:56:00.003-04:00

The first thing my wife noticed when I unpacked her new 20" iMac was the glossy screen; she was very unhappy. She had gotten used to the matte finish of her 17" iMac and did not like looking into the "mirrorMac". Knowing that Apple did not give us any choices, I looked around the web and found a product that got good reviews from Photodon that was just over $40; so I ordered it. It came quickly and i tried to install it this weekend. Since it looked a lot like the screen protector I have for my iPhone, I ignored the instructions and proceeded based on the good and bad experiences I had with the iPhone's screen.

DISCLAIMER - these are my experiences and your mileage may vary. If you have never installed one of these silicon protectors before, or, if my experiences don't sound like your own previous experiences, then you should follow Photodon's instructions (the screen is not returnable once you start to lift off the backing, so make sure that you understand 100% of his instructions before you even think of starting).

All told, after unpacking everything, it took less than 15 minutes. First, I blew any random dust off the screen with my breath and then waited about 5 minutes for any dust kicked up in the area to settle. Then, being careful not to kick up any remaining dust, I cleaned off the screen with the yellow microfiber cloth supplied; I folded it into fourths and dragged it lightly across the screen horizontally back and forth, and then top to bottom; the mirror finish helped me to see any dust, dirt and smudges still on the screen. I then held the protector (with backing intact) to the iMac screen to make sure I knew how it would fit. Then I cleaned the screen again.

Then, bring very careful, I peeled off an inch or two of the bottom of the protector's backing and centered it against the bottom of the iMac screen (there is a slight flare around the black screen that you can hold the protector against). I pulled the protector on and off the bottom several times until there were no bubbles (holding it by the still-backed top of the protector). Then I grabbed the end of the backing paper and slowly peeled it off in one smooth motion, letting the protector roll off and stick to the screen as I went along (if it doesn't look like it's rolling off, stop now and retry). I had to pause a few times when large bubbles appeared and pulled the protector up and then let it roll back onto the screen. When I was done, there were a few medium bubbles and a few small ones on the screen.

I then went after each of them. I could tell that one was a [damned] dust particle that made it's way under, so I peeled the protector up from the nearest corner, carefully pulled the dust particle off and gently "rolled" the protector back onto the screen, being careful not to introduce any new bubbles (stopping and retrying when I did). Each of the larger (air) bubbles were handled similarly -- I peeled the protector up from the closest corner, pushed the bubble out (from the non-sticky side of the protector) and then gently rolled the protector down into the screen -- as Photodon recommends, a credit card works wonders here.

Within a few minutes, the job was done and the results are phenomenal. I would highly recommend getting one of these protectors from Photodon (they don't have an affiliate network -- rest assured that I get nothing from this endorsement). If you haven't worked with silicon screen protectors before, I would recommend either getting some experience putting one on your iPhone first or asking a friend (who has done them before) to help. Although you can certainly do it yourself without experience, you are likely to become frustrated (as I was the first time I put one on my iPhone); you get much better every time you do it (this is my third experience -- two iPhones and one iMac).

Easy way to write an iPhone App

2009-04-17T14:01:00.002-04:00

Have a great idea for an iPhone app, but wish there was an easier way to cash in without going through the learning curve? If you're satisfied with 25% (of the 70% that Apple gives the developer) -- or 17% -- then you have some options. MEDL Mobile runs an app incubator where they will help you develop your idea, build the app and market the app. You get 17% for your idea and they keep the rest (they actually give you 25% of their gross, but since Apple keeps a 30% commission, their gross is 70% of the sale price, so 25% of 70% = 17.5% os the sale price). Make sure you read the "Terms and Conditions" and FAQ pages carefully.

A thermal lance made of bacon

2009-04-17T13:58:00.002-04:00

Words cannot express the amazement -- you have to see this for yourself -- http://www.popsci.com/bacon. Technically, it's prosciutto, but still freaking amazing ...

A-1 Courier Services can't deliver

2009-04-16T23:38:00.002-04:00

Placed an order with Amazon a few days back and they sent it via a new service - A-1 Courier Services. They claim to have delivered it the next day, but that's news to me. They said they left it at the front door, but it wasn't MY front door. The only other package delivery service I ever had serious problems with was DHL; there's no excuse for not finding the right place -- Google Maps has a big yellow arrow pointing right at my front yard. My advice to you -- never use them for anything. If you find out that Amazon is using them and you have a similar story, you can leave your message here - there are 312 messages, mostly complaints, so far.

Notable Web Sites

2009-04-16T13:05:00.003-04:00

I visited two web sites today that I seem to be visiting fairly often. They are worth looking at as they both provide numerous (good) tips for working on-line. The articles I read today are:
100 Free Useful Mac Applications
and
100+ High Quality Hand-picked Icon Sets
These sites are well worth the time to examine, even if you aren't interested in the current article.

These sites join "Managing Your Digital Life" on my blogroll. Notably, they recently started a podcast -- episode 2 is here:
Podcast Episode #2 - Online Backup

The Internet Manifesto

2009-04-15T11:14:00.003-04:00

Got a link to this today from one of the people I follow on Twitter. It's a very worthwhile read -- well worth the 5 minutes it will take out of your life to read it -- http://smartoons.net/comic.php?c=26260.

Migrating from Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.5

2009-04-14T08:50:00.002-04:00

Last night, I upgraded my wife's G5 iMac (running Tiger 10.4) to a Intel iMac (running Leopard 10.5) using Migration assistant (on 10.5) to move all of the data. Some thoughts if you are doing the same:

0. Set aside a few hours. Although Firewire can theoretically transfer 180 GB per hour; for me, the migration process took 2 hours for 40 GB. This might have been because I was using a 15 foot cable [the max cable length] - the only one I could find. Get a six footer if you can.

1. Make sure you have a Firewire cable first; you need a 6-pin to 9-pin cable (warning - they are currently in short supply) - and if you can, use something shorter than 15 feet [the max length allowed]). This is because the G5 only uses Firewire 400 (6-pin) and the Intel only uses Firewire 800 (9-pin). Why Apple couldn't put a additional Firewire 400 port in the Intel escapes me.

2. During setup on the Intel iMac, it will ask you if you want to migrate data now or later (using Migration Assistant). Better to do it now. Follow the instructions, except ...

3. It will get to a screen where it is trying to move the Applications Folder - it will take MUCH longer than it thinks it will take - be patient - those last few minutes will take an hour.

4. After you are all done, you will probably have application problems:

5. If you try to fire up Mail and it does nothing, follow the instructions here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1849306&tstart=30. They worked great with one exception - before starting, do a force-quit on Mail to stop it (under the Apple menu).

6. To make sure that other applications will not have problems, reinstall all of them from the original disks (or download images). Take this opportunity to visit the applications' web sites to see of they have newer versions - you may be using a PPC version (for the G5) and a newer Intel version may be available (OpenOffice is one).

On memory card sizes

2009-04-13T13:23:00.003-04:00

There is a very nice essay on the advantages of smaller memory cards in your digital camera at http://mydl.me/2009/04/smaller-cards-smaller-stress/. Maybe bigger isn't better ...

iPhone case (UPDATED)

2009-04-11T12:20:00.003-04:00

Finally bought an iPhone 3G case a couple weeks ago after many tries and many returns. I settled on the iFrogz case (iFrogz.com) whch just showed up at my local MicroCenter (Fairfax VA) recently; it was $20 on sale for $15 (all Mac stuff was on sale, including the 20" iMac which I bought for my wife to replace her aging 17" G5 [$200 rebate]).

I got the green one and this weekend I got the all-clear one for my wife (there is a clear one with a black bottom and an all-clear one). The clear body has a plastic feel (like the plastic on a CD case) and the green one has an unusual (almost powdery) feel (maybe that's supposed to be how a frog's skin feels ?). Even though the clear one looks like it is thicker, a side-by-side comparison showed that they were the same size. Neither one added much bulk to the 3G (which is important to me since it resides in my shirt pocket). Both are a huge tactile improvement over a bare 3G; they don't feel like they're going to drop out of my hand like the 3G always felt. Although it was wet outside this weekend, neither one ever felt slippery. There is a round thing on the back - I suspect the intent was to help keep the case together, but the side stays are more than enough to keep it together (by the way, if you ever need to remove the case, rocking it side to side works). In any case, it's in a great location since I never notice that it's there.

As you might expect, you cannot use this with a dock that is made for the 3G because the case gets in the way. I imagine that a universal dock without an insert would be fine though, since I can use the 3G-in-the-case with my Kensington Liquid AUX Deluxe (that has no adapters) and my Altec Lansing T612 speakers (which has a removable 3G adapter).

You should pick it up in a store instead of mail order if you can. When I slid the first one out of the box and looked at the side of the case, I noticed manufacturing burrs on the side that ruin the clean lines (especially on the clear one) and color problems at the green-black line. Most of them were good, but some were inferior, so buyer beware.

I didn't try the screenguard that comes with it because I already had one that I've had ever since I bought the iPhone (around 6 months ago). The one that comes with the iFrogz has a clear finish. The one I have has a matte finish and has never given me a problem; any time a bubble showed up, I peeled the skin back, wiped the spot off good and (after a few tries) it went back on fine. It's from Power Support (the camo green package); I'm sure the one that comes with the iFrogz case is fine.

If the Mophie Juice Pack Air is all that it's supposed to be, I will probably replace the case with that one; it really depends on how much thicker it is. I have occassional low-power situations that I'd like to solve with the Mophie, but not at the expense of slimness.

Capturing videos off the internet

2009-04-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

I saw a question on twitter about grabbing a youtube video. The easiest way is to use the Firefox add-in called (Video) Download Helper and located here -- http://www.downloadhelper.net/. However, some videos (particularly on other web sites), will not download that way; I've found this to be especially true of videos over 15 minutes. In that case, there is another way that always works (well, it never failed for me):

- Fire up IE (yes, I know, it hurts - how badly do you want it ?).
- menu:Tools / submenu:Internet Options / tab:General / section:Browsing History / button:Delete / button:Delete all (this will vary depending on version - I'm using 7).
- If you regularly use IE and don't want to zap ALL of your history, you can click "Delete files" under "Temporary Internet Files" instead.
- Now, go to the web site that has the video and watch it (and ONLY that video).
- Now, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\{your userid}\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
- Click the "Size" heading (on the right) - you may have to hit it twice to get the largest files to sort to the top
- Your video should be the top file (or near the top) - just drag it into another window and rename it as needed.
- Most of them will be .flv files, so you may need a .flv player - I use Applian FLV Player (FREE) at http://applian.com/flvplayer/.

There are gotchas that might keep you from getting to the files; you may need to relax some of Windows' security settings - contact me if you have problems.

Missed the latest Apple iPhone ads ?

2009-04-09T10:18:00.001-04:00

Were you watching LOST last night and wish you could see the new iPhone ads again (when was the last time you wanted to look at an ad again) ? You're in luck -- Apple posts them to their web site here -- http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ads/.

Quick looks at some of the recent apps shown:
- Compass Go - pretty lousy reviews (1.5 stars) for a $2 app. Needless to say, I didn't try it. When I start writing my own programs, I will start by doing programs that seem easy, but have lousy reviews and giving them away free; like this one. Watch this space ...
- iBird Explorer Plus - give me a break - 20 bucks ? and $30 for the PRO version ? even the backyard version is $5. If you're a serious birdwatcher, this looks like it might be worth your $$ and the reviews are uniformly high, but for most of us, maybe not.
- Howcast - free and the reviews didn't say it was going to crash my iPhone, so, of course, i installed it (up to around 82 now ...). The how-to videos come from their web site (howcast.com); this app appears to be a portable version of their site. I watched a couple of them and they're ok (did I mention that it's free ?). The one about surviving a bear attack is quite funny but the video did not survive the downcasting process (from web resolution to iPhone resolution) very well and was pretty much unwatchable (but go to the web site and watch it - it's pretty good). The one about painting a wall was ok though. I'd go to the web site and see if you like their videos before installing it.
- Fedex Mobile - it's free, but only does FedEx. If you want something to track your packages, try one of the free ones that do all of the companies, like TrackerLite (which lets you add a comment that tells you what you sent or what you're expecting).
- Snaptell - click a picture of a book, DVD or game and get ratings and competing prices. Tried it out on a book on my shelf and (somehow) it works - gave me a wealth of prices and reviews. This will replace my Amazon app for most things (will still keep the Amazon app as a backup for stuff Snaptell can't find). Best part = FREE.
- MultiLevel - 2 bucks and only rated 2.5 ? No thanks. Instead, get iHandy Level Free for (guess how much). I've been using it (when I don't have a real one around) and it seems pretty accurate. But, if that 2 bucks is really burning a hole in your pocket, then don't buy MultiLevel - instead upgrade iHandy Level Free to iHandy Carpenter. It has better reviews than MultiLevel (3.5 stars) and comes with 5 tools instead of just a level (a plumb bob [not sure how it does that], a surface level, a level bar, a protractor and a ruler). Can't tell you how well it works, but if the free level tool is any indication, it's well worth the $.
- Shazam - just get it - it's freaking amazing -- and FREE. Hold it up to a music source (trailer music on a movie, bumper music on a talk show, etc) and it will tell you what it is.

Financial stability of the cloud

2009-04-07T15:50:00.000-04:00

see article here -- http://www.darkreading.com/blog/archives/2009/03/a_cloud_might_s.html

WunderRadio giveaway

2009-04-07T13:46:00.000-04:00

balked at getting WunderRadio for your iPhone because you weren't sure it was worth the price (my word not good enough, eh) ? well, you're in luck -- TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is giving away 20 copies. Just leave a comment before 5pm tomorrow at: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/04/07/its-a-wunder-ful-day-win-a-copy-of-wunder-radio-1-6/ . Good luck !

GM - Segway collaboration

2009-04-07T12:20:00.001-04:00

i want one of these ... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123906731177395605.html ... needs a cargo compartment though and maybe a little better protection from the elements.

Disaster File

2009-04-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

Interesting article here - http://mydl.me/2009/04/leaving-a-scent-trail/ . I've given some thought to doing something like this for some time now -- for me, the problem has always been getting all of that information together in the first place. Maybe start with something - anything - and then let my obsessive nature fix it - instead of trying to get it right the first time. But maybe not ... As I'm fond of teasing my "Agile" friends - refactor is just another word for "didn't get it right the first time".

Limited Time Offers

2009-04-02T18:23:00.000-04:00

Into photography ? Want a FREE Lensbaby Composer ? Click here.
Don't know what a Lensbaby Composer is ? Click here.

Have a Mac ? Want 12 top MacApps for $39 from MacHeist ? Click here.

Thinking about a Kindle ? Think again ...

2009-04-02T12:42:00.001-04:00

Although the Kindle may look attractive, you would be wise to wait a little bit. The biggest problems that I have with it are 1) lack of color and b) no interoperability with a desktop/laptop.
I want a mobile platform that lets me view my technical books and documents. Since many of them use color, the lack of color is a problem. It would be tolerable if I could transfer the document to a color platform to look at the parts that were in color, but I imagine that even if the transfer were possible, the Kindle document would still be in 16 shades of grey. For the prices that they charge for tech books, that is intolerable (for me).
Also, I may want to move the books/docs to my desktop/laptop where I can cut/paste into my editor window. If I wanted to read a book on both the desktop/laptop and the Kindle, it makes more sense to buy the book in a format that can be viewed/manipulated on the desktop/laptop (like PDF) and then transfer it to the Kindle (since the reverse is not possible).
So, what to do? Apple is rumored to be moving into the netbook/tablet market and ebook market (maybe with an announcement in June). Netbooks are also getting cheaper (see story here) and one of them may try to move into the Kindle space (some pictures of a rumored tablet from a netbook manufacturer have already surfaced). If that happens, you will not only have an e-book reader that is cheaper than the Kindle, but one that can operate as a netbook as well. The only downside is that DRM-ed content that is exclusive to the Kindle would not be available (until Amazon makes a desktop/laptop/netbook reader available).

For photography buffs

2009-04-02T12:33:00.000-04:00

Scott Bourne publishes an excellent web site (and podcast) for photo buffs at http://photofocus.com/ (formerly http://twipphoto.com/). You can follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/ScottBourne. Incentive for following him on twitter - he gives stuff away randomly!

Apple iPhone as gaming platform

2009-04-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

Apple iPhone emerging as contender to Nintendo DS and Sony PSP as mobile gaming platform. Full story here.

iPhone Tip of the Week

2009-04-01T15:37:00.000-04:00

Hopefully, I can remember to do this every week ...

Can't get the Notes app to learn new words for its auto-correct ?
Try typing the words into Safari's Google search instead.

Source for this story is here

Click here for more iPhone tips

Hakin9's clickjacking issue is now on the stands

2009-04-01T15:09:00.000-04:00

The latest issue (2009/2) of Hakin9 (an IT security magazine) is now on the stands (I've personally seen it at my local Borders store). The current issue's cover story is about clickjacking and how easily your clicks can be stolen from a web page. There is also an article by Jason Alexander on analyzing malware. Get more information by clicking on the cover below (if you cannot see the cover, then go to http://www.hakin9.org/en.

URLs - the long and short of them ...

2009-03-30T14:38:00.000-04:00

In your web postings (esp places where every character counts - like twitter), you may want to shorten a really long URL into something manageable.

There are many services that will do this for you (I use the first, but the others are seen extensively):

http://tr.im

http://bit.ly

http://tinyurl.com
And if you insist, there is even one that will put an ad at the top of the target page and earn you some pennies (i don't like those, so i won't encourage you by providing the link). These services have javascript bookmarklets that sit in your link bar and look like any other link, except that when you click it, the page you are on is passed to tr.im (or wherever) and you get the short URL that corresponds to the page you were on. Of course, if you are using NoScript for Firefox, this may not work -- you may have to temporarily allow scripting on the page.

However, some people have started using these short URLs to hide their real purpose -- give you a nice come-on with a shortened URL that takes you to a web page that (if you saw the URL) you wouldn't ordinarily go to. To your rescue are two services (free) which will show you what any given short URL expands to. Depending on what you see, you can choose to follow the short URL or not. The two that I know of are:

http://longurl.org/tools -- a Firefox extension that shows you the long URL when you hover over a short URL

http://unshrinker.com -- web-based form for those not using Firefox, but doesn't look like it's ready for prime time yet