Category — Technology

Have you ever used Wikipedia? I do - all the time.

If you don’t contribute articles, information or services to them in direct proportion to your usage, please consider giving a small donation to help them stay afloat and advertisement free.

Wikipedia has changed the face of collective global information. While it certainly has some flaws, the overall benefit to humanity is quite considerable. Do your part and pitch in where you can!

Well, it was bound to happen one day - I got a drive-by virus.

A friend of mine was moving an older program from one PC to another and didn’t have the disk any longer and asked me if I still had a copy. No luck there - so, I figured I’d search the net to see if you could buy old copies of the program on the cheap. A few Google searches later had me browsing a couple of link-trawler sites that didn’t provide much useful information.

One site - I believe it was oldapps.com, I really can’t be certain - left me with a little present that I won’t soon forget: a brand spanking new copy of Virtumonde (aka Trojan.Vundo.H).

Unfortunately, that present was left with nary a blip on my screen.  Minding my own business, I suddenly got an authentic Windows message stating that my Windows Firewall was no longer active. You know that sinking feeling you get in your gut when something horrible has just happened and you start to slowly comprehend the far reaching ramifications of what you have just witnessed? Yeah…  I wish I could say that I felt that way and immediately disconnected my PC from the net, but no luck. I was a real Noob, and actually thought, “Dang Microsoft, when are you going to straighten out your crapware once and for all?”.

Seriously, I thought Windows Update had pooped the bed or something…  I simply re-enabled the firewall, and everything was fine. No harm done, right? Ahem…

I kept browsing around, and then got another Windows Security Center message saying that my Virus protection was no longer active…

WTF?

NOW you can queue the sinking feeling…

[Read more →]

It is a fact of modern life that we expect our stuff to be customized to meet not only our functional needs, but also our personal style.

We expect customization options on the websites we visit, the television we watch and even on our personal devices like cell phones and PDA’s with custom ring-tones and digital themes being the rule, not the exception.  Some devices have even had custom covers and aftermarket color kits to give us even more customization options.  This trend is sure to continue well into the foreseeable future.  In fact, it may become even more popular if the website that I just found has anything to say about it.  These folks take customization to a whole new level.

Enter SkinIt.com.

This cool site allows you to skin nearly anything you have.

Example of SkinIt skins on various devices

You can choose from a moderately sized stable of pre-made designs, or for the mother of all customizations you can upload your own pictures and art using their awesome web based skin design tool.

The SkinIt Design interface for an XBOX 360

This is where you can upload your own stuff, rotate them, add stock shapes, background colors, text, whatever!  About the only thing I found that you couldn’t do with this great tool was have it automatically make text follow a path (meaning, taking text and making it go into a arc, etc.)  Everything else?  You’re covered!

The price isn’t even too bad, with phone skins being around $20, and larger skins (say, for that XBOX 360 you got this Christmas) being around double that.  A bit expensive, but not really when you consider the flexibility that they offer.

Since I’m not the kind of guy to simply choose one of the pre-made skins, my only problem now is actually designing something worthy of display!  Something tells me my wife won’t like the screaming trolls emblazoned on a bright orange bio-hazard background. 

Apparently my blogging is an evil that shan’t be unleashed upon the world, or so say the folks at Technorati.

Why have my insane ramblings been banned?  I know not why.

I first noticed something was up when I logged in to Technorati to update a few items in my profile.  For some reason my blog claim was gone!?  I looked around to see if I could spot a reason why, but there was nothing there indicating the reason why my little patch of cyberspace had disappeared.

Oh well, no problem, I figured I’d just reclaim my blog, as I’m not one of those evil “Authority” wranglers who does things to specifically increase their ranking, and frankly didn’t care if I had to start afresh with my ranking.  Truly, I don’t care much about my ranking on Technorati, but I do like being listed.

You can imagine my surprise when I was greeted by the above message!   I’VE been flagged!?  Good heavens, why?

Surfing on over the the Blog Quality Guidelines yields a fairly benign list of DO’s and DON’Ts that I believe I am absolutely in compliance with.  My use of WordPress covers most of the technical requirements, so the easily drawn conclusion is that they somehow dislike my content, style or topics?

I don’t over-tag, post spam or over-link.   I don’t post with commercial intent.  I don’t belong to even a single affiliate system.  In short, I don’t do ANYTHING to try to game their damn system.   Yet, I’m banned.

So, I figured it was a simple case of misunderstanding.  As their “Troubleshooting” section advises, I filled out their support contact form and have waited for a response.  A month has gone by and I haven’t heard a thing.  Google can respond within a day to issues, despite being used by 10 bazillion times the number of people.  In fact, they sometimes respond within minutes.  Technorati?  Not within a month.

Well Technorati, you can take your haughty attitude and stick it up your ass, right next to your head.

Consider yourselves BANNED TOO!  Never will a Technorati tag be used on this site again.  HA!  Take that you arrogant bastards!

And, if YOU have a complaint, you can use MY complaint form below.

Here’s a neat concept: rather than messing with unreliable home WiFi networks, simply walk that big honkin’ HD video over to your TV, just like you’ve done for years.  This time, the movie is on a portable hard drive, and the device to play the file doesn’t cost several hundred dollars.

WD TV HD Media Player

Western Digital has introduced the WD TV HD Media Player, and it is a very interesting idea.  Essentially it allows you to turn any USB hard drive into an HD media player.  You store your HD content on a USB drive. Plug the drive into the WD TV and you can then easily play HD movies, digital music or still images on your TV in up to 1080p resolution.  Now, that IS easy.

It supports a ton of video formats: from .avi to .mov to XviD, DivX, H.264 and a bunch more.  Did I mention that it supports HDMI and 1080p?  I think I did!

When you compare this little device to buying or building your own media server, I think that it clearly comes out ahead in the areas of cost and simplicity.  You can get the item for as little as $119, and it may just be the answer to a lot of every day needs.

Back Panel

A couple of cons that I see.  First and foremost, it doesn’t support component video, only composite and HDMI, so connecting this to my 6 year old 65″ Mitsubishi Widescreen HD Television with an HD signal just isn’t going to happen.  It will however go on the newer plasmas screen that we have.  But, we use the Mits much more than the Plasma because of location.  I know, I know - I touted its HDMI support, and that IS awesome.  But HDMI along with component would be even better.

Second con: No network support.  It would be nice to be able to drop a USB drive onto this puppy and wirelessly be able to store files on the drive.  I think it would reduce the “sneakernet” aspect of the whole thing.  But, what can you expect for $100?  This would be a nice feature, but it would certainly bump the cost up.

Nice Browse Screen to View Available Media

I suppose when all is said and done, going with something like the QNAP 109 II or 209 II probably makes more sense if you already have a method of displaying digital files - i.e. a PS3 or xBox 360.  You’ll end up spending more money that way, but the benefits may be worth it.

Still, this little thing is easy to use and dirt cheap for the kind of functionality.  You be the judge!  Drop me a note in the comments below and let me know what you think!

————————-

File Formats Supported
Music - MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA
Graphics - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264)
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8)

Note:
- MPEG2/4, H.264, and WMV9 supports up to 1920×1080p 24fps, 1920×1080i 30fps, 1280×720p 60fps resolution.
- An audio receiver is required for surround sound output.
- AAC/Dolby Digital decodes in 2 channel output only.
- JPEG does not support CMYK or lossless.
- BMP supports uncompressed format only.
- TIF/TIFF supports single layer only.

WD TV, 1080p HD Media Player, USB HD

Well, here’s an interesting side effect to the new BlackBerry Storm being released…

BlackBerry Storm

According to David Pogue of the New York Times (who gave the Storm an abysmal rating), Mac users are no longer the bitchiest, most attack prone fanboys on the planet.  Apparently that cruel-tongued title has now been usurped by zealot BlackBerry users.  Surprise, Surprise!

To be honest, at this point, I’m an avid BlackBerry user myself and a proud BB Curve owner for the past 2 years.  It wasn’t always that way though - I was an unwilling Palm convert who was cruelly subjected to a forced RIM job.  Ahem.  Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  I’ve been dying to say that ever since I had to make the switch…

Anyway, back to my point.  I love my BB, though it certainly has its share of shortcomings.  The screen is gorgeous, the email support is fantastic and the phone sound quality and overall volume are both excellent.  That said though, I have been salivating at the idea of upgrading to the Bold due to its faster processor, WiFi capabilities and new OS.  A cold bucket of ice was thrown on that dream when I saw the $400 corporate contract price.  It stopped me dead in my tracks.  At $200, it would have been a done deal.

SIGH.  But, I digress again.  My REAL point here is that I found myself wondering how many of the folks that wrote in agreeing with Pogue and who hated the BB Storm were actually normal BB users.  The tone of his article kinda makes it seem like all of the people who have had problems with the Storm were unwitting, helpless victims in the whole process - untold masses being deceived by the evil Waterloo temptress who they simply had no chance of resisting.  And, that all of the REAL BB fanboys were attacking him with great hostility for no apparent reason.

I’m sure that’s not quite the case…  Look, most companies allow you 15-30 days to exchange the phone if you don’t like it.  RIM has touted the clickable touch screen for quite some time, and my first thought was, “oh, that is either going to be REALLY awesome, or REALLY suck - I don’t think there will be an in between…”  I gotta believe that others were thinking that too.  Long story short - people can try this stuff before they are stuck with it.  Experiment away folks!  No, some of the disenchanted were certainly part of the BB faithful that Pogue is deriding.  Ain’t no doubt about it.

My real feeling is that while all groups of people have assholes in it (and zealot BB users are certainly no exception) that there is probably a deeper story going on here.  Many zealot product groups tend to back up their fervent ardor with representative stock purchases.  RIM’s current $39.49 price is a far way off from its high of $144.56 this past June.  Ouch.  Anyone who has lost nearly 75% of their investment value can’t help but be a little bitchy.  The last thing they need is a bunch of bad press on one of RIM’s big bets getting in the way of their sorely sought recovery.

My final few thoughts (thank goodness, I know!!) are these:

• I’m glad that the Storm was released on Verizon, thereby removing all temptation for yours truly.
• I formally repeal any ill will that I had towards AT&T for continually delaying the Bold release on their network.  It was apparently time well spent, as that launch went off without much of an issue and no big surprises.
• I now take my formerly repealed ill will towards AT&T and send it back in their direction two-fold for the ludicrous $400 corporate contract price that they have shackled the Bold with.

A pox upon those stinking bastards!  I hope they die!

YIKES!??  Did I just say that?  Hmm… Maybe Mr. Pogue was right after all!?? 

BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Storm, RIM

My original post on this topic got a lot of traffic, so it seems that people are interested in this topic.

As a result, I’ve written a new Wordpress plugin called Postcasa to help people add a simple Picasa Slideshows inline to their posts.

It is extremely simple to use. All you have to do is put the Picasa RSS link between this simple shortcode, and the plugin does the rest.

Example:

[postcasa]http://MyRSSurl[/postcasa]

easily becomes:

Head on over to the Postcasa homepage to get the code and peruse the options! Adding Picasa slideshows to your posts has never been easier!

Examples of what’s possible:

[postcasa size=small]http://MyRSSurl[/postcasa]

[postcasa width=100 height=100 align=center]http://MyRSSurl[/postcasa]

[postcasa size=small align=right bgcolor=0fb2c3 showcaptions=yes]http://MyRSSurl[/postcasa]

wordpress, Picasa, web development