My Blog
Comcast High Speed Internet is FAST
Today, I upgraded my internet to Comcast High Speed Internet which gets up to 12mbps as opposed to my previous AT&T DSL which gets up to 3mbs. I definitely feel the speed difference and its going to be difficult going back to DSL. Entire web site pages load between 1-2 seconds.
One of the major differences between Comcast and AT&T is that they use different types of modems:
6.25.2009 ::
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Program your Tivo on your cell phone
Finally, Tivo created a mobile web app specifically to schedule and record TV shows. I've been waiting for an iphone app, but I guess this browser-based web app will do. Keep in mind that this app might not even be officially live yet as Tivo has not made an announcement. Also, you need to have a network connected Tivo, a Tivo account, and an internet-enabled cell phone.
Source: Mobile Crunch
Labels: internet, iphone, tivo
11.25.2008 ::
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Web 4.0
Here is my prediction of the Internet in the future.Internet Software (Web 2.0)
Today we are seeing a huge growth in rich internet applications. The web no longer consists of pages for just viewing. Instead, we are seeing pages that interact with the user, communicate with other services, and process information. So I call it, "Internet Software". Many businesses are creating and selling Internet Software instead of the traditional shrink wrapped software that you install on a home computer. For example, Microsoft creates software such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. But Google has created an almost identical set of software on the web called Google Docs. Why is software moving to the web?
- Inexpensive - No manufacturing or shipping costs. Hosting/traffic fees are insignifcant.
- Easy Upgrades/Fixes - Updating Internet Software can be quick and easy. For example, let's say there is a huge security bug in the product. For Internet Software, you just have to perform the fix to the 1 application. As soon as that is done, the millions of people who use the application will be instantly using the fixed version . For shrink wrapped software, millions of customers would have take the initiative and seek (download) out the fix (patch). And we all know how often companies try to force those updates onto us with their annoying updaters that secretly run in the background of our computers.
- Reach - Practically anyone can use Internet Software regardless of OS or platform.
Bye Bye Computers
Say goodbye to computers as they will be replaced by "terminals". I can envision just a thin touchscreen LCD display. That's it. All it does is connect to the Internet wirelessly. And of course, there will be other portable terminals as well ie. cell phone, tablets, etc. I wanted to point out that these "windows" to the Internet will not need much processing power whatsoever. They just need to be capable of displaying the Internet. So where does all of the processing and heavy lifting take place? The Cloud of course.
The Cloud
Remember Internet Software? So all software will be running on the Internet by now. All processing will be performed and handled by the Internet servers. So what else does that mean? That means that you wont be spending your money on a computer with the latest Intel CPU processor chip along with gigs of RAM and a high end graphics card. Instead, you will be purchasing to rent/own an Internet computer (dedicated or shared) that will process all of your Internet Software applications. So the more you spend, the faster processing speed you will get or the more server space to store files/information or the more Internet Software applications you get. So just think of it like buying a computer that is not physically placed at your home, but instead exists somewhere in Internet Cloud. Your terminal will be able to connect to your Internet computer so that you'll be able to perform or execute commands.
A good example of the Cloud is Apple's MobileMe. With this online service, you can store and manage your contacts, calendars, email, and files in one central place. After you set everything up, it can automatically synchronize with any of your devices such as your PC, Mac, or iPhone. So the Cloud stores everything and pushes the information to your devices. The concept of the Cloud pushing information to your device is a very important concept. All the work is done via the Cloud instead of your device. Your device just acts like a receiver.
Terminals
We are already seeing the trend today from the largest manufacturers like Apple, Dell, and Lenovo. They are creating mini laptops aka. "netbooks" and computers which dont have much horsepower but good enough to surf the internet on the go.
Dell Inspiron Mini 9
Lenovo Idea S10
Apple MacBook Air
Dell Studio Hybrid
Mac Mini
Apple iPhone
Labels: computer, internet, thoughts
10.07.2008 ::
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The "Ultimate" Keyboard Shortcut
When you type in a URL, most likely you would type in "www." and ".com" which equals 9 characters. What a waste. Why not use a keyboard shortcut that fills those characters automatically for you so that all you need to do is to type in the website's name. So what's the magic keyboard shortcut? It's CTRL + Enter. For example, let's say you wanted to visit Google's website. You would just type in "google" then CTRL + Enter. That's it! If you dont normally use any keyboard shortcuts, give this one a try. Its easy to remember and will save you lots of time.
Labels: favorites, internet, tips
9.09.2008 ::
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simplebookmarks.com is live!
A while back, I said I was working on an online bookmarking application. Today, I would like to announce that it has been completed (beta version) and is called simplebookmarks.com. I created this site so that I can easily save bookmarks online. I hope you like it. Internet Explorer is still giving me problems because of its aggressive pop up blocker. But it will work if you hold down the CTRL button and then click on the bookmarklet.
Check out the demo!
Labels: internet, projects, tips
7.07.2008 ::
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Get Cash Back When Shopping Online
Did you know that you can earn cash back for many of your online purchases? Whenever I purchase something online, I always check 3 Cash Back sites (ebates, fatwallet, upromise) that pays me back 1-5% (sometimes 10%) of my total purchase. So the next time you buy something online, here is what you do (after signing up for an account on each of the sites).
- Search for the online store on the 3 Cash Back sites to see if they offer cash back.
- Of the 3 sites, choose the one that gives the most % cash back (as it may differ).
- Click on their special link that redirects to the participating store.
Right now, Ebates is having a referral promotion where if you sign up and make a qualifying purchase before May 31, 2008, we both get $10. Click here to take advantage of this offer.
4.19.2008 ::
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Free Google Phone Number
A while back I posted the ability to create disposable phone numbers in order to protect the privacy of your existing phone number. I found a similar service with many features by GrandCentral which was recently aquired by Google. There are many cool features, but I will touch upon a few.
- Permanent Local Phone Number - There is a subtle but important difference between the Numbr and GrandCentral phone number. For the Numbr phone number, you have to dial an extension which does require a little more work for the user. Not only that, I think that users might be a little weary of dialing a phone number with an extension. Users are more used to dialing extensions when calling companies. So its a bit weird to call a craigslist person with an extension in my opinion.
- Ring Multiple Phones - So you can add multiple phones to your one GrandCentral phone number. For example, when someone calls your GrandCentral number, your cell phone AND home phone can ring. Therefore, you can answer the call by either phone.
- Listen to Voicemails Online - This is probably my most favorite feature. Voicemails are recorded and can be played online in your GrandCentral account. I wish Verizon Wireless had this feature. I would love to listen to my voicemails online instead of always having to dial and punch in my password. Not to mention wasting valuable peak time minutes just for listening to my voicemails. This can also help you to screen your calls. Sometimes, you just want people to leave you a voicemail especially from uknown callers. Recently, I just used my GrandCentral number to sell something on craiglist. Usually, in terms of fairness, its first come first serve. But I found it to be more beneficial for me to sell it to one person over another. For example, I sold my desk on craiglist today. I wanted to sell it to someone who had a truck or van because I didnt want to disemble the desk. If I answered my first phone call, then I would be obliged to sell it to that person. But I intentionally did not answer calls from my GrandCentral number and just let my voicemail inbox fill up. Then I just chose the person who had a van and "sounded" the most reliable.
Feel free to leave me a voicemail by clicking on the button below.
4/2/08 Update: Someone just told me that they could not immediately sign up for the service since they are in private beta. Looks like you can just "reserve" a number (whatever that means). I wouldnt be surprised if they ran out of local phone numbers to give out. It also says on the site that a current user would be able to invite others, but I dont see that option in my account. They might have temporarily removed that as well.
Labels: cool, internet, reviews, tips
3.31.2008 ::
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Y! Live Webcam streaming
Yahoo came out with live webcam streaming and Im testing it out by streaming my webcam....If Im online, click here to chat with me.
2.08.2008 ::
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Wishlistr
Wishlistr is a cool and easy way to create your wishlist. I love the simplicity, the design and the ajax goodness. Its a good way to keep track of what you want. Click on the MyWishlist button above to see mine. Feel free to buy me something ;)
12.12.2007 ::
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Free Tech Support Question #1
Do you have questions about computers, software, networking, or the Internet?
Any problems or issues? Want some recommendations?
Let me see if I can help. Depending on how many responses I get, Ill choose one to answer.
You can ask a question by posting a comment to this posting. Try to be as SPECIFIC as possible. Ask away!
ANSWERED!
Since I only received 2 questions and they are quite similar I will answer them both.
Question #1:
John said...
How do I tell if any of my picture files has a virus in it? My computer is slow starting up but I didn't install programs to start immediately at boot-up. I notice that when I format my computer, it's fast again, but once I install the pictures it becomes slow.
Answer:
"How do I tell if any of my picture files has a virus in it?"
- Its hard to know if you've been infected with a virus unless something actually goes wrong with your computer. In otherwords, you could have a virus on your computer now and you wouldnt even know it. My suggestion is to install antivirus software and perform a scan. The scan will tell you whether or not you have been infected with a virus. I have listed 3 free and good antivirus software in a previous post - http://www.rogerchew.com/2007/04/my-favorite-free-software.htm
"My computer is slow starting up but I didn't install programs to start immediately at boot-up."
- Now let's not jump to conclusions about your computer being slow to boot up and having viruses. They could be totally separate issues. You might have thought that you didnt install programs to start immediately at startup, but think again. Many software programs have tiny little helper programs that run at start up. Quicktime, Real Player, iTunes, HP printer software are to name a few. I have some tips for getting rid of programs that run at startup but Ill save that for another post.
"I notice that when I format my computer, it's fast again, but once I install the pictures it becomes slow."
- Formatting your computer is of course last resort and probably will fix 99% of your problems. You dont install pictures. I think you meant that you download pictures on your computer hard drive. Having many pictures should not slow down your computer much. The only way it would slow it down is if you had so many pictures that it takes up most of the space on your hard drive. If you start getting warnings that you are running out of hard disk space, then you probably have too many pictures on the drive. The hard drive needs a good amount of free space. The more free space that you have, the better your hard drive will perform.
Question #2
Janine said...
My computer has picked up several viruses recently, and I've cleaned them off using various software programs. The pop-ups have stopped now, but how do I know that all the viruses are gone and not embedded somewhere else? Would you recommend that I reformat the entire hard drive to be safe?
Answer:
Let's not get confused between viruses and spyware. Usually, pop ups are most likely caused by spyware. Its much easier to get infected by spyware than viruses. For viruses, you pretty much have to do something intentional like open up some .exe attachment from your email. Spyware is a different story. You can get spyware from just visiting a bad web page. In some occasions, you can have both viruses and spyware. In otherwords, you can have viruses that install more spyware on your computer and vice versa. In any case, you should install the antivirus software to scan for viruses and install antispyware software to scan for spyware. I've listed recommendations of free software on both of these in my link above. I highly recommend Spy Sweeper for removing spyware as well as protecting your computer. Its not free (annual subscription fee), but if you are always having spyware issues, its well worth it. Again, reformatting your computer is the last resort. If you have thoroughly scanned your computers with all the software I recommended and nothing is found, then I wouldnt worry too much about it.
Labels: computer, electronics, internet, networking, tips
10.08.2007 ::
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Fealdeals.com launches!
I just launched my new deals web page called fealdeals.com!
Why is the site named "fealdeals"? I wanted something catchy and that rhymed with "deal". I went through the entire alphabet to find a letter to precede 'eal' excluding the ones that weren't in the dictionary and not already registered as a domain name. (ie. realdeal, zealdeal, etc.) All that was left was "feal". According to dictionary.com, feal means Faithful; loyal. Usually bargain hunters like myself are very faithful and loyal to certain bargain sites because the sites (and the deals) have to be trustworthy, credible, and accurate. And the sites that I have chosen are exactly that. Check out the faq page for more information about the site.
Besides the new domain name, I added a new auto refresh feature. Since I've been using my deals page quite frequently, I would either refresh the page if I had it already opened or I would visit the page over and over again to see the latest deals. This is somewhat inefficient so I've added an auto refresh to the page. Therefore, I set the page to automatically refresh in 30 minutes. That way, you can just leave the deals page open all day and every time you look at it, you'll know thats its up to date. If you visit it more than once every 30 minutes, then get a life! J/K There's even a countdown counter on the bottom left of the browser telling you when the next refresh is.
In my pursuit for extreme efficiency, I took it even a step further. So now with the auto refresh feature in place, I would keep my browser window open all day long and view it whenever I have the chance. But did you know that you can set your desktop wallpaper to a live web page? So now I have my deals page as my desktop wallpaper background. So now I really dont have to do anything but view my desktop. Look ma...no hands! And the autorefresh still works!
Here are the instructions:
- Right click on your desktop and select properties.
- Select the "Desktop" tab.
- Click on "Customize Desktop..."
- Select the "Web" tab.
- Click on "New..."
- Add "http://www.fealdeals.com/"
- Click OK
- Make sure "Deals" is now checked and highlighted then press "Synchronize".
- Then close all of the windows by clicking OK.
Click image to see full screenshot of my desktop:
In any case, enjoy the new site and more importantly let me know what you think!
UPDATE:
9-21-07 Hey guys! Since I launched the site a couple of days ago, I received 25 Google Ads clicks. In otherwords, some of you have been clicking on the Google Ads. That's great news! For those of you who haven't read the faq page, let me explain. Every time someone clicks on a Google Ad, I get paid. How much? The payment formula is very complex and I havent looked into much. But keep clicking on the Google ads and I will let you know. That way I can get more data to really see whats going on. Thank you for supporting the site!
9.18.2007 ::
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Amazon Unbox on Tivo
Amazon Unbox is a cool and easy way to download movies directly to your Tivo. You must have a Tivo connected to your home network. If your Tivo is only connected using a phone line then this wont work. You need it connected to your home network, so that it can download the movie from the internet.
A couple of months ago, when Amazon launched this service for Tivo, they offered a free $15 credit which I took full advantage of. All I had to do was to register my Tivo with Amazon and I was all set. 5-10 minutes after you purchase a movie rental, I would see a blue light on my Tivo signifying that it was downloading
Pros:
- Flexible - You can either go online to rent or use your Tivo to rent. You can also keep your movie on your Tivo for 30 days after you rent it just as long as you dont start playing it. If you start playing the movie, it will automatically expire in 24 hours.
- Easy - You dont need to stick a dvd into your dvd player. You just play the movie straight from your Now Playing list in Tivo. I feel right at home using my Tivo to watch movies.
- Instant - No need to wait a couple of days for my DVD rental to arrive in the mail. I can watch a movie I rented on the same day.
- Video Quality - Video quality is really good. I cant tell the difference between the unbox video vs. a DVD.
- Specials - Sometimes they'll have rentals for only 99 cents. I've rented 3 movies already and still have $9 left out of my $15 credit.
Cons:
- Download - The download takes a couple of hours. So I would recommend either downloading the night before or in the morning. You cannot play the movie until the entire movie has downloaded.
- No Surround Sound - Though sound quality is still good.
- Selection - The selection is not that great. I found myself clicking "next" many times to find something to rent. They dont have too many new releases.
- New Releases - Newly released movies will have a rental price of $14.99 instead of the regular $3.99
Overall, I'm really impressed with the service. Both Amazon and Tivo did a great job integrating their services as well as keeping inline with making the rental process smooth and easy as both companies are known for. I think $3.99 per rental is a little too steep for me so Im not sure if I will continue to rent after my $15 credit is used up. If they lower their prices to $2.99, I'd probably use it once in a while. If they lower it to $1.99, I'd probably use it all the time without a doubt.
Labels: electronics, internet, reviews
8.08.2007 ::
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Adobe Premiere Express
Usually, you would have to edit your videos on your computer using expensive video software, then output it to the correct format, then upload it to an online video sharing site. Also, to take a step back, you would have to first learn how to use the video editing software. And not to mention have a pretty decent computer for processing. So let's say you have digital video camera and you want to share your footage online. Well now, you can just extract the video from your camera, upload the video to youtube and then make your simple edits online.
If you've uploaded video's to youtube, you can edit your existing videos using the YouTube Remixer. Have fun!
MTV Video Remixer
YouTube Remixer
Photobucket
6.27.2007 ::
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Free Disposable Phone Number
But does it scare you to post your personal home or cell phone number? You should be scared because there are plenty of evil scammers out there on craigslist.
So craigslist created a site called "numbr" to generate disposable phone numbers. Basically, it will generate a local phone number with an extension. Then you just tie that number with your cell/home number. That's it. All calls to the disposable number will automatically get redirected to your personal number. Check out the full list of cool features.
6.25.2007 ::
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Google Maps Street View
- Go to http://maps.google.com/
- Search for an address
- Click on street view.
- Drag the yellow little man icon onto a blue highlighted section.
Labels: internet
5.29.2007 ::
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Online Bookmarks Project - Demo
Its finally complete! But I would still consider it as Beta. I've set up a demo account. But for you adventurous people, you can create your very own account. Otherwise, you can use the demo account below.
Here are the instructions:
<-- Right click on this button and add it to your browser's bookmarks/favorites.- Go to any website.
- Click on the "Add Online Bookmark" that you just added to your bookmarks.
- Sign in using the following account:
email: demo@demo.com
password: demo - Name your bookmark and category and click the "Go" button.
- Go to www.rogerchew.com/bookmarks/demo
This is where all of your bookmarks will be stored.
Feel free to give me your feedback and any bugs that you find. Check out the FAQ page for more info. Thanks.
4.12.2007 ::
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Online Bookmarks Project - Introduction
- Simple - the process of adding bookmarks had to be simple.
- No install - I didnt want to install anything for my browser.
- Public - I wanted to view my stored bookmarks WITHOUT having to log in.
- One page - I wanted all my bookmarks displayed on one single web page.
- Friendly URL - I wanted a simple and easy url to remember.
ie. testbookmarks.com/rogerchew instead of testbookmarks.com/user/sdka232akmjc
I do all of my web programming in Coldfusion. So I just thought I would try to google "coldfusion bookmarks" to see if there was anything out there that I could use or repurpose. I couldnt believe it, but the first search result was about someone who created a coldfusion bookmarking application that was very close to how I wanted it. He even documented it and posted all of the files on his site. I download the files and was up and running in no time. Check out the site for screenshots of how it works. But briefly, here is how it works.
- You are surfing and you like the website you are on and would like to save it.
- You click on the special bookmark in your browser.
- You enter a title for the bookmark.
You'll be able to save an online bookmark with 2 mouse clicks. Now, whenever you would want to see a single page of your entire saved bookmarks, you would just have to navigate to something like testbookmarks.com/joesmith. Like it?!
Now how does this solve my problem? Well, now I can just go to a single web page to access all of my bookmarks, no matter which computer, browser, or OS Im using. I can even access all of my bookmarks on public computers like at the library or school.
Stay tuned as I will let you demo the application.
3.28.2007 ::
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Godaddy.com
Labels: deals, favorites, internet
3.18.2007 ::
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Email Etiquette
Would you email out your home address to complete strangers? No? Okay, how about your friend's and/or family's home addresses?Treat your email address info in a manner similar to your home address info. Do you want people stalking you at your home? Well in the same way, when you give out other people's email addresses, spammers and other bad people will stalk you.
One might say, "I dont give out other peoples' email addresses." Well...have you ever emailed a bunch of people and put all of their email addresses in the TO: field? If so, then yes you have done it. Everyone reading that email can see all the email addresses in plain view. One might then say, "Are you telling me I cant use the TO: field when sending to multiple email addresses?" YES...and sometimes no.
Check out the following scenario:
- You want to send out a deal or coupon to a bunch of people. The people you want to send to are a mixture of friends, family, coworkers, etc. And they all do not know each other. What do you do?
A. Put all of the email addresses in the TO: field. That way, your coworkers can see your auntie's and uncle's email addresses and vice versa. Also, when one of the persons on the email list does a "reply to all", everyone gets to see his/her response. Yay, now we can have a whole discussion on the deal with strangers. Instead of getting that one single email, now we have listen to everyone's responses and there is no way to stop it. Also, one of your coworkers decides that this is such a good deal, that Im going to FOWARD the email to his/her other coworkers, friends, and family. Wohoo. Now everyone's email addresses are being sent to more total strangers because when you foward an email that have email addresses in the TO: field, those email addresses are completely visible in the body of the email.
B. Put all of the email address in the BCC: field. That way, all email addresses are hidden and when people reply, the response will only be sent to the original sender. Since the content of the email is treated more like an FYI rather than an actual discussion.
Hopefully, you would choose B. So when is it appropriate to place multiple email address in the TO: field? It's appropriate when you actually want to start or have a discussion amongst everyone on that list whether it be planning an outting together or discussing last night's episode of 24. Hopefully, everyone on that list knows each other and are of the same group type. ie. Friends, Family, Coworkers.
Now this brings me to mailing lists which is one of the major culprits. You create this massive list of 100 emails and save it as a group email list. You email this list weekly to give updates on your rantings or whatever topic. Here are my suggestions.
- Respect and protect peoples' email address info. Therefore, when you send out your emails, please do not put their email addresses in the TO: field. Use the BCC: field.
- Realize that you have assumed that they would like your weekly update emails. Im sure 99% of the people you send it to probably dont mind your emails. However, there could be that 1% like me who would prefer not to receive or read the emails. Then I would be forced to either manually delete your email every week or create a filter that automatically moves your email to the trash can. Whoa, that sounds harsh. Sorry, but I dont want to deal with more work than I have to when reading email. I have enough work reading other unwanted email or dealing with spam. Actually, surprisingly, I dont get much spam especially when using gmail. But that's another discussion. Anyways, its similar to signing up for an account on a shopping website. When I sign up, I always uncheck the "sign up for our newsletter" checkbox. But there are some sites, that dont have this and automatically sign you up for their newsletter and such. Therefore, just because you are signing up for an account, they assume that you want their newsletter. Bad boy! You've heard of the saying "Every man is assumed innocent until proven guilty." Now I'd like my saying heard "Every man is assumed opted out until he opts in." You hear that spammers? You hear that junk mail? You hear that telemarketers? You hear that shopping web sites? Dont send me anything, unless I have requested it. I dont give you permission to send me stuff.
Sorry for digressing. Back to mailing lists. I am not blaming you guys for anything because no one has ever told you or taught you how you should use mailing lists. And apprarently there arent any mailing list managing websites out there. I just did a google search and there isnt much out there except for coollist.com. I havent tried it and it looks like its currently not even working. Hmmm...Maybe I should create one?
So I guess I dont really have a solution yet when it comes setting up an easy mailing list. Since I have website hosting, they usually have mailing list managers, but they are not that simple to set up. But in theory, let me explain how mailing lists should work.
Add all of the people you want onto a mailing list that you create. Yes, in otherwords, subscribe them to the mailing list without even telling them. Dont worry, it should be okay, since its a gesture that you are just inviting them to this mailing list knowing that they can always opt out. No harm done. When subscribing them, members should receive a message detailing why you are adding them and include a link to unsubscribe to the list. You are really suppose to let them subscribe to it themselves, but its really hard to get people to opt into things. The most important part is the ease and the anonymity of opting out. People dont want to hurt your feelings by sending you an email that says, "Please remove me from this mailing list." So all of the emails that are sent to the mailing list should have a remove me link on the bottom of the message.
As I was finishing up writing this post, I ran into this interesting article on email. Notice how it reconfirms what I said above. Cool!
3.02.2007 ::
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2007 Technology Wishlist
- Hi Definition DVD - I really hope that we come out with a single format, but unfortunately it doesnt look like its going to turn out that way since companies are starting to come up with dvd players that support both HD DVD and Blu-ray. But having 2 formats still hurts the consumers by causing confusion. I hope HD DVD prevails because Im getting sick and tired of all of Sony's proprietory formats, cables, interfaces, etc.
- Bluetooth iPod - An ipod or any mp3 player that uses bluetooth to connect to your car's speaker system. Seems obvious, but dont know what's taking them so long.
- More Wireless - We see it everywhere now, but we need more of it. At the CES 2007 show, Samsung unveiled a wireless plasma. All you need to do is plug the plasma in. No need to hide any wires. BMW and Mercedes have car keys whereby you can open the door and start the car without inserting the keys. You can just leave them in your pocket. Any wireless connection that eliminates a physical wired connection is a good thing. We also need wifi digital camera's whereby you can transfer all the pics on your camera to your computer wirelessly. No more usb cable.
- Smarter Cell Phones - There are many new fancy phones out there, but I think cell phone manufacturers need to get back to the basics instead trying to add as many features possible onto a phone. I use my phone mainly to place phone calls, but sometimes "fancyness" and "features" gets in the way. I miss my first Nokia phone which had no features but worked flawlessly. Its battery life lasted a week too. How long does your phone's battery last now? Anyways, I think the cell phones now are dumb. Yes, they look good, have color, and lots of features, but I just want to make a simple phone call! Hopefully, the iPhone will be the start of cell phones that are actually useful.
- Evite killer - Evite should change their name to eAds since they display way too many ads. Im getting sick of it. The ads are starting to get in the way of using the application. A big no-no. The ads are getting larger and larger in more in your face. You have to dig through the ads to try to use the regular evite functions. This tells me something. Either Evite is not doing so well and therefore, trying to get as many ads out there or Evite's marketing department is way too aggresive. In either case, its bad for the users and therefore bad for the company. I havent seen a good evite competitor, but once it happens, everyone will have no problems switching. If you know of another evite site, let me know. I already tried renkoo, it sucks.
Labels: electronics, internet
2.01.2007 ::
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Online BackUp - Carbonite
I finally decided on online backup as a method of backing up my computer data. I never thought I would pay a subscription fee for any internet service, but it is well worth it. I was pretty good about backing up my data on hard drives and DVDs, but as gigabytes of Caden's photos started to accumulate, I started to worry. A while back, a bunch of Caden's photos were on my compact flash card and somehow the card got corrupted. We were so sad because those pictures meant a lot to us and there was no way to get it back. We would do (or pay) anything, just to get those pictures back. Luckily, it seems that memory flash cards crash frequently and there was software out on the internet that tries to rescue those files. It took many hours, but I was able to restore 99% of the photos :)
So I thought about all the ways to backup my data since they are more precious to me than anything.
1. External Hard Drive - Very fast and convenient. But what happens if my internal drive gets larger than my external drive? Then I would have to keep buying larger and larger external drives. Also, what would happen if I connect my USB external drive to back up my internal drive and something happens? Like a power outage or whatever. It could damage BOTH my external and internal drive in which my data would be lost on both drives. What if there was a fire?
2. DVD - Inexpensive. But a lot of my data is growing larger than the 4GB capacity. Therefore, I have to span my backup across several DVDs. And what happens if I change a file on my computer after I already backed it up on DVD? I would have to do burn another back up. You have to be diligent when it comes to backing up your data on DVD. You have to know what you have or have not backed up and you have to back up often. Also, I heard that DVD media just like CDs dont last forever. I just cant imagine that after my PC crashes, I would go into my binder full of DVDs and find out that they all arent readable. All that work for nothing. Again, what if there was a fire?
3. Online Back Up (Carbonite) - Let me just list some of the PROS that I experienced thus far with this service:
- Unlimited Storage: Go ahead and store you're terabytes of data. All other online backups have a limit.
- Set it and forget it: You dont have to manage it at all. It will automatically backup whatever you specify. It will do it in the background and will NOT slow down your internet connection. Its smart enough to detect that if you are using the Internet, it wont do any backup transfers.
- Inexpensive: The price is just right. $5 per month. Its actually cheaper than $5 in their 1 or 2 year subscription. So instead of buying that external hard drive or all your DVD media or paying someone to retrieve data on your crashed hard drive, use the saved money on the monthly fee.
- Restore deleted files: Ever delete a file and then empty the recycle bin and then wish you could take that back?
- Restore files easy: When you install the software, it will add a Carbonite drive in your my computer, just like your C: drive and your dvd/cd drives. Just double click it and you'll be able to navigate through your already backed up files. Then just right click the file or folder you want restored and select "restore". That's it. Just wait and presto, the file is back on your computer in it original location.
- Fire proof: So let's say that you have a fire and your computer is burnt to a crisp. No problem. When you get your new computer, just install the software and download all the files that were on your burnt computer.
Now you might ask, what can go wrong? Okay let me tell you how you can lose all your data even with Carbonite. All of the following need to occur at the same.
1. Your hard drive crashes
2. Carbonite's server hard drives crashes.
3. Carbonite's backup data center crashes.
If only 1 of the above occurs, you still have your data right?
If your hard drive crashes, your data is still safe with Carbonite.
If Carbonite crashes, well duh, you still have your data on your computer.
I just signed up for a 2 year term. I highly recommend them.
For more info, click here to go to their website.
Haha, as I was finishing up writing this post, I blew a fuse at my house and my computer shut off instantly. Luckily, my computer survived. Phew.
Labels: favorites, internet, reviews, software
1.17.2007 ::
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Video on the Web - Update
Last year i researched and tested out dozens of video sharing sites so that I can post and manage my personal videos online. Unfortunately, I couldnt find one that I liked.In my intial post about video on the web, I stated that I wanted 4 key features:
1. Quality
2. Flash Video
3. Sharing
4. Free
Most of the sites satisfied all of them except for the MOST important one - quality. Seems like all the sites had really bad quality when they do their conversion to the flash format. Sorry, but i just cant accept that. Youtube videos look really bad.
So until those video sites get better in their quality, I'll stick with my very manual but better quality method. I use Adobe premiere elements to edit and export the video. Then I use Flash Video Exporter that comes with Flash Pro 8 to optimze and convert the file to flv. And as a result, a much better quality video. Check out this silly video of my son.
1.12.2007 ::
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Thanks. No.
Have you ever received an email from a friend or family member and really dont care too much for the contents of the email? Are you on a mailing list that someone that you know put you on without your permission? How do you tell a person, especially a family member or friend not to send you anymore weekly jokes or stuff that you dont really flooding your inbox?Nowadays, I think we all need to be educated on email and internet ettiquette. Have you seen what teenagers are posting on their blogs lately? But that's another story. I want to talk mainly about emails that you dont want to receive.
There really isnt a way to tell the person that I dont want to receive your emails without offend them. So most people just ignore the emails or set up a filter. I found a "nice" letter that might help a little.
So let's turn things around. What if you want to send out email to a bunch of people that you think might be interested in what you have to send?
Bad - You send emails out to them, without any capability to unsubscribe or subscribe.
Good - You make sure that people can unsubscribe to the mailing list anonymously.
Better - You tell them that you want to send out stuff to you, and if they want to receive it, they'll have to subscribe to the mailing list.
So in otherwords, use a list server to manage your mailing lists. There are plenty of free ones out there. Please repect others privacy.
5.24.2006 ::
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Video on the Web
As you may have noticed, video on the web is exploding. There are websites popping up left and right (ie. Google video, YouTube, ourmedia, vsocial, sharkle, clipshack, grouper, vimeo, revver, videoegg), where you can store and watch videos. Im currently looking for a place to store my videos of Caden. Its too much work managing and handling videos on my website on my own. Why do so much work when I can let a third party site do the work for me? All of the sites have many different restrictions, formats, rules, etc. For my videos, Im looking for 4 key components:
1. Flash Video - the format of video when played should be using Flash technology. This makes a clean experience. The video should load and play right into the browser. There is no need to download or open a separate player.
2. Quality - The quality has to be somewhat decent.
3. Sharing - I need the ability to embed the video right into my blog. And I also need the ability to share my library of videos publicly on that site.
4. Free - Of course and no upload limit.
The sites that I really like is videoegg and sharkle. Videoegg is really easy to use and the quality was good. The only thing they did not have is the capability to share a library of videos. Im only able to post to my blog.
Still testing out sharkle. But check out the music video below.
5.16.2006 ::
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SBC Yahoo! DSL $12.99
Price drop! SBC Yahoo! DSL Express regular prices are now $12.99/month for new ONLINE subscribers at 384Kbps-1.5Mbps/128Kbps with 12 month term. Free activation. Pro $17.99 Whoa! Now there really is no excuse to get off dial up and go to dsl.
Labels: computer, deals, internet
2.03.2006 ::
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Gmail contact groups
Gmail finally has group contacts. Now I dont have to copy and paste email addresses anymore. Hallelujah. Took them long enough.
1.23.2006 ::
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I've been Phished!
Im extremely careful when it comes to junk mail, phishing, pop ups, and spyware schemes. But 2 days ago, I fell for a real sneaky phishing scam. I was talking to a coworker on AIM and suddenly he sends me this URL. I click on it and the yahoo photos page loads. I thought he wanted me to check out some pictures hosted on his yahoo photos account and in order to view the photos, I would need to sign into my yahoo account to view the pics. I was totally not thinking and I just went ahead and logged in. Lucky I used my dummy yahoo account. Phew. Well basically, this dummy yahoo photos page is a fake copied page that is hosted on a free geosities website. So basically, they just basically know my login and password. I cant believe I fell for it. But the reason I fell for it is because i didnt know that spyware that was on my coworkers machine can send out these bad IM's to people. Yowsers. This one was real tricky. More details on the yahoo photos phishing scam.
10.21.2005 ::
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Free Opera browser
The Opera browser is now free, meaning no more ads. Its another alternative to Internet Explorer or Firefox. It has some pretty cool features and is very fast.
9.20.2005 ::
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Google Talk and Google Desktop
Google continues to make cool free software.
Google Desktop 2 is now out. I must say its pretty cool. You can search for files on your computer and it will show up like a google search. If you use outlook, it can search your email, especially since outlook's search stinks. With this version 2, it has a sidebar which does amazing things. Instead of you going out to the internet, you configure it to grab content you want.
Also, just out but not really public yet is Google Talk. But like other IM clients, your friends also have to be on the same IM client network. Ive been using AIM, but since most of my coworkers are on YIM, I use Trillian which connects to both networks and then some. But with Google Talk you can connect with someone and literally talk using a microphone from anywhere in the world. So can somebody sign up and talk with me? hehe. Oh yeah, BTW, you need a gmail account in order to sign up.
8.23.2005 ::
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1Gigabyte Email
Google is launching its free 1GB email service called GMAIL. Yes, 1GB of space which is a 1000MB. Hotmail's limit is 2MB and Yahoo's is 4MB. Yet Yahoo, is going to increase to 100MB to compete. Gmail is only in beta right now and by invite only. Only current beta members can invite. Let me know if you want me to invite you. I have only 5 more invites left. Wow, they are even selling these invites on ebay. I cant wait to get off hotmail!Labels: internet
6.16.2004 ::
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Sasser Virus
There is a nasty virus out there called the "Sasser" virus. The thing that makes this virus so nasty is because you dont have to do anything to get infected. Make sure you download the latest windows update and protect your computer. I found some good tips to protect your computer.Labels: internet
5.06.2004 ::
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