45 posts tagged “technology”
I've been using Google's browser, Chrome for some time now and like it. Don't get me wrong, I still love Firefox, but since it had moved to version 3.x, it's a little bloated. I still use it off and on cause of all the killer add-ons for it. But if I'm going to do just some casual surfing, I go to Chrome. Yes....it's that much quicker, especially to load. Anyhow, while Chrome is fast, it's still a little buggy. Thank God the programmers at Google have a since of humor about it though.
So let me begin by saying that the only person to blame, is myself. Still...
Ok. So I've bought some songs off of iTunes before. Some a long time ago. I now can upgrade them to the higher quality, DRM free for $.30 a piece. It dawns on me after the fourth track I upgrade, that I have an un-used gift card that I need to register. So I put that in and go to town. That's when it happened. In my clicking frenzy, I accedently upgraded an album that I didn't want to upgrade. Mind you I'm only $3 out, but still. The stupid selection in the store shouldn't jump around right after you click an album to buy. The icons should stay in place. So now when I go to buy and upgrade, I patiently let iTunes re-organize the remaining songs before I click again. Patience...where are thee?
Unless something better comes along, I'll probably make the jump to a "crackberry" in July. I'll be eligible for a new phone by then and I'm leaning towards the 8330. I'm not happy about the size, but it's going to be more about the functionality, than form. If you remember, I tried another "smart phone" last summer (a Samsung SCH-i760), but I hated the fact that I had to use a stylus for most of the navigation. That, and it was freakin' huge! I'm not a fan of using a phone holster, so I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with carrying a Curve. I do miss the keyboard and the instant connection to the internet. Texting on my current phone sucks!! I'm playing it safe this time, and actually going to get it from Verizon and not Ebay. That way I have the 30 days to try it out, albeit, it will probably cost more $$. Luckily, Mom needed a new phone then, so I gave her that one and went back to what I had. She loves the fact that it syncs her contacts and appointments in Outlook and she uses the Pocket Word and Excell for notes and lists.
So...I'm all ears to hear your pro's and con's on Blackberrys. And yes, it looks like I'll remain a minion to the evil Verizon Empire.
Stumbled upon this, via Lifehacker. PC World rounded up "...101 innovative, entirely free downloads and services." Some of these, I use daily. Take a look at the complete list over at 101 Undiscovered Freebies.
Found via, BoingBoing...
Just found this group - Friday the Thirteen, so forgive me for being a little late.
To start things off, I'm going to list my 13 favorite freeware/opensource programs that I use (in no order) -
- PDFCreator - I use this more on my notebook than my desktop. Instead of printing a hard copy of a on-line receipt or when I'm not connected to a printer, I select this as my printer and voila, a PDF file is created. Save paper! Kill electrons!!!!
- Paint.Net - A full featured image editing programs to touch up any photos. (I also use GIMP)
- AVG Anti-Virus (Free Edition ) - The new version seems to be a little heavier than before, but I've never had any virus on my pc, plus never had any flase alarms. Daily updates, real time protection, and a built in e-mail scanner. I consider it better than Mcafee and most certainly, lighter on your system than Symatic/Norton AV.
- OpenOffice - and open source version of Microsoft Office - It reads/writes any Word/Excel/PowerPoint files. Not quite as easy as the standard MS stuff, but full featured and the price is right. (I also use Google Docs too.)
- MP3 Tag - I found this to be one of the better MP3 ID3 tag editors out there. You can look up the tag information from cddb or amazon as well.
- Firefox - I'm pretty much a fanboy of this alternative web browser. More secure than IE and faster. Plus you can customize it with all kinds of cool plugins to make web surfing more practical/easier. Been playing around with Google's Chrome. While it's pretty neat, I'm sticking with Firefox for 99.9% of my web browsing.
- CDBurnerXP - A nice free cd burning software program that can do all your basic tasks and then some. If you don't have Nero, try this. It's what I use on my notebooks.
- Trillian - a nice, clean, easy to use IM client that allows you to be logged on Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and ICQ all in one program. It's what I use at work. Most of us use Yahoo, but there are those who are on MSN as well. Pidgin is a nice multi-protocal app too. Since I don't im much on my desktop pc, I use the on-line app - Meebo.
- CCleaner - pretty much does what it says. It removes a good chunk of unwanted items on your hard drive fairly well. I was supprised how much better it was than Windows' own built in disk cleaner.
- MWSnap - this is a nice little screen capture program that I use all the time at work. I like the quick keyboard shortcut that launches it and allows me to select the area that I want instead of having to hit the print screen button and crop out the garbage.
- Foxit - A much quicker PDF reader. Adobe's own Acrobate Reader is too bloated. Another alternative is Sumatra PDF
- Thunderbird - Mozilla's version of Outlook. Again, safer to use than Outlook, if you need a mail client.
- 7-Zip - Another nice open source file archiver. Yes, XP can read/write zip files, but 7-Zip allows me to unzip RAR files as well (among other zip formats). I just wish the interface was a little nicer.
Well, since I was packing for my trip, I thought I'd do one of those What's in your bag? post that I've seen from Lifehacker.
So here we go... (you'll probably want to see the pic at full size to get the corresponding numbers)
02) Assortment of over the counter meds and such.
03) Small first aid kit.
04) Eye drops
05) Hand sanitizer gel
06) Mini Mag-lite
07) Ipod case with built in speakers - not the best sounding, but great to listen to podcasts in the hotel at night.
08) Notebook - Dell Latitude D610 (nerd specs: 1.86 GHz Pentium M, 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig hard drive, dvd burner, XP Pro and Office XP). I bought it refurbished for a little over $400, back in April. I gave my old one to my Mom.
09) Ipod 5.5 - 80 gig
10) Power adapter for notebook
11) GPS - Garmin GPSMap 60CSX
12) Leatherman Wave - the multi-tool of nerds.
13) USB cable for GPS and can charge my cell phone with it too.
14) Ethernet cable - in times when wireless isn't an option
15) USB extention cable - just because
16) PCMCIA compact flash card reader - to transfer pics to notebook
17) Spare battery for notebook
18) Spare battery for notebook
19) Wireless mouse
20) Deck of cards
21) Calculator
22) Chapstic
23) Listerine breath strips
24) Tissues
25) Post-it notes
26) Victorinix Swiss Card - in case I don't have the Leatherman on me, I always have this in the bag.
27) Sharpie marker, pen, pencil
28) Toothpicks
29) MicroSD memory card reader - in case I want to transfer pics/music to and from my cell phone
30) USB thumb drive
31) USB cable for ipod
32) Batter charger for cell phone
33) Battery charger for ipod
I usually have a book, and a few blank DVD-Rs in there as well. It's not as heavy as you think.
Not sure how practical, but it looks fun and the price is right.
While I think this is extremely cool, I can't help but to think how I wouldn't fall it during the late night pee run?
