Geek

Powers For Good.

It’s no secret that I am a rabid technology fan. Technology is part of my life experience every step of the way, and has been since I logged onto GEnie back in 1985 and ran up long distance charges to chat and send email with my cousin who was less than 10 miles away. The ability to connect to the others through the technology we have at our fingertips is amazing.

Last autumn I talked about the “It Gets Better” project and even shared my video with my dear readers. If that video made a difference in one person’s life than it was well worth it.

I love it when technology can be used for good and when technology is available to everyone so that they can use their technological powers for good as well. Google enables users to do this. Anyone with any computer, regardless of platform (Mac, Linux, Windows, etc) can use Google’s services to reach out and connect with others. Google gives us the tools, it’s up to us to make the connection.

Google has recently began an ad campaign urging users to use their Google Chrome web browser and the other services that they offer. One of the ads features the “It Gets Better” project. It does what an ad is suppose to do; it tugs at your heartstrings and more importantly, it makes you remember the product. Now the cynic in me says that they have used this topic to advertise their products and that’s why they used this ‘hot topic’, but the truth of the matter is, I don’t really care about that and honestly I don’t think that’s the case at all. Because for every person that sees the message “It Gets Better”, even if it’s wrapped in an ad for Google Services, there may be one or 100 or even 10,000 in the crowd that may not see the ad for an ad, but instead see it for the message the thousands of videos that were made by everyday people and celebrities alike and the message behind those videos, “It Gets Better”.

I applaud Google for their ad. I actually applaud them for their ad campaign because they also have one called “Dear Sophie”, which features a father sending his daughter emails as she’s growing up, and it’s a cool ad as well.

When you use your technological powers for good, it’s a beautiful thing. And Google, and the users that use it’s services, is doing just that.

If you’re interested in using Google Chrome as your browser, follow this link.

7 May 2011 by Geek Ponderings and Musings 0

Multimedia.

A while back I used to share videos on this blog thingee, but time constraints with the new job prevented me from having the time to get these videos of the camera and into a computer and then into a format the most people could see and then uploaded up onto this blog.

Whew.

Enter socialcam.

I discovered this app a couple of days ago and so far I’m liking it, though it doesn’t feel very social because I don’t know many people using it. It’s kind of like Instagram in that it makes it wicked easy to share videos (like Instagram does with photos), but the cool thing is that the app is available for the iPhone/iPod/iPad AND Android devices, so even if I was still a Droid user, I’d be able to enjoy this nifty little app.

It’s free and simple to use: fire up the app, record a video and hit share. You can share the same videos with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the like. Plus, you can upload videos to your Dropbox, if you have one.

I just posted my first video a little while ago and even over Verizon’s 3G it uploaded fairly quickly. Color me pleased.

Who knows, I might start making little videos again.

Here’s a link to the video I just made: http://socialc.am/j3HJqZ

6 May 2011 by Geek 0

Tracked.

Apple addressed the iPhone tracking issue that’s been a hot topic lately. If you want to read their response to this, you can take a look here.

27 April 2011 by Geek Macboy 0

Curiosity.

So they were having this great deal on these little Asus Eee PC netbooks at work and I decided to jump in on the saving. Four weeks later, my new little netbook was sitting on the front porch waiting to be inducted into my little geekdom.

I dubbed it “scout-tux”. All of my Linux machines have tux in their name.

scout-tux came with Windows XP. I found this surprising, because not only is Windows XP 10 years old, but everyone has been telling me how wonderful Windows 7 is for these little machines. I decided not to care and loaded Ubuntu Maverick Netbook Edition on this little guy instead. Everything worked out of the box and he seems to be purring along nicely. Battery life was promised to be around six hours; he’s clock in around 3.5 hours. I can deal with that. He’s going to be a little test machine anyways, I use my iPad when I’m out and about on the road.

The built in webcam worked without any tweaking. I found this to be quite nice. The picture has that grainy quality of 2001, just like Windows XP, but I still like this little guy.

26 April 2011 by Geek 0

Commodore 64!

The Commodore 64 is coming back!! Everyone can start up a collection because I will even sell a Mac to get one of these machines into the stable.

bits-commodore-custom3.jpg

From Digital News Report:

Digital News Report – Commodore USA, LLC has announced a Commodore 64 computer that may look like the 1980’s model, but has all the fast new technology that you would expect in today’s computer systems.

Fond memories of the Commodore 64 still reign with many. The 1980’s brought the Commodore 64 personal computer into the homes of many families for the first time. The company went bankrupt in the 90’s but there was still some rights to the name that were purchased at the end of this computer companies operations. Commodore USA LLC has licensed the rights to recreate the Commodore 64 into a new product.

The new computer has a Commodore 64 emulator that comes with it so you can run some of your classic favorites and see the command line prompt that you haven’t seen in years.

The operating system that comes with the new Commodore 64 is Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Linux based OS, but you can buy and install Microsoft windows operating system on it if you so desire.

The Commodore 64 updated model is expected to ship between middle part of May or early June. The company’s website at www.commodoreusa.net, said that the price for the Commodore 64 basic system starts at $595 and goes up to $895 as they upgrade hardware components. If you are a do-it-yourself computer system builder you can buy the barebones Commodore 64 keyboard chassis case and card reader for $250.

Barry Altman founded Commodore USA, LLC in April of last year to bring back the nostalgic memories of Commodore and Amiga branded computers. There is also plans to bring back the Amiga computers.

By Victoria Brown

7 April 2011 by Geek 1

Technology.

Look at Kmart doing the Apple thing and e-mailing me my receipt. This is because I used my “Shop Your Way” rewards card and apparently an e-mailed receipt comes along with the other benefits.

I’m holding out hope for Kmart and Sears, we need more choices outside of just Wal*mart and Target.

Screen shot 2011-03-22 at 7.53.36 PM.png

For the ultra geekish, though Sears and Kmart (both owned by Sears Holding Company, which was formed when Kmart bought Sears) both have the same registers at their checkouts, they are not running the same software. Sears is running custom software that was written back in the late 1980s when a company called Compu-Add got their big break by providing all the computer equipment for the chain. Kmart is running the generic IBM retail application (I think it’s still called Retail Application). I know, I’m a dork.

22 March 2011 by Geek 0

Ads.

I remember when Dad brought home our first VCR. It was made by General Electric and now that I think about it, had a suspiciously 21st-century Apple-like design to it in a 1980s way. It was made of metal with a black base and went out of it’s way to be user friendly. The VCR tape mechanism popped out the top of the device. It was cool. The first show that we ever taped with the VCR was the Ann Jillian comedy “Jennifer Slept Here”. We recorded it from the over-the-air antenna and watched it 20 minutes after the tape stopped recording.

The very first thing that I discovered about this new fangled device that my father brought into the colonial-themed family room of our home was that, when you used the remote control that was tethered to VCR with a very long cord, you could speed through the commercials that were sandwiched between the reason that we taped the show in the first place. This nifty device could skip each and every commercial if we wanted to put into the effort of getting beyond a blinking 12:00 on the display. This was very cool and exciting.

I have despised ads and commercials ever since.

Fast forward to the present. There are countless ad-supported social networking platforms out there: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, any and all things Google, the list goes on and on. In many instances, a developer will offer two versions of a mobile app (iPhone, iPad, Android, etc) to access these platforms: a free version that blinks a (hopefully) cute little ad somewhere on the screen and attempts to garner some cash for said social platform, and a paid version of the app, where one pays for the app itself and puts money directly into the pocket of the developer that developed the app, even if it’s the owner of the social networking platform itself.

At the end of last week Twitter released an update to the iPhone version of their official app. While the update took away several goodies, such as the ability to pick your own photo hosting service, it also introduced a new feature called the “Quick Bar”. This bar floats on top of your Twitter feed timeline and displays what’s trending at the moment, usually based on hashtags. The first thing that was displayed in my Quick Bar was “#blackpeoplemovies”.

I don’t care about #blackpeoplemovies.

Twitter states that the Quick Bar (which has since been dubbed the ‘dickbar’ after the COO of Twitter, Dick Somethingorother) is to alert users of what’s hot at the moment. One would hope it would say something like “#peaceinlibya” or “#girlscoutcookiesbeingdelivered” but instead it says something like the aforementioned #blackpeoplemovies or “#OMGbieberissuchagod.”

Now, this new Quick Bar is currently confined to the iPhone version of their app but there are hints that it is going to be included in other versions. Of course, one doesn’t have to use the official Twitter app, in fact, since this release I have opted to go back to Echofon. Echofon is an ad-supported app as well, however, the fine folks that own Echofon have also released a paid version of their app which works quite nicely AND it doesn’t include any ads flashing in our face. This is brilliant and quite frankly, something that Twitter could probably take a cue from. Judging by the rather large backlash against the “dickbar”, Twitter would probably hear a collective sigh of relief if they gave the users of their app the opportunity to either a. hide the dickbar or b. pay for the app and blast the dickbar to oblivion forever and ever amen.

Now I know that quite a few folks have got it in their head that the best way for the Internet to grow and flourish is through ad supported content, but like I did in 1983, someone, somewhere, is always going to find a way to avoid those ads and quite frankly I will do everything I can in my contribution to this experience to make sure that I share as many ways to avoid ads as possible with all my brethren users.

Now, back to Ann Jillian. Would today’s über politically correct society enjoy a show where a teenaged boy found the ghost of a beautiful woman living in his closet? I’m sure there would be some sort of backlash and it would undoubtedly be shoved in my face courtesy of Twitter’s dickbar.

#closetsarentforghosts

7 March 2011 by Geek Why. 1

iPhone.

I may have mentioned once or twice that I am a fan of all things Apple and that I would be quite excited if/when the iPhone made it’s debut on Verizon Wireless. I must have mentioned this because when I say something at home about it, I get a blank or irritated look and a mimicked “I don’t care”.

Jeez.

My new iPhone 4 arrived yesterday and yes, it’s a Verizon iPhone. My last iPhone was a 3G, which I got rid of because AT&T didn’t offer 3G service for most of my commute. They have since added some 3G capabilities but I’m quite pleased with Verizon. My Motorola Droid was a good trouper through my first Verizon experience but it didn’t give me that creative feel owning an iPhone does. I know, it’s all in my head. But it’s my head and I can do what I please with it.

When I plugged my iPhone into my Mac last night to activate it, I was delighted to see that it offered to migrate all my settings and apps over from my old iPhone, even though that phone is long gone. So when it got done synchronizing and getting it’s affairs in order, I was looking at a much better looking version of the home screen I had nearly a year ago.

It’s good to be home.

I have already started taking pictures and posting them to Flickr and my blog again. I’ve been tying things together with Flickr talking to this blog, which talks to my Tumblr account, shouts at Twitter and updates the Facebook for me. I think this social networking thing they talk about just might catch on.

Oh, I’m using the new iPhone as my new wireless device while at lunch. So I have a Verizon MiFi device for sale.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

8 February 2011 by Geek 1

Flickr.

Ah, Flickr, how I have forgotten about thee as of late. I was reading the latest version of Macworld (via the iPad app) and I noticed a review of this app called Flickpad Pro. I enjoy the random browsing experience one can have on an iPad so I decided to give it a try.

Wicked cool. If you have an iPad I recommend the app.

The interface takes your photos, and your contacts as well, and puts them into a stack that you can arrange and tap on to ‘pick it up’ for a closer look. It’s kind of like that Microsoft Surface interface we saw years ago but didn’t seem to go anywhere. An intuitive interface lets you make comments and the like. I just found myself browsing through photos for the past ten minutes when I haven’t looked at Flickr in ages, simply because I didn’t care for the web interface.

I haven’t been posting many photos on Flickr lately but this app, coupled with my impending Verizon iPhone, has inspired me to do so again. I’m thinking I might try a 365 days project again. It keeps me inspired, when I remember to do it.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

3 February 2011 by Geek 0

Challenger.

It was 1986 and I was a senior in high school. Having just finished lunch, we were in 5th period Senior High Chorus and as usual, the chorus was being rather cantankerous and rowdy. Mrs. Zentner, the choral director, seemed slightly more distraught than usual. She couldn’t get us to shut up so we could sing so she just barked out, “the shuttle exploded! The shuttle exploded today.”

The room went silent. I felt a lump in my throat like I was going to cry but I didn’t because I didn’t want people to see me cry. So I fought it back.

I don’t remember much of that class but I remember going into my 6th period chemistry class and saying to the teacher Mr. Shafer, “I can’t believe the shuttle exploded.”. Apparently he didn’t know because he jumped up with a start and looked panicked and then turned on the television. We spent the rest of the class watching the coverage of the Challenger Disaster.

For a geek that dreams of the stars, that day is burned in my memory forever. God bless those that lost their lives in the pursuit of exploration and the betterment of mankind.

I can’t believe it’s been 25 years. We will never forget you.


Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

28 January 2011 by Geek 1

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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