Archive for October, 2006
October 31, 2006 at 12:31 pm · Filed under Adsense, Plugins, Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
Before we get started I want to make it clear that this is a method for dummies. There are no files to download, no big fancy template changes or anything. No, this is a simple php command that rotates the Google Adsense client ID.
If you’re on the hunt for a plugin to do this, you can try this one. The AdSense Sharing Revenue and Earnings System looked brilliant and from reading the features I was certain it was exactly what I needed. The problem is the download doesn’t seem to work. I followed the instructions perfectly and the plugin simply will not show up in the admin panel. Being a guy who doesn’t have a lot of time in life… I moved on. Read the rest of this entry »
October 28, 2006 at 8:32 am · Filed under Google, Miscellaneous
Apparently they do. While surfing through the Digg headlines this morning the title “FBI Says No Arrest of Boarding Pass Hacker” caught my attention. I clicked through and began reading, only to find a disconcerting revelation that Google Talk provided far more information to Wired News than I would EVER want them to provide had it been me.
Speaking of the hacker, Wired News says:
Soghoian’s computer still registers as being online according to Google chat, indicating that the feds have not probably not confiscated his computer.
When you want personal information on someone you just give Google Talk a ring or what? Who are they going to tell when I’m online.
It gets worse…
A transcript of the chat provided to Wired News shows that Soghoian said that the FBI was at his door at approximately 3:50 pm PST.
You can even get a transcript? This is almost unbelievable! What ever happened to privacy? I know I know… terms and conditions. But that doesn’t change the fact that they are clearly sharing personal and private information.
October 28, 2006 at 8:07 am · Filed under Blogging, Electronics, iPod, Geek Tech, Gadgets, Miscellaneous
It’s Saturday so I figured we could use something different. Today’s first post came to me as a surprise and I still have a hard time believing it happened.
According to this blogger, when a 40GB iPod was ordered it was shipped with two bars of soap and a package of cheap batteries instead of an actual iPod.
He even has the pictures posted so stop by and say hello.
October 27, 2006 at 1:48 pm · Filed under YouTube, Money, Google, Miscellaneous
I first wrote about this back when the Lovelygirl13 event unfolded on YouTube. If you didn’t follow the story, and hopefully most of you didn’t, it was a marketing ploy put on by a couple guys who probably have dollar signs in their contact lenses. The cast was a girl who always looked… well… lonely. She led her fan base through a journey of her life via YouTube only to watch them fall flat on their faces when it was discovered that it was all a fake. Read the rest of this entry »
October 27, 2006 at 11:23 am · Filed under Technology, Firefox 2, Browsers, Firefox, Miscellaneous
I really hate to have to knock on Firefox from a negative direction, but yesterday the newest version of the open source giant gave me one of the worst days of web surfing that I’ve had in a very long time.
I downloaded Firefox 2.0 on Tuesday but didn’t spend much time online that day because I had other things to do. On Wednesday I was online for a bit, probably an hour or so, and I noticed some slight glitches in the performance of the browser but brushed it off because at the time it wasn’t that bad and I figured my laptop was just having issues. Yesterday proved to be a much bigger headache as I spent a better part of the day working on all of my sites and blogs.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 22, 2006 at 4:19 pm · Filed under Electronics, Technology, Audio, Geek Tech, Gadgets, Miscellaneous
OK, of all the ways I’ve seen parents try to get their kids to brush their teeth properly, this has got to take the cake.
When pressed to the teeth, the toothbrush renders a recorded riff from a pop star that lasts two minutes — precisely the amount of time dentists say children should spend brushing their teeth.
Personally I think it’s a brilliant idea. From the sounds of things the tracklist is not quite ready, but hopefully the toothbrush will come with some good beats.
Hat-Tip: Crazy Gizmoz
October 22, 2006 at 4:11 pm · Filed under Technology, Microsoft, Plugins, Browsers, Firefox, Miscellaneous
For those of you who will be using IE7, Microsoft has published the browser extension page and the list of plugins is now available for download.
Microsoft IE 7 Extensions Page
There appears to be a good amount of plugins there, but the almost none of my plugins are there. I might have missed it, but I didn’t see Adsense Notifier, SEOpen, PR in Status bar, FireFTP and a few others. To be fair, I did see stumbleupon, Digg, and some of the other big name plugins so that might help a bit.
If you’re an IE fan this list should be pretty tasty.
Enjoy!
October 22, 2006 at 4:03 pm · Filed under Computers, Technology, Microsoft, Firefox 2, RSS, Firefox, Browsers, Plugins, Miscellaneous
I love Laptop Magazine. I read their feeds and find tons of good info over there. With that being said, I’m scratching my head trying to figure out what they were thinking when they posted this.
Here are the parts that get me.
For example, IE7 detects the presence of RSS links and adds them to a Favorites Center that puts Favorites, Feeds, and History in a single, navigable window. Within the RSS reader itself, you can search and reorganize items by date, author, and title.
Ummm… Firefox invented this long ago did it not?
Tabbed browsing in IE7 gets supercharged with a Quick Tabs preview page of visual thumbnails that lets you view each open tab on a single screen. The group-tab feature turns the current cluster of open pages into a Favorite that reopens all of these tabs with a single click.
Poor Microsoft. This feature sounds excellent, but we all know we’re getting it with Firefox 2.
Microsoft has also taken a cue from the open-source browsers and has enhanced its add-ons. A launch catalog displays Microsoft and third-party toolbars, form fillers, and other extensions that you can plug in and manage easily. Here’s hoping that developers get as creative with IE7 plug-ins as they have with Firefox’.
Too little, too late.
In the grand battle between Firefox and IE, we think that IE has a bit of an edge in this release, although the Firefox 2 betas we have seen will catch it up a bit. Many of the things we like about Firefox have been implemented in IE7 and have been polished to be more streamlined and useful. For those of us who spend a lot of time researching and working on the Web, IE7 represents the best and most aggressive IE upgrade we’ve seen in a while.
How so? I still have seen NOT A SINGLE strain of evidence that suggests IE7 has an edge of Firefox. None.
Call me a FF fanboy if you wish, but IE7 is going to have to create something completely different, unique and original for me to throw out my plugins, browser skins, solid security (I have suffered zero attacks since I started using Firefox), fast surfing, RSS readers and all the rest of the jazz.
Sorry to say this LAPTOP Magazine, but I think you’re trying to be a little too friendly here. While IE7 may be a step up from EI6, we have to remember that IE6 set the standard bar just a few inches above the ground. With standards that low, it isn’t difficult to exceed them.
October 22, 2006 at 3:39 pm · Filed under Microsoft, Xbox, Technology, Electronics, Miscellaneous
Is it just me, or does this deal kinda stink? Well, I suppose it might work for some. If you simply don’t have the cash up front and can’t live without some Xbox action then maybe this is for you.
Engadget points out the upcoming promotion and provides a pretty slick run down of what is being offered. To sum it up… you get Microsoft’s latest console, a handful of games, and broadband service for around $54.00 USD per month.
You would never catch me signing up for this, but different strokes for different folks I guess.
October 21, 2006 at 2:22 pm · Filed under Technorati, Technology, Blogging, Google, Miscellaneous
Not likely. Well… maybe a few disgruntled bloggers but I don’t think it goes too far beyond that. If you haven’t read the latest post at Technorati you might want to click on over and read the latest log by Adam Hertz.
The whole scenerio began unfolding a few weeks back when Brian Pinkerton of Technorati posted an excellent resource on Technorati link calculations. Brian used a blog that had significant link changes as an Read the rest of this entry »
October 21, 2006 at 11:23 am · Filed under Firefox 2, Technology, Browsers, Firefox, Geek Tech, Miscellaneous
As expected Microsoft’s latest browser release, IE 7, bombed before it even came out of the gate. The tarnished browser is up against a beast of a machine in the open source browser we’ve all come to know and love… Firefox.
IE 7 tried, at least we think they’ve tried, to take on Firefox as a “me too” browser with all the goodies that come along with it, but failed miserably. To make matters worse, now Mozilla is releasing Firefox 2 just days after IE 7 let its fans down.
Oh yeah baby! Firefox 2!
Firefox 2 is set for full release this Tuesday and I imagine we’ll see a gigantic flux of traffic heading to the Mozilla website for some download action. The new version doesn’t change a whole lot for the user, but there appears to be significant changes in security. While IE 7 closes the gap on browser functions, security is something they just can’t seem to get right.
First Firefox took the web by storm with its user friendliness. Now we’re seeing the open source giant take Microsoft on in security as well.
This gets better by the day!
October 20, 2006 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Computers, Technology, Electronics, Browsers, Gadgets, Geek Tech, Miscellaneous
Coolest Gadgets got it right with their assesment on this nifty gadget. The stealthswitch is a USB device that can sit on the floor beneath your desk for stealthy use. When someone approaches your computer and you wish for them not to see what you’re looking at you simply tp the switch and the window will instantly drop. There are several settings for the switch that allow you to choose what is hidden and what will remain viewable.
If you’re one of those peeps who like to play games when the boss isn’t looking this might be your desktop radar detector.
October 20, 2006 at 8:47 pm · Filed under Gmail, Technology, Blogging, Geek Tech, Google, Miscellaneous
Google’s “Talkabout” blog contains a post asking users to send in stories that happened while using Google Talk.
Drop by and send them your story if you have a minute. 
October 20, 2006 at 8:37 pm · Filed under Electronics, Technology, Blogging, Geek Tech, Gadgets, Miscellaneous
While I disagree with Techie Diva’s claim that gas prices are rising (they’re dropping where I live), as always the gadget blogger makes a great find with the new Electroscoot.
I have no idea what the MPH translation is, but I’m guessing the scooter will do about 35 MPH. Not bad for those of us who dwell in the big cities. At .50 cents for that 35 miles you really can’t at all complain about the cost of running this micro ride.
It comes in at about $2,000.00 USD give or take a few either way. Not too bad all things considered.
October 20, 2006 at 11:33 am · Filed under Technology, Computers, Geek Tech, Miscellaneous
The online sitebuilder giant Homestead.com seems to be experiencing a brutal headache in the form of crashed systems and downed servers. The company that boasts more than 12 million users in it’s time online lost a good chunk of its systems sometime yesterday morning and almost 48 hours later there is still no sign of life.
The front end of the site is running on backup, but all account access has completely failed. The backend of Homestead is fried.
Homestead users began commenting on a forum dedicated to the “big red house” on the crash almost as soon as it happened.
One comment said:
Greetings from England
Well I finally gave up tring to get into homestead at about Midnight last night.
It’s now about 06.35 am here, still no homestead, and still no replies to my email to homestead support (or should that be homestead lack of support?)
Giving speech at conference later today - and the files that should have been uploaded to homestead for the deligates are still sitting on my hardrive.
Wouldn’t be so bad if we knew what they are up to, a simple explanation would be better than their continuing to hide behind a wall of silence
Other users are claiming that Homestead is Read the rest of this entry »
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