Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 
Have you ever been outside walking somewhere while it began to rain? I have, and didn’t like it. That’s why I created Remember The Umbrella – a new online service that will email an alert when the forecast is predicting rain in your area.
How does it work?
The site is fairly simple – it connects to the National Weather Service (this is why it’s just United States only at the moment) to get the precipitation percentage for the next 12 hours, and emails the user at the correct time if that percentage is over the threshold that he or she set.
Where is it going from here?
There are many ways to improve the service. First and foremost is TXT messages. Then there will be more features like smart phone apps, “shut your car windows” on-demand warnings, and other things.
Please check it out and tell your friends!
http://www.remembertheumbrella.com
http://twitter.com/umbrellalerts
Posted in Announcement, News, technology | No Comments »
Thursday, November 11th, 2010 
My mouse of choice is the Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0
My ideal mouse:
- Large and ergonomic so it feels solid in my hand
- Optical/laser
- Must have scroll wheel and thumb forward/back buttons
- Must be wired (not wireless)
As I wrote in a review on Amazon.com:
This mouse is the most amazing mouse I’ve ever used. The “back/forward” buttons right where your thumb naturally sits work really well for going back/forward while browsing on the web.
The “smooth scroll” of the center scroll wheel takes some getting used to, but the sensitivity can be adjusted in the IntelliPoint software, and once you are used to it it’s great.
The mouse is a bit larger than other mice, so it’s great for men (and some women too) with larger hands. The ergonomics make this mouse amazing to come back home to after a day working at other computers and sub-par mice. Buy this one now!
See the Tom’s Hardware Review, or check out my review and the product on Amazon.com. What mouse do you like to use?
Posted in Opinion, technology | No Comments »
Friday, September 10th, 2010 
I recently had my original Garmin Nuvi 760 stolen from my car. Because insurance didn’t cover the replacement cost, I decided to try to live without a GPS device for awhile. I took one trip using my Blackberry’s built-in GPS and Google Maps for Blackberry, but I quickly discovered that driving without a GPS was not going to work. I was constantly looking down to the screen to make sure I was still on track. I did not know how far I had until I had to exit. I knew that I had to buy a new device (a shiny Garmin nüvi 755 with Traffic
) .
What was troubling about this situation was that there was little question that I was going to buy a replacement. I had to buy a new Garmin GPS device. Those who know me as a frugal shopper know that this is unique for me to buy something without much objective thought.
I am, frankly, very dependent and appreciative of my Garmin GPS navigator. I have owned and used a Garmin in-car GPS device for about two years, and have really come to appreciate the device. There are many benefits to using this device while driving:
- Zero prep time needed to determine a route before travelling
- Live re-routing if you take a wrong turn
- Accurate travel time estimates
- Dedicated navigation (unlike smartphones where calls or other apps may interrupt your navigating)
Is our generation becoming too dependent on GPS car navigation? People of older generations put more value on planning and mapping a route for a road trip. They also take pride in knowing the best route to take to anywhere in the area. These “GPS-phobes” balk at younger people who depend fully on GPS devices to navigate on the roads.
What is fun or important about driving? Is driving simply about travelling from place to place? If so, a GPS device that directs you should be adequate and quite an appropriate solution to the problem of navigation. But if driving is more of a lifestyle or recreational activity, then maybe there is something to be said for knowing the ideal routes and focusing on the road. If this is the case, with our generation of GPS dependent drivers are we doomed to a lifeless travel existence?
Posted in Opinion, technology | No Comments »
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 The Blackberry Desktop software creates an IPD (*.ipd) file when creating a Blackberry backup. This file is useful to the Blackberry Desktop Software if you want to load your information on to a new device in the future, but does not allow you to extract your data (like contacts or SMS messages) for your own archival purposes.
In my search to find a program to archive my SMS text messages, I found many references to ABC Amber Blackberry Converter. This program costs $20, and the free version only lets you convert 10 items at a time – very annoying.
The solution: a simple, free Windows program called MagicBerry.
The MagicBerry interface is very simple. To access the data of an IPD file you simply open it (File > Open) and all the information from that IPD appears in the right-hand column. You can then inspect each piece of data, or Export All to a CSV or text file.
This is the perfect solution for someone who wants to back up your SMS messages or other data from your blackberry and save it in a readable format. Thank you Ashraf Awwad for creating this simple, useful software!
Posted in technology | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010 Why should you back up your data? Because your computer hard drive will die eventually – it is only a matter of time. To save yourself the time and pain of trying to recover lost data, be sure to backup your data regularly.
The 3-2-1 Rule
The guys over at DPBestFlow have succinctly defined some best practices for keeping your data and photos safe. It’s called the 3-2-1 Rule:
- Have 3 copies of any important file (a primary and two backups)
- Have the backups on at least 2 different media types (hard drive and optical media, for example)
- 1 copy should be stored off-site
Some Ideas
So how do you set up a system of backing up your files to comply with the 3-2-1 system? Here are some services and methods that I
- Jungle Disk (and other online backup services) – Provides automated, off-site backup. It does daily backups of all the files I decide to backup, plus it mounts an additional Windows drive that I can save files to “the cloud” directly. For this service, you pay per MB stored and per MB transferred. Other options are Carbonite (unlimited size backup for a one-time fee) and Mozy.
- External Hard Drive – Every month I take a snapshot of my entire computer on my external hard drive. Use an encryption program like TrueCrypt to make sure your data is safe even if the external hard drive device is stolen.
- Media Server – I have a custom-built desktop computer that automatically keeps my data mirrored on two hard drives, which protects against hard drive failure. You can do this in RAID, but I find it easier to use a tool that runs as a service in Windows – SyncBack.
- Backupify – Although all the new cloud services are nice, we as consumers have no recourse if our accounts become inaccessible for some reason. This free service will automatically backup your data on Google (Mail, Contacts, Calendar), Twitter, Facebook (Facebook photos is a big one), Flicker, and much more.
Good luck backing up!
Posted in technology | 1 Comment »
