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Monthly Archives: January 2009 - 3. page

twitter

It’s tough keeping up with all the latest trends in technology, especially on the web. So many sites and so little time… and now with the explosion of social networking sites it’s just about impossible to keep up. I try as many new sites as I can and stick with the ones I like, until I get tired of them or until they disappear.

Aside from my therapy (disability-related listservs and message boards), my first real web addiction was TextAmerica (TA), which unfortunately died in 2007. TA was a moblogging site, which focused on uploading camera phone photos. The IT guru from TA has started a new site called fragmob, which I use, but not nearly as much as I used TA. I basically just upload my camera photos to fragmob. After TA went under, I moved my online photos to Flickr, which I like. Most of my TA friends also moved to Flickr, but still it’s not the same as the old TA. I enjoy taking and sharing photos, which is the main draw to Flickr.

For social networking, I’m currently on FaceBook. It is definitely a class above MySpace (which I don’t like at all). I don’t spend a whole lot of time on FaceBook. But these days, having a FaceBook page is almost as necessary as having an email address. And it is a great way to network and reconnect with old friends.

For blogging, I like WordPress. The nice thing about WordPress – in addition to wordpress.com – is that the program that powers the blog is an open source program that can be downloaded and installed on any domain. When I first set up my personal blog back in 2006, the fun for me was figuring out how to install and set up a self-hosted blog. It was a bit of a learning curve, as it involved some PHP, CSS and MYSQL stuff. Once my blog was actually up and running, I really didn’t have much to say. Although when the presidential primaries started heating up, I seemed to find plenty to talk about.

I’m getting way off track. I wanted to talk a bit about Twitter. I’ve been hearing a lot of twitter about Twitter. This service is unlike other social networks, because it limits posts to just 140 characters. Short and tweet!

Why only 140 characters? Because that is the limit for cell phone SMS and the service started more as a way to post text messages to the web.

What can you say in 140 characters? Often times, not much.

The idea is to answer the basic question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. The cool thing about twitter is that you can send your “tweets” right from your cell phone, from your desk top or from twitter.com. Your messages are then sent to people who subscribe to your tweets. Another cool thing is that you can have your tweets automatically forwarded to your FaceBook wall or your blog via widgets. My tweets (or brain farts, as I call them) are in the sidebar to the right of this blog.

Is anyone really interested in my daily activities or random thoughts? It doesn’t really matter to me, as long as it’s fun. Will I become a twitterholic? We shall see…

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Technology | cindy | | 3 Comments |   cindy_tc facebook Flickr Fragmob myspace social networking textamerica Twitter twitter.com

Rick Rolled

RickRolling is a fake video link. Instead of getting the video you were looking for, you get Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up”. This started as a joke. It is considered funny because of the over-the-top dancing in this music video from the 80’s. Now, the video has gone viral (viral video: widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing) and it’s all over the internet. If you’ve spent much time on youtube, you’ve probably been “rick rolled”.

Here’s the rick roll video:

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Technology Video | cindy | | 2 Comments |   lightscameraaaron Rick Astley rick roll rickroll rickrolled viral video youtube “Never Going to Give You Up”

HP all-in-one

About a year ago, well actually 13 months ago, I bought an HP Photosmart, all-in-one printer C5280. One of the reasons I bought an all-in-one was to save space, rather than a separate printer, scanner and fax machine, I have them all in one. The problem with this plan is that if something goes wrong, the whole thing needs to be replaced. That’s what happened to me this week. 30 days after the manufacturer’s warranty ran out, the bulb on the scanner died. Oh how I hate dealing with tech support, but since I thought I was still in warranty, I gave them a call. Like just about all computer-related tech support, they treat you like an idiot. Granted, the average user is ignorant when it comes to computer trouble shooting. I’m thankful that I am able to fix most hardware and software problems myself. But when there is a hardware failure and the product is under warranty, I have no choice but to deal with tech support.

Even though the scanner bulb was obviously shot, they still make you jump through a bunch of hoops before they finally tell you, “I regret to notify you that the issue stands unresolved and appreciate your efforts to troubleshoot the issue. Yes, the issue is with the scanner bulb.” And of course my warranty had just expired; always the way. But, they tell me I can call and get a refurbished upgrade at a substantially reduced price and I can return the broken machine in the same box. Whenever possible, I prefer email support to the telephone, but I had to call to give them a credit card number.

I was happy with the C5280. The ink seemed to run out very fast, but other than that it worked fine, until the bulb went. This machine is no longer available, so they are sending me a refurb HP PS C6280 for $79 with free shipping and a one year warranty (they usually cost around $150). Certainly better than buying a new machine.

So, I call to give them my credit card info over the phone and the girl tells me that if I just extend my warranty for a year, the replacement will be free. Even better $60 instead of $79! She charges my credit card $60 to extend the warranty for another year, then she connected me to the order department to order the replacement. When I get the guy on the phone, he tells me that what I bought was one year of telephone tech support, which does not cover replacements. Grrrr. I don’t need tech support, I need a bulb. Anyway, after going around and around with them, mind you I’m talking to some guy in India on a crappy Internet phone line and I can barely hear him. My credit card gets charged again, this time for the $79 refurb and he will hopefully credit me for the $60 phone support, which I didn’t want. Why is it that the money comes out immediately, but it takes 2 weeks to put money back into my account? I’ve never understood that.

Well, the refurb HP PS C6280 is on it’s way. We shall see how that goes, and if I get my $60 back. If you put a price tag on my time and aggravation, it probably would have been cheaper to just go out and buy a new machine. I hate dealing with tech support.

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Technology | cindy | | Leave a comment |   all-in-one C5280 C6280 HP Photosmart scanner bulb tech support technical support

PC Magazine

PC Magazine Volume 1, Issue 1, January 1982.

 

I just received my last copy of PC Magazine. I had no idea this was coming. A little note came with the magazine saying this would be the last printed issue. I’m a bit sad, as I’ve subscribed to PC Magazine for about 20 years or so. It is the one magazine that I read cover to cover and I have learned so much from this magazine. PC Magazine is not going away, the owners have decided to go completely digital.

I suppose this should not come as a surprise for a tech magazine to go digital, since digital will be the future for magazines and newspapers, and eventually books as well. From what I’ve read on-line, the company is making most of it’s money with on-line revenue and will save money by dropping the print version. And of course, this is obviously a good decision for the environment.

But I will miss the printed issue. I sit in front of a computer too many hours a day already and I enjoy reading my magazines in bed. I guess I will eventually have to get a digital reader like Amazon’s Kindle. But for now, I still have PC World and a few other tech magazines. But I don’t think I’ve ever subscribed to any magazine longer than PC Magazine. I will miss it. 🙁

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Technology | cindy | | Leave a comment |   last issue PC Magazine PCmag PCmag.com

Religiolous

I finally had a chance to see the movie Religiolous with Bill Maher. I liked the movie, but unfortunately, I don’t think it was good enough to make a difference. The documentary seemed a bit disorganized. It started off funny, slowed to a crawl in the middle and ended powerfully. The best part of the whole movie was the last 10 minutes where Bill talks about how religion has the capacity to destroy mankind.

One point was made clear in the movie. Basically, all religions are the same and have little connection with facts or reality. Most people actually know very little about their own religion, they simply believe what they have been taught without much thought or proof. I would have liked to have seem more time spent on the history and facts, as they relate to gods and science, rather than so much time spent talking to crazy people. But I guess that wouldn’t have been as funny and after all, Bill Maher is a comedian.

The take home message? Religion is detrimental to the progress of humanity. When religious fanatics are allowed to control governments, history has shown, from the Crusades to George W. Bush, that the results can be disastrous. Now that we have the power to annihilate ourselves, Armageddon could easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If rational thinking people do not stand up against religion, we are all doomed.

I doubt this movie will change the minds of many believers, in fact, I would guess that the people most likely to watch this movie are Atheists. Excuse the pun, but I’m afraid Religiolous will be “preaching to the choir”.

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Uncategorized | cindy | | 13 Comments |   Bill Maher Religiolous religion