2007 September | Joe Tech


	Archive for September, 2007 « Older Entries Top 20 Digg Technology Articles Sunday, September 30th, 2007 I’ve largely neglected Digg.com in the past, fearing it would squash any productivity at work. Lately, I’ve found it a necessary read for this blog and there’s a LOT of interesting stuff I just wouldn’t find, otherwise. If you’re not a Digg reader, check it out. Now on with the list. Here are September’s top 20 articles in Digg’s Technology News area: 1. (9,018 Diggs) Digg this if you’re tired of IE costing you money! (no ads involved) (site) I couldn’t agree more. I often find myself fighting with IE to make something work while it looks great in Firefox the whole time. Personally, I think EVERY browser should have to adhere to a unified standard. 2. (8,975 Diggs) An open letter to iPhone owners from Steve Jobs (site) You may remember this. Apple dropped the price of the iPhone so much and so soon after it’s pricey launch that the move became the price drop heard around the world. After tons of complaints, this was Apple’s response. Of course, Apple is still fighting an uphill battle on the unlocking debate. 3. (7,488 Diggs) 1GB 20 years ago and 1GB now!!! [PIC] (site) At first glimpse, it appears to be just a picture of a large piece of hardware if you don’t know the title attached to it, but look off to the right and you’ll see what’s being compared. I feel spoiled to live in a time when technological advances seem to happen weekly, yet I still want more. 4. (7,210 Diggs) ThePirateBay.org files charges against media companies (site) The Pirate Bay, for those who don’t know, is THE search engine for torrents, and if you don’t know what a torrent is, you probably don’t care. The Pirate Bay explains that they’re legally going after Big Media for crimes Big Media has perpetuated against them. I say go for it. If I can’t take the law into my hands, neither should the deep-pocketed companies. 5. (6,823 Diggs) Digg’s picture of the Year [PIC] (site) Once again pointing to the debate about unlocking Apple’s iPhone, this image depicts two clear rights afforded Americans: The right to free speach and the right to do whatever the hell you want with hardware you purchased and now own. 6. (6,399 Diggs) Apple’s iPod Touch gets official (site) Please note. I am a technology whore and will review your blog or site for one brand new iPod Touch. 7. (6,139 Diggs) Digg – The Pictures Section! (site) Digg launches a very welcome pictures section of the site to much fanfare. This is a big deal because Diggers can now see a thumbnail to determine if they want to continue on to view the picture. It probably will save webmasters tons of bandwidth, too. 8. (5,732 Diggs) This pic is not animated …[Amazing PIC] (site) I watched (and cringed), this weekend, as this made its way to the top of Digg, an honor usually reserved for the best submissions. It’s a great image and all, but still. Note, it went down 15 Diggs half way through my writing this list. 9. (5,472 Diggs) Amazon recommends WHAT? [PIC] (site) Kill yourself. Amazon says you should. Well, they said this guy should at the very least. Amazon! Tsk tsk! 10. (5,111 Diggs) Apple Cuts iPhone Price to $399 (site) There’s that price cut I spoke of earlier, and the beginning of Apple’s September public relations nightmare. 11. (4,914 Diggs) Top 10 Freeware Software Nobody Knows About – But Should (site) 12. (4,776 Diggs) The Biggest Ever BitTorrent Leak: MediaDefender Internal Emails Go Public (site) Just reading through some of the alleged emails that were leaked worries me. 13. (4,586 Diggs) Apple announces the 6th gen iPod! (site) Another iPod from Apple is always news, somehow, but I’ll go ahead and predict the next new iPod launch as Dec 1, 2007. 14. (4,502 Diggs) Demonoid Shut Down by the CRIA (site) Next to The Pirate Bay, Demonoid is the source for all your torrent needs. That is, unless you live in Canada. 15. (4,418 Diggs) Bottle makes dirty water drinkable in seconds (site) This would be incredibly handy when I’m camping. 16. (4,314) Crayon Assassin [Pic] (site) These are some pretty awesome pictures. 17. (4,263 Diggs) How does a Macbook Pro handle every application opening at once? (PIC) (site) How many programs opened? A lot. How well did it hold up? Apparently, it was able to muster up the energy for a screen capture after all that. Impressive. 18. (4,165 Diggs) I’m Not Sure NBC Could Have Screwed This iTunes Thing Up Any Worse (site) NBC had things all set with Apple to sell their shows via the popular iTunes until NBC took a hard left turn. Maybe NBC execs all stood in line for 6 hours to buy an iPhone the day it launched. 19. (4,014) Apple Announces new iPod Nano “Fatty”! (site) It’s not fat! It’s big-boned! Seriously, it’s uglier than my Nano, but the video and added features make up for it. 20. (3,916) How to hide beer in office? [PICS] (site) Beer is overrated, but this idea isn’t way to “think outside the box” (or in it). (digg counts are at the time of this writing) Posted in Uncategorized \| No Comments » Reminder: Pic.gs auction is closing soon Sunday, September 30th, 2007 In about 17 hours, the auction for one of my web sites, Pic.gs will end. Feel more than welcome to pass on the link. Posted in Computers \| No Comments » Ebay Is Getting A Wonderful Facelift Thursday, September 27th, 2007 I’ve been with eBay for 11 years. It’s fun to watch them grow up. Today, I dove in and played with any new and upcoming toys and features eBay made available and read up on the rest with anticipation. Here’s some things for you to look forward to. The eBay blog widget : eBay ToGo This is probably one of the best things coming out of eBay’s hard work lately, and as you can see below, it’s ready for everyone to use. 2007 seems to be the Year of the Widget, and nobody’s going to keep eBay out of the party. It’s a smart move for eBay and it looks pretty clean. I only wish I could have a bit more control over it, but that’s just how I am. At the time of this writing, the widget will display auction details for a portable DVD player, but you can specify any item you like, of course, or try multiple items or a search term. When a single item display is selected, you are asked for a search term that will be used when the listing for your chosen item has ended. Most importantly, widget creation takes about 30 seconds if you have the item id handy. Did the eBay marketing team plan this out well or what? eBay’s new Countdown feature At first glimpse, I thought, “Wow. That looks pretty, but what will it do to improve my shopping experience?”. After playing with it a little, I found it to be a little handy. I think the idea here is to save you from having to refresh that item details page 100 times in the last five minutes of an auction. It should save them a ton of server load, too, which is good for everyone. Here’s the breakdown: - One-click bidding for when you want to place the minimum bid (see example below). - Time remaining and high bid stand out in bright green. - Top 3 bidders are shown. - Bidder details are displayed when you roll your mouse cursor over a bidder. - Weird (but fun) little bidder character depictions. The new shopping experience I’ve never really had too many complaints about the checkout experience on eBay other than a few occasional inconveniences. Still, everything is supposed to be faster online, so eBay has been hard at work on streamlining the checkout experience, too. They’ve pulled out a lot of the unnecessary steps and left us with just three: 1. Review your purchase 2. Pick your payment method 3. Confirm your payment eBay Neighborhoods Hey. Why not get in on the social craze. It’s good to meet new people and possible customers. It’s better to build a network of people you’ve learned you can trust during an online transaction. Here’s how eBay describes their Neighborhoods: They are ideal micro-communities: groups of people centered around a shared passion for particular products or activities. I guess, then, if you collect sports cards, you can connect with others who do, as well. I’m not sure how well this will work with the eBay mindset, but it will be interesting to see. Search listing changes The item lists are changing, too. The images below really tell the whole story. Item detail previews: Item seller previews: This should be very handy when it comes to avoiding sellers with poor ratings. Window shopping at home Now you don’t even have to leave the house to window shop. I think this has been a long time in the making and I think it’s the right time for it, too. Just mouse over a thumbnail view to get some detail. The next year should be a great one for eBay. I’m already playing with the stuff they’ve launched and I can’t wait for the rest. Let alone the online giants like ebay, online presence on a dedicated server is critical even for small and medium sized businesses. Therefore, one needs to be sure bout the service level before choosing a seemingly best domain host. It is a good idea to surf few of the hosted web sites hosted on the servers of web page hosting provider to gauge the actual speed. Always go for a service provider offering a superior level of service such as hostmonster rather than the cheapest hosting web service which may be more suitable for family or hobby websites. Posted in Computers, Just Cool, Software \| 5 Comments » Overpriced roaming dies today… For your iPhone, too. Thursday, September 27th, 2007 While most of you are sleeping, a little company called Cubic Telecom out of Ireland is readying the launch of what promises to change the way we make international calls, and you can have a number in Paris (and a number of other cities), too! Try giving the ladies at the club your Paris cell phone number and see what happens. You probably don’t know who Cubic Telecom base in Cork, Ireland. If you were an immigrant to Ireland looking for cheap international calls in the past few years, you might have known them as Tele99.com, a service that sought to “bring cheap telephony to the growing number of immigrants to Ireland”. They continued along that thinking, expanding it to the global audience. Today, they will introduce MAXRoam to the world. Not only that, but they’re going to give away an unlocked iPhone with a MAXRoam sim to one buyer of a MAXRoam today. Their site is being a bit secretive, but it appears that you can still find some information such as international rates and take a look at the phones. Last November, I took my new bride to London and Paris for our honeymoon. I wanted to be available for emergency phone calls while there, but I’m with Verizon and I didn’t want to jump through hoops just to be available on my cell phone. I grabbed one of these phones with me. From all I’ve heard, it works wonders if you’re stuck on a mountain, but with the tall buildings of London and Paris, I found it useless. Satellite phones require a “line of site” to the satellite, just like satellite television. I really wish this launch had happened this time LAST year, but better late than never. Posted in Communication, Just Cool \| 3 Comments » Happy Birthday, Google! Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 Google is 9 years old today. Happy birthday, Google! Posted in Uncategorized \| No Comments » « Older Entries