New Apple Gadgets

When you combine this with this I realize that maybe I shouldn't have bought the new iPad.

iPad

I just ordered one from the Apple site. It seems to do all the things I want to do, like email and Internet browsing from my couch or when I'm on the road. It has a Kindle app so there's no built-in obsolescence if Apple loses the ebook format war, and it can do everything my iPod can do with a much bigger screen. I don't need the 3G, since I'll have wireless most places I would want to use it. I got the 64Gig version, I have about 30Gig of music, and I like to have everything with me so I don't always have to pick and choose.

SCAM: Domain Name Dispute

I received the following email, a quick Google told me it was just a scam that this Chinese registration company is using to scare me into registering domains with them. The contact information used to register domains is not supposed to be used for commercial purposes. I use a dedicated email address for domain registration, so I can tell when it is being spammed. Don't fall for this stuff.


----------------------------------------------------------
From: Tracy [mailto:Tracy@jsntwifi.com]
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:02 AM
To: [my secret email address that I only use for registering domains]
Subject: Dispute From Domain

Dear Sir or Madam 2010-1-30
We are a domain name registration service organization in Asia,
Recently we received a formal application submited by Paul Martin who wanted to use the keyword "[my full name]" to register the Internet Brand and domain names with suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia
After our initial examination, we found that these domain names to be applied for registration are same as your domain name and trademark. If you think that these domain names to be regisrated would produce possible dispute with you or effect your current business, you would contact us as soon as possible by Fax ,Telephone or Email in the next 5 working days.otherwise we have to approve his regisration application without your any reply.

Yours sincerely

Tracy
Checking Department
Tel: 86 513 8532 1087
Fax: 86 513 8532 2065
Email:Tracy@jsntwifi..com
Website: www.jsntwifi.com or www.jsntwifi.com.cn
Our File No.:2884349

How Long?

How long before you can buy the entire Library of Congress collection or every Amazon book on a disk? What about the all the music on iTunes? Every movie or television program ever made in any language all the time. In a relatively short period of time¹, these will all fit on a single memory stick. And that memory stick will eventually cost just a few dollars. And once someone buys it is only a short time before these media are available on the internet (pirated). It's like that Qwest commercial. What will it be like to have instant access everywhere to everything for free?

The Moses Tablet

From my previous post about the Apple tablet (now the iPad):

I would buy a tablet from Apple if it would:

✔Widescreen hi-res

✔Connect via wireless

✔Browse the internet

✔Read books

✔Have 4+ hours of battery life

✔Run iTunes and play music, podcasts, TV & movies

I would wait in line like the fanboys if it would:

✔Do STMP email

✔Keep my calendar, contacts and to-do list (e.g. run Outlook)

✘Sync with my Outlook on my laptop

✔Read magazines and newspapers

✔Run aps from the iPhone Aps store

Ikea Demo on New Apple Tablet?

The New New Thing by Michael Lewis

The New New Thing by Michael Lewis.

Wars and Rumours of Wars

The biggest buzz on the Interwebs right now is about the (maybe) Apple tablet. See here for some discussion about how the tablet may redefine the publishing business like the iPod redefined the music business. There're even arguements about what this hypothetical product might be named.

I would buy a tablet from Apple if it would:
Widescreen hi-res
Connect via wireless
Browse the internet
Read books
Have 4+ hours of battery life
Run iTunes and play music, podcasts, TV & movies

I would wait in line like the fanboys if it would:
Do STMP email
Keep my calendar, contacts and to-do list (e.g. run Outlook)
Sync with my Outlook on my laptop
Read magazines and newspapers
Run aps from the iPhone Aps store

Full disclosure: I own an iPod Classic, but not an iPhone or an Apple computer.

Tim O'Reilly has Idea 2.0

Tim O’Reilly coined the term Web 2.0 five years ago. Now he is trying to coin the term Gov 2.0, and has helped organize a summit next week to talk about what that might mean.

When asked to comment, Mrs. O'Reilly said that she had had enough of her husband's numbering schemes, referring to leftovers as dinner 2.0 and going to the bathroom number 2.0.

New Computer

About a month ago, my desktop computer at home died. I was able to get it working again by taking it completely apart and putting it back together again, but every time I turn it off again the problem reoccurs, and instead of disassembling it and reassembling it every day, I've just left it running 24/7 until I could fix it or buy a new omputer. Doing some research online, it looks like an issue with the fan that cools the processor, but fixing it means replacing the motherboard. Even though the computer is only about three years old, they don't make that model anymore, so it's probably worth it to plunk down for a new one.

I decided to wait until we got our bonuses to decide how much to spend on a new computer. I have a laptop for work, and I have a nice setup with three monitors, so I really need a desktop. I'm taking some of my own advice about how to buy a new computer. I made a list of what I needed: Windows machine, Intel Quad core processor, 500GB hard drive, at least 4 GB RAM, and a Blu-Ray player. I like buying a customized box online, so I checked out Dell, HP, and Gateway. Our company has an employee discount with Dell and HP,

Then I saw this:


And this:


Sure it costs about twice as much as a similarly configured Dell XPS, and I don't get an employee discount, but check out those components, and the quality of the manufacturing. This tank of a machine won't crash because of some little 5V fan. It looks like you could run over it and it would still be humming away. And it's cool looking, too.


Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to me, Happy birthday to Drew, Happy birthday to me!

I am a Total Loser

I made a Wordle of my blog (actually, just the RSS feed, so it only includes about the last 25 posts). Boy am I a total geek!

How to synchronize files on more than one computer

In a previous post, I talked about how to check email from more than one computer. Like most folks who work for a company, I have a computer at work and a computer at home. My work computer is a laptop because I travel a lot, and when I'm gone I also need to do things like pay bills, work on my fantasy football personal correspondence, etc. and so I need to share some files on two computers.

I used to do it the old-fashioned way (heh) by emailing files back and forth. This was tedious for synching a lot of files, so I bought a USB hard drive. I'd periodically copy personal files I'd need onto the hard drive, and then copy those files to my laptop. I keep everything like that in a separate directory (called Personal, it's kind of a code) and I would just copy the entire directory. The problem with that is that if I changed any of my personal files on the laptop, they would get overwritten.

Then I discovered FolderShare, now owned by Microsoft and part of their Windows Live (whatever that is). FolderShare is a free service that you can use to keep your files synchronized between your computers, share files with friends or colleagues, and download your files from any computer that's connected to the Internet. It's been working great for me, behind my firewall and router at home, and even behind the corporate firewall (allegedly). I don't run it all the time, but once a week or so I'll leave my computer on at home, I leave the software running all the time, and I'll start the software on my computer at work, and bingo bango bongo, it's done. The software is careful enough not to delete multiple versions of a file, but saves them them under another file name.

There is a limit on the size and number of files, a single directory can't have more than 10,000 files. I synch most of my Personal folders, although I don't include my iTunes library (too many files) or My Pictures (too large). I also synch my Favorites list (I have 2200+ links) between home and work, this works great, our corporate pushes out new links periodically and they appear at home automatically.

FolderShare is a great way to work seamlessly on multiple computers. All of your resources are there no matter where you are. It works great, and best of all, it's a free download (it's in beta now, but I suppose that they may charge for it down the road, after all Microsoft has to make money somehow).

Analysis of a phishing email

I received this email at my work email address, it appeared in my Junk E-mail folder in Outlook. This is kind of unusual since I rarely receive spam at work, I think we must have pretty good spam filters.

-----Original Message-----
From: by-joc@sympatico.ca [mailto:by-joc@sympatico.ca]
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 8:56 AM
To: winner@freelotto.co.uk
Subject: Congratulation

You won the sum of $2,000,000.00 you arehereby advice to get back to us, to claim your prize.

Contact Mr. Richard Smith
Email: (contactrichardsmith01@btinternet.com)

Claims Requirements:
1.Full Names:2.Home Address:3.Sex:
4.Phone Number:5 .Nationality

Clues that the email is not legitimate

People who speak the English language rarely use the term "Congratulation" in the singular form, as in the subject field of this email.

The email address winner@freelotto.co.uk is not my email address, there's no reason why my email wouldn't appear on an email to me, unless it's a bulk email, and I don't think a large number of people won $2M.

The sender's email address is (purportedly) by-joc@sympatico.ca, which is a free webmail address from an ISP in Canada. A legitimate email would be from an organization.

You wouldn't expect an email from Canada for a UK lottery, or vice versa.

"You won" is kind of abrupt; most would use "You have won" or "You've won". "Advice" should be "advised", and the language "get back to us" is very informal compared to the rest of the sentence. Overall it looks like it was written by a non-English speaker, which is unusual for a British official but may be normal for a Canadian.

"Arehereby" is a typo, also the language seems overly stern for a congratulatory email. You would expect an email of this type to have been proofread.

If this is an email from a lottery in the UK, you would expect the winning amount in British pounds "£2,000,000.00" or euros "€2,000,000.00", not in dollars "$2,000,000.00".

The email provides a third email address for contact, from a third ISP which turns out to be a free webmail address from an ISP in the UK.

The weirdly punctuated list of personal information to be provided to claim the prize. It doesn't seem normal to request the sex of the winner.