Category: Tech

Categories
Microsoft Music Net

More free music*

I love free music… well, I love free legal music.  I may have to wait a while for another Mercedes Benz mixed tape but starting tomorrow (2/8) MSN Music is starting its Grammy blitz by giving away one free song from each category.  A panel of music professionals is going to attempt to predict the winner in each category… then MSN Music will give away the song predicted to win.  So, not only is it free music, it’s good, free music.  You know it’s good, the professionals told you so.


Now, before you point out that I’m just being a corporate pawn to Microsoft let me say this… first: I am a total pawn, second: even if I weren’t a pawn I still like free music.  So there, I’m a sell-out… but I’m a cheap, stingy sell-out… that must be worth something.


There will be one free song per day, starting on February 8th.  Using my top-secret, internal Microsoft sources I’ve determined the order the songs will be released in is:



  1. Tuesday, Feb. 8: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance/Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
  2. Wednesday, Feb. 9: Best Rock Song
  3. Thursday, Feb. 10: Best Rap Song
  4. Friday, Feb. 11: Best R&B Song
  5. Saturday, Feb. 12: Best Country Song

So, there you are, in the greatest of corporate traditions a big company has told you what you’re going to like.

Categories
Movies Net Web

It’s about freakin’ time

The broadband world has been here for a while but getting good content over the net is still not a simple matter.  Where’s that on-demand, world-wide entertainment network we’ve been promised?


Well, for you fans of Indian movies there is now a site for you which allows you to download digital copies of movies.  Movies like Raincoat which your local movie store will never carry… or new releases like Dhoom which even aren’t yet available on Netflix.  Not only are the latest movies available but you can get them much faster than driving to your local video store and way faster than Blockbuster Online.


If movies with people randomly bursting in to song and dance are your cup of tea, then check out Masala Downloads (http://www.masaladownloads.com).


If, on the other hand, Jean-Claude Van Damme is your cup of tea… simply switch on Spike TV… he’s sure to show up at some point.

Categories
Hotmail Microsoft Reference Software

Want less Spam in your Hotmail account?

There’s a quick and easy step you can take: turn your junk e-mail filter from “Low” to “Enhanced”.  At the lowest level Hotmail will delete the known junk e-mail before it even lands in your account.  There are, however, clever filters that deal with junk e-mail we haven’t heard of yet… when you switch from “Low” to “Enhanced” you get the added benefit of Hotmail moving the mail we’re not quite sure about into the junk e-mail folder for you to examine later.


To help protect yourself from junk e-mail:


Turn your junk e-mail filter to “Enhanced”
Cranking it up from low is the difference between “we know this is junk” and “we think this is junk.” Hotmail gets rid of the things we know are junk… the things we think are junk we move to the junk e-mail folder… but only if your filter is set to “Enhanced.”
Add your friends’ e-mail addresses to your address book
You can import, use the contacts builder feature on the contacts page or simply check the box on the sent mail confirmation page.
Add other addresses to your safe list

Adding amazon.com addresses to your safe list but not your address book keeps your address book tidy but makes sure you receive your e-mails from Amazon.
When you receive junk e-mail in your inbox, select the junk e-mail and click the “junk” button

When you report the junk we missed the junk e-mail automatically goes into a system which trains our filters to be better in the future (be patient, though, it does take some time for the filters to learn, you won’t see an immediate effect, but like exercise, it works over time).
Check your e-mail every day
This sound funny but it is really more of a psychological trick than anything else. If you check your Hotmail account every day you’ll find that the amount of junk in your inbox is quite small and easy to deal with. When you take the task in small bites it’s easier to stomach (and frankly, quite painless).

To turn your junk e-mail filter from 1 to 11:



  1. Sign into Hotmail
  2. Click the “Mail” tab
  3. Click the “Options” link (it’s at the top right, near “Help”)
  4. Click the “Junk E-Mail Protection” link
  5. Click the “Junk E-Mail Filter” link
  6. Select the “Enhanced” level
  7. Click the “OK” button
  8. Get less spam in your inbox

Too many steps? Try my direct link to your Junk E-Mail Filter Options.


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Categories
Hardware Software

Are you crash-safe?

No one ever wants to believe their computer will fail them.  You can try to make yourself feel safer… your computer is new, it’s under warranty, you take good care of it… but make no mistake, your computer will fail, and probably at a really really bad time.  Here’s something that may help you make up your mind: I received a brand-new laptop at work in July of 2002, by September of 2002 the hard drive had failed completely.  Brand new hard can fail and older drives will fail. You must have a back up solution.


I can hear the whining already: Back ups?  Are you sure?  Making backups is such a pain.  It’s too hard.  I don’t know how!


a) Backing up your data can be easy
b) You aren’t safe


People who have tried back up solutions in the past which require swapping floppies in and out or copying data to CDs will no doubt agree, backing up data can be a long tedious process.  Corporate backups used to be made to tape drives, also time consuming and definitely expensive.  There is good news: the plummeting price of hard drives has made back up much simpler and cheaper.  Couple an inexpensive external drive with some inexpensive software and you have yourself a backup solution.


This past winter vacation I set up a very simple backup solution on both my parents computers.  I used an external hard drive connected via USB (yes, simple plug in, just like a digital camera) and some straight forward software from Symantec called Norton Ghost 9.0.  It took a bit of time to format the hard drive (not difficult, just had to wait, it takes time) and no time at all to set up Ghost.  The software will automatically back up a computer on a schedule you specify.  It couldn’t be more simple.


The best back up systems will protect you from:
1. Hardware failure (the inevitable drive failure)
2. Theft (it happens)
3. Hardware destruction (house fire or clumsy nephew with a can of Coke)


You love your digital camera, don’t you?  You take a whole mess of pictures.  Now… what happens if your hard drive crashes?  The hard drive contains what amounts to negatives for all your digital pictures.  Having your hard drive crash is really like having your digital house burn down.  Eeek!  If your real house burns down you will loose all your pictures and the negatives, but you can easily protect your digital negatives.  Take your external back up hard drive to work with you for added data security.


So, here’s the recipe:
1) Determine the size of the hard drive inside your computer
2) Find an external hard drive equal to or larger than your computer’s drive (try Price Watch for good prices)
3) Select some backup software (list of options at bottom)
4) Install both and set the software to run automatically


Most computers have hard drives smaller than 80 gigabytes, an 80 gigabyte USB drive found on price watch: less than $70.  Backup software can be had for less than $50.  I’m sure the data on your computer is worth more than $120 and an hour of your time.




Here are some possible back up software solutions:


Categories
Gear Hardware

Even your camera can be teary eyed now

Imagine a lens for your camera phone that is very small and has no moving parts yet is still able to focus and zoom like the “huge” lens you already have.  French startup Varioptic has come up with a technology that makes zoom lens elements which have been shrunk down to a couple millimeters in size… but they say they’ll go smaller.


The technology is very cool.  They sandwich a couple of liquids of similar density into their element and move the edges of the liquid “bubble” by applying electrostatic pressure.  The surface tension forces the shape to bulge, focusing the element.  Clever.


Now maybe that Dick Tracy watch can really have a video phone!



Get the whole picture on this story at the register.

Categories
Blog

Back up again

Sorry if you received a reload of my entire post set, my blog software threw a cog this morning and a reinstall was required to get up and running again.

Categories
Microsoft Software Video Games

I can quit any time I like


Normally I don’t like it when my honey goes out of town… I get lonely and sulky, I don’t shave and I eat way more cereal than any human should. 


Tuesday was the release of Halo 2.  Thursday Paula went to New York to attend the bar mitzvah of a good friend’s son.  Since she left I haven’t shaved, I’ve bathed infrequently and I’ve eaten cereal for dinner… but I haven’t been lonely.  Halo 2 is by far the best online game I’ve ever played, esp. when playing with friends.


Since Paula’s been gone I’ve had my Xbox connected to Xbox Live for most of my waking hours, but when she gets back I’m going to spend much less time online.  But what’s an addict to do?  I can’t miss a game.


Now I don’t have to.  I’ve signed up for Xbox to send me either an IM if I’m signed into MSN Messenger or to send a message to my cell phone if I’m away or offline.  I never have to worry about missing a game again!


The easy way to find the sign up is to sign into MSN Messenger (Windows Messenger won’t work) and click the Xbox tab.  Once the Xbox tab loads click the Live tab and look to the bottom of the frame for the “Add Xbox Live Alerts” link.  Follow the instructions and you’re golden.  Note: you will need to associate your messenger account (Microsoft .Net Passport) with your live gamer tag in order to get this working, but after you’ve gone through the effort you’ll be able to see who’s online and what they’re playing right from MSN Messenger (pretty cool, huh?).  Oh, if you’ve turned off the tabs in options, go turn them back on again (I won’t tell you how, you figured out how to turn them off, after all).


Now… if I can just find a clever way to distract my wife for hours on end…

Categories
Blog Net Web Weird

The shrinking web

The reason the World Wide Web is called the World Wide Web is because it’s filled with interconnected links, allowing you to move from site to site.  Do you ever do that?


When I first started using the web, yes, I did click around from site to site, it was kind of neat.  Now, when I want some information I go to a search engine (typically Google, but I’ve just installed the MSN toolbar, but I digress), type in a search and go directly to the info I want.  I do very little “browsing” when on the web.  Two reasons:



  1. Many sites actively seek to keep you on their site
  2. The web is getting really, really big… wandering is not as interesting as it used to be, there’s just too much random crap.

The thing that has brought back interest in web surfing for me is the concept of the blog sphere.  A blog sphere is a subset of a subset of the web; it’s the blogs (one subset) I read (another sub set).  This narrowing of scope has made it much easier to navigate the web in an ad hoc fashion as I am no longer presented with the overwhelming scope of the web… I’m presented with the web as seen by people I think are interesting (who find interesting links, produce interesting content or are, simply, interesting).


All day today I’ve been listening to a new, free album I downloaded from Mercedes Benz (yes, the auto manufacturer).  Seeing as you don’t expect go looking for music on a car manufacturer’s site and I don’t own a Mercedes (or a Chrysler for that matter) it’s unlikely I would have happened upon this site on my own.  I found it because Paul left a comment on my blog, and he entered the URL for his blog.  Reading his blog I found the info on the Benz free music download.


Viewed as a whole, the web is full of a bunch of random crap.  Viewed through the filter of the people with whom I share a connection it becomes a whole lot more interesting.

Categories
Blog Software

RSS Readers

I’ve found that without an RSS reader I don’t get around to checking out my friend’s pages, so I need to get myself a reader and am now going to make a concerted effort to find one that fits my needs. Throughout this process I’ll keep you updated with my impressions of the various clients I try out. Note that I may end up finding a great client and/or get bored before I can try out every client out there, so don’t be disappointed if I peter out.


So, what are my criteria?


Must Have:



  • Offline Reading – I tend to live most of my life on my laptop and if I can’t take care of some of the reading while on an airplane or sitting in a waiting room it won’t work for me.

  • Comments API – The original post is not all of the interesting content related to a post, I need to be able to read the comments on my blog and the blogs of my friends without having to navigate to the blog and dig down to the comments page.

  • Windows application – I use Windows, if it runs on another platform it obviously won’t work for me (and please don’t start any religious Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux discussions with me, I can’t be bothered).

Like to Have:



  • Saved Searches – When part of my feed base relates to work it’s great to have a “feed” which is a view of all posts which contain a particular keyword (e.g. Hotmail).

  • Outlook Hotkeys – I use keyboard shortcuts in Outlook to speed up reading of messages. If my RSS reader were to use the same keys I’d be able to quickly mark things read, delete and forward posts without having to learn a new set of keys (which would potentially get confused with other applications).

I’ve started an initial list of readers with my main requirements: http://www.little.org/tips/rssreaders.htm. If you have an app you really like, please let me know.

Categories
Movies Software

Took a break yesterday

  
Click for a larger version.

 

This week’s contest at b3ta is to add one word to a movie title. I needed a break and couldn’t resist (Turns out shortly after taking the Harry met Sally picture she bumped into him and he took a swing at her).