Category: Geeky

Tonight I was checking my email and I a new message from Clicker.com. It seems I have 5 beta invites I can share. I thought cool… What is Clicker again? This isn’t the first time I’ve received that latest news about a Application or Service and found myself scratching my head trying to remember what the service was and when I signed up for it. I seem to sign up for every beta I see, regardless of need or something real interest. I could be just surfing along see some information about a new website or application that has a free beta and the next thing I know I’m signing up for it. It’s new, it’s exclusive, I want in. That’s all that seems to mater.

Sometimes this works out really well. I signed up to both Ping.FM and Digsby without thinking about it and both I now use everyday.  But others like Hellotxt and Robo.to I can’t remember the last time I logged into, let alone used the services. I must have hundreds of accounts scattered around the web on different services. Most of them I’ve forgotten about, or have forgetting the username/password combo I used when I signed up.

Just last week I found myself creating an account on cliqset.com and my primary username was taken so I looked up the profile of the user who had it. Sure enough I had signed up for it the week before. It was then that I knew I had a problem. So over the last week I have been trying to think of what a solution to that problem might be. All I have come up with are 2 Questions;

1. Why do I sign up to so many online sites?
2. Now that I know I have a problem what do I do about it?

As I write this I don’t have the answers, and I’m not even sure they are the right questions. Stay tuned for a a follow up in the next couple of days.

For months Melissa has been saying she wants an IPhone, for months I have been saying we have to wait till our contract is up before we can switch to Rogers to get you an IPhone. It all started 18 months ago Melissa and I activated a couples plan with TELUS Mobility on a three year contract. We both got HTC S720 Windows Mobile Smartphones, Its a functional but not practical or elegant. Both Melissa and I are coveting other phones.

Our plan was to wait till our contract was up in another 18 months and then move to Rogers, get Melissa an IPhone and me a Google Phone. With the news that both TELUS and Bell are going to start offering the IPhone new options emerge. We should be able to get Melissa her IPhone as soon as we are eligible for a Smartphone upgrade. Though for her IPhone we’ll probably wait an additional 4 months so that we can get the newest model when it’s release in June or July.

Of course that still leaves me wondering what phone I will get. I don’t want an IPhone. I think it’s a great gadget and I love the touch screen and tons of apps, but I want a physical keyboard. I like the HTC Dream’s slide out keyboard and more open OS. I want to have more control of my device. I want to be able to develop for my phone, and right now the only phone I’ve done any developing for is Windows Mobile, so I’m leaning to something like the HTC Pro2 or some new phone running Windows 6.5. But all this is speculation. I don’t know what Phone TELUS will have in 6 months let alone 10 when we’ll probably buy them. I might even be an IPhone convert by then. Only Time will tell

When Google first announce wave back in the spring I was intrigued. It looked like it could change the way that things worked on the web. Of course having to wait after the announcement to get access just built the curiosity. I applied for access to the developers sandbox  as soon as I could. I was surprised back in July when I was granted access.

My first thought when I sat in front of the interface was ‘Cool’ and I started to explore. What I found after a short time of exploring was a bit chaotic, there were a ton of waves most of which I couldn’t seem to join. So after being frustrated in the chaos I  asked myself what could I build with this. I never came up with an answer and life never seemed to give me the time to really explore it so my account sat mostly unused. I logged in every few weeks to see what’s changed but that’s about it.

When the  major expansion of users came round and the hype started to build I thought it might be time to give it another shot.  When I first logged in the interface looked the same but there was less Waves. Just one from Dr. Wave explaining how things worked, one for Inviting people to join wave(these are more recommendations then invites though), and one with some sample gadgets that can be used in waves.  After exploring the waves I had I was soon wondering what the point was. none of my friend have access yet and I don’t know when the ‘Recommended’ users will be given access.

It was then that I found the ‘with:public’ search that gives you access to all the public waves. With the search chaos returned, but this time I could interact with the waves, and though I did experience some trolls editing my wave in troll like ways I also found a few Waves where the conversation was flowing and I saw the power hidden in Wave. Just one catch you need to have people to talk with. So though I’m sure I will take the occasional swim in the Wave until some of my friends join it wont be a daily destination.

As I’ve been taking about my experiences and not really reviewing the service I thought I would share the a video I found on Lifehacker that explains at least part of what wave does:

Searching the Tubes the other night I came across this. Think Violet might be to old for it now. Oh well.

Writing my bio the other day started me thinking about my youth and one of the things that stood out was the games I played on the C64. So here is a list of my favourites, there are many more I could have included but these are the ones I thought of first so they made the list. I had planned on including screenshots but thanks to YouTube you’ll get to see some video of the some of the games I played as a kid.

Jumpman:
A great game, you had to navigate through puzzling levels without falling or being shot, while disarming bombs. One of the memories of this game that stands out for me is that a friend and I hacked the level files to change the order.

If watching the video makes you want to experience it all over again you could check out:  Jumpman – Under Contruction

Impossible Mission  I & II:
‘Stay a while. Stay for forever’. Dodge robots, solve musical puzzels while hunting for puzle peices. I’m looking forward to playing this on my Wii, it’s been released in Europe on the Wii Virtual Console, just waiting for it to come to North America.

Continue reading “Favourite C64 Games”

With the release of Windows 7 RC 1 a couple weeks ago my desire to update my home desktop has grown. I have be considering this upgrade since the beta was released to the public in January but have been waiting till I can upgrade some of my hardware, specifically my Hard-drive and Ram. I plan on doing a clean install so I can start fresh with the new version of windows. With the release of the Release Candidit I am thinking I wont wait for the hardware upgrades. Of course that means I have to clean-up my existing drives so I have room, one reason getting a new drive is easier. So to put off cleaning up my drive I thought I would make a list of the top apps I will need on my refreshed system. I’ve managed to keep the number to 6, here they are:

1: Mozilla Firefox: Web Browser
The browser is your window to the Internet, with more and more applications moving to the web its important to choose the right browser. Microsoft has made great strides with Internet Explorer version 7 and 8, and Google Chrome is an intriguing new competitor in the browser space but Firefox is still my first choice. The only question is whether I should use the 3.5 beta or stick with 3.0? Of Course I don’t Just install Firefox I also install extensions. Download status bar, no script, xmarks/Weave, Firebug,

2: 7-Zip: Archive Manager
A great open-source program for managing Zip and other Compressed files.

3: Avast: Anti-Virus
It pains me that I need an Anti-Virus on my computer, of course the products from the market leaders Norton and McCaffrey hurt more. If I could justify the cost it I would go with Nod32, but since it’s for my home system and there are so many quality free Anti-Virus applications I’ve chosen one of them. Other I considered areAVG and Comodo Internet Security

4: Postbox: Email
My current email client of choice,though still in beta its based on Mozilla Thunderbird which gives it a stable base. It’s enhanced management of Attachments, Images and Contacts make it a more attractive then just Thunderbird. I’m working on a full review of Postbox form my Software I use series so stay tuned.

5: Digsby: Chat / Social Networks
Digsby is a multi-client chat program that supports social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. It’s replaced Pidgin as my primary IM client. I like its clean interface and many features.

6: Live Mesh: Cloud
Live Mesh is another beta program, it’s for synchronizing files between computers, windows mobile phones and online storage. As an added bonus it allows remote desktop into system included in your Mesh. It also allow sharing with other people, though right now

These are just the tip of the iceberg, there are lots more programs that I will be installing on my system or using on the web. To see what other software I use check out my ongoing series of posts under the Software I use.