The ByteMonkey Chronicles

Looking Back at 2011 and Forging Ahead in 2012

2012-01-11T14:12:00.003-06:00

Normally, this is the point where I apologize for not posting enough on this blog and somewhere down the line, I make promises about posting morehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif. Well, I'm not going to make any amends or promises. I'll post to this blog whenever I feel like it since it is MY blog.

I wish I could say that a lot has happened since my last real post, but there just hasn't been that much to report.

At the most, the only geeky highlights of 2011 in my life were my fascination and dabbling with Android tablets that lead me to buy five different kinds of tables. I also bought an iPad which wasn't as life-changing as some would lead you to believe. I also bought a Kindle Fire which I really haven't had much to time to play with.

The only other significant event in 2011 for me is my rekindled obsession with Japanese animation thanks to my Roku and Crunchyroll. Oh, yeah. I guess I bought a Roku at some point.

Looking forward, I can't really say what's going to happen. The tech scene is changing so much that it's hard to say what the next thing is. I have a feeling it's just going to be the same stuff from last year with just more memory or processing power. I guess we'll just have to see.

I'll keep you guys posted on anything significant. If you want to find out what happening to me right now, I suggest you find me on twitter.

I Believe

2011-11-09T15:24:00.005-06:00

I Believe in Totoro.

Toko Toko Maru

2011-09-22T00:34:00.001-05:00

Toko Toko Maru performs during the Robot Japan 2 Dance Contest in Tokyo on August 21, 2011.

Don Cheadle is Captain Planet

2011-08-31T13:47:00.002-05:00

Don Cheadle is Captain Planet from Don Cheadle

RANT: My Personal Information Is Personal.

2011-07-21T22:47:00.010-05:00

Recently, Google suspended my Google+ account. They didn't really inform me of what exactly I did wrong, but they just suspended my account and refuse to answer any of my inquiries of why they froze my account. Instead, their notice just points me to a list of "community standards." From this list, the only thing that I can see that I'm not doing right is putting my real name as my display name.

For the most part, I try not to use my real name on web sites that I don't consider as being important or critical to my life. The reason for this is that a couple of years ago I got burned from having my personal information stolen from a web service that claimed to be secure. From that point on, I decided that the only people that need to know my real information are the government, my credit card/bank sites, and my hospital's website. Any other sites, don't really need my real name or personal details unless I'm buying something and they need to verify a form of payment such as my credit card.

I think a bigger question people should be asking is why does Google truly need you to post your real name and your actual personal details on your profile. Google+ believes this prevents spam and fake accounts which I don't exactly know how that would work since I can already see so many fake accounts in G+ complete with fake personal details. Furthermore, there are countless ways to verify an account and some of those methods are already being used Google in some of their other services. Overall, it just leads to more questions.

So why might Google be pushing you to reveal your true identity? It's been proposed by a colleague of mine that Google may be trying to get into the "people search" business. In addition to having access to your Android phones, your Chrome Browser's web surfing history, your Gmail, Blogger posts, Picassa photos, Youtube videos, and the information people volunteer to provide in Google Plus, it makes it very easy for Google to identify and locate people. It's just a matter of connecting the dots and doing a little pattern query on their giant collection of databases and, in theory, Google can then extrapolate and create a very complete profile of who you are with a high degree of certainty.

Now, I have no problem with such a system existing. I think it would be a dream system for people who work in law enforcement or anti-terrorism. It would make it so much easier to find terrorist and fugitives by scanning for their activities and monitoring their online friends. It's basically like having a virtual stake-out without incurring the manpower costs. But Google is not the government or a law enforcement agency. They are a for profit company. They use the information they collect from you to make money for themselves by serving up their business partners advertisements. They'll be able to target and customize advertisements for users based on you wants, desires, profile details, and preferences. They can do this because you posted it somewhere in a blog, in a buzz, or gave it a +1. They can even use your surfing history.

All in all, there's no stopping Google or any other company from doing what they're doing. In reality, they're not doing anything wrong. The user is volunteering all of their personal information by their own accord. It's as if these companies are gun makers. They built the gun but they didn't load the bullets and shoot it. You, the user, the consumer did that. You gave them access to your life because you wanted to part of the in-crowd or to get some fake validation from people that you really don't know. I hope selling your virtual soul was worth it. Don't be surprised if your identity or your life is stolen. It's really not Google's fault. It's your own.

Ultimately, the responsibility of keeping your private & personal information 'private and personal' falls to you. You have to look beyond the social media hype and seriously think about the risk you are taking. If you think you can afford to risk it, then go ahead. It's a free country, you can do whatever you want. Just don't be an idiot and not protect yourself.

Protecting yourself online isn't something that's new. Back in the old days of BBS/IRC/AOL Instant Messaging & chat rooms, users were told not to use their real names or provide their personal data if asked about them by anyone. It's an old simple practice that, combined with common sense, kept most people safe.

Take, for a moment, something parents tell all their children. They tell them not to talk to strangers or to give out details about who they are unless they're talking to a teacher or a police officer. This is instilled in them as a way to protect themselves from harm. Unfortunately, people don't do this when dealing with online activities. This is perhaps because some parent are themselves uncomfortable or uneducated about the real dangers that lurk in World Wide Web. Some only learn their lesson after it's too late and the damage is done. Some might never learn at all. I learned that just because a site says they are secure, it doesn't really mean that your information is totally secure.

To help people understand web security, I'm going to simplify it in terms that is not technical. Imagine if you will that internet web sites and services are giant glass bottles. You put your stuff (your info, pictures, videos, money), in it. Some of these sites/bottles are opaque and some are clear. The bottle's opacity can be considered the as the web site's security and encryption level. The more opaque the bottle, the more it seems to be secure because you can't see what's inside. You might even think that the bottle that is totally opaque is the most secure, but in reality all of these bottles are made out of the same breakable glass. All a bad guy needs to get your stuff is a hammer that's big and strong enough to crack the glass. Nothing is safe on the web. Even Google won't guarantee the safety of your personal information. Remember, it's your information. It's your responsibility.

For parents out there. Please teach your kids to be net savvy. It's sad to see how young teens and children are being feed the bologna that privacy is dead. The inexperience youth is targeted by businesses to handover their information in exchange to play free online games and access to social networks. I've read too many news articles detailing how the identities of young people, including babies, are being stolen and used illegally. For those kids, their future will be a constant struggle to prove their identity. They will have to live with having to keep proving to creditors, employers, and other agencies that they had nothing to do with any fraudulent debt and other financial problems that their faker has incurred.

So if Google Plus wants my real name and personal information, they better explain exactly why they want it and what they are doing with it. The excuse that it's for preventing spam and fake accounts, is poor and they need to try again. Google needs to realize that it's my information, my name, my life, and I have the right not to give it up just to anybody without good cause. In the end, I'm just trying to protect myself. If that's not good enough, then I probably shouldn't be using their service.

Google+ Killed Me

2011-07-20T10:37:00.002-05:00

As soon as I was getting the hang of Google Plus, the Google kills my account.

In not so many words, it would seem that they didn't like me not putting my real name in my account.

Goodbye Celluar South! Hello Sprint!

2011-07-19T13:51:00.014-05:00

About six days ago, I dropped Cellular South. They were my cell phone service provider of over 10 years, but with their inability to provide reliable service where I worked and lived, I decided to switch to a different service provider and after much consideration, I decided to go with Sprint.

My time with Cellular South was not all bad. Most of the time, I was generally happy with their service. Sure, their phone selection had never been on the cutting edge but they did offer a decent phone selection and a pretty solid voice and data service – until now.

In the last couple years, I started to notice that my cell phone’s signal strength was decreasing to the point where one or two bars was becoming the norm. At first I thought it was my phone getting old, but when I upgraded to a new phone and still had low signal strength, I realized that their service was not reaching me as well as it used to. I would call, email and fill out web forms to report my issues, but nothing really improved. More often than not, the tech would just have me pop out my phone’s battery and reboot which really didn’t do anything to fix or improve anything.

As far as Cellular South’s 3G data network, it was very hit-or-miss. If you lived or worked in the Downtown Pensacola area or the Gulf Breeze/Pensacola Beach area, then you could sometimes get 3G service. In the Northeast Pensacola area where I lived and worked, I could only get 1x speed on a good day. Despite having 3G service as part of my plan, I was never really able to have 3G speed.

Customer service with Cellular South was once stellar. They treated me as a person and addressed all of my concerns and issues. Then the company grew and I became just another account number. This disconnect was even more exacerbated when Cellular South closed out all of their retail stores in Northwest Florida which left customers like me driving an hour into Mobile, Alabama just to talk to a real person. This act was never fully explained to their customers and it left me feeling somewhat abandoned and not quite wanted. If it was not for their low pone plan prices, I would have probably switched back then.

Cellular South would emphasize to their customers in Northwest Florida that they should just use their self-service web site or call their phone line to try save time. I’m sure this process works for a lot of people, but I’m old fashioned and, whenever possible, I want to talk to a real person whenever I have question about my bill or service. In contrast, all the other cellphone companies have multiple vendors, kiosks, and retail buildings in Pensacola.

The phone plans that Cellular South offered were aggressively competitive. At the time of this post, Cellular South still had the cheapest unlimited nationwide plan that included unlimited voice, data, txt, and pix service. For people like me who basically make a living by being on the phone providing tech support, it was an awesome deal. Well, it was awesome when it worked.

After two years of having phone calls dropping and putting up with the inability to access a 3G data network, I decided enough was enough. What drove me over the edge was when I lost a client because my phone would keep dropping her calls and she said that she didn’t want to put up with anymore. It was at this point, that I started to see that saving money with Cellular South is just ending up costing me money as I spent time trying to reconnect dropped calls or at the worse, lose clients. Plus, not having 3G made it almost impossible to check emails and view web links from clients.

In the interest of finding a more reliable service provider that could reach where I lived and worked, I began to do research and shop around. In my search, I discovered that AT&T and now Verizon Wireless did not have unlimited data plans for new customers. T-Mobile had an unlimited plan but was capped/throttled down after 2GB of bandwidth. Only Sprint had a truly unlimited plan that was similar to that of Cellular South’s. The only difference is the price which, of course, cost more. At this point, I didn’t mind spending a little extra to have better coverage than what I was getting with Cellular South. If fact, I expected that I would have to.

Overall, I’ve been happy with my decision to switch to Sprint. I haven’t had a dropped call and I normally have 4 to 5 (out of 5) bars of signal wherever I am. I know Sprint isn’t a perfect company but they’re doing what Cellular South and the other service providers couldn’t do - provide me cellular service wherever I am at a truly unlimited plan.

So, goodbye Cellular South. Hello, Sprint!

Off the Grid

2011-07-13T01:09:00.004-05:00

I'm taking a day off from the world on July 13th. I will be mostly 'off-the-grid' for the duration of the day. If anyone needs me, I recommend sending me an email or if you're on Twitter, you can DM me. Also, calls to my phone will be screened. Thank you.

Where is the Monkey?

2011-07-12T21:42:00.004-05:00

I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been posting as much as I used to. Simply put, I've been extremely busy at work. The number of web projects I now have at work have doubled... tripled... quadrupled! Well, let's just say it keeps growing and I don't see it slowing down any time soon.

Although, I may not have a lot of time to spare composing a fancy blog post, you can usually find me tweeting nuggets of non-sense on Twitter most of the time.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have no plans of abandoning this blog. Sometimes, 140 characters just isn't enough to express some of the geeky or crazy thoughts that I occasionally have. Also, I've been motivated to start posting about my current obsession of Android tablets. So, keep an eye for that in the future.

Rapture 2011Shirts

2011-05-19T11:35:00.009-05:00

Living in the Southern Bible Belt, it is hard to avoid the topic of the supposed impending "Rapture Event" that is supposed to happen on Saturday, May 21, 2011. Being a non-religious type, I decided to make some shirts to wear on this day. See more at http://www.cafepress.com/RaptureSurvivor2011

Make Custom Gifts at CafePress

New Thundercats Trailer

2011-04-04T11:06:00.002-05:00

A big part of my childhood was spent running home from school and trying to catch the latest episode of Thundrcats on the television. Now, it would seem that kids today will have the same opportunity as Cartoon Network has produced an updated version of Thundercats. Watch the trailer below:

Robot Marathon

2011-02-24T10:36:00.000-06:00

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Done in 60 Seconds 2011

2011-02-04T10:57:00.000-06:00

AT-AT Day Afternoon

2010-12-20T09:00:00.001-06:00

Japanese Spider-Man

2010-12-19T23:02:00.000-06:00

Just in case y'all forgot. Here ...

Peek, Inc Sucks: How the Operators of Peek Failed Me

2010-11-30T14:38:00.007-06:00

With twitter becoming my main outlet for online expressions, it now takes a lot to get me riled up to write something in this blog. Fortunately (unfortunately?) something has happened to one of my favorite geeky device to get me so riled up that I had to post something in blog form.

Last month, the company that created the Peek Mobile Email Device made all their users buy a whole new device because they had a falling out with their network service providers. The service disruption eventually made all older Peek models out in the wild into a fancy electronic paper weight. As a consolation to their customers, Peek, Inc offered their current customers a special deal to allow them to upgrade to the latest Peek device mode, the Peek9 for just $1 plus $6.95 for shipping. (So, basically $7.95 for the latest Peek which at the time wasn't that bad).

When Peek, Inc. made the announcement about their discounted Peek9 "Lemonade Promotion," their web site's ordering system was apparently not quite ready to accept the people's orders. At the time, the site didn't have the right options, made people choose a plan, and didn't have a proper order confirmation page. Trying to complete my order, I mistakenly hit the order button a couple of times hoping to invoke something from the site to tell me that they had received my order. Little did I know that my random clicking would cause me so much grief.

As it turned out, my double-clicking resulted in having two orders in their system. I contacted Peek and told them about my concerns and that I really only needed one Peek. I got a response from their President, Amol Sarva, who promised me that their people would take care of it and that my credit card would not be charged twice. At that time, I was happy to get a response and thought nothing more of it.

I eventually got the new Peek9 and with a couple of hiccups with transferring my account over, everything was sorted out and I was back up and running. I didn't even mind that the Peek9 upgrade cable that was promised to us were back ordered and that it would take several weeks to get them. I was a happy camper up to this point.

For about a week, everything was going fine. The Peek9 worked like a charm. I was happy. Then the postman arrived with another box from Peek. At first I thought they were the backordered Peek9 cable but as it turned out, it was another Peek9 unit. Concerned, I quickly checked my credit card online and saw that Peek, Inc. had charged me another $7.95 for another Peek9 device which means they never canceled my duplicate order despite their president telling me that I would not be charged twice. Turns out that he was a liar or at least his people made him into one through their incompetence.

To try resolve the issue, I tried calling Peek's support phone number at which I was sent to a recorded message that said that the company was not accepting anymore request for tech support on their support phone line. The message went on to tell me that I needed to go online to file a ticket to request any support. Being a patient and good sport, I did this without hesitation and much complaint.

My original online request for help was filed on October 28th. I heard nothing from the company until the morning on November 30th. That's roughly a whole month of not hearing anything from the company. Now that they actually replied to me, their solution is to make me go through a RMA process to ship back an item which I wasn't even supposed to receive. They also asked me if I just wanted to keep the device as a back up which really makes no sense to me. The RMA process wasn't really even a viable option because it meant having to take time from my busy life to file, process, and mail back something that I was told that I wasn't supposed to getting for the fantastic refund price of $1. Yeah, they won't refund the shipping according some post I read on their forums.

While all of this insanity is happening, I noticed something else wrong with my new Peek. I am now starting to get email from accounts that I have since removed from the device. At first, I thought it was just a backlog of email coming in, but several of my tests show that new emails are still being delivered to my Peek despite not being entered into my Peek.

At first, I was disappointed with how my order was being handled. Now, I'm just livid and furious about how my Peek is still accessing email accounts that I have removed. Essentially, Peek is now accessing my email accounts illegally. Their servers have apparently made copies of my user names and passwords to continue to grab my email to send to my Peek device. As it was first explained to me, the removal of an email account on the Peek should unlink that email account from the Peek servers, but for some reason this was not happening with my Peek.

I received an email from their tech representative about this issue and they tell me to just do a reset to clear out the email accounts. I am not an idiot. I know how to use my Peek and doing a Peek reset was the first thing I did. In fact, I had done this 3 times and I will, for good measure, do it again after I finishing writing this post.

If you're having the same problem with your Peek, drop me a comment below. I'm hoping my case is isolated, but I have a feeling it's not.

All in all, Peek, Inc. failed me and I'm not so enthusiastic about them anymore. In the beginning, the Peek was something I could proudly to show off and excitedly tell people about it. Now, I find myself disappointed by their actions and warning everyone of the type of disappointing service they can expect.

no and to tell people about. Now, I'm just annoyed by their actions and

Talking to Your Kids About Star Wars

2010-11-23T23:11:00.001-06:00

Grover Does Old Spice Commercial Spoof!

2010-11-05T09:06:00.000-05:00

Data Service Frustrations

2010-10-12T15:12:00.003-05:00

Last August, I upgrade my regular cellphone to a smartphone. I was a proud owner of the LG Spyder II and traded it in for an Android-powered Motorola Milestone with service from Cellular South. So far, I like the phone, but the data service has been somewhat frustrating.

At the onset, I was very excited to do the upgrade. I had envied other people who talked about the different things their app-laded phone could do. So when Cellular South finally released a smartphone with a physical keyboard, I jumped on it. The physical keyboard is one of my requirements for a smartphone. It's one of the reasons I never went for an iPhone. Being a heavy txt'er, I just preferred the tactile sense a physical keyboard has as opposed to the virtual ones. As far as the Motorola Milestone is concerned, it's a nice phone. It's basically the same as the first generation Motorola Droid from Verizon, so I really won't be reviewing it. Everyone out there who knows how to use Google, can easily find a more detailed review than I could ever do.

The reason I'm posting is that in the last couple of months of using the phone, I have found myself progressively being annoyed by my weak data signal that I get in Pensacola through Cellular South. 4 out 5 times that I need to use my smartphone indoors, the phone has a weak or no data signal. The only time I can get a stable signal is if I am standing outside my house or at the parking lot at work. I can get a true 3G signal only if I drive out to the Pensacola Beach, but anywhere else it's been a crap-shoot. Unfortunately, I don't live anywhere near the beach.

So far, the only response I have received from CS about their crappy data service is this:

"We currently do not have any information regarding changes to the data network in Florida. We are working to improve our data coverage throughout our calling area."

I guess that there really won't be any immediate improvements to Cellular South's data service for customers in Florida. One thing I will give CS is that their voice/phone coverage is great. I have never been anywhere that I could not get a phone signal to make a call. It's their data service that really needs some major work.

At the point, I'm keeping the phone service for at least another month or two. I'll give them a chance improve their service, but if they don't do anything, I am dropping them like a hot potato.

I can already attest that the Virgin Mobile's prepaid service works really well in Pensacola and now that they have recently released an Android-powered phone that has a physical keyboard they look like contenders for winning over my business. Looking at their rates, I may actually also save $25 per month if I go with them.

Right now, I'm paying a little over $100 per month for the unlimited everything plan with Cellular South and the only thing unlimited I'm getting is annoyance from the crappy data service that I'm getting.

STAR WARS in Paper Animation

2010-10-06T11:06:00.003-05:00

The video above is the work of Animator/Filmaker Eric Power. To see mor of his work, visit www.ericpowerup.net

CONCEPT: Mozilla Seabird 2D Phone

2010-09-23T21:26:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty sure this will never become a reality, but I gadget geek can dream.

G33K & G4M3R Girls Anthem

2010-09-17T10:14:00.002-05:00

This music video parody proves Geek and Gamer Girls really do exist. Extra geek cred for appearances by a rapping Seth Green, Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff and Stan Lee.

Dolph Lundgren vs. Unicorn

2010-09-10T11:52:00.002-05:00

Midichlorian Rhapsody

2010-09-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

Yoda recording for TomTom GPS

2010-08-29T16:11:00.001-05:00

Darth Vader recording for TomTom GPS

2010-08-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

Informal Poll Results

2010-08-07T11:29:00.002-05:00

As promised, I am sharing the results of my mini poll on cell phone type usage in the Pensacola MSA area. To view the results click here.

The poll was a hybrid experiment in determining how easy it would be to use Google Docs to create a poll form and to also see what kind of phones people had in the area.

As someone on Twitter pointed out, the survey was not perfect because it originally did not include areas around the Pensacola area. People in Cantonment, Pace, and Milton, Florida were hesitant to answer as they thought they were excluded from the survey. By the time I redefined the target area, people have already moved on about their business.

Overall, the experiment was a success. I determined that creating survey forms with Google Docs is easy and free. It's perfect for small, informal surveys, but I believe professionals would be happier using services like SurveyMonkey.com since they provide more advanced options and controls. The survey part of the experiment could be better, but that was my fault for doing a better job of designing it.

At this point, I'll probably do this survey again, but I think I'll spend more time working on designing it than I did before.

Pensacola Poll: Cell Phone Types

2010-07-24T18:56:00.005-05:00

Results of this poll will be published on this site on Saturday August 7, 2010!

QR Code Shirt for Smart People

2010-07-19T17:26:00.003-05:00

Technology can often times lead to funny things and if you combine that with my twisted sense of humor, you'll end up with something like this. I'll let you decode the shirt to figure out what it says.

Imagine yourself wearing this at your in-law's family reunion, some lame-ass party, a fraternity/sorority event, or the day they take those dreaded yearbook/reunion pictures. All I can say is that this shirt is perfect for any type of gathering.

The humor is even compounded as most people can't easily decode this today. This shirt can make any group picture with you wearing this shirt will even be funnier in the future when everyone has QR decoders on their phone.

If you'd like to buy this shirt, click here.

Natalie Del Conte explains QR Code

2010-07-19T14:24:00.002-05:00

Natalie Del Conte at CNET.com explains QR Code

QR Codes: Not Just for People with Smart Phones

2010-07-19T13:33:00.002-05:00

Recently, I discovered an online service that bridges the technology gap in regards to decoding QR codes for non-smartphones users. A company called MSKYNET launched a beta version of a MMS/eMail QR decoding service in April of 2010. (Source: Article)

MSKNET's QR decoding services works on the principle that you can send a picture message (MMS) or email an image to a specific email address where their computer servers will translate your QR code and then reply back to you with the decode information MMS/Email. The email address for this service is GO@SPARQ.IT.

Warning: Do keep in mind that although the service is free, any picture message/email data rates from your cellphone service provider still applies. If you are not in an unlimited plan, you will be charged for sending and receiving the reply. Also, if the message inside the QR code is lenghty, you may receive several reply messages.

So let's have some QR fun. If you have a QR code reader on your smart phone (if not, search your phone's app market) or if you have a camera phone with picture messaging and you're fine with using GO@SPARQ.IT method in this post, go ahead and snap a picture of the QR code in this post and let me know what it says in the comments section.

Also, let me know what kind of phone you have so I can get basic idea of what kind of phones people are using these days. Let QR decoding begin!

What are QR Codes?

2010-07-19T11:00:00.011-05:00

Most of Americans have not heard of QR codes. Some have passingly read about it in a magazine or seen it mentioned in a news report, but the technology has obviously not taken off in the United States.

What is a QR code? Basically, they are square bar codes that have been popular in Japan for well over ten years. These bar codes can be found pretty much on everything. They've been placed on food packaging, magazines and newspaper ads, television shows, store displays, business cards, buildings, billboards.... if you can print on it, I'm sure the Japanese has placed a QR code on it.

To get more geeky about QR Codes and learn more about its technical details and history, I recommend starting at the following Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

For those who are short in time, I'll try to hit the highlights for you:

QR codes were created byJapanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. The underlying concept of QR codes relies on people having camera phones or smart phones that can scan and decode the square bar codes.

An application on the phone would then in-turn translate the code into text or links to online media. A popular use for the QR codes is to provide an easy link from actual physical products to expanded information found on the web.

For example, a can of soda with a QR code could lead to an online page with nutrition information or a promotional campaign. Japanese magazine ads often have these codes to provide extra online advertising content that can be kept more current than their printed ads.

QR code adoption in the United States has been slow. As it stands, most Americans do not have smartphones that can process QR codes, but this is rapidly changing as more and more people are buying iPhones, Blackberries, and Android phones.

Soon, these codes will everywhere and their closer than you think. Facebook is supposed to be using QR codes as part of their service and Google is already sending out QR codes to certain businesses that are frequently visited online.

How Cyber Criminals Infect Victims

2010-07-15T09:10:00.007-05:00

Here's a video by Panda Security that shows you how easy it is for hackers to bind a trojan/virus program with any legitimate programs that are available at P2P/File Sharing/Torrent services. In this demo, the trojan's goal is to hijack a banking web sites that you visit and change the login screen to steal your information.

Seriously people, don't download pirated software! Make sure you are using current anti-virus program and and make sure that it is updated regularly. If you're going to download programs, make sure you get it from the company's official web site or from trusted sites like Download.com.

Scary, I know. Let's all be safe and practice "safe downloading."

On Buying Glasses Online

2010-06-16T10:45:00.002-05:00

Recently, I've been experimenting with buying prescription eye glasses from online retailers. My goal was to find glasses under $10 that I could use as back up pairs for those moments when I misplace my normal glasses. Overall, the experience has been good but it wasn't perfect.

I ordered 2 pairs of glasses from two different site: Goggles4u.com and ZenniOptical.com. Both sites were recommended to me by people on Twitter who seem to be happy with the service that they go from them. My experience with both were leave much to be desired.

ZenniOptical was the slowest of the two to process and ship my glasses. It took closer to three weeks to get my glasses. Compared to Goggles4U, their web site was not very user friendly. It was very cumbersome to search for frames since you couldn't filter by frame size. But what they lack in user accessibility, they made up in their lower prices.

Goggles4u was quick to process and ship my glasses. I had my pair within two weeks. The only thing that annoyed me with them was that they did not have the lenses for my prescription in their sub $10 level glasses. I had to go up to the next level ($12.95) to get my glasses.

Now, the adage of "you get what you pay for" applies here with the quality of the frames. They look nice visually, but they don't feel as sturdy as those that I normally get from my optician. Then again, you're not paying $145 for these glasses, so if they do break, you won't feel so bad about it.

Overall, the amount of money you'll save with buying glasses online is staggering, but the saving comes at the cost of quality and time. When I go to get glasses from my optician, I can get them within a couple of days and if there's a problem with them, I can just go back and have them fix it. Buying online requires some patience and even more patience if your order wasn't done right, since you'll need to ship it back and then wait some more for them to fix it.

When ordering glasses online, regardless of where you buy it, you'll need to realize that the glasses you get will come in their stock/default form and will not be tweaked to fit exactly on your face and head. You'll either have to bend and shape them to fit you perfectly or get the help of your local optician to make them fit properly. Warning: The later option my lead to some awkwardness when they realize that you didn't buy your glasses from them.

All in all, if your goal is to save money, then buy glasses online. If you need your glasses sooner and don't want to deal with shipping back bad orders, then consider going to your local optician.

Death of a Netbook

2010-05-24T01:06:00.002-05:00

It was bound to happen but I didn’t know it would end this way. Last Friday, my trusty ASUS Eee PC 1000HE netbook died as a result of accidental coffee spillage at McDonald’s. I knew I would have to eventually get a new netbook at some point, but I was hoping that it would be due to obsolescence and not as something stupid having coffee being spilled on it.

Although replacing the netbook would definitely be an inconvenience, it is not what irks me about the whole incident. I guess I’m more bothered by the woman who bumped into me causing me to drop my coffee into my computer. Sure, she apologized but it did not seem very sincere. She said that she was sorry but that she had to go because she was running late and had to pick up her son from school. She did not offer to fix my computer, nor did she leave me any way of contacting her. She just gave me some napkins, apologized a couple of times, and then left. I looked like a putz shaking my netbook around trying to dry it.

At this point, there’s nothing I can do. My memory of what she looked like is already fading away and I doubt anyone would just step up and say it was them.

Before the day was over, I did manage to buy a replacement netbook. I picked-up a Toshiba NB305 netbook at BestBuy. Thank goodness for my ‘rainy day’ fund.

I did learn a couple of things about this experience. I was reminded that one should never drink near laptops. You can replace a desktop keyboard if you spill coffee into it, but it's a lot more detrimental when it happens to a laptop. Also, I learned not to expect everyone to be good people and do the honorable thing. In a situation like mine, if I had to do it again, I would have asked for her name and her contact information up front and to let her know that I might need her to cover the repairs. I guess now I know and knowing is half the battle.

Sharp Electronics is Pure Awesomeness!

2010-05-14T09:31:00.003-05:00

If you've been following my blog posts or my tweets, you'd know that I've been having problems with my less than 1-year old Sharp BD-HP22U Blu-ray disc player and was eventually instructed to send it back to Sharp for repairs. When I came home yesterday, I was surprised to see that my Blu-ray player was quickly returned to me and I'm ecstatic to tell you that it is now working flawlessly.

I'm not sure what was exactly wrong with my BD player. I haven't been re-contacted by Sharp to explain what was wrong and what they did to fix it, but based on the amount of time it was with them, the fix must have been simple. I'm going to guess that they flushed out the old firmware and replaced with a new one, but that's just speculation. I'll let you know once I hear something from them.

At this point, I want to give credit where credit is due. I want to thank a few people at Sharp for helping me fix my blu-ray player.

I want to thank Martha Harvey at Sharp's Strategic Marketing & Communications Division in Mahwah, New Jersey for responding to my tweets and connecting me to right people to troubleshoot my player. I believe Martha is the person (if not one of them) who is behind @Sharp_USA on Twitter.

I want to thank customer specialists Neybel Martinez and Athanasios “Tom” Tolios at the Customer Assistance Center in Romeoville, Illinois. Neybel listened and worked with me to troubleshoot my player and Tom helped me in shipping it to them when we ran out of things to try.

All in all, I'm very happy at the response that I got from Sharp. It's very rare to find a company that a company that actually listens to their customers and are willing to help them solve their problems. What I experienced with Sharp has made me a true fan. I now feel a lot more confident in choosing them to meet my electronics need and I make no hesitation to recommend them to others.

Again, thank you Sharp for fixing my blu-ray player. You've just made this ByteMonkey into a happy monkey.

Sandwich

2010-05-12T10:33:00.003-05:00

Bluray Player goes to Romeoville, Illinois

2010-05-11T10:25:00.002-05:00

Somewhere in Romeoville, Illinois, my Sharp BD-HP22 Bluray player is being looked at by some repair guy working for Sharp. Hopefully, he or she will know how to get my Bluray player back in working condition.

In the last couple of weeks, I've been posting on twitter about how my Sharp Bluray player stopped playing new Bluray discs after upgrading to their new firmware. I did the upgrade because I wanted to watch the recently released Avatar Bluray disc without having the "popping time-line" glitch on my less-than-a-year-old player. The upgrade seemed like a simple process at the time. What I didn't realize at the time was that by doing the firmware upgrade that it would stop playing any of my new Bluray movies (more specifically 50GB DL type discs; old BD movies played fine).

After tweeting for about a week, @Sharp_USA finally contacted me and we did some troubleshooting through email but none of the things we tried worked. They finally asked me to ship the player to them to look at and hopefully repair it.

As of today, the FedEx tracking says that it made it to the address where I was shipping it to. So now we wait to hear what they have to say about the player. It's truly maddening to think about what I had to go through to just watch a Avatar at home.

Overall, I think the Bluray industry needs to be more clear and upfront about what will and will-not play on their players. There really needs to be clear markings and labels on all players still being sold to avoid confusion. Plus, not everyone out there will be comfortable doing a firmware update especially if it involves more than a button click. Unfortunately, these people will end up being at the mercy of people like Best Buy who charges $30 and some change to do the firmware update for you.

Right now, I'm seeing a lot of older model Bluray players going on clearance but stores typically won't label them "old model" since they want to sell them. I just feel sorry for the next guy who has to go through the insanity that I endured just so we could watch a movie at home.

The Avatar Bluray Blues

2010-04-25T21:10:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday, I bought the Bluray disc for Avatar and discovered that it doesn't work well with my less than 2-year old SHARP BD-HP22 Bluray disc player.

Being a techie, I knew that some of the newer Bluray discs would require a firmware upgrade. Without hesitation, I went to the SHARP website, downloaded the latest firmware and easily installed it. It was a very painless process, but my happiness would not last, as I discovered that the firmware update did not fix my problem. With the Avatar Bluray disc, some kind of time-line pops up during the movie every 3 minutes and stays up for about 10 seconds of so. It is very annoying and keeps anyone from enjoying the movie.

I contacted SHARP via Twitter (@SHARP_USA) but they refuse to respond or acknowledge the issue. I guess they just want me to chunk my faily new BD player and buy a new one which is something that is unacceptable. SHARP needs to support all their current devices. It's not like I'm asking for technical support for a 80's tape deck. This is a bloody Bluray disc player. This is current technology.

I fully intend to tweet everyday about this issue until I get an official statement from them. If I get any response, I'll make sure to let all of you know.

Below is a Youtube clip of a similar issue being experienced by Samsung Bluray players. Obviously, the problem is not limited to SHARP. Hopefully, all the BD player makers can get together and fix this issue. If they don't, they'll have a lot of pissed-off consumers who may decided to boycott Bluray discs.

Galactic Empire State Of Mind

2010-04-22T16:19:00.002-05:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Prosthetic Culture

2010-04-18T22:49:00.002-05:00

Amber Case presents a lecture about Prosthetic Culture. She is a Cyborg Anthropologist studying the interaction between humans and computers and how our relationship with information is changing the way we think, act, and understand the world around us. She’s obsessed with compressing the space and time it takes to get data from one place to another, especially when the final destination is the mind. You can follow her on twitter at twitter.com/caseorganic.

Utterli is Dead, Jim

2010-04-18T17:01:00.004-05:00

It looks like Utterli.com is dead.

Once known to it's users as Utterz, the site provided users a way to post audio, video, and pictures online. More uniquely, the service allowed users to make voice posts by calling a phone number which literally gave it's users a "voice" on the Internet. Utterz/Utterli posts was also able to replay one's post to other blog services like Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, turning the service into a sort of online posting hub.

Ever since Utterz was re-branded as Utterli by it's owners, RPM Communications, Inc., user support and service seemed to slowly decline. Personally, I left Utterli after I could not get any support to resolve my picture messaging problem which other competing services had solved very easily and quickly. I still kept my account open so that I could listen in to other people's post but my involvement eventually waned as most of the users migrated to other services like Twitter or Facebook. Many left because of the lack of tech support. Others were tired of seeing too many spammers joining and disrupting conversations.

Although never confirmed by RPM Communications, many user believed that the change from Utterz to Utterli was an attempt to make the service more attractive to investors or perhaps to other companies who might be interested in buying the service. There was an underlying feeling among the users that the company wasn't quite doing so well after administrators and support techs suddenly disappeared and the site's homepage was never updated after the rebranding.

Although, I had moved on to other services, I still feel sad to see Utterz/Utterli go. I met and conversed with a lot of great and talented people that I respect and admire. It was also place that offered a glimpse at many varying life styles and point-of-views of the people in the United States and beyond.

The service's demise now leaves many of it's orphaned users having to clean up their blogs and remove all the broken links that link back to Utterli. Since there was no warning to site's closing, users were not able to back up their postings. All of the users data was subsequently lost from the closing.

We all knew the party wouldn't last forever. All good things in life do eventually come to an end.

Goodbye Utterz. Goodbye Bessie the Cow. Goodbye yellow and green leaf-lemon thing. Good bye Utterli. You will all be missed.

slotRadio: It's like Internet Radio but better

2010-04-12T16:19:00.003-05:00

As a gadget geek, I'm always intrigued by what's new and available to the average consumers. This time, something in the realm of portable music players caught my eye – and ear.

During a random expedition to the Radio Shack in Gulf Breeze, Florida, I discovered that they were having a sale on Sansa products. Having been in the market for a replacement MP3 player, I decided to look over their selection to see if I could find a bargain. There, I found a good deal on a Sansa Fuze but what really got me was the slotRadio music cards.Publish Post

slotRadio cards are micro SD cards that contains a large library of music which can only be played on slotRadio players or select Sansa devices. Each card contains several predetermined playlists and is available in several genres such as 80's/90's, Oldies, Country, and Hip Hop/R&B. Users have the ability to skip as many songs as they want but won't be able backtrack to replay a song. This is similar to how some music streaming services like Pandora Internet Radio operate except slotRadio does not need to be connected to the Internet.

slotRadio cards are prefect for those who don't have reliable access to a computer to download music from. Also, those of you like me who can't afford to have an unlimited data plan on their iPhones or Blackberries to play Pandora an Wi-Fi hotspot isn't available, this little SD music card is worth the price. Each card supposedly holds 1000 songs and is priced at about $30 depending on where you buy them. That's basically 3 cents person and when you compare that to 99 cents per song on iTunes or whatever insane price AT&T charges for unlimited data plan (I don't own an iPhone or Blackberry, so I wouldn't know exactly how much they're mugging your wallet for). The whole things is basically a no-brainer.

Now, some of you are probably wondering if the cards have been loaded with songs that no one really wants to listen to. Perhaps, you're thinking that this is probably the reason why the songs are so cheap. Well, rest assured that each song on the cards are from Billboard's top charting artists. They're not cover bands. They're not fake. They're the real deal.

Personally, I've been enjoying the slotRadio Daily Mix and 80's/90's cards at work whenever I can't get my iPod Touch to connect to Pandora through the Wi-Fi. In reality, it's not a burden to carry the Sansa Fuze with the slotRadio card. They're relatively small and compact. Plus, they're durable enough to be in my pocket which is something I can't say about the iPod.

All in all, I think slotRadio is a great idea. It's better than the radio because it has no commercial interruptions and you can skip songs. It's on par with Internet radio but wins overwhelmingly when you don't have access to the Internet. Now, if Sandisk would only improve their telephone customer support, then everything would be perfect.

If you'd like to learn more about slotRadio, visit http://www.slotradio.com/

A Standing Cat

2010-04-08T14:17:00.004-05:00

For your amusement, here's a cat standing up...

You've just witnessed the first step in cat evolution towards becoming ThunderCats.

How can I make keep my computer healthy?

2010-03-22T12:21:00.004-05:00

Although this goes against my "no-fixing-your-computer" mantra, I will give you some tips since you'll be doing all the work.

During my many years of using and fixing computers, I've come to find a handful of programs that has helped me keep my machines happy. All of the software that I'm listing are free, but they do have paid version for those of you who would like to support these companies.

Let's get started! First, you'll need protection if you don't already have one, or if your current protection software came with your computer and is about to expire. The following are my choices for anti-virus/firewall protection:

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition - This free anti-virus program provides basic protection against viruses, spyware, and other threats. I recommend this program for those who already have some kind of firewall protection and are just looking for basic virus scanning and protection

Comodo Internet Security - CIS is a free, all-in-one suite that includes a firewall, anti-virus, and malware protection. I strongly recommend this program for those who do not have a firewall or anti-virus protection. The program is completely free and not hindered in any way. It's also perfect for those trying to save money. Why would you pay $50 or more for protection when you can get one for free?

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is an anti-malware application that effectively removes malware and spyware. I strongly recommend running this program every two weeks to make sure that your computer is not infected and to identify any threats that might be hiding in your computer.

Now that your computer is secured and protected, I'm going to share with you some tools that will you keep your machine humming along at it's peak performance.

CCleaner - This is a freeware, system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. I recommend using this program as every two weeks at the very least. The more you use this, the less junk will accumulate on your computer. Tip: When doing a registry clean, make sure to choose to make a back up of your registry just in case something goes wrong.

Free Registry Defrag - Over time, the Windows Registry normally becomes fragmented as new registry entries are being written, modified, or removed by your applications. This will eventually result in your computer taking a longer time to find the right registry entries to start up your computer. Free Registry Defrag is a free program and was designed to remove gaps and extra spaces that have developed within your system's Registry resulting in faster processing of your registry. Keep in mind that this program only defrags your registry and doesn't actually fix any registry errors. I recommend using this program after you do a Registry Clean up using CCleaner.

Auslogic Disk Defrag - Disk Defrag will speed up your computer by optimizing file system by consolidating free space and move system files to the faster part of the disk to get the most out of your hard drive's performance. I recommend this over the default Windows Defrag program because it's a lot faster. As for Windows Vista users, you'll notice that there isn't a built-in defragging program in Windows and Auslogic Disk Defrag is a great substitute.

Revo Uninstaller - This free software is an uninstall utility that scans before and after you uninstall an application to identify all the parts of the program. After the program's regular uninstaller runs, you're given the option to remove additional unnecessary files, folders and registry keys that are usually left over on your computer. I recommended using this over the default Windows uninstaller application when removing programs because it cleans up all the files and registry entries that your program may be leaving behind.

Now, there are more tools out there that you can use to clean and tweak your system, but I believe these is a good start. I purposely omitted any advanced tools that I use to avoid you accidentally breaking your computer. If you have any other suggestions, please feel free to drop me a note.

You can ask me anything but I'm still not fixing your computer!

Dingoo A-320: The Best Pocket Game Emulator

2010-03-19T14:52:00.008-05:00

This post is not about a brand new or upcoming device. It's actually about a portable gaming device that I've owned since March of 2009 but was reluctant to post about since it wasn't easily available to everyone here in the US. I didn't want to rant about something that no one out there could go out and buy to enjoy for themselves. That would just be cruel and evil of me. Now, that I've seen this device at ThinkGeek.com, I thought I could now share it with all of you.

Although, it resembles the Game Boy Micro, the Dingoo A-320 is much more robust gaming device. It supports 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit games in 3D, CPS2, CPS1, GBA, MVS, NEOGEO, NES, SFC, SMD formats. Aside from that, it is also a capable radio, music player (MP3,WMA APE, FLAC audio formats), video player ( AVI, WMV, FLV, MPEG, DAT, MP4, AS, RMVB, RM), a sound recorder (MP3/WAV), an image viewer (JPG, BMP GIF, PNG), and crappy eBook (TXT) reader. If you want to know more about the full technical specs of the device, click here for the Wikipedia entry for Dingoo A-320.

The A-320 has a built-in 4GB flash memory storage, and can be expanded using the mini-SD memory card slot (up to 8GB SDHC) with a total of 12GB of maximum storage. There is a Micro USB port that will allows you to connects the device to your PC using the appropriate cable. A standard 3.5mm stereo jack is present as well as a video out port so you can connect it to TV using the provided A/V cable.

From my experience, game performance was great with NES and Sega Genesis games. Not all of my GBA games would work and is most likely caused by the game's dependency to specific GBA chipset/hardware that is not emulated in the A-320. SNES games tend to be slow with the stock firmware, but other users have reported much better game performance when they used unofficial community-developed firmwares at the cost of some system stability. CPS1/CPS2 arcade games and NEOGEO games required a bit of tinkering to get things to work.

Audio quality from the built-in speakers wass not great but that is to be expected with a handheld device. Using a pair of decent headphones easily fixes this issue.

The eBook reader can only read TXT files and the Text-to-Speech feature only has one voice that has a very noticeable Chinese accent.

Despite some minor performance issues, the Dingoo A-320 is a great portable video game emulator and media player. All in all, it's versatility overcomes it's flaws. If you're into playing old video games and have a library of ROMS that you want to play on the go, then I'd definitely recommend this game system.

As for me, this device is one that I always take with me especially when I anticipate that there will be a lot of waiting happening, like at the doctor's office or at the DMV.

If you're interested in getting one, check out ThinkGeek.com (http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/bd6f/)

If you had the means to build any kind of robot you desired, what would said robot's primary function be?

2010-03-18T13:43:00.001-05:00

I would design the robot be able to predicts the lottery numbers!

You can ask me anything but I'm still not fixing your computer!

How do you pack so much win and awesome in such a short day?

2010-03-18T11:58:00.001-05:00

It's all based on the Principle of Dimensional Matter Shifting. It explans how Transformers' Megatron and SoundWave can be a small gun and Walkman® cab be held by a person and then suddenly become a giant 20-foot robot.

You can ask me anything but I'm still not fixing your computer!

Cat Staff Meeting

2010-03-16T14:37:00.000-05:00

Best WiFi Detector

2010-03-15T23:25:00.004-05:00

Recently, someone asked me what the best WiFi signal detector is.

Based on my experience, when it comes to these types of devices you will definitely get what you pay for. WiFi detectors come in various forms and prices. The cheapest models will run as cheap as $10 but will most likely provide sparse details on what it's actually detecting. For example, it will probably tell you that there is a wireless network somewhere and what the signal strength is. Don't expect these devices to tell you what the name of the network is or whether it's secured or open to the public.

Over the years, I have received a handful of these cheap WiFi detectors from conventions as promotional give-aways and as hasty birthday gifts. Most of them sit in a drawer because they were utterly useless.

It wasn't until I found the HS20 Digital Hotspotter from Canary Wireless (http://canarywireless.com/) that I felt that I owned a truly useful WiFi signal detector.

What makes the HS20 such a great device? Here's the list of features I grabbed from their site:

No need to boot-up a laptop to detect whether an accessible Wi-Fi network is near
Quick glance icons show signal strength and security status for each access point
Device gives network ID (SSID), allowing identification of public or private networks
Back-lit display with 96x64 pixels for easy viewing
Uses inexpensive and easy to find AAA batteries (2)
Scroll feature allows easy access to multiple access points per scan; highlight an access point name to view details on network type, security open/WEP/WPA, and channel configuration
Battery meter icon displays status of AAA batteries
Does not require any additional software or hardware
Can be used as a network analysis, rollout and maintenance tool
Uses a true 802.11 engine, resulting in no false readings from Bluetooth® signals, cordless phones, or microwave ovens like some competititors' products
Slim form-factor easily slips into shirt pocket or computer bag; lanyard hook also allows the HS20 to be attached to other cases

As you can see, the HS20 has a lot of great features but what matters most is that it will tell you the network's name, the signal strenght, and whether it is private or public. That last part is my favorite feature.

Now, the HS20 is a $1o device. It's actually $49.99 + S&H (current MSRP price as of posting) but it's worth every penny.

The HS20 is one of those gadgets that I always take with me whenever I leave the house just in case I have to find a WiFi connection to do some moblogging or quick web site repairs while I'm out. It has proven to be one of the best $50 that I had ever spent.

You can grab the HS20 Digital Hotspotter at www.canarywireless.com or at Amazon.com.

Trailer For Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever

2010-03-11T16:54:00.001-06:00

Transform Your Hoodie into a Computer Sleeve

2010-03-10T13:47:00.001-06:00

Robot Depression Hurts

2010-03-02T16:08:00.002-06:00

Achieving portable computing nirvana

2010-02-23T21:02:00.004-06:00

Over the last couple years, I have bought two Asus netbooks, the iPod Touch, a SmartQ 5 mobile internet device, and a Nokia N810 internet tablet in the quest for the ultimate portable computing but none of them really did what I wanted them to do.

Despite their small form factor and adequate processing power, the netbooks were really not as “pocketable” as the other devices. The iPod Touch was great but could not display Flash content. The SmartQ 5 and the N810 suffered from all the pitfalls of that plague underpowered Linux-based devices. It was not until I came upon the UMID mbook M1 that I felt that I have achieved real portable computing.

The UMID mbook M1 is one of the smallest netbooks in the market. When I say small, I mean tiny. Its dimensions is close to the size of two stacked checkbooks. The best part is that it’s powered by an Intel Atom processor and runs Windows XP. This means that I can have a complete web experience that includes being able to view Flash content. Since it’s on WinXP, I can install Adobe Reader to read PDFs without buying some kind of app. I can install MS Office or OpenOffice to open and edit my documents without worrying about compatibility and conversion issues. The mbook also has a 1.3 megapixel web cam so you can use it for video calls using Skype. It can do everything that the iPod Touch, SmartQ and N810 could not do. It even has a touch screen so you don’t need a mouse.

Now the mbook M1 is not perfect. It’s the first generation of mbooks and suffers from a mini USB port that needs an adapter to use and a semi-proprietary audio jack. All of these issues have been addressed in the newer mbook BZ model, which, in retrospect, was the model I should have gone with but I was trying save some money and got this older model instead.

Despite it’s flaws, it’s still a very capable portable device and I love it. There is nothing like having the ability to experience the web the way it was meant to be and the ability to watch Hulu on a device that fits in your pocket is also totally awesome.

Learn more about the UMID mbook M1 (or BZ) at Dynamism.com

Fun With Best Buy's Tap&Go

2010-02-13T22:00:00.003-06:00

Last month, I received a letter from Best Buy that I was being pre-selected to try out their Best Buy Reward Zone MasterCard® PayPass™ Tap&Go™ tag. As it was explained to me, it is basically a RFID decal that you could stick on a mobile device that you always carry around like an mp3 player or your phone.

RFID (Radio-frequency identification) card is not a new thing. They've been in use for years in the US in passports, credit cards, and even in some cell phones. There's even a continuing debate on whether they are secure and whether company or governments could use it to invade your privacy, but don't worry. This post is not about me weighing in on those issues. I'll save that kind of stuff for a rainy and boring day.

What has gotten me posting is the fact that this RFID is being presented in the form of a decal. I read somewhere on Wikipedia (so take this with a grain of salt) that Dairy Queen and some company called Vivotech was actually working on RFID decals to give to their customers as part of their new loyalty and rewards program. Basically, Dairy Queen customers could get coupons and discounts if they held the decal over the RFID sensor at their stores. I guess Best Buy and their financial provider, HSBC, just took the decal idea and placed a credit card RFID chip instead.

At the moment, I'm having a lot of fun with the Tap&Go tag which I placed on my cellphone. The look on people's faces and listening to their reactions when I pay by tapping my cellphone on their express pay terminals has been quite fun and revealing. So many places didn't even know that the credit card terminals could handle contact-less payments and I had to explain to them what the "express pay" symbol on their terminals meant. Some new about it, but didn't know that credit card Tap&Go decals existed.

To learn more about Reward Zone MasterCard® PayPass™ Tap&Go™ tag, visit https://www.rzmctag.com/

Snow In Pensacola

2010-02-12T16:33:00.003-06:00

The weather man said that it would snow in Pensacola, Florida today, but I haven't seen a flake fall from the sky. All that it's done is rain and be cold. Now, some people have claimed to have seen snow and some have even taken pictures of small white specks floating in the air, but those people don't work or live anywhere where I am.

At the moment, the rain has stopped but it's still cold. I don't think I'll see snow anytime soon around where I am. Too bad. I was somewhat excited at the prospect.

And So We Shift

2010-02-10T15:12:00.004-06:00

Hopefully you've noticed that this blog has shifted from being on http://www.byte-monkey.com and now on to http://bytemonkey.blogspot.com. This because Blogger, owned by Google, has decided to discontinue support for FTP service for bloggers who host their blogs on their own servers. (Here's the official announcement).

Blogger decided that FTP users were too much of a drain on their resources and decided that everyone of their users should just use their 'blogspot.com' servers. They claim that this will increase performance and allow users to use new features that were only available to those who chose to host their blogs on blogspot.

As a consolation, Blogger does offer a paid custom domain name service which will allow users to have their custom web address that is not tied to their 'blogspot.com' domain name. Unfortunately, this does not help people who already have their own registered domain name. These people will ultimately have to reconfigure their domain to resolve to the 'blogspot.com' server and correct for any orphaned links.

All in all, it's just one big giant headache for FTP publishers, but Blogger has promised to provide some migration documents for anyone willing to spend their time correcting and patching their blogs. Although, I suspect that most Blogger.com FTP publishers will probably choose to abandon the service and seek out other blogging platforms like WordPress or Drupal. To be honest, if you're looking at spending hours to patch your blog so it will work with someone else's domain name, you'll probably want to consider starting fresh with something that has proven to be stable and well-supported by communities of users just so you can keep your domain name.

As for me, I've decided to just shift this blog into 'blogspot.com.' Sure it was tedious, but I actually enjoy working with code. The byte-monkey.com domain will remain and will contain the portal page to my various online blogging accounts. I'll also be hosting my pictures on my server because I don't trust Google's communal servers.

Super Friends

2010-01-29T11:26:00.001-06:00

Hunting for DC Universe Classics

2010-01-17T22:52:00.000-06:00

Over the last week, I have become obsessed with collecting DC Universe Classics action figures. I've been running around town and visiting all the different stores to see what kind of figures they have.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what triggered this obsession. I just remembered waking up one morning and thinking that I needed to get them. Maybe I'm going through a second pre-mid-life crisis. Either that, or I am quickly going insane (which is probably what really is happening).

I'll post some pictures once I get them organized. I've been practicing my macro shots, so they should be somewhat interesting.

Losing to the Battery Man

2010-01-17T22:27:00.002-06:00

Well, just as I predicted. My eBay fiasco has ended badly. The seller doesn't have the missing caps nor do they know where I can get them. They decided to give me a refund of $3 for my trouble. I demanded that they change their eBay descriptions to say that they do not include the missing end cap. They had no response to my request and I doubt they'll update them.

eBay Fails Me

2010-01-10T01:33:00.002-06:00

Last week, I bought a replacement battery for one a laptop that I am fixing. In an effort to be thrifty, I decided to buy the battery from eBay which in hindsight was a dumb thing to do. Now, I'm stuck in customer service hell.

Normally, I have had issued with eBay sellers not shipping in a timely manner. This time, the shipping was quick, but the it was missing the end cap that snaps the battery into the case and prevents it from falling out. So, I contact the seller and tell them about this, and they tell me that the battery doesn't come with a cap. Annoyed, I took pictures and drew diagrams of what was missing and replied back to the seller. They then apologize and offered me $3 for inconveniencing me. Yes, they offered me $3 for selling me what is essentially a defective product. I ask if they would take it back and give me my money back. They said they would do minus a restocking fee and that I would have to pay for priority shipping for the return shipping, which cost as much as the battery. To say the least, I will not be doing a return.

I asked if they would sell me the missing part. At this point, I'm willing to pay for the missing part. They replied back asking me why I couldn't use the original end cap from he original battery. I couldn't do that because the laptop was already missing to begin with. The only way to get that part is to get a new battery. But it irks me that these people didn't answer my question. They just fired off their own questions to where I now have to fix their defective product with my own parts.

I'm still trying to figure out how to respond to them. I just know that this will drag on and I'll still end up losing. *sigh*

Ubuntu on Everything!

2010-01-07T21:38:00.005-06:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy at work and a couple of side projects.

On a techie side note, I managed to successfully install Ubuntu on an "old world" beige PowermacG3 at work. It took me two weeks of tinkering to get it to work, but I actually did something that everyone around me said was a lost cause or a waste of time. I guess those people don't know how determined I can get when I have my mind set on something. So, what was essentially just a doorstop, is now a fully functional and useful Linux box.

That little adventure inspired me to put Linux on a couple of older machines that I keep for sentimental reasons. One of the laptops already had a different type of Linux on it but it didn't have a lot of applications that worked with it leaving me mostly frustrated with it. The other old laptop that ran Windows XP. It was having some major performance issue because the hard drive was starting to get really full from all updates that Microsoft keeps pumping out to correct their sloppy programming. Both laptops are doing pretty well under Ubuntu. In fact, I'm writing this post on the former WinXP box.

Using Linux, especially Ubuntu, is not scary or hard. In fact, it's insanely easy and it's very similar to what you're already familiar with. It's not some kind of "matrix" screen that some non-computer literate people think.

For me, running Ubuntu is like having all the protection and flexibility that Mac people brag about but without having to become a pretentious, tech-bling toting, douche-bag. Plus, I'm saving the environment by preventing these computers from ending up in some landfill. Can you say the same thing when you buy a computer? How many trees died to make the box, manuals, and advertising inserts? How much pollutants were released into the environment when you made all that new shiny parts of your new fancy computer?

Just because your computer is not the latest or greatest, or whether it has significantly slowed down from all the crapware you unknowingly picked up along the way, it doesn't mean that you have to chunk it and get a brand-new one. Do yourself a favor. Consider using Linux/Ubuntu to bring your computer back from a state of being obsolete and unlock it's true potential. Trust me. Your wallet and the environment will thank you.

Save a tree. Learn Linux.

New Life for an Older Netbook

2009-12-10T15:15:00.003-06:00

One of the reasons that led me to replacing my Asus Eee PC 901 XP netbook for a newer model was because I was running out of hard drive space as Windows XP with all of its updates, kept on using up all the space of the minute 4GB SSD drive.

It reached a point where the whole device was unusable as kept asking to update and hitting an "out of space" error. Many times it would install updates halfway and get stuck as the system didn't have enough room to unpack the downloaded files.

For months, the netbook sat unused on my shelf. It wasn't until a few days ago that I decided to do something about it. I did some heavy on-line research and discovered that I could either reinstall a stream-lined version of WinXP or install a version of Linux that was designed for netbooks.

Already having too many Windows boxes on my netowrk, I decided to make an attempt to install Linux. On this path, I discovered that there were several versions of Linux that one could choose from. After reading various reviews, I decided that I would try Easy Peasy, formerly Eee PC Linux, which was designed specifically for Eee PC netbooks.

It didn't take that long to install the new OS on the device. Backing up my data actually took longer than the installation process. All in all, Easy Peasy has given my netbook a second chance at life. It is amazingly usable now and I'm am surprised at how stable it is. For the most part, this post was completely composed on it and that included picture processing.

So here's a pic of my older netbook running Easy Peasy

Slingers!

2009-12-05T11:59:00.003-06:00

Here's a teaser for a possible show in 2011. Think of it as a mixture of Cowboy Bebop, Ocean's Eleven, and Firefly. I really hope it gets made.

SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.

Cheat Sheet for Tech Support

2009-11-21T22:30:00.005-06:00

http://xkcd.com/627/
I guess my secret is out. LOL.

Suddenly Poor

2009-11-21T21:12:00.002-06:00

I'm suddenly feeling poor after some miscommunication between my doctor's office, my pharmacy, and my prescription insurance carrier. The carrier is not going to cover my new prescriptions because I just refilled my old prescriptions last week. Apparently, my carrier has some kind of monthly limit that I was not made aware of. Instead of normally paying $100, I have to pay $378 if I want to get my new medication.

Should I pay the pharmacy to get my pills and be broke? Or should I wait three weeks to resubmit my prescription, pay less but become sicker than I am now?

At this point, I'm going to have to return some Christmas gifts that I bought this morning. That should get me part of the money that I need.

Lion Voltron Disappointments

2009-11-21T00:21:00.002-06:00

Today has been a day of disappointments.

After having a bad morning at the doctor's office (Is there really a good day at the doctor's office?), I spent most of the work day anticipating the arrival of what should have been a "Mint-In-Box" Trendmasters Lion Voltron that I had won on eBay. As I watched the tracking data plot it's course from one side of the country to where I lived, I was deliriously excited when it said it was on my front porch.

At first, I was impressed at the amount of packing material used by the seller. (I think a forest may have been cut down just to fill up the over-sized box). Later I realized that it was likely an attempt to hide something. When I opened the box, I noticed some big scratches and a couple of cracked pieces on the Black Lion. Then, I found that the tip of the Blue Lion's tail had been broken off. This was obviously not "Mint-In-Box." I've been a collector for a very long time and I can say that this Voltron is probably a "C5" or lower on the C Scale.

Lessons Learned: Ask lots of questions to the seller about an item and look at the pictures closely before making a bid. Don't hesitate to ask for more pictures or demand more details about an item especially if the item is pricey. Contact the seller and eBay if you feel you've been deceived. Beware of no return policies. (Unfortunately, my purchase had a no return policy)

All in all, this Voltron will be okay as a display piece although anyone with a functional eye will be able to see the broken parts. I'm considering putting this in my office since it's already damaged. At least I won't have to worry if my co-workers break it.

Below is a picture of the 1998 Trendmaster Voltron next to a 2009 Taiwanese LionBot. They're pretty much the same size with some stylistic differences. I'll write up an more in-depth review and comparison at a later date when I'm a little less pissed off about being scammed.

Vehicle Voltron Arrives

2009-11-19T00:02:00.005-06:00

I wasn't expecting any packages today. So when I found a box on the porch, I was brimming with excitement. I knew it was going to be one of the giant robot figures that I ordered but I didn't know which one it was going to be.

This package apparently contained a 1982 Matchbox Vehicle Voltron. It's vintage and not a knock-off. Being more than 25 years old, I was not surprised at its condition. It has a lot of play wear and some parts were broken but it's overall in good condition. It's perfect for display as the figure will probably not hold up to any kind of heavy play.

Vintage Vehicle Voltron circa 1982

Twitter Addresses Problems (Spoof)

2009-11-13T10:40:00.002-06:00

Time lapse video of Voltron Painting

2009-11-06T13:51:00.001-06:00

The Quest for Voltron

2009-11-02T15:03:00.004-06:00

In 1984, Voltron was introduced to the world, and eventually, thousands of children begged their parents for a Voltron robot for their birthday or Christmas.

I was not an exception to this phenomenon, but the reality was that my family couldn't afford the luxurious toy so I never actually owned one. Instead, my parents would take me and my brother to visit the toy at the department store while they did their shopping. I remember staring at the toy from behind the display case glass and imagined how awesome it would have been if I could own and hold the mighty robot my hands.

Some time later, the store on the street near my house actually had a Lion Voltron for sale. I remember that it was still very expensive, and I went to see it almost everyday after school for what seemed like months.

I remember going to the store with my friends and we would stare at it for hours through the store window. We bullshitted about who among us would be the ultimate owner of the toy. As it turned out, none of us would as our families could not afford them. As time marched on, our Voltron craze would be replaced by other childhood infatuations such as yo-yos, G.I. Joes, and BMX bikes.

As I grew up, I kept my eyes out for my chance to buy a Voltron robot but something always got in the way. Either, I didn't have enough money to buy one or the toy was just simply out of season and unavailable. I recall the last chance I had to get a Voltron was in 1994 and I missed it then because I had spent my money buying a CD player.

Eventually, the Internet would be created and web sites like eBay would make the quest for such hard to find collectables less epic. Despite being available online, Voltron still escaped my grasp since the prices of what people were selling them was way too high for a just anyone to buy.

And now that I have a decent job and this year being Voltron's 25th anniversary, I have decided to fulfill my childhood ream and purchase a Voltron figure. Now, I'm not sure how I will get it , but I made a promise to myself that this will be the definitive year.

Looking back, the yearning to own a Voltron robot never really died in me. For 25 years, it has been floating in my subconscious, influencing how I think, what I say, and sometimes what I do. This has been a hole in my soul for far too long and I truly intend to fill it with the real thing and not some kind of substitute.

My quest for Voltron helped me learn three things: 1.) You need to work hard to get what you want; 2.) There are things in this world that you can't have no matter how hard you work at it; 3.) Sometimes, life will give you a second (and sometimes a third) chance with things.

It may sound silly, but if I had a chance to find my long lost childhood friends, I would like to buy each one of them a Voltron robot. Sure, it's highly unlikely that this will ever happened, but one thing is for sure. At one point in time, a handful of kids in the poor section of the Philippines all had the same dream of owning a Voltron robot. This dream gave them something in common and brought them together in their friendship.

What about you? Do you have something that you wanted as a kid but never did get? It may sound foolish, but I hope you know it's not too late. Live your life without regrets!

What's Wrong with Halloween

2009-10-22T14:30:00.002-05:00

Foamy took the words right out of my mouth.

How To Survive a Bear Attack

2009-10-22T14:13:00.001-05:00

How To Survive a Bear Attack on Howcast

Just in case you didn't know.

The C-Monkey

2009-10-21T11:24:00.001-05:00

Here's a classic story I found in my archives:

A tourist walks into a pet shop in Redmond, WA and is browsing around the cages on display. While he's there, another customer walks in and says to the shopkeeper, "I'll have a C monkey, please."

The shopkeeper nods, goes over to a cage at the side of the shop and takes out a monkey. He fits a collar and leash and hands it to the customer, saying "That'll be $5000".

The customer pays and walks out with his monkey. Startled, the tourist goes over to the shopkeeper and says "That was a very expensive monkey - most of them are only a few hundred dollars. Why did it cost so much?"

"Ah, that monkey can program in C - very fast, tight code, no bugs, well worth the money."

The tourist looks at the monkey in another cage. "That one's even more expensive - $10,000 dollars! What does it do?"

"Oh, that one's a C++ monkey; it can manage object-oriented programming, Visual C++, even some Java, all the really useful stuff."

The tourist looks around for a little longer and sees a third monkey in a cage of its own; The price tag around its neck says $50,000. He gasps to the shopkeeper, "That one costs more than all the others put together! What on earth does it do?"

"Well, I haven't actually seen it do anything, but it says it's a contractor."

Credit Card Companies Gone Wild

2009-10-20T22:13:00.003-05:00

This morning, I was reading the USA Today's web site and I read an article that has made me somewhat furious. Basically, the article explained that some credit card companies and banks may start to charge you a fee if you pay off your credit card completely each month or if you don't carry a balance from month to month. It's apparently their response to new legislation that will limit their ability to raise interest rates in February 2010.

This means that honest and hard working people, like me, who responsibly manage their credit and minimize their debt in order to get a good credit score are going to be penalized by the credit card companies. The article says that our only options against this is to complain and ask to have the fee removed, or to cancel your account which could have negative repercussions if you're dealing with a credit card that you've had for a long time.

Well, don't take my word for it. Here's a link to the article: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2009-10-19-bank-of-america-card-fee_N.htm

Disrespected by a Weirdo

2009-10-19T13:15:00.004-05:00

While eating lunch with my coworkers today, we encountered a weirdo who decided to loudly play her music from her laptop while she ate. For a while, she ate her salad without any utensils despite being on the table for her to use.

Now, I'm all for listening to music while your eating. I have found that that music sometimes helps with digestions, but do keep your music to yourself when you're dining out at a public restaurant. Some people, like me, just want to have a peaceful and relatively quite lunch break.

For God's sake, this is the exact reason why we invented headphones and ear buds so as to not bother other people with one's music. If you're reading this, Ms. Weirdo, please consider using them next time.

I'm not usually for picking on people, but this whole thing rubbed me the wrong way. I understand people's right for the pursuit of happiness, but your rights are now infringing on my rights. So now I have to invoke my right of expression to let you know that you're actions are irking the rest of the world.

Now, if you're mentally handicapped or neurologically damaged then I'll let you slide because those are the only two excuses I'll accept. If you're socially underdeveloped (or your momma didn't teach you no frakking manners), then perhaps you should get some psychological help. Maybe, you should consider getting a life coach, or maybe just consider getting take-out or delivery.

To sum up, keep your annoyingly loud weirdo music to yourself.

Adding Ringtones for LG Spyder II 840

2009-10-13T09:07:00.006-05:00

If you're wondering how to add your own ringtones to the LG Spyder II 840, you'll need to realize that this phone doesn't use standard MP3s for ringtones.

The phone uses QCP files. Which means that you'll need to convert your MP3 ringtones to QCP which turned out to be quite simple because OCP files are basically the same thing as WAV files. So all you need to do is convert your MP3 ringtone to WAV file and then change file extension to QCP. After doing this, you can now load to your phone via an microSDHC card. Just remember to place the files in the "my_audios" folder and not the "my_music" folder on your memory card. Also, you'll discover from the phone prompts that you'll need to copy or move the QCP files to the phone's memory before you can assign them as ringtones.

If you were planning on using a MIDI file, then you shouldn't need to convert the file. The phone will recognize MIDI files just fine.

If you need a program to edit/convert your MP3s into WAV, then I recommend using Audacity. It's free and it works and did I mention FREE.

Overall, the instructions in this post has been tested to work on an LG Spyder II 840 that is offered by Cellular South. Other cellphone service providers may have added special blocks or placed other limitations to keep you from adding your own ringtones, but you're more than welcome to try my method to see if it works on your phone.

Leave me a comment if you find out if this method works or not for you. It might be useful for others who are trolling the web for information about this issue.

A Dog's Breakfast

2009-10-12T15:53:00.006-05:00

A Dog's Breakfast was the first film written and directed by David Hewlett who most of Geekdom know as Dr. Rodney McKay from Stargate SG1 and Atlantis. The movie is about a guy named Patrick (played by Hewlett) who is having trouble dealing with sister Marilyn's (played by David's real-life siter Kate Hewlett) new tv star fiancé Paul(played by Paul McGillion who is best known as Dr. Beckett from SG Altantis). Also, Christopher Judge(Teal'c from SG1) and Rachel Luttrell(Teyla Emmagan from SG: Atlantis) are also in it.

So, if you like Stargate like me. This movie should be highly entertaining to you. For more information about this movie visit www.adogsbreakfastmovie.com. For the wiki entry for this movie, click here.

Optimus Prime does the Evolution of Dance

2009-10-12T09:04:00.002-05:00

Virgin Mobile LG Rumor 2

2009-10-10T00:32:00.002-05:00

It looks I'm going through a LG Electronics phase.

After upgrading my primary post paid mobile phone to the LG Sypder II 840, I decided that it was also time to upgrade my backup prepaid mobile phone which has become quite outdated. (I did buy the thing back during in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan).

So, armed with a little info from @VMAngel, I decided to grab the LG Rumor2 from Virgin Mobile. As you can see from the picture, it's one of those full QWERTY keyboard messaging mobile phones. The main feature on this phone is it's ability to group your text messages by sender and display it much like an online chat session.

The phone call quality is pretty decent and messaging features are pretty cool. It supports MicroSD cards and Bluetooth. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera for picture messaging which is perfect for photoblogging.

Overall, I love the LG Rumor 2 as much as I love my LG Spyder II. Visit the Virgin Mobile web site if you want more details about this phone.

PhotoSketch: Doom for Graphic Designers?

2009-10-09T23:13:00.005-05:00

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from Tao Chen on Vimeo.

Remember how document layout designers and type setters got pissed when desktop publishing empowered untalented people the ability to create their own crappy documents? Well, it's the graphic artists', designers', and Photoshop masters' turn to gripe. Look at this video which describes a very early technology that promises to let allow anyone to create digital compositions based on sketches and keywords.

Piano Stairs

2009-10-09T22:45:00.003-05:00

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Here's a social experiment to see if there was a way to make people use the stairs more than the escalator at a subway station in Odenplan, Stockholm (Sweden). See what they did and what happened.

Got Milk?

2009-10-08T09:04:00.009-05:00

The screen cap above is not from a B-rated sci-fi movie (nor a porn flick), it's from "Battle for Milkquarious," an over-the-top, online rock-opera - about "milk'. Yes, I said milk.

It's the creation of the California Milk Processor Board and ad agency called Goodby Silverstein & Partners San Francisco. (That's the same group that brought you the Got Milk ad campaign). Obviously, this is advert for drinking milk, but it's also part of a contest for students in California. Students will compete in recreating scenes of the rock-opera in order to win money for their school's art education program. Lucky bastards. I wish Florida would come up with something like this.

You can watch and enjoy the whole rock-opera movie at http://www.milkquarious.com. It's definitely something to see and something that will go viral really soon (if it hasn't already).

(via @Pixelfish)

Make My Logo Bigger Cream

2009-09-30T15:57:00.002-05:00

Thanks to @spiffy.

My New Phone: LG Spyder II 840

2009-09-30T14:33:00.005-05:00

After being burned by the Motorola Evoke QA4 (Read: A Phone Upgrade Story), I decided that I would wait a while before getting a new phone. Well, when the key pads on my old Motorola ROKR z6m started to peel off, I decided that it may be time again to look into getting a new phone.

This time around, I decided that I would do a lot more research than what I had done for the Evoke. I looked through several cell phone forums and read many user reviews while bypassing anything that was obviously product marketing material.

With everything that I read, I decided that the LG Spyder II 840 at Cellular South would sufficiently meet all my needs in a mobile phone. (Those needs which were: a decent digital camera, ability to set custom ring tones, picture and text messaging, and a decent web browser). All these features were supposedly on this phone, and if it all proved to be true, then I would definitely go for this phone.

I decided to forgo ordering the phone online despite the possibility of being able save a few dollars. Personally, I'm the kind of person who needs to see and hold a phone in my hands especially since it's something that I'll be using all the time. When I saw first saw the phone, I was a bit hesitant. It looked too good to be true. It reminded me too much of the Motorola Evoke with all it's shiny accents, and I have learned that looks can be quite deceiving when it comes to performance

When I finally got around to playing with the phone, I was actually impressed at how intuitive the menu and how responsive the touch screen was. The phone supposedly had widgets but I discovered that they weren't really widgets or apps. They were more like shortcuts to applications that the phone had. The camera on the phone is awesome. It's 1 more megapixel than Motorola Evoke making it a capable 3 MP camera. The phone also plays MP3 music and is able to take a standard set of headphones with it's standard headphone jack. I haven't tried the video recording on it but I wasn't really interested in that feature since you can't send videos on the Cellular South network. All in all, I was impressed enough with the phone that I decided to buy it.

I have had the phone since September 26th and I haven't encountered anything bad or weird. The only thing that took me some time to figure out was how to upload my own personal/custom ring tones. It turns out that the key to getting your own ringtones on the Spyder II is realizing that QCP files are basically renamed WAV files which means that you'll need to convert your old MP3 ringtones to WAV files and rename the extension to OCP to make them work.

So far, I'm enjoying the LG Spyder II 840. It's my first LG phone and the Spyder II has really made a good impression on me.

If you want to do more research on the phone, you'll discover that it's also called the LG Tritan under Alltel and U.S. Cellular. All in all, I recommend getting the Spyder II from Cellular South. since they have the best and cheapest unlimited plan for mobile phones.

Pictures from the Seafood Festival

2009-09-28T15:08:00.004-05:00

Okay. I finally posted my pictures from the 2009 Pensacola Seafood Festival on my Tumblr PhotoBlog.

Click the links below to go straight to the festival pictures:

2009 Pensacola Seafood Festival

2009-09-27T22:53:00.003-05:00

After much anticipation, I finally made to the Pensacola Seafood Festival on it's last day. The festival started on Friday but I had work that day, and on Saturday, I had to go out of town to get a new phone (I'll post about that later). So, it wasn't until Sunday that I would be able to go.

I manage to get there around 3PM and you could see the crowds gathering from blocks away. At the festival, I saw the types of food vendors who were serving a plethora of seafood albeit most of it was breaded and fried. There were some selling grilled food, but that tended to be the chicken, beef, and pork kind. I did my usual thing and grabbed a couple of chicken shiskabobs and a soda. I did notice something that wasn't there in previous years; I saw someone selling turkey legs. They also served beer and other cocktails at this year's event.

I have two gripes about the festival. First, the price of food is getting a bit rediculous. I paid $10 for two shiskabobs and I saw a sign that said $7 for an Italian sausage. For Pensacola, this price level is insane. If the price goes up next year, I don't think I'll be buying any food there anymore. Secondly, the music venue needs to get better. I have lots of respect to the local bands that play at these events, but it feels like it's the same band that plays at all the festivals. Whoever organizes this event needs to try to get some big name bands to come if they really want to market this event as one of the Gulf Coasts best events.

This year, I failed to get a t-shirt to add to my collection of festival shirts. I actually do not collect these shirts but I do buy one to support the events. I wasn't able to get a shirt this year because they ran out of large and above sizes. (I guess people in Pensacola are getting heftier each year). I didn't want to just buy any shirt, so I decided to keep my money. Better luck next year, I guess.

I'll be posting some more pictures in the photoblog and on this site. I need to find my cables or my card reader so I can get them out of my digital camera. I'm not digging through my box of cables tonight, so, I probably won't get to it until some time tomorrow.

Well, that's if for now. Until next post. Bye!

ipadio: Audio Posting via ipadio

2009-09-27T02:51:00.002-05:00

Darth Vader In Love

2009-09-24T23:38:00.002-05:00

Hilarious!!! Totally awesome.

When Google Talk Breaks, My World Slows Down

2009-09-24T16:15:00.008-05:00

I never realized how much I depend on Google Talk for communicating with my colleagues during the workday.

When Google's chat service went down today, I resorted to calling people on the phone and sending them emails to get answers to my questions. The whole process felt painfully slow as I tried to wait for people to call me back (since most of these bastards screen their calls) or write an email replies.

I guess I'm just spoiled from having everyone accessible with just one click.

Email Overload

2009-09-24T09:02:00.003-05:00

I'm hoping that something happened to the email server last night. There's no possible way I could have that many emails come in over night. I'm not that popular or infamous.

My New Wireless Keyboard

2009-09-23T08:46:00.003-05:00

Apparently, my new wireless keyboard came in yesterday. It's nothing cutting edge or fancy but it does sport a built-in trackball which a major improvement over my last standard cordless keyboard. This particular keyboard is the Adesso WKB-3000UB.

So far, everything is working fine. I'm actually typing this post with it. I'll y'all know if something weird comes up with it.

The IT Crowd

2009-09-22T23:29:00.006-05:00

Except for a couple of people that I know, it seems to me that not many people in the US are familiar with the British comedy show, "The IT Crowd." If you work in the IT field and you haven't heard about this show, then your geek life is seriously incomplete. If you have heard about it, then you know how funny and awesome this show is . . . and you'd know that there's not enough room on this blog for me to explain it's awesomeness.

To get a better idea of why I'm raving about this show, go here http://www.youtube.com/user/ITCrowdChannel and sample the show. If you like it, you'll be glad to know that all three seasons of the show is now available on DVDs at your favorite movie retailer.

There's an App for That

2009-09-22T23:16:00.003-05:00

Le Wrath di Khan

2009-09-22T23:10:00.001-05:00

New Site Design

2009-09-22T20:54:00.003-05:00

Well, I got tired of looking at the old site and decided it was time to do a redesign.

I've been yearning to do something a bit more fun and creative. At work, I'm trapped within the approved templates and scripts and working in them is not something that I would really consider fun. It's a very intense and tedious task that requires you to deal with a lot of "spaghetti code." Let's not even talk about the departmental politics that have to be always considered. Patience is not just a virtue at my workplace. It's a required skill.

So, whenever I have a chance to work on my own sites, I take it as an opportunity to dust off some of my web design skills that I don't usually always use at work (Such as my PhotoShop skills and JavaScript/VB scripting). The whole thing is quite a cathartic process.

With this version of my site, I decided that the monkey needed to wear some clothes, since he is supposed to be at work and someone who considers himself more evolved than the average monkey.

Geeking Out On-the-Road

2009-09-20T19:22:00.003-05:00

Well, I know I promised that I would post a lot more than what I've been doing, but life keeps getting in the way.

Most of my free time has been eaten up by my whoring myself into doing in-house computer repairs and 1-on-1 computer training sessions for people who want to learn more about their computers. Sure, it's not the glamorous work you'd expect a 13-year web development veteran to be doing, but to be honest, I really need the money. Good web projects are starting to get hard to come by and these days I'm taking anything that comes my way.

Lately, I've been finding myself on the road a lot more. As a result, I convinced myself to get a decent detachable WiFi antenna rig mounted on my car. Aside from war-driving, it allows me to get a stronger and more stable connection to any public hot-spots in the area. Last night was my first field test of my rig and it worked out pretty well. The rig consists of a Hawking USB wireless network adapter (the kind of that has a removable antenna) and a generic magnet mounted WiFi antenna that I found on eBay. So far, the whole thing is working as expected. I'm using my Asus netbook for this project since it is small enough to carry around. There is one drawback. My car now screams "geek-inside" whenever I'm parked somewhere looking for wifi.

9/11

2009-09-11T08:19:00.002-05:00

It's the 8th anniversary of the 9/11. This is a time of reflection and rememberance. If you can, light a candle sometime today to honor those have were lost

Running Around

2009-08-19T09:48:00.003-05:00

It's a good thing I'm wearing semi-comfortable shoes today. Out of the blue, I find myself running around trying to get other people's projects done.

This would not be such a dreadful task if the projects were limited to working in front of a computer, but my luck hasn't been the same since that night I taunted a gypsy in an effort to lose weight.

No. I'm having to run around the whole company complex and setting up non-interactive(yeah I know, lame) kiosks.

Beyond the technical and meaningful tasks, I also need to pickup a large printed map from the otherside of the complex so that I can mount them into the kiosk.

All in all, I didn't realize being a code monkey meant that I'd have to also be errand boy!

In a state of "Broke-Broke"

2009-08-10T23:23:00.003-05:00

Well folks, I'm broke-broke. My main computer that I use at home died and I had plunk down some serious cash to get a replacement. If it weren't for the side-projects that I need to finish up rather soon, then I probably would've waited a few more weeks before getting a new computer.

At the moment, I'm ldown $900 dollars. I'm hoping that my side projects will be able to help cover this untimely expense, but I was really hoping that this money would help me get ahead with all my bills.

This whole event wasn't something unexpected. For a while now, I noticed that there was something wrong with my laptop and I've been trying my best to patch things up and work around the problems that annoyingly kept popping up. The fact that the machine would randomly reboot itself and give me more and more blue screens of death and hardware errors was a sure sign that I needed to make plans to get a replacement, but I didn't think this would happen anytime soon. To be honest, I was hoping it wouldn't happen until I got paid for my projects.

At the moment, I'm moving my files off of the old hard drive and into a one of my external usb drives. I have hooked both of them to my netbook and it is taking a very long time to move my files. Honestly, I don't think the netbook was designed for this task, but it's the only system I have access to that's working right now. I'm not worried about my data though. I have disc images of the hard drive and back ups on several other drives.

I'll write about what I chose as a replacement system in another post. Right now, I need to get by programs, applications, etc. installed and get back to work.