I'm leaving for a camping trip this morning, so I won't be posting for a couple days (no wifi in the woods).
If your planning to do the same, you might want to check out a sport that merges technology and the outdoors, geocaching. Geocaching involves people hiding boxes (usually ammo cans) in the woods and posting precise coordinates on geocaching.com. You can then take those coordinates, find the box using a gps and log it, both in the box and on the website. Many of them are quite difficult to find, making it a fun challenge even if you are pretty good with a gps. You might also want to take a compass along, since a gps can't track direction very well unless it is moving fairly quickly. You can find out more on the Geocaching website.
I should be back posting next week, so enjoy your weekend.
Friday, April 28, 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Google Talk: Vote on New Features
This is just a quick post for all those using Google talk, Google's instant messaging program.
Google has a list of the most common requests made by users is asking people to pick the top 5 that they want. Go Vote Here, if you use Google talk.
If not, you can give it a try by downloading it here or checking it out in the Gmail interface (left side, blue box) if you use one of the more common web browsers.
Google has a list of the most common requests made by users is asking people to pick the top 5 that they want. Go Vote Here, if you use Google talk.
If not, you can give it a try by downloading it here or checking it out in the Gmail interface (left side, blue box) if you use one of the more common web browsers.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Buying a Computer at Retail Stores
I posted the other day about some considerations in buying a computer. Slashdot has an article today about experiences in buying computers in retail stores, and answers they received to some very basic questions. The article also brings up something I forgot to mention in my article, warranties. If you break something it is always nice when you can get it fixed for free.
The best thing to do when buying anything is to do some research beforehand. As far as computers go, both Tom's Hardware and AnandTech usually have good hardware reviews.
(of course, you could just do a quick Google)
Anyway, You can find my original post here and the Slashdot post here. Be sure to look through some of the comments on the Slashdot post as well.
Happy Shopping ;-)
The best thing to do when buying anything is to do some research beforehand. As far as computers go, both Tom's Hardware and AnandTech usually have good hardware reviews.
(of course, you could just do a quick Google)
Anyway, You can find my original post here and the Slashdot post here. Be sure to look through some of the comments on the Slashdot post as well.
Happy Shopping ;-)
Monday, April 24, 2006
Google Testing New Features, At Random?
There is an interesting post on the Google Blog tonight about feature testing. Apparently, Google chooses people at random to test new features on, which is why people occasionally get different versions of Google. I wonder if there is any way to get yourself a greater chance of being selected, and how many other companies do this? Anyway, its some interesting food for thought, and talks about some upcoming Google features (something I always enjoy keeping track of).
Oh well, back to my normal, productive activities. Check out the post here. Hopefully I will be able to return to adding more of my own content in the near future, but I have a lot of "reviews" to go to before some major tests over the next couple weeks.
Oh well, back to my normal, productive activities. Check out the post here. Hopefully I will be able to return to adding more of my own content in the near future, but I have a lot of "reviews" to go to before some major tests over the next couple weeks.
"Freespire"
Linspire sent me an email this afternoon about a new, free version of their Linux distribution called "Freespire".
Personally, I don't like Linspire (too much is hidden from the user) but for a lot of people, its an ok choice as a free operating system. I will probably give Freespire a try sooner or later, but If your not on the Linspire mailing lists, I though I would share the news. The note didn't say too much about what the differences are between Linspire and Freespire, but I'm sure there will be some. I'm as curious as anyone else, so feel free to leave some thoughts in the comments of this post if you give it a try. It looks like they aren't offering a download yet, (probably because the web server is being hit pretty hard right now), but you can check out the Freespire site here. If you weren't already familiar with Linspire, (some may know it by its former name of "Lindows") you can go here. Of course, for most people Windows or MacOS is fine, if you just want to give Linux a try, then I recommend you give Knoppix a look.
Personally, I don't like Linspire (too much is hidden from the user) but for a lot of people, its an ok choice as a free operating system. I will probably give Freespire a try sooner or later, but If your not on the Linspire mailing lists, I though I would share the news. The note didn't say too much about what the differences are between Linspire and Freespire, but I'm sure there will be some. I'm as curious as anyone else, so feel free to leave some thoughts in the comments of this post if you give it a try. It looks like they aren't offering a download yet, (probably because the web server is being hit pretty hard right now), but you can check out the Freespire site here. If you weren't already familiar with Linspire, (some may know it by its former name of "Lindows") you can go here. Of course, for most people Windows or MacOS is fine, if you just want to give Linux a try, then I recommend you give Knoppix a look.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Orbitfiles
Just a quick post tonight...
If you have been keeping track of this blog for awhile, you may remember that I have posted about free online storage a couple times before. I tend to use box.net but there are a number of alternatives. Orbitfiles is a new (to me at least) site, which I saw on digg today. It combines some of the features of other storage sites I've mentioned, combining an upload utility with some of the social features of box.net. I haven't actually tried it out yet (I'm fine with what I have right now) but if you are looking for some free online storage (or >1G for a fee) then you might want to check out Orbitfiles.
On a totally unrelated note, I enjoyed this article on CNET, be sure to read some of the comments, lots of interesting back and forth. It does happen too.
If you have been keeping track of this blog for awhile, you may remember that I have posted about free online storage a couple times before. I tend to use box.net but there are a number of alternatives. Orbitfiles is a new (to me at least) site, which I saw on digg today. It combines some of the features of other storage sites I've mentioned, combining an upload utility with some of the social features of box.net. I haven't actually tried it out yet (I'm fine with what I have right now) but if you are looking for some free online storage (or >1G for a fee) then you might want to check out Orbitfiles.
On a totally unrelated note, I enjoyed this article on CNET, be sure to read some of the comments, lots of interesting back and forth. It does happen too.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
How to Purchase a Computer
As promised...
People have been asking me how to buy a computer for college, in particular. (If this is what your doing, I'd check with your college before buying anything). As long as it meets all your software's requirements, Any computer should be fine, but there are a number of considerations in purchasing an ideal computer.
I wrote an article about the basic considerations in purchasing a computer, and put it up on my "Google page" for your enjoyment. If it leaves you with questions please let me know and I will try to get back to you with some answers and add them to the article. Note that this was mostly written in the car, on I90 so if there are any errors I apologize, and please point them out (either by email or comment on this post). I am very busy these days, so If I don't answer in a few days, I will after my tests (2nd week in May).
After reading the article, you might want to look back at this post for some info on online shopping and finding discounts.
If you haven't already go read it here!
People have been asking me how to buy a computer for college, in particular. (If this is what your doing, I'd check with your college before buying anything). As long as it meets all your software's requirements, Any computer should be fine, but there are a number of considerations in purchasing an ideal computer.
I wrote an article about the basic considerations in purchasing a computer, and put it up on my "Google page" for your enjoyment. If it leaves you with questions please let me know and I will try to get back to you with some answers and add them to the article. Note that this was mostly written in the car, on I90 so if there are any errors I apologize, and please point them out (either by email or comment on this post). I am very busy these days, so If I don't answer in a few days, I will after my tests (2nd week in May).
After reading the article, you might want to look back at this post for some info on online shopping and finding discounts.
If you haven't already go read it here!
Project Gutenberg => Proofreading
If you are looking for something to do while you wait for me to finish my homework and get around to post something more exciting I noticed that Project Gutenberg is looking for proofreaders the other day. If you are unfamiliar with Project Gutenberg, it is a collection of ebooks (computerized copies of older, out of copyright, books) for free on the Internet. They have a huge collection, you can look at the catalogue here.
Well, back to my work, now you have a way to help out and a source of reading material. Sorry for not posting more lately, but I ended up visiting some family earlier in the week (wasn't planning to) and have a lot of work before some major tests over the next two weeks.
Well, back to my work, now you have a way to help out and a source of reading material. Sorry for not posting more lately, but I ended up visiting some family earlier in the week (wasn't planning to) and have a lot of work before some major tests over the next two weeks.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Web Caches
I have been surprisingly busy this week, considering that I have been on vacation the last couple days. Anyway, to keep everyone interested, how about a quick post on web caches:
Some of you might have noticed that certain websites tend to slow down after they have been linked to by a large news site or mailing list. This is simply caused by the huge load put on a server as many people try to connect at once.
One popular solution is the Coral Cache Service. All you have to do is append ".nyud.net:8080" (without the quotes) to the server section of the URL. (after the top level domain identifier, so www.site.com would become www.site.com.nyud.net:880). As soon as one person views a site through Coral Cache, it is in the "cached" so that others can view it quickly, through Coral Cache, without putting much, if any, stress on the server hosting the content. If you run a high traffic site, then you may want to link other, smaller sites, in this manner. This is particularly good if you are linking a free geocities or similar account that has a very small bandwidth quota.
If you are hosting a file, or trying to download one from a slow server, Dijjer works much the same as Coral Cache, only for files. It works through a background service, that fetches files and provides bandwidth back to the rest of the network. There is also a firefox extension to help in downloading things through Dijjer. For more information, it might be best to visit the Dijjer website.
Neither service is very useful generally, but If you have a use, they are both worth a look. Hopefully I will have some more time to post here soon, but for now, Go enjoy the nice spring weather (here in the North Eastern US anyway), and thanks for all the feedback.
Some of you might have noticed that certain websites tend to slow down after they have been linked to by a large news site or mailing list. This is simply caused by the huge load put on a server as many people try to connect at once.
One popular solution is the Coral Cache Service. All you have to do is append ".nyud.net:8080" (without the quotes) to the server section of the URL. (after the top level domain identifier, so www.site.com would become www.site.com.nyud.net:880). As soon as one person views a site through Coral Cache, it is in the "cached" so that others can view it quickly, through Coral Cache, without putting much, if any, stress on the server hosting the content. If you run a high traffic site, then you may want to link other, smaller sites, in this manner. This is particularly good if you are linking a free geocities or similar account that has a very small bandwidth quota.
If you are hosting a file, or trying to download one from a slow server, Dijjer works much the same as Coral Cache, only for files. It works through a background service, that fetches files and provides bandwidth back to the rest of the network. There is also a firefox extension to help in downloading things through Dijjer. For more information, it might be best to visit the Dijjer website.
Neither service is very useful generally, but If you have a use, they are both worth a look. Hopefully I will have some more time to post here soon, but for now, Go enjoy the nice spring weather (here in the North Eastern US anyway), and thanks for all the feedback.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Thumbnail Generator for RAW files on Windows!
If you are lucky enough to have a digital camera that can produce a RAW file, made by Nikon or Cannon, Microsoft has a power toy that allows the built in Windows XP picture viewer to read RAW files. This will allow you to have your RAW files displayed as thumbnails in their folders or do any of the other normal things you could do with jpegs on Windows. I don't know when this was released, but it is a handy feature, and can be downloaded here. I know that Nikon at least charges for their RAW viewer.
If you haven't already heard about power toys, Microsoft releases small, functionality adding apps with most of their operating systems. Usually these "toys" do neat things, but aren't useful to most people (a couple of the XP ones are). TweakUI is the most famous power toy, and allows you to change the user interface of windows, but there are a whole bunch of them at this point. You can take a look for your self, and see what is available here. I particularly like the virtual desktop manager, because I am used to having virtual desktops on UNIX like operating systems, running XFree or Xorg, but go take a look for your self. A few of the downloads require that you are using a Validated, legal install of XP, but not all of them. If you search Microsoft, you should find power toys for all the other versions of windows too.
At the request of some of my friends, you can look forward to some comments on considerations in buying a new computer sometime this week, but I don't have time right now. For now, off to Biology.
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