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Archive for May, 2009

Godaddy Promo Codes for 2009 non Expiring

Posted by geeknews at 4:04 PM on May 18, 2009

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i TV

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 8:56 AM on May 16, 2009

I tend to forget things and then remember them at the oddest time, so I look for applications that help me remember, or allow me to schedule things from anywhere.   I.TV for the Iphone is such an application.   It is free and available through the Itune store. When you first sign in, it will ask for your zip code and your service provider.   It then updates the information for your area. There are two sections one is for movies and the other is for TV.  In the movie section you can see what playing at your local theatre.  You can watch preview’s, read reviews and even purchase tickets. You can also email movie start time, and information to a friend.  If I.TV had just this available it would be a great app, but that only a small part of what it offers.

The other main section is the TV section. When you first open the TV section up you get all channel you receive.  One of he first thing you will probably want to do is set up your favorite channel list.  You do this by tapping on a show on the channel, hit the thumbs up button and choose favorite channel.  You can also choose favorite shows the same way. Like with the movies you can preview a TV show. The preview can be a simple preview or it may also include comments from the actor or director. Again I like the Gallery option where you can see still shots from the show. There is also a link for Wikapedia, where you can get the shows synopsis, history and further links to other information. You can also read reviews of the show.
If you click the watch button at top of the show screen, you have the option to schedule the show to record on a TiVo, find it on Netfix , or be notified by email of a show being scheduled.   You can also share the information with a friend.

Once you have set everything up all that information is now found under My Media.  Where you will find a list of your favorite shows and channels.  You can also browse by Genre or channel. If you have a Netflix account you can add to, delete and reorder items in your queue.   I am sure I am missing somethings, but this should give you an idea of how useful this application can be. It will crash on occasion, especially if your battery is low, which is the only negative thing I can say about it. For me, this is  a 5 star application  I would recommend it to anyone who loves TV or the movies,

itv_tv_listing.jpg

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Posted in iPhone

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#FollowFriday Etiquitte

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 10:57 AM on May 15, 2009

Twitter is great to network, but sometimes it annoys me. There are times that people don’t get that they have 140 characters to Say something or loose out.

The biggest problem is this #FollowFriday. I will see a post like:

@joeschmoeb #Followfriday @name1 @name2 @name3 @name4

My question is: WHY? Who is this “Name 1″? Will I know this person will not Cyberstalk me?

Let’s get some etiquette here, people. Give me a reason to follow and I’ll start listening to you. For example, Paul RJ Muller, aka @Caffination, wrote this tweet:

caffination #followfriday #podcast Because you have to listen @norbtek, @nlma, @cc_chapman, @podcaststeve, @geekazine, @about12minutes

This is telling me these are the podcasts to listen to. Now I do have to admit, my podcast is in the list and I thank Paul for posting. Nonetheless, I know WHY I should be following these people.

I like Meat with my Potatoes. I like bread with butter. Therefore, I like #Followfriday with a reason. You have 140 characters to explain yourself. Make every character worth it.

That is all.

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Posted in Twitter

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Add Cat Litter to Your Toolbox

Posted by fogview at 8:27 AM on May 15, 2009

You may be wondering what cat litter has to do with tech. Let me explain.

A few months ago my T-Mobile G1 phone took a spill when I was on a photo assignment shooting Yosemite National Park. It Android-g1had been raining the day before and my G1 fell right into a puddle of water. I quickly picked it up and wiped it off, but it was DOA when I turned it on. I removed the battery and placed it under the car heater on the way home. When I got home I used a blow dryer to tried to remove any moisture that may have found it’s way inside, but it was still dead. I let it sit for a week and still nothing.

Most phones these days have a little paper sticker inside the battery compartment that changes color when exposed to moisture. I looked inside and sure enough the sticker had changed, dashing my hopes of returning the phone with the excuse that “it just stopped working.” I remembered a tip I heard about sticking the phone in cat litter to help absorb the moisture. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I wrapped the phone in a towel and stuck it in our half-full cat litter container. Two days later I pulled out the phone, inserted the battery, crossed my fingers and turned it on. To my delight the screen came alive and was functional again — well almost functional. Everything seemed to work except I could tell the screen wasn’t quite right. There looked to be a few bubbles which I assume was water inside the display. I removed the battery and stuck it back in the cat litter for a few more days. When I turned it on this time, everything looked good and the water under the display was gone.

Our cat doesn’t care much about tech and ignores most things after her initial investigation, but lately she does have more than a passing interest in my G1 phone. Maybe my interest in gadgets is finally rubbing off on her after all these years.

My tip to you if you find yourself in a similar situation is to remove the battery, shake out any water, dry it off and place it a container of cat litter for a week. I was taking a risk powering it up after I knew it still had water inside, so I was very lucky. Next time it’s going straight into the litter.

73’s, Tom

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Posted in tech

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GNC-2009-05-15 #477 Monster Show Longest of the Year

Posted by geeknews at 10:06 PM on May 14, 2009

Monster Show tonight longest of the year audio comments and e-mails are flooding in keep it up. Voice Mail hotline is +1-619-342-7365 or email geeknews@gmail.com. Apologies on the last shows Audio it is squared away tonight. Jet Lag got the best of me on the last podcast! Huge tech line up tonight, I am still on the road..

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Listener Links:
Italian School Podcast
1,000,000 dollar T-Shirt on Ebay
MAC Update causes headaches
Shuttle Minor Damage

Show Topic Notes:
Cyberwarfare with China
Real Takes the Battle to the DVD Copy Association
FCC to run DTV test on May 21st
Sweden Government comes collecting to Pirate Bay
Boxee write up in Business Week
Gmail makes it easy to move from AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo!
Google Outage causes panic!
Fake Windows 7 Infected with Botnet
Space Debris misses Shuttle
HP Laptop Battery Recall!
Are you a Metal Gear Fan?
iPhone Slingplayer debate continues
Windows Mobile 7 Requirements
Will Hubble Replacement Match Up?
Clear to Launch in Atlanta Next Month!
The air is full of Drugs
Artist to get Paid by Radio
Three Strikes for everyone…
AT&T Network is Saturated whimper whimper.
Reporter should Loose cell phone like a child
Programmers that care about Users keep application size down!
Create your own Social Media Page
Bye Bye TechMeme
Amazon MP3 worth checking out.
Senate Blew it in Credit Card reform. No Guts
New Progress to ISS
Rover Stuck in the mud!
Hubble Spacewalk #1 so far so good!
Want to buy some Moon Junk?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

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Posted in Podcast, Security

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A Short Introduction from Fogview

Posted by fogview at 8:09 PM on May 14, 2009

Hello, my name is Tom Newman (aka Fogview) and I’m the newest blogger on Geek News Central. You may ask what are my Radio-electronics-magqualifications and what will I be bringing to the table. Well, I’m a geek and have been involved with tech for over 30 years. I’m a hardware/software engineer and have been involved with the micro computer revolution (that’s what we called it back in the “old days”) since it first began. I started out as a Test Engineer integrating a Data General Nova 2 minicomputer into the factory manufacturing process of the company where I worked (Diablo Systems). I spotted an article in Radio Electronics magazine talking about a home-brew computer, Mark-8, and decided to build my own Intel 8008 microcomputer. I ordered the circuit boards from author of the article and scrounged all the parts and built my bare-bones system. I finally had my very own computer at home! I hand-coded a simple program in assembly language and amazed myself by having a set of blinking LEDs marching to the beat of my very first 8008 program. I had written pretty large programs at work that could control Diablo HyType Printers, but there was something uplifting about my very own computer that could blink some LEDs.

Fast forward 30 years and here I am. I’m a Windows/PC person who has recently added an iMac and a MacBook to my collection of tools. I’m a computer consultant so I still dabble some in hardware design and programming now and then, but I find myself moving towards web designs and digital photography. I’m also very involved in Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, podcasting, etc.).

Oh, did I mention I’m a geek, just like the majority of those of you who come to Geek News Central and listen to Todd’s podcast. I’m interested in podcasting, video, photography, gadgets, software, and tips to make me and everything I use, work better and faster. That’s what I hope to bring to Geek News Central — reviews, tips, and my view of technology and this new fangled thing called the Internet.

If you want to know more about me, you can always follow me on Twitter @Fogview, or my podcast/blog at Fogview Podcast, and at Fogview Photos. Stop by and say howdy.

73’s, Tom

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Posted in blogging

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Someone must pay the bill for journalism

Posted by Nolan at 6:44 PM on May 14, 2009

Someone has to pay the bill for journalism.  Whether it be in print, radio, video, or online, someone has to pay.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.  What has paid the bill for news so nesfar?  Advertising, advertising, and more advertising.  Everything from full page ads to 4 by 6 ads to the classifieds.  Everything has been paid for by advertising.  Advertising is supposed to bring in business that makes the investment worth it.  Now that ad revenue is reminiscent of the first hill of a roller coaster, all media depending on advertising is struggling.  Newspapers are getting hit with an equivalent left right combo from the fist of George Forman.  Not only are the ads drying up, but the internet is pulling away readers at an alarming rate.  What will they do?  Robert Murdoch wants consumers to pay for the online content.  Good luck.

Consumers must pay for what they consume. We pay for the meal we consume at McDonalds.  We pay for the gas our car consumes.  Consumers makes the economy go around.  The recession has put consumers on a diet and hunt for really cheap and free food.  No meal is ever free or cheap. Someone is paying.  How will consumers pay for journalism in the post-recession era?  Advertising will rebound, but businesses will refuse to put all their eggs in that basket again.

Here is my one idea to throw into the mix.  News organizations could begin to offer paid-for services to consumers that help supplement the advertising revenue.  Perhaps offering personally configured, organized home pages for a small fee.  Or maybe a PDF of your news delivered to your inbox at configurable intervals throughout a day.  The advertising from local businesses could be targeted to the consumer based on the types of news they have selected (not unlike Google).  Web 2.0 is making this all possible.  If news sites keep making us navigate through their selected structure, or read the headlines they suggest it will not be as effective as it could be.  Just an idea.  An idea that has many flaws I am sure, but some possibilities.

So what are you willing to pay for?  There are no free lunches in this world.

Posted in blogging, news

Comments 4 Comments

Google, My Google!

Posted by susabelle at 12:28 PM on May 14, 2009

google2I came into work late this morning due to some car trouble, and walked into my computer lab on campus to a choruses of “there’s something wrong with the Internet!”  It’s finals week, so of course there is a lot of anxiety anyway, but mess with these kids’ Internet, and they lose their minds.

Turns out it wasn’t the Internet.  It was Google.  I logged into my desktop machine and tried to launch Gmail, which is one of the first things I do on any given morning, and it would not load.  Oddly enough, neither would the Google home page.  Nor YouTube.  This last one was probably the thing that sent the lab kids over the edge.  They spend half their days on YouTube.

For me, the loss of Gmail is critical, closely followed by Google docs and then the Google search homepage, which I must use a hundred times a day.  By noon, everything was back up and running just fine, but that two hours or so while I couldn’t access some things was pretty tense.  Most of us probably don’t think too much about how much time we spend using Google products, and what a show-stopper it is when it isn’t working.  For me, it impacted me for a couple of hours, but apparently the outage happened much earlier than my arrival at work and for some lasted about four hours or so.

Google is not yet revealing what the problem is, but promises to do so soon.  I am wondering what the explanation will be when it comes out.

And in the end, what risk are we taking by putting so many eggs in the Google basket?  I like their products and use them regularly, but extended down-time can be a real deal killer.  I don’t have a job where anything that was caught up in a short Google outage is going to keep me from getting my job done, but an extended outage could lead to very real consequences.

Things to ponder on a Thursday.

Posted in gmail, google

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Zune Commercial, Misleading

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 9:56 AM on May 13, 2009

I just watched the latest Microsoft commercial praising the Zune over the Ipod based on price. The commercial basically boils down to its going to cost you $30,000 to fill an 120 GB Ipod so you are better off buying a Zune and paying a subscription of $14.50 a month. First everything the commercial says is true, however its also false. Let me explain what I mean. First it assumes that I am going to get all my songs from the Itune store.   I don’t know anybody who does that. If you are older you have a large collections of CD’s that you transfer to your ipod.   People also get songs from services such as Amazon or Emusic. They also get songs from their friends. This commercial makes it seem like the goal is fill the ipod, people don’t buy a song with the idea that they are trying to fill their ipod, they buy a song because they like the song.  Whether they fill their ipod or not is not even in the thought process. Also, most people use their ipod for things other then just songs, they also have videos, podcast and audio books on them. These items take up a lot more space then songs, and tend to fill up the ipod faster. Finally, libraries are built over a lifetime, the commercial doesn’t mention this fact at all. This is not a criticism of the Zune itself, just the commercial.

Posted in itunes, Microsoft

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Digital Movie Downloads Still Not Mainstream

Posted by susabelle at 8:47 AM on May 13, 2009
NPD Marketing Research Group

NPD Marketing Research Group

New research released today from marketing research company NPD indicates that digital downloading of movies (the legal kind) is still not mainstream.  According to the report, released in March, families reported spending an average of $25 a month on digital entertainment purchase/rentals.  Of that, 63 percent was spent on DVD purchases; 7 percent on Blu-Ray purchases; 18 percent on DVD/Blu-Ray rentals from retail stores, subscriptions or kiosks; 9 percent on video on-demand (VOD); and 3 percent on digital downloads and online streaming.

Further details reveal that 9 percent of consumers with home Internet connections reported watching movies streamed online in the past three months, versus just 5 percent last year; and 8 percent rented a digital movie download – an increase of 4 percentage points since last year. Viewing movies downloaded through game consoles attracted fewer than 5 percent of consumers.

These figures are a bit surprising to me, considering all the ways we can consume movie-type media these days.  I know we are still renting and/or buying DVD’s (not Blu-Ray) and use subscription service Netflix, as well as RedBox, for most of our rentals.  In real terms, the purchase of movies has fallen in our house quite a bit, we tend to rent, then buy those movies that we think we’ll watch again at a later time.

The movie industry has feared the availability of downloading media would be the death of the medium (hard-copy DVD’s), but that hasn’t been the case so far.  I am also surprised somewhat at the low percentage of Blu-Ray purchases/rentals.  I thought my family was the only one left in the country that didn’t have a Blu-Ray player and a cabinet full of Blu-Ray disks.  I’m glad to see we’re not so abnormal.

Posted in Information, Media

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