# Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Pandora for Windows Mobile at last!


Just a quick entry. For those of us that use Windows Mobile phones, we can use pandora at last!!!! I've also posted a snapshot of my phone running the software. Notice the icon at the top for my bluetooth headphones. A2DP ftw

#    Tuesday, December 16, 2008 4:26:01 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] | Trackback
# Thursday, October 30, 2008

We're cornered-The future of internet


We've been used to unlimited downloads, and being limited by speed.  It's worked for many years and could forever in my opinion.  If you want to save some cash, pay for 2mbps, great! Don't expect to stream video.

Comcast has been sending out propoganda explaining that they're going to cap users @ 250 GB/month because a SMALL percentage of users are using a lot of bandwidth doing BAD THINGS!  First off, fuck you, I know you're talking about me. Second, why is it that you're going to give us double our speeds for free if you're strained so much?

Let me explain why: Comcast's first business in our area was TV.  For example, if I start using Netflix's HD streaming via XBOX 360, I will be interferring with their business model and will be taking away money from them. So, this is where the cap comes in. Since I'm also a customer of their internet service, it is easy for Comcast to implement unfair control measures.  The cap discourgages massive downloads and gets customers to begin to get used to limitations.

Perhaps someday we'll be tiered like we pay for TV: $50 for basic package, $15 more for X,Y,Z content, $15 more for the whole internet!

#    Thursday, October 30, 2008 10:12:02 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] | Trackback
# Friday, October 24, 2008

Oh Comcast, are you doing something nice to prepare me for something horrible?


Giz turned my head today: FREE SPEED UPGRADES for existing customers!

6Mbps/1Mbps upgraded --> 12Mbps/2Mbps
8Mbps/2Mbps upgraded --> 16Mbps/2Mbps

New Plans:
22Mbps/5Mbps  $62.95/month
50Mbps/10Mbps $139.95/month

This has been needed for a long time. New providers (att, verizon) have recently entered the market and have been whooping Cable Co's asses. These upgrades are just keeping it competitive.  But this makes me curious... why the free word, Comcast? Sure, I think the upgrade should be free too, but I will accept this upgrade cautiously!

Sad story though... there is no roll out date planned for Illinois (yet).  Guess the part with not having much competition in IL makes us less of a target market.

#    Friday, October 24, 2008 10:21:50 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [2] | Trackback
# Thursday, July 17, 2008

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta 1 Released!!

Seriously, it's not a leak! They actually released it.

They fixed some major bugs that were killing me. For example, if you didn't use the on-screen keyboard, but used the an on-board keyboard, they text box would lose focus in a few places.

Go download it. Go fight of some apple fanboys. :-D  (I just pissed off half of my friends) ((and no jokes about me having 2 friends or something))

Edit: OMFG, it destroys your notification settings. I understand it's beta, but I seriously got screwed a few times. I get all of my emergency call outs via sms......  I can no longer in good conscience recommend this. Looking forward to future releases.

Edit2: Problem has been corrected, doesn't destroy notifications.
#    Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:44:57 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] | Trackback
# Friday, July 11, 2008

Facebook, you might have crossed that distant blurred line


Most of us enjoy the facebook.  Mostly because it keeps our friends close, but we can easily push them away when they get annoying. But seriously, I wouldn't do that to you guys......

Anyway, one of the latest features allows you to comment on a friend's Mini-Feed.  I'm going to specifically point out that this does involve relationship 'changes'.  If you want to say something, say it on the wall, or in a private message, or better yet: just call your friend....  Chances are that if you don't have their number, you shouldn't comment anyway.  Most people don't mind these items popping up on their Mini-Feed. Nothing wrong with it being known, but people micro-commenting on your life is a bit creepy.

So Peter votes +1, lets just remove that feature.
#    Friday, July 11, 2008 7:13:49 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [3] | Trackback
# Monday, June 30, 2008

Netflix profiles are now staying?

I recently brought up that Netflix was killing off profiles.  Well, now they're doubling back on that. So since you're going to keep them around, how about you allow the second profile to use "Watch It Now"?  I understand I can create 10 profiles and give it to my friends so they can use my unlimited, but I feel that can be programmed around.  Just my humble opinion.


Dear Peter,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix



Edit: Oh ALSO! Please figure out a way for us to delete profiles.  I can help you drum up the SQL command if you really need me to.

#    Monday, June 30, 2008 3:37:30 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [2] | Trackback
# Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Opera Mobile 9.5

Opera Mobile 9.5 has been something many have been looking forward to for a long time!! It generates full websites and does NOT need the mobile version that many sites provide.  Some betas popped up on XDA recently 1409 build.  It performs EXTREMELY well for a beta on my Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) running WM 6.1.  I highly recommend it to anyone using Windows Mobile!

Set this browser to be your default via the registry.  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Rai\:DEFBROWSER.  I just changed :MSPIE to "/windows/operal.exe".  You should be able to go back to MSIE, but why would you?  I found that reg key from the 1409 link. Thanks ycavan

Edit: Modified pic to show actual screenshot of application. Pic taken with Remote Zoom-in

Edit2: Also like to bleed my memory and not release it, just FYI

Edit3: 1409 build added. much more stable, rapes ram less. Also added regi option for def browser. Why wasn't this in the app?

#    Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:55:10 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [0] | Trackback
# Friday, June 20, 2008

To my fellow nerds... Server collocation

A few of us have talked about renting some dedicated hosting. Primarily collocation hosting. It'd mean upfront purchase and ownership of server, and only a monthly cost for rack space, power, internets, bandwidth.

Personally, I'm very tired for getting pw3nd by shared hosting providers. I do understand that it can't be perfect, but you still have to have a decent uptime, and you can't lie. I'd go into detail about how 1and1 has screwed with me over the years but I'll be brief (tried to cancel webhosting but keep Exchange, but told me I had to get a different Exchange account and transfer my mail, or else it would be lost since the Exchange was 'attached' to the webhosting. Seems like a billing problem, not MY problem. Also, if I call you to tell you your server has been down for 30 minutes, and I call and you fix it while I'm on hold, don't passively treat me like I'm bothering you because everything is working)

Also, their .net app restrictions are not the best.

Okay, it wasn't too brief. But I've played out the numbers assuming I purchase the server, and it'll cost you less than good meal per month.

Update: +1 BJ +1 SP +1PS

Check out http://ntsource.com/web-hosting/colocation-web-hosting.html

Update: BJ and PeterS have brought up cloud hosting options like Amazon's EC2 and GoGrid. I am not very familiar with these, and they seem to charged based on application. But if it were possible to have a single app running windows server 2008 VM, I could see it working.

#    Friday, June 20, 2008 8:52:28 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [75] | Trackback
# Thursday, June 19, 2008

Netflix discontinuing profiles (blogging at a ball game... )


I'm at the Sox game. Great game! My sister caught a foul ball and the White Sox are winning.

Onto the nerdy stuff. Just got an email from Netflix. They're discontinuing profiles. They never worked well, so at least they're going away. The main problem was that different profiles couldn't watch instant material. Sox scored. I can understand their hesitation since it could lead to abuse, but this could be avoided with limitations on the number of profiles and length of viewing allowed.
Sox scored. Thome almost had a heart attack.

Sent from my Windows MobileĀ® phone.

Update: Photo added, was supposed to be email-to-blog, but 1and1 blocks sockets.... ftl. Looking for new hosting provider.
#    Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:50:21 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [1] | Trackback
# Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Getfirefox.com gets hammered as people look for FF3 - Servers die in process



I eventually got through and Firefox 3 wasn't even on the site at the appropriate time (maybe they took it down to limit downloads? nothing listed on their blog status). The site keeps going down. Hope they bring it up soon, they were putting a lot of marketing into the whole world record download within 24 hours.
As a partial defense to Mozilla, they did mention that you cannot use the self update as it won't count towards their record keeping. But it probably still shouldn't crash, eh.

Update: Finally got it downloading @ 2:00 PM CST (12:00 PDT). 2 hours late, but at least they still have 22 hours to go. Good luck!

#    Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:20:51 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [7] | Trackback
# Monday, June 16, 2008

Firefox 3

As Sam pointed out, hell has frozen over. I've practically changed over to Firefox and impatiently waiting for version 3 to come out tomorrow. I am one of the many who pledged to download tomorrow.
Compared to IE7, it supports my CSS much better. Which can be a problem. I make a site look perfect in FF, but looks horrible when many others pull it up in IE. No need to rant, but that's the way of the world. When developing, you must make it cross-browser. But this is also where the FF plugin for IE come in. I can easily change between browers within an IE tab to test a page. Also works well for site that require IE (OWA).
Another plugin is Ad-Block. I feel a bit guilty taking away ad content from sites, but most of the time I only do it for sites with HORRIBLE advertising. Example: Facebook. Advertisement are based on your personal status in your profile. I am listed as single, so they throw up singles ads. Makes sense right? Why is it that the majority of the ads sporting gay men? And yes, I know I opened myself up for jokes. Facebook is making a judgement, but they only looked as far as me being single. They didn't go the rest of the way to see what sex I listed as "interested in". *click* ads gone.
The plugin management, and autoupdate for each plugin is fantastic. I don't have to go back to the addon page to seek an update, it pops up and notifies me. Hooray. To be fair, FF3 RC3 has been a memory behemoth. I use it heavily @ work, and most of the time I cannot leave it running over night. It will typically crash once a day. Perhaps tomorrow will show improvement. Is that decent enough of a reason, Sam.

#    Monday, June 16, 2008 5:19:10 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [1] | Trackback