Jul
01
I was looking for a solution to easily get photos off my phone and into Dropbox. Ideally they would make it so you could setup any folder on your Android phone to sync with a Dropbox folder. This will probably happen sooner or later but as far as I know is not currently available.
At the very least I was looking to be able to select multiple files within Gallery or Astro File Manager and then just click the Share button and then pick Dropbox. Thus I could select all the files on my phone and Share them to Dropbox. However, I was shocked to discover that the default Gallery app in Android 2.2 does not have multiple select. iOS has had this for a long time. Pretty frustrating. Worse there has been some silly delay releasing Gingerbread 2.3 and so I am stuck with Froyo 2.2 until they do that (I am not interested in messing around with XDA Roms).
Solution
Install QuickPic - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/05/quickpic-is-a-fast-free-gallery-replacement-for-android/ - it has multiple select and then you can Share to Dropbox all of the files you multi-selected.
Apr
04
I think it is important to share this experience because I had to waste an hour dealing with this thing and I want to save some other people time.
How I Got The Virus
I am a programmer, former IRC geek and earn my living running websites and doing internet marketing so I generally like to think of myself as savvy with computers. However, I was browsing an admittedly dodgy site, using Firefox, and loaded the page. That’s it. That is enough to get this virus. You do not need to click on file attachments or use Internet Explorer 6. Using the latest version of Firefox I got the virus just by visiting the page. I guess I am going to have to switch to Google Chrome.
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Jan
11
Check out facebook down. They provide a central hub to confirm if facebook is actually down or if it is more of a local issue. You can also post a report of your downtime and read about other people’s experiences with it being down in real time.
Dec
06
I call this software because that it is web-based software but think “a few clicks on a website and it works” rather than downloading and configuring a standalone piece of software. This wonderful company has come up with a PC screen capture software called Screenr. You can find the application at http://screenr.com. It is incredibly easy to use and within about 5 minutes you can have a very high resolution, high quality, hosted screen capture with audio. The idea for the software is to share your screencast over twitter but that is not necessary. You can just make a screencast and then email people the link to it.
The things that they got very right:
-ease of use - literally effortless to make a screencast
-quality of product - the screencast looks and sounds great, even in standard definition, though there is an HD button
-making it free
-making it so you do not have to sign up for a bunch of junk to use it
The things they got wrong:
-nothing.
This is a great product, if you need to make a screencast or capture your PC/MAC, this is the easiest and best way I have ever seen to do it. Also, this is a good demonstration of a web application doing a better job than you can do with installed software.
Nov
19
I just came across this website called Boutiques.com and it is made by Google. Proof here: http://www.boutiques.com/terms.py.
Pretty surprising that a company that almost exclusively hires nerds and cannot do anything social for the life of them would attempt a foray into fashion. Wait a second… I know what happened here. This is an attempt by a bunch of geeks to get attractive women into the Google office and make the company look less like a Dungeons and Dragons club and more like…. facebook.
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Oct
27
I have been researching about options for water heaters and the cost of owning versus renting and just wanted to share my conclusions. It seems renting a water heater is a really BIG rip-off. Regardless of whether you get the tankless or the tank kind, your rent from DirectEnergy works out to buying it after 3.5 years. On average they last 12 years for tank, 20 years for tankless. Therefore if you rent it, you could have bought it 3 or 4 times during the lifespan of the appliance.
Here are some numbers for a Tankless water heater:
- Owning - About $2,800 with taxes to install Lowe’s Bosch tankless water heater. You have to pay for repairs which we can estimate at $2,000 over 20 years. therefore $4,800.
- Renting - $40/month from DirectEnergy. Over 20 years the cost to you is $9,600. They pay for the repairs so the cost to you is $9,600.
You can see why they want you to rent. Because this is such a lucrative business, there are also these from other third-party pirate companies who come to door-to-door to try and rent you a water heater. Their pricing is an even bigger rip-off. The one advantage of renting is they will fix it if there are any problems. This sounds appealing but so will 100s of companies you can find in the YellowPages and the cost of all the maintenance over the lifespan of the heater will never work out to the thousands you spend on rent.
That is my two cents on water heaters.
Apr
06
This is hilarious. Maybe because of this article and the many other ones like it pointing out what a racket and waste of time the products behind this series of ads is, they have adapted the title on the ads to “1 Tip for a Flat Belly”.
Don’t you scammers get it?? This is wrong. You are deceiving real people who need this money for more important things in their lives. This is not a victimless crime, there are people out there who are not providing for their children as well as they could be because they are being scammed by you.
To the people clicking on these ads, I would restate there are no short cuts when it comes to personal health and weight management. When you live in a world where caloric temptation is everywhere, it really just takes a lot of hard work and discipline to not eat too much. Likewise, when you are working too hard and making poor choices like paying for weight loss scam potions, you will not have as much free time as you need for exercise. Health is what you want. Good health really will make you happy. Why sacrifice it for less important things?
Anyway, I still think it’s amazing how quickly they have adapted.
Jan
20
This is such a cool advertising campaign for the new GAP Sprize loyalty campaign:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/gap_sprize_loyalty_program_launch
Though it seems rather blunt and obvious, no one had done it before and it is actually very clever. Not to mention the free buzz something this clever gets because it is very bloggable, twitterable and smart. Even looks like a great execution. Wish they would do something like that here in Bermuda. Anyway, enjoy the video, only takes two minutes and is pretty cool.
Jan
13
OK, I thought it was only right to point out the fraud that is being perpetrated on people throughout the world and explain how it works.
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