I'm now keeping all of my "Techsploration" posts (that is, all previous posts from this blog) in my main blog: Love All Books.
This blog is only being kept around for any permalinks and comments that might have been posted.
20061206
I will not become a Luddite, I will not become a Luddite, I will not . . .
As has been mentioned elsewhere, I've been busy helping Rob developing his multimedia products, so I've been a tad busy lately. Yesterday (Tuesday) & today, for instance, I've been inserting screen captures (from one of his DVDs we're producing) into the companion ebook.
None of which has anything to do with the title of this post, it's just an explanation about the lack of posts to this blog.
What the title is about is Monday.
On Monday I had to take our Honda Accord in for service, so I called the dealer and made an appointment with them to bring it in.
Then I checked online at the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory to see if there was a free wi-fi hotspot nearby. I was pleased to see that there was free wi-fi at the mall nearby (Burnsville Center).
I took the laptop as well as the Accord to the appointment, and asked the service department for a shuttle ride over to the mall.
When I got there, I hoisted out the laptop, turned it on, scanned for nearby networks, and there it was! A free, open connection, courtesy of Caribou Coffee. So I dragged my laptop to the food court, almost exactly under Caribou's kiosk, and tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect . . .
And called Caribou's help line, spending nine minutes and sixteen seconds on the phone with them (according to my cellphone's call log) and then waited for a call back.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Then I called the dealer and got a ride back to spend the remaining time in their waiting area.
However, not all was lost.
The waiting area at the dealer had the latest copy (December 2006) of Popular Science, with a good deal of really cool stuff in it that I'll write about once I buy a copy and can report on it.
Oh, yeah, and guess who called just as I was getting back to the dealer?
That's right—customer support at Caribou.
None of which has anything to do with the title of this post, it's just an explanation about the lack of posts to this blog.
What the title is about is Monday.
On Monday I had to take our Honda Accord in for service, so I called the dealer and made an appointment with them to bring it in.
Then I checked online at the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory to see if there was a free wi-fi hotspot nearby. I was pleased to see that there was free wi-fi at the mall nearby (Burnsville Center).
I took the laptop as well as the Accord to the appointment, and asked the service department for a shuttle ride over to the mall.
When I got there, I hoisted out the laptop, turned it on, scanned for nearby networks, and there it was! A free, open connection, courtesy of Caribou Coffee. So I dragged my laptop to the food court, almost exactly under Caribou's kiosk, and tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect.
And tried to connect . . .
And called Caribou's help line, spending nine minutes and sixteen seconds on the phone with them (according to my cellphone's call log) and then waited for a call back.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Then I called the dealer and got a ride back to spend the remaining time in their waiting area.
However, not all was lost.
The waiting area at the dealer had the latest copy (December 2006) of Popular Science, with a good deal of really cool stuff in it that I'll write about once I buy a copy and can report on it.
Oh, yeah, and guess who called just as I was getting back to the dealer?
That's right—customer support at Caribou.
20061111
20061031
More Google!!!
And more: I just found out about Google Reader at Peter Glyman's blog. (This is a new blog for me that I'll be paying more attention to in the future.)
Anyway, this Reader looks fantastic. It's just the thing I need. Don't believe me? Believe Peter then: "It’s a killer app and they have a module for your customized google home page."
See! Told'ya!!!
Anyway, this Reader looks fantastic. It's just the thing I need. Don't believe me? Believe Peter then: "It’s a killer app and they have a module for your customized google home page."
See! Told'ya!!!
Filed in: Google Google.Reader GoogleReader PeterGlyman Peter.Glyman
Talk about love!
While I'm typically a slow adapter, I'm very proud to say that I've used Google as my search engine of choice for longer than anyone I know. It was still in beta when I stumbled upon it and I just jumped on it right away.
The thing I loved about it back then was that it had this little thing called a "cache", and I was sick of Alta Vista returning search results that—when clicked on—tried in vain to take me to pages that no longer existed.
(I am, of course, being cute; as a programmer, I knew what a cache was.)
It got to the point that no matter how perfect a returned result seemed, I usually didn't bother clicking on it if the URL contained ".edu" and a tilde ("Y'know tilde, don't you? Reader, meet ~, ~ meet reader.")
It screamed STUDENT, and the thing about students is: they move on. They drop out, they graduate, whatever; they go . . . their pages go. It's that simple.
Google's cache changed that.
That was then (what, ten years ago, perhaps? Certainly eight, at least) and this is now.
Now, I use Google Desktop on my PC with its widgets (or gadgets or whatever). (And on my new Dell laptop, which has a wider screen, I use the sidebar as well.)
Very cool.
(Especially the onscreen battery indicator in the sidebar on the definitely NOT a Compaq laptop.)
Now, my personalized Google page is my home page on IE and FireFox on both machines.
My personalized Google page has 6 tabs (evidently the max, dang it!): Home, Sports/Entertainment, Ajax, Tech, Science, and Bookmarks.
(Since I have my bookmarks on the home tab, I think I'm going to re-purpose that one the next time I decide I need a new tab. And I suppose I could throw the Ajax into Tech and perhaps merge Science in with it if it becomes necessary, but more than "more tabs" what I'd really like is the ability to better organize the page . . . like the ability to create subsections that could be collapsed/expanded, or some such).
Now, I blog (on Blogger). Oh, yeah, and Google owns Blogger (You didn't know that? It's true.) And now, yes, those ads on my blogs are (ahem) "Ads by Google". (Which isn't to say—Terms of Service permitting—I won't put other ads on as well later, but right now, that's what I've got.)
So, yes, I'd say the love affair is complete. I didn't see this coming when I became, possibly for the only time in my life, an early adaptor eight to ten years ago.
Long live Google!
The thing I loved about it back then was that it had this little thing called a "cache", and I was sick of Alta Vista returning search results that—when clicked on—tried in vain to take me to pages that no longer existed.
(I am, of course, being cute; as a programmer, I knew what a cache was.)
It got to the point that no matter how perfect a returned result seemed, I usually didn't bother clicking on it if the URL contained ".edu" and a tilde ("Y'know tilde, don't you? Reader, meet ~, ~ meet reader.")
It screamed STUDENT, and the thing about students is: they move on. They drop out, they graduate, whatever; they go . . . their pages go. It's that simple.
Google's cache changed that.
That was then (what, ten years ago, perhaps? Certainly eight, at least) and this is now.
Now, I use Google Desktop on my PC with its widgets (or gadgets or whatever). (And on my new Dell laptop, which has a wider screen, I use the sidebar as well.)
Very cool.
(Especially the onscreen battery indicator in the sidebar on the definitely NOT a Compaq laptop.)
Now, my personalized Google page is my home page on IE and FireFox on both machines.
My personalized Google page has 6 tabs (evidently the max, dang it!): Home, Sports/Entertainment, Ajax, Tech, Science, and Bookmarks.
(Since I have my bookmarks on the home tab, I think I'm going to re-purpose that one the next time I decide I need a new tab. And I suppose I could throw the Ajax into Tech and perhaps merge Science in with it if it becomes necessary, but more than "more tabs" what I'd really like is the ability to better organize the page . . . like the ability to create subsections that could be collapsed/expanded, or some such).
Now, I blog (on Blogger). Oh, yeah, and Google owns Blogger (You didn't know that? It's true.) And now, yes, those ads on my blogs are (ahem) "Ads by Google". (Which isn't to say—Terms of Service permitting—I won't put other ads on as well later, but right now, that's what I've got.)
So, yes, I'd say the love affair is complete. I didn't see this coming when I became, possibly for the only time in my life, an early adaptor eight to ten years ago.
Long live Google!
20061029
Net Neutrality (sub-part II)
I'm calling this "sub-part II" so as to be not confused with a discussion about part 2 of Nelson King's article in ComputerUser (which hasn't been published yet, to the best of my knowledge).
No, this is just in case you were interested in the topic, I just ran across this link. I haven't checked it out yet closely myself, and I'm willing to bet it is very partisan, but feel free to take a look.
No, this is just in case you were interested in the topic, I just ran across this link. I haven't checked it out yet closely myself, and I'm willing to bet it is very partisan, but feel free to take a look.
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