Well looks like the cat and mouse game is on again. After all the happy days of multiple unlocking solutions coming out of every corner of the world, now we’re are faced with the biggest hurdle yet.

Andrew says: AT&T is not making itself look very good either. Their charge for non-registration after 30 days is just ludicrous. My recommendation is that you just keep on with your ole’ iPhone and ignore the new “features”. I can’t seem anything that really excites me about the new iPhone anyway. What exactly is worth losing your freedom to chose what network you are using anywhere in the world?

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Holy Taco:

WHY YOU THINK YOURE COOL: Dude, this game totally rocks! I love this song! Hell yes! Welcome to the Jungle, baby! Youre gonna diiiiiiiiiiiee!

WHY YOURE NOT COOL: Despite what the commercial says, you do not suddenly turn into Slash when youre playing this video game. You are playing a child-sized guitar that doesnt even have strings. It has multi-colored buttons and an on/off button. And playing this video game does not mean you can play the guitar now. If I have to hear someone say I can totally play Anarchy in the UK but actually mean I can totally play Anarchy in the UK on Guitar Hero, I am going to take a pee inside the nearest PS3.

Warning: Language

the blog québécois

Facebook’s launch of the Beacon service—which informs Facebook of members’ activities (i.e., purchases) on other sites—was a PR fiasco. But it still familiarized millions of users with the notion that they can control information about themselves online—and determine to whom it is visible.


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and I have bad news.

The good news is that I got a new computer for Xhriata. (I was intending to type “Christmas,” but this is a new keyboard, so my fingers are getting a bit tangled up. Besides, “Xhriata” sounds like a perfectly good holiday, if somewhat paganistic.)

It came just in time. My old computer was beginning to generate some interesting (read: incomprehensible) Windows errors and I was contemplating buying an external disk drive to backup my files.

So with considerable delight I unwrapped a very nice, very powerful Hewlett-Packard computer running Vista Home Premium. At last I’ll be able to play the latest version of Flight Simulator (running the demo on my old machine was like watching a slideshow).

Now for the bad news: I got a new computer. The first thing I noticed when I popped off the Quick Access Panel is that the hard drives used a completely different cabling configuration than in my old computer. I’m not sure if this is a Vista thing (I really can’t see why) or, more likely, that Hewlett-Packard got a deal on some strange Chinese drives. Or that the computer industry decided to make a massive technology shift, and I didn’t get the memo.

Well, whatever. The upshot is that I had some 200+ gigs of stuff on my old drives, with no convenient way of transferring it. Much of it was in the form of programs that would have had to been upgraded to Vista-compliant versions. No point in moving those; but there were thousands of music files, photos, etc., that I am rather fond of and would have to transfer eventually, most likely by setting up a network or with a null-modem transfer cable.

The things I really needed—bookmarks, certain specialized programs and the like—would fit comfortably on a single CD, so I set about burning that. Then the CD writer died, and the CD itself was unreadable. I was starting to believe in The Curse Of Xhriata.

Then I had one of those d’oh! moments familiar to anyone who’s worked with computers. I was absently-mindedly thumbing through some advertising flyers when I came across one from a local electronics chain, offering its post-Xmas sales. Hi-def TVs, games, iPods, Flash USB drives, Nintendo acc—wait, what?

Though both computers had slots for them, using USB memory sticks to transfer data never even crossed my mind, likely because I hadn’t used one before.

Far faster than CDs, and much less in expense/frustration than the other solutions I was thinking of.

So that’s what’s been occupying my attention for the last few days. I expect posting will be erratic while I sort out my computer and try to whip myself into some semblance of a routine.

It’s good to be back; I hope to have some new stuff up shortly.

Most of us have had RSS feeds for quite a long time; especially if you are using one of the more advanced blogging systems. Once you have an RSS feed it can sometimes be a bit of bugger to get people to actually subscribe to it. Well rssHugger is one of those methods for getting people to discover your feed and content.

Its easy to sign up and there is even a free method for getting listed. The fee method is not that expensive being $20 for lifetime; which can be paid via paypal. The site is easy to use and fairly straightforward to get round; something which is not as common as one might suspect. Well recommended whether you are a seasoned blogger or just getting started.

I feel for all the teenagers who have been promised a next gen machine for Christmas this year only to wake up tomorrow to find that their parents have got them a Wii. Now the Wii is a great machine if you have small children but there is not much of use for anyone over about 13. Never mind the fact that they Wii’s games are bloody expensive and they tend to only have lame stuff like Mario sports in bundles with the console.

What? What? I just see a cute iPod. You see other things, that’s your problem, homo.

A Rorschach moment from the lads at b3ta

the blog québécois

This hasn’t happened to me (yet), but I recently ran across this Microsoft technical bulletin:

During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play “Fur Elise” or “It’s a Small, Small World” seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer’s BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on.

Yeah, that’s really intuitive engineering there, guys. I know that immediately I hear the haunting melody of “Fr Elise,” my thoughts turn automatically to CPU fan failure. (I understand that Beethoven was plagued with the very same problem, made all the worse because he couldn’t hear it power down.)

Like it would have killed you to put up a warning message or something?

the blog québécois

is a program that tracks some Wikipedia edits (only the anonymous ones, as registered members have their IP addresses obscured, and only a sampling of those, as the frequency of edits is too fast to comfortably read).

I’m not sure it has any practical utility, but it is interesting to watch.

the blog québécois

You need a programmer to do something for you freelance? Not interested in hiring a full time member of staff to do a wee bit of programming? Well get programmers for the price you want on the web. Its all done virtually with saves on transport and other assorted costs. Its easy to get recommendations and to see their work without leaving your desk. Of if you are a programmer and want to be programmer merc then head there too.

Back in the day; when many people weren’t really au fait with the internet it was really rather neat to send someone an e-card. Of course now everyone knows about the about the internet and are getting/sending e-cards all over the place. So now you have to take it to the next level to get an E-Cards that shows you are bleeding edge.

Well how about artistically satisfying e-cards that are both lovely and fairly rare? How about a wee $10 fee for a year of E-Cards to send to your loved ones and mates. Not the bog standard e-card but something that is a cut about the rest.

Hear it roar…

It has been installed on all three Macs in the house. No problems as of yet. However we all seem to be seeing it and wondering what the fuss is about. Cool background though!

I have found this rather interesting new twist to the search engine thing. This one will be very interesting to those who try to find individuals rather than sites or things. Its called http://www.spock.com and it allows searches for people via various categories ranging from their name to their interests or fame.

I have been getting into some interesting conversations about people who are feeling that Google have a bit too much power when it comes to their search engine status. The recent row over anti-MoveOn adverts have shown that they are developing censorist instincts that are rather worrying. Also worrying is how much of an effect cutting someones Page Rank can have on their online future. I like Google as a search engine and always have; but competition is always a good thing.

Spock is great is because its not trying to ape Google or just tweak what it does. This is a truly new take on the whole search engine game. There are a few teething problems with it that I can find. It does not want to accept my middle name. So I appear as Andrew Dodge instead of Andrew Ian Dodge in their listings. As there are several other Andrew Dodges in the world this is quite frustrating. I happen to know there is only one Andrew Ian Dodge in the world and its me.

I searched for myself and came up with nothing but came up with several other Andrew Dodges when I try that search scream. The use of middle names might help with this problem. Hopefully this annoyance will be fixed in the beta. The site also asks for quite a bit of personal information but thankfully you are not obligated to give it if you are worried about identity theft. Actually I have found a way of tweaking your name on the site that is neither straightforward nor simple. Why it does not accept your name the way you want it from the get go is beyond me,.

Anyway another take on the search engine is a good thing to see. Its early days but this one could become a valuable tool

There are lots of great applications out there online to help one get the most of our busy day. Many of them most people dont know and they are the secrets of the uber-geeky or the ultra internet savy. Well no more, Freelancer has written a handy guide with over 131 in his list. They range from the very specific to the useful for everybody. Its an impressive list of stuff.

Ones that caught eye include one called l8r, aka online speak for later. He describes this app with the following few lines.

If youre working at 2AM but prefer that your client thinks you keep normal hours, you can use l8r to delay sending messages until a specified time. You can also use it to schedule emails that you know youll send, like reminders.

I appreciate this one as someone who lives in the UK but deals with quite a few people in the US. There is nothing worse than finding yourself staying up to the early hours without even realising it.

As a blogger I am interested in the ability to blog from my mobile phone. This is especially the case when I have to use my UK phone which alas I not an iPhone.

Blog From Your Cell Phone: Send a text or photo SMS to go@blogger.com, and youll be able to make posts to your blog.

This means that Blogger users can post at any time any where. I have blogged from my iPhone and it was rather cool.

These are two of the myriad of tips and tricks in this list. It will take you a while to go through them but they are well worth it.

“The law firms of Folkenflik & McGerity and Hoffman & Lazear have filed a $1.2 billion class action suit on behalf of iPhone owners against Apple and AT&T Mobility (AT&T’s cellular unit) in US District Court. The case, Paul Holman and Lucy Rivello v. Apple, Inc., AT&T Mobility, LLC., claims that the companies’ agree…”

This could get interesting. Now that its gone federal things are going to get messy.

read more | digg story

The class actions suit has its own site.

South Park style. I laugh out the side of my face however as the studio where we recorded a bunch of tracks for our new EP just had a major PC meltdown (virus related) and that combined with the bloody UK postal strike means big delays in getting the full tracks for mixing.

Found via: AMG

It seems the EU have forced Linden Labs to start charging VAT on transactions with Europeans. Linden stupidly opened an office in the UK and thus put themselves into this situation. However if the transactions are between avatars there is no such VAT charged. No one should be too shocked to see the EU muscling in or rather taxing Second Life. The theiving bastards are trying to get their bloody mitts on everything. If you are a Euro user of Second Life and want to find out how to minimise your VAT obligations in Second Life I recommend you get in touch with the good people at BNT in Second Life. They have EU based clients and no how to deal with things SL.

We all have mobile phones these days of various kinds of varying quality. Most people who have phones, especially younger users, are always striving to make their phone theirs and extension of their personality. Instead of just being a piece of equipment its an extension of self with screensavers, covers and other fun stuff. A lot of people try to find an individual ring tone as well. Then again some people try to have the latest trendy one; as when Crazy Frog was all the rage.

Those with Motorola phones are keen to find Motorola Ringtones at the cheapest and best rate possible. There are lots of sources but everyone wants to find the best one. Its best to find a site with a large selection, like thousands so you can find one that best suits your needs.

You want to find a site that is straightforward, easy to use and more importantly wont rip you off. You want to know what you are getting from the minute you sign up with no hidden surprises when you get the bill. This is especially the case if you are a parent with a ring tone hungry offspring. Things have to upfront, clear and precise so you know what you are signing yourself or them up to in the long run.

Now some who read this blog might think I am a complete whore to big oil and am not keen at all on any kind of alternative energy. In fact I am quite keen on methods to discover alternate energy sources; so long as they are not artifically made financially viable via generous grants of taxpayers money to force it on the market. So when I see a company sponsoring an event to further the study of alternative energy and the increased effectiveness of existing technologies I am always keen to give them a plug.

One such even is the BP Solar Decathlon that is taking place this week in Washington, DC on the Mall. In this event twenty teams from all over world are attempting to win this contest to make the best house solely relies on solar power for its energy sources. This week long event is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work for these students. And the contest is keen to stress these dwellings must be livable and no something out of a Japanese cyberpunk anime film. Americans are not going to be keen on living in little tubes or small boxes. They need their creature comforts as you can imagine.

Oh and naturally the competition has a group blog for all the competitors. You can find it here if you are keen to follow their exploits and experiences. I am not sure if I would want to be a human guinea pig on the mall in our nations capital.

As you know this blog has some interesting in online marketing and campaigns. Both from a political and practical point of view it is something we keep an eye on. Never know when might need to know about it. No doubt many of you would like to find about ways to find out about iContact Enterprise Email Marketing Software. You can sign up for a free trial iContact on the site. Their clients include AT&T, T-Mobile, International Paper, Re/Max, Ford, Nissan, LG Electronics and would you believe the DoJ? Hey if its good enough for the feds.

Are you looking for website hosting that is inexpensive and reliable? As with anything else online it pays to look around when finding website hosting, this is especially true if you are a blogger about to move from blogspot to yer own host. I am in the market for a good host for my wife’s blog so I am looking around right now. If you are in a similar search as I am then might I recommend Mysite.com as a potential host? With their reasonable prices and varied hosting packages they are the perfect host for a blogger. The packages start at $0 a month (with their adverts) and raise due to your need.

Do you need time management software for a project, but don’t want to spend loads of money on a program you are only going to use very briefly? Well how about a free timesheet with a 10 person licence that lets you automate payroll, billing & project management. It intergrates with MS Project, Quickbooks and other leading programs allowing you to run the timesheet from your PC. The program is simple to use and will have you getting things sorted in 5 minutes or so. Its free so why not give it a try?

Before you hit that ‘Upgrade’ button, here are a few items of community interest to consider.

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Its a good idea not to instantly upgrade yer iPhone when ever you are aware of a new update. First of all Apple has a history of messing things up if you don’t have a “pure” iPhone and early adopters generally are risking some problems. There are plenty of people willing to jump at any new update and then write about it. Keep calm and lets others take the possible pain.

What a farce the whole thing is. The website which you are sent to enter a contest to win the right to pay 125 for a ticket has spelling errors. Add to this the fact the page barely functions and has yet to do so for me without crashing to the frustration since the announcement. Surely the people organising this gig would have realised its popularity. Having a site incapable of handling the server load is both unfair and incompetent. The f***wit who programmed and organised the page should be sacked.

Its a bloody disgrace.

Update: not surprisingly the deadline for registration has been extended. That might have something to do with the site meltdown and the fact it was unreachable for quite a long time.

Here is some good project manager software that is available on Mac, Windows or Linux that is inexpensive and doesn’t required a degree to use. Its quality project management software for Mac OS X and Windows that works in your browser rather than via some huge download or some expensive packing with a program inside. Lots of choices are available on the site from varying degrees of complexity for all uses. The site is clear, clean and loads quickly. If you need project managment software then have a look.

When it comes to protecting your home or other property there has always been a bit of quandary between the various pros and cons. You want to protect what is yours but you don’t want to ruin the night sky for everyone else in the area. You don’t want to collectively punish all your neighbours with your exterior lighting just because some neer-do-wells might want to rob or damage your property. There are new technological developments that make exterior lighting far more effective and targeted. Efficiency in such an endeavour is both a benefit in terms of money and its effective on your neighbours.

Nothing is more bloody annoying that getting something in a format you can either not use or that you can’t work with. Its amazing how many people still send out things in outdated or useless format expecting you to work with them. If you find yourself in this sort of position then 101 Tools to Convert Video, Music, Images, PDF and More might be just the post you want to bookmark and refer to in times of need. It might be good to send this link to whomever is sending you the useless formats as well.

No matter what format you are sent there is bound to be a conversion tool and/or advice out there. The page above is a good place to start.

Sending out mailings needn’t be like a shot in the dark, randomly blasting at people and hoping they will follow the trail back to you. Its far more worthwhile and cost effective to target the right people with the right mailing. You want mailing lists that fit in with what you are trying to attract people to with the email. Some people might not approve but affective targeting of mass emails does have its affect.

Modern technology allows targeting and filtering of lists to a degree not imagined by the mass mailing inventors of the past. If you need this sort of service its pays to talk to people who know what the technology can do for you.

Well that is if you can find a way to qaulify for the academic discount. Home schooling does work as well; which will please parents to who teach their children at home. The site is Costcaptain.com and they promise quick service. If you have a favourite student that is reaching the age where Word might be useful; they site offers handy gift certificates. Though I recommend you not use this for a birthday as they might not appreciate it; at that age.

There are quite sites on the web to help one with technical queries and ponderings. They range in quality, scope and usefulness. Too often you have a query and find that the site has nothing on the subject you need or is so basic as to be completely useless in extremis. But as we all know, when you are in dire need of tech advice, normally about 9pm or worse at 3am you are desperate for the right advice quickly and efficiently. There is always something you dont know, no matter how clever you are at all things IT.

There is a good site for all kinds of technical advice and discussion; whether its software programming, website development and even analysis on market trends. This site handles from the coding to the market vagaries of all aspects of IT. Discuss Web caters for both the keen enthusiast and the professional; carefully blending information to be useful for all. The motto for the site is fusing techies together which is most amusing whatever way you take it. The site is clean and clear, as you would hope with such a site it loads quickly and is not cluttered with loads of advertisement and distractions.

Presented in the familiar forum format, the page has threads and pages that are easy to find and examine. There is a handy top 10 stats graphic at the top of the site that helps you find out what everyone is taking about in a variety of subjects by posters, popularity of thread and what is newest. The site is absolutely free to join and merely requires a simple registration process to get started. Forums are broken down into sections that are simple and logical like software or web development.

The site looks to be a good resource for all techies of whatever skill set. No muss, no fuss just the info you want when you want it. And lets face it when it comes to IT there is no such thing as too much information.