Man, I need an iPhone now, but I still won’t join AT&T so I guess I won’t be getting one.  (Someone really needs to make this App for the T-Mobile G1!)  If I had this I wouldn’t have to text you guys for “exits”.  Not that I’ve done that in a long time…  (^_-);;

Another interesting application has popped up on the Apple App Store that allows you to send fake phone calls to yourself, presumably to get you out of a spot of bother.

Called aptly Fake Call, the call won’t cost you anything as it doesn’t actually pick up on the other end, but who’s to know you are not speaking to yourself when you answer the phone?

1. When you’ve just realised that the girl you’ve taken out on a date has a five o’clock shadow.

2. When you’re at a funeral wake and while talking to an elderly person you realise that you don’t actually know the deceased.

3. When your girlfriend comes back from meeting her friend who just had a baby with a wistful look in her eyes and says : “You know what would make this relationship even better…?”

via techradar

Categories: Technology
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I’m perhaps a little bit *too* amused by this.

Two of the 21st century’s most powerful social forces; Hip-Hop and Geek Culture, collide head-on in the feature length documentary, Nerdcore For Life.  Born on the Internet, Nerdcore is rap music made by geeks, for geeks and covers such traditionally nerdy topics as comic books, video games, anime, sci-fi, astrophysics and technology.  Filmed over the course of two years, Nerdcore For Life follows the top names in this new genre as they celebrate ‘geek life’ and their love of Hip-Hop to the fullest, fight anti-nerd stereotypes and struggle to overcome the common obstacles that prevent musicians of all genres from fulfilling their dreams.

Tags: nerdcore
Categories: Technology, lolomgwtfbbq
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Every so often someone asks me if they should be worried if their internet access is being monitored at work; my answer is always maybe.  It’s definitely possible to figure out what sites are being visited, entire IM conversations can be logged (so use encryption), who and what your emailing (so don’t use your corporate account for personal use) (and don’t assume that just because it’s deleted it’s gone forever).

My intention is not to make you paranoid.  It’s very unlikely that you’re being watched, unless you’re constantly hitting “questionable”  sites or the higher ups want to monitor you — but I suspect you’d know if that were the case. (reprimands, complaints)

Please note that the above is not the official policy of my workplace. I’m only informing you of what is possible.

The link below provides screenshots, video, and background on one such incident. I LOL’d. ^^ I don’t care what you do at home, but please don’t do this at work.

So we started monitoring him on the camera and using DameWare so we can view his desktop and see just what the hell he does all day since he has no actual work to do at the moment. Aside from the grunts and noises which came as expected, we noticed some interesting sites/chats going on. I will let the screenshots speak for themselves–

Click here to read more

Categories: Humor, Technology
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I just need to vent. Lets say you’re chatting, and you send someone a link. Especially when it’s in the middle of a conversation and on topic — why can’t people just click the link and not expect me to explain what they’re about to see? Just click the damn link. It’ll take longer for me to type than for you to load up a picture of a lolcat. Or to watch one of my youtube videos. Jeez.

From now on, I’m just going to ignore requests of this nature. Click the freaking link. You’re not going to get a virus or malware from a link sent by me. Who do you think I am? A n00b?

If it’s an unsolicited message that says something like “hot babes click here” or “oh my god you have to click this” then you should be weary, but otherwise, why make someone waste their time?

Tags: aim,aol,chat,instant messenger,sites I work on,spyware,virus
Categories: Technology
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I’ve got a week off from work — the first time I’ve taken so many consecutive days off. I almost don’t know what to do with my time, but since I recently picked up a fancy new Canon Powershot G9 camera I figured I’d pretend to be a tourist in San Francisco and take some random photos. Below is a small selection of choice photos. I really don’t know what I’m doing so feel free to criticize and offer advice!

[Show as slideshow]

Categories: Technology
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A few months ago I had a client come crying to me about her failed laptop. She was a visiting researcher from Ecuador, and had three months of work on there that was saved no where else. The laptop would boot, but would lockup — and you can hear the click of death.  Though usually a sign that the drive is completely gone, I managed to recover all of her documents.  She learned a valuable lesson that day.  I still remember her sobbing,  and that vision ensures that I backup my files regularly.

I recently had three hard drives die. Luckily none of them had any critical information on them, but they serve as a warning. No matter how careful you are, you must always have a backup. There is no excuse.

Tags: backup,hard disk,hard drive,windows
Categories: Technology
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I recently built myself a new computer — I went way above and beyond what I’d actually need, so I think it’d actually last me a few years before I’ll ever need to upgrade it. (Quad Core, 4gb ram, 2tb raid storage)

I went ahead and put Windows Vista on it — and after having used it for 90 days, I have to say — I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for it. From an end-user’s perspective there is no justifiable reason for you to upgrade. No matter what you hear from the Microsoft hype machine, don’t waste your money. I could go into detail, but there are plenty of activists that could do the same.

I picked up Bioshock due to it’s reviews “The game has been cited as having an “inescapable atmosphere”, “inconceivably great plot” and “stunning soundtrack and audio effects.” and I can’t make an informed decision one way or the other — since most of my time was waste on trying to make it work:

I realize why I gave up playing games on the PC. On a fresh install of Windows, with all it’s patches installed. ERROR. Oh, I need to install this 2005 C++ thing. Fine. Oh. I have to install DirectX 10. Fine. Why didn’t the game’s installer do it? Why isn’t it built into the OS?  Alright.. the game works now. Play a few minutes: Blue Screen of Death. Upgraded the video card driver — phew, I got past that part. Works fine now. <knock on wood> I don’t get how someone that doesn’t have an IT background could ever figure out how to get something like this to work properly.

No wonder I like to stick with game consoles. They just work.

Categories: Technology
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Thanks to a tip from Jen, I learned that when using Pidgin as you AIM client, you can figure out how long an account has been registered. Does this matter? No, not really, but I’m pretty amazed that I didn’t have an account until 5/22/1999. What took me all those years? I was certainly online way before that.. I wonder how long I had my ICQ account before that.. damn, I can’t even remember my number, but I remember it being a short one.

Where has the time gone?

Categories: Technology
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Just a few days after I receive my new Nokia 8801, Apple Inc. (they changed their name) has to release the iPhone. This always happens, every time I buy a new gadget something enormously better gets released. My iPhone envy even coerced me into customizing my phone. At least I can pretend to have one until I can get my grubby paws onto the real thing. I will not be switching back to Cingular just to be able to purchase one, however.

I haven’t been a Mac user for *that* long, in fact, I just built myself and my parents a couple computers, but I drank the kool-aid and well, there isn’t really a reason to cling onto a PC any longer. Too bad I didn’t decide on this just six months ago. I could have gotten my parents an AppleTV instead of building them a custom Linux box, and saved quite a bit. So much for the “Apple is overpriced” meme. If you think you can resist Steve Job’s reality distortion field, watch this video and tell me you’re not impressed.

I registered for a private Microsoft Vista launch preview at the Moscone Center. We’ll see if they can lure me back with free swag or wow me with some kind of must have feature. Apparently Vista is so heinous that a campaign to prevent it’s adoption has been launched. With Linux finally gaining some traction I think it’s time for Microsoft to be worried.

Even the mainstream media is catching on.. LOL.

Categories: Technology
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