Category: Technology

Technology

iPods: They’re for Stealing

I recently had my iPod stolen. Some asshole walked up my driveway (which is very steep and long, by the way) around midnight a few weeks ago, broke my passenger window and stole my iPod. My wife and I were dozing off to sleep, she heard a noise, I looked out our back window and saw the guy run away from my car.

Needless to say I was quite pissed. This iPod was my lifesaver on my 1.5 hour roundtrip commute every day. It made my drive bearable and sometimes even enjoyable. Not to mention the fact that it was a birthday present from my wife—probably my favorite gift from her ever.

I lasted about 5 days before I had to purchase a new iPod. The only silver lining to this story is that the new iPod was $100 cheaper than my previous one and also had improved battery life and a fancy new click wheel.

So, my commute is now back to normal. I had a very enjoyable shuffled music mix this morning on the way in and having the iPod back in my grubby little hands seems to make my stress level somewhat more manageable.

As bold as my iPod thief was, he’s got nothing on this guy who stole 12,000 iPods worth $2.6 million recently in LA. Damn.

Unheard

My cell phone provider, Verizon, recently upgraded their voice mail system. I’m not quite sure what they did on the back end, but one thing I’ve noticed is their new prompt system when you call in to check your messages. This is what the automated voice tells you when you call in to check your voice mail:

You have 2 unheard messages.
The following messages have not been heard.
First unheard message…

Why do you need to tell me the messages are unheard? Isn’t that a given? I dialed this number because my phone says I have new messages. I want to listen to them! Just give me my messages!!!!

Hey, Verizon, I’ve got an idea about how to make this exchange a tad more efficient. Here’s my proposal:

You have 2 messages.
First message…

Gmail Improvements

Gmail’s one year anniversary has brought us some pretty cool upgrades. First of all, Google has doubled everyone’s capacity to 2GB. I think that’s pretty impressive for a free service. But, Google is not content to stop at 2GB. Read on:

Storage is an important part of email, but that doesn’t mean you should have to worry about it. To celebrate our one-year birthday, we’re giving everyone one more gigabyte. But why stop the party there? Our plan is to continue growing your storage beyond 2GBs by giving you more space as we are able. We know that email will only become more important in people’s lives, and we want Gmail to keep up with our users and their needs. From Gmail, you can expect more.

That’s a pretty cool attitude in my opinion.

Another cool feature added today is Rich Text Formatting. I got a glimpse of this a few days ago and thought I was seeing things because it disappeared the next time I composed a message. Today it’s here to stay. I took a screenshot for you:

Screenshot of Gmail's Rich Text Feature

I’m not sure how much I’ll use this feature since I’m a plain text geek, but I’m sure the masses will love it.

Nice work, Google. (Learn more about Gmail)

Getcha Gmail Invites!

Gmail InvitesI’m one of the lucky people who have been allotted 50 Gmail invitations to give away. So, if you haven’t checked out Gmail yet, just drop me a comment and I’ll hook you up.

I’ve been using Gmail for a while now and absolutely love it. You will too. Gmail is free, offers more space than free Yahoo Mail and Hotmail combined, is smart about keeping your inbox free of spam and it supports POP access so you can use your own email application with it. It also has a super smooth browser interface that is speedy as all get out.

Pathetic GMail Begging

I rarely do this. I’m usually not the type of person who asks for things. But, this is different. I know you tend to covet things that are unattainable, but this will eventually be easy as pie to get. It’s just that I want it RIGHT NOW. I can’t even really articulate why I can’t wait. Mostly it has to do with frustrations I have with my (yes, I know, free) yahoo e-mail account. But, other than that, I just plain want one.

I want a gmail account.

The number of posts I’ve read on other blogs over the past 3 weeks saying this exact same thing are astronomical. Everyone wants one. I eventually turn dark green with envy when I later read about these same people getting one. Ugh.

I’m not unique. I’m not special. There is really no reason why I deserve a gmail account more than any other guy out there. But, if you or someone you know is an employee of google, please consider giving me a gmail account. I will be eternally grateful.

I’ve been thinking of what I could offer in return. I know that right now I could go bid on the ones for sale on eBay. Well, I’m not paying for a gmail account. That’s just pathetic.

So, since I’m not willing to offer money for an account, I’m offering the only thing that I think somebody out there might possibly want. Music. I play drums in a band called Magnapop. Maybe you’re a fan. If you are and you happen to work for Google, than I think this could be a match made in heaven.

Magnapop will be recording a new album in May. So, here’s my proposal. I can offer you an advance copy of the album as soon as we are done mixing it. See any parallels here? I do.

So, that’s my offer. A chance to get something before anyone else does. Kind of like a gmail account. So, just send your gmail invite to tim at this web site dot com and I’ll send you a copy of the new Magnapop album, hot off the mixing board.

Oh yeah, this offer also stands for anyone who can get me some google IPO stock. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Fun with Froogle

Ever since I wrote the Froogle script, I’ve been wondering. Why did I write the Froogle script?

Well, first off, I did it as an exercise in writing PHP functions. And I’m a big fat geek. Other than that, I guess it’s occasionally kinda funny to see what people are looking to buy on the internet.

Today, I realized a fun game to play with the Froogle script. Take, for example, the items that came up right now as I loaded themuy’s home page:

  • huggies diapers
  • nose hair clipper
  • freezers
  • fight club dvd
  • febreze

And now, imagine if someone went into a store and those are the items on his/her shopping list. According to this person’s list, it’s going to be a fun night.

Pretty funny, huh?

Okay, I gotta go outside and get some fresh air. I’m obviously losing my mind.

Mac Me

Well, just like my buddy Mr. Ass, I have taken the plunge and bought a Mac. It’s my first major computer purchase in years and I am tickled pink to be joining the Mac brethren.

After much consideration (and almost going with the Powerbook), the wife and I decided on the 20″ iMac. I upgraded it to a 160 GIG hard drive and beefed up the RAM to a single 512 MB DIMM. This baby will smoke!

I’ll post more about this exciting development in the months to come and will probably become a raving lunatic with my excitement for all things OS X once I see the light. In the meantime, take a look at this baby!

Behold, our new computer