Rumors

Just took a typing test. Can you beat me?

78 words

Typing Test

Technology fun

Farm Fresh Delivery - Indianapolis, IN

There is a service based in Indianapolis that supports local organic farms. Farm Fresh Delivery.

They provide home delivery of locally produced veggies, fruits, meats, dairy and other food items. The quality has been exceptionally high, and the delivery service has been flawless.

The pricing is comparable to buying organic produce at Whole Foods or Marsh, and new products are added frequently. They produce a weekly newsletter with recipes and ideas on how to use your weekly bounty.

I’ve found the service to be extremely convenient and it has encouraged me to eat and live better.  I have been a customer for several months and highly recommend the service.

As we move into the holiday season, I am going to buy as many gifts within walking distance from local vendors. Supporting our local economy is a big part of community responsibility, and this is my attempt to do my part.

Indianapolis food, Indianapolis, local

From the fine folks over at ReadWriteWeb, who posted some thoughts about Facebook Connect.

I find this whole push for more data openness very intriguing, however the potential for abuse increases along with the wider adoption.  One wonders how much damage could be wrought upon Facebook with a critical security exploit.

However, there are going to be some very neat mash-ups between handheld computers (formally known as cell phones), such as the iPhone and Google’s Android, and the Cloud full of data (Facebook, Google, etc..).  Think Steve Jobs isn’t looking for another horse to bet upon, as Google looms as a burgeoning competitor.  Steve isn’t naive, and has seen another company rise a similar path, if not by different methods.   Microsoft 20+ years earlier.

Curious, is there anyone left out there that thinks Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, made the WRONG decision by passing up on earlier offers?  Even in this down economy, Facebook is positioned to be this cycle’s Google.  Right in time, as it seems that Google is moving up the food chain, and becoming what Microsoft once was.  Natural evolution of technical giants, perhaps.

Same as it ever was.

Technology Apple, business, google, microsoft

Thanks to Wise Elephant for this one.  An extensive dictionary of text/instant message abbreviations.  Very cool!

Technology geek culture, social

I agree with I, Cringely…Windows Mobile is probably dying.  It is a terrible platform anyway.

Technology hardware, Technology

Ars Technica (I love these guys) has a piece pondering the future of the Apple Mac mini. 

I have one of the first generation G4 models given to me by a frustrated friend.  It has never been a stable platform, and it seems to stem from inherent heat issues.  I’ve not played with one of the newer Intel based Mac mini’s, so it’s entirely possible they have stablized and fixed the heat issue.

Apple Apple, hardware

I have spent many hours working on documents and emails on my Mac Air, and have to learned to love the multi-touch trackpad and gestures.  I am nearly as comfortable with my Air’s trackpad as I am with a traditional mouse and keyboard setup.  This is a first for me, as I have always preferred my wired (battery life still sucks under moderate-heavy use for wireless keyboard/mouse combinations) traditional setup, however the Air’s flawless trackpad is winning me over.

All of which begs the question…when will an Apple-quality glass touchpad (USB or Bluetooth) for my desktop keyboard be available?  I would snatch one up immediately and retire my laser mouse.  Let’s get on this Apple, or Kensington, or Belkin or whomever.  Not a cheap piece of plastic with limited resolution, but the full glass multi-touch trackpad, comparable to the new Mac Book Pro’s and Mac Air’s.  

Apple Apple, interface

This has been a busy summer for me in the gadget department.  Most are work related, but others are not.  Here is a quick summary of new gadgets I’ve had the chance to play with and some of my initial thoughts.

iPhone

The iPhone has been one of my favorite gadgets of all time.  The combination iPod, phone and PDA has been a boon to my productivity, scheduling and overall information organization.  I can’t overstate how much the iPhone has lived up to it’s promise, however much of that is probably due to the fact that I live in a 100% Apple ecology.

Mac Air

The newest addition to the Apple laptop line has replaced my aging G4 17″ PowerBook.  Since I use a Mac Pro as my primary workstation, the Air makes a perfect companion laptop.  Combined with the iPhone and MobileMe, now all of my  important documents, calendars, email, bookmarks and contacts are all fully push/synced between all of my devices.  In fact, I’m typing this blog entry on my Mac Air right now on some snatched WiFi at my favorite lunch spot.  Solid construction, adequate performance and ultra portability round out my thoughts on this gadget.

Sony PS3

I haven’t had much of a chance to play with this new gadget yet, but am looking forward to spending some quality time with hit once the snow starts to fly.  So far, I love the interface, which is the best of the 3 major systems (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360) in my opinion.  More on this as I get to use it more this winter.

Wii Fitness Board (Wii Fit)

I, along with a few of my friends, have had a BLAST with this latest Nintendo gadget.  From tracking my weight (*ahem*) loss to playing ever increasingly difficult balance and strength games, the Wii Fit has provided many hours of fun with my butt NOT on the couch.

Rock Band II

I just received this for my XBOX 360 this week, and can’t wait to tear up some new tracks!  I love the drums, and can play most of the original Rock Band cuts on the HARD level.  I’m looking forward to learning new tracks and online playing with my friends.

Sony 46″ LCD Bravia “W” Series

This TV has delivered great 1080p performance for gaming and BluRay movies.  While I’m not sure if 46″ is where I will stay, I’m very happy with the gadget and the price.

That’s about it!  I’m sure I will post more game and gadget reviews through the winter as I get to spend more time with them.  Anyone else have experience with this set of gadgets?

General

This is an interesting quick read for anyone in the data center industry.  Does your data center perform these tasks daily and diligently?  

Technology

Jul 28, 2008

Originally uploaded by IndySawmill

Beautiful Monday afternoon

General

The first few days…

So far, so good.  I was one of the early (stupid?) adopters of the 2.0 software release last Thursday (7/10/2008) and was the victim of a rebooting/freezing/freak of a phone.  As Friday rolled around, and it was announced that the leaked version was 3G iPhone ONLY…well..  Guess it was a sign to invest a bit more time in the actual firmware upgrade.  Shame on me for being impatient… I should know better…

Fast forward to Saturday, when I went through the fairly arduous procedure of resetting my phone, downloading the new software, reinstalling it… all while crossing my fingers, dancing around my chair 3 times and chanting a ceremonial chant.   Everything seems to be kosher now, and after completing the AppleTV upgrade to 2.1, the new Apple Remote.app is working great!

Battery life seems to be a touch better.  My phone is about 4 months old, and to gain battery life at this point of it’s life cycle is a nice benefit.  The phone seems to navigate a bit faster, also.  But, there are two shining stars of the 2.0 upgrade.  

One is the long overdue update from .MAC to MobileMe.  

After updating both my Mac Pro and Air with the MobileMe/iTunes/Quicktime update, everything seemed to sync more reliability.  I haven’t noticed much of a speed bump, but having my iCal/Address Book and Safari bookmarks automagically push out to my iPhone over the air vs. USB docking/syncing is a VERY nice upgrade.

However, the biggest shining star is Apps! Apps! Apps!  Some of the most useful applications in the iTunes - iPhone Apps gallery are completely free.  I have had a few hiccups, such as when an iPhone .app simply returns to the Home screen randomly. In most cases, data is not lost and the app is smart enough to return me to where I was upon relaunch.

Overall, I believe the update is worth the hassle, that should be far less of a problem for those who wait on the official process to propagate throughout their setups.  I am forgoing the upgrade to a 3G phone at this point, except perhaps a premature, catastrophic end to my current iPhone, as the new features haven’t been compelling enough to separate more money from my wallet…yet.  As the GPS/Social networking apps gain more momentum, the more precise GPS may prove useful.  However, until they implement copy/paste, or some other new functionality (3rd generation?), I will be skipping the 3G/2nd Generation iPhone.  Pick a cheap 1st Gen up on eBay…better deal!

Apple Apple, iphone, mac

There are alot of articles floating around regarding the new Apple iPhone to be released on July 11, 2008.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• “Top 5 Reasons Why I’m Not Upgrading to iPhone 3G” from the theiphoneblog.com
• “Latest iPhone SDK agreement limits GPS software capabilities” from Ars Technica
• RUMOR: “iPhone Application Store to open on June 27th” from Ars Technica
• “iPhone 2.0 to finally get Flash!” from theiphoneblog.com
• “Interview with The Woz regarding the 3G iPhone” from laptopmag.com

Apple

The Indianapolis Star just published a new tool that enables you to search the Marion county/Indianapolis food inspection records of resturants, pubs and other establishments. 

How does your favorite establishment stand up?  Kinda scary that some of my favorite places did not do very well.

Indianapolis

Over the weekend, Revision3 suffered an illegal and illegitimate denial of service attack for running a valid bittorrent tracker they use to distribute their own content.

At what point does the MPAA/RIAA simply go to far?  This seems to have been an illegal attack by a company hired by the MPAA/RIAA to take down illegal bittorrent tracking sites.  However, it looks like they focused their DoS servers at a legitimate site that ended up costing Revision traffic (i.e. $$$$).

As someone that has been responsible for running some popular public sites, it is difficult enough to fend off all of the spammers and botnet attacks.  It is considerably more difficult to fend off a well funded company designed for just such attacks, with the technical wherewithal to make it hurt.

I hope Revision3 gets some satisfaction out of this incident, and this sort of practice remains in the realm of illegal activities, no matter who is controlling the purse strings and lawyers.

Internet

A great time was had by all for my birthday on the Mass Ave Pub Crawl on April 26th…   Thanks to everyone for showing up and making the night so memorable!

While surfing today, I ran across another Indianapolis pub crawl coming up in June.  

Check it out.. sounds like fun! 

GeoTag Location

Indianapolis