Tag Archive - technology

Rest Assured

April 4, 2010 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

Easter 2010

Hey folks.  For those of you that stop by from time to time, thank you.  I do have things to say, but life has taken the spotlight recently.  I am very focused on my first, and most beloved project, The Speedzine.  At the TheSpeedzine.com, I am blogging and reporting on various motorsports topics and headlines.  Doing this, and reporting on the races each week, has taken up a lot of the time I would normally have devoted to this blog.

Twitter.  Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook have become the portals to which I update the day to day ongoings of my life.  I am exploring how I can really utilize those conduits, plus this blog, in complete synergy.  How exactly, I am still working on.
One thing is for sure.  This is where the difinitve profile for myself, Daniel C. Vining, will live.  Somehow, most likely with Flickr, I will begin to post a ton of photos.  I will update my online resume, and keep you up to date on my other projects.
So rest assured, if you care, that this site is not dead.  Stay tuned!

I’m Ditching Third Party Updaters

January 31, 2010 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

TweetDeck Icon

With all the social networks on the web today, it is very easy to become overwhelmed by them all.  I have accounts with most of them, and I am most active with the same top three that most of my readers are: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.  All these services have a feature called status, to which you constantly update to tell the world what you doing, reading, thinking, seeing, feeling, promoting, wishing for, etc.  Since so many of us have so many accounts, various developers have created a barrage of service updater applications to aggregate and push out information.  Up until recently, I have been very big on Tweet Deck, but I now find myself using the web more and more instead.

Tweet Deck is one of the largest updaters on the market.  With this Adobe Air based application, I can keep track of multiple accounts in Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.  I can even stay up to date with my seldom used LinkedIn profile.  I can do most everything on Tweet Deck that I can do in each respective service too.  However, there are problems.  The Adobe Air platform is sluggish.  I don’t get the updates in true real time, I don’t view aspects of each post the same way that the source developers had intended, and overall I feel a tad alienated from the experience.  I can see how useful a service like Tweet Deck, or HootSuite, or Seesmic can be for someone that is using social networking as a business model, but for me, I find that the only thing I use them for is to update all my profiles at one time.

For that, I am turning to Ping.fm.  That’s exactly what it is for. Updating. That is all I care about.  For the rest of my social networking experience, I turn to the host service itself.

What do you think?  What services do you use?  What do you think about the third party applications vs. the service’s main website?  Tell me what you think and post bellow.

iPad the iPhad. Some initial thoughts

January 28, 2010 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs holds up the new iPad as he speaks during Apple's event in San Francisco.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs holds up the new iPad as he speaks during Apple's event in San Francisco.

After waiting what felt like an eternity, I came home today and got all up to speed on the big Apple press event. Today, Apple announced the iPad, Apple’s official entry into the still young tablet market. Steve Jobs and company demoed the iPad showing it’s many features and specifications. Thanks to Leo Laporte, Engadget, and Mashable, and MacMost, I feel as though I was a part of the event… even if it came five hours late. While it seems as it Apple has officially wowed us all again, they didn’t reveal anything that wasn’t previously speculated or tremendously revolutionary. What they have brought, however, is the Apple style and essence to the tablet market and in turn will probably far very well with this product.

The iPad continues several of Apple’s current styling trends, including the unibody concept, the “i” moniker, and the less is more mantra. The sleek lines of it’s unibody design fall inline with it’s cousin the Macbook and the all glass front, input buttons and most notably, Home button bring Apple continuity from the iPhone. Looking a little deeper, the all glass front with bold black bezel are styling queues borrowed from the current iMac and Cinema Display product lines.

Weighing in at a mere 1.5 pounds, and measuring in at roughly 9.5 by 7.5, the iPad is about the size of a magazine and has the weight of many books. Speaking of books, the iPad will feature an App, and store, called iBooks. Demoed with a stunning graphical interface, iBooks will be where you preview, buy and read your books, periodicals and possibly even some documents. The GUI resembles many of the popular eReaders already on the market, adding and utilizing the iPad’s 1024 by 768 pixel resolution and 9.7 inch LED backlit glossy screen. The iBooks Store will carry forward the format of the current App Store and iTunes, being the place to purchase your reading material.

Your content, which will includes support from iTunes will be sent to your iPad using WiFi or 3G. There is no wired data connection other than the 30 pin dock connector used to sync the iPad with iTunes on your Mac or PC. This is a disappointment for me, as it forces you to use wireless internet, which I do not prefer. 3G content will come from of course AT&T through two pre-paid data plans at 14.99 per month for 250 MB of data or 29.00 per month for unlimited with no contract required. The cool thing, however, is that you are not locked into having to use AT&T to get your 3G connection. Apple announced that the iPad will be an un-locked device, meaning that you can use a SIM card from T-Mobile, or other GSM service. Also, the iPad supports Bluetooth. This means that you can use your Wireless Apple Keyboard with the device.

Speaking of keyboards, in addition to the virtual keyboard, Apple with have a dock/keyboard accessory available for purchase. They will also have a camera kit that will allow to hook up you camera or load a SD card to transfer photos to the iPad, which does not have a built in iSight camera. Yet another disappointment. Additionally, Apple has an Apple branded iPad case that doubles as a stand for the tablet. I am sure by the time the iPad is available for sale there will be a ton of third party accessories on the market.

Available by the end of April 2010, the iPad will come in 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB WiFi and WiFi + 3G configurations starting at 499.00 and topping out at 850.00. Looks like there will be a model for everyone with a nice price point like that. The price of the iPad is a nice surprise to me, as I was thinking it would start at 999.00.

I have only scratched the surface of the feature laden iPad. Like all Apple products, it has a significant wow and cool factor, but at the same time leaves you wanting just a little more. Apple fanboys will be debating future updates from now forward, myself included. If I have the cash, I will be an early adopter. Do I need this device? No. Do I want it? Hell to the YEAH!

Get rid of stale Twitter users that have stopped tweeting

January 24, 2010 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

Clean up your Twitter Lists

Clean up your Twitter Lists

Here is a Twitter tool which can be a little slow to use but is quite a good idea. As Twitter has grown, so has the amount of people we follow and it can become time consuming reading everything. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide who to keep and who to ditch to keep your account fresh.

The site explains:

After logging in (with your Twitter account), enter the number of days in the past you want to check. If you enter 30, then anyone who hasn’t updated their Twitter status (tweeted) in the past 30 days will be shown on a list.

Now some relationships may be offline as well as online, so you can white list your friends, so you don’t ditch them each time you use this. This really is quite an interesting tool because you get to see people and when they last updated their status, I actually found it pretty useful – so I would recommend you give it a try just for the novelty factor.

What do you think of this? How could it be made better?

Original Post

unTweeps Website

MXL Fail

December 7, 2009 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

I am so frustrated.  I’d like to think that I know enough about enough that I can troubleshoot most of my own technical issues.  This time, however, I am stumped on what to do.
I own a Macbook, early 2009 generation, and have had no problems with it.  I also cashed in on the great deals of the Mac Hiest 3 Bundle in Spring of 2009 and got a copy of the video production application BoinxTV.  I was planning on using that, along with my webcam and an MXL Audio Studio 1 USB microphone to record and produce a Christmas video this year.
My problem is with the microphone.  For reasons that I cannot figure out, my Mac does not recognize the MXL microphone. I have tried it in Wire Tap Studio, BoinxTV, and of course in the sound preferences panel within Mac OS X.  Thinking that it may be the mic itself, I tried it on a Vista machine, and it worked fine.  I decided that perhaps I needed a driver, so I searched for one, and have so far came up short.  I have also tried updating the operating system and restarting the machine.
Does anyone out there have any ideas to what my problem is? This is a really nice microphone, and I would hate to have to find a different one.  If you can help me, please leave a comment, send me a tweet (@danielvining) or shoot me an email (dan@danielvining.com)
MXL Studio 1 USB Microphone

MXL Studio 1 USB Microphone

I am so frustrated.  I’d like to think that I know enough about enough that I can troubleshoot most of my own technical issues.  This time, however, I am stumped on what to do.

I own a Macbook, early 2009 generation, and have had no problems with it.  I also cashed in on the great deals of the Mac Hiest 3 Bundle in Spring of 2009 and got a copy of the video production application BoinxTV.  I was planning on using that, along with my webcam and an MXL Audio Studio 1 USB microphone to record and produce a Christmas video this year.

My problem is with the microphone.  For reasons that I cannot figure out, my Mac does not recognize the MXL microphone. I have tried it in Wire Tap Studio, BoinxTV, and of course in the sound preferences panel within Mac OS X.  Thinking that it may be the mic itself, I tried it on a Vista machine, and it worked fine.  I decided that perhaps I needed a driver, so I searched for one, and have so far came up short.  I have also tried updating the operating system and restarting the machine.

Does anyone out there have any ideas to what my problem is? This is a really nice microphone, and I would hate to have to find a different one.  If you can help me, please leave a comment, send me a tweet (@danielvining) or shoot me an email (dan@danielvining.com)

Many thanks in advance.

How to Backup Your WordPress Blog

November 29, 2009 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

Wordpress Tips

Wordpress Tips

You have put hours and hours of effort into perfecting every inch of your WordPress Blog.  Theme design, permalinks, plugins, pictures, podcasts, and most importantly post content.  Then one day you log on to find that your entire website is gone! Did you backup your data? Now that you have the thought in your head, I bet you will from now on. Worried that it is too difficult to do? Not to worry, It is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. From within your WordPress Dashboard, select “Export” from within the “Tools” panel.

2. Select the authors you would like to export. Exporting is the process used to download and save the file that contains the content of your blog.  I select “All Authors”.

3. Click the “Download Export File” button.

It’s that easy.  Once you have downloaded your file, be sure to save it in a location that is safe. I save a copy on my hard drive in a folder titled “Blog Backups”.  Set up another layer of redundancy by saving a copy to an external hard disk, or include the backup files as a part of your overall computer backup plan.

To take the safety of your content one step further, save your content off site.  I do this by importing my backup file into my WordPress.com blog.  Doing this not only adds another layer of protection, it also provides an additional face to your blog, and could lead to more hits and stats as well.

I am sure there are a ton of ways to protect your content, and I’d love to hear them all.  Leave a comment, or shoot me an email.

Most importantly, do something. Don’t let all your hard work go down into the depths of Internet hell.

Do Not Call List

November 8, 2009 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

story.do.not.call.logo-784516I purchased a brand new iPhone about a month ago, and with it came a brand new phone number.  It didn’t take long at all for telemarketers to start calling.  In fact, the first call came while I was making my drive home.  I tweeted shortly afterward that I had added my cell number to the National Do Not Call List, and I encourage you to do the same.

This is a free service that takes your phone number off of the registries used by telemarketing companies.  Adding your number to this list takes about five minutes to setup and about a month to become active.  When calling to setup your number, you must call from the phone with the number you want on the list. My household has five phone numbers, and all are setup on the Do Not Call List.  Rarely do any of them receive a call from a solicitor.

The number to call is 1-888-382-1222, and remember… its FREE!

Also check out the website: https://www.donotcall.gov/

Safari Mobile Bookmark Trick

November 5, 2009 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

iPhone Jennys Birthday

I am still a new iPhone user.  I only got this wonderful device about a month ago.  Up until purchasing my own, I had very little on hands experience with it, and of course I had all the YouTube videos and blog posts from around the internet.  That said, I seem to find something new and useful on the iPhone everyday, like the Bookmarking system in Safari Mobile.

When you sync your iPhone for the first time, or any time, you can also sync up all your Safari bookmarks with Safari Mobile.  If you are anything like me, then you probably have hundreds of sites marked, with a good dozen being sites you visit daily.  That is a nice feature, but it is also totally expected.  What I didn’t expect was being able to create a pseudo-App out of a webpage.

I found this by accident, and at first didn’t know how I would use it… until a few days ago.  I am a Ping.fm user, and had searched for an official Ping.fm iPhone App.  Not finding one, I just went to the main website on Safari Mobile.  I quickly found the Ping.fm mobile site, and then it occurred to me.  I could save this website on the Home Screen to my iPhone.  It is a very simple thing to do.

At the bottom of the screen in Safari are a few tappable options. There are back and forward page buttons, a plus sign to add a bookmark, the bookmarks button, and the open new or existing page button.  When you tap the plus sign to add a new bookmark you are given  a list of options which includes “Add to Home Screen”.  Selecting this option brings to a screen where you can name the bookmark, in this case I named it Ping.fm.  Tap add at the top right of the screen and presto!  You now have an “app” on your Home Screen that opens up Ping.fm in Safari Mobile.

Small feature, yes.  Big time saver, oh yeah!

Totally Rad Video!

October 28, 2009 in Uncategorized with Comments Off

Totally Rad Video!

Totally Rad Video!

Ok, I’m gonna try a new feature. This may end up as a part of the CoverCast project, but I’ll try it here first. Totally Rad Video. Think of it as G4′s Attack of the Show Around the Net.

This video comes from youtuber Tobuscus and is a parody of Apologize and the Windows 7 launch.

Rate, Comment, Subscribe and Enjoy!

My Wish List

October 28, 2009 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

My Wish List

My Wish List

If only I had a few hundred thousand dollars, I too could be as setup as the Great Leo Laporte.  Sadly, I don’t have that kind of cash rolling in.  If I did, here are some of the things I would buy to get me started.

27 inch iMac.

Apple just refreshed it’s line of iMac computers during this month.  I could be totally greedy and wish for a Mac Pro, but considering what you get, and for the price point, I feel that these new iMacs are just right for me.  The biggest reason I that would choose iMac of Mac Pro is the form factor.  Sleek and sexy, few wires, and that beautiful screen.  If money were no object I would order my iMac fully loaded from the Apple Store.  In reality, however, I will be getting the Intel i7 model, then upgrading the RAM myself later.  Besides a RAM upgrade, the only other thing I would change is the keyboard.  I would much rather have the full size Apple keyboard with numeric keypad, even if it means being wired.

Magic Mouse.

I know, the Magic Mouse comes standard with every new iMac.  I am writing this post on a Macbook, so that is why I have the Magic Mouse on my wish list.  I love the glass trackpad on the Macbooks, but there are many times when I would rather be using a mouse, and the Magic Mouse is what I want to use.  As inexpensive as they are in relation to the rest of the items on this list, I think I will be crossing this off the list very soon.

Time Capsule.

Next on my list is Time Capsule.  This is Apple’s eloquent combination of a superb wireless router and external hard drive.  I would be using Mac OS X’s Time Machine to backup my computer data, as well as making it available to other computers on my network.  On a side note, I would recommend that everyone use a service like iDisk, Mobile Me, Carbonite, Amazon, etc. to backup your data in the cloud as well.  I relish the concept of having a great wireless router and external backup as well as off site storage.

Drobo.

The Apple Time Capsule provides a 1TB or 2TB solution to external storage needs.  At some point, however, that drive will fill up.  When it does, I want to use the Drobo external storage system for long term archival storage.  You can have four drives recording your data that can be replaced when full.  Basically, I would use the Time Capsule for immediate backup via Time Machine, and then use the Drobo for data that will not be accessed as regularly.

Bluetooth Headphones & Speakers.

In keeping with the sleek and sexy theme, it would be very nice to have a nice set of wireless Bluetooth speakers surrounding my work area.  They don’t have to be the top of the line in sound technology, just nice, reliable and wireless.  Headphones are another matter.  I spend a great deal of time watching podcasts, TV shows and movies on my computer.  I am usually playing catch up when others are sleeping or when it would be impolite to have loud noise coming out of my room.  As a find myself wearing headphones for longer and longer periods of the day I also find that the damn cord never wants to cooperate.  Wether it is tangled in the arm to my chair or trying to pull my laptop off of the table, the cord always seems to get in the way.  A nice set of Bluetooth wireless headphones is a must have in my opinion.

Powered USB Hub.

Even though technology like USB 3.0 and Lite Peak are just around the corner of being mainstream tech, USB 2.0 is still the standard.  I have a lot of things that fight for the two USB ports on my laptop. Printer, iPhone, cameras, external hard drives, flash drives, mouse dongle, microphone…. this list goes on and on.  I have found a few powered USB hubs online ranging from 4 to 13 ports.  If I could, I would get a 13 port hub to future proof, even if for only a while. Since so many devices are now powered by USB, it makes perfect sense to own a powered USB hub.

Software.

I dabble in various areas of technology, so software is a constantly moving target.  One thing I would love to own if I could would be the Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection.  It is every major program in the Adobe lineup and would give me the tools needed for any project.

To go along with the Master Collection I would like to own a tablet screen.  Wacom seems to be the leader in this genra but maybe by the time I can afford one, Apple will have introduced the iPad, and given it functionality that will allow it to be used with applications like Photoshop.

Camera Equipment.

I am an amateur photographer.  I have a mid-range DSLR, the Nikon D-50.  While nice, I would like to upgrade to a camera body with a better sensor, and video functionality.  To go with my new camera body, I want a couple of lenses that will allow me to take almost any picture I want.  I’m thinking of the Nikor line of lenses.  A remote control and sturdy tripod would round out this segment nicely.

Sound Equipment.

Other than listening to podcasts and TV shows, I don’t really listen to a ton of music.  I do, however, like to dabble in content creation.  This will eventually mean that the built in microphones on my cameras just won’t cut the mustard.  A set of nice dynamic mics to go along with my condenser microphone, the appropriate hot shoe mic for my camera, and a set of lapel mics would add nicely to the content creation process.

Lighting Equipment.

This is something that is on the low end of my wish list.  I know good lighting is very important to making a good video presentation, but I can get by with shop lights and photo umbrellas until I have checked off the other items on my list.  It is on my mind though.

There are a ton of items I haven’t mentioned on this list, and a ton more that I haven’t even thought of yet.  This list is a compilation of the items that are on my mind most often.  I have already removed and item off the list thanks to my recent purchase of the iPhone 3GS.  I will update this list periodically as I find cool new gadgets or obtain items already on the list.

iPhone 3GS << I GOT ONE :0)

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