March 2010
1 post
New blog
I’ve moved my blog and as a result, you’ll need to resubscribe if you are reading this via RSS. The new feed location is feed://www.fus.net/blog/rss.xml.
October 2009
1 post
Seat Buddy →
This may just beat out the MovieWedge and MiniRizer for bring-your-own in-flight movies.
September 2009
1 post
July 2009
2 posts
So what's next?
As much as we are all enjoying iPhone 3.0, here’s a completely random list of mobile technology I’d love to use:
Parallels/VMware for the iPhone - no, not to run Windows 7. It would be great, though, to run a virtual Blackberry. It could be isolated or as integrated as the iPhone user and/or the BES administrator would allow. Right now, I carry a Blackberry for work and an iPhone...
April 2009
1 post
Public Service Announcement: Crystal Reports 2008
I spent more than a few hours today fighting with the Crystal Reports 2008 Enterprise installer. For some reason, no matter what options I selected for installation, the thing hung up with the following message:
“Please wait while the installer finishes determining your disk space requirements”
After fiddling with settings, checking Windows installer, and the general registry/.dll...
March 2009
3 posts
Finding a happy media(um)
This post started as a rant about how Netflix announced a rather large price hike for Blu-ray disk rentals. Starting in late April, access to Blu-ray disks will cost an additional $5 a month (up from $1/month) on the 4-at-a-time plan. While their timing is simply perfect - I purchased a Blu-ray player about a month ago - Netflix is claiming that the increase is due to the increased cost of Blu-ray...
GrandCentral is back! →
GrandCentral is a service I’ve blogged about before. It was a web-based service that assigned you a single phone number, and allowed it to be forwarded to other numbers. Calls could be routed based on caller, and the service had other great features like visual voicemail.
Google purchased the developer a few years back, and the service seemed to stagnate. Today, however, Google announced...
Impressed with Comcast
I know, the headline is hard to believe. I just found a problem on my Comcast bill and decided to give their online chat service a try.
A agent was connected to me nearly immediately, didn’t type entirely from a script, and knew what she was talking about. Further, I got a six month promotional discount that will save me about $40 month on my bill.
Comcast has historically not had the best...
January 2009
3 posts
Get ready for bigger sounds from the X-mini II →
Looking forward to this - the 1st generation X-mini has pretty good sound!
Is Palm back? →
I was recently reminded of my fondness for PalmPilot that occurred about 10 years ago. Palm hasn’t done much in the “neat cool innovative” category in a while, but today at CES they announced the “pre” - their new competitor to the iPhone.
Eye-Fi for iPhone →
Its Macworld & CES week, which means all kinds of new product announcements. EyeFi, who make a cool SD card for digital cameras with built in WiFi, announced an upcoming iPhone app that will upload photos to your computer and/or photo sharing site, without having to sync your iPhone.
December 2008
3 posts
30GB Zunes mysteriously begin to fail at 12AM,... →
For the 11 people that bought Zunes, it seems a bug of some sort has caused all of them to stop working as of earlier this morning. Engadget has the full scoop.
Switched On: MiFi pushes 3G past the router limits... →
The MiFi is a WWAN router that has a built in HSDPA or EVDO modem. I currently use a Cradlepoint router, but this looks better as you don’t need a USB modem hanging off of it.
November 2008
4 posts
DVD Madness
My wife and I are preparing for a trip, and one of the most important steps is loading up our iPods with stuff to watch and listen to on the plane. This is usually an easy, but time consuming task using software like Handbrake.
I went to transfer “WALL-E”, and found it included a digital copy. I had heard and read about this new technology, but never ran into it until now. I popped...
Boxee
I recently came across Boxee, a media center application that runs on a number of platforms, including the Apple TV. The Apple TV is a pretty capable box on its own, but only within Apple’s garden of iTunes. There were only few options for viewing content outside of what iTunes supports.
Boxee changes all that and brings content such as Hulu and the Comedy Central video library to your TV....
iPod won't charge in your car? →
My iPod car adapter has great sound but won’t charge the iPhone 3G or any of the new nanos. The same problem also affects my Bose Sounddock. After a little research, it seems Apple removed the firewire-based charging capability from their latest products, and many older accessories that charge via the dock connector emulate a firewire connection. The passPORT from Scosche is a little box...
October 2008
4 posts
Easy GeoTagging
The concept of GeoTagging - adding metadata to a digital camera photo that includes that latitude and longitude so you know exactly where a photo was taken - is pretty useful and neat. However, getting the GPS data merged into the files requires special equipment and takes a bit of time.
I found out that Eye-Fi, makers of the WiFi SD card, now have a service that for $15/year, will automatically...
Techspansion closing up shop →
I was very sorry to read that Techspansion will be closing; VisualHub is a great do-it-all video conversion application. I hope the developer chooses to release it as open source or find someone else to continue working on it as it is a great product.
Palin Brushing Up On Foreign Policy At Epcot →
Candidate for VP seen talking back to audio-animatronics.
Great article from the Onion.
September 2008
3 posts
ThuleRoadTrip →
ThuleRoadTrip is a flash-based version of the Oregon Trail - for the 21st century. Very cool!
Need to buy a monorail? →
This is an interesting (and geeky) scan of a 1979 brochure from a division of Walt Disney Productions intended to sell the idea of a monorail to cities.
Browser Wars, Take 3? →
Google has (pre) announced Chrome, a web browser built on top of existing technologies, like Webkit (the “guts” of Safari) as well as some elements from Firefox. It will be interesting to see what it can do - I didn’t think we needed another web browser, but I’m sure Google has some innovative ideas.
August 2008
11 posts
MobileMe: Another free extension →
While I thankfully haven’t had too many problems with MobileMe, I have had a few sync and other issues crop up here and there. Apple has again taken the unusual (for them, anyway) step of acknowledging the rather serious problems that have occurred since the service launch and are extending everyone’s paid subscription by another 60 days - even if you already got the 30 day extension....
GTD in 90 seconds →
If you’ve ever been interested in the Getting Things Done methodology, 43folders has one of the best 90 second descriptions of how it works.
Kindle Time Tip
I’ve wondered why the Kindle doesn’t show you the time at the top or the bottom of the screen while you are reading. I just discovered today an easy workaround to get the current time from any screen on Kindle: Press search, and type in @time, then press enter. A popup with the current time will appear over whatever you are reading; you can then close the window and resume whatever it...
GrandDialer →
GrandDialer is a new app for dialing phone calls from your iPhone and make the caller ID appear to come from your GrandCentral telephone number.
playing with https://www.ididwork.com/ Kinda cool for keeping track of where my time goes
'Clear' registration halted after laptop theft →
I had been thinking about joining “Clear” for a while since I find myself in Orlando a few times a year, but I think I’ll hold off after hearing about this…
One-time and SMS passwords →
Fastmail, my email provider of choice, recently added a new security feature that adds additional security to your account. You can now use a master password to login, or alternatively use a one-time password from a pre-printed list, or login and request a verification PIN via SMS. There are also various options for limiting access to your settings when logging in via an alternative means; this...
reminding you that Miley and Muhna Muhna *don’t* mix
Trying to get netshare and eeepc talking to each other
Nullriver Introduces 3G/EDGE Tethering App for... →
Looks like tethering was available for a short while via a cool 3rd party application for the iPhone. Too bad it was pulled; tethering over WiFi without the need for another device would be very useful.
Update: its back - for now. Link: http://www.macrumors.com/c.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fphobos.apple.com%2FWebObjects%2FMZStore.woa%2Fwa%2FviewSoftware%3Fid%3D286541579%26mt%3D8&t=1217618102
July 2008
4 posts
Google Calendar CalDAV support →
Google has added CalDAV support to their web-based calendar application, allowing easy automated sync with iCal and other CalDAV compatible clients.
CallVerifID →
OpenID provider MyOpenID has rolled out a very simple two-factor authentication mechanism - they can now make an automated phone call to verify your login. Much easier than carrying a token or card around.
MiniRizer →
In the “gadgets that hold other gadgets” category, I just got a Matias MiniRizer, two interlocking pieces of plastic that form a stand for nearly any portable gadget. They store flat in the included case for easy travel, and slide back together at either a 40 or 50 degree angle to make viewing video a bit easier on iPods and the like.