Tech Weekly

Well another week has gone by and here is another video clip pick of the week. This is by no means a new clip but for those of us out there that might enjoy using a computer but do not have the first idea how to fix it if it stops working. Have a look a this. These folks took a pefectly functional computer and then pulled a simple plug lose so that it would not boot up and then took it to a variety of different places to have it repaired. And it just goes to show you what you don't know might be bad for you.

The quick fix for this would have been to simply plug the cable back in and let the customer know that it was something that simple and if you had to charge them a fee the least you could do would be to show them so that if it ever acts that way again they could repair it themselves. Unfortunately that is not what happened with most of the places that they took this computer to most either tried to sell something that they computer did not really need or charged an extremely high rate to plug in the cable.

There was one local repair shop that was nice enough to fix the problem and charge them nothing. Whatever you do beware if and when you have to take your computer in to have it fixed if you know nothing about them then chances are you are going to be mislead if you are not careful.

Labels: Tech Videos

MySpace off the grid. The DoD's global information grid to be exact. They are not the only site to get the plug pulled on them. Other sites include: youtube.com, pandora.com, photobucket.com, live365.com, hi5.com, metacafe.com, mtv.com, ifilm.com, blackplanet.com, stupidvideos.com and filecabi.com.

Well given the number of personell that the DoD has stationed across the world and the amount of boredom and stress that some of these site's have probably been relieving I would bet that you will see significant drops in usage at some of the majore sites mentioned such as MySpace and Youtube.

Blocks only affect Department of Defense computers and local area networks that are part of the department's global information grid. The department has more than 15,000 local and regional networks and more than 5 million computers in the grid.

Of course according to the DoD this restriction only applies to computers that are part of their global information grid. If DoD personell use their own ISP or connect on their own outside the grid they will not be affected. Unfortunately were alot of these folks are the only connection that they have to the Internet is through this grid.

What do you think? Will this hold up or will we see work arounds to this? Is there anyway to work around this? I would love to hear your take on it drop me a line or leave a comment.

Labels: Editorial

I was reading my feeds today and saw a quick blog post for getting your driver and other software updates for your Thinkpad sent to you via RSS HERE. This SITE could not be simpler or cooler. All you have to do is surf to it and enter your 7 digit product number from the bottom of your Thinkpad and then subscribe to the RSS feed that it generates.

For instance if you type in 8741C2G you will get the same thing as if you were to go to the Thinkpad site for that model.

http://tools.4dots.com/thinkpad/8741C2G

This is much easier I think and I wonder how long it will take for the rest of the computer manufacturers both laptop and desktop to follow suit. I mean its kind of like those ever present late nite "Info Commercials" you just "set it and forget it" till an update comes your way.

Labels: Site of the Day

I recently read a press release at Media-Screen that intrigued me. Now mind you this was just a press release and it was a little thin on backup data. Or at least I could not find any linked or attached to the release. The gist of the release is that Broadband users in America are spending 48% of their time online. And the bulk of their time is being spent accessing sites related to entertainment and communication.

Probably no surprise to those of you reading this article. It has been the opinion most recently that most folks get their news from the web more so than in years past when they might get it from either the nightly newscast or the daily paper.

Of course this is still only a feasible method for those folks that have access to broadband Internet connections either at work or at home. I know that I am guilty of this both places. If a storm rolls in the first thing I do is check online to see up to the minute radar coverage and forecasting for my area. Not like in the past where I might have turned on the radio to see what they say about the storm coming in.

So imagine in a few years when the broadband availability is even more widespread. Will we all be a nation of "Internet Potatoes" instead of "Couch Potatoes"?

Consider these numbers from Harris Interactive^® found that 77 percent of adults are now online, up from 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they went online.

So what are we all doing online? Well like me I am sure that alot of folks get a quick weather fix each day. Or maybe they want to see how a particular stock is doing. And of course I would think that most people that are online check their email at least once during the day. Here is a excerpt from a survey at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

91% Send or read email

91% Use search engine to find information

84% Search for a map or driving directions

79% Look for health/medical information

78% Research a product or service before buying it

Labels: Editorial

Well I had an opportunity to try ZOHO Sheet Beta today. It is a little different than some of the other online spreadsheet sites seems like to me. The first big difference that I notice is that I can embed whatever I work on into my blog which to me would be hugely useful.

While I was at it I also tried out a nice link for working up the potential value of your blog based on a spreadsheet that is hosted on ZOHO. You can reach that site by clicking HERE.

Apparently this does not work well to show up in Internet Explorer 7. I will continue to look at this and find out why.

Labels: Site of the Day