Posts

Showing posts from February, 2011

Slick freeware helps you find files easier

Image
Three free applications have made finding files so much easier on my Windows machines that I feel compelled to share. Nemo Docs (see partial image at right) shows you a calendar-based view of what files you've worked on, in chronological order, day by day. It even separates morning files from afternoon files from evening files.  This is especially useful because, in the absence of any other method for organizing files, we associate files chronologically. Everything searches files by name, quickly, whether or not you've turned on file indexing (which slows down your machine and consumes space, so some folks turn it off). It doesn't search the content of files, but what it does, it does well. Fences (which also comes in a 'Pro' version for a twenty) sets up zones on your desktop and sorts files into different zones based on their type. You can resize and move the zones, title them, and move files over the 'fences' into different zones. If you carry m

Don't let House Republicans give away the 70cm band!

ARRL needs every ham to fax or email letter to keep the House from giving away the 440MHz band. See http://www.arrl.org/sample-letters for specific details to keep your message from being lost in the legislative muddle; don't just send it as you normally would.  Here's a sample letter. It's important to keep the message on topic, civil and respectful to keep congressional staff from mis-labeling the message.   The Honorable ____________________ United States House of Representatives ______________ House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative ________:  As a voter in your district and as one of the nearly 700,000 federally licensed Amateur Radio operators across the nation, I ask that you oppose H.R. 607, the "Broadband for First Responders Act of 2011" in its current form.  H.R. 607 was introduced by Congressman Peter King (R-NY) and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. H.R. 607 proposes to allocate the "

Three DIY phone holders for your car

http://lifehacker.com/#!5747897/how-to-build-a-car-mount-for-your-cellphone-from-office-supplies http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=16992427&postcount=2 http://mechanicalmashup.tv/episodes/episode-28-how-to-convert-a-disposable-coffee-cup-into-a-smart-phone-holder/

EPUB e-books

EPUB format e-books, the format used by iPads, iPods and iPhones, are just  HTML files with a CSS style sheet , and, sometimes, one or more JPG files (cover plus maps and diagrams) consolidated into a single file with  ZIP compression .  They can be read with the free  EPubreader  extension on any PC, netbooks, notebook or Mac, regardless of operating system, and on Android phones with other free apps .  However,  yBook , free from Spacejock Software, allows you to read other formats as well as to turn a laptop or netbook 90 degrees and read your e-book in portrait mode, as if you were holding a hardback.  So, do you need a dedicated e-book reader (exemplar: The Nook Color ) (transformable into a full Android tablet  )?  IMHO, no. Calibre  for Windows, MacOS and Linux allows you to manage your e-book library as well as convert e-books from one file format to another automagically. And, here's s ix dozen plus SF and hard fantasy novels for free download at  http://baen.com/

Internet go boom?

University of Minnesota researchers have come up with an Internet killer that doesn't require a 'kill switch' at a central, governmentally approved location. Instead, pay your friendly global neighborhood hacker for a botnet of a quarter-million PCs, and turn loose a hacking program to overwhelm the routers which pass traffic between servers and users. Time to start stockpiling now for the inevitable collapse of civilization?

More on stunning inaccuracy of Teletruth and NewNetworks

UPDATE: 'TeleTruth' and 'NewNetworks' caved and rewrote the screed. Now, the only remnant of the original lie is the whiny comment, "NOTE: BEAVER CREEK, the ski resort, is supposedly not affiliated with the phone company." They could confirm that if they wanted to, but as long as no one calls them on their irresponsibility, this, as well as many, many other websites, will continue to post lies as truth. Reader, beware. The previous post regarding a farrago of inaccuracy about Beaver Creek Telephone written by some jaspers from New York City, 'TeleTruth', and an ally of theirs, NewNetworks.com, has a response.   I reviewed it, and here's my rebuttal (in Courier ) to their pile of... whatever. Red letters reveal the evidence they don't have the discipline to spell check before hitting 'Send'. On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 21:29, Bruce Kushnick  < bruce@newnetworks.com >  wrote: Thanks for your email And, thank you for a ti

Lie of the day from the Internet slams Beavercreek, OR

Image
The Universal Slush Fund: Or How Out of Control is the Government Phone Tax? Why does Beaver Creek gets over $10,000 a line? is just flat wrong in an important area. Please allow me to quote: An example? Beaver Creek is a high-end ski resort which received $11,892 per line. Wrong. This amount is unfathomable when the average local bill, according to the FCC data is $25 a month (the last FCC data is from 2008). Beaver Creek is, among other things, serves a high-end ski resort with the marketing line “not exactly roughing it”. http://www.beavercreek.com/Summer-Site-Home.aspx You're mixing up Beaver Creek, Colorado, the ski resort, with Beavercreek, Oregon , which has the telco in question, four states over and 1,200 miles away. Sure makes your case looks better, in the 'throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks' method of litigiousness, but trying to conflate the wealth of Vail, Colorado with the telecom needs of rural Oregon is just plain wrong.

$150 Worthy Android Tablet

Tech Republic has reviewed the Coby Kyros and found it a decent buy at $150 .