http://lifehacker.com/373815/jott-your-way-to-evernote-bliss
So here is a way to dictate (speak) your notes, reminders, whatever, into your cell phone, and have them end up in your note-taking application (Evernote) automatically, for free. Wow.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Verizon Wireless Samsung i760 does not support Google Maps My Location feature
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsung-sch-i760/97441-new-google-maps-v2-0-a.html
I had long suspected this (as it has never worked for me) but had not found it written down anywhere before now. Phhht.
I had long suspected this (as it has never worked for me) but had not found it written down anywhere before now. Phhht.
web access for desktop apps - duh dot net
http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2008/04/08/run-freshbooks-like-a-desktop-ap/
which I found via:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_need_web_apps_on_the_desktop.php
I got so excited when I found out about dot net. It had the capability to abstract the internet away from the browser, in other words replace the browser with a desktop app that was truly plumbed for the internet, without the UI limitations of the browser. One of the big parts of that was "just-in-time" install. You would never have to install the desktop portion of a web application, instead it would download in modules as needed, and run without installing.
But Microsoft never capitalized on this aspect of dot net. In fact they buried it. Fast forward 5 years, and other companies have seen the opportunity, and are about to blow right on by MS in this area. Sad.
which I found via:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_we_need_web_apps_on_the_desktop.php
I got so excited when I found out about dot net. It had the capability to abstract the internet away from the browser, in other words replace the browser with a desktop app that was truly plumbed for the internet, without the UI limitations of the browser. One of the big parts of that was "just-in-time" install. You would never have to install the desktop portion of a web application, instead it would download in modules as needed, and run without installing.
But Microsoft never capitalized on this aspect of dot net. In fact they buried it. Fast forward 5 years, and other companies have seen the opportunity, and are about to blow right on by MS in this area. Sad.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Dilbert - new site
http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive
For roughly a decade I've been going to the Dilbert site every weekday morning to get the daily fix. Usually it eerily seems like Scott Adams is looking over my shoulder.
Today was a rude awakening. There were some massive chanages to the Dilbert site between today and yesterday. Now comics seem to be hosted in some kind of Flash frame.
First let me say that I am all for folks being able to monetize their work product. Scott should be paid good money to create comics, some of it mine, as I enjoy them hugely, and I want him to want to continue making them. I do have one of his books, so that has happened in at least a small way. I think sticking them in a Flash object where perhaps he can do more advertising, and control pirating a little better, is great.
The problem is, it no workee. I tried multiple pages and links on the site, and refreshed multiple times. I finally did get to see today's comic, but it was a nightmare, and I couldn't repeat it when I continued to try.
Also, there is no information about the changes anywhere that I could find.
All in all, a bummer. I hope the experience improves.
For roughly a decade I've been going to the Dilbert site every weekday morning to get the daily fix. Usually it eerily seems like Scott Adams is looking over my shoulder.
Today was a rude awakening. There were some massive chanages to the Dilbert site between today and yesterday. Now comics seem to be hosted in some kind of Flash frame.
First let me say that I am all for folks being able to monetize their work product. Scott should be paid good money to create comics, some of it mine, as I enjoy them hugely, and I want him to want to continue making them. I do have one of his books, so that has happened in at least a small way. I think sticking them in a Flash object where perhaps he can do more advertising, and control pirating a little better, is great.
The problem is, it no workee. I tried multiple pages and links on the site, and refreshed multiple times. I finally did get to see today's comic, but it was a nightmare, and I couldn't repeat it when I continued to try.
Also, there is no information about the changes anywhere that I could find.
All in all, a bummer. I hope the experience improves.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Evernote 3 beta now can do local databases
http://www.evernote.com/about/support/release_notes/
I have been holding back a bit from the new Evernote (and still using 2), because it kept everything in the cloud. But now that it can create local databases also, I will be much more willing to move to it. Now I can have "notebooks" in both places - general notes in the cloud, which will be cool, and private stuff on my pc in an encrypted notebook, where it belongs. Good show Evernote team!
I have been holding back a bit from the new Evernote (and still using 2), because it kept everything in the cloud. But now that it can create local databases also, I will be much more willing to move to it. Now I can have "notebooks" in both places - general notes in the cloud, which will be cool, and private stuff on my pc in an encrypted notebook, where it belongs. Good show Evernote team!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Vista 64 bit, Internet Explorer 64 bit, and Netflix Watch Now
It turns out that the Netflix "Watch Now" service doesn't work quite right on Vista 64 bit, if you try to use the 64 bit version of Internet Explorer that comes with Vista. You download the player and install it, and nothing further happens, no matter how many times you try (and no I'm not saying how many times I tried..). However just fire up the 32 bit version of Internet Explorer, and the service works fine.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Convert WordPerfect documents (wpd) to WordPad (rtf)
One of my friends has a significant legacy of WordPerfect (.wpd) documents. They recently upgraded their machine and are trying to make a go of using just the built-in WordPad for writing things. However WordPad can't read WordPerfect wpd files natively (for the most part - I found indications that wpd is based on rtf - though I opened one up and I don't see the resemblance). So the other day it finally got to the point where they had to read (edit actually) one of those wpd files, one way or another.
First I checked the cost of WordPerfect. Turns out Corel still owns it and at this point they think it is hot, as they are pricing it a lot closer to MS Office than they used to. Forget that.
Next I looked at Shareware converters. There are some out there, but honestly I'm too afraid of picking up a nasty from Shareware/Freeware lately. I think in order to make money folks are writing utilities and giving them away, but selling a spot inside the utility to the highest bidder. I still have some trust for open source (due to the fact that you can download the source and look at it). The rest makes me shudder.
The next best alternative looked to be Open Office (hey open source wudda-ya-know). But that still seemed to be overkill for the task. However I should note I did download Open Office as a backup solution, as they do support both wpd and rtf, and should be able to convert nicely between them (though there are gotchas here too I read - the wpd format is rumored to be difficult to get formatting, especially table formatting, out of).
But first I took a look at Microsoft's site to see if they had anything that would help us. After all Wordpad is their product. In looking around I stumbled on what I am terming an elegant if twisted solution. Microsoft offers a free Word viewer. Word has format converters for many types of non-native document formats. So I installed the Word viewer (make sure you do a search for Word Viewer and take the latest from Microsoft Download Center, as there are several versions available). Then I installed all the Word format converters I could find. Bingo! I open the WPD in the Word Viewer, which can now understand it just fine. You can't do more than view (with the viewer), but viewing happens to include printing, and COPYING to the clipboard. So I simply "select all", copy, and paste into a new Wordpad window, and we are in business, for the low low price of nada.
First I checked the cost of WordPerfect. Turns out Corel still owns it and at this point they think it is hot, as they are pricing it a lot closer to MS Office than they used to. Forget that.
Next I looked at Shareware converters. There are some out there, but honestly I'm too afraid of picking up a nasty from Shareware/Freeware lately. I think in order to make money folks are writing utilities and giving them away, but selling a spot inside the utility to the highest bidder. I still have some trust for open source (due to the fact that you can download the source and look at it). The rest makes me shudder.
The next best alternative looked to be Open Office (hey open source wudda-ya-know). But that still seemed to be overkill for the task. However I should note I did download Open Office as a backup solution, as they do support both wpd and rtf, and should be able to convert nicely between them (though there are gotchas here too I read - the wpd format is rumored to be difficult to get formatting, especially table formatting, out of).
But first I took a look at Microsoft's site to see if they had anything that would help us. After all Wordpad is their product. In looking around I stumbled on what I am terming an elegant if twisted solution. Microsoft offers a free Word viewer. Word has format converters for many types of non-native document formats. So I installed the Word viewer (make sure you do a search for Word Viewer and take the latest from Microsoft Download Center, as there are several versions available). Then I installed all the Word format converters I could find. Bingo! I open the WPD in the Word Viewer, which can now understand it just fine. You can't do more than view (with the viewer), but viewing happens to include printing, and COPYING to the clipboard. So I simply "select all", copy, and paste into a new Wordpad window, and we are in business, for the low low price of nada.
Vista, multiple nics, which one is used when (preference)
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2722951&SiteID=1
(scroll down to:
22 Jan 2008, 9:08 PM UTC
Gabe Frost [MSFT] Moderator
Answer Re: QOS Policies in Vista not working. )
I added two nics to one of my Vista boxes, as I have two ISPs at the moment (DSL and Cable).There's a long and tortured reason why I need that particular box to use both networks that I won't go into. This particular post is the only info I have found so far on how Vista feels about two network cards, other than that I can go into advanced network properties and set a preferred order for the network cards, or otherwise change the routing priority in a couple of other places.
The bummer is this kinda confirms that I will have problems trying to get one program to use one ISP, and other programs to use the other...
(scroll down to:
22 Jan 2008, 9:08 PM UTC
Gabe Frost [MSFT] Moderator
Answer Re: QOS Policies in Vista not working. )
I added two nics to one of my Vista boxes, as I have two ISPs at the moment (DSL and Cable).There's a long and tortured reason why I need that particular box to use both networks that I won't go into. This particular post is the only info I have found so far on how Vista feels about two network cards, other than that I can go into advanced network properties and set a preferred order for the network cards, or otherwise change the routing priority in a couple of other places.
The bummer is this kinda confirms that I will have problems trying to get one program to use one ISP, and other programs to use the other...
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Pdaphonehome doing fool's thing pocketpc-style
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsung-sch-i760/107625-has-anyone-seen-mrailing-around-lately.html
All the old i730 cast o' characters get a mention. Wow!
All the old i730 cast o' characters get a mention. Wow!
Windows Mobile 6.1 passes i760 by!
Ooh, what an April Fool's day joke on me - it appears the newest Windows Mobile update announced today, Windows Mobile 6.1, will pass my practically-brand-new phone, the Samsung I760, by.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-01WM61PR.mspx
Of course it is early days and this could turn around, but in my experience the chance is little to none sadly! Have to keep a weather-eye on pdaphonehome - see if mrailing and crew can suss the deal.
UPDATE: PdaPhoneHome crew weigh in on the 760's chances for 6.1, also threatening a hack if Vzw doesn't come through -
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsung-sch-i760/107305-windows-mobile-6-1-released-4-1-08-a.html
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-01WM61PR.mspx
Of course it is early days and this could turn around, but in my experience the chance is little to none sadly! Have to keep a weather-eye on pdaphonehome - see if mrailing and crew can suss the deal.
UPDATE: PdaPhoneHome crew weigh in on the 760's chances for 6.1, also threatening a hack if Vzw doesn't come through -
http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsung-sch-i760/107305-windows-mobile-6-1-released-4-1-08-a.html
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