Easy task switching

If you run many programs at once (as I do), you know that using the Alt-Tab keys in Windows is invaluable. However, I have trouble figuring out what programs are which. If I have 3 or 4 instances of one program open, I have to guess which one is the one I want.

Well, I was watching Tekzilla (podcast) the other day and they introduced me to TaskSwitchXP. Wow. Awesome program. Now, when I Alt-Tab, I see a screen shot of the program with the actual information. And, it seems to be a very lightweight program, so it doesn’t slow anything down. I’m only on day one, but if any trouble arises, I’ll post again.

Click here to try it for yourself.

How long do lightening bugs live? Followed by, My Dad’s a Genius

I was helping my 6-year-old daughter with her homework tonight. It was a project on insects. She chose the firefly, so we were debating the ins and outs of color, number of legs, etc. We were at the kitchen counter when she asked a question from further down the worksheet. “How long do lightening bugs live, daddy?” Not having any background in entomology, I was stumped. Thankfully, there was a laptop to my left, so I launched Google, asked the question, then found the answer (2 years by the way) all within about 30 seconds.

Honestly, how cool is it that in today’s world we can have answers that fast? We then set out to www.wikipedia.com to search for more answers about said insect and found a world of information. Who knows how she’ll teach her kids . . .

. . . but for now, anyway, to her I’m a genius.

 

Speed Up Your Surfing . . . serious this time.

I’ve always been leary about those “speed up your connection” software schemes. I mean, even my feeble logic seemed to say my net connection was going to be only as fast as my provider let it be. Well, I recently found out about OpenDNS. This is a service that speeds up your browsing by giving you an optimized DNS (Domain Name Service) for the web. To explain, when you type in a domain, www.mooresites.com for example, that is transated into an IP (Internet Protocol) address where the website resided (it’s easier to remember the name than all those numbers!). Well, an index of sorts is kept by your local internet provider. The idea is that Open DNS does a better job at managing this and is, thus, faster.

 I’m a believer. I’ve been fooling around tonight with different websites and the lag time between typing in an address is noticeably faster than before. Usually, I would type in an address, press enter, and wait 5 or so seconds for the website to resolve (then start loading). Now, it’s more like 2 seconds maximum . . .

 You’ll just have to try it for yourself. Why not, it’s free. Head to www.opendns.com to try it out.

 I’ll try to update later . . . there’s a management system where you can block certain sites from the network . . . with personalized error messages. Not a problem since my kids aren’t surfing anything but Nickjr.com, but should come in handy once they want to explore further on the web.

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

And there you have it. Nintendo’s latest video game system is, well, all it’s cracked up to be in my opinion. We’ve had it about 2 months and it really is “fun for the whole family”. Want to guess who the most active player is? Yep, my wife. She’s reached pro status (quickly) and can’t stop bowling. Here are a few things I’ve taken away from the system:

• Sportsmania - The Wii Sports game bundled with the system makes it almost worth buying and not getting another game (until Wii Sports II!). I read all the reviews about sub-par graphics, but it REALLY is about gameplay. Tennis works just like you’d expect (my favorite game, by the way). Bowling is superb in that a turn of the wrist makes the ball act differently. Boxing is a true workout. Baseball is not fully functional (you can’t field balls and such), but it is a satisfying experience to hear the crack of the back and that small vibration when you knock it out of the park! Golf, I haven’t gotten into (as much as Jake, my 3 year old), but it has it’s value as well.
• Backward Compatability - So, I’ve played the game Zelda: Ocarina of Time (best game ever, by the way) all the way through about 4 or 5 times with my son Jake. He absolutely LOVES it. Well, the Wii has Zelda: Twilight Princess (yes, I know you think I’m a super nerd at this point). However, to my knowledge, that version of Zelda doesn’t follow the awesome storyline of “Ocarina”. But, the Zelda: Windwaker game is a sequel. It’s for the previous system, the Nintendo GameCube (which I don’t have). No worries! I found it for $15 on Ebay, bought a controller for the GameCube and now we’re playing another awesome game. I’ve dug through the best of lists for GameCube. There are some very solid games there, so I might find some steals! I think that was a very good move by Nintendo to keep GameCube alive on the Wii.
• Archived Downloadable Titles - I played one of my all time favorites, Super Mario Brothers 2 . . . on the Wii! That’s right, you can download almost all of Nintendo’s catalogue of games right to your Wii . . . for $5 to $10 depending on the system. I’m debating grabbing classic games like Paper Mario and such . . . just the right price in my opinion.
• News and Weather -  I arguably spend half my time on the system reviewing weather forcasts and news headlines. The Wii has a “news channel” that will pull tons of news from the Associated Press right to your TV. And not, just once a day . . . every few hours! Sometimes I see news before it even gets going. I’m amazed at the immediacy of it all. And, the weather channel on Wii . . . that’s just too convenient.
• Internet Browsing - I’ve tried hooking my laptop up to my TV. Even hooked to my LCD, the images and text were just too small and far away to view easily. Looks like the Wii fixed that. The zooming feature keeps text smooth on the screen. It’s very readable. Entering text with the motion remote isn’t the best option (I hear you can plug in a USB keyboard), but it’ll do for light browsing.

So, with that said, if you’re looking to get a next generation gaming system and you have small children, you pretty much can’t miss with this. Don’t expect a powerhouse on graphics, but they’re nothing to frown about (think better-than-original-XBox, but not nearly Playstation 3 graphics).

 It’s good to see Nintendo still has some power left in the industry.

Speaking of Amazon MP3

In my previous post, I mention Amazon MP3 briefly. It’s a known fact that iTunes is the leader in online distribution of music. That’s all well and good and they’ve definitely changed the face of how music is purchased by consumers. My beef with iTunes is that in order to play [most of] purchased tracks is to have an iPod. Now, I own an iPod and will probably never use anything else (it’s that good). However, I like to stream music from my computer to my TiVo (and any other device and future device that supports the MP3 format). Well, iTunes is AAC format . . . so, no TiVo or otherwise (at least not easily).

I say all that to say this: Amazon.com has an online store with high bitrate (i.e. great sounding) files that are totally unprotected. That means you can move them to whatever player you want, whatever computer you want . . . it’s all good. My thoughts are also on the automotive future (if I ever have the dough to get a new car!). Online hard drives are on the market, most of which support MP3.

 Aaaand, the Amazon store’s pricing is on par with iTunes if not cheaper in many cases.

Now, I’ll still probably buy my favorite artists on CD so I have the prisine quality if I need it as well as a backup. But those odds and ends that I have ringing in my head . . . well, 89 to 99 cents aint bad . . .

Distribute yourself to iTunes

So, I’ve often wondered time and time again how to get my singing group on iTunes. Since some of our albums are independent of our label, we’ve always entertained the thought of getting the music onto iTunes in order for radio listeners around the country (and world) to easily access our music. Up until now (at least for all I know), unless you were a major label or had the correct channels, getting onto iTunes was a tough road to go down.

Enter TuneCore.com . . . just upload your album to your account, and they handle the rest. They also publish you not only to iTunes, but also services like Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, eMusic, and more. The kicker is the fee to get plugged in - just $20 per album plus 99 cents per song and a yearly $20 maintenance fee. So, a 10 track album is $50 per year give or take to have a world audience.

 I’ll update this post as I progress with uploading albums . . . I have high hopes to say the least.

Wireless TV, Anyone?

So, you’ll be able to mount a plasma on your wall . . . with nothing but a power cord? Now we’re talking. Samsung plans on unveiling plasma televisions that are wirelessly connected to your components (DVD, cable box, TiVo, etc.). It uses the not-yet-ratified 802.11n (Wi-Fi) standard, but just the thought of it makes me drool!

Tailored for Paypal

I’m not sure if I’ve ever really blogged on Paypal. I won’t go into it, but it’s a great service if you have clients who want to pay you online. I try to keep a small balance for odds and ends that I might need (i.e. Monoprice), but sometimes the sites that accept Paypal are few and far between. Well, I stumbled on a little gem called www.thefind.com (enter paypal.thefind.com for this feature). They have searches for items that include just stores that accept Paypal. Pretty cool. I’m finding the selection isn’t as wide ranging as froogle.com or similar sites, but it is nice to have a one stop shop for Paypal only purchases.

Great Googly Moogly . . . skip the GPS?

So, I was checking my Google Analytics account when I figured I’d head to their mobile site (mobile.google.com) and see what’s new. Well, I saw that Google Maps for my phone (Symbian version) was out. I reinstalled it and fired it up to see something pretty remarkable. A wide blue circle was around my location on the map. I didn’t have my GPS enabled . . . they’re locating you by cell towers! So, they can get you within 2000 feet of your current location. Now, that’s pretty cool. I still recommend the GPS Method, but this is very impressive nonetheless.

Eye-Fi, Wireless for your digital Camera

Here’s a quick take on a cool little device. If you have a digital camera that uses an SD card (Canon SD line comes to mind), then here is a cool little device. It is a memory card (2 GB) that has built in Wi-Fi. When I first heard about this device a year or so ago, I thought “How can you tell the photos to send through the wireless without a menu on the camera”. Well, it looks like they have that covered. When you set up the device, you tell the software on your computer where to store the files. You also can set up an account with an online photo service like Shutterfly or Wal-Mart.

Then, just pop that little guy in your camera. If you’re around a Wi-Fi signal, each shot you take is instantly sent to your computer or your online service. How cool is that!?

While this is cool, I could see future versions with high speed cellular cards . . . that way, wherever you are, photos would be uploaded.

For details on this gadget, head to www.eye.fi.