Technology

Hey, I Can Talk To My Computer Now

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So, this is interesting first post for me. I am writing this, well not really writing this, in fact I’m actually dictating this. For quite some time I have been eyeing the Mac when speech dictate software. This month I finally broke down and bought the software. It is not often that I spend $200 on a piece of software. This software however, peaked my interest enough for eagle on order it. So far, saying this paragraph hasn’t been the most seamless thing in the world, but it is the first one that I am trying. This is one of those things that I have to a try for a while to see if it really is worth using.

It is funny, this is one of those features are what computer that my dad has been asking for for 10 years. He can’t understand why after so long, and so much technical progress, you can’t just simply speak to a computer. I know if I show him this he will want to give it a try, but won’t like the side effects of using such a system.

Well, for a first go round it is taking longer to speak than it would have taken me to write this post, but it was interesting.

eBay Items

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I go through phases where I sell a bunch of stuff on eBay. I always say eBay is my enabler to buy more gadgets. It is kinda true. I sold 3 things this week and I boxed them up and they will ship out tomorrow.

I am parting with my G1 that I bought second hand in December. I was hoping to like Android and that T-Mobile would have worked by my apartment and at work. T-Mobile didn’t work well in either locations and I wasn’t such a fan of Android so far, so I am sticking with my iPhone and AT&T even if I have signal issues at work. Honestly I had this G1 sit around for a while since I only used it for about a week in December but was lazy to sell.

I am also selling my Archos 5 Internet Tablet. This was another Android experiment. I was hoping for something with a bigger screen than the iPhone to use as a tablet. Well I wasn’t a huge fan. It was a great device but, just not for me. I am going to wait for the much larger iPad instead.

I am also finally selling an extra magic mouse that I got by accident.

Next up on the to sell list is some larger stuff.

Evernote

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For the past 6 months or so I have been using Evernote. I kind of stumbled upon it while looking for a personal wiki solution. I know evernote is not a wiki. I was looking for a Wiki and ended up with Evernote. OK, I started this story at the end. So let me start from the beginning.

In the past I have written about VoodoPad. I loved, it. Still do but it is a Mac only application, and with needing to use a work Windows machine over the past almost 2 years I had to stray away from VoodoPad since well I want my “stuff” in other places than at home on my computer. At first I tried google docs, and quickly moved to Zoho. Fear of not having control of my data and an easy export option got me to build my own Media Wiki install and just password protect the site. At first I was happy with Media Wiki, but the effort of making the entries look good was significantly more than what I spent with VoodoPad. I know I shouldn’t complain because a year before I was using VoodoPad I was using plain old text notes with no search on my Treo. I got spoiled, I admit it. Media Wiki was a great idea, but it was over kill for what I wanted. I thought I wanted a wiki to collect my thoughts and document information I need to recall often, or just store for future searching. Ever since I started a Wiki at Partsearch for documentation (yes after Gus’ nagging for months to try it) I was hooked on the format.

When using Media Wiki became too much for me to bother with I went on a search for a replacement. I wanted something that was cross platform, and could also be used in a browser. I also wanted ease of use, and the ability to get my data out of their system if i needed to. I read some reviews of evernote and I gave it a try. At first the differences from what I thought I wanted (a wiki) and Evernote were a huge stumbling block for me. That was until I learned that I can still have great search functionality out of Evernote even though it wasn’t a wiki. It was what I wanted for putting notes and stuff into something.

The more I started using the program the more I relied on it. Then the iPhone version came out and I thought ti was great, but then was not so happy about its lack of offline support. Recently they fixed that and now I can store all my notes locally on my Windows computer, Mac or phone. At that point I was like OK, these people have earned me paying for the premium service.

Now I use Evernote for everything including to just jott down notes in a meeting. No more scratch pads, or even a text/notepad window opened. Without Evernote and Remember The Milk (another app I have written about a few times) I don’t think I would be as productive at work or at home. I am eager to see what the Evernote people will come up with for the iPad.

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Another iMac

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So I should never talk about technology and say one thing and then a few months later totally change my tune. I know, I am bad. I say that after ranting about the all in one computer form factor. I had a love hate relationship with my 24″ iMac. I was happy and sad to see it go. I like laptop’s much better. I really do. Of course that doesn’t explain why today I went out and bought a 27″ iMac. And not just a regular 27″ iMac, I got the Quad Core i5 model. I figured the even more money for the i7 was overkill. Well the i7 was overkill or I didn’t want to wait for the special order for that. I will just keep telling myself that it was overkill.

So why after being mad at the all in ones, would I go and get another one? Well that is an interesting story. In December I finally after 2 years of pondering it, I went out and bought a 30″ LCD monitor. See my reasons for not getting one sooner in my “Monitor Upgrades & Monitor Arm Number 2” post, so I wont have to go back into that again. After all that I wanted the dam iMac again because even though the 30″ display was fantastic, it wasn’t fantastic with my Macbook Pro. The image was just crap. The stupid Apple Dual Link DVI to Display Port adapter that everyone bashes does suck as bad as everyone says. I don’t know why. And it isn’t all the time. I used the same adapter on my Mac Mini and it seemed to work better. The monitor worked fantastic on a non mac machine, but guess what all I have are Mac’s.

So why did I change my mind? Figuring out what my tax return would be on Thursday was what started my thoughts. Originally I wanted a Mac Pro. I figured I would splurge and plug it into my fancy new monitor. Then I saw the cost of the single processor model. Holly crap that is expensive. The similar quad core iMac was like $500 cheaper. I then thought about out how much i could get for reselling my 30″ monitor and the iMac is half paid for, plus i am getting a slightly smaller screen and almost as powerful a system. Lets face it I don’t “need” a Mac Pro, I wanted it to drive the monitor I had. In the end this was a cheaper and smarter decision. My desk is also thankful for the extra room.

In the short term I am still going to hold onto the Macbook Pro because I do use it out of the house, but that is also soon to go the way of ebay once I get an iPad or something else small.

Now I can’t promise that in 6 months I wont be fed up with the all in one again. But for now I think it was a smart move. To show how much I think this was a good idea, I can say I even bought the Apple Care for this thing. I almost never do that since I usually only keep a computer for a year!

Next thing I need to do is figure out how to get the VESA mount on this new computer so I can use my monitor arm again. Thanks again Apple for making a standard like VESA so hard to setup. If the reviews of this mount are any indication I am going to be not happy when I try to mount it.

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Freetalk Wireless

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Last week I ordered a Skype Freetalk Wireless headset. It arrived today. Pairing was really easy, and the headset fit well. I am worried that after using it a lot it will feel a bit tight. I like (and don’t like) that the charging is done from the dongle to the headset. I will see if that becomes an issue. I used it for one call today but wont really give it a true test until I am at work on Tuesday.

I have been looking for a good headset to use with my laptop when not at my desk at home. I hope this one works out, since my desk drawers at home are becoming a graveyard for wired and bluetooth headsets alike that haven’t cut it. Seriously I think I have at least 2 wired skype headsets that suck and I don’t use, and about 4 bluetooth headsets. I use 2 of those but not as much as I like and never with the computers since I have quirky issues.

Freeagent Go By Seagate

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For the past 6-8 months I have been setting aside money every month to purchase one portable hard drive. I am doing it for back reasons mainly, but I also had other storage needs so I figured I would budget some money each month. In the beginning I was able to get a 320gb drive for the money I put aside. After a few months I was able to get 500gb drives for the same price.

I had been getting mainly Western Digital My Passport Portable drives. They are fine overall. I did try one Iomega, and a Toshiba in December since I got a deal on a 640gb drive I used for my annual backup. This month I tried out the Seagate Freeagent Go drive. I also bought two docks they sell. Let me tell you so far I am very happy. The dock idea is brilliant. I have seen these drives for a while but when I originally wanted a dock I couldn’t get one. Now they are readily available so I bought a 500gb Seagate. Shuttling it around is a snap. I think I am going to switch to Seagate’s for a while as long as they keep selling portable drives that fit the dock systems.

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A New Netbook

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I bought a new netbook to replace my sold HP Mini 1000. I got an Acer 11.9″ model. It is in a nice blue color. It is “technically” not even a netbook since it is runing a real Core Solo processor. This new one comes pre-installed with Windows 7. I am still not a huge fan of the screen size but it is better than the HP. I like this netbook, but the more i use any netbook makes me think I really wont be happy with any screen under 13″. Does that mean I will be getting a Macbook Air in my future? Maybe, I have been thinking about it for over a year. The price is all that is stopping me. I really want a tablet though, so I shall see what comes out next year.

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Bad RCN

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As predicted RCN was unable to come out to repair my cable modem after the blizzard. I don’t fault them for that. It was nasty out. What I do fault them for is the 3 phone calls to them checking on the service call and being told first that yes they would show up in the window the originally told me. Then the second person told me things are running slow due to weather and they would check with dispatch and get back to me. They never did. The 3rd person was good and was checked and said no one was working on repairs today and they would schedule a call for tomorrow. They were baffled by the other peoples comments. They claim that someone would look into the incident. I hold no hopes that the will actually do that. I am just happy they claim that someone will be out around lunch time tomorrow to fix my modem.

The Mifi isn’t the fastest thing int he world but I can browse the web and check main just fine on it. It gets a bit slow when using the VPN for work.

Technical Difficulties

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My luck wasn’t going very well this weekend. I got home and started settling in and suddenly my cable modem died on me. That was the final straw on my decision to get a MiFi. Before being stranded in the Bahamas I was pondering the wireless broadband device the Novatel MiFi. After the day in the Bahamas airport I really wanted one even though I knew that it wouldn’t have worked in the Bahamas. When the cable went out I decided to head out to Manhattan before it started snowing to pick up one of the nifty devices. I didn’t want to spend an unknown amount of days in a blizzard without internet. I am brave, but not that brave.

Thankfully the store was empty and I was in and out in 20 minutes. Let me tell you the Mifi is really easy to setup and it works exactly as advertised. RCN claims they will be out tomorrow morning to look at my Modem but I tend to doubt it since it is still snowing.

The New Monitor

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Friday my new HP 30″ monitor arrived. It is pretty huge! I am glad I thought it through and ordered the quick release mounting bracket or else I don’t know how I would have screwed in that monitor on the LCD arm. Removing the base and putting on the mounting brackets were relatively simple. Getting the monitor onto the arm took 2 try’s since I had trouble visualizing how it connected. In the end I needed more time working on the cable management than I did on mounting the LCD.

So far the Mini DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI adapter from Apple is working ok. I can see some slight “shaking” of windows near the edges, but only of certain colors. I barely notice it so I am not worried about that. What I don’t like is every so often when I wake the display from sleep it displays garbage squiggly lines on the display and I have to unplug the adapter and plug it back in. When I do that everything resets back to normal. Thankfully it has only happened a two or three times in two days. I may just have the monitor stay awake all the time but goto screen saver. I know that isn’t the best thing to do but I will give it some time to figure out what my plans are. I am just thankful that so far (knock on wood) the entire setup is working. I want to take photos of the entire setup after I clean up all the clutter, but that is for another day!