Feb 28, 2008 | blog
Here’s an idea, and one I should have talked about sooner. As a cloud computing device, the Eee PC is the perfect example of a device that should take advantage of online storage.
Not only should mini-laptop, or Internet access devices be leveraging online software suites like Google Docs, Zoho Office, or ThinkFree, but also online storage as well. Services like Box.net, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and AOL’s XDrive (thanks to Kevin Tofel for reminding me of it) all offer up free storage with options for additional storage as a premium service.
AOL’s XDrive is really exciting to any Eee PC device loaded with Windows XP as AOL offers a utility to map a drive directly to your storage account. All three of these options (I’m sure there are others I’m not aware of) will work with either IE or Firefox and with Windows or Linux, so even if you don’t try to have a mapped drive, you can easily upload/download files as needed to any of these services.
Just one more way to solve the data storage concerns for potential Eee PC users.
Feb 25, 2008 | blog
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is only one feature in Outlook that is holding me to it at the moment. Can you help convince me that it’s time to drop Outlook?
See, I’ve been a longtime user and proponent of Microsoft software. It’s actually really good software, and a decent value… for the enterprise. For personal use, it’s long been questionable whether one needs such overblown feature laden software.
Also, Microsoft’s software is what I’d built my technical career on – and still rely on. It solves business needs, and integrates together very nicely. I’m not claming it’s the best-of-breed, or that it’s the most intuitive. It’s simply been the best value proposition for most businesses when compared to other shipping options, personal opinions aside.
Anyway, want to know what that one feature is? The ability to sync the contact list to a Windows Mobile phone. In nearly a decade, it has simply worked time and time and time again. It’s only failed me on one occasion, which was a user-instigated problem (I goofed up). In all these years, my phonebook has always been up to date and consistently backed up with changes replicated back and forth with no effort or thought about it on my part.
All my mail is online, I’ve moved my calendar to Google calendar, and all the rest – but the one thing left is that sync of my trusty T-Mobile MDA’s phonebook. With the MDA at 2 years old, I’m soon to replace it too – and it’s likely not to be a Windows Mobile phone… so is it time? Should my friends perform an intervention? Can I do it? Will I have get the shakes? I’ll keep you posted. 
Addiction photo credit: Mr Gonzales
Jan 31, 2008 | blog
Yep, again.
Not sure what’s going on this time either. I’ve tried the web, Twhirl, and via IM (Google Talk). Nothing is connecting, though oddly, IM is showing that Twitter is “online”.
Moving on… reading feeds instead. Will try to get more writing out of the way tonight.
Jan 31, 2008 | blog
I have to immediately thank Dave Delaney (Twitter: @davedelaney) for this tip. Revealed in his 5,000 tweets and counting post earlier today, he suggests the following to find your first tweet:
- Browse to your Twitter profile page
- Click on the “Archive” tab
- Scroll to the bottom
- Click on the “Older” button
- Notice that the URL is now something like http://twitter.com/rickmahn?page=2? Change the “page=2” to “page=200”
- See anything? Start decreasing that number until you find your first post.
- Or, if you’ve been especially productive, you may need to try higher page numbers! 😉
Mine just happens to be on March 4th, 2007 at 1:13pm (found here) where I tweeted the very informative “Reading RSS feeds” to the world.
So, thank you Dave for that tip, and congratulations on crossing 5,000 tweets. I had been curious about that first tweet lately because I know I was starting to get close to a full year on Twitter. Just over a month to go!
Technorati Tags: Twitter, Dave Delaney
Jan 30, 2008 | blog
Doh! Again?
Earlier today when Twitter went offline, I was only marginally annoyed. Mainly because I had a lot of work to get done. I’m quite surprised tonight when I pop on to check out what’s been happening for the last several hours.
Hmm, now I’m frustrated. First time I’ve felt that way towards Twitter. Not sure I really like that either.
Come on guys, this has got to be addressed.
