02.07.08
Posted in Friends, Misc Tech, Mobile Devices at 6:12 pm by Alice Pretchet
I have spoken with two friend in the past week that are starting new podcasts. I found that quite odd, as podcasting was a big buzz word two years ago, I had thought that there were a couple of popular podcasts out there, but for the most part rss text was still king. Perhaps since I still do not have an ipod, or similar device in my tech arsenal, then I am not as aware of the video and audio podcasts that may get listened to or watched everyday. I still use the DVR and streaming video, I do occasionally hear an audio cast withing my netvibes feed reader, perhaps if I had a portable mp3 player I would find some good webcasts to listen to.
This week I also see a story in one of my rss feeds (via netvibes) talking about podcasting picking up steam and advertisers are looking to step up advertising in this arena as well. I certainly hope Steve and Glen’s podcasts take off. I know Glen is looking to do a video podcast, I just hope there are easier ways to subscribe to them, currently Itunes will not let me preview podcasts without having iTunes installed on my machine, which means I can’t listen in at work, no iTunes will be installed on this system.
I think there was a movement for some time to rebrand podcasts as webcasts or something, since audio and video files put into an rss feed can be listened to on other portable devices, no need for an ipod to listen in. Perhaps there will be mix of this webcasting with you tube channels and such, perhaps there already is a way to auto-download video channels online without itunes, is anyone doing this already?
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02.06.08
Posted in Misc Tech at 12:46 am by Alice Pretchet
I’ve been the go to girl for many a family and friend in computer need, but these days there are so many more variable when it comes to getting a computer running at optimal speed with so many different viruses, spyware, hardware types, operating systems, and the list goes on and on. Even a geek gal like me has to call on an expert to help with a computer issue now and again.
Recently a good friend called me about setting up a wireless network with their windows vista machine, I had never set up a wireless network, but thought I could probably breeze through the directions and make it work within a few minutes, so I went over and got started on plugging everything in and setting things up according to the instructions. Wow. Vista is a whole ‘nother animal, and networking wireless with the Acer system and vista turned out to be much more than I bargained for. I couldn’t get it to connect, and I was so frustrated that I had spent so much time trying to get it work. This is when we called for some professional assistance.
We called PcAskMe and got a tech on the phone, they logged into her machine (I had the wired ethernet working fine), he made a few adjustments and viola’, it was connected to the wireless and we were surfing without the wired cable minutes later. So my advice to family and friends, if you’ve got a newer system and don’t want to waste a lot of time, don’t call me, call an expert. The people as PcAskMe can do most computer repairs online without you having to leave the house. They will save us both a ton of time and frustration, and I look forward to services like these making my life much easier.
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02.04.08
Posted in Misc Tech, News, Yahoo at 6:42 pm by Alice Pretchet
In today’s category of bad news, I see a story that says yahoo is merging it’s music service into real network’s rhapsody. Why oh why? I love yahoo music, launchcast, the videos, I have tons of songs and artists rated through the service and it’s something I use everyday. I am not a big fan of the real player from real networks, much preferring musicmatch jukebox, which yahoo did screw with badly, but I still like it better than the real player.
First off, what is going to happen to all of my song ratings? I have a pretty cool customized radio station now that I have given the thumbs up and thumbs down to so many artist and songs, will that just disappear with this merger (sell out!).
I have also been considering some network audio players, and some of them work with rhapsody and some work with yahoo music (one of the factors that has me leaning towards getting this wireless network audio player) - will that functionality cease to sexist with this transition?
Well in protest of this news I am listening to DI.fm today - which has way fewer commercials anyway.
On the plus side with yahoo today - there was an announcement about them buying FoxyTunes, a company that developed a toolbar plug-in application that enables users to control more than 30 desktop and Web-based music players. - But why get that? Just so you can brand it with real networks? Or maybe this was something separate, with the way yahoo has been handling music and music players it may of been best for them to leave foxy tunes alone. There is hope that miscrosoft will not acquire yahoo for many reasons, and for many of the same reasons I hope that foxytunes is not ruined by yahoo like yahoo music will be when it is taken over by real.
Just my humble opinion - an upset rant that may be edited later, updated, or proven wrong at some point. But I doubt it.
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02.02.08
Posted in Misc Tech at 12:12 pm by Alice Pretchet
My other LED grow light arrived today The Procyon 100 and I am so excited because I just put a couple of tomato seeds in some new containers and need the extra light. This LED grow light has lots of great features one of them being no need for a ballast or reflector, it is just ready to plug in and go right out of the box. The slick looking black case looks very cool in my opinion and the on board fan is very quite, the lights are very powerful, after looking at the lights turn on I saw red spots for about 5 minutes. I will post some pictures as my vegetables grow over time to let everyone see which light did the best out of my 2 new LEDs. Some of the features on this LED grow light are.
• 56 CREE* Xlamp high power LEDs (40 635nm, 16 470nm)
• 100W nominal LED power delivery
• 125W total power consumption
• Integrated power supply; requires no “ballast”
• Replaces 400W HID light, giving 75% power savings
• Covers approximately 10 square feet
• 50,000+ hour LED life
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02.01.08
Posted in Misc Tech at 1:56 pm by Alice Pretchet
I like to grow my own vegetables at home and in the past I have had to buy expensive lights that require changing the bulbs just about every 3 to 6 months. Also they take a lot of power to operate and require a reflector and a ballast and a little bit of electrical know how in order to set up. And that is just the light. My friends told me about these new LED grow lights coming out that use 1/8 the power and last ten times longer than my current vegetable lights. After taking a look at the new LED grow lights I decided to purchase two to see which works better for my indoor vegetable garden. I am still waiting on one of my lights to arrive because it is on back order but the LED UFO showed up and seems to be working better than my current light system. Some of the benefits of the UFO LED are
- Greatly reduced power consumption
- Less Heat Generated
- Ideal for all phases of plant growth
- No setup required
- Less Pollution
- Extremely long life - 80,000+ hour
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