Category: Technology

Posted on

Skype Gives You Free Calls To the U.S. & Canada

As I type this, I am talking to my sister-in-law, Wendy, back in Iowa. Skype is my hero today. They are offering free calls to the U.S. and Canada until the end of 2006. It’s pretty simple and works very well. I’ve only had some slight problems, but I called not only my brother’s house, but Rebecca at work, my mom, Paul back at the radio station, and my buddy Heath.

Heath was the only one not on a landline, but the cellphone conversation worked out really well. I used my podcast setup for a mic and headphones for the conversations. Mom said I sounded slightly tinny. Matt said that he could tell it was digital, but the overall quality was good. Paul is excited to use it for broadcast and personal uses.

You have to pay extra to get the ability to have people phone into your computer, but I think this is a great feature. I haven’t talked to Heath and Qi Qi since I left Iowa. However, the only draw back is what comes up on the caller I.D.; my mom and Heath almost didn’t answer the phone because the display came up as “unknown”.

Posted on

Camino 1.0.1 Released

A news item from Macworld.com announced that Camino 1.0.1 has been released.

Camino 1.0.1 is a “security and stability update” for Camino 1.0. Several critical security issues have been corrected, and Camino uses version 1.8.0.3 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. The Java Embedding plug-in has bee updated to version 0.9.5+d. Ad-blocking has been improved, especially for German ads. Locally stored SVG files can now be opened. And Camino on Intel-based Macs can now read Keychain entries stored by Camino on PowerPC-based Macs. [article]

I’m running it now and it does seem to be a little more snappy than the previous version. I would say that it might deal slightly better with WordPress, but still no built-in spellcheck. Bummer.

Posted on

Viruses Still Work On the Ill-fated

For the longest time, there hasn’t been much to worry about in the world of viruses when it comes to being a user of Apple computers. In my memory, there has been a few times that things have freaked out in the MacOS world, but that is nothing compared to the two plus years of tech support I did in the Windows world.

It’s only been a matter of time that Apple users would be targeted, but the media is flipping out because there are already attacks out there that can get to the new Intel Macs. However, most of these issues are being over hyped because it takes the user execute them onto their own machine. Continue reading “Viruses Still Work On the Ill-fated”

Posted on

XM Reporting Wider Loss in 1Q

XM Satellite Radio sunk a little further down the ladder today with their reported losses this quarter.  $151.4 million is a hefty chunk of change, and this is higher than a year ago when they reported a loss of $122.1 million.

XM and its smaller rival Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. are spending heavily to sign up subscribers and programming talent to their businesses, which offer dozens of channels of talk, news and music for fees of about $13 a month.

I’m not sure that this means XM is losing ground to Sirius.  Startups usually go through these growing pains, but numbers like these will convince would be subscribers to go towards Sirius for their programming.  Naturally, this makes me wonder where podcasting fits into these failing numbers.

Posted on

People Listen to the Radio More Than You Think

Who says no one listens to the radio anymore because we’re all listening to our iPods? That’s rubbish. People are listening to the radio a lot more than the industry thinks. We’re just not listening to broadcast radio. We’re piping iPods through the stereo using all sorts of neat little transmitters.

I have one. It works through my Powerbook via USB. It’s brilliant for music and listening to podcasts all throughout the apartment. I often wonder if anyone else is tuning in, but they’d have to hit the right frequency.

I can picture someone now, tuning into what they think is a pretty cool music station, only to have a podcast come up next in the playlist. This morning, I went from New Pornographers, to Aberdeen City, to a CNN news update, to a NPR news update, to the Onion Radio News, to the Daily Breakfast. That would completely throw off the unsuspecting.

Posted on

The Push and Shove of Podcasting

CNet and TechWeb both reported stories last week regarding a report that Forrester Research published regarding how businesses should tred lightly when it comes to venturing into podcasting.  I haven’t had a chance to read the actual report, but the stories I have read regarding it tends to make me very skeptical on their findings.

Essentially, Forrester feels that companies should create podcasts consisting of already existing content.  This further promotes the “TiVo for your radio” idea, simulcasting radio content into the podcasting medium.  They go on to say that investing in original content for podcasting should be a low priority as podcasting lacks in audience at this time.

I don’t disagree in the lack of audience debate, but holding off on creating original content paves the way for others to take advantage of podcasting right now.  Businesses unsure or uninformed about podcasting will buy into this report and wait.  Those with the desire to create programming will have more opportunity for getting in while the getting is good.

At the same time, podcasting will only become a stronger media method through promotion.  Creating original content that you can only get through podcasts will drive people towards being a listener or viewer, depending on what it is that you are publishing.  It’s like having a party where anyone can come and not telling people where or when.  There is also truth in saying you never know until you try.

I will admit that something needs to be done to make finding and listening to podcasts easier.  There are a lot of ways to find them, download them, listen to podcasts, and tons of MP3 players for you to take them with you.  Just because there isn’t one, simple way does not make podcasting a poor medium to attract people to it.  Not all radios and TV’s are built and work the same.  Time will tell, but it will become more common place to have podcasts fit into the realm of things.

Posted on

Apple Releases MacOS Update 10.4.6

This update seems to address a core of issues within the new Apple computer products with Intel processors. The other interesting note that comes with this release that came out yesterday, April 3rd, is the warnings posted along with it.

From Apple’s website:

Important: Please read before installing.

– If you use iSync, you should perform a full sync with your devices before installing this update. Mac OS X 10.4.6 Update includes a later version of iSync with several improvements. For more information and before-you-install steps, see iSync 2.2: Read before updating to Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, or before first sync.

– With the Mac OS X 10.4.6 system software update, PowerPC-based Macs will restart twice, instead of once, after the initial installation.

– You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you’ve modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

– The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update.

If issues occur during installation–for example, Software Update quits unexpectedly, please see this article.

Yikes. This seems to be a pretty hefty update that might catch some people by surprise. As always, back up your computer before you apply this upgrade. Get more info here on Apple’s website. And that’s just for upgrading from 10.4.5 to 10.4.6. Info on older systems can be found here, and this is the update method I prefer to use and really recommend.

Also, check out other resources on the web. MacInTouch is a great site to read user comments and feedback. The MacNN forums are a great, real time source as well.  Find out how upgrades are going for other users and get feedback from professionals who have the ability to test these things out before you find yourself completely and totally screwed.

Posted on

Setting the Max Volume On iPods

Apple released an update for iPods this week that offers support to users to set the maximum listening volume. This comes on the heels on warnings and reports regarding a potential connection to hearing loss attributed to people listening to their iPods at high volumes. MacNewsWorld has an interesting article about it.

People have been blasting their ears with loud music for years, starting with the Princess Leia headphones of the 70’s. I’ve been an advocate for taking ear plugs to rock shows for this specific reason. I want to be rocking out to music until the day I die, doing my best to not blow my ear drums out until that time.

Download the update here.

Posted on

Apple GUI Over the Past 30 Years

Wired.com is running this page of screen shots from various Apple systems from over the years.  This is all for the 30th anniversary of Apple Computer coming up the 1st of April.  Some of this will snap you back in your memories.  I know it did for me.

My family was one of the first to have a personal computer at home.  Apples were always apart of that.  In fact, it was about the mid-90’s that I can first recall dealing with Windows, and I was frustrated to no end.  DOS what?  Colon, back slash, who?

Boot disks.  RAM disks.  The sound of floppy drives.  Now I want to watch WarGames.

Posted on

Northwest From SXSW

I’ve only been to SXSW once, but it made me believe that there was an actual reason to go to Texas. And it is true what they say. “Don’t mess with Texas.” That’s not a clever bumper sticker. It’s a word to the wise.

We got the university to set us college radio kids up in a fairly swanky hotel for a few days. I saw a bunch of shows around the downtown area of Austin. It was like discovering rock and roll all over again. All sorts of great venues, people with a true love for live music, and easy going crowds. It’s where I saw Shiner twice in one day. They Might Be Giants, Clinic, Lo Fidelity All-Stars, Girls Against Boys, and one of the last performances by The Promise Ring, just to name a few.

Now SXSW is turning into something even greater than just a music and film festival. It’s attaching all this fun technology, geek stuff that seems to be growing year by year. I’ve moved to an amazing city with everything SXSW has to offer on a day to day basis, but there is just something about Austin that makes me want to go there again and again.

Next year, man. Next year.