I came across a service called Mail2Web that is a free alternative to the MobileMe service that Apple is selling for $100. Mail2Web is a free personal Microsoft Exchange 2003 account, and since the iPhone can connect to Microsoft Exchange, this allows email to be received almost instantaneously. The instructions on how to set this up are available from Lifehacker.
I have just installed and activated a new WordPress plugin called Twitter Updater. Twitter Updater
automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post. You can specify the text for the updates, and also have the option to turn the auto update on/off for the different post actions in the admin panel.
Since I keep forgetting I have a Twitter account, I figured this would be an easy way to keep it updated.
I was going through Lifehacker and came across a post about an all-in-one IM app, called Digsby, that just added audio and video. I’ve been using all-in-one IM apps for a while now. I started with Trillian and recently switched over to Gaim/Pidgin. What I found lacking from the ones I used was audio and video chat capabilities. Trillian does have the ability to do video chats but you need to pay for the Pro version. I figure if Yahoo, MSN, and AOL aren’t going to charge users for video, why should I pay for an app that does? One of the nice things about Digsby, is that you log into the service instead of adding accounts to the program like you would with Trillian or Pidgin. This means you have access to your buddy lists from any computer Digsby is installed on. It reminds me of Meebo. Digsby can also track social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. I still have to figure out if the audio/video is only between Digsby users or if someone can be on Yahoo Instant Messenger and view/share video with someone on Digsby.
I have signed up for Second Life.
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents.
I’m still getting used to everything on it but so far it seems fun. I’m trying to do similar things on SL that I do in my regular life like drag racing, shooting pool, playing golf, etc.
I was checking out Digg.com a couple of days ago and came across a post about a mod for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I have the Playstation2 version of the game and love it. From the clips I’ve seen on YouTube, it looks like with the mod, there are 5 different DeLoreans (the original that ran on plutonium, the one with the hook, the hovering one with Mr. Fusion, the non-hovering one with the big whitewall tires, and the one with bare rims for railroad tracks) plus the hovering train (from the very end of BTTFIII). They even have the hoverboard. After seeing video clips on YouTube, I wish I had the PC version so I could install the mod.
I’ve finally finished my new computer to replace my 5 year old tower. The new PC has a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 processor, 2GB RAM, and 2 300GB hard drives mirrored in a RAID-1 configuration so if one of them fails, I’ll still have all my data. The box it’s replacing has a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor, 1GB RAM, and 1 160GB hard drive. Now that I’m sure I have everything from the old PC copied over to the new PC and backed up to my external hard drive, I’ve formatted the hard drive in the old PC and installed MythDora. MythDora is a Fedora Core and MythTV “All-In-One” CD/DVD. It will allow me to do all the stuff you can do with a TiVO for free.
I was listening to a computer forensics podcast while at work today and they were discussing Freenigma. Freenigma is a Firefox extension that allows you to encrypt most webmail emails including GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail. It’s by invitation only but you can register for an invitation. This is very similar to FireGPG which I’ve posted about before but FireGPG only works with GMail. Once I get my invite to download Freenigma, I’ll try it out and post my opinion about it.
Apple has released a public beta of their Safari web browser for the Windows operating system. I’m using it right now and it’s exactly like the Mac version, down to the resize being in the bottom righthand corner of the window. I would’ve prefered it had more of a Windows like resize but this will get people used to how to resize a window on a Mac should they ever make the switch.
Apple has released a DRM-free version of certain songs for $0.30 more than the regular DRM version. The quality of the new songs is 256kbps whereas the older DRM songs’ quality is 128kbps. You can upgrade existing purchases (if available) for the $0.30 difference. In order to get iTunes Plus, you need to upgrade to iTunes 7.2.