Category: tech

Is everybody on Google Wave?  Is anybody on Google Wave?

They must be cracking the thing wide open because I now have loads of invites to give out.  If anybody still needs one, let me know.

So far my favorite Google Wave activity is Sudoku.  Playing real-time competitive Sudoku is a whole different animal.  It’s a touch stressful but loads of fun.

I have used it for work projects, but not much.  For now I’ll keep tooling around with it and see how it develops.

I’ll be around the Wave if anybody wants a quick Sudoku match.

After I got back from Hawaii, I was ready to put all my beautiful beach scene photos online.  The problem was my Google Picasa account was almost full to the brim.

I decided to break away from the clutches of Google and install something on my own website.  Take control of my own photo destiny.  After a little research, it was clear that Gallery was the online photo album of choice.  I took the easy road and used the little installer that my hosting company (GoDaddy) provides.  I was up and running in no time.

My online albums at easysticks.

So I kicked things off by putting up my vacation photos.  Long story short, Gallery doesn’t cut it for me.  The uploading process was difficult.  The photos weren’t automatically rotated.  It’s slow to browse pictures. Boo all around.

Just a few weeks ago Google decided to throw me a bone and announced drastically reduced prices for additional storage.  For a mere $5 (per year) I can get an additional 20G (all my photos up to this point only take up 1G).  So if you’re out of Picasa storage too, you can upgrade on the cheap.

If you’re flying sometime in the coming weeks, enjoy free wifi at the airport.  Google is letting travelers connect for free at 47 airports and both of mine are on the list.

Anybody else getting on a plane for the holidays?  I usually don’t pay for the wifi, but I might use it for free.

The iPhone seems to be seeping into the lives of my friends and family. I was resistant at first and while I don’t exactly have that crazy craving for one yet, I do think it would be useful. Unfortunately I just switched to Verizon because my house is a dead zone for AT&T.

Maybe the Droid will be for me?

So, I want to know.

[polldaddy poll=2214054]

Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern.

At first, a few weeks ago, I thought it was some kind of fluke that the very album I wanted to download from Amazon was priced at a low $3.99.  I snapped it up in case it was an error.  The next album I went looking for a couple weeks after that was offered at the same discounted price.  At that point, I thought Amazon was reading my mind or something.  So this week I’m checking out the new Killers album and it’s listed as $3.99!

What’s the deal here?  It isn’t exactly advertised anywhere.  A couple Google searches showed these $3.99 sales being reported in deals forums and the like.  They have all been new releases and the price has been offered on the release date only.  I guess I won’t question it, I’ll just hand over my four bucks and enjoy the music.

Killers – Day & Age for $3.99 (probably today only)

My MacBook stopped sleeping a few weeks ago.  This threw a giant wrench in my daily computing life as I usually just shut the lid to put it to sleep when not in use.  The problem was that shutting the lid turned off the display, never to come back on until I restarted.  Bad as that was, the computer’s new trick is worse.

This is all the little white machine is able to produce now.  If animated GIFs were as cool as they were back in 1993, this would show the file folder flashing.  Oh, wait, it also produces some horrible clicks and clunks somewhere inside.

Perhaps a case of death by sleep deprivation?

For now, I have my little travel buddy.

It dawned on me that I have not introduced my newest little companion.

No, I think you already know Lincoln the cat. My new pal is an Asus Eee PC. A little computer made for the open road. Or the airport, which I more frequently use to travel. This laptop is tiny, but gets the job done. I took it to visit Oliver last month and used it to hop on the internet and upload his jumping bean video.

After the incident, I no longer check luggage. I have also taken to wearing slip-on shoes. So this is just one more thing to ease my traveling. It weighs a lot less than my regular computer and can slip into a much smaller spot in my bag.

In fact, I’ll be slipping it into my bag when I head out for Austin, TX this weekend. Tex-Mex food, here I come!

For those not in the know, the favicon is that little image that appears in the address bar of your browser and on tabs and sometimes other places.

Currently a little red letter ‘E’ is the favicon here at Easysticks. A lot of other lazy website owners also have some form of the first letter of the site as a favicon. I wish not to be associated with these people so I need your help.

Any favicon ideas? Something that represents this site? Something that represents me?

I’ve now got unlimited Joost invites so if anybody needs one, drop a comment or email and I’ll send it your way. Just don’t watch ‘Chains of Love’ if you know what’s good for you.