New Fun!!

Hi again! I've got my new laptop from work, and it has been a lot of fun getting it set up just the way I like it. This thing is a monster, and definitely falls into the Workstation class of laptops. The hardest thing to come to grips with so far has been the screen. While not outrageously huge, it can be an eyeball burner because of the number of pixels it packs in. I've had to do some major tweaking to make things large enough to comfortably read.

This is coming from someone who is still living life without assisted vision. I consider myself pretty darn lucky to have been able to last as long as I have without needing corrective lenses. I can see the writing on the blurry wall when I look at things FAR off in the distance, but I have been able to keep things from getting too bad through a regular ocular exercise regimen.

Back to the Beast. This might be the fastest single processor system I've had the pleasure of using. I've got as many eye-candy inducers as I can get to run without causing trouble for each other as I can on it, running Windows XP, and it doesn't ever miss a step. I'm also very impressed that the Bluetooth software is suitably capable, and can handle just about every type of function there is.

The keyboard is very comfortable, mostly because HP didn't have to squeeze any keys to fit inside the "constraints" of the chassis. I'm very happy to use it, and am still amazed to have been able to get it, considering how much my employer is trying to squeeze all they can out of every last cent. Thanks, Intel!!


The most fun I've been having of late is working on the development of a new team blog for a fictitious person originally established on a Facebook fan page. The idea came about shortly after Facebook's "Like" feature popped up. Allison mentioned that she wished she could "Dislike" things, and that started the ball rolling toward the birth of H.A.Ters. It has been a rather therapeutic platform for venting about stupid things you see, and finding a few other like-minded folks. We only have 14 fans at the moment, but we are determined to grow. :^)

Once the idea to branch out from the Facebook page was broached (again by Allie), I set up a twitter account and twittermail address so that H.A.Ters' ghostwriters, of which there are currently six, could all tweet directly to their (currrently singular) followers. This was followed by a Google Group for the ghostwriters to discuss the blog setup, and hold the information concerning the ins and outs of the H.A.Ters universe. I started another Google Group to allow more of us to monitor H.A.Ters' email inbox, which is still a little problematic. We have pretty much launched the new blog now, and it features a few imported rants from our previous adventures in blogging, to fill the toddler-blog out in its infancy. The nice part about making this a team blog is that we can each contribute what little we can to make for a more frequently updated blog.

With H.A.Ters' blog and twitter account running, I was able to add RSS feeds from both back onto the Facebook fan page, and added the new blog to Facebooks Networked Blogs app. From Networked Blogs I was able to take a blog following gadget and add it to the blog to go along with all the Google Friend Connect gadgets on the blog, so it is really "socialed out." You can sign up to follow the blog through Blogger or Facebook, and you can leave comments and videos on the page as well as leaving comments on the blog posts. It has been a lot of fun, even if we are the only ones to get much out of the exercise.


My last bit of news has me VERY excited. I just read that Google is finally unveiling a closely guarded secret for the last year. What was once known as GrandCentral, a company Google bought not much before GrandCentral stopped showing any outward publicity, has now become Google Voice. This is going to be an interesting ride. Google Voice will take all of the features from GrandCentral, and integrate the phone book with that from your Gmail account's contacts, and makes your Google Voice phone number available for SMS and email. They have added message transcription, which is an amazing feature all by itself, and usually can't be found for free. We will most likely be dropping our Vonage line very soon. Vonage, I love ya, but you can't keep charging me the small pittance you expect if you can't keep up with this.

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kEnny's E-Tool Fourvarites!!

These are my mobile phone essentials, compiled over the last year and some, since outgrowing my Motorola RAZR V3. They are somewhat tailored for use on my Sony Ericsson K790a Cybershot Cameraphone. Yes, I called it a Cameraphone with a capital C. My rule is that if it has more than 2 mega pixels and a REAL flash, it gets a capital C. Get one for yourself and you'll see why. There are a few available now with 5MP sensors as well.

Daily Use Tools: These are the programs and websites I use every day, to keep in touch and up to date.

• 4INFO: While it is a very capable source of information for mobile browsers and SMS related queries, I primarily use 4INFO to give me my morning weather forecast on the weekdays. The infospace supplied services for AT&T Wireless still suck for regularly scheduled alerts.
• Twitter/Remember The Milk: I don't use Twitter other than to connect to Remember the Milk, for which I am contually finding more uses. I just recently added lists for Movies and TV shows to see, gifts to get for people, and music to take another listen to. When I happen to catch a movie, I can type in the names of the previews to add to the list. When I'm listening to the radio in the car, I use Jott to tell RTM who I need to listen to again (because I try to make a concious effort not to take my eyes off the road). When my kids start asking about all the neato cool stuff they have got to get, as told to them by various children's television networks, I can keep track of those as well. RTM has a very easy to navigate mobile site, which really shows off how flexible their service is. As a side note, Remember The Milk just got whole lot better by using a Firefox add-in to integrate closely with your Gmail Inbox. Very sharp!!!
• Jott: I have to check in at Jott's website every week or so for new Jott Links. My favorite new one is called Trapster. Sure, Trapster has their own software that runs on your GPS enabled mobile device (mine is not yet), but if you just want to do your part and look out for your fellow drivers, you can use Jott to send the exact location and type of service spotted to Trapster's database, in a safe manner!
• GrandCentral: Since starting my E-Tool monologue, GrandCentral has graduated to the only voicemail service used for my cell phone. After re-enabling the internet access for the phone, and realizing that calling AT&T's voicemail counts against your anytime minutes (during the daytime of weekdays), I realized that I could keep a few more rollover minutes by using my unlimited Media Net access to check my voice mail visual-style from GrandCentral's mobile site. It took a little digging, but I found the generic GSM commands to send from my phone to change from ATTWS voicemail to GrandCentral. *** Know what makes this cool now? I can give my GrandCentral number to anyone, and it will either screen the call or forward it to my cell phone (or any number of other phones I specify), based on my preference. When I can't answer my cell phone, same thing! The links to the voicemail messages are sent to my Gmail inbox, just like my Vonage voicemails, and both services send SMS alerts to my phone.
• Weather Underground: This is the sexiest website for weather, hands down! Not only does it give you an amazing amount of information (lots of great Google Maps mashups), but it has advertising for meeting single people in your local weather area too!! I use their RSS feed to get detailed weather predictions each day.
• Google's mobile services: Where do I start? Headlines via RSS, Gmail and Google Maps from Java applications, and browser bookmarks for local movies. Of special note is Google Maps. They added the ability to triangulate your location based on cell tower data, allowing remarkable fun watching the map move when you aren't driving. It is also handy for looking up directions. The directions can start out from your approximate location. You can also get loads of information via SMS queries.
• Blogger gets special mention apart from the rest of Google, as my phone has software made specially for it. Blogger can be configured to send SMS, MMS, and other picture messages from my phone (directly after taking the picture, even) directly to the Blogger blog of your choice. Since I only use Blogger, there's no problem.
• Fandango: While I have been hesitant to use Fandango previously, due to Regal Cinemas as Comcast relations, I have to admint that they have a pretty good mobile portal. They have the only movie listings I have found where you can view show times for future dates. You can even purchase tickets from your mobile.
• Yahoo! Go: This is one I've been following for some time, but still isn't available for the firmware version on my phone. I had a chance to try it out on a Samsung Blackjack, where it worked really well. Yahoo! Go packs in all kinds of Yahoo! content in an easy to navigate package. If you are a Yahoo! user, this should be at the top of your list.
  

That does it for now. You can expect part five when I come up with a clever way to phrase the title. :^)

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