Archive for the year 2007
Touching Base
Posted on December 10, 2007, under Site News.
I wanted to stop in and touch base, let everyone know how things are going during my hiatus. The side projects are going well, and the readers of Code and Coffee will be in for some cool free stuff soon. We have also been wrapping up the house work, and getting ready for some time off around the holidays.
I did want to give a plug for a great piece of technology I am selling. I am looking to unload my ReadyNas NV+, network attached storage on eBay. The item is hardly used, and a great steal for anyone looking to pick one up. Ping me if you are interested and want to work something out.
Take care.
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Going on Hiatus…
Posted on October 4, 2007, under Site News.
Code and Coffee was started in June of 2003. Since the launch of this blog, there have been several milestone changes; to the content, posting frequency, etc. While I do not regret the time that I have decided to dedicate to Code and Coffee over the years, the truth is my other side projects have suffered. I sold ByteMyCode because I had no more time to dedicate to it, and the product line for BlueCrestStudios is not as far along as I wanted it to be by now. On top of it I have been a home owner for just about two years now, and there have been many weekend dedicated to house projects.
I am taking some time off from Code and Coffee to get the first product to market for BlueCrestStudios. During that time, when I am tired of slushing code around, I will be making small changes here to Code and Coffee that have been accumulating on my To Do list for some time.
Code and Coffee is NOT going away, rather changing into the blog I always wanted it to be; but got side tracked with what’s happening in the blogosphere, RSS readership numbers, new blog traffic driving techniques, and other things. I enjoyed learning more about those types of topics, but they were never really the reason I started a blog in the first place. So in short, I am getting back to my roots; details postings, how to articles, etc. And in getting back to my roots I am taking some time off to make the changes necessary and that I never had time to, while focusing on my real passion: coding.
So do not unsubscribe just yet, I will return…
Popularity: 6% [?]
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Amazon’s New MP3 Download Service is a True iTunes Competitor
Posted on October 2, 2007, under Media, Podcasts, Software, Tools and Services.
Many have tried to steal part of the large market share that Apple owns of the digital music market. Many have also failed. Amazon was in a perfect position to take on this challenge, but it’s biggest point of failure could have been itself. Amazon failed with it’s Unboxed service for movies and TV shows, with too much DRM, no mac support, and just a user experience nightmare. So what makes the new MP3 service from Amazon a true iTunes competitor, bottom line it works and works well!
Amazon is not playing any favorites. You have to download a small piece of software just to download the purchased music, after that the music works with iTunes, iPod, Zune, and any other media player or software. It also is available for Mac and Windows.
The prices are good, better than Apple in most cases. I hope that they will continue to be this low. It seems like Amazon might be initially taking a cut of revenue to get their foot in the door. If they do raise prices I can’t see it going higher than other digital music stores out there.
The music is DRM free! Yes, they are watermarked, which really is not a form of DRM just a little meta data that says where it was purchased from. The music is clean, which really would have been a show stopper for this new service and made it unusable for most like Amazon’s Unboxed service.
Amazon has been getting more into the service department, with it’s A9 offerings. These services line them up great for offerings like this new MP3 service. The downloads are fast, taking just about two minutes to download an entire album over broadband.
Amazon integrates the service very well into it’s store, again giving Amazon a leg up on competition and threatening Apples market share.
I have downloaded about three albums from the new service, and honestly it is so well done it might even convert the pirates. I truly hope that the record labelssee this service working and do not try to pull the stunts that they have pulled with Apple. Amazon needs to push back on the MPAA and get it’s Unboxed service working as well.
Popularity: 6% [?]
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How I Dropped Outlook Like a Bad Habit
Posted on September 26, 2007, under Email, How To, Software, Tools and Services.
I have had a couple questions lately on how I handle all of my emails, so here goes:
Like many out there I have used Outlook for the longest time, longer than I can remember actually. I had a huge PST file with emails dating back to college. When I got a PDA for work purposes, all of a sudden having my email in one place on my desktop did not work unless I wanted to setup an Exchange server. It has always upset me that Outlook does not support IMAP completely, and they have made it difficult to use; so this wasn’t an alternative. I had fears about giving up control of my mail server, which I have always chosen to run myself. Lastly, how was I going to sync up my calendar? After testing many setups, this is how I dropped Outlook like a bad habit.
Let Go of Mail Server Control:
I always ran my own mail server because I didn’t have to worry about spam signatures being attached to my emails, running out of storage space, or any of that other crap. GMail came along and changed the game with Google Apps, and Yahoo has been ramping up it’s offerings as well. I needed my email in a central place where any of my devices could hit it. An Exchange server was too pricey and with it came support problems, and any other software was just going to be something else I would have to set time aside to get up and running and keep running. I finally let go control of running my own mail server, and haven’t looked back since. Gmail is fast, works with my domain, has plenty of storage, improves it’s services without me having to upgrade anything, requires no time investment from me, has a mobile portal, and just keeps getting better.
Got Used To Using WebMail:
It was hard to get used to using a webmail client as my only email client. Especially with GMail which uses tags instead of folders. Breaking out of the mentality that my email is here, I can physically handle it, and it’s mine proved difficult and I almost reverted at several points.
Mail Notification:
With a webmail client, unless you want to keep it open all the time, you need to know when you have new mail so you can stay on top of it. I found a little gem by a company called MassGrid called GAlert. I paid a hefty $20 for this little shareware application, which sits in the system tray and lets you know when you have new mail for more than one GMail account. This was actually a hard application to find, yes there are a lot of GMail notification tools out there but not that many work with Google Apps and even less that work well.
On The Road:
As mentioned before, GMail has a slick mobile interface which is easy to use; just point toward your regular login and Google knows you are coming from a mobile device. Calendar was the next problem. Right now there are limited API’s available for GMail and Google Calendar, so it was also a task trying to find a way to synchronize my mobile calendar with Google Calendar. GooSync does just that. A little application downloads to your Mobile device, and lets you sync with the mobile calendar. They have both a free and paid service. Perfect!
Conclusion:
I haven’t been happier. In the process I dropped having to invest time in running a mail server and manage my mail and calendar, made myself more mobile and able to grab my data anywhere, and dropped ActiveSync which is a blessing of it’s own.
Popularity: 11% [?]
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Web Developer Tools Round Up
Posted on September 24, 2007, under Browsers, Development, Tools and Services, Web Design, WordPress.
I recently had to wipe a computer and get it up from scratch. In the process I realized that there are a series of tools I can not live without. This process also helped me realize how many tools I rely on and make a web developer’s life so much easier. Here is the run down of my “must have” tools.
- Firebug
- YSlow for Firebug
- Litmus
- Live HTTP Headers
- Screengrab!
- User Agent Switch
- Web Developer
- DOM Inspector
- Aardvark
- UltraEdit
- UltraCompare
Have any “must have tools” not on my list.
Popularity: 11% [?]
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Why the NBC Announcement Hurts Us All
Posted on September 20, 2007, under Media, Software, Tools and Services.
Yup, we all knew it was coming the second NBC announced it was pulling its shows from iTunes. NBC just announced it’s new service, and everyone is talking… even the fake Steve Jobs. Bottom line is it looks like another DRM’d sucktastic proprietary service. Shows are free for the first seven days, must be played on special player, no Mac client (yet), no iPod or other media device support, it’s everything we knew was coming. While everyone is focusing on this, that, and the other thing: think about who this really hurts… Us! The consumer!
Yup, that’s right, this is a HUGE step back in digital media. Why? Because it’s not going to work. If someone has to have an NBC account, ABC account, CBS account, and the same amount of authorized players, and can’t watch the show on any other medium than their computer… are people actually going to use it? No, probably not. Which means the average consumer, non-geeks, are just going to watch it on television… which is exactly what the media companies want. They do not want change! They want to make sure you are watching shows, at the scheduled broadcast time, unable to rewind or fast forward, and heavens-for-bid skip over that really annoying commercial you have seen a zillion times, or even rewind to see that commercial you can’t get enough of; because it works for them. They do not have to change a thing, and continue to rake in the steady stream of money that they have become to enjoy. They are even lobbying Washington to make sure the Government guarantees that they continue to dominate the market.
So bottom line is we lose! It’s not going to work, and it’s going to be much easier for someone to just watch it on TV; and that sucks!
Popularity: 6% [?]
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All the Right Reasons Microsoft Should Be Worried
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Email, Software, Tools and Services.
Mint just launched its new online money management service at TechCrunch40 this week. I was part of the beta and it is nice! Also this week Google unveiled it’s PowerPoint Competitor. This puts two more thorns in the side of Microsoft, because you can now not only replace Microsoft Office, but you can do it with online services, and best of all you can do it for free.
Microsoft Word: Google Docs, Zoho Writer
Microsoft Excel: Google Docs, Zoho Sheet
Microsoft Power Point: Google Docs, Zoho Show
Microsoft Outlook: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Zimbra (recently acquired by Yahoo), Zoho Mail
Microsoft is one of those companies that needs to compete in every market, and can’t just sit anything out. With the exit of Bill Gates coming up quickly one has to wonder what, if any, change will come to Microsoft. Meanwhile as Microsoft readies its answers to all of these new services, we sit and wait for Vista SP1.
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Time For Thunderbird to Grow Up
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Browsers, Email, Software, Tools and Services.
The Mozilla Corporation is going to spin Thunderbird out into it’s own company, and fund it with $3 million. This is great news, and with the recent news of Yahoo acquiring Zimbra, means more exciting things are coming for email.
Thunderbird has been real slow to release features that could have made it a true Outlook killer. With it spinning off into it’s own company it will now get the focus, dedication, and funding that it has always needed. There are loads of opportunity here in the form of partnerships with GMail, or Yahoo, but probably not Hotmail. There has also been rumors of a new GMail desktop client which may lead to a long awaited API to GMail. Things are definitely still evolving in the email space, even with all of the new Twitters and IM services popping up.
On another note pulled from the article, it was interesting to hear Mitchell Baker, chair of Mozilla Foundation, being quoted in saying “There have been very public complaints about bloat coming back to Firefox and lack of innovation”. It’s good to know that the Mozilla Foundation knows when it’s been spreading itself too thin, and can be flexible enough to fix itself; unlike some other companies.
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This is Why I Will Not Be Adding BlogRush to Code and Coffee…
Posted on September 18, 2007, under Blogging, Tools and Services, WordPress.
There has been a lot of press lately around the new BlogRush service, which is by no means a new idea. It basically is your typical social networking pyramid scheme service. You have a little widget that you put in your website’s sidebar, that syndicates stories from other blogs in your related category. The more people you refer the more of your blog postings get syndicated on other blogs.
Like the Web enthusiasts I am, I signed up. Code and Coffee is in need of a design refresh, and I have been thinking about removing the MyBlogLog widget in the sidebar to help with page load times and just because it does not actually seem to be doing much for Code and Coffee anymore; the buzz is over. With all of this I was hesitant to add this new BlogRush service to my site. In visiting another technology website tonight I found that my concerns were valid. Here is a screen shot from the site of the BlogRush service:
In case you can’t see what I am talking about, two of the five links above are to websites that contain content that I would not directly link to myself: “adult content” and “spam”. Sure, I can hear you say… “Yeah it’s just two links, and the service is still new.” Yup it is just two links, but that’s two too many. And the service is still new, but if that can’t stop the gaming now; how will they later on when they have twice as many users and twice as many gamers? MyBlogLog was really quick to respond to spammers on their system, even pre-Yahoo acquisition.
Just proof that all of these new services should always be tested on a sand boxed blog before bringing them to your bread and butter.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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Alternatives to iTunes as a Podcatcher
Posted on September 14, 2007, under Podcasts, Software.
I have had a love hate relationship with iTunes through out its existence. Recently after deciding to go back to iTunes, because surprise it works best with the iPod, I have decided to drop it as a Podcatcher. iTunes for Windows is not as stable as it is on the Mac. I have some 30+ podcasts that I am subscribed to, and on a daily basis when it’s time to download new episodes iTunes locks up. No it’s not the computer, no it’s not my hard drive; I have determined that it is the simple fact that iTunes does not multi thread well on windows. When it is doing intensive downloads, it is just outright not responsive. I contribute part of the problem to the lack of options that iTunes allows you to set for downloading media.
So I have set out to find a better alternative to downloading my podcasts. Here is what I am now using:
- PodNova: I have had a PodNova account from way back when the podcasting boom was happening; you know back when Odeo and others were getting love. They have done a lot with the user interface, and it now serves up a lot of AJAX goodness to make finding and subscribing to podcasts easy. With PodNova, you can take your personalized OPML feed and use it in a Podcatcher to always have an up to date list of your subscriptions.
- Juice: An excellent open source and cross platform Podcatcher. It has all the right features: The ability to tweak download threads, the ability to import directly into iTunes as well as other media players, ID3 tagging, etc. A perfect match.
You can get this up and running in under 10 minutes. Juice has direct support for PodNova and any OPML feed. I have been looking at Google Reader as an alternative as well, but they do not handle all video Podcasts; with the codecs and all.
I am hoping this works out, if you have any other good alternatives i am open for suggestions.
Popularity: 6% [?]
