Doing the iPhone Dance

Found this Joy of Tech today and sadly it's something to which I and iPhone users everywhere can relate.

Nigerian Prince's Biggest Investor

We've all gotten the email - some prince in Nigeria needs your help to move millions of dollars around and if you send $100 here and $1000 there you get it back a thousand fold. This king of all internet scams is so unbelievable it's been poked fun at a thousand times - even Saturday Night Live has referenced it a couple of times (most recently Anne Hathaway joked: "I found this amazing new guy, we met on the internet. I usually don't read letters from strangers, but how often do you get an email from a Nigerian Prince? He's such a sweetheart, and - not that it matters - but he's incredibly wealthy.")

That's funny and all, but consider this: the scam is still out there for a reason, and that reason is that there are actually people still falling for it.

For example, Janella Spears from Sweet Home, Oregon recently "went public" with her experiences - a story that ultimately ends with the nursing administrator and reverend investing over $400,000 into the fictitious deal.

$400,000. That's almost half a million dollars she shipped away, and not all in one payment, mind you. This was a total achieved over two years of scammage, and all of it seems gone for good (which, by the way, begs the question - where did it go?).

Embarrassing, yes. Legal, no-ish. Morally derisive, definitely.

Mactracker

I was introduced to this little app way back in the early 2000's - i.e. before I was a Mac guy. At that point I thought it to be mildly interesting and completely useless. Why would I want and/or need to know how much a Macintosh IIx cost or what its startup chime was?

Well, I still don't really care about that particular information aside from its historic interest, but I find myself using Mactracker more and more for actual, practical reasons.

For example, when my old boss asked me to help find and install RAM into his eMac (not a typo), Mactracker had the answer. I use it to store information like serial numbers and warranty info about all of my machines, too. I've found it most useful, though, to identify a particular model of mac and specific information about it (not so much the startup chimes). Case in point: when going in with a friend to buy an external hard drive as a birthday present for another friend, we needed to consult Mactracker to find out what types of ports his machine had. As phenomenally awesome a present a brand spanking new HD is, it's value is diminished somewhat if you can't hook it up to your machine...

Oh, and there's one more thing. Mactracker is free. Yeah, free. So go get it if you haven't already.

Too Much Taxi

It's been mentioned before, and over the last week it's gotten a moderate redesign. So, in a shameless act of cross-promotion, today's highlighted blog is "Too Much Taxi" (backstory too complicated), where TLM contributes and whose focus is mainly on clothes, shoes, and other things from the world of fashion. They also have random posts on TV, celebs, etc - topics somehow complimentary to content found here (minus the obits and holiday shout outs, of course :)

Speaking of which, make sure you thank a veteran today...

Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade

Apparently I'm the last person on the planet to know about these.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of favorites like Family Guy and American Dad, has a series of shorts on YouTube called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade". I was only able to get through a few so far - with mixed results, unexpectedly. They have the SNL movie disease insofar as they can, at times, seem like skits that go on for to long. Still, they have their moments.

I present to you the Super Mario Brothers ending we never got to see as 13-year-olds - probably a good thing in retrospect. I recommend checking out "Jeff Goldblum Wafers" when you're done.

2008 BAmBUu Awards

TLM and I got back not that long ago from Our House in Allston where the 2008 BAmBUu Awards were being held (and a Patriots game was being watched). It was a nice place, and with any luck they may turn out to be a team, or even a league, sponsor next year. They gave us a cordoned off area and a buffet of wings, salad, pasta and tater-tots, so we certainly had nothing to complain about.

The BAmBUu Cup was there and presented to the 2008 Champion Hustlers, and those members of the team in attendance also got a medal commemorating the achievement. Gold gloves awards were also handed out, as well as an MVP award and the equivalent of a Cy Young award.

Dan W and I were also honored (and humbled, by the way) as the first two inductees into the BAmBUu Hall of Fame, currently represented by a plaque to be held on to by the commish. Had I enough forethought I would've had some words ready, but instead I fumbled through some acknowledgments, including some thanks to "Our Place" (note: name of establishment is "Our House"). At least we managed to get a picture for posterity:

Origanize Your Code - Code Collector

I'm a big fan of centralizing and having quick access to my stuff. It's why I love products like Quicksilver, iTunes, FinderPop, and Delicious Library. For pieces of code, however, I'd always had to come up with a system of my own.

Then I came across Code Collector by M Cubed software. It's simple, clean, and exactly what I needed to keep things on hand and organized (or organised if you're from across the pond like they are :). Now when I start a new script I can bring up a template in CC instead of relying on my memory (spotty) or drudging up some existing page that I'd have to shell out. If I'm working on a project and need to have some snippets on hand, viola. I've even used the smart folders a couple of times already - just like those in the finder, they are populated by following rules. The only feature I haven't taken advantage of is sharing of code through the company's site.

It's a great new tool in my arsenal - 4.5 stars on the utility scale.

Happy 25th Raymond

Happy 25th Raymond. Hope you had a good one.

So, um, I didn't have access to many pix, so I ganked one from one of your pages and can only hope you got down as much today as you did whenever this was taken:

Nanabelle - Artsy Cat

Pictures are Worth Almost 64,000,000 Words

Radio Blowhards Get in Trouble, Tell Listeners Election is Wednesday

Gerry Callahan and John Dennis, hosts of the sports radio show I listen to in the morning and ranted about 3 days ago for ignoring actual sports topics, apparently crossed a line this morning. At one point they told their listeners the election was postponed until Wednesday and at another they reported that only Republicans are voting today and Democrats should vote tomorrow. What they never considered (rather, one of the many things) is that some people may have actually believed them.

What seems to many of us like an obvious attempt at humor, albeit a poor one, did not register as such with all the listeners. For example, one listener "said his father-in-law believed the elections were postponed, and called him because he was so upset." Way to go guys.

Incidentally, this morning's buffoonery didn't go unnoticed by the State. Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the MA Secretary of State William Galvin, sent an email to both hosts and their station, WEEI, instructing them to "knock it off", stating that they were "doing a disservice to voters". He also made sure to mention the fact that there were laws specifically put into place to prevent any kind of tampering or interfering with elections.

As a result of that email, the broadcast on my ride home today was sprinkled periodically with not-so-subtle messages to listeners about how the election is today, not tomorrow.

It should be an interesting show in the morning, to say the least. It'll be all the more interesting considering how these results are coming in :)

Twas the Night Before 'Lection

I was originally going to try to write a parody poem, but quickly realized it was going to be much more time consuming than it'd be worth. So I found a funny picture of McCain instead:


According to all the polls, if John McCain gets what he's wishing for tomorrow, it seems as though most of the country will be as surprised as he'll be.
 

Some Favorite iPhone Apps - Part 1

Five minutes after realizing that I was one of three people feverishly fiddling with an iPhone on our couch, I thought it was about time I got around to listing off some of my favorite apps (as I've been telling TLM I'd do for over a year now). So, part 1:

• Google Mobile App
  In addition to being super-helpful to those of us who make use of any of the Google services, this app is a must have if only for the fact that is was made by the folks behind Quicksilver - and if you are a QS person you can see the similarities almost immediately. Smart searching of metadata makes for lightning quick search results across contacts, the web, and more.
  
  
• Air Sharing
  Basically, this lets you connect your iPhone wirelessly to your Mac or PC, essentially turning it into a flash drive for all intents and purposes. This is particularly handy if you need to have certain documents on hand, like resumes, class schedules, or even ebook PDFs.
  
  
• Simplify Media
  Unfortunately for those who don't have it already, this one's not free anymore, and it's currently listed at $3.99. It's well worth it though as it allows you to connect to your entire iTunes library from anywhere. All you need is to be on a wi-fi connection and run an IM-like client on your computer at home. Oh - and you can connect to up to 30 libraries too, by the way, though that can bog down the app's performance.
  
  
• Solebon Solitaire
  Ok, we all have our weaknesses, and though there are many games out there (and on my iPhone), I find myself playing this the most. A few minutes here, a few more minutes there - and so many games I'd never heard of. Right now I'm in the "Spiderette", "Russian Revolution", and "Scorpion" rotation. Yay for productivity.
  
  
• Fake Calls
  Ah, the app you know you want (or have) but are almost embarrassed to have installed. We all have those moments where we need to get out of a conversation, and this app gives you that "out". Or, for a more harmless application of it, you could pretend to get a call from your favorite celebrity, politician, or Steve Jobs himself.
  
  

I Want Sports Radio Back

Sports Radio. It's probably my #1 preference as far as what I listen to when I'm driving (TLM can attest to that). However, Now that I have more time to listen thanks to a lengthier commute to work in the morning, it seems to have all but disappeared. In lieu of listening to discussion about whether Matt Cassel is getting better or if the Celtics look poised to win another Championship, I'm instead barraged with political rhetoric and moronic condemnation from and of both callers and politicos.

I want my Sports Radio back.

I know the election is right around the corner, and I know that lots of people like to talk politics. My complaint is simply that there are other stations for that. It's like buying a newspaper, turning to the sports section and getting nothing but op-eds about everything except that in which you are interested. Enough already.

To make matters worse, the stuff I'm listening to is typical of the times: aggressively close-minded hosts who think they know best arguing with equally know-it-all callers. Is this entertainment? No, it's fuel for the [ratings] fire, and the fact that people like me who tune in to get their sports fix and end up reluctantly listening to these buffoons is testament to why it's currently allowed (and probably encouraged) by those in charge.

I'll give it a few more days. I suppose there will be a lot of airtime spent after the election filled with either intense gloat or warning of impending doom, but I'm holding out hope that all will be right by Friday.

I just hope they can remember how to do it.

Time Waster: Magic Pen

This one is very fun, very innovative, and potentially a BIG time waster, so be warned. The game is called Magic Pen, and you draw and erase lines, triangles, circles and other shapes onto the screen to manipulate an object across some flags. You can play it at MiniClip.com.

Magic Pen Collect the flags with the red ball to complete each level.

Play this free game now!!