If your like me and many others all over the internet, you have multiple email accounts possibly one for friends/family, one for spam mail, and another you’ve had for years.  Well wouldn’t you like to view them all in one place?

If you have Office for Mac 2008 version you can respond to and have at your finger tips one place to see all your mail from multiple sources.  I’m only talking about Office 2008 Mac, but you could be doing this with other email clients such as thunderbird.

Settings for GMAIL

First inside of your gmail account you have to let GMAIL know that you want to be able to view your mail from other sources.  In the top right corner you will see what looks like a gear next to your name, click the gear icon and you get a drop down, click on “Mail Settings”.

Once inside of Settings, click on the heading labled “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” make sure to “Enable IMAP” here is where the process gets tricky.

Gmail changed the default settings ports that IMAP is associated with,so when you set up your client make sure to use SSL authentication.

• IMAP Server: imap.gmail.com
• SSL:yes
• PORT: 993

• SMTP Server: smtp.gmail.com
• SSL: yes
• PORT: 465 or 587

Make sure to use your full gmail address “emailname@gmail.com”, then your password and things should work well.  If you still have a problem I have attached some links that helped me out.

Configuring other mail clients (gmail, google link)

Outlook 2007 mail client (gmail, google link)

I found this post important so I wanted to let others know about this new worm.

TBTR

COPYRIGHT 2010 Normans Media Ltd.

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-September 10, 2010-Symantec reports rapid spread of new worm(C)1994-2010 M2 COMMUNICATIONS http://www.m2.com

Norton, an Internet security company and a division of Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), reported that Symantec Security Response has, as of yesterday, been tracking the rapid spread of a new computer worm that spreads using a socially engineered e-mail attack.

The company said that the threat is being spread via e-mails that ask the recipient to click on a link embedded in the e-mail which points to a malicious program file posted on the Internet and disguised as a PDF file. Once this file downloads it installs a worm known as W32.Imsolk.B@mm.

The worm, once it has compromised a usera[euro](tm)s machine, will attempt to spread itself further by gaining access to the usera[euro](tm)s e-mail contacts and repeating the process. It can also spread to other machines connected via network shares or via removable media.

The company advises all users to ensure that they take appropriate precautions, such as isolating compromised machines, blocking access to any address contained in the e-mail and insuring that they have installed and updated appropriate security applications, such as Norton Internet Security 2011.

Norton has made further information available at http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/new-round-email-worm-here-you-have.

Hacked? What does it mean, well I guess it means something different for everyone, but if you’re a website that does 100% of it’s business on the internet, it means a lack of sleep, and a possible call to the justice department. Today I noticed a story as I logged on my computer about the dating site “Plenty o fish” they have been hacked.

Hacked usually means someone or a group of someone’s have broken the security of a website, application, or hardware device. For the latter hardware hacked it just means some one has taken the time and effort to break the code or security code of a device which now lets anyone on the device do things they shouldn’t be able to do. As such is the case with the Xbox Kinect device, which was hacked and there are sites popping up everyday to show you what joy they have in hacking this device.  I placed the search term here so you can see what people are doing with Kinect Hacked.

Although there are some good instanced of hacking there is the other side of the coin such in the case of Plenty o fish, their database was hacked and the username an passwords that people created for the site have fallen in the hands of Hackers with ill intentions. The story I came across is from thedrum a uk site that did a story on the owner of plenty o fish and the dilemma they are in. While the story is not that interesting the understanding of the hack is very interesting.

As with anything on the internet people usually come up with easy passwords when logging into and using online sites such as plenty o fish. I mean you can only use so many passwords before you start to forget them, and you’re always requesting a new password, over and over for that site you love. While I have talked about the alternatives to saving passwords, it never goes too far for me to remind you again.

Make sure when making a username and password for a site that you don’t make the password match the same password as your email account that you have tied to the website of your choice. In my opinion you’re just inviting something bad to happen to you. Imagine if that site gets hacked like plenty o fish, the hackers now have great information about you, your passwords, and email address. The only way to combat this type of hacking so that you don’t get touched is to create a different password for every site that you log onto. You can tie those passwords to one email address, so that if you forget the password, it will always send that password to your primary email address.

Another way to help combat hacking of your accounts is to create an email address that you only use for signing up with websites. This helps shield you from the potential of someone getting into your email account that you have had for many years.

With anything else you can never be 100% assured that your account won’t be compromised, but you will have the ability to lessen the problems that will be caused in your daily life if some one hacks a website you love.

Remember make complex passwords that don’t match any other passwords or accounts that you use on the internet.

Enjoy surfing the net

Oh…the story unfolds about plenty of fish hacked on their blog post

TBTR

If you haven’t heard Blackberry has a new Tablet coming to market it’s called the Playbook, a press release was sent out back on September 27, 2010 here.  While we won’t really know what to expect we can say this, apple and samsung will have some competition in the tablet market very soon.  Here are youtube videos of the Playbook in use with a nice comparison of the Playbook and iPad.

The videos looks awesome, let us know what you think about this device and what potential it has for personal or business use.

TBTR

If you didn’t know by now McAfee one of the premier leaders in Antivirus, Encryption, Firewall and other web centric solutions has just been acquired by Intel Corp for an estimated 7.68 Billion dollars in CA$H.  Right off the bat it leads me to believe two things here 1.) Intel is looking for a better bottom line, and an acquisition will take care of low cash amounts very quickly. and 2.) McAfee my have been about to go bye, bye, leading us to believe that without the acquisition McAfee’s old style mentality my have been spit into pieces.

 
Which ever reason I’m truly not sure but this does something for consumers right away.  For those who have purchased McAfee it ensures a long life that your products will continue to work, and support will continue.  One thing we know about Intel they always seem to make things work, they hire the best, and work you to death or so I’ve heard.
While the ink is still just drying we are all going to benefit from this purchase, especially if you use McAfee or maybe your looking to use it either way it’s worth it’s weight in GOLD about 7.68 Billion worth.

TBTR

It looks like Facebook has been hit with another so called virus, which looks to steal among other things your bank passwords.  Please remember you need to make sure your not falling for the tricks of the trade we have talked about good passwords, but some of these things are very tricky.  Just remember when you log into facebook, always go directly to www.facebook.com don’t use hyperlinks that people might send to you, or a hyperlink from an advertisement.

REMEMBER FACEBOOK IS NEVER GONNA JUST RESET YOUR PASSWORD, DON’T CLICK ON THOSE LINKS.  IF YOU WANT PLEASE SHARE THIS STORY WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

AJC is reporting the virus here
McAFee is also report the issue I found this story at Reuters here

Be careful of links and request that say your password has been reset

TBTR

Over the last few years the cost of storage devices has come down to rock bottom pricing.  Remember when 20GB Hard drives cost hundreds of dollars?  I even remember the days when a 256MB portable pen drive cost about $49.95.  While I always thought that was way to expensive I didn’t buy at those prices.  One thing for sure with the cost driven down so low , most of us who used pen drives just went out and bought a portable 2.5 or 3.5 hard drive giving you gigs and gigs of space to place your movies, music, and DVD backups.  So now what do you do with those old pen drives that are just piling up on your desk like dust bunnies?

Portable apps has a solution for you, imagine you decided to visit a friend and while there you want to show him or her some of your documents or pictures, usually you would need to put up some website login and produce the images you want.  With Portable apps you now have a small device that can display your images, or let you pull up your bookmarks, even check email.  All of this can be done with out leaving the normal breadcrumbs on the foreign computer system.

Portable apps is installed as software on your pen drive so that as you place that drive in any computer your able to access your email, bookmarks, passwords and much more with out issues, it’s simple and a great way to keep those drives from becoming trash.

Take some time to check out www.portableapps.com they provide tons of software on the pen drive such as Firefox (web browser), Pidgin (instant messenger), OpenOffice (Like Microsoft Office but FREE).  Other applications are able to be installed with portable apps so the site will provide more links.

Make no mistake this does not replace your computer, but what it does do is provide a easy way to give you some familiarity to any computer you step up to and insert your USB pen drive.

TBTR

Comments are welcome always

Microsoft and Bill Gates (The riches man in the world) should be proud and over joyed at the soon to be success of the new Windows 7 OS.  PC manufactures, along with others should be burning the midnight oil with glee knowing they have a product that we can all stand behind. According to CNNMoney article “Windows 7 ready to launch” Experts expect that PC users will change their operating system for the first time in about eight years when Windows 7 launches today.

We all know someone or heard about someone that had horrific experiences with Vista.  As a network administrator I gave recommendations to my superiors about what technology we should implement, and what we should wait on.  I always stated that we should wait out the Vista movement for the next flavor, and I was 120% right from a support stand point.  Vista came along and gave us too many issues I felt like from a support stand point it would have been a true nightmare not only for me but for management as well.

Windows 7

I don’t see the issues of the past with Windows 7 I see an operating system that has been tested, tested, and tested again.  Personally back before the summer started I started using Windows 7 on a older less powerful machine.  “Wow” are the words I uttered when using Windows 7 for the first time, because I think Microsoft finally got it, the bells and whistles don’t mean a thing if the OS does not perform some of the most basic functions with ease.  I can speak from experience that Windows 7 is a great OS to use on your current system, and also on a older system that you would have normally thrown away.  Don’t listen to the clutter that’s gonna start about well you should just buy a new computer, I would presume that those Tech support places will all be saying this, but resist my friendly computer user unless your computer is a Pentium II or lower with less than 512MB.  If it’s any better than that I’m tell you Windows 7 should be an eye opener.

What about Windows XP?

Well for those of you who have used Windows XP in my opinion you will gain a better Operating System in Windows 7, and workhorse right out of the box, new features, speed, and the capability to take off where Windows XP ended are clear indications that you should go for it.  Lets just say with the introduction of Windows 7, in 6 months no one will remember that thing called Vista in my opinion.  Now if your using XP at this point and you are going to install Windows 7 your gonna have a problem upgrading.  This has always been the Microsoft policy when upgrading, if your two generations back in Operating systems, they don’t make it very easy for you to upgrade with a “One click solution” I would guess there will be many companies taking advange of this (creating software to help Windows XP users upgrade).  My best advise for anyone looking to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows7 please do yourself a favor, make a backup of your critical data, such as documents, pictures, program data for specific programs and such.  Then insert your new Windows 7 OS CD and choose to do a clean install on your computer or laptop.  Then place your data and programs on the new OS.

Windows XP all flavors (Pro, Home, Media Center, Tablet, and x64) will be unsupported in the next two years so upgrade is eminent

Don’t let the experts scare you into buying a new computer, the one thing I have noticed is that with older machines I have had great success with Windows 7.  Currently I run Windows 7 in VMWare on my MacBook Pro and it’s been working like a charm, to my credit I had to tweak some stuff, but that’s what I do.  I hope your success with Windows 7 comes soon, I will say that you will not be disappointed going from any other OS to Windows7

Chime in and tell me if you have been using Windows 7 or if you plan on upgrading to the new OS in the comments?

TBTR

Password Leak

As many of you may have heard about the Hotmail Password leak that occurred early this week.  The administrator of Pastebin.com has written a sweet and simple blog post.  He has removed the names and email addresses, but as a last effort to tell the community how to fix this issue he says

please don’t ask if your name was on the list. I have no way of knowing. Just change your password.

Sounds simple but as the administrator those of us who are admins know the truth.  If your the admin of a domain or a site, your “GOD” meaning you can see everything and anything you want.  At larger companies they take many precautions to ensure that only 1 person really has the full access to the system, but regulations are in place to police that person in the system.  Remember when things like this happen, just change your password and move on, don’t worry about it any more than that.

P.S. Any system can be cracked no matter how good a password you have but I would upgrade to a different email system be it Google, Yahoo, or your own domain email.

TBTR

Its amazing how my brain works and what seems to be just a post out of the sky about Dropbox on Monday has now turned into a second post about Dropbox.  So you might ask yourself why would I post another story about Dropbox one reason is because Dropbox is just flat out Cool.  The other reason is because Dropbox has launch an iPhone app which can be downloaded as of now.

• Access your Dropbox on the go
• Download files for offline viewing
• Sync photos and videos to your Dropbox
• Share links to files in your Dropbox

Just as I was about to download the Dropbox App I found out that you must have Ver 3.1 installed on your iPhone or iTouch.  I was using the iTouch, so since I can’t use the App at this time if any of my iPhone toting friends can let me know what they think in the comments I would appreciate it very much.

Data, no matter how much you have now days, your needs keep growing year over year, and for some people it’s month over month.  Recently I’ve been reading more and more about storage devices, and backup solutions, stay tuned for more coverage of these topics.  I recently blogged about Dropbox where I talked a little bit about how you can use this service to share, and backup data.  Sometime ago I also talked about Google Docs which gives you online space for documents and other files. I recently ran across a press release about the new Seagate FreeAgent DockStar $99.99, the name reminds me of DeathStar but maybe that’s because I’m a StarWars Fan.

Anyways the FreeAgent DockStar by itself does nothing, it’s just a docking station, with a power adapter and a ethernet port, but when you couple this device with FreeAgent Go portable storage solution you get a large amount of data that you can now store and access from across the internet which means anywhere in the world.  The device as stated has a dock port for the FreeAgent Go device, 3 USB ports to plug in other storage devices including USB thumb drives, and NON Seagate storage devices, a power adapter and ethernet cable.

So you ask the question what is this product just supposed to do for me?

You get a device that can enable your storage to be placed on the internet (encrypted) so you can access your iTunes music, your pictures, your video, your documents etc.  It can even create a RSS feed for each of those directories, which now enables you to give that to anyone who can plug the feed info into a feed reader so as changes are made to your directories they get updates showing the changes without the traditional notification of calling someone, or having to email them to say take a look at the new data I uploaded. Here are some of the highlights:

• File sharing at its simplest with a clean, web-based interface.
• Access files from any networked PC or Mac® computer in your home.
• After service activation, access and share files with friends, over the internet — no special software required.
• Enables friends to upload content as well, creating a comprehensive share space.
• Appears as a local drive whether in the home or accessed through the internet, for simple drag-and-drop access.
• Dock a FreeAgent Go™ drive and connect up to three USB storage devices.
• Send pictures straight from your iPhone® to the FreeAgent DockStar network adapter.
• Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.

Think about this…

Imagine your out of town, visiting a friend or loved one, and you want to show them that video from this summer. Without a device like this or some kind of web service you would just have to wait till you got home, figured out a way to upload all the videos you want to show them, then pray that they know how to access the files.  This solutions eliminates that issue, all you have to do is connect to the internet using any computer and supply your username and password, then start streaming the video directly to this computer.  That is awesome, an just down right cool when you think about all the other things you would have to do otherwise.

In my case it now eliminates the fact that I had to keep my server running at home while traveling hoping and praying that something didn’t happen to my hard drive on the computer or it didn’t over heat and start a fire.  Those days are long gone in my book with the FreeAgent DockStar.

Conclusion

I think that Seagate is obviously on the right track to supply us with a solution that makes things easy, but the one draw back I have is the fact that the device uses the underlining technology of pogoplug.com which is not a bad thing it’s just that DockStar only comes with a 1 year pogoplug subscription for internet sharing after that first year you have to pay $29.99 to continue usage that is where the device fails in my eyes.  Why should we have to pay after 1 year, when if we just purchase a pogoplug for $99.99 the Internet Sharing is FREE for ever.  Most people who purchase this device would not know this if they didn’t know the underlining technology is pogoplug.  Shame on you Seagate for trying to pad the bottom line when you really don’t have to this way.

TBTR

Recently Google celebrated a milestone the 1 year anniversary launch of the Google Chrome browser.  I remember when it was swirling around the internet that Google was about to drop a browser on the Internet community we were all a buzz over it.  That was over 366+ days ago and what have the super geeks at Google been up to, well they have been making improvements in the Google Chrome browser.  They say that the Google browser now has quicker load times, and runs web applications faster.

The stable release of Chrome under windows was released yesterday some of the benefits are listed below:

• 150% increase in javascript performance
• Redesigned new tab page
• Some HTML 5 features are included
• Form auto fill
• Side by side view
• Ability to remove items from the tabs

Give the stable version a try here

For those of us who use a Mac or Linux they state that at this time, there is no release, but they are making rapid progress.  You can download a copy of the developers version for Mac & Linux which will let you try Chrome on your Mac or Linux, but understand it’s not a stable release.  Us geeks can try it out anyways and at least see how things are coming along.

TBTR

As an avid blackberry user and former Network Administrator I have come across a ton of scenarios where backup was needed but not practiced.  Some methods I’ve used to fix these problems come from knowledge base articles, to online forums, to just plain old common sense.  There is one thing that as a tech junkie I have to talk about today.  That subject is about Backing up your data, While there are many articles on the net about backing up your personal (Computer) data many don’t talk about backing up your cell phone data.

I have been a blackberry user for over 5 years now, and in that time it’s come to my attention over and over again, the question is not if I will lose data it’s when?  That “when” you may never know, but since blackberries and Smart Phones in general are the norm now days.  We all have to take the proper precautions to save our data.  Some of us have saved data for years, and while most people can’t understand why someone would want to save so much useless data.  I have a ton of reasons I’ll go into on another post some day.

Why Backup your Smart Phone

Simply you have over time added more and more task, contacts, memo’s, notes, and other things to your Smart Phone that if you lost today, you have no where to get it back.  A lot of these phones can carry an enormous amount of data including files, pictures, calendars and other things.  These items are usually stored in the ROM of your smart phone.  Wikipedia.org defines ROM as Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. Because data stored in ROM cannot be modified (at least not very quickly or easily), it is mainly used to distribute firmware (software that is very closely tied to specific hardware, and unlikely to require frequent updates). ROM cannot be removed from your phone, it’s a permanent storage area within your device.

This ROM is your internal MEMORY which saves your data, pictures, and other items to your device.  Some smart phones also have a memory flash card that lets you create a place to store more data, that you can also remove from your phone and even access with a computer given the right software sometimes. Usually this flash card only saves pictures, music, video, and items that you record, but it does not save any contacts, calendar, task or other items that are part of the phones software.

I understand ROM, but tell me why I need to backup

A Smart phone is just like a computer it can fail, and if it does will you be able to recover that special number, or contact calendar from your device?  In most cases NO, you will never get that data back and it’s over.  You have to start from scratch with entering all your contacts again, which means an enormous amount of your personal time, not to mention the loss of critical items that are gone forever.  Don’t even think about sending your device to a specialty tech shop that deals in lost data, if you do plan on spending hundreds of dollars.

You don’t need to lost your data, at least you can always have a backup with in reach at any given moment.  Most Smart phones come with software that you can use to import contacts, task, calendar functions and other things that help.  Along with that most of them allow you to backup your data right to the same computer that you use to do all these functions.  I’m only going to discuss the blackberry method today but remember there are many manufactures out there that also do this, please consult your device manual for more information.  Better yet call your carrier, and ask for the data team or someone that can help you set up backups with your phone and the accompanying software, that is what they are there for in my opinion.

Blackberry backup method

You will need:

• Blackberry device
• USB Cable

Since I’m all about saving time and allowing you to get the best resources for answers I took the time to sift the net and found some resoruces that should help you in the process.  They tell you how to make that backup of your device and should help as a written example of how to do this, I hope my words hit home.  Remember this can happen to anyone, it’s only a matter of time.

Indiana University With a Blackberry, how do I backup and restore data

BlackBerry Cool Backing up your Blackberry (Cool Screenshots)

BlackBerry Rocks How to backup and restore your Blackberry (Even Cooler updated Screenshots)

TBTR (Comments are always welcome)

I just gotta say WOW I am amazed at the Google Voice Application for my blackberry.  You can read about it here “Google Voice for Android and Blackberry) While those iPhone users are pissed they didn’t get an application for their OS, I’m so excited I was able to download and update my new Google Voice Application on my Blackberry.

From the Google Blog: So with that, we’re excited to release the Google Voice app for Android and Blackberry. You can use the app to make outgoing SMS messages and calls from your Google Voice number. What’s more, this app improves the mobile experience of Google Voice in a number of ways.

Google released the application today and when I saw the topic trending I went to get a copy immediately m.google.com/voice the site started my OTA download and I was able to input my information to get the application working.  At first it didn’t seem to want to download my info, but after a few minutes it showed my last few calls, and also all the text messages I still had in my Google Voice messages area.

If you want a invite to Google Voice please signup at the google voice invitation link

TBTR

WordPress hands down might be the best blogging platform around, but with so many changes so quickly do you really need to upgrade today?  I always say when it comes to upgrades on blogs or on standard Operating systems, unless the update is a critical patch don’t upgrade immediately.  Most of the time you find that if you don’t need to upgrade then take your time and let the experts do all the break fix testing.

New WordPress 2.8 Blog Post

Give the community time to download and install especially those who are new to blogging and WordPress.  I would say give it about a month before going for the upgrade and if there are plug-ins that you use check out the developers site to see if they have checked that it works or is having issues before you upgrade.  WordPress is at version 2.8 which means in my opinion if your at anything below 2.7 you need to a least upgrade to 2.7.  With that said please check your plug-ins before upgrading this will help you in the long run.

On the other hand WordPress 2.8 seems to be another great release from the guys/gals at wordpress.org.  They say that over 700 fixes have been made to this version.  WordPress has release a video that shows some of the improvements and I would say those improvements alone are reason to upgrade, but again wait a month and I think you well be out of hot water by then.

Enjoy,

TBTR

Symbaloo is a personal online desktop, in my opinion a customizable home page of sorts, it’s currently in beta but has been around for a couple of years over seas.  The service is free and there is no need to signup unless you want to customize this home page for viewing in more than one place/computer.  Symbaloo is very similar to iGoogle which is miles above Symbaloo, but as we all know competition is always welcome.

Give it a try and tell me if you like it Symbaloo

Why on April 1 would you open or launch your signature product?  I guess the buzz you create could carry you into the next year, or people could take it as a joke and over look you all together.  RIM the makers of the Blackberry Smart phones have launched what they hope is the defect o home for bb users.

The Blackberry App World ( I guess they didn’t use store because Apple would probably sue) is now open for business.  When I got in this morning I saw the buzz and decided to jump on the bandwagon.  I went to the signature page with my Blackberry www.blackberry.com/appworld/download to download the icon OTA (over the airwaves) but I had and issue just like Larry Dignan said in his post “First impressions and a weird IE requirement.” so I turned to the blackberry desktop software.  I had to download the app this way.  It worked perfect and I was able to get in the application.

Put more of your life on your BlackBerry smartphone! Download BlackBerry App World for free to load up your BlackBerry smartphone with games, social networking, online shopping, personal productivity, organization tools and other fun and functional apps. It’s your world – bring more of it with you with BlackBerry App World!

While most of the featured applications we probably all have on your Blackberries as an out of the box application.  I did some research inside of the app world and found a lot of apps I never knew existed.  During the coming weeks and days we will review some applications and give our take on the success or failure of the Blackberry App World.

BlackBerry App World is a free download. To purchase applications from BlackBerry App World, a PayPal account is required.

Application makers can also take the time to create new apps, and place them in the app world just like on apples itunes app store.  This is opening up the devices to innovation from small programmers, and also opens them up like apple to foolish applications that do nothing but charge money for access.  Lets sit back and watch the paint dry, or you can get involved if your an avid Blackberry user.

I plan to get involved, just wait an see

Leave us comments

TBTR

This morning I got wind that Google has worked on giving us loyal users new themes in a blog post called“iGoogle’s got game… themes!”.  It seems they have taken this to another level giving us gamers enough themes to last weeks maybe even months.  As a kid I loved the old arcade games just like the author of the blog post from Google.  I too spent many a weekend in the local arcade at South Dekalb Mall in Georgia.  With the edition of these new themes you can enjoy some of the games you loved as a child and as a grown up.

iGoogle now has graphics from all sorts of games that I know will excite my fellow gamers. Picture your homepage with “Burnout” cars zooming in the background, Ryu from “Street Fighter” blasting hadoukens across your page, or rock stars jamming out to tunes from “Guitar Hero.” It doesn’t end there. For those of you who used to dream about completing the Triforce or getting out of tombs alive, choose from “Zelda” or “Tomb Raider.” Want more? Try “Dungeons & Dragons,” “The Sims 3,” or “World of Warcraft” on for size.

The new themes are located here www.google.com/gamingthemes or you can choose a setting that uses a random theme daily at game theme of the day.

Enjoy
TBTR

Google latitude is a new service where you can share your location with friends or anyone else you trust.  Certain cell phone users can use this new service also it runs as a gadget on igoogle.  If you don’t download the phone app you have to manually update the location by typing in your city and state.

Google Video Explaining Google Latitude

If you don’t have a cell phone but, want a real time update of location you can download Gears plug in which uses your wireless signal to determine your computers location. You can also update your status which is tied into your Google talk.  Pictures can even be updated on the fly so you can change your icon.

When I tried to change my pictures from my Blackberry Curve 8320 it froze my phone for a few minutes while it accessed my Media Card, but it was back to normal soon after

Remember this service is opt-in so you don’t have to add all the people you know.  You can even deny people from seeing your location but add them to see their location only.

I think this will change the laws for stalkers, it’s so easy for people to follow you now a days on the net.  As social networking grows, it gets harder and harder to hide from a stalker.  So watch who you follow and more importantly who you allow to follow you.

So as a G33K I had to ask myself how this service works.  I think Google Latitude works by knowing which cell towers your transmitting with.  Then by knowing your carrier they can guess with in so much distance where you are located.  I’m pretty sure their are some other things involved, but I like to guess.

Visit google.com/latitude for the mobile info, and the gears info

Also more links to Google latitude resources:

• See where friends are with Google Latitude
• Locate your friends in real time with Google Latitude
• Official Google Latitude site

We have all come across this issue more than once, your looking for that email from 3 months ago in your Microsoft Outlook email program. You try to search for it using the built in Outlook search but it’s so complex that after 3 or 4 tries you give up and start looking through all your email one by one. After 5 minutes of searching you finally find it at the bottom of every email that was pulled up, frustrating.

You don’t use Windows desktop search or Google Desktop because you don’t need to index everything on your entire computer just your Outlook email program. The wasted time and effort has you ready to drop kick your computer. Who or what program are you gonna call on to help?

The Xobni plug-in for Outlook has come to the rescue, and I wanna share it with you. Xobni is FREE, yes you heard that right FREE. Xobni creates a profile for each person that emails you. The profiles contain relationship statistics, contact information, social connections, threaded conversations, and attachments all in one easy to use interface. Xobni was founded by Adam Smith and Matt Brezina in the spring of 2006 but with the recent updates has made major headlines as of late.

Bill Gates called Xobni the next generation of social networking

The Xobni download and install process was very easy. I clicked on the download link closed my Inbox, a window popped up asking if I wanted to find out more about my contact such as Skype, Linkedin, Facebook, and Hoovers info, you can enable or ignore this request. The setup process was not drawn out or confusing just a couple of quick questions to answer.

Once the program is started it has to index your emails, which means depending on how many contacts, and how much email you have can take a while to finish. While this did temporally freeze up my mailbox I just took it upon myself to go on a quick break and by the time I had returned all was working.

While this program shows great promise I can only imagine the things that I can now do with my email being much more easy to find.

Xobni System Requirements:

• Windows XP or Vista
• Outlook 2003 or 2007
• Cached Exchange Mode
• 2 GHz processor
• 1+ GB RAM

Xobni download link

This product video is less than 5 minutes in length if your serious view this video for more information it answered a lot of questions:

When you view the Xobni Analytics it will blow your mind.

Tell me what you think about Xobni in the comments section.

TBTR

I just got wind of a potential malware problem with Youtube videos.  It seems someone has finally figured out how to install software on your computer through Youtube, according to this update from CrunchGear.

The virus is called Actns/Swif.T and seems to contain a redirect to a phishing website embedded within a SWF file.

Embedding Malware & Spyware in software has been the norm for a long time, but if this is true and if you just watch a video and get software installed this could be a potentially huge issue for Google.

Lets hope they get a hold on this quickly.

To protect yourself always watch what you click on when surfing the net.

TBTR

Since the early days of IM (instant messaging) people have been looking for ways to connect better online.  I mean connect with something other than typing LMAO (Laughing my ass off) or LOL (Laugh out loud) these are short acronyms we use when chatting online.  They have been around since the early days and now instead of typing those letters we can now actually laugh, talk, and hide on Video Cam.

Voice and video in Gmail only works with the newer version of Gmail in supported browsers: FF 2.0+, IE 6.0+, Safari 3.0+, and Google Chrome.

Google has release a download plug-in that lets you use your Voice and Video with GMail.  I had the joy of testing it today with some of my twitter friends.  Once the download is done it makes you close your browser then it reopens and now lets you connect your voice and video.  While there are other services out there that let you do this with minimal cost Gmail lets you do this for FREE.  Yes understand that this happens only with Gmail and your browser, you can not tie this to your Gtalk application.  This confused me at first because I downloaded the plug-in and then tried to use it with Gtalk.  So remember this it will help you save about 15 minutes of troubleshooting, why it’s not working.

Google as usual gives you alot of information at the following link http://www.google/videochat

Something that I didn’t expect was the 30% off Logitech webcams on the link above this alone is a better saving than any where on the net at this time, also FREE Shipping please use the link on the Gmail/videochat site for the discount.  This is in place until November 30th, 2008 so order soon.

Have fun with the product, you know I did.

TBTR

It’s not everyday that you will need a utility like WinMerge but, I will tell you this it can save you a ton of time. WinMerge 2.8.6 is another great Open Source tool created with you the user in mind. Why do you need WinMerge? Why should you even give WinMerge a chance to grace your desktop real estate? I think if you work with text based files such as HTML, CSS, or just Text files in general then this tool will help you a lot.

Visual differencing and merging of text files

Say your working on a new project where a client has updated his HTML code and your trying to fix the problem they are having because something is just not right. If you use WinMerge you can input the old HTML code on one side, and the New HTML code on another and compare the files. You can see where the changes have been made and with that being said, fix the issue without having to go line for line in a HTML document that could be pretty long. WinMerge will color code the changes and show you where the differences are no longer will you have to rely on site alone.

Handles DOS, UNIX and MAC text file formats

Not only does this tool let you see the differences of files, but if you want it can Merge the files together to create a new document. This is a great feature where changes have been made and you want to make sure to keep all text streamlined and in working order. WinMerge will do the trick with ease.

Website: http://www.winmerge.org/

Download Link: WinMerge 2.8.6

Enjoy,

TBTR

You mean to tell me you have 12 seconds to leave a video about what your doing? Don’t we already have Micro-blogging sites by the dozen. How much time and effort went into making a service or site called 12 seconds. Talk about trying to get the VC money, and then some ridiculous conglomerate to buy you out. I’m so sick and tired of people piggy backing on other services. They say ” oh well what if we decided to take what they do but flip it.” 12 seconds will not be along for the ride too much longer. They want money, they need money to keep it going, so who’s gonna pay up some VC that has nothing but money to hang out the window. When you think about it 12 seconds as a company should last about 12 seconds long.

Most of the videos I see on the site, suck because they try to go past the 12 seconds and then the video looks stupid. The thing just cuts off WTH, I’m listening and your cutting off the video because you forgot this is only 12 seconds long. Think about why it’s only 12 seconds and you will see it’s not because of some crap about we figured that 12 seconds is about as long as the brain can stand to watch some online webclip crap. It’s because the ratio of video to users with 12 seconds cost less then just letting your user go crazy with unlimited time to do nothing but record their living room. One thing is that with the time constraints it does make for interesting videos if done right, I will agree with that.

12seconds.tv allows friends and family to record and share short video updates about what they are doing or where they are. You can use a webcam or a cellphone. It’s a FREE, easy, and fun way to stay in touch.

This is my rant and the truth is we should all be ashamed to follow as the mass of people try every new service or web 2.blah out. Right now this micro-blogging is all over the place and honestly it’s getting out of hand. Who’s gonna take the lead and stay in it for the long haul. We all know Twitters problems about money they turned off SMS for overseas users, and in Japan they have turned on the ads which also lets you know the ads are coming soon. Is it just me or is Pownce the only one that could see, if you give the users something great they can use we will pay for it. Or was pownce so hard up for money that they had to ask for money up front just to keep things going with out losing the farm if you know what I mean.

My prediction is that 12 seconds will only last just about that long 12 months, then some VC or competitor will come in and buy the thing lock, stock, and barrel. I guess I’m a little upset that I didn’t think of such an idea cause the truth this I want an account but I’m so tired of signing up for stuff all over the net.

Enjoy the success 12 seconds,

TBTR

Just a couple of nights ago I was taking a picture with my blackberry, I usually post these pictures to twitpic. Twitpic is a picture service that post to your twitter account from your cell phone, since there had not really been any other services that let me post once to multiple sites. I started thinking wouldn’t it be nice to be able to post to a picture service that can post to not only my twitter account by all my other micro blogging sites? Well I found such a service it’s called Pikchur and this service lets me post to all of my sites with one email.

Pikchur is a simple service that updates your social networks / micro-blogging platforms with pictures!

Supported platforms are:

• Plurk
• Pownce
• tumblr
• Jauiku
• Facebook
• Friendfeed
• Identi.ca
• Twitter
• and Rejaw

Now that you know how many services Pikchur can post to now I’ll walk you through some of the process of setting it up.

Send your piks via phone, mms, email or upload

1. You have to first login to one of your micro blogging sites on the Pikchur website I choose my twitter account.
2. Next you have to configure your posting email address.
3. The system tells you to create a PIN which will go at the end of the email address just before the @ symbol (this PIN is very important so do not make it simple) ( In my opinion the PIN needs to be more than 4 numbers, but that is all Pikchur will allow in the PIN section at this time)
   

After this process you have some settings you can configure

• Additional settings such as Triggers, and Status messages

All and all I tried the system out and it worked perfect from upload but when I tried to email from my blackberry it never showed up, I’ll have to fix that soon or try and figure out the reason why it didn’t work.

Overall Pikchur has a great idea with a lot of potential.

Enjoy,

TBTR

It seems that Jaiku’s website is down as of 9:50PM Est, if you didn’t know Jaiku is another MicroBlogging site. The problem with Jaiku is that no one cares about them anymore. Google bought the company out some time ago and since has done nothing to this service. In my opinion it’s a loss for all of us because it started out with such promise then got bought out and died.

Along came everyone else to show em how it’s done Plurk, rejaw, and others.

I saw this picture on the website tonight and had to post it:

I wonder what they are doing, one thing we know they are not adding features Jaiku still SUCKS!!!

TBTR

Photosynth has failed to deliver the demand was high and the Server Administrators were higher. Photosynth from Microsoft launched just over 12 hours ago and the website is down, and you thought Microsoft does not have these type of issues. Photosynth is a cool new program from MS that takes pictures and kind of turns them into a 3D pic it’s some amazing stuff check this video out:

Maybe they will have the site up and working soon but we all should remember just because you have Billions in the bank don’t think it can’t happen to you..

Enjoy,

TBTR

Imagine a program that many of the top podcasters use on a daily basis. When you want to record, mix, and master your recordings use Audacity. Audacity is a FREE Open Source software for recording and editing sound.

With Audacity you can:

• Record Live Audio
• Convert tapes & records into digital files
• See a massive list of features here

Audacity runs on:

• Linux
• Os X
• Windows (from 98 to Vista)

Personally I use Audacity to record & edit my podcast for TheBlackTechReport. I absolutely love this program the ease of use and shear horsepower of this program is internationally known. A great plus to using Audacity is the great community input and resources created by the developers and users of audacity.

5 Audacity resources:

• File Management Tips
• Navigation Tips
• Podcasting with Audacity (full resources)
• Noise Removal
• Official Audacity User Manual

Remember with any program it might take a little time getting used to it, but don’t let that scare you I wanna see you using this wonderful program.

Enjoy,

TBTR

When it comes to download Wednesday I’m always thinking of new and exciting FREE software to write about. Today’s Free download comes from Pidgin which formally had the name GAIM.

I remember using GAIM along time ago when you had to download and install the 3 major players in IM AIM, Yahoo, and MSN. GAIM was one of the first but they changed the name to Pidgin. I heard they changed the name for legal reasons but that’s another story.

Pidgin is a multi-protocol Instant Messenger client that allows you to use all of your IM account at once from ONE program.

Pidgin runs on all Windows and UNIX platforms.

Pidgin can work with:

• AIM
• YAHOO
• Google Talk
• MSN
• IRC (Wowzer I’m excited about this one)

And about 12 other services

Give Pidgin a try you just might like it.

Link to Pidgin Site
Link to Download Page
Link to Third Party Plugins

Enjoy,

TBTR

We have all heard the saying “Nothing is Free” I guess it depends. Today one of my Twitter friends posted a link to a free download from ZoneAlarm. It seems ZoneAlarm is trying to get the word out about a product called ForceField.

The product creates a virtual bubble while you surf so if you hit the wrong website by accident it will protect you. Lately the best way hackers have figured how to install software on your computer is by creating websites that mirror the original site like instead of you going to google.com you type goolge.com by accident. This is only an example but if you hit the site goolge.com there is code that installs on your computer through your browser and with in seconds your infected. ForceField is supposed to help you ward off these threats.

Totally FREE Patch Tuesday – for 24-hours (ending Wednesday August 13 at 6am PST), you can download a free copy of ZoneAlarm ForceField, a $29.95 value.

ZoneAlarm ForceField provides a protective layer around your browser, shielding you from drive-by downloads, browser exploits, phishing attempts, spyware and keyloggers. So your passwords, your confidential information, and your financial data remain protected.

Here are some links to help you understand why you should take advantage of this opportunity.

Well the video does nothing for really explaining what ForceField does but I added it anyways.

I found the better video to explain what ForceField does…YES….FTW

This is the link for the offer:http://www.zonealarm.com/patchtuesday

Don’t forget to pass this link along to others TODAY.

TBTR

We all need email in today’s world for a host of reasons.  To communicate with staff, friends, and family not in that order.  Since email is so important I wanted to bring to the table a product that will help you out with your everyday emails.  If your a PC user then your probably familiar with Outlook Express, and Outlook.  Outlook Express was created as a free email client included in your computer build.  Outlook Express has been around for a long time and gone through various revision I think we are up to Version 6 at this time.

If your smart or wealthy you probably upgraded to Outlook which was created on the same platform as Outlook Express but with the intent of the business user in mind.  When this happened many people said Outlook Express would die and by all accounts in my opinion it has.  Microsoft has done no active updates to Outlook Express in years thus leaving another dinosaur in the dust.  While we could argue the point of weather Outlook or Outlook Express is a good product we will save that for another post.

The Open source movement has created great products in my opinion Thunderbird from Mozilla.org is one of the best email clients I’ve used.  Since today is Download Wednesday I just had to bring Thunderbird into the picture Thunderbird has won numerous awards and we have to remember the product is FREE.

Thunderbird provides you with a fast robust email client that can not only hand emails but RSS feeds, and newsgroups all in this one product.  While I like to personally keep all those in separate programs I have to commend Mozilla.org for including this sort of as a one stop shop.

I have created two screencast that show you the process from downloading the product, to install, and the configuration or setup.

Video 1: Download, and Install

Video 2: Configuration

More information about Thunderbird features here and Thunderbird download link.

Popular Thunderbird addons listed under this article on Makeuseof.com

Enjoy and leave comments.

TBTR

This post might get a little technical please forgive me a head of time for showing my full geekyness.

Wireless routers get older and older every day, if you were an early adopter of WiFi technology. The price and headache you paid in the early days is now a thing of the past. All good things must come to an end or end of life cycle in geek terms.

Most wireless routers were made with the future in mind by way of something called a firmware update.

What is firmware? According to wikipedia.org firmware is a computer program that is embedded in a hardware device. It can also be provided on flash memory or as a binary image file. This can be uploaded onto existing old or new hardware by a user.

Usually this gives the device new code that can fix issues (software bugs), add features, or totally change a device to do new, different and exciting things.

New is what happens when you install Tomato Firmaware on your old Linksys WRT54G, GL, GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom based routers.

Routers that are known to work with Tomato:

• Linksys WRT54G v1-v4, WRT54GS v1-v4, WRT54GL v1.x, WRTSL54GS (no USB support)
• Buffalo WHR-G54S, WHR-HP-G54, WZR-G54, WBR2-G54, WBR-G54, WZR-HP-G54, WZR-RS-G54, WZR-RS-G54HP, WVR-G54-NF, WHR2-A54-G54, WHR3-AG54
• Asus WL500G Premium (no USB support), WL500GE
• Sparklan WX6615GT, Fuji RT390W, Microsoft MN-700

This will not work on Linksys WRT54G/GS v5 or newer WRT54G/GS routers.

Your probably asking yourself why do I need this? Well the truth is you don’t need this at all. The reason why we talk about this today is to let you know that if you have an old wireless router mentioned above, and it’s crashing or your always having to reboot the unit. You don’t have to toss it you can update the unit and turn it into a super router.

With any firmware updates you run the risk of bricking your unit just be sure you can afford to do this before ever doing a unlicensed firmware update.

Other programs that do the same thing listed here:

• DD-WRT
• FreeWRT
• HyperWRT Thibor
• OpenWRT
• Tarifa
• X-Wrt

Have Fun.

TBTR

Yesterday (read the story here) we reported that the popular game Scrabulous had been taken down for the US and Canada customers of Facebook because of a lawsuit filed by Hasbro. Well I won’t say chalk one up for the little guy I will just say, damn the little guys are smart.

The Agarwalla brothers in a very short amount of time have gone back to the drawing board. They have come up with a new Facebook application called “WordScraper” talk about punking someone.

We know Hasbro had every right to file the lawsuit they did against the brothers and Facebook I mean the name was just to similar but now the boys have gone back to the drawing board and created something else similar but with some different rules, now that’s Pimpin to me.

I wonder how Hasbro feels now, not only did they start a storm that according to others could have been avoided but now the brand in some circles may have even been hurt permanently. I mean we know the large number of people on Facebook are probably early to mid twenties. Working successful young people that lets face it don’t like to be told too much on what to do. The Hasbro brand is really faced with a challenge, to fix a wrong they could have avoided. The lawyers that were used in this lawsuit are probably right now trying to figure out another way to create a revenue stream to line there pockets.

Do I think this will hurt Hasbro in the long run probably not most of the people using it didn’t have kids anyways. I will say that this is probably not over and we have just seen the little guy Pimp the big fish.

Wordscraper on Facebook

Hasbro

TBTR

Today came word that the very popular game Scrabulous was taken down by Facebook.  It seems the program was infringing on a little well known game called Scrabble owned by Hasbro.  While I never played this game online I always saw many people who did.  What’s up with Hasbro?  Are they just haters on the Agarwalla brothers, and their company, RJ Softwares.

The Brothers created the game and have been in my opinion reaping the rewards.  While Face book took down the application it seems they really didn’t want to get the middle of this feud.  The website Scrabulous is still operational and the facebook application is no longer being used in the US or Canada but in other countries Hasbro has no rights to the name that is owned by Mattel.

It seems at this time Mattel has not filed any suits to rights overseas but if one starts you can bet the other is going to do it.  While this is news nothings really new with this we all know how people create something better than the original, but instead of going to the company and trying to license the rights they keep building on a application that’s stolen.

On another note Facebook users are fighting back by creating groups to try and get the Scrabulous application back all I can say is Good luck with that.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=37928471248

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=75441

www.Scrabulous.com

www.scrabble.com

TBTR

Working a full time job you probably sit at a computer for 8 hours then go home and you have another computer your using. Using so many computers there are gonna be times when you wish you had access to your documents from any computer at any time. If you have Google Docs your not missing a thing in fact your probably laughing right now saying “Is this really news TBTR, I mean honestly.”

There’s nothing to download; you access your documents, spreadsheets and presentations from any computer with an Internet connection and a standard browser. And it’s free.

Scenario your at work taking care of some last minute changes to a document, you get a call and leave in haste. When you get home your winding down about to watch your favorite TV show when you get a call that your friend she needs the list of things you were writing ASAP. You think back did I email that document before I left work? Then you remember it’s saved to your hard drive at work not at home. This leaves your friend with out the document and there is nothing you can do about it. Well sort of, if you had written and saved that document in Google Docs you could use your computer to login find the document and then edit or just send the document to your friend. Thus fixing a situation that may have been disastorious.

Online storage and auto-save mean you needn’t fear local hard drive failures or power outages.

While this is little far fetched it’s still true Google Docs is an online application that lets you create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online at anytime from any computer. Google has set up the system to enable anyone to share, and collaborate in real time. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, etc. Access to your documents can be emailed to anyone you want and they get instant access.

You can publish to the entire world, just a few people or no one — it’s up to you. (You can also un-publish at any time.)

With Google Docs there is nothing to download it’s all done over the internet that also helps with backup of documents. No longer do you have to worry about a hard drive failure or misplacing some important documents you have access from anywhere. Google Docs even lets you post a document to the web with a single click you can set this for viewing by select people or anyone around the world.

You can now track how much traffic a particular published document is getting through Google Analytics.

While most of this article is written for the newbie in mind here is where I explain some of the NEW features that have been placed in this Online Application.

• A host of free templates for documents, spreadsheets or presentations
• Analytics tracking on published documents is now available
• Custom Colors can now be chosen for documents or slides
• Output can be to a PDF file so no need for Adobe Acrobat
• Tech-Savvy users can now apply CSS to documents
• Notes can now be added to your slide presentations
• Off line access to your Google docs, sync when internet connection established
• Presentations can be saved as PPT
• View Google Docs on your mobile phone
• Many more features

While Microsoft has stepped up and offered some of the same things with Office Live, Google Docs 100% FREE. While they do offer this for free there is a pay service if your a organization and want to put the whole company on it’s called Google Apps check it out.

This video explains a lot enjoy.

video by: leelefever

Try out Google Docs it helps you live longer

TBTR

While looking for great sites to write about I stumbled across Snapter. Snapter uses your digital camera as a mobile scanner to scan documents, business cards, white boards, and books into your computer in .jpg or .pdf format. Snapter claims to make your camera photos of documents look like scanned documents.

The software automatically crops, stretches, flattens and converts photos into more portable images. I downloaded Snapter installed the application and started using the system. I decided first to take a picture of my receipt from a laptop purchase I had on my desk. I took this picture with my BlackBerry Curve. The picture while nice is not the best of quality when I later zoomed in on the text. Then I decided to take the same picture with my Canon Powershot SD750 I got 100% better quality.

Use your digital camera as a mobile scanner to scan documents, business cards, whiteboards, and books.

Next I decided to try the book I used my recently purchased HTML, XMTML & CSS Book by Peachpit Press. I turned to a random page and clicked a good picture. The image came up but when I clicked to process the output that’s when It went south. Although it worked I could only see one half of the book after the image processed. The picture was of both sides but it seems that some how the light or dark area in the ream of the book wigged the processor in Snapter out. I tried several times to move the line to tell the software that I wanted the other page included on the scan but I could never get it to go far enough.

Snapter makes camera photos look like scanned documents!

Snapter says they have improved the image process algorithms, but in my opinion it still seems to be an issue. Again it could be user error but I tried 3 times with the same results. I will say this if I really took the time to sit back take great pictures of documents and then tried to make .pdf files I would probably get better results but my frustration factor reached critical mass and I stopped trying to tweak it. To help others there is a Getting Started Guide.

The software is not Freeware that is why this was not included on the Wednesday download tag. You get a 14 day trial to use the software with no limits, after that you get a watermark over every scan that you make. The best part is after the 14 days it still works. Kudo’s to the Snapter team for allowing that you know some students would like to use this but cost is a factor.

While I only did limited examples of what you can do here the website will shed more light on the advantages of Snapter.

3 Thumbs out of 5

TBTR

Today I wanted to let you know about OpenOffice which is the clone of Microsoft’s costly product Office. OpenOffice while different gives you some great features such as:

• Text Documents
• Spreadsheets
• Presentation
• Drawing
• Database

The products listed are FREE you don’t pay for them because OpenOffice is a Open Source product. If you don’t have the money to purchase the most popular product Microsoft Office, download OpenOffice here.

Enjoy

TBTR

While I love taking pictures I don’t like the high cost of photo editing software such as Corel, Paint Shop Pro, and Photoshop. I have always looked for a free way to edit and do cool things with photo software then I came across GIMP.

GIMP is released under the GNU free software license which lets you use the program for free. The GIMP software project has been around for a long time since about 1996 according to the website. Currently the stable version of GIMP is 2.51.

GIMP was created because Linux users wanted a way to be able to use great photo editing software on a Linux computer build.  So they did what they always do, make a better mouse trap. It was later compiled for Windows but the first intention of GIMP were for Linux users. Plug-ins have been created for GIMP to expand the capabilities.

While I would love to really go into the specifics and show you how it really works, I’m gonna let you look the GIMP website over and see for yourself. Tons of Tutorial sites have been created to show you how to set up GIMP and how to do simple things with this extensive software.

• The tutorials here go from beginner to expert helping you to get aclimated to GIMP
• Tons of YouTube videos have been created showing you how to use GIMP here, last count was about 946 videos.
• An awesome Wiki has been created here

Remember you can complain but why? It’s FREE

TBTR

This morning I was holding a conversation with other people on Plurk the Social/microblogging site. We started talking about flickr and if there are any reasons not to like flickr. One person mentioned that there was not an application that you could use to download in bulk your pictures from flickr.

Just as that was said someone posted the link to a program called flickrdown.

The program is not an official program from flickr but the guy who made it has posted a download link.

The last update to the software was June of 2007 so I’m not sure if it still works.

**ATTENTION** I have not tested this software you download and use at your own risk

A few weeks ago I discussed my fascination with Meebo in my article “What? You can’t log on at work…I got a solutions” an Online IM program that works from your web browser no application install needed. I found another IM program that goes a step further, the Digsby application has the following connections which any well connected person should have especially a social geek:

······IM (Instant Messenger) – AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, Facebook
······Email – Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, AIM, IMAP, POP
······Social Networking – Facebook, Twitter, Myspace

With all those connections from one applicaiton, oh and a recommendation by a reader of this blog I decided to add this program and try it out so here are my findings.

The Digsby interface is fully customizable from the layout to the fonts the whole experience

After downloading the applicaiton from Digsby.com I was able to install the program with no problems. I did like the fact that I could Signup right from the application and create my name with digsby. Once the application was installed I decided to kick the tires and set up all my accounts. I noticed the interface was pleasing to the eyes and was not just thrown together it worked.

It just so happens that a friend of mine was online while I was setting all this up and started a conversation with me. I noticed the window popped up and we started chatting as ususal. Sometimes at work you want things to be a little more private so I minimized the chat window and to my suprise a little little window popped up which I could see what my friend was saying and at the same time it was big enough that I could reply back without opening up the huge chat window cool feature.

While the program has given me some issues once I got it up and running properly this application has turned out to work very nice

Because the system is logged into my Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail account I can see the number of messages or emails that are waiting for me to look at, another cool feature. Everytime a new email is received the Digsby interface shows me a small blurb of the subject line, I also have a small ICON in the bottom right hand corner that represents my Gmail account with a small number that shows how many emails are waiting for me.

The Digsby interface is fully customizable from the layout to the fonts to the whole expericence. Now for the really cool part if you have a blog or website and you want to interact with your customers and/or friends you can place a chat widget on your site. When people see this they can start talking to you right from your website as long as you have Digsby running on your computer at that time, if not I beleive it leaves you a message. This is cool when you want real time communications on your site, no tons of time trying to set everthing up you paste the code on your site and it’s working.

Click here to send me a message in the test area of my site.

All and all i had a great time using Digsby and I’m going to continue to use it for the future, there was only one problem I had which might get a little technical. After using Digsby for a couple of days I noticed now when I start my laptop in the morning I see digsby boot, then display a message from some user who sent the note overnight my Digsby program then freezes. It has happened two days in a row. So the only thing I can do is press Ctrl+Atl+Delete and end task on the Digsby program.

I have gone into the preferences and changed it so Digsby no longer boots on my computer during startup. I’m hoping to get a better response when I boot again, UPDATE>>>well I have booted the system again and now it works properly.

While the program has given me some issues once I got it up and running this application has turned out very nice.

If you are going to download this program remember you have to have administrative right on your machine especially if this is a work machine, if you don’t have rights like that remember to use meebo which I talked about before right here.

TBTR

Have you ever spent money today only to find out tomorrow you could have downloaded that program for free? Today’s Wednesday download brings you a great tested, tweaked, and seasoned free Anti-Virus program.

We all know how important it is to have a Virus program installed and actively running on your computer.

Most new computers come with commercial grade Virus Programs but after just 90 days those programs deactivate leaving you high and dry.

While you could just purchase the upgrade for that Virus program your using, what about alternatives. Free programs are always great and AVG free is the one I recommend.

I have used AVG commercial and Free Versions for over 4 years with great success. So if your looking for a Virus program or your pre-installed Virus program has deactivated after trial try AVG. Understand again there is a commercial version of this program which has many more features, so if you like the free version, please purchase the product in the future.

Click here to download this free program

Enjoy,

TBTR

I have been a Trillian fan since the company introduced one of the first Instant messenger that tie messengers together. This is an application download you get the best of both worlds you can install the client and use it to connect to Yahoo, MSN, and AIM. While others have come along such as jabber, and others trillian still holds a soft spot in my heart.

Its a great thing when you can log in all the messengers you want including IRC then only use one application. No longer do you need to download Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger now Live messenger, AIM messenger, and ICQ messenger they are all in this one program. Oh and I forgot to tell you it’s FREE the Basic version, there is a Pro version and if you like Trillian I encourage you to purchase the Pro version.

TBTR

HTTrack is a Free/Open Source program that can copy a website to your local hard drive. You could set it up to copy a small website or even a huge website, but I would caution you from downloading a site with gigs and gigs of data. The program has some settings you can change but for the most part out of the box it’s ready to go.

Why would you copy a website 1.) To show people how a website works, 2.) To Grab all images out of folders. I could give you many more reason but lets just stop here. As you look at the HTTrack website there are alot of things from documentation, FAQ information, to how not to use this program.

The following video is one I found on youtube Mike explains this pretty well the video is about 4 1/2 minutes enjoy:

Video by: Mike from Northern Kentucky University

TBTR

What is Flock?

Flock is a cross platform browser meaning you can install the browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines. Flock is build on another favorite of mine from Mozilla called Firefox. Since Flock comes from the Open Source movement you don’t have to pay a dime for it, remember nadda, nothing. A better introduction on what Flock does is here:

When was Flock Build?

Flock was founded in 2005. The flock founders in my opinion, noticed that the internet was changing when social websites started popping up on the net. They have positioned themselves to understand first what was happening, and make a move in a different direction from a browser/surfing perspective.

Why use Flock?

If your into social sites and you want to better surf the web and stay connected Flock. The Flock browser lets you reach across multiple networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pownce, Flickr, and others. Flock lets you share things easily such as photo’s Video’s and links. The Flock browser even gives you a build in blog editor to make blogging even easier right from the browser. More about social surfing of the internet with Flock here:

Conclusion

Try out Flock if your really starting to get bogged down by all the social sites out there Flock has a great way of keeping this stuff in a nice group. The experience is enlightening and I think you will see the rewards very quickly. Remember Flock is different so take your time getting to understand Flock, but I assure you once you get the hang of it your in love.

Get your copy of Flock now

Comments about your experience and recommendations are appreciated.

TBTR

FileZilla (website link) is a FREE FTP program which has been released under the GNU Gneral Public License. FTP stands for file transfer protocol and is used to transfer data from one computer to another through a network, such as over the Internet. You can use this program to upload pictures to your website or blog, you can also use it to download files from companies on the internet such has documents, instructions, drivers and much more. Click here for more information on FTP from wikipedia.org

I came across this program one day while I was looking to purchase a FTP program. This program makes it very easy to upload and download files over the internet.

Here are the features:

• Easy to use
• Supports FTP, FTP over SSL/TLS (FTPS) and SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
• Cross-platform. Runs on Windows, Linux, *BSD, OSX and more
• Available in many languages
• Supports resume and transfer of large files >4GB
• Powerful Site Manager and transfer queue
• Drag & drop support
• Configurable Speed limits
• Filename filters
• Network configuration wizard
• Remote file editing
• Keep-alive
• FTP-Proxy support

The program can be installed on Windows, Linux, and get this Mac OS X. I personally have been using the program for about 2 years, it has the guts to stand up to any of the price heavy programs such as cuteftp, smartftp, and others.

Leave comments about your experience and recommendations are appreciated.

TBTR

Today is download Wedensday here at The Black Tech Report, from this day on we will be bringing you a host of programs that refect our Free Commitment to the readers of this blog.

We will post a small bit of information about a product that we have found or that we use. We chose Wedensday because it’s the middle of the week and its the day you kind of look up and say well what’s new around my blogsphere.

We are making a commitment to the readers that you can depend on something intresting every time we post on “Download Wedensday”. You can be assured the programs will be useful and FREE (nadda, zero), so check back often and see what we have in store for you.

Remember to pass on this link for the story to any of your friends who are interested in technology or are new to the internet.

Thanks,

TBTR

Do you check multiple websites such as news sites, health sites, community sites and others on a daily, even hourly basis? The answer for me is indeed yes I could even go further, and sometimes say I check certain sites by the minute although that just shows my OCD boredom. Do you ever ask yourself “there has to be a better way?” Let me tell you a secret there truly is a better way, start looking for RSS feeds on those sites it just makes your life a lot easier.

What is RSS?
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a Web feed format used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format. RSS documents contain a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner. RSS essentially is a specially formed XML document that can be displayed in a pretty readable format by RSS reader programs.

So what is XML?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet.

How is all this going to help me?
Well the truth of the matter is that RSS feeds will help to eliminate your need to check websites for updates or the latest headlines. In my opinion this helps you out in the long run with being able to access one program to view all your data about the latest headlines and stories. This does not eliminate you viewing the websites that you always view but think about how much time it will save you when you open a program and all the latest stories are right in front of you.

Now that I have told you what RSS and XML are you need to know how to view them. In order to view the RSS feeds you need a computer feed reader or aggregator (program).

For a list of reader programs click here

How will you know the website you visit frequently is using RSS feeds?
You have probably seen the icon for RSS feeds and not even paid it any mind. The icon shown here (small) (Large) this icon is universal. When you see these icons you should be able to click on the icon or the words next to the icon. This will start the RSS feed program you choose to install from the link above. Sometimes you will need to copy and paste the RSS Feed URL which will look something like this http://www.theblacktechreport.com/?feed=rss

In closing RSS feeds help you sift through all the junk to get right to the point of the matter the infomation you need right now. There are so many reader programs out there that I suggest you download and try a veriety of them before you choose. Personally I was using feedreader for a long time but have switched over to google/reader recently with great success. I have looked at my stats to see what programs are downloading my feeds personally and the majority over 50% comes from people who use google reader that speaks volumes to me.

If in the end I have confused you beyond belief view this video that expalines RSS. Enjoy

Take your time and leave comments.

TBTR

With all the passwords in your life from your home computer to your work computer to your email passwords. You could have any where from 3 passwords to 10 passwords or many more. While one password for all those systems can work for you. The problem with that is the fact that once a crook has figured out your password they now have access to your entire online life.

In the past I have talked at length about how important it is to have secure passwords. Well with programs such as Password Safe and Any Password. You have the capability to save your passwords and related information in on place which makes it easy to retrieve this at anytime.

There are many more programs to do this with, but I wanted to talk about those that I have personally used before.

Password safe is released under open source and free software

When installing Password Safe you have a choice to install 2 ways:

• Regular (uses registry, suitable for home or single computer)
• Green (for disk-on-key; does not use host registry pen or usb drives)
  • Oh you can purchase a copy of the U3 Version which installs on your U3 USB drive learn more about U3 here.

The database is kept with the extension of (.psafe3)

You can create new passwords enter notes, URL information and keep a copy of the last 255 password changes. Also you can tell the system when the password has to be changed by a specific date or number of days. The encryption that Password Safe uses is Two Fish which is considered very secure.

Any Password has two versions of the program you can download for your computer one is the free version which works great but with limited capabilities and Any Password Pro which has some expanded capabilities. Any Password is not vista ready in the current version, but they say that is coming soon for the free version beside Any Password Pro is Vista ready at this time. Pocket Any Password version is free and available for Pocket PC 3.0 (2002) or higher running on ARM, MIPS, or SH3 processors. All passwords are protected by the RC2/MD5 encryption algorithms.

• The install options don’t let you choose to install on any removable media such as pen or usb drives.

The database is kept with the extention of (.apw)

With the addition of Any Password Pro you get these added features:

* ability to store files
* expired password notification
* sending password or other information automatically to other applications
* database synchronization
* data file compression
* ability to run from removable devices
* and more…

Which ever program you choose to install just remember what happens if your computer gets stolen or your hard drive goes bad. You could potentially loose all the passwords to your systems. This is why I tell people to email a copy of the database to your online email account such as hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. That way you can reinstall the program later in time.

Any password is capable of doing what you want but my 2 minute review says that Password Safe has more capabilities. I would suggest you download the both of them and make a choice for your self but I do think that you get more with the Password Safe which is 100% free all the time.

Any Password Download

Password Safe Download

Password Safe U3 Version Download

TBTR

I use itunes to purchase new music and to import my old cds on occasion. Well lately I have been wanting to concentrate on things at my computer weather its surfing the internet, blogging, or writing technical documents at work. Today I was sitting around and decided to look up white noise which is sort of noise canceling music. In itunes there are many tracks to choose from I will say that I never thought in a million years that I would purchase something like this but I did. In fact I purchased a track called “brown noise”. There were two versions one runs for 60 minutes and the other runs for 4 minutes. I started the track and then started to blog but noticed that at the end of the track the sound would always fade just enough to notice and throw my concentration off right before the track would repeat. I then decided to look around and saw a post from someone on how to stop this annoying thing from happening. Making this change to the track in itunes lets you loop the track to keep the brown noise playing for hours on end.

Here is where I share with you how to:

1. Right click the track, and click “get info”
2. Click options
3. If the track is showing for example 4:00 minutes in the stop time area and you notice the fade out starts at oh lets say 3:55 minutes change the time of the track in this window to 3:30 minutes. You could change it to 3:54 but that might be to close to the end and you might get some of the fade out.
4. Now set the track to loop by choosing to repeat the track and there you have it. Not only will it loop for hours on end but you also only paid $.99 for the short track instead of the $9.99 for the 60 minute version.

TBTR has helped save you $9.00 that could go towards a starbucks chi tea or soon a full gallon of gas.

TBTR

As a Network Administrator there are times when I have to setup passwords for people. This could be the first password for a new employee or it could be a password reset. It used to take along time to setup these passwords, cause I would have to think up a password at times I would make a complex password and then other times out of time I would choose a very simple password. The problem with simple is if the person never decides to change the password to something complex it creates a possible security risk. Your network could be compromised. A simple password cracker could be used to break the password and then let anyone with bad intentions enter your network easily.

So one day I was looking for a way to create a complex password and I googled for a program and came across Secure Password Generator it’s created by PC Tools Software. The program is very simple it helps you create secure complex passwords. You can do this in two ways one is online on the site, or you can download the freeware application. The online version can create a password using SSL connections which are very secure so that prying eyes can not sniff your connection to steal the password.

You can create passwords from 4 characters to 64 characters, the longer the password the harder it is to break. If your creating a password for someone to use the longer the password the more motivation for the person to change it to something they can remember.

If you do download the application you get included a password checker which makes sure the password you choose is a secure one. Also a added bonus of the download version is the password revealer. Have you ever put a password in Internet Explorer so that when you revisit that site it will remember you? What happends if you forgot that password there is no way to find out what it was, well with password revealer it works with Internet Explorer to reveal saved password that you have entered in web-forms but may have subsequently forgotten or lost. So go ahead download the program or use the online version either way you should be satisfied.

TBTR

I ran across an article on Crankygeeks.com about Ruby on Rails. Warning this post might get a bit technical and thus not really interest you, but hear me out for a moment. I heard about ruby on rails, oh 2 or so years ago. Just like some of the other programming languages it has it’s good and bad points. Some would say it takes less time to code in RoR but others would argue your sacrificing something. If you have ever run code, or created code you know the computer systems have a hand in the speed. Sometimes people create code on the slowest computers and never try to upgrade the systems for lack of money, bloated code, or lack of expertise. As many of you know that Twitter has been very slow at times and while that is a burden when your trying to follow a conversation it also gives you a hint to get back to work instead of killing your productivity.

A week or so ago I saw a post from someone saying that a key employee at twitter was fired (The Guy on the Far Left) and no longer working with them. As my understanding this guy had been brought in to help with the spotty and unreliability of twitter in the past few months. To know the guy got fired was a bit dis-hearting to say the least, I mean I didn’t know the guy but for someone who was bought in at the beginning of the year and to be fired already says a lot to me. (btw his twitter account still works)

Twitter sucks as a company has the potential to be a great company and while I don’t live in San Francisco or California for that matter. I wonder if management is jumping to conclusion already about there new hires? Its plain to see that if you hire someone in January and fire them in March or April something didn’t mesh. It could have been a culture shock for both employee and employer but what ever the case. When someone is fired fairly fast it means something just ain’t right. I hope that twitter get a hold of the reigns it seems money is starting to talk and starts to pull in the issues they have on their plate at this time. If management does not get a hold of the issue at hand when the next darling comes along we will all jump ship. Don’t doubt that people won’t jump, look at the Lifecasting relm justin.tv, ustream, and others we jumped for features and reliability this could definitely happen to twitter if the parts don’t start to assemble properly.

Conclusion Ruby on Rails is great…RoR+Twitter=jury still out…twitter management might just need an enema before they lost traction.

Just my two cents (with run on sentences, misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and procrastination laced)

TBTR

Not everyone works from home, and for that matter not everyone connects to the Internet from home. Have you ever been at a place using free WiFi or at work and tried to log on to a Instant Messenger such as Yahoo, MSN, AIM or others? If you have only to be denied access a bit of help is here. While everyone probably knows about these IM clients the world over many people don’t know about the other IM services that are just as good and even better.

If your looking for a IM client that’s great and helps you log into all the other services such as AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and others Meebo is the one for you. Their website explains it best:

Meebo lets you access your buddies on all the major networks (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber) in a single buddylist, right from your browser.

The main reason for this post is because Meebo has something new if your red bull addicted network administrator has locked down access and you can no longer use your IM client try Meebo. You can log in to the system through your browser, no download and at most companies this works perfect. Understand that on the off chance he or she has done a one up and gone even further. Meebo has now implemented something new called the Meebo repeater they explain it best here:

Meebo Repeater is a software download for people who want to chat safely when their IM access is restricted.

Just install the repeater on a computer that can access the Web freely, and then use that computer to bounce the signal to Meebo. It’s simple and secure.

Although there are other ways that Network Administrators can lock down access to these applications like AIM, Yahoo, and MSN, Admins can implement Group Policies that restrict the use of these applications, and also deny the installation of the programs. The reason why Meebo is great in my opinion is because it works inside of the Internet browser, as I understand it all the browsers from IE, Firefox, Opera and others.

This video shows a little bit about the Meebo experience, The last part of the video is about Meebo me which is online chat but that’s for a more experienced individual if you want more about that click here Meebo me:

No longer do you need to be denied access to your friends, and or clients you now have a real solution that works great. Just for the pundits who might say there are other sites that do this I wanted to link to them here although I have not tried them they are there none the less Miranda, Adium (for Mac Users), and Pidgin (Although I’ve heard reliability problems persist maybe not anymore tho)

TBTR

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