The Black Tech Report

Google’s Gmail Videochat is ready for primetime.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:15:11 +0000

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

Revisit The Leading Hotels of the World $19.28 promotion

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:09:50 +0000

Not more than a couple of weeks ago I wrote a story called “Talk about EPIC Fail, I got a Colossal EPIC FUCKING FAIL LHW.com” I wrote the story because of my disappointment with LHW.com and how they handled a admited colossal FAIL. It looks like the powers that be have decided to enrich the community and try this promotion again but with better results.

They have enlisted the help of Akamai Technologies, Inc. to help provide the needed bandwidth for this promotion, something they should have done in the first place but were either to cheap, or didn’t know the old network would bog down and Fail. Regardless I’m happy they have fixed the issue and I’m also happy the are going to try the promotion again details to follow on October 17, 2008.

Check the website often and see if you can get in on booking one of the Leading Hotels of the World at the amazing rate of $19.28 per night rooms.

Promotion Link to rooms for $19.28

TBTR

Talk about EPIC Fail, I got a Colossal EPIC FUCKING FAIL LHW.com

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:03:56 +0000

EPIC Fail

I truly believe that some system administrators don’t get it when it comes to internet traffic and the power of the media. So yesterday I was surfing the local news site AJC.com and found the following story Luxury hotels offer $19.28 per night needless to say I fell for this hook line and sinker others did too. At Hotelchatter.com they posted Yeah, We Got Totally Shut Out of the LHW $19.28 Sale Too. As I understood it the World Luxury hotels were going to offer rooms in some of the worlds best hotels for $19.28 in celebration of being in existence since 1928. This was all supposed to unfold at 8AM Est time on October 1, 2008.

I show up at the website ON Freaking Time and I hit the link http://www.lhw.com/1928 and this is what I got immediately:

Needless to say I hit update like a gazillion times trying to make sure I was not gonna get cut out of my share of low cost hotel rooms.

Anyone who works on the internet or makes a living on the internet knew this was gonna be a huge deal when it comes to internet traffic and system resources. So Truth is I was at the website early, I made a point to get up and out of the house just to make sure I was at work and in line to get one of the rooms at a great rate. I really feel for the people on the Pacific coast they were truly hoodwinked, the constant updates or refresh of the website did nothing for me, until about 10AM when I got the second message saying this:

I’m sitting in my chair at work like WTF, these bastards made me get up early get to work, take the time out and your not even gonna have the promotion now because some snot nosed kid in your data center can’t figure out how to off load some traffic through routing and sever timeouts. I was ready for a revolt against all hotels today then the next message came:

Oh I’m still pissed and unsatisfied I don’t think they understand what they just did, I don’t have many friends who stay and luxury hotels but hell I really did want to try out The James in Chicago. I guess that won’t happen now or maybe one day it will I am still pissed and not happy but this goes to show you, idiots are all over the world.

Next time you guys at LHW.com decide to do something like this call some fucking experts not your cousin Johnny who thinks he knows networking you guys truly suck MONKEY BALLS. IMHO

Thanks,

TBTR

Cuil the revisit

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:33:37 +0000

Cuil is the name of the enormous search engine that launch back in July of this year. The media was a buzz, bloggers were ready for what we all thought would be a new take on search engines. Have you ever heard the words EPIC Fail? To everyones dismay the launch of the search engine did nothing more then explain why Google and a couple of other search engines are gonna be #1 and #2 for a long time. Cuil tries to explain a lot about the system on the FAQ page.

Cuil’s claim to fame was two fold 1.)It was started by a former Google employee and 2.)It was supposed to have indexed billions more pages than Google or any other search engine combined. What they didn’t tell you was just be cause we have indexed billions upon billions of pages does not mean its in a readable wonderful interface.

As Cuil launched back in July the strain was so heavy on Cuil that the whole system crashed, I guess us geeks got the word and started searching. All of my searches were like the bridge to now where I searched for my name and found some other guys picture over my name it was weird and since then I have not really been back to Cuil.com until today.

On September 24, 2008 Cuil posted on their blog saying they are putting their heads down and getting back to work on Cuil, I guess that bridge to no where didn’t work for them either http://www.cuil.com/info/blog/2008/09/24/welcome-to-the-blog. It’s amazing how the launch gained so much exposure but the reality is that cuil was not ready for prime time.

Opinion: In my opinion the only way you get listed in Cuil correctly is if your a star or your site is mega huge. Test your searches against google.com and you will see what I’m talking about. Cuil had to go back to the drawing board because what they created was just Hype, now it seems it’s just too late to make a difference. To reinvent your self less than 2 months after launch is ludicrous and on top of that has to be very costly I would hate to be the VC watching all this unfold.

TBTR

Twitter has a new friend in URL shortners, Tweetburner with statistics

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:00:14 +0000

Micro blogging has been around for a while now but lately it has taken off growing by leaps and bounds. Can you update your friends and colleges in 140 characters? It’s harder then you think and by no means is it easy when the real estate is so limited. So what happens when you want to save and share a URL link? As we all know some URL links could be 50 characters all by it self. so the shorter a URL is the better that is for you and what you want to say to the world.

Tweetburner lets you track what happens with the links you share on Twitter.

Last week I came across a URL shortner called Tweetburner. Not the shortest name for URL shortners but it ties statistics to those URL’s so you can gauge how many people click the link. It’s always good to know if people are really clicking your links. There are a number of URL shortners on the net, I found a blogger at cusumingexperience.com who created a blog post back in May of 2008 about is.gd called “Shorten URLs via is.gd - free bookmarklet for URL redirection“. Mashable created a post showing “90 of the top URL shortening services”

The reason why I’m talking about tweetburner is two fold, not only does it work but you can create your tweet right from the tweetburner website which will let you login to your twitter account and/or friendfeed to send a post right from the site. Most of the other URL shortners don’t do that cause they were not made with twitter specifically in mind. Give tweetburner a try if you want statistics or give is.gd a try if you just absolutely have to have the shortest URL.

I found a video of Tweetburner which explains a bit and shows you what it does check this out:

Enjoy,

TBTR

Agglom, share your websurfing with others

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:36:38 +0000

If your like me you surf the internet quite often. The free time you have at work to the free time you have at home. Sometimes you want to show your friends what you come across that you think would interest them. You don’t want to pass your friends everything but maybe just specific sites. You can create a boring email with links all over the place which might be filtered as SPAM or you can use Agglom. Agglom lets you share the good stuff with your friends and maybe even some new friends.

Easily save and publish your sets of links

The cool thing about Agglom is that you can share a multimedia webpage as a RSS Feed or as a Web Slideshow. It’s like sending a book to your online friends. You can make them for public or private viewing. You can recommend other organized webs sessions that are created by other members.

Share them as a multimedia web page, as an RSS feed or as a Web Slideshow

To view most of the web sessions you don’t even need to sign up, but If you want the full experience it’s not hard to sign up which gives you access to your own page, with RSS access.

Agglom works by letting you tie together URL links, Presentations, & Videos into one easy to use bundle. A Permalink is created along with a RSS link. As you pass this out to your friends by URL, or email they can then view, each of the areas. The Slideshows are kind of cool it adds a little top bar to the site where you can click the arrow to navigate through each link like a powerpoint presentation. You also get a RSS feed to the user which would update each time they add a new content.

Make them private or public

Say you come across a web scene and you know of a link that would go great you can suggest this link to the person who created this Slideshow. The creator then has the option to include your link as added benefit, or dis-approve it as non relevent.

Example: vctr a user over at Agglom created a resource called Social Network basics concepts - how to build one with a Permalink: http://agglom.com/agglom/490/Social_Network_basics_concepts_how_to_build_one oh don’t forget an RSS is also created take a look and you will see why I’m liking Agglom.com

I think Agglom has a lot of potential to succeed, people just need to know about this site. It seems they are improving it (the creators) all the time. The only thing they need now is someone to really design the site, not that I don’t like it, but I just think it needs a web 3.0 look.

Enjoy,

TBTR

Wednesday Download - WinMerge

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:00:44 +0000

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

One last reminder on this holiday weekend

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:31:09 +0000

Please don’t forget the doors to this years Black Weblog Awards is closing on 8/31/2008 if you have not voted please take the time to do so here.

Remember if you feel this blog has potential and you would like to see us win something then please vote for us under:

Best Science/Technology Blog
The Black Tech Report

Thanks so much for all those who voted and I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

TBTR

Download Wednesday - SuperGenPass

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:09:13 +0000

How many passwords do you enter on a daily basis? If you answered more than 4 you need SuperGenPass. SuperGenPass is a password generator but not in the normal sense. Normally with password generators you have to install a program. That puts another software program on your computer and that takes up precious system resources. Installing a program means when you want to use it you have to find the program, start the program, and use the program that’s time consuming.

SuperGenPass allows you to remember just one password (your “master password”), which is used to generate unique, complex passwords for the Web sites you visit.

The great thing about SuperGenPass is you don’t install any software on your computer. Remember when I reviewed Password safe & Any Password here each one of those programs had to be installed on your computer.

SuperGenPass uses MD5, a one-way hash algorithm, which means that no one can determine your master password from your generated passwords.

As we know the biggest problem on the internet now days is keeping up with every single new site we join and keeping up with that password. You could do what most people do and that is to create one to two password that you use all over the internet. In other words you use that for your email, bank account, and even your computer logon password.

Nothing is ever transmitted by SuperGenPass, and your passwords are not stored anywhere.

We all know this is not the smartest thing to do, you see if a hacker gets a hold of just one password, they could potentially have access to your whole internet life. Trying to keep up with all the different passwords is the issue here and SuperGenPass lets you use one Master Password and that generates the passwords for each site.

Don’t worry SuperGenPass does not save passwords to your computer it’s a bookmark that you save to your browser.

See the video I created to show you how this works:

More about how it works

Link to SuperGenPass Website

Enjoy,

TBTR

12 seconds video clips isn’t that 140 characters.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:00:57 +0000

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

I just saved a ton of time by switching to Pikchur.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:30:19 +0000

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:

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

You have to first login to one of your micro blogging sites on the Pikchur website I choose my twitter account.
Next you have to configure your posting email address.
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

Jaiku.com Microblogging site=FAIL

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:46:58 +0000

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=EPIC FAIL

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:29:14 +0000

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

The game is over iPhone users, your gonna love this one

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:11:36 +0000

Remember when I said this as a joke?

Just for shits and giggles lets assume your out somewhere ladies and you see a hot guy with an iPhone, tell him if he can cut, copy, and paste on his iPhone you will go home with him no questions asked and do all the things he likes… Then when he has racked his brain and figured out he can’t do it say, I’m going over to the guy with the blackberry curve cause he can cut, copy and paste… Full Post here

Well Copy and paste on the iPhone is here…well…sort of. It seems the feature should be coming to the iPhone pretty damn soon. Take are look at this article from GeekBrief.tv. For me this might mean I’ll finally buy one, not really but I’ll look at them more now when I’m in the apple store.

It seems that Zac White a college student has figured out how to implement copy and past on any iPhone App without violating the iPhone SDK agreement. He has started a website called Openclip.org to introduce it take a look here. Ah…. an you thought it was not there because of some coding crap when it turns out that Apple just said it wasn’t a priority.

Here is the Video Explaining how it works:

Cut and Paste for iPhone from Cali Lewis on Vimeo.

So remember “Don’t play my little joke on anyone, you just might wake up next to them”

Enjoy,

TBTR

Wednesday Download - Audacity

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:30:39 +0000

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

Finalist in the 2008 Black Weblog Awards, Vote for us one more time

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:41:07 +0000

I want to take time to say thank you to all of those people that saw my previous post about the Black Weblog Awards and then nominated this blog. At times I am amazed at what we can do as a community of ONE when we come together. If I could only interest you all in giving to my MacBook Pro Fund, but that is a whole different rant.

We made it, 2008 Black Weblog Award Finalist List

Now the nominations are over and the real voting begins. Over the next 14 days I need as many of you to vote for me again by August 31. This time I want you to please tell a friend about this event and ask them to vote for me. Anyone can vote…

I’m only under the Following Category:

Best Science/Technology Blog

Click here to vote

I really appreciate all the nominations now lets win this thing. If you vote for me again please let me know I want to connect with you. As a tech blogger I need feedback.

Thanks,

TBTR

Download Wednesday - Pidgin

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:18:55 +0000

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

Free Software provided by ZoneAlarm Today ONLY.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:58:31 +0000

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

Download Wednesday - Thunderbird 2

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:30:50 +0000

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

Great added bonus to TBTR Screencast.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:00:19 +0000

I have been looking to add a little more flavor to the blog in recent weeks all this reading and writing has my head hurting. I must say that as a technical guy I sometimes can get into a story and go off the deep end i try and pull it back most times. Since I’m always looking for ways to keep people coming back and keep people looking to TBTR as a resource starting today I’m gonna put screencast into my post.

The article for today’s Download Wedensday will include the first screencast I hope you enjoy and as always leave your comments that always helps me out.

Thanks,

TBTR

I am a techie and this is my life

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:02:26 +0000

A co-worker of mine passed me this URL from Youtube for a video. I have to say as a network administrator this has to be one of the truest videos about what people do and say when they call you for tech help at work. The video shows how we goof off and how we always get the job done no matter what.

I am not kidding you most of the stuff in the video I have done and if you know a network administrator anywhere please pass them to my website http://www.theblacktechreport.com to see this, they will thank you in the morning.

Classic stuff…

TBTR

Don’t toss that old wireless router just yet, tomato can help.

thebtr@gmail.com (TheBlackTechReport.com) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:30:27 +0000

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:

Have Fun.

TBTR