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Seriously trivial thoughts

Eventually, we will have to pay the piper

It’s hard to understand the quick rebound in the financial markets, but it should be obvious to even the layman that you cannot truly borrow your way out of a financial bind, which is what the US government has done. We’ve only delayed the pain that *must* be felt and probably made it worse.

“The Fed and other policymakers seem unaware of the monster bubble they are creating. The longer they remain blind, the harder the markets will fall.” Full article

–Nouriel Roubini

November 1, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Wall Street | | No Comments Yet

Nokia N97, a solid upgrade from the N95

I’ve been playing with my new Nokia N97 and am so happy I stayed with Nokia and didn’t venture off to iPhone or Palm Pre land, or even N900. It’s an awesome device. I LOVE THIS PHONE!

I just upgraded to the v20 firmware. The phone came with v12. The only major visible improvement is kinetic scrolling. This may sound like a meaningless “for show” feature, but it really does make navigating easier and more fluid. Long press of keys to get alternate characters is nice.

I’m sure there are a lot of N95 owners, like me, wondering if they should get the N97, go with the non-touch N86, or just abandon an N-series for Appleland. Well, wonder no more. The N97 kicks all other phones’ rears. I’ll try to touch on a lot of the issues I was anticipating. Happily, for the most part, my fears ended up being unfounded.

I know there has been a lot of pooh poohing the touch interface with S60 5th edition, but, generally, I think they did a pretty good job. There are a few instances where it’s difficult to navigate through an older apps UI by touch, but in those few instances you can just flip out the keyboard and use the D pad old-school style. I suspect, apps will soon adopt a 5th-ed version as some have already done.

Unfounded Fears:

  • Resistive touch screen: It not as fluid as capacitive (iPhone), but OK.
  • Responsiveness: Reasonably responsive, but can get sluggish when you have a lot of apps running–maybe Apple is right ;-) Similar to N95 experience, however.
  • Keyboard: It is fine! The positioning of the spacebar is easy to get used to. Easy to type on.
  • D Pad vs (N97 Mini’s arrow keys): It works fine and I haven’t encountered any issues. Just use your thumbnail–as I did on N95. In fact, I’d say it’s easier to use than N95’s equivalent.
  • Virtual T9 keypad: Might be easier to use than the N95’s physical keypad which requires a much harder push
  • App compatibility: Most of the apps I used on N95 have a S60 5th ed. compatible version.
  • One-handed use: You can still use it comfortably with one hand. However, since it lacks many of the N95’s physical buttons, it usually takes several more “clicks” to accomplish some tasks.
  • Size: It’s fairly compact and not really that much larger than iPhone.
  • 3G with same SIM: It worked fine using SIM from non-3G N95. (I never notice that it actually said 3G on the SIM ;-)
  • Lens cover scratching: Doesn’t appear lens cover design is different than the one that can scratch the lens based on what I’ve seen on the Net. I suspect that the natural tendency to push down and slide may contribute to the problem, so I’m going to try to remember to slide it from the side with my fingernail. Based on this video, it doesn’t look too difficult to swap it out should I need to down the line.

Nice Surprises:

  • Charges through USB port. No more proprietary power connector.
  • Less camera shutter lag than N95
  • The msg reader app is very neat! It will read SMS messages out loud.
  • Telexy’s VPN app is very cool. I was able to transfer files from a Windows share on my home network over the Internet to my phone! Their Remote Desktop Client works too, but not sure how useful it is on the small screen.
  • Initially I really missed T9Nav. It’s an app that lets you quickly find anything on your phone. The developers say a 5th ed version is not due until March! However, I found that HandyShell from Epocware has a similar feature. The difference is that it is based on what you actually type and not T9 (i.e., phone keypad) input. Since the N97 has no physical phone keypad, it works well. Of course, this means you have to use the keyboard. There is also a built-in search app that will globally for things.
  • Opera Mini works wonderfully on N97. I still don’t like the way the built-in browser’s Back function always takes you to a list first.

Tips, Tricks and Stuff:

  • Get the black version. The white keyboard on the white version has white keys and back-lighting can make the keys hard to see. Hopefully they will allow you to turn off the backlight manually in the future, which would fix the problem.
  • Watch the WiFi use since it can drain the battery quickly.
  • If you are used to the iPhone’s capacitive touch screen, the N97 requires a slightly harder press. If you don’t, you’ll find that it may interpret your touch as a click instead of a drag.
  • Beware of cases that have a magnetic clasp. I didn’t realize this and every time I would take it out of the case, the camera app would go on–even if it’s in standby! I believe it thinks I opened the lens cover. The N95 had a similar issue. I went to one of those Mobile accessories carts in the mall and tried a couple out. I found one that works. I is also magnetic, but for whatever reason it doesn’t set the camera off.
  • Leave the screen protector on! It’s always a pain to put on an aftermarket one and you never get all the bubbles out.
  • If you have to use the scrollbar on long lists, use your fingernail. If you use your finger, it tends to scroll a little as you lift your finger.
  • Speed dialing (aka 1-Touch or One Touch) doesn’t work if the number has parenthesis or dashes (spaces appear to be OK). Just take them out of any speed dialed number. If you don’t, you will get an “Invalid Phone Number” error message. This only affects speed dialing. If you select a number with parenthesis from your normal Contacts, it dials fine.
  • As I stated above, it may be best to slide the camera lens cover from the side using a fingernail instead of pressing on it and sliding. Should help to minimize risk of scratching.
  • It can get confusing when using the side unlock button because it doesn’t also make the display come on. It is best to turn autolock off (Menu > Settings > Phone > Phone mgmt > Auto. keyguard) Then, just use the side lock/unlock button to lock/unlock the keypad manually.
  • Set the Light time-out (Settings > Phone > Display > Light time-out) to as short a setting as tolerable to save battery life.
  • For Google Reader, MojoStudios appears to be on the verge of releasing a dedicated app. Can’t wait to try because the browsers don’t seem to format things perfectly. Even the Google Reader Widget For The N97 is just ok. Direct link to widget here.
  • I also have an iPod Touch 2nd gen which satisfies my iPhone lust. ‘Course, since I have an N97 I can use it as a WiFi hotspot to get Internet access :-) Also, I use my Touch to access my work Exchange email, calendar, etc. and use my phone for my personal equivalents. I like to keep them segregated.
  • Automatically scale an image before it gets uploaded Flickr. Go to Applications > Share online. Highlight Flickr and press Options. Choose Edit and then sSet Upload image size to medium.
  • Epocware makes a lot of…well..handy utilities. They are on the pricey side for S60 apps. Fortunately, I had a 30% off coupon, so I just popped for the Handy Tools Pack. Some apps I’ll never use, but in addition to HandyShell, I like HandySafePro for storing sensitive data and HandyProfiles which lets you automatically switch Profiles based on time and even location.
  • If when you press the Back button from the Music Player, it goes directly to the Standby screen, try this: Connect via USB cable and delete the following directories inside “private” on drives E and F: 101ffc31, 101ffca9, 10281e17. Do a refresh. Doesn’t seem to “stick”, however.

Email:

  • I’m using LonelyCatGames’ Profimail email client. It is arguably the best (only?) email client that supports HTML email. The build-in email client sux in a big way.
  • I’m also trying out the new Nokia Messaging. This *service* accesses your email on their server and then syncs it to your phone. This is a little unnerving because you have to give your email password to Nokia. That said, it is by far the best S60 email client I’ve used. HTML email looks beautiful! It features Blackberry style “push” email, so you get notified of new messages and they can be automatically downloaded. (Personally, I don’t like this for email.) They are rather vague about how much this service will eventually cost and honestly I’m not sure how much I would pay. Here’s the FAQ. One thing I do not like is the 10-folder limit which for any heavy gMail user is not nearly enough. Profimail has unlimited.
  • You could also use the GMail app from http://m.google.com instead of web-based client, but I’ve never liked this on a Nokia device.

C Drive Debacle:

  • The N97 has two storage drives, C and E. Free space on C is very important and there is not very much of it. However, Nokia has seen fit to store and have all kinds of things load on there and you will likely have problems very quickly.
  • It’s SO stupid when you consider that it’s got gigabytes of built-in storage on the E drive! I’m thinking this will be fixed with firmware, but it doesn’t look like it made it into v20.
  • I copied over unused files to my PC and deleted a bunch.
  • A great way to see which files are installed on C is to use the App Manager (Settings > Application mgr > Installed Apps). A list will all installed apps will appear with how much space they take up. If you don’t see the icon to the right, that means the app is installed on C. You can delete by selecting and then deleting from the Options menu. Make sure you have things backed up or can get the install files later if you need!
  • Also, go to the Ovi store and see which (free) apps are available there that are pre-installed. Uninstall them from the phone. Then, download and reinstall to the E: drive. Examples include Bloomberg, AccuWeather and AP News. This will free up several megabytes.
  • If you upgrade to v20, it really does free up more C space if you do a hard reset which wipes *everything* off your phone. To do this, on the keyboard just press caps shift, spacebar, delete, and then press the power on. Back up first and be prepared to reinstall all your apps.

Disappointments:

  • v20 firmwire:
    • got rid of Podcast-specific Recently Added list! WTF!
    • Back button on Media Player often goes back to Standby screen, not library. Look like a bug.
  • Battery gets eaten up real fast if you do a lot on the phone.
  • Uses micro-USB connector instead of more universal mini-USB.
  • I miss the many physical buttons on the N95, like pencil, C, top left and right, and multimedia.
  • Browser (including Opera Mini) doesn’t have the smooth experience of the iPod Touch/iPhone. Also, Google mobile sites don’t work as well.
  • Inconsistent use of single and double-tapping. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if something isn’t happening because of a lag or you need to click again. I suppose I may get used to it. If you think about it, Windows isn’t always consistent either. Sometimes it’s single click and sometimes it double.
  • Application UIs are not always touch or “finger friendly”
  • Letters on backlit keyboard can be hard to see if it’s not dark
  • Needs a better application launcher with more customizable spots.
  • Won’t pair with my work Bluetooth dongle, but I think it’s a Vista/Nokia issue. Works fine on XP machine at home.
  • Copy and Paste using keyboard is missing. Jeeze!!!

November 1, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Mobile Computing | , , , | No Comments Yet

And my new phone will be??? The Nokia N97!

Readers of my blog will remember that I had pre-ordered the Nokia N97 way back in May. However, due to a fckup by Nokia, I canceled the order and have been limping by with my N95-1.

Since then a lot of new contenders have been released and I’ve had time to compare and analyze. In the end, I still feel the N97 is the best choice for me. The two main reasons are the N97’s far superior camera and ability to use as a WiFi hotspot via Joikuspot.

The openness of the Nokia platform is also nice. I can automatically sync files over WiFi with SymSync and even browse files on the phone over WiFi using SymSMB. They’ve even got a Windows Remote Desktop client which I’m anxious to try. All of these products are from Telexy.

Another reason I stuck with Nokia is the auto-bookmarking feature of the podcast player. iPhone also has, but only with AAC files and since I have an automated way to create speeded-up MP3s, converting formats would be an extra manual step. It will also be nice to use a browser that supports Flash.

I got $200 off the $699 list price with free shipping, so it’s actually a better deal than my original pre-order. Plus, it will have the latest firmware already installed, so it will be a nicer out-of-the-box experience.

I strongly considered the new N97 mini, but since there is no NAM version out yet and it has no camera lens cover, I’m passing. I also considered the N86 especially since it has an 8MP camera, but I think I’d like to try the touchscreen movement and see if I can live without physical buttons.

I think what makes this an easier choice is that I already have an iPod Touch 2nd gen. As such, I have access to all of the cool iPhone apps. I actually like having two devices since one can be dedicated to mostly music and media. It would be a pain if I did everything all on one device.

Whew! Now I can finally stop being so envious of all those iPhone owners. Perhaps they will be a little envious of me now! =)

October 15, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Mobile Computing | , , , , , | No Comments Yet

It is *not* a good time to buy a home

Yup. That’s right. It is not a good time to buy a home, at least in California. “But housing prices seem to have bottomed!”, you say, and “interest rates are at historic lows!” Well, allow me to explain.

Because, homes are so expensive in California, people tend to buy as much house as they can afford; the yardstick for “affordability” being the payment. The price of the home they can “afford” is, thus, driven by two main factors: the payment they can afford and the interest rate. (I’m ignoring the down payment since that will vary wildly from person to person.) All things being equal, the payment people can afford is a constant at any point in time. This is particularly true if financial institutions learn their lesson and stop the loose credit practices that got us into this mess in the first place (i.e., ARMs, interest only, no-doc, etc.). My feeling is that, at least in the short-term, a borrower’s true ability to pay will be evaluated much more stringently.

Currently, mortgage rates are artificially low because the government is trying to encourage banks to lend to help the economy. Rates without government intervention would be much higher. Think about it: credit/loans are much harder to come by these days. In other words, the supply of money is low. So what normally happens when the supply of something shrinks? Well, the cost goes up and for loans the price is interest rates.

The government cannot keep rates low forever and there are many reasons why. The primary reason is inflation. Eventually inflation will start to rear its ugly head. The Fed will be forced to increase rates because keeping them low will only fuel inflation. My guess is that this will not happen for a year or maybe a few years, but it *is* going to happen. As the economy recovers, it is inevitable. Also, the government may have to start paying higher interest rates on the trillions of dollars of debt it is now trying to sell. If the rates on T-bills/bonds goes up, guess what? Overall rates go up.

When rates go up, the amount of the loan people can afford goes down. Naturally, this will put downward pressure on home prices. Now, although it is theoretically possible that rates will rise gradually and not cause issues, I don’t believe that is likely. Rates are likely to jump quickly because of being artificially held down like a rubber band being released before it breaks. The effect will be devastating to the real estate market.

Still arent’ convinced interest rates will affect real estate that much? Consider this: the payment on a $500,000 loan at 4.5% is about $2,500. If rates climbed to just 8%–still low by historical standards–the loan would have to be about $350,000 to maintain the same payment! That’s a 30% decline! At 12%, the amount dives to $250,000, at 50% decline! And don’t even think that’s impossible. A few decades ago, rates above 20% were common.

For me, I am ignoring the fact that interest rates are at historic lows. It’s artificial. I would rather pay 8% and owe only $350,000 than pay 4.5% and own $500,000. If rates came down, I could refinance. The person with the $500,000 loan is stuck.

Previously, I had thought that rising interest rates was going to be the catalyst for the bursting of the real estate bubble. I was wrong there. The actual cause was the rapid realization that mortgage-backed instruments weren’t really secured by the underlying assets. Still, as I’ve set forth above, the impact of rising interest rates still looms.

Special thanks to the Irvine Housing blog, whose recent post, got my blogging juices going and reminded me of my thoughts.

October 5, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Housing Bubble | , , | No Comments Yet

No AT&T U-Verse for me. Staying with Time Warner Cable…for now

I nearly pulled the trigger to switch my TV and Internet to AT&T U-Verse, but after some research I found some show stoppers. Let’s start off with why I was even considering the switch. Two things really. Much faster Internet: 24 down and 2 up (was to be rolled out in a few months) and better features on DVR, including more storage. The show-sharing capabilities of the “Total House” feature seemed pretty cool too.

So why did I decide to stay? The biggest reason is that U-Verse limits the *entire* house to a maximum of only *two* HD streams, not matter how many boxes you have. Yup, you read that right. It’s a house limitation, not a box limitation. The fine print says, “Four channels can be recorded to the DVR or viewed simultaneously: up to two can be HD.” The way they word it, it almost seems like a good thing! ;-) Anyways, that is lame. I’ve got two dual-tuner HD DVRs now. I can be watching an HD football game and recording another HD football game on my TV, and Jac can be watching an HD channel on the other TV. Can’t do that with U-Verse. In fact, she could also be recording another HD show. And this can happen *every* Sunday during football season =), so it’s not a remote possibility.

The other issue may or may not be a problem. From what I read only one DVR actually records and the others can control or playback content on that DVR. So, some people have reported that you can only pause live TV on the TV with the DVR. According to the sales guy, our area will be getting only DVRs so each unit actually records. We shall see, since my neighbor is getting the service. In any event, although each may be a DVR, the entire house is still limited to 2 HD streams max. It has got to be a bandwidth issue.

In the future, they may increase the HD cap and I’ll revisit at that time. Until then, Time Warner still has my business, for better or worse. I am hoping, however, that this competition will force them to improve the DVR features, price, Internet speed, channels, etc. Competition is good!

FYI I’m still sticking with ViaTalk for my land line. You just can’t beat this service!

October 3, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Hardware, Internet, Movies and TV | | No Comments Yet

Will extending unemployment benefits make labor stats look worse?

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that unemployment statistics are understating unemployment because they fail to count those still out of work, but have exhausted their benefits. I wonder, then, that if they extend unemployment benefits, will unemployment statistics spike as those still unemployed folks are re-added back into the system and, thus, counted again. Since it would appear that H.R. 3548 will extend benefits another 13 weeks and is expected (hoped?) to pass, I guess we will see if my theory holds water.

September 19, 2009 Posted by spice3d | SeriouslyTrivial.com | | No Comments Yet

Map an FTP site to a drive letter

Mapping an FTP site to a drive letter is very handy. It saves you the lengthy process of saving a copy of the file somewhere, booting an FTP client, logging into a ftp site, navigating to the source file, navigating to the target folder, uploading the file, closing the client, and deleting the original file. Just save the file directly to the FTP-mapped drive and you’re done. Perfect for my blog post pics!

I’ve been using FTP Drive for a while, but iTunes doesn’t like it and spits out an annoying error every time I boot it. Netdrive is a newer product and it’s free for personal use! Documentation is sparce, but set up is not much different than any other FTP client. It supports passive mode, SSL, SFTP, etc. iTunes seems to like it so, so do I.

One trick I learned as that you can add a path to the end of the FTP URL, like ftp.mydomain.com/images and the folder will become the root of the mapped drive. Very nice!

September 14, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Internet, Software | , , , | No Comments Yet

Great site to buy travel-sized products

One by one, my local grocery stores stopped carrying these individual salad dressing packets. Since all salad dressing must be refrigerated after opening, these are quite handy to use in a packed lunch. A quick Bing search and I found Minimus.biz. They specialize is selling individual portion packets for travel, office, camping, etc., including a decent assortment of salad dressing. They have everything! Cereals, shampoos, soap, playing cards, scissors…everything. The best part is that the quantities are very reasonable, that is, you don’t have to buy 50 or 100 at a time. For example, the salad dressing packets were sold in units of one! Yes, I could buy 1 one-ounce packet of italian dressing; however, I spent $20 to get the free shipping. Highly recommended.

September 14, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Food | , , | No Comments Yet

I *hate* iTunes, but I guess I have to use it

After upgrading to 3.0 recently on my 2nd gen iPod Touch, MediaMonkey would no longer recognize the device. I installed a beta driver and it recognized it, *but* it corrupted the files. Ugh.

I’m feeling kinda like someone with a hacked iPhone and have decided that instead of fighting them, I might as well join them. In doing a restore I ended up having to install the 3.1.1 firmware upgrade, but it didn’t look like I had to pay =) Maybe because I only upgraded to 3.0 a few weeks ago. I dunno, but I won’t question a free upgrade. Also installed iTunes 9. Seems more like 8.1 and maybe even 8.0.1…HAHAHA I also had to re-install all my apps! THAT was a pain. Fortunately, the iTunes store keeps track of everything, even the free ones, so I just had to follow my purchase history.

I will continue to use MediaMonkey to manage my music, album art, ID3 tags, etc. I just don’t fully trust iTunes with my entire music collection, so I think I’ll just create a special folder with all my iPod music, even though it will mean I’ll have duplicate files. I have plenty of extra storage space.

I like keeping a special playlist of all my iPod music that is ordered by the date added to my Touch so I can quickly listen to music I’ve just added. I know I can use the automatic Recently Added playlist, but I’ve restored and started over so many times, that auto-playlist is unreliable. It is going to be sort of a pain to use both apps, but guess the alternative is even more evil.

UPDATE 2009-09-10:
OK, I’m *totally* giving in. I set iTunes to “keep my media organized”, that is, it’s going to keep stuff in artist\album\folders. I did this so I could take advantage of, and be in sync with, the new “Automatically Add to iTunes” feature which automatically adds media put in that folder to the iTunes library. Of course, unlike other media managers, it doesn’t just monitor and add entries to the library, it renames and moves the files into the iTunes media folder. Apple always has to be different! See why I don’t trust iTunes with my entire media library?!

September 10, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Music, SeriouslyTrivial.com | , | No Comments Yet

Doug’s #1 Rule of Business: Take the customer’s money as fast as possible.

Businesses spend billions on advertising and promotions to do one thing: Get consumers in their stores to buy their products. Marketing departments are critical in any business.

So why then, do businesses often do such a poor job “closing the deal”? Why do they have several checkout lines, but only man a few during peak hours??? Their soon to be ex-customers stand in line. Irritated. Vowing not to come back. Planning to take their business to a competitor.

And yet, the insanity continues. The ads and promos have done their job with great success. A customer has visited the store and made a selection. There they stand. Practically holding their hands out with money…”please take my hard earned cash”, they plead. But no deal. You need to wait in this line, just like everyone else.

How many times do you go into a large store and of the 20+ people that are visibly working there, they’ve got one or maybe two uninspired dorks plodding people through the checkout process. It’s a crime! So called fast-food are big time breakers of my #1 rule.

You would think that upper management or the owners would visit the operating locations once in a while and see what is going on. I would also think the store managers would be appalled and make changes. Maybe they have and just get no support.

There are a few that get it right: CostCo, Frys Electronics, (most) McDonalds, and Pavilions. Sure, you might stand in line at those places, but they show effort to get you checked out as quickly as possible. That’s the difference. Conveying concern and showing effort.

I have had this “rule” for many years, but what makes me bring it up is my experience at the local Ralphs grocery store in Culver City. My daughter and I stepped in to buy a few items and when we got to the checkout, it was oh 70 feet long. It was maybe 6pm on a Sunday night. One checkout open! They eventually managed to get two more open. Now do you think the manager walked around guiding customers to the newly opened lines? Hell no. They just pissed customers off as people just grabbed the shortest lines, etc. etc. I hate that store, but yet I continue to think things might have changed or I’ll catch it at a better time. I should know better. Pavilions may cost more, but I guess ya gotta pay for good customer service.

September 9, 2009 Posted by spice3d | SeriouslyTrivial.com | , , | No Comments Yet

iTunes Genius-like playlist with MediaMonkey

My kid was showing me the iTunes genius feature and I was a bit intrigued. Although I have a 2nd gen iPod Touch I *hate* iTunes and only use it when I have to. Slow and stoopid IMHO, but I digress.

My music and tag manager of choice is MediaMonkey. One of it’s features is support for plug-ins and there is this cool LastFM one. It works in conjunction with MM’s AutoDJ feature which normally just adds a random song to the PlayNow list, but with the plug-in, it will automatically add a similar artist based on LastFM data.

Go to this forum post for a link to download the latest LastFM Auto-DJ plugin. To install, just double-click the plug-in file (like it was an executable file). The .mmip file extension should be associated with MM, assuming you have MM already installed. After the plugin is installed, complete the following steps:

1. Choose ‘Options’ from the main Tools menu.
2. Click on ‘Auto-DJ / Now Playing’ in the Player group of options.
3. Enable ‘Auto-DJ’ and set ‘Automatically maintain at least’ to 1.
4. Set ‘Add tracks from:’ to ‘Last.FM DJ’.
5. Unless you’ve rated most of your music, click the Configure button and enable the ‘Include unknown rating option’–this is very important!
6. Click ‘OK’.
Finally, start the Auto DJ playing mode by choosing ‘Auto-DJ’ from the Play menu. Make sure you do this last step or nothing will happen. Note that there is a toggle button on the player. The location depends on the skin you are using and, at least for me, it’s not a very recognizable icon.

Now, just drag any track to “seed” the process and the Auto-DJ feature will start adding similar artists. Since it isn’t analyzing the song, like iTunes Genius or Pandora might do, you get an interesting chain of songs.

September 6, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Music | , , , | 4 Comments

Domain registrar hijackers! There should be a law!

Got another one of these in the mail today and I can’t tell you how much it pisses me off! Obviously, *I* know better, but I wonder how many unsuspecting folks fall for this type of scam. Basically, the company sends you this official looking *invoice* titled “Domain Name Expiration Notice”. As you can see, it has a decent amount of long blocked text; long enough that some might skim over it.

They start off saying that your domain name is due to expire in the next few months. Sure, in the second sentence they truthfully say, “When you switch today…”, but I would bet that there are many people who have domains, but don’t totally understand how the system works and will totally fall for this scam. Another gem from the invoice is “This notice is not a bill. It is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration…” More like an easy way to get tricked.

IMHO this is deception of the worst kind. It preys on the unsuspecting. I don’t have a problem with companies trying to get you to switch registrars, but this is a clear attempt to trick you into switching.

What’s even crazier is that they want $30 a year!!! Geez!

If you see one of these in the mail. Toss it immediately. Do not be duped! Your true domain registrar will *email* you. Of course, I think everyone should use HotpointDomains.com, but that is a shameless self-promoting plug.

August 28, 2009 Posted by spice3d | SeriouslyTrivial.com | , , , | No Comments Yet

Turning web pages into standalone desktop applications for better performance

It’s ironic. The promise of running full browser-based desktop-like applications has nearly been fulfilled using web technologies like AJAX, CSS, .NET, etc. However, it has led to some unintended consequences. Browsers were just not really designed to display and run all of the dynamic pages that are so common today. I would argue that  much of the real-time dynamic web apps are based on hacks. The language and tools are just not very standard, robust, or well thought out. Web developers live in a world of incompatible browsers, unknown application environment, vague standards, poor memory management, extensions, etc.

Running a web app as a standalone desktop application doesn’t magically solve all of these issues, but it can help to provide a much nicer user experience. I find the apps are snappier and much  more responsive. I’m experiencing that right now as I type this into my WordPress blog posting app. There is probably a lot less battling over application resources, including demands from extensions and I have tons of those. Hell, even tabs have added to the chaos. Running web applications, like gMail, Google Reader, or Facebook like they were standalone applications has some very compelling benefits and is drop-dead simple to do as you will soon see.

Tearing an application away from the browser UI lets it run as its own system process and moves much of the full browser’s overhead crap out of the way. I find that the single processes seem to manage memory better too. I often had Firefox bulging at its seams after keeping it running just overnight. Browser memory management is abysmal and I’m sure sloppy page coding doesn’t help (I’m as guilty as anyone. object=null anyone? ;-) . Plus, running a lot of extensions can exacerbate the problem. I suppose it’s not too surprising if you think about all of the junk that goes into a browser; the rendering of the page is almost secondary.

Besides the memory issues, I also found that the typing buffer would ebb and flow causing irritating pausing when I typed even just a few words. I found that this basically disappears when running the pages as desktop apps.

Both Firefox and Chrome have the ability to turn a web page into a standalone application. For Firefox, you need to add the Prism extension. After installing, navigate to the web page. From the Tools menu, choose Convert Website to Application.

A dialog will appear where you can set a few options. The Show navigation bar option will display a toolbar with the basic navigation buttons, plus display the URL. The Show status messages and progress option puts a progress bar at the bottom. The Enable navigation keys option allows keyboard shortcuts for page navigation. The Display in the notification area option just puts an icon in the system tray.

For the most part, I only find the Enable navigation keys option mandatory; the other options just add clutter. When navigation keys are enabled, you can use Alt+Left/Right arrow to navigate backward/forward. Most browsers have a ton of keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Firefox and Chrome). F5 to reload is a good shortcut to remember.

I like to save the shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, but you can also save to your Desktop and/or Start Menu.

For Chrome, first navigate to the desired page. To the right of the address box there is an icon that looks like a page with a down arrow next to it. Click it and choose Create Application Shortcuts. A dialog will appear where you can set where you want the shortcut placed.

That’s it! As simple as it can get. Of course, you will end up with a lot more items on your taskbar, but you’ll have fewer browser tabs. You also get much more screen real estate since the UI window is barebones and doesn’t have all the clutter of the standard browser. You might miss some of your extensions though, like Flashblock and Adblock. Oh well, ya can’t have everything!

Note that links that open in new windows will open normally in the matching browser (i.e., Firefox or Chrome).

No sign of anything similar for IE, Safari, or Opera, but Mac users should be able to find Prism for Mac.

NOTE: What’s kinda interesting is that you can figure out which pages are the true memory hogs since each runs as a single process. Let the apps run overnight and open up Windows Task Manager to see the real pigs. You’ll need to kill the process and see which window goes away, cuz the process (image) names will all be the same for the same browser engine.

The worst offender? gMail. Note that the increase was pretty small, less than 10MB. A relatively distant second was Facebook. Google Reader was actually pretty good, surprisingly. Full Firefox running without any pages open had the biggest increase. No doubt owing to it’s infamous memory leaks and one or more of my extensions. I’ve heard that Forecastfox is notorious, but hell, that’s why I’ve got 4GB in this baby, right?

Sources:
“Turning Web Apps into Desktop Programs”, MaximumPC, September 2009
“Prism or Chrome?”, http://www.xul.fr/mozilla/prism-or-chrome.html

August 26, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Internet, SeriouslyTrivial.com, Web apps | , , , , | No Comments Yet

DIY Anti-Ant Pet Food Bowl

Yeah, I know they sell commercial versions, but this seemed like an easy DIY project and so it was. The idea came from my hummingbird feeder which has a water moat to keep ants out. I figured I could rig up a similar thing for a cat food bowl. Initially, I used a sour cream container and just glued the lid onto the bottom and filled the lid with water. Worked pretty well, but the cat didn’t seem to like sticking his head into the deep cup.

I headed over to the local 99 cent store to see if I could come up with something better. I ended up just getting a ceramic bowl for the top. For the bottom I’m not sure if it’s a deep saucer or shallow dish, but in any case, the bowl just sits in it. The important part is that the bowl lip is beyond the saucer edge so that food doesn’t fall into the water and get all gross.

When I went to swap out the sour scream container version, I was heartened to see an ant wandering on the edge trying to get at the food =) Incidentally, I’m doing all this for a freakin street cat that I claim I don’t even like.

Incidentally, besides the bowl and saucer, I also got a hot glue gun, extra glue sticks, 3 fluorescent light bulbs, and a sink strainer, all for 9 bucks! I loving going there.

August 16, 2009 Posted by spice3d | Home and Garden | , , | No Comments Yet

The concept to seasonal sales is now officially dead

I haven’t read this anywhere, so perhaps I’m among the first to say it, but the effectiveness of the traditional seasonal sales is officially over or dying quickly. What I’m talking about are time-of-year sales like Black Friday, President’s Day Sale, Back-to-School, even Christmas Sales. They are no longer significantly meaningful to consumers. We now expect things to always be “on sale” (i.e., discounted)…somewhere. You see something you want, and you just know that you can get it cheaper by searching the Internet. C’mon, were the Black Friday sales limited to just the Friday after Thanksgiving??? No way. I continue to see “Black Friday” sales even now in the middle of summer. Hell, I’ve seen “Black Monday” sales!

Now, I’m not saying that they won’t continue to happen, because retailers love to name their sales events to give them meaning. I’m just saying that they are becoming ineffective as a marketing technique. It probably has a lot to do with the equalizing of the marketing playing field due to the Internet. I like it.

It’s similar to what has happened with TV shows. It used to be that ALL shows started in exactly the same week in the Fall. That is still somewhat true, but TV shows now start all the time. January. Summer. Whenever. Someone finally figured out–I think Fox started it–that launching a show when other networks were showing reruns or whatever was a good time since you didn’t have to compete with other new show announcements. Retailers have figured out the same thing. (

August 16, 2009 Posted by spice3d | SeriouslyTrivial.com | | No Comments Yet

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