Friday Night Links (4/16/2010)…

I’m teetering on the edge of a food coma after filling up on heavy Italian food at Buca di Beppo. Whatever! I’m still bringing you two food links tonight in the FNL. Get ready to be hungry.

• Make Your Own Sriracha – This is the sauce of the gods. Instead of being fiery hot just for the sake of being fiery hot, Sriracha sauce adds some fantastic garlic flavoring. If you want to tweak it even further you can add your own flavors. Personally, I’m thinking some sesame oil might be great.
• Cool Stuff – If that description sounds like it is generic and non-specific, then you obviously haven’t clicked on the link yet. I linked directly to the gadget section, but there are some amazing things in the other sections. How about these hotel rooms?
• Earthquake Notification – Live in a subduction zone? Not sure what subduction means? Well, if you live on the West Coast or along the Mississippi River, there’s a chance you are at risk of encountering an earthquake. The US Geological Survey actually has a text message or email notification service so you will know if an earthquake hits your area. It requires an email address, but you can actually have an email sent to your phone via text message by following the instructions at this link.
• Food Porn – Don’t let the name scare you: this link is safe for work. It is just ridiculously awesome looking (and tasting, I’m sure) food laid out in all its glory for you to lust over. On recommendation of my wife and regular Digitante commenter Jenny, we clicked through for about 15 minutes and our living room was filled with constant ‘Ooo’s and ‘Ahh’s. See? It’s sounding more and more like porn now, isn’t it. Do yourself a favor and click though the pictures. You won’t regret it.

FYIJSYK: Your Tweets and the Library of Congress…

Did you know you are published in the Library of Congress? Well, if you use Twitter, you soon may be.

On their blog, the Library of Congress announced that they will be storing every public tweet ever. This quite obviously does not mean Direct Messages or any tweets on accounts that are set to private.

Just so the LOC knows what they are getting into, they can expect gems like this from me:

Uh oh, I’m totally self-conscious. I had to put a different flavor of deodorant on each pit. Please don’t make fun if you see me today.

None of the archiving has been done yet but it sounds like more details should be forthcoming in the near future. Get tweeting so you can secure your place on the shelves of the Library of Congress!

iPad: Here and Back…

About a week and a half ago, I stood in line for about an hour and a half waiting for an iPad at the local Apple Store. I brought it home and Mrs. Digitante was very excited, as was I.

Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out and I’m going to share with you why. First though, let me tell you that this is my opinion of why it didn’t work for ME. However, it may fit your needs great and I already know of a number of people who have an iPad and love it and are spending many hundreds of dollars buying apps and accessories for it.

The Pros:

• The screen is amazing. You really haven’t ever seen a screen that is this crisp and pleasant to look at.
• It is super fast. Granted it can only run one application at a time, but I never had to wait for anything other than webpages to load.
• Simplicity is the name of the game. One button on the device, little icons on the screen, and minimal options to change are all Apple hallmarks. There really isn’t much thinking or learning involved.

The Cons:

• Lack of Flash video. Honestly, I didn’t think this would be a huge deal, but the problem is that it ruined my flow of work. I enjoyed reading Twitter on the iPad, but during a reading session, I would come across at least one or two videos that I wanted to watch, but wasn’t allowed to. This means that I had to mark the tweet as a favorite, get on my laptop later, and then watch the video. It just wasn’t convenient.
• Basic staples such as a file system are missing. I purchased an eBook in pdf format on my laptop and put it in my Dropbox because I knew there was a Dropbox app for the iPad. I was sorely disappointed when I found that I couldn’t just save the pdf to my iPad and open it with the default pdf program. Instead, I had to purchase an app that would allow me to access the files in my Dropbox app and open it in the pdf reading app. I only knew this because I know other techies that have had to do this. Otherwise, I would have been stuck. For all the simplicity Apple loves, this simple task was really complicated.
• The iPad costs $500. Over the last week and a half, I’ve tried to come up with $500 worth of usage scenarios and I just can’t do it. If this thing was $300, I wouldn’t have even thought twice about buying it, but $500 really makes me hesitate.

So after a couple of days of both me and Mrs. Digitante playing with it, I asked her what she thought. We were on exactly opposite ends of the spectrum but came to the same conclusion: it was more than she needed and it was less than I wanted so we decided to eat the $50 restocking fee and return it.

When I say “it was more than she needed” she was looking for an eReader like the Kindle. Having all the apps and other features weren’t appealing to her and really over complicated it for her. When I say “it was less than I wanted” I wanted to be able to pick up a device and have it do everything I required. Type a reply to a  Wordpress forum post? Nope, no text boxes were editable. Watch video linked in Twitter? Nope, sorry, Flash doesn’t work. Install any number of applications that I wanted? Nope, only what Apple approves through the App Store using their clandestine and inconsistent rules.

Will I miss it? Most likely not. It’s been sitting in our bedroom, unused, for the last three days. Normally I get all giddy and can’t put gadgets down, but this thing turned old hat very quick.

Did you buy an iPad? What was your opinion? Let me know what you think of the iPad, even if you don’t have one.

Tungle Yourself…

Before you go and thing I’m some sort of perv, I want to describe what Tungle is. It is a website that syncs with your calendar (Google Calendar or Outlook, for example) and then shows your free time to the world.

Don’t worry though, no one will know why you are doing in the time that is marked as busy, but they can easily select a block of time, an appointment time length, and submit it to you to schedule a meeting. Very convenient, especially when you think about all those back and forth emails with people:

Me: I’m free on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening.

You: Hmm, I can only make it on Wednesday during the day or Friday all day.

Me: Wednesday only works late and Friday is out of the question. I’m on vacation all next week also.

All of this headache could have been saved just by me sending a tungle.me link. Then you could consult your schedule, block out some times that work for you and I would confirm them, automatically adding them to my calendar.

Let’s check it out more in depth though. Head to the Tungle website and click the big, purple “Sign up free” button.

The main thing to figure out here is what you want your Tungle.me link to be. Mine is http://tungle.me/thedigitante.

Once you are signed up for Tungle, you need to fill out your profile. This will is when you will select your regular availability, fill out your profile with contact information, add any other public profiles such as Twitter and Facebook, and adding any exceptions to your availability such as vacation.

Selecting your regular availability is as easy as using a little paint roller to paint the times you can meet. It even turns to a little eraser if you need to delete some availability.

Once you are done filing out your full profile, you can also sync your Tungle calendar with Outlook or your Google Calendar.

Additionally, there is an iPhone app available and a BlackBerry app that will be coming out in the next little while (I’m actually testing the Tungle for BlackBerry beta).

The only thing left to do is share your calendar with others who want to meet with you!

Do you want to meet with The Digitante? Why not visit my Tungle site to set up an appointment? Do you have a Tungle site? Post your link in the comments and I’ll add you to my Tungle contacts!

Friday Night Links (4/9/2010)…

YES! It’s Friday! It couldn’t come quickly enough either. I’ve got some awesome links that I scrounged up this week and you can prepare to be amazed.

• New Revolution: Old People – There are some pretty amazing statistics contained in this article, if they are true. Supposedly, of all the people to ever live past age 65, half of them are alive today. Not only that, it is really shocking that the birthrates in many of the worlds most educated countries is on a major decline – well below the rate needed to replace the aging population as it dies off. If there was any concern in the world about over-population, I recommend putting that concern to rest after reading this article.
• Leftover Food Solution – Admit it, you throw out food that could be used because it is all by its lonesome with nothing to put on it or mix it with. No more of that, now that you have the Lifehacker guide to “Iron-Cheffing” your leftovers. I just did this tonight sort of: brown rice from last night, add some tomato sauce, turkey pepperoni, and some cheese and you have yourself a nice little meal. My favorite advice from the article is when in doubt about whether you will use something before it goes bad, toss it in the freezer.
• Make Your Own Girl Scout Cookies – Is it really that time of year again? Yep. Instead of spending a fortune on a tiny box with a couple of cookies, why not make your own? My favorite? I love the Samoas (which the article calls Fijis). A rose by any other name is still as sweet, delicious, and coconutty.
• Running: Average vs Pro – You know, you watch athletes on TV and it looks like they are working hard and running fast, but do you ever think about how good they actually are? This video composites a TV analyst against a variety of college football players in the 40 yard dash. The results are amazing. Even the analyst vs the slowest guy is not really even close. The analyst gets blown away EVERY TIME! Link directly to the video in case you don’t see it embedded.

  http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/3Ye2MV3LayI&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

TQT: iPod charging…

Since Tuesday came and went without a post (actually, this entire week came and went without a post), I figured I’d try and squeeze in a Thursday Quick Tip. Let’s just say you are lucky there are two days that begin with the letter T.

Tonight’s tip refers to charging an iPod, but this advice is equally applicable to many of your electronic devices, especially your phone. The USB port on your computer can not only be used to transfer data to your mobile device, but it can also be used to charge your mobile device.

When I’m traveling, I like to do everything I can to not have to check a bag. This inevitably leads to me cutting back on as much stuff as possible. To do that, I generally take a USB cord and simply plug my cell phone or iPod into the USB port of my computer to charge. This saves me from having to take a cord with a big bulky plug with me.

Additionally, there has been a movement in the last year or so to standardize the charging ports for cellphones and other devices to use a connector called micro-USB. The beautiful thing about that is instead of taking a cord for your cellphone, a cord for your camera, a cord for your wife’s phone, etc, you will be able to just bring one cord and charge all your devices. Convenient!

Got your own tips on how to charge various devices or how to pack lighter for a trip? Let me know in the comments!

Not Forgotten…

I haven’t forgotten about any of you and we will return to your regularly scheduled program shortly (Thursday).

Friday Night Links (4/2/2010)…

Man, it is getting really tough to keep up here with everything I have going on. I’m not slowing down anytime soon though and actually my Tuesdays just opened up immensely. But who cares about Tuesday? What I care about is Good Friday Night Links!

• Crazy Airports – Ever thought about building an island that is 4 square miles in the middle of a harbor so you can have an airport? Why not? Everybody’s doing it. Everybody is also landing on the beach, driving their cars across the runway, and creating massive solar arrays to power their airport. Sounds like you have some catching up to do. Regardless, the pictures are pretty amazing and I highly recommend you check out the island airports on Google Maps satellite view. Here is one to get you started.
• Homemade Things That Should Not Be Homemade – If you know me, would it shock you if I said my brother and I have actually made very similar inventions in our lives? I’m sure it wouldn’t. But don’t let me yammer at you. You need to check out the pictures. My favorite: the scaffolding. Also, be on the look out for the thing. Digitante dollars to the person who finds it first and leaves a comment about it.
• Beet Hummus – My most popular posts in FNL has by far been the food postings. You’ll notice Jenny’s comments strewn about in each food post. Well, here is another one for you. I saw the color of that hummus and knew I had to have it. Gorgeous. Wonderful – now I’m hungry.
• Clothes Folding Robot – This robot is programmed to fold clothes, but he has never folded THESE particular clothes before. He analyzes the shape, size, which direction it hangs, and then folds it properly. Good luck trying that technique out on my dress shirt that sat at the bottom of a pile for a week. Even my iron on full blast can’t help that shirt. Here is a direct link in case you can’t see the video below.

  http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/gy5g33S0Gzo&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b

More iPod Loading Without iTunes…

I realize that last night TQT was missing but it will be back next week as my Tuesday night schedule should be easing up a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted how to load up an iPod Shuffle without using iTunes because of some major issues I’ve had with iTunes in the past (read here and also here). This post will fill in the blanks for those of you using iPod versions other than the Shuffle. Unfortunately, this method does NOT work with iPhones and also requires you to sync your iPod with iTunes and load at least one song on there. I, personally, would recommend you do this on your friend’s computer rather than loading that piece of garbage on your computer. Now, off to the races.

The program we are going to be using is called Floola. Floola is a free side project by a helpful chap, so I would highly recommend donating if you like the product.

Start by downloading Floola here and be sure to extract the zip file to your iPod’s base directory. If you go to My Computer, you should see the C: drive and a couple other drives. On of them (E: on my computer) is the iPod. Double click it and you will see a couple of folders named Contacts, Calendars, Notes, and an see-through folder called iPod_Control. This is where you want to unzip your Floola folder to. Head over to the folder you extracted the files to and double click on Floola.exe.

The first task you need to do is choose which model of iPod you have. If you aren’t sure, you can visit Apple’s model identification guide. Floola will also give you some suggestions. It suggested that my iPod Nano 2G was either a 1G or a 2G (where G stands for generation). It also gives you some warnings and instructions, so be sure to read them through.

Once you hit save, you are pretty much home-free. At this point you can add tracks, delete tracks, manage photos stored on the device, and do pretty much everything else iTunes did.

A huge added bonus is that Floola is now saved on and runs from your iPod itself. That means if you visit anyone’s computer, regardless of whether they have iTunes or not, you will be able to update your music, photos, and podcasts using only the information on your iPod.

Have you tried any other alternatives to iTunes that worked for you? Found any hidden gems on Floola that cemented the deal for you? Share in the comments!

Texting Etiquette…

I’ve always wondered about and never found a set rule for texting etiquette. Perhaps no one tried because it seemed like a daunting task, considering you might have to have all sorts of exceptions and corollaries. Fortunately, I was able to find this Slate article that boiled it down to a simple rule.

If you’re in a situation where you’d excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, you should also excuse yourself before reaching for your phone. Otherwise, go ahead without asking. Either way, don’t play with your phone longer than you’d stay in the bathroom.

That is concise and really covers any situation I can think of.

• Sitting at dinner with your significant other? Generally, you wouldn’t just stand up and walk away without saying something first. In this case, excuse yourself, then fiddle with your phone. Be sure to return in a timely manner.
• Hanging out at the sports bar with your buddies watching a game? It would probably actually be rude to interrupt the game by informing your compadres that you were heading to the bathroom so feel free to text away.
• At church? It would have to be a major emergency for most people to get up and head to the toilet during church. Same goes for your cell phone. Unless someone is dying, leave it in your pocket.

Be sure to check out the article itself for more insights on the Bathroom Rule.

Got any scenarios you don’t think fit in properly here? Every been a rude texter or had to deal with one? Let me know in the comments!