Got Wills

The Motorola Q9c is awesome. The keys are really easy to hit… I rarely fat-finger it, even with my big ole thumbs. In fact, I’m typing this post on it right now. Pocket IE still sucks in WM6, but Opera mobile is great on the Q9c, definitely worth the money.

My only real peeve about it is that Verizon locked the GPS. Currently, in order to use it, you have to pay $10/month for VZNavigator. However, there is a forum, http://www.everythingq.com/forum/moto-q-hacks/verizon-q9c-gps-hack-21606.html, full of people hard at work trying to open it up for Google Maps and Live Search.

One more difficulty that I just noticed… creating links. Maybe there is a good blog writing tool for Windows Mobile 6 out there somewhere. We’ll see.

We are raffling tickets for this beautiful blanket. Honestly, it is the most beautiful crocheted blanket I have seen (and I’ve seen a lot of crocheted blankets). This is to raise money for my daughter to go to the Cinderella pageant in Laughlin, NV, this June. We are selling the tickets for $2 each or 3 for $5. Please stop me when you see me or send me a message if using the contact page if you would like to buy some. Northeast AZ locals only, please.

The drawing will be held May 4th. Thank you for your support.

I remember, just 3 years ago, some of my coworkers were making fun of me because I said that, given the opportunity, I would have a home network. Heh, you don’t see too many houses that don’t have some sort of computer network, now. Needless to say, I’ve got my home network and love being able to hack from my living room, the kitchen, and even the kids bedroom. Just today, I setup a new Linksys WRT54G on my network. It’s replacing the router / wireless access point functionality of the my SBG900. The default firmware was sort of limited, it didn’t even include WDS. That happened to be my main reason for purchasing the router. We recently got a computer desk for the playroom and stuck a computer in there for the kids (kids need the Internet, too). I didn’t want to run a cable from the router in the computer room to the computer in the playroom (Summer wouldn’t have liked an ethernet cable running across her kitchen, either). I happened to have a spare Speedstream 6520 (which has WDS if you have the right firmware), so instead of buying a wireless nic for the computer, I decided a router would give me more options (not to mention extending my wireless range to the bedroom and the backyard). However, my new router didn’t have WDS.

In walks DD-WRT… To be completely honest, I’ve been looking at DD-WRT for a while now, and wanted a router to put it on. I was really just watching ebay, but ended up charging a new one to our Dell account. I wasn’t completely surprised that WDS wasn’t on my WRT when it got here, it wasn’t in the feature list, but the latest version of the WRT54G will take the DD-WRT custom firmware, and WDS is on DD-WRT’s feature list. Anyway, I setup a NAT pass-through for my router, got all of my port-forwards, and reserved addresses configured, and even got the built in Dynamic DNS client configured to update my domain names. Unfortunately, the Speedstream only supports WEP when you are using WDS, so I MAC locked the wireless as a second layer of protection.

I just came across Psi today while trying to find a way to sign out a session of Google Talk running on my home computer (I was at work). My wife was sending me messages and I was only getting some of them, it was really getting annoying. Anyway, it turns out the feature is not yet available in the Google Talk client, but I saw Psi in the available clients on the Google Talk page… and I hadn’t seen it before.

Psi is a free instant messaging application designed for the Jabber IM network including Google Talk. Fast and lightweight, Psi is fully open-source and compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

I was browsing the site and noticed a lot of features that looked great to me (I’m sort of a feature hound… even for features I’ll never use). Encryption, multi-user chats, and remote client control… could it really be, the exact feature I’m looking for?

Always-on security

Using the same SSL technology that makes it possible for you to safely shop on the web, Psi automatically encrypts its communication with compatible IM servers to provide a secure connection over untrusted networks like public WiFi access points. For advanced security needs, Psi can also encrypt messages end-to-end with OpenPGP.

Leading the way

Psi’s developers are actively involved in the Jabber community, working hard to ensure that Psi fully supports the standards for features like avatars, multi-user chats (with full admin control), remote client control, and more. It’s standards like these that allow people to communicate smoothly with each other on the Jabber network, and Psi ensures that you’ll never miss a beat.

There’s a couple of things I miss from Google Talk, I like the chat display more, being able to search contacts, and having the email button right in the chat window. However, the remote client control makes it worth the switch by itself, not to mention all of the other features built into Psi (adjustable auto away, auto offline, and connect through proxy). To enable remote client control, you’ll need to check the little box in the advanced page of the options.

You can also make it portable (not a huge deal, since all you need to do is log into your inbox in GTalk to do the same thing, but it will give you remote client control).

When searching for the remote sign out for the Google Talk client, I saw quite a few forum posts from people who wanted this feature and were switching to other messaging platforms because of the missed messages and such. I wanted to let everybody know about this great product.

Way to go Psi Team.

I think I’ve finally gotten all set up again. I’m now running OpenSuse 10.3 on VMware Server. I upgraded my computer. I’ve got the latest release of Wordpress running and a theme that I really like. Isn’t it great looking… and yes, those are my three beautiful children in the header image. For those that have slow connections, I apologize for the large size of the picture (almost 100K), I couldn’t justify reducing the quality of the picture.

I had too much trouble with Microsoft Virtual Server to keep it around after my hard drive change. Almost everytime my computer had an unscheduled reboot (my power went out), it dropped the virtual network card and created a new one which drove opensuse crazy.  I’ve had no such problems with VMware server. It was also a lot easier getting the VMware tools running than it was getting Virtual Machine Additions to work properly. So now my time is syncing and all (my clock was running a little slow before I installed it). Getting the mail setup correctly threw me a little. Opensuse 10.3 uses Postfix by default, and I had only setup sendmail, and my ISP requires authentication for outgoing mail now. I eventually found the necessary instructions. It was actually a lot easier to set up than I thought it would be. I ended up using my ISP’s SMTP server as a relay and SMTP AUTH to get me logged into it. (Continue reading…)

Well, I just signed up for pownce today (I forgot my usb drive and have little to do in class because of it). The service looks good, but there are still a lot of missing features. For instance, while they do let you choose your theme, you have like 4 to choose from, and it’s not customizable beyond that. Also, there is still no way to send a message via text or email (just as effective as text, of course). I like that you are able to link to your social networks from the page, but right now it really lacks anything noteworthy. Sure, they have a multi-platform Adobe AIR desktop client, so what, if I’m sitting at my desktop, I’ve usually got a browser open anyway.

Another real downer is that there are going to be ads mixed in with the messages. IMHO, this is always a bad idea (mixing the ads with the content). The ads should have their place on the page and stay there. I hate it when I’m trying to view a page and accidentally click an ad, when I’m trying to view content (although, it can’t be as bad as the mouseover popups in some blogs and forums).

I was really excited about this beta at first, but, as most things, it’s not all I thought it was cracked up to be. There is some chance it can develop into a great service, but I don’t see it gaining much traction.

Well, I got an invite to GrandCentral a few weeks ago and finally found time to set it up. There were no Holbrook phone numbers available. In fact, as far as I can tell, there were no numbers in the local Frontier calling area (Show Low, Snowflake, Heber, Pinetop, Lakeside, etc…). So I went with a Winslow number. The features on this service sound really great, so far (would have been better if I’d have found a Holbrook number). I can get any calls sent to any of my phones that I choose. I can even have them sent to a hotel phone if I choose. Also, I can listen to my voicemail online and choose to have all calls go to voicemail.

If you use the link on the right hand side of my blog, you can call me for free. It will call your phone, then mine. No charge for the connection at all. You can use it to record calls (both parties are notified when you turn the feature on) and you can use it to keep a call log. All in all, it sounds like a great tool. Maybe I’ll even start giving out this phone number to my students, since it’ll be easier to check the messages. Then I can have it go to my office phone only when I’m in the office.

You can also send emails to my phone number at grandcentral.com and they will come to me. Of course, I will not be giving out my number on this blog, but if you would like to know my number and have a good reason to know it, please use the button to leave me a voicemail.

I don’t know how this will work in the RSS, but here’s a call link in the post.

Well, it’s official… I guess. I’m listed in the class schedule for Fall 2007. I’m going to be teaching three labs. One of them is at the PDC in Holbrook on Tuesday nights, while the other two are at SCC in Snowflake on Monday and Wednesday nights.

I’ll also be teaching two NAVIT classes, but as those are only available to high school students in Snowflake, they’re not listed in the schedule. So, if anyone in the Holbrook / Snowflake area is interested in learning more about computers, go ahead and check my classes out. I don’t think the tuition is very high (can’t seem to find it on the Web site, seems like an obvious thing to put on there). Anyway, maybe I’ll see you in class next semester.

Well, I got the job teaching at NPC, which means I’m going to be a lot busier here in a month or so. It also means that our refrigerator won’t ever look as anorexic as it is looking right now. I’m going to continue working for the county. My duties there have not lessened at all, in fact… I’d say I have more to do there than ever. Now that I’ve successfully exported the parcel search to another county (Graham), I’m sure I’ll be helping more counties get it set up and working. I’m also charged with getting the “Pay your property taxes online” feature working by the end of the month. So, I’ve got my work cut out for me.

However, I’ve also got a new project with the same deadline as my online payment system, building the White Mountain Regional Development Corporation’s Web site into ours… I guess the WMRDC will cease to exist. I’m not real sure what’s going to happen to the member list. I guess it’ll all come out in the wash.

I guess all of this work isn’t so bad… even the deadline. I mean, I don’t even start at the college until after the deadlines, which is good. I think I may have to spend a few nights this month getting everything finished. At least the month will pass quickly (it always does when I have deadlines looming over my head).

Web Worker Daily posted a nice rebuttal to PC Magazine’s article which stated that Gmail is falling behind the other major Web email clients (mostly because of it’s lack of drag and drop sorting). I find it takes far less time to archive after you read (or don’t read) a message than it does to try to decide which folder it should go in. The labels (aka tags) can provide you with any sorting that a folder could do and more. I can put more than one label on a message, but can only store it in a single folder with the other services.

On another note, Gmail provides free pop / smtp access (MSN will allow access through Outlook or Outlook Express) so if I wanted my email access to feel more like a desktop app, I would simply set it as such. I also find the little signature ads to be extremely annoying, not to mention the ad banners on the actual client page. I have simply stopped clicking on banner ads. If I find something in a banner ad interesting, I’ll Google it and access the page through a resulting text ad or the search results. I’ve decided that I, for one, am going to stop supporting and encouraging the annoying, real estate hogging, banner ads that litter, not only MySpace page, but also Yahoo! mail and MSN LiveMail.