I spent the last few days learning about the new features coming in Microsoft Exchange 2010. (They have a beta out now). Some of the cool features include built in support for archiving, and something called "mailtips," which is kind of a pop-up to stop people from doing dumb things like replying to all to a large group of people by mistake.
Microsoft is never resting in it's efforts to make us forget how sucky Window's Vista is, so they have released Windows 7 today. Run don't walk to your nearest retailer. Or on the other hand, maybe wait until other people try it and figure out what's wrong with it first. :-)
Remember back when my house was hit by lightning. Twice. Yeah, that was me. Wiped out my entire hard drive. Anyway, I had been backing up my computer files with Cobian backup 8 which is a free open source product that is easy to use to schedule backup jobs. For example I had it set to back up the contents of my one external hard drive to to the other external hard drive weekly. I then used the external to save all my data files such as the family pictures.
Well... I finally got around to extracting the zip files from my backup and restoring all the data that had been wiped out in the disaster. I spend the afternoon restoring 14 4 GB chunks of data. (I had broken it up that way to be able to fit on DVDs, although it was on one external hard drive. It worked like a charm and was very easy to do, if a bit repetitive on my part.
Now I am going to re-organize and set up a new backup job so that the next time something like this should happen (knock on wood it doesn't) I will sure to have good fresh backups.
What do you do if you are horse mad, and looking for that special man or woman to share your equestrian hobby? How about equestrian cupid the singles web site for horse lovers. I personally have known quite a few people who really love horses and riding, and taking care of their animals and equipment takes up so much of their time and interest there might not be a lot of time left over for relationships. This site might be perfect for someone like that as they could do the things they love together with their date and see how it goes.
The site features forums, web blogs, personal profiles, and even equestrian electronic greeting cards. Run by Successfulmatch this site is one of a number of niche dating sites they operate. At this time they are offering a FREE sign-up to try the service. If you sign up and provide credit card or paypal information be aware to read the fine print regarding any auto-renewals.
Sharing a hobby is a great way to have togetherness with your significant other. What a clever idea to have a dating site that already guarantees that all the participants share their hobby from the get go.
As a person with carpal tunnel syndrome, I more than a lot of people try to avoid extraneous clicking of the mouse. My motto is: if your hands are on the keyboard, keep them on the keyboard, if your hands are on the mouse, keep them on the mouse." Yes, I love keyboard shortcuts, and I typically hit the enter key instead of clicking a button with the mouse.
However, sometimes the focus isn't in the right place, and the hand has to move over to the mouse.
A new search engine, called LeapFish, takes the search button out of the picture. It starts giving you results as you type. For the texting generation, used to predictive text, this makes a lot of sense.
There is also a LeapFish Blog which has some very interesting insights from Behnam Behrouzi, president and CEO of LeapFish. I think their advertising model is interesting - they are actually selling ownership of keywords for a one time price. Conceivably the value can then go up and it could be considered an investment. Nice way for them to get seed money in the critical early stage of the site as well.
Today I checked out a new social networking site called Acobay. Why in the world would anyone need another networking site, you may ask? Well, what makes Acobay different is that it is a social network for your STUFF. Acobay bills itself as a
consumer network. It helps you keep track of things you own, things you wish you own, places you have been, restaurants, and more. You then can use the networking part of the equation to chat and discuss with people who have the same things as you do!
Its a sister site to Acobox, which is a really wonderful database of free images based on Drupal. I reviewed Acobox previously and I find that use it all the time to put great looking public domain images on my blogs with about three mouse clicks.
Acobay has a similar clean look and feel to it - very refreshing. I did wish for more pop-up help though as I was testing it out. I set up a profile, and added my Sony DSC-T9, Wii Fit, and a few other items. I added Rayman Raving Rabbids to my wish list. I could see other people who had these items, and their comments, which adds a nice networking element to the application. The also have a Stuff Map feature that serves as the main categorization for the site.
I used some of my famous Google-Fu and discovered that the brains behind Acobay are at a company called Acosys. The have offices in Honk Kong and Beijing. They are a self-funded startup with arious projects in the works. From the wording of their website I can tell that these guys are involved in some real cutting edge Web 2.0 projects. I think the way they want bloggers to review their sites is also really great because they have you use the site and see what it is like so you can give a real review.
Did you know that people who hit business sites using an anonymous proxy service are more likely to be attempting fraud?
An anonymous proxy service is a web site that allows users to go through their network to browse the internet so that their actual IP address is hidden. Why would someone use an anonymous proxy service? There are a few reasons. Perhaps they are on a system that tracks their web usage and they want to avoid this tracking. Or perhaps they are on a network that blocks certain sites and they want to get around that security. I know that people in China can use proxy services to try to reach sites that are blocked by the government. And yes, they can get in trouble for doing that if they care caught. However, another not so innocent sounding use for an anonymous proxy service is committing fraud.
From the perspective of a company doing business on the net, it may be beneficial to block users who come to your site using an anonymous proxy service. The quote below is from the ip2location.com web site. Ip2location sells a product that detects and allows you to any IP address coming through to your site in this manner.
Studies found that a large number
of anonymous proxy users are generally responsible for online credit card
fraud, forums and blogs spamming or defacing any visitor editable Web sites.
More often than not they can be scammers, hackers or content thieves seeking
only to prey on you and your legitimate Web site visitors.
They keep a proxy list of all these anonymous browsing services so that a site owner can block anonymous browsers.
FREE DEMO of Open Proxy Detection - look for the green check in the box below, it means that you are not using an anonymous proxy to read this blog.
I bought a new domain from GoDaddy with the intention of setting up a web community for Romance readers. I call it cheesyromance.com and it will be based around me writing reviews of the romance novels I read. The name is a tongue in cheeck reference to the sort of brain candy reputation the genre has in intellectual circles.
I want the site to have a phpbb forum as well as a wordpress blog. I am envisioning a place where people can chit chat about their favorite authors and books and even a place for budding romance authors to share tips on the business.
My other blogs are set up with Typepad, which is so easy to use. I love that ease of use. However they just do blogs and only blogs and I need something more for the other features I need.
I signed up with nearlyfreespeech.net for the new domain but to tell you the truth, its nearly free for a reason - it's a bit hard to use! If you like doing everything yourself its great. But if you were looking for any shortcuts, forget it. I installed
So I am shopping for a more full service hosting company, but one that won't cost me an arm and a leg. My brother recommended DreamHost. Looking over the
web hosting reviews on WebHostingGeeks.com I see that BlueHost looks like it might be a good fit for me as well. The Blue Host reviews were pretty good.
Ceiva photoframes has a cute website where you can upload a picture
of yourself and they do a video of you "on Santa's lap." They are also
doing a Got a Wish Sweeepstakes with a daily $500 giveaway.
The
video is a cute little story with Santa and an elf. It was pretty
quick and easy to upload a photo. I just used one I had handy from my
little avatar photo I use online. I really need a new one - I am
getting tired of the two I have been using. Maybe that will be a good
project to work on on my enforced time off. Probably bettr use of my
time than talking to Santa, right?
I told Hanukkah Claus I wanted a new job for Hanukkah. Heh heh. Actually that really is what I want.
A
digital photo frame would be a good present this year. I like the idea
of saving space by being able to rotate lots of photos in one frame.
Luckily,
or perhaps unluckily, I had already bought all my Hanukkah presents
before I got laid off. So I don't have to feel guilty about buying
anything with the threat of less income. Also my mom sent the boys
each one thing thy chose from Amazon.com - Ben got a Batman playset and
Adam got a talking Bumblebee transformer. It was really funny when the
package came I put it down in the living room and it started talking to
me from inside the box!
I've got a fun idea for holiday presents for the grandparents - do a slideshow of all the great pictures throughout the the year and give them to them on a personalized flash drive.
The folks at PexagonTech.com have ones that have Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas designs and as well you can upload your own design or logo. What a cool idea. You could do "Jones Family Slideshow 2008" on there and put a ton of pictures on.
Here's some of their features:
* Choice of 14 colors
* FREE Laser engraving on BOTH sides!
* Choose from one of our 32 exciting Themes such as "#1 Teacher", "Sports" or "Butterflies"
* Personalize the back with two lines of text
* Available in 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities
* Hi-Speed USB 2.0
* Shipping is $4.65 and only 20 cents for each additional drive.
* No Minimum order!
Check out this video of the author of "The Love you Make" blog use voice recognition software to write a 280 word blog post in under 3 minutes. That's 1.7 words per second. She is using
Dragon NaturallySpeaking which I have blogged about before in terms of how it can be used by people with disabilities to make computer access easier. I am a pretty decent typist, but I suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and boy would it be nice to avoid having to type so much. I think it would drive my co-workers crazy to listen to me though. If I ever decide to write that Romance Novel that is stuck in my head I would definitely try Dragon again.
PRESS RELEASE THAT GOES WITH THE VIDEO
In this YouTube video, you can see a blogger using Dragon
NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred to write a blog article with in
WordPress.
The author of The Love You Make, is using this voice recognition
software after having the software for just a few days. She writes this
great little article that's about 280 words long in about two minutes
and 45 seconds. That translates into about 165 seconds of typing, or
1.7 words per second. That means she's typing a little over 102 words
per minute with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
Plus, she's just getting started with the software!
Dragon NaturallySpeaking has come a long way over the last decade,
and now can enable people to type at 150 words per minute. I myself,
have clocked version 9 at 167 words per minute, and I'm seeing even
better results out of version 10. The software is extremely accurate,
and can make many of your typing chores exceptionally easy.
As a blogger myself, I am able to write longer articles, with more
complete thoughts on a subject in a significantly reduced amount of
time. I have been working to challenge bloggers to try Dragon
NaturallySpeaking and see if they can use it to help improve their
writing. I think bloggers have an enormous amount of potential, and I
always look for tools that will help them unleash that potential.
I think that Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a great tool that can
definitely help bloggers increase the value that they offer their
readers. I can envision a blogosphere where bloggers are able to take
the time and provide insights into their wisdom and experience and
ideas easier and faster because they can get their thoughts out quickly
and completely using Dragon NaturallySpeaking.
I hope you will consider using Dragon NaturallySpeaking. It has a
price point that starts at about $99. This is the version that you
would use if you only use the software with your computer. If you
intend to use the software with a pocket voice recorder, which could
enable you to have your MP3 files of your voice transcribed into text,
then you may also want to consider opting for the Preferred version of
the software. The Preferred Version starts at about $199 and has many
options.
I personally recommend the preferred version, but I do understand
that times are a little tough financially for many people including
myself. I still recommend it, because I do believe that you will see a
significant return on your investment. Spending $100 or even $199 on
Dragon NaturallySpeaking will enable you to type at 100 to 150 words
per minute. It has been my experience that you will not get as tired
from typing, you will not suffer from eye strain as much and as a
result will experience fewer migraines or headaches, and you will be
able to move around your office, your home, or your work environment
because you will not be locked in front of your computer sitting in a
chair typing and mousing around with your fingers.
I do believe that Dragon NaturallySpeaking can help you to be a
better writer, to write as a more in-depth blogger, to produce better
content, and to produce more content. I believe this because I have
seen it myself. :-)
Please consider watching this Dragon NaturallySpeaking video so
that you can see for yourself just how well Dragon actually speaking
works.
Sincerely,
Brett Bumeter
Softduit Media
PS I wrote this 575 word article using Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10.
It took me about three minutes to write and about three minutes to
edit. :-) Even with editing time, that's 95 words a minute!
