Wednesday: March 17, 2010
- Turns out that more and more employers are using tech to track workers.
This post details just how easy (and cheap) it is in this day and age to monitor exactly what people are doing in the workplace. If you happen to have some sort of job in a tech-related field - it's even easier. If you think Big Brother is watching you - well, he probably is.
Monday: March 15, 2010
- The folks at Digg would like you to know that a redesign is coming in the near future.
Wow, I haven't used Digg in a long, long time (reddit ftw) but I'm quite curious to see what new 'radical features' they have in store. One of the key changes according to the source article is an unlimited number of topics (aka subreddits). How original.
Tuesday: March 9, 2010
- Location services might be coming to your Facebook account in near future.
Soon you'll know exactly where all of your friends are and where you can find them. Isn't it great when mystical items from movies and books somehow make their way into real life? It's almost like magic.
- Cisco's big Internet-changing announcement? Brand new speedy routers.
That's right folks, this new and improved router can handle up to twelve times the speed of your now traditional non-speedy routers. Change has come to your Interwebs, be sure to hold your excitement.
Thursday: March 4, 2010
- Escaped monkey manages to make time for several Facebook appearances.
Facebook: the only place where you can find photos of an escaped monkey and then read posts by that same monkey as he taunts the authorities. Is there anything social networking can't do?
- Daily Grind: Crazed
Name: Vin (aka robot on the rampage)
Occupation: Webmaster / Procrastinator / Dad
How Vin feels today: Crazed @ 2:57:12 PM
What Vin really wants today: To note disappointment in lame attempt to get back on track with consistent daily grind posts. No sleep and no sleep makes Vincent something something.Music Stuck in Head: Cheap Utah Blues / God Street Wine
This absolutely made my day yesterday. I discovered a page on archive.org that had rare and unreleased tracks from one my favorite (and for the most part generally unknown) bands. Here is a link to said tracks for those who care.Stuff to do today:
- Research more methods on how to obtain sleep whilst parenting a child that does not like to sleep
- Commit to aggresive napping during strategic parts of the day
- Strategy is dumb and may lead to eventual work dismissal
- Continue researching new methods of data capture via strategically placed web tracking bus
- Translation: reverse engineer Google Analytics code snippet for fun
- More sleep is required to pull this one off
Tuesday: March 2, 2010
- Y2K-like bug responsible for recent PlayStation Network outage.
The company urged customers not to use the older PlayStation 3 systems until the problem is resolved, warning that doing so could cause errors and make it impossible to record gaming achievements and restore some data.
Monday: March 1, 2010
- Eleven tips for making for your home (or work) office more comfortable.
This article seems to be geared to freelancers probably because the source website is all about freelancing. Well, I say nay to that my friends. This article can cross freelancer/worker lines and apply to anyone who happens to have an office at their job as well. I need more plants.
- Facebook's recently awarded news-feed patent could spell trouble for other social sites.
Twitter is effectively one giant news feed, to the extent that it clearly has influenced some of the changes that Facebook made to its own feed technology. That reaction could be alarmist. And yet prominent figures elsewhere in the social-media world don't seem thrilled.
Thursday: February 18, 2010
- New website exposes the dangers of improper social network usage.
In a nutshell, a third party service posts your location status via Twitter. Someone managed to aggregate that content into one easy website for the entire world to see. A happy day for burglars round the world.
Wednesday: February 17, 2010
- Microsoft to bring MySpace and Facebook into Outlook.
I foresee this particular move as something that will greatly increase the productivity of every corporate employee that happens to use Microsoft Outlook as their primary email program.
Tuesday: February 16, 2010
- Google decides to modify Buzz platform after some specific privacy issues come to light.
And before Google made the latest changes, who's in those circles could easily be exposed to others without the user even realizing it. Suddenly your boss could discover that you've been corresponding with a rival company that happens to have some job openings.
Friday: February 12, 2010
- Twelve undocumented tricks you can use in Google Buzz.
Have you gotten enough Google Buzz lately? If you're still on the fence or just want to tinker with it some more some more with it, some of this tricks are an interesting waste of time (as is my genaral feeling with social networking). And yes, one of the tricks includes turning it off.
Wednesday: February 10, 2010
- Google takes a big step into the social networking arena with new service.
Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail.
Monday: February 1, 2010
- AT&T decides that pouring another two billion dollars into their mobile network is worth it.
AT&T plans to spend between $18 billion and $19 billion in 2010 upgrading its wireless and backhaul networks to handle the onslaught of new traffic. This is roughly $2 billion more than the company had invested in the previous year.
Tuesday: January 26, 2010
- Weird Al to direct his first feature film for Cartoon Network.
Not many details yet but congrats to Al on this new gig. Fun fact: two members of my immediate family can still recite the lyrics from 'Dare to be Stupid' from memory. Bonus fact: we are both over the age of thirty.
Monday: January 11, 2010
- Daily Grind: Twitchy
Name: Vin (aka shakey mctwitchy)
Occupation: Webmaster / Procrastinator / Dad
How Vin feels today: Twitchy @ 1:38:25 PM
What Vin really wants today: More sleep. Also, more coffee but without the twitchy side effects. Attempt to lessen coffee intake as day progresses.Music Stuck in Head: Night Moves / Bog Seager
Disturbing yet fitting all at the same time.Stuff to do today:
- Launch a whole bunch of updates for work related tasks/projects/favors/requests
- Fix several stupid mistakes made due to lack of sleep
- Pat self on back for being smart enough to make backups first
- Yawn
- Prep house for ensuing pipework with chances of dirt/dust clouds that will begin shortly
- ...all of which should be just great for the sinuses
- Buy masks for family
Friday: January 8, 2010
- Palm pulls the curtain back on phones that can create personal wifi hotspots.
Palm says the application will give customers the option of creating a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing Verizon's 3G network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
Thursday: January 7, 2010
- New survey shows IT job satisfaction now at an all-time low.
Free food always helps to bolster my overall mood and in some cases overall job satisfaction. Let this be a reminder to any of you who happen to have an IT staff on call, bring them food and help shall come.
Tuesday: January 5, 2010
- An all-day 3D television network may be on your channel lineup in the near future.
Discovery, Sony, and IMAX each will be equal partners in the joint venture. It will be launched in the U.S., with a goal of driving consumer adoption of 3D televisions and giving the network long-term leadership in the 3D home marketplace.
Wednesday: November 25, 2009
- Microsoft decides to make .NET micro framework free and open source.
The gift to the open source community, however, does come with some strings attached -- or, rather, removed from the gift wrapping. Microsoft reduced some of the framework's functionality in making the Software Developer's Kit open source
Tuesday: November 24, 2009
- Introduction of social media on the Xbox 360 seems to have gone over quite well.
About two million users decide to give Facebook a whirl along with about half a million brand new Last.fm accounts in the first twenty-four hours alone. I'd say that those are some pretty good numbers.
- A list of a hundred of the all-time best ways to hack your workday.
Some great suggestions to those of you who may or may not be following one or more of these little gems already. Personally, I am lost with my morning to-do list. Let's see here, post morning links to GLM: check. See?
Monday: November 23, 2009
- Google decides to ban shady advertisers from their network.
It looks like you'll be seeing less ads for teeth whitening and weight loss products. Now if only Google could do something about those pesky Everquest ads. PLAY NOW MY LORD.
Monday: November 9, 2009
- World's first iPhone worm is never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down.
In addition to his own iPhone being attacked, he said a flatmate's iPhone 3G was also sullied with the image of Astley. Users who tried to delete the image were chagrined to find it reappear once they rebooted their device.
Tuesday: November 3, 2009
- Apple trying to pitch iTunes subscriptions to television networks.
...Apple is pitching a monthly subscription service to the TV networks, an iTunes-based alternative to cable packages that would cost about $30 per month.
Wednesday: October 21, 2009
- Photoblog: Commuter Blur
Snapped while traveling home from work on the rarely photogenic Harlem line. I'm even more pleased with the fact that this shot came from my trusty iPhone.
Location:Fleetwood, New York
Friday: October 9, 2009
- Daily Grind: Thankful
Name: Vin (aka groovy truvy)
Occupation: Webmaster / Procrastinator / Dad
How Vin feels today: Thankful @ 1:50:00 PM
What Vin really wants today: To enjoy a lovely three-day weekend without anything at work breaking down unexpectedly. Proceed to knock on wood several times since having typed that.Music Stuck in Head: Pleasant Valley Sunday / The Monkees
I never knew know that Carole King had a hand in penning this tune. Thanks, Wikipedia.Stuff to do today:
- Note awesomeness of LeechBlock add-on for Firefox
- Basically you can set up a list of sites to block so you can concentrate on whatever it is you're doing and not surf the web aimlessly
- Facebook = blocked
- For you Mac people there's this little gem: Concentrate
- Of course, these add-ons and programs only apply if you seem to have constant diversionary problems
- I'm not saying that I have these said problems, but hey - the Internet is a big place and there's lots to read
- Stop making excuses for social networking addiction
- Apple fires out software update for iPhone users which fixes some pesky bugs.
The update also resolves an issue that could interrupt the cell network until the phone is restarted. A bug that caused a crash during video streaming has been addressed in iPhone OS 3.1.2.
Wednesday: October 7, 2009
- Daily Grind: Irritated
Name: Vin (aka font changer)
Occupation: Webmaster / Procrastinator / Dad
How Vin feels today: Irritated @ 2:33:00 PM
What Vin really wants today: To finish up with some design changes that should not ever be dictated by people who know squat about design. No, not every font on the web should be a graphic so that it can 'look sharper'. Oye.Music Stuck in Head: Hotel California / Gypsy Kings
I love this version. 'Welcome to zee Hotel Cal-e-forn-ya'Stuff to do today:
- Note that Shark Tank is semi-enjoyable show
- Also enjoyable when one of the sharks happens to reference a previous employer
- Previous employer let me know that reference was not actually referencing them
- Oh well, at least you can watch it on Hulu
- Continue banging out work projects
- Note that pile is at least 50% smaller than yesterday
- Small piles are good when in comparison to big piles
- Get back to work on clearing piles
