Who needs a cable subscription?
August 30, 2009
As the web continues to evolve I find myself asking questions like, “who needs an encyclopedia?” or, “why do I still have this Blockbuster card?” With the rise of streaming media, I think it’s time to ask the question, “who needs a cable subscription?”
Note that I’m referring to the cable subscription that we use to watch television with. I guess this also applies to satellite users, though it seems that not as many people are disgruntled with them and many rural customers don’t have a choice. So, just to be clear my focus is on those companies like Cox Communications and Comcast.
My argument leans firmly on services offered by Netflix, Amazon’s Video on Demand, and Hulu. With just one of these services, namely Netflix, I can watch just about all the television I can handle. I name Netflix above the others simply because I get so much for my money. About $15/mo lands me around 8-10 DVD rentals and the ability to watch streaming movies at no additional cost. Read more
Midweek Geek Links for 6-11-2009
June 11, 2009
It’s time for this week’s Geek Links!
- If you’re in need of a good laugh, check out Awkard Family Photos.
- Very cool concept photography from Martin Wilson. No Photoshop here; he creates montages by piecing together frames from an entire roll of film. Very meticulously done.
- Got a hankering for an Amazon Kindle but aren’t ready to fork out the cash? Search for a used Kindle at UsedKindleGear.com.
- MacUpdate Promo is a good resource for getting quality Mac software for a discount price. New deals running weekly!
- ColoRotate is a very cool way to come up with custom color themes for your designs.
Remote Access for Windows and Mac
April 15, 2009
Lifehacker recently asked their readers to vote for the Five Best Remote Desktop tools. I personally use both Windows and Mac machines and have never had any trouble remotely accessing my Windows machines from either system thanks to Remote Desktop applications freely available for both platforms.
However, remote access for my Mac has been a different story. I recently began using the free version of LogMeIn.com with much success. So seeing LogMeIn.com at the top of Lifehackers “Hive Five” list validates the opinions of the readers.
Make Images Transparent Using Only CSS
March 5, 2009
Most of the time, when you’re needing to have an image fade slightly or become transparent or opaque, you pop open the photo in Photoshop and lower the Opacity slider. Imagine being able to control the opacity of an image using only a few short lines of CSS.
Well, believe it or not this is easily doable, and it works across multiple browsers as well…though, it might not work through RSS feedreaders; if you’re reading this post through your feedreader, you might want to click through to our site to see the full effects of the transparency.
The Kindle 2 Has Shipped!
February 24, 2009
Amazon’s most recent version of their popular ebook reader ships out today. For all you of lucky people who pre-ordered, this is going to be a good week!
In case you haven’t heard about the Kindle, here’s the specs for the latest and greatest version, the Kindle 2:
Add Windows Live Hotmail to Your Gmail Account
February 12, 2009
It’s no secret that millions of folks have turned their allegiance to Google’s awesome online email service, Gmail. However, if you’re like me, you’ve probably begrudgingly kept that old Hotmail account around for reasons that cannot be defined by human words.
Until now, we’ve had to login our old Hotmail accounts every month or so to check mail from friends (if we can still call them that!) who refuse to update their contact list, and to keep Hotmail from erasing our account data because of the lack of activity.
Well, Hotmail has finally decided to add POP3 support. This means we can now add and receive our Hotmail emails in our beloved Gmail accounts or any mail client that supports POP3.
Convert Web Page to PDF or Word Document
January 14, 2009
We’ve all found a web page that we wanted to print out for reading away from the computer or just to have a physical copy for easy reference. However, simply clicking on the Printer icon doesn’t always give you the best results. You could easily end up printing a page with unwanted advertisements or images.
Here I will outline a better way to have a copy of this content for easy printing. It just takes a little bit of patience and time, but you end up with your favorite website’s content in a flexible format that can either be printed or transferred to a handheld device for easy reading.
Configure Gmail with Labs and Themes
November 24, 2008
I’ve been using (and loving) Gmail for several years now. It’s the first thing I open in the morning and the last thing I close before I leave the office. I also like to tinker with features and look at pretty pictures. Did someone tell the Gmail team about this?
If you’ve been using Gmail for a while now, you may have stumbled through some of the settings just to see what’s out there. Maybe you’ve heard about these new fangled themes that people have been talking about. Just in case you’re oblivious to the many wonderful ways you can customize and configure your Gmail account, I’m going to go over some of my favorite features and how to use them. Read more
Switch Your Internet Connection To Free DNS Servers
November 19, 2008
After months of unreliable Internet connection at my office, and after exhausting all other options, I decided to try switching our DNS servers to the servers freely available at OpenDNS.com. Since then we have not had one single Internet outage. There’s no indication that this is a coincidence, and if I’ve noticed anything about the speed of our Internet connection it’s that it has gotten slightly faster.
Earn Money and Get Free Content for Your Blog
October 27, 2008
I stumbled upon a new way to make some cash with your blog (actually, it stumbled into me). I received an email in reference to one of my content sites. The email was from an online store that is closely related to my site. He stated that if I was willing to host an article with links to his site, I would be compensated.
I replied to the email just to see what he was going to propose. It turns out that he was willing to pay me $25 to host an original article on my site. The article would have no more than two in-context links that point back to his online store. Read more
