Rest In Peace, My Beloved Google Reader

For a number of years now, I have been a daily user of Google Reader. Honestly, it is where I get close to 90% of my news from. It's how I stay up to date on what new gadgets are coming out and when, as well as hear about other current events.  Last night, I learned that Google would be discontinuing the service on July 1, 2013 as part of their "Spring Cleaning".

10 Reasons Daylight Saving Time is Evil!

Click to enlarge

Source: The Joy of Tech

There Is Such A Thing As "Too Easy"

Let me pose a hypothetical situation to you. Let's say your significant other passed away suddenly (sad, I know, but bear with me), and that person did both of your taxes, paid the bills, and other important tasks. That person was also the administrator to the computer with all those files that you will need... but it is password protected and you don't know what it is. You have tried and failed many times to guess what the password could be; the dog's name, kid's name, your name, etc., but nothing works. What are your options?

The majority of people would either take it to a computer shop to see if they can unlock it, or accept defeat and admit to themselves that all that data would be forever lost. But there is a third option, and it scares me.

One Reason Why I Dislike ISP's

Earlier today, I noticed an ad on a page I was visiting. I see ads on webpages all the time, but it's fairly rare when I stop and take notice of them. This was an exception, and it is one of the many reasons why ISP's annoy me with their "bundling" tactics. This is the ad that I saw:

This amount, is all but meaningless for a number of reasons. The charge for internet will never be just $20 because there will be taxes, service fees, equipment rental fees, etc., so it is more realistic to say it would be closer to $35 per month. But even that number is insignificant due to the requirement that the internet service is bundled with other products.

How We Stopped SOPA

On January 18th, 2012... one year ago today... something incredible happened. The internet went dark. There wasn't any power outage or system failure, no it was bigger than that. The internet chose to go dark in protest of a bill in congress called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Major websites like Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, and many more altered their websites to sensor it in some way to show what legislation such as SOPA could do if passed. And it worked. The internet rallied, and rose up in great numbers to fight for our internet freedom. That day will be immortalized in the history of the internet as a bright beacon of strength and unity.

Below is a video of a speech from Aaron Swartz, one of the front line fighters against SOPA. If you haven't seen Aaron Swartz's name lately, do a quick search for him. His story is fantastic in his accomplishments, yet tragically short in time. This video is his recollection of how we defeated an internet censorship bill, and showed congress that we will fight for what we believe in.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way others talk about them. After Aaron's passing, Sir Tim Berners-Lee (he invented the internet, by the way) took to Twitter:

Aaron dead. World wanderers, we have lost a wise elder. Hackers for right, we are one down. Parents all, we have lost a child. Let us weep.

Would You Bank in the Cloud?

I will admit that there are some apps out there that I do not know about until they arrive on the Android platform. Sometimes, even a very popular app, like Flipboard, can slip through unnoticed. I attribute this to the fact that I have no iOS device. The girlfriend has an iPod that is used for an alarm clock, but that is the only Apple branded object in our home. For that reason, I am behind the curve when it comes to iOS apps. And I got a little behind again.

I Learn Something New Every Day

I have been using Gmail for just under 6 years now, and somehow I still get surprised when I find out there is something new I'm able to do with the service. Unfortunately, now that I know this handy little trick, I want to update my email address on every site I have an account with!

Read The Small Print

This past week has been particularly nice, because I've been on vacation. We decided to not to travel anywhere for the holidays this year, so we just stayed at home and enjoyed our sanctuary. The majority of our holiday shopping was finished before the vacation started which means we didn't even need to head out into the stores for any last-minute gifts. My company had our offices parties the week before last and all gifts were given then. So really... the only thing I had to do on my vacation was to simply enjoy it!

Windows 8 First Impressions

Earlier today I spent the better half of 2 hours setting up a brand new laptop with Windows 8. Quick review? I'm not a fan. When it takes 10 minutes to find the setting within the Mail app to add additional accounts... something is wrong. I do understand that Windows 8 is Microsoft is trying to reinvent itself. They are attempting an operating system that will be the same on desktops and tablets, which is a grand idea, but I don't feel as though they pulled it off. Now, this is my opinion, and it may change the more I get to explore Win 8.

Get Ready To Hit Refresh!

Google has been sending out emails announcing the availability of the next batch of Nexus 4 phones to start at noon. So if you were one of the many that attempted to purchase one and were ultimately too late.... then head over to the Google Play store at 11:59 a.m. and get ready for the floodgates to open. And if you just skim the picture below, at least note that it says 12 noon PST. Which means those of us on the East Coast need to set our alarms for 3:00.

And because I'm a nice guy, I'll provide the links here:

• Nexus 4 (8GB) - $299
• Nexus 4 (16GB) - $349

Good luck!

I May Work 4 Tech, But.....

... I'm not gonna camp out for it.

How To Keep the Tech You Work So Hard For

You have spent many hours slaving away at work to save as many pennies as you can so that you may go splurge on that awesome new gadget you have been drooling over for months. You end up not only buying the device, but you also go over budget by purchasing the extended warranty and a protective shell just in case you drop it.

Well, that's all fine and good, if you are worried about you doing something to damage your new toy. But what about the things you don't plan for? Like your shiny new gadget getting...... stolen. No extended warranty will protect the data stored within the device, and certainly no protective bumper will return it to your hands. So what can you do?

A $200 laptop? No way!

First, let me ask you this, would you buy any electronic device today that had a 3.5 hour battery? Of course not! Laptops from 10 years ago had better battery life. Not by much, mind you, but it was better.

So why would Acer put such a shoddy battery into their brand new Acer C7 Chromebook?! Smartphones have better battery life than that. It just doesn't make any sense. I mean, the rest of the machine is actually pretty nice. Chrome OS, 2 GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive (decent for any current laptop), 3 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI port, VGA port, 2-in-1 card reader, with an HD display and HD webcam. Not a bad deal at all for $199. So why skimp on the battery?

I may....

.... have spoke too soon.

This makes me happy. And I'm sure it makes Jenna happy as well because now she knows that I won't be asking for a Chromebook this year.

Apple should be nervous

This past Monday, Google lifted the veil on the new products in their Nexus line. First up is the official appearance of the Nexus 4, Google's updated flagship phone. While I thought the Galaxy Nexus was a decent iPhone competitor, the new Nexus 4 is sure to do even better.

I may be ready to let you go...

My dear Cr-48. I have given you time to rest. I have given ChromeOS time to mature. But alas, I don't think it will work. I think you have a corrupt hard drive.

In December of 2010, I was ecstatic to learn that I was one of the few that Google had chosen to test out their new ChromeOS on an experimental laptop called the Cr-48. Which I wrote about, here, here, and here. It was a fantastic machine, albeit, there were some small issues. The best part, is that anyone that came over could use it, without fear that they would delete something or mess up my settings. They had their own account with their Google preferences already installed. Very simple. Very convenient. Very cool.

Just another point on my nerd card

I have installed Cyanogenmod 7 on my old Droid X2. The X2 was a really good Android phone when I first got it, but after a few Motorola updates and Android updates... and 100+ apps installed... there were bugs that just wouldn't go away. Too many force closes, freezes and random reboots, just to name a few. I tried the normal route by removing all the apps and only installing those that were used on a daily basis. To no avail. Many months ago, I rooted the phone and removed and handful of the Verizon bloatware apps, and the random reboots ceased, but it was still running quite slow. It was just prior to this time that I began wanting to sample other flavors of Android, the most well known version being Cyanogenmod.

Unfortunately, at that time, all I did was root. I am not a developer, and digging into the OS of my phone that deep to install something else... well it scared me. I couldn't afford to replace it if I bricked it. So I left it alone. Until now.

Dear Apple,

On January 9, 2007, you turned to mobile phone world on its head when you introduced the iPhone. Sure, there had been touchscreen phones around for years prior, but you did it right. No stylus, full internet browsing capabilities, MP3 player, and a phone, all on a device that was one giant touchscreen. We were impressed.

Yesterday, you unveiled the iPhone 5. I have one word for you:

Meh.

"Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Thank you to Steve Jobs for that pearl of wisdom. One would think, with that mentality, stealing would be somewhat tolerated. Not so, apparently. Stealing is only tolerated if Apple is the thief.

We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

• Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

But don't you dare steal a stolen idea from Apple.

Forget the Rolex! Give me a Pebble!

It all started in the 1880's with the development of the motion picture camera. We could stare at a blank wall and watch something that happened in the past. Since then, we have had an obsession with screens. Movie screens, television screens, computer screens, smartphone screens. With the announcement last month about Google's Project Glass, the question now is, what won't have a screen on it?