Reality Me » Gadgets

Suggestions? iPhone password/data keeper

Doug McCaughan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:30:53 +0000

When my beloved Motorola v3xx bit the dust, I bought an iPhone with the promise to myself that I would use it as a business tool to facilitate building iPhone apps for my clients. I have not talked about my iPhone experience much but that’s coming. In the meantime, know this: 1) Steve Jobs is a user interface genius! and 2) I love my iPhone!

Over the past few years, I endeaved to eliminate paper from my life using cloud tools such as Google Docs. The iPhone seems to be the missing link and has helped me take the last steps toward cutting the umbilical cord to paper. Meeting notes go straight to my iPhone. Todo lists, via Jott, straight into the iPhone. The iPhone has helped make my already digital world even more digital.

Now I need a secure password/data keeper for the iPhone. I’m considering SplashID, 1Password, and iAccounts. What are your recommendations?

A round tuit and a “new” laptop

Doug McCaughan — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:09:16 +0000

A good friend passed me their old laptop with an operating system that was broken. Doing that thing I do, I installed a new operating system and am pleased that the laptop easily meets my needs as far as processor and memory are concerned. I debated dual booting the machine so that I could work in either Linux or Windows XP but decided to try my hand with a virtual machine (VirtualBox). In this case, Ubuntu Linux is going to be installed in a VM within Windows XP which should allow me to take my development environment with me anywhere I go.

I have phone again – sorta

Doug McCaughan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:57:19 +0000

My replacement phone for my antique Motorola v3xx RAZR arrived today. Now I have an LG CF360 which looks and acts a whole lot like a Samsung A777. I lost everything! Every contact. Every picture. Every voice recording. Every shortcut in my life. Gone! My contacts in my phone had notes related to the contact, birthdays, private numbers, people I only talk to once in a blue moon and do so because I see (saw) them in my contact list and more.

So be it! Call this a new beginning. Let the burdens that accumulated in that phone be gone! We start anew today. If you call and get my voicemail, be sure to leave your phone number. Thanks.

Incommunicado

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:45:05 +0000

My phone has died. If you are trying to SMS me or call me, I am not receiving your messages. Please contact me through Twitter, Skype (djuggler), or Cathy. You can try my Google Voice number 865-686-8693.

If you have the next killer iPhone app idea that could make you millions, I’ll happily build the app for you in exchange for a MacBook Pro and an iPhone (say, $5000).

Play Podcasts Chronologically on an iPod

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:02:42 +0000

The best iPhone app ever

Doug McCaughan — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:18:34 +0000

I’ve been debating getting an iPhone because I’d like to develop some applications for it. Plus I think it looks cool. I hesitate because of cost and I do a lot of texting on my phone by feel of the buttons without even looking at the phone. This new app has me thinking I need to forget the buttons and just get an iPhone!

Impressive flexible screen

Doug McCaughan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:45:31 +0000

I see great potential with Samsung’s 2.8inch 20? 0.29g 166ppi flexible OLED screen.

My affair with Jott

Doug McCaughan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:10:21 +0000

I was amazed with Jott when it first came out and it quickly became my favorite memory aid, mind declutterer, and to-do list organizer. Jott allows you to speak a message and have it transcribed to your Jott dashboard, Twitter, Remember The Milk, Google Calendar and many more services. It works through a combination of speech recognition and human transcribers. Then the honeymoon ended and Jott brought its free version to a close. I recently deemed this tool important enough to me to sign up again and it has already paid for itself.

I let Jott send me reminders to both SMS and email. Our neighborhood lacks an association so I sent myself a note. This is what Jott sent me in email. (Click the picture for a larger view) Thank you Jott! Shh. Don’t tell Cathy.

jott reminder.egg on Aviary.

Today’s Technical Feat

Doug McCaughan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:16:29 +0000

Today I am installing openssh server on Ubuntu’s Hardy Heron 8.04 LTS which is remarkably easy so that I can use Clonezilla to make an image of a hard drive from one machine, across the network, to Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive connected on a Linux box.

Seeking Recommendations on Netbooks

Doug McCaughan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:03:08 +0000

We find ourselves on the road a bit too much to be as netsavvy and gadget freaky to not be able to have some productivity happening while out and about. I believe a netbook is an economical means to fill that connectivity hole our family stumbles into far too often. Do you have any suggestions, recommendations, or warnings on netbooks, brands and operating systems?

Via Twitter, I’ve learned that Dell solders memory into the netbook making them not easily upgradeable. I now know about http://www.netbookreviews.net/ thanks to xempt who also recommends NewEgg (a favorite shopping spot of mine). Jfloyd pointed out that lspegman has a Hackintosh netbook with a "few glitches but no biggie." steverb says netbooks are 90% the same hardware and gives kudos to Dell’s keyboard design. svandyke likes the ASUS eee (the company we must acknowledge as breaking the barrier for netbooks) and points to C|Net Reviews. ceffyl1 loves her Acer Aspire One D150. jeanroy gave a TweetBrain response (oops. I accidentally closed the question) with good links:

Here are some great links on netbook reviews. http://www.netbookreviews.com/ http://www.netbookreviews.net/ http://www.laptopmag.com/ http://reviews.cnet.com/best-netbooks/ I hope this helps your question. Please follow me on twitter when you get a chance. www.twitter.com/Jeanroy Thanks =D

Asus eee comparison chart.

Oh no! No energy!

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:00:41 +0000

I’ve been neglecting my family and household duties in the name of work. Household repairs such as rehanging Sarah’s shelf that Evan pulled down upon himself have been left ignored. Yesterday I made great progress on cleaning up the driveway and cleaning up the garage. Today I am going to work on Sarah’s room. But alas! My Ryobi cordless power tool 18v batteries won’t charge! Today may be all about dissecting battery packs, testing cells, and combining two battery packs into one. Wait a minute. What are these tools with cords hanging out of the handles? They look like they just might plug into extension cords and wall outlets!

Go green! Give your old iPhone to someone.

Doug McCaughan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:14:27 +0000

All the cool kids are upgrading to the newest iPhone. I remember the day I purchased my gold Motorola RAZR v3xx. Ah! I was ahead of the game with the newest and slickest cellphone on the block. That’s the phone I’m still using. So as you excitedly unbox that new iPhone and relegate your old iPhone to the back of your desk drawer, think about how your e-waste could help free someone from the confines of WAP and instead help them join the hordes enslaved to JOBs. Give me your old iPhone! I mean, find someone in need of an upgrade and let your e-waste become e-useful.

I’m in print!

Doug McCaughan — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:42:41 +0000

Some of my digital words seem to have leaked into today’s newspaper! Go to Knoxnews and read Teach cell phones, don’t ban them. Comments are open on Knoxnews or commentary can be added at the School Matters website.

Drowning Out the Decibels with Noise

Doug McCaughan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:14:47 +0000

My house is noisier than yours. I know this because I think OSHA would require hearing protection in this place.

Our house it has a crowd
There’s always something happening
And it’s usually quite loud
[Source]

I have some wonderful noise canceling headphones but they don’t completely isolate me from the noise. That is, until I decided to pump some white noise through them! http://simplynoise.com/ has some downloadable white noise clips. You can down 30 seconds of white, pink and brown noise that you play in a continuous loop. You can also download a one hour thunderstorm! This works so well I thought I was home alone!

Technologies to come

Doug McCaughan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:10:42 +0000

Someone titled this "Microsoft’s Vision for 2019" I don’t know if that is true or not. What I do know is that much of what is presented in this video is already in the works. I’ve seen some of it demo’d. I know we have the technology to be deploying some of it today but necessary infrastructure improvements and profit margins stand in the way. For instance, if Nokia has a plan to release version A B C D and E of a phone there is a good chance that while were are using version A that B C D and E are in the works if not already developed. If B and E were developed at the same time Nokia could sell E but would miss out on all the profits by release B then waiting awhile to release C and awhile longer to release D and so forth. It doesn’t make fiscal sense to jump ahead. If money were not the issue and the technology improvements were solely about the advancement of society, you can bet we’d jump from A to E.

Microsoft’s Vision for 2019

2019 is too far away. We need these technologies today! Freeze me and wake me in 100 years.

Update: Take a look at how AT&T envisioned the future back in 1993. Pretty amazingly on the nose!