Adventures in stupid technology
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Score free Google number business cards
I recently got a free Google Voice account after asking for an invitation. Google Voice is a new Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) service from Google that offers a few key advantages over other VOIP services. The service is still in early beta stages (so outages and bugs are prevalent), but so far perks such…
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Turn scans/images into searchable documents for free
Ever had to read through pages upon pages of printed material to find just a few small pieces of information? In school I often found myself having to read through entire chapters of dry useless information just to pick up a few morsels of pertinent text to to answer a question or verify some facts.…
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Use your cell phone as a presentation remote
Part of my job involves giving lots of presentations. In order to be able to focus on my audience during proposals or training sessions a presentation remote is key. It allows me to advance through or go back to specific slides at key moments during my presentation. I can talk without being distracted by my…
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Upgrade iPod Touch firmware to 3.0 for free
I got a brand new iPod Touch 2nd generation at Costco and to my surprise it only came with firmware 2.2.1, not the latest & greatest 3.0 everyone talks about. Upon connecting it to iTunes, I was immediately prompted to purchase the 3.0 firmware update for $9.95. So I gotta spend another $10 bucks after…
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Why an undo option is better than a confirmation dialog
Lots of computer activity will trigger a confirmation dialog. It’s usually in the form of a warning intended to give you another chance to reconsider what you’re doing. When deleting a bunch of files, for instance, most systems will ask you if you’re sure this is what you want to do before deleting them. While…
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Get Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate for $60
It’s called the ultimate steal and it allows students with a valid school email address to get a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate for $59.95 (normally $679). Many Colleges and Universities already have an MSDN Academic Alliance partnership with Microsoft which offers students gratis copies of Microsoft Windows and Visual Studio, but Office has…
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Convert an HTML table to CSV using PHP
This post is a tutorial on how to export an HTML table in CSV format using a PHP script. The table is generated with data from a MySQL database containing orders, products and totals. I’ve dummed down the database and php code so it is easier to understand and will walk you through each step…
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Crap! Xbox error E74
So I don’t know how many of you read or kept up with my original Xbox E64 post a few months ago, but this is a kind of a continuation of my my original Xbox troubles. When my first gen Xbox got an E64 error I tried repairing it without success. So, to replace it…
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Vacation: Berlin 2009
I just got back from a small vacation in Berlin Germany. It was a short trip mostly for visiting friends and family, but I also managed to do a little bit of sight seeing. The humid June climate and the long hours of daylight reminded me of the east coast, but the people and the…
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Export your saved passwords in Firefox
In this post I’ll show how to export your Firefox saved passwords to a nice HTML file for safe keeping in the event of a disaster. It’s true that there is already a handy utility called Mozbackup that lets you backup your Firefox profile including all your saved passwords, but this method does not let…