MOBODOJO » Cool Tools

Diaspora aims squarely at obviating corporate social networks

Tyler Regas — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:09:55 +0000

Yesterday I posted that I am done with Facebook. Today, Facebook’s entire company (according to them) had a sit-down regarding privacy. Another thing that happened today. I received a Welcome Back email from Facebook, even though this was the second time I’d told them I wanted my account deleted. As a result, I spent half an hour in the privacy settings turning off every option, making it so that I would be the only person to see anything, and canceling all 3rd party tool access and canceled yet again.

Last night I found out about Diaspora. Dan, Max, Elliot, and Rafi decided that they, too, had their fill of crap from the likes of Facebook and are now building an open source alternative. They made a video and stuck it up on KickStarter and passed around the news to various sites like Engadget. The idea has very quickly caught on, and their $10,000 goal has been well surpassed. As of 9:30PM in SoCal, they have raised $123,958.00 and they still have 18 days to go.

I very strongly suggest that you go check it out and make a pledge. Support this project and these guys will make it happen. We need something like this. The social power of the internet is a critical tool in the development and growth of the world. It brings people from every walk of life and social background closer together, while services like Facebook only serve their investors and advertisers. Get to it and pass it along!

Say Hello To The Official Apple iPad

Tyler Regas — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:02:31 +0000

Technical Specifications | Pricing Information

Cool Tool: Starbucks VIA Ready Brew

Tyler Regas — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:54:35 +0000

This is not a tool in the traditional sense, but every nerd in the NerdVerse will know exactly what I am talking about. Starbuck’s VIA instant coffee is the only instant coffee on the planet which isn’t instant coffee. Its more like magical coffee in that you can make a cuppa joe with some hot water and one of these little packets. Amazing.

Tip #1: Each packet is about one shot at a Starbucks store, so don’t expect a Venti’s worth out of one. You’ll need at least 3.

Tip #2: Buy at CostCo. Seriously. 24 VIA packs for $15. Doi.

When you want a cup of hot coffee and you can’t step away from the server, you need a 3-pack in your wallet. It will change your coffee consuming life. Oh, and if you look on the back of the box, you’ll see the ingredients listed (as if), but it turns out that VIA contains Instant and Microground Arabica coffee. What do taht means, intart00bers?

Tip #3: Perfect gift for the nerd in your life. Perfect.

Review Preview: Nokia N900

Tyler Regas — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:11:26 +0000

I’m relieved, I am. For once Nokia has come out with device that will garner no disappointment from me and I will finally be able to skirt the plethora of trolls intent to flood me with scorn and poor grammar the minute I insinuate that Nokia has produced something of questionable quality. Nokia has done such an amazing job with the N900 that I have only one thing negative to say about it:

The kickstand kinda sucks.

Okay, then! Now that’s over, I can glow about it… just not yet. While I’ve had quality time with it, I’ve not spent enough time with it to be able to render a complete and overarching impression of the device and pass it on to you, my dear readers. Hang on about a week or so and I’ll hit you with the good stuff. Suffice it to say, in case you’ve been waiting on pins and needles for me to sign off, if you want one, don’t hesitate. It rocks the socks off of Fort Knox.

[UPDATED] Trackpad Magic for Windows

Tyler Regas — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:00:55 +0000

Ok, I’m not much of a Windows guy, but I am a gamer. That alone generally requires that I have a Windows system somewhere. For me that’s Windows Vista Ultimate in Apple’s Boot Camp beta for Mac OS X. While its been good with games like Half-Life 2 it won’t run GameTap. Feh! Anyway, if you love Apple portables, there’s a function you’re missing in Windows: turn off the trackpad when you plug in a mouse. Sure, there are trackpad/trackstick duos which offers the ability to turn off either or both, but it requires going into a control panel.

Well, pal Chris has whipped up a gizmo for Windows which will disable your built-in trackpad when you plug in a mouse and return its function when you take it out again. So far this is a really early version and its only been tested on Windows XP. It is, however, freeware, so go pick up a copy, try it, and let Chris know!

UPDATE: TrackPad Magic has been updated for Windows 7 x86 and x64 editions and is available at Chris’ new site, PocketLim. Check it out!

For When You Need An Interfacelift

Tyler Regas — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:37:59 +0000

I’ve actually been loathe to tell people about this website because I feared that it would get drowned out like Deviant Art did. Deviant Art is no longer of any real value and they charge a premium for nothing at all. Its very sad to see, since many very talented artists in a number of disciplines came out of the early DA.

There is a site, however, that is home to some of the most fantastic landscape photographers and photo retouchers I have ever seen collected in one place, InterfaceLift. Yes, its a play on the words Interface and Facelift and they focus on desktop images and icons as well as some desktop themes for Windows. The real works of art, however, are in the wallpapers.

I’m only going to point to one, which is not a landscape image but a 100% generated Photoshop image. The artist, a Derek Prospero, used 7,700 layers to create the image you see to the left. Purists will note that the image is not exactly accurate to motherboard designs, but its not about accuracy. Its about the skill and time which was put into this project and the quality of the output.

So, the next time you want to spruce up your desktop, swing on over to InterfaceLift and you’ll see that you will inadvertently spend a lot of time crawling through huge collection of some truly amazing work. Oh, and here’s a tip; select your screen size, then right click on the Download button and select the Save Image As option in Windows or the Mac, and display it proudly.

Mini-Box Has A Crush On Tiny Embedded Powerhouse Gadgets

Tyler Regas — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:15:15 +0000

No. Its not particularly pretty. Its a grey box with an LCD display the same color as the original Nintendo Game Boy if it were backlit. Even the buttons look somewhat crude, but if you knew what lurked (or could, depending on the configuration you order) and at what prices, you’d stop caring about what it looks like.

With just an Intel Atom N330 1.6GHz CPU and the box the Mini-Box M300-LCD runs a mere US$260.65. Add 2GBs of RAM, a 160GB drive, upgrade to a Jetway mainboard and add a 3-port gigabit Ethernet module, and it only jumps to US$425.40. Wow. If you’d rather have wireless, you can drop the Ethernet module and get a MiniPCI adapter instead. Sadly, there’s no option to add a wireless MiniPCI board from Mini-Box’s site, but they are cheap and plentiful.

I’ve been using a nettop based on an Intel Atom N270 CPU, and it runs Windows XP very snappy indeed, so I doubt this box is a slouch. I’ll see if I can’t get one into the shop to run it through some tests. I particularly like the Ubuntu Server test. Yay! Oh, before I let you go, this box can take a 3.5” SATA drive or two (yes! I KNOW!) 2.5” SATA drives. There’s no indication if the BIOS is RAID-ready, but time will tell (or at least the PR person will).

VideoLan Client Turns 1.0

Tyler Regas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:06:53 +0000

There are few tools which are as cool as VideoLan Client, more commonly known as VLC. Its the single best unified CODEC media player for any platform there is, hands down. Instead of having to track down and install hundreds of different CODECs you can just grab VLC, install it, and go. There’s little it can’t handle, and I’ve been using it for at least the last 4 years. On Windows, it even bests Windows Media Player for handing video. The pictures just look better in VLC. So head on over to their site and download the update to the finally complete version.

iambic Updates Agendus iPhone

Tyler Regas — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:24:18 +0000

iambic has announced that they have released Agendus iPhone 1.0.1 which adds over 30 new features and functions to the application. Agendus iPhone now supports landscape mode in all screens, as well. One neat new feature is that the weather applet can fetch your current location from the GPS. The consistently lowercase company has also added support for Twitter updates via several popular Twitter clients for the iPhone. You can get it in the App Store for a mere US$7.99 and there’s more information on the iambic website.

Palm Pre Gets Games From PlayScreen

Tyler Regas — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:38:18 +0000

Stupid name (but better than the previous MyNumo which makes no sense at all. I guess its just as stupid as Mobodojo…), but its nice to see that someone is already paying attention to the Short Attention Span needs of new Palm Pre owners. PlayScreen has ponied up a whopping 25 free Flash-based games for Preophites. Just head over here and tally up the fun for no dough! I tried playing a few games like Bowling, Golf Driving Range, Political Punch Out, and Snowboard Alley on my MacBook Pro and they were way too fast. PlayScreen also has additional titles with creepy names like Peeptin, Bomb A Bubble, Pigs A Pop’n, and iWhack which appears to star Steve Ballmer in a whack-a-mole thingy. There’s also a bunch of gambling games, as usual.