Category: miscellaneous

I had, until very recently, been a fan of the TWiT podcast network. They do make a number of excellent audio and video shows on many things technology related. Unfortunately, I’m no longer a fan, for reasons I discuss in a different blog post.

In any case, here’s my list of possible replacements for the various TWiT shows I listened to. Not sure exactly which one of these I will keep. I would love suggestions for the shows I both did and did not mention here in the comments. I will update the main post based on my own searches and your suggestions.

Last Updated: 25 January 2013

This Week in Tech

What I like about this show is the discussion and the week overview. I haven’t found a direct replacement for it (yet) but I’ve found a couple of alternatives that will likely work for now:

• Saturday Morning Tech Show: A weekly podcast produced by Todd Cochrane’s, usually with guests.
• The Vergecast: Basically the guys who write for The Verge sitting around, talking. Probably the most direct replacement for This Week in Tech.
• Geek News Central (the “Geek News” feed): My only major complaint with is that it’s basically just Todd Cochrane talking for an hour or more twice a week. I like conversational podcasts more.
• GeekSpeak, a program on Santa Cruz, CA-based KUSP radio. Different mix of stories and discussion.
• PC Pro Podcast, a podcast done by the staff of PC Pro Magazine in the UK. (Suggested by Stuart Petty via Google+)

The Tech Guy

This is Leo’s weekly syndicated radio show which I only occasionally listened to.

Tech News Today

This is the hardest one to replace, given the recent departure of Buzz Out Loud. That said a number of podcasts, together, are potential replacements.

• The Frequency: Since was not originally in my list since it did not exist when I started the list. However, it is (in my opinion) the official replacement for Tech News Today. In my podcast list.
• Marketplace Tech Report, which is a daily summary of various tech news items. In my podcast list.
• Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing, which publishes twice every weekday, is also another daily summary of various tech news items. In my podcast list.
• 90 Seconds on the Verge, which sort of violates my rule on sticking to audio podcasts, but I can watch a video for 90 seconds. It’s not going to kill me. And I end up reading a lot of material from The Verge anyway. In my podcast list.
• TUAW Daily Update, which is a 3-5 minute update that is Apple-specific.

iFive for the iPhone and iPad Today

I kinda put these in the same category, because they are basically podcasts that feature iOS apps.

• AppAdvice Daily more than replaces both, though it is a video podcast only. That said 3-5 mins per-day is easy enough to watch.
• Pocket Sized Podcast: talks about iOS apps. In my podcast list.

MacBreak Weekly

I actually stopped listening to MacBreak Weekly well before I decided to swear off TWiT mostly because the shows were just too long and I was getting a lot of iOS content from other shows. That said, an Apple-specific podcast seems reasonable.

• TUAW Daily Update, which is a 3-5 minute update that is Apple-specific.
• TUAW Talkcast, which is an hour-long discussion of all things Apple in the past week.
• AppSlappy: A (sometimes) weekly show on the Frogpants Network that talks about Apple and iOS stuff.
• The Critical Path: Rather than a podcast that talks about uses for iOS and other Apple products, this podcasts talks about the kinds of thing Apple does from a business point of view in traditional telephony and computing markets. It’s a surprisingly compelling podcast for me, and most definitely in my podcast list.

The Giz Wiz

I love Dick DeBartolo. I don’t think there’s a good replacement for this, being a cross between an odd gadget show and comedy, but please leave a comment.

Security Now

There isn’t really a good replacement for this show that is more consumer-focused. I’ll stick to some of the more hardcore podcasts like PaulDotCom, Network Security Podcast, and Risky Business. Other suggestions are welcome.

Triangulation

The best “interview” show I’ve found thus far is a show called CMD+SPACE.

Windows Weekly

While I am not a huge fan of Windows, I do like Paul Thurrott. The good news is that he does a podcast on another network called What The Tech.

I have always been a huge fan of trackballs. In fact, on my first Mac back in the 1980s, I had a Kensington Expert Mouse with an 8-ball as the actual trackball. No, you couldn’t buy them that way, but yes, the trackballs were big enough you could put an actual billiard ball in my trackball. And I loved it.

When Adesso’s PR firm asked me if I wanted to review their new Optical Trackball, I jumped on it. Yes, it has been some time since I’ve owned a trackball. 15 years or so. Not quite sure why I never picked one up in the years since. Mostly inertia, I guess, as I never found one I liked quite as much as my old one.

The trackball I was back in the late 1980s, well before mice and trackballs went digital. They had analog rollers that needed cleaning often. The trackball was also pretty big, meaning it took up a lot of room.

By comparison, Adesso’s Optical Trackball is smaller and lighter in many respects. It’s also digital, which means very tiny rollers that don’t require constant cleaning. The ball itself is much smaller than my old Expert Mouse, and it’s really light and easy to move around. It’s also much more accurate–800dpi to be exact. Never quite sure what impact that actually has on my day to day use, but I did have to lower the mouse tracking speed settings on my MacBook Pro or it’d be too easy to overshoot things.

The challenge with any new trackball is learning where the optimal spot is for your hand. The left and right mouse buttons are a little higher up than I would have liked, at least at first. It didn’t take long for my hand to find the sweet spot where those buttons are easily reachable. The scroll wheel is in a good location for my thumb, allowing me to scroll pages up and down easily.

I am finding this trackball delightful to use. At $30 from Adesso (or less if you shop around), it’s also a pretty fair price! Certainly cheaper than my old Expert Mouse. Compatible with pretty much anything that supports a USB mouse (i.e. Mac, Windows and likely Linux). No drivers to install, either. It just works.

You probably didn’t notice because I’ve done these things so many times, I can almost do it in my sleep. I switched webhosts. Really, it’s not the kind of thing you need to tell people about usually, if you do it right.

However, one of my friends on Twitter was telling me about a hosting deal that was too good to be true on Dreamhost. Two years worth of hosting for $21.48! I, of course, signed up right away before the deal expired yesterday. While the experience was a little rocky–their signup page was getting pummeled–I got in. They have a slightly LESS good deal going today (only 20% off instead of 90%), but it may still be worth checking out.

As I write this, I am in DNS purgatory, waiting for the nameserver records to change over. However, I was able to get my two WordPress sites moved over without too much issue. I have a couple of custom sites I will need to spend some time on to get them moved over, but I suspect that won’t take a lot of time, either.

I can’t assume this moved completely without incident, so if you see anything funny on my site, let me know!

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Ok, this really isn’t a gadget. It’s a shirt. But it has meaning to anyone who grew up on the West Coast of the U.S. over the last several decades.

While trying to figure out why the hell gas has dropped to below $2 in my neck of the woods–not that I’m complaining, mind you–I discovered yet another victim of the global economic implosion: Mother’s Cookies.

I know that over the years, I’ve eaten my share of these little animal cookies covered in frosting and sprinkles. They weren’t something I had all the time, being a treat and all, but damn, they were good. They were part of growing up.

Unfortunately, Mother’s Cookies had to shut their doors in October of 2008 thanks to the rising costs of fuel, flour, butter and sugar. Oh, and of course, the ability to find credit.

Meanwhile, you can commemorate these tasty little cookies by purchasing this shirt from Cloth Moth for $25.

I have never understood why one needs to change the clock twice a year to “save daylight.” You have the same amount of daylight, you’re just timeshifting it. You’re not saving it.

I was lucky enough to live in Hawaii for a few years. One of the benefits of living there, besides the fact my allergies were a non-issue, was that there was no Daylight Saving Time. I didn’t have to change the clocks twice a year. Time just was.

And that’s the way it should be. Especially since we can’t agree on when to do it. Since I’ve been alive, the Daylight Saving rules have changed twice, and yes I was old enough to be conscious of both changes

Different countries have different rules, of course. Some sensible countries like Japan and China don’t bother with this Daylight Saving rubbish. Let’s just enact permanent Daylight Saving Time and get on with it!

The one piggy bank I actually remember having as a kid was a safe. It was a little yellow thing with a slot on the top to put coins or folded up bills. I was bad about saving money in that thing.

Meanwhile, piggy banks have gotten more fancy. Take this ATM Piggy Bank for instance. It takes coins, bills, and is protected by a personal PIN code. Oh yeah, and it even sounds like an ATM, too.

Counting the money in your piggy bank is kind of fun,. This gadget takes the fun out of it by showing you exactly how much is in there. Come to think of it, an automatic counter might be a good thing.

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When I was in Gmail the other day, I was a bit surprised to see the following ad:

Yes, the link was to a web site giving all kinds of reasons why one should not do business with this person. I am not going to link to the site at all, but a quick Google search should bring it up if you’re interested.

I am not going to comment on whether or not this person is or is not a “deadbeat” because, for all I know, this person isn’t and this is just a libel lawsuit waiting to happen. Even so, it’s really interesting that a person (or a group of persons) would use AdSense as a way to get back at someone that did them wrong.