Blog Archives

Lux Sci for Better Email Services

I have finally moved off Dreamhost for mail and on to Lux Scientiae. After years of frustration and disappointment with DH’s performance and support, I finally lost it over some disappearing emails and their complete failure to respond to requests for assistance in a timely or helpful manner. I had been using LuxSci for spam [...]

Good Experience with Metro Bicycles on West 96th Street

Just wanted to post a quick note about a good experience I had with a repair job by Metro Bikes on 96th near Broadway. I biked in on Saturday afternoon, with the feeling that something wasn’t right in the bottom bracket of my Giant Halfway folding bike. Sure enough, in 15 seconds, the mechanic had [...]

Back to the future…of 2003. Outlook?? Outlook.

I tried to be level-headed. I tried to be analytical. I had to admit that my personal information management was at a low point, with a mishmosh of Thunderbird for Mail, Outlook for Contacts, Google for Calendar, and Remember the Milk for Tasks. I figured my options were to get a MacBook Pro and go [...]

First take on Google’s App Engine for Python

I’ve been playing around with GAE for a few days and come to a few early conclusions. It’s very cool, very smart. The quality of the docs and examples is pretty good. It’s all about locking you in to Google’s user and data APIs. In exchange, you get their (presumably) massively scalable platform. Your users [...]

Blackberry Client on Samsung t719 Phone

I’ve been very happy with my Samsung t719 phone, but hadn’t intended to use the Blackberry client software that’s built-in. Turns out it’s pretty useful (and usable) after all. T-Mobile offers a Blackberry Internet option for $20/month. Since I was already paying the extra $6/month for web-mail access (a brutal but survivable UI for once-in-a-while [...]

Blue Ant X3 Micro Bluetooth Headset

I’ve been using the Blue Ant headset for a few weeks now, and wanted to put down a few notes: It looks really great and has nifty light sequences in blue and red. It’s lightweight. It’s reasonably priced (I paid about $40 in NYC at J&R). It’s got a super-clever recharging setup via USB cable [...]

Getting wired again at last

Although skeptical that I’ll find the time to do much writing, I’m excited to get a blog laid out again. So far, my experience with Dreamhost has been terrific. A few clicks, a credit card, and wham, it’s all working. Makes me feel kinda old and cranky, actually.

 

September 18, 2005

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Google Desktop Search

I’ve been using the latest Google Desktop Search beta, and generally liking it. While there are some things I’d like to see done differently, it’s immediately useful in a way that changes your expectations for how to use your computer — and that’s significant. I thought I’d share some experiences and compare it to other [...]

 

September 7, 2005

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The New Kid (Rails)

So I spent a little time today looking into Ruby on Rails at last. I got it set up, did a tutorial, tweaked some code, broke and fixed it. Fascinating.

 

May 20, 2005

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Speaking Badly

When Windows/Office XP’s built-in speech recognition stopped working a few months ago (following some unidentified Windows Update), I gave up on it and went back to the keyboard. My wife’s RSI hasn’t improved enough for that, though, so I switched her to Dragon’s NaturallySpeaking. In the beginning, it looked great for her, and she found [...]

 

March 7, 2005

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Quicksand Deluxe 2005

Having just wasted an hour of my evening installing and struggling with Quicken Deluxe 2005, I will only say this: if I worked for Intuit I would be embarassed. It’s an amazingly bad piece of software from a company that used to have a decent reputation. My sales rep will find my RMA request in [...]

 

March 7, 2005

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Pushbutton USB Sharing

I’m very happy with my new manual USB switch. Now I can share my ergo keyboard and trackball setup as well as other USB devices between my two desktop machines. The switching time is not bad, a few seconds, and so far it’s been solid. Best of all, no software installed on either machine. I’m [...]