Category: product endorsements

… it’s Software Freedom Day

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsements2 Comments

Saturday, Sept. 18th, 2010

I love open source software, especially Wikipedia. And WordPress.org.

In fact, I’m nervous adopting anything aside from open source software.

Anything can go wrong with proprietary software. And does.

… an annual worldwide celebration of Free Software. SFD is a public education effort with the aim of increasing awareness of Free Software and its virtues, and encouraging its use.

Software Freedom Day was established in 2004 …

Our vision is to empower all people to freely connect, create and share in a digital world that is participatory, transparent, and sustainable.

Software Freedom Day

Biden and Colbert team up to salute troops

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, TVLeave a comment


”I’m not going to debate this war,” said Colbert, in mock pundit character. ”It’s been seven years. Who can remember who invaded who?”

If you get the chance, watch The Colbert Report for Wed. Sept. 8th.

Important commentary on ‘the end’ of the war in Iraq. And consistently entertaining.

Vice President Joe Biden served up hotdogs to the audience, all veterans of Iraq.

That’s the best I’ve ever seen Biden on TV.

gmail – NEW priority inbox

On By Rick McIn Google, product endorsementsLeave a comment

I just turned on the latest, greatest new feature. … Seems to work well.

Priority Inbox automatically identifies your important email and separates it out from everything else, so that you can focus on what really matters.

Click PLAY or watch a tutorial on YouTube.

details

Dana and I talked about how difficult the transition is from an old style email system (like Microsoft Exchange) to gmail. There’s a challenging learning curve.

… But I’d never go back.

Virgin America to Los Cabos and Cancun CHEAP

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travelLeave a comment

I need to get to Cabo for some dental work.

hmm …

… fights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Los Cabos start Dec. 16, 2010, and flights from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Cancun will start Jan. 19, 2011. ….

Virgin America announces nonstop flights to Los Cabos and Cancun from $129

social networks from MOBILE devices

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsementsLeave a comment

This infographic, created by Jesse Thomas of digital creative agency Jess3, shows the relative size of social networks and online services …, and also shows the proportion of their user base that access the service via a mobile device.

GigaOM

tire flies off boat trailer … I’m not nearly killed

On By Rick McIn product endorsements, travel3 Comments

You know those videos of tires flying off vehicles wrecking havoc?

I saw one yesterday.

I was driving near Searchlight, Nevada on a bleak desert highway. Temperature near 170 degrees F.

The vehicle in front of me was towing a boat. In front of my eyes the wheel broke off, rolling full-speed along the ditch. A couple of hundred yards later it crossed the highway and kept rolling off into the distance.

I swerved around the vehicle in a cloud of smoke and pieces of axle. … Yeesh.

On the bright side, my $1600 ’96 Honda, purchased in February, is still running.

Rick the STIG with 1996 Civic

new camcorder / camera?

On By Rick McIn product endorsements1 Comment

I bought the Panasonic SD5 camcorder in Dec. 2007.

In wind on sand dunes, it finally died Aug. 2010. … R.I.P.

Replacement?

I want as few moving parts as possible. Both video and photo. Quality of image not critical as it will be posted online. Low light video would be a HUGE selling point.

Just starting to research the low cost high definition camcorders, like the Samsung F40 Ultra Zoom.

Leave a comment if you have advice. It needs to work with iMovie on the Mac. (CMOS-based image stability systems are problematic.)

… I’m also considering trying a Nano iPod for video.

The Green Zone – a review

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, movies, product endorsementsLeave a comment

This Matt Damon Hollywood blockbuster The Green Zone brings Iraq back to public interest. It details blunders made and deliberate lies told by some in the U.S. Government.

Iraq’s been largely forgotten, I feel, as attention shifted to Afghanistan. This movie is timely.

… The film was inspired by the non-fiction 2006 book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by journalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran, which documented life in the Green Zone, Baghdad …

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

It’s a work of fiction, based loosely on fact. That seems a misrepresentation of history to many critics.

Personally I thought Green Zone a very compelling movie. Not Bourne compelling, but strong.

The only downside is that the plot hinges on WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction).

There are many reasons why the American led invasion of Iraq will go down in history as a mistake as colossal as Vietnam. Lies told about WMDs are one of the lesser reasons.

Ironically, I feel that George H. Bush did the right thing in Desert Storm (1991). An awesome, strategic air strike. And then withdrawal as quickly as possible.

If you threaten the USA, expect the bombers and drones over your capital city within weeks.

I wish George W. had done the same.

FINALLY, … secure computer passwords

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsements1 Comment

I’m computer savvy, but have never been careful about passwords.

Until now.

I finally downloaded the FREE LastPass plugin for FireFox (Mac). And Safari (Mac). … It’s available for most other browsers, including Windows, too.

Click PLAY or watch a short tutorial on how it works on Vimeo.

Zero hassles. I only need to remember ONE password, the one for LastPass. It does the rest very securely.

Even better is the form filler outer, much more powerful than the browser default.

This product is highly recommended by Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson of the Security Now podcast on TWIT.

One question … What happens when I want to log in from another computer?

Do I go to LastPass.com and log-in?

Invictus – a review

On By Rick McIn books, movies, product endorsements1 Comment

Nelson Mandela is a great hero of mine.

I can’t think of any actor better suited to play him in a Hollywood movie than Morgan Freeman. Nor any director better than Clint Eastwood.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

Loved it.

Invictus is a 2009 biographical drama film based on events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted in that country following the dismantling of apartheid. …

The story is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation. Invictus was released in the United States on December 11, 2009.

Here’s the real Mandella with captain François Pienaar. (much bigger than actor Matt Damon, you notice)

Invictus – the poem

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

hmmm …

How do I get to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year …