Category: product endorsements

monthly phone bill $2.95

On By Rick McIn product endorsements1 Comment

I’ve given up my mobile phone completely. (Delete any listing you have for the ___-6735 number.)

Instead I can call you via Skype on an iTouch. That’s the iPhone without a phone.

It’s perfect. Perfect in that I can call you, but you can’t call me. I hate answering the phone.

Monthly bill $2.95 unlimited North America SkypeOut to any phone number. Skype to Skype is free, as always.

You could phone me if I had an online phone number. That service is called SkypeIn, but it’s not offered yet in Canada.

If I got a U.S. online phone number you’d be charged for a local call if ringing from the States. A long distance call to the States if phoning from anywhere else.

UPDATE: February 16th Verizon in the States is planning to announce Skype on two handsets. It’s inevitable that North American phone rates will be dropping drastically soon.

my review – Avatar

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsements1 Comment

Finally saw the 3D version.

Overall AWESOME.

A breakthrough in technology that just might save the movie theatre business.

Dialogue was good. Acting, overall quite good. Special effects simply brilliant, a big leap forward from anything else I’ve ever seen.

I’d heard the plot was crappy and laughable. But Avatar has the same plot as every other Hollywood blockbuster:


Boy meets Girl … Evil challenges Good … BIG fight with plenty of gore and explosions … Good triumphs … James Bond and Girl walk hand-in-hand into sunset.

Are you telling me every Hollywood blockbuster has a plot line crappy and laughable?

how I back up my computer

On By Rick McIn Apple, internet, music, photos, product endorsements4 Comments

Happy, happy. I’ve got this system running now.

I have only one computer, a laptop, backing up automatically to the cloud using Carbonite. My cost is less than $3.50 / month. Very reliable, though not 100% foolproof.

I am backing-up whenever I connect to the internet. And can restore a file or an entire laptop from anywhere in the world.

My old back-up system I’ve still got running, too: a 1TB hard drive using Time Machine software. I must physically attach the drive with a cable to do this second back-up.

If you don’t back-up, please don’t complain when you lose all your music and photos in a hard drive crash or by theft. You deserve it for not signing up for Carbonite or Mozy.

book review – The Hunger Games

On By Rick McIn books, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The Hunger Games (2008) is a young-adult science fiction novel written by Suzanne Collins.

… It introduces sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world where a powerful government called the Capitol has risen up after several devastating disasters.

In the book, the Hunger Games are an annual televised event where the ruthless and evil Capitol randomly selects one boy and one girl from each of the twelve districts, who are then pitted against each other in a game of survival and forced to kill until only one remains. …

Wikipedia

This book was recommended to me by 16yr-old Sam. And, I have to admit, I did enjoy it … despite the grizzly plot.

It got generally good reviews. (Steven King gave it a “B”.) And a film is planned.

And it’s refreshing to have a female author and female protagonist in a book of this genre. I recommend the book for teens. Adults could take it or leave it.

I paid about $12 for the Audible MP3 version, as part of my monthly package and some “deals”. If a non-member buys that same version, it’s $20.98.

Other costs from Amazon:

Hard Cover = $10.52.
Kindle = $9.00
Paperback = $8.99
Audiobook CD = $26.37

Worst deal in 2010 is CD. Those spinning disks have to be phased out soon.

Long term the Kindle and audio versions will have to drop in price. Cost of production and distribution is much lower than dead tree.

death of Adobe Flash?

On By Rick McIn Apple, internet, product endorsements1 Comment

If a Mac browser crashes, or hangs with a spinning pizza of death, it’s almost certain that Adobe Flash, a “method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages”, is the cause.

Dana’s Mac laptop has been running slower-and-slower. Mine too, after 18 months, though I’ve taken many steps to try to speed it up.

Here’s the BEST thing I’ve done, so far, to improve speed and stability.

I installed ClickToFlash , the Flash-blocking plug-in for Safari on Mac OS X.

Works perfectly.

Instead of some distracting animated ads, I get this …

screenshot

If I really want to see something, the flash video centre screen for example, I click and it will load.

LOVE this feature.

For Windows use the FlashBlock Firefox add-on.

Leave a comment if you’ve any other advice on speeding up the computer experience.

=== Steve Jobs is on a personal mission to KILL Flash, Apple not supporting Flash on either the iPhone nor iPad.

But rumours of the death of Flash are premature. It will be around for a while, yet.

This is a great compromise.

I hate plastic, love glass

On By Rick McIn food, product complaints, product endorsements2 Comments

Just one word: plastic.

Increasingly, over the years since watching The Graduate, I’ve come to dislike and distrust plastic. Especially plastic containers for food and drink.

But I love glass storage.

Snapware 18pc Glasslock Tempered Glass Storage Containers 18piece Set with Lids – Amazon

There are a number of companies selling these. All are superior to plastic though they all, I think, still have plastic lids.

I distrust plastic thinking that, once scored, traces of food may be caught in the scratches. Glass is easier to clean and disinfect.

My computer laptop has a glass screen. So does my iPod. And I suspect glass will be replacing granite as the best counter top material.

As a general rule, I try to find alternate materials to plastic.

Just one word: glass.

Wikileaks – GREAT site in financial trouble

On By Rick McIn bad news, product endorsements1 Comment

Wikileaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organizational, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors.

Within one year of its December 2006 launch, its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents, leading to many front-page newspaper articles and political reforms. …

It’s a place where whistle blowers can post incriminating evidence about just about anything, anonymously.

This is EXACTLY how the internet can make the world a better place. More transparency. Less corruption and injustice.

Notable leaks include:

Daniel arap Moi family corruption

Swiss Bank – Julius Baer law suit

Guantánamo Bay procedures

Scientology documents

Hack of Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account

far-right British National Party membership list

Climate Research Unit email

Toxic dumping in Africa: The Minton report

Sadly, due to financial constraints, the site has currently suspended all operations other than submission of material.

Wikipedia

Understandably, organizations that have something to hide hate this site. The rest of us should encourage and support it. Hopefully they will find some financing from those who want to improve the world.

Meryl Streep – best actor ever?

On By Rick McIn movies, product endorsements2 Comments

Few would argue that Meryl Streep is not the greatest actress of all time.

The only other choice could be Katharine Hepburn.

While beautiful, I’d say Meryl was not at all the typical Hollywood starlet nor bombshell. Perhaps because she wasn’t simply eye candy, she had a chance to get some meaningful roles.

Cover girl at 60

Hollywood is no place for older women—or is it? In the cover profile of Vanity Fair’s upcoming January 2010 issue, Leslie Bennetts investigates the mystery of how, at age 60, Meryl Streep has become the industry’s “new box-office queen.”

The evidence is indisputable:

• Her 2008 screen musical Mamma Mia!, Bennetts writes,“has grossed $601 million worldwide, despite some cringe-worthy reviews (for the movie, not its much-lauded heroine).”

• The Devil Wears Prada, also from 2008, in which Streep played a demanding fashion-magazine editrix, has raked in $324 million around the world.

• And Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, released earlier this year, has earned $121 million and counting.

To read more of the interview visit Vanity Fair.

I’ve been a huge fan since Out of Africa. In fact, as a young man I recall organizing my own Meryl film festival, renting one of her movies each night for a week over Christmas.

She was brilliant, recently, as Julia Child.

I’ve not seen It’s Complicated. But I love Alec Baldwin. And the trailer looks amusing.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The next question is … what male actor is greater?