Software subscriptions vs. one-time purchases.

Certain pieces of software you are not required to purchase, but rather subscribe to, this is very common in the larger Enterprise software market (25% of the industry uses this model), but it is much less common on the consumer level. One of the few popular programs that individuals pay for on a subscription basis is Norton Anti-virus, and other anti-virus programs. Even though you must pay a one-time fee plus a subscription the one-time fee is minimal.

So should the consumer level programs be offered on a subscription basis?

Emailing attachments, quick tip.

One of the biggest problems that email faces is attachments, not because they are large, or hard to send, or incompatible, but because people forget to attach things. This is embarrassing to the sender and annoying to the receiver. There is nothing worse than crafting an excellent email, and sending it off, only to realize at a later point that the email you thought was perfect, lacked its main component, your attachment. Likewise if you are on the receiving end, you have been waiting for a file all day, or read the email hyping the file that you have been sent, only to see that there is nothing there. This is not good, and one of the biggest annoyances that I encounter.

Free WiFi in Tacoma / Lakewood

The News Tribune has a great Google map mash-up done for the south sound region, including Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place and a few others. What they have done using Google maps is create markers where all of the free WiFi for the area is. This is great to keep on hand if you are a mobile professional or if you know you are going to be bouncing around the area.

I am personally really surprised to see just how many there really are, combine those with paid ones that are in the area (at Starbucks and such) then I begin to ask myself if you don’t already have something close to a Muni-Fi system. I mean that is a lot of coverage that we already have. Awesome.

Oh and you can submit more locations if you know of them, so click away and please submit more if you can.

Verichat and Treo 650 and Battery Life

This past Friday I was at a golf tournament all day long, and because of that I had my Treo in silent mode, only pulling it out to check out emails and such while waiting to tee off. One thing that I did do was keep Verichat running the entire time. That means from about 8:00a to about 8:00p I had my Treo running with verichat on for the entire 12 hour time period.

Now to start off my day my battery was fully charged, I only made a few short phone calls, email was being checked every half hour, with verichat on all the time. By the time I went to bed my battery was down to 15%. That is very low, and a lot of usage for just one day.

This is all attributed to verichat, and its always on feature. While it is very nice and works very well, man does it drain your battery. I assume the drain is because the phone must constantly be using the data connection, but I am not sure of that. So beware that if you want to use verichat and talk extensively on the phone, you will need either a charger, or an extra battery, or two.

Better organization with kip

There has been a lot of press circling this past week about a new program for OS X called kip. It promises to organize your pdf’s and scans much the same way iPhoto does for your pictures. So I had to try it out, I have used everything that promises organization Yojimbo, DEVONThink, and so on, all of them work well, but I never really liked them, not enough to use them.

So I tried out kip expecting the same result, but that didn’t happen. I found that besides being prone to crashing on my system this is a great program. I highly recommend it, not because everyone needs to organize pdf’s but because of how cool it is, and how well it works. Now I cannot predict how much I will use this program on a day to day basis, but it has real promise. And if you hate weaving through spotlight, quicksilver, finder to find your pdf’s then I suggest you try this. It looks great and is sure to make Windows users jealous.

kip is here.

Border agents searching computers…

Once agian my friends over at Ars Technica have a brief up about the court ruling allowing Border agents search hard drives like they would your suitcase.

The court argued that the forensic analysis fell under the “border search exception to the warrant requirement.” This exception was established by United States v. Montoya de Hernandez in 1985, and says that “the government may conduct routine searches of persons entering the United States without probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or a warrant.” The court goes on to note that international airports count as border terminals, even if not physically located on a US border.

This isn’t an especially radical ruling (Customs agents already have the authority to search luggage without cause), and such searches are taking place in other countries as well. Searching laptops, with their vast troves of personal (and usually legal) data, might feel more invasive to travelers, but it’s a part of life in the 21st century. Don’t be surprised if, on your next business trip, submitting your laptop to an X-ray scan is no longer enough.

While I truly have no problem with them searching my computer, there really isn’t anything that interesting on it, and most if not all of my music is legal.

Who should control ICANN

Ars Technica has an article up today about the U.S.’s control of ICANN:

Over the past couple of years, the issue of Internet governance has become a hot topic. Currently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is responsible for parceling out IP addresses and domain names. In turn, ICANN operates under the auspices of the US Commerce Department, an arrangement that doesn’t sit too well with parts of Europe, the UN, and many developing nations.

This is a tricky issue if you ask me, and I do not think that one country should be allowed control of the Internet, not even if it is the U.S., although that would be preferable to some other countries gaining control. But I also do not think it wise to let the UN control it, the UN in my opinion really is powerless, they have become nothing but a forum, and one that many big countries have begun to ignore.

Using Technology to adjust to a new place.

Christopher Gavula over at pocketnow.com has a post today about his move to a new place. He talks about how technology has helped that transition for him. It is a good read.

So now I’m living in Mobile. It’s a culture shock and a major adjustment. Everything is different here – none of the old things I took for granted hold true here. But again, the available technology can help overcome the lack of knowledge.

For me one of the greatest uses of technology I have found is not the ability to stay in touch, but the ability to find your way around. Unlike most travelers I do not use a GPS system when in unfamiliar territory, I use my Laptop and a program called Route 66. Great program and it can be used with a GPS receiver, I chose not to get one. I like it because you can easily find points of interest, print directions, see roads anywhere in the country, plan a route with stops, and so on.

The importance of Backing up.

Today I kicked my self hard, for days now maybe even a week I have been pushing back my usual system back ups. I have not been in the mood to be at a computer when it has been so nice out. So as luck would have it when I restarted my Powerbook today I saw that I had lost all of my To Dos. Great. Luckily they were still on my Treo. Nothing I did would restore them, until of course I started over with the iCal database, and then syncing the Treo. This was annoying and created a lot of double entries (ugh).

Had I stuck to routine and spent the 5 minutes it takes to back up the iCal database I would have been back up and running in no time with barely any data lost. Now I will spend a lot of time removing double entries and getting everything back to working order.

So for those who have not backed up in a while, take my advice, do it NOW. It will save you in the end, and if you never use the backups be grateful, and don’t tell me, I use mine far to often.

Bluetooth Mighty Mouse Review

Yesterday Apple released the bluetooth version of their Mighty Mouse, many people were happy, myself included, so I ordered one, and being the geek I am I upgraded the shipping, and much to my surprise my Might Mouse Wireless arrived this morning. Yes!

As I was waiting for the software to install on my Powerbook I looked through the documentation that came with it, skimmed it really. But something caught my eye, and I am not sure if this was the same on the first Apple bluetooth mouse (I had one but don’t remember), this mouse is designed to run off of one or two AA batteries!?! That is weird I had never thought about that, but I know for sure that if a bluetooth mouse has two battery spots it won’t run off of one, until this mouse.

Further reading indicated that this was so a person could decide between less weight with one battery or longer usage with two. For now I am testing the mouse the two batteries, but I have tested it with one and it works just the same, no notable difference except it is one AA battery lighter, which is kind of nice actually.