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Powerbook Explodes After Comcast Plugs in Wrong Cable

Burnt ImageThe Consumerist reported yesterday on the story of a poor unfortunate soul who lost their Powerbook. Comcast showed up at the owner’s home to install high speed internet service. After unsuccessfully trying to get a cable modem working, the technician went outside. A few moments later, there was an explosion. Everything on the desk was dark with soot, and either partially or completely burnt. The technician had connected an electrical cable to the cable line.
This is why you should always backup your data. The full story is available here. Scary, isn’t it?
Published on December 19, 2006
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SkypeOut will soon have Annual Fee

According to the New York Times, Skype announced on Tuesday that as of January 1st, it would begin charging $30 a year for unlimited calls onto the telephone network in the U.S. and Canada. The service, SkypeOut, has been available for free during its test phase.
Skype is a Voice over Internet service that allows users to communicate using their computer. While SkypeOut allows outgoing calls over the regular telephone lines, their converse service, SkypeIn, allows a telephone number to be given which will forward to a Skype account. It is in beta as of now, and incurs a charge of 30 euro for a year subscription.

These two charges are still less than those of most VOIP service providers. Skype is unique to those as it uses its own proprietary system instead of the existing standard VOIP protocols. Several hardware manufacturers have debuted Skype-compatible hardware that allows the process to be more telephone-like.

Skype certainly has its place, but its proprietary nature does limit it. This new feature certainly can allow Skype to supplement other calling options.

Published on December 15, 2006
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USB Pole Dancer

USB Pole DancerGearlog posted an entry on this unique USB-powered toy Pole Dancer. Most people would agree it is lacking in basic taste, however, it is certainly the most amusing thing we’ve ever seen powered by a USB port. Remember, just plug it in and she gyrates to the prerecording music.

For the next generation, we recommend the music be able to be supplied over the USB cable…then she could dance to anything. Perhaps the same company will release a more tasteful dancer…perhaps a ballerina or something suitable for children.

Published on December 14, 2006
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Ten Minute Mail

Sometimes, simple ideas are the best. Take 10minutemail.com for a temporary email address that expires in ten minutes. The best use is to receive emails for organizations that require sending you informtion by email to verify yourself, but follow up with spam.
Published on December 13, 2006
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How to Download YouTube Videos

The people at Crunchgear have a simple way of downloading YouTube videos for an Ipod or other non-internet connected device. Here is their advice.
Published on December 13, 2006
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Is Vista Worth It – Another Look

Courtesy of Lifehacker.com, here is the report on their Q&A with Microsoft about Vista. Vista, as you should know is the next-generation operating system that is set to replace XP. It offers several improvements, but not necessarily anything worth rushing out for the day it comes out.

If you feel you must jump on the bandwagon, wait until the majority of companies have driver support and software support for Vista, which will take a bit.

Published on December 13, 2006
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Identifying the Energy-Wasters

Recently, the Consumerist directed us to a review of the Kill-A-Watt, a device that plugs in between an appliance and an outlet to give you a reading of its power consumption. We actually already owned one of these devices, from our affiliate, Smarthome.

With it, you can determine the energy wasters in your home and, if possible, replace them. Look for the EnergyStar label…and for computers, use the power-saving features built in…program them to blank your monitor, spin down your drives…even standby or hibernate if it works for you.

Since devices draw power even when apparently off, especially ones that can turn on via a remote, you might want to put devices on power strips you can manually turn off. We made a list of our devices and redistributed our electronics to allow us to turn off power to our computer monitors and such when they weren’t being used.

Just remember…a tech-enabled lifestyle doesn’t mean you are wasteful.

Published on December 12, 2006
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Blank Media Quality Guide

Sometimes the best deal is not the best option you can have. After years of trying to save money on blank CDs and DVDs and having an annoying failure rate on many of the discs, we found this guide to the quality of media.

To summarize the results, the best media is manufactured by Pioneer, Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden, Hitachi Maxwell, Sony, and TDK. Our advice, consult the guide, and take the advice, and don’t buy something that is likely to fail.

Published on December 11, 2006
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Backup Your Windows Notebook Now or Face Dire Consequences!

We like the title of this article from the Mobility Guru a great deal. Backup is something we save for the last minute too often…and ultimately forget, dooming us in an emergency. It is not a matter of IF you need to back up your data, it is WHEN.

For the frugal individual, try an old hard drive. For a minimal fee, you can convert it to USB operation and use it as backup. There is also the CD/DVD option, which will definitely work for some data. For the average person remember…your media files will not change, and thus can be backed up on a few DVDs rather efficient. For frequently updated information, such as application data, a copy of your registry, and your documents, you can use the old hard drive, supplemented with regular optical disc backups to back that drive up.

Published on December 4, 2006
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You Can Now Break the Software Locks on your Cell Phone

As CNN reports, new copyright rules announced Wednesday allow cell phone owners to break software locks in order to use them with competing carriers.

The U.S. Copyright Office determined that consumers cannot enjoy full legal use of their cell phones because of software locks added by the providers block access to the phones’ programs. Since ownership of the cell phone is technically that of the customer, restricting the software means that they are putting an artificial limit on the hardware.

For those of you choosing to stay with your provider, the advantages come with features that are locked out. For example, many providers lock out the feature allowing you to transfer ringtones or pictures taken with a camera phone to a computer using a data cable so that they can charge you for transfer over the network. Ringtones and such are big business.

Published on December 3, 2006
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