Happy Tech

Just want to give a shout out to Zorba the Geek for an excellent Excel csv merging tip that saved me some time today.  Awesome work and thanks for making it clear, simple and concise.

Instead of releasing the new OS X software in September, Apple is now releasing it on Aug. 28. Although though not much has changed in terms of content, with few new features being added, the real benefit is in the refining of the operating system and code. Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous operating system, which in turn frees up 7GB of drive space after the install. Speed, speed and a bit more speed as it makes many applictions twice as fast as they use to be.

Oh, Tech.

FriendFeed has been acquired by facebook. Not too much to report on yet, Techcrunch broke the story about 10 minutes ago.

While watching a video on certain technologies that will be active in the next 10-15 years, it came to my attention that many people look at technology as something void of nature. That it is leading many to believe that they can play god. Having nanomachines that are implemented into our brains is blaspheme! Well, i guess, sure i can see the argument that it could be pretty dangerous, and, yes all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories can be formed in my mind. But, lets put all these aside for a few moments, and really look at what it would mean and what it could do for the human species.

Humans have created technology or stumbled across it, either way you would like to look at it, i don’t believe it really matters. Bottom line, it is something that we can use to benefit us as a species. Imagine if you could inject 10,000 nano-machines into your blood stream and rid your body of cancer, diabetes and any other ailments. Imagine being able to turn of the gene that tells your body to hold onto as many calories and fat as it can. We no longer live like the hunter and gatherers that needed this gene to survive when a hunting season didnt go well.  We are at a cross-road, for the first time we can start to take control of our species evolution, whether this is a good or bad thing will be how we use this power. I personally don’t believe in a god that made us for his own pleasure and that we would be taking his roll by doing this. I believe that we have evolved to a point where we can take more control over our own fates even if it still on a small level.

We are at the end of the industrial age and on the frontier of the information age, and it is an interesting place to be. Watch this video and leaves some comments, i would like to rap with some people about all these enthraling ideas.

Hey, Tim here -

We’re very sorry about limiting your listening last month – I’m writing to let you know that, starting today you can listen to the free version of Pandora again. We hope you’ll come back!

Sorry if this limit is driving you nuts – it’s the last thing we want to do, but it’s the economic reality of streaming. We pay royalties for every song we play, which we feel good about, but it means that for our most consistent listeners, like you, advertising revenues don’t cover the costs. If you want to listen more than 40 hours a month, we’ve come up with two options:

• For unlimited, ad-free listening, along with a bunch of other cool features, you can upgrade to Pandora One.

OR…

• If you run out of hours in any given month, you can pay $.99 to listen for the rest of the month (you’ll still have advertising). This is a one-time fee: we won’t charge your credit card again.

We really hope one of these options works for you. To check on how many hours you have remaining, just click the ‘account’ link above the Pandora tuner. There’s also more information on our blog.

Thanks again for listening and, I hope, welcome back!

Tim Westergren Founder Pandora

FYI: If you cannot wait for an invite, they are <$10 on ebay.

Details:
Just checked out the gizmo5 configuration page, it now has a Google Voice section where you can input your GV username and password. What this does is when you setup a VoIP application or phone with your Gizmo5 login information (make SURE you are using the 10+1 digit gizmo5 phone number to login, not the gizmo5 username), you get free outgoing calling (direct dial)! No more using a separate application or the web to call your gizmo5 number first with your GV #. Just pick a contact and call away. This is great news that gizmo5 and google are collaborating together. I forsee another google takeover soon (I hope).

I tested this with Siphon (iPhone app, from Cydia – free, allows calls over 3gedge) and was able to make outgoing calls right from the VoIP app – before I had to open GVMobile (separate app to call your Gizmo number first before placing the outgoing call), otherwise it would state “you have no gizmo5 outgoing credit, etc”.

Works perfectly with Sipdroid for all android phones, must install the version off there site http://sipdroid.org/ if you want to utilitize 3G/Edge calling, if not the version on the market uses Wlan and works just as well. Use setting below

Steps:
1) Login to your gizmo5 (www.gizmo5.com) account page
2) enter your GV username and password
3) Go to your SIPVoip Deviceapplication and enter the following: (or just download the gizmo5 application)
-Username: your 10+1 digit Gizmo5 number found on your Gizmo account page
-Password: enter your password
-Server: proxy01.sipphone.com
4) Login to GV and add your Gizmo5 number and verify it – pick up the call when you receive it and enter the verification code

DONE – free, easy to use outgoing and incoming calls with your GV number! Everything works great, when you call out, it shows your GV #, and when ppl call your GV #, it should ring your gizmo5 account!

You can also buy an ATA addon and hook up your landline phone to it and use the same settings! Been reading forums and it seems that the Linksys PAP2 NA is the recommended ATA: PAP2 NA on eBay

If youve never heard of gizmo5, they allow unlimited incoming calls. Now this is where Google Voice steps in and the magic happens, whenever you want to call someone via GV, it requires it to call your phone, and then use GV to call out – so basically every call incoming and outgoing, is really incoming. Gizmo5 just made it 100 times easier with this integration and now no callin is required to dial out.

——



—–
Careful with ebay PAP2′s as listed above. High rate of defects.As reported by many on DSL Reports

Also there is an Error in regards to “landline” description for the ATA. I believe the person means your POTS phones with the FXS port. FXO is to connect to the CO landline. The Linksys SPA-3102 will do this. $69.98 at Amazon. This way you can still have your Telco line come into the device for everyone that has your landline number, and call route out VoIP for outgoing Calls

—-
Detailed Tutorial with Pictures

—
Be sure NOT to use Nimbuzz if using iphone. It is not able to verify your GV account link to gizmo since you cannot dial the code GV gives you (there is no dialpad). Also, I was unable to call out using Nimbuzz – dialing out did nothing other than it pretending to call out. I was able to receive incoming calls though.

Siphon from Cydia worked flawlessly.

—————
New info added by Gizmo:
Calls are limited to 20 minutes, service subject to change

From Thomas Edison, Nikolas Tesla and many, many others, scientists have been struggling to develop an electrical system that would work without wires.

In 18 montths Witricity, A Massachusetts company says it will be able to sell this sought after wireless electrical system to the general public. Based on the work of MIT physicist Marin Soljacic, the company made the announcement at the TEDGlobal conference that ended Friday in Oxford in the U.K.

The company showed a transmitting unit, placed in a wall, powering a television set several feet away. CEO Eric Giler also showed how the system could wirelessly charge a G1 Android cellphone equipped with an antenna within the phone case itself without any outside modification. The iPhone was part of the demonstration but due to the Iphone design the antennea had to be external.

The system works on resonant magnetic coupling and is safe for humans. It could not only eliminate power cords but also tons of batteries used yearly to power household devices so this is also important for environmental needs and fits right in with the growing ‘green’ movement.

WiTricity showed a version of the technology in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

While 18 months may just be around the corner the company does have some notable competition such as Intel.

This is pretty funny up until the point when you start to realize AT&T is taking a fundamental change and implementing a web filter/firewall for our own safety. Could this be the beginning of a censored web?

This story is just developing but it should be interesting to watch to say the least. One side note is that AT&T will be able to test out their new anti DDOS systems with this little maneuver.

From a comment on Digg to keep this in perspective:

Does AT&T even realise what they’ve done? What they’re dealing with? How THEY will not only come after AT&T as a whole, but will attack each individual employee? The first executive who speaks out on this can decide to apologise, and let it slide, or can support the ban, and see his life slowly fall apart due to porn subscriptions, free condom samples, pizzas being delivered, phone calls at all times of day, etc, etc.

THEY never forgive, THEY never forget.

Watch live video from Your Movie lounge on Justin.tv
While this is not the typical post it is interesting to see how the internet evolves.

A few years ago I read a Techcrunch post about Justin.tv and how live-streaming will grow in the near future. I didn’t pay much attention to the article and little did I know that the video streaming services are growing like weeds. One of the side effects of easily streaming media and anything visible on your computer screen is piracy. See for yourself as movies that are still in theaters are available to view for free through various streaming media servers.  Maybe I should add this site to the Deals section, what do you think? Now if I can just find some free popcorn.

If you are curious how live streaming services can take advantage of the Twitter phenomenon check out this site for some twitter live streams.

While I havent had a chance to fully comprehend everything within the video, it is over an hour after all, I wanted to share with some of the guys that subscribe to the feed. If you have any thoughts or comments feel free to leave them below.