Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

Apple fan or not, if you haven’t visited “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” go take a look around, it’ll be worth it. The blog has become quite popular over the last several months, and even the real Steve Jobs has admitted to reading the blog. It’s funny, and entertaining, and one of my favorite posts came from the day the iPhone launched. It was titled “29 June 2007: The day the world changed.” I’d say his older material is better than some of the recent stuff, but it’s all still good.

People have been wondering for a while now who this “Fake Steve” is and many have been going to the extremes to try and figure it out. Apple 2.0 recently posted (as have others) that all evidence is pointing to a man named Andy Ihnatko who writes tech reviews for the Chicago Sun Times and also does back-page humor for MacWorld. After checking out two of Ihnatko’s blogs (here and here), you can’t help but notice the similarities in the writing style.

Now, when I said people were going to extremes to find out who the author is, I meant it. TUAW.com posted about how one site put their detective hat on to solve the mystery:

If you checked out Fake Steve Jobs’s site yesterday, you might have seen a short post about a marginally funny iPhone Haiku site. I’ve still got the post in my Google Reader, as you can see in the pic. Seems harmless, right?

That’s what FSJ thought. But apparently, the link was sent to him by the guys at Sitening (who also created the Haiku site as a lark), and the link he was sent was a specially created link, made up just for FSJ by the Sitening guys. See where this is going? When he clicked the link, they tracked his IP, and here it is: 68.160.21.224. That IP traces back to a Verizon service, which the Sitening guys say is in Boston, MA.

Considering Ihnatko lives in the Boston area, I think the hunt for Fake Steve is just about over. Unfortunately, part of the appeal for me was that no one knew who this guy was.

Anyways, check out Fake Steve if you haven’t.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on April 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

One of the questions that I get asked rather frequently is how people can take their media with them to places (normally work) without carrying a media player around. There are plenty of services out there that will let you upload, for example, your music so that it can be accessed from anywhere. But most of the time people want to stream it directly from their home machine.

Is it possible? Of course, it’s just a matter of finding the right tools for the job. If you’re trying to stream media (music, movies, images, documents, or television) from your home computer I recommend checking out the free Orb service. With it you download and install a small application that always runs on your computer. Then by logging into their website you can access nearly any type of media that has made its way onto your machine. Forget a file at home? No problem! Orb can not only stream media but will also let you download files directly from your home computer.

–Supported Media–

Orb handles a wide array of media including television, videos, photos, music, documents, and more. In the configuration options you can set the directories that you want Orb to snatch media from, which means the control is really in your hands.

You might be wondering how the streaming television works. It’s required that your computer have a supported tuner first of all. After that it takes just a few steps to configure the Orb software. You can also schedule shows to record so that you don’t miss them!

–Supported Devices–

The primary computer that hosts the media will need to be running Windows XP or Vista for Orb to work. Then when it comes to accessing the media all you really need is a computer with a browser and Internet connection. Or more specifically…

• Any Windows, Linux or Mac OS-X laptop or desktop computer that has a broadband connection and a media player that can stream Windows, Real or 3GP media, such as Windows Media Player (v.9 or above), WinAmp, RealPlayer (v.9 or above) or Quicktime Player.
• Any Pocket PC that has Microsoft Windows 2002, 2003 or Mobile 5 Pocket PC.
• Any Palm OS device with the Kinoma Player 4 EX is compatible with Orb. Such devices include (but are not limited to) the Treo 650, 680, 700p, 750 and the Tungsten C.
• Any cell phone with a Web browser and either Windows Media Player, TCPMP, RealPlayer, or 3GP Player.
• All of the major gaming consoles so that you can stream all the digital content from your home PC and from the Web onto your TV screen in the living room! Orb works seamlessly with the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

So it’s safe to say that you can stream media using Orb to a lot of different devices.

–Setup–

I hadn’t used Orb prior to writing this article, and despite being a first-time user I had the software setup and running within a few minutes. Here’s what you have to do:

1. Download and install Orb. It’s available in a variety of different languages, and works with Windows XP or Vista.
2. Start going through the setup process. If you don’t already have an Orb account you’ll be able to create one from within the application. Note: You’ll need to verify your email address if you’re creating a new account.
3. Head on over to mycast.orb.com to start streaming media! There you’ll find a fully customizable homepage, but I recommend that you click the Open Application button to select what type of media you want to stream:
    

–Remotely Manage Media–

Now that you have Orb setup and understand how to navigate around the site it’s time to have some fun! You can create playlists of your favorite songs so that they are quickly accessible, and managing photos is a breeze. From within the Orb MyCast site you can do it all:

(Click to Enlarge)

And before you shrug this off as something you’ll never use there’s one very important aspect that has made this a valuable tool to me: downloads. Even if you don’t want to use Orb to stream your media it can still be used kind of like a personal FTP server. If you get to work and realize you forgot an important document at home just pull up Orb, find the file, and click the download button. To speed things up you can even have the file compressed before downloading it (if you’re downloading multiple files they’ll automatically be compressed before sending them):

–Overview–

There is a sense of reassurance that Orb isn’t storing any of my files on their servers, but at the same time they’ve got an amazing online interface that I can use to access any of my media located at home. Give it a whirl and I’m sure you’ll like it as well!

Orb Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on November 30, 2006 by CyberNet.

Coincidentally Zoho just released a plug-in that almost does what many of us were talking about in the comments yesterday on the Google Spreadsheets post. The plug-in is for Microsoft Office and will allow you to save and open your Microsoft Word/Excel documents to Zoho from within the application itself. So you could look at Zoho almost as being another storage spot on your hard drive.

They also have a program from Desktopize that will make Zoho feel even more like a desktop application. It will provide things like shortcuts on your desktop, drag-and-drop uploads, and system tray icons so that your files will be easily accessible without that hassle of fumbling through websites or opening a sluggish program.

I really love these features and think it was a very important move to put Zoho beyond their competitors. The screenshot above shows the plug-in when it is being used in Office 2007 but it also works for older versions of the Office Suite as well. Unfortunately the plug-in doesn’t work for PowerPoint but the two primary applications that I use are Word and Excel anyways, so I can live with only having those be compatible.

So are there any Google Docs users out there that are feeling pretty tempted to switch their stuff over to the world of Zoho?

Note: These are direct download links because the two downloads don’t actually have a homepage:
Download Zoho Plug-in for Microsoft Office
Download Desktopize for Zoho

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on November 30, 2012 by CyberNet.

If you’ve worked at a web development company with many clients I’m sure you’ve had a bunch of different domains for each of the various sites. Creating the DNS entries for each of the different sites can be a pain, and after a while I’m sure you get to the point where trying to cleanup unused DNS entries would be a nightmare.

That’s where a free service like xip.io comes in. It is a “magic domain” that serves as a wildcard DNS entry for any IP address you want. Basically in the URL you just have to specify the IP you want it to point to. This is what the format looks like:

• 10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1
• www.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1
• mysite.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1
• foo.bar.10.0.0.1.xip.io resolves to 10.0.0.1

The cool thing is that there is absolutely no configuration needed for any of this to work. Basically the DNS server will pull the IP address from the URL, and return it to your browser. If you’re a system administrator that manages the DNS for your company that would mean you’d no longer need to create DNS entries for your developers, which can save a huge amount of time if you have new sites always popping up.

The service is completely free and you can start using it without ever even visiting the xip.io site. A big thanks to the fine people over at 37signals for putting this together.

xip.io Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on September 02, 2006 by CyberNet.

Weekend Warrior

The CouchSurfing Project is a free Internet based service that has over 100,000 users in over 205 countries. Members of the project can offer their couch to other members for a free stay while they are traveling. There’s nothing better than free accommodations while you’re traveling!

Lots of people have found the service very helpful and it shows with their active user community.  Back in June of this year they experienced computer problems which resulted in their database being lost. Originally they announced that would be the end of the project, however they decided to rebuild and they were able to re-launch the “CouchSurfing 2.0″ project not long after the crash.

–How Does It Work? –

First of all, their official missions statement says

“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”

For them it’s not about just helping people find an affordable place to stay– it’s about making the world “a better world by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives.  CouchSurfing gives a great example of how this might work. 

• You become a member of CouchSurfing.com. Create a profile and fill it out as much as possible, including photos. Be sure to link to any friends you might already have in the network.
• Consider joining some discussion groups in your areas of interests or engage in the chat. You meet some friendly people online and share in some interesting discussions.
• You decide you want to spend two weeks traveling around Europe. You get a ticket arriving in Amsterdam and departing from Florence.
• You log on to CouchSurfing.com and do a search for members within 20 km/miles of Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Zurich and Florence- your new travel itinerary.
• You contact interesting prospects from the list and explain the sort of travel/stay you’re interested in. Use the “Request to CouchSurf with…” button to include specific details.
• You get several offers for places to stay. You decide that you want to spend a few days in each city.
• You confirm with your hosts, adjust your travel plans, and excitedly fly off to Amsterdam.
• Martin picks you up at the airport and takes you back to his flat in the Rembrandtplein section of Amsterdam. The two of you walk around the neighborhood and meet some of his friends at a lively cafe for dinner. You stay up late sharing stories and getting to know each other. Martin recommends some interesting places you might like to explore around the city. When he returns from work the next evening, he takes you to his favorite pub and you tell him about your adventures. The two of you laugh and connect; you make new friends at the pub, and you’re grinning the whole walk home along the canals.
• As an example of a good surfer, you do as much as you can to give back to your hosts. This includes doing simple things like, for example, washing the dishes, making dinner or helping out in some way. Maybe you have a special skill you’re willing to share?
• You say good-bye and move on to Brussels, Frankfurt, and then Zurich. In each location you’ve met some great people and gotten to experience being a part of the culture through your connection with your host. You go places you would have never read about in a guidebook, meet interesting locals, and spend time bonding with your host. You’re actually experiencing those “deep and meaningful connections” you’ve read about on the site, and you’re making friends for life.
• You decide to stay a little longer in Florence and your host, Donia, has agreed to let you spend a week with her.
• You spend the week talking with Donia about politics, travel, art, your hometown, and a whole lot of other things. She lets you borrow her bicycle and gives you a map she’s marked with some fun places to check out. On the weekend she takes you on a side trip to visit some relatives in a small Tuscan village. You learn to make awesome marinara sauce, you take a hike through picturesque rolling hills and her uncle, a craftsman, gives you a handmade leather belt. You’re amazed at the time you’re having! Back in Florence, Donia takes you to her favorite gelato place and you know it’s the best thing you’ve ever tasted.
• By the time you leave on the bus for the airport, you feel that you’ve gotten a good feel for the local life in each of the places you’ve traveled. You’ve made many new friends and you hope Martin, Donia and others will visit you. You can’t wait for your turn to show them the great things about your culture.
• When you arrive home you are so excited about CouchSurfing you go immediately to the participate tab and start helping CouchSurfing community advance the mission of the project.

.If I were to use this type of service, there’s no doubt I’d be thinking about simple security and safety.  CouchSurfing has a method in place to keep members safe.  First, no money is exchanged.  This service is meant to be free. Another security feature put in place to ensure safety is the “personal references.”  It will keep track of your personal references– the feedback that is given between hosts and surfers, as well as surfers and hosts after a stay.

–Possible Problems With The Service–

Some of the problems pointed out are that sometimes it is being used as a “dating service” rather than a method for someone to find hospitality in unfamiliar surroundings. While some use it as a dating service, others have found it as a great method to make new friends in new parts of the world while traveling.

–Other Information/Summary–

I haven’t tried the service myself and quite honestly I don’t know that I would ever have a need for it. However, there are plenty of people that are willing and wanting to snatch up a good couch for a quick, affordable stay.  CouchSurfing makes traveling for the penny pincher, and the adventurist affordable!

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com