June 2009 - Webconsuls

Clean Installs Don’t Have to Hurt

Tuesday June 30, 2009

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Yesterday a clean install was performed on my computer. The process refered to as a “clean install” means all your data is going to be wiped off your computer and your computer is going to be as clean as it was the day you purchased it, maybe cleaner.

In my case my clean install was prompted by the need to reinstall an operating system as my Windows 7 beta was going to expire and needed to be updated to Windows 7 Release Candidate 1. Other reasons to do a clean install might be to clean out the cobwebs and improve performance. Viruses and harddrive crashes as well as other hardware failures may also force a clean install.

The warnings to back up and then back up some more generally fall on deaf ears. When the question is posed to a group of people about their data backup strategy the room quickly divides.

In the first group you have your smug fellows who do backup their files, second you have your optimistic group who are sure such a catastophe will never befall them or they have this pragmatic confidence that while this could happen to them they will certainly have gotten their back up act together by then and will be prepared, the third group have lost data, they know the damage it can do and yet they know they do not have a backup and their heads hang in shame and maybe a little bit of fear.

But there is another group. A group that “Lives on the Cloud”, meaning the information in stored on the internet and not on your harddrive. Life on the cloud is “hardware independent” because your harddrive will die and you don’t want it to take out your data with it. Let me give you a taste of how this can work.

How My Gmail Account has Changed the Reinstall Forever
By using gmail for your domain my email and all the related attachments can be accessed on any computer with a username and password. So after a clean install has been performed I log in to my gmail account and there are all of my emails just as I left them.

Log into my gmail account and access all my email.
Reinstall my programs by searching gmail for program name to find activation code and download most recent version of the internet.
My documents are all saved as Google Doc and are available upon sign in
My iGoogle Page has my bookmarks to frequented sites and important information which I reference often.

And I am back working at my clean computer and I know that I have my data. Do you?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

The iPhone web browser speed test knocks the competition out of the water. The statistics of the tests were rather astonishing. Medialets ran the SunSpider test suite with Safari 4.0.1 on a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo White MacBook (the baseline for comparisons), Mobile Safari on the iPhone 3G with iPhone OS v2.2.1, Mobile Safari on the iPhone 3G with iPhone OS v3.0, Mobile Safari on the iPhone 3GS with iPhone OS v3.0, the “Browser” app on the T-Mobile G1 with Android OS v1.5 (Cupcake) and the “Web” app on the Palm Pre with Web OS v1.0.2.

iPhone OS 3.0 on the same iPhone 3G yields nearly 3X the JavaScript performance in Mobile Safari vs. using iPhone OS 2.2.1. Which should make everyone who has not bought a 3GS very happy. The iPhone 3GS steps up another factor of 3, bringing JavaScript performance on the iPhone 3GS to 12X that of a desktop machine that has well over four times the raw processing power.

The T-Mobile G1 running the “Cupcake” version of the Android OS finished the test suite in about 91 seconds. It is about a third faster than the iPhone 3G running Apple’s OS (2.2.1). The Palm Pre had speeds that closely rival the iPhone 3G running Apple’s OS 3.0.

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My photo of 1985 “We Are The World” Album

This week we are the world. The world was all a twitter with tweets about the death of three American icons. These were three people from three generations.

On Tuesday our blogger honored Ed McMahon, who passed at age 86. McMahon was a gentleman that we welcomed into our homes for more than 30 years as Johnny Carson’s sidekick among other roles.

Yesterday, our blogger honored Michael Jackson, who passed at age 50. This iconic legend who most of us have watched for the past 40 years, from a little boy to a grown man, always surprised us with his talent and creativity, among other things.

I will not let the week go by without honoring Farrah Fawcett, who passed at age 62. For those of us who are Farrah’s peers by age, we remember her smile and her gorgeous hair. All the women wanted hair like Farrah and all the men wanted the women in their lives to have hair like Farrah. She was a fine actress and you would know this if you saw some of her more serious movies. Now she will be remembered as a brave woman who was willing to share with all of us her struggle with cancer to the end.

In this world filled with technology…twitter, plurk, tagged, YouTube, my space, facebook, emails, blogs…today is Saturday and it is just a day to remember that in January 1985 Michael Jackson collaborated with Lionel Richie and produced with Quincy Jones a song that touched us all. We are the World! (United Support of Artists for Africa) We listened intently, we bought the album and together we tried to help save a continent, most particularly Ethiopia.

As this day closes, I will remember that Dennis and I played this album with our children when they were quite young. The album is still in our home carefully preserved for whatever reason. Maybe because it made us think, hope and assure ourselves that we are all part of this world and this week We Are The World making a choice.

Enjoy this remarkable YouTube video of the studio recording of We Are The World. I’d would love to hear from you!

….change can only come…when we stand together as one!

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Michael Jackson was the ‘King of Pop’, even if you are not a pop music fan. There are few artists that change the way music is played, viewed or in this case danced to.

When I think to myself about the classic hits of Jackson’s career, I think of never being able to go to a wedding without hearing at least 3 to 5 of his hits, which then immediately fills the dance floor.

Personally I am more of a rock n’ roll guy, but I will admit I don’t enjoy dancing to anyone else’s songs much more. The way this guy moved on stage set the tone for all single pop acts after him. You look at one of today’s biggest acts, Justin Timberlake who’s career aims at the exact audience of Michael Jackson’s. Timberlake has basically said that he is just trying to be like Jackson. Originality is rare and can be revolutionary.

Michael Jackson continues the line of troubled mega-stars like Elvis, or in a sense the Beatles. With all of his recent problems and physical difficulties, may he rest in peace.

My final note is from my rock n roll perspective- check out how Jackson incorporated a rock solo played by Eddie Van Halen into a classic pop hit- ‘Beat It’.

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Why would anyone want to risk breaking an iPhone worth few hundred dollars to use on another carrier? They say unlocking any phone allows you to use it on other carriers. Jailbreaking an iPhone allows you to install applications that have not been approved by the App Store (which also have the possibility of causing harm to your phone).

Now, why would someone want to risk buying an expensive phone for that? A better approach to using an iPhone is just signing up with AT&T. The best part of having an iPhone with AT&T is support. Since they are the only carriers for that phone, they are the only ones who can provide network support.

What are your thoughts on the risk involved with unlocking/jailbreaking your iPhone?

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This morning came with the news of Ed McMahon’s death. Fighting bone cancer and pneumonia Ed passed away shortly after midnight at the Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center.

Ed McMahon is probably most widely known as the side kick to Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” Ed McMahon also hosted “Star Search” and was the face of “America’s Publishers Clearinghouse” sweepstakes.

A talented pitch man, Ed McMahon was born Edward Leo Peter McMahon Jr. on March 6, 1923 in Detroit, but it was in Lowell, Massachusetts this pitchman honed his chops. At the tender age of 15 Ed took his first job behind the microphone for a circus visiting his home town. And that is how he began.

An engaging laugh, jokes, skits and trademark phrases like, “H-e-e-e-e-e-r-e’s Johnny” and “Hi yo” (we call them memes in social media) Ed was a forerunner of the early days of television and grew into a household icon. He will be missed.

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Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week you know that Twitter has moved from being a noun to a verb with the help of CNN & the Iran Election. With all western news services, internet & phone service cut off the people of Iran are the only news team in town, complete with spies and counter spies.

Twitter users everywhere have shown solidarity with the protesters by turning their Twitter icons green and changing their location to Tehran to thwart searches for protesters by Iranian security forces.

On 9/11 we were all Americans, as the protests unfold on Twitter, we have all become Iranian.

The World & CNN are watching from Twitter. Here is how you can too.

If you have not done so already go sign up for Twitter.

After you have your account go to http://search.twitter.com/ there you can see the top 10 trending topics.

Trending topics: Iran, #iranelection, #musicmonday, Wimbledon, Tehran, Perez Hilton, Tim Burton’s Alice, Neda, iPhone, US Open

You can click these topics to see what is being said in real time on Twitter about each subject, or you can search for your own from the query field.

Once you get the results page notice in the top right “Feed For This Query” copy that link to your Google Reader account click “Add A Subscription” and paste the link into the field and have your search come to you!

Tune in next week when I show you how to use hashtags on Twitter…

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Happy Father’s Day from Waterville, Maine. As luck would have it, the internet is down today here in Waterville. Who knows why, maybe the non-stop rain. Anyway I asked Judy to send this greeting. Here is a photo of my dad holding me when I was a few hours old. That is my brother Aaron looking on.

This next photo is of me with my dad, Dennis, on the day of my Bar Mitzvah.

Over the years I have listened to Cat Steven’s song “Father and Son.” The words are remarkable and sooner or later I think all fathers and sons can relate. Enjoy this youtube video and Happy Father’s Day.

Dan

If you are having trouble viewing the video, you can see it here.

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Tagged (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On June 5, 2009, I received an email that looked as if it was being sent to me from one of our clients. It was from “Tagged” and the subject line said “XXXXX X sent you a message…”. Keep in mind I recognized XXXXX X as the first name and first initial of the last name of this client. So I opened the email. There was a photo of the client and a message that said “You have a new message from XXXXX X, check out these private photos. OK, OK, are you wondering why I continued? Well, this client has frequently over the past few years found innovative ways to send me large photos to use on her website. So, naturally I thought I better oblige and enjoy being TAGGED! What I now know is this: Being TAGGED is Annoying!

Even though I went through the process of filling out the TAGGED application, I never did see my client’s “photos.”
I started receiving emails from TAGGED telling me that I was welcomed to their world, that I was receiving extra bonus points.
And then suddenly on June 18, someone I have never heard of, one Robert Buy, set me FREE! Really?

I thought back to the days of my childhood. I am sure no matter how old you are you have some memory of playing a game of TAG. Don’t you? Did you like it? I think basically we played tag to kill time and as someone said on Wikipedia: “The game continues until the players are tired or lose interest.” Go ahead read up on the game of TAG on Wikipedia…it is very interesting.

On Friday morning I was all set to write this post about QWERTY, but my husband asked me to look at his new TAGGED friends. Oh, please…a regular smorgasbord of beauties. Then I began to think about this a little more: Am I the only person who feels being TAGGED is annoying? Apparently not. I googled and found the most interesting article from TIME.com dated June 11, 2009, “TAGGED: The World’s Most Annoying Website.”

Now hear this. I am going to cancel my TAGGED account because I am tired and have no interest in being annoyed with extra emails, bonus points and I was not set free by Robert! How about you, do you find being TAGGED annoying?

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The continued quest in the Pay Per Click world of writing a good and targeted ad within the allotted 70 characters is not an easy one. It is widely practiced concept of writing an ad not only to attract searchers to your business/web site, but also to deter those that are not targeted to your desired audience- keeping in mind clicks are far from free. I have written in the past, not all traffic is good traffic in the PPC world.

Recently a client of mine was getting a substantial amount of clicks and responses to the call to action of his site- phone call traffic- but those phone calls were mostly of poor quality. A tactic was chosen to modify the ad to let the searcher know up front the minimum cost of the service at hand, as to confront that searcher (potentially) before the per click charge was realized. This made a significant difference in the quality of caller, because we were able to educate the searcher to what he/she was getting into with the facility at hand.

That is, the ad itself, not the landing page, stated what the minimum cost was as to get in the door. This promotion of up front facts supports the no nonsense approach that works more times than not. We are looking to promote clicks for those not scared by the ‘sticker shock’ of the price- a way to potentially modify behavior in our favor and lower costs at the same time. In this instance the time of taking that un-targeted phone call traffic was also costing money.

It may make sense and work for you in your marketplace. Use this idea particularly with any competitive advantages you may hold and highlight those things. You can reach the searcher before they take money out of your wallet and put it into Google or Yahoo’s.

Let Webconsuls reduce your spend with tools and methods like this. We’ll put it into practice for your businesses unique needs.

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A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-3H4 aircraft (N540SW) pictured on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, United States in the airline’s original desert gold livery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Airlines charge to check in each bag. In fact, the rate goes up depending on how many you check in. My wife, Zaheen, flew out to Austin, TX yesterday on Southwest Airlines and it turns out that they don’t charge for the first two bags. That’s how it use to be with all the airlines but seems like they are the only ones around that do not charge for the first two bags still.

Here are the airlines that I know of that charge
American Airline, America West/US Airways, Delta:
$15 for the first checked piece. ($30 on a round trip flight)
$25 for the second checked piece. ($25 + $15 = $40 x 2 = $80 on a round trip flight)

Next time you’re purchasing your ticket, depending on how many bags you’re checking in, it might be cheaper to fly Southwest than its competitors.

Oh and did I mention Southwest still serves snacks =)

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Pineapple Sage, Sweet Bay and Winter Savory have entered my culinary arsenal and they are here to stay. What has really changed is I now have these plants growing on my patio. Fresh herbs ready to go whenever I need them.

For a couple years now Darin and I have had our own garden. It started very haphazardly with a plant here and a plant there. We are starting to learn what grows as well as what we regularly use. Last year I started to use a lot of our fresh basil. Fresh basil grows easily and having access to fresh basil encouraged me to integrate it into more dishes.

This year I invested more time and energy into the herb category. I claimed all the patio space for herbs. The larger garden is about 3 flights of stairs from the kitchen so I knew if I was going to incorporate fresh herbs into my cooking it better be convenient or it just wasn’t going to happen.

Pineapple Sage

My intension was to buy Sage. How happy am I that this was the only Sage option at the nursery. This herb was a great find. Pineapple Sage has a wonderful pineapple scent as well as beautiful flowers which attract hummingbirds.

I am looking forward to trying the herb in lemonade and more recipes.

Pineapple Sage Recipes

Sweet Bay

Bay is not new to my herb collection but my Bay was always bought from the grocery store and who knows how long it sat on the shelf in the grocery store, not to mention my cupboard.

Fresh Bay leaves are actually stronger than their dried counterparts. A live Bay plant can replace the dried Bay in your cupboard. It is a beautiful easy to care for plant and can be trimmed into a topiary or bonsai if you are so inclined.

When you need to flavor a broth or soup carefully remove an older leaf. Older leaves contain more flavor. Bay leaves are very tough and sharp and should be removed before serving. I add a Bay leaf to mashed potatoes and it has made all the difference.

Winter Savory

By far the sleeper hit of our whole herb garden is Winter Savory. A delicious addition to most any meat and potato dish. I add Winter Savory to chicken by stuffing the interior cavity with the fresh herbs. I also will gently melt butter with the herb and then baste the chicken with the savory infused butter as it cooks. The smell is like none other.

I have not found this herb in stores. That was a huge surprise once I found what an easy and delicious contribution this herb makes. Maybe your local stores will differ, but I see no other option to enjoying Savory than to grow it myself.

Another very fun thing about herbs is that they all tend to come with a story. Even through I would not have discovered Savory in my local grocery store it isn’t to say that Savory hasn’t been around for a long time. The Saxon’s were great fans of Savory and it is said that “Virgil encouraged the planting of savory near one’s beehives because of the wonderful flavor it adds to the honey.” Winter Savory Recipes

I would encourage anyone with gardening and cooking aspirations to start with a simple herb garden. Start small and pick a few herbs that you can grow easily and that correspond with dishes you want to make.

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How Organized Consumer Purchasing Can Push Change.

Who else besides government is big enough to change the world?

We are.

CarrotMob, using mob mentality to push positive change.

The problem with corporations is that they will do anything for a buck.

The solution is that corporations will do anything for a buck!

Think you are too small to have an impact?

Try sleeping with a mosquito in the room…

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All week long I have been playing around with Smule‘s Leaf Trombone on my iPhone, a fully interactive trombone! It’s a lot of fun learning how to play classic songs like Stand by Me and Hallelujah; and after one masters a particular song they can perform it on the World Stage and be judged by their peers. With Smule’s Leaf Trombone World Stage you can be an artist and a judge; having that ability is what makes Leaf Trombone so amazing.

If the Ocarina was fun let me just tell you from experience that Smule Did it Again with Leaf Trombone. Smule’s applications make the world just a little bit smaller and a little bit better. The kicker for me was the fact that you can write your own songs and (or) convert your favorite songs to be played on the Leaf Trombone.

Playing Leaf Trombone is easy: blow into your iPhone’s microphone (or, in Touch mode, simply touch the screen) and press down on the leaf to play a note. Slide your finger towards you – you’ll hear the pitch get higher, just like a real trombone.

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The iPhone 3Gs’ new features are forces to be reckoned with! I have had an iPhone now for just under a year, in that time I have come to love and cherish it. The iPhone, in my opinion, had the most potential to revolutionize mobile technology as we knew it! Overnight, it quickly became the most useful piece of technology that I have ever owned.

After the initial infatuation period ended, I began to realize that there were things that disappointed me about the iPhone. I learned very quickly that with all modern marvels there will be glitches and hiccups along the way. Beta, Beta, Beta! The iPhone is a painting that has yet to be finished, always changing and always evolving; adapting to the needs of the people. Everything that disappointed me with with the iPhone 3G the 3Gs has made up for!

We now have the ability to: copy and paste, take video, send picture and video text-messages, and the list goes on and on. The 3Gs is faster and smarter, we have the capability to make our own applications and now that there is a digital compass we will never get lost! The possibilities are absolutely endless, and I’m pretty sure that the sky is no longer the limit. Here are the details on just a few of the new features:

“Now you can shoot video, edit it, and share it — all on your iPhone 3GS. Shoot high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape. Trim your footage by adjusting start and end points. Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube, or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.”

“Voice Control recognizes the names in your Contacts and knows the music on your iPod. So if you want to place a call or play a song, all you have to do is ask.”

“Surf the web from practically anywhere. Now you can share the 3G connection on your iPhone with your Mac notebook or PC laptop.”

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Exactly one month ago I was on Facebook making a comment to a Webconsuls’ team member. Why I was commenting is not important; however, what I determined in the commenting process was that my team member did not have a US Passport. His exact words were: ‘Last time I left the country I didn’t need a passport, We don’t get out much…’ Don’t get out much? What if you have an emergency? What if you have an unexpected opportunity? The US Passport rules changed effective June 1, 2009. Who needs a US Passport?

The easiest answer to my rhetorical question is every US Citizen should have a US Passport. Effective June 1, 2009, US Citizens now need a Passport (or an enhanced Driver’s License issued by some states) to re-enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and 17 nations in the Caribbean region.

Perhaps you are wondering why I am discussing passports on a Saturday morning. Well, I learned a long time ago that having a passport just makes good sense. In 1981, Dennis had to travel on business to France. Before he left he insisted that Aaron and I get our passports, just in case there were an emergency and we had to travel to France. So 28 years ago this month Aaron and I were issued our first US Passports. (See the photos below).

Now let’s talk about today. Webconsuls has clients in foreign countries and while we have not yet traveled to visit our client in Cambodia or the Bruzzos in Italy, it could happen! Here in Tucson, the owner of La Fuente Restaurant recently asked us to travel to Mexico for an afternoon.

The up shot of my Facebook discussion with my team member is that this week our Tucson neighbor offered us the use of his condo in Rocky Point, Mexico(overlooking the Sea of Cortez). We called our team member and asked him if he wanted to go with us…but alas, no US Passport!

Who needs a US Passport? You tell me….

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Chickenfoot is a new rock n roll group consisting of veteran musicians- Sammy Hagar (vocals) and Mike Anthony (bass) from Van Halen, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers (drums) and the guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani.

Take a listen above, if you are not a big fan of the current state of rock n roll music (like me) you will be pleasantly surprised that these wily veterans are putting out the classic sound rarely heard today. Granted this first single isn’t the deepest subject matter, but there is still a place for a good anthem in my book.

Also look out for the performance of this track live on the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

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You’ve seen the Digg button on most blogs but how often have you seen a tweet button?

Twitter has been growing since it was developed and is more of a social trend to be on twitter more than anything else. Now you can allow your business or personal blog posts to be tweeted.

Here is how it works, Tweet Meme allows you to tweet a specific page or a specific blog post and provides the code for it (very friendly). What it does not show you is how to add it on a blogger template.

Here is how you can modify your blogger template to include a tweet button how we have here (look on the top right).

1) Locate the following line: <BlogDateHeader>
2) Place the following code:
<div style=”float:right;”>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
tweetmeme_url = ‘STEP-3‘;
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js”> </script></div>
</script>

3) change STEP-3 to <$BlogItemUrl$>

A bit of HTML or blogger template experience may be required.

Contact Webconsuls to get a FREE quote on a custom personal or business blog.

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Play Rock Band with The Beatles!

Gamespot gives a look at the new Beatles Rock band version.

6 people playing at once and 3 part vocal harmonies, HOW FUN!

Here comes the sun! Sun Sun Sun, Here it comes!

OUR BLOG

Month: June 2009

Clean Installs Don’t Have to Hurt