Category: Product Reviews

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Geeky/Programming Product Reviews

iPhone Free Unlock? Information is FREE!

Looks like the iPhone Dev Hackers Team has just released the source code for a free unlock so you can use the iPhone with any SIM…how sweet is that? It reminds me of the movie Antitrust – where they broadcast the source code over every device in the world!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/11/early-iphone-sim-unlock-open-source-code-released/

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/exclusive/iphone-free-software-unlock-confirmed-death-star-explodes-298825.php

http://iphone.unlock.no

Now, I have bashed the iPhone recently, and I still stand by that bashing. I hate the fact it is locked to AT&T. I will never get one and activate it with AT&T. But, do I get one and hack the hell out of it? Well, of course. If I can move my SIM from my T-Mobile Dash to the iPhone and back, well that is just awesome. I still think there should be an SDK, hopefully one day there is.

Question is, do you wait for the 2nd Gen iPhones? Do you get one now? I might walk down to the Apple store right now and check them out. Seeing as I can hack it/unlock it, it makes it soooo much more appealing. Here is a screenshot of some code, directly from my computer, love it :

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Oh, and also an Exec at Apple today said that they are indifferent on 3rd party apps on the phones, which is a good stance.

I still despise iTunes. Next task for the iPhone Dev Team – rewrite iTunes!

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Product Reviews

RocketDock and Taskbar – Trying something new..

A friend was complaining going on about how Windows looks bad and Macs just look so cool, yadda yadda, and as I dug in deeper, it was like, “oooh the pretty icons at the bottom” and stuff like that.

So, I decided to look into options for Windows with a dock at the bottom. I know Stardock has Object Desktop has something, but I have tried their suite in the past, just puts too much bloat on your system, and it costs $$ too. I found one and set up their system to by more “Mac Like”

Found another alternative – RocketDock. (gotta love the tagline: “The single greatest piece of software. Ever.”) – It is a sweet dock application, I like it so far. And, I have been using Windows since Win 3.1, and then 9x, and I have always had my taskbar at the bottom of the screen, the default. Well, after install RocketDock, I am trying something new – the taskbar at the top.

new_layout_Small

I have the RocketDock set to autohide, which is cool.It is a different experience, but I kind of like it. I still am switching the Sidebar in Vista on and off too, I have the App Launcher gadget which is nice, as well as the Battery Meter gadget…

If you are feeling like you need a change, check out RocketDock

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Product Reviews

Best Facebook App? – Toolbar for Firefox

Everyone talks about how the applications within Facebook are awesome, which is true, they are, but they add on to Facebook. One app that I rarely hear about or see used though, the Toolbar for Firefox (http://developers.facebook.com/toolbar/)

This toolbar is awesome. If you have Firefox open, which throughout the day you usually do – it will alert you when your friends’ profiles update, or you get new messages, etc. Toast message popup’s.

I have found that by having it, you get more out of Facebook, also the search feature for your friends is a pretty sweet Ajax type search, built into the toolbar.

I recommend that any Facebook junkie check out the toolbar! Get on it! Oh, and if you aren’t on Facebook – why aren’t you – sign up! And add me as a friend! (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=56011561)

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Geeky/Programming Product Reviews

Windows Live Installer Thoughts

The other day, the Windows Live team came out with the Windows Live Installer which basically incorporates all the Windows Live programs into one installer, pretty nice.

Few things though..

1) You can uninstall the installer and it doesn’t ask you to uninstall any of the programs it installed

2) When you run it, it takes forever to find installed programs on your computer

3) Windows Live Writer shortcuts were broken after I ran the installer

4) Windows Live Mail Desktop client – my contacts disappeared!! I put a post up in the forums, looks like others were having the same issue. I uninstalled, re-installed, but the uninstall must not be a full clean uninstall because when I ran it again all my info and accounts were still there, so it much save the info somewhere (in my Docs and Settings, Registry, somewhere – I didn’t take the time look). After fiddling around, removing accounts and what not, they magically reappeared though, so that is good

5) Not related to the release, but I noticed this, the automatic update of Windows Live contacts. There is a checkbox in the contact box in the mail client, if you uncheck, and come back later, it is checked again, ugh!

6) Also, in the mail client, the password doesn’t stop you from opening the application, it is just used for sync stuff. Kind of misleading, I put a bug on connect, but they said it was “by design”. Even though Microsoft will always want people to use multiple profiles on a computer, that is probably a pipe dream, people use one profile and just switch using programs such as mail, etc. Windows Live Messenger allows you to sign in differently based on account, why not do the same for the Mail client?

7) Even though I have gripes above, I still think it is a good thing, The Windows Live suite is coming along. Few things I would like – more options in the contacts, to be able to set other IM addresses per service (AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo). Also, the ability to set pictures for your contacts would be nice. Also, they need to get the calendar solution going to.

Overall, I love the Windows Live suite, the mail/contacts/messenger/live writer apps are awesome. I use my T-Mobile dash, and with Windows Mobile 6.0, my Windows Live contacts sync to my phone, and Windows Live Messenger integration happens right on my phone, very sweet. I use the mail desktop app on my laptop, it is less bulky than outlook, built specifically for Windows Live (BTW, my main email address is @stevienova.com – I use Windows Live Custom Domains to manage that and integrate it with Windows Live – another sweet product!). Then, when somewhere out and about where I don’t have my laptop or connectivity on my phone, but Internet or another computer, I can use http://mail.live.com to get my mail/contacts. Sweet sweet integration!

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Life Product Reviews

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Thursday, I went and caught the last showing of “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters”. What a hilarious movie. It is about basically, the Donkey Kong world record. This guy Billy Mitchell had it in 1982, and this guy is just a real character, like thinks he is the best player ever, just very cocky. Then this guy Steve Wiebe beats his record but there is all the controversy behind it, tons of video game nerds in the movie getting excited over high scores and things like that, just so funny…

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It is funny because all of these guys are like in LOVE with Billy Mitchell, and they don’t want him to lose his record, but Steve Wiebe just keeps coming back, and finally they have to accept he is better..

http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx?c=19&id=1433

http://www.billyvssteve.com/

some of the quotes are just great, especially from their little daughter

“Work is for people who can’t play video games”

“Some people ruin their lives to get in there” (talking about the Guinness Book of World Records)

and there are tons of other quotes from the other people in the film that just make you laugh. If you have a chance to see this movie, I recommend it!

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Life Product Reviews

Music Millennium on 23rd and Johnson: Going out of Business

Was walking 23rd today, Music Millennium is going out of business at the end of the month, so I decided to stop by. Tons of music, all discounted. I picked up a goofy cover cd – Butchering the Beatles – metal covers of The Beatles. Anyone who is in PDX should check out MM before the close down, good deals!

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Business Intelligence Geeky/Programming Product Reviews SQLServerPedia Syndication

Reporting Services Scripter: Sync Reporting Services Instances and Objects

The other day, I was tasked with moving all objects from one SQL Server Reporting Services instance to another. I know you can move the database itself, but then you run into issues with encryption keys etc. I just wanted to move the objects. I know that pretty much everything in SSRS is extensible, so I knew I could write something to do it, but before I went out and coded it, I Googled first to see if someone else had something. Turns out there is an awesome utility: Reporting Services Scripter. Works like a charm!

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Geeky/Programming Product Reviews Random

Facebook: Signing up can be tough if..

Your last name is “Gay”

I asked a buddy of mine, Joe Gay (yes that is his name), “why aren’t you on Facebook yet”, and his response was, “They won’t let me sign up, they won’t allow my last name”

What gives? That is his name, they should allow it. He shouldn’t have to email customer support to sign up.

So, what do we do? Put Gaaay instead Gay. That gets through. But in the process, accidentally picked the wrong year for his birthday.

Now, what is even better, is that you can’t update your name or birth year once you are logged in. Well not easily anyways. From the help page

Did you misspell your own name? Are you tired of that embarrassing nickname? You can request a change from the “Settings” tab on the Account page. For quality control purposes, we confirm all name changes before they take place.

But I suppose they will get bucky again about his last name

Same thing with the birth year

You can edit the month and day of your birth from the “Basic” tab of the Edit My Profile page. For security reasons, Facebook Customer Support reviews all requests for edits to your birth year. To submit a request, click here.

Facebook really should let users edit this information, instead of them having to send an email off to customer support, it just doesn’t make much sense.

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Life Product Reviews

Redo: New Gadget: Verizon EV-DO v740 Express Card

Well, after I posted yesterday, I got a comment from EVDOInfo.com about how the v640 wasn’t Rev-A, doh!

So today I walked down to the Verizon store and exchanged it. Yea the v740 cost a little more, but worth it. Yesterday I was getting between 300-700k (700 at most!). Here are the speeds on the v740:

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Pretty sweet, thank you evdoinfo for the tip!

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Product Reviews Random

New Gadget: Verizon EV-DO v640 Express Card

This weekend I decided to check out EV-DO card options. I found a card from Verizon for 9.99 online at their site, so I couldn’t go wrong. I am using it right now, which is pretty sweet. The whole city of Portland is covered by their Broadband Access, so that is good.

Now I don’t have to worry about shotty wifi! 🙂

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