Unfortunately, due to the fact that I am not as active on the site as I would like to be AND that there is a LOT of garbage out there, I have to crank the security on this site way up.

As a result many of your comments, as innocent as they appear to me, don’t get through to my ok-ing them. I’ve pulled what I thought were the most valid of the bunch out of the cesspool and it is possible that there are a few other’s that I have missed. If I did, I again apologize.

This all has to do with the garbage out on the web these days, the spam robots out there are ferocious! When I first set up this site, it was literally buried by them. I would get hundreds of garbage replies a day and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t keep up with manually deleting the stuff out there. My only recourse was to tighten things up as much as possible.

Unfortunately, this usually causes any quick one liners to get put in the spam filter, but why the others about Gipp Forster or the CherryPal fell into it boggles my mind, it could be the ip address or it could be something else. I really don’t know.

I will try to take a much closer look in the spam sewer in future – in hopes of rescuing other valid comments, but until then, let me again apologize for missing your comments. They really REALLY are appreciated. Even if the computer doesn’t like them….

Rick

As it should happen, I’m in a position right now to spend some money on a new toy.

To be specific, I’ve been torn between a new laptop, a kayak, and an iPad. Of the three my heart was leaning towards the iPad, but it had a major problem (for me) it came with no hard-drive and expandable storage. Now for most people this shouldn’t be an issue. The iPad is really a consumption device more than a  “work tool”, but I was feeling claustrophobic thinking about how limited my options might be in future.

A laptop can always be expanded easily just by popping on a USB drive, a Kayak…. well it’s got every river, lake, stream, sea, ocean in the world if I want it. It was just the iPad…. could I “live” with a measly 16 or 32 GB knowing that there would be no way to expand it easily for storage purposes? It has no SD slot, nor no easy USB ports…

I decided to see what was out there that would work for what I wanted ( unlimited storage space. ) I first decided to look at Cloud storage services. This is essentially other companies who offer storage space on the Internet that can be accessed by one or more machines. The data is secured by passwords and or encryption and backed up by the company itself. One of these I’ve talked about previously dropbox.

My problem was that while dropbox is great for temporarily sharing data I found it beyond cumbersome when it came to easy access and in most cases to use the data you had to transfer it all over to the machine you were working on before you could use it. This can be a real drag to a limited machine ( in my opinion).

What I wanted was something that looked and acted like a disk drive to the computer and data could be accessed when wanted, but not necessarily stored permanently within the computer itself… and I found such a beast. It’s called ZumoDrive and it works really well with Windows, Mac’s, iPhones, iPads AND Ubuntu! It sounded like a match in heaven…. Watch the video to find out more…

After installing it on 2 windows machines and 2 Ubuntu machines I am able to access any data within the ZumoDrive on any machine and it really does act and work like a normal disk drive! Problem solved!

So now I’ve decided an iPad2…. unfortunately I have to wait until the end of the month to order one (I’m not in the US. ) I just have to try and not buy any other toys until then…. By the way if you like what you see you can sign up for up to 2GB of free storage to check it out, and if you use this link here, and I’ll give you a little a bit more -> Click Here

Well that’s not quite the end of it…. by complete serendipity, I was given another solution by a friend of mine, which will work quite well for sharing media ( like songs, pictures, movies, etc). It’s called AirStash. This is another cool device that goes on my “want” list… The neat thing about this device is that it actually acts like a networked drive using your WiFi connection and SD Cards but you aren’t dependent on the Internet. Some examples on the website show using it in the car while traveling. This video will give you more info on it – the only thing that doesn’t seem clear is whether it can be accessed by other operating systems….. still it’s on my want list for my iPad ….

No deals available that I could find but I’ll let you know if I find one!

So check both of these solutions out! I think you’ll be impressed

The trick is that you will need to download and install on your kindle a “book” application that is available off of the kindle users forum. This book has approximately 50 already available newsfeeds but more can be added later using their web interface.

I’ve found that the easiest way to get the feed you want  on the book you installed is to:

1. Set up the feed online through your normal web browser on your computer after you have logged into the forum. The Kindle User Forum will then assign it a number based on your account.
2. On the kindle, open up the book and go to tools then add a new feed. Page down to page 2 and enter the number you generated in step 1. Then open that feed.

In future that feed will be presented at the top of your “book” along with any other feeds you have subscribed to. Just click on the feed link and it will open automatically in your Kindle Browser.

You can certainly do all this on your Kindle, but I find that the ease of using the computer and cutting and pasting links and such to be so much easier. Now note that I really glossed over the instructions. I just wanted to show how easy it was. Follow the prompts and guides online and you shouldn’t have any issues.

 

Some have asked me why I didn’t get the iPad, and others have asked why I didn’t go with another e-reader ( there are still quite a few out there. ) So let me explain here….

I needed something to read all the ebooks that I have been accumulating from different sites, the majority of which were free ( there are hundreds of thousands of free books and articles out there. )  I’ve tried reading them on my computer, but it isn’t viable to sit at my desk for hours at a time reading ( although I still do that some what for other reasons. )

I’ve tried reading books and articles on my Palm, but the small screen makes it painful. Having to turn pages quite often due to the small size of the screen. I’ve tried a laptop in an easy chair, but man it gets HOT after a while with it on my lap!

I really Really REALLY wanted an iPad. It would be the ultimate portable device for me, replacing both a notebook/netbook as well as several other devices ( like my trusty Palm Tungsten E5. ) Yes it will also work for reading ebooks and PDF files ( something that the Kindle line still has a few challenges with ) but the price is still prohibitive. You have to remember I’m “RETIRED” so I can’t run out and buy any toy that strikes my fancy ( not that I could before – but hopefully you understand that of which I mean. ) 

Even with the Canadian dollar doing so well against the U.S., for what ever reason the iPad still runs close to $700 here! Unfortunately, one can’t just order from the states and pay the almost at par exchange rate. This is where the Kindle came in.

I’ve read for years how much better e-ink was compared to an LCD screen. All the ebook readers out there used e-ink but the e-ink technology is still only Black and White, they have yet to develop a good color screen. When I did my research, I found the Kindle had the highest number of grey levels of any e-ink device out there ( in my price range .)

The Kindle, like the Sony eReader,The Barnes and Noble Nook , The Indigo/Chapters Kobo and several others had a large 3rd party support organization ( multiple websites and services. ) The Kindle supposedly didn’t support some types of ebooks that were out there ( epub being the largest one ) but with a tool like Calibre ( an amazing tool which runs on both Windows and Linux ) that really wasn’t an issue. I highly recommend that anyone who is interested in ebooks  ( with or without an ereader ) to look at Calibre.

In the end, after numerous articles and reviews I found the only real contender was Sony’s ereader, but it didn’t do as many gray levels ( which is good for pictures and such ) and it cost a bit more.

My logic actually went like this:

• I could get the Kindle or
• For a bit more get the Sony
• But if I’m getting the Sony, for just a little bit more I can get the Kindle DX ( an iPad sized reader )
• But if I am getting the Kindle DX for a little bit more I can get the iPad

The iPad almost won out…. except I’d have to explain a major outlay of funds to my better half, and I knew it wouldn’t fly….

In the end I started asking myself did I really need a dedicated ereader…  just one more night with a stiff neck from  my monitor convinced me that I did.

I decided to try the least expensive route – the Kindle -  since I didn’t need the 3G phone model, their WiFi gave me ample access to the Internet, both at home and when I’m traveling. I had to order it from the states via Amazon.com and so I actually paid only $139 US and the minor exchange rate.

I figured $139US was an affordable gamble that, failing all else, I could resell if I didn’t like it. After all I was buying a piece of technology that I had never tried before nor even laid hands on – for me this was a gamble. Would it do what I wanted it do do, and would it be worth it.

Now that I have it, you won’t be able to pry it out of my hands! It’s been over 30 days ( almost 45 ) since I had to charge it and I have never turned it off! ( I have turned the WiFi off when I didn’t want it, but not the actually Kindle. ) Talk about impressed! Then reading it is indeed just like reading a book, it is effortless, and the buttons are perfectly placed for turning a page. Yes there is a time lag between page turns, but no more so than the time it would take turn an actual page and bring your eyes to the top of the next page!

The resources out there are phenomenal! Aside from Amazon themselves offering free books, you can find many, many more elsewhere ( too many here to list. ) As you may, or maybe not, be aware the Kindle also allows subscriptions to newspapers and magazines ( for a fee ) and if you live in the US to selected Blogs as well. However, an ingenious blog/website called Feedbooks has found a way to help all of us to subscribe to any blog or website that has an RSS feed. Check out this little page on how to do that, hidden within their site!

Books are enjoyable at the best of times but adding a little technology,  like the Kindle, makes them even better. It’s the icing on the cake and I think everyone should have one! Wow am I impressed!

I recommended that she just forward the email to her current email address, but her preference was to keep it completely separate from what she was currently doing. So that meant that she needed an on-line email notifier on her desktop. Something that would tip her off when she had new mail, but otherwise be out of the way.

As I mentioned, I quickly discovered that normal Gmail Notifier programs didn’t work with the “Apps” Gmail ( why they made them different is beyond me – but there you have it. ) It took a fair bit of work ( installing, testing, removing, etc., ) but I finally found just the solution. It’s called B2 Gmail Notifier, from b2labs. The price is also “just right” as in Free. There is one little issue though, the website will ask for an email address before you can download. That being said “any” email address will do, and it isn’t tied to any other requirement, so if you feel uncomfortable giving your own email address, make one up! ( Perhaps after they read this it will change, but as of this writing you can get away with a phony one. )

Don’t let the version number throw you. It’s currently listed as an Alpha Release ( really early in it’s testing/evaluation ) which means user beware in most cases, but it’s been around a fair time with hardly any negative comments and lots of praises. I suspect they are using it more to make a buyer beware ( downloader beware? ) statement than anything else. If you are at all unsure back up your data first.  Anyways, I downloaded Version 0.24 Alpha.

Now if you notice you will also have to have installed Adobe Air and  if you aren’t sure make sure you download and install Adobe Air first. Why the world needs yet another Web Based programming language is beyond me but… According to Adobe …

The Adobe® AIR® 2 runtime enables developers to use HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash® software, and ActionScript® to build web applications that run as standalone client applications without the constraints of a browser. Adobe AIR and the Adobe Flash Platform unleash the creativity of designers and developers by providing a consistent and flexible development environment for the delivery of applications across devices and platforms.

If you haven’t downloaded and install Adobe Air, make sure you follow the instructions and do that first ( and yes I’m sure that there will be other programs that this will be useful for in the future. ) As you will see on the B2 Gmail Notifier page there are extra animations that you can download, but you get three to start with so check those out first ( my favorite is the monster that peaks out when you get new mail – it’s one of the defaults . )

Now then there is a trick to setting up the account to make it work – it isn’t intuitive, and it’s the one thing that I don’t like about the program ( NO DOCUMENTATION! ) Here is how you set it up to work.

1. In the email URL enter your apps email address: The would be http://mail.google.ca/a/example.com Where the “example.com” is replaced by the web address used to set up your gmail app account.
2. In the user name enter the entire email address and not just the user name ( which is all you would usually enter ) that you use to log in. So again, the user name would be User.Name@example.com instead of the User.Name that you would use when you log into the website “User.Name”  being replaced by the appropriate name that you would have and again “example.com” being replaced by the web address used to set up the gmail app account.
3. Thankfully the Password is just the same as the website password ( thankfully no surprised there! )

When you run the program I recommend clicking on the box to automatically load up the program every time you reboot your Windows machine – that way you won’t have to “remember” to do it all the time. Select the animation you want to use when you get new mail ( you can also turn off animations and sounds if you want – but I’ve found that it is a great visual and aural reminder if you leave it on – and it’s not at all obnoxious. ) You can even customize the sounds and create your own animations if you are up for it.

There will be a small Google email icon ( usually blue ) which you will see in your systems tray at the bottom, once the program has been run. It will turn red if there is new mail ( and putting your cursor over top of it will tell you how many new emails are awaiting your attention. ) If you use  the animation and sound effects, then the sound will trigger the first time new mail occurs and the animation will trigger every half hour or so until you have checked your mail. The animation can be closed without affect the reminders and it will pop up again later, which I found to be a bonus.

All and all a great little program that does the job better than most other packages that I’ve found, and it does it well. I highly recommend it  and hopefully my hints above will help those who are having problems getting it to work properly the way I didi. Once it is configured properly, it works like a charm.

I highly recommend giving it a try!