With the release of the much anticipated Beatles Rock Band video game and the complete, remastered catalog on CD, 9-9-09 was a lucky day indeed for fans of the legendary supergroup. Interest in all things Beatles has skyrocketed thanks to the promotion for the video game, which included CGI based “music videos” featuring the digitally recreated Fab Four and some of their most famous scenes, including their final performance together on the roof of their record company. In addition VH1 Classic spent 9 days running such Beatles classics as “Help!” and “Hard Days Night” along with concerts, documentaries, and music videos celebrating John, Paul, George and Ringo.

So you’ve fallen in love with the band all over again (or for the first time) and can’t wait to add their hits to your iPod. Off to iTunes right? Oops…sorry. You won’t find their music there thanks to a feud between Apple and EMI that’s being going on for years. UK news outlet Sky News reported on Tuesday that Yoko Ono said the entire Beatles catalog would finally be available on iTunes, but that story was quickly yanked with no explanation. Fans were sure it had been a leak and the availability of the catalog would be among the music related announcements Apple planned to make on 9-9-09. Alas, it was not to be. EMI is still refusing to allow the catalog’s release. Presumably offering the catalog online has already been approved by the other players in the game-Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and George Harrison’s widow, Olivia. It’s not yet available anywhere online thanks to a series of lawsuits-one filed against Paul by the other Beatles and one filed against EMI by all the Beatles. Both have been settled.

Steve Jobs says he’s confident the Beatles will finally arrive on iTunes next year, and Beatles fans everywhere hope he’s right. With the release of the remastered catalog and Beatles Rock Band video game, Beatlemania is alive and well, and EMI may end up kicking themselves for letting legal squabbles keep them from cashing in. Only time will tell.

Beatlemania Returns! Except iTunes is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

I’m not impressed by either. The Kindle is already a “pocket” edition if you compare it to the Kindle DX, and 440MB of memory? Really? The Kindle has 2GB! There’s no external memory slot either and of course no wireless downloading. The touch screen version does support Memory Stick Pro Duo and SD cards, but it also has no wireless.

Neither of them is anything exciting nor do they offer much of anything the Kindle doesn’t, so this Kindle owner is not impressed. My personal opinion aside, will these be Kindle killers?

I don’t think so. Granted, the low price on the “Pocket Edition” will no doubt appeal to those who like the idea of an e-reader but think the Kindle is too expensive, but avid readers (and that’s who e-readers really appeal to) will find the 440MB of memory far too small to be useful.

As far as the “Touch Edition” goes, yes there are some who think the only thing the Kindle lacks is a touch screen, but really, how necessary is it? Touch screens are more fragile than their non touch counterparts and let’s face it, they make a device look filthy in no time. The Touch Edition’s handwriting recognition feature does sound interesting but as anyone who’s signed a touch pad at a store register can tell you, they often leave a lot to be desired. Let’s see how accurate it truly is. Being able to take notes in your own handwriting won’t be very useful if you can’t read them!

I think these two new Sony E-readers will appeal to some specific audiences but the Kindle will still be king, at least for now.

Two New Sony Readers: Kindle Killers? is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

My best friend Ralph had introduced me to CompuServe, the online service that AOL recently announced will be shutting down for good, and I found myself spending a lot of time online, sending and reading e-mail, and doing research for various writing projects. When CompuServe lowered its prices, I ventured into forums-areas devoted to a particular subject, like sports, books, and so on.

On August 10, of that year I found myself in a chat room called “The Coffeehouse”.
I’d only started visiting the forum a few days earlier, and after meeting numerous couples who claimed to have met online, I asked Wanda, one of the “Hosts” if it really was possible to meet a terrific man online. Is it really possible to fall in love over the net? I was quickly flooded with success stories, and then without even realizing it, I began to write my own. I was in a chat room called “The Coffeehouse” talking with a group of people about the upcoming baseball playoffs. An ardent Boston Red Sox fan, I was singing their praises when Mike W. entered the chat and announced that the New York Yankees were going to kick butt. Amused, I started a friendly debate with him over who would get farther in the playoffs, the Sox or the Yankees.

“Care to make a friendly wager?” he typed, “$500?”
“You’re crazy.” I typed back. “I don’t even know you.”
“$50?”
“No way.”
“Okay, $5?”
“Okay, I said finally, “you’re on. $5 says the Red Sox.”

I didn’t think much of it. Mike kept showing up in the room and we started talking more and more. There was an easy warmth between us almost instantly. It’s hard to describe.

Soon I was logging on at 8pm and staying on until 4 in the morning talking to him. He’d pop on my screen with a “Hi Sugar! <kiss>” We talked about everything. Soon our chats went from the computer screen to the phone line. I gave him my phone number and the next day the phone rang.

Mike had a deep husky voice, and a shyness that won me over immediately. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was falling in love. I think the fact we met online was to our advantage. We were able to get to know one another without the looks factor getting in the way. In fact I didn’t know what he looked like until the day I finally met him. That didn’thappen until October 22, after two months of chats, phone calls and e-mail. At my invitation, he took the train from New York City to Boston.

I’ll never forget it. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, and South Station was packed. I paced nervously in South Station, wondering if he’d show, if I’d made the right decision in asking him to Boston. Armed with only his description of himself- crew cut, brown hair, glasses, black jeans, black leather jacket, cowboy boots-I searched for him- and then
suddenly he was there. He was holding a dozen of the most beautiful yellow roses I’d ever seen and was smiling nervously-and the minute he took me in his arms I knew it was right. He was every bit as kind, sensitive and funny as the man I’d been chatting with all these months, and he was every bit as sexy and handsome as the voice on the phone. That
night at dinner he was nervous-knocking silverware off the table, his glasses off his face. I loved it. It was refreshing. By the time Monday rolled around neither one of us wanted him to go. As he turned toward the train, I handed him a 5-dollar bill.

“You won, remember?” I said.
He just smiled and then kissed me. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” I replied without hesitation.

It was magical. We just knew we were meant to be. This October we will celebrate 14 years together, and this past June celebrated our second wedding anniversary. Funny how things work out when you least expect them to. Mike calls me the best present he ever got-August 10, the day we met in that chat room and made that bet, was also his 28th birthday.

If you want to write your own success story, there are some important safety rules to follow.

1. Be wary of anyone who asks you for personal information right away. You should not be sharing your phone number, address or any other personal information right off the bat. Give yourself time to try and get to know the other person. Think twice about sending nude or racy pics and vids because you never know where they will end up. If they pressure you for info or make you feel at all uncomfortable, don’t go any further.
2. Don’t bother with dating chatrooms or sites. What they say about finding people with similar interests is true. I and everyone else I know who’s found love online did so within an online community of people who shared a similar interest or hobby. Dating chatrooms are full of spambots and desperate people and dating sites are not always worth the money.
3. Google is your friend. Once you’ve progressed far enough to exchange real names, don’t be afraid to do a Google search on them and see what comes up.
4. Always keep your safety in mind. When it’s time to exchange phone numbers, hand over your cell or Skype number, not your landline. When you’ve progressed to the point where you are talking about meeting up, ALWAYS meet in a public place, and for you females out there, have your online interest come to your location to meet you. Don’t travel to another state or country to meet a man for the first time. Have a couple of friends plant themselves in the public area you plan to meet in, or make sure you tell them where you are going to be and when you plan to be back, just in case. Keep your cell with you and if you start to feel unsafe or just feel like the meeting isn’t going to work out, call a friend to come meet you there.
5. Use your common sense and trust your instincts!

Online Dating: A Success Story and Safety Tips is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Barnes and Noble’s decision is most likely an effort to regain some of the customers it’s lost to e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle. Their recent announcement that they have joined up with the upcoming Plastic Logic reader and will offer over 700,000 e-books is another indication they are finally taking the exploding e-book market seriously.

Verizon’s free Wi-Fi offering is through a partnership with Boingo Wireless, which boasts over 30,000 hotspots around the country. Verizon however is quick to point out that not all of them will be made available to their customers, but that “thousands” would be.

I happen to be a Verizon DSL customer so I registered for the new Wi-Fi service and downloaded the software. The first attempt promptly crashed IE but the next one went smoothly. Once the installation was complete I loaded the Hotspot Finder, plugged in my location (New York City) and found-4 hotspots. That’s it. A couple of hotels and a Starbucks. Now I wasn’t expecting those thousands of hotspots to be right here in the city, but 4 hotspots in an area this large seems a bit well..lame. Perhaps more will be added in the future though. The software does work just fine though.

Ironically, despite being the top cellular provider in the country, Verizon’s Wi-Fi service works for netbooks and laptops only, not smart phones. Verizon promises this will change sometime in the future though. For now though, if you have an iPhone, iPod Touch, or any other Wi-Fi enable device other than an actual computer, you’re out of luck.

Verizon, Barnes and Noble to Offer Free Wi-Fi is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

There is an important lesson to be learned here. Unless you protect your tweets, Facebook, and MySpace pages, anyone will be able to see them. If you are one of the many who are searching for employment these days, you can pretty much be assured that potential employers will be searching for you, so think twice about bashing your former boss or posting a racy pic-even protecting your tweets won’t keep your friends from re-tweeting them.

The same holds true for your MySpace and Facebook page. Unless you use the privacy settings anyone who does a simple Google search or a search on each site will be able to see everything. Facebook’s new personalized URLs make that even easier. I have my pages set so only friends can see what I post. Anyone not my friend gets a very simple page that provides little info and prompts them to sign up and/or send me a friend request. I find this setting adequate. There is even a deeper setting for Facebook where you can completely block your profile, including your photo and even make yourself unclickable when you leave comments on other people’s pages. I find this to be overkill as it makes you come across and very cold and unfriendly. MySpace’s new Profile 2.0 lets you decide exactly what content you want public and which you want to restrict to just friends.

Of course none of these privacy tools will work if you are careless about who you accept as a friend/follower. On Twitter, never automatically follow people that follow/request to follow you. Take the time to check them out. On Facebook, quality is far better than quantity. My rule of thumb is not to accept friend requests from people I don’t know (unless we share a mutual friend) if they don’t include a note telling me who they are. As with Twitter, take the time to check people out. Same rule goes for MySpace.

Social networking is a valuable tool and great fun too, but learn how to do it safely!

Social Networking Safety is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

I got my Kindle in early November of last year. I admit, the $50 off code that Oprah offered is what got me to finally order, but I’d wanted one for quite sometime. Shortly after I received mine, they went on backorder and ultimately were not to be seen again. In February the Original Kindle was replaced with the Kindle 2. Kindle 2 caused excitement for many and rage for a few who felt they had been somehow swindled by buying their Original Kindles just a few months earlier. I was not one of that very vocal minority and haven’t upgraded. Why? No need to.

The Original Kindle is a fantastic device. The screen is crisp and clear, the battery life is phenomenal, and with its included SD slot, storage is nearly unlimited. The user replaceable battery is a nice feature as well. That’s not to say the Kindle 2 (Now known as just Kindle) isn’t a great device too. It is, although it’s had some problems. Many owners have complained of screens with poor contrast and even more about a very peculiar problem where the text on the screen literally fades away in bright sunlight. More recently Amazon has sued over the Kindle 2’s hinge system. Some say the cover Amazon offers for it is so poorly designed that it causes the Kindle to crack around the hinges.

That doesn’t surprise me. Amazon makes an amazing e-reader but their covers are just deplorable. The one for the original Kindle refused to hold the device securely, resulting in it slipping out of the case without warning. Amazon really needs to give up making cases and stick to just making e-readers.

The differences between the Original Kindle and the Kindle 2 are not that great. The K2 has text to speech (but not all books can use it-publishers are allowed to block the feature if they wish) and renders images more clearly. The battery is no longer user replaceable and the internal storage has been increased, resulting in the removal of the SD slot. The device is also thinner, slightly longer, and has smaller buttons and a redesigned keyboard. The eye catching silver cursor is gone, replaced by a joystick (The new Kindle DX is a larger version of the K2 with better PDF handling, landscape mode, and a 9’ screen. It’s aimed toward students and business people).

Aside from that, both devices are the same and both make reading a true joy. I love my Original Kindle. I have about 100 books on it as well as a handful of blogs, several magazines and the New York Times and Washington Post. Whispernet works perfectly and makes buying books anywhere a breeze.

You can pick up a K2 or DX on Amazon’s website for $299 and $489 respectively. The Original Kindle can also be found on the website for as little as $190. Do you have a Kindle? Please leave a comment and share your experience with us!

Life With Kindle is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

If you think you don’t need to back up your data, think again. Your computer could face a problem when you least expect it. For me that was 2 days ago. A Windows Update corrupted my system to the point that if I let it sit idle for more than 5 minutes it would freeze up. When System Restore didn’t help, I knew it was time to pull out the Recovery DVD, reformat my hard drive, and start from scratch. Fortunately, because I do regular backups it was painless. 90 minutes later I had a perfectly working system again with all my data and emails restored.

There are several inexpensive and useful gadgets for backing up your data. My favorite is the USB flash drive. These small wonders come in a variety of colours and styles; everything from utilitarian to sparkly enough to pass as jewelry (see our earlier article Add Some Sparkle To Your Memory Stick – Ed) and in capacities from 1GB up to 64GB. I love them because they are easy to use, store, and tote around. Simply plug them into a USB drive and you’re good to go.

A second option is an SD/SDHC card. These tiny cards are available in capacities up to 32GB and are also very easy to use. Unfortunately they are also easy to lose so be careful. It’s also important to note that the HD (high capacity) versions don’t perform well in all computers so check your user manual or with the manufacturer before buying,

External hard drives are another good option. They are sleek, lightweight, and inexpensive, and have the largest storage capacity of all backup devices. However, while they are designed to be fairly durable, they are still subject to damage from drops and shocks just like conventional hard drives, so you’ll need to use a protective case with them.

Whichever backup device you use, be sure to do backups on a regular basis. I do one a week. It’s also a very good idea to make a copy of your backup and keep it in a location other than your home in case of fire or flood. Good choices include your office, a safe deposit box at your bank, or a friend or family member’s home. Store the copy you keep at home in a safe place-and one you’ll remember! I keep mine in a fireproof box with my important documents such as insurance policies. You can’t be too careful!

Backing Up Your Data – No Excuses, Just Do It! is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

“I loved this cover,” wrote J. Nichols of Oakland, California. “It’s high quality and attached to the Kindle securely. And then I noticed that the bottom hook was made in such a way as to crack the Kindle. Now my Kindle has a hairline crack in it which as you can imagine ticks me off.”

After initially ignoring the issue and insisting that it would cost $200 to replace a damaged Kindle. Amazon has changed its mind and is now saying it will replace any cracked Kindles for free. Although they have admitted no fault in the matter, it’s thought the about face is the result of the growing media coverage and the bad PR it could bring. It’s not the first time they’ve found themselves in hot water. Remember the last Amazon scandal back in April when all gay and lesbian themed books vanished from the sales rankings? It was blamed on a glitch of course.

I own a Kindle and while Amazon knows how to make an outstanding e-reader, when it comes to making covers for it they are clueless. The cover for the original Kindle was absolutely useless. A flimsy plastic tab on the back of it was supposed to slide into the Kindle and lock in place to secure it. Most Kindle owners found that either it refused to slide into the Kindle, or more commonly, didn’t actually lock in place, resulting in Kindles falling out and sometimes being damaged (or in the case of those that enjoy reading in on their backs in bed, damaging them as it hit them in the face!). The hinge system was supposed to be a huge improvement and while I’ve seen many rave about it in other covers, it seems once again Amazon has dropped the ball. Hey Amazon? If you can’t get it together and make a decent cover, stop trying!

Amazon sued over cracked Kindles is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

“Besides eating and sleeping, these students spend each day entirely on the Internet,” Tao Ran, the founder of a youth rehabilitation center on a Beijing army base said in an interview. “They don’t even shower or wash their clothes.”. Tao blames online gaming (specifically World of Warcraft and CounterStrike) and chatting for most addictions and says the pressures of parents and schools is often a driving force.

One center used shock treatments until bowing to repeated protests and criticism and stopped the practice. They claim their goal was to give the Internet an unpleasant association. One admirable thing the centers do is require parents to attend the program with their kids. They learn better communication skills and how to reduce pressure and criticism aimed at their kids.

There is no denying that the Internet is everywhere. It’s evolved far past its roots as an academic tool and has become more of a basic necessity than a luxury. Aside from its obvious entertainment value, it’s replaced the dusty set of encyclopaedias in the corner and helped far flung friends and families keep in touch. It’s also helped streamline businesses and for some of us, it’s our workplace.

Do you believe Internet addiction exists? I think it may. Certainly for some people who lack the skills necessary to socialize in “real life”, or those who are battling mental illnesses the Internet may become the sole focus of their lives, and perhaps there are some people who get far too absorbed in online games, much like some do with video games. However I think most of us, even if we do spend a lot of time online, have plenty of healthy balance in our lives. What do you think?

Internet Addiction is a Growing Problem in China is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology

Naturally some recent Kindle 2 owners are grumbling about the price reduction and wondering if they can get the difference refunded to them. The answer is no-Amazon discontinued that practice last year. Such grumbling isn’t new-when the Kindle 2 (recently rechristened to simply Kindle) was released in February many who purchased the original Kindle just a few months before were furious, accusing Amazon of knowingly deceiving customers and demanding refunds. The Kindle 2 is also not without its share of issues. Some owners reported poor contrast and faded print when the device was used in the sun; however Amazon has replaced the defective units with no questions asked.

I am a very happy original Kindle owner and I can tell the device is worth it at any price. The readers put out by Sony and other companies simply can not compare to its crisp screen, sheer volume of books available and free wireless downloads via the Whispernet service provided by Sprint. Kindle books are also available on the iPhone and iPod Touch via the free Kindle app available in the App store. I’ve used it on my Touch and it’s very very nice although reading for extended periods of time on the iPod Touch or iPhone screen is not really recommended as the backlighting tends to cause eyestrain. Still it’s convenient for accessing your library for a quick read.

While some feel the Kindle’s price is too high, it’s important to note that the new Kindle DX quickly sold out at its $489 price tag. Ebooks are definitely the wave of the future and the big box stores should take notice!

Kindle 2 Price Drops by $60 is a post from: eggnchips.com - cracking good technology