CybersView

Grocery Shopping in a Digital World

2007-05-13T13:59:00.000-06:00

Do you take advantage of technology while grocery shopping?

Technology is not just for the Internet, and there are some real benefits to some of these shopping cards.

The Kroger chain has developed a very nice system. By signing up for their Plus card system customers receive several benefits.

Daily savings on items.
Accumulated annual savings posted on receipts.
Targeted coupons based on your purchases.
Fuel discounts at selected stores.

The one that really stands out now is the Fuel card. It is nice getting gas for 10 cents less than all the surrounding stations.

At stores located in Memphis, Little Rock, Jackson, TN and Jackson, MS you can earn 10 cents a gallon off of gas at our Kroger Fuel Stations by purchasing $100 or more of groceries. The more you purchase the more gas you can buy at 10 cents off. Please see the stores for complete details on how to reduce your gasoline price per gallon. Source : Kroger - Plus Card

New Google Analytics

2007-05-08T12:46:00.000-06:00

Google has announced the release of the new Google Analytics interface. The new enhancements are very nice for long term views, but lack in the daily arena. Interesting to note that the default graph uses Visitors instead of Pageviews. With all the Web 2.0 interfaces pageviews are definitely going to fail as a good metric.

In the 30 minutes or so I have had to play with the new release I have yet to find a way to see todays data graphed and that is a real downfall in my opinion. The data is there, you just can not get a graph of one day.

Mountain View, Calif. - May 8, 2007 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced a new version of its powerful web analytics solution, Google Analytics™. The new version of Google Analytics was unveiled today at the EMetrics Summit taking place in San Francisco. Google Analytics, a free enterprise-class solution, enables executives, marketers and website owners to understand how their users interact with their website and help increase online business. Google has completely redesigned the product and enhanced the feature set through new email reporting, customizable dashboards, improved map displays, and plain language descriptions to make important information more accessible.

Source : Google Press Center: Press Release

Offical Blog Post from Google

Search EngineLand has an in depth post with some screenshots at Google Analytics Launches New Version With New UI & Features

CEA Surveys US Households

2007-04-30T22:11:00.000-06:00

There's an interesting article from Media Center PC World, quoting a study by the Consumer Electronics Association. It says the average U.S. household owns 25 consumer electronics and the average adult spends $1,200 a year on these products. Gee, I spend that much on my cell phone alone!

The article continues with the top five most owned products; TV, DVD player or recorder, VCR, cordless phone and cellular phone.
Source: www.mediacenterpcworld.com

So do I fit the average profile? Let's count 'em up and see...
3 cell phones
2 TV's
2 PC's
2 monitors
2 external hard drives
2 flash drives
2 sets of external speakers for PC
telephone with digital answering machine
surround sound speaker system for TV
component stereo system
DVD player
DSL modem
Cisco router
scanner
printer
VCR
iPod
Total = 25
Yep, I'm just an average guy.

Google Web History

2007-04-23T22:31:00.000-06:00

Google's new Web History enables you to:
View your web activity
Search the full text of pages you've visited
Get personalized search results

With Google Toolbar you can:
Search smarter with instant suggestions
Access your bookmarks from any computer
Add custom buttons to search your favorite sites

Please Note: you need to install the Google Toolbar with PageRank enabled, which sends information about these web pages to Google and associates it with your Google account. See Google Web History to learn more.

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office & Home

2007-04-18T21:18:00.000-06:00

Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 11:29PM
To: All
From: Mike
Subject: Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home (Knopf)

USA Today has a great article about David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, authors of the new book Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home (Knopf.)

The two longtime friends, both professional editors, came up with the "survival guide for the digital age," after comparing notes on email and how it's used and abused. They make a good point that we all use email, and sometimes live and die by it too. So a practical guide for it's use is just a natural thing.

"Never forward anything without permission, and assume everything you write will be forwarded," and "Never forget a Cc has the power to publicly shame someone, whether that's your intention or not."

They say one thing everyone wants, but no one has invented, is a "panic button," a short delay after hitting send, like the kind TV networks use to bleep obscenities.

"Think before you send," says Shipley. Send email you would like to receive," says Schwalbe.

They've also set up a website to collect "bad emails," at Thinkbeforeyousend.com.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Microsoft Expression Web page editor

2007-04-13T02:44:00.000-06:00

PC Magazine gave Microsoft Expression Web page editor a pretty good review. The software just finished a long public beta testing, and the final version of the new web editing package is finally available.

Expression Web is the first up-to-date web page editor that creates modern CSS and XML based web pages out of the box. It replaces the familiar FrontPage web page editor, the last version was 2003, and is no longer supported by Microsoft. It does keep some of the best features of FP, like a similar menu structure and the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design views. It's standards-based approach supports CSS, RSS, and point-and-click control over XML data sources.

I started searching for a full version of Microsoft's Expression Web editor to install after the beta expired in December, but it was virtually unavailable until now. I've been a long time FrontPage user, starting in '98, but it's been such an ordeal using and troubleshooting this program, then getting used to the beta and having it time out on me and disable itself, that I'm considering switching to DreamWeaver.

Both web editor packages have several versions that are bundled with other nifty applications that enhance your web building experience, so shop around if you're in the market for a cool web page building program. Expression Web will also be available in these different flavors: Expression Blend, Expression Design & Expression Media.

Online @ www.microsoft.com/expression

50 Best Tech Products

2007-04-09T21:13:00.000-06:00

PC World has an interesting article on the 50 best tech products of all time. Some of these names sure bring back memories. Plus it shows just how fast technology is moving along. Let's take a look at their Top 10...

#1 Netscape Navigator, first introduced in 1994, popularized the world wide web browser (based on Mosaic)
#2 Apple II Computer, the original personal computer, first appeared in 1977
#3 TiVo HDR110, introduced in 1999
#4 Napster, also introduced in 1999
#5 Lotus 1-2-3, introduced in 1983, was the PC's first critical application
#6 Apple iPod, which debuted in 2001, now commands a 73% market share of the music player market
#7 Hayes Smartmodem, in 1981, introduced the first 300-baud modem
#8 Motorola StarTAC, 1996, was the first clamshell design cell phone
#9 WordPerfect5.1, introduced in 1989, was one of the last DOS based applications
#10 Tetris, introduced in 1985, was one of the first puzzle based games to cross over computing platforms from PC to MAC to GameBoy.

Source: www.pcworld.com/article

Google Voice Local Search 1-800-GOOG-411

2007-04-07T16:44:00.000-06:00

Now you can search for a local business with just your phone. The automated system is completely voice prompted, so you just say the name of the business or a general category, to get a listing. The search results are numbered, so you can say or press the corresponding number, just like selecting a link on a web search. Then it connects you to that company phone number.

This new service is called Google Voice Local Search and it's still in the experimental stages. When I tried it, the system worked great. I gave it both a company name, and a general category, and it found nearby matches by name and physical location. It's free from Google Labs.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone. More Info @ labs.google.com/goog411

TXU Power Play

2007-04-05T22:59:00.000-06:00

The TXU Electric utility is making headlines again. Just last week they were slapped with $210 million in fines after an investigation accused them of manipulating the electric market to increase their profits.

The Public Utility Commission said this abuse of the market cost consumers $70 million and earned the TXU utility $20 million in extra profits. TXU is the largest power generator in Texas, and is alleged to have inflated their prices during 2005, which caused electricity prices to rise 15.5 percent during that summer.

Now TXU is claiming that if they really have to pay this huge fine, they may not be able to continue to operate some of their older power plants, causing some interruption in power for some customers. This kind of corporate power play just makes me sick. The big bully is pouting and is threatening to take away his toys.

A month ago a buyout offer was announced to acquire TXU Corp. for about $32 billion. This sure gives me something to think about the next time I pay my electric bill.

Comcast continues to grow

2007-04-03T23:52:00.000-06:00

The largest cable operator in the U.S., Comcast has announced their plans to purchase another cable company, Patriot Media and Communications, for $483 million.

Comcast had previously announced it would take control of fifty percent of Insight Communications, which is the ninth-largest cable operator in the country, located in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

Also noteworthy...Comcast Set To Pass Vonage As Leading VoIP Provider...

Moffett expects Comcast to continue to show dramatic growth: he says the company will increase the number of homes with access to its phone service by more than 10 million in 2007, “equal to almost three Cablevisions in a single year. Source: blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily

CyberStalking

2007-03-31T10:43:00.000-06:00

CyberStalking seems to have jumped to the forefront of the blogosphere lately. The Kathy Sierra incident was certainly an eye opener for most bloggers over the past week. Some bloggers in support of Kathy responded by taking time off, such as Robert Scoble, others like Blog Bloke posted their ideas on how to help yourself in such a situation.

Seems there is not much talk about the law in regards to this subject. And in fact it is not clear where exactly the law comes in to play.

However, in Jackson, Mississippi this past week 3 young people were arrested for CyberStalking, and in Mississippi it carries a felony charge with prison time of up to two years and a $5,000 fine.

Is this a state by state issue?

Seems strange a crime that can certainly be global is put on the shoulders of the local law enforcement.

Follow Up Links:

CybersEye

2007-03-31T02:00:00.000-06:00

Nellie took this cool time exposure of me at the computer. Nice 3D effect with the screen. - Mike

OneSearch Yahoo Mobile

2007-03-29T21:46:00.000-06:00

Highbrid Nation writes about Yahoo's new mobile search initiative, OneSearch. Starting on April 3, you can submit your mobile content to Yahoo for inclusion into their mobile search engine. Cool. Maybe now those cell phone web services will be useful for something. But please, no pop-ups.

Yahoo Mail knows no limits

2007-03-28T22:59:00.000-06:00

When I heard Yahoo is removing their limits on email, I did a CyberSearch on Yahoo Mail. Here's a sampling of those results:

Yahoo Mail With Infinite Storage?
Yahoo ups the ante and announced that Yahoo Mail will start offering unlimited storage starting May this year. Right now, you’ll get 1 GB for free at Yahoo, whereas Google’s Gmail has almost 3 GB. blog.outer-court.com

Coming soon: Yahoo Mail API, turns it into a platform
What it shows is that the company is beginning to think of Yahoo Mail as a platform, leveraging cheap storage and a mega audience. gigaom.com

Unlimited storage for Yahoo Mail confirmed
Yahoo scraps 1GB mail storage limit in preparation for the launch of the Apple iPhone and an expected spike in demand for IMAP server-side mail retention. www.itpro.co.uk/news

Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive

2007-03-23T01:23:00.000-06:00

I needed some extra storage for my computer. It took me a couple of years, but I finally filled up the original hard drive with dozens of programs, applications, photos, images, mp3's and videos. So I shopped around some, because you always get a better bargain, even if you just shop two or three stores. Always buy a brand you know and trust. I can't tell you how many dollars I've wasted buying the off-beat bargain brands, only to have it break sooner than later.

The greatest benefit I've found is browsing online until you find exactly what you want, and then check the prices at a few of the leading retail stores. And I found this computer upgrade at the most unlikely place of all...Target. Yeah, I bought a new external hard drive for my computer at a Super Target store, just a few miles from my house.

$99 for a Western Digital "My Book" external hard drive with 160GB of storage. A pretty good buy from a leading name-brand manufacturer that will last me for another two years, or maybe longer. That all depends on how many music and video files I can store on it, but that works out to something like 12 hours of video or 40,000 songs!

Here's the geeky stats for the tech-at-heart:
My Book Premium ES Edition external hard drive
USB 2.0 & ultra-fast eSATA 3 Gb/s interfaces on board
Western Digital website

Dell Customer Service

2007-03-20T01:11:00.000-06:00

I laughed out loud when I saw this. A Dell contest to win an XPS M1210 notebook autographed by Justin Timberlake? Why would anyone care if this laptop was signed? It's their ultra-portable four pounder with a built-in webcam, next generation wi-fi and WXGA display, powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Sounds like a nice little package for some lucky winners.

Read the details of this contest at Dell's Lounge website.

I just talked to a friend and co-worker today, who had to argue with a Dell tech for half an hour over his brand new warranty to get some defective speakers replaced. C'mon Dell! Focus on your customer service problems first; fix those issues and make your customers happy.

If you don't, you will continue to lose market share, but it will probably take years before your board of directors realize it. Now don't get me wrong; I use Dell computers at work and at home on a daily basis. Yes, I've had my issues with the company, mainly with their billing and customer service people, but they were corrected (on their timetable, not mine.)

I'd just like to see an improvement in customer service from really big companies that seem to forget how they got so big in the first place. From you and me, our friends and families, that have invested in their products and services.

Google BlogBar released.

2007-03-15T20:36:00.000-06:00

Today Google announced the release of the BlogBar as part of the Google AJAX Search API.

Once again Google demonstrates their willingness to listen to the user base and adopt ideas.

Thanks Google!

Checkout the BlogBar in action at WidgetSupport.com.

MySpace

2007-03-13T08:07:00.000-06:00

MySpace continues to rise above the rest of the social communities. It seems that almost everyone has a MySpace page. Particularly young artists. Whether it be Music or Graphics or any other form of artistic expression MySpace seems to draw them in.

Cord Silverstein over at Marketing Hipster wrote a post this morning that really hits home on the popularity of MySpace, and the key fact is...

...I believe to the biggest factor on MySpace’s success which is control...
Source: What MySpace Did Right

Just run some Google searches and look at Google Trends. Two topics that have enormous numbers right now are MySpace and MySpace Layouts. The layouts are basically equivalent to blog templates, and you can find a layout for any topic imaginable.

10th Annual Web Awards

2007-03-12T23:53:00.000-06:00

The winners of the 10th Annual Web Awards have been announced from Austin's South By SouthWest Interactive Conference. Adobe Systems, (Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver) presents the awards to who's considered to be the best new websites, developing on tomorrow's online trends.

Read more @ 2007.sxsw.com

Smithsonian Photography Initiative
Twitter
Resn 2B2
OwnYourC
The Horizontal Way
Computerlove
Squidoo
Vitamin
The Fallen Alternate Reality Game
Time Trumpet
Hungry Suitcase
Just for the F of It
Jonathan Yuen
How Do I Say This?
Stikkit
Social Saga
Exopolis Valentine's Day Mixtape

Google Reader Review

2007-03-12T00:34:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick look at some of our shared items from Google Reader:

The Google Life: Wired blogger Michael Calore is going all Google, all the time, replacing all of his desktop apps with Google’s offerings wherever applicable.

The Value of Google Gadgets: Developers have created nearly 4000 gadgets. Google now shows the approximate number of page views each gadget recieves in a week.

Negative Reactions to Microsoft attack on Google at the AAP: from O'Reilly Radar. The AAP is suing Google for scanning books from libraries. Microsoft takes another shot.

Why is the Cellphone Ringing? You probably have a guest at home: Waleli has launched the GSM Doorbell, that links the doorbell in your home to your mobile phone anywhere in the world. Wow, forget about remote desktop. Now we have remote doorstep.
www.gsmdoorbell.com

Create A Photo Comic Strip With Comeeko: Select a layout, pick your photos, add text or clipart, apply affects and presto! See ya in the funny pages!
www.comeeko.com

Posted by Mike

Blogging My State Of Mind

2007-03-08T22:39:00.000-06:00

There's an interesting article on austin360.com about the state of blogging and the future of the online diary, written by Omar L. Gallaga, a staffer at the American-Statesman.

The article touches on a number of good points:

- there's more than 200 million abandoned blogs currently online.

- this year, the number of active worldwide bloggers is expected to peak at 100 million and eventually level off to about 30 million.

- many bloggers have either had negative online experiences or simply got too busy with their personal lives to continue regular posting.

- online communities like MySpace, YouTube and Flickr have connected many bloggers with easy-to-use tools that make the personal posting experience more interactive and visual.

Those numbers are staggering and I agree there's alot of dead blogs out there. The really good ones still attract a healthy audience because they have daily posts, current or engaging content, and they talk TO me, not AT me. In other words, I can relate to whatever they're saying. OK, so I believe content is still king.

And yes, it's a challenge to post every day. But, I remember the golden rule of radio broadcasting that taught me an important lesson. Talk to your audience like you're talking to a good friend. One on one. Make it personal so your listeners (or readers) can understand what you're saying, and relate to you and your story. It still works on the air, and it works online too. Stick to that concept, and your blogs will thrive.

Read more at www.austin360.com.

Lifelogging

2007-03-06T00:34:00.000-06:00

I just read a fascinating article about something called "Lifelogging," which is a continuous recorded diary, either on video or audio. Basically it's your life, on the record, recorded 24 hours a day, everyday. A little unsettling, knowing your every word, movement and interaction is recorded. And what are the social, moral and legal implications of such accurate and complete records?

There is much research being done on the subject. Microsoft Research has something called MyLifeBits and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has been working with wearable computers for years.

If that sounds farfetched, just consider the technology that we have today. Digital video cameras, cell phone cameras, mini voice recorders, GPS receivers that track our location, RFD tags, bar code scanners, security cameras, webcams, plus websites like YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Blogger and the millions of personal blogs on the internet.

Read more at...
The Chronicle of Higher Education @ chronicle.com/free
Scientific American @ www.sciam.com

Windows Vista VS. Mac OS X

2007-03-05T00:12:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I wonder how Microsoft got to be the "600 pound gorilla" it is today. The more I read about their new Windows Vista (and the fact it will probably require extensive hardware upgrades,) I can't help but think that MY next major computer upgrade might just be a Mac.

If I have to spend a thousand or more dollars to upgrade my home computer, why not take the plunge and join the Apple corps? Their iMac looks better than ever with the new Intel processor, built-in webcam, and iLife software, that's already integrated into Mac OS X.

After working with (and troubleshooting) Windows 3.1, 95, NT, 2000 and XP for years, I'm ready for a home computer that just works the first time, without having to download a new driver or system patch.

Self-Help Answers

2007-02-26T21:49:00.000-06:00

As a computer tech, I'm always looking for help in resolving problems. Searching the web for self-help answers is usually my first choice, rather than wait on hold for tech support. Results vary widely, depending on the issue, the product and the company. But looking for answers yourself is a good bet and always worthy of the effort.

Here's some of my favorites that I hope you may find useful as well:

www.cnet.com
I like their mission statement at CNET:

"We create richer, more authentic brand experiences by building on the collective wisdom and passion of users, marketers, and our own people."

www.computerhope.com
Computer Hope also has a large active computer forum with a wide variety of topics like hardware, software, internet and networking, and vendors like Microsoft, Creative and Apple, plus an FAQ solution database.

Searching the user forums is also a great way to find your answers, usually from someone who has already worked their way through the same problem. Another useful way to search Google is to enter in the exact part number, if you have it.

There's also an engineering search engine by GlobalSpec at www.globalspec.com.

Email is old school

2007-02-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

In our house we have 2 teenagers, 14 and 18. Both of them skipped email, and that just makes me dizzy.

They use their cellphones for instant messaging and they can type out complete messages while never looking at the screen, however, neither one of them can type very well on a full keyboard.

This is just amazing. We now have a generation of kids who think email is old school. Instant communication is a fact of life for them. One of the downsides to this is going to be the quality of the written word. In just a few short years it will be impossible to read most handwriting and we will also have twice as many words to use as before as they continue to improvise and shortcut at every turn.