GizmoCall is a pretty cool website. It allows you to make calls directly with your browser, as I wrote about in an earlier post. However one big downfall is the limit to being a 10 minute call. With this little “trick” you can now double that.

This cool little hack (some people dont like this word *WINK*) or workaround will let you use Gizmocall for another 10 minutes. This will results in 10 mins (official) + 10 mins *wih hack)= 20 mins calls everyday.

Lets see how you can make it happen!

read more | digg story

Not the iPhone but just an iPod.

I have been more than happy with my current iPod and the screen size until recently. I have never been one to watch alot of video on the iPod. I used to watch all my vidcasts on my laptop but a little while back I removed all my podcast and vidcast subscriptions from NetNewsWire and put them all in iTunes and moved them from my Powerbook to the Mac Mini (which is also the home media server). With that I have also been using my iPod for that stuff alot more. Sometimes just sitting outside and sometimes driving, either way just not in front of the computer.

Wow, I cannot believe I waited so long to do that. Using iTunes to subscribe to and manage your subscriptions works so much better than adding them with a third part program. So much nicer, I can now sync my iPod and then start the same podcast on my Mini and it picks up where I left off, yes it may sound simple but my older setup never did that.

Anyway now that I have gone way into my tangent I can finally say that widescreen or even larger screen iPod would be much appreciated. Maybe some day it will come.

The other reason for this hope and the main reason for this post is another item that I had gotten a while back and never really used that much. The eyeTV 250, this is a great tv tuner for the Mac, it lets you both watch and record tv. It gives a bunch of options for recording so you can better control quality as opposed to disk space used. This also has a nice export feature that puts the video in a nice iPod format and also imports the shows into a playlist in your iTunes. Sweet. TV on my iPod and I did not have to pay $1.99 an episode.

So I guess my main point here is that its amazing how much certain things can do. Make sure you check out all the feature’s that a product or program offers. I need to really pay more attention to ALL the feature’s that I have available. I tend to get something and use it for select purpose’s and not use it to it’s full potential. And just between iTunes, my iPod and eyeTV 250 I feel like I have a whole new toy, even though iTunes is free and the iPod and eyeTV I have had for months or years.

If you are wondering where this is coming from, I am trying to get more out of stuff and not just take it all for granted. It is part of some stuff I have been working on about myself for a while now. An no I would not buy a new iPod even if it came out now, its just something that would be nice.

For me to go from this mess

To finally get off my lazy butt and figure out what kind of stand or table I wanted. This is what I decided to go with.

And the new printer is an HP Photosmart C5140 that we got for Christmas replacing our 5 year old HP printer.

My T-Mobile Pearl was saying Cingular and giving me a Call Failed. What gives?

Here is the story…

So I was in Lowe’s complaining about the crappy job that a sub-contractor of theirs did and I turned to leave and grabbed my T-Mobile Pearl from my pocket and tried to make a call, it gave me a beep along with a pop-up of sorts that read Call Failed. Ok I thought no big deal, maybe I was to far into the store and was getting bad reception. So I tried that call again just before the door, same thing happened, Call Failed. Thinking I was way to close to the door I looked at the “bars” on the phone and noticed that where my phone normally reads “T-Mobile” it now read “Cingular”. Strange I don’t like Cingular and do not remember switching. What gives? It did go back to normal as soon as I got a few feet out the door but I am not sure why that happened.

This may be somewhat normal or even very normal but I have never noticed it before. Is this normal or has anyone had something similar happen?

The T-Mobile wording is on the screen towards the top in the center, just below the battery icon. Sorry I could not get a better photo of the screen, I wish I new how to take a screenshot on a mobile just in case it happens again.

Here is the phone in a larger pic.

Whether you like Skype or GizmoProject its up to you, they are both good in my opinion however I tend to favor Skype. Main reason is more people that I know use Skype also. So for me (and I am sure alot of others) that makes Skype the winner.

So if you use SkypeOut make sure you take advantage of Skype Unlimited Calling, today is the last day. This is really a great deal.

A full year of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada. Just US$14.95 till January 31st. Get Unlimited Calling.

For those that use GizmoProject or even Skype users who want to see a cool feature of Gizmo, they now offer the ability to make calls directly from the browser. Just as easy as going to a web page, you can even dial from a bookmark.

From Michael Robertson . com:

“Making phone calls from a computer should be as easy as typing a URL, and with the release of GizmoCall.com - a new service from SIPphone - it is. Typing http://gizmocall.com/18005551212 is all it takes. And it’s not just easy, but free. You can get 10 minutes of free calling per day to call just about any phone number in the world (sorry Antarctica). Before Gizmo Call, you had to download a big program, install it, register for an account and buy calling minutes. With Gizmo Call, you just install a Flash plug-in into your web browser and begin talking.”

This feature is nice, you don’t have to download and install a program however you will have to download and install a plugin for your browser. For the Mac it runs in your Preferences. I guess the browser plugin is easier than a program. I am not sure I would start to use this all the time, however it’s still a cool feature.

It does seem to work well, quick and easy.

So like others I have gotten the email from Flickr about needing a Yahoo ID to login after March 15th. The “nice” email was titled as “[Flickr] Update for Old Skool members”. This email did two things.

1. Made me mad.
2. Made me check out Zooomr.

And a #3 that I should do.

3. Take into consideration if I want to switch over this.

I have one main issue with this email, and yes it is fully selfish on my part. It is really plain and simple, I do not want to use a Yahoo ID. I am happy with and like my current login. I guess I always knew that the Old Skool members would get pushed or I guess I should say screwed at some point however I still do not like it. I do understand that it is just a new login not really a big deal but I DO NOT want a new login.

I feel that the so called “Old Skool” members should still get something, and by something I am not looking for freebies just not being punished is good enough for me. I know we did get some free time on Pro Accounts for signing up very early and I was also given a few (I think 2) accounts to give away in the early days, but we (the Old Skool members) are the ones who grew this service. We tested and pushed it to both our tech and non-tech friends. Don’t punish us now. I just do not like Yahoo!. I have had a Yahoo account in the past. That being the key word, “past”. I have been there and done that, I don’t want to be forced to go back now.

So with this news I started to look at Zooomr, I am pretty sure I had signed up once before but not really sure. Either way maybe I did then the account was recycled because of lack of use. I am pretty sure I did sign up but I know I did not use the account.

So after signing up I was a bit disappointed, but kind of expected it because I have such a common name. My “robertnelson” name was already taken. So I am not sure that I want to switch from Flickr to Zooomr, although I did sign up for an account with “areyouageek” That will work, just not my preferred.

I do like the way Zooomr looks and they do have some cool features. I can still upload and share my photo’s just like with Flickr. I mainly upload by computer (on my Mac) and on my mobile (Blackberry Pearl) both of which I can do on Zooomr. I still have to do some more checking because I am not sure what the Mac support actually is. I currently use a tool that works from iPhoto and also Flickr Uploadr. Hopefully I can fins something along the same lines, I know they offer jUploadr but I have not tested it out yet.

After checking out Zooomr one thing that I am confused and pissed off by is the login procedure. They use the “openid” and to me I still do not want this. What happened to just using an email address or user id to login. I know that openid is not as evil as the YahooID, but its still something else. Maybe Zooomr’s login is not any better than what Flickr is making me do.

For those that have not used Zooomr or openid: (from the Zooomr website)
“So, what is all of this OpenID Stuff?

OpenID is a simple single sign-on mechanism that allows you to login at multiple websites with the same identity.
What does that all mean for me?

Simply that once you create an OpenID, you can use it on other websites — not just Zooomr.”

For me I do not use or even know of any other sites that use openid so for me this is not a time saver, and hey I can already use the same login for many sites. its called my EMAIL ADDRESS. Thanks anyway Zooomr.

On another note I tried to update my Profile on Zooomr a few times and keep getting errors. I am not sure if it is the fact that I am using Safari on a Mac or just the actual website.

[UPDATE]
Thomas Hawk has a nice post about this. Keep in mind he is the CEO of Zooomr.

It was also Dugg, let’s see what kind of comments and support it gets from Digg.

So I was having issues with the my blog and other theme that I was using, it was moved over from VizaWeb to DreamHost and was not acting right since. Not to place blame on anyone as I am not sure where the fault and/or problem was or still is.

Anyway I have been wanting to do some updating, new theme and layout and this seemed like a perfect time. I also wanted to get away from some of the older posts that are not really what I am doing now. Kind of like a clean fresh start. They are all still there at areyouageek.com/blog if you want or need to refer to any of them. I am not going to delete that blog, just done messing with it.

If you are seeing this then the site has updated and moved over correctly. The new site is located at areyouageek.com/geek or more simply areyouageek.com.

The feed that was and still is from FeedBurner remains the same.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Areyouageek

So update any direct links to the site that you may have had. I am back and looking to go strong.

This site is now up and running under a new sub-domain. It is no longer areyouageek.com/blog but now areyouageek.com/geek. It is also running WordPress 2.1. Just a few more things to check and adjust.

Why I cannot view any images in posts. I had this issue with the old (/blog) and this was a main reason to start over. To get a clean install. However the images are not working.

What can it be?

[UPDATE] So I am just an idiot, I was uploading my images in (ASC II) Text format. No wonder why I could not view them. Stupid mistake.

[UPDATE 2] Now if I could just figure out how to format the text on the main page better. The [UPDATE] above is supposed to be in bold, but it only shows bold on the individual post page, not the index. I am sure there is a logical fix I just cannot find it yet.