Compare Your Reading Speed to the National Average (Online Tool)
Love to read books and curious how fast you can read? Well, take this speed reading challenge that’ll measure just how fast you can read, tell you exactly how long it’ll take to read some popular classics, and compare you with national reading speed averages. It’ll even tell you how many consecutive eBooks you can read before your eReader’s battery will die (Nook, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Sony Reader, etc.). Though I’m not sure how many people would read multiple books all in the same day causing them to kill their...
read moreMarch 7, 1876 Telephone Patented + How to Dial the Telephone Video (1927)
On this day March 7th in 1876 – 136 years ago – Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone. Interestingly, with the patenting of this world-changing technology an instructional black & white video was released in 1927 – a silent one at that, so pay close attention to the captions for this “Dialing for Dummies” instructional video. After all, dialing on a rotary phone is really hard! Wow, it’s been 30 years since I used one. Dialing a rotary phone wasn’t really hard, as long as you...
read moreNew iPad – the Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Apple launched their new iPad today. Here’s a run down of all the cool new features in the new iPad, which was rumored to be called the iPad 3, iPad 3rd Generation, or iPad HD. The Apple keynote launch is still going on and they haven’t announced the final name, so we’ll just call it iPad X. Personal hotspot (Cool!) The new iPad will be available in black & white colors. There are two wireless options available: 4G LTE or Fast 3G HSDPA and DC-HSDPA. The thickness is 9.44mm and weights 1.4lbs, which is slightly heavier...
read moreSwann Unveils MP3 DJ Doorbell
With the Swann MP3 DJ Doorbell – nostalgia aside – you can say goodbye to the days of the boring “ding-dong” doorbell. The Swann MP3 Doorbells lets you customize your doorbell and play your favorite music in MP3 or polyphonic formats as your visitors arrive. Scare your trick-or-treaters with some scary music or play some Christmas music when your Christmas guests arrive. Certainly putting custom holiday-themed music on your doorbell with make you the envy of your neighbors.
The MP3 DJ Doorbell sports a doorbell unit,...
AT&T U-verse Closing in on Verizon FiOS
AT&T U-verse is closing in on Verizon FiOS in the Battle of the Telco TV Titans. According to IHS iSuppli Research, “AT&T in the fourth quarter of 2011 added more video subscribers to its U-verse service than cellular/wireless arch-rival Verizon did for its FiOS offering, marking the 10th straight quarter that AT&T has exceeded Verizon, according to the IHS Screen Digest U.S. Media Intelligence Service.” According to the report, AT&T added 208,000 U-verse accounts during the final quarter of 2011, for a total of...
read morePost Office 2.0 Plugin for Movable Type
Movable Type has a plugin called Post Office (now maintained on Github by Endevver) which is a cool email-to-blog (moblogging) Perl-based plugin. I wrote my own email-to-blog Perl script years ago, which has some advanced features like support for both images and videos in your email attachments. However, the script would run via a Linux bash shell and executed via a scheduled cron job. Because of that, for each Movable Type user that needed this feature I need to copy the Perl script to a new .pl Perl file and change the ‘static’...
read morenetTALK Launches Wi-Fi VoIP Device
netTALK today launched netTALK DUO Wi-Fi, launching exclusively first in Target stores nationwide. Check out my review of their original non-Wi-Fi netTALK DUO, which required an Ethernet (wired) connection. Their new wireless product will be available starting early April at Target stores nationwide, with other retailers being added soon. “We are truly making history with the launch of netTALK DUO WiFi,” said Anastasios ‘Takis’ Kyriakides, President and CEO. “Other companies in the space make pie in the sky...
read moreAvaya Scoops Radvision for $240 million
Carl Ford has some good analysis of Avaya’s $240 million acquisition of Radvision. Radvision was #18 in my Top 20 VoIP Innovators of All Time. In 1993, Radvision developed technology enabling transfer of real-time IP video over IP networks. They also developed a H.323 stack used in hundreds of VoIP and videoconferencing products before SIP became the dominant VoIP protocol of choice. They now develop UC products, videoconferencing systems, as well as SIP and IMS developer toolkits. Radvisions expertise will be a nice addition to...
read moreNetZero Unveils Free Wireless 4G mobile Internet service
Remember NetZero, the company best known for offering free dial-up Internet service? Well they’re back! NetZero today launched a free 4G wireless that offers a year of free mobile Internet and a free data plan through a partnership with Clearwire. With NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband there is no contract, commitment, activation charge and no overage charges. All data plans, including the free plan, require the purchase of one of two affordable access devices: the NetZero 4G HotSpot ($99.95) and the NetZero 4G Stick ($49.95). ...
read moreAstriCon Party – Last Shuttle Out Sure is a Rowdy Bunch
Everyone seemed to have a great time at the AstriCon Conference Party which took place at Fat Cats, a bowling alley and video game establishment. The last shuttle left around 11:35pm and it sure was a rowdy bunch (but in a good way). Fellow co-worker Alan Urkawich was ribbing me from the back of the bus while I was riding in the front. We had some back and forth ribbing and some of the other shuttle bus riders joined in and joked with other passengers as well. The shuttle only had to drive like 1/4 of a mile so it was a short trip, but I got...
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