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First Glance with Jason Mayoff - blog

Macbook Air

Thu, 2008-03-06 08:15.
Jason Mayoff
_tech Macbook Air
I've been testing out one of Apple's new Macbook Air laptops and I must say it's a beautifully ergonomic piece of machinery.  It's just the right size and weight and yes, it does fit in a manilla envelope.  I love the bright (extremely bright) screen that I have set at less than half the maximum brightness.  I love the way the trackpad works, once you configure a few options.  It's a little pricey, of course at over $3000, but if you've got the dough -- why not.
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Last two HD-DVD titles

Mon, 2008-03-03 09:27.
Jason Mayoff
You kind of wonder, what's the point.

Paramount Pictures releases its last two HD-DVD titles tomorrow: ``Things We Lost in the Fire'' and ``Into The Wild''

The company says it plans to switch over to the Blu-ray format after that.

HD-DVD lost out in the high-def format war to Blu-Ray and Toshiba won't be making any more HD-DVD players.

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Coulton, Laporte, Mann and Belmont do Rock Band

Sat, 2008-03-01 21:21.
Jason Mayoff
Jonathan Coulton of Code Monkey fame along with Leo Laporte (TWiT), Merlin Mann (43 Folders) and Veronica Belmont (Mahalo Daily) did the song Still Alive on the video game Rock Band.  It's lotsa fun.



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Online T-Shirt Shop by Montrealers

Wed, 2008-02-27 19:21.
Jason Mayoff
Wordans is an online t-shirt shop created by three Montrealers.  It's a great looking site that seems to be very user friendly.  I'd check them out, if you're looking for an easy way to merchandise yourself, and who isn't these days, right?  Check out my shop and buy my products.

Montreal Tech Watch says:
The greatest thing about WordAns is that there is no initial investment to create your own T-Shirt, and there is no minimal number of T-Shirts either, allowing emerging designers and artists to have a shop at no costs, with WordAns taking care of the logistics and the (international) shipping.  (Montreal Tech Watch Store)

The prices appear a bit steep, $22.95 for a t-shirt before you add your own markup.  Then you can take as much or as little commission as you'd like.

EDIT: Just got an email from Wordans with the following good news: For your information, you get free shipping on all orders as well as a 5% or more discount if you order at least 3 t-shirts, hoodies or underwears

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Trouble getting on Hotmail? Here's Why

Wed, 2008-02-27 08:11.
Jason Mayoff
An undisclosed technical glitch blocked millions of users worldwide from logging on to Microsoft's free Hotmail e-mail service and other sites yesterday.

After several hours, the software giant was able to reduce but not completely fix the problem that left web surfers unable to access Hotmail and other services that require a Microsoft login.

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Microsoft hit with $1.3B fine

Wed, 2008-02-27 07:54.
Jason Mayoff
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union is fining Microsoft Corp. $1.3 billion for charging rivals too much for software information.

EU regulators say the company charged `unreasonable prices' to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows operating system.

The fine is the largest ever for a single company and the first time the EU has penalized a business for failing to obey an antitrust order.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Government wants eWaste recycling

Tue, 2008-02-26 06:17.
Jason Mayoff
The Quebec government wants manufacturers to pay for ewaste recycling and plans a pilot project in the next few weeks. 
The idea is for companies like Samsung, IBM, and Dell to put in place, and finance, a recycling program to take back their products when they're obsolete, instead of them ending up in the trash.
Great idea.  I did a quick google search and found almost nothing for the search terms eWaste Recycling Montreal.  The only results that seemed to fit were this one and this one this one.
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iPhone and Nintendo DS band

Thu, 2008-02-21 22:09.
Jason Mayoff
What appears to be the first iPhone + DS band.  iBand

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So... the Facebook decline begins

Thu, 2008-02-21 20:33.
Jason Mayoff
Stand back, because this fail is going to be epic.
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JOTT has a Montreal number

JOTT has a Montreal number

Wed, 2008-02-20 08:46.
Jason Mayoff
Helps you remember stuff, using your cell phone
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Why Videotron's new Ultimate High Speed sucks

Why Videotron's new Ultimate High Speed sucks

Thu, 2008-02-14 20:57.
Jason Mayoff
Sure it's fast, but you'll use up all your blazing speed in about 3 hours of constant downloading
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Bacn: it's a bit better than spam

Fri, 2007-08-24 14:39.
Jason Mayoff
BacnThe newest internet word you need to know. Bacn (bā'kən): email you want, just not right now. It's better than spam, but ... only slightly.
"myspace alerts, twitter followers, newsletters, etc."
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Tumblr

Tue, 2007-08-14 21:40.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a great way to keep a blog, without actually doing much work.  It's a tumblelog called Tumblr. 

Check out mine at jmayoff.tumblr.com
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Interactive display spotted downtown

Wed, 2007-08-08 20:24.
Jason Mayoff
iGotcha
An iGotcha interactive display spotted at a shop downtown.
Window shoppers can interact with a touch screen interface, access the Garage website, product info, and participate to forums. The screen is in high-definition and has a viewing angle of 180 degrees.
[Read full story via Montreal Tech Watch]
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Apple also unveils new iLife

Apple also unveils new iLife

Tue, 2007-08-07 19:15.
Jason Mayoff
It wasn't just iMacs.  Apple also unveiled the new version of its iLife suite (sweet!) of products.
"So what's new? Well from the look of things, it's a fair bit. iPhoto and iMovie saw the most change, with iMovie apparently undergoing a substantial re-write. "
[Read full story via Download Squad]

Jason Mayoff's blog |

New iMacs:size matters in Cupertino

Tue, 2007-08-07 18:31.
Jason Mayoff
iMac
Apparently size does matter, at least over in Cupertino, California.

Apple has released its newest version of my favorite computer, the iMac.  The three biggest changes are the look, now anodized aluminum instead of white, screen sizes and hard drive sizes. 
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Internet Crash of 2007

Mon, 2007-08-06 20:10.
Jason Mayoff
Pardon me while I go a little video crazy.  Here's a video I talked about on a Tech File last week.  It's from The Onion, which has been doing some great fake news for a long time.
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I can haz t-shurtz

Mon, 2007-08-06 19:25.
Jason Mayoff
I can haz t-shurtz
If you're a big fan of the I can has cheezburger website, as I am, then you'll be pleased to know they now has merchandiz.  The site is a cat lovers paradise.  It's got a daily dose (sometimes several daily doses) of cute cats and kittens and other animals, doing cute things with funny mispelled captions like "I can has cheezburger?"  Someone coined the term lolcats (laugh out loud cats) for the phenomenon of putting these kinds of captions on these kinds of pictures.
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Facebook apps

Sun, 2007-08-05 20:51.
Jason Mayoff
Facebook
 The social networking website Facebook is starting to move into the main stream, attracting a lot of users who would otherwise not be part of such a thing.  It lets you keep up with your friends and family and what they're doing and re-connect with people you haven't seen in a while.

But if you've been using it for a while, you'll notice there are a lot of 3rd party apps -- little programs -- you're always being asked to install, because your friends want to discuss their favourite books or movies with you.
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Keep MS Outlook calendar visible on your desktop

Sun, 2007-08-05 20:47.
Jason Mayoff
MS OutlookIf you use Microsoft Outlook, here's a neat way to keep it visible and usable almost all the time. 

It's a free download called Outlook Desktop that let's you keep Outlook right there on your desktop -- all the time and has variable transparency so you regular desktop wallpaper shows through in the background.

One of the hassles with using a calendar on your computer is, unlike your house calendar, it's not write there sitting on the wall next to the phone.
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Positive tech support experience

Sat, 2007-08-04 10:20.
Jason Mayoff
WRT54G
You don't often hear about positive tech support experiences these days, so I just wanted to tell you about mine. My Linksys WRT54G V.6 router stopped working.  I think I did something to it when I was trying to set up static IP addresses for the computers in my home network.  I went through all the settings on my router, called my ISP and googled the problem for hours to no avail.  Then I decided to try Linksys's Live Assistance support.
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The absolute best toilet website on the planet

Tue, 2007-07-31 20:20.
Jason Mayoff
Toilet
This has got to be the absolute best toilet website ever, not to mention the best toilet seat on the planet. 

"The S400s air dryer uses a soothing, precisely-aimed flow of warm air"

I'm sure it's the only toilet that comes with a remote.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Second podcast test

Sat, 2007-07-28 09:36.
Jason Mayoff
This is another podcast test -- please ignore (or listen, if you like)

ListenGraphicModern Major Googler 
 






Jason Mayoff's blog |

Podcast testing

Fri, 2007-07-27 07:24.
Jason Mayoff
Just testing out a new podcasting system for the Tech Files.  Keep an eye on this website for more news on when and how to subscribe. 

ListenGraphicTech Files - Bookmarking

Bookmarking is a Tech File from back in February.  For all the links, go here.


Jason Mayoff's blog |

Interactrivia

Mon, 2007-07-02 21:28.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech File Time Waster of the Week: Interactrivia

There are more than a few online places where you can play trivia games, but the one I like is this one.

You play against several others and you get points for getting the right answer and for the speed with which you choose the right answer.

One thing I like about it is that you get the chance to change your answers as the wrong answers are greyed out. 
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Crazy about the theremin

Mon, 2007-07-02 21:03.
Jason Mayoff
This week's Tech File video of the week:  Gnarls Barkley's Crazy on the theremin.

The theremin, according to Wikipedia, is one of the earliest fully electronic musical instruments. It was invented by Russian inventor Léon Theremin in 1919, and it is unique in that it was the first musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. 
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Canada Day

Mon, 2007-07-02 21:00.
Jason Mayoff

It's Canada Day and if you're feeling patriotic you might want to check out some of these websites.

The Canadian Heritage Department has a page with the history of Canada Day, which started off in 1879 as Dominion Day.

If Ottawa is your destination, try the National Capital Commission's website on the activities going on there.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

CanadianParents.com

Mon, 2007-07-02 20:41.
Jason Mayoff
Rogers is relaunching its CanadianParents.com website and while I never saw the old version, the new one is chock full of information and community features like blogs, forums and podcasts.

You can ask an expert like Pediatric Dentist Dr. Ray Lee... or Child Safety Expert Samantha Wilson

They've also got a bunch of kid-friendly recipes like Cock-a-doodle stew and Hamburger cupcakes.
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Find all kinds of cool web apps at Simple Spark

Mon, 2007-07-02 20:35.
Jason Mayoff
The internet is awash in Web 2.0 services, like Flickr, youtube and web apps like Google Docs and Spreadsheets. 

You hear about a lot of them on the Tech Files, but I can't possible tell you about them all, there are just so many.  So, I'll recommend a web site instead that has a search engine of useful web apps.

It's called Simple Spark and it bills itself as a place to find and share web applications.

You can search through the user-submitted database for Word Processors Zoho and WriteWith, Freelance invoice tracker invotrak, Papertracker which shows the environmental impact of various types of paper through their full lifecycles.
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Syncing your contacts and calendars with Plaxo!

Mon, 2007-07-02 20:33.
Jason Mayoff
Every once in a while a really useful and easy to use website comes along, something that fills a need and makes your life easier.

Plaxo is one of those websites.

It's for people like me, who can't decide between using Google Calendar and Apple's iCal or Microsoft's Outlook. It's for people, like me, who have contacts in their GMail account, but would like to keep those contacts in Apple's Address book.
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¡1ooɔ .....buıdʎʇ uʍop ǝpısdn

Mon, 2007-07-02 20:30.
Jason Mayoff
.unɟ sı ǝɹns ʇı ʇnq 'ʎpuɐɥ uı ǝɯoɔ ʇɥbıɯ ʇı ʍoɥ ǝɹns ʇou  .uʍop ǝpısdn ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ buıddı1ɟ  .ɐǝpı 1ooɔ ʎʇʇǝɹd ɐ sı sıɥʇ

1ɯʇɥ.dı1ɟ/ɯoɔ.pɐɟʌǝɹ.ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Are you a right clicka... or iBook flippa?

Sat, 2007-06-30 22:10.
Jason Mayoff

Here's a video to help you decide...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jason Mayoff's blog |

iPhone released

Fri, 2007-06-29 23:01.
Jason Mayoff

The iPhone was released to the American masses yesterday. One reporter who got the phone early liked it ... and made a fun video out of his review ... as he often does. The video, by David Pogue of the New York Times can be seen on his site Davidpogue.com or on youtube. It's funny, but also very informative. For the most part Pogue says the phone has lived up to all the iHype.

The phone is being released ONLY in the US. It will eventually be available through Rogers in Canada ... but there's no time frame yet.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

LinkedIn

Thu, 2007-06-28 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
You've talked about Social Networking sites for teens and young adults, ones for kids and for students and others, how about one for professionals.

It's called LinkedIn.

You sign up by answering a few questions about yourself and what you want to get out of LinkedIn, like help finding a job or getting back into contact with former colleagues you've lost touch with.

You can search for people based on various criteria like name, industry, company, location.
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Slingbox

Wed, 2007-06-27 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
If you've ever wanted to watch your local TV programming while on vacation or on a business trip, then Slingbox is for you.

It hooks up to your cable or satellite and to your router -- and then lets you control your TV from the internet.

It hooks directly into your cable outlet, so you don't even need a TV to run it.

The software that loads up on your computer shows a TV screen ... yours ... and a remote control that'll allow you to change the channel -- and even control your various devices, like the PVR.
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I'm God's friend

Wed, 2007-06-27 17:49.
Jason Mayoff
Imagine my surprise, delight and slight confusion when I got this in my email this afternoon.


Jason Mayoff's blog |

Ulinkx

Tue, 2007-06-26 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
You know of Youtube of course, but did you know there are other video websites out there? 

If you didn't, you're not alone -- not many of us do.  While Youtube is the biggest, there are others with videos that you might want to see and someone's put together a social video search engine and video bookmarking site.

They call it Ulinkx.
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Photoshop Elements

Mon, 2007-06-25 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
You've heard people talk about the image editing program called Photoshop -- the defacto standard for image professionals.  So much so, it's even become a verb... to Photoshop an image is to digitally alter it with Photoshop or any other image editing software.

The latest version of the program -- CS3 -- will run you more than $700. 

That's a little excessive, if all you're doing is correcting a little red eye or cropping your ex brother-in-law out of the family photo.
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Saving money

Sun, 2007-06-24 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
You love saving money and you love using your Firefox web browser.

SavingAdvice.com came up with a list of Firefox extensions that'll help you save.

There's the Grocery List generator that'll help you store your recipe-ingredients and other groceries you need regularly. The write up says it creates a well-organized grocery list to help make your grocery shopping as easy as possible.

The ultimate price checker helps you compare prices at sites like ebay and amazon.
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Geek holidays

Sat, 2007-06-23 23:00.
Jason Mayoff
If you consider yourself a geek or if you consider your significant other a geek, you need to know which holidays to observe, right? 

Someone's set up a Geek Holiday Calendar, using google's calendar application.

You can easily add it to your own google calendar, by clicking on the link at CJAD.com.
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Geek calendars

Fri, 2007-06-22 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
You might know that among the many services offered by the Google empire is a calendar application called aptly enough ... Google Calendar. 

They've always had public calendars, but now they have a searchable index of all those public calendars that you can add to your own calendar.  The events from the public calendars show up alongside your own items.

Mashable.com is out with a list of the The 10 “Must Have” Google Calendars for Geeks.
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Windows sidebar gadgets

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:36.
Jason Mayoff
One of the features in Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system is the Sidebar.  It's a bar of gadgets that sits on the right side of your screen and can contain several useful items.

By default there's a clock there, but it's an analog clock and takes up a lot of room, so I've changed mine for a smaller digital clock.
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Safari for Windows

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:32.
Jason Mayoff
If you're a Windows user and you like the look and feel of Mac software, like iTunes and Quicktime, Steve Jobs has something else for you.

Apple has developed a version of its web browser Safari, for Windows. 

I don't think it will be able to compete with Firefox, which has all kinds of great add-ons and extensions to increase its functionality. 

But there are a lot of people out there who are sick of the mainstream browsers and just want to try something new.
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Flick a Day

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:20.
Jason Mayoff
Have you ever seen that video of the guy who took a picture of his face every day for 6 years and then put it together into a 5½ minute video set to music?

His name is Noah Kalina and he started a bit of a trend when he did that.

There have been a whole lot of copycats and now there's even a website to help you make a similar video.
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Review: Blackberry 8703e

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:15.
Jason Mayoff
I've been playing with a Blackberry 8703e for a few weeks now, and I like it a lot.

Its best feature, by far, is its ability to do email well.  Email is pushed to your Blackberry, rather than you having to go out at check your email.  You then get an audio or vibration alert, and if you don't check it right away -- a little light flashes red to let you know you've got mail.  Otherwise the light flashes green.

Much of the navigation is done with a scroll wheel, which kind of feels like the volume control of a transistor radio.  It takes a few days to get used to it, but then it's like second nature.
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Use google better

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:10.
Jason Mayoff
You use Google everyday, probably but are you really taking full advantage of the worlds most popular search engine.

Thanks to the Dumb Little Man blog, here are some tips for more efficient google searches.

  • If you want to search for an exact phrase, enclose it in quotes
  • Use the minus sign to exclude certain words.  For example, if you want to search for CJAD, but don't want any pages to do with apples, search for CJAD space minus apples
  • The asterisk is a wildcard symbol, so if you're looking for the lyrics to a song, but don't remember the full name just search for something like Can't * Me Love lyrics.
  • If you're looking for a definition, type define colon then the word you're looking for
  • And... if you don't have a calculator handy, just type 2+2, then click search for the answer
  • What if you only want to search within a specific site?  Type site colon, the site you want to search, then your search terms.  For example site: CJAD tech files.
  • Google will also convert any unit into other unit.  So, you can type something like 27 degrees celcius in farenheit and get the answer, 80.6.
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Sputtr

Sun, 2007-06-17 19:03.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a neat search site that combines a bunch of different searches into one.  I think the appeal has to do with how clean the website looks and how easy it is to use.

It's got a search box and 36 buttons for 36 different searchable sites like Youtube, Google, twitter, Stumble Upon and Technorati.

It's really such a simple concept. 

You type your search words into the box and then pick the search engine of your choice.  By default it uses Google.
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Wubuntu

Sun, 2007-06-17 18:57.
Jason Mayoff
Didja ever want to take a look at Linux without all the hassle of downloading and installing it?

Someone's set up a webpage to look like Ubuntu Linux they call Wubuntu.

It's got everything from the set up screen complete with logo and log in process, to a page that's got the same look and feel on Ubuntu, complete with colors and even a web browser.
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Never open Internet Explorer again

Fri, 2007-06-08 22:12.
Jason Mayoff

If you've made the switch to Firefox as your main web browser, you'll no doubt have found a few sites here and there that just don't work, or don't work properly in it, that work only in Internet Explorer. Well, instead of opening up Internet Explorer, why not download Firefox's IEtab. Instead of opening up a whole new broswer, IEtab does just what its name implies, it opens Internet Explorer in a Firefox tab.

When you come upon a site that doesn't work in Firefox, just click the browser logo in the bottom corner of Firefox and it changes automatically to the other browser. Click the logo again to switch back. You can also tell IEtab to always open a certain website using an Internet Explorer tab.

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Changes to Google Reader

Fri, 2007-06-08 21:40.
Jason Mayoff

If you use Google Reader to keep track of all your RSS web feeds, I've got some news for you. First, you might have noticed the Offline link up in the top right corner of the page. Once you download the Google Gears an extension for your browser, you can download your 2000 latest news articles read them offline.

When can this come in handy? If you've got a laptop, you can put all the articles on your local computer and then read them on the bus, or on the plane where you have no internet connection. Word is, Google will soon let you do a full download from some of its other applications as well.

Also, there's been some speculation that the company that specializes in search might finally let you search through all those blog and news articles in Google Reader. Someone did a little digging around and found a new entry in the page's code that refers to the placement of a search box.

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Slow motion video

Fri, 2007-06-08 21:22.
Jason Mayoff

The Tech File Video of the Week this week is actually a Video Blog: LucidMovement.com. It's a series of videos taken with a high speed slow motion camera. The videos are super crisp and clear. There are slo-mo videos of some pretty mundane things like an aerosol can being lifted out of a shallow pan of water, or compressed air being blown into a shallow pan of water.

You can see each individual water droplet take on a life of its own.

They've also got some cool shots of what happens when you drop a water balloon. What happens when it bursts, and what happens if it doesn't burst. What does a paint ball look like when it gets shot with a BB? What does a computer look like when it's hit with a sledge hammer.

One thing I found fun is moving the slider on the video player back and forth and watching it more quickly in forward and reverse.

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Sproose up your search with Sproose.com

Fri, 2007-06-08 21:11.
Jason Mayoff

Here's another human powered search engine that's got a different twist. This one lets user vote on results they think are the best. The results with more votes show up higher in the list than the ones with fewer votes. If you've ever been to the social news site Digg, it works in a very similar way.

It's called Sproose.com.

And, like other social sites, you can comment on the search results, so the next person who searches for that site will get an idea of what you thought about it. The site uses an algorithm to make sure that a few users can't go in a vote one website that doesn't deserve it .. up the list. Your votes have a high impact on you, next time you come back. A medium impact on your friends, or the people in your clique -- and a low impact on others.

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Mahalo: human-powered search engine

Fri, 2007-06-08 21:01.
Jason Mayoff

Google's great. Search and you find everything under the sun about your search terms, usually sorted in some way so that the most popular stuff is at the top. But, there's also a lot of garbage that shows up.

A new website called Mahalo.com is trying to sort through all those search results and bring you only the stuff you need and want. Mahalo bills itself as a the world's first human powered search engine. They've got real people sitting in an office in Santa Monica California who do nothing all day but put together pages of google's search results filtering out all the spam and stuff you don't want. The pages are nicely laid out in categories and sometimes contain interesting facts about what you're searching for.

Unlike Google, Mahalo creates pages beforehand based on keywords. For example some of the top searches currently on Mahalo, the iPhone, Playstation 3, Linux and Pizza. If you search for something they haven't created a page for, they'll serve you up Google's results and let you sign up to receive an alert when they've created a page for you.

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Stereogram Tetris

Fri, 2007-06-08 20:50.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech Files Time Waster of the Week: Stereogram Tetris. Remember tetris, the old video game where you had to position falling blocks of various shapes. You have to turn them around and position them just so, so they complete entire lines. It was a fun game that used to keep me occupied for hours at a time.

Well, this is a twist on the old game, that makes it all that much more interesting. The Tetris game is embedded in a stereogram. That's one of those pictures that you have to cross your eyes and look real close to be able to see. It's something not everyone can do, but if you can -- this game is really neat. Without crossing your eyes you can see that there's some movement -- but it's only when you "get into it" can you see what's moving and where. The controls are all similar to your basic tetris game and there are three levels of play.. beginner, advanced and skilled.
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Review: Palm Treo 680

Fri, 2007-06-01 21:55.
Jason Mayoff
If you're looking for a smartphone, put the Treo 680 on your list to check out.

I really liked this phone for a few reasons.  First, it's got a touch screen with stylus AND one of those mini-qwerty keypads.

It's a nice compact size, but the first thing you'll notice when you pick it up is that it's heavy.  But that weight along with the sleek design makes it feel like you're carrying a well-tuned, well-oiled machine -- kind of like the way a fine pen has a sometimes surprising weight to it.   You know this is not a toy, the moment you pick it up.
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Bank gives away iPods

Fri, 2007-06-01 07:25.
Jason Mayoff
If you're looking for a cheap way to get your hands on an iPod, just open an account at the TD (no, this is not an ad.)  The bank is giving NEW customers iPods based on the following schedule:

  • Move account over = 1Gb Shuffle
  • Move account AND (get gold Visa OR deposit $5000) = 2Gb Nano
  • Move account AND get gold Visa AND deposit $5000  = 30Gb iPod
What do they give customers who don't move their TD accounts to the Royal Bank?  I think I'll ask my bank manager about that.  I've been meaning to start looking around for a new bank, anyway.
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Picture2Life online image editing

Thu, 2007-05-31 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
If you need to edit images online for some reason, maybe you're out of town visiting family and your brother-in-law doesn't have photoshop on his computer, you might want to give Picture2Life a whirl.

It's an online image editing tool, that has a pretty decent amount of functionality. You can do standard things like crop and resize, but you can also , with the click of a button, change the look of your picture by turning it black and white, sepia or color it by adding say a whole lot of red or green.
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Fixing Mighty Mouse's Scroll Wheel

Thu, 2007-05-31 20:40.
Jason Mayoff
Mighty Mouse After about two months of usage (heavy usage) the scroll wheel on my Apple Mighty Mouse stopped working.  Well,  it would scroll up but not down, which was kind of frustrating.  The first hit on my google search for "mac mighty mouse scroll wheel stops working" was a link to the Apple store's page for the mouse and the second comment had a fix.  It's very easy.  Just take a damp (not too wet) cloth and rub the scroll wheel around in all directions for about 30 seconds making sure you've covered the whole ball.  That's it.  It now works.  Better than ever, I might add.
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Video: Amazing juggler at Just For Laughs

Wed, 2007-05-30 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
This week's Tech File video of the week: Amazing Juggling Finale. This is a video of a man named Chris Bliss who has got to be one of the best jugglers on the planet.

It's part of a performance that Chris did at the Just for laughs festival. He juggles three white balls.

Just three balls you say? Yes, but he does it to a montage of songs and he does it so well.
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Digital table from Microsoft

Wed, 2007-05-30 06:20.
Jason Mayoff
Microsoft is announcing a digital table today.  It calls it "Surface."  Very cool.  Check out the demo on its site.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Lost: The iPod Game

Tue, 2007-05-29 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech Files Time Waster of the Week: The Lost Game for the iPod. [Link will open in iTunes]

If you're a big Lost fan, as I am, today is the first of about 35 Wednesdays without your favourite show. It doesn't start up again until next February.

Last year, there was The Lost Experience online, to keep you in the mood over the summer. This year, there's an iPod game based on the show.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Firefox Extension: Split Browser

Mon, 2007-05-28 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a Firefox extension you might find interesting. It's called Split Browser.

You know you can already use tabs in Firefox. Well what if you could also have a browser within a browser.

That's a little different from a tab, in that these browsers within browsers are always there -- you don't have to switch to them as you would have to with a tab.
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Finding the lowest gas prices

Sun, 2007-05-27 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
If you're looking for the latest gas prices, what's it cost in your area and where you can find the lowest prices try Essence Montreal.

The site lists the top ten highest and lowest gas prices in the last 12 hours.

The site is updated by a group of users in the general public. In fact, you can become part of the site just by adding the price of a litre of regular at your local gas station.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Craigslist

Sat, 2007-05-26 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
One of the internet's best kept secrets is a little website called Craigslist. It doesn't get all that much press, probably because it doesn't have that nice modern look and feel -- but it is nonetheless all about what the new modern community based internet is all about.

Craigslist is a giant classified ads website.

You can list just about anything for sale, anything you're looking to buy. You can publicize your organizations event, or even your own garage sale.
You can look for love in all the right places or you can look for love in all the wrong places.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Oh, the OFONE

Fri, 2007-05-25 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech File Video of the Week: The Microsoft O-Phone.

It's a little unclear where this comes from.  Is it Microsoft making fun of the Apple iPhone, is it making fun of itself.   In any case it's funny and its popping up all over the internet.

It's shaped sort of like a three pronged boomerang that slides open and closed, with a circular screen -- one of the prongs looks like it has a keypad, the other two look kind of like cheese graters.
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Are we all really related? A cool family tree website

Fri, 2007-05-25 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
What a great idea. A community family-tree website. Geni.com will let you create a nice looking online family tree that you can show others. But the real power comes when you invite other people to add to the tree.

You start by adding your parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters and then maybe a few cousins. Then, invite some relatives to join the site and they start adding their parents and brothers and sisters and maybe a few cousins ... and then they start inviting people and pretty soon you've got a pretty huge family tree -- and you might be surprised who you're related to.
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Microsoft wants you to touch its desk

Thu, 2007-05-24 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Touch screens have been around for a while now on palm pilots, cellphones, restaurant cash registers, but there have been a few companies developing something a little more sophisticated and complex.

Full touch tables or desks.

I've seen a number of video demonstrations of these and they are very cool.

The latest one to come to my attention is from Microsoft and it calls its prototype the Digidesk.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Distraction-free writing

Tue, 2007-05-22 20:47.
Jason Mayoff
Some people, like me, are distracted pretty easily and so this website can be really helpful. It's a totally distraction free word processor at writer.bighugelabs.com.

The screen is black, you type in bright green, like on those old monitors from the 80s and 90s.

There's no big logo, there are no ads and the necessary links are below the typing box and are in a very faint green, so as not to attract your attention and take you away from what you're doing.
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Teaching an old (Fire)fox a new trick

Mon, 2007-05-21 20:40.
Jason Mayoff
I've been using Firefox as my main browser a for a long time now, but I just discovered this great time-saving tip. You have all those bookmarks and you use them everyday by going into the bookmarks menu and making your way through all the levels of menus until you finally find what you're looking for.

Here's a simpler way.

Right-click on a bookmark and choose Properties. Then in the keyword field, type an easy to remember keyword. For your ISPs webmail page, for example -- you could use mail. For your direct link to the Tech Files page at CJAD.com you could use Tech. Now, instead of searching for the bookmark, just type the keyword into the address bar, and bam! you're there.
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Pete Townshend writes YOUR theme song

Mon, 2007-05-21 20:28.
Jason Mayoff
Have you ever thought your life was like a movie or TV show? Well, every good TV show has a theme song, right? So, shouldn't you? You should! The Who's Pete Townshend and he's created an interactive website to compose that theme music just for you. All you have to do is go to lifehouse-method.com, record a sample of your voice, a rhythm and upload a sound and picture and then wait a few seconds and voila.

The website says a team of composers, personally approved by and occasionally including Pete Townshend, will regularly listen to these musical portraits and select a few for further development/elaboration, that might eventually be turned into an actual song.

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Review: TomTom Go 910

Mon, 2007-05-21 20:24.
Jason Mayoff
Travelling in parts unknown can be a little nerve-wracking, especially if you don't have anyone to help you navigate. That's why so many people, especially people who do a lot of driving, have been equipping themselves with GPSes, Global Position Systems. They're devices about the size of your fist that you attach to your windshield and that give you turn-by-turn directions, to where you're going.
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Victoria Day

Mon, 2007-05-21 14:36.
Jason Mayoff
It's Victoria Day in Canada, the day we celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria who was born in 1837 and died in 1901.  But in Quebec it's also The Journée nationale des Patriotes, or formerly the Fetes de Dollard.

Wikipedia.com says because many Quebecers didn't want to celebrate Canada's ties to the British monarchy, a competing celebration was set up in  1918 in honor of a 17th century French settler who was martyred trying to defend a French settlement against Iroquois attackers.

But, the online encyclopedia says it was changed to the Journée nationale des Patriotes in 2002, in part because the myth of Dollard des Ormeaux lost its appeal to Quebec youth over the generations.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Universcale

Thu, 2007-05-17 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
How big is a light year.  How small is a nanometer

It's not easy to visualize the sizes and distances between planets and solar systems, or the sizes of the circuits on a microchip, but Nikon has come up with a nifty website that tries to put things into perspective.

They call it Universcale and its a full screen flash application that shows you the sizes of various items on a scale from Femtometer ... one quadrillionth of a meter, to 100 billion light years.  A light year, of course, is the distance light travels in one year. 
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Video of the Week: Domino PCs

Wed, 2007-05-16 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech File Video of the week: Domino PCs

An Irish bloke and a Spanish guy got together one Saturday afternoon in Belmont California, lined up 86 computers and then set them falling.

This is their final attempt.

Everything goes well but the heavy machines near the end almost ended it all.  Thankfully there was enough weight behind the toppled machines to slowly topple the heavy ones!
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Time Waster of the Week: Samorost2

Tue, 2007-05-15 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
The Tech File Time Waster of the Week: Samorost 2

The premise, as far as I can tell, is that aliens land on your strange log-like planet floating in space and steal your dog.  You take off in your own rocket ship and chase them to their strange looking little planet.

Once there, you're presented with a slug-like-being hammering away at a snail like coil, while two long-snouted rabbitty type animals seem to be sucking water out of a pipe that you need.
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Windows Live Hotmail

Mon, 2007-05-14 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Microsoft has released the latest incarnation of its long-running hotmail web-based email service. 

Windows Live Hotmail was previously known as MSN Hotmail and originally just plain old Hotmail, when it acquired the service in 1997.  

It was one of the first webmail services.

The new version is replete with web 2.0-iness including a cool new look with gradient coloring that you can change to suit your mood, ajax functionality and more than your average web based email system.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

09 f9 11 02 9d 74 e3 5b d8 41 56 c5 63 56 88 c0

Sun, 2007-05-13 20:00.
Jason Mayoff
There's been quite a hoopla made lately of a long sequence of letters and numbers that make up a secret key hackers can use to override the copy protection on the new HD DVDs. 

The AACS consortium says it owns the randomly chosen 128-bit number, and anyone who possesses or transmits it is breaking the law.

The internet community seems to think differently, many people believing you can't own a number. 

Recently the major news voting site Digg decided to take down all posts containing the numbers, but that just started a revolt of more people posting the number.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

New zooomy modems

Sun, 2007-05-13 19:54.
Jason Mayoff
We've come a long way since the days of 300 baud modems and US cable company Comcast shows we've still got a long way to go.

It's come up with a new modem that uses what it calls Channel Bonding technology to significantly increase download speeds.  They reached speeds up to 150 megabits per second.  Just how fast is that? 

Well, they downloaded a 30-second, 300-meg TV commercial in a few seconds and then watched it - long before a standard modem worked through an estimated download time of 16 minutes.  They downloaded the 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster's visual dictionary in under four minutes. A standard high speed modem would take more than three hours.  On dialup ... it would have taken two weeks.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

General Lee

Sun, 2007-05-13 19:49.
Jason Mayoff
If it holds, it could be the most expensive item ever sold on e-Bay.

A version of the ``General Lee'' -- the 1969 Dodge Charger made famous in the T-V show ``The Dukes of Hazzard'' went for nearly 10 (m) million dollars.

The car belonged to actor John Schneider, who played the blond heartthrob Bo Duke in the show.

The vehicle was in the Dukes movie, but wasn't featured in the original show. It is signed by members of the cast.
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Review: LG Fusic

Thu, 2007-05-10 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
20070510161708 The LG Fusic.  A nice little music phone with a cool couple of features. 
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Swimming to the oldies .. and not so oldies

Thu, 2007-05-10 11:23.
Jason Mayoff
swimp3 Here's a great gift idea for the swimmer in your life.

The SwimP3. 

Yes, it's exactly as it sounds, a waterproof MP3 player made for swimmers.

It's a set of goggles with an MP3 player on the back of the strap and two mini speakers that hang off the sides of the strap next to your ears.   There are no earbuds that go inside your ears.

When you first power it up and turn it and power it up, you'll notice the minimum volume is very loud and the sound is very tinny and full of high trebly sounds.  It kind of makes it sound like a really cheap set of dollar store headphones.
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Drop those excess pounds online

Wed, 2007-05-09 09:28.
Jason Mayoff
Looking to lose a few pounds?  Or maybe a lot of pounds.

Well, there's a website out there that's trying to help you.

It's a social networking type site called fatsecret.com.

It's similar to other social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, in that you invite friends to join and you keep track of what all your friends are doing, except that you all have one goal in mind -- losing weight.
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Time Waster of the Week: Line Rider

Wed, 2007-05-09 08:46.
Jason Mayoff
Line Rider Now bear with me here, because Line Rider  sounds pretty lame, but in fact it is quite an addictive game. 

You are given a pencil and are in charge of creating a world of lines for a red scarf-wearing, sled riding stick figure to enjoy.

The goal is to make sure you don't kill him with steep jumps and you have to be sure he doesn't fall off the edge of your created universe.
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iGoogle

Wed, 2007-05-09 08:38.
Jason Mayoff
We now know what the ig is, in the URL of Google's personalized home page.

They've rebranded the page "iGoogle" and I don't think anyone but me has speculated whether that means they've got something brewing with Apple.

They've recently spruced up the page with dynamic themes that change depending on the time of day, or weather.

In addition to their shiny new vowel, they've also added the ability to create your own gadgets, which are really the raison d'etre for iGoogle. 
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How to own and copyright a number

Tue, 2007-05-08 07:51.
Jason Mayoff
I just wanted to tell you about this really great post by BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow pointing out the absurdity of the whole AACS consortium going after people who post this number on their website.
In effect, AACS-LA (the AACS Licensing Authority) claimed that it owned a randomly chosen 128-bit number, and that anyone who possessed or transmitted that number was breaking the law. Moreover, it claimed to own millions more random numbers -- claimed that the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which criminalises telling people how to break anti-copying software, gave it exclusive dominion over its many keys.
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The Webby Awards

Sat, 2007-05-05 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Webby They've got awards for everything don't they?

The people at the Webby Awards have announced this year's winners.

The guys who invented Youtube, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley get the Person of the year award.  Ask a Ninja... the very funny video podcast gets actor of the year.  Jessica Lee Rose .. aka LonelyGirl15 gets actress of the year.
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Oh-nine Eff-Nine

Sat, 2007-05-05 21:51.
Jason Mayoff
I wrote about the secret AACS numbers a few days ago.  Well, someone's set them to music and someone else posted a response to the song with video and someone else dedicated a web site to them.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Video of the Week: The Zimmers "My Generation"

Fri, 2007-05-04 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Zimmers The Zimmers are a group of seniors from the UK, doing a wonderful rendition of the Who's My Generation from 1965.  If you do the math, this song was not even of their generation, back when it first came out.  Most of them would have been in their mid-30s to 60s at the time.

One of the oldest members is 100 year old Buster Martin.  The lead singer is 90 year old Alf Carretta
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The secret AACS numbers

Fri, 2007-05-04 07:21.
Jason Mayoff
The most talked about numbers in the blogosphere this week have nothing to do with Lost.  They are the 16 digits that make up the secret AACS key; the key that is used to encrypt HD DVDs.  There is a revolt in the works and these secret numbers are being posted everywhere online and even in places offline, where they've been translated into colours and displayed on a T-Shirt.  As fast as they're posted, though the MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America is ordering them taken down.  Digg, however, has said it would not take down any articles containing the numbers.

For the record, the numbers are, in no particular order:

9d4156c563091102f95688c074e35bd8


Note: As displayed, the numbers are probably useless, but rearrange them into the proper order and you might be able to take over the world.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

TF Time Waster of the Week: Excite Truck for the Wii

Thu, 2007-05-03 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI could spend hours playing Excite Truck, racing against the clock or against an opponent. 

You use the Wiimote to steer your truck around a series of tracks in various countries, including Canada, that get progressively more difficult as you go along.  You've got to race against the clock, and beat the other trucks -- but you've also got to gain enough points if you want to advance to the next level.
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Review: Nintendo Wii

Wed, 2007-05-02 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usI got my hands on a Wii game console from Nintendo for a few weeks.  I loved it and so did my family.  It's a great game system for the kids, younger and older. 

The Wii's the one that comes with those controllers that, for certain games, you have to get up a move around, something some parents really like.

And, let me tell you, if you really get into a game of tennis or boxing, you really can get a work out.  Of course, you can just sit on the couch and get absolutely no physical benefit from it whatsoever.
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TF Video of the Week: Illusions

Tue, 2007-05-01 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usThis is a wonderful, yet sad little story of a paper boy and his trip into a book of illusions. 

He's trying to get closer to his paper girlfriend, but because it takes place inside the pages of a book of optical illusions, he's having a little trouble.

Eschers and impossible objects hamper his every move.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Google buys a vowel

Tue, 2007-05-01 07:13.
Jason Mayoff
If you use Google's personalized home page, you now know what the ig stands for in the url (www.google.com/ig)  The search engine is rebranding its personalized home page iGoogle, something Google insiders have apparently been calling it along. 

And, here's one for you conspiracy theorists.  <begin rumor>Google changed the name in advance of its merger with Apple (hey, I'm just sayin'.  That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard iGoogle.)</end rumor>
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Long distance calls with your DingaLing

Mon, 2007-04-30 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usChuck Berry sang about his ding-a-ling and you'll be singing about DingaLing too, if you make a lot of long distance phone calls.
 
DingaLing.ca is a Saskatchewan-based website that'll let you make long distance phone calls for one cent a minute, for the next few months anyway.
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Pook your mail for privacy

Sun, 2007-04-29 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a great idea for all the times some web site asks you for an email address.

You see, every time you give them your own personal email address, you risk being put on some mailing list and increasing your already high spam count.

But, sometimes you really want to try some site, or service to see if you like it.

Well, what if you could get a disposable email address just for that site.  You can always set up a free email account with Google and use it for that purpose.

Or you could use Pookmail.  It's so easy.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Viruses get you on websites more, email less

Sun, 2007-04-29 08:27.
Jason Mayoff
An online security company says there were nearly 24 thousand new pieces of malware, like viruses and spyware, out there in the first three months of this year.  That's quite an increase from the less than 10 000 they found in the same period last year.

One interesting finding in the study by Sophos, e-mail infection is down from about 1 in 77 to 1 in 256 emails circulating on the internet that are infected.

But, they found an average of 5000 new webpages infected every day, suggesting hackers are increasingly using websites to infect your computer, and relying slightly less on email attachments.
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Yahoo! lyrics

Fri, 2007-04-27 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
It seems everyone knows someone who can't seem to figure out the lyrics to a popular song -- and can't be convinced that they're wrong.

A new feature at Yahoo is aimed at ending lyric illiteracy.

It's a free service that features the lyrics to some 400-thousand songs.

What makes it different from the legion of similar sites is that the Yahoo site will reproduce the lyrics with the full blessing of the copyright owners, making it the Internet's largest legally-licensed lyrics database.

That solves a couple of major problems from people who had to rely on such sites until now.
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Time Waster of the Week: Stunt Bike Island

Thu, 2007-04-26 09:14.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usYou're on your bike and have to do various stunts to gain points.  You can go forward, backward and steer and your options are to hop or do a stunt.

But, you gotta make sure you get Big Air before you can do a stunt or you die, but have no fear you start right back up for where you left off.

And, make sure you don't hit anything, unless it's those power up items.
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Video of the Week: Billy's Balls 2

Thu, 2007-04-26 08:59.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usPro skateboarder Billy Marks seems to have another amazing talent.

He can put a ping pong ball in a little red cup.

He can bounce it off walls ten feet away into the cup.

He can bounce it off 5 strategically placed boards into the same cup.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Penguins and igloos keep kids safe online

Thu, 2007-04-26 08:41.
Jason Mayoff
Image Hosted by ImageShack.usLooking for a safe place for your children to play online? 

ClubPenguin is an online game world, or maybe a social networking site for kids aged 8 and up.

Everyone who signs up gets their very own penguin to represent them in the game as they interact with other penguins, playing games, chatting and the like.

Now, if you're going to let you young kids do any chatting and interacting online, you need to know its safe. 
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A tale of Google, YouTube and Copyright

Thu, 2007-04-26 08:36.
Jason Mayoff
Google's CEO says the company is close to setting up a filtering system that would prevent copyrighted content from being uploaded to YouTube,  which Google owns.

Eric Schmidt made says the new system, which he called Claim Your Content, will automatically identify copyright material so it can be removed.

It was apparently supposed to have been launched last year, when Google bought Youtube -- in October -- for 1.6-billion dollars.

The TV networks say Youtube is letting people post THEIR content, and raking in the advertising dollars, without sharing it with THEM.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Google Suite

Thu, 2007-04-26 08:30.
Jason Mayoff
Google is about to complete its office suite with a clone of Microsoft's Powerpoint.

They just bought a company called Tonic Systems, based in San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia which develops java-based applications, including a type of online presentation software.

No one's saying how much Google paid, but the people at Tonic say they are incredibly excited about the possibilities.

Google says Tonic has some great technology for presentation creation and document conversion, and it will be a great addition to their Google Docs & Spreadsheets.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Sticky Windows

Thu, 2007-04-26 08:25.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a neat little program for your Mac.

It's called Sticky Windows and lets you minimize your programs down to tabs that you could place on the edge of your screen.

What makes it better than just minimizing to the dock or hiding the window is that you can much more easily see what's in your window.

You're not limited to placing them in any one location.  You can minimize the windows to a tab on either side or the bottom of the screen.
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Google has the answer to life, the universe and everything

Fri, 2007-04-20 21:18.
Jason Mayoff
If you're a Douglas Adams fan then you already know the answer, but now Google Calculator has confirmed it. 

The answer to life, the universe and everything is ...... ???????????
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Google to filter videos

Fri, 2007-04-20 20:46.
Jason Mayoff
Google's CEO says the company is close to setting up a filtering system that would prevent copyrighted content from being uploaded to YouTube,  which Google owns.

Eric Schmidt made says the new system, which he called Claim Your Content, will automatically identify copyright material so it can be removed.

It was apparently supposed to have been launched last year, when Google bought Youtube in October for 1.6-billion dollars.

The TV networks say YouTube is letting people post THEIR content, and raking in the advertising dollars, without sharing it with THEM.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Photoblogging

Fri, 2007-04-20 20:20.
Jason Mayoff
Nikon D200 If you like taking pictures and if you think you're good at it, you might be interested in putting your pictures online for others to see.  There's places like Flickr that allow you to store and show your pictures, but there's another way to do it called photoblogging. 

Essentially, you put up a new picture on your blog every day or two for others to see.

Eventually, if you're good -- you get a following of people who come to your site, or subscribe to your RSS feed.
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TWOTW: Bowmaster Prelude

Thu, 2007-04-19 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
This week's Tech File Time Waster of the Week is Bowmaster prelude.

It's a flash version of capture the flag that pits you against the enemy and if you're the addictive type, you might be caught up in this one.

The two objectives of the game: capture the enemy's flag or eliminate all enemy troops using your weapons: bow and arrow, and a trebuchet and your soldiers, like grunts, big grunts archers and mounted soldiers.

You get gold and experience which affect your hero's rank and let you buy reinforcements.
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Lowest tech website ... ever!

Thu, 2007-04-19 08:46.
Jason Mayoff
Miranda July Miranda July wrote a book and decided to promote it, like many other authors, with a website.  But she took a decidedly low tech approach using a dry erase marker and some kitchen appliances.

[VIA BoingBoing]

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Should you Vista or should you not?

Wed, 2007-04-18 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
The new version of Windows is out and a lot of people are asking themselves whether they should upgrade. 

Well, if you're one of those people, I've got some advice. 

When should you upgrade and when should you not?

If you are buying a new computer, you SHOULD get it with Vista pre-installed.  In fact, you can't find a whole lot of new PCs without it.

If you have an older computer, one you bought before last fall, then you SHOULD probably NOT upgrade.  Vista requires a lot more horsepower and memory than XP ever did, and in many cases it would slow your computer down.
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VOTW: Kiwi

Tue, 2007-04-17 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
This week's Tech File Video of the week... Kiwi!

Kiwi is a 3 minute video tells the story of a Kiwi, a flightless bird, not a fruit.  It starts off with this odd looking New Zealand bird doing some tying and pulling and working very hard, but you're not quite sure what he's doing.  Slowly his mission is revealed, until you see that this flightless bird is really just trying to achieve the illusion of flight, and risking his life in the process.
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Virginia Tech on Facebook

Tue, 2007-04-17 03:36.
Jason Mayoff
Type the phrase ``Virginia Tech'' into Facebook's search field and you'll be inundated with a staggering number of groups dedicated to what has been deemed the most deadly school shooting in U.S. history.

More than 500 groups have been created on the social networking website where people from around the world have been conveying their prayers and condolences to the victims and expressing rage and sadness over the attacks that left 33 dead, including the gunman, and wounded 29 more.

Less than a day after the tragedy, a group, called ``A Tribute to Those who Passed at the Virginia Tech Shooting,'' had more than 90,000 members at last count.
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Jaiku

Mon, 2007-04-16 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
A haiku about
A new way to express yourself
Jaiku.com

OK, so I'm no poet, but move over twitter, hello Jaiku.

You might have heard me talking about Twitter last month - a website that lets you tell people what you're doing anytime and all the time.

Well, Twitter is so ... last month.

This month's hot new presence indicator is Jaiku.

It's not hard to explain what you do on Jaiku, but it it's not easy to explain the allure.

Every once in a while during the day or week, you type in, in 140 characters or less -- what you're doing so your contacts and friends see what's going on in your life.  And, you watch what your friends are doing.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Senior citizen's singing 'bout their generation

Mon, 2007-04-16 19:06.
Jason Mayoff
Zimmers This will soon be a tech file video of the week, but it's just so good I had to share it with you now. 
The oldest and greatest rock band in the world - meet The Zimmers and their amazing cover of The Who's "My Generation".  Lead singer Alf is 90 - it's quite something when he sings "I hope I die before I get old". And he's not the oldest - there are 99 and 100-year-olds in the band!
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Why pay, when you can get almost-as-goods for free

Sun, 2007-04-15 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Why use expensive software when you can use alternatives that are almost as good or sometimes just as good or better.

I found a website with a list of some commercial software and their free alternatives. 

It's the Linux and Open Source Blog, but there's a windows version for most of the software it lists... And... it could save you thousands of dollars.

Adobe Photoshop costs more than $600, but you can use The Gimp for free.

Microsoft Excel is about $200, but OpenOffice Spreadsheet is free.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Check up on your date with Google etc

Sat, 2007-04-14 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Do you Google your dates?

Lots of people do.

Katie Laird, a 24-year-old Web marketing professional from Houston, advises her friends to use the power of the Internet search giant.

She says googling her dates has revealed some bizarre fetishes and a guy who was fascinated with vampires.

What can you do?  Try googling your date's name and email address.  You might want to search around for them on some of the popular social networking sites like myspace and facebook.  People looking to meet other people, often post profiles on these services.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Reading for geeks

Sat, 2007-04-14 21:35.
Jason Mayoff
overclockedcoverbigJust finished reading the story "When sysadmins ruled the earth", an excellent short story by Cory Doctorow.  If you have one, this story will most certainly appeal to your inner geek (mine's an outie.)  It tells the story of a global disaster, and how system administrators in Toronto and around the world deal with it.  
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Plugging the hole in AACS... how long will it last this time?

Fri, 2007-04-13 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
It was a pretty big security hole.

But those who make software to turn out next-generation D-V-D's say it's now been fixed.

Makers of software for playing HD DVD's and Blu-ray discs say they have repaired a problem that let hackers copy the video off the discs.

Makers of software for playing the discs on computers will now offer patches with new security keys that will keep hackers from getting at the video on the discs.

The group that developed the Advanced Access Content System -- a form of copy protection -- says it will replace the defective software keys and will even keep computers loaded with the earlier software from playing the high-definition DVD's.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Leopard release date changed ..... to October

Fri, 2007-04-13 08:23.
Jason Mayoff
If you've been waiting for the new version of Macintosh's operating system, Leopard, then you'll be waiting a little longer.  Apple has pushed back the release date until October.  Why do they torture us so.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Getting personal with Google

Tue, 2007-04-10 06:28.
Jason Mayoff
What's your home page.  I mean the page that first comes up when you open up your Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari web browser.  Many people just leave it as is, which means it's probably that Sympatico MSN page, or the Firefox Google search, but you can change it to something a little more useful.

Many people like to have the standard google search form as their start page, but Google's also got what it calls it's customized home page. 

The url is a short, but not very descriptive google.com/ig. 
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Create PDFs the Primo way

Tue, 2007-04-10 05:54.
Jason Mayoff
If you've ever wanted to email a document to someone, let them print it, but you don't want them to be able to make any changes, then you want to send them a PDF file, which stands for Portable Document Format.

It was invented by Adobe about 14 years ago, and has become the standard for this type of thing.

It used to be, you had to buy Adobe Acrobat at more than $400 to create or modify a PDF, but not anymore.

In fact, there are some free tools out there that let you turn any document you can print... into a PDF.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Read PDFs faster with Foxit

Tue, 2007-04-10 05:21.
Jason Mayoff
If you've ever clicked on a PDF document on the web, and waited many long seconds -- even a minute or more for Adobes PDF reader to load up, then this is for you. 

Often times when you open adobe, you're presented with a perplexing upgrade screen -- that wastes more valuable seconds as you decide whether to upgrade and then wait for the program to do its job.

Well, no more.

There's a much faster way to view PDFs with a free program called Foxit. 

Just download it from FoxitSoftware.com and install and it will automatically take over any PDFs you try to open. 
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Review: Nokia E62 Smartphone

Sun, 2007-04-08 18:04.
Jason Mayoff
Need to be on top of your email ... all the time, even when you're on the road.  Well, there's a laptop -- but you gotta be somewhere, plug it in and check your mail.  It's ok in a pinch, but what if you gotta ALWAYS know when you've got mail.

Smartphones, like the Blackberry, or Nokia's E62 are the way to go.   I tested out an E62 for a couple of weeks and found it to be an exceptional email machine.  There's a little strobe light on the top left of the machine that flashes whenever you've got a new email.  You can also have it vibrate and play some kind of alert ringtone.  If you've got the thing in your pocket, or nearby on your desk.  You will know instantly that you've got a message. 
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Interview: Kodak guy talks about digital frames

Sun, 2007-04-08 17:53.
Jason Mayoff
I had the opportunity recently to talk with Greg Morrison, digital product marketing manager with Kodak Canada about something I think will soon become ubiquitous, digital frames.

Here's the interview that aired on the Dave Fisher Show.

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Microsoft to go DRM-free.. too (moi aussi, moi aussi)

Sun, 2007-04-08 08:58.
Jason Mayoff
Microsoft is now saying it too will start selling music without any copy-protection.  Apple announced a little while ago that it had a deal with EMI to remove the DRM for all of its songs.  It'll charge you more ($1.29) but you'll also get a higher quality file (256k instead of 128k)

[computerworld VIA BoingBoing VIA 43Folders]
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Twitter is sooooo .... February!

Sat, 2007-04-07 20:48.
Jason Mayoff
Jaiku Well, the world's chief TWiT, the head geek, Leo Laporte, has switched from Twitter, to jaiku.com, a similar kind of "what are you doing now" service.  I think that means anyone who's anyone will be rushing to join him.  In fact, he brought down the jaiku servers for a while.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Montrealers hit the big-time on Youtube

Thu, 2007-04-05 05:56.
Jason Mayoff
Two youtube videos involving Montrealers.

Here's the cigarette butt hero.

Here's CJADs Tim Parent

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Joost

Tue, 2007-04-03 20:48.
Jason Mayoff
Joost™

Hey, all you Joost Beta testers out there, there's a new version available for download

What's Joost?

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Review: K790 Cybershot cameraphone

Tue, 2007-04-03 11:18.
Jason Mayoff
Need a camera?  Need a phone?  Ever think of combining them and getting one device

Well, if you're looking for a point and shoot in the 3 megapixel range and an average, yet sleek phone, you might want to take a gander at the Sony Ericsson K790. 

The K790 is a very well put together device, that you won't mind showing off.  It's got nice black lines and a 240x320 screen.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Make funny faces on the web

Sun, 2007-04-01 19:52.
Jason Mayoff
I found a cool website that lets you do on the web, what Photobooth lets you do on a mac.  It's sigost.com.  Here are a few examples:

Sigost1 Sigost 2
Sigost 3 Sigost 4
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Password checker

Thu, 2007-03-29 19:05.
Jason Mayoff
Further to my post and Tech Files on passwords, here's a great little password checker from Microsoft.  It'll tell you how good your password really is.


Jason Mayoff's blog |

Boot Camp works with Vista now

Thu, 2007-03-29 18:55.
Jason Mayoff
There's a new version of Apple's Boot Camp that now has the drivers for Windows Vista.  Boot Camp is the software that allows you to run Windows on your Mac in dual boot mode.  Previously it only had drivers for XP.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

Putting your pictures online

Wed, 2007-03-28 15:35.
Jason Mayoff
Take a lot of digital pictures?  What do you do with them all.  For a lot of us they sit on our cameras until we run out of room and then they sit on our hard drives.  Maybe you even print a few out or email a couple to family and friends.

I've got some other suggestions.

You can put them online and leave them there for all to view, or for only a select few to see.

The three big photo sites are Flickr, Photobucket and Imageshack.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Night of the living desktops: Is your computer a zombie?

Sun, 2007-03-25 20:50.
Jason Mayoff
More and more computer users are helping to spread spyware, spam, and viruses without even knowing it.

Symantec, the guys who make Norton Anti-Virus say more than six million computers around the world were bot-infected in the last half of 2006.

That's up 29 per cent from the first half of last year.

Bots, which can be hidden in legitimate-looking e-mails or software.  They infect your computer then turn it into a zombie and use it to spread spyware, spam and other bad stuff to other unprotected computers over the internet.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Youtube awards

Fri, 2007-03-23 22:55.
Jason Mayoff
The Youtube awards.  Find all the info here.
Jason Mayoff's blog |

StumbleUpon

Wed, 2007-03-21 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
StumbleUpon Got an hour, or two or maybe three to kill.  I've got an online suggestion that'll keep you busy for a while.

Have you ever heard of StumbleUpon?  It's a web site and concept that's been around for a while now, but I just rediscovered it again... for the first time. 

The idea is this: You download a toolbar for your browser, Firefox or Internet Explorer.  Then you use it to navigate, or really, stumble through the internet.  When you sign up, you tell the system what types of sityes you want to see. 
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

TWERQ.com

Wed, 2007-03-21 23:01.
Jason Mayoff

twerq T W E R Q.  The first five letter keys on your keyboard, and now an interesting new way to search the web. 

twerq.com

What's your favourite search engine?  Yahoo!  Windows Live?  Google?  Great... well, how about giving this site a try.

Twerq will search using your search engine of choice, but adds some extra functionality onto it.  For example, you can open a new ajax-y tab for each search that you do, so you don't lose the previous search.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Facebook

Wed, 2007-03-21 20:24.
Jason Mayoff
Facebook I've decided to jump head first into the wonderful world of social networking.  I decided to forego myspace, for various reasons and head over to Facebook.com, which seems to be the place to be now. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived and found many of my co-workers had preceded me there. 

CJAD's Dan Laxer (host of Laxer Live) became my first Facebook friend.  Andrea Elias, producer of the Andrew Carter Morning Show was number two and Mix96's Rob Kemp was my third friend.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Flash cards

Tue, 2007-03-20 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Flash Cards You've used flash cards since you were a wee one, and your mom wanted to make sure you understood your colors by age 2, read by age 3 and write by 4. 

You might have used them later on in school to help you cram for that big test. 

Well, flash cards have taken a flying leap into the world of the internet, thanks to the cueflash.com website.

You have a number of options when you show up at the site.  First sign up or login, then you can get to work.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Amie Street

Mon, 2007-03-19 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
All this talk about DRM this, copy protection that, FairPlay, Plays For Sure ... what about good old fashioned music, that you own once you've purchased it.

At places like iTunes and most other online music stores ,you are given a certain set of rights, for example you can play it on 5 computers, 1 iPod and 3 burns to CD or some such.

(iTunes lets you put it on 3 iPods and burn it any number of times to CD)
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

The Cook's Thesaurus

Sun, 2007-03-18 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a website that every cook or wannabe cook MUST have in their bookmarks. 

The Cook's Thesaurus.

Ever have a recipe that calls for a rutabaga, but you're not sure what the difference is between a rutabaga and a turnip.  Or ... want to know which potatoes are best for frying a... and which make the best mashed potatoes?

This is the site for you.

What the heck is sour milk?  It's there ... just add a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to a cup of milk and let stand for 5 minutes.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Cooking tips online

Sat, 2007-03-17 23:01.
Jason Mayoff
Onions II I love to cook and so one of the things I do a lot of when I'm online is check out some of my favourite recipe and cooking and food sites.  And, if you spend any time at all in the kitchen, behind the counter, I mean and at the stove then you'll appreciate some of these cooking and food tip sites.

Teri's Kitchen cooking tips has such time saver gems as freezing bread crumbs or cubes for croutons, until you need them.  Precook bacon and freeze -- so you can enjoy it when you're on the run.

Beryl Bender Birch has tips like
 
 

1. Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips. 

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

A trip down memory lane

Sat, 2007-03-17 10:18.
Jason Mayoff
Apple ][We all have a soft spot for our first computer, and that's why this site is just soooo interesting.  It has information on old computers dating back to the 1950s, but where it starts getting really interesting for a lot of us is in the late 1970s and early 80s when the era or personal computing began.

What was your first computer? A radio shack TRS-80 from 1977, a Radio Shack Tandy from 1980 or maybe it was like mine, an Apple ][e from 1983 and came without a monitor.  I had to use an old black and white TV.  It had 64 K of ram and 16 colors, not that I could see any of them.  It came with DOS 3.3 and cost over a thousand dollars.   It came without a  hard drive and didn't even have a floppy -- although thank goodness I got one for my 16th birthday.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Band plays Paris metro; filmed on cellphones; viewed online

Fri, 2007-03-16 20:34.
Jason Mayoff
Naturally 7 Got some talent and want to promote your latest song?  Why not sing it on the metro like this band, Naturally 7, did in Paris.  Not only did they film it, but so did a bunch of other people on their cellphones.  You may only have an audience of a few dozen on the metro, but once it hits Youtube... lookout. 
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Shortcuts for oft-repeated bits of text

Fri, 2007-03-16 00:01.
Jason Mayoff

Here's a great little piece of productivity freeware that will make your life a thousand time easier, especially if you do a lot of typing. 

It's called Texter and its for windows only, but there are Mac alternatives.

Once it's installed, you give texter shortcuts -- and tell it what to do when you type those character strings. 

For example type in the shortcut ssig, and texter will instantly replace it with your email signature.  You can have it do that for anything, for example when I type in jmtf -- texter replaces it with "I'm Jason Mayoff with a CJAD Tech File", something that saves me countless seconds everyday,  minutes every week.

You can also get texter perform actions, like pulling the first name of the person who sent you an email out of the email address and turning it into a personalized response like “Thanks for the email, Adam.”

For Mac there are a couple like, Text Expander and RapidoWrite and there's even a firefox extension that does this called Text Complete.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Take your cell number with you

Thu, 2007-03-15 15:56.
Jason Mayoff
It took long enough.  Wireless number portability has finally made it to Canada, so you can take your phone number with you when you switch wireless providers.

Say you’ve been with Bell for years, but you find a better deal with Rogers or Telus, but everyone knows your old Bell number.  Well, until this week you either had to stick with Bell if you wanted to keep the number, or switch to another provider and go through the hassle of telling all your contacts, including clients, your new number.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

reBoot, reuse and recycle your old computer

Thu, 2007-03-15 00:01.
Jason Mayoff

You’ve got a brand new computer, fresh out of the box.  What should you do with the old one?


So, what happens to your computer when you send it to the scrap heap?  Used to be the answer was not much.

But that's changing now that many of the companies that put computers together are also coming up with ways to take them apart when they are no longer needed.

HP and Dell both have recycling programs

Why is it important to recycle?

Most discarded electronic devices contain toxic metals and chemicals like lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and P-C-B's.

The U-S government estimates American consumers generated some two million tons of what has come to be known as e-waste.

And analysts say only 10-to-15 per cent of such devices are being recycled.

You have some other options, including donating your old computer to your favourite charity.... or check out reBOOT Montreal, which will refurbish it ... and then give it to charities and organizations of their choice, places like John Rennie High School, Welcome Hall Mission, West Island Black Community Association, Bon Dieu Dans la Rue and the Canada Cancer crusade.

Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Mac releases a non-Leopard update

Wed, 2007-03-14 06:25.
Jason Mayoff
Apple has released an update to Mac OSX, although it's still not the 10.5 Leopard we've all be waiting for. 

Here's what Software Update says about it:

The 10.4.9 Update is recommended for PowerPC and Intel-based Mac computers currently running Mac OS X Tiger version 10.4.8 and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes or compatibility updates for the following applications and technologies:

- RAW camera support
- Handling of large or malformed images that could cause crashes
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Audiobooks cheap! Record your own or listen to what others have done

Wed, 2007-03-14 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Like listening to audio books, but find they're just a bit too expensive, well what would you say to FREE!

Librivox.org, started by Montrealer Hugh McGuire, is place where you can download free audiobooks, recorded by everyday people like you and me.  Things like Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities.

If you've got some free time on your hands, maybe you'd like to record a chapter, a poem and entire book, or perhaps a little Shakespeare.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Coming up with strong, secure passwords

Tue, 2007-03-13 20:25.
Jason Mayoff
Some tips and tricks for coming up with a safe, secure and strong password and some tips on how to remember what appears to be an almost completely random string of 12, 15 even 20 or more characters

Lemme guess your password... is it your dog's name?  Your kid?  An old phone number?  Your license plate number?  Do you use the same password over and over again?  That may be ok for some things, but what about your online banking website, or your webmail account? 

Here's how I deal with passwords.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

3D printing

Fri, 2007-03-09 10:21.
Jason Mayoff
Le Devoir ran a story this morning about a 3d printer, that actually prints out 3 dimensional objects.  It's a potentially very important, not to mention very cool new technology.

Alert listener Meir Weiss sent me these three news links about the technology (thanks!)

http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/?ItemID=24143

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/114130469/ABSTRACT

http://www.azom.com/details.asp?newsID=7935
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Toothbrush for the gadget geek

Fri, 2007-03-09 00:23.
Jason Mayoff
Here's a gadget that's been making the rounds of the blogosphere over the past few days.  It's not as cellphone, it's not a new iPod or game console.  It's not a laptop or digital camera.  It'ss something you use everyday, yet probably hardly  ever think about.

Listen up dentists ... It's a toothbrush.  A high tech electric toothbrush that could revolutionize the world of dental hygiene. 

It's called the Ultreo and the reason its making a buzz online is that it uses ultrasound, in addition to its bristles to clean your teeth.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Where to find wifi hotspots

Thu, 2007-03-08 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Heading out with your laptop, pda, phone or other wi-fi device and want to know some of the best spots to sit down, have a coffee or meal and surf, for free? 

Try hotspotr.com, another vowel-lacking web 2.0 website.  It uses google maps to let you  plot all the best  wifi hotspots in North America.

So far, there are only two in the Montreal area, at the Eaton Centre and Paris Cafe on Ste. Catherine street.

(Since that was recorded, there seems to have been an explosion in the number of Montreal-area sites listed)
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Wifi security

Thu, 2007-03-08 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Here are some things to keep in mind, if you're heading to a wifi hotspot at your favourite coffee shop, or airport.

First of all, most access points provide absolutely no security between your computer and the internet, so even if you go to secure website, like your bank or your Gmail account, there is nothing stopping a bad guy from sniffing your traffic -- including passwords -- out of the air.

So, it's a good idea NOT to do any of your banking, while at your local cafe.

In fact, its a good idea not to go to any sensitive website where you have to enter a password.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Looking to buy a few good friends?

Tue, 2007-03-06 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Need a friend, but too lazy to go find one the old fashion way?  No problem, FakeYourSpace.com will sell you a few friends for you myspace account, or any other social networking site.  You can put up these friends pictures and they'll even leave comments.

What's it cost?  The website says it all depends on what you want. You have the option of picking how many friends you want to have, how often they comment, and what kinds of comments they leave.

Basic service starts at $1.99/month but, for their grand opening special, they're cutting it to just a buck a month.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Stumble Video

Mon, 2007-03-05 21:30.
Jason Mayoff
Looks like the guys at StumbleUpon are trying to refresh their image and have moved into the realm of videos.

Stumble VideoHaven't tried the new service yet, but the original stumbleupon was great if you were bored and had some time to kill.  You're able to run through a bunch of different web sites, giving them thumbs ups or thumbs downs, and based on that i
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Sony's cheaper Blurays(?)

Mon, 2007-03-05 21:07.
Jason Mayoff
You might want  to hold off, if you're planning to get a Hi Def DVD player.  Sony says it's coming out with a new cheaper BluRay player that it says will have all the capabilities of its higher priced one.

Sony's planning to sell its BDP-S300 for $599, a full $400 cheaper than its current BDP-S1 at $999.

Why?  Well, Toshiba has a player for the HD DVD format, selling for $499.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Make your grandmother 20 years younger, automagically

Mon, 2007-03-05 20:05.
Jason Mayoff
Harper Portrait In keeping with the recent theme of graphics software, online and offline, here's another one.  It's called Portrait Professional.  It lets you clean up, or fix up people's faces.  The one I did of the Prime Minister isn't very dramatic, but there are some examples on the web site that are quite amazing.  The program can make you look a whole lot younger.  I think the Harper picture above shaves about 10 years off of him (although it's hard to tell on this small picture.)
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Free beer and Ning.com

Sun, 2007-03-04 20:52.
Jason Mayoff
Marc Andreesen (2)Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen helped bring the Internet to the masses during the 1990s.

Now the Netscape Communications co-founder, who also co-wrote Mosaic .. .the first widely used web-browser -- is trying to help Web surfers build online communities.

Andreessen has a new start-up company called Ning.

After months of fine-tuning, it's finally ready to make its big push with a free toolkit designed to make it easy to launch a social network with a few mouse clicks.
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Guy draws Locke from lost in photoshop... time lapse

Sun, 2007-03-04 19:40.
Jason Mayoff
Locke Very cool time lapse screen cap video of guy drawing John Locke from the show Lost.  He's very good.

Jason Mayoff's blog |

Tumblr: Shun the non-believer

Sat, 2007-03-03 20:47.
Jason Mayoff
If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.

If you're looking to get into blogging, but why to try somewthing a little different... how about tumblr.com... spelled as all good web 2.0 sites are, lacking an extraneous vowel, in this case, the "e". 

tumblr.com calls itself a tumbleblog... which wikipedia describes as: a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over longer editorial posts...  Unlike blogs, they're frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.
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Photoshop online

Wed, 2007-02-28 22:39.
Jason Mayoff
Photoshop Adobe has decided to take its flagship product Photoshop online and present it as a web 2.0 type application.  It  will probably be a pared down version, but it'll be free (ad-supported.) 

In the meantime, try the great online image editing app called Pixenate.  I haven't opened my copy of photoshop since I discovered Pixenate.  For basic image resizing, cropping and lots of other stuff, it is very fast and very easy.
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Bev O-d-a Oda

Wed, 2007-02-28 22:23.
Jason Mayoff
Bev Oda Canadian heritage minister Bev Oda spent almost $5500 on limos for the Junos.  Someone decided that deserves a song and so he wrote one, to the tune of The Kinks "Lola"

Youtube video [via BoingBoing]
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Bittorrent

Wed, 2007-02-28 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
One of the best ways to download large files is through a file-sharing technology called Bit Torrent.  It works like this: someone (called a seed) posts a file available for sharing and others -- called peers -- start downloading it.  Peers can download from seeds, people who have the entire file -- or from other peers who only have parts of it. Once a peer has downloaded the entire file -- they now start to seed it.

Now, bit torrents have had a bad reputation in the past -- since they've been used -- and are still used by software, music, movie and TV pirates to steal programs, shows CDs and any other large downloadable file.
Jason Mayoff's blog | read more |

Linux

Tue, 2007-02-27 09:52.
Jason Mayoff
Penguin There's Windows and Mac and that other one... what's it called? Oh yeah, Linux or is it lie-nix?

Let's clear that off right off the bat - it's pronounced Lynn-icks, even though it was invented and named after a guy named Linus.

What is it?  It's an operating system along the lines of Windows, but probably a little closer to Mac's OSX.

It's based on the granddaddy of all operating systems Unix. 
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AACS cracked ... again

Sun, 2007-02-25 20:44.
Jason Mayoff
AACS is the copy protection used on the brand new HD DVD and Blu Ray discs, the new high definition video standard.  The movie companies have been working on perfecting it for a long time and it was supposedly unbreakable... until, that is, it was broken.  And then broken again.  And now, broken a third time.
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Band gives away album for download on Bit Torrent

Sun, 2007-02-25 19:06.
Jason Mayoff
Harvey Danger The band Harvey Danger has put its entire new album "Little by Little" for free download.  It's a bold move and they say it's an experiment. 



"... we have decided to embrace the indisputable fact of music in the 21st century, put our money where our mouth is, and make our record, Little By Little…, available for download via Bittorrent, and at our website."
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Oscars

Sun, 2007-02-25 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Oscar It's Oscar night ... and as the stars get all made up and ready for the big show, you have a number of ways to take part online.

You can head over to Oscar.com now for all the background, but also to make your predictions.  If you're among those with the most correct predictions you'll be in the running for prizes like a trip to Los Angeles and an 80G iPod.
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Email addicition

Sat, 2007-02-24 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
computer bathroom We've had hotels offering massages for blackberry thumb, now a recovery program for email addicts. The program will help these people tackle their obsession for reading or replying to emails on holiday, in the car and even in the bathroom.  That's a problem? 

The plan was devised for people like the golfer who checked his BlackBerry after every shot and lost a potential client who thought he was a socially-inept obsessive.  And then there's the woman who couldn't walk by a computer — hers or anyone else's — without checking for messages.  Another had 3600 emails in his inbox. That's not an obsession, just poor organization.

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DRM-free music

Fri, 2007-02-23 09:41.
Jason Mayoff
It's a great day for the little guy. 

A Canadian online music store has decided to remove the copy protection -- known as Digital Rights Management or DRM from some of it's music.

Record companies put copy protection on their songs in the hopes it'll cut down on piracy.

The pirates, though, always find a way around it -- and so the copy protection only hurts the legitimate user; the guy who downloads, say a hundred dollars worth of music from iTunes only to discover it can't be played on his new non-iPod MP3 player.
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Kids toys

Fri, 2007-02-23 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
As more kids make use of the Internet, more and more toy-makers are following them there.

There were several examples at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

There were things like Power Rangers helmets that are able to store secret missions that can be downloaded online.

There were more than a few devices that take kids to secure websites, where they can play without parents having to worry about the seamier side of the Internet.
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Ajax

Thu, 2007-02-22 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
AJAX, it'll clean those stubborn stains off your pots and now it's something that makes it easier to check out your favorite website -- especially if it includes constantly updated information.
Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user requests a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.
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Gmail

Wed, 2007-02-21 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
You might have heard people talking about Gmail or Google Mail.  It's finally  come out of it's invitation stage,  so you no longer need one to sign up.  Just go to Gmail.com.

GMail is your best option, if you like to check a single email address in more than one place, say at work and at home... why?

*You can very easily search for any email you've ever received. 
*It  includes a neat chat feature
*Your emails get grouped into conversations, making them easy to follow
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Mac's new Leopard to be released next month

Tue, 2007-02-20 20:55.
Jason Mayoff
Leopard Looks like Mac's new version of OSX, called Leopard is coming out as early as March.  I can't wait, but I'm not sure I can afford to buy another operating system.    I just spent $299+tax on the Windows operating system -- Vista, which I now find out I didn't have to since there's a hack out there that allows you to install the full version, for the price of an upgrade.  I guess I should have waited.
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I'm a Mac ad and I'm a PC ad

Tue, 2007-02-20 12:46.
Jason Mayoff
You decide which company is going places.  The one that's put out stuff like this, or the one that puts out stuff like this (unreleased ad)

in the first one, Microsoft lives up to "Mac Vs. PC" ad fuddy-duddiness.  The second one may not have aired on TV, but I'm sure it'll end up being one of the most viewed videos on youtube.

And, hey have you seen this spoof of the "I'm a Mac .. and I'm a PC" ads.  It's not safe for children and depending on where you work, it may be NSFW.
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Tech File Hack: How to turn off Mac's built-in iSight camera

Mon, 2007-02-19 19:59.
Jason Mayoff
I was looking for a way to definitively turn off the built-in iSight camera on my new iMac, but I couldn't really find anything so I came up with my own hack.  You don't have to be an experienced programmer or Mac guru to perform this hack, and all you need is one sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 paper, a hard surface and an opposable thumb (or two.)

Just fold it like so:
 

Canada's supercomputer

Sun, 2007-02-18 09:47.
Jason Mayoff

Canada's most powerful supercomputer, #155 in the world, the Altix 4700, was unveiled this week at the Université de Montreal.

It has 384 dual core processors and 1500 gigabytes -- or 1½ Terabytes of RAM.

If you just bought a new computer chances are it has 1 single core or maybe 1 dual core and 1 or 2 gigabytes of ram.

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Random Act of Kindness Day

Sat, 2007-02-17 00:00.
Jason Mayoff
Bet you didn't know it, but today is random Act of Kindness day.... and like everything else in the world, it's got its very own web page.

There's the random Act of Kindness Foundation and actofkindness.org where you can go to get ideas on how to celebrate... things like

  • Deliver fresh-baked cookies to city workers, they've had a tough week.
  • Collect goods for a food bank.
  • Bring flowers to work and share them with coworkers.
  • Buy a stranger a free pizza.
  • Distribute lollipops to kids.
  • Sing at a nursing home.
  • Offer a couple of hours of baby-sitting to parents.
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Office software

Wed, 2007-02-14 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
Microsoft office is the de facto standard for word processing, spreadsheets and all your other office software, but you have other options... downloadable and web-based.

Since the web turned the corner a year or two ago -- and became what people call web 2.0, online applications started popping up all over the place.

One of the biggest areas has been office applications.  You can do almost anything online for free -- or cheap -- that you can do with some of the most expensive commercial software.
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Mac OS X vs. Windows Vista

Tue, 2007-02-13 21:18.
Jason Mayoff
iMac 17 As you might have heard me discuss on the radio in recent days, I just bought myself a beautiful new iMac 17" 2.0Ghz with 1G Ram (that I hope to soon upgrade to 2G, gotta finish paying this off first.)

Being the geek that I am, I ran out the next day and bought a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft's latest offering (everyone, even fellow geeks, thought I was crazy to lay down $299+tax for a second OS.)
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Dictionaries

Tue, 2007-02-13 09:46.
Jason Mayoff
Google's great for lots of things, but there are better tools out there if you need to know what a word or expression means.

Some of the major dictionaries are represented online like Merriam-Webster, but there are also strictly online versions like dictionary.com and thesaurus.com.

Also, if you need to translate something from French to English or English to French -- one of the best places I've found is something called wordreference.com.

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Digital Rights Management

Mon, 2007-02-12 09:50.
Jason Mayoff
Is Apple hinting that it may let others play in its digital sandbox?


The company says it might well open its iTunes store to other portable players beside its iPod.

But there's a catch.

In return, the world's major record labels will have to do away with their anti-piracy technology known as ``Digital Rights Management'' or DRM.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs made the pitch as part of an open letter posted on the company's Web site.

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Grammys

Sun, 2007-02-11 08:30.
Jason Mayoff

Grammy2 The Grammys are handed out tonight in Los Angeles.  And if you don't know Mary J. Blige,  from James Blunt  you might want to steer your browser of choice over to the official site for the Awards, grammy.com.  It has the full list of nominees from all the categories from rock to polka to spoken word. And if you're wondering if your favourite artist has won a Grammy -- there's a searchable database of past winners. 

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Online newspapers

Sat, 2007-02-10 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
NYT logo
The New York Times publisher has hinted his paper might not publish a print edition forever, as online subscriptions outpace home delivery subscriptions.  Montreal Gazette publisher Alan Allnut says while more and more people are turning to the Gazette's online version, the newspaper is still a convenient way to "browse" the news.  That said, Allnut says the industry is looking to other technologies for newspaper delivery, including electronic paper.
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Browsers

Fri, 2007-02-09 00:01.
Jason Mayoff
If you're like most people you still browse the web using Internet Explorer 6.  But, did you know you have other choices?

The two most common alternatives to IE6 are the newer version of Internet Explorer ... IE 7 and Firefox.

Why move up to ie7? It's more secure, much sleeker and it's got some great new features -- the one you'll notice right away is tabs.  Tabs let you view more than one website in the same browser, without opening a whole new window. 

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Bookmarking

Thu, 2007-02-08 00:01.
Jason Mayoff

Bookmarks. 

You probably have dozens, if not hundreds of them languishing in your browser's favorites or bookmarks.  But you probably use a computer at work and at home and wouldn't it be nice to keep the two synchronized?

Here's how.

If you don't already use the Firefox web browser, get it.  Then get the foxmarks extension which allows you to synchronize bookmarks on any number of computers -- Windows, Mac or Linux.

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Twittering

Wed, 2007-02-07 00:01.
Jason Mayoff

Do you twitter ... would you like to?

Twittering is a fun way to keep yourself busy on the train on the way home -- or to kill a few minutes when the boss isn't looking.  It's also a great way to tell people what you're up to, without sending them an email every 12 seconds.

twitter.com lets you write short messages about what you're doing at the moment.

The website wants you to answer the question "What are you doing?"

The really cool part about it, though, is that you don't have to be at your computer to twitter.

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Blogging

Tue, 2007-02-06 09:49.
Jason Mayoff

Have something to say, but nowhere to say it?  Ever think of setting up a blog?

You can tell the world about your passion, be it your cat, your favourite recipes, your music or your take on world politics -- through the magic of the web.

You can inform, educate, entertain ... not to mention cash in on your thoughts.

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Fastest internet ever

Mon, 2007-02-05 08:25.
Jason Mayoff

TF#1: High Speed Internet


Videotron is coming out in a few months with the fastest internet ever in Canada (100 Mbps) and one of the fastest in the world.  Bell Sympatico says its service (16Mbps) is still superior.



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RSS Feeds

Wed, 2007-01-31 21:41.
Jason Mayoff
What's an RSS Feed? 

Wikipedia says:
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

Users of RSS content use programs called feed 'readers' or 'aggregators': the user 'subscribes' to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

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Reading Material

Wed, 2007-01-31 21:33.
Jason Mayoff
I read a lot of tech blogs every day.  Here are a few of them. 

Tech Crunch
The TWiT.tv podcast network
digg.com/technology
bit-tech.net
Techmeme
CrunchGear

That's a lot of reading, but don't worry.  I'll read it all and report back to you, every day with what I've found... well, only the interesting stuff.
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The Tech Files: Tech news. Jason's Jaiku Stream

Mon, 2007-01-29 09:50.
Jason Mayoff
The CJAD Tech Files. A compendium of (often local) tech news that Jason Mayoff finds interesting.

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usThat's my Jaiku stream over there.  Join Jaiku. 

Email: tech@cjad.com   Subscribe to this RSS Feed  (What's RSS?) 


 

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How to stalk Jason Mayoff

Fri, 2007-01-26 08:19.
Jason Mayoff
There are various ways for you to stalk me, or get a hold of me. 

By email: tech@cjad.com
Twiter: twitter.com/Jason_Mayoff
Delicious: del.icio.us/jmayoff



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