Category: Resources

Yahoo has introduced a new feature to their paid email services: disposable email addresses. Using your primary Yahoo account, you can create up to 500 one-time-use email addresses that will work until you shut them down. In other words, if you don’t like giving your real Yahoo ID or email address out because you’re worried about spam, you can create a new one that will forward messages to your real acount until you decide to pull the plug.

I suppose it’s a handy tool, but since it’s only available with Yahoo’s paid service it has little impact on most users who, like me, don’t pay for Yahoo and instead suffer more than 100 spams a day.

I don’t really understand blogs, especially the current trend of posting a pic of what the blogger is eating at the moment or a picture of the sunset that turns out pretty crappy looking on that camera phone. But then again I was the guy who didn’t “get” MP3s until 2003. So it should come as no surprise that I am nonplussed by the latest feature of TextAmerica that allows users to upload video footage from either cell phone or PDA, and stream it right from their blog. Just what we need. Streaming video of people walking their dogs and shopping for shoes. When will the celebration of mundanity end?

Blogger has released a nice little guide to blogging without losing your job. The guide covers basic suggestions like not posting sensitive material that can be traced back to you, and not blogging under the influence (aka BUI, which can lead to ranting about a boss that you’ll regret later). It also points out useful tools like the web fire escape that makes it easy to get to a work-safe application or webpage if the boss comes by. Simple stuff really, but worth being reminded of.

Today is the day that “number portability” goes into effect, theoretically letting you change cell phone service providers without having to lose your number. This only applies to people living in the top 100 largest metro areas in the US though, while others will have to wait until May (for apparently no good reason). And of course, number portability doesn’t get you out of a contract if you have one, so you have to stay with your provider for at least a little while longer. And then there’s the trouble of signing up with a new carrier…you’ll probably have to sign a contract again. So portable mobile phone numbers (oh how I hate that sentence) are really only a little more portable than before.

This new rule has already had an effect on the plans that some carriers are offering: Sprint has started its free evening calling starting at 7:00 pm instead of 9:00 pm, and T-Mobile added Friday to their free calling plan, creating a three day weekend. Cingular has bumped their Roll-Over Minutes plan up a bit, but primarily been touting their new “FastForward” phone cradle (pictured left) that transfers calls automatically to a landline when the cell phone is placed there. Forwarded calls do not count against a subscribers plan.

While it remains to be seen exactly what effect number portability will have, all of this gives us a taste of what’s to come: better plans, lower prices, new features, and perhaps an end to contracts. One analyst expects “massive price wars, and churn [will go] through the roof.” Let’s hope so!

Okay, bad title. But I’m out of creative juice for today.

Anyway, I’ve just heard about a great resource for those who are trying to get more mobile. JiWire is a free service for finding wireless internet hotspots — mostly at coffee joints — and it is pretty darn comprehensive. Just type in your location to the web-based system and it’ll spit out the addresses of WiFi hotspots in your area. The spots are searchable by provider (i.e. T-Mobile, Boingo, etc) and give a breakdown of the daily access cost. They also have articles describing various aspects of wirelessness, including how-tos and gadget news.

While the site is a great resource, it’s still working out some kinks and could use a few more wireless-friendly features. First, the easiest way to find a WiFi hotspot is if you’re standing in one, since JiWire is web-based. An obvious catch-22, JiWire addresses this by allowing access from WAP browsers on cell phones, so you don’t need to be online to get online. It would be even more helpful though if the service could respond to SMS or email inquiries, since these are easier to use and more pervasive than WAP. Secondly while the service does allow filtering of hotspots by some criteria, it doesn’t allow filtering by “open” hotspots in its main search engine, and the free spot locator seems to be broken. This means that you have to go through a few hoops to find the nearest free access point. Finally, the service is best only in major metro areas. There are 11,000+ hotspots cataloged in the US, which is an impressive number, but looking for spots in Biloxi turned up nothing. Well, yet another reason not to go to Biloxi, I guess…

Blogging is becoming more like Llogging — a service from Audlink.com allows users to literally call-in their blog entries: just dial a number, leave a message and it’s instantly uploaded to your site as an mp3. People can listen to it right from your website.

Now, one of the coolest things to do with this, if you ask me (and I know you would if this were an interactive site) is for recording phone calls to and from other people. Just create a conference call with the AudioBlog as the third party, and your conversation with 1) your girlfriend 2) your mother 3) your boss 4) your parole officer will be instantly recorded for all to hear! Cool, eh? Of course, this actually has practical applications for those who want to use it for more journalistic endeavors, such as recording responses from any number of sources like phone conversations with politicians or government officials. And of course Jerky Boys-style pranks are always a good use of new technology.

Hosting for the audio files can be done on your own server or through services provided by others like the still-in-beta AudioBlog.

Skype is an up-and-coming voice-over-Internet-protocol (VOIP) service from the makers of Kazaa. Using their experience in P2P networking, these kids have come up with software that has fantasic voice quality. The only problem with it at this point is that it’s computer-to-computer only, and doesn’t connect to landlines like some other services. It’s not fancy, and doesn’t support video at this point, but it’s free and works around the globe. And supposedly it cuts though firewalls like butter, making it great for calls from work.

One more thing: It’s ad-free. For anyone familiar with Kazaa, that’s good news.

If you’ve ever wondered what the government is hiding from you, you’re going to love taking a visit to the Memory Hole. This non-profit site run by freelance writer Russ Kick archives documents from secret governement sources. While most of the information has little or nothing to do with space aliens or JFK, there’s some pretty juicy tidbits including many released and then retracted reports from the Bush administration’s own assessment on the “war on terror” and other insider information.

Disclaimer: I only mentioned space aliens so you’d check out the site for your own good. There’s really nothing there at all on space aliens. But maybe if you PP this guy some money he’ll come up with something.

If you’re still swapping files on P2P networks but you’re getting nervous about the RIAA coming after you, check out Peer Guardian. This free software logs all IP addresses of those accessing your computer, and blocks addresses known to be RIAA. The software reportedly works, but unfortunately relies on a human element to figure out which IP addresses are the baddies: users who get “infringement letters” from the RIAA update the database based on the date and time of the alleged infringement. While this is a fine first step, I can imagine that the corporate muckety-mucks are going to find a way to mask their IP and avoid this program altogether. A better solution might be to come up with some way to punish computers that access yours in an unauthorized manner…

OPIE (Open Palmtop Integrated Environment) has announced version 1.0 is available of their GNU/Linux based graphical user interface. The distribution builds on open-source linux distributions for iPaqs or Zaurus PDAs, and adds a slick look as well as a suite of applications such as browser, image viewer, word processor, ebook reader (Palm DOC compatible), PDF viewer, media player, and of course PIM functions. Plans are in the works to combine OPIE with OpenSimpad GNU/Linux distributions that work on tablet-style WinCE devices. Compatibility with the below-mentioned ConvgergenTech device is unknown.