So trying to amp down for this week, then when just doing some random searching on billing system updates I found a note that the new CC processor (Paypal Website Payments Pro) requires CVV (three digit code from the card) - well it is illegal to store those 3 numbers, so of course I had to run a test, and after adjusting some settings on the PayPal side, I decided to run a test, and it worked without a hitch - so I am hoping it wasn’t a lucky shot, but as of tomorrow, I’ll know for sure as that is the day most of the newly imported accounts come in, going to set another one 5 days from now for the next batch of imports.
I proceeded to enjoy Stargate Atlantis, however as usual my DVR from Brighthouse clipped the last 10 minutes of the show, and it’s getting old - I am seriously considering building a MythTV rig, ditching Digital Cable and just getting 2 tv cards compatible with Linux and have the ability to record 2, maybe get a 3rd so I can record 3 or record 2, watch 1 - I dunno, I am really wanting to have something simple, clean, and easy to manage and export to iPod, ah what to do what to do.
Today is housework day, so far so good, have half my couch cleared off, trying to get some piles of laundry done, and I am going to try and find a small clothes dresser for my closet, and some file boxes for filing to put in the closet too - just so much to do, but it is a nice change of pace from the last few days of sitting here in this chair for hours at a time, but it’ll all pick up again on Monday, as the next batch of people get imported, and Crazy October picks up again! I also hope that by no later than Next Friday, to have TN also re-vamped, and online, with it’s own billing software setup, and online so I can start processing some orders there as well, as I’d REALLY like to have everything start to pick up, and generate some word of mouth again, both locally, and around the net.
So there it is, been a little down, had a lot on my mind, while excited about everything going on, just got tired, and when I’m tired my emotions tend to get the best of me, and after several days of little to no sleep, today I got to sleep in, and the cool weather today has been nice - but now I must go put in a load of towels (small washing machine, can only do 3-4 at once) - have a good weekend folks!
Posted on 13 October '07 by Chuck Brown, under General. No Comments.
So going threw my feeds this morning, TUAW reported on a bit about the new iPod’s - they don’t support video out without a special $50 cable from Apple, I am hoping this is just a bad bad bad joke, or the new cable best support something REALLY fancy, that is one of the things I had hoped to do with a iPod, take some of the flicks I have and watch em on my TV, but if that is not possible with the new model, and the cable I currently own won’t work, then I am leaning towards CompUSA’s recently discounted 80GB last gen iPods, as it’ll still work there.
Oh the joys of it all.
Posted on 8 September '07 by Chuck Brown, under my toys. 2 Comments.
Social Party. Lately thats what it feels like online, social bookmarks, social networking, social music (go Zune!), and of course the bit growing with some steam Social Notes (or so I call it) - a small site called Twitter picked up steam asking the question “What are you doing?” originally starting as a status app so to speak, you could tell folks “doing my laundry, out of fresh underwear” - people posted things, some things they shouldn’t have 
So things have evolved - and folks now really just sort of Micro-blog I suppose, but really it tends to be a Note they are sending out like Post-It’s on acid, with a world wide audience, the system has grown, and a newer player has entered the arena, named Pownce which is invite only right now - but it comes to the table with features that Twitter hasn’t got, but at the same time, that doesn’t rule Twitter out.
The Client
Pownce offers a client with their system, using Adobe Air to package the app, it is available for Mac and Windows respectively:
And of course, since Twitter has a current open API, there are an assortment of clients for both Mac/Windows/Linux, I use Twitterrific:
The Victor: Twitter - with a open-api, which is forthcoming with Pownce, this may change, but as it stands now you have more variety with Twitter, and an assortment of Applications for both your desktop & website to integrate with.
The Website
By far Twitter has gone the simplistic route, with users really pushing forward with features like using the format “@username” to reply to Tweets, the site has evolved over time, but for the most part, it is simplistic in nature, as it only has one question to ask:
Pownce is the hype of “web 2.0″ and then some, but it has more beef to include, it throws in a extra features like Send Events, Send Link, Send Message and the Send File (10mb free, 100mb pro membership) - so they’ve spiced it up a notch:
The Victor: Pownce - With extra organization, they have added message groups, different styles of alerts, and a nice system of reply/communication.
The Update Methods
Having already covered the clients above, the biggest factor left is of course use of a API, Twitter has hands down got this corner covered, with companies like Woot, Dell, and various other Blogs/Events using Twitter for “live-ish” coverage of sales, events, postings on a main site, it has opened the door for content systems to really interact with another community without even trying hard.
Secondly Twitter has their SMS gateway as well as Mobile page to get your Tweet on while on the go.
The Victor: Twitter.
Overall Winner
Twitter is the more robust in overall features, mainly due to their API and existing community including Musicians, Actors/Actresses, famous nerds,etc. but Pownce has some features which if smoothed out a bit, and other functionality + API was added, would quickly surpass the functionality of Twitter.
For me, my day-to-day short of the occasional banter with Jake, is Twitter, but I say keep your eyes on Pownce, one that API opens up, I imagine you’ll see a few black-out days on their site as they have to adjust to new load from visitors, buy them pro memberships now
My Twitter [link]
My Pownce [link]
Well I have not ordered it just yet, but I am looking at Monday simply buying the upgrade for CS2 so I can have Intel native CS3 version of my software, the CS2 stuff still works, and while the old adage says if it’s not broke don’t fix it, the benefit of this upgrade is things like Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat - native, fast, and sexy. 
I thought about throwing in a iPod or the 35mm lens, however I am going to go easy on it, and hold off, CS3 upgrade is not a cheap purchase by any means, so I want to do it right, the nice thing about getting Flash is it works perfectly with a upcoming project, which I may be doing, may be handing off, my time lately has been in such a flux back and forth between mild-freetime and insanely busy - so time will tell.
Took the night and went with Sister and Bro-in-law to go see Oceans 13, fun movie, I’d say the level of fun on Oceans 11 - I did enjoy Oceans 12, but this one, just good humor, the gilroy, and but of course - Super Dave Osbourne - good movie, I will admit some things were a little obvious, but I think you’ll see it plays into the game of it all, and the mustaches and wigs, lol - simply awesome.
Anywhoo - its 10, going do my last checks of the night, and call it a day, thanks for the prayers, thanks for stopping by - till next time! Happy Weekend!
A year or so ago I picked up a ReplayTV unit as they were having a sale, it worked great, but with a HD TV now I was desiring the joys of a Digital Recording on HD stations, well today in running the numbers, by ditching the $13/m fee of the Replay and bulking Digital Cable + HighSpeed - I could get a lower rate. So I signed up! plus the lady was nice and kicked in 6 months lower cost, discounted the DVR, gave me HD channels & HD component cables for free. Pretty slick.
I as a test setup a few of the commonly recorded shows and watched Scrubs and currently Studio60 in HD, such a nice quality of picture! Over all though, really - very happy - tomorrow I am going to have them light up one of the packages I had asked for, but didn’t get added, it adds the Encore networks on, which has some fun movies - plus tomorrow I get to call and cancel the ReplayTV service, going to of course dissect/hack up the ReplayTV hardware, and maybe get my Brothers and mine and set them up to both snag older Analog TV for fun (I’m a nerd, what can I say?)
Tomorrow also brings the laying of SOD, should be fun, hopefully only 3-4 hours of time laying it, but we have 7 people working, should go pretty smooth I hope, leave at 6:30am, so going to probably crash out around mid-night, and get a good 6hrs in under my belt, it seems to be my sweet spot when it comes to rest, so going to give it a go - also need to call a photographer tomorrow about a website, I meant to call her nearly a month ago, but just all the server bleh coming up - priorities stability over sales sadly.
I wish I could say “things are going good” but lot on my mind lately, a few things I am trying to sort out - but I can safely say - I am alive - and going into a Friday, I am prepared to unwind a bit, so I’ll say - have a good evening/good Friday tomorrow, take care - and see you on the flip side.
One could hope that Steve mixed up his Keynote out of the leaked items, trying to “crush” folks who got ahold of his keynote, but on the other end, it could just simply of been meant to suck I had hoped for LED iMac’s, or new iPod, or a “Suprise here’s 10.5!” or “10.5 public-beta anyone?” but NOOOO - the 2006 replay of 10.5, Safari 3 beta, some games, really kind of “eh”.
But none the less, my 2GB of ram for MyFruit will be here tomorrow, so should be nice to have a jump from 1.5 -> 3, but it’s been nice using 802.11n on it lately, the router seems to be working, however not sure as to what it is, I need to wire in the VoIP - but I am starting to think its the VoIP or its application rules if left on it dies - 5+ days of uptime, which is a massive upgrade in uptime.
Got some headway on my project, got several elements wired in, still working on a single element that is a BIG part of it, in bringing it all together - just need to try out some options, but the only one requires buying a $80 piece of software, part of me is weary of that, so kind of sucky.
Anywhoo - a short/long day (if that makes any sense) - I need to try and wrap up here and get to bed, need to finish out this one ticket, but even that - I just want to goto sleep and finish it in the morning, so here’s to hoping for a full night’s rest- take care all.
Well some things came across my desk about a week ago with some potential on a new hosting platform which could really benefit both myself in the realm of time spent monitoring servers to the size of accounts customers could have - and needless to say I was stoked. The profit margin was nice, and would give me a little pad in the pocket to help pay off some investment bills in the company, and also have some for savings - so I wanted to get a test drive in to see how this wonderful system worked!
It didn’t.
Even with several positive reviews by companies I trust, I must say my experience has been anything but stellar, and I recall now all the reasons, that I decided to get going in hosting myself. Many functions were simply not there, things were made more complicated by not having features like PHP running in Suexec mode, and shotty FTP server which at times even prevented me from deleting files - and this new “control panel” functionality was very much lacking, and I found myself barely 9 hours in, regretting putting down the money to test the system, so I emailed the company asking for a refund, as even this morning similar issues were still around, and I am still barely 24 hours in.
So what I had hoped would be a nice benefit to myself, my customers, was indeed too good to be true, and thus I am back where I started, a few other avenues I plan to explore of course, as the world of hosting tech is always changing, and while I am very blessed with my current setup, I am always wanting something more for my customers, more stability, more enhanced infrastructure, etc. and while I would love to sink another couple 10’s of thousands of dollars into totally revamping things, I simply don’t have the money to throw that into, with the above system, it was set, it was created, you just leased the space - so much cheaper than doing it myself.
So the search continues, I really want to find a system that I can migrate customers to that will give them the greatest benefit, and I can provide them with greater resources, security, stability, and value, granted there are hosts out there now officially offering terabytes of storage space - I would at this point settle for giving customers standard sizes like 500MB and 1GB for affordable pricing, but sadly for now, that’s a ways away it seems.
The day goes on, aside from work research, had a fun dinner with Dan last night, tonight I have a meal with Kynan, and Wed. I have a meal with some un-named people possibly (long story) - but things are going good, getting some fair personal time in too, so trying to find/keep that balance of work/play Anywhoo - 9am, back to it, been up since 6am… ah the joys of being me Have a Good Tuesday Folks.
