opinion – Page 3 – Technobabbles

Archive by category "opinion" (Page 3)

iPad? Of course I want one, but…

dgw 2010-01-28 - 10:15 2010-01-28Apple, opinion, technology 0

Image by toykyo via Flickr Technological progress can suck sometimes. I have wanted an iPod Touch for about a year and a half, to have the ability to play music and games while on the go as well as gain access to email, tasks, calendar, contacts, etc. while away from a computer (but near an open Wi-Fi network). I almost bought one last year, then I got wind of the upcoming third-generation models: more storage, etc. etc. So I waited. Then the Apple Tablet rumors really started in force, and I really don’t have that much spare change anyway, so…

Why I’m Always Promoting Dropbox

dgw 2010-01-27 - 15:30 2011-11-22Android, Dropbox, freeware, internet, opinion, tools 2

Image via CrunchBase If you’ve had much interaction with me regarding computers, no matter what the medium—Twitter, Facebook, email, dinner conversation, small talk during a gathering—I’ve probably mentioned a service called Dropbox. A few of you have already succumbed to my uncharacteristic marketing tone and signed up, but I thought I’d blog about it and perhaps get more people on board. I’ll start with the reasons I like the service, and then explain why, exactly, I’m doing this a little later. The site bills itself as an online synchronization and backup solution. I use it mostly for the backup, but…

How I Beat Blogger and Redirected to WordPress

dgw 2010-01-17 - 14:30 2010-02-14Blogger, hacks, My Websites, opinion, WordPress 3

Yes, I really and truly have from Blogger. I know there are a lot of guides out there, but I think the method I used was different enough to warrant a new post. (I won’t duplicate the steps of setting up the new WordPress site and importing the content from Blogger; that’s pretty obvious, and it’s well covered elsewhere. Redirecting is the art form that’s been changing every few months.) Obligatory Rant Getting away from Blogger is really much harder than it should be. There should be a process to verify with Google that one is not a spammer trying…

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich [Book In Review]

dgw 2009-03-09 - 12:24 2015-10-31books, opinion, quotes, society 2

Over the holiday break, and continuing after I got back from New York City (which I will probably never blog about, unfortunately; it’s been too long now, and I have other posts to write), I read a series of books checked out from the local library on topics ranging from the history of eBay and Microsoft’s hiring practices to the true economic impact of big-box stores like Wal-Mart and even a book on cosmic complexity. While all of them resonated with me to a certain extent (the latter, Big-Box Swindle, being the most compelling of those I’ve mentioned so far),…

Stop Direct Mail!

dgw 2009-01-25 - 17:30 2009-10-31ideas, opinion 2

Image via WikipediaAnnoying. Wasteful. Downright useless. What am I talking about? Direct mail. Notice how that pile of paper you bring in from the mailbox (street-side, just-inside-front-door, wherever it is) is mostly stuff you bring in one door and out the other? Literally or figuratively, most of that mail ends up going right through the house and into the recycling (though sadly, some people – my dad included – just throw it away). If one were to examine that bulk of mail, one might find that virtually every last piece is trying to sell something. From yard services to home-improvement…

Telemarketing Loopholes: FAIL

dgw 2009-01-18 - 17:30 2009-10-31GrandCentral, ideas, opinion 0

Image by elh70 via FlickrI was relaxing at home in the evening on the Monday before Thanksgiving, around 19:30, looking through a Hebrew-English dictionary to try and figure out what the song title “הלב שלנו” means in English. (I never did find the meaning of the word הלב; it seems to be conspicuously absent from both dictionaries I possess.) But an interruption was about to occur. The phone rang. Normally that would be a simple matter – just pick up the phone, read the Caller ID, and decide whether or not to answer it – but this situation was remarkable…

Comments On Google Changes

dgw 2009-01-16 - 09:05 2015-10-29Brightkite, FeedBurner, FriendFeed, Google, Google App Engine, internet, Jaiku, opinion, technology, tools, Twitter, YouTube 0

Image via WikipediaOn Wednesday, Google announced changes to or shutdowns of several services. Google also shut down Lively, the 3D chatroom that I always looked upon as a rather silly Second Life knock-off, beginning January 1—just a few short weeks ago. (“Reasons Google should kill Lively” was actually a topic in my to-blog list for several months, but it looks like I didn’t have to blog about it for Google to see that it wasn’t a good fit with their other projects. Nice work saving effort there, self. 😛 Anyway…) I’m rather unconcerned with the fate of Google Catalog Search,…

Caller ID Should Be Standard

dgw 2009-01-11 - 17:30 2015-10-31email, ideas, opinion 0

Image via WikipediaI don’t particularly like using the telephone. Don’t get me wrong; it’s nothing against the concept of talking to someone who’s not there – I do that all the time online. It’s not the fact that it’s voice-based instead of text-based. (Actually it kind of is, but that’s not the point of this post.) One of the biggest reasons I don’t like telephones is that it’s sometimes impossible to know who’s on the other end of the line. Caller ID is considered a premium feature and carries a charge somewhere in the area of $5/month per line. (This…

Badly Designed Websites: Improvement Sighted

dgw 2008-09-05 - 22:10 2009-10-31internet, opinion, w00t 1

Yes, I know this post is short. It reflects my most recently added constraint: Time. I just don’t have much of it these days. It makes me sad that I can’t blog as much as I’d like, but I’ll do what I can. Image via Wikipedia Remember I made last October citing www.mcool.org as an example of a badly designed website? Say hello to their redesign! Yes, it’s true! The site has been completely redone since the end of last school year, and it now features a great deal of improvements. Not the least of which are bookmarkable URLs (no…

Would I Ever Use BlogBurst?

dgw 2008-08-23 - 08:02 2015-10-29internet, opinion 0

I wrote this post in late April, before I , and initially scheduled it to publish the morning of April 25. It was replaced by something else because I wasn’t sure about it, but reading it again now I think it’s pretty fine. I’m writing a big post to be published in the next week or two, so this looked like a good post idea to use in the mean time. I don’t remember how I initially heard about BlogBurst. It’s one of those many sites I just got in my head somehow but can’t trace. There’s been a post…

Category: opinion