Have Laptop Will Travel

White Porcelain

Originally posted on December 18, 2006 @ 1:06 pm

Recently I’ve been looking into getting a new washer and dryer, so I went online looking for some good appliance deals.

Thanks to Google Video here is one of the most awesome television ads I’ve seen in a while.

After watching this commercial, I want to find a location in my area just to meet this guy but according to the Appliance Direct website, he’s only got locations in Florida.

At any rate, this guy is really funny. Remember kids, it’s all about White Porcelain :)

Philips to blow gamers, literally

Originally posted on January 11, 2007 @ 11:14 am

amBX DemoPhilips has announced a collection of hardware that works together to enhance the PC gaming experience.

This gear will “blow gamers away: literally,” Philips’ big wig, Stewart Muller, told Games Industry.

“What you have is a wall-washer, which displays 16 million colours behind the computer screen. You have two desk fans which blow at different intensity levels depending on what’s happening in the game. You have two satellite speakers with integrated lights.”

amBX LogoHe also added there is a wrist-rumbler and subwoofer but these weren’t demonstrated.

The technology is called Ambient Experience, whose rather hip self would prefer to be called amBX. It seems that everyone is getting on the web 2.0 name bandwagon.

It’s a system which aims to deliver more sensory experiences to games and, in fact, other forms of entertainment.

According to Philips, the amBX hardware works “in harmony with the game to deliver a new sensory experience.”

These brand-new experiences include audio, surround lighting, vibration, and airflow.

It takes what’s pretty much a ‘virtual’ activity, games, DVDs, music and turns it into a far more tangible, immersive experience.

To find out more about this technology, visit the official amBX website.

Skype 3.0 Out Of Beta

Originally posted on December 13, 2006 @ 11:50 pm

Skype LogoI just wanted to let all my technology friends and readers know that Skype 3.0 has officially come out of beta.

So what does that mean? You should go download the latest version which as of this post is version 3.0.0.190 released moments ago.

The Skype development team has really improved the User Interface with this latest release which I’m really enjoying since I’m using Skype a lot more these days for online communications with friends, family and clients all over the World.

They’ve also done a lot of bug fixes and added some new features and improved on others.

Here is a brief list of some of the things added or improved with this release that I’ve noticed:

  • Rich Mood Messages
  • Connection Wizard
  • API: rich mood messages
  • API: public chat support
  • API: FILE TRANSFER object
  • Video quality improvements on low bit rate
  • Updated Extras Manager
  • Updated Internet Explorer and Firefox plugins

Skype has really come a long way in a very short amount of time and over the past year or so since I’ve really started to use it, I’ve got over 100 friends, family members and clients all using it now as a main source of communication for Instant Messaging and online phone calls.

Yay technology. W00t!

If you use Skype and you’re not on my contact list yet, be sure to drop me a message so we can exchange information.

Tis The Season For Holiday Spammers

Originally posted on December 13, 2006 @ 3:06 am

Can of SPAMAnti spam specialists and companies predict an average of 78 billion peaces of spam to be sent daily as we get closer to Christmas.

Anti spam software and mail servers have to work hard to process more and more loads of emails to fight this onslaught of spam but as we all know, this is a cat-and-mouse game.

Sophisticated spammers design and test their spam messages against the current spam definitions. Spam filters will not be able to catch 100% the spam.

Say, a spam filter catches 99% of the spam, there is still that 1% that will be missed. That is 1 out of 100 spam sent. Not a big number. But 1% of 78 billion is certainly a very big number.

The server statistics for Have Laptop Will Travel show that my mail servers are hit with more than a million peaces of spam each day, which is close to quadruple the hits in the previous month… but I don’t like spam!

Mail servers are designed to handle large number of emails, but with the sudden influxes, even the most powerful mail server requires time to digest all the emails. Hence, mail delivery is delayed.

It is unfortunate that my mail server has to work so much harder to process the large load of emails, a large percentage of which is junk mail. Thanks spammers. Lumps of coal for you this year.

And it’s not just spam that is a concern to me, there is also the email viruses and other email-borne threats that inundate our in boxes.

So what am I doing to help prevent this nightmare of spam-tastic per portions from hammering on my servers?

  1. Implemented new measures and procedures to monitor and ensure the effects of spam are kept to the lowest.
  2. Employed more mail servers to alleviate the load of my existing mail servers.
  3. Installed a Barracuda Spam Firewall.

and some other behind the scenes secret sauce which I won’t disclose because the spammers subscribe to my RSS feed.

I’ve also made sure that my personal and work machines are all patched with the latest security updates, all my anti virus products are up-to-date and I’ve done some serious house cleaning on all my hard drives, done a ton of registry fixes and cleaning and triple checked for spy ware and male ware on all my machines.

At this point all is well on the Island of Misfit Toys but it will still require daily monitoring and tweaks but with what I have in place now, I’m better prepared for the storm of spam coming my way this holiday season… are you prepared?

BuddyLube

Originally posted on November 19, 2006 @ 3:25 pm

On Friday November 17, 2006 I was involved in a Skype conference call that ended up becoming a Skypecast which was pretty fun, especially when I had no idea what the content or subject matter was going to be.

In the conversation, a site that goes by the name BuddyLube came up:

BuddyLube

Immediately going to the site, you’re greeted with a little jingle:

If you’re looking for a widget that’s cool, www dot buddy lube.

If you’re MySpace page needs some more attitude, www dot buddy lube.

You don’t have to know web 2.0

Just click on the eye and you’re ready to go!

It’s fast, it’s fresh, it’s easy to do, www dot buddy lube.

Buddy Lube comes with everything you see here each sold separately.

Buddy Lube! More eyeballs.

So what exactly is BuddyLube? I’m really not sure but I can’t get that damn jingle out of my head!

If you use BuddyLube or know more about it, please chime in.