Kitten’s Spam Words 1.1

Installing this now… I’ve been pretty lucky on the spam front since my move to wordpress, but this is a great sounding tool to prevent repeat attempts.

This plugin adds a “Delete comments as spam” button to the mass editing of comments page. When used to delete unwanted comments, the email address, url, and IP address will be added to your spam words list (SWL). Future comments matching any of those items will automatically be moderated. [Kitten’s Project Blog]

I had an issue getting this to install on my 1.3 pre-alpha system… probably related to some DB changes that occur in each update. Hopefully I’ll have this running soon.

Did Time Warner Drop G4?

I am not sure what the deal exactly is, but G4TechTV just dropped off my cable guide… I noticed channel 105 was just missing… The guide now goes directly from 104 to 106.

I realize Comcast owns G4 and Time Warner would not want to pay them too much for the privledge… but hey, we already had the damn channel! I want my G4/TechTV…

Creo Six Degrees 2.0

Creo Six Degrees 2.0 was recently released and includes a free version as well as more expensive $99 Personal, $199 Anywhere Edition and a $299 Workflow Edition. I could see wanting to use this up to the Anywhere edition as a single user if you needed the mobile (Palm or Blackberry) connection.

Basically, Six Degrees is Zoe, but with a revised UI and seemingly more features that currently don’t work for me since I am not using Entourage or Outlook. It’s quite easy to import messages from mail accounts (POP or IMAP) and have your information indexed and cross-linked with contacts, conversations, projects and files. It’s a very nice idea that while it takes a bit of getting used to can be quite helpful.

At the moment, I’m giving the free version a shot… It automatically imports my mail at a set interval so my datafile is always current. I’ve found from my Zoe experience, that leaving this running in the background is simple to do — it’s actually invisible, with no app running in the dock. When you need to reference something the server is running — it’s your computer after-all. You simple queue up the browser of your choice and search or browse away. A quick keyword search reveals pretty much anything your messaging clients have touched and with whom you’ve been in contact. You can easily create more conversations simply by initiating an email which then links back to your mail client.

I’ve used Zoe for quite a while, and while it’s far from a daily thing, it’s been very helpful in tracking down messages and discussions not easily found for whatever reason in my local app. I imagine that Six Degrees will work quite similarly…

HP’s New H6310 PPC Phone

Engadget has a pic of the new PPC phone from HP and it offers a feature I’ve been looking for on any Palm. It’s a detachable thumb keyboard… No idea what the big deal is in adding this… a bluetooth capable version would be very cool as well, though for now I’d settle for a version that could slide directly onto my T3.

Being smart when interviewing

I’m not exactly a sales guy, but I’ve certainly spent more than enough time selling services to clients and potential clients. This article on CareerJournal at the WSJ is a good read for 10 points on how to interview smarter. One thing I’ve realized in my travels is that while they might be interviewing you, you are also interviewing them. Be sure not to forget that and try not to get sucked into just providing the right answers… the right questions can really give you much more information and help you decide if you are in the right place for your next move.

Salespeople are prone to accepting the wrong jobs. Maybe it’s because they tend to be overly optimistic and see only the good until it’s too late. Or it may be because they’re customers at heart who appreciate a good pitch. [
CareerJournal]

Getting pulled into Steve’s reality distortion field…

So while I’ve been passively considering replacing my aging Airport Base Station with a Linksys WRT54G but then Apple releases the Airport Express and everything is pulling me back to the Airport Extreme Base Station. Sure it’s considerably more money, but the simplicity and integration with the AE is something I know I’ll want in the future as well. There are reports that the AE will work with other base stations, though it’s doubtful that it will work as easily and simply as Apple can make it with their own…

iTunes and WebKit

Well I certainly thought it was webkit…

Just to clear up a common misconception, iTunes does not use WebKit to render the music store. What you see when you visit the iTunes music store may look “web-like”, but it isn’t HTML, and it isn’t rendered by WebKit.

[Surfin’ Safari]

Gmail invites

I’ve finally been given the opportunity to extend Gmail to a few lucky friends…. 2 of 3 have already been spoken for. You want in?

TiVO working on internet based downloads…

The New York Times reports on TiVO’s latest endeavor which is to allow it’s boxes to download music and movies directly without a computer. Seems like a good idea to me though who knows if this is even going to work… Akimbo already has a similar service but offers sub-prime content for the privledge of a subscription. Since TiVO has yet to announce a timeline or any content partners or content types (like whose movie and music catalog will be available) we can only assume it will also not be prime stuff.

Unfortunately for TiVO, the cable and sat. guys are already working on other technolgies beyond TiVO. This will have to be a pretty amazing service to convince potential subscribers it’s worth the extra coin

How Airport Express Works

From MacWorld…

I spent a little bit of time with Greg Joswiak, Apple’s Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing, talking about how the new AirPort Express works, especially the new AirTunes audio features. [Macworld]

SONOS Media Controller

This is a very cool new home system that lets you connect and control your AV content — either in your zone (local area) or entire home.

Unlike all the current streaming media players, the Sonos doesn%u2019t need a PC in every room, a music server or a wireless network. Just a Sonos ZonePlayer, speakers in the rooms of your choice and a Sonos Controller in hand to access all your digital music. The controller (pictured) is used to find and control the playback of music in the zone your are in, you can also control remote zones. All the hard work is done via the ZonePlayer. It has support for multiple music sources and accesses music stored on any number of PCs, Macs, or NAS boxes on your home network as well as Internet radio and legacy A/V devices, like a CD player. It can playback compressed MP3, WMA, and AAC music files (don%u2019t know about Apple DRM), uncompressed WAV files, and Internet radio that use %u201Cstreaming MP3%u201D format. They also have an analog audio input with digital encoding which connects an audio source (such as a CD player or portable MP3 player) to the audio input of one ZonePlayer. [MAVROMATIC]

AirPort Express

I think the idea of the new Apple Airport Express is totally cool! Announced today, the Airport Express lets you extend or add an (802.11G – Airport Extreme) network very easily to any location along with your airport enabled machine. It’s really small, easily fits in your gear bag and seems like a terrific piece of equipment. I really like how the airport software works now and would imagine it’s just as easy to add an AE to an existing network… Apple’s page has examples of how you might use this to connect a stereo, using either an analog or optical (yes!) connection. Bundled AirTunes software lets you connect to your iTunes music library for simple streaming and sharing…You can also use the device as a portable base station – pull it out in a hotel room – or connect a USB device to your network from across the room.

Selling now for $129…

Shake Shack Coming Soon!

We’ve been watching the constuction in Madison Park wondering just what might be coming and now we know… Sounds like a regular lunch stop to me!

Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack, the Madison Square Park kiosk, will make its unofficial debut next weekend during the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, and officially July 1. The shack will serve burgers, crinkle-cut fries, the Chicago-style hot dogs that had people waiting in very long lines last summer, PLUS frozen custard! [NYC Eats]