Archive for March, 2008

« Older Entries

Spring Clean Up!

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

I just spent the last half hour going through the server removing quite a few accounts.  Some haven’t made payments, other’s expired and a few changed DNS information to new hosting.  In total I think about 300 accounts were removed, which is now bringing me to the conclusion of downgrading the servers.  I’m going to completely get rid of one and of the smallest account-count left, I’ll filter them out to the other ones.  It’ll save me a few hundred dollars a month that I don’t currently have.  It’d be easier to just add a terebyte of bandwidth to another server and push the domains in that direction.  It’d also be a lot cheaper.

I’m also in the process of searching for a new data center, I really can’t stand the one I’m hosted with now and I believe I’ll be able to find a cheaper route with more resources, which will give me the ability to offer more resources to both new and existing clients.  I’ll even admit that 50MB of disk space and 1GB of bandwidth for $20/yr. is a little on the low side.  However, I also believe that spending $8 a month on 500GB of Disk Space and 10TB of bandwidth is a little absurd.  Who would seriously offer up a hard-drives amount of space for $8 if they know for sure that you’re not actually going to use those resources?  I’ve heard instances of people getting up to say 20GB of disk space and then mysteriously having their account suspended because they’ve done SOMETHING illegal.  It usually has nothing to do with you, but you’re at a loss either way.

So yea, if you’re looking for hosting that isn’t being over-sold then head on over to AGn Solutions.  If you want to spend more money on resources you’re never going to use, then please – by all means – take a gander at some of the other companies out there.  They may get rave-reviews but test them out by uploading 30GB of files and see what happens to your account.

Technorati: , ,

Tags: , , ,
Posted in AGn Designs | 3 Comments »

E-mail and Messaging

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Over the course of the next couple of days, I’m going to post quite a few articles in relation to the 89 best PC tips. This will include everything from Audio, iTunes, Email, Productivity, Mac OS X Tips & Tricks, Security, Travel, Video, the Web and even Media in general! This is a very well thought out and well written list originally from Laptop Mag. I enjoyed reading this article so much that I decided it was worth re-publishing. All of the original copyrights are in place, the next series of articles, titled 89 best pc tips, are completely credited to LaptopMag!

The following series of tips is in complete dedication to E-mail and Messaging technology.

#1 – Move Outlook Files Out Of The Closet
For some reason Microsoft has chosen to hide the data files for Outlook deep inside a series of buried folders. This makes it difficult to back up. Here’s how to move these files to an easily accessible folder in My Documents.

First, right-click on Personal Folders in the left-hand navigation tree in Outlook. Click on Properties and then Advanced and take note of the path listed under Filename (it will end in .pst). Close Outlook

Now, open Windows Explorer, activate the display of hidden folders, and then copy the contents of the original folder to a new one in My Documents. In Control Panel, open Mail and click Show Profiles, and chose the old location. Then click Properties followed by Data Files. Select the data file from the list and then click Settings. When you see an error dialog box saying that the files could not be found at the old location, click OK. Then, navigate to the new folder in My documents, and open and close it. Restart Outlook.

#2 – Clean Up Your Yahoo! Inbox
To select multiple messages, hold Shift after selecting a message to select multiple messages. Hold Ctrl to add specific messages to the list. hit CTRL and A to select all messages in a folder or search results. This is a great way to select everything in your Inbox and move it to an archive folder.

#3 – Conference calls made easy (video too!)
One of Skype’s newer competitors, ooVoo (www.oovoo.com), has a slick interface that lets you videoconference with up to six people at once, import and share e-mail contact lists and send files up to 25MB in size. The service even lets you send video our voice messages to people who aren’t signed up for ooVoo. Since it’s in beta, it’s free too!

#4 – Backup your Gmail account
Gmail’s POP3 access lets you download your entire account for offline storage. To download all e-mail from your account when you initiate a Send/Receive on your e-mail client, you need to reset Gmail’s POP settings. In Gmail’s “Forwarding and POP” settings page, select the Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s already been downloaded)” option and click the Save Changes button. This ensures that when you do your first download, all e-mail will be sent.

If you want to retain the e-mail on Gmail’s server, be sure that the setting “Delete e-mail from server” in the Account Settings is not checked, otherwise the e-mail will be deleted from Gmail after it is downloaded. To maintain the backup, periodically initiate a Send/Receive session to bring in any new e-mail.

#5 – Shut down those messaging apps.
Meebo ($Free – www.meebo.com) [Previous Article], lets you chat with all your friends in one window, regardless of whether they’re on AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo messenger, or MSN. Paste a video link into a chat and you can watch the video with your buddies. Other cool features include VoIP (via The Pudding), video chat (via TakBox), and synchronous live games.

Technorati: , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in 89 PC Tips | No Comments »

89 Best PC Tips – Backups

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Over the course of the next couple of days, I’m going to post quite a few articles in relation to the 89 best PC tips. This will include everything from Audio, iTunes, Email, Productivity, Mac OS X Tips & Tricks, Security, Travel, Video, the Web and even Media in general! This is a very well thought out and well written list originally from Laptop Mag. I enjoyed reading this article so much that I decided it was worth re-publishing. All of the original copyrights are in place, the next series of articles, titled 89 best pc tips, are completely credited to LaptopMag!

The next series of tips are targeted to Backing Up your important resources.

#1 – Recycle Old Hard Drives
Your old laptop may be dead, but the hard drive can live on. All you need is a simple adapter such as the Apricorn EZ upgrade Universal SATA kit ($49 – www.apricorn.com), which can be used to transfer data from an old hard drive to a new laptop or turn that old hard drive into a handy external USB drive.

#2 – Move Files Online
AOL’s browser-based Xdrive (www.xdrive.com), which received an Editors’ Choice in our January issue, couldn’t make it easier to store your files online. Simply press the green Add button and upload your files. While speeds will vary depending on your Internet connection, you can’t argue with the price – free for the first 5GB, and $9.95 per month for 50GB. Since it’s browser-based, you can access your stuff from anywhere!

I’ve personally used XDrive and I have to say, it’s worth it.  I never exceed the usage of 5GB so I’m not currently paying for the service, but I would highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking to back up your very important files!

Technorati: , ,

Tags: ,
Posted in 89 PC Tips | No Comments »

Top Five iTunes Tips

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Over the course of the next couple of days, I’m going to post quite a few articles in relation to the 89 best PC tips. This will include everything from Audio, iTunes, Email, Productivity, Mac OS X Tips & Tricks, Security, Travel, Video, the Web and even Media in general! This is a very well thought out and well written list originally from Laptop Mag. I enjoyed reading this article so much that I decided it was worth re-publishing. All of the original copyrights are in place, the next series of articles, titled 89 best pc tips, are completely credited to LaptopMag!

The next series of tips are specifically targeted to iTunes users!

Get the most out of the most popular music software.

#1 – Share Your Playlists
You can share your kick-butt playlist with others by publishing it to the iTunes Store.  Simply hit the arrow on your playlist and select “Create iMix.”  Shared playlists include previews of any songs on your playlist that are available on the iTunes Store; songs that are not in the store won’t be shared.

#2 – Create a Wish List
Add previews of any song in the iTunes Store to a playlist and create a wish list of songs that you want to buy at a later date.  It’s as simple as creating and new playlist and dragging the song from the iTunes Store to the new playlist.  Listen to the song preview or buy the song directly from your playlist by clicking the “Buy” button.

#3 – Make Cover Flow Worth It
If you’re missing loads of album art, Cover Flow isn’t very compelling.  You can have iTunes automatically grab album art from the iTunes Store library.  On the Advanced Tab, select the “Get Album Art” button.  Just make sure you’re signed into your iTunes account.

#4 – Tidy Up Your Library
Find the music track duplicates in your library with iTunes’ handy tool.  From the View Tab select Show Duplicates.  To erase the duplicates hold down the Ctrl key and click the songs you want to remove.  After they are all highlighted, hit the delete button.

#5 – Keyboard Shortcuts
iTunes provides a list of helpful keyboard tricks in its Help Tab.  Among our favorites: checking for new podcasts by pressing  F5, and shrinking the iTunes window to show only the playback controls by holding down Ctrl and M.

Technorati: , ,

Tags: ,
Posted in 89 PC Tips | No Comments »

89 Best PC Tips – Audio

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

Over the course of the next couple of days, I’m going to post quite a few articles in relation to the 89 best PC tips. This will include everything from Audio, iTunes, Email, Productivity, Mac OS X Tips & Tricks, Security, Travel, Video, the Web and even Media in general! This is a very well thought out and well written list originally from Laptop Mag. I enjoyed reading this article so much that I decided it was worth re-publishing. All of the original copyrights are in place, the next series of articles, titled 89 best pc tips, are completely credited to LaptopMag!

I’m going to start off the list right now with the Audio category!

#1 – Shrink your iTunes!
Got thousands of MP3’s in your collection, but can’t it them on your new nano? ShrinkMyTunes ($39.99 – www.shrinkmytunes.com) lets you shrink the size of your MP3’s by up to 4x without losing the audio quality you appreciate. It takes only 30 seconds to process each song, and you can free up lots of space on your notebook’s hard drive.

#2 – Do more with Bluetooth!
Grab the Enhanced Data Rate Bluetooth USB Adapter with stereo support from logear ($39.95 – www.logear.com) and use your Bluetooth headset to listen to DVDs and Music or make VOIP phone calls on your laptop. Better yet, use the dongle to upload pictures from your camera phone. If you don’t have a headset yet, we recommend the iLuv i222 ($129 – www.i-luv.com); it includes an audio transmitter that you can plug into your iPod for wireless streaming.

#3 – Stream music anywhere in your house
Don’t limit your music to just one room. Creative’s Xmod Wireless System ($199 – www.us.creative.com) makes broadcasting tunes from your notebook to anywhere in your abode easy. Just connect the transmitter to your notebook and plug the included wireless X-Fi receiver into your stereo or computer speakers. Even better, integrated X-Fi technology restores the highs and lows to those compressed MP3s and iTunes tracks. Additional receiver units ($99.99) can be purchased to spread music throughout the whole house.

#4 – Broaden your playlists
Listening to the same songs over and over isn’t much fun. With Pandora ($Free – www.pandora.com) you simply type in an artist you like and the program will look for other music with similar sounds. You can also look for your friends’ favorite music. The application will scan your e-mail for Pandora users and display what your buddies are listening to. If you really like what you hear you can buy it from Amazon or iTunes.

#5 – Make Ringtones from your MP3s
Creating your own ringtones from your MP3 collection doesn’t have to be complicated. OwnYourPhone ($0.99 cents per use – www.ownyourphone.com) allows you to covert your digital music files (MP3, WMA, etc) into custom ringtones without installing any software. Just upload your song and edit it right in the browser with the timeline. The first song is free!

Technorati: , ,

Tags: ,
Posted in 89 PC Tips | 3 Comments »

Meebo!

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Quite some time ago I signed up for a website named Meebo. This site gives you the ability to log into quite a few different chat names – AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ, Google Talk and Jabber – at the same time. I came across my account with them when I was attempting to find a Firefox add-on dedicated to MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog – it’s kind of annoying having to log into the site manually and with all of the Firefox add-ons out there, you would assume there would be something. FYI: There isn’t at this point in time.

So, why do I enjoy Meebo? When you’re looking to get online without having to download a program – Meebo is the route for you. I know quite a few people who use this program while they’re at work. It gives users the abilities to talk to their friends and family without having to worry about their computer showing an “illegal chat program” so to speak. As far as your network administrator is concerned, minus the possible required keystrokes, you can get away with using this program in secrecy.

Another plus? If you’re using a public computer at a library or even at school for that matter. If you absolutely have to get on a chat program but are unable to download anything, this is the route to take. I remember that in high school you weren’t allowed to use AIM/Yahoo and many other programs while in school. I found it absurd that you had to spend 45 minutes doing absolutely nothing on your free periods. Now, I know this program wasn’t available when I was in High School, but I know other variations of it were. This isn’t the first website to do this but I honestly can not remember the other ones for the life of me.

Based on how easily you can customize this program, everything from color schemes to fonts, it really does give you the functionality that many people look for. I’m lucky to have found my login, now I know that no matter where my career takes me and no matter what computer I wind up having to work on – I’ll still be able to have some contact to the outside world – via Internet of course.

A plus for this program is it’s security. All passwords are encrypted so even with the chance of the site’s database being hacked – your passwords are safe so that you don’t have to worry about losing your screen name. I know that would bother me considering I’ve been using the same AIM address for about 10 years now. I’d hate to have to give it up, so that’s a HUGE plus for me.

I know other bloggers have used this program before, when I signed into my account I noticed that three of my frequent chat buddies was actually using the same program. So of course I’m not alone when I say that this was a great attribute to the Internet IM’s world.

FYI: If you’re only interested in testing out the program, you can go to Meebo.com and log into your chat address without creating an account.  It’s a “try before you buy” kind of option.  This is a completely free service, don’t take “buy” seriously.  It’s merely an expression.

Technorati: , , , , , ,

Tags: ,
Posted in Web Sites | No Comments »

Don’t answer the phone!

Friday, March 28th, 2008

For the past few hours a few different phone numbers have been calling the house. Originally I thought it was merely a prank but supposedly I’m not the only one receiving these phone calls. If you see any of the numbers show up on your caller ID, please be sure to avoid answering the phone. These numbers have been widely known for calling up to 15 times per day, and based on a few of the threads I’ve found in regards to it, a lot of people are effected by it. I’m going to log into comcast in a few moments and block these numbers from calling. If you’re looking for more information, please head over to 888notes.com and read a bit more about it. They never say why they’re calling, you’re lucky if someone even responds to your saying “Hello?”. Just make it a point to block these numbers before they even start calling you.

The numbers are:

Quebec (514) 555-5555
Florida (727) 585-4752
Florida (727) 683-0725
California (408) 731-7348

On my ID the first number didn’t show up as Quebec, it showed up as “Purdy, D”. I have yet to get any calls from the other numbers, but that really doesn’t matter too much right now. I have to say that I can blame Vonage for this because they tend to allow you to have a phone number anywhere you please as long as you pay them, all VoIP phones tend to let you choose what area code you prefer. For all I know these calls could actually be coming from a man up the block.

Either way it’s a good idea to block the numbers, if you have the ability. Get in touch with your telephone provider before it gets to the point of being utterly annoying.

And with that said, guess who’s phone is freaking ringing again?! UGH!

Technorati: ,

Tags: ,
Posted in Random Chatter | No Comments »

Mac OS X Leopard

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

I’ve finally upgraded the Mac to OS X Leopard.  I have to say that I’m really enjoying it so far.  As far as functions are concerned it’s really no different than OS X Tiger, but visually it’s gorgeous.  The new dock blows my mind, the speed has also increased.  I didn’t lose anything during the upgrade, which is a plus, but I’m noticing that programs are also loading a lot quicker than they were in the past.  I don’t know if Leopard has anything to do with that but it seems to be working that way for me so I’ll happily take the upgrade.  Usage right now, with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash and a few other programs running is only at 10% and for 1GB of ram, that’s pretty damn amazing for me.  I do intend to upgrade the RAM at some point in the future but we’ll see how job situations go before I make an investment like that.  Something tells me I’m going to have to get used to using Windows again, but that’s not that hard – it’s definitely the crappier operating system.

So who else runs on Leopard?  Any tips or tricks for me?  I’d really appreciate it!

Technorati: , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in Apple | No Comments »

Stumble!

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I’ve recently joined StumbleUpon.com, you can view my profile by going to krissyville.stumbleupon.com. It’s my hope to be able to get all of my favorite entry bookmarks in order, and even have the ability to see who else favors them as well.  Another reason is for networking, if I can find sites with a common interest I may have a little more to do during the day.  I’ve had to create another email address just to handle all of my networking sites, from blogcatalog & twitter to bumpzee and mybloglog and numerous other ones I’m receiving so many messages during the day about joining communities and new friends that it’s becoming overwhelming.  Hopefully this is the right route to take to get things back up to where this domain used to be.  I’m active in numerous communities, I’m commenting on many new sites that I was able to find through these network sites and I even have a few potential clients lined up who are interested in my work – just from my profiles on these networks.

If you aren’t involved in any of these networks, I have to say that you’re missing out on something pretty amazing.  Get yourself involved – you won’t be sorry.

Technorati: , , , , ,

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Web Sites | No Comments »

Still working on things…

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I’m working on getting a lot of my Social Site Widgets up and running.  I’m a member of quite a few different ones, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, Twitter, and a few blogrolls that I’ve joined and unfortunately forgot about, so I’ll be adding a new links section to the site as well.  I don’t really like putting really long content onto the sidebar so I’m sure I’ll figure something out.  Right now I’m in the process of merging my blogcatalog account, I didn’t realize that I had acidgloss.net previously listed with another email address.  I went to add it to my new account and was having some trouble.  Thankfully after an email from Daniel at BlogCatalog.com support, I’m hoping to be able to accomplish this merge.  I don’t have anything else going on with that other account so hopefully I can delete it completely.  I now know what my login info is, I had to go through seven email addresses to figure it out but I did it.  I’ll see what I can do about closing the account.

I’m trying to go to bed but that doesn’t look as though it’s going to happen anytime soon.  I’ll have to set the alarm for tomorrow morning so I can get myself up early enough in anticipation that I’ll actually hear something from the interview the other day.  Monday is a new business day and hopefully they want to include me in theirs!

Technorati: , , , ,

Tags: , ,
Posted in AGn Designs, Web Design | No Comments »

« Older Entries