franzone.com

Aion Fantasy MMORPG in Open Beta

Jonathan Franzone — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:58:34 +0000

Aion is a new MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) by NCSOFT that is now available for open beta, but it’s for this weekend only (September 6 – September 13). Head on over there to grab your Open Beta key and download the client. If you do want to play though you should start the download process immediately as it’s a 9.1 Gb file download.

RoboForm Update – Online Passwords!

Jonathan Franzone — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 04:35:48 +0000

I just noticed this really cool feature so I thought I’d throw a shout-out to my favorite password manager. I’ve been using AI RoboForm for many a year now and have actually reviewed it on this site before. I really love this program. Basically it’s a program that sits in your task tray and includes a browser plugin (Firefox and IE) which can fill out passwords and forms for you… automagically! It includes one-click logon which will take you to the desired site and log you in. There are a ton more features which I don’t even utilize but the skinny of it is… I’d be lost without this program. Seriously.

That said, I just noticed a new online synchronization feature that they have included in the latest version. Basically you create an online login on their site, which you then sync up with your desktop version. Now that I’ve set this up I can have access to my logins and passwords even when I forget my thumb drive! (Oh yeah, they have a portable app version that runs off of a thumb drive)

Nike+ iPod Fix Retraction

Jonathan Franzone — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:34:41 +0000

My last post (Nike+ iPod : Cheap Fix For Failure) outlined a method whereby one could get around the premature end of workout due to water (sweat) damage for the iPod Nano and Nike+ Sensor setup. Well this method worked well for me for several runs afterwards… ending in a major fail. The “fix” may still work for you or at least enable you to get a few more runs out of the thing. Anyway, my iPod Nano has completely failed now. The port won’t work and it freezes when you try to play anything. Oh well, I guess I’ll be manually logging runs until I can get another setup.

Nike+ iPod : Cheap Fix For Failure

Jonathan Franzone — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:49:47 +0000

I’m a runner and I use the Nike+ iPod gadgetry to track my runs. It is very easy to use, convenient and it helps me to be motivated. Well, about three weeks ago it started failing. At random times during my run it would just queue the end of run recording and my workout would end. Very frustrating. I tried several ways of wearing it differently to no avail. I searched the internet for answers and found listings like this one with not much information other than, “you need to buy newer stuff.” This was quite frustrating as my workout routine was being interrupted and I can’t really afford to replace my equipment at the moment.

I’m pretty sure that the failure has to do with water damage from sweat and one day I received some inspiration. I’ve been using this fix for about a week and it has cured my Nike+ woes, so I thought I’d share it. It is simple, easy to implement, and the biggest boon…. it’s super cheap! Here’s what you’ll need:

Your iPod
Your armband (I use one)
Your Nike+ attachment
Your headphones
And one sandwich sized zip-top bag!

* Here is an old review of my equipment

Here is what you do:

Attach the Nike+ attachment to your iPod nano
Next, instead of placing your iPod into the armband and then attaching your headphones, you’ll need to thread your headphones through the armband. This will allow you to assemble the whole deal inside the sandwich bag first.
Attach the headphones to your iPod
Slip the sandwich bag over the iPod with everything attached
Wrap it all up like a burrito
Then carefully work the assembly into the armband as it normally would be. It’ll be a little tighter than usual because of the sandwich bag, but it should fit.
That’s it! See the pics below for an illustration.

Yeah, I could of just said “wrap it up in a sandwich bag” instead of an entire tutorial with pictures, but that wouldn’t give me as much content for my blog. Now that I have my running rig back on track I don’t have to worry about finding the funds to replace it all; at least not just yet.

The Great Office War

Jonathan Franzone — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:56:57 +0000

Here is a very cool video for this fine Friday.

Get Cash Back @ Bing

Jonathan Franzone — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:07:08 +0000

I wrote a short post a while back about the new search engine… or excuse me, “personal decision engine” (yeah, whatever)… from Microsoft called Bing. I just ran across this today and though it was interesting. Something more to try and entice users away from the Google behemoth is a Cash Back Program. So apparently you sign up for an account and shop around the internets using Bing. Then on qualified purchases they give you a small percentage back into your account. Then after 60 days and having accumulated at least $5 you may request your cash. Pretty interesting. We’ll see if it’s enough to changes users habits with respect to searching for products on the internet.

Mashable.com Beta Fail

Jonathan Franzone — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:37:17 +0000

I just attempted to login to My Mashable account and received the screen below. It looks like they are beta testing some new platform using Scalr, which is a cloud computing platform. I wonder if they’ll let me in the beta since I uncovered their plans to take over the world!? Hmmm?

Manage Video Clips in iPhoto 6

Jonathan Franzone — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:20 +0000

I was searching the internets this past weekend in search of a simple solution for managing and organizing my video clips on my Mac. I have a somewhat dated iMac with OS X version 10.4 and I don’t have the latest iLife versions. My current version of iPhoto is version 6. I’ve imported short video clips from my camera into iPhoto and that works fine, but I was having a problem trying to find them again. A search resulted in a very simple and elegant tip on this blog: Find Videos in iPhoto. So I attempted to implement the solution and found that there was no “Photo” option in the drop down list for creating my Smart Album. Bummer. I left a comment on the original blog post asking for help.

Of course after investigating a little more I found something else. Whenever you import video clips into iPhoto (version 6) it automatically attaches the “Movie” keyword to the clip. Eureka! I just created a Smart Album using that keyword as in the following screenshot.

So I’ve answered my own question. Now I just select my Videos smart album and I can browse through all of the various video clips I have stored on my iMac. Beauty, eh.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Jonathan Franzone — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:13:19 +0000

I received the strangest spam comment on this blog a while back and have just gotten around to posting about it. Ever want to take out your competitor’s website? Need some intellectual information stolen from somewhere? Well, now I have the hookups! lol

Anyway, here is a screenshot of the post complete with a price list and an ICQ number where they can be reached. Of course, I have excluded the actual ICQ number and any pertinent identifying information as I do not condone such illegal and destructive activities. I have just never been approached as such and thought it was quite hilarious.

Bing.com – Microsoft’s New Search Engine

Jonathan Franzone — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:02:02 +0000

Have you “binged” anything lately? If not, then don’t sweat it. Microsoft just release a new search engine called Bing, which you may or may not have heard about yet. Really? Another search engine? I thought Live.com was their SE of choice. Well, if you go to live.com now it actually points to bing.com.

So how does the new search engine stack up? From my short review of it, it behaves surprisingly similar to Google, the de-facto standard in search engines and close to being a common household term. Once you search you have links at the top to view images and videos of the same search terms and various other options including shopping, news and maps. The interface looks very nice. It looks like they borrowed the home page from ask.com in that there is a boxed image around the search input. The difference is the bing image changes every day, plus you can scroll back through past images.

One nice feature that I like is the video search. It lists an image preview for the results and lists below the preview where the video is hosted (YouTube, MySpace, MetaCafe). Then when you click on the preview it plays the video right in the search results in a video player at the top. Very sleek.

So will this be the final, once and for all Google killer? Yeah… I seriously doubt it. It does basically the same thing with maybe a little more pizaz. However it is nice to have company’s out there innovating to push the envelope and make the internet a nicer and more usable place to be.