The new iPad!

Well I did it! I made the jump to join Team Apple by purchasing a new iPad! I gotta admit, I’m loving thing thing. This simple, useful and power device is making the way I do things much easier. The display is great, and the camera quality is fantastic. I’m really looking forward to making this device a great work and personal product! I have noticed the heating issues that have been spoken about, but it really has not botherd me. Also, I have not experienced any WiFi issues that others have mentioned. I’m also writing this from my iPad as well. I purchased a case that incases at BlueTooth wireless keyboard that has worked flawlessly.

Verizon iPhones on the way!!

Bloomberg announced that the iPhone is coming to Verizon!  Can I get a Woot, Woot!

“Bloomberg News reported that Verizon Wireless would start selling the iPhone to its customers in January, citing two people familiar with the plans. AT&T Inc., the country’s second- largest wireless carrier, has been the exclusive provider of the iPhone in the U.S” Bloomberg News

For those of you who have been waiting for this moment like I have; hold tight to your current phone(s) until January and then use your upgrade eligibility to get your self a new shinny iPhone4/5 whichever it will be!!

One Password to Rule them All!!

Have you ever found your self dumbfounded that you were unable to gain access to your personal email, or log in to your bank account because you’ve forgotten your password??  Are you one of “those” people whom seem to think that you’ve found the worlds greatest password and yet seem to think it’s good enough for ALL the things you do online??  If you are, then I have one question for you… HOW DO YOU SLEEP AT NIGHT???

Ok ok, I have to admit, I once was one who used a single password for everything I did too!  Yup, you heard it!  Even techies like myself tend to have bad habits too!  Yea, a bad habit that I used for 3 long years.  However, I was able to quit this old habit with a little bit of help from what I think has been my savior of my personal identity!  Yup, I leave all my faith in one sweet, small little application that helps me remember my password for EVERY single thing I do online..  Hell, I don’t even know over HALF of my passwords for my online accounts!

See now days you need a username and password to do just about anything online, from email, to bill paying, all the way to checking your friends statuses (Stati?) and tweet updates!  So how do I do it you ask??  Allow me to introduce you, to my “diamond in the rough”: KeePass.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).  KeePass Password Safe

So, what does AES and Twofish encryption mean for you??  Well basically lets assume that you keep your password database on a single little flash drive like I do.  Then one day your flash drive decides that it’s going to sprout legs and walk off (AS MANY SOO OFTEN DO!).  No worries, your database is encrypted with either of the aforementioned algorithms!  Basically, the sun is going go go “Super Nova” before your database file is cracked…  However, I do recommend encrypting FLASH / Thumb / Zip drives as well!  For that I use a tool (TrueCrypt), which is outside the scope of this post.

So the basic way this works, is that you only need to remember a SINGLE password to get you in the database, and KeePass will take care of the rest.  This tool has saved my but in many cases, with it being portable I’m able to always have a copy of my database(s) on me at all times.  Since have multiple clients (mostly friends and family) I can mange their passwords for them (they usually forget these and I lack the Estienne brain power to remember every password) as well.

Here is a link the Screenshots of this application from the KeePass website (for bandwidth reasons and obvious copyright infringements I’m sending you over there).

If you decide to use this very simple tool, and have any questions or issues that you might run into, please feel free to post them here.  I promise that I will answer to the best of my ability.

Command Center

Well I finally got my command center moved back into my “Domain”.  It took a solid hour or so, but it’s finally back up and operating in the office.  However I’m still convinced that I will appreciate the office a little more when I get the household down to JUST laptops.  Moving a whole computer from one room to another just for a little weekend Karaoke is exhausting!  I’m now totally convinced that my desk space/workspace just lacks the needed real-estate for two monitors, of course if I was using a tower machine it might work out a little easier.  But again, I’m working on cutting down on the “techno-hoarding” as my wife likes to put it.  Then again, I think all of us geeks-at-heart have a soft spot for all that old tech gear.  Or, I could just simply be crazy…

Addendum to the afore mentioned

AT&T Stinks!

So I just wanted to post a small little addendum/rant to the previous post about how bad AT&T is really going to “Bend over” their new customers when they go to the new data plans. My wife and I happen to be talking about her cell phone and AT&T when we decided to look at her usage.. (She is currently a $30 unlimited data user who will be allowed to keep this plan when the new plans role out.) However, I had to take a double take when I realized her usage was 2171.28 MB! Yes, do the math 1 GB = 1024 MB, so she used 2.1 GB of Data service! Now some perspective: lets say she was on the LAME 200MB “DataPlus” plan for $15 per month; This means she would have been charged $163.37 for data usage; because you are charged $15 more for every 200 MB over you use. And well 2,171.28 MB divided by 200 MB = 10.89 x $15 = $163.37. So now we take our DataPlus charge of $163.37 + $20 for unlimited text messaging + $48 phone plan you got a sweet little iPhone bill of: $203.37. Um dude, I was paying a little less than this for 2 iPhones 3 months ago!

AT&T Sticks it to new customers!!

Well, it was only a matter of time before AT&T decided to start metering their customer data usage. It appears that that AT&T will be providing new data plans for new customers as of June 7, 2010. Existing customers and “Re-ups” will not be affected by this change, however new folks will get with stuck with “DatPlus” and “DataPro” packages.

“DataPlus ($15 per month): Up to 200MB of data in a monthly billing cycle. According to AT&T, this plan is “designed for people who primarily like to surf the web, send email and use social networking apps.” If you exceed your 200MB limit during the billing cycle, you’ll be charged only $15 for each additional 200MB of data.

DataPro ($25 per month): Up to 2GB of data in a monthly billing cycle. If you exceed your 2GB limit during the billing cycle, you’ll be charged only $10 for each additional 1GB of data.” Yahoo News

Of course AT&T will be providing the long awaited option of “Tethering” (Tethering provides the ability to connect your iPhone/BlackBerry/(Supported)SmartPhone to your computer/laptop/netbook and use it as a wireless modem for internet access)when the new 4.0 OS and next Gen Device are released sometime this month. No one knows for sure, if existing customers (like me) who already have an unlimited data plan will also be able to take advantage of tethering, however I’m willing to be that I’m not that lucky.

Update on my life

So I just wanted to take some time to update a few folks, on what’s been going on around the Entrekin household as of lately.  My wife an I will be closing on our house Monday March 15, 2010!  We’re super excited about it, and I’m looking forward to some future projects that have already been laid out for me.

While in the midst of getting things handled with the house, the company I work for has also recently completed a new third floor expansion!!  That’s right, I’m now supporting two floors of users!  While we have brought a few (3 total) new folks on, it’s not a huge deal.  However, adjusting to the fact that I know must utilize a central stair way to move between floors has become a serious wakeup call!! (I’m fat..stairs = fail)  Why use the stair way v. the elevator? While it would be convenient to just ride a single flight down, it would also getting pretty annoying for other tenants in our building who work on floors 5-13.  Plus, I’d rather not be “That-Guy” who caused someone to be late because I was to lazy to take the stairs (it’s on after hours though!).  Our new renovation was included in the Women’s Fund tour of “Jackson’s Downtown Spaces, Hip New Places of 2010”.

As weird as it might be, I’m actually looking forward to being the part of our Jackson office’s growth and expansion.  I’m learning a lot, as everyday something new unfolds for me.  While I’m pretty sure the staff is coping with the separation of colleagues between the floors, it’s only a matter of time before they acclimate and accept the changes.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave me a message!

“Optimization”

So I’m not really sure if any of you saw the commercial over the new year break, but Best Buy is now providing “Optimization” with the purchase of new PC’s and laptops.  It cost 40 bucks, and really doesn’t optimize anything!

Best Buy‘s computer optimization service costs $40 and promises to double the speed of your computer. They push it hard, so hard that you’re often forced to get it against your wishes. The trouble? It makes computers slower. (Gizmodo.com)

Holidays!

The Holidays are drawing to a close, and the end of very tough year is upon us.  I just wanted to write to all of you and wish you all a very happy new year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in-store for us.  A couple of things I would like to point out to you in regards to 2010:

• I will most likely be changing my focus on digital-stress, from a technical-ish blog, to a more normal and daily lifestyle oriented blog
• I will try to start posting at least once a week…
• I don’t want to have to close this blog, I’ve enjoyed sharing my time with the 3 or 4 readers I do have.
• I will still post some tech/geek things at random, and I will try to explain it in laymen terms to the best of my
• abilities for you.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

CAT got your tounge?

Have you ever wondered what Bandwidth is? The best way that bandwidth can be explained is by comparing it to a highway. Thus the more lanes you have, the more traffic (Bandwidth) you can allow through. As we all have seen in the technology industry, information from previous years and predictions for the future, are both telling us that data rates are doubling every 18 months.

 

Cable Introduction

Applications that have been deployed today with a 1GB backbone are now driving the limits of CAT5e. These limits will continue to be driven to their maximum capacities as media applications such as streaming & on-demand video and audio become daily use. As the demands for more bandwidth are met, this will spawn new products that will benefit from the use of CAT6. Take the mid 90’s for example where CAT5 cabling was introduced, and replaced the CAT3, this happened because CAT5 provided the necessary bandwidth that network applications were benefitting from, and it was also very cost effective.

The Difference Between CAT5e and CAT6

The basic differences between CAT5e and CAT6 are: the increase in data transmission performance, and the enlargement of the available bandwidth (CAT5e – 100MHz, CAT6 – 200MHz).

Why does my business need CAT6 instead of CAT5?

Systems running on CAT6 cabling will have fewer corrupted data packets, as the data is transmitted from one end of the segment to the other. What makes this possible is the immunity that CAT6 cabling has from external noise, if far greater than that of CAT5e.

Will CAT6 become the leader/standard in cabling over CAT5

Absolutely, it’s only a matter of time. Cabling analyst state that 80 -90 percent of their installations are cabled with CAT6, and because CAT6 is backwards compatible with CATE5e requirements, this makes for an easy and sound decision for companies to move to CAT6