How is the average Joe dealing with the new home network?

Posted on October 23, 2011October 23, 2011 by Brenda Bell

I just got off a 30 minute chat with Cisco where we were trying to figure out why I couldn’t access the web interface on my E3000 router when it was connected to the rest of my home network. The whole conversation was a little annoying because I’m supposed to know what I’m doing.

It turns out that the underlying problem was a new DirecTV box my husband hooked up a couple of weeks ago. If you’re tech-savvy, you know that most if not all of the network-enabled devices you buy these days are shipped with a static IP address of 192.168.1.1. So I imagine there are a lot of people out there who get really frustrated when they hook up that new router or DirecTV to a network that already has a device at that address and all hell breaks loose.

I didn’t have a clue what the problem was until I had one laptop connected to the E3000, the E3000 disconnected from the rest of the network and a second laptop connected to my home network with the wireless disabled. I pinged 192.168.1.1 and it still answered — something that could only be possible if there were another device with the same IP address.

iPad: The Magazine That Works

Posted on October 15, 2011October 15, 2011 by Brenda Bell

In a recent post, I highlighted how Flipboard has really changed the way I consume the news. What I didn’t consider at the time is that the last five years has altered the way the babies of today will expect to be able to interact with the world around them.

While I’m not convinced this one-year old was trying to pinch the pages of her magazine, the concept is not all that far-fetched.

Where do used iPhones go when they die?

Posted on October 15, 2011October 15, 2011 by Brenda Bell

I’m sure I’m not the only person who expected the 4S sales to be anti-climactic, especially following an announcement that many considered a disappointment. But once again, the lines of people waiting to get their hands on the new device were long and the prediction is that it will be yet another record breaking weekend.

Which simply leads me to wonder if this weekend’s buyers are switching to the iPhone from other platforms? Or whether it’s mostly people who absolutely must have the latest and greatest device? And if it’s the latter, what happens to all of those newly retired iPhones?

What’s the point at which the iPhone market gets saturated and there’s no one left to buy them?

Think Different

Posted on October 9, 2011October 9, 2011 by Brenda Bell

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

– Think Different, narrated by Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

Posted on October 5, 2011October 5, 2011 by Brenda Bell

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

— Steve Jobs

Was The iPhone Announcement A Bust?

Posted on October 4, 2011October 4, 2011 by Brenda Bell

Seems like it’s not causing much of anything except a considerable number of comments that include words like anti-climactic and disappointing.

Did you happen to catch the blurb on WBZ news? I know there’s no excuse for making a major purchase without doing your research, but I really feel sorry for that woman who bought a new iPhone 4 yesterday. Now that would definitely be in the disappointing category.

Passion

Posted on October 3, 2011October 3, 2011 by Brenda Bell

I don’t believe any subjects have ever inspired so much passion in online discussions as have smartphones, tablets, Macs/PCs, programming languages — except for maybe politics. I suppose we can expect a whole new wave tomorrow after Apple’s iPhone announcements.

Twitter Tools Hack

Posted on September 30, 2011September 30, 2011 by Brenda Bell

[Edit: Now that I have all of my widgets configured and things structured the way I want them, I discovered one or two flaws in what I originally posted — like mangled tweets in RSS feeds. I’ve included the revised tweak below the original.]

When I was looking for a good WordPress theme, I stumbled across Wu Wei by Jeff Ngan. It’s a beautiful theme he uses for his Equivocality site. What I loved about the home page was that he has a nice mix of blog posts and tweets — all complete with little twitter icons.

That triggered a Google search for something that would give me more powerful, but easy to use WordPress/Twitter integration. Twitter Tools is really packed with functionality, but there were just a few things that didn’t quite work the way I’d like them to. I really wanted the tweets in my blog to look like tweets.Continue reading→

My Favorite Flipboard

Posted on September 30, 2011September 30, 2011 by Brenda Bell

If you’re an iPad user and you haven’t yet discovered Flipboard, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Anyone who has read my 4 Ways To Improve Technical Content On The Web knows I don’t like to waste time. With work and home responsibilities requiring the better part of my day, there aren’t many minutes left for keeping up with what’s happening around the world and I’d be significantly out of touch if it were not for Flipboard.Continue reading→