Crazy iPad Accessories

Check this out, I'll add more as I find them.  An entire clothing line for iPad users.

The iPad Vest seems reasonable.

http://www.scottevest.com/company/ipad.shtml

iPouch - iPad case made from my pants!

How to make an iPad case out of your pants!

Converting or importing a Wordpress Blog to Blogger.

Wordpress has a simple tool to export your blog to .xml.  However, the import feature of Blogger won't import it correctly.  It states that there are errors or something like that.  SOOOO, a little googling led me to this site.  It will let you upload your wordpress export, converts it, and lets you download a new xml file.  The site says that you need to upload a WXR file, but I uploaded my .xml file and it worked fine.

http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/

First post, again.

I stared the blog on wordpress, because they have an iphone/ipad app.  However, I find out that they don't let you advertise at all.  Yes, I'm greedy.  I monetize everything.  I'm not looking to win any aesthetics awards for my blog, and let's face it, we are all used to seeing advertisements.  Why can't I make $50 a year from google, just for posting my crap thoughts online?

I'm not so sure, Penbrator.

Am I the only one that finds this both exciting and disturbing that the same time?

http://www.boxwave.com/products/penbrator/index.htm

This will make you think twice about borrowing a pen.

New iPad!

So I finally have an iPad I can call my own.  Well, mostly my own.  I can use it to manage some of our network equipment with SSH, telnet, WebUI, or anything else that has a web interface (sans flash of  course).  I can also get the O'Reilly textbooks for this hardware MUCH cheaper as an ebook as I can for a paper copy.

I have to say that I'm addicted to the iPad.  Not in a bad way, I don't carry it with me everywhere.  I just feel like every time I pick it up, I'm holding the future, as geeky as that sounds.  If you haven't seen one, or used one, stop what you are doing (well, wait until you are done reading this post), and find the nearest Apple Store or BestBuy and try one out.  This is the product that the world has been waiting for (of course that is what we all said about the iPhone too).  I feel like this it true, simply because it has changed the game for all future products.  This isn't a TabletPC, it isn't a PocketPC, I don't think I would call it an anything PC.  It is just a thin, stylish, intuitive, powerful, gadget.  Yes, it is expensive for a video game system.  Yes, it is expensive for a netbook.  Yes, it is expensive for a personal media player.  Yes, it is expensive for a GPS. Heck, it is even expensive for a laptop.  BUT, if you combine all of those things, the iPad becomes an incredible value.  When was the last time you used your GPS to read recent reviews of the restaurant you are looking for?  When was the last time your netbook battery lasted 8 hours?  When was the last time you were able to slip your laptop in the front pocket of your lab coat (I'm assume someday a doctor will read this)?

Enough fluffing the iPad.  There are some downsides.  The beautiful aluminum back side is susceptible to scratching.  BUY A CASE FOR IT.  The onscreen keyboard will take some getting used to, even for those used to typing on touch screen devices.  Whether in landscape or portrait mode, it seems difficult to type very quickly.  If you are a heavy email user, use Google Maps for your GPS functionality, or love Pandora, you'll have to pony up for the unlimited 3G data plan from ATT.  And with fault laying on the developers of iPhone apps, there just aren't all that many iPad apps available yet.  THEY WILL COME!

I'm sure I'll be posting more on here soon enough.  I'll try to put up some reviews of my favorite apps.

New iPhone ad, Family Man

For those of us that have had an iPhone for a while, this is old news.  For those that haven't, believe.  This little smartphone has saved me countless times.  Anybody that says the iPhone isn't the best mobile device available, is either just an Apple hater, or hasn't owned one themselves.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ads/#familyman-large

New projector - Optoma PRO350W Review

Yesterday I got a new projector from NFM. We've had a BenQ PB6100 mounted in the basement for the last 5 years. It was up to almost 3000 hours on the bulb. New name brand bulbs for this aging projector were going to run a few hundred bucks. I didn't feel like infesting that much in such an old beamer.

The Optoma PRO350W is a 16:10, 1280x800, 2800 lumens beauty. Granted we've only had it for 24 hours, but the picture and brightness are worlds better than the BenQ.

DealExtreme.com, pretty sweet gadget site.

Ok, so I am by no means promising anything with this site.  It was referred to me by a consultant that did some firewall work for me a few weeks ago.  We were talking about green lasers or something like that (I know, I know, it can't get much geekier than that).  He told me to check out dealextreme.com.  Most of the stuff is going to come with a poorly translated chinese-english manual, but it is all DIRT CEHAP.

http://www.dealextreme.com/

Check it out, way more than lasers.  I better not find out that anybody is using a hidden camera wristwatch on me.

Free antivirus! Microsoft Security Essentials is… pretty good.

I don't care who you are, free is good.  Microsoft has made a decent antivirus program available for free to all legitimate owners of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.  It is called Microsoft Security Essentials.

http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

It isn't the best, but hey, it is free!  Cnet.com gave it decent reviews as have several other antivirus rating sites.  Here is an article from cnet.com.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10366232-83.html

If you download it, make sure you save it, then run the installer.  Don't just click run after you click the download link.  After it is installed and has done it's automatic updating, remove any previous antivirus or antimalware software you might have.  Get rid of any antispyware software too.

Geekery for everybody.

I like to start blogs, and then not develop them.  I have no less than 5 other blogs that I almost never touch.  This is however, my first on WordPress.  To be honest, the only reason I wanted to start this one is because they were smart enough to make an iPhone App.  I don't plan on paying for an app to post on Blogger when they should have been responsible enough to create an app for free.

So here is my plan; post the geekery that is in my head and in my life that I think my friends and family could benefit from.  I'll try to post links to helpful pages, tips for using their gadgets, and reviews of products I've tried.  Mainly I want to put useful stuff on here so I don't have to always repeat myself (although if you know me at all, I don't mind talking).  I'd also like to get some income ($10 a year at least!) from ads that I'll put on here.  That assumes that I am witty and creative enough, let alone interesting enough, to bring in some consistent readers.  With, that I'm done.  Really I'm just stopping because my wife is getting out of the shower now, and she'll want to know why I'm sitting on the couch with her laptop typing away at something when we're on vacation in Orlando.