I kicked off a trend at work after I got my iPhone, so I’m putting this handy little guide together for all the new iPhone owners out there so that you don’t have to go downloading every crappy free app to try. I already did that!

So, here is my list of top apps in a wide range of categories. I’ll keep it updated as I add or delete things.

And if anyone has suggestions for other really great free apps, let me know and I’ll give them a try. Leave the name, description, and link to the app in the comments. (To get the link to an app, look it up in iTunes, then right click on the Apps icon on the top left.)
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Let’s say that for some reason you decide to make a copy of a DVD. Like you want it for backup purposes or whatever. If you’ve got a Mac, it’s your lucky day. Here is how to do it:

• Use the Finder to copy the VIDEO_TS folder to your local hard drive.
• Download the DVDImager application and install it.
• Stick a blank DVD in your Mac.
• Launch DVDImager and then drag and drop the VIDEO_TS folder onto the DVDImager icon

The rest should be simple. Enjoy your new disc copy!

I just signed up for a new Beta service called Yoics today. (I wonder how that is pronounced by the way?) It’s a very interesting Remote Desktop sharing service, and it works with PCs and, most importantly, Macs. The underlying technology appears to be VNC, which I appreciate because it is a mature technology. But it seems they’ve managed to make it extremely simple to use.

Yoics allows you to share not only your remote machine’s desktop, but also the drives in your machine and even devices like Webcams!

That’s right, you could set up Webcams all over your house, and use Yoics as a remote security monitoring system. But wait! There’s more! If you happen to have a Drobo file storage unit and the accompanying DroboShare network adapter, you can also directly connect to it via Yoics.
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So, I have this backpack that holds my laptop in a zippered pouch on the back, and all of my awesome camera gear on the front. Of course, the primary security mechanism for the laptop is a zipper to actually hold it inside when you walk around.

Yeah. This is what happens when you don’t actually zip that zipper and let your laptop fall out onto the concrete as you walk around like a complete dumbass.
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For those of you who don’t know Barry, he’s the mastermind behind the infrastructure that powers WordPress and all of their various services (Akismet, bbPress, Gravatar, etc.). He seriously knows a lot about hosting infrastructure, as he demonstrated when he gave this lecture about WordPress performance at WordCamp SanFrancisco 2007.

Anyway, this morning he posted a little article about the newest WordPress data center and included a video shot by Aaron Phillips. Watch really closely and you might catch a glimpse of my cameo…
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Oh, my. Cali Lewis, everyone’s favorite video podcaster, stopped by Layered Tech to learn about our top secret project (code named Astro) a couple of weeks ago – even though we made her keep it under wraps until yesterday!

Anyway, Cali interviewed LT’s Director of Software Development, Josh Bosquez, in part one and learned all about whats been under development for like a year. In part two I give a mini-tour of the data center and you get to learn a few things about it. The data center tour was more extensive, but some of the video had to be taken out for security reasons. Still, it’s pretty cool!
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Well, my good friends over at Parallels hooked me up with a free copy of Parallels Desktop 4 for my MacBook. But before we get started here, you should know that Microsoft, VMware and just about anyone else with virtualization software will hook me up too. So my comments here are unbiased as always. I only tell you exactly what I think.

Anyway, did I mention that Parallels 4 is a fantastic product for running virtual machines within your Mac environment? No? Well, let me go on record as saying that I think Parallels 4 kicks ass. Yeah, I said it. Now let’s move along shall we?
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Yesterday was the day I’ve been waiting on for months. Google finally released the popular, and FREE, Picasa image management software for the Mac!

Let me explain. You see, a while back I was forcibly converted to the Mac at work. At first I complained. A lot. But later it grew on me. Now, even though I hate to admit it, I have to say I actually prefer the Mac for most computing operations. One of the things that I did not enjoy, however, was the pathetic iPhoto software which was pretty much the only game in town for Mac users… until today.

So, Picasa, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: Read the rest of this entry »

Now this is funny. As you guys know, I’m pretty technical. In fact I happen to know that a lot of people read my blog to pick up little tidbits of technical advice here and there. Like which camera to buy, reviews of gadgets, and perhaps the occasional discussion on blogging or Web Development. But I have friends who are so crazy technical that sometimes even I can’t follow them! Elie Khoury (my partner from Woopra) is one of them…

Right now those of you who think of me as a neophyte can head on over to PushingPixels.com and read the interview with Elie in which he talks about the development of the Woopra client. Which even I learned he used something called Swing to develop. (And all this time I just thought it was Java!) And for the rest of you, if you want to read something that you’ll never understand, head on over and see what really smart people talk about when you leave them alone at a party.

This is seriously cool. While traveling yesterday I happened to pick up a copy of the October 2008 edition of Esquire Magazine. It features the world’s first E-Ink cover. You can’t miss it because the text is scrolling across it and it is just generally bad ass!

Since a photo ain’t gonna do you any good, I took a video of it to share with everyone. I highly recommend you go get one NOW if you’re interested because these things are not going to last.

I had some videos I needed to upload in Vegas, but The Mirage’s WiFi was so slow I was getting 30 – 40kb uploads and ocassional dropped connections. When I got to the airport to head home I fired up the WiFi on my iPhone and ran a speed test. Unbelievably, I got 2mb upload speeds!

So, I whipped out my laptop and proceeded to upload a 1.3gb file to Viddler in about 30 minutes at a sustained average rate of 650kb. You can see the results of the test and upload below.

Many thanks to the folks at McCarran who make this possible. If only everyone was as cool as you!

Have you ever had a computer for a long time and then wanted or needed to move all your data to a new one? Or, have you ever had to reinstall Windows just because you’ve loaded so many programs that it’s caused your computer to crash so often that you’re willing to start over? Well, what would you say if I told you it is possible to take a “snapshot” of your entire computer and move or copy the data to another machine in minutes so you can continue right where you left off.

Well you can, and it’s not something that is “coming soon”, it’s here today and has been here for at least a couple of years. The technology is called Virtualization, and there are several software vendors who provide the capability to allow you to do this on any operating system – Mac, Linux, or PC.

Before you ask me “why would I want to virtualize my computer”, let me share a few reasons:

• Portable workspaces – virtualization allows you to move your entire digital workspace from one physical machine to another. You can even use an iPod or USB memory sticks to host a virtual machine!
• Testing and training – rather than loading all kinds of unknown software into your normal computing environment, you can have a virtual machine just for testing. Heck, you could have one for games, one for personal computing, and one for work!
• Disaster recovery – if you always keep a recent backup of your virtual machine, say… on a portable USB hard drive, even if your computer dies you’ll be able to pick back up exactly where you left off without having to reinstall everything.
• Consolidation – Virtual machines are used to consolidate many physical servers into fewer servers, which in turn host virtual machines. Each physical server is reflected as a virtual machine “guest” residing on a virtual machine host system. This is also known as Physical-to-Virtual or ‘P2V’ transformation.

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