Technology and Other Stuff

Ken McGonigal wants to be your buddy on PingChat!

2011-10-21T20:22:00.001-07:00

Ken McGonigal wants to be your buddy.
Ken McGonigal just added you as a buddy on PingChat! Install PingChat! and start messaging each other now. Add him now >>

THIS IS AN INVITATION TO THE PINGCHAT! NETWORK

The world's most popular FREE text, picture,
and video messaging app for mobile devices.

Get PingChat! on your phone today!
Select a platform to the right, to get started.

The Origins of Linux - Linus Torvalds

2010-09-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Cascading Windows

2009-08-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have multiple windows open on your desktop at the same time? Here is how you can make better use of that precious desktop real estate.

Great Children's Website!

2009-08-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

I love this site. If you have children under six try this http://www.roarytheracingcar.com
This site is great for kids learning the hand eye coordination it takes to use the mouse. My son loves Roary the racing car. He is also improving his mouse skills!

Download Youtube Videos To Your Desktop!

2009-08-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

You gotta try this website! http://keepvid.com No need to download software or install anything. Just go to the website then enter the url of your video then download. Give it a shot and let me know what you think. Tell everyone you seen keepvid.com here on gentoolink.com first! You could start your video collection with the cool new District 9 trailer.

Att: iphone users!

2009-08-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

"Zensify is a life streaming application for the iPhone that let's you update, discover, and keep track of your friend's pictures, videos, and comments across multiple social networks. It features to view all your social networks in one timeline, find trends in your social graph, update Twitter and Facebook at the same time..." --ZDNET

If you are an iphone user then make sure you check out new application. I am a Blackberry user. Let me know how you liked this app in the comments!

Download this app here: www.Zensify.com

Download Youtube Videos To Your Desktop!

2009-08-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

I just found an awesome little program called "FREE VIDEO DOWNLOADER". It works by downloading the video from my favorite website so I don't have to keep streaming the video again and again. I can also put downloaded video on my usb memory stick and take with me to show my friends. I uploaded a shot of me using the program to download a police chase video. Free Video Downloader also converts the file to enable play device of choice in the following the formats AVI, MP4, MPG, MOV, MP3 and WAV.

Freevideo Downloader is freeware and you can download it from here. Download funny videos from here:

Youtube
Break.com

CLASSIC GAMES

2009-08-09T22:44:00.000-07:00

Do you remember playing video games at the local arcade? Well, if you grew up in the 80's you will know what I mean. I used to spend countless hours as a teen in the arcade. Not to mention countless quarters. I can't even find arcade games that take quarters now. Anyway I found some great time wasters. If you are still reading this then you must want to waste some time with me.

Okay you will need to go to http://www.dosbox.com/ . Then read the tutorial on how to use dosbox. Then go to one of these websites: http://www.classicdosgames.com/ OR http://www.gog.com then download one of your old favorites.

Follow this tutorial to the letter! TUTORIAL

HERE IS A SCREEN SHOT OF ME PLAYING HIGHWAY HUNTER.

Have fun I know I will!

Gentoolink's Top 10 Free Windows Downloads

2009-08-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

There is a allot of software out there; but here are the top ten I use most often.

1. Open Office http://www.openoffice.org/

2. Firefox Web Browser http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.html

3. Picassa http://picasa.google.com/

4 . Avast Antivirus http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

5. Rohos Mini Drive http://www.rohos.com/products/rohos-mini-drive/

6. Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

7. Portable Apps http://portableapps.com/

8. The Gimp http://www.gimp.org/

9. Gnucash http://www.gnucash.org/

10. Filezilla http://filezilla-project.org/

Try out thes very useful programs. Feel free to leave comments about them.

Twitter Down

2009-08-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

"Twitter came under a coordinated denial-of-service DOS attack earlier on today which left the site paralyzed for a good hour or so. At roughly 7am PST the site was attacked in a coordinated fashion, and the entire network was down for at least 30 minutes.". --Zdnet

Twitter was down today and consequently Facebook went down because people with accounts on both had no other choice.

Can you believe this? People are so obsessed with updating their "status" that they knocked down Facebook. Do yourself a favor--stop and smell the flowers, go for a walk and shutdown your pc when you do. Your body and the environment will thank you for it!

Police On Facebook

2009-08-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

In my previous blogs I spoke about the dangers of Facebook. I just got word that the Metro Vancouver Transit Police are on Facebook. This is a venture into a public medium which is still largely untapped.

The police are using Facebook and Twitter as a public relations medium. I also noticed they are asking for the public's assistance with the identification of a robbery suspect. This is a great idea considering more people are on Facebook everyday. I am typing this blog entry on my Blackberry and up loading via Blackberry. I get all my news electronically now. In the old days the police would put up "wanted" posters around town or put ads in the local newspaper.

You can find The Vancouver Transit Police on Facebook by searching "metro vancouver transit police" in the Facebook search bar.

Kudos to the Transit Police for being so progressive.

Virtual Desktop?

2009-08-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Have you seen a virtual desktop yet? If you are the kind of computer user who carries a usb drive around and/or logs onto several computers a day then I suggest you try http://G.HO.ST . Ghost is a website which acts as a virtual computer. "Ghost Inc. (always written "G.ho.st" which is the company's web address) was founded in 2006 by Zvi Schreiber with the vision of utilizing the web to deliver a free Virtual Computer to every human being." --Ghost Inc.

This is the new computing age. Say goodbye to storing all of your files on a hardrive located in your pc! I am using this software along with Google Docs so I have no need for backup. Ghost has the ability to access google docs. I also carry a secure usb stick with for those times when there is no internet connection available.

You can store up to 15GB of files to start. There are over 66 applications installed for your usage.

Check out these features! Click here!

All this is free!

US Military Bans Access to Social Networks

2009-08-05T00:01:00.001-07:00

"ACCESS IS HEREBY PROHIBITED TO INTERNET SNS FROM THE MCEN NIPRNET, INCLUDING OVER VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK VPN CONNECTIONS."

This is the new US Marine Corps' directive banning Facebook and other social networking sites. The new policy was put in place to protect soldiers from leaking sensitive information such as "I leaving tomorrow for Iraq." The enemy is on Facebook too. Keep this in mind when posting if you are a police, corrections, sheriff or any type of military personnel. Recently a high ranking officer in the British secret service was exposed by his wife posting pictures of him on facebook. That's why James Bond was single!

Information security is your responsibility!

USB Security

2009-08-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

I use a usb stick to back up and carry my documents and pictures with me. I was not satisfied with the lack of security these devices impose. Let's say your stick is lost or stolen. Someone else can look at all of your files without a password! I searched the internet and found some great software from ROHOS You can download the Rohos Mini Drive software here.

Then you intall it on your pc to set up your usb stick. Mini Drive is really simple to install. You can set up a 2GB partition on your usb stick. Which is more than enough for files. You don't need to encrypt your favorite mp3's! Then you can access your hidden files from any pc without having to install the software anywhere else!

This is a great piece of software! I am using it right now!

Galaga!

2009-07-05T14:52:00.001-07:00

I decided I am not going to write about anything important today. I am just going to play a favorite game of mine--Galaga. Leave your high score in the comments. Have fun!

arcade games

"The objective of Galaga is to score as many points as possible by destroying insect-like enemies. The player controls a fighter spaceship that can move left and right along the bottom of the playfield. Enemies fly in groups into a formation near the top of the screen, then begin flying down toward the player, firing bombs at and attempting to collide with the fighter. Occasionally, a "boss Galaga" attempts to capture the player's fighter using a tractor beam – if successful, the fighter joins the formation and must be freed by the player (using another ship and costing him/her a life), enabling him/her to control two ships simultaneously. The game is over when the player's last ship is destroyed or captured." --Wikipedia

Facebook Privacy Settings

2009-07-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Did you know Facebook already has more than 200 million subscribers since it became available in February 2004? Obviously, social networking websites like Facebook have great appeal to many. Here are stats from Facebook:

Mor e than 200 million active users
More than 100 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day
More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of college
The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
Average user has 120 friends on the site
More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
More than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day

More than 8 million users become fans of Pages each day
There are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

There are more than 150 mobile operators in 50 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

This is awesome and scary if you have left your profile open to the whole world and you just uploaded your photos from your Vegas stag vacation. What happens in Vegas stays on Facebook!

If you are using Facebook like so many are then you need to know how to use the privacy settings Facebook has. Just hover your curser over "settings" in the top right corner of the Facebook page. Then click on "privacy settings". You will see a screen like the one at the top of this article. You will see the headings: Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall and Applications.

In this screen you find the phrase "Control who can see which sections of your profile. Visit the Applications page in order to change settings for applications. Visit the Search Privacy page to make changes to what people can see about you if they search for you."

You can also type in a friends name in the search bar located beside "See how a friend sees your profile:" to see how they see your profile page. This is a great tool if you do not fully understand the privacy settings. Iexperimented until I was satisfied with the results.

You can actually choose what friends see. You can control whether or not you want privacy or the whole world to see your profile. This is so important for parents to know. What are your children (over 14 years?) sharing with the world? Here is a great website that features online safety tips for parents: WEBWISEKIDS.

Facebook's privacy policy: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php

See you on Facebook! @facebook.com/ken.mcgonigal

2009-06-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

"News of Michael Jackson’s death broke on the Internet late Thursday afternoon. Not long after that, the Internet broke too. Twitter crashed, as did Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia entry. Facebook lumbered under countless Michael Jackson video uploads retrieved from an over-accessed YouTube, and both ground to a halt.

Everything else online, including the historic battle over democracy currently being raged in Iran, paled as people clambered onto social networks to confirm what they were hearing was really true.

Eventually, the World Wide Web recovered, Jackson traffic cranked into gear, and per their predictable nature, Internet cranks made their feelings known."--MSNBC

I just laughed when I heard about the internet stressing under the pressure caused by Michael's passing. The last time I seen this kind of frenzy was when Elvis Presley died in 1977 or John Lennon in 1980. There was no Twitter or Facebook; but the television was monopolized by the news of the King of Rock and Roll and the former Beatle's passing. Yesterday and today it was the passing of another icon--Michael Jackson. Even if you are not a fan; you cannot deny his influence on the world. Enjoy this video from Youtube.

To Google or to BING?

2009-06-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

I just tried the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing. You can find it at www.bing.com . It is prettier than www.google.com; but not as fast. The trade off is in the background pictures which make it estheticly pleasing; but I guess satisfaction is in the hand/eye coordination of the keyboarder.

I suggest you try it just to see the difference between the two search engines. Did you know there are many search engines out there? Most people just use google. Peek you is a search engine for people. Who knew? For something different try Crime Spider. Crime Spider searches the web for crime specific articles and topics. You can also find search engines from across the world with Search Engine Colossus.

Here is a list from Wikipedia of the other known search engines less commonly used:
Search Now!

Mix Music Like Your Favorite DJ!

2009-06-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

There are so many great software developers out there who are not charging for their work. A great example of this is Mozilla Firefox web browser. If you are not using this browser you are missing out on a superb web experience!

Over the next few weeks of blogs I want to showcase some of my favorite software. Not only is it free; it's awesome! This week it is Audacity the music editor. Have you ever wondered how dj's mix their music? Now you can take your favorite mp3's and create something unique.

Here is a great tutorial I found on Youtube.com