Audio: Douglas talks Wordpress with Small Business Hosting podcast

SBHosting.com posted an interview I did last week talking about the uses and differences between Wordpress.com's hosted blogs and the Wordpress software available from Wordpress.org.

Listen to the entire interview (30 Mins)

Wordpress.org Vs Wordpress.com With Douglas Welch

On this episode I talk with Douglas Welch about the differences between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org and when you might want to use WordPress.org vs Wordpress.com. Wordpress.com is hosted and managed by automattic (the company behing wordpress). If you choose WordPress.com you don’t install or control the software. WordPress.org is the home of the open source wordpress software. [...]

Continue reading...

Portable Digital TVs for after the June 20 Digital Television switch-over

Speaking with my friend Michael today, He reminded me that the digital television switch over is going to occur on June 20, 2009 and many older televisions will stop receiving "over-the-air" television signals.

Anyone who is getting their television signals over cable, AT&T uVerse, Satellite and other methods will still be able to watch their shows. It only effects television delivered via an antenna.

I know from my travels that very few of my clients are in danger of losing their television service, but I have always had another concern about this switchover. Throughout the years, we have always been reminded to have a battery operated radio or television in case of weather, or in California, earthquake, emergency.

Unfortunately, all of the small televisions we have around our house will not receive any signal after June 20. I hadn't seen any prominent advertising for newer, portable TVs so I finally decided to go looking for them.

Amazon.com lists a number of portable digital TVs with ATSC tuners that will receive the new digital television signals. The smallest size seems to be 7", but there are 9" and 10" models available, too. Most operate on AC or DC current and some come with car adapters, too. Some offer rechargeable battery packs, although at least one said it could not be recharged through the car charger, so you would eventually have to use your car battery as a primary power source after a few hours.

Here are the features to look for when purchasing a new portable digital TV:

• ATSC digital tuner
• Battery powered (Rechargeable or traditional)
• Runs off 120V house power
• Runs off 12V car power with adapter

Link: Amazon.com: Portable Digital TVs

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• HD for free, out of thin air (thestar.com)

Gmail now assists in migrating from other email systems

I so wish Google had had this available when I was forced to hand migrate a client's email contacts from AOL to their new Gmail account. It was painful, to say the least, and horribly time consuming. I haven't yet tried this new migration with someone, but I have some candidates I am going to approach so I can use them as a test.

If you are still using AOL, do yourself a favor and check out Gmail. I have moved all my email over to my Gmail address and can now easily access it on my own computers, friends computers, my iPhone and pretty much anywhere I have an Internet connection.

Gmail Makes Email Switching Easier

By Kevin Purdy, 5:30 AM on Thu May 14 2009, 12,921 views

Been looking to move a friend or relative to Gmail, but they complain the move from AOL, Hotmail, or their ISP email would be painful? Let 'em know Gmail now offers an easy switching tool.

Read the entire article

The Fine Art of Troubleshooting Anything from BarCampLA-7

This talk was presented as part of BarCampLA-7 on May 2, 2009

iPod Ready Video

Noted: Free, Friendly, Fabulous: Scarygirl (Game)

"Noted" items are interesting posts I found in my daily reading. -- Douglas

Free, Friendly, Fabulous: Scarygirl

from Rock, Paper, Shotgun by Jim Rossignol

Browser-based, hook-handed platformer Scarygirl has been released (and is currently being crushed by the weight of internet traffic). It turns out to be a highly accomplished, preposterously beautiful little game: it’s a kind of perfect collision between the best children’s books and cream of 16-bit era platform puzzlers. The puzzles are splendidly intricate, it’s full of weird little details and flourishes, and the artwork - by master illustrator Nathan Jurevicius - is simply magnificently colourful and charming throughout. Clearly you must stop reading my blather and go play it without further ado.

A Qik.com demo at LA Friday Coffee

I showed the LA Friday Coffee folks how they can use Qik.com to stream video from their iPhones.

Ted Talk: David Merrill demos Siftables

A Ted Talks demonstration of some amazing technology.

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

Watch at full size

Video: Arduino + Chumby = Fun! with Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor presents at DorkBot SoCal on March 8, 2009. His project combines a homemade moisture sensor, Arduino computer and the Chumby to monitor the health of his plants. Hardware and programming details are included.

iPod Ready Video

Event: Dorkbot Socal #34 - March 8, 2009

Image via Wikipedia

Oh man, I am so going to make it to this Dorkbot SoCal meeting, The 3 speakers all look amazing. This is going to be a great meeting. Join me!

Dorkbot SoCal #34

Sunday, March 8, 2009
1:00pm [warning: first day daylight savings time!]
Machine Project
1200 D North Alvarado Street
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Dorkbot SoCal speakers include Dan Goods, Visual Strategist at JPL, where he develops creative ways of communicating science. He recently has done artwork with aerogel and is on a team to develop a 108-foot long data driven sculpture at the San Jose airport.

Mindshare Labs' Eric Gradman and Brent Bushnell will present ArtFall: a dynamic physical simulation by drawing on a whiteboard.

Brian O'Connor will show how to connect an Arduino to the Chumby and develop a simple application that monitors the environment.

More info: http://www.dorkbot.org/dorkbotsocal

LA Street Traffic in Google Maps

Update: It looks like this was only a test on Google's part. I hope they move to launch it as soon as possible, though, as it will be amazingly helpful in navigating around the city

How did I miss this? Has this feature been available for a while?

If you look at this screen grab, you will notice that Google Maps traffic now shows surface street traffic, not just the freeways. I used to have to go to the LA City Traffic Info page to get this amount of detail.

Unfortunately, the iPhone Maps application doesn't show this data yet. This would be so cool and so useful to have in the palm of your hand when driving about the city, like I do.

Elsewhere Online: Epiphany Recorder for iPhone Captures Past Conversations

Image by Liutao via Flickr

I have often wished for a recorder like this, perhaps even integrating photos or video so I could become better at remembering names. Still, I can see some possibilities for this. The trick will be to figure out how to integrate it into my life and work. I still have to start the recorder when I begin a talk or meeting. This could be interesting.

Epiphany Recorder for iPhone Captures Past Conversations
from jkOnTheRun by Kevin C. Tofel

Last night, I gave Epiphany Recorder a spin on my iPhone. The application, which is free (for now) in the iTunes App Store, is at its core level a voice recorder. When you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll see a fairly unique feature in the way it records the past. Sorta.

When you fire up Epiphany, it begins recording right away. That’s a similar function to the DVR in my home: While I’m watching the television, the DVR is recording up to an hour of content automatically. This enables the features to “go back in time” by rewinding what was live programming. Epiphany does the same, but for audio.

Read the entire article

New Flickr Desktop Uoloaders

Flickr.com announced new versions of their desktop uploading software for Windows and Mac. I am glad to see this, as the current versions were a bit flaky under Mac OS X 10.5. I have just installed and am testing them out now on both my Vista laptop and Intel-based Mac Mini.

Upload from your desktop — more better!

from FlickrBlog by Josh Nguyen

Since our last main release, we wanted to provide a better uploading experience — more stable, more accepting of different file formats and more capable to handle heftier uploading needs. We’ve worked hard on the new Uploadr version 3.1.3 to process batch uploads and different types of files, including video, better. As always, you can use the Uploadr to sort, edit and organize your images before presenting them on Flickr.

We’ll continue to improve on the Uploadr experience. For now, we hope that Uploadr 3.1.3 will help get your images on to Flickr faster and easier. As always, please feel free to share any issues in this Help Forum topic. Tally-ho.

Recently from Friends in Tech: An Interview with Robert Scoble

Image via CrunchBaseChuck and Kreg from Technorama (a fellow Friends in Tech Member) scored an interview with prominent tech blogger, Robert Scoble.

Interview: Robert Scoble

from Technorama by Kreg

Chuck and I had the honor of Interviewing the seemingly Omnipresent Robert Scoble.

Robert Scoble is a blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He currently works for Fast Company as a video blogger. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel.

In this interview we talk about his background, Social Networking, the challenges of being open and accessible, and where it all leads.

Listen

Software: Ad-Aware Updated

I found this noticed in my RSS feed reading for today. I often use Ad-Aware to clean up spyware infections on Windows computers and highly recommend the free version.

Ad-Aware Updates, Boasts 10 Years of Malware Protection

By Adam Pash, 9:15 AM on Wed Jan 21 2009, 9,936 views

Popular malware-detection app Ad-Aware is celebrating its 10th year of computer crimefighting by releasing a new and improved Anniversary Edition. Here's what you can expect from the new release.

Read the entire article

Tech Question of the Day: Computer image doesn't fit the screen

I got this great question as an anonymous comment on an older post on the My Word blog. Since this problem can still effect people still using older CRT monitors, I wanted to include my answer here.

Question:

The screen position on my monitor is not in the center. I've connected different monitors and the image is still off. I've checked the drivers and i've updated them, but there's no improvement

My Ansswer:

It sounds like you have an older CRT monitor, as the the newer LCD monitors do not exhibit this problem. The fact is, it probably has nothing to do with your PC settings, but rather with the settings in the monitor itself.

Each monitor has a built-in settings area, usually accessed using one of the front panel button on the monitor that allow you change a variety of settings. These settings include adjusting the position and size of the image. Older monitors can react badly to different resolution settings on the computer itself and you use these settings to move the image back into the center of the screen and make it fill the entire screen.

Look for a button on the front of your monitor labeled Menu or Setting to get into these options and then select the appropriate options to re-position your image.

I hope this helps!

Douglas

Computer Equipment Failure

Heat sink detached
Originally uploaded by dewelch

I was called out today to check out a system for a client only to find that the system was really sensitive to movement and was shutting down after only a few minutes of operation. Opening the unit I quickly discovered why. The heat sink that keep the main processor from melting down had broken its attachment and was sitting, ineffectually off to the side. No wonder the system didn't work.

The client is off buying a new computer now as this unit was about 5 years old. I am unsure how anyone would heave repaired it though, as the attachment where the springs loops connect to the motherboard had failed completely.

A couple of more photos are available on my Flickr photostream. Click the photo for more.

Recently from Friends in Tech: Livescribe Pulse Smart Pen Demo at Macworld 2009

This is a recent post from Friends in Tech member, The Typical Mac User podcast.

Livescribe Pulse Smart Pen Demo at Macworld 2009

from Typical Mac User Podcast by typicalmacuser@gmail.com (Victor Cajiao)

The Livescribe Pulse Smart Pen won a best of show award from me. Here is why.

www.livescribe.com

Time Warner Cable Support Fail

I have been having some issues with my cable system over the last several weeks and last night I finally decided to request some assistance via the Time Warner Web Site. This is what ensued.

DEW: For the last several weeks we have be seeing KCET with a reduced picture size, bascially a small box in the middle on the larger black screen. We are using a standard def television on analog cable so this isn't an issue with HDTV zoom or any of the typical issues I see with those sets.

Additionally, we have been experiencing issues with bad ghosting, and signal cut outs regularly on a wide variety of channels on both sets in the home.

Douglas

Time Warne Replied...

Thank you for your email. I am sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your cable service.

I checked and did not find an outage in your area. Since there is not any equipment with which I could troubleshoot, I will have to schedule a service call.

Your appointment has been booked for January 1 between 8- 11 AM. The technician will be calling ahead of arrival to the phone number XXX-XXX-XXXX.

[Boilerplate Omitted]

Regards, Uma C.
Time Warner Cable
(888)TW-CABLE
(888)892-2253

DEW: Can you please re-confirm the date of this appointment as January 1st has already passed?

Thank you for your inquiry. I would be happy to be of service.

Our records indicate that this issue has been addressed prior to receiving your email. If you need any further assistance, please call our 24/7 Customer Service department at 1-888-892-2253.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to email us back or contact us at the number listed below. Our telephone representatives are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Have a nice day!

Regards, Philip S.
Time Warner Cable
(888)TW-CABLE
(888)892-2253

Uh, hmmm, well, I guess that solves that problem then.

Sometimes I think that these online support sites are simply badly written AI (artificial intelligence) bots that are just designed to frustrate us until we give up. (Sigh)

Tech Question of the Day - Canceling Apple MobileMe account

I just had an email from a client and though the information might be useful you, too.

Question: How do I cancel a MobileMe (formerly .Mac) account so it does not auto-renew?

Answer: I found this document on Apple's site explaining the online process.

Canceling your MobileMe account

Since this is a sales-related issue, you might be able to call the Apple Store at 1-800-MY-APPLE, but I am not sure.

Noted - Clickfree Transformer Cable gives any USB hard drive auto backup functionality

Clickfree Transformer Cable gives any USB hard drive auto backup functionality from engadget.com by Darren Murph

Technology Information you should have in the New Year

If you want to make your computing life a little easier in 2009, there are several pieces of information that you should have at hand. Start the New Year right and collect this information before you need it.

The least you should know:

• Name of Internet Service Provider
  
  • Here in Los Angeles this might be Time-Warner Cable AT&T, Verizon, Earthlink or a few others
  
  
• ISP Telephone Support Number
  
• Router information
  
  • Router Address
    
    • Typically this is 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.x
    
    
  • Router User ID
    
    • This is often a default name which is the same for each manufacturers equipment i.e Linksys, Netgear. etc and is often printed on the router
    
    
  • Router Password
    
    • This is often a default password. This should be changed when the router is installed to protect yourself against certain attacks that try to use the default password to break into the router.
  
  
• Wireless Network Password
  
  • You should be using WPA Security on your wireless router, if available. If your wireless network password is something like 0AD1665211, then your router is using the older WEP security which is easily broken by a variety of hacking tools.
  
  
• Computer Information
  
  • Computer Username
    
    • Both Windows and Macintosh computers have computer passwords which are required to login or install software. Losing these passwords can mean a large hassle, so note them in a secure place somewhere
    
    
  • Computer Password
  
  
• Email Information
  
  • Email Address
    
  • Email Password
    
    • Since email passwords are usually stored on your computer we can easily forget them. Of course, if something happens to our computer, or we get a new one, it can really cause problems if you don't have them noted somewhere.
      

So, how do you store this information securely, while still being able to easily access it. Rather than right it down on sticky notes or scraps of paper I use a password protected MS Word or MS Excel file and choose a fairly secure, but easily remembered password for that file.

You can also use a program like 1Password which acts a a Password "vault".

Do you have questions about this information and how to find it? Leave a comment using the comment link below and I will be happy to answer them.

Auditorium - A Musical Game

Bounce the light beams through gravity circles to strike the chimes and make beautiful music while solving each level.

Addictive!

Discovered via Twitter

Play Auditorium

Most popular TechnologyIQ posts for 2008

Norton Internet Security Problems

How-To; LAN Server Rooms

A rare warning - Avoid 1and1.com web hosting

An issue with GoDaddy Email Support

Computer Tip: Don’t lose your CDs

Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin

Online Collaborative Whiteboard - Skrbl.com

WGA Member? Here’s a New Media Workshop for You!

Web: Free Paper Organizer Templates

Elsewhere Online: Google Earth Integrates Street View

This is not the time to call tech support...

Noted: Softbank's Speeek iPhone App Translates Spoken Japanese to English On the Fly

"Noted" items are interesting items that come from my daily RSS feed reading and added to my Google Reader Shared Items. You can also receive these Noted items by following me on Twitter.

Softbank's Speeek iPhone App Translates Spoken Japanese to English On the Fly [IPhone Apps]

from Gizmodo by John Mahoney

Speeek is an app that can recognize up to 1,500 spoken Japanese phrases and translate them into either English or Chinese. Pocket Babel Fish? Yes please.

This is, of course, only for Japanese speakers, and it only covers basic hello/goodbye/where is the bathroom type phrases, but this doesn't seem like too far of a leap for Google's voice search app, which would be pretty exciting. Even if it didn't read the words back to you—seeing your jibber jabber translated in close to real time into any one of Google Translate's 34 languages, well, sign me up. The app costs around $20 in Japan, and the English and Chinese versions are separate. [BBSS (translated) via DVICE]

In association with Amazon.com

New Wells Fargo Envelope-Free ATMs confuse users

Wells Fargo ATMs now take a stack of checks at one time, but confuse many users

For the record, I think the new Wells Fargo Envelope-Less ATMs recently installed in our California branches are pretty neat. First it saves the need for an envelope (and I am sure it makes it easier for bankers to not have to open all those envelopes). Next, you can get a receipt that lists not only each check and its amount, but it will even print out an image of the check on the receipt itself. Pretty cool!

Of course, as with any new technology, there seems to be a bit of confusion when using these new ATMs. I first noticed this when my wife complained about having to hit so many buttons to deposit several checks. Now, I had been to the new ATM and even as a tech geek I had to read the directions carefully, but in the instructions it says to insert all your checks or cash at one time, in a stack with the account numbers arranged along the right hand edge.

I think the confusion arises as we are not used to inserting a number of items sans envelope. It just seems weird to us and I still am getting used to the new system.

When I saw another complaint about the ATMs on Twitter a few days ago, I thought perhaps they were having the same problem as my wife. Sure enough, the customer was inserting one check at a time and annoyed that it made her do each deposit transaction separately. In fact, that message is what caused me to write this post, as it clearly falls under the 'Control your technology. Don't let it control you!" motto of TechnologyIQ.

Here is a PDF Brochure from Wells Fargo explaining the new Envelope-Free ATMs

Link: Wells Fargo Envelope-Free ATM

I hope this helps those of you who have been having trouble with these new ATMs. Furthermore, it shows yet another reason why companies like Wells Fargo should be monitoring Twitter and other social network sites for customers who are having trouble with their banking systems.

Lego Mindstorms NXT - A Great Gift!

Listen to Lego Mindstorms NXT - A Great Gift!

My wife and I think we did the coolest thing for Christmas this year...and we think our son agrees. In lieu of the Nintendo Wii hs "really, really, really, really, really wants", we gave my son Lego Mindstorms NXT for Christmas. This is a starter kit which contains tons of special Lego parts and, most importantly a computer "brick" and a variety of sensors (light/color, ultrasonic, touch, sound) which can be used to build programmable robots of all shapes and sizes. My son had attended the short Legoland course on Mindstorm and also did a week-long Summer Camp where he got to design his own fighting robot, so the minute he opened the box Christmas morning he was off and running.

On Christmas Day he built the first of 3 included robot plans and we quickly had them doing all sorts of things, You first assemble a basic robot and then run it through a series of demos to learn how all the sensors work. Then you build a more complicated robot, complete with grabber arm that can do a variety of tasks. We programmed it to sense when a ball was placed in front it it, advance to the ball, pick it up, turn around, return to its start location and release the ball on sound command. We were also able to program this same robot as a "line follower" (a common robot competition task where the bot follows an unbroken black line as fast as possible.) Finally, I was able to program it to the one thing I really wanted to try...robot that would wander around the room, sense when it got too close to something, back up and turn away from the obstacle and continue on its way. Using the included software and the the things we learned from building and programming the demo robots made this an easy task.

The last several days have been spent adding new features, testing them out and my son even dismantled the original robot and retrofit an existing (and much cooler looking) Lego model with all the robot parts.

I think the NXT is going to used a lot more than the Wii and I also think it provides much more fertile ground for imagination and learning. My son has been so engaged and so thoughtful for the last several days that I am sure we made the right choice.

If you have an avid Lego builder in your family around the age of 10 or above, I think Lego Mindstorms NXT would be a great gift. If they really like it, they can even join Lego robot competitions as part of the First Lego League.

Lego Mindstorms NXT at Amazon.com

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Elsewhere Online: Boost your PowerPoint Skills

This is an interesting post from Lifehacker that seeks to improve those all-important Powerpoint skills. It seems that everyone needs to use Powerpoint these days, so why not make your presentations the best that they can be. I'll be working through this blog post myself once I get a few free minutes.

Boost Your PowerPoint Skills Inside PowerPoint 2007 [Powerpoint]

from Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy

Are you decent with a bulleted list in PowerPoint 2007, but need to get a bit more creative? You can learn how to pull off a few useful effects right inside the program.

Microsoft's Office Online team provides eight instructional PowerPoint templates that teach you how to pull off the effects demonstrated inside them. They'll show you where to click, what to enter, and you don't have to switch between instructional videos or text and your app. 3D shapes and graphs, backgrounds, process graphics, and more are free for the download.

Example slide effects with instructions [Microsoft Office Online via Lifehacker AU]

Cool: Laser Cut Gingerbread Bridge from Instructables.com

Another cool project from Instructables.com. Food and tech merge!

[slideshow] Laser Cut Gingerbread Bridge

from explore by rstraugh

This year for Christmas I decided to build something out of gingerbread. I didn't want to build the typical gingerbread house so I decided to do a bridge of some sort. I saw the Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin when we were there in May and thought it would look great built out of gingerbread. I recentl...

By: rstraugh

Merry Christmas from WelchWrite.com

We present our 3rd Annual LIVE Reading of Dicken's A Christmas Carol from Sunday, December 21, 2008 as our holiday present to you.

You can listen to the audio or watch the video from uStream.tv.

Presented by WelchWrite.com

Music courtesy of Incompetech.com

Listen: A Live Reading of Charle's Dickens A Christmas Carol

Click Here to Watch and Listen