WWW – Wood Wide Web!

Yes, Wood! This play on words for the Fungal Network that lives and thrives in a forest floor that performs quite similarly to what we perceive of the human World Wide Web by sharing resources between the root systems of the trees in the forest. The fungal forest provides an integral part of the thriving environment of trees and provides a much needed symbiosis between all the organisms living in the forest. A healthy forests starts beneath our feet, beyond our visual world where we can see and learn from this marvel.

To learn more, Google Wood Wide Web or look up the Wikipedia article.

Thinking about creating a Media Server in your Home?

It is great to have all the information and entertainment that you want right at your fingertips on any device that you pick up and at the location that you currently are at. Is this plausible? Of course it is!

Gizmodo put together an interesting article on “How to Build an Ultimate Movie and Music Server” that provides the basic components that you need to consider in creating your own home system. Most of the people in our office have put together some kind of NAS (network attached storage) box that creates a a storage area for all your videos, photos and music. Most of us are also using a server application called plaques which has android Apple and many other clients that can be called upon to connect to your media storage server.

When putting together your NAS device make sure you take in consideration the amount of media that you are putting in the box. To be surprised how fast you can fill it up. There are some great suggestions in the article for the base components and some suggestions on what types of drives that you should use.

There are lots of ways to collect your media that always consider adhering to your local  copyright laws.

Other How To Articles:

• Put together a home media server - This Old Nerd
• Starting a Plex Media Server - Everything you need to know
• Mastering Your Plex Media Server
• YouTube search for other Plex Support

Educational: Evernote Peek adds Virtual Smart Cover

I keep wanting to get Evernote Peek for training purposes but it doesn’t quite fit MY needs but boy, if I had kids or if I was still in school I would have this in a heartbeat! Evernote has release an update to its Evernote Peek learning application for the iPad by adding a Virtual Cover feature that allows the application to be used without a Smart Cover.

Evernote Peek is an application designed to help iPad users study material stored in Evernote notebooks and was originally designed to work with the iPad 2 Smart Cover technology, allowing users to lift the cover edge to view a question or clue and then lift it further to view the answer. Evernote Peek 2.1 now adds a Virtual Cover mode that allows the application to be used without a Smart Cover, thereby also adding compatibility with the original iPad; users can now swipe the virtual cover open and closed to get the same effect provided by the Smart Cover integration. The new version provides 10 different colour choices for the virtual cover and also adds five new study notebooks of European trivia provided by VisitEurope.com. Evernote Peek is available from the App Store as a free download.

YouTube Video Demo of Evernote Peek

Apple's subscription plan: Time for an app work stoppage | ZDNet

Thought that this was an interesting article about how Apple’s “greed” may get in the way of their keeping their current high market position in the smartphone/tablet world. If they have companies like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu pull their apps from iTunes then they will begin to miss a large part of the entertainment market when it comes to streaming media. This might not be as big a problem for the iPhone but the iPad may see some serious fallout to the android tablets that will soon be plentiful. The sooner that these new tablets are out and provide and alternative the the Apple monopoly the sooner they may see this happen. I would hate for my sake, since I own an iPad to lose these streaming services because I do use them on my tablet but it isn’t my only use of it. If I have to go back to my PC or grab a new device I will probably do it.

Apple's subscription plan: Time for an app work stoppage | ZDNet

Art Project, powered by Google

I saw this information from several different sources today and decided to take a quick gander at the Google Art Project site. Currently Google has 17 museums from around the world available to view using the same basic techniques used in Google’s Street View. You can use the controls to walk around the Museum of your choice to give you a feel of how things are laid out, and where the various pieces of art are located in the Museum. You can then look at individual paintings in high resolution and a lot of detailed history about the painting or the artist. You can easily jump from museum to museum easily or from room to room within any one museum. You can even create your own personalized list of pieces that you are interested in.

Here is the Visitor Guide on how to use the site:

Art Project–Visitor Guide

I have had a great deal of fun looking over this site but I am sorry to say that it requires a flash player to work properly and will not work on your IOS devices. Darn Apple! But it works well on my desktop and that is at least something.

Art Project, powered by Google

Hulu Plus is now out of preview with new $7.99 subscription cost!

I am an active user of the free Hulu product on my computer at home, but I really wanted the offer of anytime/anywhere access that Hulu Plus promised on my iPhone and iPad devices. Have I been using this service? Yes, but I am not as happy with the selection as compared with what is available on my computer.You would think that with word PLUS in its name, there would be more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The list seems to be getting better but not fast enough to suit me. Is it something that will cause me leave the service? Not yet. But it is nice that the price has dropped to $7.99 and that we should be seeing some credits back for us earlier adopters.

Here is a quick breakdown from Hulu that shows the differences between the two services:

Whether the $2 per month savings will be enough to spark a new wave of subscribers is hard to say—the service is still pricey for a somewhat limited selection of popular shows. Then again, Hulu Plus does offer complete seasons for current shows (something free users won't get), but unless you're the type to blow through whole seasons of recent shows, it may be a better use of your money to subscribe to Netflix instead.

How do you keep up with it all?

This is a constant question that I get asked by people that I work with and at times I ask myself as well. There is so much that goes on in our industry that it is a constant battle of how to spend my waking minutes on which project that I want to focus on. It is none stop so one of the things that I am constantly looking for are the tools that I can use to help make me more efficient in the use of my time. My wife asks me why I can’t just sit there and enjoy not doing anything but it makes me nervous to not do anything. I need to be doing something even if it is just watching a football game or playing Madden 11 on my iPad, or both!

So along with working through different RSS Readers until I find one that suits my style (actually I have found two that I flip back and forth on depending on whether I am on Wi-Fi or 3G), I have also started using a program called Calibre that allows me to aggregate news feeds into a eMagazine style that I can sync onto both my iPad and my Kindle so I can read these articles whether I am inside or in a shaded area or outside in the direct sunlight with my feet up at the pool. Now I have extended my reach to more places and times than I had before and can continue enjoying the things around me as well as keeping up with my daily reading.

I had mentioned Calibre a week or so ago as a great product to convert different eText to different formats to work on the many types of devices that we all use. So this is just another reason to get this great product and make it a tool that you can keep in your productivity war chest.

Is ePub Format the Default Standard now for eBooks?

With the new update for the Pages App that now allows you to save your documents in ePub format which Apple uses for iBooks. It is also the native format for Stanza (which is the Open eBook standard from the International Digital Publishing Forum http://www.idpf.org). ePub is supported in Stanza Desktop, iPhone, iPod Touch, Adobe Digital Editions and some Sony Readers.

Click to read more ...

Netflix in the News Again

Be sure to update your iPhone so you can now watch your Netflix on your phone as well. For around $9/month you have the ability to stream content from Netflix to not only your computers but also to your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. When you think about the size of our phone it having the ability to stream beautifully formatted movies and TV shows to you phone and other media devices. The Application is simple and easy to use and renders well to the screen size that it is played on. Access to mobile media is expanding for sure. Enjoy your movies while you are on the go!

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Enjoying the beginning of Football Season

Opinion: Last year I had a little extra wiring done around the house which included some extra power and cabling, both networking and simple cable for TV. I know this is just a little indulgent but I do love my technology and how easy it is to make it work for you!

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How To Build an Awesome $500 Windows Home Server - Tested

It was a little convoluted path on how I got to this great technology website that has a wealth of information on it about, well, Technology. They have great How-To Videos and blog posts describing how to make technology items to add to your life, software that makes your products work better or smarter and general information about which is the best products to buy to meet the price/performance ratio best choice.

Click to read more ...

Reasons why the Apple iPad may not be a could fit for you

All I can think of many reasons why I want the Apple iPad including a sleek profile, the beautiful large screen display, but many applications that are just waiting to be installed on your unit and the list goes on and on.  But, the list is just as long that steers me into wanting one of the new slick devices that were presented at CES.  Now for someone that uses their technology for everything that it can possibly do for them the thought of having something that provides more than just a static entertainment device is very appealing.  So when you see a product like Lenovo's U1 hybrid notebook, it makes me more willing to spend the extra money for product that has much more function than what the iPad brings to the table.  So, while I'd like the look of the Apple iPad, Mrs. One product that I would hope would wait four the second or third generation to come out when all the masses have made their voices heard and Apple bends to market pressure to provide a truly remarkable system with greater functionality.

Wish list:

• At least one USB Port to access flash media
• SD card slot
• Support for flash to give you the rest of the Internet experience
• A webcam-will turn this into a great communications device as well
• Larger storage would be nice as well but having either a USB Port or an SD slot would help to alleviate that issue

These simple additions to the product would give the Apple iPad that extra something to make it a truly "must have" device. Adding these things should not cost more than $100 which most of us would gladly pay I'm sure.

Apple iPad Excitement

The first hurdle that we have to consider is whether or not we can justify spending this much money on the solely entertainment device.  I know I would desperately and like to try it out before purchasing but I don't believe that is an option.  I love the way of the e-mail and calendar apps are setup, with that much screen real estate they are really making good use of it.  The fact that it has access to all of your bike touch and I phoned applications and will run them, and if you'd like will run them at a larger size. What I am really waiting to see is what apps developers will do with the extra screen size, and Processing Power that is in this unit.

 Another drawback that I see is that what still don't have flash support in the browser.  With so much of the web content now being served up using Adobe's flash drivers, we are still going to miss the correct experience of many web sites.  Since Apple is promoting this as a system that provides the best web experience that you have ever seen, not having this as part of the basic functions of the unit is a large shortcoming.  But all in all, this new device by Apple has grabbed my eye and is definitely on my gadget wish list.  So, luckily its not available today which prevents me from making an impulse buy and will let me watch how this product evolves over the next six months.  Hopefully, we'll see it come down in price because I'd really like to buy in at the 64 GB and the 3G data plan. If you're going to get that device you want to be able to work with it in as many places as possible.

Clicker gets a whole lot of press this week

  et’s see why…

The website Clicker aggregates streaming television from all over the internet into a mega database that allows you to search on a multitude of data variables. Promoted as the new TV Guide, this site allows you to find information on the shows that you are searching for that are available to watch from the internet services. These are legal transmissions so you don’t have to worry about breaking the law and helps you to find where these programs are playing.

Clicker claims just under half a million shows being categorized from over 6,000 shows, 1200 networks, tens of thousands of movies, and over 50,000 music videos from over 20,000 artists. Sounds interesting if you are interested in using this kind of technology for your entertainment. Take a look at: Clicker.