Tamer’s Tech Blog

I was just checking my Gmail account this AM and I saw the famous Gmail beta logo. I feel like Google is the only company that gets away with having an enormously long beta cycles. For example Gmail launched on April 1 2004, that’s over 3 and half years ago. Come on!!!! How long will Google wait before it take the wraps off the beta. Other examples are Google calendar, Google docs, Google Toolbar, and Google Desktop.

In doing some more research it seems Google has a different definition that the rest of the world on beta. The dictionary definition for “beta” is: “a version of an application that is made available prior to the official release for the purposes of testing.” Google used the term with a more general meaning: an application that it’s almost complete, that may still have bugs, that’s not fully supported and that may be dropped if users don’t like it. Google has a principle: launch early, and “beta” was a term to illustrate that.

Thus the label “labs” comes into play. Google replaced beta with “labs” to show experimental products. I hope this demystifies some of the mysteries of Google.

I often get asked this question on job interviews; (not that I am going on that many of them, however this question somehow always pops) “What are your favorite’s website to visit?”

Well my favorite websites are:

• Betanews.com: Because it always fresh with beta software reviews and sign-up links. That where I go to find out about what companies are working on.
• Webware.com: I used to think this website is dedicated to FaceBook, because of the many posts the writers have on FaceBook. However lately I have given it a second chance and I really like all the articles that have on web applications and website reviews.
• DownloadSquad.com: I really like all the freeware software they find. You can practically find all the software you need for your PC that is free there.
• Crackberry.com: I LOVE this website. I am a BIG time Blackberry user and I love all the info this website gives on upcoming blackberry products and current blackberry app and product reviews.
• Engadget.com: I love gadgets. So any website that can tell me about current gadgets and upcoming ones is OK by me.

I have a few more that I like as well. However the ones above are the ones I always check daily.

So my brother just bought a new MacBook laptop. I was impressed with the sleek looking laptop. So he asked me to install Windows Vista on his MacBook. My experience can be described as”EASY”. The folks over at apple really made it easy to install a windows OS on the Intel based apple machines.

• I loaded Boot Camp in Leopard
• I partitioned the hard drive
• I rebooted the laptop
• Windows vista started
• Formatted the partition for NTFS
• Installed Vista

Overall the installation was pain less.

Here are the few hick up and issues that I ran into post installation.

• Keyboard: the MacBook, does not have a full keyboard, so the layout of the keyboard was slightly different, however there are no “insert, backspace, right click” keys to name a few. I had to go and look for a keyboard remapping software to remap some of the keys. that turned out to be a difficult task; since there a few easy to use programs. I used Sharp Keys software. it is free and pretty easy to use.
• The f1 to F12 keys are hardware keys, for example when you press F5 you are increasing the volume. SO I had to go and change that

On the pro side, Vista was flying and working very well on the instal-based mac hardware.

Overall if you are looking to pay for a laptop, then get the Macbook, as it gives you both apple and Microsoft windows OS.

I read this morning that FaceBook released a new update for its BB app. http://www.berryreview.com/2008/02/18/facebook-application-gets-upgraded-to-10022/

SO I decided to install the update. What happened really got to me. The FaceBook icon disappeared on my blackberry. Where did it go?

I searched the web, and found no solution. I posted on some forums and all the solutions I got where no good. I decided that maybe this was related to the BB theme I had installed. I know what you are thinking; I had the FB app working fine on the same theme, so why would I have a problem that I upgraded? Well I do not know the answer; however it is related to the theme somehow. I did not have the default theme active on my BB.

So here is the solution:

1. delete the FaceBook app from your blackberry
2. reboot your blackberry
3. one rebooted, change the theme to the default theme
4. Download and install the FaceBook app again.
5. change your theme to whatever you want

I hope this helps.

Enjoy!

A friend of mine referred me to indeed.com to check it out. I browsed the site and snooped around. I found the site to be interesting. Here is why:

• It was so easy to sign up for the site. unlike other sites it didn’t take me forever to sign up with forms and questions.
• It search all other job sites like monster, dice, and yahoo hot jobs
• IT showed me the avg salary for the job title I was looking for based on a location (see below)
• you can view your search results on a map
• you can view trend on the job title. Thus you can tell if companies are searching for lets say “product managers” or not.

Here is a sample of the salary graph:

View Larger Salary Graph

SO I have recently been searching for an online backup service that suits my needs.

Here is the criteria I have been looking for:

• scheduled backup (most of the online backup services have that)
• incremental backup (again most of the online backup services have that)
• backup open files ( most online service do not offer that)
• Ability to map your online backup as a Network Drive to your computer ( most online service do not offer that)
• Allows sharing of files/folders for collaborative access ( most online service do not offer that)
• backup multiple PC’s / mac’s to one account. (this I have not yet found)
• GREAT price point for unlimited data storage

SO I have like 3 PC’s, and 2 MAC’s. I would like to backup all the data on all these computers to one account and not pay and arm and a leg for it. till today, I have yet to find that solutions. Most of the criteria above is available on most of the online backup services, however it is not all. I am for the holy grail of online services.

Anyways, for those of you looking for a few good online backup’s check out these:

• http://mozy.com/ (I think this is one of the best ones out there, I will probably try this one soon and provide a review on the service.
• http://www.ibackup.com/
• http://www.xdrive.com
• http://www.backuphelp.com
• http://www.sosonlinebackup.com
• http://www.idrive.com/

Would love to hear from you if you have used any of the above services.

SO I read this awesome blackberry tip. the tip is about how to dial a text phone number. here is how:

How To Dial Phone Numbers That Contain Text:

• Open the Phone Application
• Dial Your Numbers per Normal (1800)
• When it comes time to Dial a Letter, Hold Down the ALT key and dial the letters (GOT JUNK)
• Once you are looking at what you want to dial (1800GOTJUNK), Call the Number
• Your BlackBerry will Automatically convert the Text into the Appropriate Number (in this case 18004685865)

SO today I read on one of my favorites blogs (download squad) that Opera Mobile 9.5 (another web browser like IE) is coming soon. Now I have used Opera mobile in the past on BB (blackberry) and I found it to be slow at times. I have also used the safari web browser on the iPhone, and I want to tell you it rocks. Safari was fast, allowed me to zoom in and out and I felt like i was using my mac, with just a little real estate screen as opposed to the 15″ screen I am used to. my online gripe about safari is that it does not work on my blackberry.

Now back to Opera Mini, I am excited to see some of the new features such as:

• Zoom in and out on the web page
• view full screen versions of web pages
• tabbed browsing
• fast page rendering
• convenient bookmark, transfer, and history managers.
• include a mobile version of Opera’s widget engine which allows you to access some web content like Flickr images without opening a web browser.
• It also packs Flash Lite 3 integration for accessing Flash-heavy web pages like MySpace or YouTube.

I hope the new version of opera mobile will put up a good fight against safari. Only time will tell.