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Steve Bass's Weekly Newsletter
TechBite's columnist Steve Bass writes weekly commentary on the technology products he loves, the strategies for getting the most out of them, and the gotchas that can cause computing misery.
Posterous: a Cool Web Repository
In This Issue
[Click a link to jump to the topic]
Post Almost Anything on Posterous
Tool of the Week: CraigsList Reader
Tech Tip of the Week: Disable Windows' "Reboot Now"
In the Spotlight: Brother Inkjet Printers
Holy Mackerel: EBay Sells Skype
Time Wasters
Read This on Craigslist
Post Almost Anything on Posterous
I get e-mails with PowerPoint and other types of files attached. Some are entertaining, but it takes more skill than I have to embed them in the newsletter in such a way that everyone can see them. (Scores of you wrote and said that you couldn't play the YouTube videos I tried embedding months ago.)
But I've just discovered Posterous, a handy site for displaying practically any type of file: PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, Flash games, images, MP3s, documents, and videos in a variety of formats. The beauty of Posterous is that PowerPoint files display as they would if you had a PowerPoint viewer and image collections are automatically available as slide shows.
So far, here's what I've posted to Posterous:
Two PowerPoint presentations, one with images of unusual aircraft and the other showing a trip on Bolivia's "Road of Death."
Two videos -- Darwin Awards Reject numbers one and two.
A PDF of the Monthly Computer Chronicle newsletter.
A stack of images that show why our car insurance rates are so high.
I really like Posterous because it's a free service with no signup to worry about. And there's no muss or fuss: I just send them an e-mail and attach the file I want you to view. There are other features, such as making a blog private and password protecting it. Read the FAQ for more info.
Tool of the Week: CraigsList Reader
I'm looking for a pickup truck under $1,000, so I do a scan of Craigslist's listings every day. It's a PITA doing it manually, so that's why I'm tickled with the CraigsList Reader. All I do is select the geographical location I want to search in, choose "Autos & Trucks," and stick $1,000 in the "maximum" field for price. In a flash, I see the listings that fit my parameters as well as the ads themselves. I can sort on any of the fields, including price, location, and title, add items to favorites, and view any ad in my browser. It's free and very handy.
In a flash, CraigsList Reader pulls just the ads you want to see.
On the other hand, I found a tool I'm not recommending. The $30 Web Forum Reader, while a handy tool for off-line browsing, reading, and replying to messages in the multitude of forums you might check daily, is too expensive for my taste.
Tech Tip of the Week: Disable Windows "Reboot Now"
You probably have Automatic Updates set up in Windows. When the update's finished installing, it keeps smacking a message in the middle of your screen asking if you want to reboot now or, more obviously, wait until later. (Yes, please, later.) But no matter what you do, XP nags you to reboot every 10 minutes. (Vista gives you a four -hour delay.) It's driving you nuts, isn't it?
Unpleasant as it is, when Microsoft has an update it considers critical for you to install, Automatic Updates slams an icon in your system tray. That's its not-so-subtle way of informing you that upgrades are available to download and install. And like a pouty 3-year-old, it doesn't care what you're in the middle of doing.
When you click on the icon in the system tray and choose either Express Install or Custom Install in the dialog that appears, you're stuck. Windows will keep reminding you to reboot until you're so aggravated that you throw in the towel, close all your open apps, and reboot.
I have three solutions: The simple one is waiting until the end of the day before clicking on the icon and agreeing to take the update.
The second option is to open a Command window (in XP choose Start, Run, and type cmd; in Vista, type cmd into the Start menu search box and use Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open the Command window in Administrative mode). Then type net stop "windows update" (including the quotes). The next time you boot, the update service will start working again.
The slickest way will take you a few minutes of fiddling with the Group Policy setting for Windows Updates. Jeff Atwood's Code Horror page has lots of screen shots and walks you through the steps. [Thanks, Carey.]
BTW, you might have heard about the Auto Reboot Remover Utility, a nifty freebie from IntelliAdmin that would have done the job. Unfortunately, the author pulled it off his site and it's no longer available.
In the Spotlight : Brother Inkjet Printers [go to top]
I've got a tip: Don't bother with Brother inkjet or multi function printers. About three years ago I bought a 640c, a scanner-fax-copier-printer machine. I've spent endless dollars on third-party cartridges. The other day the printer stopped working, with an error message tech support said was a mechanical malfunction. It was out of warranty, of course, so it's now awaiting recycling.
Maybe I'm a curmudgeon (or maybe it's the economy), but I can't stand the thought of a three -year life expectancy for a printer. OTOH I've had a Brother HL-1450 laser printer almost five years, without a lick of trouble. It was cheap, and printing at a low 300 dpi keeps my toner use to a minimum.
Holy Mackerel
You remember when eBay bought Skype? They shelled out 3 billion in 2005, and no one could figure out why eBay wanted it. Now eBay's thinking the same thing -- they're selling Skype back to the Scandinavian developers for the low low price of 2 billion. It makes eBay's 75 million purchase of StumbleUpon an outright bargain. And if they ask nicely, a cool million will get them TechBite.
Time Wasters [go to top]
A really awesome bunch of young women; a floating, moving puzzle; a very embarrassed weatherman, and other ways to waste your time.
Get a load of this eight-minute video of the US Naval Academy Performance of the King's Firecrackers. It's a pretty neat routine (and oh, to be young again...). These kids aren't even breathing hard. Me? I had to take a short nap after watching it.
Remember that "plan ahead" sign? This TV weatherman didn't read it.
Here's a floating, moving puzzle that should take you all of five minutes to do.
This guy is a terrifically talented Flash developer and his site is an amazing time killer, full of musical and visual experiments.
Have a friend who incessantly uses a cell phone? Give them Cellular Etiquette for Dummies. [Thanks to John Bishop who created this in OpenOffice Draw.]
Get this book for your friends.
(View it full screen here.)
Technology is catching up with criminals. Here's how Canadian police look for stolen vehicles -- with cars specially rigged to scan license plates. And yes, the guy driving the car definitely looks like a potential criminal.
The Pig and the Wolf is a creative, stop-action film -- and great fun to watch (if just a tad too long). And itproves that the wolddefinitely doesn't keep kosher.[Thanks, Carl.]
Read This on Craigslist [go to top]
Don't count on it, though you might see my non-functioning Brother multi-function printer in the "free" listings. But no matter, we have another task at hand: your weekly obligation to forward this newsletter to your gardener, the woman who walks your dogs, and anyone else who doesn't know that avoiding Brother inkjet printers is a good thing. BTW, the newsletter's link is here:http://www.techbite.com
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Steve Bass is the publisher and self-appointed Chief Content Officer at TechBite; he continues to experience the cool feeling having of his own newsletter. Send him your feedback at TechBite. To sign up for TechBite's free Steve Bass Technology newsletter, head for our signup page.
Steve's also the author of "PC Annoyances, 2nd Edition: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things About Your Personal Computer," available on Amazon. You haven't purchased your copy today yet, have you? Don't wait, supplies are limited...
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