Category: Ramblings
Bricking a Mars probe – before Curiosity…
Like many of you, I’ve been watching every broadcast, picture, tweet, etc. of the Mars Curiosity mission. It’s one of the most exciting things that NASA has done in years and I’ve loved every second of it. I’ve always been a space program fanatic. When I was a kid, I knew more details about [...]
Understanding Twitter @replies
Today, I did a random poll of a few co-workers and friends about Twitter replies. I asked the following question: “If I send the following tweet, who will see it in their timeline?” @myfriend Hello Almost every friend I asked had the same answer, “All of your followers”. That’s actually incorrect. Only users that follow [...]
Upgrading my MacBook Pro to a SSD (solid state drive)
Solid-state drives (SSDs) have been available for a few years now, but I’ve been reluctant to move to one due to some early problems that friends of mine had. When a SSD fails, there is no warning… no clicking drive sound, and no opportunity to save a few files. When it crashes, it’s instant death. [...]
HTCSense.com severely overloaded – HTC “working hard to improve”
A few days ago, I wrote a review of my new HTC Inspire smartphone. One of the features that I really like about the HTC Inspire (and other HTC phones) is HTCSense.com, a free online service that allows you to locate your phone, force it to ring at full volume, lock it, erase it, forward [...]
The future of tablet computers, an alternative view
During the past few months, I’m seeing tons of tablet computers. I have three myself for demos and such. However, a few days ago, I was in a meeting with some executives at a large company and watched as they pulled out their iPads and start taking notes. A few of them also pulled out [...]
My HTC Inspire Review
I recently upgraded from my Google Nexus One to a HTC Inspire. Below are a few observations that you may find useful if you are considering this phone. My choices for a new phone were restricted to AT&T, so I compared it to the Samsung Captivate and the recently released Motorola Atrix (all of these [...]
How and why I moved my blog to Amazon EC2 from WordPress.com
On October 30th, 2007, I launched my blog, GregsRamblings.com. At the time, I needed something quick and simple so I went with WordPress.com, a very popular WordPress hosting site. You can have a blog up and running in less than five minutes. Although WordPress.com has served me well, I’ve had a few frustrations along the [...]
My dive into the world of Amazon EC2 and the new crazy cheap Micro instance
I heard about Amazon EC2 when it launched in 2006 but had never really checked it out until about four weeks ago when I was looking for at my options for hosting some demos that require more control over the machine than what a typical hosting company provides. One of my fellow evangelists, James Ward, [...]
My pet project – ChessJam – live online chess with a fun attitude
For the past eight months, I’ve been working with two friends, Todd Williams and Sean Carey, on a little side project called ChessJam. This project started in February, 2009 when Sean and I decided to play a game of online chess with each other to finally resolve who was the better player. We explored several [...]
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