Coming Soon. Google Wave Review

I received my long anticipated invite to the Google Wave beta. I'll post some comments on this in a few days.

Fring Brings IM Together on Your Phone

If you're like me you probably keep up with a couple different IM packages and maybe Twitter too. I came across an app named Fring on the Android Market (also available for iPhones). Fring lets you communicate using all your IM accounts via one single app. This is very handy especially on a small smartphone screen.

I installed Fring a couple days ago and I can already see it is much more stable than iSkoot.

Calls to my Studio line AND voice chats via Skype are also supported. Now I never miss a conversation with a friend (IM or voice).

The one weak area I have found so far is that Fring seems to just go offline. A simple stop/restart of the app corrects this but it's not fun when you go offline and you don't even know it.

Its a minor issue that i'm sure will be fixed in later versions.

Check the app out via your smartphone market place or go to www.fring.com for more details.

iSkoot App beats Skype

One of the first apps I installed on my phone was Skype. I'm a big Skype user and I thought it would be cool to have mobile access to all my Skype stuff. Well it turns out the Skype app isn't too good. The app would stop working, I had issues trying to make calls etc.. So after a few months I got tired of it and gave up.
The other day I stumbled onto an app named iSkoot in the Android market( also available at www.iskoot.com for other platforms) iSkoot does what Skype should have done. It works!
Using iSkoot I can make/receive phone calls via Skype now. As I said earlier I'm a big fan of Skype, I use it every day. I have Skype-in/Skype-out which provides a real phone number and except for 911 services could serve as a regular phone. I also have Google Voice which provides a virtual phone number tied to my account. Now I can forward calls and voice chats to my google voice number on my cell phone. This is very cool.
There is one thing the folks at iSkoot need to work on though. The account login process usually fails. I get a message saying that I'm already logged in via another phone. Their fix for this is to wait 30 minutes for the account login to re-sync. This error usually lasts for a few hours, not 30 minutes. If the iSkoot app is to succeed they must address this login issue.

I will tell you, once you do get logged in everything works great. The app continues to work when you minimize it or bounce in between other apps like Twitter etc. (the Skype app would stop working doing that stuff)

if your interested check out www.iskoot.com

Another Weekend Project

So after last weekends Chrome experiment I now have another similar project for this weekend.
I will be installing VMware server on a test pc. After playing with virtualization I want to try building my own virtual appliances.
I will post more on this as things progress.

Chrome Update

Well, I spent most of Friday evening and Saturday morning working on the Chrome OS thingy and after all that work all I can say is DOH!

First off the only code out there isn't bootable at the moment so I had to install a product called SUN VirtualBox to run my instance of Chrome in. Initially nothing worked. So I thought I'd try to run the OS using the free VMWare Player (also a virtual environment). Turns out that VMWare Player will not run .vmdk files only .vmx files.... Frustration level building.

I installed VMWares Workstation product as an evaluation. I was able to run the sample copy of Chrome OS at that point but it didn't work very well. More frustration...

After getting another copy of the Chrome OS .vmdk file from a different source I finally was able to run it in the ourginal SUN VirtualBox I created.

OK, after several hours of work I was ready. I started the instance and it worked!! Now what?
Turns out if you've been running google apps much anyway there wasnt much new from a user standpoint. I'm sure behind the scenes there is a lot of magic there to make it all work but for now I'm done with the testing. As with all beta stuff, Chrome OS is a work in progress and in due time I'm sure the folks at Google will make it better.

Weekend Project - Chrome

Looks like a cool and damp weekend coming up so its a good time to find an indoor project to pass the time.
I found an article on the Tech Crunch site that has step by step instructions for installing the Chrome OS on a virtual machine. The article has links for both the OS and virtual machine software (both free).
I'll give it a look this weekend and post the results on Monday.

Why Twitter?

I've had a Twitter account since the spring but until I loaded a Twitter app on my new phone I just didn't see the point.

Twitter and mobile go hand in hand. It's really a spur of the moment thing to send out a tweet about something totally meaningless to the rest of the world.

While mobile, it is much easier to keep up to date on the stream of useless information Twitter offers. Running a Twitter conversation from a desktop just doesn't generate the same random thoughts that become Twitter worthy in my opinion.

Back to the original question.....why Twitter?
I don't know that answer. Maybe I should throw that question out to my followers. Maybe one of the 300 million people that use Twitter could answer the question.

Christmas Hard Candy Recipe

Here's a quick and simple recipe for some Christmas candy!

(Thanks Nancy!)

Ingredients:
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup

Powder sugar (enough for the last part. can be re-used for multiple batches)

Flavors: (oil based flavors)
1/2 tsp for peppermint or cinnamon
1 tsp for orange, lime or wintergreen
1/8 tsp for anise

Bring water to a boil, remove from heat and add sugar and syrup. Stir to dissolve. Return to heat and bring to a boil and cover for about 3 minutes to let the steam wash the sugar from the sides.

Uncover and cook over high heat. Bring to hard crack (300 degrees) do not stir but watch closely. When it is close to hard crack the mixture will be all bubbly and just start to turn from white to a little yellowish. Do not let it get any more color. Remove from heat and add food color and oil based flavoring ( see below )

Flavors:(generally minty flavors require less, fruit flavors a bit more)
1/2 tsp for peppermint or cinnamon
1 tsp for orange, lime or wintergreen
1/8 tsp for anise

match color to flavor

Quickly stir in color and your choice of flavor. The mix will thicken rapidly as it cools. Poor on to a bed of powdered sugar. use a cookie sheet for this part. when cooled to room temp just break into random sized peices.

This is a tried and true Holiday recipe we've used for years. Well when I say "we" I have always helped out with the eating part of this recipe.

New Twitter Desktop App

Just installed the Seesmic Twitter Desktop app from www.seesmic.com. Its nice. The tweets automatically updat. No more browser refresh for me. The desktop app also has multiple columns. You can see your Home timeline as well as a reply timeline and private message timeline all on the same screen. and they all update. Another great feature (especially for me) is the the spell check. Try it out. www.seesmic.com, the app is at the bottom of the page.

Google Subscribe Button Added

Well due to limitations with my joomla 1.0 platform I couldn't enable RSS subscriptions for my website. I settled for a Google subscribe button that will let visitors add my blog to their Google Reader. Not quite what I started out to do but it works for me.

Add a Google Reader Button

I've already talked about how I like the Google Reader service. It occured to me that I should figure out how to add a Google Reader button to the www.planettexas.net website. I think it would be cool. to have an option that let's folks subscribe.
Hopefully I will have this done and documented in the next day or so.
posted via Pixelpipe ad my smartphone.

Google Reader

Trying to keep up with all my favorite news and blog sites while using my smartphone just got easier. I configured Google Reader. The reader let's me put all the news and blogs on to one single page. Google Reader isn't just for mobile use, its really good via a regular PC web browser too. Its so easy to add feeds to the reader too. Most websites have a link that let's you subscribe and Google is usually one of the options you can select.

Yet another great Google feature.

Full Mobile Blog Integration

I finally have total mobile access to my blog. As I stated in a previous post, I'm using a great prpduct called Pixelpipe to add posts to the blog via my phone. Now I have a rss reader installed so I can easily read the articles.
The rss reader was possible after creating a rss feed for the blog. Setting up the feed was very quick using Googles Feedburner service. The feedburner link is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/planettexas/cxhc

One of these days I need to figure out how many Google apps I'm using and publish an article about it.

App of the week

This week during PT's Really Big Show I will be talking about the app of the week. This week I'm featuring Pixelipe. It's a blogging client that even let's you post from your smart phone. And talk about great service, I had a twitter response in minutes. check them out at. www.pixelpipe.com

Weather Station Package

I thought I would take a moment to describe the weather station hardware/software I am using here at the Planet Texas website.
Having your own personal weather station is easier than you think.
I picked up a wireless Lacrosse weather station from a local electronics store a few years ago for $99.00. The kit came with all the necessary hardware and software to collect weather information and post it to a web page (a option I was looking for). The only extra piece of hardware I needed to acquire was o pole to mount all the hardware to. In my case I already had an old pool brush pole that fit the bill nicely.
After a year or so I opted to upgrade the software used to capture all the output from the weather station. I installed a product called Weather-Display. I liked the additional web integration this package offered.
Now one of the cool things to do with all this data is to upload it to a site called Weather Underground. These folks take all the data and create a dynamic web page for you and the data can be displayed historically. If you have a web cam you can even upload weather images as well.

here are the related links:
www.lacrossetechnology.com
www.wunderground.com
www.weather-display.com
www.planettexas.net

To Upgrade or Not

The Planet Texas website has gone through many changes over the years. With each iteration there's always been new functionality added along with a bit more style. I'm starting to get the itch once again to updated the site. The current format has been serving me well for about 2 years now but it's tempting to do a make-over.

Joomla 1.0 is the current platform funning the website. 1.0 has gone end-of-life in favor of version 1.5 which I'm sure adds some really great stuff. But can 2.0 be too far off? I have also looked into changing over to Drupal.

What I do know for sure, any change will have to be from a clean slate approach and that's where I start to have second thoughts. Over the past 2 years I have added many mod's to the site. Some of these mods are customized and I'm wondering if I can recreate the magic again with the installation of a new platform.

Sometimes change for the sake of change can cause more trouble than it's worth. The current site is a bit old, It's unsupported by the developer now, but it does what I want it to do.

I may just sit back and think about upgrades for a while longer.....

Custom e-mail helps ratings

If you are using Google Apps you know how easy it is to have your own custom e-mail address. One of the strengths in using this platform is the ability to create up to 250 individual mailboxes.

Let's think about this for a moment. If you're trying to promote a special function, like a contest, why not direct people to a custom mailbox named contest@yourdomain.com . It really adds a professional touch to things doesn't it. Imagine having up to 250 unique mailboxes at your fingertips.

If you don't already have Google Apps for your website check it out at www.google.com.
Oh did I mention its all FREE.

Creating custom event driven mailboxes will help build a connection between you and your visitors. Its also a great way to get instant feedback from listeners if you're a broadcaster.

Where's PT - GPS Project

So I've had my T-Mobile MyTouch phone for a while now and I have played with many of the various GPS apps. The main drawback to many of the apps for me was the fact that each of them required folks to register to access some website that basically had a google map.

Why should people have to register to see a google map? I didn't like that. After searching around I found an app that provided some basic PHP code so you could host your own GPS map.

The app is called Big Brother GPS and I think it is an Andriod only app.

I added customized code to my website and after some false starts (poor documentation) I have the code running now. You can check it out by going to www.planettexas.net and clicking on the "Where's PT" menu button.

Very geeky I know but I think its cool.

Weather Station Update

Had some bad data from the Lacrosse weather station today. At this point I'm not sure if it's an issue with the hardware or the WeatherDisplay software. Currently all is good after replacing batteries and restarting the application. Data now looks good as it's being sent to www.weatherunderground.com. I'll continue to monitor.

Configuring Multiple Shoutcast Servers

I have been asked many times to explain how I broadcast using more than one Shoutcast connection.
I have created this step by step tutorial. I hope it helps.

First thing you will need to do is download a DSP Stacker. There are tons of them. I will use the plugin available from the Winamp Site called Multiple-DSP-Stacker. I have used this free plugin for years and it even works with Vista.

Here is the link to the DSP Stacker I will use in the tutorial:
http://www.winamp.com/plugin/multiple-dsp-stacker/128742

I have found that this plugin actually installs better if Winamp is not running.

Click on the Multiple-DSP_Stacker.exe to start the installation. This should be installed into your Winamp plugins folder (c:\program files\winamp\plugins)

Next you will need to make copies of a couple files located in the plugin directory.

The DSP_SC.DLL and DSP_SC.INI files should be copied and named to something like DSP_SC1.DLL and DSP_SC1.INI I have included an image from my directory to help explain.

In my example I am actually ready to use 3 Shoutcast servers

So at this point we have the plugin installed and the appropriate files copied and renamed.

Let's configure the DSP Stacker now.

Start your Winamp and click on the winamp menu (top left corner)

It opens the Winamp menu.

Go to Select Options then Preferences then DSP/Effect you should see the same .DLL files you created earlier

So now it's time to work with the DSP Stacker. While your here in the preferences, click on the DSP Stacker .DLL (Shown at the bottom of my example)


the DSP Stacker will open




Now all you need to do is Select each of the DSP_SC.DLL sources you want to use. It will open the Shoutcast DSP Panel that you would normally configure:





Once you have your multiple Shoutcast panels configured for your various connections you need to save your work via the SAVE button in the DSP Stacker panel



I circled the button in blue.
Well, that's all there is to it. At this point your broadcast will be sent to each of the DSP_SC.DLL selections you configured.



I hope this helps, Let me know if you liked this tutorial, leave a comment OR send an email to PT@planettexas.net