Mar

29

Interesting marketing promotion and survey: Pouch vs Side Grip

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Interesting marketing promotion and survey: Pouch vs Side Grip (image: image01)Proporta (who made the most excellent alu-leather case for my Palm TX) have a cute promotion and survey happening right now.

We would like to you which case you prefer so that we fully understand your needs as best we can. So far, have commented on the fact that they enjoy being able to see the entirety of their device, as well as the accessibility provided by the case with side grips. They have also said that they enjoy the of a pouch, and the fact that it adds less bulk to the device than the side grip. But what is your preference?

And they’ve got 5 prizes too…not a bad bit of kit to win for just giving up your and address.

Interesting marketing promotion and survey: Pouch vs Side Grip (image: image03)Proporta has 5 Gadget Bags with USB Mobile Device Chargers to give away to a random selection of 5 Proporta helpers.

My vote: pouch. I like the look. Now I just need the to go with it :-)

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Mar

23

Every silver lining has a dark cloud: Cookies, Consumers and Consent

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This post is a bit unusal for me for two reasons; it’s long, and the was originally created for another purpose — my assignment in an Analytics course I’m taking at UBC. So, rather than just repost it, I’m going to tweak it so it makes sense as a blog post.

To summarize, we take a look at cookies; the pros and the cons, and delve a bit into .

And away we go…

This assignment poses two questions:

  • Are you willing to give up your “” in order to have easier-to-use ?
  • Are you willing to give up your “” so that the ads you see on are likely to be more relevant to you?

I’ll them below, but first I’d like to post briefly on what I’ve discovered researching this topic.

Maybe I’m a bit more paranoid than some of my classmates, as their posts in the discussion forum seem to be a bit too much on the side of embracing cookies, but in the current big brother , I’m not too sure that the benefits provided through the use of cookies outweigh their potential for abuse when you consider the big picture.

But before I get into the light and dark side of cookies, they require a bit of a definition.

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Mar

3

Free online backup to the rescue

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Free online backup to the rescue (image: mozy-logo-beta-120)Recently I had to rebuild the c: drive of my main computer. Yes it was a pain. I had many programs installed there, and am still slowly reinstalling all the ones I use as I use them.

One thing that made the process easier was my . Mozy stored all my program settings and configuration files (you know, the ones that live in c:\Documents and Settings\username
etc…) safely in their structure. It was an easy matter for me to login to my Mozy account and retrieve them.
That saved me hours of rebuilding my settings for various applications and games.

Now, the version of Mozy isn’t intended as a full system , you only get ~ 2GB of storage. Mozy only backups local drives, so a removable or network drive will be skipped, but the fact that is automated, intelligent, and configurable make it a winner.

I’ve also been looking at Xdrive (from AOL) recently. It’s 5GB of storage, but it doesn’t seem to have an automated facility. You just drag and drop whatever you want saved there, and gets saved there. It’s more of an storage solution than a . Kinda if you need to keep your 4GB Nano where you can get at it (provided you’re not firewalled at work or anything).

Xdrive allows you to store any file that your computer can see, so that does include network and removable drives. And with Xdrive, you can share your files or folders, and manage access to them if need be.

I’ve just started playing with Xdrive, but if they just added the background function to Xdrive, I think it would challenge Mozy.

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Mar

2

OpenDNS: Safer, smarter, speedier surfing

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Use OpenDNSRecently, I’ve been reading a bit about Open DNS, an alternative to your -provided Domain Name System.

Now, you may “why not use my -provided DNS  servers?” and you’d be asking a good .

There are a few reasons that make sense to me, and are better explained by quoting OpenDNS:

OpenDNS makes your connection blazing fast, blocks phishing sites, and corrects your typos on the fly. If you try to visit a website that’s or not resolving, we don’t give up on you and send you to an error page. We show you OpenDNS Guide and keep working to get you where you want to go.

OpenDNS requires no to install. And best of all, it’s .

Ok, , autocorrect, blocks phishing, and fast. Those are enough real reasons for me to try it out…and I have.

Over the last month all my have used OpenDNS as primary and secondary DNS. As far as I can tell, it’s worked well and not caused any problems. It even works for wireless devices on my network like my Nintendo DS systems.

Oh, one more reason for considering OpenDNS; do you manage tech-support for your less-tech-savvy friends or relatives? The anti-phishing provided by OpenDNS partner PhishTank.

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