Tag: laptop

The LG DoublePlay by T-Mobile

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of LG DoublePlay™ for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

LG DoublePlay

I recently saw the review for the new T-Mobile exclusive phone the LG DoublePlay™.  It showed many of the good points of the phone, such as the amazing multi-tasking ability with it’s dual touch screen displays.  You can browse the internet with the screen above while posting the links to Facebook and Twitter.  Or you can be chatting in an instant message while playing a game or watching a movie.

It has a 3.5 inch main display and a 2 inch sub display.  Does your phone do that?  Mine certainly does not.  Mine has a slide out QWERTY keyboard but the buttons are so tiny that I can barely text with it.  This phone has a very strange split keyboard, which at first looks very difficult to use but the woman who reviewed the phone in the video that I saw today said that it doesn’t take very long to get used to it.  In fact she typed out a sentence in just a few short seconds with not one typo.  I can’t even type one word on mine without making an error.

This phone uses Android 2.3 Gingerbread and uses the Android market.  Ok I have no idea what Gingerbread is but doesn’t it sound cool?  I can just hear this conversation now “Hey, what OS does your phone have?  Oh, gingerbread, that’s cool.”

I spend 16 hours a day on social networking websites on my laptop.  I would use my phone if it wasn’t a pre-paid cell phone.  If I had one of these phones, I’m almost sure I would rarely ever use my laptop, well, except to blog.  I’m pretty sure that if I had this phone, I would never look up again.

How many hours a day do you spend on social networks on your phone?  What about per month?  How would this phone change the way you spent your time online?  Don’t you think it’s worth checking out at T-Mobile?  I do.

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Gmail Video Chat with CR-48

On By Michel McDonaldIn CR-48Leave a comment

I got my CR-48 in December the first week they were shipping them and I didn’t really mess with the video chat until Christmas day when a friend of mine got a webcam for Christmas.  We tried it but my mic didn’t work so she couldn’t hear me.  When we came home from San Diego after Christmas we tried it again but my mic still didn’t work.

I’ve been so frustrated that the mic didn’t work and that I had no volume control but realizing I wasn’t testing the laptop but the operating system I started to come to the realization that it might never work.

Whenever Google would do an update on the Chrome OS I would check the mic settings and it never worked, that is until yesterday when they did their update.  I immediately checked the mic settings and not only did the mic work but so does my volume control.  Finally!

I emailed that same friend about trying again and she finally got on Gmail today so I sent her an IM directly from the Gmail site using Gmail chat.  I started the video chat but her video didn’t work at all.  I thought, well let’s go to Facebook using the Social Plus extension.  That didn’t work either so we went back to Gmail but I waited for her to engage me this time.  I don’t know what she did but it worked and we talked for about 45 minutes I would say.

It was a success!  It was as good if not better than using Skype.  Since I’m on a cloud based computer I can’t install Skype so Gmail chat is the next best thing.

The only strange thing about it was that when she held something up to her webcam it looked like a mirrored image to her but it looked normal to me.  I held up a package of something and it was a mirrored image to me but she saw it normal.  It was a little strange but if you think about it, we’re sort of like looking in a mirror, she can see me as if I were on the other side of the glass and vice versa.  A bit weird but that’s fine, I’ll take what I can get.

I’m just really excited that I can video chat lol.

Break From Restoring Blog

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I have to take a few days off from restoring posts for September 2009 all the way through June of 2010.

First of all it’s hell on my hands.  With Carpal Tunnel syndrome both of my hands are getting numb a lot from this, resting my wrist on the laptop or even on the gel mouse pad is bad for my wrists because it puts way too much pressure on my wrists.  If it were softer then I might be ok but for some reason it’s a really hard surface.  After a few hours my wrists are in agony and my eyes too, I can’t see anything because I’m staring at the computer so much.

We have family visiting next week and I really need to put this blog on hold until the house is clean.  It’s not a mess but there are some places that need to be cleaned and it’s embarrassing when people can spot the dust I didn’t clean :D.

I would say give me a few days but I’m sure it won’t take that long, but you never know for sure.

I’m Almost Finished Restoring Posts from Blogger

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

When my blog crashed, I started restoring posts from YouSayToo from that date going back to July 2010 but then decided to go back from the beginning of my blogs time in 2007 which I had to get from my Blogger blog.  For the last couple of weeks I’ve been restoring 2007, 2008 and 2009.  I just finished restoring July 2009 and there are only a couple more months worth from 2009 on Blogger.

I think that when I am finished with all of this I will wipe Blogger clean because there are some posts that I purposely didn’t restore because they were terrible posts.  I’m shocked they got posted at all.  Since I didn’t delete them during the restoration I won’t remember what is what so I’ll just wipe it all.  I can export my blog from over here to there easily but I’ll wait until everything from YouSayToo is restored to do that.

This has been so hard on my wrists from copying and pasting and resting my wrists on the laptop and the hard gel mousepad from the desktop so I decided to start wearing my wrist splints which has helped today.  Unfortunately, I have no splint for my eyeballs which are so blurred from staring into the screen for 8 hours or more per day.

I don’t know how much longer it will take me to finish restoring everything but I’m working as hard as I can since I am one person.  To prevent this from happening again I’ve had my blog email me backups once a week which I will store on my desktop just in case it crashes again because I refuse to go through all of this one more time.

Our Roku Boxes Arrived Today… They’re Going Back Tomorrow

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, Tech, TV1 Comment

It was on Christmas Eve, more than a week ago when we were told by Darrin’s family members that we should cancel our cable to get an Xbox to watch Hulu and Netflix instead. I researched my options and found Roku. I researched to find out if it was worth it and when I thought it would be, I rushed Darrin into making the decision to buy some Roku boxes, 1 for each TV in the house so that we would get a $10 discount per box.

I waited on pins and needles all weekend until they finally arrived this afternoon with the regular mail and was like a kid opening up his Christmas presents.

I opened one of the Roku boxes and connected it to the living room TV because I wanted the living room to be the first room that was connected with the Roku so Darrin would have it to watch when he got home. Problem… it wouldn’t connect to our network.

I brought it into the bedroom so that I could at least connect it with the network cable because I figured that maybe it needed to be connected with the wire first, then I could get it connected wirelessly. I get it connected and updated and all seemed fine but when I tried to get it to connect with the wi-fi, it just wouldn’t work.

So I got on the Roku website on the laptop and go to the help page to chat with a technician who can help me figure it out. We’re chatting for maybe 1 hour and 45 minutes and I lose the connection to the internet which means I lose the chat with “Sam”. I reconnected the laptop to the Verizon 3G network because I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get disconnected again. I had to wait 20 minutes to talk to another person, I told them I was talking to Sam but he was already with someone else so that person tried helping me.

Another 45 minutes later and I finally figured it out, got it online then went into the living room and hooked the other one up to the tv and it connected without much trouble at all. I say thanks and goodbye to the person I was chatting with and I think I had a good 30 minutes to play with it when all of a sudden my internet goes out.

The problem is, “Sam” had me change my network name, the channel it was connected with,change it from WPA2 to WEP, change the password and everything. Now, nothing will connect. I spend the next 2 hours by myself trying to get it all back online.

This just isn’t working out so I unplugged both Roku boxes, roll up the AC wires, tie them up with the twist ties and put everything back in their boxes and spend another hour trying to get the network to work again and it did. I tried going back to my original settings but it just didn’t want to connect.

How I got the Roku boxes connected is with the mac address. I had to force the network to only accept the devices with their mac address. I’ve never had to do that before. I have connected my PSP, Nook, Chips computer and the CR-48 Laptop to the network and have never once had an issue with the mac address so why would I ever think that the Roku boxes would need me to do that?

So the Roku boxes go back tomorrow. We have to call the phone number and tell them that it just didn’t work out for us and we’re returning them. They give us a 30 day money back guarantee minus the shipping charges.

You know, I got to thinking, I can’t live without live TV. We need to be able to see the news or weather alerts that scroll on the top of the screen. It’s just not for us, we like it the way it is, no need to change it. Someone wise said to me on Twitter today “*whistles the old familiar tune* Why fix what ain’t done broke…..*snorts*”. It’s so true. And our system of watching TV on cable wasn’t broken, switching to the Roku only, now that’s broken.

I looked at Hulu plus and they only had maybe 10% of the shows that I watch. I installed PlayOn.tv and it ran so slow on the Roku because my processor wasn’t fast enough. It would’ve been ok for me if that worked but it didn’t.

I am not saying the Roku is a bad product but it just doesn’t work for me. It most certainly doesn’t work with my network but getting rid of cable and going with internet tv is just not what I want now. I still can’t afford $110 cable but we’re going to look into thinning out some of our services to make things easier on me.

I am not going to keep Hulu Plus after my 30 day trial is over nor am I keeping Netflix because I just can’t afford to have this additional expense on top of my cable. I will continue to use regular free Hulu if I miss a show but Hulu can’t replace cable for me.

Who knows, maybe one day I might get an Xbox or a PS3 or even a Blu-ray that will connect to Hulu and/or Netflix. If that day comes then it will be a nice addition but not replacement.

Lord of Ultima

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

Here is my latest obsession. I know that Lord of Ultima is not new, it has been around for several months but thanks to the Google Chrome Web Store, I have found it and am now playing it with my CR-48 laptop.

Today is only my 3rd day of playing so I’m not going to give a rundown of how you play the game but I will say that it is fun and kind of addicting. Not in a negative way because it does get boring after a while. You have to place buildings in your city and keep upgrading them which can take a long time. The more you upgrade things, the longer it takes to upgrade to higher levels.

When you send your army to raid dungeons, you have a long waiting game. You can’t actually be there with them, you can only wait until they get back to see what they brought you.

I wanted to play a game that was like EverQuest but something that was browser-based and although this is nothing like EQ, it is browser-based and works on the CR-48 laptop. If it can play on this computer then I’m good to go for a while.

The screenshots below are covered in snow because it’s winter now. If I had known they were going to do that I would’ve taken some screenshots yesterday when the ground was dry and green.

The one on the top is just an image of the center of my city. You got the town hall in the middle then a farm with the lake, an iron mine and a cottage on the bottom left and the right.

The one on the bottom is an image of the region where my city is. You see a dragon on that mountain, well it’s in the screenshot but it’s gone from the game now. I don’t know where it went but they removed it. It’s a good thing I already raided it lol. They had a minotaur dungeon but it was gone before I could even react. Oh well, my loss.

What I like about this game is that 1 its browser-based so it works on the laptop and 2 it’s FREE to play. So if you want to join me in playing Lord of Ultima, click the link with my referral number to make sure I get the credit for inviting a friend. If you already play the game, my name in there is Xanapus so say hi when you get in the game.

My Chrome Apps and Extensions

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, CR-48, Games, Google Chrome, TwitterLeave a comment

I am really enjoying Google Chrome these days. This is my Google Chrome front page. As you can see I have a few apps and unseen a few extensions.

The apps that you can see are pretty cool. The top ones are what came automatically in the browser and the rest I added. If I can’t use programs on my desktop then I gotta find a way to use them on the browser only laptop.

Typically when you are given things in a new product, the first thing you do is get rid of the junk you don’t want. Well, I did get rid of something. There was an icon for a Poppit game from Pogo but when you click it, it loads the Pogo website with the Pogo logo but the game never loads. So screw it, it’s gone lol.

Entanglement is a really cool game and I like to play it so I kept it. I’m not very good but I’m just a beginner. You gotta start somewhere right?

The Gmail and Google Talk ones I can do without but I’m not going to get rid of them if I may need them one day. Instead of using those, I downloaded the app LiveGO . It allows me access to MSN, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL/AIM all in one web page. For Facebook MSN, Gmail, Yahoo and AOL, it allows me to get access to my inbox and IM. It doesn’t have MySpace or Skype and I really wish they would get Skype on there so I can use the webcam. The IM’s have the webcam button but it says Coming Soon when you mouse over it. Hopefully they will get that up and running soon. For now I can use Google Talk to video chat, although I haven’t had the opportunity yet as I still don’t have any Gmail friends in all the years I’ve had Gmail.

TweetDeck is great. I’ve used that for Twitter on my Desktop so I now use it on the laptop in browser format instead of the installed version my desktop has. I actually like the browser version because the program takes forever to load and the browser loads instantly.

Autodesk Homestyler is such a cool one. You get a measuring tape and measure the rooms in your house and add rooms in the program according to the measurements. Ok I don’t needthis but it’s neat. I can add furniture to each room so I can make decorating decisions. I’m not a decorator but Darrin is so he can use that.

Google Books I added because I’m a book-worm. Although I have a Nook so I don’t need that but I was using it to look up books. I may get rid of it if I need the space though.

Todo.ly is a to do list lol. Yeah I know, lame. I may get rid of it if I don’t use it that often.

Picnik is for photo editing, although they want you to pay for premium features, I just wanted it so I could use it for the webcam. Since I can’t have Gimp on this laptop I needed something but if I really need to make a graphic I’ll just make it on my desktop.

Spider One Suit FREE … It’s Spider Solitaire lol. I can’t imagine a world where there is no solitaire on a computer.

SoopBook is for writing your own book. You can write it in there and invite people to read it and correct your mistakes. Although I don’t know if I want anyone messing with my autobiography but it’s a good way to write it since I am using this as my primary computer.  It also gives me a backup so if my computer crashes then I don’t have to worry about a backup copy.

I haven’t been writing my book at all lately anyway because I’ve been too busy. When I am ready to write again I have SoopBook and/or my desktop to write with. Although I could use SoopBook when we aren’t home and I have the laptop with me so there’s a good reason to keep it for a while.

Do I really need to explain YouTube, Hulu, Google Maps and Scratchpad? I’m sure you know what those are.

I have a few extensions which are on the very top of my browser, to the right of the address bar. I’m using Glue, AOL, Gmail and Yahoo email notifyer so if I’m not in LiveGO then I can see if I have email or not. Then I have Aviary for taking screenshots for blogging (example above).Amplify extension which I use occasionally for blogging and finally After the Deadline which is a great spell/grammar checker, not just for blogging but anywhere you type on the internet.

I am still adding extensions and apps so this is not all I am playing with. There will be more but for now, this is what I’m up to. Playing with and learning how to live with a browser only based laptop, it’s actually not as difficult as it sounds. I’m sure anyone can cut their ties to programs if they really had to. I guess this is an if you were stuck on an island, what program would you bring with you” type of question. Well, in my case I’d have to say the Google Chrome browser would be the only program I need since I can find a way to add all of my programs as web apps.

Ok that’s it for now. I’m tired and my eyes are too blurry from staring at this 12.1 inch laptop screen for the last 16-18 hours lol.

Nook Study

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, NookLeave a comment

A friend called me asking about how my Nook works because her son is doing an online college course and is required to buy textbooks but wanted to find out if there were a cheaper alternative. He only gets so much with his grant that he can only afford to pay so much for a textbook.

He had hoped that if he bought a Barnes & Noble Nook that his eTextbooks would be cheaper but I did some research for him while on the phone and found that they do sell textbooks new or used or you can rent them but in actual book format. Not e-book format for the Nook.

Although, they do have a new thing called Nook Study that is a program for your PC or Mac that you download/install and you can buy eTextbooks for 50% less than the actual textbook.

I was looking at the features that they offer such as being able to highlight in many different colors, leaving an asterisk and typing notes as well as bookmarking. Very similar to the actual Nook (although the Nook doesn’t have a color highlight choice or asterisk’s). Many other features like highlighting a word to look it up on Wikipedia, Google, dictionary etc. Printing pages, copying text to your homework, importing notes and many others.

I told him that if he wanted to buy a Nook for reading books that’s fine but don’t waste your money if your purpose is for textbooks because it doesn’t work. With his grant he was able to buy a laptop for taking tests on their website and whatever else they require of him to do there so he can just use that laptop to install Nook Study.

I wish that they had all this technology when I was a kid. It would’ve been a heck of a lot easier for me, who am I kidding, I probably still would’ve ended up the same because of my dyslexia, A.D.D. and learning disability. But who knows, maybe it might have been different. I guess I will never know. Maybe in the next life…

Last Night for Chia Time-Lapse

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Tonight is the final night for the Chia Pet time-lapse project.  I still can’t believe my laptop hasn’t had a blue screen or rebooted on its own after being turned on 24 hours a day for the last 7 days.  When I first started it I had it on every second and immediately got a blue screen so of course I had to change it to 1 minute but then after the first 24 hours I saw that it hadn’t even started sprouting yet and I had accidentally moved it a few times so I thought well, it’s time to just start all over.

So on Tuesday morning I started it up again at every 5 minutes instead of every 1 minute.  I checked and there are 1200 pictures so that’s pretty good.  I’ve still been moving it accidentally every day practically lol.  Oops!  I try to move it back to the way it was but I’m sure I didn’t get it exactly right.  I’ll find out when the software I bought puts the video together.

I found a good song online (for free) that I’m going to use against the time-lapse.  I also have footage of me spreading the seeds and stuff.  I’m also going to do a short 1 minute video after I hit the stop button on the laptop that will be on after the time-lapse.

I can’t wait.

Chia Pet Status

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

This morning I went to look at the Scooby Doo Chia Pet and noticed that it’s still just seeds.  My laptop with the time-lapse software with my webcam has been taking a picture every minute over the last 24 hours and nothing has happened.  The seeds aren’t sprouting yet.  I figured that if they aren’t even going to start sprouting yet then maybe now is a good time to reset everything.

Yesterday I messed up the camera angle and I think I fixed it so it was at the right angle again but I wasn’t 100% sure.  So turning it off and deleting all the pictures was ok.  I turned it back on but instead of 1 picture every minute I figured 1 picture every hour would be fine.  Maybe I might change that to every 10 minutes though which means I might have to shut it down and start over again lol.  That’s ok, it’s all still just seeds anyway.

Ok I went and stopped it and changed it to 5 minutes (300 seconds) instead of every  60 minutes.  I figured maybe 10 minutes was still too long that 5 minutes would be good because a lot can happen in 10 minutes.  I mean as far as movement, the growth might move toward the sun in 10 minutes and it might look funny.

So it’s back on starting now lol.  The video is going to be too long anyway if it’s every minute and I don’t want it to be a 20 minute video in time-lapse.  I did a video of me sleeping with time-lapse and it ended up being 17 minutes and that was just from 6 hours of sleep too but then again it was taking a picture every second so there you go.  But this video is going to be going on for 1 week.  I’m pretty sure every 1 minute is going to make it a very long and boring video.

Well whatever it is I will make it about 5 minutes so it will go really fast lol.  I’m going to work on the other video today that I made yesterday while I was spreading the seeds.  I will get that on YouTube (and here) A.S.A.P.

So anyway, see you in a week with the progress.