Lifergeek.com

Back in January Steve Jobs finally came out with the iPad, one of the most sought after devices for the past year.  After the dust settled and the specs revealed many people seemed disappointed. Many a fan boy of the previously mythical tablet hung their head in disappointment.  Not saying it was without love, just that some expected more.

I too was waiting for the iPad to come and after hearing it was basically the iPhone OS with more power, much bigger display and the classic iPhone walled garden iTunes store I decided against it. It just wasn’t for me.  I wanted something with a little more “umph”, power, something I could get down and dirty with.  This was not that device, at least not for me.

Then I stopped and thought, who is this for?

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Hey Everyone,
Just ordered two new Laptops for home use:

• HP TouchSmart TM2T (Convertable Tablet PC)
• HP CQ10 (Netbook)

I should have reviews coming soon.

Well, it’s about that time of year again.  US series are restarting their 12-22 episodes.  As usual, these series typically begin over the next two to three months, leaving those who don’t stay glued to the TV guide a little out of the loop.  Aside from having to hunt down the ‘official’ site for every show you watch, where can you find a single location consisting of every show you revel in?  Well, in my case I have been sifting through http://www.thetvdb. com site with a lot of success. 

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Beatles Rock Band initially struck me as an oddity that I couldn’t grasp initially.  Not being an avid Beatles fan, I could not see the reason for such a product.  Why devote an entire games just to one group, why tailor the product just for this one band.  They already have Rock Band 2, why not a Rock Band 3 with some of these new features added in?

Well, then the day before the release I got a knock on my door with the Fedex guy, here he was with my very own copy of Beatles Rock Band for review.  Now this review is a little late out the door, but if you share the life I do, you’ll understand why.  But we did get to play the game and I tell you, it was understandable why this needed it’s own title. 

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When I was first told of the concept of Darkest Of Days the newest XBOX 360 game from Phantom EFX, I couldn’t help but think, amazing.  A war game that transcends 5 different War eras, but unlike the Call of Duty series where you are multiple people, you are the same character all the way through.  But how can that work you ask? Time Travel. (continue reading…)

So, I’m sitting here in Starbucks typing away these posts and I thought that not everyone knows about all the perks you get with the handy plastic Starbucks card.  They even make a keychain version that is smaller.

The standard card allows for:

• Free (select) syrups and expanded milk options (like soy)
• Free Refills on same visit for brewed coffee.
• Free drink with Whole Bean purchase.
• and My Favorite, free Wi-fi for 2 hours per day

All require you to signup your card online, so a card off the shelf won’t do it until you activate it online.  You can read more on their programs at: https://www.starbucks.com/card/programs

Just signed up to the “Hi I’m” service.  If you’re looking for a simple way to consolidate your myriad of social sites you manage, this may be the gateway.  They allow somewhat streamlined access for those with facebook and twitter accounts, but you still need a username on their site.  This username will become part of your URL you can give out. Example: http://hi.im/lifergeek

As of today, they support the following services:

• Twitter
• Digg
• Facebook
• Youtube
• Flickr
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Blog (takes a generic URL)
• FriendFeed
• GitHub
• 12Seconds
• Seesmic
• Brightkite
• Vimeo

You also get to title your page and include a small blurb about yourself (250 characters).  The page also attempts to pull feed information from some services onto your page, most notably your past few twitters, videos from YouTube, and photos from flickr.

The site is new, and I’m sure is still growing.  There are quite a few other sites I’d like to see added before it fits all my needs.  But as a launchpad to other sites that you can give to people right off, this will fit the bill, assuming your social lineup is within the list of sites they support.

To be fair, they do offer a ‘blog’ entry, but this does not allow you to edit a link name so if you have more than one, they all say ‘blog’.

Link: http://hi.im

Two weeks ago I went down to the local Sprint store to check out the new Palm Pre.  I had already spent the past few days looking up info on the unit and the morning reading the in depth Engadget’s in depth review.  I held the tethered unit in my hands and aside from the pull of the cable, it felt really nice, looked really nice, I had to get one.

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Back on 4/20, Canonical announced 9.04 was available for download. I have been following Ubuntu since 7.04 and even switched to it from Gentoo. This new release has a number of visual improvements bringing it closer into the desktop market.

While looking to load up a spare PC with an OS, I decided to give the new Ubuntu a try…

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Hey everyone,

My name is Pete.  My interests are varied and specific all at the same time.  They range from Computers, Networking, Cars, Sci-Fi movies, Sci-Fi TV Shows, Music, Videography, Photography, and well anything else that needs MORE POWER.

In a few words I would best describe myself as “A jack of all trades, and a master of some.” I have done jobs from video rental retail, steamfitter (commercial fire sprinklers) apprentice, senior repair tech, warehouse logistics manager, to an IT systems integration engineer.

I have been into electronics and computers since the commodore 64 was the hot thing.  I have been taking PC’s apart and putting them together for about 18 years now.  Over the years I have worked in the IT field for tech repair shops, data centers, and currently for an IT systems integration company.  With a company like the one I work for I was able to start out in the cabling department.  I learned the industry cable color codes (or here) and how to properly terminate everything from a 1 pair cross connect to a 300pair feed run.  After that department I went into the PBX /VOIP phone department.  There I was able to learn the inner workings of a few major phone systems. This included Inter-Tel, Mitel, NEC, and of course Cisco.  My next and current step in the company is the IT department. My core role in the IT Team has evolved from a general tech, into a more well rounded tech with having a few specializations.  These specializations are a VMware practice manager, disaster recovery specialist, storage specialist (NetApp as a core vendor), backup and recovery specialist (Symantec focused), and finally IT systems integration engineer.

Well enough about the tech stuff. I will do my best to get my 2c about new tech and stuff that is coming out when I can, but about 7 weeks ago I have the first addition to my family. This makes writing tech articles a bit lower on “the list”.  I am sure that anyone with kids, or younger cousins, or siblings can understand.   This first article was solely typed out on my work blackberry (except the insert of the HTML links) on the train to and from the city when I wasn’t passed out sleeping.

I hope to be writing an article on virtualization, including server and workstation environments.  Any comments, questions, or suggestions for topics please you can e-mail me here pete at lifergeek dot com.

Best Regards,

Pete