Jamie Thingelstad

Downloaded the release version of Lightroom! It has been upgrading the library from beta for 1+ hour. Waiting.

Lightroom still upgrading library, nearly 4 hours now. Giving up for tonight. Disappointed that I didn’t get to play.

Got Gmail working on Motorola Razr!

Of course my UPnP media server failed right before leaving. Fixing it so there is music in the house before leaving. Reboot and pray!

Wondering how many connections the most connected person on LinkedIn has.

Why isn’t there a site like Cogmap for managing a family tree? This seems so obvious.

I’ve found myself continually frustrated with the behavior of Tab in OS X when filling out forms on web pages. I fill out my name, press tab, fill out something else, and then press tab to select a checkbox but OS X by default won’t let you tab into a checkbox.

I decided I had enough of this and did a little research. I’m happy to report this can be fixed! Go to System Preferences and select your Keyboard & Mouse settings. Switch to the last tab, Keyboard Shortcuts. On the bottom you can switch tab behavior to honor All Controls. Yeah!

Can I just take a moment to say that I’m hugely impressed with what Nintendo is doing with the Wii. I fired up my Wii tonight just to play for a bit and decided to do a system update. I wasn’t expecting one, but found 2.0U was available. I then stumbled into the Shopping Channel and found a new free download in Wii Ware called Everyone Votes. Today was the first day it was available, and I hadn’t heard anything about this.

There is nothing amazing about this new game, but I think it flexes the muscle of the Wii so well. The premise is simple, you answer either/or questions and then predict what everyone else will answer. You play with your Mii. Questions are bounded in regions (states for the US). There are also international questions and you can even suggest questions.

I answered the launch questions and suggested another question. I just love that Nintendo is really thinking “outside the box” as it were with the Wii. No other game manufacturer would think of something like Everyone Votes.

Links to more about Everyone Votes: Wii Nation, Wii Nintendo, Go Nintendo.

Note, you have to do a system update to 2.0U in order to install this. Make sure to do an update before going to the shopping channel.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve become a huge fan of Backpack. It is my home page in all of my browsers. I’ve been able to consolidate so many other random things into it. The reminder feature is incredibly useful. I’m still learning new ways to use it (mobile integration is the current item). I just can’t say enough. However, the only issue with Backpack is if you happen to not be online, you are stuck.

Here comes PackRat to the rescue. PackRat is a great Mac OS X application that connects to Backpack and gives you an offline version. You give it your Backpack username and API key, it connects and within seconds downloads all of your content to your laptop. You can then make changes offline and reconnect and magically it’s all back on your Backpack site. It even allows you to manage reminders.

The spiffy thing about PackRat is that since it isn’t running in a browser, there is some stuff that it does nicer than Backpack, like tag navigation. I’m finding myself using PackRat a decent amount even when I am online as it has a nearly identical user experience to Backpack and is a bit faster without the HTTP reloads in the middle.

If you are an avid Backpack user, and a Mac user, this is a great program to add. I just wish there was also a Windows version.

I’m happy to report that if you find yourself in the 50th and France area of Minneapolis with a laptop and some time on your hands – you will not have any problems finding an open WiFi access point to hop on the net.

I just got back home after a business trip. This trip entailed an offsite training event. At any event like this you have a couple of breaks in the morning and afternoon. These used to just be a “Break”. A decade ago when cell phones really became prevalent these turned into “Communication Breaks”. Everyone would dash out of the room and dial up their mobiles.

The vernacular has changed! It is now “Blackberry Breaks”. I believe this now makes the ‘crackberry’ a brand like Kleenex. Even the couple of people with non-Blackberry Blackberry’s like Treos and Windows Mobile devices were enjoying their “Blackberry Break”.

I wonder if we’ll be takin “iPhone Breaks”, or just an “iBreak”.

Microsoft should have to pay reparations for creating PowerPoint.

Considering if Twitter will be the new Enterprise Resource Planning package of 2010.

I’m watching the Super Bowl and I have to comment that the rain beading up on the helmets makes HDTV worth every penny. 🙂

I’ve been playing with different permalink structures on my site. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been using /category/title. Supposedly this is the most search engine optimized, however, it frustrates me greatly since the category of a post can and does change.

I’m going to settle on /year/month/title. This is more stable and will be simpler to manage in the archive. Some links may be sketchy – I’ll get them fixed over time. Google is probably pretty upset with me right now, but my sitemap is updated and correct.

I’m waving a white flag. I give up. I’ve decided to no longer attempt to host my own email. I’ve hosted my own mail for years and years, and I’ve had enough. Why?

Hosting your email used to be pretty simple. You setup your SMTP server, got a mail client and used POP to access your mailbox. You set it up, and didn’t need to worry about it again. These days are long gone.

Today, hosting your own mailbox and exposing an SMTP server to the world, whether you want to or not, engages you in the global war on spam and phishing. To host my own email I had to deal with keeping 3 software packages current at all times, and pay a monthly service fee to a service provider to filter for viruses and spam for me. This simply takes up more time and is frankly too complicated to waste time on.

I’ve dumped this whole game and am now hosting thingelstad.com email using Google Apps for your Domain. Yes, Google now can index my mail and serve me ads. I don’t care. It’s tremendously easier, will save me a bunch of time, and cut my out of pocket cost by nearly $100 a year. This is a no brainer.

I’m happy to also say that I’ve been really impressed with Gmail. I find it’s actually faster than Thunderbird was for casual usage. And I can now give up the madness of trying to keep my address book synchronized.

I’m now a much happier netizen, and no longer am worried about versions of IMAP servers and SMTP daemons and having to worry about the latest spam, phishing and virus issues. Yeah!