Technophobia

Thursday, October 08, 2009

I have a Twitter account, but I don’t use it much.

However, I discovered the awesome power of Twitter as advertising tool for my shop. Now I need to find the balance between spamming my followers and gently reminding them that there’s pretty stuff they can buy.

Follow my business on Twitter - BeadonaWire.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

I have a shiny new laptop at work. It works well so far except for one thing. I can’t do anything but look/click in Facebook.

Quel horreur!

I think it’s a Flash issue, but I’m not about to ask about it until I get a similar problem with something work-related. I’m not that dumb.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Thanks to Thinkling Bill for the geek help. I have finally been able to get FTP access to update the blogware. And I’ll be able to update my captcha security questions for commenting. And the other updates behind the scenes that have needed doing for months.

Now, to update the kids blogs, too…

[UPDATE Mon AM]: The captcha questions in the comments have been updated. Let me know if you have problems…

Friday, August 21, 2009

I’m still having problems getting to FTP to update the blogware and I really don’t have the time to devote to it anyway. So I’m considering just letting this domain languish and moving the blog to WordPress freebie. I know there are some limitations to what I can upload (the Etsy-mini box, for instance). For those who use free WordPress, can you tell me how you like it?

The potential site is here (I set it up as a back up when the blog was down last year).

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

I’m hearing from several folks that you’re having problems commenting here on the blog. Since you can’t comment to let me know the problems, will you send an email to me to let me know what messages you’re getting or if it’s the security questions that are the problem?

jen [at] the blog domain is the address to email me (jenspeaks.com).

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Via Thinkling Bill, I’m getting my nerd on this weekend by checking out We Choose The Moon. It’s a website devoted to running the audio of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in real time. I’ve got a window open and it’s kind of cool to just listen to the static and hum of the radio transmissions. Then randomly someone will key the mic to say something rather mundane. Of course, I haven’t really had a chance to listen when they’re in the midst of a full work day yet, although I did hear some conversation yesterday between Buzz Aldrin and Houston about some problem with their TV signal in space - apparently they were getting wavy lines on their screen up there and they wanted to check with the contractor if that was to be the norm or if it was some glitch that could be fixed.

[UPDATE (9:15 am)]: Just ordered my new glasses and heard CapCom explain that while it is now 40 minutes past the scheduled rest time, they have opted to let the astronauts continue to sleep since there’s nothing pressing for them to do at this point. Love that little nerdlet of info.

Monday, May 25, 2009

A couple of guys at my church parodied this to go with the message a couple of weeks ago. Hilarious.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Ever wonder if you’re maximizing your Netflix DVD rentals? Now you can get a good idea of whether or not you’ve used your rental plan with Netflix wisely with the Netflix History Analyzer.

Here’s my assessment:

Your results

  * You’ve rented 98 DVDs over 24 months from April 30, 2007 to April 14, 2009.
  * Your plan costs $16.99/month so you’ve paid $407.76 total.
  * Your average price per rental was approximately $4.16 each.
  * Average rental costs elsewhere are $4.00 each (not including late fees).
  * You’ve overpaid approximately $15.76 over that time period or $0.66 per month.

Here’s some more about your renting habits…

  * You kept each rental for around 22 days on average.
  * The longest you kept a single DVD was 102 days.
  * You rented about 4 DVDs each month.
  * You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 19 DVDs each month.

I think I’ll have to reassess post-maternity leave. I think my rental habits in the next month or so will help our stats.

[via OTB]

[UPDATE 4/22]: I redid mine going back to 2004 when I first started using Netflix. Much better results.

Your results

  * You’ve rented 268 DVDs over 59 months from May 24, 2004 to April 14, 2009.
  * Your plan costs $16.99/month so you’ve paid $1002.41 total.
  * Your average price per rental was approximately $3.74 each.
  * Average rental costs elsewhere are $4.00 each (not including late fees).
  * You’ve saved approximately $69.59 over that time period or $1.18 per month.

Here’s some more about your renting habits…

  * You kept each rental for around 21 days on average.
  * The longest you kept a single DVD was 173 days.
  * You rented about 5 DVDs each month.
  * You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 19 DVDs each month.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Any other parents know the general lifespan of the typical baby monitor? We do - it’s about 2 years when the receivers are left on pretty much 24/7.

A few weeks ago we discovered that the receiver in our room was not putting out any sound. We could see the lights move when Jesse made noise, but could hear nothing at all. Just last week the receiver in the basement crapped out, too. Again, the lights play when there’s noise being made, but not a sound is emitted from the speaker.

We had planned to keep using that set in Jesse’s room and buy a second set for the baby’s room so that we could hear the baby, especially when we’re in the basement. Now it looks like we need to buy 2 new sets of monitors. The video monitor is set up on the main floor.

This is one of several reasons why we would like a one story house someday.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Item 1: I haven’t been able to send email via Thunderbird since we switched to Verizon FIOS. I needed to know the SMTP server info. So finally, today I set up an online account with V-F and got the server info, but it’s still not working. I then spent about 45 minutes on hold with no response by tech support and eventually hung up because I have things to do and I can’t spend all morning on hold on the phone.

Item 2: I mentioned yesterday my need for a free FTP client. Turns out it needs to be SFTP, so I downloaded WinSCP, but I’m not able to access my host FTP. So I submitted a trouble ticket and I’m waiting to hear about that.

I’m really not in the mood to deal with this kind of stuff today.

[UPDATE]: Item #2 is fixed. Turned out to be a password problem - even the host techie couldn’t get in using my password. So they fixed that lickety-split and now I have FTP access to the backroom of the blogs.

As to Item #1, I’m not happy with Verizon and reluctant to call them back only to be placed on hold again. I also need to talk the billing section because they have not implemented any of the discounts that were promised at the time we set up service. I’ll eat some lunch and then try calling later this afternoon.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

So with the server migration of my blog, the host internal ftp is no longer available. I need a recommendation for a good, free, easy to use ftp client so that I can do stuff behind the curtain with the jenspeaks.com based blogs.

For instance, I’m in desperate need of updating both this and Ticklish Giggles blogware, but I can do it without ftp access.

Leave your opinions (with links, please) in the comments. Thanks!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Starting today we were required to update one of our passwords to a 12 character monstrosity that includes at least one of each of the following:

1. Capital letter
2. Number
3. Symbol (ie, @#$&!)

And the reuse of previously used passwords is restricted to waiting until the 21st round of passwords. Oh, and we’ll now be required to change our passwords in 60 days instead of 90 days.

I have passwords for more than a dozen systems and some of those systems have two levels of passwords. What makes them think that they’re actually increasing security by making it so much harder to remember all of the passwords? Because at some point a cheat sheet is required just to avoid calling the help desk several times daily to get your passwords unlocked because you entered them incorrectly too many times.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Beau and my mother confirmed that they have access to the blog now. However, my Dad can’t access it from work now.

Let me know if something seems wonky to you, please.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

1. Still no word on the house. We had to counter offer - best and final - we assume because the other offer was the same as ours. So we upped our offer by $6K thinking that the other folks will have upped by $5K.

[UPDATE 4:00pm]: Beau called our realtor. Our realtor had called the seller/bank and was told that a decision would be made late today or early tomorrow AM. He got the impression from the conversation that the two offers were very close, but that maybe we edged them out. But we’ll find out when we find out either way.

2. It is so aggravating that Gmail access here is so spotty. I can get in with no problems at random times during the day and not at all other times.

3. It turns out that Verizon FIOS users can’t get to my blog lately. I’m working on a solution with my host, but since I can’t get into my email the process has halted because I don’t have the link to the trouble ticket handy. The technician talked about migrating to a new server location, which means the blog will be down for the time that takes.

[UPDATE 4:00pm]: The lovely tech person helping me with the FIOS issue, which I believe must be a DC area thing only, will be migrating my blog to a new server overnight. Who knows how long it will take to resolve, but let it be known that your access may be spotting for a bit.

Friday, October 10, 2008

I was told to expect the FIOS technician between 8 and noon. He arrived at 8:15am. Awesome.

He is currently in the back working on installing their boxes to the house and then the work inside will begin. No internet at some point, but I’m working from home so I’ll report progress later.

[10:20am]: We have internet! Woo!

He’s hooking up the cable boxes now. It is all very exciting and now we need to save for an HD TV.