Away From Reality

It might seem odd that I would be excited by a new release of Wordpress given that this site runs on Typo 4.1.1. Trust me, you wouldn't be wrong... however, NetStumbler.com is running on Wordpress and this new upgrade includes some new features that look more than interesting.

Last night I actually upgraded this site from Typo 2.5.6 to Typo 4.1.1. All that took was a simple "rake db:migrate", oh the beauty of Rails! My Wordpress upgrade won't be nearly as tidy.

The only reason that I am considering an upgrade is that the Wordpress team has included import tools to migrate tags from various existing tag plugins into the new native tag engine. NetStumbler.com is currently using Ultimate Tag Warrior, but hopefully not for much longer.

I also can't wait to see the new Canonical URLs in action. It looks like a graceful solution to an ugly problem, and with 3500+ posts on NetStumbler.com tracing their origins back from two complete CMS migrations I know that there are at least 100 posts that this would effect.

So, I've tried twitter and I love it. What it did for me is simply get me re-energized for some old school blogging. Now that I've got some time to sort my thoughts, I am going to be more active in sharing them here.

Since 2001 NetStumbler.com has gone through several face lifts. I am pleased to announce that our new site is currently live, we trust that you will like it as much as we do.

So today I put live the new BackupRight blog, there all the company news and various articles related to the online data business will be posted.

Please visit and have a look around. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed.

I have talked about it more in the first welcome post.

BackupRight Blog

There are many things in life that one should prepare for in advance, and in almost every case we have a solution. Insurance, for example, whether it is health, fire, care, or life, we simply must have it before we need it or else it is too late.

When it comes to a persons computer data there has always be a large gap between what should be done to protect it and what is actually done. Saving data weekly to a CD or DVD is simply not convenient ENOUGH to be thought of as a reliable method for insuring the safety of important data. For quite some time now there have been simpler solutions for backup, and one method clearly has the highest rate of adoption – ignore it. The other method has been to use some sort of online remote data backup solution, but until now these online backup solutions have often been either to costly or too unfriendly to use in either personal or small business settings.

Several months ago I set out to find some way to make the problem easier to solve for everyone like myself – a recent hard drive crash victim – and after many months of development and testing it is ready.

BackupRight, the name says it all – CD/DVD burning just doesn’t cut it, saving to the server at the office manually isn’t easy enough. Just install and setup and you have got you backup done right.

There are many fantastic features that we packed into BackupRight, but rather than make this the longest post to date here I will just let you visit the site and read more for yourself. http://www.backupright.com/

I encourage everyone to think what they would do without their email, contacts, financial data, office documents, and other valuable files. The loss of that information IS something that can happen; just make sure that you have prepared for it in advance.

BackupRight – Online Data Backup

Well, this one has been a long time in development – name changes, design slowdowns, and various other setbacks, but now I am very pleased to present the latest in the family reliable, timely, and impartial news websites – LoveVoIP.com.

It is no secret that VoIP is taking the world of communication by storm. We will be covering all the latest news as it happens – from Skype to Google Talk to Vonage.

I trust that you will enjoy LoveVoIP.com, and as always I welcome feedback.

I am proud to announce that my latest site, Celebritytrash.com, has just gone live. In the next few weeks I will be adding daily photographs to compliment the news and gossip.

Check it out!

Celebritytrash.com

I have recently been shopping for a new car; there are lots of models in the segment that I am interested in all the big players have offerings in the four-door sedan class Acura, Lexus, BMW, MB, and Audi. What I have seen in the last 36 months of new cars is that many of these companies have sterilized their entry vehicles to such an extent that a passenger can hardly tell what car they are in without looking at the badge on the steering-wheel.

The idea behind a sporty four-door sedan is that you can still have fun but not forget about the practical things in life like Costco runs and Ikea adventures. I expect to be able to fit a reasonable amount of food/water/boxes in the trunk of my practical car, but on the other had I don’t expect to fit much beyond a baseball cap and jacket in a convertible – typically thought of as impractical.

The car that struck my fancy was the new Lexus IS 350, it has the most character out of all the competition, you all get a very comfortable place to be, a ton of power, all the fun toys, and best of all - two extra seats (middle back seat is an afterthought). The thing that I didn’t pay much attention to was the fact that the rear seats do not fold down. A friend was quick to point out that in a car with a small trunk opening the only work-around is that you can put things in through the passenger doors and slide them to the trunk, but without seats that fold down this is not possible.

So, the question I asked myself was “Would I be pissed off with my new car if I had some boxes to load in the trunk but couldn’t get them to fit through the opening by just an inch or two?” I would be furious! Having chosen the practical four-door sedan I expect to be able to use my trunk space, not just have it there. I quickly rang up the Audi dealer and placed myself on the list for a convertible to be delivered in July/August the only feature I didn’t order it with is expectations.

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine in the mobile IT business. He had a client today who had their account suspended without notification, after a call to Cox support he was told that the customer's account was disabled because of an 'open wireless access point.' After some further questions he found out that now have vans driving around in various customer areas throughout Orange County and San Diego.

Anyone else heard of this going on? What are the implications of this? Is Cox connecting to customer networks without their permission or just scanning to see for a AP without WEP? What are the chances of Cox turning off a customer that has an AP (without WEP) powered on but not connected to the net? What is the deal with not telling customers they have been turned off and still billing them?

I have heard so interesting stats about Costco recently regarding their lightning fast inventory turnover rate, but the most important thing about Costco is that they know how customers want to be treated.

Example: I ordered a camera yesterday, Canon SD550, to replace my not-so-Ritz-y camera purchase. Today I noticed that they had dropped the price by $50. Costco Customer Service didn't even ask for an explanation, credit card number, or account number - they just credited me for the difference after I told them my order number.

So stick to what you know - I know that Costco offers a much better experience than that of retailers that try to lure you in with deals that are too good to be true.