bdkowert.com

One of the latest updates to Orb seems to include a plugin for Windows Media Center. I’m currently using Orb version 2.00.0867 on Windows Vista. I had updated my Orb installation remotely after being prompted when I logged into MyCast to bring up some of my media. I suppose if I had multiple computers with media all linked to the same Orb account I could really make use of the new features, but for now it just looks nice.
Getting video from sites like Youtube, Google Video and DailyMotion is slightly easier using the OrbThis plugin. After installing the Firefox plugin be sure to go add it to your toolbar manually (View> Toolbars > Customize… > Drag OrbThis to the toolbar) since the installer doesn’t do this for you. When in your MyCast page on your mobile device you can then search video sites and have the videos streamed to you in a more mobile-friendly format. Make sure you have the right codecs on your PC or you may have trouble with the video.

Something I still do on my own computers and others’ is adding a shortcut to GMail to the start menu in place of Outlook/Outlook Express/Hotmail. This is simple to do with a registy entry and can be enhanced by adding an icon to the shortcut. The icon itself can be stored anywhere you like as long as the registy entry points to it. To do this over and over again when I rebuild my own and other people’s PC’s, I’ve put together a batch file that create the necessary registry entry and copies the icon to the Windows directory (to keep it out of the way like a real icon and since I never have the desire to go modify it). Here is the GMail Start Menu shortcut package I’ve made in a .zip file. Use it as you like.
Here are the gritty details if you prefer to set this up manually, instead of using the install package.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Gmail]
@="Gmail"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Gmail\shell]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Gmail\shell\open]
@="Gmail"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Gmail\shell\open\command]
@="rundll32.exe url.dll,FileProtocolHandler http://mail.google.com/mail/"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\Gmail\DefaultIcon]
@="%systemroot%\\Gmail.ico"


I was looking at the number of Fon hotspots around the major cities on Fon’s Google Maps/Fon mashup and was interested in seeing the hotspots in Google Earth as well. Luckily Fon has .kml files available on their maps page for easy viewing. But when I tried opening the .kml in Earth I was told there were errors in the file. I’m not sure if it was because of version differences or some other factor, but the problem was that there were ampersands(&) in the Description tag of many locations. After removing them, I was able to view all the hotspots quite easily.
But then when I turned on the 3D buildings the hotspot graphics were obscured. It would be much more interesting to see the hotspots in 3D at each point. So I set out to make my own 3D hotspot model in Google Sketchup. It didn’t take long to create my own Sphere component. Placing the hotspot model into Sketchup is easy, just go to File > Import and place the model where ever you like. The next step is to get the model together with a .kml file to display all Fon hotspots in 3D.

You can use the Sphere component on your own. Just download it and use it in Sketchup the same as any other.

The other day after browsing for review of several e-commerce sites that I visit, I came across Resellerratings.com. I liked the site and the way that it was put together, so I decided to write reviews for a few of the sites that I’ve purchased from. Some of my reviews were favorable for the store, some not. One of my unfavorable reviews was for TigerDirect.com. In that review I mentioned that my rebate had failed to go through and that my in-store experience was not helped by the staff. Less than a week after writing the review I received an email from TigerDirect.

Dear bdkowert,
I am writing in reference to your recent review on Resellerratings.com. We apologize for the trouble you had with your rebate and as a courtesy, we have issued you a $20.00 store credit. You can redeem this credit when you phone in your next order (not available for online orders). Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Your business is very important to us and we hope you will give us the opportunity to retain it. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

Adela Gomez
Customer Satisfaction
Tigerdirect.com

So, the good news is that I’ve got store credit. The bad news is that I’ve already given up shopping there, as my experiences have never matched other online retailers like Newegg.com. Maybe I should start complaining about more stores.

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