phoFuki

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Popularity: 71% [?]

My posting has been a little on the light side over the past few weeks.  Some say it could be the rise in micro blogging services like pownce or twitter.  That could be part of it, for me I think it has more to do with the focus or direction of this blog.

I’ve struggled over the last few months to try and keep this blog as focused as I can and unfortunately in the process have not posted many a great posts.  I definitly belive that you should always follow what you are passionate about and have found that I am limiting myself by trying to create too narrow of a focus of this blog. 

Over the next few weeks you will see a new look (maybe a couple..), posts that will probably still be techcentric but also other stories of my adventure through the nets and IRL.  I hope you find the changes to your liking and of interest

direction change,blog,blogging

Popularity: 95% [?]

The rumors started almost as soon as the iPhone was released last year, that a newer improved version would be following soon.  Many had speculated that it was coming for the holidays last year as Apple slashed prices on the hot selling iPhone by 30% and very early in its initial release.  Of course, no 3G iPhone was released. 

All year I have been hearing talk of a 3G iPhone coming by summer to be launched inline with many other countries that have yet to release an iPhone.  Now the rumors are swirling and are becoming louder with each passing day.  Over at Engadget, it is being speculated that we should see the new iPhone by June or July (that’s the most reliable part).  Other reports are speculation on size, shape and other features.  Let’s not forget about the dual video camera that Kevin Rose talked about on diggnation.  The biggest news as of late is that AT&T may actually discount the handset with the signing of a contract.  A practice that has been in place for many years in wooing subscribers. 

I’ve had my iPhone for a while now.  Actually the longest I have ever gone without switching to another phone for even a short period of time.  With the exception that I have more bars than any other carrier but the worst service, I have been very happy with the phone.  Yes, it is lacking in a many features that it should have had from the outset but they are niceties and not critical for my use.  I do at times miss my Blackberry, alas my email addiction has been replaced with Twitter so all is not lost.  I’m not so sure I’ll be jumping on the initial release this time around (still stewing form the last time) so how about you.  Will you be jumping on the first boat or will you wait it out this go around?

3g,iphone,apple

Popularity: 98% [?]

It looks like AT&T is starting to roll out the rumored free WiFi access for iPhone (AT&T subscribers only) users at there numerous hotspot locations such as Barnes and Noble bookstores and Starbuck locations. According to a post on MacRumors, iPhone users will be presented with a special web page upon accessing the hotspot that asks for a mobile number.  Upon confirming subscription, the users will be granted access to the hotspot, free of charge.

This is really exciting news and I can’t wait to check this out first hand tomorrow.  Has anyone else been able to confirm this?

iphone,free wifi

Popularity: 95% [?]

Nine Inch Nails is doing it again.  You may recall the free album download from not too long ago.  Well, you can now get your hands on a single, ready for you to download and again it’s FREE.  Head on over to the Nine Inch Nails | Discipline site for your freebie.

nine inch nails,nin,music

Popularity: 86% [?]

What a great weekend camping on the beach, eating sand, fishing and freezing my but off.  I did make it without a computer, WiFi, or a phone and was pretty happy about that.  I will admit that I did have to seek out a Starbucks for a DoubleShot Saturday morning.  While I was there I tried the new blend Pike Place which was really just OK for me.

I started to head back Sunday morning and stopped at a few fishing spots along the way like Tilghman Island and Kent Narrows.  Nothing seemed to pan out so by 4:30 in the afternoon I packed it in and jumped in the Jeep.  Although there were storm clouds rolling in, I decided to ignore them and leave the top down.

Lesson:  Yes, as long as you stay at a speed of 60 mph or faster you can avoid getting wet even in a big down poor.  I made like I was driving the bus in Speed to avoid getting wet.  Unfortunately, with any big rain comes big traffic and slowing down meant getting soaked. Oh well, those things happen right ;)  I did find a bridge to hide under long enough to put the top back up.

Popularity: 87% [?]

I’m unplugging for the weekend (well almost).  I’ve decided that walking away from the computer and kicking the ball around with a 3 year old for a couple hours isn’t going to do it for me.  It’s strange for as I’m always on my iPhone or computer and wont travel unless there is WiFi available (last time I went to Japan it was the deciding factor for what hotel we stayed at).  I occasionally take a weekend and go camping with nothing more advanced than a fishing pole (I never catch anything).  I refresh, reflect and rejuvenate and come back feeling more whole, which is why I suggest that you unplug from time to time.  I know it’s hard especially if your always connected like me but trust me, change your voice mail and nothing catastrophic will happen for the couple days your gone.take time to unplug and enjoy the world around you.

See you on Monday for today ‘I walk into the wild’. 

unplug,time off

Popularity: 100% [?]

A CNAME is an alias for a host record. CNAMEs allow you to have more than one DNS name for a host record. Why would you want to do this? Well it just so happens that I have a dot mac account and needed a domain registered with GoDaddy to point to the dot mac account. Sounds tough but then I learned about CNAMEs. Apple actually recommended simply changing the CNAME record making the actual transfer of domain unnecessary. I figured I may have to just change the DNS servers but no that doesn’t work with a dot mac account. Off to GoDaddy I went to figure out how to accomplish this seemingly easy change. This is what I came up with.

CNAME records point back to an A record. So if you change the IP address of the A record, all your CNAME records pointed to that record automatically follow the new IP of the A record. The alternative solution is to have multiple A records, but then you would have multiple places to change the IP address which increases the chances of error. Using CNAMEs makes your DNS data easier to manage. The most common CNAMEs are www and ftp.
To Create a CNAME Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Manage Domains.
3. Click the domain name for which you want to create a CNAME record.
4. In the Total DNS Control field, click the Total DNS Control and MX Records hyperlink.
5. Click Add New CNAME Record.
6. Complete the following:

Enter an Alias Name
The subdomain for which you want to create the record.
Points to Host Name
Your domain name.
TTL
The time increment for which the server should cache the information.

7. Click OK.

So, it seemed easy.  Actually, I found where I needed to go and it was as easy as all the instructions had made it seem.  48hrs to go and we’ll see ii really is

godaddy,cname

Popularity: 98% [?]

So I started to see several Tweets yesterday about being able o upload video to Flickr.  Of course it all sounded like there was still testing going on but the process was really smooth.  I for one have been waiting for video upload capability, it was one feature that Flickr lacked compared to Picassa and my .Mac account.

Here’s the good news.  Flickr has now made the video upload feature official.  Anyone with a Pro account can upload 90 seconds of video amongst their photos.  Why only 90 seconds? The powers that be at Flickr came up with "…the idea of “long photos,” of capturing slices of life to share".  Now we all remember our time in front of the class giving a report and 60 seconds is a long time let alone 90 of those nerve wrecking tick tocks. Need inspiration?  Just google one minute film and you’ll find plenty of help.

The second part of this good news is that there is a bonus for everyone.  To help with the potentially large video file, Flickr is doubling the size of photo uploads to 20MB per photo for pro members and 10MB for free accounts.

Go on now, start uploading those videos and don’t forget to let me know what you think of the service in the comments section here.

flickr,video sharing

Popularity: 88% [?]

Do you have a fav icon?  What about a fav icon for the iPhone aka webmark?  There really isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t have either one.  Just like a fav icon, the webmark will create a graphic link on an iPhone (further distinguishing your site from others).  It can be argued on how important the graphic is but one thing you’ll notice when looking at your own favorites folder is that the links with a unique graphic beside it catch your attention first.  The graphic is like a logo in that it brands your site and raises awareness.

The webmark is a graphic file is limited to the following 3 criteria and your own creativity.

1. it must conform to a 57 x 57 pixel canvas
2. must have the name ‘apple-touch-icon.png‘
3. saved in your root folder of the website (not the server)

That’s it!  Pretty easy, now you get out there and make yours.  If you’re feeling especially proud of your icon, send it to me so I can post it here on phofuki.com

iphone,webmark,fav icon

Popularity: 99% [?]