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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Here it is, April 3, 2008 and it is ‘Good People Day 2008′.  Gary Vaynerchuk got the ball rolling on this yesterday and I have to give him props for just using his celbrety in getting this community to move in the same positive direction for one day (WOW what a force).  I’ve been seeing Tweets all day naming good people and I think that’s just great!  My take is a little different.

I didn’t feel the need to throw out any names as a poster on Gary’s site did mention that there would be many names not mentioned which really resonated for me.  I think ‘Good People Day’ is really a reflective day for everyone to rememebr and contemplate the people that have had positive effect on them (ie. parents, teachers, clecbrities and so on).  The simple act of remebering who and why creates a positive energy that gets passed on to others starting a chain reaction of goodness. 

Taking one day to reflect and embrace the positive people you have known is powerful.  I for one have thought about many people that will go nameless as most would not even know who they are but it does not make them less important.  I take their positive lessons and pass them on today as wel as the uplifiting and motivtion power they have given me.  By the way Gary has been added to my list

gary vaynerchuk,gpd08

Tomorrow is being hailed as "Good People Day". Gary Vaynerchuk over at Wine Library TV is continuing his change the world mantra with ‘Good People Day 2008′.  The word is spreading quickly over the nets so start thinking about how you would like to contribute to this event.  Make sure you tag your posts, tweets pwnces or anything else as GPD08 if possible.  I imagine that a simple Google search should turn up all the posts and other bits that deal with it going forward.  Pretty awesome stuff in moving this social community to something good.

GPD08

Today I decided to get out for a change of scenery.  I recommend you do this as often as possible, it will help you focus on what is important to you, but why digress in to such swishy washy stuff.

I have plenty of locations to choose from when I decide to get out, from parks and scenic views to coffee shops and library’s. Today I needed the use of the internet while working. This meant that my options were limited to the library, Starbucks, and Panera. Two out of the three offer free WiFi. So I chose Panera since I was also feeling the need for a tasty treat. I’ll be honest here, the Starbucks by my office is where I wanted to go, it’s a bit more quiet and the coffee and treats are better. But wait, Starbucks doesn’t offer free WiFi and why would I pay for a full day when I’m only going to use it for a couple hours? *I can’t wait until this summer when ATT will supposedly offer some free time on their WiFi hotspots, specifically Starbucks. I’m really not sure why ATT doesn’t offer some free WiFi to their data subscribers like they do their DSL subscribers (maybe that just makes too much sense).  I don’t know why the free time isn’t offered by more establishments limited or not but it should be offered.

I chose a nice little spot near the fireplace in Panera.  I can usually get an open outlet and don’t get bothered by the early lunch crowd.  Panera use to limit what ports were open on their WiFi, which meant that certain internet applications simply would not function.  I am very happy to inform you that most of those restrictions have quietly been done away with. 

I spent time here today without paying for WiFi but I did buy coffee, a bagel and then a muffin.  If I had not needed to get to a meeting, I would have stayed for lunch. If this isn’t an example of why more places should offer free WiFi, I don’t know what is.  For example, the Starbucks and Barnes & Noble are paid hotspots and they are nearly empty at all times and certainly never beset upon by mobile workers such as myself.  The Panera location is packed all day with laptop screens glowing and meetings taking place.  Now I know there is a cost associated with offering the free WiFi but surely the cost is higher if the WiFi goes unused.  The offering of free WiFi helps add value to the establishments offerings and further adds to building community.  

I’d like to hear where you go when you need ot get out.  When you need to get out, what’s your favorite place to go and work?

hotspot,wifi,free