A quick job took a few days, rust thwarted Bram and I more than once... Brakes and rotors are looking good now on the Pathfinder.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Stop
A quick job took a few days, rust thwarted Bram and I more than once... Brakes and rotors are looking good now on the Pathfinder.
=alias i-names and your digital identity
A few weeks back, I changed a few minor things on this site. You may have noticed =Amante across the top and around my blog, and wondered whats up with that equal sign in front of your name?
Well, that equal symbol followed by my nickname(lastname) is my registered 'i-name'. Whats an i-name? is it anything like a domain name or email address? I guess the best way to describe it is my 'universal login', the only problem is the universe hasn't fully adopted the standard yet. Someday it may be possible to use my =Amante i-name as a login at many different sites, like Yahoo Mail, Google Calendar, Ebay, commenting on blogs, or even my online banking account. The great part is, when I change my password for my i-name, I do it once and can still use all those web services with my new password. Over the years you may have heard about single-signon and identity management solutions, well to date, the i-name is one of the keys which may actually make this work in the future. People can contact you through your i-name http://xri.net/=amante/, but it is difficult to send SPAM, as you need to be authorized with either an i-name or through an email-confirm-click verification process. People may also be able to locate your website, blog ie: http://xri.net/=amante/(+blog), or resumehttp://xri.net/=amante/(+resume), or any other web-link you wish to provide by knowing your i-name as well.
So, in short, if you want to be a prospector and reserve your i-name now, go ahead and do so over at 2idi.com for example... but if you just want to get a feel for what it is all about, go ahead over to freexri.com and get yourself a free name within their community namespaces.
Well, that equal symbol followed by my nickname(lastname) is my registered 'i-name'. Whats an i-name? is it anything like a domain name or email address? I guess the best way to describe it is my 'universal login', the only problem is the universe hasn't fully adopted the standard yet. Someday it may be possible to use my =Amante i-name as a login at many different sites, like Yahoo Mail, Google Calendar, Ebay, commenting on blogs, or even my online banking account. The great part is, when I change my password for my i-name, I do it once and can still use all those web services with my new password. Over the years you may have heard about single-signon and identity management solutions, well to date, the i-name is one of the keys which may actually make this work in the future. People can contact you through your i-name http://xri.net/=amante/, but it is difficult to send SPAM, as you need to be authorized with either an i-name or through an email-confirm-click verification process. People may also be able to locate your website, blog ie: http://xri.net/=amante/(+blog), or resumehttp://xri.net/=amante/(+resume), or any other web-link you wish to provide by knowing your i-name as well.
So, in short, if you want to be a prospector and reserve your i-name now, go ahead and do so over at 2idi.com for example... but if you just want to get a feel for what it is all about, go ahead over to freexri.com and get yourself a free name within their community namespaces.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
White mountains
We camped over at Russell Pond off of Tripoli Road near Lincoln, NH. On Saturday we did a 5 mile hike, up Coppermine trail on the back-side of Cannon mountain. It was a nice hike alongside a stream most of the way, and at the top were the Bridal Veil water falls and rock-slides. A great first hike of the season, wish the weather was a little bit nicer, but we had a great day anyways...Looking forward to a few more trips this summer!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Monday, July 02, 2007
i-phones
What I like about the i-phone, is what I like about Apple. They don't make the best products always, but they encourage the whole market to look at them for a minute, before they going back to creating their competing products....
Take i-tunes/ipod for example, mp3's were out for a long time before itunes/ipods came along... But back in they day, turning a CD into mp3 tracks was something that took the average computer most of a night to do... making playlists and setting up your mp3 player for a listen, took some advanced planning before you could enjoy... Then along comes the ipod, plug it in, and you have your music... (ok, almost that easy) But it encouraged the masses to move their audio from their cd-racks to digital files and competing companies to pay attention to the things they did right.
The i-phone is OK. But of course their model that worked for i-pod already may work again, incrementally make updates and people will buy the next new one when they are ready. If i-phone packed in all the features that they could have today, why would anyone upgrade next year? What i-phone points out to the masses is two things, data services are prime time with phones.. You no longer need to be tied in any way to your desk, home, or laptop to get the information you want. And secondly, multi-function devices that the whole world can use are here to stay. I'm talking about your device, which connects you to your people & calendar/music/photos/work... and that the rest of the world can use, thats right, they built it on GSM standards so you can travel from country to country and switch from carrier to carrier with the flick of a SIM card.. Sorry Verizon/Sprint, join the rest, stop being stubborn.
Honestly, my Sony Ericsson k790a is much nicer than current i-phone releases... but i'll save that discussion for another time.
Take i-tunes/ipod for example, mp3's were out for a long time before itunes/ipods came along... But back in they day, turning a CD into mp3 tracks was something that took the average computer most of a night to do... making playlists and setting up your mp3 player for a listen, took some advanced planning before you could enjoy... Then along comes the ipod, plug it in, and you have your music... (ok, almost that easy) But it encouraged the masses to move their audio from their cd-racks to digital files and competing companies to pay attention to the things they did right.
The i-phone is OK. But of course their model that worked for i-pod already may work again, incrementally make updates and people will buy the next new one when they are ready. If i-phone packed in all the features that they could have today, why would anyone upgrade next year? What i-phone points out to the masses is two things, data services are prime time with phones.. You no longer need to be tied in any way to your desk, home, or laptop to get the information you want. And secondly, multi-function devices that the whole world can use are here to stay. I'm talking about your device, which connects you to your people & calendar/music/photos/work... and that the rest of the world can use, thats right, they built it on GSM standards so you can travel from country to country and switch from carrier to carrier with the flick of a SIM card.. Sorry Verizon/Sprint, join the rest, stop being stubborn.
Honestly, my Sony Ericsson k790a is much nicer than current i-phone releases... but i'll save that discussion for another time.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Happy Mothers Day
Well, mom, as the first person to usually read my blog you probably have some time to have me remove anything you don't want posted forever...
This year we had a nice sunny May day, nothing like the flood-waters and downpours of last years weather... Unfortunately with my final presentation/project for my ASP.NET 2.0 class due tomorrow, I wasn't able to spend a whole lot of the day with the fam, but we still got in a brief trip to the beach and had dinner together...
My mom absolutely loves it when all her kids are in the same room, car, house or really anywhere.. I think if she had a big enough nest she would sit on top of us all and keep us warm. She's done a pretty fine job raising us, along with dad's help of course.. They both played very good role models for me growing up, and I think we all turned out thoughtful, caring, honest and with good heads on our shoulders...
Thanks mom for all your time and work, I owe a lot to you.
Love you!!
-Michael
This year we had a nice sunny May day, nothing like the flood-waters and downpours of last years weather... Unfortunately with my final presentation/project for my ASP.NET 2.0 class due tomorrow, I wasn't able to spend a whole lot of the day with the fam, but we still got in a brief trip to the beach and had dinner together...
My mom absolutely loves it when all her kids are in the same room, car, house or really anywhere.. I think if she had a big enough nest she would sit on top of us all and keep us warm. She's done a pretty fine job raising us, along with dad's help of course.. They both played very good role models for me growing up, and I think we all turned out thoughtful, caring, honest and with good heads on our shoulders...
Thanks mom for all your time and work, I owe a lot to you.
Love you!!
-Michael
Friday, May 11, 2007
Big dig
There used to be an ugly green freeway here. As a kid I remember family trips to Boston's northend, parking the car here beneath the highway...
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Geotag your Photos, Youtube videos and more!
Check this out, mountains where I've ski'd or snowboarded over the last few years... Viewable in Google Maps or if you have Google Earth you can check it out using that by downloading this KML file and opening it up(right click, save as.... IE saves it as an XML file so you may have to rename the file extension to .KML).
I added some YouTube clips to some locations, and some photo's to some others... It's a pretty nice way to document your trips.. The easiest way to create these files is with Google Maps - My Maps feature, which just requires a Google account to use.. The other way is through Google Earth, and even another way to do this is with a GPS device and some software --
I've been working with the Google Map API a lot recently, and you can now also use these files with KML/GeoRSS Overlays
I added some YouTube clips to some locations, and some photo's to some others... It's a pretty nice way to document your trips.. The easiest way to create these files is with Google Maps - My Maps feature, which just requires a Google account to use.. The other way is through Google Earth, and even another way to do this is with a GPS device and some software --
I've been working with the Google Map API a lot recently, and you can now also use these files with KML/GeoRSS Overlays
Monday, April 16, 2007
What is my ip address? And why would I care?
Some of you may know what an IP address is, and some may not have any idea... or care. But after enough friends have asked me about it, I figured it's time to write something up on the subject. It stands for Internet Protocol address, and if you prefer to read the wiki article, go for it...
Before I explain it, I'll offer some reasons as why you would want to know about it.
-Do you ever wish you could get to your home computer's desktop when you are not at home?
-Do you ever wish you could get to some files on your computer at home?
-Do you want to setup your own web-server, file-server, internet-radio station, email-server or game-server?
-Have you ever tried to do something like play a video-game, send a file over instant messenger, or used a p2p file sharing application and have gotten an error message saying your firewall has blocked you?
My way of explaining it to people best is, it is like your 'phone-number' for your computer using the internet. Although you may rarely care which number you are 'called or make calls with' , behind the scenes your ISP is using it to let you use their services... It is pretty easy to figure out your external IP address on the internet, www.whatismyip.com is one of my quick ways to identify it. If you hooked your computer directly up to the Cable/DSL modem this would truly be your IP.
Now for the tricky part, home routers, wireless access points, and hardware firewalls.... Your home access point is the device that is directly connected to your Cable/DSL modem and it gets your external IP assigned to it. Every computer/laptop that connects to your access point gets a different 'phone number extension'.. To make things confusing, this extension is usually an internal IP address... but the good news is they are in a range specifically designed for home/private use, 192.168.x.x being the most popular range for home use..
So great, my router has an external IP address, for example: 55.44.33.123 it also has an internal IP address, for example 192.168.1.1, and my computer plugged into my wireless router has an IP address too 192.168.1.123, given to me by my router.
Ok I get it.
What about Port Forwarding? What if my external IP address from my ISP changes? What if my internal IP address from my wireless router changes?
Before I explain it, I'll offer some reasons as why you would want to know about it.
-Do you ever wish you could get to your home computer's desktop when you are not at home?
-Do you ever wish you could get to some files on your computer at home?
-Do you want to setup your own web-server, file-server, internet-radio station, email-server or game-server?
-Have you ever tried to do something like play a video-game, send a file over instant messenger, or used a p2p file sharing application and have gotten an error message saying your firewall has blocked you?
My way of explaining it to people best is, it is like your 'phone-number' for your computer using the internet. Although you may rarely care which number you are 'called or make calls with' , behind the scenes your ISP is using it to let you use their services... It is pretty easy to figure out your external IP address on the internet, www.whatismyip.com is one of my quick ways to identify it. If you hooked your computer directly up to the Cable/DSL modem this would truly be your IP.
Now for the tricky part, home routers, wireless access points, and hardware firewalls.... Your home access point is the device that is directly connected to your Cable/DSL modem and it gets your external IP assigned to it. Every computer/laptop that connects to your access point gets a different 'phone number extension'.. To make things confusing, this extension is usually an internal IP address... but the good news is they are in a range specifically designed for home/private use, 192.168.x.x being the most popular range for home use..
So great, my router has an external IP address, for example: 55.44.33.123 it also has an internal IP address, for example 192.168.1.1, and my computer plugged into my wireless router has an IP address too 192.168.1.123, given to me by my router.
Ok I get it.
What about Port Forwarding? What if my external IP address from my ISP changes? What if my internal IP address from my wireless router changes?
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
ASP.NET 2.0 - Sending Email with your application
This is a very simplistic example of how to send an email within your ASP.NET 2.0 application. This example uses Google's gmail service, although it should work with any SMTP email server as long as you have the correct server settings (Host, Port, SSL) Good luck with your application!
public bool SendEmail(string strTo, string strSubject, string strBody)
{
bool bReturn=false;
System.Net.Mail.MailMessage mail = new System.Net.Mail.MailMessage();
System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient smtp = new System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient();
mail.From = new MailAddress("sender@gmail.com", "Senders Name");
mail.ReplyTo = new MailAddress("sender@gmail.com"); // optional
mail.To.Add(strTo);
mail.Subject = strSubject;
mail.Body = strBody;
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
smtp.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
smtp.Port = 25;
smtp.EnableSsl = true;
smtp.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("sender@gmail.com", "password");
smtp.Send(mail);
bReturn = true;
return bReturn;
}
public bool SendEmail(string strTo, string strSubject, string strBody)
{
bool bReturn=false;
System.Net.Mail.MailMessage mail = new System.Net.Mail.MailMessage();
System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient smtp = new System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient();
mail.From = new MailAddress("sender@gmail.com", "Senders Name");
mail.ReplyTo = new MailAddress("sender@gmail.com"); // optional
mail.To.Add(strTo);
mail.Subject = strSubject;
mail.Body = strBody;
mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
smtp.Host = "smtp.gmail.com";
smtp.Port = 25;
smtp.EnableSsl = true;
smtp.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("sender@gmail.com", "password");
smtp.Send(mail);
bReturn = true;
return bReturn;
}
Friday, March 23, 2007
Wireless Photo Printing with Kodak Kiosk and Sony Ericsson k790a
So I walk into CVS yesterday with Melissa.. She had a few things to get, and I didn't really need anything. I walked up to a Kodak Kiosk and notice a Bluetooth 
icon on the machine.. and think, cool...
So I hit a few buttons on the screen, select a picture out of my phone, and beam it over to the machine.. I make a few 29 cent prints, and am on my way...
Good stuff! Nice work Kodak and Sony Ericsson for making it that easy....
Heres the picture of Nibbles I printed!!
icon on the machine.. and think, cool...So I hit a few buttons on the screen, select a picture out of my phone, and beam it over to the machine.. I make a few 29 cent prints, and am on my way...
Good stuff! Nice work Kodak and Sony Ericsson for making it that easy....
Heres the picture of Nibbles I printed!!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Power Use - Advanced features of k790a
After playing around with my new phone for a few weeks, I've explored some of the advanced features of the phone.
Java Applications
Google Maps(traffic updates!!)
Salling Clicker - Use your cellphone as a remote control for iTunes, PowerPoint, etc.
MFRadio - Wirelessly stream music from my collection at home
vNes Nintendo Emulator - Playing classic Mario and Zelda is great!
Opera Mini browser!
Calendar Sync - SyncML
Using GooSync's free service to sync my Google Calendars with my phones Calendar automatically.
Rss News Reader
Gloucester daily times, Google News, Weather and Forecast
Animated Radar images
Bluetooth
A2DP - Wireless tunes! You can now have headphones with no wires, no cables between your home stereo and your tunes...
Modem - Using my laptop to surf the internet is always easier than viewing on a small screen, and typing on a small keyboard.. EDGE Is a bit slow(20-50k/s), but still usable in a pinch. And a data plan for 6$ per month fits the bill. Thanks for the setup scripts Ross Barkman.
File Transfer - A breeze with OS X, just drag and drop the files to/from the mounted drives.. Adding mp3 ringtones, wallpapers, taking pictures/videos off of the camera is a breeze..
Java Applications
Google Maps(traffic updates!!)
Salling Clicker - Use your cellphone as a remote control for iTunes, PowerPoint, etc.
MFRadio - Wirelessly stream music from my collection at home
vNes Nintendo Emulator - Playing classic Mario and Zelda is great!
Opera Mini browser!
Calendar Sync - SyncML
Using GooSync's free service to sync my Google Calendars with my phones Calendar automatically.
Rss News Reader
Gloucester daily times, Google News, Weather and Forecast
Animated Radar images
Bluetooth
A2DP - Wireless tunes! You can now have headphones with no wires, no cables between your home stereo and your tunes...
Modem - Using my laptop to surf the internet is always easier than viewing on a small screen, and typing on a small keyboard.. EDGE Is a bit slow(20-50k/s), but still usable in a pinch. And a data plan for 6$ per month fits the bill. Thanks for the setup scripts Ross Barkman.
File Transfer - A breeze with OS X, just drag and drop the files to/from the mounted drives.. Adding mp3 ringtones, wallpapers, taking pictures/videos off of the camera is a breeze..
Monday, March 05, 2007
Sunday, March 04, 2007
cell phones - New phone! K790a
So back in the day(2005), I wasn't able to take a picture with my phone. I wasn't able to instantly upload it to my blog. I didn't always carry around a 3-megapixel camera.
This photo was uploaded directly from my phone to the web, know what that means? You'll probably start seeing less text and more pictures! I'll try to add text and stories after the fact, cause you know how much fun it is to T9 or type text message style --
Check out technical specs...
This post, really one up's my first mobile blog-post... I guess my ole t68i can now retire after 4 great years of usage...
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Subject: Email pet peeves
I think my number one pet peeve with email is the subject line... when the subject line has nothing to do with the message or reply below or is missing entirely... I understand sometimes a thread changes over time, but when digging(searching/sorting) through email months/years later, you really appreciate accurate subject lines....
So pretty please, with sugar on top, clean up your subject lines...
no subject is better than an off-base one...
What do you dislike about emails?
So pretty please, with sugar on top, clean up your subject lines...
no subject is better than an off-base one...
What do you dislike about emails?
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Colorado Trip
Back from Colorado!!
Vail, A-basin, and Breckenridge were my favorite mountains we went to, but they were all great. We had mostly perfect blue-sky days with temperatures perfect for being outdoors in January... Wish we got a bit more snow while I was out there, maybe next time if we are lucky!
I have a photo album on Flickr, let me know if you'd like to see some more shots from our trip!
Vail, A-basin, and Breckenridge were my favorite mountains we went to, but they were all great. We had mostly perfect blue-sky days with temperatures perfect for being outdoors in January... Wish we got a bit more snow while I was out there, maybe next time if we are lucky!
I have a photo album on Flickr, let me know if you'd like to see some more shots from our trip!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Linux on PSP
Here's a post about my friend Chris' latest project, I tried posting it to Slashdot to help him get some other developers to help him with the project --
Check out:
uClinux ported to Playstation Portable (PSP)
Maybe it's to prove a point that some variant of Linux can run on any digi device....
Maybe he didn't want to play games on his PSP, but instead take it apart..
Maybe he wanted to bite down on a kernel without cracking his teeth at the movies...
Well anyways, that crazy mofo named chris is at it again, this time booting his PSP device up with uClinux.. Sure if you want wifi, video, or keypad input you'll have to write the drivers... don't even think about fireing up Mame and launching your fav old skool game yet... as this project needs some basic drivers first... but writing device drivers for your fav unsupported hardware/software hasn't stopped you in the past, has it?"
Check out:
uClinux ported to Playstation Portable (PSP)
Maybe it's to prove a point that some variant of Linux can run on any digi device....
Maybe he didn't want to play games on his PSP, but instead take it apart..
Maybe he wanted to bite down on a kernel without cracking his teeth at the movies...
Well anyways, that crazy mofo named chris is at it again, this time booting his PSP device up with uClinux.. Sure if you want wifi, video, or keypad input you'll have to write the drivers... don't even think about fireing up Mame and launching your fav old skool game yet... as this project needs some basic drivers first... but writing device drivers for your fav unsupported hardware/software hasn't stopped you in the past, has it?"
Thursday, January 04, 2007
GIS - a hobby or career?
GIS - Geographic Information Systems is an emerging field which I have taken interest to, spawned by great applications such as Google Earth and Google Maps, there have also been sites of value such as HousingMaps.com, CheapGas.com, Zillow.com all which present valuable data to you based upon what you are looking for overlayed onto a geographic map. Flickr now also allows you to tag where a picture was shot --
I've been thinking about taking a few courses in GIS to become more familiar with the field and concepts used in developing GIS solutions.
I've been thinking about taking a few courses in GIS to become more familiar with the field and concepts used in developing GIS solutions.
Monday, January 01, 2007
New Years resolutions
-Focus
With many hobbies and talents, life is a challenging balancing act of when and where to do the things that I want to do. This year, I want to focus my efforts more.. Instead of working on too many things, to work on only a few and see them to completion or the next milestone before focusing my efforts on something new.
-Challenge myself
The world is as easy or as hard as you make it... I want to be challenged. I want my work to be meaningful and valueable. I want to be busy, but not with busy work. Think of and develop solutions that work. I want to continously learn, be it at work, at school, at home or outside travelling the world.
-Minimize environmental impact:
The population rate of humans alone will inenvitably cause the consumption of finite resources of our planet to become extinct. There should be two bins in your house that go out on your street each week, trash, or things that disintegrate naturally and everything else which should be recycled... If your town doesn't recycle, someone has to start it. If your town doesn't recycle plastic #10, ask them why not..
Use less energy, or put the energy you use into the grid cleanly.
With many hobbies and talents, life is a challenging balancing act of when and where to do the things that I want to do. This year, I want to focus my efforts more.. Instead of working on too many things, to work on only a few and see them to completion or the next milestone before focusing my efforts on something new.
-Challenge myself
The world is as easy or as hard as you make it... I want to be challenged. I want my work to be meaningful and valueable. I want to be busy, but not with busy work. Think of and develop solutions that work. I want to continously learn, be it at work, at school, at home or outside travelling the world.
-Minimize environmental impact:
The population rate of humans alone will inenvitably cause the consumption of finite resources of our planet to become extinct. There should be two bins in your house that go out on your street each week, trash, or things that disintegrate naturally and everything else which should be recycled... If your town doesn't recycle, someone has to start it. If your town doesn't recycle plastic #10, ask them why not..
Use less energy, or put the energy you use into the grid cleanly.
Monday, December 18, 2006
delicous bookmarks!
Do you use more than one computer frequently? One at work? one at home? A few at work or home? Ok... admit it, you have a computer in every room of the house, don't you? or maybe you are viewing web content on devices besides computers?
Well the problem here is your favorites/bookmarks... You saved that link somewhere, but when? on which computer? how do you try to remember what you called the bookmark and where you may have left it? Maybe you want to share a bookmark with a friend or two....
A solution to this problem was developed over at this delicious website, i mean del.icio.us a nice clever use of the added US domain space.....
Check out my bookmarks, and get an account for yourself!
http://del.icio.us/gmamante
Oh, and if you use Firefox as your browser, there is a nice plugin/extension that adds delicous bookmark buttons to your toolbar!
Well the problem here is your favorites/bookmarks... You saved that link somewhere, but when? on which computer? how do you try to remember what you called the bookmark and where you may have left it? Maybe you want to share a bookmark with a friend or two....
A solution to this problem was developed over at this delicious website, i mean del.icio.us a nice clever use of the added US domain space.....
Check out my bookmarks, and get an account for yourself!
http://del.icio.us/gmamante
Oh, and if you use Firefox as your browser, there is a nice plugin/extension that adds delicous bookmark buttons to your toolbar!
Friday, December 15, 2006
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