July 2008

HighTechDad Interview on GoGrid Cloud Servers

by Michael Sheehan on July 29, 2008

in Apple, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Review, Software

When I was at GigaOM’s Structure ’08 conference last month, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Daniel Brusilovsky. For those of you who have never heard of Daniel, he is a 15-year-old who is making waves within his TeensinTech.com movement. He also runs a site called Apple Universe Podcast where he has been doing video and audio podcasts for several years. His Teens In Tech company of which he is the CEO and has Robert Scoble and Loic Le Meur on his board, is striving to enable teens to become more involved in podcasting, blogging and social media. He’s definitely a young mover and shaker and one to watch.

Daniel and I spent some time talking at Structure 08 about GoGrid, a Cloud Computing offering that is getting a lot of press and notoriety lately as being an alternative for Amazon’s EC2 and other Cloud Computing providers. (I’m the Technology Evangelist for GoGrid and manage the GoGrid blog and ServePath blog. I’m also the organizer of StartUp SF, a San Francisco Meetup which provides information, tips and tricks on how startups can launch and become successful.) Those of you who are interested in trying GoGrid, click through this link and you will receive $100 off your first GoGrid Cloud Server.

Daniel’s main focus on his podcast site is all things Apple, however recently, since he has been meeting with so many companies, he has branched out into other types of interviews about products. It was interesting talking to him about Cloud Computing though and how GoGrid fits into the mix.

I realized after the interview that I made a mistake about one of my comments on a Macintosh though (oops!). I said that I had cracked open an Apple SE/30. That was actually the first Mac that I used and it doesn’t have a CD ROM. The first Mac that I opened and replaced the DVD ROM and Hard Drive on was actually an iMac DV SE (the graphite gray one). I have since then done plenty of work on other Macs. [click to continue…]

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TechDad on the Road

by Michael Sheehan on July 28, 2008

in Family, General

I have always wanted a personalized license plate ever since I was a child. I begged my parents to get one when I was a kid. That didn’t work. So this year I decided to take the plunge. It was a lot less expensive than I would have thought and I basically got it for myself for Father’s Day, with my daughters’ approval, of course (they were pretty excited). Now I can check that item off of my to-do list.

For those who don’t get it, I will break it down for you.

I wanted it to say “TECHDAD” but that was taken (but it actually worked to my advantage – see below)
I changed the “E” to a “3″ for a couple of reasons:
- l33t – or leetspeak. The techies out there will appreciate that one.
- I have 3 daughters
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10 iPhone Tricks that you might not know

by Michael Sheehan on July 22, 2008

in Apple, Cellular, Gadgets, General, Hardware, iPhone, Software

I have had an iPhone for over a year now and I must say that it is a great device. Today I’m posting some tips (in no particular order) of things that I have found useful and helpful. Also, I’m (trying) to post this article using the new WordPress application that is now available in the iTunes store (having some parse issues with it though).

Note that some of these tips might not work in the older version (1.x) of the iPhone software.

The Lovely iPhone 3G

Let the tips/tricks begin:

Scroll to Top of Page – if you tap once on the top status bar, where the date and batter are, you will scroll to the top of whatever page you are on. This works in all apps.
Domain Resolution – in Safari, if the site you want to visit is a .com domain, just type the name in without the .com (e.g., “hightechdad” will resolve to “hightechdad.com”)
Domain Suffixes – now with the 2.0 software, if you are typing a domain that is not a .com, you can press and hold that .com button and get other options like .net or .org
Quick Delete – the bulk delete feature is great but did you know that if you swipe left or right on an email message in the view mode, a red delete button will appear in-line?
Fast Forward/Rewind in Music & Video – pressing and holding the forward or rewind buttons will go forward or backward in your music or video
Press & Hold for Alternate Characters – if you want to insert a different character, like to type EspaÃ±a, with the tilda, just hold the appropriate character and slide/release to select it.
Soft Reset – press and hold the Home and Power buttons at the same time for a few seconds and your iPhone will reboot. FYI, you should do this probably once a day. It helps keep your iPhone running a bit quicker, I find.
Click & Hold URLs - in Safari, if you press and hold a link, you will see the URL and the site name.
Take a Screenshot – if you want to take a screen capture, press and hold the home button and quickly press and release the power button. Your screen should flash white briefly and the image will be stored in your photo library.
Parental Controls – under General settings, you can set some parental controls for Lyrics, YouTube, App Store, Safari and others.

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Social Messaging Communicators: Ping.fm versus HelloTxt.com

by Michael Sheehan on July 7, 2008

in Gadgets, General, iPhone, Open Source, Review, Software

While Twitter seems to be ruling the airwaves of Social Messaging Platforms, there are plenty of other services that do just as well (or better) at keeping in touch with or sending messages and status updates to your friends, colleagues and family. These services can be broken out into different segments: services that just provide status updates and ones that are considered micro-blogging. There are nuances and slight distinctions between the two but it seems like they have been blending more and more. For example, on Facebook, Plaxo, MySpace, you can post a status update and also post other messages using other components (more micro-blogging). With LinkedIn, you are limited to simple status updates (that will probably change soon). And with other more social networking tools like:

the communication takes on short (e.g., 140 character) messages where the senders can be followed or be-friended (sort of a combination of status updates and micro-blogging).

The problem is, these social messaging and communication tools are growing quickly, with new ones popping up weekly. The latest two hot ones seem to be Plurk and Identi.ca and there will most likely be a newer, “better” one soon or an enhancement to a service like FriendFeed. It is impossible to keep up with all of them, so you need to decide which one suits you better for your needs. For many, Facebook is the only option, for others Twitter via SMS/text is the fastest and most effective method. Personally, I use Twitter for most quick communications (I’m @hightechdad for those who want to follow), but I do post to other services depending on my needs (look for “hightechdad” on those as well). I use Twitter mainly as as way to communicate business messages, ask questions about technology, provide tips and tech trick, send quick personal messages to acquaintances and just generally vent about one thing or another.