September 2008 Archives
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September 29, 2008
Useful Chrome Trick
I often have a lot of browser tabs open. A vast majority of these tabs are usually pages I have queued up to read. Most of these pages also have Flash on them. Either they have ads that I’m not seeing, video that I am not ready to play, or various other things that just aren’t useful when I’m directly looking at the page. This tends to waste processor cycles and can sometimes cause the machine to really slow down, both from processor usage and memory usage.
September 28, 2008
Some Site Updates
For the one or two of you that are still reading this, I’ve made a couple of changes to the site. Some of these changes are just in the layout. Others are in a reduction of content along the side columns.
In any case, I hope the changes are for the better. Most things seem to display fine in most of the beta browsers. There may be a glitch or two some browsers when using zoom or other features. Hopefully there isn’t anything too bad. In any case, for more of the boring details, read on”¦
Read the rest of "Some Site Updates"September 25, 2008
Podcast Listening Tips with iTunes: Use a Smart Playlist
When I’m working, I’m also usually listening to or passively watching podcasts. However, much of the time my headphones are just warming my ears in silence. It takes time to pick out the next podcast and I usually have a hundred or so that I haven’t listened to or watched. With a properly (smartly?) created smart playlist, though, I can now just start them playing and have continuous playback of podcasts, starting with my newest ones. It saves time and gets me through my podcasts. It’s not hard; read on for simple directions and screenshots.
September 18, 2008
The Modern Command Line (or How Vista and Chrome Are Making Me Lazy)
I’ve always favored using the keyboard for a number of tasks as well as using the command shell to perform various things. It’s not uncommon for me to quickly hit “<win>-cmd-<enter>” and ping or ipconfig my way to contentment. The power of search has brought many of these advantages to new places. The magic of the Vista “<win><type to search>” and the Omnibox in Chromium are quickly becoming the command line of the GUI world. (Note: Mac users have had Quicksilver that provides a similar GUI-style command line. Firefox also has similar features and has the new Ubiquity extension which is pretty amazing for similar things within the browser.)
September 17, 2008
The Stuff of Conspiracy
Have you ever talked with someone who has said something like, “50 years ago, the car companies could have made a car that got more than 100 miles to the gallon!” I know I have. I dismiss it to folks not having their facts correct and believing hype. However, there is some truth to it. What they don’t say, though, is that the cars that could have gotten that sort of fuel economy are not cars Americans would have wanted to buy at the time. Or even now. We’re just not willing to sacrifice that much to save some oil.
Case in point is this 1969 GM plug-in hybrid (also Wired). It could go on pure electric up to 10 mph and then it would switch to the gas engine. Now, the gas engine was barely over 500cc. In today’s world, you could probably get 50hp or so out of it. Back in 1969, though, it was probably more like 20hp. And the electric engine? I’d guess it was only a few, at best.
Sure, the car was very small and light. The numbers speak for themselves, though. Zero to its top speed of 60 mph in 28 seconds. Good luck making it up hills. It’s obvious why they didn’t make it: who would buy it? Especially in 1969. I can think of many other cars from 1969 I’d rather have. Even in light of their wretched fuel economy.
However, if there were prototypes, they probably did get really good fuel economy. Is it still conspiracy that they didn’t build it? Remember, gas then was 15 to 20 cents a gallon. In today’s money, that’s about $0.89. If gas was still that cheap, I think GM would have dropped the Volt on the floor, just like this little car was dropped in 1969.
September 15, 2008
Chromium is not Google Chrome: Switching
You don't actually know that I've switched to Google Chrome as my primary browser because I've got a bunch of draft posts sitting unpublished. In any case, I have. And now I'm switching to Chromium.
Aren't they the same thing? Apparently not. They install in different directories and can co-exist, which is great. But what if you want to bring all of your Google Chrome settings along? That's a manual process as the import feature is only for Internet Explorer and Firefox. Follow along to do it yourself. It's relatively easy and painless, plus you won't lose anything in your original installation of Google Chrome.
Read the rest of "Chromium is not Google Chrome: Switching"September 1, 2008
About Me - 2008 Edition
My name is Shane Conder, as you’ve probably already figured out. This is the third “About Me” page I’ve written. You’ll see some familiar parts, some new parts, and some parts that are missing ”“ either because they don’t apply anymore or aren’t important enough to list at this time.
I'm married to the wonderful Lauren Darcey. With her I've had many pleasant and wonderful experiences that have made my life much better. We've enjoyed each others company for many years now among a broad diversity of hobbies we share, including traveling, gardening, road tripping, hiking, photography, writing, and watching movies among many other things.
Earlier this year, we finalized our move from California to New Hampshire. We now live in the Mount Washington Valley area of the White Mountains. This location provides us with a great environment for pursuing our hobbies and work. Bit, our rabbit, made the move out with us and is happily enjoying one of the best rooms in the house and considers it hers. She enjoys sitting in the sun and eating fresh herbs and berries from the garden.
We’re both working together on a variety of different things, including mobile software, writing, and photography. All of this work lines up will with our hobbies. This makes both of us happy.
I’m a gadget freak. This manifests itself in wanting shiny, new, electronic doodads. Usually, this means I want the latest phone or laptop, but is not limited to such ordinary items.
I enjoy reading tech and gadget blogs and listening to related podcasts. I also enjoy fiddling with the latest new technologies, such as Amazon Web Services, Android, iPhone, Google App Engine, and other shiny, new technologies that activate the creative side of my brain.
I’m still not very active within the amateur radio community despite blogging on a URL that is from my call sign. I’ve been threatening lately to be more active, though. Maybe some day.
Feel free to contact me via email: 
You can also post a comment to get in touch with me.
This is by no means complete. My interests are both diverse and very dynamic. Someone who reads all of my blog entries on all of my sites still won't get some of my interests correctly. Hey, after all, this is all public -- I'm not going to give every detail away!
