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As I recently pointed out, I started this blog over seven years ago and have made a post every day. The vast majority are about technology, computing, and photography - geek stuff. A few are about golf or whatnot.

The blog has 5,139 posts, 16 categories, 7 pages, and 27,530 comments.

I've had Akismet running since I installed WordPress, and I just realized that it also keeps some stats. They are below. And no, I'm not sure what was going on at the end of 2007/beginning of 2008. My other sites show similar results for those months.

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If you had to buy a laptop to run Windows - just Windows, and not even anything particularly high-tech (like games or a CAD program or some high-end video editor or something) - would you buy a MacBook or a non-Apple computer?

I may be in need of a dedicated Windows machine soon.

Love it. Seriously - it does a great job.

But how much more awesome would it be if this were an input mode?

Currently, here's an example workflow.

1. Take video or picture.
2. Click "Share" and choose email.
3. Type in the to: field and maybe even a subject. The video's there already.
4. Think "awww, shucks, I want to give the background story here too."
5. Click home button.
6. Launch Dragon app.
7. Dictate.
8. (Edit, maybe.) Copy to clipboard.
9. Click home button.
10. Launch Mail again (hopefully your email is still there - it should be.
11. Paste. (Edit, maybe.)
12. Send

How awesome would it be to (basically) eliminate steps 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9?

The idea for this post stems from the mention of another app Pastebot, which similarly would be about 100x more useful if it didn't require launching a separate app and which worked in-context like, say, ClipMenu.

File this under duh.

I'm considering replacing my DVD player with a PS3. I doubt I'll play any games on it, but it'll give me a DVD player in roughly the same dimensions AND an inexpensive Blu-Ray player. It has WiFi built in (unlike the stupid Xbox 360 - for which I had to buy a little ethernet hub so both it and my DVR could hook into the nearby AirPort Express).

Right? There's no gaping hole in that basic logic, is there?

Update: I didn't realize how inexpensive stand-alone Blu-Ray players had gotten. Hmmm. Indecision will likely lead to non-action, though. 🙂

I'm giving MondoMouse a try. Unfortunately what I'd hoped to do - map my unused "Find" button on my Logitech MX Revolution to a complex sequence of keys - isn't possible because USB Overdrive doesn't seem to have the capability to press modifier keys without pressing, say, the "p" or "l" or other keys ((That, or I haven't figured out how to do it.)).

You see, all too often I have keyboard shortcuts that involve cmd-opt or the like, and it's somewhat annoying to have the window flash and perhaps even move a little when I'm using keyboard shortcuts. Many of the keyboard shortcuts are mapped to buttons on my mouse.

So anyone else using MondoMouse? Thoughts?

Update: The app crashes fairly frequently. Looks like I won't be buying it.

Today my blog is seven years old. Yeesh!

I've posted every day for seven years. I have no plans to stop.

I'm also looking forward to the return of some content that's been missing for awhile.

I like my Kindle more and more. I'll probably like it more again when the Mac app is released (can't come too soon).

But I'm also starting to wonder if I backed the wrong horse. The nook will support (eventually - and I know even this isn't a guarantee) the ePub format, an open format, and I like the sound of that. I don't really mind that I can't "loan" the books on my Kindle ((To be honest, it's nice not to have to pester my friends to give me my book back. And if I want a book I still want to loan out, I buy it in physical form.)) - what bugs me is that I can't transfer all of my books from my Kindle to a nook if I decided to buy one of those, or to another reader down the road.

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My wife cracked the screen of her (formerly my) first-gen iPhone, and she's eligible for an upgrade, so it looks as though we're going to upgrade her phone to an iPhone 3GS. Which I'll promptly swap for my iPhone 3G… yes, she gets the tech hand-me-downs.

She'll notice the EDGE -> 3G difference. I'll notice… what, exactly? The better camera? I guess that's about it.

Update 12/9: All of my balloons are gone from that Balloon Tracker app. That sucks.

I talked before about restaurants I wish Erie had, and today yet again Lindburgers (which still doesn't have an actual website) came up in conversation with a friend.

He recommended a burger place called "Five Guys." The nearest is in Meadville, a 30-minute drive. The menu looks perfect and though it seems to be a bit more "fast foody" than Lindburgers, I'm still hopeful it can top the best Erie has to offer (which, sadly, is Max & Erma's - or perhaps Steak 'n Shake).

Just as I was interested in the Spider Holster and Cotton Carrier, I find myself interested in the LumaLoop as well. Unfortunately, you can't demo any of these things anywhere, and the indecision is causing me to sit around and do nothing instead.

I have two L-brackets on my 5Ds and they don't offer D-rings like I'd probably like to use with the LumaLoop if I picked one of those up, so I'm going to have to also investigate inexpensive D-ring solutions for the bottom of my camera(s) too. They wouldn't need to be versatile - I don't care if it has a tripod mount to fit my clamps or anything, as that's what the L-Brackets are for.

Also, how would you use two LumaLoops (with two cameras)?

P.S. Also, I'm still considering the R-Strap, which was out first and which seems awfully similar to the LumaLoop.

DSLRU is in private beta, stage one right now. A second private beta is planned before the public release.

Yesterday I wrote about replacing a fan with a light bulb. Today I took down the ceiling fan and one of the sets of track lighting to see what the possibilities might be on replacing it all in one fell swoop. The bulbs burn out all the time, they're hot, and we might like to simply replace them with a basic set of normal switches instead of dimmers.

If you can help, there's more in the extended entry…

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Why or why not? Answer and share your thoughts below in the comments.

In the great room I have three switches, all of them dimmers (the five-button kind: off, 1/4 power, half power, 3/4, and full). Two of the switches each control one set of lights. The third controls a fan that's in the middle of the room.

I'd like to replace the fan with a compact fluorescent light, but obviously CFLs don't work very well on dimmer switches. What can I expect to find in the hole when I remove the fan? Can I wire up the new light so that it works properly despite being on a dimmer switch?

I'd rather not replace the dimmer switch, you see.