TheOneCubed

I know that some people are like me in that they love to see the wallpaper on their computer desktop get a fresh look on a regular basis. For some people this means family photos or perhaps some sort of scenic pack. Others go searching across the internet for various wallpaper ideas that meet their needs. Up until a week ago I would frequent places like deviantART or InterfaceLIFT for fresh ideas in wallpaper needs. However, last week is one of my favorite web comic artists highlighted a very nifty application - Desktoptopia.

Currently available on the Mac (beta version available for you Windows users), this cool piece of software gets a streaming feed of some of the coolest desktop wallpapers on the internet. You can set a refresh rate of several minutes to hours or days and it is constantly getting updated with fresh content. If you find one you like, just head up to your menu bar and pause the feed and the desktop will stay there until you tell it to resume. You can even skip forwards or backwards to find the desktop that you just absolutely have to have.

You really should go check it out. No, seriously, click the logo above or this link –> (Desktoptopia.com) and GO CHECK IT OUT! You’ll thank me, really you will. Ok, nothing else to see here, move along now.

Just over a week ago I crumbled, I broke down, I gave in, I . . . bought an iPhone. Phew, I feel better now that I’ve got that out. I had always said I would hold off until it either came to Verizon or it achieved faster data speeds but well, my Palm Treo 650 decided that it wouldn’t give me that luxury. With random restarts abounding it was either get locked into another contract with Verizon or make the switch now. So, I made the switch.

Looking back now . . . I wish I would have bought it sooner! This is an absolute sweet device. The user interface is spectacular, it just makes sense! Now for those of you that know me, I am an avid fan of Apple. I’ve owned a couple of their computers now and I’ve always enjoyed using them. I try to avoid being too big of an Apple fan boy but well they seem to just get customers. I sure hope they keep this up!

Well, last week I got a wild hair and bought a new digital camera. I purchased the new Canon 30D and absolutely love it! As such, I’m putting my Canon Digital Rebel up for sale.

The camera comes with all original equipment which includes a battery, a Canon 18-55mm lens, strap, software, manuals, etc (all in the original box). I’m also including a 256 MB Compact Flash card. I’m asking $550 for all of this. If you are interested, please send me an email or IM.

Google Analytics rocks my socks off! A few months ago, Google bought up Urchin, a company known for their sophisticated web site traffic analytics tool. Urchin sold for hundreds of dollars a license and people paid it because it gave you some of the most accurate information as to the visitors on your site.

I have been pining for some time to get my hands on an invitation to try Google Analytics (which is still in official beta testing). Well, I received that invitation early last week and immediatly began to implement the code on my website. In 5 min., data was being collected and within a few days I could begin to see trends on my site.

Google isn’t currently accepting open requests for the service but you can request an invitation as they become available: http://analytics.google.com

Users of OS X know of the very famous iChat instant messenging client that comes preinstalled on any Apple computer. It is a fairly solid chat client including features for video and audio chat. The one thing iChat doesn’t have (by default) are some of the features I really wanted.

Jason’s Chat Client Features:

• tabbed message window
• multiple account/screenname management
• minimal design
• ease of use

That’s when I stumbled across Adium X, then in its 0.40 life cycle. Adium is currently up to 0.89.1 and they are fast closing in on the much-anticipated 1.0 release of their software. Now some of you may consider using anything pre 1.0 release as unsafe. Adium is very stable software for chatting that in my opinion works much better than iChat. Now, it might mess something up every now and again but all in all, a very stable chat client.

Adium also has a host of modifications or Xtras as they are called that can be used to custom tailor Adium to suite your personal tastes. These vary for contact list (buddy list) layout, message styles, sounds, notifications, dock icons, etc. All of which can be updated via Adium Preferences with no need for other applications.

Now surely with all my lauded praise, Adium must have some faults, and it does. Adium can’t handle file transfers as well as other AIM based clients. This is due in large part to a user’s firewall/router settings as well as the open source framework, libgaim, that Adium is based off. Adium also has no integrated support for audio or video chat. Thus if you are a fan of your iSight - you’ll still need to use iChat.