February 24, 2009 by admin.

A while back I stumbled upon the Magicjack device and I was in awe. I thought “these guys are going to take over the world of VOIP”. At the very least I thought they would get insanely rich and become a household  word.

Let me begin at the beginning. The ad on the Internet said that I could use Magicjack with my broadband connection and any PC to make and receive calls. The concept was cool. I could carry Magicjack around in my pocket and plug it into any broadband PC taking my “land-line” anywhere I went. No per minute charges, no monthly bills or taxes. If I was at home, Magicjack would plug in to my home PC and when someone called my Magicjack provided phone number it would ring and I could answer. Then if I wanted to make outbound call I could just unplug it and take it with me.

Then if I went somewhere else that also had a broadband connected PC I would just plug it in, with the same convenient results. My calls would come to me anywhere and I could dial out for free as well. If someone called me in-between destinations, Magicjack’s voicemail would take my message and I would get voicemail when I plugged Magicjack back in.

The features looked really really good. They even had a way to make emergency 911 work. The price was amazing. $39.95 for the device and one year of free service. I opted for the extended 5-year plan at an additional $59.95 (locking in the low price).

So, you may ask… why write a review? Why not just write “buy a Magicjack right now and start saving”.  Well, actually I can’t get mine to work properly. Sounds stupid right? Not only did I buy this gizmo that I can’t make work, but I bought 5 years of additional service. Here’s how the deal went for me: I ordered the  Magicjack online with my credit card and it arrived in a few weeks. I plugged it in and like “magic” it loaded the software. Then I was asked to select my new Magicjack phone number. What? My area code is not available? That means people calling my new Magicjack phone number would have to call long distance! THAT SUCKS!

OK, well, the Magicjack is guaranteed so if I decide not to keep it they will refund my money. So I try it any way. I think to myself, where would be a good place to have a fake “satellite office”? Miami is the biggest city near me and some of my in-laws live in Miami. Having a Miami number would let them call me for free and it would make me seem like one of those big “Miami based” production companies. Maybe it would increase my out-of-town business. I can add it t my website and business cards for that “big time” look. But wait! I could get a number in Los Angeles or Hollywood! I could have a New York number and it would seem I was a huge multi-city company. All good ideas. I’ll start with Miami and add the others later, I thought…

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February 19, 2009 by admin.

Right now, outside somewhere in your car may be a device to track you. Anyone can buy a GPS tracker at many retail stores including Sams Club, Best Buy or maybe even Walmart. The device, usually hidden in your trunk or glove-box, is small and hard to detect. The GPS tracking systems work a few different ways. Some disclose your location in real time on a map like Google’s Latitude, while others record all your activities to a flash drive for retrieval later.  They can record your speed, location, how long you spend at any location and the time/date you were there… all for less than $75.

 Simply not wanting anyone to know where you are is not an admission of guilt. You may be worried about people using the information to start a lawsuit against you. You could be implicated simply by coincidence. Maybe you do stuff that LOOKS questionable. Maybe the cops  would think tracking you would be a good idea and they put one of those gizmos in your car. You will probably be cleared right? No chance of a mistake.

OK, well, “probably” may be a good enough when ordering a drive-thru lunch, but in a life and death situation I like ABSOLUTELY much better.

From what I’ve seen on the Internet and on TV,  I am not ABSOLUTELY sure nobody will make a mistake and shoot me by accident. So, painting a nice big GPS target on my car and lifestyle would be increasing my chances of becoming part of the “Big Brother” future.

 I do what everyone should do. I turn off my car GPS when I’m not using it and I turn off my phone GPS in the same manner. It’s bad enough they have the ability to track me with my toll transponder, ATM and credit card usage. But hidden GPS trackers that ANYONE can buy for $50-$75  in a retail store are a great way to falsely implicate innocent people as well as spy on anyone for many reasons.

Examples: Your business competitors may want to know which customers you are calling on. Your best friend’s wife may want to find  a good witness against her husband in an upcoming divorce (that should be fun). There may be a grow house next to your home and YOU may have taken one too many trips to Lowes for light-bulbs, starting a police investigation (explain that to your kids!).  Your cousin may want to get you bumped out of Uncle Tim’s will by showing him you never go to church on Sunday.

There are a million reasons you should not want anyone tracking you. If you are doing anything even marginally outside of the law (like speeding, picking the wrong friends or spending more than you report on your tax return) you have billionsof reasons why nobody should track your every move.

 Besides turning all your self-tracking devices off there is one other device you can purchase to make SURE you are not a victim of covert GPS surveillance. That’s the GPS jammer and it only costs $33.  The device shown to the right is small and portable. It jams all GPS within 10 to 45 feet. In other words, devices in your car. This means nearby drivers will probably not be effected. The bad news is that they are legal to own but probably not legal to use. I don’t think buying one and keeping it “on” all the time would make sense, but, having one when you feel a possible legal exposure could prove valuable. For someone that has their intuition activated this device could mean a good night’s sleep. For Spiderman he calls it his “Spidey-sense”. In the movie he says his “Spidey-sense is tingling”. So when you feel that happening and you are worried the cards are stacked against you, a small investment in a device like a GPS jammer could make all the difference between implicating yourself and saving your neck. I know everyone does not need one. Heck, most people probably don’t care that they are being tracked. But I don’t write about every day stuff, just new and tricky technology for people with trendy lifestyles.

Buy the  $33 personal GPS jammer you can carry with you anywhere by clicking here.

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February 11, 2009 by admin.

Have you ever wanted your laptop online when you were away from WIFI or a hot-spot? If you’re like me you don’t need it often, but when you do, it sure would be nice. I found a cool gizmo. The modem dongle! What is so cool about this? Well first of all, you don’t have to sign up for anything to use it. You just yank your SIM card out of your phone, stick it in the dongle and put it into your laptop’s USB port. Then you’re online. But wait, it does use your minutes, so unless you have an unlimited plan, be careful. I use my wife’s Metro PCS phone SIM card because she has an unlimited plan.

It’s great, no commitment like the “air-cards” or other devices, no extra bill. My brother-in-law has one of those 3G air-cards and it costs him an extra bill each month. With that are extra taxes too.

This one is just $50 and then nothing per month with a contract of ZERO months. Great for the occasional user and when you are on vacation. (you don’t want to answer calls then anyway). It comes with software and everything you need.

I only use it once in a great while, like at the airport where they have WIFI that robs you blind, makes you grab your ankles and squeal like a piggie. I HATE the airport WIFI. It is sooo freakin unreasonable. They make you sign up for an annual plan like you live at the airport. Sure there are some people that fly as part of their job, but they usually have the aircard or other method. The airport KNOWS that we techie types can’t last without our PC for very long. Sitting there looking at unhappy people and rotten little rugrats while we drink our $7.50 coffee requires that we flip open a laptop.

 Anyway, enjoy! it’s another great cool toy!

NOTE: CHECK WITH YOUR PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER BEFORE PURCHASING

Click HERE to buy this gizmo online.

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February 3, 2009 by admin.

OK, so I was a dork to order this. It really has no purpose in real (normal) life. But for those of you that know me, it is common knowledge that I have never been truly normal. I just thought, “cool, just like James Bond” and ordered it. At around $60 my spy watch video camera with 8 gigs of storage is as much fun (legal fun) as you can get for $60.

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February 2, 2009 by admin.

Will you look at this! To the left you see a USB plug that you can stick into any PC, laptop/desktop any PC, and record up to 4 different  video signals at once. It costs just $22! That’s right $22!

If you ever wanted to install a security system in your home or office you know how difficult it seems. Dedicate a desktop PC to the setup. Open the case, install the DVR card. Pray that it works and has the right drivers or settings. It took me 2 hours to set my office system up. Then, the easy part, plug in wired or wireless cameras and tell the computer to record the video.

That first part, installing the DVR card into a PC and devoting a PC to just recording security footage was difficult and expensive! In addition to the PC, I had to buy a $200 DVR card with software. With cheap wireless cameras getting cheaper every day, you can put together a reliable security system for home or office fast and easy.

A four camera system with front door, back door, garage and baby’s room or front yard window will record every person on your property. It will record the guy that steals your Sunday paper, the guy that snatches your “no signature” UPS delivery and the neighbor that lets his Great Dane poo on your sidewalk. It will also save you a run across the house to check your kid when you think you heard crying. It also makes it easy to see if the garage door is open. Read the rest of this entry »

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February 2, 2009 by admin.

In my never ending quest for backups of backups on a never ending array of external drives I invested in what seemed like just the ticket. It was a 4 bay external RAID system with full RAID features. That means a lot to video and computer artists. We use LOTS of drive space. In my most recent film there were 4.5 terabytes of footage. Not gigabytes, but TERAbytes.  Working with the footage in real time requires a fast drive or at least 4 drives striped as RAID O(zero). In the case of four exactly the same drives striped as RAID O (zero) the drives would each multiply their actual speed. The four 7200 RPM drives would be 4 times faster because the RAID makes them look like one big drive to the computer.

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