This one is running on a new shell too, which is actually a Universal iPhone, iPad shell. This means iSee iSay will know the device is an iPad and will actually display properly (rather that in ultra small mode) on an iPad. iSee iSay Vehicles will get an update soon as well, and will get this new shell plus some extra features. Enjoy!

It is now available through the iTunes App Store – http://itunes.apple.com/app/id423035087#

iSee iSay Farm Animals will have your little one recognizing animals, the sounds they make, and how to spell for a variety of common farm animals!

Large buttons make it easy for your quick learner to use the app and identify cows, chickens, goats and more! Gives a new, realistic take on the game “what does a cow say?”

* Beautiful photos of animals!
* Real animal sounds!
* Easy enough for kids even under a year old!

We already know your child reaches for your iPhone, with iSee iSay Farm Animals let them have fun and learn without knowing it!

If you and your child enjoy iSee iSay Farm animals, please let us know and rate the app, we love to hear your feedback!

Please check out our other application, iSee iSay Vehicles – Tractors, fire engines, and more!

Learning and fun in one!
iSee iSay Vehicles will have your little one recognizing vehicles, the sounds they make, and how to spell for a variety of common vehicles!

Large buttons make it easy for your quick learner to identify fire engines, ambulances and more, in no time!
* 10 vehicles to listen to and learn! More coming in updates!
* Beautiful photo examples of real-life vehicles
* Authentic sounds
* Easy enough for kids even under a year old!

We already know your child reaches for your iPhone, with iSee iSay Vehicles let them have fun and learn without knowing it!

If you and your child enjoy iSee iSay Vehicles, please let us know and rate the app, we love to hear your feedback!

Keep an eye out for new apps from iSee iSay.

Purchase from the iTunes App Store now!

I am pleased to announce iCognito Version 1.0.1.  This version is available for purchase and upgrading as of this morning – January, 21 2011!  Please visit the iTunes store at the following link: Click Here

What’s New in Version 1.0.1

- Bug Fixes for Test Mode and Hands Free Mode
- Countdown timer for Test Mode and Hands Free Mode added
- Other Misc Bug Fixes

iCognito is an app that grants two users the ability to practice “Virtual Telepathy”. This means that you can communicate to each other using basic gestures while your iPhone remains in the front pocket of your jeans. No need to see, hear or type on your iPhone. When connected through iCognito, you and your partner are indeed, Joined at the Hip!

iCognito allows two users to connect via local Bluetooth wireless. When connected they can send and receive messages just like any standard chat room app. However, if they enable ‘Hands Free’ mode, iCognito will begin listening to and sending DOT and DASH messages that will trigger their partner device to receive the appropriate vibration signal. This ‘Virtual Telepathy’ allows two users to communicate without touching, seeing or hearing their device. They simply need to place it in their pants pocket where they can feel incoming iCognito messages.

The applications for iCognito are endless. Imagine communicating secretly to your friend during a double date, or signaling discretely to your spouse when it is time to leave a party. iCognito is a useful app for any situation that requires subtle, and secret communication.

As with anything that requires physical action, iCognito works best when you and your partner have practiced. Before using this App in a live situation, be sure to calibrate, and practice communicating in ‘Hands Free Mode’. It is a lot of fun to think about and practice what combination of DOT and DASH gestures will mean “Time to go!”, or “He’s a dud!” The more you practice, the more reliably iCognito works, and the more diverse your DOT/DASH vocabulary will become.

Thanks for your support!
The initial release of iCognito is fairly bare bones. I have some pretty cool ideas for future releases of iCognito, so please let your friends and family know about this cool App. If the interest exists – you can be sure I will put the time aside to add some great new features!

However, when hard drives fail, or optical media gets scratched, it is easy to curse this technology.  While backup systems will always protect you from this type of disaster, it usually takes a loss of data before the investment seems prudent.

Fortunately there is a faint glimmer of hope for those affected by digital storage media failure.

The first thing that must be discovered is whether the hard drive failure is a software or a hardware problem.  Software problems are for the lucky ones out there.  This usually means that something has gone wrong with the operating system and the hard drive will no longer boot (into Windows for example).  It is a fairly trivial matter to extract the data lost as a result of software failure and involves using an external hard drive enclosure connected to another computer, or simply connecting the hard drive directly to the mother board of another working computer.

Hardware failure is the tricky one.  This is usually identified by clicking or clunking noises coming from the hard drive when it is powered up.  We call that the “Click of Death” and usually means disaster to whatever data was stored exclusively on the device.  When hardware failure is the cause, there is really only a few things that can happen.  First, we will use a free tool, such as MHDD to run some diagnostics on the hard drive.  For hardware failure, the drive must be connected directly to the hard drive – not in an external USB enclosure.

MHDD – http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD

The first thing that is required when you are attempting to recover digital data is to determine what type of damage your dear media has suffered.  MHDD allows you to determine the status of the mechanical pieces of the drive, as well as the output of various common tests such as SMART.  With this information you will have a better idea of how difficult the task ahead may be.

Once you know that the hard drive is responding you will use software similar to DeepSpar Disc Imager (http://www.deepspar.com/products-ds-disk-imager3.html) which will do a bit by bit extraction of all data that can be recovered.  This software doesn’t come cheap though, so it is at this point where you may need to be calling a professional recovery firm to take care of you.

Luckily, most hard drive failures are of the software type, and with the help of a technically savvy individual – you could dodge a pretty big bullet.  Then, once your data has been recovered – be sure to invest in a backup system – it will help you sleep at night.

BLOGS.. well have become a way of life over the past 10 years.  The Blog-O-sphere has allowed everyone to stretch their virtual vocal chords with these simple to use and highly customizable publishing platforms. The evolution of the typical blog is as follows:

1. An individual has a passion for something and wants to share that passion with the world.
2. That individual opens up a free account at Blogger.com, WordPress.com, or one of the many other blogging services that exist on the Internet.
3. Our individual spends some time customizing the built in template/theme, and writes their first entry – Hooray!
4. Sadly, our individual never publishes again and the blog dies – eternally broadcasting their groundbreaking ‘Hello World’ debut post.

HOWEVER, occasionally there is an individual that is truly passionate about their subject.  It could be their children, a television series, their pets, or their vintage HAM radio collection.  These individuals will follow a different pattern:

1. An individual has a passion for something and wants to share that passion with the world.
2. That individual opens up a free account at Blogger.com, WordPress.com, or one of the many other blogging services that exist on the Internet.
3. Our individual spends some time customizing the built in template/theme, and writes their first entry – Hooray!
4. Said individual KEEPS POSTING, and eventually people that he/she doesn’t know personally begin reading his content.
5. More content is created and there is now an opportunity to take it to the next step – this could even lead to a little money for our individual’s effort.

This is where things get fun and there are several options that will take an amateur blog to the next level.  These all revolve around breaking free of those free services and begin hosting your own blog, with your own blog platform installation.  Here are the advantages of this setup:

• You will finally get a REAL domain name (not a http://xyz.blogspot.com name) – You could be just http://www.xyz.com!  Now, I know that these free services will sell you a domain name themselves, and it will then link up to your current site – but you are still using their limited installation, with their limited selection of themes and plugins.
• Fully customizable blogging installation!  I am usually always going to recommend using WordPress as the installation platform, and when you install it yourself, on your own hosting account, you will have control of everything about it.  There are literally hundreds of thousands of free WordPress themes and plugins available on the Internet; far more than the free services will have.
• The monthly cost for this setup is actually pretty cheap – I’ll give you one popular example which is Godaddy.com.  The total yearly cost to run your own site is only around $70 (~$5 a month for the hosting plan, and ~$10 a year for the domain name registration).  Believe me when I say that this is cheap.

The only tricky part about this setup is the actual installation of the WordPress software, and that is where I step in (if you don’t have a nephew/niece that can help you out) – I can do this for you!  Without going into much detail here I can get you up and running with your very own WordPress site that you will have full control over!  I don’t provide the hosting, or get any money for the domain registration, and can use whatever hosting service you desire – but can be your personal consultant throughout the installation process.  I can also help you get your site looking and working the way you want.  Get in touch with me and we can discuss your needs and I will can provide you with a free estimate.  Click here to send me an e-mail!

Take care!

For the past decade or so, I have been stuck using the default Notepad application that comes pre-installed on every Windows computer. For my purposes, the ‘Development Suite’ applications such as the MS ‘Visual’ tools and other development environments are too much – heavy and complicated. As I am usually working on a single file containing HTML, JAVA or PHP code, Notepad was a sufficient solution due to its lightweight and very simple interface – just type! However, longing for the days when I programmed with Emacs on a Unix system – led me to do a little research to find a similar tool that could highlight syntax and make the coding more human readable with, you know, colors and indentations and stuff. This is when I discovered Notepad++

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

This program is lightweight, and supports all the programming languages I care about. Check out the site above – there is even a little how to which lets you replace your current Notepad application completely! Once you use it for a bit, you will probably come back and set it up permanently. Enjoy!

I am often asked these two questions.

I have a new computer, how can I remove all the CRAP that came preinstalled?

I have an older computer, how can I speed it up?

I will share with you a little IT secret, and that is CCleaner. In short, this program optimizes your system, by removed “crapware” that comes preinstalled on your new machine, cleaning up your Windows registry, as well as trashing temporary files that are not needed. Oh, and it is totally free! So, the next time you want to optimize an older computer, or polish up your brand new machine by wiping that crapware off – give CCleaner a try. The only drawback is for Mac users, since this is a Windows only computer. Luckily Macs don’t come with much crapware – so you shouldn’t be too disappointed.

http://www.ccleaner.com

So here we are; it’s 2009.  My modest domain consists of 9 Internet connected devices – all but two (desktop Windows computer and network printer which are physically located next to the wireless access point)  are members my wireless network.  Entertainment devices are hidden within solid media cabinets.  Things are looking good.  No one would suspect the amount of automation and computing tucked out of sight.  Then you see that one corner of the home office.  Wires spew forth where we charge a myriad of portable electronic devices – most of these cables simply hang lifeless on the floor where I threaten to crush their adapter ends with my rolling office chair on a constant basis.

What can be done about this?  Well, I just stumbled upon some information regarding a pretty kickass new product which promises “Wireless Power”.  Prior to reading about this, I believed wireless power would consist of a Tesla coil arcing lighting from a power outlet to your mobile device.  While this would be an awesome product in itself, the 8 million electricity related deaths in the first month on the market would be a buzz kill.

In steps the Powermat – http://www.pwrmat.com.  A placemat type device that creates a “handshake” between the mat and your device.  Their website has demonstration videos showing blenders, fans, and other devices being powered through this technology.  Quite amazing!  The current drawback right now is the need for the purchase of contact adapters to facilitate the handshake.  However, should this become popular, I would see device manufacturers creating a standard where these contact adapters are built in.  I picture myself coming home, and dropping off my keys, ipod, cellphone etc onto the bookshelf like I always do, but now they are fully charged in the morning!  Of course, they won’t be availble until fall of this year.  Needless to say – I am super excited about this and would love to get my hands on one.

Like many IT professionals, I rely heavily on the rest of the world to find, solve, and document solutions to any and all queries I may receive, and I have not been disappointed. For years you all have delivered to me countless solutions to problems I have never encountered and pray never to encounter again. However, should that happen, I know that I can always whip up a relevant Google search string and cash in on all of your hard work. So, I have decided to start giving back. This will come in the form of Tips & Tricks I am fortunate enough to pioneer or enhance, as well as product and service reviews for pretty much anything. I will retain my “Jack of all trades” mentality with the scope, and therefore won’t limit entries within the realm of “Computers and Electronics”. Hopefully these will be useful to a few souls out there in the ether. Happy New Year!