Gina.Place.

Be The First to Own the Latest Nokia Cell Phone!

Visit this link to enter the contest.
From the website:
Here's your chance to win the Nokia N90 one of the most innovative mobile devices before anyone else. And best of all Nokia is giving away 50 of them. You'll even get a prepaid Sim Card (a $50 dollar value) FREE, so you can start using it right away. Enter today.

A new multimedia device packed with advanced camera features that deliver high quality photos and videos.

Key features:
- Carl Zeiss optics
- 2 megapixel camera with autofocus
- Shoot high quality VHS video up to one hour
- MPEG-4 video compression
- on-phone video editing

Perfect for anyone who loves TextAmerica and maintains a moblog!!
I've already entered...
Be aware that by entering you opt in to receive emails from Nokia.  Once they start sending them to you, you can just block sender on the opt in email address they're sending from, and *bam*, no more annoyance! :)  I think it's worth it for a chance to win this phone, it sounds awesome, especially for camphone lovers!

Props to Darla Mack for the information that contributed to the writing of this mini-article.  I love all things cell phone related, and her site is a great resource for that!!
Peace,
~G*

Quick Bit 'o Tech for your Friday

Textamerica launches Google group for TA support!  From TextAmerica.com:
'If you want answers and information, you want to be here. The official moblog community beta tester forum is where you can be "heard" by TA on your ideas, suggestions, bug reports and more!'

As anyone who uses TA knows, it is constantly changing and evolving.  I've been a member for almost a year now, and had some issues, but also some great experiences!  I've met some wonderful people (Lammy, Tim, Ali, .... I can't list them all, but  you all know who you are!! :D ) and participated in the starting of some new traditions (Pigtail Friday! yay!).   It is a wonderful community and a great place to share your photographs.  This forum will be open to anyone who wants to talk about TextAmerica issues, ideas, improvements, etc.  A great idea - thanks TA!!  Here's the link: TA Google Group Subscribe
Enjoy, fellow photography & TA-lovers!
Peace,
~G*

The Paypal Killer?

It looks like this site may be the Paypal killer. They're called GreenZap, and they claim to be the newer, easier way to send and receive money online.  Now, mind you, I still use Paypal, because I sell alot on Ebay, and so far it has been the least annoying way to accept payments.  But for others, it has been a complete nightmare.  And, like many people, I am always looking for the latest, greatest thing technology-wise.  Evolution is good.  If you sign up, use my referral code - hippyangel.  When you preregister for the service (you can start using it in June) you will get a certain amount of money for signing up.  Then, you refer people under you, and get credit for them signing up and THEY get money deposited in their accounts as well.  They're building an entire community, and an easier way to send/receive money electronically.  It is worldwide, and it seems like the limits that other sites put on sending & receiving are absent here.  I am still doing some research, and of course we have to wait for the site to be completely active, but you don't need to give much personal information to preregister, and if it does turn out to be the cool new thing, you'll be ahead of the game.  Here's the link to sign up.  Let me know what you think!  Have you had bad experiences with Paypal, or other online payment sites?  I'd love to hear your feedback!
Peace,
~G*

Quick Taste of Stupidity for Your Wednesday!

From the paypalsucks.com forums:
*snip*
I received an email with instructions on how to correct a defective claim in connection with the PayPal Class Action settlement. The source code on the website reads:

    Please click <b><a href=\"busy.html\">here</a></b> to correct your defective claim.   

Not surprisingly, when you click the link to supposedly correct your claim, you are linked to a page which simply reads:

    Our server is currently very busy.
    Please try again later.

Since the site is programmed to take you to the \"busy.html\" - how can anyone correct a defective claim?
*snip*
ROFL!
Gotta love it! :D

Important Warning for LiveJournal Users!

http://www.frienditto.com

DO NOT use this service without fully understanding what it does and what it exposes you and your friends to, particularly if you want to remain on my friends list.

This site initially posted misleading statements that hinted at affiliation with Live Journal. Frienditto has no affiliation and claims that it never stated otherwise. Live Journal support has stated that Frienditto has no affiliation with Live Journal.

There has been some concern over this site and security of LJ accounts. If you provide it with your login information for your Live Journal you give this service permission to archive your friends only entries and ANY locked entries of your friends for which you have access.

Please read the following answer to a support request regarding this site and be informed. More importantly, inform others.

Dear user,

Frienditto is not affiliated with LiveJournal in any way. As such, this website does not have access to any entries which are not publicly viewable. If someone provides them with their LiveJournal username and password, however, it gives this site access to all non-public entries that account would have access to. We can only recommend that you do not provide your username and password to any person or website to ensure the security of your account.

Additionally, if you believe anyone on your Friends list may have provided their login information to this website, we can only advise that you remove them from your Friends list. This website will have access to your Friends-only entries as long as any person on your Friends list has given the site access. If any content is present on Frienditto which you do not wish to be there, you will need to resolve the issue with that website.

Regards,

Scott
LiveJournal Abuse Team

I also maintain a Live Journal account. The idea that using this service not only allows this company to invade YOUR privacy, but the privacy of all your friends on LJ disturbs me greatly.  If you are using this service, take every action you can to get out of it, NOW.  If one of your friends is using it, your best bet is to remove them from your friends list IMMEDIATELY.  Once it's cleared up, you should be able to re-add them safely.  If you are a person that changes your passwords frequently for security purposes  you are probably safer than most in this situation.  What is said someone's journal should STAY there.  PERIOD.

Update:  5:09 PM

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW USED FRIENDITTO WITH CREDENTIALS, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS NOW!!!!!

*Name removed for privacy purposes* (heretofor referred to as *Name*) is deleted. Turns out Frienditto DOES cache passwords and DOES attempt to gain access to your journal. *Name* found out the hard way when he started taking issue with Frienditto policies. Since *Name* had already used his LJ credentials on Frienditto, they used his information to delete his journal!

*Name* also made the mistake of having his LJ password also be his e-mail password. Passwords on both accounts are changed and *Name* can't get his account back, or get access to his e-mail. The Frienditto maintainers have been contacted and asked for an explanation. Naturally, they haven't returned any calls. LJ abuse has been contacted as well, and they pretty much won't do anything because *Name* handed out his password. BEWARE of this service/company, and please spread the word!!

~Gina*

Tech Tip - Speed Up Firefox (if you're on broadband)

Here's a not-too-complex hack to load pages faster in Firefox, that my Sweetheart passed on to me.  I tried it, and it only took me about a minute to do (maybe less!). 

Follow the steps below:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining, it will make several requests at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!

I haven't tested it for very long now, but I will update when I have given it a good comparison test to see if I see a significant speed increase, and less of those annoying page load errors that sometimes happen in Firefox.  If you try it, let me know what your results are!
Peace,
Gina*
<3
**UPDATE** - New pics posted on the moblog. I did a massive update today of the events of the weekend.  Check it out & tell me what ya think!

Help 'the broken' Raise Funds for Their New Project

Just a quicky post to let you know that I have added two links on the bottom left-hand side of my site to help support the new project from 'the broken'.  They will be producing new episodes, and a completely new show.  You can choose one of the options below to help support their latest technology venture.  The new show promises to be more like the old TSS, and possibly might fulfill our tech cravings that have gone unsatisfied since G4 took over.
You can choose to buy a T shirt, or make a Paypal donation, using the links below. (NOTE: the donation link will take you to Kevin's site where he has a direct link for Paypal donations posted.)
All proceeds from 'the broken' t shirts, and your donations go towards buying new equipment such as a new camera, wireless mics, and a lighting kit.  Please see Kevin Rose's site for further details!
Peace,
Gina*
<3

Sad and Not Just a Little Scary

Want to read something that will make you shake your head?  Check out this article on Wired.com.
Scary business...
Thanks to my sweetheart for bringing this article to my attention! :)
Peace,
Gina*
xoxo

Tech Tip - Be Careful on Amazon!

Too bad for me! I ordered a new cell phone on Amazon through a link on the main purchase page and assumed that the seller was a legitimate vendor preapproved by Amazon. After all, you can link right to them via the main purchase page. They don't tell you that this is as much of a gamble as purchasing something on Ebay. Basically, these are not approved vendors, they are not necessarily even vendors; they could be individual people. The 'company' had nothing but positive feedback (you can leave feedback for all purchases on Amazon) so I clicked and bought, choosing expedited shipping. Two weeks went by and I did not have my phone. I contacted the seller; nothing. I contacted Amazon and told them, they told me most items are sent through media mail (wtf- this is a phone, not a book!) but they saw I had picked expedited shipping, so I was receiving faster processing. (The email I received from the seller after paying claimed my item was sent out via Priority Mail which takes 2-3 business days, I told Amazon that, but they didn't seem interested.) They told me I had to wait until end of business the day AFTER the last day of my shipping estimate to do anything about it. Meanwhile, I check back to the vendor's profile and it's now FILLED with negative feedback comments. Apparently, the vendor has decided to forget about actually shipping products and decided to just keep the money instead. I mentioned this to Amazon, again, they seemed not to care. It is now 3 days after the last day of my shipping estimate. I have no phone, no response from the seller and no refund. Amazon tried to tell me I had to wait 30 days to file with their A-Z Guarantee and I told them that was unacceptable and I was contacting a lawyer regarding my being DEFRAUDED. They then backed down and filed the complaint for me, stating it may take 2-3 weeks for me to get my refund. First of all, it's already been 3 weeks since I ordered, why should I have to wait another 3 weeks? Second, they informed me I should let them know if I happened to receive my item. HA! Like that's going to happen. They will be lucky if I ever purchase anything from Amazon.com again. They should warn you that they don't do any checks on their 'vendors' at all, and you might as well buy from Ebay for all the safety you will get buying from Amazon. They should also tell you that expedited shipping for double the price, is one step above Pony Express, which is what the regular shipping is, basically. I don't want to have to threaten a company to get my money back, and I don't want to have to wait 2-3 weeks either, when this 'vendor' is obviously screwing people right and left - endorsed by Amazon!! What a disgrace. I'm telling you, and all my friends, pass it on to your family and friends- Don't trust Amazon, especially their 'Vendors'!
Peace,
Gina*
xoxo

Tech Tip (yes, tech) - Timely Resumes

We all know it's important to have an up-to-date resume when you go on a job interview. But sometimes you work someplace so long, you don't expect to be looking for another job. If you suddenly have to look for another job, look forward to spending hours adding all the new skills and responsibilites you've acquired over the months/years you've spent at your suddenly-former job. **Especially if you work anywhere in the technology field! Since technology changes literally from day to day, you may pick up new skills on a daily basis!**
So, my tech tip of the day today is, especially for those of you in technology-related jobs; update your resume often! Keep good records of your new responsibilities, skillsets,knowledge, etc you acquire on a daily basis, and whenever you have a few free moments (not a good idea at work! If you have a PDA or even a notepad, you can always do this on lunch, however...) jot down anything relevant you learned, accomplished, created, innovated, etc. for the day, week, you choose.. However often you feel you've got enough to add to your list, or enough that you feel you might forget one or two, jot them down, or add them to a Word document or Excel spreadsheet. That way, when the time comes, you can polish, cut and paste them into your brand-spanking new resume quickly and easily. It's amazing what a difference hands-on work experience can make when it comes to the part about discussing how many zeros will be at the end of your new paycheck. Once again, try to jot down everything, especially for technology workers; what seems like a small innovation or accomplishment to you might make all the difference come interview time. Please feel free to email me with any questions or suggestions!  I welcome all feedback.
Peace,
Gina*
xoxo