Mobile data throughput – agency or application?

I’m no fan of “big government”, but I do like the idea of a government agency monitoring, reporting and holding accountable any company that sell products or services based on measurements – or an application that can do the same thing. In California there’s an agency called the “Office of Weights and Measures”. They make sure that 1 gallon of gas at the pump is actually 1 gallon – and that is actually costs what the posted price says it does; They also make sure that a grocery …

Smartphone / Android / iPhone Game Cradle…

As I’ve been doing some software testing using PSPs lately, an idea hit me… What if there was a game cradle for Android and iPhones that had buttons and a joystick and other game controls? A quick mock-up of what the Smartphone Game Cradle could look like I’m not a gamer myself, and I don’t play games on my Android phone, but I see a lot of people doing it, so it seems like it could be a good idea. Both Android and iPhones support Bluetooth connectivity, so …

Streaming media and home entertainment…

I’ve recently helped a few friends get setup with "media centers" as their home entertainment systems. They’ve all been centered around using a small form-factor computer to ‘power’ things, and central to that is Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Windows Media Center. I was lucky enough to be a software tester at Microsoft around 2001 testing the first version of Window Media Center Edition (MCE) and it was exciting back then. It’s now been 10 years – and it still hasn’t caught on. But, I’m confident that’s about to …

Facebook privacy… IT’S THERE AND IT’S GOOD!

I can’t take it anymore… I keep hearing people talking about how Facebook is "sharing all your information" or why they closed their account because it’s not private or how unsafe it is… Facebook’s privacy settings are GOOD! There’s LOTS of options that have been there for a LONG TIME. But, typical of a lot of web users, they don’t READ. Yes, READING is an important part of using the web. Especially if someone is going to complain or cry "foul!" My Facebook profile is pretty open. I …

Microsoft Live ID system fails again…

About a year and a half ago, I wanted to transfer my XBox achievements and credits to my primary Microsoft Live ID account. Sadly, I was told that it was impossible. About a year after my frustration with the XBox Live ID issue, I decided to spend more time using my Microsoft Zune player. When I first got it (about about two years earlier,) I was required to sign in with a Microsoft Live ID to track my music purchases and plays. But now, I wasn’t using that …

Zune on Facebook

In January 2010, I spent far too much time trying to find the "Official" Zune Facebook fan page. There were three Fan pages, two of which had almost 30,000 fans. However, I wanted to be join the official Microsoft owned/run/sponsored Fan page. Sadly, there was no way to tell which of the three was created by Microsoft. I had been a fan of the two larger fan pages, but they had pretty much stagnated at 25-30k fans for many months. So, while I was working at Microsoft, I …

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