Friday, December 26, 2014

December Loot Crate



- Batman comic
- Captain America air freshner
- Funko figure (Jokerized Batman)
- Simpsons wallet
- Anniversary pin
- Groot socks (freaking awesome!)
- Candy cane
- Tetris sticker set
- 30 day trial to CrunchyRoll
- Ghostbusters door hanger

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Some network sayings...

  • "This job would be fun if it weren't for the users...."
  • Never power anything off unless it's been backed up, then back it up again.
  • "Money and sex, storage and bandwidth: Only too much is ever enough"- Arno Penzias
  • Fast, cheap, reliable…..Pick two.
  • "Don't Panic"  - Douglas Adams
  • When in doubt, cut off the user's hands.
More...

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Network emergencies...

I need to find a woman who is that turned on by hardware...



Saturday, March 29, 2014

Sharing data across multiple devices with Pushbullet



Have you ever been RDP’ing into your home computer at work and found a webpage or picture you liked but would prefer to have it on your phone in order to send via SMS? How about a quick and easy way to get a song from your computer to your mobile without all the hassle of looking for a cord or transferring it via Dropbox?


Pushbullet is a great app that pushes things to other devices. Not only can it send links, pics and files, it can aslo, with the addition of a Chrome extension, push notifications to your browser. No need to check your phone whenever it beeps, a small notification window will pop up in Chrome that you can click on, or dismiss. Clearing the notification in Chrome will also clear it from your phone.


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Backing up your SMS messages




I like to text. I mean, I really, really, really like to text. It's my preferred method of communication. I abhor talking on the phone, not unless it's one of those quick thirty second conversations.

The downside to texting a lot, is the abundance of old messages you create. Along with a love of texting, I also am a bit of a pack rat. I collect everything digital, for fear I may need it later. This means thousands of messages in my messaging app (I use Handcent, btw) that will eventually start bogging down my phone.

I tried using an application that created a nightly log of the texts and uploaded them to my Google Drive account every night. This worked fairy well until one of those rare occasions where I needed to provide digital evidence in the form of a text based conversation. Upon restoration of the archived messages, I discovered that this app wasn't very good of keeping track of timestamps. This kind of thing is important when trying to prove a point via a timeline.

I eventually stumbled upon an app called SMS Backup+ on the Play store. This app is simple enough to use, has enough options to keep things interesting and the best part, it integrates itself into Gmail. That's right, every text is saved as a email and entire conversations are saved as email threads. Awesome.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Friday, February 14, 2014

Back it up, people!

We've all seen it. Every couple of months, you notice a post on Facebook from some friend saying "Hey everyone, I lost all my contacts when I got a new phone. Text me your numbers!".

I can't fathom why, in this day and age, people can still lose their contact lists. Keep in mind, the majority of these users have either Android powered phones or iPhones. Both of these systems have built in backup protection. This isn't the days of lugging around your big ass Nokia, which to be fair, would never have broken on you. Those things could withstand a direct shelling from a tank.

Nowadays, with cloud storage and the abundance of apps out there, it's easier than ever to back up your information. Hell, even most carriers add their own backup apps on their version of Android. Apple users can sync their entire devices to iTunes.

This is one of the things I like most about Android, its integration with Google services. Just by having a Gmail account, your contacts are backed up, your calender syncs, your photos are backed up as soon as you take them, all of your apps are easily available and all of your information can sync between multiple systems. If you use Chrome on your desktop, all of your bookmarks will be available on your mobile. If you like music, Google Play Music allows you to upload thousands of songs to your account, all easily accessible from your device. And last but not least, Google Drive and your own bit of cloud storage.

Yet, with all these wonderful features, there are some people out there who don't do this. They claim ignorance, even though you are asked by your phone during the setup process. Even if you don't want to use Gmail as your main email account, having it means that if some bizarre event should claim the life of your precious new mobile device, restoring all your personal information is quick, simple and painless.

Seriously, go back it up!


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