Grand Central - The birth of the HellaPhone

It's an idea so simple, you can't believe that no one has already created it. One number to reach all your phones. That's the genius of GrandCentral.com.


Who among us doesn't have at least two telephone numbers? Home phones, cell phones, work phones...how many friends do you have that require not one phone call to try and reach them, but sometimes as many as 3? ("Hmm...he's not answering his cell...I'll try his home phone...") Grand Central is the cure for all of that. The idea is to pick a new telephone number through the site (a free service, as of this writing), and then tie your various phones to that number. Now, hand out this new number to all your friends. The next time they call your new number, not only will they reach your cell phone, but they'll reach every number you have tied to your Grand Central number.

But that's just the start. They have online voicemail. They have "Spam" filters, that protect you from phone solicitors. They have a tool that allows you to record your phone calls. You can switch phones in the middle of a call, whether they use the same phone number or not.

I've only started to look through everything this site claims they can do, but I'm more than curious enough to give it a shot. I can foresee issues (who wants to get a work call at 9:45 at night?) but it looks like the pros far outweigh the cons. I'll be sure to post again when I get used to the service!

Google Calendar on your Phone!

So, my two years is up on my piece of crap flip phone at last. May 31, I can throw this thing with all my might across some vacant parking lot and watch it explode into teeny-tiny little pieces, as I've dreamed of doing for, oh, 1 year, 11 months and 364 days now...

(Flip phones. Why the fascination, Verizon? Why?)

So, for months, I've been dreaming of the normal, candy-bar, no frills, no web access, no mp3 player, no nothin' fancy phone I was going to buy. A phone that takes phone calls. That's all.

And then my work blocked Google Calendar.

I had no idea how much I relied on Google Calendar until the day I pulled up the site and was met with the message "Computing/Internet;Interactive Web Applications" content is forbidden.... At first, I cursed my employer (again), shrugged, and went about my business. But it slowly dawned on me that this was not a shrugging situation. This was a sit on the floor and weep situation. People kept asking me if I could join them for things that weekend (I don't KNOW!) if I had remembered the concert that took place last night (no! I wasn't on the computer at home, and I can't check my calendar from work to remind myself of ANYTHING!)

So now, I need web access. Access that can get around work firewalls, while I'm at work. And Google just made their calendar accessible to cell phones.

Helllloooo smartphone!

Watchercast Episode 4 - Teacher's Pet

Episode 4 of our podcast, "The Watchercast" is out! (We finally got over that third episode hump!)

Teacher's Pet is a favorite of many, I know, and it's especially good for the first season. It has some great Xander moments. Come on over and hear Jason pretend not to find Miss French attractive!

(yeah, SURE Jason. not hot at all!)

Picasa Web Albums

So, I've grown very bored with gathering up photos and posting them to the web. Up until now, I've always created my own thumbnails of each picture, linked those to the web-optimized full sized picture, and FTP'd them to my site. I know that there are sites that are supposed to make this easy for you, but I haven't discovered the one to fit me yet...

My Web Albums!

... until now. Leave it to Google to finally release the tool that would give me everything that I wanted in a web album. Just out of the box, you get:

• A photo gathering and organizing application, called Picasa, that isn't intrusive, annoying or difficult to use. It gathers and organizes your photos based upon the folders they are kept in and the timestamps when they were taken


• 250 MB of space to hold your photos online. So, far, I have over 70 photos online, and I'm only using 9% of my space. That's a lot of free photo storage.


• One button clicking to upload my photos to my web albums...highlight the photos you want to upload, click the "Web Album" button, fill out a name for your album...and you are done.


• Attractively organized web pages...the Picasa site is simple to navigate, and it automatically creates all the thumbnails and navigation I want

Friends can leave comments on my photos, I can easily caption the pictures, albums that I have made public can be downloaded in one click by friends and family.

Now if only they could help me take prettier pictures (thank god for Kathleen!)

Geek Cred Rising...

So, let's run down the list...

• Huge collection of comics...check


• Have my own blog...check


• Can recite every line from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail...check

And now, you can add one more huge check to my list of geek cred...I've got a podcast.

Point your browser to dubbya-dubbya-dubbya dot watchercast dot com and revel in the Joss Whedon-y goodness as we run down every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and pick it apart, episode by episode.

Oh, did I fail to mention my Buffy fanboy-ness? Check.

Linerider...or What I Spend My Day NOT Doing

It's such a simple, simple thing. Draw some lines on the screen. Press Play. Watch your little dude on a sled (with a stylin' scarf) barrel down the lines you just drew.



All day, I sit. Forcing myself NOT to play with this site. Cigarettes are less addictive.

Go here. Click Play. Or watch the movies that other people have made of their tracks, to give you some ideas of the possibilities.

Just make sure you don't have anything to do for the next few hours...

Steve Jobs is the Devil

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of iTunes.

I don't use it, personally. My wife has it on here, because she has an iPod, so fair play. I seem to be stubbornly avoiding it at the moment, though. I can't stand the stupid thing. It seems to take over my computer. Every time I install it, the damned thing sets itself as the primary player for all music formats...despite the fact that I tell it NOT to. I've stopped fighting it, which is probably Apple's evil plan, and now just right click all my MP3's and choose my REAL audio player (the fantastic Quintessential Player...only does one thing, and does it damned well!) However, god forbid I not think, and just double click a file...I now get to wait thirty seconds while my computer stops and devotes all it's processing power on opening the monstrosity that is iTunes. I swear I can actually see the lights dim in the house as it boots up.

What prompted this post is that iTunes just told me it needs to update itself. Again. Didn't I just do this a week ago? How long has version 4 been out, anyway? A month? And is it me, or does every time iTunes need an update, do they do a FULL FREAKING INSTALL?! You have to download a iTunesSetup.exe and let it uninstall and re-install and register and God knows what else...then, when it's finally finished, the first time you open it back up, it takes twenty minutes to update the iTunes library...never mind the fact that I haven't TOUCHED it since I reinstalled the stupid thing!

The next time some snide Mac user gives me shit about using a PC, I'm gonna punch him.