Dan Masters Online » Technology http://www.danmasters.net Dan Masters Playground Online Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:13:41 +0000 en hourly 1 Lego Store in Austin at the Barton Springs Mall http://www.danmasters.net/lego-store-in-austin-at-the-barton-springs-mall.htm http://www.danmasters.net/lego-store-in-austin-at-the-barton-springs-mall.htm#comments Thu, 22 Jul 2010 17:06:51 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=848 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> On Wednesday we got a flyer in the mail telling us that there was a new Lego store opening in Austin in the Barton Springs mall. Cool I thought, I wonder if anyone else knows about it so I Googled it. Sure enough they knew about it because they actually opened it last week. It was too late to jump in the car that day so we went yesterday instead.

It is a good size store that is about twice as big as the one that we had been to in Frisco, TX. It is a fraction of the size of the one that we had been to several time in Downtown Disney in California though. It was still way cool though and of course we had to buy some Legos. Here’s a video we took while there.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-mVIDRXWQM

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/lego-store-in-austin-at-the-barton-springs-mall.htm/feed 0 Butterfly at the Gas Station http://www.danmasters.net/butterfly-at-the-gas-station.htm http://www.danmasters.net/butterfly-at-the-gas-station.htm#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 02:00:02 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=832 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> A little fun with the iPhone 4 at the gas station. I edited this on my iPhone as well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECOctgAyMr8

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/butterfly-at-the-gas-station.htm/feed 0 Bing’s Top 100 Songs by Year iPhone App http://www.danmasters.net/bings-top-100-songs-by-year-iphone-app.htm http://www.danmasters.net/bings-top-100-songs-by-year-iphone-app.htm#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:39:44 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=794 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> I just stumbled upon a fairly new app by Microsoft under their Bing label.

What you do is select the year that you want to listen to and the app serves up the top 100 songs according to Billboard that year. It plays them in a Pandora type shuffle to where you can only skip to the next song. You can click a button and see all the songs from that year but you cannot select a specific song to play.

The other downside to the app is that it puts up an ad for the main Bing iPhone app every 3 or so songs where you have to manually click next to continue with the music. I downloaded the app that they were advertising but the ads still come up.

They are advertising that this app is going to be $1.99 but is free right now. I would hope that they would remove the ads in you actually pay for the app. I guess we will just need to see.

Currently I am groovin’ like it’s 1993. Hip Hop Hooray! Ho. Hay. Ho.

Here’s a link to the app in the iTunes App Store – Top 100s by Year by Bing

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/bings-top-100-songs-by-year-iphone-app.htm/feed 1 Texas Bluebonnets and How Twitter Helped Us Find Them http://www.danmasters.net/texas-bluebonnets-and-how-twitter-helped-us-find-them.htm http://www.danmasters.net/texas-bluebonnets-and-how-twitter-helped-us-find-them.htm#comments Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:14:33 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=334 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> texas-bluebonnets18This past weekend my wife and I had our monthly day off from the kids and decided to go look for Bluebonnets which are the Texas state flower. Initially we started to drive north of Austin but were not finding very many so we decided to drive out to 290 toward Houston since we had seen Bluebonnets in that area in years past.

On our way to the 290 we passed a large group of RV’s and tents setup in Cedar Park and were wondering what was going on. I had my wife do a search on Twitter for Cedar Park and someone had Twittered about attending a cook off in Cedar Park and so our question was answered. Being inspired I asked my wife to search Twitter for Bluebonnets and sure enough there were people Twittering about seeing a lot of Bluebonnets on the way from Houston to Austin. Specifically there was mention of them being in Brenham which is about half way between the two. One person who Twittered about the Bluebonnets mentioned that there were a lot behind the Walmart in Brenham at the 290 and 36.

We headed that way.

When we were a few miles away from the Walmart location we noticed another field full of Bluebonnets that a few folks had stopped at and decided to stop there as we figured it would be less crowded. Feeling grateful that someone else had shared their find decided to repay the favor and Twittered -

We found the Bluebonnets! Location – http://bit.ly/TBKrQ and pic – http://twitpic.com/2bv5v
- 3:58 PM Mar 21st from Tweetie

With Tweetie on my iPhone I was able to give GPS coordinates along with a picture of the location so that others could find it for themselves. I had never used Twitter in the capacity before and found it really help in finding out what was going on “Right Now” with my interest at hand. I will definitely be using it again in the future for similar situations.

Below are some of the pictures that we took in the cool location that we found.

texas-bluebonnets01 texas-bluebonnets02 texas-bluebonnets03 texas-bluebonnets04 texas-bluebonnets05 texas-bluebonnets06 texas-bluebonnets07 texas-bluebonnets08 texas-bluebonnets09 texas-bluebonnets10 texas-bluebonnets11 texas-bluebonnets12 texas-bluebonnets13 texas-bluebonnets14 texas-bluebonnets15 texas-bluebonnets16 texas-bluebonnets17 texas-bluebonnets18

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/texas-bluebonnets-and-how-twitter-helped-us-find-them.htm/feed 0 My First iPhone Amazon Kindle Purchase http://www.danmasters.net/my-first-iphone-amazon-kindle-purchase.htm http://www.danmasters.net/my-first-iphone-amazon-kindle-purchase.htm#comments Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:27:11 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/my-first-iphone-amazon-kindle-purchase.htm Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> p-480-320-b0200dfe-74af-4e45-aac9-bb6924ef1b81.jpegCool! I just made my first iPhone Amazon Kindle purchase. I was in a book store and found a book that I was about to purchase when I thought “it would be realy nice to have this on my iPhone instead of luging this hunk of paper around”. So I jumped on amzon.com/kindlestore to check it and and sure enough they had the book. The best part was that it was 50% cheaper as a ebook then a real book. I did a quick “One Click Purchase” and was told that the book would be added to my iPhone the next time that I opened the Kindle app.

After closing Safari I opened the Kindle app and it said that it was syncing and in less then 30 seconds my book appeared. I opened it and the whole thing was there. I though that it would need to download for a while but it was actually pretty quick. The whole experience was pretty cool!

This has opened up a whole new world for me as having the book “in my pocket” will give it a much better chance of getting read. Good work Amazon!

- Posted from my iPhone, please excuse any typos!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/my-first-iphone-amazon-kindle-purchase.htm/feed 0 The Allure of a New Mac Mini http://www.danmasters.net/the-allure-of-a-new-mac-mini.htm http://www.danmasters.net/the-allure-of-a-new-mac-mini.htm#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:27:40 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=318 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> mac-mini-09Apple updated their Mac Mini line this week after almost a year of not touching it. The upgrade was not that significant other then the fact that it is now possible to use dual monitors via the Mini DVI and Mini DisplayPort ports. This has raised an eyebrow for me because I have wanted to use two displays with my present Mac Mini for quite some time.

My current Mac Mini is setup as the kid’s computer in our upstairs family room and the kids absolutely love it. I have a 22″ monitor and a hard drive full of movies on it. Across the room I have a 42″ Phillips plasma TV that at times I will hook my MacBook up to in order to watch something that is on Hulu or that is ripped to a hard drive. My ideal setup would be to have the ability to display the Mac Mini on the 42″ so that we could watch items off of it as opposed to having to setup my MacBook to do so. It would also be beneficial to the kids to have this setup as they could watch their movies and even surf on the big screen as well.

At $600 for the base version of the new Mac Mini it is not too expensive to make this change but in the current economic client I may have to wait a while. it is nice to know that this is now a native possibility though.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/the-allure-of-a-new-mac-mini.htm/feed 0 Trading in the Acer Aspire One for a MacBook http://www.danmasters.net/trading-in-the-acer-aspire-one-for-a-macbook.htm http://www.danmasters.net/trading-in-the-acer-aspire-one-for-a-macbook.htm#comments Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:34:58 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=298 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> macbook_whiteI have traded our Acer Aspire One for a 13″ MacBook.

While looking for a new Product Manager position I am stepping up my side business in Web Design and Development to generate some extra income. I tried using my wife’s Aspire One but it was just too small and underpowered. Therefore tonight I went to the Apple store and got a white MacBook.

Netbooks are great to travel with because they are so light. But unfortunately there wasn’t much more I could do with it that I couldn’t do with my iPhone. The MacBook isn’t full size but it is bigger then the netbook and is a reasonable price for the features. I used to have one that was issued by my company so I am already used to it’s size and performance.

Netbooks are cool but just a little too small for me to be completely usable. Your mileage may vary.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/trading-in-the-acer-aspire-one-for-a-macbook.htm/feed 0 My Apple Keyboard Survived the "Spill Test" http://www.danmasters.net/my-apple-keyboard-survived-the-spill-test.htm http://www.danmasters.net/my-apple-keyboard-survived-the-spill-test.htm#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:55:39 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/?p=258 Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> IMG_0207-1 I thought I would energize my aluminum Apple keyboard yesterday by dowsing it with some Red Bull. The keyboard didn’t flinch but I sure did even though there wasn’t any sparks or explosions.

After unplugging it from my computer I placed it upside down so the Bull could flow out of it. After I wiped it down I plugged it in and it still worked. I used it the rest of the day without a hitch.

When I came in this morning I did not think about yesterdays baptism in the Bull until I tried to come to this website and was typing my name. The R was slow to some back up after being pressed and so I need to perform some surgery on my keyboard.

I ended up popping off the a Shift key, plus the T, R, and E keys. I rinsed each key and its little plastic spring with water and wiped the inside of the key socket. While those keys are now nice and responsive I have noticed that the G key is also acting sluggish so it looks like I will need to pop it off as well.

I wish I could just throw this thing in the dish washer and take care of it in one swoop.

P.S. This post has caused me to add a new category named "Doh!".

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/my-apple-keyboard-survived-the-spill-test.htm/feed 0 The iMac Has Been Moved Into My Home Office :-) http://www.danmasters.net/the-imac-has-been-moved-into-my-home-office.htm http://www.danmasters.net/the-imac-has-been-moved-into-my-home-office.htm#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:30:52 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/the-imac-has-been-moved-into-my-home-office.htm Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> imac_24inch 6 months ago when we moved into our new house we had some cash that we set aside to buy things for the new house. I was able to sneak in money for a new computer and was able to score a previous generation Intel iMac 24” for $1300. The thing was practically brand new and had 2 years of AppleCare left on it and 3GB of memory.

When moving into the new house the new iMac was placed in our room on my wife’s desk. At the time I did not have my office downstairs because my brother-in-law was staying with us. About a month after we moved in he moved out and I had my office back but opted to get a 22” monitor to hook up to my laptop from work. I used the iMac from time-to-time upstairs but never really got to play with it.

AcerAspireOne As mentioned before I purchased my wife an Acer Aspire One and for convenience I hooked it up in my office to my 22” monitor so she could use it down stairs. While it was usable the Acer Aspire One is a Netbook and obviously is no where as powerful as the iMac. In talking to my wife she thought that maybe it would be better to switch the two computers so that the iMac is downstairs in my office :-) . Sure babe we can do that I told her ;-) .

That conversation took place on late Wednesday night and you know the first thing that I did when I got home last night – yep, I switched the computers.

I have to say that it looks so nice sitting on my desk. As good as the performance of the iMac is it is also a beautiful looking computer. The other thing is that is awesome about it is that the screen is huge. While it is only 2 inches larger then the monitor I had there the 22” monitor was wide screen so it was not as high. The iMac is not a wide screen so the height of the screen is much more noticeable.

cod4 Now here comes the true confession. One of the real reasons that I wanted the iMac in the first place was in order to play games on it. I have Boot Camp setup with Windows XP and have Call of Duty 4 installed. With the computer in our room I only got to play a few times in the last 6 months. Now I should be able to play much more often. The only trick is not to get myself in trouble with my wife ;-) .

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/the-imac-has-been-moved-into-my-home-office.htm/feed 0 My Mouse is Dying :-( http://www.danmasters.net/my-mouse-is-dying.htm http://www.danmasters.net/my-mouse-is-dying.htm#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:28:35 +0000 Dan http://www.danmasters.net/my-mouse-is-dying.htm Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.]]> image The weirdest thing just happened to me. I was doing some work and clicked on the first button of my mouse and it did not click. I took a closer look and the button is starting to not push back up.

My mouse is dying :-( .

Why is that significant? It isn’t too much but I am kind of attached to this mouse as I believe that I have had it for at least 5 years now if not longer. imageI have never had a mouse physically die on my like that before. Weird.

Oh well, I had been eyeing the new Microsoft Arc mouse so maybe now is the time to go pick one up ;-) .

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

]]> http://www.danmasters.net/my-mouse-is-dying.htm/feed 0