Joe’s Security Blanket

Do you have a bunch of old hard drives sitting around collecting dust? Do you wish you could use them for backup storage like a usb stick? Well never fear, Joe’s security blanket is here. I call it this because Joe has a great habit of backing up his beautiful black macbook, and he does it by backing it up to an older hard drive via this lovely usb hard drive tool. It’s made by a company called NewerTechnology and it’s inexpensive. This little diddy will cost around $30 and it allows you to turn any laptop hard drive, desktop hard drive, or DVD drive into a usb device. I love this thing and I love the price, and now it’s dubbed “Joe’s security blanket.”

Google reader is growing on me

Posted by Ed:

I have been using Netvibes as my news reader for some time now, but lately I have been gravitating toward google reader. Once I began reading several blogs, Netvibes became too overwhelming to manage all of them. The user interface for Google Reader is intuitive (like most of Google’s products) and really makes it easy to follow several rss feeds.

Statistics are a feature of Google Reader that I didn’t know I wanted. It provides trends that tell you many articles you have read and which blogs or news sites that you most often read. It’s another way for me to see exactly how much time I am spending on reading articles and getting my news fix.

The feature that did it for me was when I began reading my google reader on my Samsung Blackjack. The web page gave me a number next to each article so that I could just touch the number and begin reading the article. They made it very quick and easy to read articles on a mobile device.

2 Guys Named JOE Podcast is 1 year old

Posted by Ed:

One year ago, Joe and I were driving home from work when I hit the record button on my Cowon IAudio U3 MP3 Player.

“Ready, Let’s go!” began the podcast and since then 43 shows began in the same way.

We are always looking for show topics that interest our listeners, so feel free to Email us with show topics at twoguysnamedjoe@gmail.com.  We know you are out there, so speak into the podcast and let us know what you want to hear about.

The above image is currently on my desktop.  It’s a picture of our mixer board.  You will notice microphones plugged in to channel 1 and to channel 2.  Channel 1, that’s my buddy Joe aka CH1PC (Channel 1 Podcaster.)  Channel 2 is me aka CH2PC (Channel 2 podcaster.)

I look forward to podcasting every week, I look forward to laughing with my buddy Joe, I look forward speaking into the podcast, and I look forward to another year’s worth of shows.

Speak into the podcast!

Viewpoint Update? Ugh, nope.

Posted by Ed:

Today I was minding my own business at work and my computer pops up an unfamiliar message box at the lower right part of my screen (See picture below.)  Some weird program called Viewpoint said that it had been updated.  It then told me to hit the update button.  And by the way, in fine print below is a little blurb that says “By clicking Update you are agreeing to the End User License Agreement.”  This is a problem because the agreement had some nasty things that I did not want including a browser plugin that would take up space, memory, and who knows what else it would be doing when it phones home to it’s mother ship.  I despise these types of applications invading my computing experience.

After seeing this tricky application on my desktop, I did not press the X at the top right corner because they rarely close the application without doing something dasterdly.  Instead I had to open the task manager and kill the process.  I then went into “Add-Remove programs” and uninstalled the Viewpoint viewer and media player.  I don’t know where I got this thing, but I sure know I don’t want it.

Leonards blog this week talks about this very thing.  Check it out at  http://sec-soapbox.blogspot.com/2007/05/drive-by-what.html

Paying Down Credit Card Dept

Posted by Ed:

One way to pay down credit card dept is to transfer your balance over to a 0% interest credit card.   It allows you to still continue to pay off your dept but without the interest rate charges.  Just don’t ever ever ever be late on a payment because that 0% interest rate will turn into a huge interest rate in a hurry.  This isn’t the most technical topic, but credit cards use technology right?

Recording Skype calls using a Yamaha Mixer

Posted by Ed:

How do you record a Skype call with a mixer without having the caller hear themselves?  That is the problem Joe and I have had every time we set up our gear to do a phone interview on our podcast.  I finally spent time figuring it out and wanted to share with others using the Yamaha mixer in their podcasting or recording needs.
The mixer we use is the Yamaha MG10/2 (See diagram.)  The trick is to use the return and send portion of the mixer.

Below is our normal setup:

• Joe in Mic 1 because he is the channel 1 podcaster (aka Ch1PC)
• Ed is in Mic 2 (aka Ch2pc)
• Station Out is where we connect the recording device (aka Ed’s computer)
• C-R Out is where we connect an additional recording device (aka Joe’s beautiful black macbook, aka the backup computer)

Below is additional setup for a skype caller:

• 2TR IN is connected to the Skype computer’s speaker output
• SEND is connected to the Skype computer’s mic input
• Adjust the Aux toward Pre1 on channel 1 and channel 2 and set the knob just to the left of top dead center.  The more you turn it to the left, the louder the skype caller will hear your voices.

The main idea is that the skype caller hears our voices before the main output and before his own input is added to the overall sound outputed.

Next week, Joe and I will be interviewing a deaf person via an interpreter who is using a web cam.  Stay tuned….

http://www.google.com/search?output=googleabout

posted by: Joseph Hershey

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http://www.google.com/search?output=googleabout

try it. no ads. I like no ads.

How long will this be available before google takes it down or modifies it in some way to not allow you to sidestep their adwords revenue generator?

Format = Erase everything

Posted by Ed:

My son learned the hard way about the function of the Format command.  His PSP gives him the option to format the memory card.  Not knowing exactly what the word Format means, he decided to press the button to format the card.  He even clicked on the “Yes” button when asked “are you sure you want to erase everything on your memory card?”  I suspect he didn’t even read the message.  That’s the problem with error messages.  We are so accustomed to clicking the yes just to get to the next step that we don’t stop and read the message we are agreeing to.  It’s kind of like agreeing to allow spyware and malware on your computer.  Most people click the “I Agree” button without reading all of the terms and conditions.  I think the terms and conditions should be required to have a Cliff Notes version for the people who don’t want to read the entire 500 pages of terms and conditions.  I suspect most people would just ignore the cliff notes version too.  The good news for my Son is that he now fully understands the meaning of the word “format.”  Learning the hard way is sometimes the best way to retain information.  Once you have been infected with spyware and malware, you learn the hard way to start reading the terms and conditions that are presented to you.

2gnj is going video!

Posted by Ed:

Joe and I made the leap to video last night by recording at our local public access studio.  Episode 40 “Selling on eBay” was recorded in audio and video form.  We’re still working out how we will distribute the video files so stay tuned to this blog and our website 2gnj.com for details.

2gnj: How to subscribe to the podcast

posted by: Joseph Hershey

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Ed and Joe run through quick howto on howto subscribe to 2gnj podcast. what what. go to http://www.2gnj.com .