Chris Pirillo » msn http://chris.pirillo.com News and Reviews! Geek, Internet Entrepreneur, Hardware Addict, Software Junkie, Book Author, Once TV Show Host, Technology Enthusiast, Shameless Self-Promoter, Tech Conference Coordinator, Early Adopter, Idea Evangelist, Tech Support Blogger, Bootstrapper, Media Personality, Technology Consultant, Thicker Quicker Picker Upper. Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:25:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 © chris@pirillo.com () chris@pirillo.com() Geek, Internet Entrepreneur, Hardware Addict, Software Junkie, Book Author, Once TV Show Host, Technology Enthusiast, Shameless Self-Promoter, Tech Conference Coordinator, Early Adopter, Idea Evangelist, Tech Support Blogger, Bootstrapper, Media Personality, Technology Consultant, Thicker Quicker Picker Upper. chris@pirillo.com No no http://chris.pirillo.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/powered_by_podpress.jpgChris Pirillohttp://chris.pirillo.com 144 144 When is Your Birthday?http://chris.pirillo.com/when-is-your-birthday/ http://chris.pirillo.com/when-is-your-birthday/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:41:45 +0000 Chris http://chris.pirillo.com/?p=15547 When is Your Birthday? is a post from Chris Pirillo

I noticed around the web that we have three community members celebrating birthdays today! Traci Toguchi, Frank Eliason and Drew Olanoff will all be blowing out candles today. Now, normally I’d say a simple “Happy Birthday!” and be done with it. However, realizing today is Drew’s birthday gave me pause, and made me think…

Six months ago, Drew completely sure what his future held. He was diagnosed with cancer back in May, and the fight began. He finished up his last Chemo treatment a week ago, and the doctors have given him the awesome news that his tumors are gone. He is free of that stupid disease, hopefully forever. He continues his fight against Cancer, with the support of many thousands of people… including Drew Carey. In order to help raise money for the Livestrong foundation, all you have to do is click that little “Follow” button on Drew Carey’s Twitter page. For every follower – up to one million – that Drew gets prior to midnight on New Year’s Eve, he will donate one more dollar. How cool is that?

Thinking about all of this, and Drew O’s birthday, kind of puts life into perspective a little, eh? It makes one remember to stop and be thankful for what we have… right here, right now. It makes us want to push ourselves a little harder to do the things we promised ourselves we would do. It makes us want to reach out and tell those we care about that we do, in fact, love them.

Cancer touches everyone. EVERYONE. In some way or another, your life will be affected by Cancer at some point. Even though Drew’s personal fight may have come to an end, the war has only begun. Keep doing your part in kicking Cancer’s ass, everyone. We won’t rest until we eradicate it for good.

Birthdays aren’t the only thing going on in our community today, as you know. All of you are busy posting and writing, sharing your thoughts and dreams. What have you read that was interesting or thought-provoking? If I missed something, please leave a follow-up comment and share it with the rest of us!

Today in our downloads center, we have several excellent apps for Windows. Be sure to check them out!

]]> When is Your Birthday? is a post from Chris Pirillo

I noticed around the web that we have three community members celebrating birthdays today! Traci Toguchi, Frank Eliason and Drew Olanoff will all be blowing out candles today. Now, normally I’d say a simple “Happy Birthday!” and be done with it. However, realizing today is Drew’s birthday gave me pause, and made me think…

Six months ago, Drew completely sure what his future held. He was diagnosed with cancer back in May, and the fight began. He finished up his last Chemo treatment a week ago, and the doctors have given him the awesome news that his tumors are gone. He is free of that stupid disease, hopefully forever. He continues his fight against Cancer, with the support of many thousands of people… including Drew Carey. In order to help raise money for the Livestrong foundation, all you have to do is click that little “Follow” button on Drew Carey’s Twitter page. For every follower – up to one million – that Drew gets prior to midnight on New Year’s Eve, he will donate one more dollar. How cool is that?

Thinking about all of this, and Drew O’s birthday, kind of puts life into perspective a little, eh? It makes one remember to stop and be thankful for what we have… right here, right now. It makes us want to push ourselves a little harder to do the things we promised ourselves we would do. It makes us want to reach out and tell those we care about that we do, in fact, love them.

Cancer touches everyone. EVERYONE. In some way or another, your life will be affected by Cancer at some point. Even though Drew’s personal fight may have come to an end, the war has only begun. Keep doing your part in kicking Cancer’s ass, everyone. We won’t rest until we eradicate it for good.

Birthdays aren’t the only thing going on in our community today, as you know. All of you are busy posting and writing, sharing your thoughts and dreams. What have you read that was interesting or thought-provoking? If I missed something, please leave a follow-up comment and share it with the rest of us!

Today in our downloads center, we have several excellent apps for Windows. Be sure to check them out!

]]> http://chris.pirillo.com/when-is-your-birthday/feed/ 5 Apple MobileMe vs. Microsoft Live Meshhttp://chris.pirillo.com/apple-mobileme-vs-microsoft-live-mesh/ http://chris.pirillo.com/apple-mobileme-vs-microsoft-live-mesh/#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 05:14:57 +0000 Chris http://chris.pirillo.com/?p=7292 Apple MobileMe vs. Microsoft Live Mesh is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I’ve paid for a .Mac subscription from Apple. I’ve also paid for an MSN subscription from Microsoft. I paid about the same amount for each one. I can’t call it .MAC much longer. From now on, it will be called MobileMe. If you’re asking me whether it’s worth the subscription price, my answer is an unequivocal yes… especially if you have an iPhone. Even if you don’t, the synchronization will still come in handy. You still get web-based applications, and a great experience… whether you’re running on a Mac or Windows.

MobileMe is giving you access to 20GB of space ‘in the cloud’. With that, you can upload photos or documents. You can have and share a calender. You will get email if you would like to use it. You can use Microsoft Outlook to access your account if you wish! If you are using Gmail, you may wonder why you would want to use MobileMe. Again, if you have an iPhone, why wouldn’t you? It’s a no-brainer.

I’m already paying for an Exchange account so I can get my email and calenders hosted to share with Ponzi. I’m already paying for email, basically. Since I have an iPhone, this just makes sense. It’s a new service for your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. This is the simple way to keep everything up to date. You can have the same data everywhere: your desktop, your laptop and your phone. The tagline for the new MobileMe is: Push email. Push contacts. Push calendar. The idea is that when something changes in one place, it will automatically change in all of the others. In essence, it will “push” the changes through across your synched devices and machines. From Apple:

MobileMe stores all your email, contacts, and calendars on an online server – or “cloud” – and pushes them down to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. When you make a change on one device, the cloud updates the others. Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously. You don’t have to wait for it or remember to do anything – such as docking your iPhone and syncing manually – to stay up to date.

Do everything you need to do on every device you own. MobileMe works with Mail, Address Book, and iCal on a Mac; Microsoft Outlook on a PC with Windows XP or Vista; and the built-in applications on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Check your email, change your calendar, edit your contacts, and more at me.com. Accessible anywhere, me.com is an ad-free suite of web applications — Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, and iDisk — that are elegant and easy to use. You can drag and drop, click and drag, use keyboard shortcuts, and even switch between applications with a single click. Me.com is such a great web experience, it seems as if you’re using desktop software.

I don’t know if I am going to be able to use the email feature yet. Apple hasn’t said yet that I know of if or how they will handle personal domain emails. My email has been chris@pirillo.com for years, and I want and need to keep it that way. There are so many other features that I’m looking forward to using, though.

It’s not about ‘where’ you are, it’s about where your stuff is. You don’t want to have to stop and try to remember where you saved a particular file. You don’t want to run across a building, or even across town, to retrieve something you may have forgotten to bring to work. It’s going to be interesting to see how many Windows and Linux users subscribe to MobileMe.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

]]> Apple MobileMe vs. Microsoft Live Mesh is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

I’ve paid for a .Mac subscription from Apple. I’ve also paid for an MSN subscription from Microsoft. I paid about the same amount for each one. I can’t call it .MAC much longer. From now on, it will be called MobileMe. If you’re asking me whether it’s worth the subscription price, my answer is an unequivocal yes… especially if you have an iPhone. Even if you don’t, the synchronization will still come in handy. You still get web-based applications, and a great experience… whether you’re running on a Mac or Windows.

MobileMe is giving you access to 20GB of space ‘in the cloud’. With that, you can upload photos or documents. You can have and share a calender. You will get email if you would like to use it. You can use Microsoft Outlook to access your account if you wish! If you are using Gmail, you may wonder why you would want to use MobileMe. Again, if you have an iPhone, why wouldn’t you? It’s a no-brainer.

I’m already paying for an Exchange account so I can get my email and calenders hosted to share with Ponzi. I’m already paying for email, basically. Since I have an iPhone, this just makes sense. It’s a new service for your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. This is the simple way to keep everything up to date. You can have the same data everywhere: your desktop, your laptop and your phone. The tagline for the new MobileMe is: Push email. Push contacts. Push calendar. The idea is that when something changes in one place, it will automatically change in all of the others. In essence, it will “push” the changes through across your synched devices and machines. From Apple:

MobileMe stores all your email, contacts, and calendars on an online server – or “cloud” – and pushes them down to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. When you make a change on one device, the cloud updates the others. Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously. You don’t have to wait for it or remember to do anything – such as docking your iPhone and syncing manually – to stay up to date.

Do everything you need to do on every device you own. MobileMe works with Mail, Address Book, and iCal on a Mac; Microsoft Outlook on a PC with Windows XP or Vista; and the built-in applications on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Check your email, change your calendar, edit your contacts, and more at me.com. Accessible anywhere, me.com is an ad-free suite of web applications — Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery, and iDisk — that are elegant and easy to use. You can drag and drop, click and drag, use keyboard shortcuts, and even switch between applications with a single click. Me.com is such a great web experience, it seems as if you’re using desktop software.

I don’t know if I am going to be able to use the email feature yet. Apple hasn’t said yet that I know of if or how they will handle personal domain emails. My email has been chris@pirillo.com for years, and I want and need to keep it that way. There are so many other features that I’m looking forward to using, though.

It’s not about ‘where’ you are, it’s about where your stuff is. You don’t want to have to stop and try to remember where you saved a particular file. You don’t want to run across a building, or even across town, to retrieve something you may have forgotten to bring to work. It’s going to be interesting to see how many Windows and Linux users subscribe to MobileMe.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

]]> http://chris.pirillo.com/apple-mobileme-vs-microsoft-live-mesh/feed/ 17 Miranda vs. Trillianhttp://chris.pirillo.com/miranda-vs-trillian/ http://chris.pirillo.com/miranda-vs-trillian/#comments Wed, 13 Sep 2006 07:32:33 +0000 Chris http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/09/13/miranda-vs-trillian/ Miranda vs. Trillian is a post from Chris Pirillo

As reported tonight, I’ve switched from Trillian to Miranda (for several reasons). It’s been a pretty good experience so far, save a couple of random crashes. Here’s what I love about Miranda:

  • Active development community cranking out updates frequently
  • Slick interaction with popular and minor IM protocols
  • Polished skins are readily available through the directory
  • Fast startup and shutdown, relatively small memory footprint
  • My buddy list is transparent (read: no background)
  • I can see what IM clients and versions all my buddies are using
  • There’s a decent “Find Updates” plugin available
  • It’s a nice upgrade from Trillian 2.x’s feature set
  • Individual message windows can contain useful info
  • It’s open source – bonus!

Things I dislike about Miranda:

  • It took a full day to configure to my liking
  • Options are all over the map (in a disorganized config hierarchy)
  • no full support for Skype (read: Skype must still be open)
  • Skins aren’t applied program-wide (very frustrating)
  • I can’t undo a specific font change I made
  • You can’t set a universal buddy icon easily
  • User experience lacks the polish of Trillian’s
  • Some cryptic error dialogs
  • It was designed with geeks in mind
  • I’ve been having problems with MSN connectivity
  • Random crashes with no easy way of recovering open convos
  • I can’t access more than one account on any single network
  • It doesn’t auto-organize incoming IMs by preset protocol groups

I’ll stick with Miranda for the time being. If Trillian 4.x can lick the performance issues that dog 3.x, I’ll go back to it. No word on when the new version will be unleashed, though.

]]> Miranda vs. Trillian is a post from Chris Pirillo

As reported tonight, I’ve switched from Trillian to Miranda (for several reasons). It’s been a pretty good experience so far, save a couple of random crashes. Here’s what I love about Miranda:

  • Active development community cranking out updates frequently
  • Slick interaction with popular and minor IM protocols
  • Polished skins are readily available through the directory
  • Fast startup and shutdown, relatively small memory footprint
  • My buddy list is transparent (read: no background)
  • I can see what IM clients and versions all my buddies are using
  • There’s a decent “Find Updates” plugin available
  • It’s a nice upgrade from Trillian 2.x’s feature set
  • Individual message windows can contain useful info
  • It’s open source – bonus!

Things I dislike about Miranda:

  • It took a full day to configure to my liking
  • Options are all over the map (in a disorganized config hierarchy)
  • no full support for Skype (read: Skype must still be open)
  • Skins aren’t applied program-wide (very frustrating)
  • I can’t undo a specific font change I made
  • You can’t set a universal buddy icon easily
  • User experience lacks the polish of Trillian’s
  • Some cryptic error dialogs
  • It was designed with geeks in mind
  • I’ve been having problems with MSN connectivity
  • Random crashes with no easy way of recovering open convos
  • I can’t access more than one account on any single network
  • It doesn’t auto-organize incoming IMs by preset protocol groups

I’ll stick with Miranda for the time being. If Trillian 4.x can lick the performance issues that dog 3.x, I’ll go back to it. No word on when the new version will be unleashed, though.

]]> http://chris.pirillo.com/miranda-vs-trillian/feed/ 8 How to Handle Remote Tech Support <em>Using <a href="http://www.gotoassist.com/chris">GoToAssist</a> is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party. </em> chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) Partner Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMThttp://gotoassist.com/chris/ http://gotoassist.com/chris/ Network Tools for Windows You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. <a href="http://support.solarwinds.com/updates/New-Customer.cfm?ProdID=568&campaign=ipmon_DL_lockergnome&CMP=BAC-ipmonDL_lockergnome">SolarWinds ipMonitor</a>: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. <a href="http://support.solarwinds.com/updates/New-Customer.cfm?ProdID=568&campaign=ipmon_DL_lockergnome&CMP=BAC-ipmonDL_lockergnome">Download your free trial today</a>. Or, try their <a href="http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/">totally free tools</a>! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase <a href="http://store.solarwinds.com/s.nl/sc.16/.f">ipMonitor 9.0</a>. chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) Partner Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMThttp://support.solarwinds.com/updates/New-Customer.cfm?ProdID=568&campaign=ipmon_DL_lockergnome&CMP=BAC-ipmonDL_lockergnome http://support.solarwinds.com/updates/New-Customer.cfm?ProdID=568&campaign=ipmon_DL_lockergnome&CMP=BAC-ipmonDL_lockergnome Get Your Own Web Site Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=cp2">GoDaddy</a> includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=cp2">code CP2</a> at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order. <p>Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=chris7">CHRIS7</a>, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=chris7">GoDaddy.com</a>.</p> chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) Partner Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMThttp://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=cp1 http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/default.asp?isc=cp1 VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either <a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/13766/rn_a32755/">Parallels</a> or <a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/17081/rn_a32755/">VMware</a> (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with <a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/17081/rn_a32755/">VMware</a> and/or <a href="http://send.onenetworkdirect.net/z/13766/rn_a32755/">Parallels</a>. chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) Partner Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMThttp://chris.pirillo.com/2008/02/19/parallels-or-vmware/ http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/02/19/parallels-or-vmware/ Coupons for Online Shopping <p style="color: red">This feed is fueled by Lockergnome <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/buy/">Online Shopping and Coupon Codes</a></p> <p> Before you shop next time, see if we have <a href="http://coupons.lockergnome.com/">a coupon</a> first. </p> chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) Partner Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMThttp://coupons.lockergnome.com/ http://coupons.lockergnome.com/