Iron Wil

Mint has officially been released and the interface looks fantastic!

I got the eMail that Mint went live and so I set up an account last night. It was pretty easy, I had KeePassX create a password [16 character is the highest Mint supports], the account setup took less than a minute. I really like the interface, it is clean, smooth, and very slick. My only trouble came when I tried to add accounts. I don’t fault Mint, I figure that with all the other people checking it out, the system was probably being slowed down. Now this morning, I had no trouble at all, I was able to add four accounts rather quickly. I do recommend that you get ALL of your account login information together before you begin.

The Mint Overview Section provides a very nice high level view of your accounts including Total Cash [account list], Cash vs. Debt, Alerts, Spending Trends, and Your Ways to Save. One nice feature is that almost every thing is clickable and leads to more in depth information. The team made good use colors to separate, define, and add value to the information displayed. There are several [eMail] Alert features - for bank fees, large deposits, large purchases, and low balances. These alerts can also be delivered via SMS to your mobile phone. While some find this type of feature valuable, to me it is like more spam, since I am in my accounts two or three times a day.

The next section [or tab] is Transactions. This tab show all of your transactions at once, but you can switch to a specific account and then search that account. It allows for some customization a labeling feature, a categorize feature, and a notes section for each transaction. When you highlight a transaction it will display the last three months of spending associated with that merchant.

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I have been blogging for a several months now [about 6] and the first time I updated WordPress (WP) it was a disaster! I didn’t take the time to read up on how to do it and I made the mistake of thinking that my ISP’s One-Click could handle it. I was wrong. Luckily I had only a few article posted and I made text file copies of them. However . . ..

In the first two weeks, I saw that a new WP had been released [2.1, I believe] and [you] knowing that I am concerned with [systems] security I wanted to make sure I was up to date. I backed up my post by pasting it into a text file; then I used the One-Click install and broke everything. I spent an afternoon updating my site. Well, after getting it back online, I decided to make sure that I would not repeat that mistake. I started doing research when the next release came out.

I noticed that just a few days ago that there was another release. I started to get anxious because they were security patches. Then I came across Manual Upgrade Instructions¹ [UGGG!!!], there are a lot of steps. Then I came across WordPress Automatic Upgrade² which I really felt better about but I was ready to read the manual instructions before I made a decision. Then I made the time to read up on Automatic Upgrade, and I felt a whole lot better.

I first FTPed my site to safety and installed the Automatic Plug-in. I think it took an hour to download my original site and process the upgrade all the way through the end. The hardest part was to locate my FTP username and password, and the WordPress Automatic Upgrade² was as simple as clicking through the dialogs and then double checking to make sure that it worked. I then deleted the back up files and I haven’t looked back!

I really like this WP Widget and would encourage everybody that uses WP to get it!

iron wil

Notes:

1) WordPress Manual Upgrade Instructions.

2) WordPress Automatic Upgrade Instructions.

iPwned

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Wil Harris, Patrick Norton, and Robert Heron

Robert’s report from CEDIA, unlocking the iPhone, and the good, the bad, and the Google…

get yours here.

iron wil

My beautiful wife & I met some friends for dinner tonight - good friends that we have not seen for a while. Good friends and food can go a long way & it did, we spent about 3 hours catching up.

In the course of conversation, we talked about what movies and tv shows we are watching, and what things we are doing. We focused on what tv shows we are looking forward to [like Heroes, CSI, and Eureka]. And since he mentioned buying Season 1 of Heroes, I mentioned the Apple TV [which I would love to have] and how it would be great since we watch a lot of movies & we hate commercials. We also don’t mind watching something a day or two later. Well, she mentioned her Zune and how wonderful it is.

I decided to market Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch. [We just got Treo's last summer and can't justify the expense this year - but we are getting iPhones.] I was just having fun with the situation and they started to tout the compatibility between the Zune, XBox 360, and Windows. I just chuckled to myself and continued to be antagonistic. I even asked if she bought the pink Zune, she had and then she showed it to us.

The best part is after we were done, my wife said, “I have never heard of the Zune, who makes it?” I laughed the more and told her who made it. We got home and my sister, who watched our boy, had never heard of it either. That was great! Considering that Apple sold as many iPhones as Microsoft has sold Zunes - the difference, Apple did it in 2 months.

iron wil

Ross over at SimpleHelp has recently posted a “9 easy ways to secure your WordPress blog“. Personally, I am looking forward to implementing some of them in my own blogs. I won’t steal his thunder, head on over to SimpleHelp for his tips.

iron wil

In a stroke of stupidity and greed, Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit because of the open-access conditions that the FCC has placed on the 700MHz range. Skype, Google, AT&T, and a few other big companies successfully lobbied the FCC for the open-access conditions. Google has put up the 4.6 Billion dollars that is the minimum bid for the 22 megahertz being offered. The idea is to open this bandwidth up to any carrier and handset.¹

Personally I really like the idea of being able to use any [wireless phone] handset and even ‘move’ it to another provided whenever I want to. I am hoping that Verizon will fail with this lawsuit and the open-access conditions will remain. See my previous post for more information.

iron wil

Notes:

1) RCR Wireless News, Verizon Wireless sues over 700 MHz open-access conditions.

Steve’s E-Commerce System

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

Steve talks about developing his in-house E-Commerce system, and how he solved some issues other e-commerce system handle poorly. We also talk about the pleasures of assembly language programming.

get yours here.

iron wil