the part-time nerd

These are two of my favorite things…

theparttimenerd — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:36:51 +0000

Apple commercial – Jeff Goldblum

We will we will Roku!

theparttimenerd — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:55:14 +0000

Now that the wi-fi is blazing and all is right in the world (well, technologically at least) I need a new gadget. I have a Netflix account that allows for streaming so I came across this little beauty, the Roku Digital Video Player. Hook it up to any TV and with a wi-fi (or wired) connection you can watch both Amazon Video on Demand AND Netflix on your boobtube. No more kiddo hogging your laptop watching freakin iCarly-plop his butt down in front of the big screen!

The PTN returneth

theparttimenerd — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:10:35 +0000

I’ve been really remiss in my blogging due to some personal stuff going on so I apologize! Will hopefully get back into the swing of things in the next couple of weeks as things get back to the normal pandemonium here at Casa de Nerd. I’ve learned a few new tricks to share with you and will be rolling those out soon.

Today I found a really cool thing via Lifehacker that I felt compelled to share with y’all-the Universal Wish List Button from Amazon.com. Drag the button up to your toolbar and when you see something cool you want to add, regardless if it’s on Amazon.com or not, this little app will automatically add it to your Wish List. And if you don’t have an wish list started at Amazon, what the hell are you waiting for? I love stalking people via their Amazon wish lists-really tells you a lot about potential suitors, employers, etc.

Time to get our schit together!

theparttimenerd — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:18:47 +0000

I realized this week that summer break looms in the not so distant future and that scares me. This will be my first summer without day care so I’m going to have to come up with a plan for entertainment/learning for my little nerd (age 5.66 years old). He needs structure as he’s been unlucky enough to inherit Mom’s A.D.D. and at school they have a daily schedule so I need to make one for us.

Enter Google Calendar-I’ve created his own calendar for him under my account and imported everything from iCal to it. I’m switching totally to gCal because a) it does SMS alerts b) seems easier to use c)I like the idea of “the cloud”, it’s growing on me. I’ve also been compiling a cleaning schedule in gCal for my sorry ass so I can have no excuse to be messy any more. My buddy Jennifer is helping me with this part-she’s my own personal FlyLady but better! Not as annoying or cutesy as The FlyLady (whom I’ve met; she is v. nice but her book makes me throw up)-she’s like a sassier version with great ideas.

If you are looking for something that just sends SMS reminders, check out this site, http://superminder.com , that I found while reading WWD today-it’s not free but looks cool. I signed up just in case it gets bought by a bigger company. hee I mean, look what happened with GrandCentral when Google bought them? I’d give a limb for an old GrandCentral account right now. Boo. (And though I’ve never Skyped I now DON’T want to since that damned Oprah went and ruined it).

Well, I gotta go hang up a new whiteboard on the back of my office door-I’m got such little wallspace I had to resort to this. Grr.

xoxo!
The PTN

Do want!

theparttimenerd — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:06:19 +0000

Isn’t this the coolest gadget? LaCie always blows me away in terms of design-this though is innovative and pretty! Well done check it out

On a personal note…

theparttimenerd — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:42:33 +0000

I have felt rather un-nerd like last week and haven’t really discovered anything that I thought was worth passing along. Last week involved 3 days of child-related activities with field trips and PTO stuff (I’m PTO co-chair), a day of chauffeuring my Mom around (dear sweet insane woman has a fear of getting her car inspected, long story) and only one day of geekiness spent outside my cave and in a coffee shop with my BFF.

The free wi-fi was snatched away too-oh the pain! The suffering of dealing with less than 1Mb downlaod speeds is inhuman I tell you. The ACLU should get involved as this is a violation of my human rights I think. It also puts me in a shit-tastic mood which sort of worries me. I think I may have a serious addiction to bandwidth. I get unreasonably angry and want to smash things when there is no wi-fi and the connections are slow.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! For Mother’s Day my present is that my husband has re-tooled the budget and found a way to get back in the good graces of the cable monopoly here so we will be zoom the Tubes in the next week or so. If I can just make it until then all will be right with the world and I can watch Hulu and YouTube and stream music without interruptions.

You probably already have discovered this but…

theparttimenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:47:41 +0000

I just found a really neato thing on the Google results page-the “show options” link that opens up a side menu that lets you sort by date and other cool stuff. I can’t believe it took me this long to see that. Sheesh.

How to become a ghost on the interwebs

theparttimenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:44:58 +0000

Boo!

the case of the mysterious wi-fi signal

theparttimenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 14:48:39 +0000

For about a year now, my iMac has been picking up a nice strong (around 6Mb) wi-fi signal. I can’t figure out for the life of me who’s signal this is. My neighbors include an octogenarian retired book editor and several families of illegal aliens none of which have claimed ownership of said signal. Sometimes it is wide open, other times it requires a password. We tried and failed to crack the password using some shady looking freeware we dug up from a hacker site, so every once in a while I’ll just check it to see if the door has been left open on it. This week has been one of those times and let me tell you, I could get use to this!

So I’ve been streaming music via blip.fm while surfing, catching up on all my shows via Hulu.com, downloading several podcasts via iTunes and exploring the wonderful world of torrents in earnest (with Peer Guardian running!). It’s nerd heaven at my house. We had actually been scheduled for a cable install this week but the shady sales dude (contract employee) never filed the paperwork and is now walking around town with our credit card # in his possession. So we are re-scheduling that and then we can finally get rid of that horrible Verizon Wireless Broadband we’ve been suffering with for the last 18 months.

When the install does happen I’ve been contemplating bribing the guy with cold card cash (although cleavage was suggested by some of my dumb guy friends) to open up the pipe to the 20Mbs bandwidth plan they offer. If we were paying for it, it would be $75/month as opposed to $45 for the “up to 10Mbs” plan we signed up for. I’m also researching wi-fi router tricks and wouldn’t you know it but the good people at Lifehacker have already done the hard work for me. (adds Lifehacker to list of persons/objects I’d take behind the middle school and get pregnant) This article, while a few years old, still looks like useful information.

And if you are feeling really adventurous and want to crack your neighbor’s wi-fi I stumbled across this in my quest-it’s not for a beginning nerd to successfully do this kind of stuff so if you attempt it, may The Force be with you. On a side note, naming your network something amusing in case you have neighbors like me who go snooping around trying to move in on your bandwidth is highly recommended. I think I’m going to name mine “stopcookingsuchsmellyfoodyoudamnillegals”. What, too long?

How to become a ghost on the interwebs

theparttimenerd — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:05:00 +0000

Boo!