Rules? We Don’t Need No Stinking Rules!, DoINeedAnUmbrella, In-Flight Internet

Airbus 380

Read about five people who got tired of the time proven, sound advice of the “media experts”. They marched to the beat of a different drummer and won – against the odds! Read More Here

DoINeedAnUmbrella I already use, Yahoo Upcoming looks interesting. Are there any Cool Websites and Tools you like?

I have flown on average once a year for the past five years. I have never used the internet on any flight, although I would consider it on a long, boring flight. Here is an article on the state of in-flight internet

How tos, Home Brews, Sick Pooch

If you are attempting a task you are not too familiar with, a little help is always welcome. You may like to try “How To Find how-tos on the Web”

I have often thought about building my own computer from scratch. This article from lifehacker renewed my interest in home brew computers

A few weeks ago our dog became sick. My wife and I took her to the Vet. There was nothing really wrong with the dog. That fact was belied by the vet bill – It was a whopper! If we only knew about this site earlier we could have saved ourselves a lot of money and worry.

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Send Free Text Messages

The Statue of Liberty

Many people don’t know that they can send out free text messages from a computer. Let’s say I want to text my friend Joe. First, I need to know which wireless carrier Joe uses – – Verizon. Second, I compose a new email to Joe. In the “To” or address heading I type in Joe’s phone number – – 2125556789@vtext.com The Third thing I do is write my message to Joe. I am limited to a message length of 160 characters. Now all I have to do is click “send” on the email, and voila! Joe gets a text from me. It did not cost me anything – – not even a penny! What if I needed to send Joe a really long message? No problem; I simply type 2125556789@vzw.pix instead, and Joe will get a picture message which has a 1000 character limit. Once again, this was done at no cost to me.

I want to send a free text to Fran. Fran has AT&T. I address the email to 2015553647@txt.att.net Fran gets my message, and I get to spend 20 cents on something else. I don’t know what the character limit for Fran is. I also do not know how to send her a longer picture(MMS) message. Maybe one of you can let me know at asktonycdotcom, or, you can leave an answer or a question in the comments section of this page. Unfortunately I don’t know what the extensions are for the other major wireless service providers. I am not going to be able to tell you how to send a free text as an email to a friend who has a Sprint cell phone number(A little help?).

Presidential contender Barack Obama’s camp has come up with a novel feature: Obama ’08: The Official iPhone Application. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/iphone

If you are an information junkie like me, you can get your fix here: http://www.hotsheet.com/

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Yelp

Yelp ( http://www.yelp.com/ ) and I hit it off right away. Yelp is a community of reviewers who have a common geographic region. There are yelp communities in large cities all over The United States. Yelpers write and post reviews on a large number of subjects; restaurants, shopping, and food are three of the largest categories. I came to appreciate yelp after I found a pool hall I didn’t know about in a neighborhood I had spent years in.

Got a Question? Want to let the world know about a cool website, a hot application, or a neat gadget? Drop me a line at asktonyc@aol.com

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Best Freeware Utilities, Hopstop Update

I like free utilities that perform as advertised. Some of these applications work as well or better than commercial products. There are many articles out there that claim to list the best free utilities that will make your digital life run smoothly. Here is a list I have found myself returning to time and time again: The Best-ever Freeware Utilities List, http://www.techsupportalert.com/dr/

Hopstop update: I tested two of the three mobile features Hopstop, http://www.hopstop.com/ , offers(I do not have the smartphone I would need to see the maps feature that Hopstop can display on PDAS. The Good: The SMS feature functions as advertised. I sent a text message(SMS) to Hopstop – – I wanted directions from a location downtown on the west side of New York City to a destination on the upper west side. In very short order I received five text messages from Hopstop. The instructions they sent were correct and were clear enough to be serviceable. The Bad: If you do not have a text messaging plan, all of these text messages may take a sizable bite out of your wallet. Hopstop’s voice feature lets you speak into your cell phone to ask Hopstop for directions. The directions will still be sent to you in the form of a text message. The voice feature only works for street directions in New York. The voice feature had trouble understanding what I said. I had to repeat my requests several times.

I do not have a smart phone; I was unable to test the maps feature. Perhaps one of you kind smart phone owners will test out the maps feature and let me know what she thinks. The Ugly: I find it easier to use a map or ask for directions. Hopstop sometimes gave me directions that made my trips longer than they needed to be.

Got a question? Want to let the world know about a cool website, hot application, or a neat gadget? Drop us a line at asktonyc@aol.com

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Hopstop and Phonezoo Games Update

I have been playing with researching Hopstop, http:// www.hopstop.com/ . So far I like what I see. Hopstop allows you to get door-to- door subway and bus directions, and maps for several large cities and metropolitan regions. Parts of the United States that are currently covered include: New York City, Metro North Area, Long Island, New Jersey, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Another cool feature Hopstop has is mobile capability. After registering on the site and plugging in your cell phone information, you can send requests for directions and get answers on your cell phone. If you have a smartphone you can also view maps. Hopstop also lets you plan a trip with multiple destinations using the itinerary feature. Hopstop also displays search results for places to eat, sleep, stay, and explore. I will post more on Hopstop’s features in upcoming posts.

Do you remember that I said that Phonezoo games can not be downloaded to Verizon Wireless phones?

I also said that I would give the downloads a try anyway, just to see what happens. Well folks, nothing happens. When I went to the download page to get a game, the “send to my phone” button was disabled. This holds true for Alltel Wireless subscribers also.

Got a question? Want to let the world know about a cool website, hot application, or a neat gadget?

Hit me up at asktonyc@aol.com

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Freecycle(TM) and Phonezoo update

Freecycle(TM) www.freecycle.org/ is an organization that allows people who have an item they no longer want to connect with others who would like to receive that item. This way our already overburdened landfills are spared from more trash, and both the donor and the recipient of the gift are happy. Items are not sold or bartered; they are given freely. I just registered a little while ago – – I will keep you posted on how things at Freecycle(TM) work out. By the way, the (TM) stands for the trademark symbol.

Phonezoo update: I tried downloading a free wallpaper yesterday. I got the wallpaper on my cell phone with no difficulty. Maybe I’ll try to download a game . . . just to see what happens! Please see my previous post about Phonezoo .

Have a question? I can be reached at asktonyc@aol.com.

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Welcome To Ask Tony C

Ask Tony C
asktonyc@aol.com

Welcome to Ask Tony C, a fun blog sharing cool websites, useful applications, neat gadgets, and funny stuff. Write and tell us about some of your favorite sites and gadgets. Also, check me out at Global Vibe Magazine (www.globalvibemagazine.com).

Cool Sites:
http://www.youmail.com
This site allows you to set different greetings for people who leave a message on your cellphone. You can leave a goofy message for your friends, sweet messages for loved ones, and professional messages for business. Youmail has thousands of recorded messages in many categories. You also have the option of recording your own personal greeting. Youmail also has a wonderful feature called ditchmail. Ditchmail prevents a caller from leaving a message on your phone. I had a telemarketer call me on my cellphone. He was trying to sell me satellite TV. I put his number into my Youmail contact list and set a pre-recorded message for his phone number. The message is one most of us have heard – – a woman says ” we’re sorry – – the number you have called is no longer in service . . .” To use Youmail, it is necessary to make some changes to a few settings on your cellphone. The changes you make will disconnect your voice mail from your cellphone service provider and instead connect it to the servers at Youmail. I recommend that you write down the initial values for the settings that have to be changed; This way you will be able to switch back to your service provider’s voice mail system quite easily.

http://www.jimmyr.com
This cool site takes up a good bit of my time every day. jimmyr (Jimmy Ruska) is a great collection of the best that several sites have to offer: Digg, Del.icio.us, Reddit, Wired, Youtube, Fark, Wikihow, Stumbleupon, and Lifehacker are some of the sites that jimmyr reviews and posts to his site on a daily basis. jimmyr.com also has a great collection of video tutorials on programming, “How To”, and a wide variety of other subjects that will be of interest to anyone who spends a fair amount of time online. There are so many more great things that jimmyr.com has to offer. So check it out.

http://www.quamut.com
This cool how to site explains in detail how to accomplish certain tasks. It’s great for those who want to acquire a new skill or improve on an old one. I found the section on faucet repair illuminating. The clear, easy to read instructions and the well illustrated diagrams make learning how to get things done a snap.

http://www.spokeo.com
There are a lot of sites that you are interested in. There is only so much time to devote to staying up to date on them. Spokeo lets you stay up to date without having to check up on each individual site. Simply enter the URLs of each site that you are interested in and Spokeo sends out an e-mail (in my case, about once a week) with a link to any new information.

http://www.pandora.com
Free streaming music that’s tailored to your taste. What more could you ask for? OK this site is ad supported; it really doesn’t stop me from recommending Pandora – – it knows what music you want to hear before you do.

Hot Applications:
Kcoolonline
http://www.kcoolonline.com – This site gives you the ability to download your favorite online videos directly to your computer. Kcoolonline will work on videos from over 200 websites.

Mozilla Firefox
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ – This web browser is superior to Internet Explorer. I used Internet Explorer for years – – it crashed often and without warning. I have been using Firefox for the last few months without one glitch!

IrfanView
This image viewer, created by Irfan Skiljan, allows you to resize, crop, edit, and add text to your images. These are only the tip of the iceberg – – there are many more things that can be done with IrfanView: file conversions, batch file conversions, and red eye removal are also a snap with this handy application.

Screenhunter 5.0 Free
Sometimes when I’m web surfing, I’ll come across some image or text that I would like to make a copy of. Screenhunter 5.0 Free, owned by Wisdom Software Inc., Does just what I need – – quick screenshots with no muss and no fuss.

Ccleaner
If you share a computer with others, you may not want them to be able to track your recent online (or offline) activities. Ccleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) will remove temporary internet files, empty the recycle bin, get rid of tracking cookies, and empty the History file on your computer. Ccleaner, which comes to us courtesy of Piriform Ltd, also has a neat uninstaller which I found to be quick and thorough. Did I mention it’s free for personal use?

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Hey guys, let me know about the latest gadgets people are using in your part of the world or submit any new happenings around the web to asktonyc@aol.com. Spammers can hit me up here: http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/spam/