Marcus Hamaker is The Sleepy Geek

I have been searching for a plugin for WordPress to automatically send an email to my subscribers each time I post a new article. I haven’t been very lucky, until now! I have found a tool called Subscribe2. The name isn’t very telling however it will let you set up how new blog subscribers are registered for emails by default.

Before installing this plugin at www.thesleepygeek.com, subscribers did not receive an email notifying them of a blog post. Since installing the plugin, I can set that any future blog subscriber will automatically be put on the email list (unless they choose not to) so when posting they will be notified.

This is an exciting addition to The Sleepy Geek. I have wanted a medium to notify users of new material if they are not involved with the Web 2.0 scene. It has been easy to setup plugins that update twitter, facebook, pownce, etc. but there are people in the world who don’t subscribe to those services.

I have been looking for quite some time for a personal finance management software. I prefer to have something online because my wife and I both need to access it at any given time. I was thinking however that there are quite a lot of people who are not comfortable with having their financial data online and would much rather have it stored locally on their computer.

I have found a personal finance software that is both open source and Windows/Linux compatible. Meet Money Manager Ex. “Money Manager includes all the basic features that 90% of users would want to see in a personal finance application. The design goals are to concentrate on simplicity and user-friendliness – something one can use everyday.” They really have done what they set out to do, and that is to make a simple to use tool for everyday while still offering the most important features.

The main features include:

• Intuitive. Simple, Fast, Clean
• AES Encryption Support
• Maintain checking, credit card, savings, stock investment accounts
• Budgeting
• Maintain and Track Fixed Assets with depreciation
• Reminders for recurring Bills and Deposits
• Simple one click reporting
• Cash Flow Forecasting
• Graphs, Piecharts
• Does not require an install. Can run from a USB key.
• International language support (Available in 24 languages)
• Import data from any CSV format, QIF [ Microsoft Money ]
• Printing, Exporting to HTML, CSV
• Non-Proprietary SQLite Database

Within minutes you will have your accounts setup through the wizard and will be able to start putting in your expenses and credits. You will be amazed at how easy it is to add categories and payees while you are in the entry window. Most software I have used in the past forces you to manage your categories and lists in their own sections, but not here. Once you type in the new name, click add, then click select and it’s done!

Given that this is open source, I really suggest you check it out if you are in the market. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

If you go to Apple’s website right now, you’re greeted in large letters with “Meet The Next Generation Of Notebooks”. How exciting is that? I have been psyched up for a while knowing that Apple had plans of re-fitting their notebook line and also doing a little price update, which they did both.

They took a chunk of time this morning talking about the base that their laptops are built on. Jonathan Ive went into detail about how they are forging a frame out of a solid piece of aluminum instead of piecing together frame. This is really meant to beef up the machine and make it feel more rigid and robust.

Also updated are the graphics in the new units by switching to an Nvidia solution. Depending on what model Macbook Pro you purchase you will see either the 9400M or the 9600M GT. Both these solutions are a combined GPU and chipset on the same chip, thus saving room.

The trackpad of all things has been changed. This to me is one of those features that needed updating but no one knew we needed the changes they came up with. I rarely hear anyone complain about trackpads unless they don’t like to use them all together, but these guys have made it larger, out of glass and the entire thing is the button. And to top that off, they have made it multi-touch (4 touch).

The pricing (source: www.arstechnica.com) comes in lower as well. More features and a lower tag is good in my books!

• $1999 for 15.4″ LED-backlit display, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo/3MB L2, 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 memory, both NVIDIA chips, 250GB hard drive and a slot-loading superdrive.
• $2499 for the same but upgraded CPU to 2.53GHz, 6MB L2
• both are upgradeable to 2.8Ghz

Steve Jobs saved the Macbook to the last because it seemed like the most exciting. I believe it’s because most people would be in that market if they were looking at a mobile Mac solution. The Macbook as it is now will keep selling but at $100 less, so now $999.

The new Macbook will have some cross over features from the Pro that people have been asking for. The main 4 points are the size and it will be thinner, it will now have the Pro’s metal enclosure, have a glass screen (glossy), the same faster graphics and an LED-blacklit display. They have answered and still kept the price somewhat reasonable at $1299 for the base unit. I still believe that Mac’s pricing needs to come down a little more to compete head on with the HPs and Dells of the world, but that’s another post.

So it’s time to go check out the new line at www.apple.com. I am excited to see them in the stores (apparently we should see them as early as tomorrow) so that I can play with one. I want to see how the trackpad is better and if the display really is better being glossy.

Well today is a bog day for Canadian politics. We are going through an election as our American counterparts will be doing in the coming weeks. Today we are voting to elect a party and Prime Minister from one of 5 major parties, The Conservatives, The Liberals, The NDP (New Democrats), The Bloc (Quebec only party) and The Green Party. It really looks like a race between The Conservatives and The Liberals at this point with The Conservatives currently the party in power (minor holding).

I have taken a moment to put together a list of 6 resources for you to find information regarding the election and track the results.

CBC.ca – Canada’s nationally funded network will have up to the minute results. Check their dedicated site for the elction at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/.

CTV.ca – Canada’s other national network will also have up to the minute results. Check out their dedicated page for the election at http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2008/.

The Globe and Mail – Canada’s national newspaper will have results on their page as well. Their dedicated election page is located at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/national/politics/.

The Toronto Star – Toronto (Canada’s largest city) with their look on the election. Their dedicated web page is located at http://www.thestar.com/election.

The Montreal Gazette – Montreal’s (Canada’s second largest city) major English speaking newspaper. You can find their dedicated page at http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/decisioncanada/index.html.

The Vancouver Province – Vancouver (Canada’s third largest city) with a look at the election from the other side of the rockies. Their dedicated page is at http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/decisioncanada/index.html.

BONUS!!! For us geeks, you can find Amber MacArthur online between 8pm and 11pm tonight with a live chat room open. Topic you ask? Of course the election. Go to http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081010/081010_amberblog/20081010/?hub=CP24Home for more information.

So if there is something you would like to add to the list, please comment and share it with all of us. I like to watch these results unfold from a wide variety of resources :)

I recently received a couple of emails asking my opinion about Windows XP vs Windows Vista. I was surprised to see this question for a couple of reasons. First that it has been debated and talked about at length by many people on TV and online. I appreciate the gesture that you want my opinion on the matter *wink*. The second reason is the fact that Vista has been out so long and the chance for most people to play with it is as easy as a trip to Best Buy.

When it comes down to the comparison, Windows XP and Windows Vista really are meant for different systems. I think the reason that this became such a controversy was due to the lack of legacy support in Windows Vista on it’s release. Most computers when released with Windows Vista worked very well out of the box. People ran into problems with Vista when they either tried to install it on a new computer or tried to install a legacy peripheral on their new Windows Vista machine.

Today if you buy a machine the chance of having a problem due to compatibility with the OEM hardware is very slim. Mistakes happen but no more than they ever did with Windows XP after 2 years out on the market.

Now you really have to make decisions based on what type of machine you have. My machine that supports the live.thesleepygeek.com stream is about 3 years old and I have need to run Vista on it. If there is a feature that you really need in Vista and you have an older machine, I would still recommend an upgrade. Honestly the price of a new system today is so much lower than it used to be and it would be a much better user experience.

Do you have a live video stream or a podcast? If you do then you have most likely thought about the audio quality that you are sending out. Since thinking about starting a live video stream, I have been investigating what type of microphone to buy. After a lot of recommendations and viewing some streams with the Samson C01U I decided to purchase that model.

It is a very nice microphone and it was very easy to get it up and running. Simply plug it in and use the default Windows driver. I wouldn’t recommend using their driver CD as is forces you to always have their software open to use the microphone which I feel is a waste. After setting the volume once in the Windows volume control panel, I doubt you will go back to touch it at all… it really is that simple.

Sound quality to me is great. I know what I like and don’t like when it comes to audio quality but I am not an audio expert in the sense that I wouldn’t know the different between a non-condenser mic and a condenser mic. I would simply know that I prefer one sound over the other. This is really a personal view as we don’t all have the same ears, some may prefer one sound to another so make up your own mind.

The price was right, $89.99 from Daddy’s Music in NH. I was in ME with my family on vacation at the beginning of September and decided to shop around. From what I saw on Ebay, they have a podcasting kit but most are $140+. That plus shipping and most likely duties and taxes and I was looking at more than $200. The extra shock mount and pop filter are not worth that much to me. Thank you NH for no sales tax :)

Would I recommend the mic for other people? Absolutely yes. Really easy setup, not too expensive and great sound quality.

I have spent countless hours since my vacation working on setting up a live video stream. It works in a sense but not how I would like it to run. I really do like the features that Webcammax can add to the stream, however the problem is the processing time it requires. It adds about 1-2 seconds of delay to a video stream that means that the audio will be heard 1-2 seconds before the video displays.

Audio/video sync problems drive me nuts. If a channel on TV is out of sync I will almost certainly change to something else or turn it off.

I have been in contact with Webcammax customer service, trying to drive some initiative to capture audio and video and allow throughput to your software (in my case the Ustream interface) at the same time. I am not concerned that there will be a 2 second delay, only that audio and video synced. At the reception of my service request I was told by customer service that my case was passed on to the technical team. That was 7 days ago, since then (2 days ago) I sent an email asking the status of my issue and have only received the standard “we will respond withing one business day” response.

I worked in technical support in the past and I know how much of a pain in the ass it can be to deal with hundreds of people everyday, but it is in the best interest of the support person to manage expectations. An email simply stating that it could take 1-2 weeks to obtain a solution wouldn’t have made me extactic but I would have accepted that.

This is turning into a rant about Webcammax support when even their support hasn’t been overly negative. Shame on me I suppose – but I really, really want this to work and I can’t afford to buy an iMac to host the stream.

But it’s nice to dream :)