Youtube, Digg unblocked in China today

After a recent speech made by Hu Jintao claiming that more freedom would be available for the Chinese populous in the near future, the 'great firewall' of China seems to have shrunk significantly.

As of this morning sites like Digg, Youtube, and Collegehumor now available to anyone on the net in China. Restrictions remain, Google news and wikipedia are still blocked but this bodes well for the future.

My brother Matthew who has been living in Shanghai for the last few months confirmed the new web freedom. Though, like many other tech savvy westerners in China he has found ways to circumvent the restrictions. One can only assume that portions of the Chinese citizenry have also found these holes in the wall.

From his experience, most young people in china are aware of the sites they can't visit and find the restriction embarrassing.

IMAP comes to GMAIL

IMAP is now available on Gmail. Looks like its only on select gmail and google aps accounts, not everyone has it, i encourage you to check.   I did, i found it, i love it.  

I'm using mail.app with my google aps account and i love it (the enable IMAP feature still hasn't appeared on my normal gmail account).

Gmail is the best email around.  Its does have one achilies heel, it not really on hte desktop.

You've been able to POP your gmail to Thunderbird or Apple Mail for a while now, but who wants to do that.  Its really inconvenient for multiple devices.  Google was keeping things going with some of the best clients made for email.  GMAIL Mobile is the best way to get mail on your phone,  I used it instead of the native mail client on my Blackberry Pearl.

It was a slight annoyance, but the unbeatablity of Gmail really made this insignificant.  All was right with the world until the iPhone came along.  The lack of 3rd party dev. on the iphone (apple says that they'll open the IPhone up for Feb 2008) made gmail a real hassle.  Google engineers are obviously on the job, and have started testing the new IMAP service.  

If you're not seeing it in your account settings, hopefully you will be soon.

Living Low Cost in Los Angeles

While 'project mayhem' may not be in your immediate future, you don't have to look far to start feeling a little like Tyler Durden.

As you might imagine. Living in a tent has advantages and numerous disadvantages. Its cheap, it simplify and you feel like you just dropped out of a frame of Fight Club while you glance around your office thinking, "none of these pansys live in a tent". Beyond that its just plain roughing it.

Angelenos may associate the Palos Verdes Peninsula with high price real estate, grand sea vistas, and Trump National Golf Course. Palos Verdes ('PV' or simply ‘the hill’) has been the quiet conservative refuge for the 'pony club' set since the 60s. In PV the condos go for $1000 a square foot and the peninsula grocery store is packed with $100k whips.

I’ve decided to cut the prim and proper city down to size by tenting it long term. Well, I'm not on a crusade or anything. I'm just looking to save a buck, but I don't mind putting a political bent on it. Two thing are for sure, the neighbors don't like it and feeling a little bit 'Fight Club' is intoxicating.

Living in LA can be expensive, especially if you’re surviving on your blog’s non existent income. Most of the folks at my office are paying between $900 and $1200 a month for their modest South Bay digs. And that only covers there part of the rent. All of them are sharing apartments or houses with groups of people. It’s the way things are done in Los Angeles. No one likes it, but everyone deals with it.

I’m no longer playing the game that way. Loyal ManyDigit readers may remember my visit to meet Jay Shafer, modern father of the Tiny House revolution. I really wanted to do something like that. Live simply and save my money for other things, like travel, and paying down credit card debt.

While camping in Colorado last month I had a revelation, I should just live in my tent. Most of my ideas go no where. I just talk about them with my friends once then they fade into the darkness. This time the stars seemed to be aligning correctly. The lease on my high priced LA apt. was coming to an end so I poked around to find someone who would be willing to sublease a camping space to me. Half jokingly I placed an add on craigslist.com, and in two days I had a deal worked out with a leaser in Palos Verdes. For $150.00 plus utilities a month I could have his patio/backyard and use of his bathroom and kitchen.

In a marathon effort, I got rid of nearly all of my furniture, I kept my clothes, my laptops, my camping gear and I moved in.. err out. I’ve been living the good life for 2 weeks now and I think I could do in indefinitely.

I’ll be writing some more about the new lifestyle I’ve discovered over the coming days and months, so check back. I will say this; the lady next do waters her garden every morning at 5:50am and inadvertently gives me and my positions a good watering down- a challenge that I’m learning to deal with.

You might ask what I’m doing with the grand a month I’ve been saving. The answer is “Whole Foods”. I’ve been eating like a king.

Bad Poetry - Good Times.

I'm a big fan of bad poetry. I enjoy writing poetry that deep down i know is aweful, but i don't think that should bar me from sharing or publishing it.

I find myself spending more and more time posting my really bad poems on verybadpoetry.com. It's starting to really eat into my productivity, but I don't care.

You can read random poems on the front page or you can browse through the archive and find some real gems. I joined the poet hall so you can find my aweful poems pretty easily.

Check it and publish something. It's cathartic.

HTC Touch-Flo

With the fever pitch building around the iPhone’s release in a few weeks, other manufacturers are trotting out interesting takes on the touch GUI. The LG Prada has already hit the streets and is most commonly pointed out as ripping off the iPhone, I think its closer to the Dulce and Gabana Razr. Last week videos of HTC’s touchable user interface started showing up on the net.

Instead of re-imagining how a phone should be, HTC basically combined some already available touch shortcuts and tied them to a slicker and easier to comprehend UI layout.

Since the first Palm devices started hitting the main stream you’ve been able to assign short cuts to simple motions of the stylus across the touch screen. For instance, dragging the stylus from the bottom of the screen to the top could open your calendar.

HTC has taken things further. Instead of a stylus the focus is on the finger, a hallmark of the iPhone philosophy. But that’s where the similarity seems to end. Dragging your finger from the bottom of the screen to the top appears to turn a cube below the screen and a separate set of functions is displayed.

I think it’s a good way to organize the many hats that smart phones wear. More interestingly this new GUI runs on top of a regular installation of Windows Mobile. HTC should just start distributing this as a skin for use on any Windows smart phone with a touch screen. It might bring a segment of the market that generally would avoid windows.

Excited digger already looking to trade in an iPhone

I just saw this post when i searched digg for cellphonetradins.com to see if anyone else had discovered it.

How to get an iPhone

You've got an iPod and a cell phone, trade them in for the cash to make your iPhone dreams come true.



read more | digg story

How to get an iPhone

Ok, so you want an iPhone but you’re afraid to take a risk. First of all, that's no way to live your life. If you like it, dive in. If you’re anything like me you've been reading the long awaited Apple Inc. iPhone rumors for more than two percent of what you can only hope will be the full length of your natural life.

So, that's settled. You're going to do something you want to do for once in your life. Now the only barriers are presented by the funds you have available. I'm going to let you in on a valuable secret: You have an iPod, you have a cell phone, when you get you're iphone you'll have two of each. Sure, you’re a modern money making plutocrat, but you don't really need two of each. You can sell both of them on eBay, but who wants that hassle?

I've found a place that will let you trade both of your soon to be redundant devices. Cellphonetradeins.com now allows you to trade in both at the same time! A few months back I traded in some old phones for some extra cash, I was really impressed. A check showed up in about 3 weeks. That's just enough time! If you do it today, you can pick up an iPhone and cash your check at the bank in the same errand.

Depending on what you've got to trade, you could pay the fee to break your existing contract or even buy an iPhone out-right with "free money".

I'm going to trade in my Nano today, ill let you know how it goes.

Amp'd: Where our revenue at?

The cellular MVNO geared toward "urban" users goes filed for bankruptcy protection early today. They will be restructuring and taking another crack at the bizarre marketing angle that they've been trashing away at for years.

In the interest of transparency, I should let all of my loyal readers know that I interviewed with some low level hire-ups at Amp'd to write copy for them. I was not hired. This should come as a clear warning to all of those other companies who have chosen not to hire me in the past. They sited "did not end enough sentences in prepositions" as the reason for passing me by.

iphone commercials

Official commercials from the folks at Apple Inc.

"How to"




"Calamari"



"Never Been"



You can also find these commercials on the apple site.

Plate Watch: VXXVXXV

Our new series on bizzare vanity plates continues with this baffeling entry from a Manydigitonian in the South Bay. I was emailed this photo last week, and I've been trying to figure it out. The best I can come up with is that this guy is a cardiologist and this is some crude representation of a human heart beat. The kind you might see on a linear heart monitor.

While driving into the office yesterday, i found myself pondering this plate mystery again when... low and behold the plate itself appeared before me on Crenshaw Blvd. in Torrance. I immediately veered off the road and onto the front lawn of a suburban house, dashing into the back yard I threw my self into there pool where I remained under water, searching for planted "bugs". I did not surface until I was sure that any communications device on my person would be destroyed. Unfortunately, this included my BB Pearl. The sacrifice was worth the feeling of security.

Plate Watch: SADNESS

The Los Angeles 'plate watch' continues. Many digits is quickly becoming a collection of bizzare commuter sightings in Southern California.

This was sent by a ManyDigitonian in Santa Monica. Admitedly, I would be sad if i were commuting in Santa Monica in my aging Cherokee.

Pop A baloon with no more than the weight of your virtual presence.

Bill Shackelford has wowed me for the first time. Admittedly, i had never heard of him or his domain before today.

He has posted an interesting web/art project. For the rest of the day, each time some one visits the site, the baloon is filled with a little bit more air. It's going to blow any minute now, so get your visits in now and make them count.




"Blogged"

Throwthatphone.com gets corp. sponsorship

As in Fight Club, when Jack black mails his boss at the "major car company" into becoming the unwitting benefactor of project mayhem- project throw that phone now has sponsorship.

Flipswap Inc. a small start-up dealing in the trade of used cell phones has stepped up as the first sponsor.

Throwthatphone.com will be sending an athlete to the international cell phone throwing competition in Finland this summer. Throwthatphone will be accepting pledges for each meter that the athlete throws the phone will be donated to finding a cure for breast cancer.

A virgin in a CTS!

Two days in a row!

A loyal ManyDigits Reader sent this in to me this morning after my "Tower II" Maybach sighting yesterday.

This Cadillac CTS was northbound on the 405 between the 105 and the 10.

It must be hard to remain a virgin and drive a CTS. Dudes and chicks alike would be perpetually trying to get a piece of your action.

If I didn't know that he had better taste, I might think this was Richard Branson.

Google testing new looks

Google is field testing new looks. I've heard one other report of the subsidiary Google products being listed vertically on the left side.

Maybach lost in Torrance, CA

I spotted my first Maybach in the wild on the way into the office this morning.

It was north bound on Crenshaw Blvd. in the heart of sprawling Torrance. Obviously, this poor little super luxury car had drifted way off course.

The gentlemen behind the wheel didn’t look as ‘slicked-back’ as the chauffeurs I've seen touring around in stretch Hummers usually look. The license plate was a California Registration, "TOWER II". Definitely a vanity plate but not the obvious kind that hire cars in LA generally wear. Is this some comment on September 11th?

I think this is pretty interesting, considering that I saw a Ferrari F430 on Saturday with the license plate "IRNURNXT". I didn't think that Ferrari drivers were that political, I thought they were just trying to hide their self hatred.

Still with the Joost invites!?!

Apparently Joost intended me to invite copious numbers of the Joost thirsty masses. I've passed the touch a whole hell of a lot and I still have more to give. post a comment and i'll send you one while they last.

"Throw that phone" feels the sucking undertow of potential sponsorship

For those of you in the know, throwthatphone.com is the chronicling of one fellas attempt to smash the mobile phone throwing world record.

Physical training has been underway for a few weeks in preparation for the big event this August in Savonlinna, Finland.. A site with video posts has been erected in hopes that corporate sponsorship might be courted. Sho' nuff it worked.

The organizers of the 'throw that phone' operation are in close talks with a SoCal start-up to cover the cost of airfare to and from Finland for the athlete and his support crew. Unfortunately, where cooperations go, so go their political machinations and 'logo lust'.

Negotiations are in effect, but inside sources at throwthatphone.com say that "It's wearing the fuck out of [them]".

You can offer your encouraging words to Matt on the Throw That Phone site.

Cell phone throwing world record!

This is just a quick one. A friend of mine just sent this to me and seeing as I'm not blog crazy, I emphatically announced that i would 'blog' about it.

As I'm sure you are aware, there is a cell phone throwing world championship in Finland every august and these dudes are making a serious attempt to break it this year and bring the world record to the USA. Check out the site www.throwthatphone.com

For more information about the contest in finland http://www.savonlinnafestivals.com/

Cash for Cell Phones

I'm the worst kind of gadget guy. I love productivity gadgets even though I could keep my entire calender and the majority of my contacts on the bottom of a Dixie cup and I'd be just fine.

For some reason, the little email, few contacts and utter lack of important calender has compelled me to be a smart phone fanatic. At the moment I'm torn between BlackBerry and Palm. I'm swapping my Cingular Sim between my BB 8100 Pearl and a newly acquired Treo 680.

In researching how I can turn some of the dozen or so discarded "dumb" phones that I've accrued over the years into something Smarter, I found cellphonetradeins.com.

You find the used value of your phone or phones by selecting your make and model and answering a brief questionnaire about your phone. They provide a USPS shipping label and you send the phone to them.

At the moment it appears that the only form of payment is paper check, which they claim will arrive in about 3 weeks.

I traded in my old treo 650 to see if this is really any better than dealing with Ebay. The value promised was $65.00 which seems fair considering the level of abuse it's endured. I'll post more updates as the story unfolds.

Still no love from Joost Support

One of the first invitations that I sent out for the wicked new internet television service called Joost that is now in beta, was a big flop.

The email invitation contains two links one to download the software needed to enter the Joost universe and the other to un-subscribe from what looks to be future Joost mass email.

Being a fervent spam hater, my younger brother, and recipient of aforementioned Joost invite clicked on the link hoping to be removed from the Joost mailing list. Like me, he has no access to broadcast television in any of its mainstream forms. So, the he was pretty excited about filling the empty void that is his pathetic life with a little video distraction. Unfortunately, clicking on the "un-subscribe link" burns your invitation and bars your email address from future invitation. All of this is done with out any confirmation whatsoever.

One miss click and your out!

Joost FAQ suggests emailing Joost Support and begging forgivingness. So far this has left my brother out in the cold.

More Joost Problems

I have to say that I like Joost but it has some real bugs to be worked out. I noticed soon after i installed the Joost Beta last week that the Windows Clock jumped foward 4 hours and 15 minutes and i could not update the time, nor can I change it. This one really had me worried. But after one of many Joost Crashes that I've experienced the clock returned to the correct time.

I still like the service and the player. If the content availability were more broad i would definitely considerer subscribing, but the current beta is still pretty unstable.

I've been inviting the hell out of some people and ive noticed the the invitation utility has some issues as well. More often than not when typing or pasting email addy's in the email feild only the furthest right edge of the last character is visible. So you just have to go on faith that you've entered the right address.

I apparently have an unlimited supply of invitations so hit-me-up if'n your interested.

Joost Beta Activation Problems

Several of the people that I've invited to Joost have reported some problems.

One persons installing the the setup software on his MacBook Pro downloaded the file from Joost, then upon launching was notified that he had to download a newer version. Newer Version?! He eventually got it up and running, but I haven't heard his thoughts.

My brother fell into an even weirder debacle. Apparently, it is very easy to un-subscribe and burn your invitation in the invitation email. With out a confirmation of your choice you are taken to a page that informs you that you've been removed from the Joost user list. He is still waiting for Joost Customer service to help him undo his mis-click.

Definitely look up from the severed hand that you are snorting brown brown off of long enough to read the details of the invite.

Free Joost Invites

Several people contacted me yesterday requesting Joost invites. I gladly handed them out. I still have some more, or can get you more if anyone else is interested. Just let me know.

I've got Joost, and It is Good (so far)

If you're reading this your probably been following my very recent saga with Joost, the long awaited IP TV solution from the boys who gave us Skype.

I dove into my first evening as a Joost Beta user last night and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. It certainly is not on par with having cable or satellite television. But, it wasn't bad.

The gui is as impressive as there website. It's clean and functional and pretty nimble, had no trouble running it in the background as I surfed the Internet. It's not nearly as labored as Media Center.

The video quality is on par with the ABC's online video player and I was impressed. They have a similar problem as ABC- good video, good interface but nothing to watch.

So far the selection of shows is pretty ho-hum. Some C level MTV reality programming, and canceled Comedy Central shows like "Man bites Dog".

As i explore further I'll post my insights.

Joost... I'm in!

I woke up this morning to find a message from Guido at Joost support in my in box. He handed me the keys to the castle and congratulated me on my important new role as a beta tester!

I haven't had a chance to look around. I watched 30 seconds of "The Deep End" before heading to the office. I'll report more on what I find in the coming days.

Most importantly, I've got invites, so if you are interested let me know.

Im a Joost User! Almost.

Yes that's right. I have been selected by the higher-ups at Joost to take a look around and offer my valuable opinions to the executives and public at large!

Though, I haven't actually received a Joost login yet. They kind of skipped that part.

I applied to be a Joost Beta tester back in February and i received a confirmation of my application, then the waiting began. I don't have cable, broadcast television or even an appliance that would function as a television if I had said services. I rely on Youtube, Digg.com/video and my own wild imagination for visual stimulation and escape from my own dreary life. I was excited to say the least at being aloud into the garden of Internet video that I'm hoping that Joost will provide.

I kept a keen eye on my in box, waiting for the magic words that would allow me passage into Shangrala, but nothing came. After a few weeks, I began to forget about my dream to watch tv on the internet and went back to obsessing about my eminent death, and the empty life that im sure to lead until the day that i ride that black horse through the gates of Hell.

Just when things were almost totally black, the dawn came in the form of an email from Joost support. They wanted to make sure that I was enjoying my Joost beta subscription and let me know that I could invite my friends as well if I'd like.

Rejoicing, was immediately interrupted by confusion, because have never received a log in or any other communications from Joost. I frantically began searching my unread messages and spam folders- with no luck.

I've sent a pleading email to Joost support asking for a answer to this mysterious maze that ive been thrown into.

Still no resolution, your prayers are appreciated.

They did offer me a nifty banner to put on my website though!

Tiny Houses

Undoubtedly, you have not heard about the housing sensation that is not sweeping the nation- tiny tiny houses.

I first read about them, when directed by my brother to an nytimes.com article. Man, are they tiny, less than 150 square feet (that is not a typo). Most of these houses would fit into a McMansion master bathroom.

They are fully equipped and free standing. The small space and efficient design lends its self to green housing. The ability to run completely "off the grid" becomes a viable possibility. This obviously isn't a solution for everyone today, but its certainly is an interesting and very inexpensive option for some people.

They main man getting all of the credit is Jay Shafer of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.
We recently jaunted up to his 100 square foot tiny house and office in Sanoma for a tour. It was pretty incredible. I could definitely live his life. Plus he's been featured on Oprah, so hes practically John TRAV-OL-TA.

Used phone condition guide?!

I’ve purchased a lot of phones from Ebay over the years. More than a few of them have arrived at my doorstep with obvious water damage. The phones were not listed as having water damage.

I’m a fair man and I think that most people just don’t know what water damage really means when they are talking about cellphones.

I found a really comprehensive guide online detailing, I think it could be helpfull for all Ebayers, even though that isn’t the intended audience.

www.flipswap.com/guide

Here we go again

It has only been a few hours since my last first post on the many blogs I've created today. I adore google products and its odd that I didn't start at blogspot- but I didn't and thats that. I have to say I wish I were more interesting.