October 2005

It’s here but you’ll need a Google account, which you can easily create, or, if you have a GMail account, you can use that. Matter of fact, you can use any of the accounts that you have already created with Google.

My early opinion? It’s not a Bloglines but it’s an OK start.

Update, October 21: Well, I’ve played with it a bit and I’ll take function over form anyday. Yeah, it’s cute and the way it interacts with the user is neat-o keen but if you’ve got an active site you’re tracking via RSS or more than a couple of subscriptions, I find it too unwieldy. Maybe it’s just me … I haven’t given up yet and will continue to work with it but, for now, Bloglines is still my number one app.

engadget reports that Microsoft’s research labs has released a set of software to virtually clone your WiFi card, allowing you to appear to have multiple cards installed so you can, for instance, connect to multiple wireless networks.

If you haven’t yet installed the fix for MS05-051, you might want to take a look at this bulletin and make sure your permissions are set right. Apparently if they’ve been changed on certain folders, you could have trouble logging in, starting apps and running Windows Firewall.

Ever need to do the equivalent of an nslookup on a WINS server? No, it’s not the same. As I’ve said before, Windows IT Pro has a lot of good newsletters and the most recent issue of their “Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE” gives a pointer to NBLookup.exe that Microsoft released about a year ago.

What can you do? Pretty much what you would expect but see the Microsoft article link, above, for details.

Looks like we’re getting closer to my goal of not rewiring my house and yet still being able to network my home without the benefit of WiFi (see this entry about my new computer). The San Jose Mercury News had an article (registration required, I think) in this morning’s paper about networking your computers using your home’s power lines and another article about power companies connecting homes to the Internet.

No rebate. $159.99 with $80 Instant Savings bringing it to $79.99. 8AM-8PM tomorrow (Sunday, 10/9) only.

Mailnation is offering free email accounts with 1TB of storage, WAP, POP3 and IMAP access.

Update, October 5, 2005: Thanks to a suspicious/cautious friend, see this post for some cautionary words about MailNation.