Anyone who reads used to read Shaunlow.com will know that he recently sold his site. I was curious to see what would happen. The buyer, presumably an annoying advertising company, didn’t get rid of the site. The company just threw in a couple of banner ads in hopes to make money.

I know this isn’t truly worthy of a blog post, but I just was so curious to see.  The company probably bought the site for pretty cheap and is now making (in terms of money) what they paid and more with these ads. I would have erased everything before selling my site to anyone.

I just got an email from the Chumby people company telling me I could FINALLY buy the Chumby. A few months ago I wrote about the Chumby and what it could do. It’s been a while since then and I almost gave up hope, but it’s finally coming. Expect a review as well as some pictures as soon as I receive the unfashionably late, pillowesque, Chumby. If you had signed up to get the Chumby early then you should be receiving an email shortly. The Chumby I purchased was black (just like the one up top).

*I ordered my Chumby earlier today, about 5 minutes ago they sent me the tracking number. Those Chumby guys must be working overtime to get these out. I’ve never seen a  tech (I don’t know what to call them) company open on a Sunday especially late on Sunday.*

Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch both come with the Safari browser. The Safari browser on these products is suppose to work exactly the same as on the computer. I don’t like using the Safari browser on my iPod Touch because I don’t like waiting for ads and sidebar items to load. When I was reading Leo’s Laporte’s Life of Leo blog I noticed an iPhone Optimized button on his site and found iwPhone.

iwPhone is a WordPress plugin that optimizes your blog for the iPhone and Touch. The plugin is pretty simple. Anyone using Safari on the iPhone/touch will be presented with an optimized theme for quick loading and easy reading. The iwPhone plugin is free and can be downloaded here (not a direct link to download).

Want to test it out before you put it on your blog? Go to r3fresh on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Yes, I know it’s been a while and I don’t have an excuse. What I do have is my first impressions of the new Apple OS know as Leopard, which was released on Friday.

Shiny and Ripe:

• Theme stays consistent throughout every app
• The end of the futuristic brushed metal look
• Finder finally found itself and it’s good
• The dock is pretty, very pretty
• Preview is even better
• Time Machine ends my pack-rat days
• Stacks makes getting to files, much easier (perfect for multiple piece projects)
• Mail.app could be seeing use again
• Front Row is faster and now something I’ll use (you can finally get to it in the applications folder)
• No bugs encountered…yet?
• No trouble running older apps

Soft and Rotten:

• Coverflow in Finder. Really Apple?
• I still despise Dashboard
• Wireless connection settings/information is still useless
• iChat will once again never be used
• Runs sluggishly on my 2GB MacBook Core Duo
• Only one Leopard space wallpaper
• No spine-tingling new features

Everyone voted for what they think I should do with my broken iPod (5.5 gen) and the winner isn’t any of them. After I posted the article stumbled across Kokopelli Music, a website that sells iPod parts. I decided to check it out.

What I bought…

Now, I had no intention to fix my iPod on my own, but Kokopelli includes everything you need to repair it. The price was pretty cheap at $60 (including shipping) and the kit comes with a mini screwdriver, supposedly two nylon tools, step by step color instructions, and the new iPod screen. I decided to take a chance and I bought the iPod screen repair kit.

Fixing the dang thing…

So I sat down, and opened the kit. The first step, pry the cover off, was definitely the hardest especially since the two nylon tools that were supposed to be included, weren’t. After venting my frustration, I decided to find alternative tools to pop the top off. I ended up using a butter knife, a plastic spatula, and a pot scrapper. Fifteen minutes of prying and I got the top off. The rest of the steps were clearly shown in the directions and I replaced the screen in about five minutes.

The missing tools were the most frustrating part of the whole project because they were needed for the hardest part of the whole repair.

The Before and After…

Preventing it from happening again…

To prevent another dog paw from crashing down on the iPod I bought a hard case. I bought the Griffin Reflect case ($20) on Amazon and I’ve evaded any damage including the minor scratches.

The Positives

• Spend significantly less
• Not having to deal with customer service
• The kit makes it really easy
• Get a fixed iPod

The Negatives

• Could easily kill your iPod
• Putting your trust in the repair kit
• Could take some time if you don’t know what your doing
• Might be out $360 (ipod + repair kit)

A fellow blogger posted this on their site and I found it quite interesting and even more disgusting. Do you want to know how many germs are on your keyboard take the quiz here.

I’m surprised my keyboard isn’t glowing green.
2,247,000How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

Free Online Dating from JustSayHi

I’m a huge fan of internet polls. Got anymore? Drop a link in the comments.

Leo Laporte brought up a really good point on this week’s TWiT. Should we (the users) surrender our bank account numbers and passwords to Mint? Mint, for those who don’t know, is an online money management tool that will supposedly save you money and allow you to keep a really close eye on the money you spend. The only question is security.Banks and credit card firms spend millions, if not hundreds of millions on keeping people’s information safe, but they still end up misplacing a “laptop” with account numbers of a few thousand people. A relative works for a company that creates applications for credit card processors. They get 10,000 attempted breaches a DAY and they don’t even use or have any legit credit card information. If the big companies are having trouble keeping information safe, then why should we trust Mint?

Like me, most think of Mint as another web service, but it’s a web service that uses (and could someday lose) your account numbers. Personally, I had put my PayPal account into Mint to try it out because my bank account didn’t work in Mint. Now I’m glad it didn’t work. We need to remember that for every good website there are a hundred more that are trying to access your information maliciously. I’m not saying Mint is going to ever lose your money, but a close eye should be kept on them.

I don’t want to surrender my information for better deals or a cool interface no matter how good the deal or how slick the interface is. Want a much safer alternative? Try an application like Quicken or just use your banks online banking site.

Digg introduced a whole bunch of “social” features a few weeks ago, but I’ve yet to use them. It’s not that these new features are bad, but I do think it’s the beginning of a new direction for Digg.

Some of the new features include “shouts,” sort of a twitter Pownce messaging system for sharing stories and videos. The profile page has also been redesigned to make it harder to Digg any story without making multiple clicks through Digg. These features are worthless to me. Digg is not my Facebook and Facebook isn’t my Digg. I use Digg to get the news and I use Facebook to communicate with friends, not vice versa. Digg has decided they want to be Facebook too. I wonder why…cough…Facebook worth a few billion?

Tell me if it’s just me, but does anyone use the new features? They seem to try to copy other services like Pownce and Facebook, when they could have just incorporated Pownce and Facebook features into Digg. The change in direction for Digg could be to appeal to a larger company (ie Microsoft, Yahoo, Google) who could in turn buy them (for a billion dollars). Unfortunately, I don’t think Digg is worth even a billion dollars.

I hope Digg doesn’t stray too far from where they began, but I guess we’ll know if they introduce Digg Apps or introduce a poking feature.