OK, so I don’t have many friends (aside from you, loyal readers [reader…whatever]) so when I lose my phone I can’t turn to my good friend Pete (if I had a friend his name would be Pete) and say, “Hey, Pete, Ole buddy of mine, call my phone.” No, when I lose a cell phone it stays lost. I’m not just writing this for pity email (although I wouldn’t mind some) I’m writing this because I have the answer to my problems: Google Maps! I know it’s probably old news to some blog junkies out there (like me single tear) but there are probably a lot of people who don’t know this trick, and if school house rock has taught me anything it’s that knowlege is power (and how to unpack my adjectives)! How-to website instructables shows you how to make Google maps call your cell phone for you.

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I'm not sure how many of my readers are aware of a little indie online 'zine called Steampunk magazine, but if you're not hip to it yet it's time to check it out for yourself. Steampunk has some great narratives, features (like this issues 'Guide to Body Hair' and an exerpt from an 1887 book about eagles), and interviews (like this issue's interview with I-Wei Huang who creates steam-powered robots). Steampunk magazine is only in issue two, so you haven't missed much, plus it's free to download. Where is the downside to steampunk? Well, gosh darn it, I just don't know.
By the way...the quote above is from the magazine, not just some random quote that has nothing to do with anything.

Link (via Boing Boing)

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OK, we've all been there, lookin' up some video in Firefox and when we find it, the player just sits there, no video plays, and we are sad. So, what do we do? We push foward, whenever the little yellow bar comes on top of our screen we mindlessly install the "missing" plugins but when it comes down to it, do we really know what to do in a multimedia-plugin-related crisis? What happens when you can't watch the latest episode of the Tom Green show when you think you've got all your plugins plugged-in, so to speak? For most people, nothing happens; people have a way of just going about their lives missing out on great online video content simply because they can't figure out why the embeded video won't work. To this, I say, "NAY!" Ok, so maybe I wouldn't say Nay so much as I would say, "That Sucks, I ain't goin' out like that!" (Yeah, I'm gangsta! WHAT!?!) That's why this article is here, to help all the people adrift somewhere out in Firefox-internet-land without a plugin to save them.

• The first thing you might want to check once inside Firefox is what plugins you have installed. You can do this by keying up to Firefox's URL bar (Ctrl+L) and typing "about:plugins" without the quotes. This gives you a list of all the plugins that are installed in Firefox. You should see things like "RealPlayer Version Plugin", "Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library", "Java Plug-in", and "Microsoft® DRM". If you don't see some (or any) of those plugins don't sweat it, this article is definitely for you.
• Now that you know what you have installed you should test all of your plugins to make sure they're working (this is also a good way to see what you might still need to install if you couldn't tell from "about:plugins"). You can test all of your media plugins for Firefox here.
• Alright, by now you probably know what's what. You know what's missing so now you just need to download that ish. You can download most common Firefox plugins here and you can get more Firefox info (and more plugins) here. BUT WAIT I wouldn't just go mindlessly downloading plugins (that's how you end up with embeded video that just doesn't work) If I were you, which I am (don't question me!) I wouldn't download iTunes and Quicktime just to watch the occasional embeded Quicktime video. Instead I would just download the light-weight version of Quicktime -- Quicktime Alternative (Download Link). You should also download the alternative (to the much hated [by me]) RealPlayer -- RealPlayer Alternative (Download Link). I also don't like to use the bloated Adobe Acrobat and instead opted for the light-weight and agile Foxit Reader.
• So you think you're pretty hot stuff don't ya? You've got all the plugins you need, huh? Think you're better than me? Well, mister (or Ma'am) it's time to put that theory to the test. Go back to step 2 and test all the plugins you updated or downloaded and make sure they work. If they don't work a good first step is to check for solutions to your specific problem on Google. If your problem pertains to embeded WMV, RealPlayer, or Quicktime then I would refer to this little guide. I had some trouble getting Quicktime Alternative to play embeded video, The procedure to solve that problem was pretty simple: click Start > Control Panel > Quicktime > click on the browser tab > make sure you have "Play movies automatically" checked > click "MIME Settings..." > under "MPEG - MPEG system, video, and audio files" > I selected (checkboxed) all except AAC Audio and AAC Audio Book > click "OK" > click "Apply"; Now restart your Firefox and that should be it! If you are having trouble with Windows Media Player (which is pretty common in Firefox) check out the amazingly detailed guide here That guide is so good, even I can follow it!

Alright, after reading this article you should be good to go as far as Firefox multimedia plugins are concerned. However, there is one last plugin I would recommend to you: the *balloontoablimp search plugin! With the *balloontoablimp search plugin you can search *balloontoablimp from the default search box in the upper-right corner of your browser and the plugin is incredibly simple to set up (what have you got to lose? Coolness? I don't think so). All you have to do is download these two files (here and here) and save them both to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\search plugins, restart your Firefox, and that's it. You can key up to your search box (Ctrl+K) and select *balloontoablimp from the drop-down menu, now you can search our website where ever ye be!
So I guess that about does it. Happy Firefoxing (yeah, I used it as a verb, WHAT!?!).

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DUNDUNDaDUHH! (that's right it's a triumphant music sound. I can use onomatopoeia, I'm the tech blog of the week!) As my five or six regular readers may already know, there exists a fantastic website called Daily Cup of Tech that I have featured on this website a few times (or maybe just once, but really, who keeps track of these things?). You also may or may not know that Daily Cup of Tech has a little award known as the Tech Blog of the Week. For this week I share that title with one of my favorite websites, The How-To Geek. This award is, as most awards tend to be, both a blessing and a curse. Sure, now I get some of that sweet sweet recognition that I so long for, but, at the same time, I have to update this site on a more regular basis and maybe actually put some quality content on here. I know right now it seems like a long row to hoe, but friends, I think I am just the Joe to hoe it!
So long story short, this blog is awesome and by extension you are awesome for reading it. Futhermore, this blog's awesomeness has been verified through the fine third-party reporting of Daily Cup of Tech. Kudos to the entire staff at DCoT for having amazing taste in tech, and 'much props', as the kids say, to you, the reader, without which I would be an insignificant amoeba lost and alone in the sad sea that is the internet.

...and on that note...

Here are a few of my favorite Tech Blog's of the Week featured in past

• Freeware Genius
  DCoT says, "If your hard drive is a bit empty, head over to Freeware Genius and say, 'Fill ‘er up!'"
• Shankri-la
  DCoT says, "With a very strong technology leaning, ShanKri-la has the potential to be a great blog."
• Thoughts From the Sidelines
  DCoT says, "They have so much cool stuff that if I were to buy everything that I wanted from their site, I’d have no money left for other, less important necessities in life like food and shelter."
• Pocketables
  DCoT says,"Pocketables will help you keep up with the tech Jones."

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