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My First Day Working Full-Time for SkribitJanuary 7

I’m sorry to disappoint - this post has nothing to do with the Apple keynote at Macworld 2009, iTunes going completely DRM-free, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro with an 8 hour battery life, or a myriad of CES coverage. Instead, this post is about my first day of full-time work at Skribit, a startup helping bloggers cure writer’s block (among other things) that I have been working on for the last year alongside Co-Founder Calvin Yu (whose full-time gig was featured on AJC.com today).

So what was my day like? For one, I’d say it was more productive than I have ever been with working on Skribit before. The explanation for that is simple. Previously I only had scattered patches of time to devote to Skribit. Having one massive block of time devoted to Skribit with nothing else in my mind nagging me was

Paul’s 2009 Tech New Year’s ResolutionDecember 28 2008

Last year I wrote a tech new year’s resolution post where I wrapped up the year and listed my goals for 2008. I stated that I wanted to reduce clutter in my life in regards to physical possessions and digital assets. I think I have successfully accomplished what I set out to do.

After a home invasion/assault/robbery made me rethink where I was living, I moved into a secure apartment of my own (instead of purchasing a Springfield Armory XDM 40 firearm for protection - Georgia firearm laws are surprisingly lax). Unfortunately with a bigger place of my own, I ended up getting more stuff to fill it up, like a couch, coffee table and the like. However, I have been able to get rid of all the small things cluttering up my household. The new apartment had a surprise for me: a ridiculously fast fiber Internet connection.

That h

Anonymize Your Web Traffic with JanusPADecember 23 2008

The in-the-works Janus Privacy Adapter is, hands down, the coolest piece of networking hardware I’ve seen (via hackaday) all year. The so-called Privacy Adapter has two RJ45 ethernet jacks and is intended to be placed in-line between your computer and Internet connection. After plugged in and given around 60 seconds to fire up, it anonymizes your web traffic through your choice of the Tor network or OpenVPN.

Tor 101

Those of you all too familiar with this blog will remember the Tor network from my post that detailed how to setup Tor with the BitTorrent utility Azureus. In a nutshell:

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visi

Review: GrabUp - Automatic Screengrab UploaderDecember 21 2008

It is not very often I find a software application that saves me time, doesn’t require much work on my end and actually gets used often. GrabUp (free, or $20 paid account) is one of those applications that I value enough to purchase. The OS X-only application intercepts your screenshot command (Command+Shift+3 or 4, etc) and automatically uploads the captured screenshot to either grabup.com, or your own server via FTP (paid account), and provides you with the URL in your clipboard, ready to paste.

It gets interesting at 2:10

Forget about having to open up your FTP application or using an imagehost like ImageShack. GrabUp takes care of all the uploading in the background and rapidly at that.

Why do I find value in GrabUp? For one, I share screengrabs with others several times each day. From trying to describe a website bug to someone or showing a friend what I’m working on, GrabUp comes in handy.

The free version of GrabUp uploads images to a site page this.

The paid ac

Review: The Pownce.FM You’ll Never SeeDecember 18 2008

Note: I wrote this post 7 months ago while the recently acquired and shutdown Pownce was working on a music service. As a big web-based music service user (listening to The Hype Machine right now), I was interested in what Pownce had up their sleeve with this small project called Pownce.FM. Unfortunately, the public will never get to see this creation. Now that Pownce has been shutdown (see image below) I am publishing this review as a piece of web history.

When Pownce launched public file sharing last week, they had the future in mind. That future gets launched today and it’s called Pownce.FM. It’s a Pownce companion website allowing you to easily browse, play and create playlists with “music on the internets,” specifically music files shared publicly on Pownce. Public music files are automatically loaded into a public songs area where Pownce users can freely browse, play and download songs.