CodyStaub dot com

Wow…a whole two months since I last posted anything. Between school and working I have had almost less than zero time to do the stuff I really want to do. Do you ever get so busy you just feel like you’re running all the time? Anyway, I suppose I should at least post a little update about what’s been going on the last two months, so here goes.

Internet Stuff

I’ve been reading a lot lately and trying to really sink my teeth into CSS, XHTML, and PHP. It’s been really interesting to watch my learning curve. Because I’ve been so busy and because I’ve set myself back a little bit by deciding to learn PHP/CSS/XHTML better, I haven’t accomplished as much in the last month as far as final product goes as I would’ve liked to. I’ve got some really big plans in my head right now, for three sites in particular. Another thing I did recently was upgrade my webhosting from just a basic plan to a larger reseller plan so that I can manage my sites a little more easily (hopefully), but migrating can be a bit*h. I’ve had a lot of downtime the last week because of it. Oh well, life moves on.

New Toys

While scouring eBay one day (I do get a little free time), I noticed that Dell Latitude laptops were going very cheap in particular. So, on a whim, I decided to bid $200 on one and guess what…I won it. It’s only about a year or two old and is in sweet condition, it was a heck of a steal I think. I’ll make a full review a little later I think :).

School (Ugh)

So as you gathered earlier (I hope), school has been in full swing for me and it’s kind of killing me. I don’t think I’m doing poorly in my classes, but between the 18 credits (I dropped them down to 12 right before mid-term), working three 12-hour shifts a week, and trying to keep up with internet stuff and everyday life…it’s a killer! I think for next semester I’m going to have to scale some things back a little. BTW, my advice for anyone considering college (because if you’ve been through the shock already, you don’t really need this advice), do all you can to avoid working while going to school. I realize it’s a necessary evil for most, but it’s so much easier if you can devote all your energy to studying.

New Year

As 2008 is approaching, I like to kind of think about what I want to accomplish in the next year. Usually I put this together into some sort of list for myself, but this year I think I will post the list on here. It’s not done yet, but it’s coming along so watch out for it.

Well that’s it for the moment. I’ll try and be more dilligent about posting, but I can’t really guaruntee anything

In lieu of Cool Music Tuesday, I thought bringing everyone a cool music gadget might just get us through this Tuesday (that and I just have way too much going on this week to do a bunch of music bios). Usually I’m pretty on top of things when it comes to Apple releasing new products, but somehow this one snuck up on me. Apparently Apple released sometime in the last week a new iPod…the iPod Touch.

The Zune Just Wet Itself

I’m pretty sure the folks over at Microsoft were just thrilled (sarcasm) when they heard about Apple’s latest brain child. Wi-Fi music sharing? How about fully functional wireless internet browsing, streaming video, and the ability to download music right from your MP3 player. All of the above without ever connecting to a PC? Not to mention, this latest iPod comes with the breakthrough touch technology that’s featured on the iPhone. In fact the iPod Touch seems to be nothing more than an iPhone without the GPRS antennae. I think it’s safe to say that the Zune can now, officially, be declared defeated. iPod Touch goes above and beyond anything we as consumers have seen before. Apple has set the standard again.

The Nano Goes Square

Not only did Apple unveil a great iPod touch and give some polishing accents to the iPod Classic, the Nano got some well-deserved attention as well. Instead of the familiar stick-of-gum we’re used to seeing, the Nano just got square. Why square? Well to fit the new widescreen for viewing movies. That’s right, you can now watch video on your iPod Nano! And the price didn’t change either…Bonus!

If you want to check out the rest of the lineup, head on over to www.apple.com/itunes to see the whole iPod family lineup.

Do you ever get frustrated with how tied to your computer you are? Unless you tote your laptop around with you EVERYWHERE, more than likely you’re constantly in a state of wishing you had something from your home computer with you. Well, I think I’ve got just the solution for you. It’s called PortableApps. No this isn’t a paid post, nor is it sponsored in any way. I just tried this last week and really like it, so I’m spreading the word.

What is PortableApps? It’s a set of open-source software that installed onto a flash drive. Some you may have heard of, like Firefox, some you may not have, like Nvu or GIMP. All of these free softwares perform like software you’re already familiar with: Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Notepad, Outlook, and many more. All these apps run right from the flash drive, no need to install them on a computer. The best part of all, you can store all your personal information on the flash drive without leaving any behind on the host computer. That’s right, all your bookmarks, settings, and files are saved on the flash drive as well. All you do is plug in and have access to all your files and programs without leaving a thing behind on the host computer.

I did this last week just to try it out. I went to Wal-Mart and got a 2GB flash drive for $15. The whole PortableApps folder takes up about 325MB of space, so I have over 1.5GB of space left on the drive for files and settings to be saved. This is nice because I can carry this little drive around anywhere, it’s only about an inch long, and I have everything I need anywhere I go. The only downside, the PortableApps suite only works on Windows. Even so, I’d encourage you all to go out and give this a try.