I use Dropbox religiously. I own a laptop, two personal desktops, and an internet cafe full of computers, not to mention I’m constantly on the go with my phone. Since you can’t selectively sync folders on your computer with Dropbox, I’ve moved my entire My Documents folder to the Dropbox. Continue reading →
Technology
5
Oct 09
How to Dropbox your Firefox/Thunderbird Profiles
6
Feb 09
Cheap Vinyl Cutting
Running multiple businesses and being friends with similar people we all know how expensive it is to have any sort of signs made. We’re very much do-it-yourself kind of people, so we bought a vinyl cutter.
First off, this thing was cheap. We shopped around and found a cutter from US Cutters on eBay (don’t buy from their website). After negotiating my own shipping the end price door to door was around $505. Not too shabby for a 36″ vinyl cutting monster.
The cutter itself is about 50″ long and it comes with a stand. Along with the tiny little cutting blades there is a pen plotting attachment that you can use to draw with.
We’ve cut a few things already, mostly stuff for Rob’s farm as you will see in the pictures.
Applying vinyl is pretty straight forward as long as you think things through in advance. It’s really sticky and once it’s on whatever surface you are using it’s not really coming off without being destroyed.
Anyway, with the amount we spent it’ll save us a fortune in sign making costs. Since cutting a few yards of vinyl ourselves will cost about $4/yard and having a shop do it would cost 10 times that.
2
Feb 09
Here, Take My Personal Info, PLEASE!
Many people, and a lot of my friends, complain about their “private data” being made known to large companies. Facebook, Rogers, and other huge companies constantly get flak for collecting personal information about their clients. But they do this to make advertising and your overall user experience MORE RELEVANT. Sears however, sucks at this:
This is a prime example of why I don’t care if a company has my demographic information. It’s not even that personal. Hell, there needs to be some sort of “OpenCookie” standard where I can plant a cookie in my browser that says I’m 23, male, and from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada so that the next time I search for coffee equipment I’m not being hit with bra advertisements that are completely irrelevant to me.
24
Jan 09
Free Community WiFi Routers Available!
I put up the PayPal page for our Free WiFi Project. Now anyone is able to easily order a router from us.
I made the “executive” decision to start calling each device a Community Router. Alternatively you could say Community HotSpot or Community Node, just throw Community in there because that’s what it’s all about 
Whether you want to help out at home or work you can order a community router on our website for $60. We’ll send you a box in the mail with instructions and everything you need to get started.
Tell your friends and let’s get Edmonton connected!
15
Aug 08
Free Edmonton Fringe Festival WiFi
We’re struggling a tiny bit with the Fringe WiFi, but it’s an amazing learning experience when working with these routers. We’re learning their limitations and how long they take to touch base, etc. etc. For example we can’t bounce a signal through the corner of a brick building without a pretty close proximity. Also encouraging people to volunteer a power supply is great for practicing our pitches.
The biggest problem has been getting everything deployed at once. It’s easy to get confused which node is where and what MAC address is what when you’re not taking notes and you’re adding a new repeater every hour or so. Next year we’ll be able to tackle something like this quite early and actually get a nice partnership with whichever event we’re supporting.
Here’s a screenshot of the properly working Fringe grounds:
Oh, and the best thing we’re learning is PATIENCE. It’s very easy to get frustrated because a certain node isn’t checking in fast enough or there’s a flutter with some power or whatnot. Just give it an hour and it’ll return to normal, no use running down to the grounds if you don’t need to.
Come check out and enjoy the Free WiFi at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival courtesy of the Free WiFi Project!