Miguel Carrasco's Real World

iContact Community

Back in the day, before blogs where around, people used to subscribe to newsletters to get the latest information delivered to their inbox.  I actually still subscribe to a few newsletters.  However these days its very difficult to actually find good newsletters worth subscribing to.  This is where iContact Community comes in!  iContact Community uses a similar system to Digg, where the more interesting and relevant the content the iContact customers publish is, the more likely it will get votes from visitors leading to more exposure and more subscribers. The top ranked content in each category will show up on the community home page. All community content as well as the community profile will be indexed by Google and the major search engines, allowing publishers to get more visitors and subscribers.

iContact Community also allows email marketers to create a public profile, publicly archive their newsletters and blog posts, tag and categorize their newsletters and blog posts, get their content indexed in Google, participate in discussions with subscribers, and easily grow their opt-in lists.

Visitors to the iContact Community can vote on their favorite content, comment on content, view the top ranked content within each of the 18 categories like Entertainment, Politics, and Travel, create a public profile, discuss topics that interest them in the forums, and find new publishers who are creating email newsletters, RSS feeds, and blogs about topics they are interested in. It's an exciting experience to be able to vote on a newsletter that you feel has great content and see it move up in its category.

The iContact Community already has over 120,000 registered members and 212,000 pieces of content on it three days after launch.  Check it out!

Gerry Dee

By far one of the funniest comedians I have seen on Last Comic Standing was Gerry Dee.  If you have not heard of him, write his name down, go to your local video store, and rent his DVD.  Better yet, run to your favourite DVD store and buy it now!  I warn you though, if you watch the two Gerry Dee videos below, you will be laughing hysterically in about 2 minutes, and will have to buy his DVD.

 

Gerry Dee - School Teacher Jokes

 

And if you were ever a server at a restaurant, you have to watch Gerry Dee in the performance below.  His comedy is hilarious because you can relate!  It's all so true, you just can't help but laugh!

 

Gerry Dee - Restaurant Jokes

Gerry Dee has a web site setup at GerryDee.com, check it out.  If you love close to Toronto, you can check him out live as he commonly performs in the area.

Kevin Rose's Top 10 Diggs This Week

Kevin Rose is the founder and Chief Architect of Digg.  Digg is one of the most popular sites on the Internet, ranked 104 most popular on the Internet by Alexa.com, an Internet research company.  Kevin frequently uses his creation to find great articles online.  Below are some of the most popular and interesting articles he found this week!  Enjoy!

1. iPhone Unlocked, AT&T loses iPhone Exclusivity
   Until today, there was no way to use an iPhone in Canada, or on any other network than AT&T.  Read how some clever people have cracked the iPhone!
   
2. Plain Soap as Good as Antibacterial
   I always thought I was cleaner if I used the Antibacterial soap.  Turns out, nope.  Although there are other benefits possible from Antibacterial soap, Plain soap is just as good for the killing of germs.
   
3. Weight Training Workout Sheet
   Are you tired of using the old yellow sheets of paper at the Gym? Download this awesome looking pdf that has two high-tech looking sheets to help you track your workouts!
   
4. How to Buy a Cheap Airline Ticket in First Class
   I love this tip, I'm going to try it in a couple of weeks!  It's A step-by-step guide to finding and purchasing cheap first class seats.
   
5. Web Site Screenshot Tool
   Have you ever wanted to take a nice screenshot of a web page?  instead of taking it yourself and cutting around the edges, use this tool, its super fast!
   
6. The Dog Who Waited for His Owner Everyday For 11 Years
   "During his owner's life, Hachik ō saw him off from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. Even after Ueno's death in May 1925, Hachikō returned every day to the station to wait for him, and did so for the next 11 years."
   
7. How To Beat YouTube
   Once you get on top, everyone wants to take you down.  This article focus's on how someone could potentially take down YouTube.
   
8. Suprnova.org Comes Back
   Suprnova was the original most popular Torrent site on the Internet.  It was given to The Pirate Bay, with a promise from TPB to bring it back.  It is now back and better than ever!
   
9. Transparent Glass Lettering in Photoshop
   "In this tutorial we're going to use some super layer effects and a bit of extra magic to make a lettering style that looks transparent and stunning."
   
10. Google Rethinks its Google Video Termination Plan
    I actually had bought a few videos, to try and support online media, and I was really ticked that Google was going to pull the plug on the videos!  Google has changed its tone after an outcry from users.  Good thing, since its starting to seem like they are forgetting their own golden rule "Don't Be Evil".

 

Technorati Tags: Kevin Rose, Digg, This Week, Popular

Top 10 Reasons Firefox "Owns" Internet Explorer

Ok so I was a Firefox "late bloomer" but after just completely getting fed up with the bloatware that is IE7, I decided to give it another try.  I sheepishly went to the fox's web page, and clicked on the download button.  After two weeks of using Firefox, Microsoft will have a tough time getting me to ever switch back to Internet Explorer.

Here are my Top 10 Reason's Firefox is better than Internet Explorer!  Please add your comments and thoughts!

1. Tabbed Browsing
   Firefox rocks at tabbed browsing.  Not only does the tabbed browsing work really well, but it also is blazing fast!  Tabbed browsing in Firefox completely dominates and should embarrass the tab browsing developers at Microsoft.
2. When Windows Crashes, Firefox Recovers Your Tabs!
   If you use Windows, you will have lots of crashes!  I love how Windows is CLUELESS on what the heck was open after recovering from a crash.  I mean, on top of it crashing on me, it makes me log back in, re-launch whatever I had open, and then make me want to kill myself.  The saving grace I have now is Firefox saves all the latest tabs I had open, and asks me if I'd like to open them!  What a concept!  Thanks Fox for making my Windows Blue Screen of Death experiences slightly more enjoyable.
3. Find Stuff On Web Pages Without A Pop Up Box!
   I hate when I try and find something on a web page in Internet Explorer!  It creates a "pop up box" for me!  which I then type in, and it try's to show me where it found things...  Firefox Find is not intrusive at all, and super fast!  It will even highlight multiple instances of the search term, so I can skim the document quickly.
4. Way Faster than Internet Explorer
   Firefox is super fast! Even after Windows crashing, Firefox will load your many tabbed pages instantly at the same time, and your CPU does not get totally used and destroyed, and you have plenty of RAM left!  I dare you to load 10 Internet Explorer 6 windows, or even load 10 windows in "tabbed" browsing in Internet Explorer 7.  I hope you have an infinite supply of RAM. 
5. Customizable, and Plug-In Friendly
   It's so easy to download awesome plug-ins for Firefox!  It's easy to install them, and it's easy to remove them if you don't like them.  Internet Explorer didn't even have this ability until Internet Explorer 7, which is useless anyway for another 100 reasons I'm not even going to bother going into.
6. Great Download Manager
   Firefox has an awesome download manager that shows you the progress of your downloads, lets you specify default download locations, and lets you keep things clean.  Try downloading multiple items in Internet Explorer and your poor taskbar will start sucking wind fast!
7. Simple User Interface
   Simple is awesome, and Firefox understands this.  Internet Explorer is freaking complicated!  The way I rate a user interface successful is by the interface behaving how I expect.  If I click things, and they don't do what I think they should do, I get upset because that's a bad interface!
8. Less Crashing
   Internet Explorer crashes all the freaking time!  You'd think the browser made by the company that wrote the operating system, and integrated into the operating system, would not crash!  Wait... I get it.. lol.  I have yet to see Firefox Crash!
9. Small Install!
   Internet Explorer is the biggest browser I have ever seen.  Firefox is a 5MB file, and Internet Explorer is at least a 20MB download depending on your options.
10. Built-In Google Searching
    Google rocks, so does .  Internet Explorer does not rock, and neither does MSN Search.  If you use Internet Explorer, you have to know how to change the default search provider, where as Firefox comes built in with Google Search, and the Google Toolbar!

 

So make sure you download Firefox now!  You won't be sorry, and you will be helping Firefox gain market share over Microsoft Internet Explorer, a terrible piece of software when compared to Firefox!  You will also be taking away cash from Microsoft!

If there are any users out there that are still on Internet Explorer, please try downloading the software, and leave your comments below on how the experience went!

Gota Love CNN

So I am trying to stay up to date on Hurricane Dean since I have some family and friends in the area, and its just brutal how CNN covers the news.  They try and glamorize the death and how bad it is, almost like its a good thing!  Does anyone else find this?  I mean, I'm watching right now and it seems like they are saying:

"Don't worry, before landfall it will be like an ice skater and tighten up and be a cat 5... don't worry.. it will be awesome.. people will die... hang in there viewers, CNN will keep you up to date!"

That's not an exact quote, but it's basically what they are saying.  I mean, come on, people are going to get hurt!  I would switch to MSNBC but they can be just as bad.  What's wrong with people.  I guess it's what sells.  What are your thoughts on this?

 

Technorati Tags: Hurricane Dean, Weather, CNN

The Most Hi-Tech Toilet Seat

The Washlet is a toilet seat probably has more in common with your laptop than it does with your current toilet seat.  You have to see this thing to believe it!  It basically turns your bathroom into the most hi-tech room in your house.  The Washlet warms you, washes you, dry's you, purifies the air, the water, cleans itself, and even senses your presence! Walk up to this toilet and it opens itself up, warms you up, washes you with purified water, then dry's you.  It then goes into air purification mode, flushes itself, and then closes itself up!

You have to check this thing out, it turns going to your washroom a spa experience!

Check it out here:

CleanIsHappy.com

Want to order one today?  Call 1-800-350-TOTO

Ten Biggest Microsoft Flops of All Time

Microsoft has given us so many fantastic products over the years, I thought it would be fitting to highlight some of their biggest disasters, their Ten Biggest Flops of All Time!  Let's enjoy this time together as we look back at some of Microsoft's finer moments! If you would like to review the Ten Biggest Computer Flops of all time, I have reviewed them as well.

1. Windows ME
   Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition was touted as the first operating system to support Universal Plug and Play.  Unfortunately, this operating systems was quite possibly less compatible with hardware, than its predecessor, Windows 98.  It was also notoriously difficult to re-install, which was terrible since this operating system needed to be re-installed almost weekly.  Hardcore users claimed that Windows ME was more stable than 98, or 98SE, and the instabilities came from users installing bad drivers that were not approved and certified.  Nevertheless, most users of Windows were beginners, and thus the perception that Windows ME actually stood for "Microsoft Experiment", "Moron Edition", "Mistake Edition", "Miserable Edition", "Mistake Edition", and "Memory Eater".
   
2. Windows Bob
   Melinda French, Bill Gates wife, was the project manager on probably the most embarrassing, and most controversial software Microsoft has ever released, BOB! In 1995 Microsoft released a software package and interface that was aimed at replacing the Windows Program Manager with one aimed at novice computer users.  The interface featured a big yellow smiley face with glasses and virtual rooms.  Anything you ever wanted to do was done through a wizard that could never be skipped!  You had to go through the same questions over and over, even if you knew what you wanted!  Complete disaster!  Far too simple, not powerful enough, overpriced, and all and all, ridiculous. An interesting fact is BOB is still not dead to you if you use Windows Live Messenger!  Check out the Nerdy Emoticon, BOB is back!
   
3. Clippy
   As of Microsoft BOB wasn't enough, Microsoft had to bring it back for an encore! In 1997 Microsoft decided to try and save some face with the millions of dollars in research lost to create BOB.  They introduced Clippy in Microsoft Office 97, and ever since, Microsoft Office users had begged and pleaded for the removal of the tool!  Clippy is probably the most hated software characters ever created!  It would constantly come up when you didn't want it to come up, and just be so annoying that it made you want to drop kick your computer.  The famous line, "It looks like you're writing a letter". In 2007, nearly 10 years after the users begged for its removal, Microsoft finally killed Clippy, but still kept ways to enable the character if someone really missed Clippy.  It would be interesting to see how many people have done that.. my guess is 0.
   
4. SPOT Watches
   Everyone has always wanted a digital watch that could give you everything you ever wanted from news, weather, sports, etc, on your wrist.  The problem was, they did not want something that was big and ugly!  Also, do you really want to recharge your wrist watch every day?  Need another reason to not buy one?  They hardly work anywhere, and if you want to travel somewhere outside your "home" city, they just don't work unless you log onto a web site and tell the watch where you will be.  So if you're on the market for the heaviest, ugliest, largest wrist watch money can buy, this watch was for you!
5. ZUNE
   What was Microsoft's answer to the slick, easy to use iPod? A boxy, heavy, thick, and ugly mp3 player.  The display isn't flush with the rest of the unit, and the casing looks and feels like the cheapest plastic you can buy! I had the unfortunate experience of trying one of these out at Fry's a few months ago, and I was brought to my knees in laughter at how complicated and ugly the player was!  Brown plastic is nice?  And will make people want to buy it over the super sexy and sleek iPod?  Seriously?  What was Redmond thinking!
   
6. Microsoft Creative Writer
   Creative Writer is a word-processing application that was designed for kids.  It was launched in 1993, and never really sold at all.  Again, Microsoft did not seem to learn from the BOB experience, they launched a new version in 1996, A.B. (After BOB). They made things to simple to the point you are insulting even kids, is not the right way to go!  Microsoft even decided the program was so awesome, that they would release a part 2 sequel! In 1996, they released Creative Writer 2!  And once again, sales were terrible!  If you really want a copy, you can buy one on eBay now!
   
7. Microsoft Actimates
   You'd think Microsoft had failed at everything at this point, but no, they also wanted to win the award for "Creepiest Toy Award".  The Actimates line consisted of 7 interactive toys that interacted with your television and your computer.  Although the concept of a talking interactive doll seems great on the surface, kids were flat out getting petrified and parents totally creped out with these dolls!  Why?  They had an "awesome" feature that had them turn on and come to "life" when their TV shows came on!  They were discontinued in 2000.  So if you really want to buy one of these possessed dolls, you will have to check ebay!
   
8. MSN Network - The Original
   This one was awesome!  I still remember when we bought our first computer and it came with an icon for MSN Network.  It was a proprietary network that Microsoft was trying to create that competed directly with AOL, CompuServe, etc.  Unfortunately for Microsoft, they were late in the game as usual, and also came up with a formidable opponent, the Internet!  The best part that makes this awesome is that they wouldn't give it up in the beginning!  I remember thinking... why are they even bothering?  The Internet is 1000000 times better and bigger!  Why would anyone pay for their premium content!  Microsoft did re-invent it later, but it took over 12 years to fix that one!
   
9. Windows Vista
   I'm using Windows Vista as we speak, and I must admit I do like using it, however, it's not really that great of an improvement over Windows XP to warrant any kind of fanfare!  Plus it was years late and shipped nearly 5 years after Windows XP.  On top of being late, nearly every cool and new feature that was supposed to be included in Windows Vista was pulled out!  Also combined with the heavy requirement for computing power, this operating system is a beast that offers very little practical improvements over Windows XP.  No doubt this OS will sell eventually due to Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop.
   
10. DOS 4.0: MS-DOS
    This article would not be complete if we failed to mention the operating system that started it all, MS-DOS!  Version 4.0 was pretty much the worst operating system ever.  It had a huge bug that caused data to be lost all the time!  This was due to the Ram Disk being severely flawed in its design and development.  Other "features" included severe disk corruption issues, and all in all, no stability whatsoever.  It was so bad that when you went to buy a computer, you would ask for DOS 3.3 whenever possible.  Sometimes DOS 3.3 was sold out, or you had to pay a premium to get the lower version!  There were even rumors that Microsoft stole IBM-PC-DOS code to create MS-DOS 4.0.

There you have it!  The Ten Biggest Microsoft Flops of All Time!  I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!  By the way, I used to be a Microsoft Consultant, and love Microsoft products, unfortunately/fortunately, everyone makes mistakes.  The good news is they tend to learn from their mistakes.  Some companies do not.  Are these my opinions?  Of course, it's my blog....  If it was fact, it would be on TV ;)

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Computer Flops

facebook Explosion

I don't really remember the last time I saw a website explode like facebook has in the last two months.  For those that are unfamiliar with facebook, facebook is a social networking website originally developed for college and university students, but has recently been extended to anyone that wishes to join the site!  There was some controversy over this, however it has been a phenomenal boom to facebook, and will help the company make the site even better!

The site currently has over 18 million registered users, and is actually more popular than flickr for uploading images (The site currently has over 6 million images uploaded daily)!  facebook differs greatly from Myspace!  The major difference is the inability to customize the colours, html, css, etc of the facebook interface.  I love this as it makes it so much easier to get right to the point when looking at your friends pages, without having to try and read purple text on black backgrounds.

facebook is also not polluted with people looking for dates, relationships, and advertisers spam coming in from every direction.  The ability to quickly see what your friends are up to, organize events, upload and tag images, and post various types of media to your site is just amazing.  The News Feed is also a great page that keeps you up to date with your friends and family in a quick glance!

Generating over 1,000,000 dollars weekly, 30 billion page views per month, facebook is definitely about ready to be acquired.  Will Google snap up another one?  Or will Microsoft finally "win" one with the purchase of facebook?  Either way, the days of logging into MySpace for me are over.

 

Vista Microphone and Line-In Issues?

I've been using Microsoft Windows Vista for almost 6 months now, and recently transitioned my Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.  Everything has been working phenomenally and I am really pleased with the operating system!  Security is vastly improved, sharing has taken it up to the next level, searching is much better, and it is much more visually appealing.  However I have been running into a few annoying issues as of late, and it seems other people are having the same issues, yet no resolution.  The main annoyance?  Why does my microphone not work?  I should re-state this, I mean the microphone itself works, and if I plug it into the microphone port and record, it works great.  However, I cannot hear the microphone audio through my speakers... and I also have no option of turning it on through the new audio control panel. 

As you can see below, the new design is great, and I love the ability to set audio levels for different applications!  What a concept!  However, I can’t set my microphone audio levels at all, nor can I un-mute its default state.

The new Volume Mixer in Vista

So I did some more poking around the control panel, and found out that my Microphone is definitely working, however, options have changed in Vista, and it seems I have no way of turning on my microphone to play through my speakers.

Sound Control Panel in Vista

Microphone Properties - Levels

Nothing to exciting in Levels either, all I can do is set it to 100, yet Vista still seems to want to not play anything through my speakers.

So why do I want to get things playing through my speakers from the microphone anyway?  Well, on top of Karaoke which is a blast with friends (singshot.com and ksolo.com), I'm trying to learn Guitar and have a few programs that I need to hook up with my Line-In.  However Line-In seems to have the same issue, no audio through speakers.

If anyone has a solution to this, please email me or post in our comments below!  I'll post the solution to this issue as soon as I find a way to do it!

Windows Media Player 11 Released

The final version of Windows Media Player 11 was released today!  The latest version in the long line of Microsoft Media Player technologies sports an exciting new look that has to be seen to be appreciated.  The new organization features available in this version are comparable to iTunes, and in some cases better. Album art downloading has also been massively improved!

Windows Media Player 11 was designed to be used with MTV's URGE, an online digital music service.  It is also compatible with portable players that use Microsoft's PlayForSure Digital Rights Management security.

A feature I really enjoy is the ability to use audio fingerprinting technology to figure out what song your are actually loading.  I personally have a lot of CD's I have burned over the years.  Every time I want to import an old CD, I used to have to rename the song, add description's, title information, album, artist, etc.  With this new technology, all this is entered for me even if the track does not carry that information.

One downside to the new Media Player comes from Microsoft's competing device and service, the Microsoft ZUNE device and the Microsoft ZUNE Marketplace.  It just seems odd that I will have to use Media Player 11, and then use Microsoft ZUNE Marketplace for my ZUNE Player.  However, I guess this truly does bring "options" to the consumer.

Overall I like the new Media Player as it makes it much easier to navigate my music, audio books, and videos.  The look is very fresh and exciting, and I love the new ripping options as well as exporting options I have.

Get Windows Media Player 11 today!