Beens' Blog

Last Saturday I took part in Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk , this time participating as part of the Buffalo, NY group. I've now had a chance to process and consider the 100 or so pictures I took, and have come down to these five as my best. But picking the one that I have to submit is the hard part, and that's where I'd like your input... Possible WWPW Submission #1 Possible WWPW Submission #2 Possible WWPW Submission #3 Possible WWPW Submission #4 Possible WWPW Submission #5 I'd love your opinion about which you think is best. You can let me know by responding in the comments below, replying via twitter from here , or emailing me at pbeens@gmail.com . Thanks so much!

@dougpete , you area always teaching me something new , this time about Roy Tanck's flickr widget . Using the widget, here are my latest flickr photos: Roy Tanck 's Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. Get this widget at roytanck.com Thank you Doug!

July 5, 2010. Received my Dell Mini 1012 today. Delivery took about 3 weeks, possibly delayed because I ordered a non-standard configuration (I included a Bluetooth adapter). It’s nice and small, a good thing, but it’s taking me some time to get used to the keyboard. Here's a quick rundown of what I did to get it ready: Registered Mcafee anti-virus software . Not my usual anti-virus program, but heck, it came free with the computer. Installed Google Chrome , and the extensions I use the most (Lastpass, Shareaholic, Google Voice, Adblock, Forecastfox Weather, ScribeFire). Installed Picasa for managing my photos. Installed VLC media player for watching my TV shows and movies. Installed PDFCreator for, ahem, creating PDFs. I have a license for Adobe Acrobat Professional, but I don't see a reason to install it at this time. If I ever start using my Mini 10 to scan documents, I may change my mind. Installed Eraser for erasing sensitive data. Installed Bulk Rename Utility for ...

For a few months I have the luxury of having two different internet providers at home: Bell Sympatico and Cogeco. It's only natural that I do a speed comparison, so here they are: Bell Sympatico Cogeco The Bell package is their "Performance" offer, at $42 per month, with some deals thrown in for the first year ($5 off per month) and if you have another Bell product (I have a Bell cell phone, for another $5 off per month). The Cogeco package is the "standard" high speed, which is costing me around $48 per month, IIRC. The green numbers above are the download speeds, in kilobits per second (kbps). Neither Bell nor Cogeco match their rated speeds, which are 6000 and 14000 kbps, respectively. Interestingly, both are just over 80% of their rating. (A little collusion in their advertising departments, perhaps?)  The red numbers are the upload speeds, with Cogeco being about 50% faster. I have the two packages side-by-side for a few months because Bell'...