Free up lots of Android memory #PhoneGeek

Whatever your smartphone preference, the truth is that the major smartphone operating systems are all pretty darn good across the board.  I've been toting various modestly-equipped Android devices for the past two years and have been generally pleased except for storage management:  on every device the primary (internal) storage would eventually unexpectedly fill without explanation.  I read manuals, combed forums, migrated apps, moved photos, cleared app data and cache folders all to little avail.  Finally I identified the culprit behind the disappearing storage and discovered it had nothing to do with my devices or with the Android operating system...

GOP versus OOP #HumorGeek

Just for fun... 
Politicizing Programming Languages: GOP versus OOP

Pebble Watch = Madness #HumorGeek

Along with CES 2013 comes news that the most-funded Kickstarter project to date, the Pebble E-Paper Watch, is nearing its goal of shipping actual product: the new devices are slated to hit the market January 23rd. The Pebble isn't the first wrist-based device to wirelessly link to a smart phone but it does appear to have the best chance for success of all such devices to date.

That said, a number of people take the view that it is a bit too much to expect someone to invest in a watch that tells you what is happening on the phone in your pocket. In that vein of thought ATXGeek presents you with the timeline graphic to the right:
Pebble Watch = Madness

Enjoy.
(Click image to view it full size.)

Hosted jQuery fallback plan #WebDevGeek

It's estimated that jQuery is employed by over half of all "major" websites. "Major" means highly-trafficked-sites such as NBC, Amazon, Twitter and ESPN. Close to one-in-four of these sites use Google's hosted jQuery library files (a.k.a. Google's "Content Delivery Network" or "CDN") rather than serving local copies of files. There are some great reasons to deliver jQuery via a CDN -- namely a better end-user experience and less server and network loads thanks to CDN content originating from localized source servers and end-user web browser caching of commonly-served files. Employing a CDN, however, introduces an external dependency that can cause sites to seriously malfunction if the CDN becomes unavailable.

The easy solution is to dual-source those critical jQuery files: attempt to load from a CDN and, if that fails, load from a local source instead. The code for this is super-simple and is being used more and more often as websites feel the bite of unexpected CDN service interruptions...

Lorem Ipsum ...and Bacon #WebDesignGeek

"Lorem Ipsum" is nonesense placeholder text created by printers either in the 1500's or in the 1960's depending on which site you trust most for your historical facts. Its use has thrived as part of modern-day print and web design. Placeholder content is useful for mocking up web pages and free online Lorem Ipsum generators abound, including a few rather unique options...

Ups/Downs to $19 unlimited smartphone plan #PhoneGeek

Republic Wireless is one of the first companies in a long while to look like it may have some success in seriously shaking up the US cellular market status quo. The last company to do that was Apple but that, unfortunately, was at the cost of increasing the average prices consumers pay for cellular services. Republic Wireless, on the other hand, is trying to change the cell phone plan game by saving consumers money. A LOT of money. The company is offering just a single service plan: $19 a month unlimited everything with no contract (wow!)

No, the offer isn't too-good-to-be-true but it is true-that-it-isn't-all-good...

Testing 508 Compliance #WebDevGeek

For years an item that has been overlooked by many US web developers is "508 Compliance". US Federal law requires certain classes of websites to meet Section 508 standards. Failing to do so can place a site at risk of litigation.

Fortunately you don't have to become a Section 508 guru in order to know whether your site is compliant. A number of tools -- and one free online service in particular -- will quickly tell you what you need to know...

Apple Hurting Microsoft Security #SecurityGeek

The latest "vulnerability report" from Kaspersky Lab included a surprise: Apple products show up twice in the "top 10 vulnerabilities list" while Microsoft products are no where to be found. What is even more interesting is that Apple's security issues are hurting Microsoft in the "vulnerabilities" department by introducing security holes in Microsoft systems...

Happy Halloween #ZombieGeek

A few weeks ago local-IT-company-done-good Spiceworks premiered a second video combining IT and Zombies. It's "part 2" so you'll want to watch it back-to-back with "part 1". These videos were filmed and edited by Spiceworks' own staff here in Austin, Texas. I'm lucky enough to have visited the company's headquarters a few times and have met a number of people featured in the videos. The company works hard to foster a fun, friendly environment and does a great job carrying that approach all the way through to their customers. These IT Zombie Apocalypse videos are a good example of that company culture.

(Note: The company mascot is a T-Rex. Just so you know.)

ZOMBIES Part 1



ZOMBIES Part 2

Gawker DR Scrutiny #DisasterRecoveryGeek

Gawker, Lifehacker and 
others surprise with no 
Business Continuity plan. 

At the time of this writing the latest "storm of the century" (hybrid storm/hurricane Sandy) is still working its wrath across a major portion of the US. The expected devastation has occurred across a number of states including loss of life, property, coastline, etc. Power outages and flooding were a given but what is unexpected is the loss of some well-known websites that, apparently, were hosted only in Manhattan. As in the island of Manhattan. Who would choose to have their popular, highly-trafficked websites hosted on servers located on a tiny island using an infrastructure already pushed to the limits by a densely-packed population? Here are a few such websites...

Web Stats and Your Target Audience #AnalyticsGeek

General web stats don't tell 
the whole story and can 
sometimes severely mislead.

Web browsing stats are a regular news item: mobile device browsing gaining heavily on desktop browsing, IE use still outnumbers Firefox use, etc. We hear the general trends but rarely the fine details. IE users continuing to outnumber Firefox users? Not within tech circles. Chrome now more popular than either IE or Firefox? Not even close for web-based content related to health (as we'll see).

Because generalizations don't tell the whole story I regularly review statistics for sites I create and maintain, both business and personal. In that vein I thought I'd share some "targeted audience" stats and highlight a few trends...

XKCD graphs via Python #CodeGeek

XCKD web comic influence has now
crossed over to Python programming code. 

Say "XKCD-style" and a great number of people will know exactly what you mean. For everyone else XKCD is a web-based comic that has steadily gained rep among geeks, especially coders and math nerds. The visual style is decidedly sparse and obviously hand drawn -- the focus is on the ideas, not the artwork. In this sense XKCD is very similar to mock-up tools that purposely generate "rough sketches" rather than polished facades.

In the past month a movement has popped up among coders to create "XKCD style" graphing routines. In just a matter of weeks several solutions have surfaced but the first I happened to run across was written in Python...