Wired Buddha website

www.WiredBuddha.com is up and running.
It is a health and wellness website to promote, discuss and support how to maintain a healthy balance of lifestyle and spirituality with technology.

project: WiredBuddha.com

I'm currently working on a new website: WiredBuddha.com

The website is a WordPress based health and wellness information blog.

The mission of Wired Buddha is to promote a healthy balance of lifestyle and technology. I anticipate articles and editorials, as well as upcoming events, promoting local talent and advertising businesses.

For now there is a launch page while I work on coding, SEO and design.

URL: www.WiredBuddha.com

Apps on my iPhone

I have had my iPhone for a year now, and I just love it. All the apps I use are freebies, or at least a Lite version of a Paid app.
Some apps are tried and true, and have stayed on my iPhone since Day One. Other apps have come and gone, and some may still change.
The bottom row consists of:
Phone | Mail | Evernote | Google Local
because I use these all the time.
Aside from the usual culprits: Calendar, Notes, Clock, Text Messages, here is a breakdown of the apps I use, listed by category as iTunes sees them:

BOOKS:
eReader (Fictionwise, Inc)
- a very easy to use book reader. I have a couple of dozen books installed in eReader. books can be obtained from: (manybooks.net) to get books I suggest going to the website with a browser first, as this is much easier to hunt down books. all books, as far as I can tell, are royalty and license free. once you find a book, open Safari on the iPhone, and go to: (manybooks.net/m) download the book for eReader.
Toxic People (Six Voices)
iAdSense (Alexandre Gomes)
- use this to track AdSense on your websites.

BUSINESS:
Dragon Dictation (Nuance Communications)
- yes, the same guys who made Dragon Speak. voice to text dictation.

EDUCATION:
NASA App (NASA)
- follow all the activities with NASA.
SEJ News (PointAbout, Inc)
- this is the news app for Search Engine Journal. I run a website and a handful of blogs, so I like to keep up to speed on SEO.
Particle Zoo (Richard Burgess)
- only because I’m such a science geek, I like to keep up to date on quantum particles.

ENTERTAINMENT:
Inventors (Alesig)
- next time you’re playing Trivial Pursuit and the subject is inventors, you will find this handy.
eCards (American Greetings)
- send a card via American Greeting Cards.
Remote (Apple Inc)
- app for controlling iTunes over wi-fi.
SketchBook MobileX (Autodesk Inc)
- easy to use, very handy, sketch app.
Spawn Lite (Elements of Design)
- a very interesting light show app. make one-of-a-kind designs with your fingers, capture the image, use it as wallpaper.
IMDb Movies & TV (IMDb)
- my girlfriend and I are always looking up movies & actors.
What’s On TV? (NapkinStudio.com)
- the TV Guide for the iPhone.
NFB Films (National Film Board of Canada)
- film library from the National Film Board of Canada.

FINANCE:
Attention Supermarket (Level 61)
- price comparison app between Product A and Product B. determines which one gives you the better value for your buck. get it when the app goes on sale.
my Shopping Assistant (NoOne)
- enter an item, and the various stores where you can buy it, and it will show you the cheapest price.

GAMES:
Cube Runner (Andy Qua)
- very easy to use. tilt the phone and maneuver your way through the maze.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Artificial Life, Inc)
- a great fighting game.
Traffic Rush (Donut Games)
- how long can you keep the traffic moving through the intersection.
Crash Landing
- can you land the rocket ship and not crash? harder than you think.
Sol Free Solitaire (Smallware)
- solitaire card game, and variations.

HEALTH & FITNESS:
Pocket Paradise (Bluebird Software)
- the ultimate soundscape. customize your beach getaway. get it when it’s on sale.
iFitness (FreeApps)
- muscle-building workout.
Naturespace (Holographic Audio Theatre)
- help you relax, meditate, or sleep.
THI Personal Trainer Lite (Scouting Solutions)
- personal training app.
After Work Relax (Games Campus Cologne GmbH)
- exercises if you spend too much time at a desk.
Check In: The 5 Tools of EBT (The Institute for Health Solutions)
- emotional brain training app. a scientific solution to stress.
Workouts (Nakaindo)
- fitness app.
Yoga Trainer Lite (NexStudios.jp)
- help you with your yoga poses.
SixPack App Free (Pocket Cocktails Inc)
- helping you get that six-pack.
Binaural Beats (rockiphone.com)
- brain turning frequencies.
Free GymGoal Dumbbell Workouts (SmalTek)
- dumbbell workout app.
GymGoal ABC (SmalTek)
- workout schedule app.

LIFESTYLE:
Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List (CondeNet)
- a great recipe program. various categories.
SwedeShop – Unoffical IKEA Shopping App (Danilo Campos)
- helping you track all those items at IKEA, and keep on track with your budget! :)
Galactic Chill | AmbiScience – Relax Aid (Tesla Audio Sciences)
- ambient sounds, based on the research of the Nikola Tesla Institute.
AroundMe (Tweakersoft)
- different categories to search for.

MUSIC:
FutureSound (FutureAcoustic)
- choose from different sound tracks. which are overlaid with the real sounds.
GrooveMaker Free (IK Multimedia)
- a cool app. make your own grooves.
Corus Radio (StreamTheWorld Inc)
- listen to any Corus radio Station.

NAVIGATION:
V-Cockpit GPS Lite – Compass, Altimeter, Speedometer, HUD (Alexander Gross)
MotionX GPS Lite (MotionX)

NEWS:
QuakeZones – Current Earthquake Info (AppDudes)
- with all the earthquakes we’ve had recently, this is handy. current and 30+ years of earthquake info. now comes with Push Notifications.
CBC Radio (CBC)
Discovery News (Discovery News)
- keep up to date with Discovery News.
iNews O – RSS Reader (gdiplus)
- I have tried a few news readers, but I *really* like iNews! you can customize it in so many ways, and you can add many feeds.
MobileRSS Free – Google RSS Reader (NibiruTech LTD)
- I read one of my Gmail accounts with this.
Regator – Web’s Best Blogs (Regator, LLC)

PHOTOGRAPHY:
I am very much into photography.
Photoshop.com Mobile (Adobe Systems Inc)
Guides (CodeGoo)
Crop for Free (Free the Apps!)
Camera Plus (Global Delight)
- I use this one instead of the default camera, because of the zoom feature.
Bokeh (Lars Opperman)
Camera Fun! (SpiceLoop)
SPPhotoFixL (Sponticelli.com)

PRODUCTIVITY:
PandoraBox (AppZap)
- I use this to track free apps and for the apps I have installed.
AppMiner (Bitrino, Inc)
- I use this to track free apps.
Evernote (Evernote)
- big Evernote user!
Fliq Notes (Mark/Space)
- this app can be linked to a computer (you have to buy the computer version of Fliq Notes) however, I have set the password feature and use it to store my passwords on my iPhone.
BargainBin With Push! (Proximi, Inc)
- I use this to track free apps. watch for apps when they go on sale.
White Noise Lite (TMSOFT)
YellowPages (Yellow Pages Group Co)
2D Sense (2D Sense, Inc)
- scan QR codes

REFERENCE:
HandyFact (Diamond Star Technologies, Inc)
- life impacting info & facts.
Dictionary.com (Dictionary.com)
Google Mobile App (Google)
- access to all the mobile Google apps. you can also tie in your domain.
iCheatSheets (John Ohl)
Web Developer Bible (Niranjan Kumar)
Dictionary Free (Owen Lin)
Wikipedia Mobile (Wikimedia Foundation)

SOCIAL NETWORKING:
WordPress (Automattic)
- post direct to your WordPress blog.
Facebook (Facebook)
HootSuite Lite (HootSuite Media Inc)
- I like HootSuite the best for Twitter. very good UI, easy to follow. all lists are made from your original Twitter account. the best feature, you can schedule tweets.
Twitterrific (The Iconfactory)
- one of my twitter apps. I especially like the Twitterrific bookmarklet feature.
LinkedIn (LinkedIn)
- access your LinkedIn account
MySpace Mobile (MySpace.com)
- access your MySpace account
At Once (Reditus Solutions LLC)
- update Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or email a message. the cool thing about this app is that it superimposes the text area over the camera view, so you can type while walking!
Skype (Skype Software S.a.r.l)
- next time you’re in a café with wi-fi, use Skype to make free calls over wi-fi.
TweetDeck for iPhone (TweetDeck)
- one of my twitter apps I use on my PC.
Blogwriter Lite (VirtueSoft.com)
- for writing direct to your Blogger blog.

TRAVEL:
Google Earth (Google)
Translink (Handi Mobility)
- bus schedule app for the local transit system.
Stonehenge (Kylin3D)
- a 3D virtual tour of Stonehenge. not only is this very *cool*, but this app really shows off the capabilities of the iPhone. directions for viewing: hold iPhone in landscape mode. the bottom left of the screen is: Pan L/R, Zoom In/Out. the bottom right of the screen: Spin L/R, View Up/Down.

UTILITIES:
CubeCheater (Eric Faller)
- happen to have one of those Rubik’s Cubes still kicking around? have you solved it yet?
iHandy Level Free (iHandySoft Inc)
- app with bubble level
All Power Pro – Plasma Battery (Level 61)
- a very elegant battery meter. not always free, sometimes it goes on sale.
ShopShop – Shopping List (Nikolaj Schumacher)
- this is my shopping list app. absolutely indispensable.
Speedtest.net Speed Test (Ookla)
- just like the online website.
Digital Sound Meter (Patrick Giudicelli)
- for measuring dB level.
About Battery (rockifone.com)
ScanLife (Scanbuy Inc)
- scans 2D barcodes.
Angle (Smudge Apps)
- level app.
SEOStats (Space Dog)
- good for webmasters who use SEO.
Convertbot (Tapbots)
- convert units and measurements.
Units (TheMacBox)
- convert units and measurements.
MiGhtyDocs (V1ru8)
- access your Google Docs. unfortunately only for viewing.
iNetQCheck (Visualware Inc)
- a connection speed checking app

WEATHER:
Skeptical Science (Shine Technologies)
getting skeptical about global warming skepticism.
WeatherEye (The Weather Network)
the Weather Network from Canada.

PODCASTS:
this is what takes up most of the room on my iPhone
Buddhist Geeks (Seriously Buddhist, Seriously Geeky)
Mr.Deity (All Mightiness One Day at a Time)
Scientific American (A weekly exploration of the latest developments in science and technology)
Skepticality – Science and Revolutionary Ideas (The Official Podcast of Skeptic Magazine)
The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe (Your Escape to Reality)

WORTH MENTIONING:
VIP Access (VeriSign)

chrome browser commands

As you may very well know, Google Chrome browser is built for speed and security.
Aside from that, there are extra commands, as well as many extensions, available.
Personally, though, I prefer to use Chromium as my browser. This is the code which Google Chrome is based on. I set Chromium on my computer to update automatically, so I'm always on the bleeding edge of the newest version.
These are the extra commands, for Chromium, I have been using lately:
--purge-memory-button
--enable-extensions
--enable-sync

--enable-user-scripts

--enable-geolocation

--enable-internal-flash

(there are two hyphens in front of each line)

All of these commands are entered in the shortcut for Chrome/Chromium.

Right click on the shortcut, go to Properties, and go to the Target box.

First make sure that the entire command line is enclosed in double quotes.

Then put a Space after the closing double quotes, and type in the Purge Memory switch.

The command line should look like this:

"C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Chromium\Application\chrome.exe" --purge-memory-button

Type a Space again, and enter the Enable Extensions switch.

You need this first in order to run the other switches/commands.

So now you would have this at the end:

--purge-memory-button --enable-extensions

If you find that Chrome is getting a little RAM hungry after extended browsing sessions, then just press SHIFT + ESC. Click: Purge Memory

This switch works on both Chrome and Chromium.

The Sync switch is handy, because all my bookmarks are backed up to my Google Docs automatically. I never have to worry about backing up my bookmarks.

To sync bookmarks to your Google account (you have a Google account I assume), click on the wrench (settings) and click on Bookmarks Synced. Enter your Google credentials.

Now, the huge advantage to this is that any computer running Google Chrome, with the Bookmarks Synced enabled, will receive the same bookmarks. So, your computer at work, at home, etc, will always show the same bookmarks. Of course, you could always stop the sync. At the very least, if you are at a different computer than your own, you could just access your Google Docs for the bookmarks.

I run Chromium and Chrome, and they both run Bookmark Sync.

You can also enter the User Scripts and Geolocation switch.

The Internal Flash switch is new. For the time being is only available for the latest dev version of Google Chrome, so that users don't have to worry about installing the latest version of Adobe Flash. Google Chrome plans to bring that functionality to all Google Chrome users as soon as possible.

computer registry cleaning

I have read and heard plenty about cleaning your computer, and especially when it comes to the registry.
There are lots of ads online stating that you should use their program to clean the registry, as long as you pay.
Well, most of those are just plain bunk, and will probably do more harm to your computer than good.
These days there is no need to pay for such programs.  There are some very good free applications that are as good as, even better than, anything you could pay for.
When I'm explaining to computer uses about cleaning the registry, I use this analogy: imagine every day when you leave for work you have to go through a maze.  Each day the maze is different, so you can't use the previous results.  So, you have to check each way in order to find your way out. So, when you computer boots, it has to check leftovers, library files, and shortcuts to see if they work. In other words, your computer is wasting time, wasting cycles. Now imagine when you enter that maze, all the dead ends, all the paths which don't work, are closed off.  Heck, you're going to find your way out in no time! Same with your computer - removing the dead ends will save your computer from having to check all that crap when it boots. Makes sense doesn't it?
My personal choice when it comes to cleaning all the crap from my computer is: CCleaner. It was formerly known as Crap Cleaner, because it cleans all the crap from a computer - dead end library files, temp files, leftovers which aren't needed anymore.  If those files are not needed then get rid of them.  I've run CCleaner on other peoples' computers and it has found in excess of 1,000 leftover garbage files!
I use CCleaner religiously on my computer.  In fact, I set CCleaner to auto-run when my computer starts.
You can find CCleaner here.
Now, the settings are a personal taste.  But at the very least, set CCleaner to remove the temp files and cookies.  These are the settings I use.
Open CCleaner. You will be at the Cleaner option, and Windows tab.
- under IE: check off every box.  If you save your passwords (why?) then uncheck Autocomplete Form History.  Personally, I don't have my computer remember any of my passwords, because this means there is a file on my computer holding my password.  Therefore, it can be found.
- under Windows Explorer: check off every box.
- under System: uncheck the last two boxes (Start Menu & Desktop), but check everything above them.
- under Advanced: check Old Prefetch Data & User Assist History
Go to Options. Under Settings select Run CCleaner when computer starts. Under Advanced check Close program when finished. Check Save All Settings to INI file.  You could have CCleaner automatically check for updates if you'd like. I prefer to check manually.
Go to the Registry option. Check off every box. Then have CCleaner Scan for Issues. When that is complete, select Fix Selected Issues. A box will popup, select Fix Issue(s). Close box.  Any changes to the registry are saved to the CCleaner folder.
You may not necessarily notice the difference in how your computer runs, but your computer will thank you for not having to check all that crap when it boots.  Remember, be kind to your computer and your computer will be kind to you :)

blogger app for iPhone

I just discovered: BlogWriter. A blog posting app for the iPhone. It will do blogger, wordpress, and self hosted blogs.
This is a very convenient way to post straight to my blog, and not some round about method.
The light version of BlogWriter is text only (no images), the pro version allows for images to be uploaded.
As much as I love the "Google-verse" and everything it does, BlogWriter is not part of it :)

google buzz

about Google Buzz... I'm just not sure I want to be sharing my contacts with other people. this is akin to giving out someone's phone number without their permission.
so, with that in mind, I turned off that feature in my Gmail accounts.

to turn off Google Buzz entirely, read the small print at the bottom of your Gmail account.
however, that's not saying that I do not want to share my activities with some of my contacts.
I use Google Picasa, I have Google profiles, I use Google Reader, Google Docs, and Google Wave.

in fact, I use Google exclusively for everything.
my simple solution to decide which contacts I share what with: I created groups for my Gmail contacts:
- picasa shared
- profile shared
- reader shared
I put the appropriate contacts in each of those groups.

next, I went to each: Picasa, Profile, Reader, etc, and used those groups to share with.
this makes it quite easy to change what I share with whom, simply by adding or removing contacts from those groups.