When I initially saw the iPhone app I grabbed it thinking it was a company from this year’s TechCrunch50, however, after looking at the list I am guessing I confused it with “Hark“, a different application that I’ll likely try out soon.  It was cool to be able to ask a question on the iPhone then get a push notification when someone answered, however, the iPhone isn’t great for answering questions.  I’d love to say I have all the answers in my head, but the truth is Google is my friend.  When answering on the iPhone it isn’t easy to switch to Google, do some research, then cut and paste it back to the Aardvark app.  So I left the app there for when I have a question to ask rather then answer.

Next I tried out the web site. I could invite people, see how many people were on ready to answer questions for the most popular topics, and tweak my profile. Typical stuff.  The things I thought were missing were a real time feed of questions to answer or a web page to even see questions and a place to “browse” people online and invite them as friends.  Having used the service for a bit now I can see why these features were not a focus.

The last part was the instant message integration.  This is your typical IM bot that responds to commands and such, however, it is very well done.  Typing “help” provides you will all the info you need.  You can ask a question and Aardvark will reply via IM when someone answers or you can answer questions via IM.  You can ask Aardvark for a question or, occasionally, Aardvark will IM you with a question based on your profile.  It’s even smart enough to not bother you if you are “busy”.

So far I have asked a few questions and received correct replies within minutes.  You can even exchange messages with the person who answers your question for additional clarification, all anonymously, and Aardvark keeps a “log” of it all for future reference.  I think I’ll be using Aardvark as my “second” Google from now on.  If I can’t find an answer in 10 minutes on Google, then off to Aardvark to get the answer.  I’ll do my best not to be lazy and go to Aardvark first.

If you want to check out Aardvark you can use this link to join: http://vark.com/s/7ivF

(Full disclosure: I am getting nothing for this review nor for you using the link above to join. Therefore this review is unbiased. I do occasionally get “perks” for mentioning services and products but I will always disclose that to keeps things honest.)

This was when I discovered, “if you want to know the truth, evaluate the raw data yourself”, and I live by that today.  I am constantly picking apart articles and news reports for potential skewing of the data.  (Whenever they show  “deaths caused by (big bad) guns” I ask, what is the number of deaths by guns used in a legal manner per year?  Good luck finding it.) 

Anyway, stripping away the BS is the point and that is why I like this site: http://www.govtrack.us/

 It tracks the votes of our U.S. Congress and it’s open source!  Sure there are summaries that are skewed a little (but not much), still you can get to the raw data.  That actual text of a bill, not a summary.  Who voted how or who didn’t vote.  You can see what is really going on.  It gives a good picture of what the democrats are supporting, what the republicans are supporting, and what votes are really bi-partisan.  (Sorry Nancy, getting 5 republicans to support your crazy idea is not “bi-partisan support”.)  It has RSS feeds too so you can track changes with ease.  I suggest everyone go check it out, you deserve to know what is really going on.

If you want to listen to what I listen to while working, exercising, or shoveling snow (yes, my WiFi to iPod works outside too!) then check out my “Angry Rock” station.

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh44148192251893788

(As always this is my personal opinion and not a paid post, but if someone wants to pay me I am open to negotiation.)

People may not know this but when you load windows (unless you have certain versions, like Media Center) you can’t just watch a DVD. This is insane, but true. You actually have to buy a decoder to “read” the data on a DVD. This is because DVD data is encrypted with a crappy (for 2008) encryption algorithm that, if you want to stay legal, need to be licensed by the movie companies (kind of). Typically when you order a PC it comes with this pre-installed so you are good to go, however, if you are like me and reinstall your OS (I like to know everything on my system was put there by me) then you need to reload the decrypting software. The problem is this is usually on some disk that in sealed in the package with the manual, which I don’t open.

So I decided to go find an alternative. I got feedback from people who already had software like this, I looked on internet forums, and I searched Google. I came up with DVDFab. It runs on all flavors of windows, has a small install footprint, and it did everything I wanted it to do. It cost money (boo) but it lets you try before you buy. It will copy DVDs and while it does it the program removes all the copy protection. It also does a nice job of compressing the video so a 2 hour movie will fit on a single layer DVD. (DVD movies are double layer and can fit over 8GB of data, single layer caps out at 4.7GB. A 2 hour movie is like 6GB so you have to lose 15% of the quality.) DVDFab will also just pick out the parts of a DVD you want, no previews, no extra features, no Spanish audio track or subtitles, and it even drops those government warning messages that you can’t skip through.

DVDFab is also able to convert the movie to other formats, like DiVX (for PC playback), MPEG-4 (for iPods and PSPs), and WMV (for windows and X-Box). This was a plus since I have an iPod Touch and would like to put some content on there. This is also nice since DiVX and WMV are great for streaming to other PCs inside my house or to my media center device. Also, if you want to take a movie along with you on a usb device let’s say, you are not going to want the DVD format which is GB of data when you can get the moving in 1GB or less. One more note, spinning my DVD drive on my laptop spends a lot of battery power while reading from my disk spends less, but reading from a USB or SD card spends the least since it has no moving parts and friction is a huge waste of energy.

I should note that DVDFab is questionable legal. What this means is, while you have the right to make a copy of copy written material you own the rights to (fair use) you (maybe) do not have the right to remove the copy protection from DVD data. You see, the crazy courts in CA say you can’t while the federal and most other states haven’t said anything. So don’t be giving away copies of your DVDs. Check out the wiki pages below if you want to know more and the DVDFab website had legal disclaimers too. If you are international, sorry I don’t know every countries laws, but I do know you don’t want to go into Germany with this software (or make sure they don’t know you have it!) as they filed criminal charges against a news paper for LINKING to the DVDFab web site, and that paper has lost 2 appeals so far!

Overall, I like the software and they have different versions with different prices for what you need to do. The full boat platinum edition with the option to convert to other formats added is $70 ($50 platinum + $20 mobile option), while there is actually a free version to just do a DVD copy to hard disk or dual layer disk. The only problem I found is there is no interface to create a menu if you pick multiple items to “merge” onto one DVD. I guess if I really need to do this I can edit the content using other software and then burn it back. I give it a thumbs up.

Links:

1. http://www.dvdfab.com
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_Scramble_System
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_Copy_Control_Association
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

The one issue I had, and I guess It’s my fault for not looking, is that the device is not compatable with Vista 64bit.  So after plugging it into my Vista 32bit machine I was able to install the drivers and it basically just worked.  There was no complicated setup and the lastest version of Skype seemed to integrate with it perfectly.

I had read that the device would allow you to call your computer at home via skype and basically “route” your call out to the phone line.  This was the main reason I bought the device, however, I was unable to see any configuration that appeared to allow you to do that.  I didn’t open the manual becasuse after discovering the device was non-64bit compatable I basically gave up on the whole routing out calls thing.

So based on it’s limited functionaliy and the fact that it only cost me $5 I am giving it a “so-so” rating.  I may use it again but for now it sits here taking up space.

User are voicing their opinion all over the net.  Amazon has the game with a 1 start customer rating overall and 1,454 of the 1,556 total ratings are 1 start.  I doubt it will ever recover unless amazon does something like “erase” the bad ratings.

That just may happen too.  Gamespot is already siding with the corporate giant in giving a big “F U” to the users.  It has started to threaten to ban users who post negative comments.  I am glad to see they believe in free speech.

What does EA think?  They’ll throw us a bone.  They are going to lighten up with Red Alert 3 by giving us 5 installs instead of 3 with Spore.  Wow, thanks EA!  Don’t hurt your back bending over to pat the little people on their heads!

Amazon.com: Spore: Windows: Video Games

Digg – Gamespot threatens to ban user for negative Spore DRM review

Gamers fight back against lackluster Spore gameplay, bad DRM

EA gives customers middle finger with “lenient” Red Alert 3 DRM

The full post @ FatWallet: Get a Domain at GoDaddy for $0.99!!!

I guess, (I wasn’t the one who saw it) my iPod floated by the glass window of the front loader almost in slow motion.  Like that scene in Stuart Little when Gena Davis finds Stuart swimming in the washer.  It was promptly pulled out, but the damage was done.  The rubber cover had all four edges ripped from the banging, some of the silver finish had even worn off of the unit itself, and water got inside, evident from the bubble behind the glass front.

The battery was already dead so I didn’t have to worry about trying to turn it on.  (Apparently this was actually a good thing that I’ll explain later.)  I figured the thing was fried so I just let it sit on the counter to dry out.  During this time I researched online knowing I wasn’t the first to soak my pod.

I discovered a few important things.  First, there is a water damage indicator at the bottom of the headphone jack.  It turns red when exposed to water and Apple will check this first to simply deny any warranty work.  Secondly, if the battery is dead there is little chance of electrical damage.  Third, don’t try to charge, use, plug in, turn on, or do anything for at least a week and a half.  Finally, expect to do a firmware restore.

Well, I’m sure you would all like to hear the day by day (which I still remember in detail) but I’ll summarize for you.  My water indicator was red while it should be white.  I let it sit for 12 days without trying to do anything.  I put it in the charger and it turned on and started charging, but the battery meter never moved and as soon as I tried to do anything it locked up.  Not to mention there was about 1/2 of the screen that looked funny as if there was water behind the LCD.  The iTunes restore didn’t work, maybe because it was jailbroken, but when I manually entered recovery mode I was able to restore it.  When all was said and done, about 2 weeks after the bath, everything was working except the WiFi.  I got a grey WiFi button under settings that say “No WiFi”, which appears to mean there was a hardware failure.

So I wrote off my iPod since without WiFi it was kind of useless.  I continued to use it once in a while to listen to music and stuff but I wasn’t carrying it around with me.  Then the other day, it was an iPod miracle! I turned it on to update some music the old fashon way (via iTunes) and a box asked me to join the wireless network.

So it took three weeks but my iPod is back to new.  Everything is working and I loaded the new 2.0 firmware on it.  The app store is great and with wireless working I’m sure I’ll be carrying it around again.  Also, amazingly, I don’t think I am going to jailbreak it again.  I don’t see the need since all the apps I used (so far) are on the app store.

Kudos to apple for making a good product and some nice software! A drastic difference from what I was saying about apple a week or so ago.