Use Windows Like a Mac: Get Quicksilver for Your PC

Because my post “Pimp Your PC to Simulate Vista” has been so popular, I’ve decided to do a follow up.

Ever see your Apple-luvin’ buddies using Quicksilver on their Macs and felt a tiny twinge of jealousy? There’s a solution. Get Quicksilver for Windows. Okay it’s not really “Quicksilver” but it accomplishes much the same function (and even comes with a variety of sexy skins). It’s called Launchy.

If you’re completely unfamiliar with Quicksilver, here’s a brief explanation. Quicksilver and Launchy are program launchers. That means that with a quick keystroke (”alt” + “spacebar” by default) you get a simple little search box in the center of your screen. Start typing a program name (or website) and Launchy will suggest the most likely program. If it’s not quite what you hoped for, wait a second and it’ll suggest some alternatives. And the best part is…the longer you use it…the smarter (i.e. more accurate) it gets.

What other programs do you like to use on your PC? What do you wish you had? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Funny Video Day

MozyHome for Mac Is Out of Beta

Mac users, rejoice! The moment you’ve been waiting for is finally here. MozyHome for Mac is making its 1.0 debut as the first unlimited online backup service for the Mac.

Backing up your files has never been so sexy.

UPDATE: Use code MACMOZY to get a sweet discount on 1- and 2-year plans (expires at midnight on May 8th).

Ben Stein has been Expelled

I would like to give a round of applause to Ben Stein’s movie Expelled for exposing a serious problem: the refusal of scientists to accept a rivaling theory. In fact, not only are they unwilling to accept it, they’re downright unwilling to co-exist with it. I’m talking about the theory of creationism.

Why is it such a problem to believe that a supreme creator may have created this world? This doesn’t (necessarily) contradict your theory that animals evolve and the fittest will survive. It actually has the potential of meshing with it quite seamlessly. (Does anyone know how God created the world? For all we know…it was by placing a little amoeba into a drop of water and commanding it to grow and evolve. And after we die and figure that out, he’ll say, “Boy what of bunch of bickering kids you are.”)

Mr. Stein’s movie has been panned by almost everyone that calls himself an evolutionist or Darwinist and I’m not in the least bit surprised. In fact it only goes to prove his point even further…that these people are absolutely unwilling to even consider coexisting with such a line of thought. STOP THE BICKERING!!! Let’s just all smile at each other and say, “You know what? I might be wrong, you might be wrong, we both might be wrong, or we both might be right. Let’s work towards developing a process for teaching both views, and let individuals choose for themselves what they agree with.”

And by the way, go watch Ben Stein’s movie and visit the Expelled website for more information.

New Starpointe Marketing Blog

I’ve been in the process of redesigning my business site for a little while now. It’s not quite ready yet but it’s almost there. (For those of you who don’t know, I do marketing and design for small business on the side.)

As part of that redesign…I’ll be attempting to start doing any business related blogging over there at the Starpointe Marketing Blog. That should free up this blog to be more of my fun/random blog.

I hope you like the changes.

Happy Earth Day

Just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a happy Earth Day. Now I’m no hardcore environmentalist or anything. I’m just as wasteful as the next guy. But I do think it’s important to take a moment to consider our impact on the world around us.

For about a year now, my wife and I have been looking for tiny, painless ways we can reduce our wastefulness. For example, we’ve started declining plastic bags at the grocery store whenever we feel like we can carry what we’ve bought in our hands. We also try to bundle up a little more at home rather than keep the heater running non-stop.

What else can we do? I welcome your recommendations in the comments.

“Everybody Likes Mozy — Except Me”

Almost a year ago, world-renowned whiner Michael Horowitz wrote an article on CNET called, “Everybody Likes Mozy — Except Me.” In his article, he proceeded to address his concerns with using Mozy’s automated online backup product. The article has always bothered me for two reasons.

First: because I work for Mozy. It’s a great company and we’ve got an excellent product. I frequently hear stories about people that nearly lost years worth of photos/media, documents, etc. when their computer died. It makes me feel good to be providing a product that makes people’s lives better.

Second: his review is misleading. For example, he bashes on Mozy for only keeping 30 days worth of files. He neglects to realize that Mozy is a backup program…not an archiving program. There’s a huge difference. It keeps a backup copy of your files just in case.

I’ve considered writing a rebuttal to his article but haven’t as many people would only view this as being a canned employee response. Fortunately, I don’t have to. An article published recently at Backup Central entitled, “Bad Mozy Review Makes No Sense” did the legwork for me. In the article, backup professional Curtis Preston addresses each of Mr. Horowitz’s complaints and addresses why they’re either inaccurate or irrelevant. Thanks for the post Curtis. I appreciate it.

Fun Video Saturday #1: Go-kart Chased by Bronco

I’d like to see if I can’t get into the habit of posting an entertaining video clip each weekend. Hopefully that will turn some of my casual visitors into MLYMI addicts :).

Let’s start it off with this clip of Jake Nickell (founder of Threadless) trying to outrun a Bronco on his go-kart. Unfortunately, a snow bank seems to have foiled his plan (as they so often do).

Professional Mac & Cheese Diving

Okay, I should have blogged about this two weeks ago, but I just haven’t had a chance. First, a little background. Mozy has a group on Facebook called the Mozy Giveaway Group. It’s basically just a place for anyone who’s a fan of Mozy to gather with the chance to win prizes periodically.

Well a couple of weeks ago, we had our first prize drawing. In classic Mozy style, we decided to do it a bit differently. Basically we got our intern to dive or “bob” in a big tub of macaroni and cheese for raffle tickets. Each retrieved ticket = one winner. Yes, it’s weird…that’s what makes it so awesome.

Check out the video.

Why Yahoo! should accept OpenID

As the years have gone by, I’ve become more and more hesitant to create yet another online account somewhere. I’m tired of leaving fragments of my identity everywhere I go. I haven’t had any problems yet, but I’m convinced it’s just a matter of time. Add to that the fact that I’ve never been a big fan of most of Yahoo!’s services and it’s easy to see why I’m hesitant to really jump into Flickr.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Flickr is a fascinating service, and I love sharing my pictures online. But I’ve already got a Picasa account along with a whole host of other services from Google. So I can’t bring myself to spend much time using Flickr since that would basically be a duplication of effort. I’ll even admit that I like Flickr’s navigation system and social aspects better than Picasa’s, but I’m already so tied into my Picasa account, that I don’t want to abandon it.

At this point, you’re probably wondering where I’m going with all this. Well it’s simple. I’ve got an OpenID account. And as far as I see it, if Yahoo! accepted OpenID, I’d be Flickring with the best of ‘em. So here’s my suggestion to Yahoo! (and any other “web 2.0″ online service as far as I’m concerned), start accepting OpenID!

Too many companies assume they have to own their members’ information. But wouldn’t having members more valuable? Open up. Let people participate in your communities without having to create an account. I think you’ll see that removing the barriers to entry will cause a whole new wave of participation.

Mozy is Hiring

For anyone interested, Mozy is hiring. We are looking to hire for an Order Administrator position. This is a full-time position that will largely be working with our [certain] customers. We are looking for someone that has exceptional communications skills, is flexible yet thorough and possess the ability to manage multiple tasks efficiently while working productively in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment.

Other Requirements:

• Comfortable with Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Interest and experience in using technology to improve work efficiency.
• Interest and experience in interacting with all levels and departments within a company
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Strong organizational skills, detail-oriented, and the ability to handle multiple priorities
• Candidate needs to be hard-working, a self learner and very pro-active.

The job responsibilities will include:

• Gather information, prepare and distribute reports.
• Input all account information for [certain] customers
• Must be able to assist in preparation of presentations and assist with correspondence, memos, charts, tables, graphs, plans, etc.
• Act as liaison with outside agencies; compiling data from outside agencies, linking information from outside agencies into Mozy systems, keeping records of agencies and customer reports.
• Multiple task and projects as needed.

If you (or someone you know) is interested, add a comment below. I’ll contact you by email to get your resume. We are looking to hire as soon as possible… the position is currently a contract position, but we would love to find someone who is a great asset to the team that we could extend a further offer to!

MyLoki Scared the Crap Out of Me

Ok, I was officially weirded out a few minutes ago. First a little background.

Since I’m in Boston on business and had some time to waste, I decided to try to get caught up in my blog reader. In a post by UX Magazine, I read about a service called MyLoki. The concept is that you can share your location with friends through an RSS feed. So I got curious and bopped over to their site to learn more about it.

Here’s where it got freaky, when I landed on their homepage, here’s what I saw.

Okay, that’s too weird. No that’s not a Google map (at least not a live one). It’s just an image of a map. I’m pretty sure it’s just an amazing coincidence…but I’m still not positive.