Check out my wall mounted office

Even though I love using my HP Mini 1000 to blog on the go and my Tablet works out well at home, I’ve longed for a nice widescreen monitor and full size keyboard. Since we live in a small one bedroom apartment, adding a desk to our dining room/library/reading room was out of the question and so was setting up shop in full force on the dining room table.

Rather than purchase an Anthro eNook or an Ikea knock off I decided to turn our kitchen table into an office that had a zero footprint when we wanted to have people over for dinner and thus the “Wall Mounted Office” was born.

I purchased a wall mount from Telehook Articulating Mount for $45 from ProVantage (which ships extremely fast) a 19 inch widescreen Acer monitor and a Microsoft keyboard and mouse for a total cost of under $200 excluding the laptop I already had.

You can checkout the slideshow below and head to the Flickr page to learn more about each step.

Feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments.

Slow your scroll: Fix sluggish scrolling in windows 7

If you’re windows 7 installation has seriously sluggish scrolling when you connect an external mouse you may need to install the new Windows 7 Intellipoint software from Microsoft.

After installing the beta software my new Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 is good as new, which is a good thing since it is BRAND new.

You can find the full details as well as direct Windows 7 Intellipoint download links at My Digital Life.

Stay tuned for my attempt at a zero footprint home office coming soon.

Targus Netbook Bag for my HP Mini 1000

Tonite I found a Targus bag that works great to hold my HP Mini 1000 netbook. The bag is a Targus DVD213US designed for portable DVD players.

I found the messenger style bag at TJ Maxx on the clearance rack for just over $5 thanks to the TJ Maxx customer appreciation day.

There is plenty of room in the netbook, power adapter, mouse, camera and even a book if I need to.

You can check out more pictures on Flickr.

HP Mini 1000 6 cell battery revealed

If you’ve been wondering what the 6 cell battery for the HP Mini 1000 will look like when it launches later this month wait no longer. Warner Crocker of GottaBeMobile.com was interviewing Xavier Lanier of Notebooks.com to see what all he carries around in his Scott eVest. About halfway through the video(embedded below) Xavier pulls out the 6 cell battery for the HP Mini 1000, followed by 5 or 6 3 cell batteries for a total of 20-22 hours of battery life.

Given the placement of the battery on the Mini 1000 I think this is almost the only way that a 6 cell would have worked but I wish they had an offering similar to their 2710 tablet PC extended battery which is flat and extends the length of the computer.

No word on pricing or an exact street date yet.

You can get a less blurry view if you skip to about halfway through the video or watch the whole way to see how much stuff Xavier keeps in his coat!

Finally, one last pic at a slightly different angle.

Fun Holiday Guitar Hero Flash Game

Though the holidays are over, there is a fun new Guitar Hero Flash game out which should help you make the transition back to work!

The game pits you against a grinchlike character as you attempt to rock the socks off of him in order to save the holidays. Obviously this won’t offer the same experience as Guitar Hero World Tour or Rock Band; but it should keep your fingers in shape while you are away from your TV.

Via Download Squad

Previously – Guitar Master – Fun Guitar Hero Flash Game

More musings on Twitter

I’ve been spending more and more time on Twitter recently and I wanted to collect a few random thoughts and experiences I have had to share with blog readers.

One of the coolest things about Twitter to me is that I can be in contact with people I couldn’t normally meet through other sites like Facebook which are meant to build an online collection of people you already know or nestled away in Ohio.

For example yesterday I hopped on to Twitter and saw a page full of updates from MC Hammer, the actual MC Hammer, and I replied “@MCHammer Opened Twitter to a page full of MCHammer updates, musta been Hammertime on Twitter!” Had this been any other network I belonged to I’m sure the “conversation” would have ended at that. Instead I got a tweet back a few minutes later, “@Josh_Smith U got it Josh”.

While it’s not as if MC Hammer and I sat down and discussed the meaning of life over coffee at Starbucks, this brief exchange was similar to many others I have had with prominent writers, CEOs and others on Twitter. Short sometimes meaningful bursts of conversation.

I’ve also found Twitter to be an excellent source of checking local road conditions when traditional media was slow to report on the actual road conditions. And I recently found out that many great Broadway shows come to Ohio stopping in Columbus and other cities because I follow BroadwayAllison on Twitter.

When I had suggested we see a Broadway play in the near future my friends scoffed that, “We aren’t in NY” and were genuinely surprised when I told them about Grease playing in Columbus, OH!

There are a lot of wrong ways to use Twitter and it is easy to have a bad experience if you go in looking for one but if you just want to make connections with other people Twitter is a great tool.

Are you following Josh_Smith on Twitter? If not go sign up and let’s chat.

Web 2.0, support systems and Tobias Buckell

Whatever you do when someone you care about is in trouble, you should start doing it now. One of my great friends and a talented writer, Tobias Buckell, went into the hospital yesterday for a heart problem; one they are still trying to track down. While Toby is doing better than when he was admitted to the ER early Tuesday morning he is still under observation and continues to look like a prototype of the Six Million Dollar Man.

Throughout this whole ordeal Toby has been blogging the experience and updating us on his status as well as twittering other updates during the past day and a half. According to one source close to Toby, twittering has been one of the most helpful distractions from the hospital, which I’m sure is a major plus.

This brings me to two points regarding blogs and Twitter. First of all I am extremely thankful for the information that I was able to find out about his current condition without constantly bothering his family but the whole process highlighted an important aspect of relying on Twitter for important communication. Yesterday; when Twitter was undergoing, “database maintenance”, I felt extremely cut off from the situation and refreshed Twitter more than a Wooter trying to get the next Wootoff item. Even though Twitter was able to stand up to the recent election, it can prove unreliable when it’s most important to you, meaning it might not be up for mission critical duties just yet.

Getting back to my other point, it is amazing to see the outpouring of support for Tobias and his family both on TobiasBuckell.com and on the BoingBoing post about his latest novel Sly Mongoose. As I write this there are almost 300 comments from writers, readers, family and friends on Tobias’ website and likely untold numbers of facebook, livejournal, instant and email messages waiting for him. The fact that Web 2.0 and social networking have the possibility to quickly lend and direct support to a person and their family in a time of need cements the importance of social media, networking and blogging, at least to me.

While you have a minute, take a second to share your well wishes over at Toby’s page, keep him in your thoughts, prayers, tweets and blog posts while he recovers.

I know, personally, I can’t imagine a world without the characters and worlds Toby brings to life in his writing, any more than I can imagine a world without a friend like Toby.

Get well dude, I need to beat Gears of War 2 with you, the locust hordes won’t wait forever!

How Cedar Point could use Twitter

It seems that businesses and people everywhere are jumping on Twitter and some are doing it well while others, like the local comedy club who is promoting upcoming shows from a protected feed are doing it poorly to say the least. I spent Saturday at Cedar Point with some friends and was twittering the waits away in line when I came to the realization that theme parks and amusement parks need Twitter more than diabetics need insulin!

With Twitter Cedar Point could:

• Allow guest to get ride wait times
• Tell guests when rides are down
• Promote specials to people throughout the year
• Get showtimes for in park entertainment
• Learn about in park disruptions or issues
• emergency broadcast system

I’m sure other Twitterers can come up with a few more reasons but by far the most useful way to use Twitter from a rollercoaster rider’s standpoint has to be automated wait time updates. If Remember the Milk and so many other services can use the Twitter API to handle automated responses I’m sure Cedar Point could cook up a service to deliver ride wait lengths to them park goers over Twitter.

The park already has wait lengths posted at the beginning of each line, it would only take a minimal investment to put an electronic wait display that updates Twitter while informing those close by. As an added bonus, the new system could log wait times to help Cedar Point better understand the guest experience and learn how to tailor the experience to make more money while providing a better experience for visitors.

The Twitter feed could also be used to send out alerts when a ride goes down explaining what Cedar Point knows about the issue and a time estimate if it is available. I know this would have made my day when we were standing in line for the Maverick trying to decipher an attendant’s mumbling explanation.

From a promotion standpoint Twitter would provide Cedar Point with a quick and easy way to promote specials for season passes or ticket sales. So long as the deals were worthwhile people will still follow, just look at Dell Deals. The Twitter feed could also be used to promote shows and specials events like the current Halloween parades.

Finally if Cedar Point listens to Twitter for mentions of the park they can stay on top of disturbances, dirty bathrooms, commotions, and other issues that people will complain about on Twitter. Also in the unlikely event that something goes wrong at the park the Twitter account can be used to blast out relevant info quickly.

In all there are plenty of opportunities for Cedar Point to make use of Twitter to better reach out to their already enthusiastic audience. If anyone from Cedar Point is reading this right now feel free to reach out for more details!

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