The Raging Tech

This Frog Kicks Your Bull’s Ass

Even if you get a healthy amount of sleep every day, everyone has those afternoons when you need a little jolt to keep you going. Some people exercise, some eat a low- or no-fat snack, some binge on sugar, others on caffeine. Then there are the segment of people who love their energy drinks! There’s nothing wrong with having an energy drink, but of course, everything in moderation. The major downside to drinking your everyday average energy drink is that’s all you really get – energy. And then you crash, and hard. Not to mention all the sugar, and even for all the sugar they taste like raw piss.

A new challenger has entered the arena!

BluFrog Energy is “insanely healthy energy” – basically, the Limu vitamin supplement turned into a lean, mean, energy drink. It also has the tasty flavor of pears and mangos, not urine. Instead of a “monster” amount of sugar, it boasts a meager 17g of natural sugars. The Limu product has lots of documented health benefits as well. And don’t tell anyone, but if you mix it with Vodka (insiders call this the “Blu Bomb”) it’s quite delicious.

I was thankful to receive some Blu Frog with my Postie Pack from IZEA at St. Patrick’s Day. Not because I had never tried it, but because it was free! I had purchased a case of 24 directly from Blu Frog’s web site a while back and loved it, I just couldn’t afford the autoshipment option. But if I could, you bet I would have started one. The neat thing is, once you get setup with a 2-case monthly autoshipment, you can start earning commisions sharing Blu Frog with other people.

Right now, over at ItsABluWorld.com, you can enter to win several different amazing prize packages. I’m hoping to win the Happy Blu-Year prize package – a trip for two to New York for New Year’s Eve to watch the big ball drop that includes airfare, transportation, hotel stay, and a helicopter ride over NYC! That’d be pretty awesome, and I’ve always wanted to experience New Year’s Eve in Times Square.

Drop the Cable, Pick Up the Dish!

As a lover of all things technology, I find the technological achievement of satellite television much more interesting than the delivery of audio / video / internet / phone signal over coaxial or fibre cables. Now don’t get me wrong, I was raised a “cable baby” for my entire childhood – my mother works for Time Warner Cable. I don’t think we ever really had too many problems with them, and I’m not going to bad-mouth their service. But up here in the mountains, we have a different provider, and it was soooo bad I had to switch to satellite, even despite my upbringing.

I reviewed the deals available, and ended up with Dish Network. What won me over? HD channels, an awesome amount of recording time on the HD DVR, and music channels. It used to be that if you had satellite really bad weather would totally lose your signal, but I haven’t had much problem with that so far, and I’ve had Dish Network for over a year. Other friends had problems with DirectTV and getting HD programming, plus I got a discount with Dish.

Satellite has lots of options for movies plus all the channels you’re used to from your existing cable service. Right now, there’s an awesome program going on for new subscribers where you can start getting your Dish Network service for $9.99 per month for the first six months. Think about how much money you could be spending on other things you need if you were paying a measly ten bucks for your television instead of whatever your cruddy cable provider is charging you this year. It’s only for six months, so it’s not the permanent price – but couldn’t half a year’s break from high prices for cable television help you a lot? Even with the promotional price I had now expired, between satellite and DSL I’m not paying nearly as much as I would to my old cable provider for the same type of services.

Dish helped me when I moved to my new house by not charging me for new equipment, and my install was free with their DishMover program. When my hard drive in my DVR died, they were going to replace it for free, but instead I paid a small fee and upgraded to a unit with a larger hard drive. In your area, you may not have a crappy cable provider, but I know I did, and Dish has been heaven by comparison. Check it out if you’re unhappy with your current cable television provider!

Adobe CS4 Released

Adobe has released the newest version of their highly successful Creative Suite of products, including familiars like Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and newcomers formerly from Macromedia are back with a revamp.

Apparently in Creative Suite 4, Adobe has tried hard to really unify the interfaces amongst all the programs. This may upset both die-hard Adobe fans and long-time users of the former Macromedia properties, but I’m sure there’s good money to be made for the people publishing the books on how to get over it and learn something new.

Is it time to upgrade? Probably not just yet. The featureset doesn’t appear to have changed drastically from the older versions, and most of the tools are still the same. I know people still using the first CS that are perfectly happy with it.

I would be interested to know what protection / activation scheme they’ve got going this round. Its usually not long after a new version is out that the nefarious internet underworld has gotten a copy circulating around. If you’re one of those nefarious internet underworld-types, just remember to be careful and always scan your downloads for viruses (and send me a link!).

Great American Seafood Cook-Off 2008

I maybe a tech guy, but the summertime always re-awakens my inner chef. This summer, I’ve been especially lazy in the cooking department because of my busy life and limited budget. (Buying a house ain’t cheap!) But I’m still a Food & Wine magazine subscriber, and I still like reading good recipes on the internet.

The 2008 Great American Seafood Cook Off took place in the great state of Louisianna. Despite the devestation brought on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Lousianna residents continue to thrive and keep up the spirit of the South. Chefs from all over the United States of America showed up to show-off their culinary skills with local, sustainable seafood.

Some people maybe like “Seafood, yuck!” But there’s something to be said for meals in this category. You are seriously missing a huge section of taste possibilities if you exclude seafood from your diet.

My favorite recipe from the cook-off was Chef Paul Anders’ (from Colorado) Colorado Striped Bass Panzanella (includes Farmer’s Market Tomatoes and Cucumbers, Mint, Basil, Olives, Ciabatta Bread, Crispy Eggplant, Aged Balsamic Vinegar, Tuscan Olive Oil). It didn’t win, but that doesn’t mean everything in the competition didn’t look absolutely delicious.

The winner was Chef John Currence of Mississippi, with his Mississippi Redfish Courtboullion with Seafood Dirty Rice:

The contest is presented by the Lousiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board, and they have crowned Chef John Currence the 2008 King of American Seafood. Currence’s competition-winning recipe is available on the Great American Seafood Cook-off’s website (See link above). Be sure and try this dish out for yourself, modify it as necessary (we don’t all have access to fresh seafood, after all) and tell me in the comments how it turns out!

New Venture: ‘Tech Jaws’ Technology News Site

As I’ve been hinting at the last few days, and those of you following me on Twitter already know, I’m working with Frank J on a new tech news web site, Tech Jaws. It’s got an aggressive tone with a focus on the bleeding-edge of technology reviews, news, and tips.

This morning I posted an article reviewing the Logitech Harmony One universal remote control. This remote is simply awesome! Head on over to Tech Jaws and check out my review – complete with screenshots of the software and photos of the remote itself.

Also, feel free to comment – and when you do, mention you came there from my blog!

Hotel Free Wi-Fi: Luxury or Standard?

This weekend I stayed in two different hotels, a Holiday Inn Express and Embassy Suites Hotel. The differences are staggering as far as the quality of your stay. The Holiday Inn Express is somewhere that strikes me as an economical solution if you are with a family or on a budget. It’s not a bad place to stay at all. But the Embassy Suites trumps it in almost every facet. Except one – the Holiday Inn Express has free, unsecured wireless internet access.

Unsecured Wireless is not safe, so be sure to secure your own system if you get on it. However, this seems to be the most hassle-free way to get people connected who are unfamiliar with wireless internet technology.

The Embassy Suites? They have a pay service where you purchase blocks of time on the wireless internet access. This seems utterly ridiculous for an upscale hotel. They did have a business center, but due to the size and location of the hotel, it was always in use. Not to mention the few times I walked by and saw someone else using it, it looked like it was loading slow.

Do you expect to receive free wireless access in the hotels you stay in, or do you consider it more of a luxury that you don’t mind paying for a few hours of access? Tell us your opinion in the comments!

JustTrade: A New Digg for Stock Trading Tips?

If you’ve been looking into ways to save or invest your money lately like I have, you might have taken a daunting look over at the stock market exchange. If you’re already familiar with trading stocks, you may already have been helped or hurt by OTC (over-the-counter) stock trading tips, or maybe a shady broker.

JUSTtrade is a neat site because you can rate individual tips and posters to the site, meaning that their future tips might be rated higher and be considered more trustworthy. Also, you can pick up some good advice on how to trade and what to trade.

A post on the homepage, for example, hasn’t been rated much yet, but sounds like a neat tip on buying gold low this morning and if the price holds, could see a huge rise later in the day for a nice profit. If I had the money to invest, I’d have gone through to the exchange mentioned and invested in gold and made a killing by this afternoon.

I don’t have the stock savvy or the finances to lose while learning right now, but maybe some of you who do own stocks could take a look at this site and gain some more insight into OTC trading, or maybe even offer some to others.