I am extremely excited to welcome Craig Butrick as the latest addition to the TNR team. Craig will be writing posts and co-hosting the podcasts with us. He will bring deep insight into the world of tech, as he sees it from the inside out (as you will see shortly). So without further ado, here’s Craig’s intro! Welcome Craig!
- Alex Luft
Hello everyone! I would like to introduce myself. I was asked by Alex to join the TechNest Report team, and I am proud to be here. I am a college student in an engineering school in Ohio. I study Electrical Engineering, with an emphasis in digital systems. I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where I worked on nuclear reactors on submarines. My hobbies include technology (why I am here), sci-fi, cars, running, and photography.
Gadget wise
I am a PC (sorry guys). Right now I am working on a HP DV6913rs to which I added 4GB of RAM, essentially maxing it out. I am currently in the market for a new laptop, and I am torn between a Sony Vaio AW series and a MacBook Pro 17” running Windows 7. For my mobile device, is there anything else besides the iPhone? I have the newest iPhone 3G S, 32GB. It has been jailbroken. I also use my iPhone as a replacement for my point-and-shoot. I watch Family Guy on my Sylvania 32” LCD. I am an avid gamer with the PS3, Wii, PS2 next to the TV. I just bought my first DSLR this spring, a Nikon D60.
I tend to incorporate technology into every aspect of my life. I hope that this can give me a unique perspective that will provide a reason for everyone to come back and read my posts. I would like to thank you for reading this and thank Alex for having me on board. And one last thing: First!
- Craig Butrick
Posted in
House Keeping,
Welcome
As you may have already heard, we are (yet again) changing up the schedule of the TNR Podcast. Why the heck would we do such a thing? It’s simple, really. We couldn’t handle the workload of a daily show – and you have discovered our weakness! It was almost becoming a chore rather than something we looked forward to doing. Not that we don’t love doing it. It’s just that school work, our “daily” jobs, and all the other “stuff” made it really difficult to record at a convenient time for everyone. Not to be outdone by ourselves, we are changing the schedule! And it’s grrrrrrreat!
We are now recording on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 5:30pm EST. And – finally we’re doing it live!
The time that we “gained” from not doing a daily show means that we have finally gotten the time to sit down and figure out how to bring you a LIVE show – something we’ve been promising for a long time! Not only that, but we have also taken steps to improve our sound quality: Lizette and I (Alex) now have our own microphones, with Ben’s mic on his way to him as we speak. We also have figured out how to use the software that makes it all nice and smooth.
So without any further ado, please join us live every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 5:30pm. Click through for all the different ways in which you can participate: Read more »
Posted in
House Keeping,
Podcast
As some of you know, I use the Cutline theme for TechNest Report (which is powered by WordPress). I’m finally ready to let you know that I have been working on some new looks based on the awesome Cutline theme and it is coming within the next week. However, the main reason I have not made any changes live yet (and the main reason for this post) is that I have been having some problems with the 3-column right version of Cutline. Here’s the story:
Having a 3-column layout, it was my goal to have access to two widget columns. Well, Cutline 3-column right 1.1 only gave me access to one of these columns in the admin area. Cutline 1.1 also did not display all the other static pages of the site at the top (as it should). Well, after countless hours of sticking my head into the theme editor and searching for someone online who would shed some light on my issues, I found out that version 1.33 is out. I did not even check to see if a new version had been released earlier in my quest to solve these issues because I obtained version 1.1 only a few weeks ago and thought that an update could not come this soon. Well, I’m glad to say that 1.33 solved both of these nuances and I’m a happy Cutline user now.
The moral of the story here is that if anyone using Cutline as their theme and having problems accessing both sidebars and/or getting static page titles to show up below the header image, upgrade Cutline! Just in case this statement doesn’t get Googled, let it be out in the open:
Don’t be like me and spend hours reading through your theme templates, scowering forums, and setting up new blogs! Just upgrade and all your problems will go away.
In other news, I will be posting pictures and video of me performing surgery on my iBook G4 and upgrading the hard disk (as well as cleaning it out). It wasn’t as bad as one might think. All that is needed is a table with at least a square meter of space each way and some organizational skills. It also doesn’t help if your internal frame is broken (superglue doesn’t help).
With that, I will retire to watch a movie. I’ll Twitter the name. Visual changes coming soon, as well as our very first podcast!
Stay tuned!
Posted in
House Keeping,
Software,
Status Update,
TNR tip
I’ve been busy this week and am working on a CallWave review.Meanwhile, you can find my opinions on AppleInsider forums. I’ve been writing in the “Future Hardware” section and have been expressing my dissatisfaction with the current Apple notebook lineup. You can find the topics I’ve posted to here (future MacBook Pro) and here (future MacBook – non Pro).If you’re not familiar with AppleInsider, it’s a really great Apple community site that reports Apple news and has pre-announced many Apple stories accurately. They also have a great review staff and awesome forums – ones that are heavily-trafficed and where one can actually go to discuss all things Apple (and tech) with others who use their heads. (Of note: AppleInsider is in no way approved, rejected, or supported by Apple Co.) I’m aiming to have the CallWave review up on Saturday December 1st.
Posted in
Blogroll,
House Keeping,
Status Update
Ok, seems like a few of the Apple Wish List posts have dissapeared. I’ve been having some interesting issues with my blog database. Working to get those posts back up.
For the mean time, I’m looking at adding some plugins to the new theme. Thanks N.Design Studio. Coming up soon: Adobe Flash and the iPhone. Stay tuned. -Alex
Posted in
Blogroll,
House Keeping
