Swamp Geek

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Although I was an early adopter (I had an original color Palm phone - the Samsung SPH-i300 for 6 years before switching to a combination of Motorola Razr for personal use and Treo 650W for work), I resisted the masochistic urge to get an iPhone, was tempted by the Palm Pre, but waited patiently for the arrival of my now-beloved HTC Incredible (aka Verizon Droid Incredible). With about 80 additional apps (and counting), I frequently review new apps and consider developing new apps. The question arises: do I develop in Java using Google's Android SDK? (My Java skills were last used around the time I got the SPH-i300: 2001). Maybe...but what if there was a way to develop mobile apps for multiple platforms, say iPhone and Android, and maybe Blackberry, Symbian, WebOS (Palm) and Windows Mobile?

Actually, there are at least 3 - and, incredibly, they're FOSS (free, open source software):

Note: a fourth commercial product, Ansca Mobile, currently in Beta for Android support and primarily supports iPhone for game development.

Read more for additional details and initial impressions of these products.

As Google's Android overtakes a rotting Apple in the marketplace, the availability of quality applications continues to grow. Though I'm still evaluating apps for several purposes (e.g. 2 apps for file management, 2 apps for tethering my Droid Incredible, 2 FTP servers - not clients), it's simply, pardon the pun, Incredible what is already available. Check out AppBrain.com's combination of web-based app installation and Android-based app utility. As a bonus, AppBrain provides this nifty web accoutrement, which shows my Incredible Android apps:

While discussing my crash plan with my brother-in-law and fellow swamp geek, he asked if I'd ever seen his plug. Since that's too personal for him, I assumed he wasn't talking about a hair implant and asked him to explain.

He showed me what looked like an AC adapter with a USB port connected to an external hard drive and an Ethernet port connected to his network. "Yes," he confirmed, "that's a small computer called PogoPlug that creates a NAS drive out of an external hard drive." In other words, an instant file server.

Interesting, but even more interesting: it cost around $100 and uses much less energy that a spare desktop configured for the same purpose, and works with a service to provide access to the files over the Internet. Free software allows the PogoPlug to be mapped as network storage for Linux, OS/X and Windows computers and the iPhone / iPod Touch. Apparently, it had already saved the day for my nephew, who left his homework at home, but was able to retrieve it via PogoPlug.

I wanted to learn more about this personal cloud and plug computing...

Here are the links for those who tear the paper before reading the card:

http://www.crashplan.com – Free software that allows backups to local, remote and very low-cost online backup service

http://www.zumodrive.com – 2GB free space with file sharing and streaming files to an iPhone / iPod Touch app

http://skydrive.live.com/ - 25GB of free web storage

http://www.gladinet.com – free software that lets you map SkyDrive, Picasaweb, Google Docs and other free and commercial cloud storage as a local drive

http://www.syncback.com – free software that synchronizes and backs up to local, virtual and FTP storage

On Sunday, my home backup drive failed. Unfortunately, it also included some free Christmas music I’d downloaded only to that drive. So I decided to review backup options because I definitely needed a new crash plan. Little did I know that what I needed IS CrashPlan…

You may have heard about a nasty virus (technically, it's a worm) that will strike infected Windows computers on April Fool's day. This April Fool's virus is also known as Conficker, Cornflicker, Downup, Downadup and Kido. Microsoft even offered a US$250,000 reward for the capture of the Conficker creator.

If you automatically update your Windows and anti-virus software, there is little chance that your computer is infected. However, there is a free, easy way to detect and remove it:

Download and run the free Conficker Removal Tool from http://www.enigmasoftware.com (there is a link to download the tool).

That's it! Be aware that when the tool is completed, it will take you to complete a survey on the Engima Software website (a sales pitch so you'll use Enigma's antivirus tool). You can complete the survey or simply close that browser / page.

Microsoft also has a free tool, but there have been reports of delays in downloading this tool (http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm).

Other free Conficker removal tools:
BitDefender Conficker (Downadup Worm) Removal Tool
F-Secure Conficker Worm (Downadup) Removal Tool
Kapersky Conficker Killer
McAfee Avert Stinger
Sophos Conficker Cleanup Tools
TrendMicro SysClean WORM_DOWNAD

Small, light, low-cost netbooks like the Acer Aspire One and ASUS Eee PC may be all the rage - but they may not be the ultimate portable computer. That honor belongs to the ubiquitous USB drive - powered either by flash memory or by microSD cards. At a fraction of the size, weighing almost nothing, and costing less than $2 per GB of storage, the devices can be loaded with excellent free software and with an available USB port on a nearby computer make the ultimate portable PC.

SwampGeek.com is a place to find information, reviews, comparisons and more about technology - computers, phones, entertainment - just about anything technical except games (we'll leave that for the swamp kiddies).