Android, Shop Savvy Barcode scanner

Posted on2009/12/062009/12/07AuthorTruXter5 Comments

The Shop Savvy Barcode Scanner for androids

The application gives some sense of security. Knowing that you can scan an item and check local prices that might be better than what you are about to pay for the item at the establishment you are at currently. There is a downside though. It seems the application only finds Target Stores, I mean the store with the big circle looking like a dartboard target.

On some occasions it does show Walgereens. Really it should show more than one vendor location. instead what ever vendor they choose, they show all locations of that vendor. It is supposed to show you the cheapest place to purchase the item. See I think that might be a bit of bs. I have a feeling it’s a sponsored programs, like just an advertisement market. it does no search other than your location, and how to find their sponsor who carries said product. See I bought a coffee bean Grinder from Kroger for 9.99 (I am not paying $100+ for a grinder, I’m just not. While standing in Kroger I scanned it, the results I got said Target for $12.99. i looked down at the price on the shelf, 9.99 ..

The model I got was proctor Silex fresh Grind model number E160B. Barcode 0 22333 91600 1 . Here it is at Target for 12.99 . Sorry Kroger does not have it on their site but

Reciept picture

LOL that should do. Don’t bother scanning car parts, because clearly they have no car parts sponsors.

An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

Posted on2009/12/04AuthorGame News

Copied and pasted from facebook, Sorry I have no say on anything here except ‘What do you expect???”

It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online.

To make this possible, we have focused on giving you the tools you need to share and control your information. Starting with the very first version of Facebook five years ago, we’ve built tools that help you control what you share with which individuals and groups of people. Our work to improve privacy continues today.

Facebook’s current privacy model revolves around “networks” — communities for your school, your company or your region. This worked well when Facebook was mostly used by students, since it made sense that a student might want to share content with their fellow students.

Over time people also asked us to add networks for companies and regions as well. Today we even have networks for some entire countries, like India and China.

However, as Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.

We’ve worked hard to build controls that we think will be better for you, but we also understand that everyone’s needs are different. We’ll suggest settings for you based on your current level of privacy, but the best way for you to find the right settings is to read through all your options and customize them for yourself. I encourage you to do this and consider who you’re sharing with online.

Thanks for being a part of making Facebook what it is today, and for helping to make the world more open and connected.

Mark Zuckerberg

Top Ten Podcasters of the Year: TruXter’s Choice

Posted on2009/12/032009/12/03AuthorTruXter

Well the year has brought so much news to the tech world, Via podcasts. Since that is a media source, TruXter tech Review will list the choice of podcasters for 2009. From tenth place down to the number one spot.

These podcasts are not necessarily all tech, it’s the means in which this media is brought to us that makes it tech. There is great talent and tons of devotion in these people, that is why they are making the list. There are some that are very talented but had no devotion or motivation to carry on this year as they had in the past years. So this year they will not be making it to this list. Some are great talent but a bit slacking this year so their scoring isn’t as wonderful as it could be. This post is not to bash, but show apreciation, keep that in mind if your or your favorite podcaster is not in the top 2.

There will be no award that can be given other than readers of this site, a chance to listen to the media on the podcaster’s site. So i hope they enjoy the notoriety, no matter how small the traffic might be or low the number of interested link followers their are.Well without further blathering, this is the list of 2009’s podcasters we hope to hear more from during 2010.

If you know someone with a podcast that should have made the list, leave their link. If it’s your link please let me know. i will gladly listen to more than one episode. probably every episode you do within 2010. Just respond to this post.

#10. Leslie Katz-Cnet News Daily Podcast, voice is kind of cool and not disruptive. Topics are clear and interesting.

#9. Alex Albrecht-Diggnation He drinks with Kevin Rose and reads from digg.com frickin a.d.d. train wreck lol!.

#8. Kevin Rose- Diggnation Gets drunk with Alex and gets off topic so often, I love it. Weekly Show.

#7. Andrew G.R.-Jobacle.Com s.Mostly writing there now. but still doing shows.

#6. Bryan Lunduke–Computer Action Show Computer Action Show. Seems like it’s up to twice a month nowe.

#5. Chris Fisher–Computer Action Show Computer Action Show. Seems like it’s up to twice a month now.

#4. Veronica Belmont-TekZilla New episodes: Thursdays usually around 45 minutes.

#3. Patrick Norton-TekZilla New episodes: Thursdays usually around 45 minutes.

#2. Leo Laporte –The Tech Guy Podcast Two Podcasts a Week for this show, Hours of entertainment while at work in a Zone.

#1. Andrew McCaskey- Slashdot Review SDRNEWS SDR News Producer and Host – Slashdot Review about 15 minutes of just straight to the point tech news. No worries if you get super interested and can’t keep up, he has show notes on his website.

Zynga Sends Cease Notice To kid

Posted on2009/12/032009/12/15AuthorTruXter1 Comment

Zynga the company that owns Mafia Wars (a game played on Myspace and other locations) , Launched their new toolbar application two days ago. after a year of my kid having a toolbar for mafia wars, they decide to make their own toolbar. Since my kid’s toolbar had greater page rank, they send a cease and desist notice to conduit, the company my kid uses to make his toolbar.

After you read this cease notice, I want you to remember, all that my son had in his toolbar was links to his favorite websites that where focused on Mafia Wars for Myspace. Well he removed everything from his toolbar and started a new one focused on his own website (about Myspace Mobsters Family HFS). Soon after, Conduit removed the link to his toolbar from their search engine (powered by google) and then, the following day (today) Google removed him from their search. Wow, zynga threw a big tantrum because they had an idea to late and could not out PR a teen age kid. Remember though. THIS IS MY BOY we are talking about. I give high props to my son. I totally respect his intentions to shut down his toolbar before it got all covered in stupid, and I appreciate his modesty and integrity for allowing Zynga to capitalize on it’s income a little bit further.

I do suggest and recommend that Zynga go ahead since they threw the hissy fit, to register with conduit and take over the name of that toolbar because it’s PR, I would respect them a little bit more if they compensate him for his efforts in keeping people interested in their game. I on the other hand will discontinue my Zynga account, and spend all efforts in promoting the fun created by playdom (mobsters). Zynga has lost my respect. I am not trying to rally troops and cause everyone to quit the games they create, Their games are fun, but man, they sure have no idea how the internet works and what free advertisement is worth. They need to respect their users a bit more.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Legal <Legal@conduit.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 7:03 AM
Subject: “Mafia Wars” toolbar – violation of the Publisher Agreement
To: *******

Dear Publisher of the “Mafia Wars” toolbar;

Thank you for choosing Conduit to power your community toolbar.

It has recently came to our attention that the community toolbar that you publish [CT2101201] [http://mafiawarstoolbar.ourtoolbar.com/] contains materials (such as marks, signs, images, or texts) that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties [your toolbar name, logo, links, pictures and / or other contents include contents which were taken from or referring to Zynga’s Mafia wars application without receiving their written permission first].

This activity is considered a violation of the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement that you have approved prior to using the Conduit platform (http://www.conduit.com/license.aspx).

We kindly ask you to remove any content that may violate the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement from your toolbar within the next 12 hours [or less] from the date of this email. If you fail to address the issues described in this email within such timeframe, we will be forced to take the required actions to resolve such violations. For the avoidance of any doubt or misunderstanding please be aware that all Zynga’s related materials should be removed from your toolbar [This includes your toolbar name, logo, and all the content which is related to Zynga].

We kindly request that while utilizing the Conduit platform, you will refrain from using material or content that is legally owned or licensed by third parties without receiving an approval from such third parties.

Thank you for your cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.

Regards,

Conduit Compliance Department

They would not have acted out like this after year of the toolbar, if Zynga had not just launched theirs two days ago and saw they Suck at Page Rank

Digg This Please

Patch 5 For GTAIV Is Success For online Gamers

Posted on2009/12/03AuthorTruXter

Well Rockstar Torronto Spent a great deal of time weeding through the posts on gtaforums.com checking and double checking for computer stats, and hardware configurations to see who all had what so they could re-test their build of the game and produce a patch.

After five tests, they have it .. For more information go here.

The online patch now allows us to ban people who join games we serve.. Actually made to kick out jerks and cheaters.

Today we released patched 1.0.0.4 for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The patch features a number of updates and fixes including the conversion of all region SKU’s into the same SKU, more freedom for users to customize controls, and several multiplayer fixes. The full patch notes can be found below. Please visit http://updates.rockstargames.com/patches/gtaiv/GTAIV_MAINTENANCE_UPDATE_1004.rar to download the patch.

Version 1.0.0.4 – November 10, 2009

GENERAL:

Convert all region SKU’s into the same SKU.
Include support for all languages within single exe.

CONTROLS:

Allow controls to be double mapped on keyboard.
Added option in controls menu to disable mouse controls in helicopters.
Adjust keyboard control sensitivity in hood cam view in vehicles.

MULTIPLAYER:

Security Updates to deter cheating in multiplayer.
Hosts can now immediately Kick users from their games in Lobby and in game via Cell phone without having to rely on peer voting.
Fixed a bug in Cops ‘n Crooks mode where Host would drop out and prevent remaining players from leaving game.

Got My Google Wave

Posted on2009/11/29AuthorTruXter2 Comments

Here is a screenshot of the first 5 minutes of usage of Google Wave I have 5 more invites left, looking for actual friends that will use it, that’s the hard part.

for some of you out there, yeah I know, it took me almost two weeks longer than everyone else. yadda yadda.. Well I got it. Most people don’t.

The settings, well there are none, so far it seems I have to use my real name instead of the screen name I have used for the past 12 years. Then again most of the people on there will know me by my real name… right? well no not really. All of them people know me on hotmail, everyone else has my gmail address. I have learned to use my gmail account for everything because the Google team really does a great job stopping the spam. but ok, back on track. It looks like you get up to 8 invites into your buddies, so you better hope you have a tight circle of friends, where every friend you have has each other added, or it could be two or three years before that one friend you have, gets around to signing up.

Invite says

Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with, so please nominate people you would like to add. Keep in mind that this is a preview so it could be a bit rocky at times.

Invitations will not be sent immediately. We have a lot of stamps to lick.

Happy waving!

Could use a little bit of tweaking like twitter integration, not auto tweet crap like everything, but checks all of your twitter friends and sees who has wave and incorporates them in, without giving unwanted email addresses out, gives them the chance to accept or deny the invites.

Same with your Myspace and Facebook. and what ever social network comes up and fizzles out (like digg).

This actually has the potential of being as big as chatrooms used to be, but a tad bit more elitist and segregated. HMM a public chat addition would be nice but really no one seems to want that in their software anymore.

From the looks of it, it just looks like the place that gmail should go, like an add on or replacement for the google chatbox/im box.

Well when I get the chance to talk to people and see wtf it does,
I will message more on here or start a new thread.

For now it’s just an instant messenger and my buddy list sucks.

Explorer.exe Is now windows Explorer

Posted on2009/11/29AuthorGame News

Noticed this at work the other day.

Now if you go to cmd and type in explorer.exe it pops open windows explorer. for ever that has been the trick to get your task bar back. now it does not. It just opens windows explorer. so if you get a crash and lose your taskbar, you must reboot. Or figgure out what in the heck the taskbar is now called.

I assume this is a follow up to removing the progman.exe functionality.

See my trick for ever was to change my start up and replace the registry line from startup/explorer.exe to startup/progman.exe.

This reduced teh amount of resources my machine used, back the day when windows ran like crap and computer parts where crap.

This is teh same on xp sp3 , windows vista, and windows 7

I have no idea when or how this all came about. but i noticed it at work while over a span of 4 days I had different co-workers come to me and say “hey I lost my taskbar” we had to reboot them all one by one to get the task bar back. because typing explorer.ese solved nothing. it’s like an auto update or a strange mass virus ? I feel like I am being tamed by m$

Patch 5 For GTAIV Is Success

Posted on2009/11/29AuthorGame News

Grand Theft Auto IV, has had a rocky run since the start. Many of us had a smooth install and smooth gameplay from the getgo. But many people had issue that almost seemed to be unresolved. The forums at gtaforums.com practically flipped upside down. Many posts had been sent by flamers and trolls but there where lots of real legitimate posts. So for the moderators such as CC (CharmingCharlie) there was a heavy steady task. Regular users such as myself spent hours trying to contribute, by helping the legit and reporting the blatant flamers. That is all important because There where actual Rockstar game programers that would frequent gta forums to get ideas and imput. As we actually found out at the release of patch one.

The first patch was clearly a quick fix to suppress the unruly scream-alots. I totally understand and was happy with the fact that someone was there to hear and tame the cries of the kids with bad installs. I don’t remember exactly what was shut off in the patches but I do remember like the hotdog stands disappearing, and then when they came back, deeper detailed controls for video settings had been enabled. Of course that was at a later patch. Third patch I believe.

The fourth patch well there really was not much to the fourth patch as far as we could see. In fact the guy from Rockstar Torronto informed us it was preparation for next few big moves. Some of us old schoolers suggested it was for Downloadable content for pc..We where slapped down by forum moderators that let us know there was nothing in the statement that suggested DLC, and they locked our posts. They don’t realize that half the game of GTA is speculating what is to come in next game and by reading to much into anything said by R*. That is the heaviest traffic to gtaforums. but what ever. We have since then proven this to be true with the release of the fifth patch we see tlad in the achievement area for pc gtaiv.

Cheats are now nearly impossible, the servers are now used like dedicated servers, meaning the game creator can now ban anyone on his/her server at any givin moment, we no longer have to wait for votes. I assume that someone will create a script that allows them to jump servers and bann people at random without being modderator or creator. until then I am super happy with what is available.

many many fixes with patch five.

Incase you have not found the link to the fifth patch, here you go.

patch 5 for gtaiv

List of Fixes

GENERAL:

Convert all region SKU’s into the same SKU.
Include support for all languages within single exe.

CONTROLS:

Allow controls to be double mapped on keyboard.
Added option in controls menu to disable mouse controls in helicopters.
Adjust keyboard control sensitivity in hood cam view in vehicles.

MULTIPLAYER:

Security Updates to deter cheating in multiplayer.
Hosts can now immediately Kick users from their games in Lobby and in game via Cell phone without having to rely on peer voting.
Fixed a bug in Cops ‘n Crooks mode where Host would drop out and prevent remaining players from leaving game.

Sad to say, they have it labeled as patch 4, even though it is the fifth patch.

Modern Warfare 2 c.o.d. XBOX360

Posted on2009/11/262009/11/28AuthorTruXter

Throwing knives 1 at a time. Can scavenge and get more, but not at the same time.. So throw kill, pick up the dead guy’s kniufe, throw kill pick up the dead guy’s knife if he still has one.

infinity ward / Activision produced and manufactured the game.

Olympic deaths- when you die you do flips and twists, kinda cool and funny.

Cash instead of blood- latest patch killed the bloody deaths while in multy player. Instead of blood everywhere you see money fly up.
No cheats no glitch, glitch report feature, and all the cheated Xbox’s have been banned.
Vaseline-eye gone. This refers to the blurry background and scenery area that xbox used for every game that first came out to reduce the amount of imaged teh machine has to render, making it easier to draw deeper detail in the images it is focussed on. Was a cheap scam if you ask me. when you die, you get blurry though.

Predator drone missile, lets you do a lock on location while an air strike is performed, you guide the missle.
Auto and barrette at same time, means sniper and machine gun as secondary weapon, pretty fricken cool if you ask me.
Leader board shows total time. Shows wins.
leader board . Shows accuracy shots. 1v1 with buddy = pad scores. one guy on there had 700+ kills zero misses. He logged in and was 1v1 with his other xbox and shot up the zombie machine.. causing zero misses. Kind of frooty if you ask me..

Fast pace. Game moved at a rate not seen other than on Soldier Front.

Game was cool, I give it a 8/10.

I no longer have access to the game or the console. ..

Expect a clear review when it hits PC

T-Mobile G1 Late Review

Posted on2009/11/26AuthorTruXter

Goods
The aps are free-cheap and very usefull.
The screen is huge compared to bb8100.
Sim cards are such a luxury.
Qwerty!
Touch screan menus.
Text messages organized by senders.
Youtube actually plays.
Streaming radio aps and a aux connection in car means way more stations than xm radio. For free!
Camera super high quality.
I’m writing this with G1 and a wp-ap.
Video recorder up to 30 minute videos.
Barcode scanner. Helps me find things that I already have but no idea where to get more of. That is a huge plus.
Opera mini!!!!!

Bads
Battery life is trash .
Cold days kill touch screen make it innacurate.
Many aps crash.
Costly service.
No close feature foe browser. Page back.
# button hard to do while recording voice mails.
Huge learning curve. More like a laptop than a phone.