I made a video playing a few rounds:

Two Players

I hit the “Insert Coin” and saw Mrs. Pacman appear!  She is the female equal to Pacman who doesn’t go by, “Mr. Pacman”.  Of course, I find it weird when women online go by “Mrs. handle-of-my-husband” but that’s another blog post.

To control Mrs. Pacman for ultimate cubicle fun:

• Left arrow key: Letter A
• Right Arrow key: Letter D
• Up Arrow key: Letter S
• Down Arrow key: Letter W

Two Player Pacman Game In Action

Here I am kicking arse and taking names controlling both Pacman and Mrs. Pacman

I’ve used this for Amazon Prime, Audible, cloud apps, credit report monitoring and a variety of other deals on-line and then gracefully step out before I get charged.

Here’s a screenshot of my Google Calendar.  I have both email reminders and pop ups enabled so I can keep track of upcoming events.  I enter in the url where I signed up or link to the welcome email.  This saves me the hassle of trying to dispute the charges later via email or phone.  That’s a hassle no one wants to deal with!

I checked my Google Apps account to see if the changes had taken effect but I was still limited to the much smaller sizes of:

• 500KB for documents
• 10mb for presentations
• 1mb for spreadsheets and
• 10mb for PDF files

This applies to all editions of Google Apps including: Standard (the free one), Premier, Education plus Team and Partners and will roll out in the next few weeks.

I can’t wait!

Well, my time has come because T-mobile just confirmed I’m due for contract renewal February 20th, 2010!

Top 10 Reasons I Will Buy The Nexus One

1. I support Open Source Software
2. All my geeky friends have Android based phones
3. I worship Google
4. It has a 5 megapixel camera with flash
5. I keep jailbreaking my iPhone to get the freedom the Nexus One already has
6. It’s not the iPhone
7. It has 290 hours of standy by time (almost 2 weeks)
8. It’s probably secretly tied into Google Wave
9. It has a removable battery (yes, I didn’t stutter)
10. Did I mention it’s not an iPhone?

I enjoy technology because it empowers people.  One of the ways you achieve freedom is by choice.

Get Your Milk Direct From The Cow

Now, in an unprecedented move (Just like how George Lucas didn’t show opening credits in Star Wars), Google is selling this phone on their website.  I cannot even begin to say how important this is as a statement to Open Source and *cough* *cough*, the open market.  Cell phone companies are playing with us giving us crippled phones.

UPDATE: One of my commenters, vaunnorwood, said that I would have to pay $379 so I investigated. Turns out that T-mobile is only providing full or partial discounts based on where you are in your contract so even at the end of a 2 year agreement, you are only eligible for $250 off.

Customers up for a full discount get $250 off and customers eligible for a partial discount (1 year into contract?) get $150 off the $579 price tag when you buy it without a contract.

• If you buy this phone outright with no contract, you will pay $529 which is almost as much as the 16GB iPhone 3GS.
• If you’re eligible for a partial discount (1 year into a 2 year contract?) you’re eligible for a $150 discount and will pay $429
• If you are out of contract after 2 years, you can receive a $250 discount and pay $329
• If activate a new line, with a 2 year contract AND select the “Even More” plan (which looks ridiculously expensive) you pay $179.

Am I Eligible For The Discounted Nexus One?

That said, T-mobile is the first provider available for this phone.  End of today, I called T-mobile to see if I was eligible.  I read off my phone number and provided the last four digits of my social security number to the rep.  I held my breath.

The phone I got from T-mobile was a Samsung Beat but while waiting I couldn’t remember when I bought it!  Of course, I’ve been using the iPhone with my T-mobile sim card ever since OhDoctah sent me his old iPhone and then switched it to my new iPhone I won this year at Blogging While Brown.

Ok, back to the suspenseful waiting period.

The rep came back and said yes!  I had purchased my phone in March 2008 so I would be eligible in Feburary 2010!  Of course, I immediately tweeted this out:

T-mobile Treats Me Like A Princess

I’m happy with T-mobile’s service, coverage and customer service.  They are always nice to me when I call and have even comp’d me with extra minutes when I was about to go over.

In 2009, I was offered the T-mobile “Loyalty” plan which is $50/month for unlimited national calling.  This not only saved me $20 each month, I no longer had to worry about support calls to vendors eating up my minutes.

It was also super easy to get my iPhone connected to T-mobile’s data plan.

Of the one problem I had with them trying to charge me for a free phone, The Consumerist website helped me get that silly $20 fee waived.

Latest and the Greatest

I will watch the CES buzz this year about all the new gadgets but I won’t be hopping on most because it leads to consumption without appreciation.  Gina Trapani had an interesting item over at her site that lined to Last Year’s Model, a site dedicated to raising awareness of our “disposable” views on electronics.  You’ll find the badge on my site as well.  I’ve seen it too many times where someone doesn’t even know how to use something and they’re upgrading to the next version.  One day, we will have less resources and our demands will outweigh them.  I like to feel I’m doing my part by taking care of my electronics so they have a long live and only upgrading when I’ve determined there is an essential functionality I need.  That’s the treehugger in me.

• Are you going to get a Nexus One?
• If you already have an Android based device, what would make you upgrade?
• Are you sick of Apple controlling what goes on the iPhone?

Google Voice Screenshot

Google Voice Recording

Here’s the actual recording so you can hear:

This is from my friend Leslie who is confirming that on Sunday, we’re going to get together and hang out. Her son Alec loves my little dog Bluey.

Leslie is White. I’d be concerned if she used the term “Negro” to greet me. Especially since we live in Minneapolis, MN and overt racism is rare here.

Google Voice Transcription

and the original text transcribed by Google Voice:

Hey Negro, Hi, it’s, Leslie in out. Okay so I did get your voicemail or your email if, and I did leave a message for you, but I am going to go with Sunday if, since I hadn’t heard from you. I’m assuming you want to stick to Sunday and I think you’re email said 12 to 2, so maybe we’ll talk later. It is Saturday and Alec and I are getting ready to go out so I just want to make sure that I guess we are in fact first day and somebody’s really looking forward to it. Well actually looking forward to it, so I’ll be fun to see you again and you’re happy face. So Tucker says hi. Happy New Year. Hope you had a nice day. Nearest as did we. You know that I don’t have enough money exciting life. So just anyway. I’ll try and catch you later. On the flip side to confirm for tomorrow, but otherwise. Yeah, we will swing by your place at 12. I don’t if I don’t see. Yeah, or suck to you bye.

As you can see, her greeting sounded nothing like, “Hey Negro”. Bill C notes in the comments that Google could have suggested, “Hey Grill fiend” or “Hey Growl fried” which would be much closer to the actual word. I recently purchased MacSpeech Dictate so I could speak my blog posts versus typing them out and it’s been going really well! It is very accurate but more importantly, they explain how computers translate voice into words based on the expectation that certain words are used together with certain other words like, “Hello, how are you?” is much more likely than, “Hello, I am blue”.

So we must question what’s going on here:

• What’s up with Google Voice?
• Who is creating the reference material use for transcription?
• What other slang and potentially racist terms are being transcribed?
• Does Google Voice learn from actual recordings?
• If so, are people leaving slang greetings on Google Voice?

In case you missed it, HP got a lot of feedback about this video where Desi and Wanda, coworkers at a computer shop, test out an HP computer’s webcam to show that it doesn’t respond to Black faces:

Winners

Jeremy will be able to centralize and redirect important calls to his cell phone using Google Voice

Samantha will be able to raise her geek cred and manage her incoming callers like an ant farm

Victoria won’t miss that next call from a potential employer with her new Google Voice number

T. Lynn Ford will be able to keep her alternate personality fully stocked with all the essentials

Mannabsn will be able to save on cell phone minutes with Google Voice

Designing Beauty will be available to her clients anywhere and will be able to read her voicemail on the road

Shelby will be able to take history changing calls from feminist supporters and check in with her book publicist on the road with Google Voice

Robin will be able to take her business on the road, right from her computer as clients from all of the world will be able to easily contact her

I will be sending out emails to everyone with your Google Voice invites

Looks like many Gmail users (including Google Apps users) are having trouble accessing their email.  The workaround again is to connect via IMAP through a desktop client like Thunderbird, Apple Mail or Outlook.

You can check status updates on Gmail over at Google’s AppStatus page http://status.google.com

9:29 AM

We’re aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a small subset of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail, but we’ve provided a workaround below. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 10:29:00 AM UTC-5 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.

You can access Gmail via IMAP

Unfortunately for Google, this downtime is not making them look good.  They had another outage in early September just after they finished their, “Going Google” nationwide billboard campaign.  There was another outage in late winter and one last fall.

I still think using Google Apps for domain email is a good bet because their downtime has been small compared to most small businesses who do email internally.  I wonder if this outage is only affecting the users of the free Gmail service and the Standard version of Google Apps (also free).  The premier version of Google Apps guarantees 99.9% email uptime.  This will cost you $50 per year per user in your organization and comes with additional space, expanded support from Google and some features not available in the Standard version.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m wondering where Google got this technology to find faces.

• Did they contact the Las Vegas mafia?
• Was this recovered from an alien spaceship?
• What are the potential problems with identifying people you’ve photographed and giving that information to Google through Picasa?

This is the first product from Google where I’m a bit suspicious and although I think Google is quite awesome, I’m worried about the privacy issues.

I’m looking for a conference sponsor for the upcoming BlogHer Conference and I want to promote your company!

I will be attending BlogHer ’09 in Chicago at the end of the week.  BlogHer is a gathering of women who blog on all sorts of things and this is the 5th year!

Your Market Is Out There

photo credit: jdlasica

I know women who enjoy technology, gadgets and web 2.0 apps.  We don’t need everything to be pink.  We want to buy technology we enjoy using, fits our lifestyle and that make us feel (and look) smart!

Being a geek, I’m most happy in my element of solving problems and helping people.  I smile when people thank me and say, “Adria, when you explain it, things make so much more sense!”.  I put in time to learn new technology, talk with developers and work to stay active in the technology community.

I’ve always enjoyed wearing my Firefox t-shirt and having people comment on it because they recognize it as an awesome browser!

How I Will Pitch You At BlogHer

photo credit: journeyscoffee

I offer a unique opportunity.  For thousands of years, we’ve told stories around campfires.  The same holds true today where people end up buying things once they hear that personal story of how it adds value to someone’s life.

I will tell your story through one to one conversations with attendees

Forget “live blogging” and banner ads on sites.  I will make authentic and lasting connections with people that leave them thinking about your products long after they’ve have flown home.  Get your Google Analytics ready to track the hits from BlogHer!

Want to know more details of how I would position your t-shirts, screenshot software and business cards in conversations I have with other women bloggers at BlogHer?

Contact me and we’ll discuss it in detail.

I’m a good investment to promote your company because:

• I’m quite effective in persuading people to embrace new technology
• I attended WordCamp Chicago and Blogging While Brown in June 2009
• I explain things in terms that people understand and feel comfortable with
• People on Twitter thank me a lot for my help, suggestions and links
• I understand how technologies work together in a variety of businesses
• I understand hardware, desktop software, web apps and mobile devices
• I have 10 years of IT experience with several certifications
• I do a live, online, weekly technology show at AskAdria.com
• I have a sincere passion to help empower people through technology
• I’m learning how to sell things I believe in
• My “About” page is chocked full of information on my deeds to make the world a better place

Website Traffic Stats for Unique Visitors In The Last 6 Months To This Blog

(Google Analytics reports available upon request)

• July 4,257
• June 8,727
• May 1,677
• April 2,365
• March 8,689
• February 1,509

Recent Public Speaking Sample

Women Venture – St. Paul, MN
Panel “Women In Technology”
7/9/2009

ThinkGeek: Cool stuff for your desk and geeky t-shirts

Click here to view the embedded video.

Extra Credit
I own 4 shirts from ThinkGeek: Geek code, I’m Tweeting This, Slide to Unlock and No I will Not Fix Your Computer
Video: How To Use A Crossover Adapter [ThinkGeek]
Video: How To Use An Ethernet Loopback Adapter [ThinkGeek]
Video: Thinkgeek BlogHer T-Shirt Pitch

Techsmith: Effortless screen captures and video recordings

Click here to view the embedded video.

Moo.com: Elegant and unique business cards

Click here to view the embedded video.

People Buy Things I Talk About

photo credit: thevoyager

Time and again, I’ve shared products and services with people.  I passionately explain the benefits (save time, save money, more professional) and people signup, buy and subscribe.

I’m quite passionate about:

• Gmail
• Timebridge
• Twitter
• Clicky web analytics
• Skype
• WordPress
• Open Source
• Harvest
• Western Digital hard drives
• Firefox
• OpenDNS
• Google
• Zendesk
• Flickr
• ThinkGeek t-shirts for women
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Dell computers
• Mozy online backups
• Keepass
• Drop.io
• 37Signals Highrise CRM
• Google Apps for your domain
• Lifehacker
• Apple iPhone
• and much more!

Who Are These People?

photo credit: thus

In an average month, I connect with a variety of people who are decision makers, influential people on the internet and regular folks looking to learn more about technology.  I am honest, patient and helpful with all because I keep in mind how much I would have appreciated help and guidance when I was still learning about technology.

• Business Owners
• Developers
• Company Founders
• DIY Folks figuring out technology
• Bloggers
• IT Folks
• Friends

Why I Picked You

All three companies provide products that help women authentically express their inner geek.  One of the most important ways to “show your geek” is to walk the walk.  I will be selecting one sponsor for the entire event so I can focus on delivering your message in strong and consistant way.
I’ve selected you 3 because:

• I enjoy your products
• Have detailed information share about my experience
• Understand the value you provide
• Can go into vivid detail about why I enjoy using your products
• Know that you’re the best in your markets
• Enjoy answering technical questions BlogHer attendees will have about your products

How To Sponsor Me

Pick Up The Phone
Call 612-246-4568 or drop me a line and we’ll discuss in detail how I plan to deliver your message.

Promote Your Sponsorship
A coupon code would be a great way to encourage attendees to followup as well as track the effectiveness of my efforts!

Prepare Your Schwag
Do you have good stuff for me to hand out? Let’s brainstorm on what items will get folks excited!

photo credit: Liz Henry

Why This Is Important To Me

Being a female in technology, I sometimes need to remind people that I’m just as capable as a guy.  I learned this from my hero, Valerie Aurora who is an outspoken Linux developer at Red Hat.  She taught me to stand up and speak up for myself in my career.

More About Blog Her

photo credit: happykatie

Excerpt from website:

Founded in February 2005 as a labor of love by three bloggers, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. Today BlogHer provides the number-one community for and guide to blogs by women, reaching more than ten million women each month via annual conferences, a Web hub, and an publishing syndicate of more than 2,700 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates.

Send a Canned Response as a Filter Option in Gmail

This means you can now setup filters so when you get an email from a particular person or with a certain subject, you can send them a reply automatically!

I’m sure Microsoft is so very jealous because Outlook has nothing like this! Microsoft Exchange, eat your heart out! Okay, back to the awesomeness of Google Gmail and Google Apps.

What You Need

Canned Responses need to be enabled so you can select it as a filter option

1. Go to Settings
   
   
2. Go to Labs
   
   

3. Enable Canned Responses
   
   

You can now send out auto replies like Merlin Mann does which provide helpful FAQ information or whatever your mind can dream up!

I could use this to say to Rochenhost, “I have received your notice. Please allow 4-6 hours for a reply.”. This is like vacation reply but much more powerful. You can choose who gets a reply and then you can create as many “canned responses” as you want.

Yes, if you’re not using Gmail or Google Apps for your email, you’re living in the dark ages while everyone else has electricity.