CyberNet News » MyFive

MyFive: Sources for Identifying Unknown Callers

Ashley — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:41:21 +0000

This past week, I experienced several days where the phone rang multiple times throughout the day with a caller claiming I took an online survey about continuing my education. The caller claimed that they wanted to help me find courses to take. Knowing I hadn’t filled out any such survey about my education, I was curious and asked for the URL of the website. The caller simply ignored the question, thanked me for my time, and hung up. The first time it happened it was no big deal because stuff like that happens. Once the same number appeared, but with a different caller, multiple times throughout the day, and I experienced the same scenario I was annoyed.

Eventually I decided to perform a Google search for the phone number, and to my surprise, found multiple sites available where people were complaining about the same number, and the same situation. It was great to see others were having the same types of conversations, like I did, asking for the URL from the caller and getting no response. Thankfully after a couple of days of receiving about five phone calls a day from these people, the calls stopped.

Today’s MyFive is a collection of sites that allow you to lookup an unknown caller by their telephone number. Once you enter a number and they find a match, you can read comments from other people and contribute your own. Everybody, even those on the “Do Not Call” list, will still get unwanted calls on occassion. These sites will help you identify the callers and get more information on who they are and what they want when they call.

1. Who Called Us – www.whocalled.us

2. WhoCallsMe – http://whocallsme.com

3. 800Notes – http://800notes.com

4. Caller Complaints – http://callercomplaints.com

5. CallFerret – www.callferret.com

Lookup Unknown Files

Is The Flying Car An Unknown Government Project?

MyFive: Favorite Technology Quotes

CyberWare: Advanced Process Explorer For Windows

MyFive: Things the iPhone Does Better Than Other Phones…

Ashley — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:28:35 +0000

About a week ago we wrote a MyFive including five things we wished the iPhone 3G had. Among them were more than a 2 megapixel camera, a flash for the camera and video recording, multimedia messaging service, a replaceable battery, and a 32GB option. In the comments, Pieter pointed out that to be fair, we should write another article about five things that the iPhone can do better than other phones. We thought it was a great idea because as iPhone owners, there is a lot we do enjoy about the phones. Today’s MyFive will include things the iPhone does better than other phones out there.

1. Battery Life

The iPhone 3G offers up to 5 hours of talk time on 3G, 10 hours of talk time on 2G, 5 hours of Internet use on 3G, 6 hours of Internet use on Wi-Fi, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback, and 300 hours of standby time. Enough said.

2. Browser

When we had Internet capability on previous phones, we really didn’t use it much. Why? Well, because it was a pain in the butt to use! Apple did an amazing job with Safari for the iPhone which makes surfing the web hassle-free.

Studies have shown that iPhone users are more likely to browse the web on their device, more-so than other phones, simply because it’s easy to do. The device is what we like to call “Internet-centric” — it’s centered around the Internet and thus, people actually use it.

3. 3rd Party Applications

If you take the time to go through the applications that are available, you can find some really nice ones that will help increase productivity, and others that will give you a few minutes of fun. Not all are what we’d consider “quality” apps, but there are some great ones out there. For original iPhone owners, these 3rd party applications almost don’t make it a necessity to upgrade to the iPhone 3G.

4. Usability

The iPhone has a lot of features that other phones offer, but the ease of use is what stands out with the iPhone. Simple features that most phones have like a clock or calculator, are presented in front of you instead of buried with-in menus. And the clock is more than just a clock, it’s a stop-watch and a timer, and has an amazing alarm clock system. This alarm clock system has replaced my stand-alone alarm clock.

The camera is another great example. We’ve had camera phones in the past but this camera (despite the fact it’s 2MP) is easier to use than most cameras on other phones not to mention the fact that sharing those photos with others is great with the nice big touch-screen.

Apple definitely made a phone that their users will want to use, because of the ease-of-use.

5. Overall Experience

The overall experience of the iPhone is amazing. Sure, the new firmware has a few kinks, but the overall experience is what makes the iPhone worth all of the hype and the money. Great battery life, an awesome browser, a selection of quality 3rd party applications, and the ease of use provide the user with an overall experience that is hard to beat.

Need an iPhone Relocker for your iBrick?

Apple Warns iPhone Could Become iBrick

MyFive: Most Popular Searches on eBay

iPhone is Popular on Flickr

MyFive: Things We Wished the iPhone 3G Had

Ashley — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:42:10 +0000

As we’ve mentioned, CyberNet’s iPhone 3G review will be coming within the next week or so. We decided not to post it right away so we could have ample time to test out all of the new features. In the mean time, we thought we’d fill ya in on five things we wished the iPhone 3G had. It sure is a nice device, but it isn’t perfect. Here’s what we’d like to see on a 3rd generation iPhone. Apple, are you listening?

1. More Than a 2 Megapixel Camera

The original iPhone came with a 2 megapixel camera so it would have been nice to see Apple upgrade the camera to say, a 5 megapixel camera. Their goal is to have you use one device instead of many (phone, iPod, GPS, camera, all in one), but we’re still not ready to ditch our camera in favor of a 2 Megapixel camera on our iPhone 3G. This leads us to #2…

2. A Flash for the Camera and Video Recording

Another big thing missing from the iPhone 3G is a flash for the camera and the capability to record video. Sometimes it’s impossible to take great pictures without a flash and video recording is slowly becoming a standard. Remember all of those rumors that the iPhone was going to have a camera on the front as well for video-conferencing? That would have been nice too.

3. Multimedia Messaging Service

Lots of phones out there have the capability to send and receive multimedia messages, but not the iPhone 3G. For those who were used to such a service and used it regularly to send media on other phones, switching to the iPhone 3G where there isn’t an option will probably be a let-down.

4. A Replaceable Battery

A replaceable battery was one of the biggest complaints we heard with the original iPhone and now it’s a big complaint again with the iPhone 3G. People like to have control over replacing something like the battery, and some people like to carry around an extra for those times when they won’t have an outlet available to them for charging. This is something that isn’t possible because Apple does not allow users to replace the battery themselves. Maybe the 3rd generation will finally include a replaceable battery?

5. 32GB Option

It seems funny to think that just a year ago, Apple introduced a 4GB iPhone. 4GB? That’s it? 4GB hardly seems like anything these days. And while 4GB isn’t much, 8GB and even 16GB doesn’t seem like a whole lot. They’ve got a 32GB iPod Touch, so why not a 32GB iPhone 3G? We’re thinking they’ve already thought of this and like last year, they’ll quickly discontinue the 8GB model and introduce the 32GB model.

We know many of you have rather large collections of music and photos, so storage on any device is a must!

MyFive: Top 5 Most Wanted Products This Week!

MyFive: Making Firefox Better

iPhone 3G Graces the Cover of Best Buy Ad Tomorrow

MyFive: Services Google Should Introduce

Ashley — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:49:02 +0000

With Google’s latest project called Lively being released this week, we thought we’d take a look at some of the services that they should introduce. Google seems to want to cover every topic out there, and we’re sure eventually they will.

Music – why music you ask? It just sounds like something Google would get into. And besides, there’s already been traces of Google working on a music service in China!
Travel – if they introduced some type of travel site, they’d be able to incorporate Google Maps and all that it offers. If users were to search for vacation information on a certain city, Google could direct them to use Google Street View to get a better idea of what the place looked like.
Automotive – we wrote about a site called RepairPal a few weeks ago as a place where you could get honest auto repair information. It’s a great site, but they don’t have information on some of the auto repair shops out there. Google might be able to better tackle the job of providing honest auto repair information.
Social Search – there are hundreds of search engines out there and it might be nice if Google offered a Social Search. Users could enter in all of their social network credentials and then be able to search them all right from Google. Maybe something like FriendFeed.
Food – a centralized place to search for recipes around the web would be great for those that are into cooking. They could also offer their own rating system for these recipes like what they already offer for restaurants.

Any services you’d like Google to introduce?

Google Works On Integrating Their Services Together

Get To Know Google With The Google Cheat Sheets

Google Apps Partner Edition for ISPs and Portals

Messenger and Google Talk to Work Together?

MyFive: Firefox 3 Chrome URL’s

Ryan — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:11:03 +0000

Firefox’s interface is cleverly designed using JavaScript and XUL, and using what’s referred to as chrome URL’s you can actually open specific windows in a tab or the sidebar. This includes things like the management windows for bookmarks, saved passwords, downloads, extensions, and more. They can even be bookmarked for quick one-click access to them in the future.

Below we’ve got our top 5 chrome URL’s that can be used in Firefox 3, and all you have to do is copy the URL into the address bar to see what each of them do. Don’t forget to bookmark the ones that you’ll use frequently, and here are some instructions if you want them to open in the sidebar.

Note: The URL’s will obviously only work in Firefox.

1) Bookmarks Management

Used for: Managing bookmarks, tags, and history.
URL: chrome://browser/content/places/places.xul

(more…)

Related Posts:

MyFive: Making Firefox Better

New Poll: What Do You Think of Google Chrome?

Where is the Browser Market Headed?

Microsoft: Firefox/Chrome are Insecure, Difficult to Use, and Unreliable

Google Chrome Master Password Still Non-Existent?

MyFive: Google Spreadsheet Functions You Won’t Find in Microsoft Office

Ashley — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:04:32 +0000

Today we’re taking a look at Google Spreadsheet Functions you won’t find in Microsoft Office. If you haven’t played around with Google Docs before, you probably haven’t realized the long list of functions that are available. We’ll be covering the following functions: Import Feed, Google Finance, Google Look-up, Import HTML, and Data Sort.

Before we get started, we wanted to mention that there aren’t really functions that can do things like this in Microsoft Office, but that’s not to say that it’s impossible to do. These functions are nice because all it takes is a simple formula and very little effort to get the results that you want.

If you have a favorite function in Google Spreadsheets, let us know in the comments below…

1. Import Feed

We’re not going to get into this one at great lengths because Digital Inspiration wrote a great article about how to turn Google Docs into an RSS reader and feed aggregator. It’s actually fairly simple to do. This function might be useful if you want to embed feeds from another site into yours. And because the spreadsheets are so customizable, you have quite a bit of control over the layout and how everything will look.

More info here

2. Google Finance

Another great function allows you to monitor your portfolio right from a spreadsheet in Google Docs. If you decide you’ll want to use the Google Finance function, you’ll probably want to take a look at the help page where Google explains how to do it. Essentially what you’ll need to do is enter the following in a cell on your spreadsheet:

=GoogleFinance("symbol","attribute");

So for example, if I wanted to follow the price of Microsoft stock, it would look like this:

=GoogleFinance("MSFT","price")

Different attributes that you could choose from include price, volume, etc.

3. Google Look-up

You’re probably familiar with Google Lookup as a way to quickly get information when you’re performing a search. You can also use Google look-up in a spreadsheet with the Google Lookup function. There are two parts to the formula that you’ll need – the entity and the attribute. If I wanted to know the population of Chicago and keep that information in a spreadsheet, the entity would be “Chicago” and the attribute would be “population”. I’d enter the following into a cell on the spreadsheet:

=GoogleLookup("chicago","population")

Once I entered the above information, the cell displayed that the population of Chicago was 2,871,499 and then had 2005 in parentheses so that I knew when the data was from.

The population of cities is always changing, and my spreadsheet would update when necessary, with the new information.

One last note, when you hover over a cell that has used the Google Look-up function, you will be able to see the source that Google used. Just note that you can’t use this function more than 250 times in one spreadsheet.

More info here

4. Import HTML

The Import HTML function is nice because it allows you to perform you own calculations on data you find on the web. It takes a little effort to do, but it could be worth it. Examples of data that you could import include a list or a table.

Maybe you find a table full of information on Wikipedia that you’d like to run calculations on or format differently. All you have to do is provide the URL to where the data is, know whether it’s a table or a list ( provide the tag), and then examine the source code (or just play around with the formula until you get the desired results) to see how many times the tag appears on the page before it’s used for the data you want.

Here’s an example. I found a table over at Wikipedia that displays weather averages for Chicago. It’s in table form (they used the table tag

), and then I looked at the source code to find that it’s the 4th table on the page. To get this information into my spreadsheet, I’d enter the following into a cell:

=ImportHtml("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago","table",4)

I included the URL for the location of my table, the structure (the fact it’s a table and not a list), and then the index of 4 which tells Google to look for the 4th table html tag, and it worked.

More info here

5. Data Sort

Last but not least is Data Sort. This is useful because instead of manually having to sort your data, you can set-up a function so that whenever your data changes and you add new information, Google Docs will resort it for you.

Imagine having three columns of data (located in columns A, B, and C respectively): in the first column is the person’s first name, the second column is the person’s last name, and the third column is the person’s phone number. Off to the side of the data (or on a new sheet) you could enter:

=SORT(A:C,2,TRUE,1,TRUE)

That says to sort the data in columns A through C, with the 2nd column (last name) being the primary sort option. By specifying the “TRUE” immediately after the “2″ it says to sort that column in ascending order, whereas “FALSE” means to sort in descending. Any columns that you don’t specify in the “SORT” function will be left unsorted, which in this example is what happened to the 3rd column (phone number).

Since this sorting function leaves the original data untouched you don’t have to worry about it changing things around on you. Ryan used this feature extensively in a spreadsheet he shares with our family that contains the addresses and contact information of everyone. Instead of explaining to people how they can manually sort the data on the spreadsheet, he just created a few different sheets (a.k.a. tabs) that each have the list of contacts sorted in different orders. If they want everyone sorted by last name they just have to flip to one sheet, or if they want to view the list by first name they open up a different sheet. To them it looks like he copied and pasted the information into several different sheets, but in reality he just uses this sort function to duplicate the contact information. Clever, huh?

More info here

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
MyFive: Google Spreadsheet Functions You Won’t Find in Microsoft Office

Google Spreadsheets to get Macro Functionality Soon?

Will Google’s Next Purchase Be An Online Spreadsheet?

CNET Readers Give Reaction to Google Spreadsheet

OpenOffice.org Has Released An Update To 2.0.1

MyFive: Package Tracking Widgets

Ryan — Sun, 25 May 2008 20:10:23 +0000

I don’t know about you, but these days I find myself buying more and more stuff online rather than going to the store. Most things are cheaper on the Internet if you spend the time looking for a bargain, and nowadays many places will ship things for free. The problem is trying to keep up with all of the packages you’re supposed to be receiving.

That’s why we had previously covered some of the best sites for tracking packages. As you can imagine having to go to a website is not necessarily the best way to do this, and that’s why we also wanted to highlight five widgets/gadgets that will bring the information to you. Each of the widgets listed below run on a different widget platform, and so there’s really something for everyone.

1. Delivery Status for Mac Dashboard [Homepage]

Supported carriers: Canada Post, DHL/AirBorne, FedEx, Japan Post, Royal Mail, Posten, Purolator, UPS, USPS, and more

This is one of the most advanced tracking widgets I’ve ever seen. Not only does it let you enter in your tracking number, but it also accepts order information for stores such as Apple, Amazon, and more. Plus if you use Growl you can enable desktop notifications.

(more…)

Helpful Tip: Track UPS and FedEx Packages via Email

Yahoo Widgets Gets Some Love

CyberNotes: Track Packages

Use Twitter to Track your UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL Shipments

MyFive: Where to Find Answers…

Ashley — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:54:59 +0000

Often times, the Internet is used for answering questions. A user goes to their search engine of choice, types in a question, and receives links that may direct them to the answer. Using this method doesn’t always work though, and so where is someone to go when they need an answer to a question? It doesn’t always take a professional expert to get an answer that you’re looking for, and so turning to a dedicated “answers” site is a often times a good solution. There are several answers sites out there, and most of them work by users submitting their questions and other users answering them. Today we’re taking a look at five different places you can go to find answers to your questions.

Yahoo Answers (link)

The first answer site that came to mind is Yahoo, because it’s actually my answer site of choice. I’ve never been one to ask or answer a question there, but I do browse through the topics that have been submitted and the answers that users have offered. You’d be amazed by how much you can learn. They originally started in 2005 and now they currently have over 500 million different answers available on the site. There’s a wealth of information that can be learned there!

Askville (link)

Before writing this, I hadn’t heard of Askville which was started by Amazon.com and opened to the public in late 2006. Just like Yahoo, it’s a place where the public can go to ask questions, answer, or discover. To help out with credibility, users can either gain or lose “experience points.” People are able to rate the answers that have been given, and eventually one answer is officially rated as “the best” based upon a five-star system.

Google Answers (link)

If Yahoo has an answers service, of course Google has to have one, right? Actually, Google came out with theirs first and Yahoo followed, but Yahoo’s has been much more successful. Google answers originally launched in 2002, but by November of 2006, Google had decided to permanently shut it down. It was quite a bit different from Yahoo in that whoever was asking the question would pay someone to get the answer or perform a search. The person asking the question would offer a price to get the job done and Google Answers Researchers found answers. While new questions can’t be submitted, they still make the archive of questions that had been asked and answered available to the public. Rumor has it that Google is even planning on bringing it back, but perhaps with a different business model.

Answers.com (link)

While I wouldn’t say Answers.com is the easiest site to navigate, they do have millions of topics available. Yahoo is the most popular answer service out there, but Answers.com comes in a close second. What’s nice with Answers.com is that if you go to ask a question, you will be directed to WikiAnswers (owned by Answers.com). If the question you submit has been asked before, you will be directed to the page that has a list of questions that have been asked previously that are related and you can see if there’s one that answers your question. Overall, Answers.com tends to be for the more practical questions.

WikiAnswers (link)

WikiAnswers is owned by Answers.com and provides a place where you can enter in your own question and have people respond. Those who respond aren’t experts, per say, they’re just people who want to contribute. As their logo says, it’s Q&A the Wiki way! Did you know that WikiAnswers used to be FAQ Farm until it was acquired in 2006? The mission of the site is “to enable anyone, anywhere, to ask a question on any topic in their own words and get a cooperatively written human answer.”

Related Posts:

Yahoo Answers Gets Social

Yahoo Answers Meets Jay Leno

View Solutions on Experts Exchange without Registering

Microsoft Is Giving Away A Free Flash Drive! Hurry!

Vizu Makes You Money With Polls

MyFive: Top iPhone Competitors

Ashley — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:19:49 +0000

Ever since the iPhone launched, different mobile phone manufacturers have done what they could to come up with phones that look and operate similar to the iPhone. Today we’re taking a look at some of the top iPhone competitors out there. Our list includes five, but could be much longer because there are so many out there! Take a look…

#1 – HTC Touch

The HTC Touch uses TouchFLO touchscreen technology that was developed by HTC. It runs Windows Mobile 6 and a rotating “cube” shows you icons for your contacts, music, and more. Unfortunately there’s no Wi-Fi which is one of the down-sides to this phone, but it is fairly affordable at $250 from Sprint after instant savings and a mail-in rebate.

#2 – LG Voyager

The LG Voyager is priced at about $299.99 from Verizon Wireless with a 2-year contract. Of course it’s touchscreen like the iPhone but also includes a physical keyboard that pops-out. Overall it does look pretty sleek and includes Ev-DO support, but doesn’t have Wi-Fi.

#3 – Samsung Instinct

Samsung’s Instinct hasn’t reached the stores yet, but from the looks if it, it’ll be a great competitor to the iPhone. Gizmodo says that it may be the best stab at the iPhone yet! As far as size goes, in dimension and weight, it’s about the same as the iPhone. Even with battery life, it’s right up there with with 5.75 hours of talk-time. Sprint will be the one to carry this one for an estimated $200-$250.

#4 – Garmin Nuvifone

Sometime this year in the 3rd quarter we’ll be seeing the Garmin Nuvifone hit the market. The phone will be big on GPS and helping you navigate, and will feature an on-screen keyboard like the iPhone. Just a few days ago, rumor started floating around that it will be sold to AT&T subscribers for a whopping $500! While it may be pricey, that GPS could be worth it!

#5 – Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Yet another phone that is expected later this year is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. It’ll have a full QWERTY keyboard, and will run on the Windows Mobile 6 operating system. What will be unique with this phone is a “paneled” interface and an “optical” joystick for easy web scrolling. The price is expected to be over $400, so it’ll definitely be on the higher-end of the pricing spectrum.

RIM Boldly Announces the New BlackBerry 9000

Apple Boasts 8 Hours Talk-Time with iPhone

MyFive: Top 5 Most Wanted Products This Week!

Apple Stocks Up, Competitors and Carriers Down

MyFive: Computers We’ve Owned…

Ashley — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:22:10 +0000

For Today’s MyFive, we’re taking a look at the computers that we (meaning Ryan and I) have owned over the last several years. We’re also interested in hearing what computers you’ve owned over time and which you have found to be the best. The one thing you’ll notice with our computers is that for our “1st generation,” Ryan and I each had a different model, and that’s because they were bought before we got married. Ever since we got married and Ryan sucked me in to technology, we’ve always bought two of the same computer at the same time. Prior to meeting him, I never would have thought I could get so excited about getting a new computer, but I have to admit, I do.

Our list below briefly includes the specifications and a picture. The pictures you see are real images of the computers that we had and were taken before selling them on eBay (it’s amazing we still had them). Anyhow, on we go with our five “generations” of computers…

1st Generation

The first generation of computers includes Ryan’s first laptop and my first laptop. They were bought before we got married, so they’re the only computers that aren’t the same. Ryan received his for Christmas as a gift, and I bought mine during my 2nd year at college.

2002-2005 – Ryan’s Compaq Evo N800c

80GB hard drive
1GB RAM
Intel Pentium 4 Mobile at 1.60GHz
Windows XP Professional

2003-2005 – Ashley’s Compaq 910US

30GB hard drive
256MB RAM
AMD Athlon XP 1.33 GHz Processor
Windows XP Home

2nd Generation

The “2nd Generation” was the first and only Tablet PC we’ve ever purchased, it was also the first time we bought two laptops at the same time. Being college students, we didn’t have a whole lot of money to spend so we were looking for a great deal. These Tablet PC’s definitely were a great deal, but boy did we have problems getting ones that worked! It took about three tries for each of us before we ended up with a working computer. Averatec did eventually discontinue their line of Tablet PC’s shortly after we purchased ours. Over-heating seemed to be the cause of most of the issues we had which resulted in terrible battery life, unexpected shutdowns, and super-slow performance.

Oh, and these were the only computers we’ve had where they sold for more on eBay than what we paid for them in the first place, even after stating the issues!

2005-2006 Averatec C3500 Tablet PC

60GB hard drive
512MB RAM
AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+ with PowerNow Technology 1.66GHz
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

3rd Generation

After having quite the experience with the Averatec computers, we decided to go with a more well-known company for our “3rd generation” of computers, Dell. Of course Dell isn’t known for using quality parts, but we never had any issues. All in all, these were great computers and it was so nice to not have to worry about the computer over-heating and turning off unexpectedly.

2006-2007 Dell XPS M140

60GB hard drive
1.5GB RAM
Intel Pentium M/Centrino 1.73GHz
Windows XP Professional

4th Generation

Because we never had any issues with our Dell XPS M140 laptops, we decided that we would stick with Dell, but upgrade to a computer with better specs. This is what we ended up with last year:

2007-Present Dell Inspiron 6400

160GB hard drive
2GB RAM
Intel Core 2 Duo T5200 1.60GHz
Windows Vista Ultimate

5th Generation

It’s about that time of year again where we upgrade our machines. We carefully looked at different models and manufacturers to see what would be the best option for us, and over the last two months we’ve been reading all kinds of reviews so that we could make a good decision. We’ll fill ya in within the next week or two on which computer we decided to go with. Stay tuned…

Question: To wrap it up, what computers have you owned and which have you found to be the best in quality and performance?

Update: Some people are wondering how we’re able to upgrade laptops so frequently. This comment helps explain that and how we spend very little to do it.

Related Posts:

One Year After “The Switch…”

MyFive: Favorite Technology Quotes

2 Billion Personal Computers In Use Within 6 Years

CyberNotes: MacBook Pro First Impressions

MyFive: Most Popular Searches on eBay