So go ahead and download my freshly made 56k Dialup Modem Handshake Ringtone for your iPhone. Once you’ve downloaded the ringtone simply double click and it will be imported into iTunes as a ringtone. Enjoy!

UPDATE: as requested in the comments below, here is a 56k Modem Ringtone in .mp3 format for Android users as well. Go nuts.

Last month I was fortunate enough to attend the George Clinton and P-Funk All Stars concert at the B.B. King Blues Club in midtown Manhattan. It was an early birthday gift from my Fiancé, quite possibly the best birthday gift I’ve received in quite some time (if ever). Because of George Clinton’s policy of allowing fan recordings (much like the Grateful Dead’s policies), I was able to shoot some video at the concert. It isn’t the best video as it was shot on my iPhone 3G, but still not horrible. I figured I would share it for all those true funk fans out there. Already looking forward to my next George Clinton concert (this one was my 5th).

Some of you may not know, but I drink a lot of coffee. And when I say a lot, I mean like around 100 fl oz per day. I’m also a bit of a coffee-snob, meaning that I won’t drink any old swill you get at Dunkin’ Doughnuts (umm yuck!). So even a large (venti) black coffee at Starbucks costs over $2, and a couple coffees per day (even with free refills) adds up fast.

The recession and a new job have forced me to re-work my budget. So I decided to make coffee at work, but I’m the only one in the office who drinks coffee. So if I were to brew a whole pot, it would go to waste, and I’d be spending about $14/week on beans. So I decided to get the Keurig B60 Special Edition Gourmet Single-Cup Home-Brewing System for the office.

I’m not going to use the K-Cups that most people have to buy for the Keurig. Instead, I’m going to grind my own coffee and use the My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter. This will allow me to only use 1-2 lbs of coffee per month at work. This will actually save me somewhere between $50-70 per month on my coffee expenses.

Now for the review of the machine. I’ve been using it for almost a week at this point. Overall I am pleased with the quality of coffee it brews. The trial K-Cups that came with the brewer were pretty bad, not anywhere near up to my standards. However using my own coffee with the reusable filter makes a pretty good cup of java. You need to grind the coffee about as fine as you can (think espresso grind) in order to get good extraction and a dark cup. Be sure to tamp the grounds down lightly into the filter too. The coffee it brews is akin to a French Press, this is because the reusable filter is metal, and not paper. This lets all the flavorful coffee oils flow into your cup. Great for taste, but can do a number on your stomach, so be careful.

As for care and maintenance of the machine, it’s pretty easy. The only major pain is cleaning the reusable filter, but for the money savings, I don’t mind it. All in all I would suggest this machine to anyone who wants fresh coffee often, where brewing an entire pot isn’t economical. So work out the math, and if it makes cents (har har), get one!

$ defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
$ killall Dock

This will permanently disable the jumping and bouncing icons in the dock bar. To re-enable the bouncing, change the above command’s ‘True’ argument to ‘False’

Have fun with that.

So, I’m sitting in my apartment tonight, and my Chefmate P70D2AL-D4 Microwave starts beeping randomly. At first it was just a single beep, then a few minutes later it went ape-shit. Scary thing was it first was saying 6:66 then 66:66. The keypad wouldn’t work anymore, and just kept on beeping until I unplugged the thing. Reading around the internet, I’ve found that others have had this same problem with this microwave. Wonderful.

So if you are buying a cheap microwave, don’t get this one. We got ours from Target if that matters. Thing that really ticks me off is that we just got this thing last year! Of course we didn’t hang onto any of the warranty information, I mean who does? The cost of shipping it out to be repaired, and being without an important appliance, what’s the point? I think it’s a conspiracy, stupid Made in China piece of garbage.

Time to hit Amazon and look for a new microwave with free shipping, because I don’t want to have to haul one on the bus and subway again back to my apartment.

I don’t usually shill for companies, but when a product wins my affection, they deserve a shout-out. This is by far the BEST iPhone case I’ve seen and used. It has saved my phones from many tumbles. It’s especially important to be able to protect your iPhone from a drop, because you can’t get insurance on an iPhone through AT&T.

The Seidio Innocase II has a textured rubber like feel in your hand, but is made of hard plastic. This allows for some grip when holding the phone, so it doesn’t slip out of your hand. The inside of the case is lined with a velour-like felt, which protects the iPhone from scratches.

In addition to the phone protector, if you are like me and love a good holster, you’ll love this. The holster is made of heavy duty plastic, and has sturdy double springs to hold the phone. It allows for quick one-handed release and insertion. The iPhone faces inward to protect the screen from any damage. The holster is also lined with the same velour-like felt which protects the screen from any scratches.

I’ve been using Seido phone protectors for my last 2 phones, and love them. They are worth every penny to protect your phones. Check it out and get one, you won’t be disappointed!

Coffee Websites

CoffeeGeek – CoffeeGeek is a great resource for coffee lovers looking to learn more about the bean. CoffeeGeek has extensive reviews on everything from espresso machines to home coffee roasters. Check out the forums for discussions about everything coffee related.

CoffeeForums – CoffeeForums is a long standing forum with tons of information. I especially like the sections by/for coffee shop owners to share their knowledge and experiences in the coffee industry. Worth checking out.

SCAA – The Specialty Coffee Association of America is dedicated to bringing together and representing all parts of the coffee industry. The SCAA hosts events and connects all of the major players in the world of coffee together.

BaristaExchange – Barista Exchange is a social network for Baristas. Even if you aren’t a Barista you can share your passion for coffee with others in the industry. Quite a new concept here, looking forward to seeing the community develop more.

BaristaConnection – Barista Connection is another social network for Baristas. Much smaller and newer than Barista Exchange, but still worth keeping an eye on.

Counter Culture Coffee – Counter Culture Coffee is a great example of the social consciousness of coffee. From their website:

At Counter Culture, coffee isn’t merely a bean or a beverage. It’s the furthest thing from a commodity. Coffee is a process involving high standards and tough decisions. Coffee is relationships and responsibilities. More than anything, coffee is a connective force that has the potential to bring out the best in people.

They have a good bit of information about coffee on their website including detailed info about the origins.

Espresso Parts Northwest – In my opinion Espresso Parts Northwest is the best online retailer of coffee related items in existence. They have a wide range of consumer, prosumer and commercial offerings.

Home Barista Forums – A forum dedicated to making coffee at home with consumer grade equipment. Filled with discussions, tips and tricks from other coffee lovers all over the world.

Alt.coffee – Alt.coffee is one of the oldest coffee discussion groups on the Internet. For those unfamiliar with “news groups” I’ve linked to the Google Groups format. Alt.Coffee first hit the scenes in 1994, so its been around for almost 15 years.

Coffee Review – Reviews of beans and roasters from all over.

International Coffee Organization – the ICO has a wealth of information about Coffee as a commodity. They also have a lot of information about coffee quality.

My Starbucks Idea – Love or hate Starbucks you can now use this site to vote for your favorite suggestions. I do have to give Starbucks credit for having such an open resource and listening to their customer concerns. Ideas that have come to reality from this site include: Free Refills of Drip Coffee and Free WIFI

Coffee Research – Coffee Research has a ton of information about coffee. They also publish a newsletter that is available for download.

Coffee Science – Mainly focusing on heath related issues of coffee, Coffee Science is run by the National Coffee Association.

Books

The ACLU is offering the “I’m a Constitution  Voter” bumper sticker for free.  Their goal is to sign up over 300,000 by Oct 15th.   The ACLU Website states:

I Am a Constitution Voter

• I believe that no one — including the President — is above the law.
• I oppose all forms of torture, and I support both closing the Guantánamo Bay prison and ending indefinite detention.
• I oppose warrantless spying.
• I believe that government officials, no matter how high-ranking, should be held accountable for breaking the law and violating the Constitution.
• I believe that the Constitution protects every person’s rights equally — no matter what they believe, how they live, where or if they worship, and whom they love.
• I reject the notion that we have to tolerate violations of our most fundamental rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
• I am deeply committed to the Constitution and expect our country’s leaders to share and act on that commitment — every day, without fail.

Over at Free Libertarian Stickers dot com you can get yourself a sticker which reads: Libertarian: More Freedom, Less Government as well as a Bob Barr for president bumper sticker.

Here is what I did with my free(dom) stickers:

No, what really gets my goat is these jackasses with their huge plugs for their computers.  You know, the square adapter that takes up 2 vertical outlet spaces (when plugged into the top outlet of a 2 outlet jack).   Whenever I’ve asked one of these drones if I could possibly plug their bulky adapter one plug lower, so I can fit into the jack, they roll their eyes or act like I’m causing them some sort of pain.  I even carry a 3 outlet extender in my bag, so if there aren’t enough outlets other people can plug in.  Mac users act like its their birth-right to take up all of the outlets in a coffee shop.  Why would you not think about someone else by taking up the entire bank of outlets in an already overcrowded coffee shop?  I don’t get it.  Power outlet space is already at a premium at every single coffee shop, what give’s Mac users the right to monopolize an entire bank of outlets?  I think this cuts to the heart of the issue, they have no right, but they think they are entitled because they belong to the cult of Apple.  Fuck em, and their too big plugs and too short power cords.

Starbucks Coffee is launching their free WIFI access through AT&T tomorrow, June 3, 2008. Unfortunately, it is not unlimited WIFI access. Through the deal between AT&T and Starbucks, customer who have a registered Starbucks Card will be able to access the internet for 2 continuous hours per day. The only other catch is that you must make a purchase once per month with your Starbucks Card to keep the account active.

All in all this is not a horrible deal. Starbucks could have done better by just giving customers free access for the day with purchase, but I can see the logic to limiting to 2 hours per day. I guess some people could just get 2 or more Starbucks Cards and mooch free WIFI all day (if the service does not limit based upon MAC address of your wireless device). The only down side to this whole scheme will be that it will be even harder to find a seat or an outlet at a Starbucks going forward. I’ll give the free WIFI a spin sometime tomorrow and see how it performs.

Remember, you can also get free drip coffee refills from Starbucks with your registered card. So figure $2 for a cup of coffee, free WIFI for 2 hours, and free refills the rest of the day… thats a decent deal.

The in-store customer service rep was clueless about the update being broken. He suggested I contact Palm, to which I replied “Palm says contact Verizon”. He stated that he would have known about it because Verizon sends notices to stores when problems arise. Well I showed him the message from Palm’s website stating that the updater was broken, and has been recalled. I also showed him the discussions over at treocentral regarding the broken update. I told him all I want is a replacement with the old firmware on it. He then went into the “back” for about 3 minutes, and came out with a refurbished Treo 700w with the 1.10 firmware. Perfect! He let me have it, and I was out of the store within a few minutes.

So if you are looking to get your phone replaced from the bad update find your local Verizon store (not a 3rd party store), and ask them to check their inventory for phones with the old update. Goodluck.