Many laptops today come equipped with integrated Bluetooth, but that’s not always the case. Speaking for myself, getting integrated Bluetooth on my Dell notebook was a fairly expensive option when I purchased the computer early last year. As such, there’s probably quite a few of you out there with laptops (and desktops) that don’t have Bluetooth. Then, how are you supposed to connect wirelessly with your mobile phone, Bluetooth headphones, or what have you?

Sure, there are plenty of USB dongles on the market that offer Bluetooth connectivity and the thumb drive-sized devices can be found on eBay for as little as $0.99 (plus shipping, of course). The problem is that most of those protrude significantly from your computer, but that’s not how it is with the tiny offering from Brando. As you can tell from the picture above, this thing is tiny. The USB connector fits completely into an available port, of course, leaving just a small smidget sticking out. It’s almost flush!

They’ve managed to keep the speed up too, because this isn’t Bluetooth 1.1. They’ve ramped it up to one of the most current standards, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). By and large, you can keep this plugged into your notebook at all times, still being able to fit your laptop in your regular bag or sleeve. Pick one up from Brando for $24.00.

We have completed version 0.7 of our BlueFur Easy End-User FTP (BEEF)software and we now need some BETA testers to put it through it’s paces and let us know if they find any bugs or have any positive feedback.

The goals of BEEF is to be a limited feature FTP software that is easy for beginners to use. The software should also do versioning automatically to help new users prevent overwriting important content.

Please take a second to download the software and test the features out. Once you download the file you will need to unzip it to a folder where you can find it (yes it will have an install after the beta testing is done). Once it is unzipped double click on the BEEF.exe file.

 If you find a bug or have positive feedback on how it can be improved post a comment.

Congratulations to this weeks geek Joe. This weeks questions are as promised WiFi related…

1.  Who owns WiFi?

2.  What spectrum range has WiFi been assigned in Canada?

3.  What does WiFi stand for?

4.  What year was WiFi created?

5.  Who invented invented frequency hopping technology in 1942?

 

The 2010 Olympics are looming closer and closer each day which will be hosted in both Vancouver and Whistler. While watching the news I was shocked to hear that in the 2010 games they would not be allowing female ski jumpers.

I did a bit of research to find out why and the only reason put forth so far is that they say the woman are not skilled enough to jump at an Olympic level. To me that seems like putting the cart before the horse. How would you know what the Olympic level is if you don’t have them included in the Olympics.

I recently joined a group on facebook that support the Female Ski Jumpers that has been growing by 200 or so members a day. One suggest in the group was to contact your local MP. I did that and was directed to the IOC contact us page. I was a bit disappointed in my local MP Russ Hiebert because I know he can do better.

What do you think of the current issue with the female jumpers and what do you think can be done to fix it?

It’s Friday again! Let’s have a look at what people were yakking about this week.

Miss604 writes an extensive article outlining the story of Vancouver’s citizen of the century. There’s so much more to Joe Fortes than just an oyster bar. Her post even comes complete with a cryptic black-and-white photo!

Zac Johnson recognizes that there are countless ways to describe the value of your blog, looking at things like Alexa, Technorati, and Google PageRank. But how do these compare with Real Rank, a relatively new development from the same people that brought us PayPerPost? As far as I can tell, Zac likes it.

Vandelay Design reminds us that less is more, analyzing the anatomy of a minimalistic web design. Far too many blogs get cluttered with all sorts of widgets. Let’s clean it up and do it right.

Bloggrrl probably spends more time online than the rest of us, but even she manages to be productive online even when she’s offline. If you happen to find yourself without a web connection, you can still do things to make your online time a little for effective and efficient.

Last, but certainly not least, About:Blank is a site about all things random and the highlighted post today is no exception. In what could be the most adorable photo on the web, they take a look at what is behind every kid dressed up as a game character. Here are the real Mario and Luigi.

Since reading The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding I have seen many bad branding mistakes. The Law of Expansion says you should not expand out of your current market place because it dilutes your brand and is detrimental to your long term success of your business. Many businesses do expand into other markets because it brings a short term increase in sales but long term brand can suffer.

A good example of this is the Kodak printer which was highlighted on the Celebrity Apprentice. Kodak is known for making high quality film. If you want to capture a good picture on film the majority of people would say to use Kodak. If you were to ask those same people who make a great printer I bet that none of them would say Kodak.

Kodak does not make a great printer. They make an average printer. The only separator they have is based on price. So now they are in to a highly competitive market and are only competing on price. As I am sure you would agree that is a recipe for failure.

What product comes to mind when you think of Kodak?