SOHONorth Technology Services

What would make your day easier?

2011-11-16T20:48:00.001-05:00

My day job is to automate processes in the area of Information Technology and end-user support and services. Now generally this means that I take a piece of software that needs to be delivered to a reasonable number of PCs in the company, enough to make it practical for my effort to be fiscally appropriate, and I make the process simple, painless, and consistent in the delivery.

I have help, I have people and technology around me that ensure this goes well. There's a great guy in Vancouver who tests what I build, another guy in Mississauga who queues the software up on a server for deployment, and the software we used for deployment, Altiris (it's owned by Symantec now) that works out the details of the delivery. This all goes together with an inherently not-automated process for requesting the software and getting it to the users. I'd love to get that sorted out.

Now, this is all in the interest of saving money, improving inefficiencies, and being consistent. The challenge is that we have 6500+ systems that are all running Windows XP and are just slightly different, but this is becoming less so. We have used this process to deploy the latest Service Pack, 3, for Windows XP, and a web browser which I actually need to re-visit because there's a glitch that I need to tweak out of the 6500 systems that we deployed it to. So... I'm not perfect, but I'm only as good as my tester(s), though I'll be spending time tomorrow tracking that issue down.

Now, what I'd like to know, from anyone, is what do you think would help you in day-to-day use of your computer, that I might be able to find for you, and if I can't find it, I'd consider building it. Now I'm no miracle worker, I'm just a guy who likes to solved problems. I love a challenge!

So I want you to challenge me. Like I said, I'm not going to re-invent the wheel, I'll recommend a product if it exists already, but if it doesn't...

Let me know with a comment. I'll even respond.

Why You Don't Need A Web Designer...

2011-10-21T23:18:00.001-04:00

Squarespace 6 from Squarespace on Vimeo.
... or, why Web Designers don't need to work so hard on the bling, so they can make sites that rock and sing.

Visit http://squarespace.com today.

Getting more Secure, Online.

2011-07-10T01:23:00.002-04:00

When buying on-line, there are options, tools that can be used , that will ensure your identity is secured. Here are a few tips and tricks that will limit the risks and reduce the opportunities that criminals have to make a good day, or month, bad. As much as the credit card companies have been forced to provide protection against fraud, you need to share in the responsibility doing what you can to prevent the crime in the first place.

Passwords:
We can all be smart enough to create our passwords and PIN codes in such a way that they are not easily guessed. Frankly this is becoming essential with the more services like Google Mail and other services are becoming the centre of your electronic universe by providing authentication to other companies and services through their your ID with Google, Hotmail (Windows Live), Facebook. You must consider the strength of your password, changing it somewhat regularly, and how easy it might be to guess.

In my job I see people setting their password to 'CompanyName1#', or 'CompanyName2!', this is far too easy to figure out for the social hacker, but I don't think people take corporate risks seriously. I'll let your System Administrators lecture you about that. Let's talk about YOUR security, personal security.

What is your e-mail password right now? Your kid's name, the family dog, your phone number? These easy to find out. Do you leave a key under your front doormat? Really?

Let's consider the idea of a password. Hackers can use brute force attacks to try to break into your account, though the implementation of Captcha functionality is making that more difficult, but if you want to be secure, use a variety of letters, numbers, and where possible, punctuation. For example, you can take a memorable word, 'memorable', and make it almost impossible to guess: 'm3mor@ble', 'Mem0rabl3', or 'M3Morab1e#'

This switching of characters is fairly logical, looking at these examples:

a (A) = @, 4
l (L) = 1 (one), !
e (E) = 3
s (S) = 5
3 = #

As I said, examples. The key is making it your own, complex, but memorable.

E-mail accounts.

Have more than one. keep one for correspondence, another for contests, and another for financial services. Most web-based mail services will accommodate having multiple addresses, and collecting or forwarding the mail to one account. This could even be an unpublished account. This may be my next project, to redirect all of my mail to an unpublished account, but let's not get paranoid.

I would advise that you NOT use the e-mail from your ISP, it gives them too much power and frankly Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft (Live.com) have awesome web-based e-mail tools. That's not to say you can download your mail or use Outlook, Thunderbird, etc., but you are better off not using the ISP-based services.

Buying On-line:

If the site is even the least bit questionable, or you're just not ready to trust The Internet, don't don't use your own credit card. I do NOT mean that you use someone else's, but rather, go buy a Visa or MasterCard Gift Credit Card and use that to make the purchase.

Look for sites that use PayPal. While this may not get your everything you might want to buy, the service is a very good option, and very important if you're interested in buying through eBay. You can buy many things, possibly anything, with a combination of PayPal and eBay. You don't even need a credit card! You can connect your PayPal account to a personal bank account and while this is convenient I'd offer my sister's advice, make it an account that is for that express purpose, don't leave money in that account, and it can't be transferred (requested) by PayPal should the account ever become compromised. I wouldn't connect a credit card to your PayPal account. Using a separate e-mail for financial institutions that's not disclosed to others may also be a good idea.

Now, if you're a shopaholic do NOT go near eBay! Oh my you can buy things so easily there. Especially when you don't see it leaving your personal account because the only way to pay is with PayPal. Though, it's like it's free money, already spent in once sense, but still not spent, but you can stick to a budget this way.

Keeping it locked down. PayPal and eBay offer you a relatively new form of protection, the Verisign ID. You can either purchase a fob (like a key-chain trinket) that will display seemingly random but definitely not random numbers that ensure you are the holder of the fob and therefore the owner of the account, or by downloading a SmartPhone application to your iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry device that serves the same purpose as the fob. Verisign's browser tool bar, fob and their mobile phone offering for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry are a great, option for security. The SmartPhone option seems ideal, if you don't lose your phone. The browser tool bar is great if you are vigilant about locking your computer with a strong password. To see if a site you use is using this technology, click here.

PayPal.com and eBay.com allow you to use the Verisign technology to protect your accounts with them.

Using Verisign on PayPal: Enabling a Security key on PayPal

Footnote: XKCD, and on-line comic, has a good point too. Enjoy!

The BlackBerry Bold 9780... with the PlayBook

2011-06-05T10:55:00.001-04:00

One of the folks on the CrackBerry.com podcast read my mind when I started using the BlackBerry PlayBook and suggested that the PlayBook makes an ideal complimentary device to the non-touch screen 9780. He's right. It's just as happy as the Torch in the role, but the PlayBook, when linked with the BlackBerry Bridge software, is rich and practical enhancement of the communication suite offered by the BlackBerry Bold.

If you have a BlackBerry already, to utilize BlackBerry Bridge you'll need a device capable of running BlackBerry OS 5, and it should have the latest BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) client. If you have that, you're set and the integration is tight. The PlayBook even tells you when a call is coming in and allows you to silence it remotely. It would be something for the Playbook to allow you to answer a call and use the device as a speaker-phone, but maybe that's not far off, after all, Research in Motion (RIM) is as much about innovation as invention. There are some very smart people there that are working very hard at making a great business tool even better.

Now I just took advantage of the Rogers deal to get a PlayStation3, but that was not my deciding factor in getting a pair of BlackBerrys for myself and my daughter. There are several factors, but the key points are:

The BlackBerry Messenger allows certifiable sent, received confirmation so I know, and my daughters know that we've sent the message
The data usage is less than other phones out there because of the compression and encryption in place
The 9780 (Bold) and 9800 (Torch) have real GPS technology and work with BlackBerry Protect to ensure that the device is locatable, and erasable, remotely
BlackBerry phones are tough. I'll recommend a case to anyone, but they are certainly some of the toughest devices on the market
The cameras on these devices are great (5 Mega-pixel)

There are other advantages too, but these are the core reasons.

Now, the first thing I did when I received these phones is the updates and core Apps I enjoy for BlackBerrys. Aside from updating BBM and the BlackBerry App World, and installing BlackBerry Protect, the next thing up is Google Maps and the Rogers "My Account" which allows me to track usage (data/phone time) and I show my daughter how that works so she knows how to use the phone responsibly. I also install BlackBerry Bridge for connectivity to the PlayBook. The other very awesome, ad free, app is Poynt. Very helpful when trying to find a place to eat, get to the movies, or just find your way around.

I can't help but think that if RIM created a Bridge application suite for Windows/Mac/Linux to allow this functionality they might be onto something. I'd be very happy to have this connectivity on my Bluetooth equipped laptop or desktop, just like it is on my PlayBook, and the BlackBerry would become the centre of my communication universe.

Now, my daughter will not have a PlayBook soon, this is driven by my not running out of space on the 16Gb model I won (yes, thank you again RIM) as yet, but the potential is there. As I use this device more, whether shooting awesome video, or taking great pictures (though generally not in low-light), this device is really the centre of my universe both at home and at work. because you can pair the device with more than one BlackBerry, the benefits of the home/work split are clear. You can only connect to one device at a time, but once paired you can switch by simply selecting the appropriate BlackBerry from the list. The data is delivered from the BlackBerry to the PlayBook on-demand.

Now this isn't the only way to communicate with the PlayBook. There's two paths to get information onto the PlayBook, you have WiFi file sharing and you can plug it in and use the Desktop Software to transfer files. The Desktop Software will transcode video files, but I really prefer the WiFi connectivity. When the device is around my house I can connect to it, drop-files on it, back files up from it, all from my Windows desktop PC. I've set the user ID and password, highly recommended, and connect using the devices IP Address. This is NOT as technical as you might think.

I do recommend plugging in from time-to-time to perform backups, it's just a wise move. It's not about device reliability it's about the other factors in life taking away what you really might miss.

In enjoy the BlackBerry experience, as do my daughters. The Torch is affordable on-plan, and an investment without a contract. PROTECT that investment and install BlackBerry Protect. If you're using a BlackBerry that's on a corporate server, you don't need BlackBerry Protect, your BlackBerry Enterprise Server administrator has the same capabilities and more, but for personal devices, it's my number one recommendation.

The BlackBerry Bold 9780 comes with a 2Gb microSD card, the Torch with a 4Gb microSD card. If you have Windows 7 (I can't speak for Vista) you will enjoy having a Bluetooth connection because once paired with your PC (Laptop or Desktop) you can send those photos and videos to your home system wirelessly via Bluetooth. As long as that PC is on and you're in range (within 30-50ft). Frankly, my 9780 is either plugged in my living room, or in my pocket/backpack (when at work) and unless I need to actually answer the phone my PlayBook handles most of the non-verbal communication. While I have tethered my PlayBook to my 9780, a simple process on Rogers Wireless, I do not use it this way because of the possibility of using so much more data. It's responsive, usable, and if your wireless carrier is as co-operative as Rogers is, it's a wonderful experience.

Problems?

Rogers was kind enough to originally give me a phone number in Milton, I live in Brampton. Milton is long-distance from Brampton. I call to 1-888-ROGERS1 and a very polite conversation with a very helpful person has corrected this. It seems some of the Rogers people think 905 is 905, and 905 is not 905 but a vast collection of places a long way from each other in an area SURROUNDING Toronto's 416 and 647. If you're making the move from Home phone to Cell Phone as your primary means of communication in the GTA, ask for a 416 or 647 number. I'm now a 647 with assurances that this will not be charged to my bill etc., etc. - We'll see.

When speaking with any customer service agent don't get angry, calm yourself and understand that sometimes people screw-up, and systems aren't as easy what we'd expect. Talk calmly and politely and be prepared to be on the phone for a while. Explain your self clearly... Do NOT get angry... and never use foul language.

I find that I turn to my Playbook for almost all of my communication, even when a richer experience is available on-line and within reach, because I find it simple, easy to use, and very functional. That said, the BlackBerry 9780 with it's BlackBerry OS 6.0 is very clean, responsive, and just as simple, yet packed into a much smaller area which is not a complaint but a reality with a phone-sized device. It's not a touch screen as the Torch is, but still works very well. I have the advantage of being able to turn to the BlackBerry PlayBook for much of my experience, but the 9780 on it's own is absolutely enough of a device when you won't need even the PlayBook, such as out on the town. That said, I'll load the PlayBook up with travel plans, PDFs, Word Documents, and Spreadsheets that make the trip or outing work better. Planning and preparedness can really help.

I wonder if Joby will create a GorillaPod for the PlayBook?

I'll be buying the charging cradle for the 9780, and likely the 9800 (for my daughter), as well as the charging cradle for the PlayBook (possibly two... one for the office) but I like being able to just grab and go.

The BlackBerry PlayBook

2011-05-14T08:57:00.002-04:00

It certainly is here, and while it's just a toddler and an a little new to its environment, there's a wisdom in the design and the functionality that has me attached and thoroughly behind the product.

First, let me state, I was given this PlayBook by BlackBerry. I won it thanks to a twitter contest that gave me an option to attend the introduction party in Washington, D.C. and while I was unable to attend, they delivered this unit to me and asked for a review. I am going to give you an honest review.

Further disclaimers, I'm a proud Canadian, and as such have an affinity and interest in the success of RIM and the BlackBerry products, I spent some time in this device's home towns, and I can't help flying the red and while banner when I look this thing over. I'm proud of the effort and the result, as a version 1.0 tablet from a company that's made some fairly tough Smart Phones. Well, BlackBerrys were always just a little different than Smart Phones.

The first impression, though I'll spare you the unboxing pics, is that of a solid device, a comfortable heaviness in the hand, and a solidity that doesn't leave you feeling like you'l break it. The unit turns on right out of the box and while the microUSB charger, pouch and cleaning cloth are helpful, they're a distraction from the device. Locating the power button, a tiny thing that's easy to use, but definitely designed to prevent accident use, on the top edge of the unit beside the volume up, down, and play/pause buttons. It takes a moment to boot up from off, coming to life and getting it's bearings. It needs WiFi to get set up so make sure you have access to signal before starting. It takes you through a brief introduction, some preliminary steps and the first OS update. Expect a few of those over the next few months, as this thing gains the feedback and tweaks the ripples out of the BlackBerry tablet OS fabric. before you meet the OS itself there's a navigational tutorial that ensures you're not lost once it gets to the interface, and you're introduced the BlackBerryID because you need one to make this work. You'll use your own or create one at this time.

You're ready. The interface is simple you have five categories or buckets that contain your apps or sub-sets thereof: All, Favorites, Media, Games, BlackBerry Bridge. I spend most of my time in All, though I've started organising these better and wishing I could have defined my own buckets. You can move the apps around as you see fit and this is initiates with the touch and hold gesture. You put your finger on an app, then leave it there until they start pulsating, then they can be moved within their group, into another bucket, or deleted. The navigation of this interface (as you will have seen in the tutorial) is simple and staring an app is just a finger-tap away, it's comfortably sensitive in this respect. You can also get to the omnipresent settings menu by swiping down from the frame to the screen from the top-left corner this proves useful when needing to connect to WiFi, check the time, battery levels, and get access to settings.

The interface is simple, logical, and convenient, in fact the only miss-steps of the navigation are the odd time the device seems to decide it doesn't want to run an app, yet closing down another app will change it's mind and you're all set, or an inconsistency in the navigational quality when running an app you've found on Blackberry App World. yes, there are quite a few apps, both paid and free, and navigating these is easy. Selecting All/Paid/Free simplifies the hunt, and the ratings are a good measure of quaility. There have been some very bright developers striving for an early position in this market. To them, well done. Personally, stick with the apps rated 3 or higher, unless you find an un-rated one in which case you're the pioneer. If you like it, go back and rate it, good developers need encouragement.

Getting on typical WiFi, what most people have at home or in travelling, easy. Getting it to work with a reasonably secure corporate network, works well too, which is better than my first experience with an iPad some months ago.

This device is ready for business... and leisure.
The BlackBerry Bridge software could be called tethering lite, but don't tell AT&T because they're very protective of their tethering data plans and we don't want them to throw a fit. I was able to download the BlackBerry Bridge software to me BlackBerry Torch (9800) and my life just got better by an order of magnitude. While the Torch has a wonderful screen and interface of it's own, the integration of the PlayBook's apps serve to make e-mail, BBM, and even file attachments usable, truly usable. When a message comes in on your BlackBerry you get notified on the PlayBook, you can access it from wherever you are through that top-left corner swipe and you're there. You can open a spreadsheet, presentation, word document and use the on-screen keyboard (which is easily hidden if you'd prefer) to make changes. I'd actually started this review on my PlayBook in Word-to-Go, part of Documents-to-Go, while riding the bus to work and it was quite easy to type, I really like the responsiveness of the keyboard!

Full tethering, providing your carrier is not as frustrating as AT&T, is easy to configure, but watch your data usage. I hate surprise phone bills. With Rogers (Canada) it was easily configured and worked well. I then turned it back off... again, surprises are unwelcome.

I run off wireless at home and at work, in fact the BlackBerry Bridge software migrated all the connections I'd configured on my Torch to the PlayBook with no re-entering of these settings aside from my Enterprise configuration which was easily added. The wireless is snappy and reliable, well - if your router is. I'll be buying a new router soon I suspect.

Pushing the "envelope" of functionality. I have tried the following browser-based tools on the PlayBook and while they are seem to work:

LotusLive (though opening a mail is a challenge as they use double-click)
Genesys Conferencing (screen sharing over-the-web presentation)
GMail
Google Docs (you need to set it to desktop mode as it thinks it's mobile.)
Mercury IT Governance (and I.T. tool for work)
Picasa
Tungle
FaceBook
YouTube

And they all work well. LotusLive.com's mail issue was resolved using the keyboard to "press" Enter, but everything was a great experience.

Videos play well and the videos I transferred that were XviD, MOV, or WMV worked well, some didn't and while the BlackBerry Desktop Software is happy to convert the files, it's all or nothing and when it does it, it's not necessarily as well synced. I need to play more with this and may post a follow up.

Pictures are easily transferred too, it's a simple selection process and then a "sync", as is music. Because the PlayBook is also recognised as a drive when connected (as long as you install BlackBerry Desktop Software first). You may want to look into the Wireless Connectivity but, please, set a password. I'll be playing with this more soon and do a follow-up.

What I did for my pictures was I used Picasa and created albums for the pictures I wanted to move to the device. I intentionally cropped the photos, where possible, to 16:9 and exported them directly to the PlayBook file structure, the cropping and folders created have given me the best possible experience for showcasing this device's beautiful screen. The Picture app that's included does a reasonable job at photo review and has great navigation but when applied as a picture frame lacks looping and timing adjustments. It is definitely not a photo-frame app, it's a picture viewer. This leaves room for the photo-frame apps in the BlackBerry App World, which is where it should be.

The sound quality is great on this device, and video playback is perfect. I popped in xXx, Planet Earth, and the Pilot of Dead Like Me as examples and my 16Gb device is still very happy. I don't download, I do rip, using DVD Ripper from Xilisoft (xilisoft.com) and it works best for this purpose, these same files look awesome on my PS3, PC, and XBOX360. This is now surprise that the BlackBerry PlayBook is delivery awesome, portable media.

The Cameras, yes, there are two.
I haven't play much with these as yet, but the and stills I have taken have been top-notch quality. The cameras are 5 mega-pixel (rear) and 3 mega-pixel (front), which is reasonable in this type of device.

Kobo, the eBook reader.

It's what it should be a good quality eBook reader that I can buy books for and even buy them without a credit card (in Canada too) buy buying Chapters/Indigo gift Cards. It's included, has a good interface and page-turning feel to the navigation. You can preview books (portions of them) and they are delivered to the device. I don't know what happened to Amazon.com's intent to offer a Kindle Reader, but I'd love to see my investment in Kindle Books ($0 in all fairness, though I do have the latest Kindle 3G eReader. I'll review readers later too.

How does this compare to the Apple iPad/iPad2? It's smaller, but that's not all bad. Unlike Steven Jobs, I do like the 7" form-factor. Price-wise it's very similar ($14 less than the iPad) and it does what I need better than the iPad (Flash, enterprise networking). If you are running data through your BlackBerry, you get to take advantage of the data compression and security of the BlackBerry's network design and you get BBM.

I have yet to try the HDMI out, but now that I'm certain I like the device I can budget for the Desktop Rapid Charger, miniHDMI to HDMI cable, and the case. I have ~3Gb left on this device, and once I start playing more with video and the camera I suspect I may need to upgrade to the 32Gb or 64Gb, $599 and $699 respectively. The 16Gb, $499, would go to a very lucky daughter when I get her a BlackBerry to Bridge to.

Overall, a good device, for business or personal use. It's solid, has the right features, and comes with Tetris. It also comes with Need for Speed Underground, but this was my serious review. It's the best tablet I've used and I'm happy to have it. If 16Gb is not enough, I'll by a bigger BlackBerry PlayBook, not an iPad or Android, and this is because I honestly feel it's the best device for me.

Un-boxing photos:

BlackBerry PlayBook

"The Archos 32" or "Why Buy an iPod Touch."

2011-04-06T03:10:00.000-04:00

I bought this device for my daughter as an alternative to the more expensive ($249) iPod Touch (8Gb).

Never have I seen one product argue that another product is a better choice than this device. The Archos 3.2 is a $160(+tax) Android device that is not only poorly thought out, but doesn't do what's advertised without a constant fight. If you're not a technical user, and want a personal/portable media device, this device is not for you. In fact, if this device is any indication I'd avoid Archos, and potentially other Android devices, based on this experience alone.

First things first. WiFi does not work reliably on this device, when it's fortunate enough to connect, don't expect much because it can barely handle sourcing music from my Media PC, let alone act as anything more than a clock on it's own.

It doesn't have a speaker, yet they felt in necessary to feature an alarm clock. I bought speakers, they sound great. but what does the device really offer?

The video playback was great, on a 3.2 inch screen, but the player supports a limited number of codecs (transcoders so you can watch movies/videos). As it has trouble dealing with wireless the files had better be local and as there's no additional memory (8Gb max.) you're limited.

The features list for this (and other) Archos devices labelled as "Internet Tablets" suggests that you can connect external media (USB drives), but there's no cable included and no easy means by which to obtain one. I do not consider their web site to be an easy or practical means, and last I looked, it wasn't available.

The Video camera, well camera in general is fairly weak. not only is it at the wrong end of the device, it's not terribly capable. I wasn't impressed at all.

I looked for a single salvation of this device, the ability to play Angry Birds, which is free from the AppsLib.com (like and App Store), but no, the tracking on this tiny screen is so poor you're frustrated and quickly contemplate turning this device into a projectile.

In short, the features, forethought, and quality of this device are an excellent recommendation for the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch... works well, in every way. Consistently.

When asked by a co-worker whether I'd sell him my tested Archos 3.2, I said no. I said go buy a device you'll be happy with. He did, a 64Gb iPod Touch. He is happy.

My Archos 3.2, well I was hoping to use it as a developer device for Android, but rather than frustrate myself. I think I'll drop it into one of my boxes of old hardware to be rediscovered in a decade, then thrown out.

In the Console Wars: XBOX vs. PS3 vs. Wii, what's the best choice?

2010-12-31T06:45:00.001-05:00

I've been a Microsoft fan-boy since before I spent a few years working for them. They, generally, have a quality product, and aside from Windows Me, Windows Vista, and Word 6.0 for Macintosh (which is much like Windows Vista's growing pain), they've had a quality offering to the consumer. The same can be said for their game console, it's a quality piece of hardware... Now. It had a rough start with version 1 (circa 2001), and the XBOX360 was cursed by hardware issues and only saved by Microsoft's extension of the warranty to 3 years for the "Red Ring of Death" and the E74 errors. I had two XBOX360's get replaced due to failure, but still the platform is awesome.

Now, I was given a PlayStation 3 for Christmas. I'm not new to Sony's offerings, having had and since given away a PS2 years ago, another fine system that remains available and is, in fact, being integrated into some flat-panel displays even now. The news to me is how much less the TCO is for the PlayStation3 compared to the XBOX360 as it stands right now.

Right out of the box the PS3 has a choice of wired or wireless connectivity to the Internet (your router) and it's a Blu-Ray DVD player. It can connect to your home PC that has all of your [legally obtained] MP3s, DivX movies, and Pictures as shared by Media Player (version 10+/Windows XP and later). You have an ample hard disk (250Gb at this point, though my PS3 is older and has an 80Gb), and all of this is out of the box!

Now the XBOX360 is very similar. The current (as of 2010) model has all of the above with the exception of that Blu-Ray player, but this is not the TOTAL COST of OWNERSHIP... To get online and play against others on the XBOX you need an XBOX Live Gold membership, $60. To attach a camera to the XBOX, you need their XBOX branded camera (~$50) or the new and very cool XBOX Kinect Controller ($150). To get a wireless headset for the XBOX, that's $60. The list goes on...

I am very pleased to see that the following is true of the PlayStation 3.

While the Blue-Ray drive is proprietary and somewhat difficult to source/replace for the technically inept, upgrading the hard drive is... non-proprietary and you can upgrade at your discretion. The camera, if you like such things, can be the same web-cam as you use on your PC. and your headset can be a Bluetooth or USB-connected, and these are not specialized. Also, you get the advantage of a real web browser on the PS3, something the XBOX has needed for a very long time. Oh, and getting online to play others... is FREE. No membership fees. Another easily overlooked advantage to the PS3, the controllers are rechargeable wireless, the batteries may be internal, but you can charge via USB while playing. It's true the XBOX controllers can do this, but you pay a premium for the controller then need to supply your own batteries or get a battery pack.

The choice of games systems is tilted in favour or the PS3, the final influence is the games you want to play. There are Microsoft-only properties, and Sony-only properties. You can't play any of the Halo or Forza games on the PS3, but you can't get GT5 on the XBOX360...

Oh, I didn't mention the Wii... I did say BEST choice. Personally I use the Wii for Netflix, but it's a good low-cost system that has fun games for kids.

Apple (Canada) - MacBook Air - The next generation of MacBooks.

2010-10-21T06:53:00.001-04:00

Apple (Canada) - MacBook Air - The next generation of MacBooks.

This is a problem. The Mac product line has been enhanced with the addition of the Macbook Air. The 11 and 13-inch wonders from Apple have me in a position of great conflict. On the one had this is a Macintosh, and Apple product, that is a remarkable work of technical art. They've produced technical art for years and are quite good at it. On the other hand it's an Apple and while I'm wondering about the sanity of the great Steve Jobs, especially after that most recent earnings call, the company's over-priced approach to proprietary technology, their technical arrogance, has bothered me for years.

The bottom line is that my conflict has been, for years, that Apple doesn't work and play well with others and while their products are nearly bulletproof from an operational stand-point, they remain closed-minded. Shamefully, I have recognized for some time that the benefits of closed-mindedness is that the system is incredibly stable and when it becomes unstable the responsibility falls squarely on Apple's shoulders. The thing is, they have taken on this responsibility quite well. My only argument against Apple, now, is the price... okay, was.

The new Macbook Air, and indeed the existing and wonderful Mac Mini, are examples of affordable personal computing awesomeness. A laptop that's stable, virtually un-threatened by viruses, and has Mac reliability for about $1000 is a good choice.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still feel that there is evidence that some of the Mac Users are delusional and they've set up in Apple's camp from a strictly non-technical standpoint. I also feel that if you need an economical PC that looking to a Windows-based system is going to cost you less, but I must stop myself from being Anti-Apple and admit to you, and everyone else that these new products, in fact many of their products right now, are amazing devices.

The iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Nano, the Mac Mini, and the new Macbook Air products offer a wonderful experience for the user, the consumer and as creativity tools. The use of any Apple product in an enterprise, for business, is another matter. For business, the reality remains that the BlackBerry and the Windows-based PC is the right choice, but that's another story.

A tribute to the durability of at least ONE Apple product:

Kodak’s Pulse: A digital knight in shining armour | Sync Blog

2010-07-05T23:48:00.000-04:00

Kodak’s Pulse: A digital knight in shining armour | Sync Blog

Pogoplug: NAS Improvisation with a Social Media Twist

2010-04-16T11:34:00.001-04:00

On April 15th, 2010, pay day, I picked up a necessary new tool in data security, the Pogoplug. It is not a Network Attached Hard Disk, but a facilitator to helping your various USB 2.0 Storage Mediums become Network Attached Storage.

The first thing you will notice is the colour, it's hot pink! That aside, and real men can put that aside, it's a well-designed device with an Ethernet jack (RJ-45), 4 USB ports (1 on the front), and a very secure power-plug. They advertise a 60-second setup, they're not wrong though I'm unsure of the need for some of the Social Network nuances (connectivity to your Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook accounts for updates). The next thing, if you have an iPod, PS3, or XBOX360, is that whatever media you connect to this sweet little device becomes available to stream to these remote media devices. It was quickly recognised by my XBOX360 allowing me to, finally, excuse my primary PC from this menial task. The poor little box also transcodes video so that it's compatible for other devices, though I'm not certain this would help your XBOX play your iTunes collection, we'll see.

Security is provided through their website, https://my.pogoplug.com, and you will want to ensure this password is secure, you can potentially access all of the connected physical media from any web-connected PC in the world. While it has the ability to share other folders, be careful about this and please do NOT post copyright protected materials for everyone and their brother.

I'm going to explore this device more over the next few weeks, but I'm starting of the stress-test of backing up all of my backups. I connected a very nice 1Tb hard disk I picked up at TigerDirect.ca for $90 (a good deal) and a 16Gb USB Key that I recently acquired from Staples. The Windows software provided (via download) allowed the Pogoplug to appear as a physical drive, the connected devices are presented as folders based on their hardware identity (i.e. SanDisk Cruzer, SAMSUNG DF1H32), though you can rename these through the web interface. You can also grant access to the device through SSH, that I'll explore later too.

Stats (As I find them):
Copying from a network resource to the Pogoplug, same network: 88.133 MegaBytes/min
(Robocopy of 28Gb over 5:35h)

KODAK ESP 5250 All-in-One Printer Support

2010-02-19T20:07:00.008-05:00

We all hate paying an arm and a leg for printer ink, so when Kodak brought out their reasonably printers with even more reasonably priced ink cartridges I was eager to retire my printer and enjoy the savings. The problem is the sacrifice. Poor quality print due to faulty a print head.

For help I went to the KODAK ESP 5250 All-in-One Printer Support web site, it offered online chat with technical support and they happily listened and responded in broken english (text) as we tried to resolve the issue. They came to the conclusion the print head was indeed faulty and opted to send me a replacement, the 5-7 day wait was over in just 2 or 3. I installed the new print head to a diminished, but continuing problem. How much patience should I have?

Year ago I told Kodak, and myself, that I would never buy another Kodak product, but I gave in for this new and wonderful technology. Big mistake!

So, I'm on the second chat with technical support now. "The printer will need to be replaced."

Wow, replace the printer? How does Kodak make money on this product?

I'm waiting for DHL to deliver my new printer... I'm not impressed so far. Kodak? If this printer doesn't work, you owe me $200. I'll let the 58 cents slide. If the new printer is fine, I'll make sure it's noted here but for now, don't follow my lead, buy something else (Lexmark or Canon perhaps).

UPDATE: 2010.02.25...
Aside from the absolutely STUPID service from DHL in delivering the replacement printer, the replacement printer is complaining that I need to replace my NEW (included with the printer) colour ink cartridge. Calling Kodak tech support...

Resolved. I replaced the ink cartridges with the two spares I bought with the printer, though I was unimpressed with their longevity of ink* so far.

Now, I'll keep you posted on how this printer is as time goes by, but I'll caution you, don't open the cover too often, apparently the print head cleaning process drinks ink like it's coffee! Because of the constant opening and closing of the printer as we tried to resolve the issue, we finished a pair of cartridges. Kodak Technical Support is replacing them, by courier, yes, DHL.

I still need to ship back the bad printer's carcass, yes, through DHL. I hope this is painless.

Where's my packing tape?

UPDATE: 2010.03.09...
There's a problem with using DHL. They're not open until after I'm at work and there's no one home to meet them, generally, should they want to pick up the package. Kodak, you're gonna need to be patient while I figure this out, the printer's packed and ready, but I need to figure out how to co-ordinate with DHL.

UPDATE: 2010.03.12...
It seems DHL can't pick up after 3pm on a weekday, and since I don't have a car, there no way I'm lugging this to DHL's Depot. So, Kodak, how are you going to get your printer back? It's YOUR printer, It's not going to be MY hassle. Good luck.

UPDATE: 2011.08.30...
It seems this is how long a print head lasts, about 18 months. The replacement cost is ~$26, and if you get new ink cartridges with the printer it's ~$46. That said, the printer has not been impressive enough in these 18 months that I feel compelled to save it. For one, I can't buy a print head for the printer in the retail channels, I'd need to buy on-line, via support. As it stands I can go to BestBuy and buy a new printer from HP for $60-70. It's a waste in so many ways, the scanner portion of this printer works well. The Card reader was a waste of space and it's purpose became moot with a $20 USB-based card reader from Kingston. The printer was NEVER great, and the number of ink cartridges I've gone through has never match the suggested page counts, even if they cost 1/2-1/3 of the cost of the HP print heads, you might be better off if you like reliable quality. My neighbour has a Brother MFC-290C he's happy with, I've heard great things about Brother. I have a Pogoplug device (pogoplug.com) which has e-mail functionality compatible with Epson and HP, so they are considerations so I can print remotely (via e-mail). Oh, Kodak offered me 25% off a printer bought on-line at their store, I ask them this, "If I have been unimpressed with the first Kodak printer and the ensuing support of that printer, why would I buy another Kodak printer, even at 25% off?" Notably, 25% off their printer is still more than the HP from BestBuy.

Evenings and Weekends...

2009-11-27T12:58:00.000-05:00

While I don't like to book all my free time, if need be I'm available to help. Why only these times, well, I went and found myself a good job.

Regardless, please, if you're in need of help, please call.

For Hire: Tech Guy

2009-04-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

It's tough to find a job for which there seems to be no definitive job description beyond, "Our technology guy." There's a closed and quiet market for the technical resource in a small-to-medium sized business, often the roll is inherited out of necessity as the company expands and has more requirements than the ISP can offer. Often these companies get cosy with a local supplier of PCs and they grow from there, but how do I get this role? and... Why do I want it?

It is often said that it is who you know not what you know that gets you the best opportunities. This is partially true, in that if you know someone well enough for them to offer you a job, you can expect that they have some idea of what you know before they make the offer. The question is how do you get to know the right person? That answer is coverage! You need to get out there and represent yourself, be active in your community and help people, though not necessarily for free. In fact if people are happy with your work at a fair market value, they will be more than happy to hire or refer you. I've been told that the best advertising for a small business is great customer service, though knowing what to charge and how to say no is important.

Why do I want a role as the 'tech guy' in a small business? Simply, the variety. I like a challenge and helping people, those two issues come together for small business quite often, being one or more small-business' technical resource would offer me the variety to make my day-to-day challenging and, frankly, fun. If business 'A' doesn't want teh expense of a full-time person, I'm happy with that, I live in Brampton, Ontario, near Steeles Ave. and Bramalea Road. This area is well connected for transit and I can certainly get around to more than one site in a day, it could even be worked into a once-a, twice-a, or every other week mixture. I'll handle the technology, you just tell me what you want and need, we'll work out the budget and I'll get things done.

If you're looking for this sort of help, I want to be your 'tech guy.'

Implementing Multilingual Keyboard Layouts

2009-03-17T06:21:00.013-04:00

I am certain this is a source of frustration for many people, but I am witness to the chaos involved and the mystery surrounding the Language Bar in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

My sister-in-law finally surrendered to the necessity for a new laptop and my brother enlisted me to do what I seem to do best, help spend money. My sister-in-law (and brother for that matter) speak french and in both personal and business applications use french words that require accented characters. Fortunately most laptops available these days have a multilingual keyboard that can accommodate these characters, though the truth of the matter is you don't need a special keyboard to type résumé correctly. There is a wonderful keyboard definition which is called US-International (formerly US-Multilingual) that does a fine job. For those who learned on a truly language specific keyboard, there's a method and accompanying madness that allows you to use the special keys offered by the 'Alt Gr' or 'Alt Car' key (which is the right Alt key to most of us).

To help me try to explain this, because my sister-in-law is not here to tell me what she was really expecting for behaviour, I am employing the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) to view and compare the different layouts. This tool is actually meant to allow anyone to create their own custom layout (ideally based on an existing keyboard but I might see how far I can take this later as to whether this would be valuable in doing custom POS or proprietary systems).

I am accustomed to the US-International configuration for utilizing accents and such, it's a simple and generic manner of generating the required effects because it doesn't change the key assignments from the standard keyboard, but enhances the keyboard through prefixing keystrokes. For example the é character is generated with a single quote (')+e in that order. a 'ç' is generated in the same manner ('+c). The umlatted characters are prefixed by the double-quote (") for ë, and the other prefix keys are the tilde (~), carat (^), and left-single quote (`) as used for ñ, â, and à. There are many more characters that are possible using that right Alt key, such as: ¡, €, ¥, ä, ®, ©, ñ, and ¿ (this is not a complete list, check here for the Microsoft Knowledge base article).

So, using this layout is great for the bulk of us, though we may have somewhat of a learning curve trying to understand and remember all of the unmarked and special characters. Let's have a look at how the language bar actually works because this will be the most efficient method by which to change the layout on-the-fly.

The Language bar can either be docked into your Start Bar or floated around your screen in a location of your choosing, it can even be made semi-transparent. It looks like this:

or

Note that the language bar only becomes available if there's more than one language and/or keyboard layout defined. I have EN (english) and FR (french) with FR offering two keyboard layouts (Canadian French and US-International). If you want to add a language or keyboard layout you will need to use the Control Panel, select "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options", then click "Regional and Language Options" in the lower-right of the window. This will bring up the Regional and Language Options, select the Language tab and click on 'Details'.

The 'Details' button will open the Text Services and Input Languages dialog which will allow us to add language and keyboard layouts as required. This is how my dialog reads and this suits my needs quite well for my occasional use of accents:

A proud moment for a Geek father...

2008-12-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

a message from my daughter:

Hey daddy... I was wondering what version of Flash to download for the EEEpc...

.tar.gz (Linux)
.rpm (Linux)
YUM (Linux)

The DELL SP2309W Monitor

2008-12-17T23:03:00.003-05:00

While it is truly unfortunate if you missed last week's Dell Deal of the Day on this beauty, the value may still be there for this ultra-high-resolution monitor (was $270, now $420). The resolution for this 23" monitor is 2048x1152, nearly 4 times the resolution of the Acer Aspire One I tried it on.

There is absolutely no lack of features here, aside from the unbeatable quality of the image (IMHO), the ports and connectivity are ideal for those who appreciate a few cables to disconnect when taking the laptop and running. The drivers for the rather odd resolution are on the CD, as are the drivers for the WebCam, which I have yet to set up.

First Up... video in! HDMI, DVI and VGA are all options and they recommend HDMI at least for good cause. I could consider the merit of connecting my HD DVI cable box from Rogers to this wonder, but that's not my priority. It would be happy to oblige me in connecting to my XBOX360 with HDMI too, but let's not get gaming into this. I want to cover the rest of the ports first. Audio In (it has speakers), Line Out (it has two microphones), it has USB, but this is to not only facilitate the WebCam, but provide 4 powered USB ports (two on the back, to on the left side). A word of warning about those ports... consider that the power goes away when you turn off the monitor, if your hard drive is connected to one of those, you've just dropped it like a hot rock. You'll need to think about what connects to where. I have my drive connected (sub-optimally) through my Logitech AudioBox and this unit stays on so I can safely turn off the monitor now.

The onscreen display is very user friendly and is a soft-touch on the lower-right of the screen. The monitor is comfortably balanced on a turntable stand with enough flexibility that the screen actually comes 100% assembled. height should not be an issue and positioned behind my Logitech 2.1 laptop sound system there's no interference of vision.

Overall I cannot help but gush. It's wonderful and was delivered on short order from Dell Canada, placing the order last Wednesday, it arrived today (no one was home yesterday to receive it). A pleasant experience.

My verdict, whether for the gamer or the executive, this is a great display and worth every penny at the sale price. At full pop it's very nice, and the extra real-estate is very welcomed over the 1920x1200 competitors.

Financial Security through Money Management

2008-12-04T05:41:00.001-05:00

The jig is up for Microsoft Money (in Canada):

It seems that Microsoft, in it's infinite wisdom, has dropped abandon, it's Microsoft Money users completely.

Not only has MSFT decided to limit availability of the Money product line in Canada to it's own web site, but also only to the most minimalist version of the product Microsoft Money essentials ($19.99). If you are movinf to a new computer this year and are hoping to manage your money, let's hope you remember where your Microsoft Money 2006 CD is and ir wasn't the OEM version from your last PC.

Now, you can come up with the occassional deal on eBay, but right now the 2006 version will start bidding at $10 (CDN), the latest version can be found too, Microsoft Money Plus Deluxe and will auction it's way, alarmingly, to $40.00 (CDN) but then you have shipping. It seems that these purchasers truly need Microsoft Money to realize they are mis-managing thier money.

I tried Microsoft Money Essentials - trial version, installed it last night and tried to import the MNY file I'd used on my desktop PC. This is where that message (above) came from. What a disappointment! this is the only version available in Canada, if you were in the U.S. the "Plus Deluxe" and the other more advanced versions would allow this. What a shame.

I am lucky, I'd bought Money 2006 years ago, then upgraded my PC and found myself on the OEM version, the problem was tracking down that CD nearly 3 years later. This is why I was on eBay, I thought is was gone for sure. It wasn't it was were everythinh you're looking for is, in the last place you look!

So, it is now installed on my new NetBook (Acer Aspire One) with its 1024x600 display. It works fine, but watch for those missing buttons at the bottom when running full-screen, they actually show up better when you're running in a less-than maximized window. The product spec likely assumes 1024x768, this is not shocking, I'm sure in 2006 no one thought netbooks would take over the world the way they have. For prolonged use I suggest a full-sized USB keyboard and a real mouse/trackball, The screen is fine, but you will certainly be happier with a 22" LCD attached at your primary "base" location. I recommend Acer LCDs, through there are many others. If you're looking to spoil yourself, consider the Acer 24" LCD display, they've dropped below $400 if you look around, get the extended warranty and make sure that who you buy from will accept a return based upon dead-pixels. It's not that I've had a dead pixel on any Acers (knocking on wood), but you need to consider this issue. I also recommend TigerDirect.ca and BestBuy.ca when looking for the right products at the right prices. Patience is absolutely necessary when you're trying to get a value. Tiger did right for me on my 32" LCD TV and my Acer NetBook, check online, then call before venturing out. They'll hold it for you. With BestBuy.ca, they normally have the ability to state the stock levels at the store, this vanishes during the Christmas rush, don't complain, it makes sense.

BTW: This makes the obvious choice of money management software: Quicken, Intuit.ca

.NET Instructor?

2008-10-15T08:10:00.001-04:00

Hello Everybody,

This is just a test email to check if you receive it or not and if your email is included here.
If not then please send me a message again.

Yours,

XXXXXX
.Net Instructor, George Brown College

Harmony Central®: Ion LP 2 FLASH Turntable With Usb, Flash Now Shipping

2008-09-11T09:33:00.000-04:00

Harmony Central®: Ion LP 2 FLASH Turntable With Usb, Flash Now Shipping: "Ion LP 2 FLASH Turntable With Usb, Flash Now Shipping"

The new Picasa v3.0...

2008-09-03T08:49:00.003-04:00

Watch the video...

...then download the newest and coolest picture manager you'll get on the web.

Where did I take that picture?

2008-09-03T08:21:00.003-04:00

GPS PhotoFinder mini
Where did I take that picture? With the ATP GPS PhotoFinder™ mini you'll never have to ask that question again. The PhotoFinder™ mini allows you to geotag all of your photos, no complicated software required!

This is the easy way to add GPS Geotagging...

Check it out at: ATP or drop by Henry's or Canada Computers for a closer look.

Simpler, faster, browsing... Google Chrome

2008-09-03T05:12:00.004-04:00

Google says, "Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier."

I agree. There is only one task that I cannot perfrom so far and that is to edit my TiddlyWikis, which I can overlook for general browsing, but the function of this browser is both fast and simple, cleaning up the interface of the browser to the basics of functionality without crippling the user.

Try it out: http://google.com/chrome

INITIAL EXPERIENCE: Poor: problems with plug-ins (Shockwave, Acrobat), not ideal.

VERDICT: Wait for next BETA and we'll see.

Getting paid for helping friends, family.

2008-08-26T12:46:00.002-04:00

While it's a noble cause and a nasty moniker to hold, being computer literate is a burden in social circles. My ex-wife has the right idea when we both worked for Microsoft and people would ask if we knew about Windows or Office, she'd respond, "I work in finance." This was not a lie, but it was a quick deterrent to further questions about the technological issues the user might have. I didn't learn, I would always respond, "Yes."

More than a few times I've regretted this honesty. I likel being helpful but I also get overwhelmed when I offer help too often. The other side of that coin is that I don't like to charge for this help because it has not been my career. I do things for friends, sometimes thanklessly, but always willingly.

My career has been fairly long, starting in hardware installation and repair, progressing through software and hardware support, and landing on the apron of software development. I do web development on the side, not for money, to help others, but some have chosen to abuse my generousity and I've grown tired of the effort I put into doing things when others don't seem to care about the effort contributed.

So, without and ounce of regret, I am going to stop giving my time away for free. I am going to ask that people who want me to help with a project or cause show some level of interest beyond verbal non-involvement. I am going to charge a fair and equitable amount to all I help, family or friend. And I'll suggest that anyone who wants help visit my website and this blog to understand why. They can pay by PayPal (preferred) or hand me cash, and I will stick by the idea that they only pay me what they feel comfortable paying, but they need to appreciate the time and commitment.

No more free web sites. I will no longer be hosting free web sites from my home system. I have said this before, but they remain. As of October 1st, 2008, they will all go dark.

After hours web work... I will consider myself under exclusive contract to Mind's Eye Design (Lethbridge, Alberta) and refer any interested parties to this company (my sister).

Depot Technical Support:
Problem Determination... You can bring me a computer that is having trouble and I will be happy to help you get back on track. I'll tell you what's wrong before I start. $35 per hour to determine the cause, maxium 2 hours.

Problem Resolution... Fixing your problem will mean that I send you out to buy specific hardware if neccessary. I will tell you exactly what to buy and where to buy it from.

System Replacement... If you need to upgrade your PC I'll tell you what you need to buy based upon your needs and budget. I'll extract all of your data from the old PC and get it onto your new system. I'll recommend hardware on occassion, you'll be sent out with a list... Flat rate: $200.

System Recovery... This is basically a tear down the software and re-install it. I'll only install software that you have a valid and provable license for. Keep that in mind, I will not pirate or support piracy. Flat rate: $200.

I'll post this on my site soon, but this is the heads up.

NOTE: If the failure is a hard disk and you want the data back, consider this is a service that I'll send you to someone else for. I cannot recover hard disk data on a failed drive.

Acer Aspire One: Winning Alternative to a Desktop

2008-08-24T20:43:00.001-04:00

Acer Aspire One AOA150-1890 Notebook PC - Intel Atom Processor N270 1.60GHz, 802.11bg Wireless, 1GB DDR2, 120GB HDD, 8.9" WSVGA, Integrated Webcam, Windows XP Home (Seashell White) LU.S040: "Aspire One offers a familiar Windows XP Home operating system that clearly organizes everything needed to surf the Internet, work or simply have fun. Users have the one-time choice of a French or English OS language upon initial start-up. This small but smart laptop comes with built-in 802.11b/g WiFi for easy access to available wireless networks. The Acer Aspire One has an 8.9-inch CrystalBrite display with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels"

This is a winner system!

Okay, to migrate from a Desktop to this...

A USB Hub (or this one, for convenience)
USB 3.5" Hard Disk Enclosure(s) (for each of your current hard disks)
USB 5.25" Enclosure(s) for your old (or a new) CD-ROM/DVD Drive
You need a USB Connected Printer, or a USB-to-Parallel adaptor
A power bar or multi-headed plug to power all of the devices at once, neatly

You will connect the USB Hub to your laptop with a single USB cable, then all other devices to the hub. the hub is powered and should be on the same circuit as your Hard Disks and your Laptop. Do NOT turn off the hard disks or this hub while your laptop is using the drives.

I recommend the following as a best practise:

Acronis TrueImage (www) using a frequent, scheduled backup.
An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) (I recommend APC)
A Router to isolate you from the Internet better (I have been happy with NetGear)

Technology Quiz

2008-08-19T11:23:00.003-04:00

Please fill out this questionaire, I know... just another.... anyway.

I'd like to know.

Loading...

This is just COOL!

2008-08-13T11:21:00.001-04:00

littleBits intro from ayah bdeir on Vimeo.

When and WHERE can I get this? That's my only question.

LittleBits

Connect: Microsoft SharedView

2008-07-09T10:37:00.000-04:00

It seems that the shortcomings of "Request Remote Assistance" might be best alieviated by using a new colaborative tool, Microsoft SharedView.

Connect: Microsoft SharedView: "Microsoft SharedView is a fast, easy way to share documents and screen views with small groups of friends or coworkers; anytime, anywhere. Use SharedView to put your heads together and collaborate - create, convey, and communicate…across physical boundaries, through firewalls, and down to the smallest details."

It seems that RRA, when the requesting computer is Windows Vista, is not happy accepting the response from Windows XP, a cheap shot by Microsoft if you want my honest opinion. My search for a solution came across two tools: TeamViewer and SharedView (still looking for a better link).

Oh sure I could walk the people I help through installing VNC Server and opening ports if I were a complete sadist, but these tools seem more beneficial and safe. Have a look at both if you need or offer support to remote users. Free is better, both are free for non-commercial use. I don't charge for support general (it's not my day-job, it's for friends and family) so TeamView shouldn't cost me a penny, but SharedView seem to be free, period.

TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook

2008-07-03T15:49:00.000-04:00

TiddlyWiki - a reusable non-linear personal web notebook: "TiddlyWiki, a popular free MicroContent WikiWikiWeb created by JeremyRuston and a busy Community of independent developers. It's written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript to run on any modern browser without needing any ServerSide logic. It allows anyone to create personal SelfContained hypertext documents that can be posted to a WebServer, sent by email or kept on a USB thumb drive to make a WikiOnAStick."

Visionaries they are not... ("Prophetic" Quotes)

2008-06-12T11:52:00.002-04:00

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." --Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." --Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year." --The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?" --Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." --Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." --Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" --David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible." --A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" --H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make." --Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." --Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this." --Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M"Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll comework for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" --Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." --1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training." --Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the"unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." --Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." --Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction". --Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon". --Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon- Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981

"Listening to someone who brews his own beer is like listening to a religious fanatic talk about the day he saw the light." - Ross Murray Montreal Gazette 1991

My Software Downloads - Windows Live SkyDrive

2008-06-09T14:39:00.001-04:00

Microsoft's new Windows Live Toy, SkyDrive.

Looks good, security based on hotmail/.NET/Windows Live account. Reasonable option but don't use for corporate data.

A new PC for my parents, others...

2008-06-02T14:34:00.000-04:00

This looks like a very good option. I WILL aquire one, upon release and give you a better perspective at that point, but until then have a look at Engadget's post.

Final specifications revealed for ASUS Eee Box B202? - Engadget: "the mini desktop will exhibit a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, a 80/120/160/250GB hard drive, GMA 950 integrated graphics set, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, optional Bluetooth, a multicard reader, 512MB/1GB/2GB of DDR2 RAM and an Azalia ALC888 audio chip; you'll also find a pair of USB 2.0 ports, DVI out and a headphone jack, but an optical drive is altogether missing."

If the box doesn't prove practical enough for me, it will be installed at my parents' place this summer as an update, and it will likely be the Linux version.

Bell's Traffic Shaping and Net Neutrality

2008-05-23T13:33:00.000-04:00

It seems Bell has walked into it's own pit-trap. Can it get out?

globeandmail.com: Kapica's Cyberia: "Bell announced this morning it has opened the online Bell Video Store, which will sell and rent movies and TV shows, and it has already run into an issue that has little to do with buying or renting videos."

The new and cool way to a Cottage-Area-Network

2008-05-22T05:37:00.000-04:00

While sharing a DSL or Broadband connection in is not what the ISP wants to hear about, in cottage country if one person can get high-speed on the lake, this little gem might be the answer to the local LAN-Party getting interesting.

$318 WiFi network bridge connects two locations up to 5 miles apart - Engadget: "WiFi network bridge connects two locations up to 5 miles apart"

I haven't tried this thing out, and you need to pay attention to the "direct line-of-sight" stipulation but in cottage country or in Canada's vast wilderness, this might be a very economical solution for the neighbourhood that is at the limits.

ASUS Eee PC: Add Color to Your Life!

2008-05-20T08:11:00.000-04:00

ASUS Eee PC: Add Color to Your Life! - $299

Canada Computers is one of many stores selling the ASUS Eee PC. The 2G Surf is deal for those wishing to do basic e-mail, browsing, and document editing. You might do yourself a favour and pick up a USB key for storage and transfer of files to/from this sweet little PC, and perhaps a SD card of three for storage of music and/or movies, but the device will suit the needs of most students, light PC users, and those road warriors that don't need a monster.

Aside from the fashonable colour range, I prefer basic black myself, these are a reasonable start to mobil computing, though you will want to find a decent case to carry it in, and that might be as simple as locating a non-descript lunch-bag from your local WAL-MART or Zellers.

A good buy.

The ASUS Eee PC 4G...

2008-05-05T13:49:00.003-04:00

Hands on use, that's what I really needed to give an honest, non-speculative review of this thing.

It's great! Both for me and my girlfriend, we love the 4G. The built-in wireless, OS, usability of Xandros, the practicality of UnionFS in this application and the extreme difference between how we use it.

It's practical. While I've got PICASA on mine, (I don't recommend this in reality, though I store pictures to my external 40Gb drive. I can safely say I can do the following very well:

Watch movies
Play Music
Keep My iPod Shuffle up-to-date
Browse the Web and handle my GMail and Google Calendar use
Blog
Keep track of my time
Create documents
Use a full-sized keyboard and monitor (though I typically use Synergy)
Toss my need for a PDA

If thet's not enough, what do you expect for the size and cost ($399.99 at Canada Computers, ~$450 incl. tax.)?

There's the 9" version on the horizon (May 12th), but I'm happy with what I bought. If you're looking for a system to do basic e-mail and browsing do two things:

Get a Google Mail (GMail) account
Buy an ASUS Eee PC.

Which Eee PC? If you're not going to upgrade the RAM (there's not much need to) and don't figure on using the built-in camera on the 4G, consider teh savings of buying the 4G Surf or 2G Surf, either will be fine for the base user, though if you expect to add any significant software get the 4G Surf.

There is an 8G. 8 Gigabytes of disk space. I think I could have found this useful, but the creative use of USB keys, external drives, or a larger SDHC card (say 4 or 8Gb) will allieviate any stress there.

BTW: to do Video Skype calls, upgrade Skype through the Eee PC default interface. For better video playback, get VLC.

A Simple Clock...

2008-04-30T12:51:00.001-04:00

Click here to see it.

It's just kinda neat, nothing earth-shattering.

Having trouble searching for things?

2008-04-18T10:22:00.002-04:00

My friend and colleague (not said in the manner most lawyers say this, with sarcasm), Brian, found this method to allow the Windows Search to actually WORK!

Click Start, and then click Search (or point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders).
Click Change preferences, and then click With[out] Indexing Service (for faster local searches).
Click Change Indexing Service Settings (Advanced). Note that you do not have to turn on the Index service.
On the toolbar, click Show/Hide Console Tree.
In the left pane, right-click Indexing Service on Local Machine, and then click Properties.
On the Generation tab, click to select the Index files with unknown extensions check box, and then click OK.
Close the Indexing Service console.

You will have much better results.

Wait don't leave! Resisting user navigation.

2008-04-08T11:04:00.004-04:00

When looking for a really nasty bit of trickery I found this article that allows you to manage a user's navigation from the current page to prevent pre-mature departures. I suspect this can be used for good or evil, but it's cool nonetheless.

How to stop browser from closing using Javascript? - Dev Articles

Derived from that article is the simplified version we will use:


<script>
   var needToConfirm = false;
   window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit;
   function confirmExit()
   {
       //alert(needToConfirm);
       if (needToConfirm)
       {
           window.open("http://cstech.no-ip.com");
           //return "[Unremark this line to show the customized confirm dialog with OK/Cancel options.]";
       }
   }
   needToConfirm = true;
</script>

Currently this fires a new window with my site but with the prevelance of pop-up blockers don't expect this to be terribly effective.

Funny, but I don't golf.

2008-04-03T09:23:00.001-04:00

Meet ApriPoko, Toshiba's channel surfing helper-bot - Engadget

2008-03-26T05:09:00.001-04:00

Meet ApriPoko, Toshiba's channel surfing helper-bot - Engadget: "When you use an infrared device, the robot senses the signal and asks the user 'What did you just do?' If you say something akin to 'I turned on the TV,' it will commit the command to memory, and you can operate those functions by voice."

On the scale of usefulness, I think 10 almost covers this. The idea that is converses, even in a minor way and becomes a auric interface to all things IR (TV, Stereo, etc.) is completely cool. I wonder if it can set the time on a VCR, er, DVR?

Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of satellite, visionary in technology, dead at 90 - Engadget

2008-03-18T22:15:00.000-04:00

Arthur C. Clarke, inventor of satellite, visionary in technology, dead at 90 - Engadget

Apple Canada - Time Capsule - Wireless

2008-02-29T11:51:00.000-05:00

Apple Canada - Time Capsule - Wireless: "More than just a wireless hard drive, Time Capsule is also a full-featured AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n technology. Experience a high-speed wireless network and a breakthrough way to back up all the Macs on your network. All in one device."

This device is worth a look. Windows and Mac storage functionality, and a wireless (802.11a,b,g and n) router as well.

Apple simplicity, file sharing flexibility.

Looks are everything, right?

2008-02-14T13:22:00.005-05:00

A friend just got this note from an executive responsible for a subsidiary of his company:

I keep getting complaints from our clients regarding our secure website. For some reason when our clients' members click from their sites to the our secure site they get the message [pictured] below. They can still click through to the web site, but it scares members. I also get this same message when I am accessing our secure site. Is there anyway to get rid of this message so our site looks secure?

Of course I added the emphasis to the text, but I'm not sure what is more concerning, the fact that this problem has been outstanding for 2 years (as per my friend's info) with the an open ticket(s) for a new certificate, or that management is more interested in the site "looking" secure.

Ubuntu 7.10 Gibbon swings on the Asus Eee - Mixed Signals - Rupert Goodwins's Blog at ZDNet UK Community

2008-02-11T11:56:00.000-05:00

Ubuntu 7.10 Gibbon swings on the Asus Eee - Mixed Signals - Rupert Goodwins's Blog at ZDNet UK Community

Interested in an ASUS Eee PC? Consider this OS upgrade.

Mix that with Synergy and an external monitor and you're got a handy second display and portable companion to get you through the longer trips. I'll get my Eee PC 4G (not Surf) when I get my tax refund.

The 42-inch Eee PC TeeVee? Yes, and more - Engadget

2008-01-30T14:34:00.000-05:00

The 42-inch Eee PC TeeVee? Yes, and more - Engadget

Eee TV? Hmmm

We'll see.

A thought...

2008-01-29T09:43:00.001-05:00

"Change without direction is like throwing pin, holding grenade."

-Cameron

inCONTRAST... The Desktop Replacement

2008-01-24T03:05:00.000-05:00

HP Pavilion HDX Entertainment Notebook PC - This is NOT a small or lightweight laptop, this a geek's most improper thoughts incarnate as a laptop. And it's elegant!

The HP Pavilion HDX Entertainment Notebook PC

Now, the killer, the price, while it starts at $1999.99 range, they "recommend" a configuration valued at... $3,645.97!

Dear Santa, I know it's early, but...

Stay Safe Online...

2008-01-24T02:45:00.001-05:00

While some points might be obvious this is a heads up on being safe on-line.

The BUG... An interesting idea...

2008-01-24T02:31:00.000-05:00

... but how can we use it.

As it has been compared to LEGO (Mega blocks for us Canadians) by CNET, this device begs the exploration of purpose and intent.

Frankly, the device caught my eye for the idea of a flexible, take/use what you need device, but I'm not sure what to do with it yet. Have a look, maybe it's right for your next project.

Bug Labs: Products: "BUG is a collection of easy-to-use electronic modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine."

Everex - The Alternative PC

2008-01-23T10:08:00.000-05:00

Everex, a company whose name has been around since I was first building PCs, has made a comeback in recent years, and this little creation is just the thing to make them a common name. The Cloudbook, this cloudbook, will be available starting Friday (January 25th, 2008, er, February 15th... er, sometime this year maybe*) at ZaReason.com (a Linux system builder) and WAL-MARTs (yes, really) across North America. This lightweight wonder is the new competition to ASUS's Eee PC, a wonder in itself.

While this new entry into this MID notebook market is a wonder for availability, the price is what may distract those, including myself, from the high-end Eee PC. Both systems use a variation on Linux and are designed with ease-of-use and accommodation of needs for their user, the trade off being in disk size versus disk technology.

Comparable in many ways the use of Solid State technology affords the Eee PC user a comfortable 2-8 gigabytes (Gb) of disk space, while this new Cloudbook offers 30 Gb in a more commonly used hard disk. The trade-off is coolness alone it seems.

There are other notable differences, the Eee PC has a VGA monitor connector and SD Reader, while the Everex entry has a DVI (Digital Video) connector (allowing a better video image, but necessitating you remember the converter for use with a typical VGA monitor) and a 4-in-1 Media Reader (ie. more than simply SD Cards). I have no details on whether you can upgrade the RAM in a Cloudbook, potentially leaving you at a respectable 512Mb of RAM, while this compares well to the Eee PC 2G-4G Surf models, the 4G (non-Surf) allows for an upgrade to 1-2Gb through memory replacement.

The new Everex - The Alternative PC: "Think CloudBook Experience the Ultimate in Mobility"

9 Inches, 2 pounds, 5 hours of battery life. Surf, email, blog, IM, Skype, compute. Cloud computing makes it simple and easy for everyone.

Keep your shorts on... this might be a winner. Though... Acer is reportedly entering this race too.

I am thinking that this may be the type of device that will revolutionalize the road-warrior's toolkit. There's nothing, really, these devices can't do for the business and the software licensing is significantly cheaper than the Microsoft Windows model (at present). Microsoft's Windows CE was presenting to this manner of platform a few years ago but with restrictions on functionality and viability for the mobile user, the CE OS has been relegated to the advanced cell-phone market as PDA's are almost impossible to find. I'm not a fan of these devices for cost and would sooner see my money in an Eee PC or this new Cloudbook than another high-end cell-phone.

While my attention has shifted to this new device, my time-line to purchase is 4-5 months out so I have an opportunity to see all of the players, ASUS has done a wonderful job with delivering their product to market, let's sit back and watch as the early adopters fight and finesse this new tool for the well-connected. At $399 for a completely capable traveller tool, I'm pleased so far.

* UPDATED Dates... This spooks me and while there are some advantages, I'm favouring the ASUS as an AVAILABLE product. That said, apparently ASUS is taking the Eee PC branding and diluting it with new formats, but we'll see what they turn out.

The OLPC... Imperfect, but enough.

2008-01-16T23:21:00.000-05:00

It seems that NickNeg has done a decent job of creating a tool for education. The durability, portability, and design of the OLPC is suitable and conducive to learning how to use a PC and, with some force for those of us using WPA on our routers, even enjoy wireless connectivity in both a peer and access-point modes. I'm a little mystified as to where all of the Mesh connections are that the system finds, but it seems promising.

As mentioned, I had some difficulty getting the micro-laptop to utilize my netgear router, it's lack of understanding of WPA was trivially annoying, though not a long term concern for me as this is a loaner.

Upgrading the OS to build 653 was simple for a technical person, the OLPC support website/wiki was clear and the unit's USB capabilities were essential. The keyboard is a little odd, but reliable as a membraine keyboard normally is. The sound reasonable and the installation of Flash 9.0.115 also a fairly technical though well documented process.

To open the thing, you need to flip up the "ears" then lift the lid. The use of the unit as a tablet is odd, with no obvious pointer control.

All around a poor laptop for general use, it will make the grade with a child and is a valid and affordable tool for those who do not have alternatives. My daughters and myself are following the news on the rumours of the new sub-notebook from Acer, and have a keen interest in the Asus EEE PC, which is a far more capable and useful PC for an older child in the NorthAmerican market.

May I Scream?

2008-01-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

I enjoy a challenge, though they have become rare these last few weeks, unless you consider that wading through files replacing several routines with a new one aimed at simplifying both functionality and testing is not a challenge of the mind, but of my fortitude for the dull and uninteresting. So, I proceed.

The need for the scream is due to a project that is going nowhere, changes need to be made, and frankly no one in the business wants to work together or take responsibility. This is frustrating. I cannot take control, it is not my role or can I assume it to be. I also recognise that I tend to look to resolve the problems not allowing my work to be sub-prime or problematic, this is counter-productive in this instance as teh project is supposed to be going away.

The tool itself is a frightful mess I had inherited. I look forward to its demise and must I resign to the many trivial updates and uninteresting changes. I have commenced that work for the moment while I employ a Project Manager to get some level of commitment and interest generated.

Are you an XBOX LIVE Arcade fan?

2008-01-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I hope you have the XBOX you want and were not planning an upgrade to an XBOX with HDMI or even thinking out-of-warranty replacement.

It seems that the geniuses at Microsoft have created a rather unfortunate manner to ensure people can't take it with them when they upgrade their hardware to take advantage of HDMI. I'm learning the hard way that while you hoped for a better over-all path to better picture and (in my case) bigger drive, you're sadly mistaken because the licensing for all of those, wonderfully affordable family-friendly games in the XBOX Live Arcade will not be playable when not logged into XBOX LIVE without creating a new silver account and re-buying the games. Yes RE-PURCHASING EACH GAME.

I acknowledge that very few of use bought our XBOX for the games offered by XBOX Live Arcade, but there are some fairly cool and mindless games there that help keep the family game nights interesting.

The problem, it seems, is that if you have your console repaired (such as due to a Red Ring of Death) you're reportedly safe, but if you re-invested in the replacement or upgrade because you're a dedicated supporter of the platform, you're S[imply] Out of Luck.

If you're a die hard online gamer and you've been spending more time off line than online because of the recent XBOX LIVE outages, this would mean that your Arcade purchases might be all you want to play, but should you decide to upgrade, you're simply going to be stuck with the Trial version of any of those games.

Microsoft, I presume, is more interested in selling you the over-priced 120Gb hard disk for $210, and leaving you with something less than HDMI, but should you have reached the end of the warranty periods (1 year, or 3 years for the RRoD), you'll be at a loss. I went all out when my XBOX 360 Premium had it's RRoD, I purchased an XBOX 360 ELITE. Now, I'm stuck with the understanding that to allow my daughters to play games I've already purchased once, I will need to go get a new Microsoft Points card and on a NEW account, not my current one, re-purchase each bit of content I would like to access off line.

Now, this isn't a design flaw, Microsoft has the capacity to change which console is licensed for these games, they simply won't. Should you have had a hardware failure and the console is replaced, the license is reportedly migrated. You might think that ordering the Data Migration Kit would help, it will not, I tried that too.

So, before you buy from the arcade, make sure you are absolutely happy with your current XBOX360. Otherwise consider the cost of the re-purchase a hidden cost to the upgrade. And they wonder why people try to hack their console with bigger drives? It'll be a few days before I'm able to let this go and play a game on my console. I wonder if this affects watching my downloaded Red vs. Blue content while XBOX LIVE is down?

UPDATE: It does not affect my Video Content.

NEW: Video!

Coolness under the tree...

2007-12-21T08:43:00.001-05:00

Being a Developer and truly appreciating the real-estate of a high-resolution screen which is the only drawback to this particular system. That said, if you have an external LCD this is an excellent choice for this season. If anyone put this under my tree...

HP Pavilion DV9608CA 17" AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core TK-55 1.8GHz Laptop

$799 this week at BestBuy Canada!

The Knol. A source of eTextbook Materials?

2007-12-15T22:41:00.001-05:00

Google discussed in it's blog this week a new product called Knol. The idea is that a contributor can create, with authority, a detailed and factual unit of knowledge on a particular topic. Now, the product is not available for public consumption as yet, but the example suggests that this may be a good eText foundation.

Official Google Blog: Encouraging people to contribute knowledge: "The web contains an enormous amount of information, and Google has helped to make that information more easily accessible by providing pretty good search facilities. But not everything is written nor is everything well organized to make it easily discoverable. There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it. We believe that many do not share that knowledge today simply because it is not easy enough to do that. The challenge posed to us by Larry, Sergey and Eric was to find a way to help people share their knowledge. This is our main goal."

Consider, if you will, that a course for a particular curriculum could be built featuring authoritative sources rather than pages in a physical text book. In fact the eText, or eCourse, may not even include the articles, but merely references to the information on Google's Knol. Frankly, it could include reference links to Wikipedia but the challenge with Wikipedia, and possibly with Knol over time, is the question of authentic authority.

Hey Google! Suggestion eCourses: Collections of Knols matched or configurable to suit any school system's curriculum?

NCIX.com - ASUS Eee PC 8G Pearl White Intel Mobile 7IN 800X480 WLAN LAN 1GB 8GB LAN Linux Camera Notebook in Canada

2007-12-15T22:33:00.000-05:00

NCIX.com - ASUS Eee PC 8G (Pearl White)

How can I say this clearly enough? This is what I consider to be the ultimate PDA. Okay, it's closer to a UMPC without the touch-screen, but the unit is simply wonderful for concept and I absolutely need one of these.

Admittedly the 8G may be a little excessive based on my projected budget for such a device, the 4G being a little more affordable and available in black (preferred) may be cause to pass on the higher model, but the allure to such a device is the size and flexibility.

While there have been sightings of Windows XP and now Vista on this little monster, the native Linux OS is just fine with me. The ASUS site is fairly non-technical in it's presentation of this little wonder, but I know this is on my 2008 buy list. (I'd show you, but their site was unreachable at the time I wrote this)

UPDATE: I've seen one of the 2G Surf models up-close. Perfection. I recommend for anyone why must stay connected to people while mobile or simply to have an enhanced PDA. I may even scale down my intended model to a 4G and upgrade the RAM (you cant upgrade the RAM on the Surf models, but they are capable). I'm waiting until May for my own. Priorities.

The Ultimate Gamer Chair...

2007-12-13T20:35:00.001-05:00

I need to try one of these, frankly I do need a new chair for my living room, but...

I wonder if I could be so lucky to be given one of these. Doubtful.

Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for dad - Engadget

2007-12-12T05:40:00.000-05:00

Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for dad - Engadget: "...a few selections to help you help him get his geek on, Engadget style."

While I have my own list, here, these are quite cool too.

YouTube - VMWare vs Production Server

2007-12-12T05:07:00.001-05:00

Dell VMWare Unplanned Outage Demo

2007-12-12T05:05:00.000-05:00

VIA's ARTIGO Pico-ITX ultra-compact barebones - Engadget

2007-12-10T10:56:00.000-05:00

VIA's ARTIGO Pico-ITX ultra-compact barebones - Engadget: "ARTIGO Pico-ITX builder kit, a complete VIA-based system that you can snap together in the privacy of your own home. The bundle includes a Pico-ITX motherboard with a VIA C7 1GHz CPU, support for up to 1GB of RAM, IDE and eSATA connectors, VGA output, four USB ports, audio line in / out jacks, and 10/100 ethernet. The package includes everything but a hard drive and memory, and is available right now for around $300."

This, I think, may be a very interesting investment for some remote sensing and control ideas I've been bouncing around.

Hmmm...

OpenDNS | The Gift of Safe

2007-12-05T21:53:00.000-05:00

OpenDNS | The Gift of Safe: "Give your friends and family the gift of a safer Internet: OpenDNS. It's free and requires nothing to download or install."

I have experienced this sort of conversation, not with my father, but... just the same, enjoy the video and get OpenDNS.

Go to OpenDNS.com to help yourself (or a family member) have a save Christmas (and future) on the 'Net.

BTW: Chris's Live show can be found here.

Sanity, er, Conspiracy Theories

2007-12-05T10:23:00.000-05:00

Michael Bay's format war conspiracy theory: it's a Microsoft fix - Engadget: "'Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads.' He goes on to claim that Redmond has only been financially backing HD DVD over 'superior Blu-ray' to create 'confusion in the market' until such time as high def digital downloading goes prime time."

You know, I hear about big bad Microsoft and just laugh. It was Big (bad) Blue before that and it seems that any larger than (my) life company seems to be the logical target when assuming the worst. This theory is just that a paranoid theory of conspiracy. C'mon. The reason that Microsoft backs HD DVD is because their competitor is Sony, who makes the Blu Ray DVD format. How smart would it have been for Microsoft to try to license Blu Ray from a competitor?

I haven't bitten the HD/Blu-Ray bullet. I do have an XBOX 360 and I'm anxiously awaiting digital downloads, but Michael Bay's fears are, in my humble option, simply irrational fears (paranoia). Michael, I love your movie (Transformers in particular) but I don't like Sony and while The new Betamax (Blu-Ray) might be better I'll not be settling that argument for a while. If I were given the need to buy a High-Definition DVD Player, I would get the XBOX add-on (HD DVD), but I'm not a videophile.

Kudos for XBOX360 Replacement Process

2007-12-04T09:39:00.001-05:00

Aside from my other frustrations with XBOX Technical Support, there is something to be said for the expediance of thier handling of the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) issue I experienced. Their turn-around time was incredible and flawless in execution.

I experienced the RoD on November 20th. I spent the remainder of the evening troubleshooting and called XBOX Support the next morning. They agreed that this was the infamous RoD issue and sent out the shipping box (the so-called coffin). Purolator attempted delivery on November 26th, I picked it up on November 27th at lunch, packed the XBOX up when I got home and returned it to the Purolator depot that evening. I expected a wait of a month or so.

November 28th it was shipped back to me! Yes... The very same day they received it!

It was attempted delivery on November 29th, and I picked it up Friday night!

That is REMARKABLE! They even through in a 1-month card for XBOX Live.

GOOD GOING MICROSOFT! Thank-you.

BTW...

For Sale:

1 XBOX 360, 20Gb HDD,
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (1),
1 wireless controller including batteries and (new) headset.
Component/Composite TV/HDTV Cable
XBOX Ethernet Cable

(I bought an XBOX360 Elite, I'm waiting on the HDD transfer cable from Microsoft, then the old system is ready to roll to the highest bidder. I wonder when that cable will get here?)

UPDATE: The Transfer Cable/Kit got here Tuesday, December 11th. All went well.

Fighting Fires in Data Centers

2007-11-30T11:08:00.000-05:00

Fighting Fires in Data Centers: "Due to the volume of Inergen required to create conditions in which a fire can’t be sustained, pressure in the room increases significantly upon its discharge. To avoid damage to the facility, pressure vents may be required, Amato says."

Hmmm... reflecting on yesterday's events, could this be what was being installed? Inergen has a number of requirements that a drop-ceiling might not be compatible with.

more information...

@#$% Happens...

2007-11-30T08:31:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, no matter how welll you plan and how much you've begged for the funds to provide better service and support to your customer base, things happen with such ferocity that you're left dumbfounded and bewildered while trying to find your way back to functional.

Yesterday our systems, located at a datacenter which will remain nameless, were delt a heavy blow, 5 dead drives, 1 dead production SAN, and a very long, slow process to recovery. Staff were not the cause of the failure, recovery was impaired by the presence of Police and fire services (preventing access) and our world came to a grinding halt.

Today, we are waiting... we are preparing for the worst. What is the worst? Well, we restore from backup and implement an alternate SAN (iSCSI) solution we were preparing for use in around Christmas.

What caused this? I dunno. We haven't been informed with any certainty of the cause.

XBOX [Non-]Technical Support

2007-11-28T05:01:00.000-05:00

Aside from the obvious lack of comprehension of the english language and their inability to comprehend the privacy aspects of giving them your Windows Live account password to resolve a problem, these people prove to me, repeatedly that they have no technical abilities, simply scripts they follow to work toward possible resolutions. When they are stumped the help runs cold.

While I'd hoped that e-mail support and offering them alternatives would help, the canned responses flow, bad grammar and all, from their e-mail servers to me, discouraging my faith in the company i once worked for and loved. To the point that I have considered, on an increasingly frequent basis, returning my XBOX Elite and buying a Wii or, remarkably, a Playstation 3!

I am so disappointed in the service and handling of this rather trivial matter that I haven't even fired up Halo 3 in the last 3 days. I have written off getting any video games for myself for Christmas and just really find the presence of my XBOX a stress rather than a relief.

I dropped off my former XBOX (Pro) for repair last night, it should be back in a few weeks, hopefully before Christmas so I can allow someone else to enjoy the system (For Sale, XBOX Pro with some cool stuff and a wireless controller). How do I sell it to someone else knowing that they will need to deal with a host of technical issues and potentially problems dealing with XBOX support over the transfer?

I'm just disgusted.

UPDATE: Over the last couple of days I spoke with Aaron of Microsoft XBOX Support and he found a workaround that worked well and life is good. My kids will again be able to play (and save games for) Ecco the Dolphin. -- Thanks Aaron

XBOX Technical Support and Privacy

2007-11-25T17:04:00.001-05:00

Recently I have encountered a problem with my XBOX Live account, a game has forgotten I paid for it, at least while it's running. Otherwise it's fine. That being the problem, I called Microsoft's XBOX support this morning and we endeavoured to resolve the issue over the phone. 2 hours later the problem remained unresolved and i spent 35-40 minutes with an agent explaining that they could not resolve the issue without my Windows Live password.

The technical approach they wanted to take was to "recover my GamerTag" or an XBOX at their office, to do this I'd need to give them my hotmail.com password. What the ....

After my rant/lecture about privacy and poor system design I was left with an agent feeling utterly hopeless explaining that they would pass the issue on to management [with no expectation of resolution because they can only troubleshoot the issue in this one way].

How many people have had to sacrifice their privacy to troubleshoot an issue? Be careful what you hand to these [non-]technical agents of support. You're e-mail is a store of much personal information, protect it as you would a bank-card number.

Kindle: An e-book reader that just might catch on

2007-11-23T08:41:00.000-05:00

globeandmail.com: An e-book reader that just might catch on: "The screen uses the same astonishing E Ink technology that Sony's Reader uses. It looks like black ink on light gray paper: no backlight, no glare, no eyestrain — and no need to turn it off, ever. That's because E Ink draws power only when you turn a page."

Okay, this is cool, albeit restrictive in some manners, but it is definately cool. The idea that I can (could if the price were a little better) give a tool like this to my daughter and send her off to school with her textbooks in hand without the weight of our education tools crushing her tiny spine. That is a great idea.

Amazon's Kindle is dead on for it's desired target, but could this open up a new opportunity for e-Textbooks? The idea that our kids carry 10-20 pounds of books around is insane, especially with the potential in a device such as this.

The OLPC project is a great idea too, I support it and need to look into the manner and method by which I can acquire one for my daughter (It's stupid that I can justify upgrading my XBOX but have trouble justifying this... I'll do it, after a long serious talk about the benefits and whether she will actually use it. We all benefit from the XBOX).

eBooks are the answer to Open Source Textbooks and a step towards reducing the cost of education and making education more accessible. Whether you're in the public school system, a private school, or home-schooled, the idea that a person or group of people can produce a resource that will deliver subject matter to a student at no cost to the student (or parent/school system) is only going to help.

As for the Kindle, it sounds great but hey a Kindle Lite that was featured Wi-Fi, a USB/SD Card Slot, PC connectivity would be a great eduBook. A teacher could hand, er, publish homework for the class, the students would receive it and be able to take it home, with the eTextbooks in one simple, very portable, tool. Though we might need to ruggedize this thing.

Stability...

2007-11-22T13:03:00.000-05:00

DevDude: is the XDI Terminal Server gone again?
NetworkAdmin: nope, our connection is very flacky
NetworkAdmin: something is going on..

Okay... so.... that's an answer?

Mail-In Rebates**

2007-11-16T09:03:00.000-05:00

It seems more than a little odd these days that a software company, hawking its wares on thier own site is a little out-of-line using a mail-in rebate. Sure they use an outsource to perform the actual sale, but they know you bought it and all of your details, why ask me to jump through hoops for $30?

I had been putting up with the mail-in rebate process for a while, I'd buy my Symantec Anti-Virus and wait eagerly for the money they borrowed from me. I did this until Symantec denied my request because the bill (that Best Buy GAVE ME) was rejected because it lacked a store name/address. I've never bought another Symantec product since, though I do get it free through Rogers High-Speed Internet.

Chalk that up to being a lessons learned, but the idea that I need to pay $30 extra, loaning the company $30 against the actual value of the product, is ludacris. If I'm buying a product that is marked $39.95 that's because it is worth that price to me. It is not worth $69.95 and the rebate is not a gift or any other sort of gracious monetary gesture on the part of the datahounds that want your information.

Watch for those asterisks:
** Estimated Retail Price. Actual retail prices may vary. Mail in rebate details

**You may be eligible to receive a rebate by mail. To receive your rebate, you will need to fill out a rebate coupon which is available in the product box or, which will be made available to you, in a downloadable/printable format, after you have completed your download purchase.

Mail-in offer valid with qualifying proofs of purchase only in the 50 U.S., D.C., and US military bases with valid APO/FPO addresses. Rebate must be postmarked within 30 days of purchase. Limit one per household. Not combinable with any other Microsoft offer or rebate. Expires 1/1/09. Only Microsoft Money Plus packages featuring an on box sticker messaging this rebate, or special download purchase pricing, qualify for this offer.

TigerDirect.ca denotes rebate-priced items with a little read asterisk (*) on the price, they're upfront and I applaud that, others do not do this so well, but I've taken to making my decision on the purchase based on the full (pre-rebate) price. If I can afford this price and the value is there, the deal's done, but I'll look for a non-rebate or Instant Rebate (the cost comes off the price in the store, no waiting) as my first choice.

Mail-in rebates are the companies way of generating a customer list. They pay 3rd-party companies to process the rebate requests and mine the data. By not sending in the rebate (using the system to get as much as you can) they make money based on the idea that most (~60%) customers will not pursue the matter. It seems a little underhanded.

Improve your workspace...

2007-11-02T05:36:00.000-04:00

Okay, I'm spoiled. The place I work just gave the coders an early Christmas present in the form of a dual arm-display support. It's a WONDER to use!

Now, I know we're lucky enough to have dual-displays, but this made my day (week). I'm not normal in anything, I didn't position the displays together like they show in the pictures, I have my left monitor turned to page-display format (portrait) positioned in front of me, the right monitor is up and angled down for review of what i create(d) on my primary display. My desk, is clean.

For me, for all of us, this is a big win in that we spend so much time staring at the screen this allows for us to task our systems to our personality and work-style.

Yes, these are expensive. If you'd like something more consumer-level, check out your local Tiger Direct for a unit that suits your needs. This unit from Ergotron is very nice and can be adapted to support a laptop. They have others...

The reality of customer experience issues

2007-10-17T09:40:00.000-04:00

I recently launched a new feature on one of our business systems and the target end-user was seemingly very happy. Shortly thereafter I received a note:

In the new tool that you programmed for [company], is this still working?

When I put in a Member ID in the open box, it no longer shows any info:

Any advice? Did something change?

Hmmm.

I told him no... (yes, the pixelized area is where he put the MemberID).

A nasty hack...

2007-09-28T01:26:00.001-04:00

...but, when used for good rather than evil, a very practical tool.

Windows - Dirty Trick! - Funny bloopers R us

Hiding Files in an Image

2007-09-28T01:14:00.000-04:00

How To Hide Your Files In An Image - Click here for this week’s top video clips
I think I'll need to explore this but... cool.

From Theory To Reality in 40 years

2007-09-24T14:54:00.001-04:00

Found Here: http://www.old-computers.com/history/detail.asp?n=59&t=1

Getting Away... and unplugging.

2007-09-05T09:51:00.000-04:00

Year Round Festivals In Muskoka - Events For All

Next year, Muskoka Air Show. This year... saving up for the escape.

For Safer Browsing... try OpenDNS!

2007-08-31T05:49:00.000-04:00

What is OpenDNS?
OpenDNS is a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. Their service is free and requires nothing to download.

OpenDNS!

Anti-Piracy: The arguments are hitting home...

2007-08-29T03:20:00.000-04:00

...and the government isn't listening. Or are they?

Micheal Geist has a host of information regarding Canadian Copyright Law amendments and bill C-60 and opposition to it. This video talks about what the lobby groups are suggesting:

For me, Piracy is wrong, but I've been listening to a few friends who have arguments that don't dispute this but seem to justify (based on blank media levies, and legality of downloading) the receipt of what the law can suggest is "stolen goods" in the form of creative works (Music and Movies). Still others are wilful providers of source media from vast collections of movies, music, and books of all sorts because they don't feel any significant responsibility to support the creators of the products they enjoy.

While my perspective one of fair use and the video above talks in broad strokes, Bill C-60 seems to be much more constrictive, and the summary does not shed any light on the teeth our laws require. It goes a long way to eliminate arguments regarding fair use, closing doors on who can make a work available to file-sharing systems from a distribution stand-point. It places the ownership back in the hands of the owner of the work, the artist. The opponents to bill C-60 make a few presumptions, most notably around personal photography suggesting that a tourist who has a picture taken by a local would forfeit rights. This could arguably be called a commissioned work and the rights are retained by the film owner.

While we do need better Intellectual Property (IP) laws to protect copyright owners, the law proposed by C-60 needs to be considered carefully. It does not eliminate personal use clauses, but there's some insistence that the use be, in fact, personal. Also, "Downloading music files for personal, non-commercial use remains legal under Bill C-60, " according to the summary (below). Please note that this specifically states music is allowed.

Feeling particularly brave, have a look at the proposed legislation yourself: PDF, HTML, Legislative Summary (the government's take).

Lobbyists (and opponents) are good at inciting panic and running around like freaks, you need to take everything they yell from their soap box and verify it against the actual written word of the law. If you can examine both sides, the ramblings of the proposed law and those that oppose it and don't like what you see, Sign the petition to stop Bill C-60. No, really, it's a physical piece of paper that you really need to sign and send off by mail. Don't just lie there and copy those DVDs and MP3s, fight back by becoming active in protecting your rights to fair use.

Also, have a look at this site: Canadian Music Creators Coalition

If the musicians aren't on board, who is the CRIA representing? Oh, ya... The Recording Industry, but even that's changing it's tune.

YouTube - Keepon dancing to Spoon's "Don't You Evah"

2007-08-17T11:24:00.000-04:00

YouTube - Keepon dancing to Spoon's "Don't You Evah"

2007-08-17T08:11:00.000-04:00

When you're a little too helpful once, you're on the hook for everything.

ManagerDude: Hey - Jack
ManagerDude: Do you know anything about our fax server here in SLC?
JackTheProgrammer: Not a thing. [waits for a response, then leaves for the day]
ManagerDude: Thank you!

Now, was that a NICE "Thank-you" of did that exclamation point change the meaning?

The Linux are coming! The Linux are coming!

2007-07-26T04:55:00.000-04:00

An article in Wired about the wondrous Linux advent of a better, considerably pleasant, desktop experience for those looking at the alternatives to a Windows-based life of slavery caught my eye.

Linux: It's Not Just for Servers Anymore

The article mentions Ubuntu's distribution, I've thrown a number of people at this OS and they've all had a relatively healthy reaction to it, even though some of them are self-proclaimed technical neophytes. Looking for a change, with some understanding that this is not a Windows OS, this is a viable option.

Microsoft Surface: Fully explained by Popular Mechanics

2007-07-04T13:28:00.000-04:00

What to do when you call support (humour)

2007-06-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

1. When you call us to have your computer moved, be sure to leave it buried under half a ton of postcards, baby pictures, stuffed animals, dried flowers, bowling trophies and children’s art. We don’t have a life, and we find it deeply moving to catch a fleeting glimpse of yours.

2. Don’t write anything down. Ever. We can play back the error messages from here.

3. When an IT person says he’s coming right over, go for coffee. That way you won’t be there when we need your password. It’s nothing for us to remember 700 screen saver passwords.

4. When you call the help desk, state what you want, not what’s keeping you from getting it. We don’t need to know that you can’t get into your mail because your computer won’t power on at all.

5. When IT support sends you an e-mail with high importance, delete it at once. We’re just testing.

6. When an IT person is eating lunch at his desk, walk right in and spill your guts right out. We exist only to serve.

7. Send urgent e-mail all in uppercase. The mail server picks it up and flags it as a rush delivery.

8. When the photocopier doesn’t work, call computer support. There are electronics in it.

9. When something’s wrong with your home PC, dump it on an IT person’s chair with no name, no phone number and no description of the problem. We love a puzzle.

10. When an IT person tells you that computer screens don’t have cartridges in them, argue. We love a good argument.

11. When an IT person tells you that he’ll be there shortly, reply in a scathing tone of voice: “And just how many weeks do you mean by shortly?” That motivates us.

12. When the printer won’t print, re-send the job at least 20 times. Print jobs frequently get sucked into black holes.

13. When the printer still won’t print after 20 tries, send the job to all 68 printers in the company. One of them is bound to work.

14. Don’t learn the proper term for anything technical. We know exactly what you mean by “My thingy blew up.”

15. Don’t use on-line help. On-line help is for wimps.

Hours of Operation and Uptime

2007-06-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

When quality might be Job 1, but only if it's convenient...

A friend of mine received the following email:

Hi all,

We have scheduled the helpdesk tool update for Thursday June 21^st @ 8:30AM. The update it will take approximately 3 hours. I will send another email out when the upgrade has been completed.

I presume performing an upgrade from 5-8AM, or 12-3AM was out of the question.

The PDC is the what?

2007-06-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

Apparently there's a "best practice" that needs to be re-thought at this one company. The idea that the Primary Domain Controller (PDC) should serve several roles rather than simply being the backbone it is supposed to be. I mean, after all, there are Backup Domain Controllers all over the place, the PDC isn't that important, it can do more.

Well, This PDC was the main LDAP store, it also seems to have been the key mail server. I'm not sure what other roles it served, but this was apparently enough. The problem came when the DC freaked out, causing mail to stop and hundreds of e-mails went into oblivion.

Hmmm.

Dedicate a few servers... Don't virtualize everything, and use redundancy.

Some advice on Vista and AntiVirus Software

2007-03-01T09:24:00.000-05:00

From a colleague who is a firm believer in Grisoft's AVG, this web log endeavours to support why he prefers it. It consumes less horsepower and seems to be as effective as any other.

While the author's web log goes on to elude to being "safe" running no anti-virus software, I can assure you that it can be as beneficial to you as well as others to protect yourself. I will readily promote the use of AVG, though the Rogers/Yahoo partnership of my ISP offers me Symantec's products at no additional charge.

Where's that Keyboard?

2007-02-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

This is NOT a good reason for server downtime!

You might think that your network administrator might know enough to have all systems plugged into KVMs or at least ensure they have a BIOS that can be configured to ignore keyboard errors. It becomes troublesome when the responsibility is shifted to the people at the off-site datacentre, but that may have been the case. Frankly, that's the risk of allowing the employees of the datacentre touch your equipment, they don't have the same level of ownership that your own staff do.

Either way, a friend of mine expressed great frustration when a high-priority server rebooted due to a fault and didn't come back because someone had left it detatched from it's keyboard.

In Honour of Bill's Accomplishments

2007-02-15T08:46:00.000-05:00

DO NOT UPGRADE TO VISTA (yet)

2007-02-13T10:11:00.001-05:00

Production vs. Non-Production

2007-02-08T10:55:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine had a discussion with his server guy this week about a virtual production server that is running on the development VMWare ESX server. While he told me that the server generally performs well on that box, there are procedural, logical, and policy reasons for running a production VM on a production ESX host. It has been in production for over 4 months and it's about time for this to be resolved.

In addition to this issue, the users in Arizona can't see the staging server to test/base approvals upon without being handed a convoluted internal address or IP Address. My friend's desire to simplify this approval testing by introducing a convenient name is hindered by technical issues, and he eventually resigns the fight.

The following is an IM conversation regarding the situations.

Developer: 2 Questions
Developer: When is the AppOne Production server moving?

Server Support: it will move.
Server Support: no rush..

Developer: Is the AppOneStage URL available from Arizona yet?

Server Support: i think, we spoke on this 2nd issue as well. We have work around which is host file.
Server Support: current setup is very weird.
Server Support: they have local work group joined computers.

Developer: Ok... I'd like to be able to have them use stage, easily. Anyone there.

Server Support: they have issues resolving dns names, only work around we have is to use host file, which is not best solution but at this time. nothing we could offter them right away which will solve the issue.
Server Support: regards to moving production AppOne off of Dev LUN, this will happen but as I understand, it's not causing any issues where it's running it from.
Server Support: bigger issue regards to that move is, it can not happen during the day time. last I spoke call center is open till 11pm and I can't keep my self awake till that time.
Server Support: only day we have is Sunday, I will try to juggle some time on Sunday to do this task

Developer: okay I'll stop asking for either of these... but will say that the Production AppOne box SHOULD be on a production server and that's where I'd like to see it as my preference.
Server Support: I totally Understand, but as user and person supporting it, doesn't' really care where it's running it from. Just pretend you never heard it was running on the DEV LUN.
Developer: How does Arizona get it's DNS?

Server Support: unless someone else is keep asking you for status and you are following it with me, then it's fine.
Server Support: but let's face it, there is no real diff.

Wow... There is a difference, in my books.

Service Metrics Are Your IT Report Card

2007-02-02T15:53:00.000-05:00

We all know that user surveys can be baked the way we want, picking and choosing the users you include (or invite) in the survey is not uncommon for smaller, less established, helpdesks. What really shows you're worthy of retention is service metrics on the services and resources your department provides to management.

While some technology groups that measure availability can realize over 99% availability for all services, smaller, less responsible groups would be happy to realize 70% if they knew at all how they were doing. Perhaps they don't understand the benefits of high-availability.

Availability is amount of time all critical services are ready to use and functioning properly to the exclusion of planned downtime (within the Change Window). This Change Window can be quite the advantage when considering that while a full week is 7x24, and some services are truly 7x24 services, most applications in a business are NOT 7x24 instead they are 5x12, or 6x10, or perhaps 5x13+1x10. Any of these scenarios provide windows of opportunity for changes and upgrades, if we consider a business running Monday through Friday from 7AM - 10PM, we can safely consider a Change Window of 6 hours a night and 54 hours over a typical 2-day weekend.

Your measure of availability is against the time outside of those windows, in the above example, we have 84 hours of Production Availability for business systems, that shouldn't be too hard to realize on a regular basis, but things do happen. This does not include web servers and Internet-facing systems, and may not include other systems because there are some systems that demand 7x24 functionality. In these scenarios scheduled windows may be permitted and may deserve the use or provisioning for alternate or redundant hardware.

Tracking your availability, the success of your changes, and reliability of the services you provide may be a painful reminder of your challenges, but they also allow you to set goals to improving your services and becoming (proving you are) a world-class technology group.

An interesting Retro-Gaming device...

2007-01-30T15:52:00.000-05:00

The GP2X - Cost effected and retro...

Beware the Posers...

2007-01-30T15:49:00.000-05:00

From YouTube.com...

Interface Design: Bumptop 3D Desktop

2007-01-26T14:15:00.000-05:00

This looks like a very intuitive interface. An interesting and fresh idea.

Check it out

Funny E-Mail of the Year...

2007-01-03T11:26:00.000-05:00

In a note to the help desk at one company, the user's note was a simple request:

"All of my passwords were written on my calendar and I threw my calendar out. Can you help me?"

{smirk} "Yes I can."

Begging Is NOT Being Professional.

2006-12-22T08:43:00.000-05:00

'Tis the season for gift baskets from vendors. They're everywhere and they are designed to make us plump little IT people. This does NOT mean they're not appreciated!

It seems to me that while these gestures of appreciation flow graciously in the direction of customers, potential customers, employees, and management, they are often used as a manner of sucking up. In fact, it seems they are almost exclusively that, though the intent is truly a gesture of kindness, a reminder that the sender is thinking fondly of the receiver.

The employees are the only one's potentially honoured without the idea of sucking up, though the demands on them may seem enhanced post-gift. This is truly an honour.

The one thing I've witnessed this year is the shameless and unprofessional act of calling up a vendor and asking where their basket was. It was a truly horrid to see this, though the benefits of this morning's basket were highly favourable. No, I did NOT make the call.

Begging, for anything, is unprofessional. Whether it's your job at the point of termination, your Christmas basket, your seasonal bonus, or an hour off when it's required.

Good Dog.

The new Paint program you will want...

2006-12-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

The Paint program, a descendent of the Windows Paintbrush tool that has not gained significant features in all its days has a replacement. Allow me to introduce you to a freeware/donationware tool that is sure to please and dead simple to use, Paint.net.

The tool is wonderful, handy and fills a few gaps between the less-than-adequate features of Microsoft Paint, and a pricey product that is for professional graphics and web building.

Please have a look at their site, for the common user, download and install a non-Beta version. If you're courageous and can accept the risk, go for the version 3.0 Beta and enjoy some additional features.

Manual thinking over technology wins... sometimes

2006-11-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

I'm in the middle of creating a PRINT IMAGE for a HCFA 1500 form and I'd set about making a text grid and mapping it out based on Courier 10pt. I'm drawing boxes on the paper with a pen of all things and my co-worker and Linux mentor, fires me this link.

As they say, "LMAO."

Didn't Chip get shot down (as a kid) by the simple approach of a non-nerd solution. It's a gem to remember to be sure.

It's good to remember when technology is too complex for the solution.

That reminds me, I need a new head for my electric toothbrush.

All Hail the Early Adopters

2006-11-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

We owe a great deal to those people who take the leap of faith with the newest technologies. I do it from time-to-time, but lately I've taken to the, "wait and see", accepting the lower prices of the older technologies and letting these heroes give me bouts of jealousy.

You need a certain degree of bravery to be the first with the newest thing, there are almost always bugs and quirks with the first-offs for the new thing, the technology is tested by the bit-heads that invented it and shown off to the executives to gain funding for future R&D, but the public have only been teased about it. It's a true test of your financial bravery.

There are many means of sacrifice in the EA forum, there's the risks taken with beta software, the trials of shareware, and the pain of major version upgrades out-of-sync with your partners or co-workers. The initiative to jump on the bandwagon comes with a bungie tied to you. The skill comes from jumping on and getting comfortable while leaving enough time to untie the bungie or drag along the crowd you co-exist with.

If you're willing to be the hero, be the guinea-pig, or be labelled the rebel, go for it. If not, thank them for being courageous enough to jump in, step up, or leap off for the sake of advancing technologies.

My Early Adopter Moves:

XBOX (success)
High-Speed Cable (painful but worth the experience)
Some MP3 player (Mattel) for mydaughter (failure, no support, poor design)