Tech by PC

Old US Standards

PC — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:58:47 +0000

It is past time for the US to come modern with the metric or SI system. I just happened to run across a site discussing the difference between A4 and Letter. It was a really good read and explains why it is a fight every time you try to fight with reformatting in a word [...]

Sony

PC — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:10:38 +0000

It has been hashed about more than enough, so I won’t rehash. Sony’s recent claim that Anonymous is responsible is pretty funny. I wouldn’t even say I know much about them, but I did read a lot about them during the HBGary event and it seemed pretty clear at face value that Sony was hoping [...]

Can no longer recommend OOMA

PC — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:09:11 +0000

Seems like a great idea: Buy the device and free calling forever. I even subscribed to the premium service for some advanced features that we need like blocking. Unfortunately I have had nothing but trouble since I installed the system. A few days after getting my number ported, incoming calls on that number went straight [...]

TV Alternatives

PC — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 22:16:50 +0000

A couple months ago we cancelled our DirecTV subscription. I had a nearly complete HD package and two HD DVRs, so we were paying something significant for it every month. It was a tough decision because DirecTV is great coupled with a DVR allowing us to have something to watch almost all the time, but [...]

Controlling User Data

PC — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:21:21 +0000

The problem: User data accumulates over time. There are many different types of wasted data on a typical company’s network shares. Here are the top four in no particular order: Users who make a copy of everything as a backup “just in case”. These users will create a copy every time they revise a document. It [...]

BP and the Gulf Oil Spill

PC — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:54:43 +0000

I try to refrain from getting too political here, but there is enough technology in this disaster and I feel strongly enough about it that I need to say something. Just about every plan that BP has thought up involves recovering the oil. Are they more concerned about tapping the black gold or fixing the environmental [...]

Laptop finally died

PC — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:10:34 +0000

My Dell XPS M1210 has finally died. It is a sad day. I’m in the market for a new laptop, and of course would be glad to do any reviews if you’d like to send me one or give me a discount. I’d really love another XPS M1210 but more modern. The closest thing [...]

Google Voice – One step closer to perfection

PC — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:46:12 +0000

Google Voice really didn’t add anything new other than some interface modifications and instructions for mobile users, however it does bring the service one step closer to perfection. Here’s why: Most people are not going to spend the time figuring out how to forward their cell phone voice mails to Google Voice, but a few [...]

Win 7 Impressions, Day 3

PC — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:39:40 +0000

Of course I’ve been using Windows 7 for longer than three days, but this is the third day having it on my old Dell XPS M1210. I just noticed recently that the poor laptop is coming up on its 3-year anniversary. It had a 3-year warranty with accidental damage coverage. The only stupid thing I [...]

Win 7

PC — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:52:46 +0000

The big question I had was whether or not entering a retail code into the RTM code would work. It did not work for me. Now that I’m running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional on my Dell XPS M1210, I thought I’d go through a little of the process so far. First of all, I used the [...]

Windows 7 iexplore.exe

PC — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:54:15 +0000

I have a RTM build of Windows 7 on my work desktop. I brought up task manager after leaving the system on for about a week and found the following: Now I am trying to use the machine just like I would use Vista or XP except that I, until this point, hadn’t yet loaded firefox [...]

Safety Online

PC — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 15:33:19 +0000

I was reading about the recent Twitter DOS that also affected Facebook and particularly the comments posted on CNN about how not having Twitter made people feel naked. One person interviewed said that people knew everything about her life because of Twitter. I have always been a little hesitant to post online status. After all, those [...]

CentOS

PC — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:02:51 +0000

A co-worker of mine recently asked why we use commercial Linux rather than free counterpart software. This is a great reason: http://www.centos.org/ In a nutshell it seems as if the lead developer for CentOS, which is a free Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone, has disappeared. Now, before I begin, I’d like to point out that – and [...]

Ubiquitous (and cheap) access from the road

PC — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 23:51:01 +0000

Since I am on vacation at the moment, this touches close to home. Why is it nearly 2010 and we still do not have cheap ubiquitous internet access anywhere? I arrive at my in-laws house and they don’t have a wireless connection, but they do have a DSL “modem” directly connected to a laptop. Makes [...]

Certification Rant

PC — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:25:09 +0000

There are a few camps of thoughts on certifications. But first I want to talk about the types of certified people. First is the certification nut who has half a dozen or more after his or her name. These are typically instructors, or people with a job that is relatively un-demanding enough to provide them [...]

Blogging At Work

PC — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:25:25 +0000

The company I work for recently published a policy forbidding blogging while at work. From first glance this looks like a natural and normal thing – why should they provide resources to enable people to blog. Blog from home on your own time and with your own resources. At second glance this is a little [...]

Vista Laptop

PC — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:23:05 +0000

This month marks two years for my Vista install on my laptop. It is absolutely the best operating system I’ve ever used. Here’s what would have happened to me had I installed a different operating system two years ago: Windows XP – the next logical choice: My laptop would have been reloaded 3 times since and [...]

ViaTalk after a few months

PC — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:06:21 +0000

I switched from Packet8 to ViaTalk a while back, and while I knew the service wouldn’t be as reliable, I couldn’t ignore the drop by more that 50% in the phone bill. For VoIP Packet8 is expensive, but they are also a premium service. In my year and a half with them I had rock [...]

Entertainment for a Recession

PC — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 18:00:53 +0000

There are some things that never change. One of those is people’s need for distraction. Seems like it would be a good time for video game and entertainment companies to make a killing. If they are not, it is probably because they are charging too much. We finally got a console game system, a Wii, [...]

The ideal policy

PC — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:30:35 +0000

Computer and Internet policy in the workplace, Part 2: The Ideal Policy The ideal policy must balance productivity. It has to focus on actual results of policy change, not a theoretical ideal. First, you need to identify what problem you have that you want to develop policy to solve. Policy for the sake of policy is [...]