Aaron's Tech Blog

New Design

2009-01-02T19:36:00.000-08:00

Many of you have probably noticed the new design by now. I have essentially embedded my Shared Google Reader up above. This is the easiest way for me to post new blogs posts here with my comments above each post in blue. So, to actually see my latest posts, you'll have to use the smaller embedded scroll bar. I found this to be better than just making the Google Reader Share page my blog because I can't customize it with sidebar content or anything like Blogger lets me do. If you want to subscribe, you should see the Atom Feed link underneath all of my Google profile information.

So, don't think that I haven't updated since my last post in July of 2007. I have just been using the embedded Google Reader page to share interesting technology tidbits!

Aaron

Personally Using Technology

2007-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

This tech blog site is all about technology and I felt it appropriate to use one of my favorite Google apps (Google maps) for a practical and cool use. We have heard from people all over the world that say that they are praying for our son Eli to win his battle with Neuroblastoma. I thought it would be fun to get a visual representation of that, so below you will find a map full of pushpins where people have said they are praying for our family. If you would like to add yourself or someone else that you know of to the list, just click the Add button and fill in as much or as little information as you want (city and state would be a good minimum). You do have to hit "Submit" twice as it verifies the city you entered to pick the right latitude and longitude and you might have to refresh the page after clicking close to see your pushpin appear. Also, if it happens to ask for a password, use EliRHorn and that should work. Otherwise, enjoy moving the map around and zooming into and around to see the growing network of people supporting Eli. And as always, thanks for the prayers!

Time Off

2007-07-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

So you've probably noticed this blog hasn't been updated in a long time. There's actually a reason for that. My 3 year old son was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a cancerous tumor that is very large. We are battling that, and obviously I haven't been "blogging" lately because of it. In my "down time", I do still read up on my sources, so thanks to the ease of the Google Reader, I'll still be sharing things in my "commentaryless i.t. quickies" section of to the right hand side of the screen. If you don't want to keep coming here, you can access that page directly here. Or, you can subscribe to that as a separate RSS feed here. My "commentaryfull" blogging should resume once life starts to resemble normalcy again (no idea on when that will happen).

Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates

2007-06-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Freebies Round-Up: Icons, Buttons and Templates | Smashing Magazine

For those that do any kind of web designing or have graphics needs where you want cool looking icons and buttons, but don't want to break any copyright laws...

Mystery of tiny faces on Vista DVDs solved

2007-06-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Mystery of tiny faces on Vista DVDs solved

So there is an actual microsopic photo of three guys in the hologram of the Windows Vista DVD. Cool Easter egg, but really there to make it harder to pirate the DVD. :-)

IE7Pro - The Ultimate Add-On for Internet Explorer 7

2007-06-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

IE7Pro - The Ultimate Add-On for Internet Explorer 7

IE7Pro is a must have add-on for Internet Explorer, which includes a lot of features and tweaks to make your IE friendlier, more useful, secure and customizable. IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform, User Plug-ins and many more power packed features. You can customize not just Internet Explorer, but even your favorite website according to your need and taste using IE7Pro.

Safari 3 Public Beta for WINDOWS

2007-06-11T12:54:00.000-07:00

Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

So to me, not being a Mac person, the only notable news from the Keynote speech from Steve Jobs at WWDC 2007 was that they have released a public beta of Safari (the web browser for Macs) for Windows. It's supposedly faster. Safari has 5% of the browser market share. IE has 78% and Firefox has 15%. I'll give it a shot and see how well it works. Can't see getting away from IE, but should be fun to try a new browser for a few days...

Windows based iPhone

2007-06-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

HTC Touch

Microsoft says they don't want to get into hardware of phones, they'll keep pushing out Mobile OSs and let the hardware vendors like Motorola and HTC do the work. So here's the first response to the iPhone by a Windows based device. The HTC Touch.

My Outlook Calendar Published Online

2007-06-06T13:58:00.000-07:00

So maybe people have known about this for a while, but today while playing in the Outlook Calendar view, I found a way to publish my calendar online. I can also e-mail itineraries from a day/week/month, etc. The online publishing is really cool because I can have it auto update with just my availability without showing what the appointments are. So if someone wants to see whether I'm free or busy, they can check this website that just synchs with my Outlook. If they have Outlook, they can subscribe to my calendar and have it in their Outlook without going to the website. Pretty cool for when you want to share your availability with those outside your company, especially with those not using Outlook!

There are a lot more features like being able to have people contribute to it and only show it to people you invite and giving access based on whether they are Office Live users or not. I just thought generic availability to everyone was a pretty cool feature...

Jobs and Gates Interview Highlights

2007-06-01T20:47:00.001-07:00

Highlights from the Steve Jobs (Apple) and Bill Gates (Microsoft) interview where they were on the stage at the same time for the D5 conference.

Microsoft Surface

2007-05-31T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here's the Microsoft Surface that everyone is talking about...

Google Street View

2007-05-31T08:45:00.001-07:00

Click the header for more information on Google's new Street View feature (or just watch the video below). In select cities, you can actually take a "virtual tour" of certain streets and see pictures taken from the actual street (360 degrees). It's actually quite cool. Not sure how long it will take them to get to Ames, Iowa though. :-)

Google Goes Offline

2007-05-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

Gears puts Google in the driver's seat - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au

So I noticed this morning that Google has a new feature, which I'm pretty excited about. I was going to check out my RSS feeds with Google Reader (I'm now a fan since they've made some serious upgrades to Google Reader, it has now officially replaced SharpReader for me). It's called Google Gears and it allows me to take my Reader offline. This is really cool for me because I have a few hundred unread items and a 2 hour flight from Dallas to Des Moines ahead of me. Guess what I can do on the plane now! Once I synchronize the items (up to 2,000) and read them offline, I can then synch back once I'm online at home and it will tell Reader all the items I've already read.

Probably the most exciting part of Google Gears is the knowledge that email, docs, spreadsheets, etc. are coming soon. The ability to go offline with those apps (especially gmail) will be even more cool, but I'm happy they started with the Reader.

How to assign a program to a processor in XP or Vista

2007-05-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

How to assign a program to a processor in XP or Vista

In Windows XP Pro or Vista, if you have a computer running multiple processors or one with a dual core processor, you can assign specific programs to use a specific processor or core. First you need to open the program or run the process. Then do the following:

Right click an empty space on the taskbar or press CTRL+ATL+DEL and select to start Task Manager.

Click the Processes tab.

In the left column, find the process you want to assign (for example, Winword.exe for the Word program) and right click it.

Click Set Affinity in the context menu.

By default, both CPUs will be checked. Check only the CPU you want the process to run on (CPU0 or CPU1).

Click OK.

This can be useful if you need to keep one processor free for use by a particular program, or if you're running older applications that don't work as well with two processors.

Analyst bets on Google-Salesforce.com merger

2007-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Analyst bets on Google-Salesforce.com merger - 24 May 2007 - Computing.co.uk

The Wall Street Journal said something last week about Google and Salesforce.com getting friendly with each other. I see the benefit to Salesforce.com as they try to compete with Siebel/Oracle and Microsoft, but I'm not sure on Google. Undoubtedly the web based piece of Salesforce.com, and call it a merger if you want, but it'll be a Google buying out Salesforce situation. I don't tend to post too many rumours on this blog, but when Google is involved, I can't help myself. :-)

Gmail Doubles Maximum Attachment Size to 20 MB

2007-05-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Google Operating System: Gmail Doubles Maximum Attachment Size to 20 MB

It used to be 10MB per file, now it's 20MB. Um, yeah, cool, we all know Gmail rocks...

Keystrokes as BioPasswords

2007-05-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

Keystrokes Are Us

So the newest idea is that you do BioPasswords, not with a fingerprint reader or a smart card, but by analyzing HOW you type the password. If you aren't typing the password like you normally do, it assumes it isn't you. I like this idea since it doesn't require a new device to purchase, and just uses your existing keyboard. How long do you hold the 'a' key when you type your password (which I hope isn't 'password')? That will be a part of your BioPassword profile!

6 Vista Tips in 6 Minutes

2007-05-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

Why Microsoft's purchase of Aquantive is So Smart

2007-05-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

The Key: Why Microsoft's purchase of Aquantive is So Smart

So Microsoft paid $6 Billion for aQuantive in response to Google's $3.1 Billion purchase of DoubleClick? Who got the best deal? Google still on top in my opinion...

Washington State Bans Texting While Driving

2007-05-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

Washington State Bans Texting While Driving

Had to see this one coming. I don't think it's that unreasonable. I expect most states to adopt this very soon. As a person who has personally e-mailed from a phone while driving, I can admit it's not very safe. :-)

Picasa Web Flash Slideshows

2007-05-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posts. I was at the Cognos Forum 2007 in Orlando this week. Pretty interesting for Cognos customers if you've never been. Anyway, Google's Picasa announced a new way to make your Picasa slideshows portable in Flash version. You can get embedded code from your photo album that you can put on any website and let people control the properties of the show. I've included one here on this post so you can see how it works. This slideshow is from Iowa State's VEISHEA this year.

Comcast CEO Shows Off Super Quick Modem

2007-05-11T06:13:00.000-07:00

Wired News - AP News

So Comcast says that within a few years, we'll have "channel bonding" cable modems that can do 150 megabits per second (25 times faster than today's cable modems). Watch out Verizon Fiber, her comes cable modem again!

Free Xbox 360 transfer cable

2007-05-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Order Form

I don't personally know anyone that this applies to, but in case you have an XBOX 360 and want to upgrade to the XBOX 360 Elite for the 120GB hard drive, but are hesitant because you're afraid of losing the data you have on your 20GB hard drive, there is hope. Click the link above because for a limited time, Microsoft is offering a free data transfer cable for the 20GB hard drive to the 120GB hard drive. Microsoft and free in the same sentence, you read that right. :-)

Track your flight in 3D

2007-05-02T20:30:00.000-07:00

Track your flight in 3D | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Ok, so as much as I don't like Google Earth at work because it's a bandwidth nightmare, it's still cool to use at home. :-) This free add on app sounds really cool, although I'll admit I haven't tried it. Put in a flight number and track, in real time, where the flight is in the world and follow it all the way to the landing spot. Um, wow, that's cool.

1 Month Free Netflix

2007-05-01T19:47:00.000-07:00