Keystone is IT!

Windows 8 Preview

2012-01-26T09:39:00.001-05:00

Recently played with Windows 8 beta on a desktop PC. Not impressed. Window 8 puts a Windows Mobile-like GUI on top of a more familiar Windows 7-like desktop. Furthermore, when you drill down to changes made to the desktop interface, it is sufficiently different (not better) from Windows 7 to be annoying. It seems that Windows 8 wants to standardize the user experience across smartphones,

Administrator Mode on the HP t5335z?

2012-01-19T15:21:00.000-05:00

I have a new HP t5335z Thin Client device with the annoying feature out of the box of going into suspend mode (?) after several minutes of inactivity. Nobody on the HP support forums seems to know how to change that feature, so I thought I'd ask the easier question of how to get into the device as an administrator. No replies from the HP community to that either, so I had to figure it out

CES 2012 Impressions

2012-01-12T11:34:00.001-05:00

Thumbs down on Smart TVs. Why do I want to buy a television with a computer inside. It will be obsolete in 24 months. Why the buzz about Ultrabooks? "Ultra portable" laptops you been around for years. This is another case of marketing over substance. 4K displays caught my attention. These are the next generation after hdtv. Sharp and Sony had them at CES. 4K refers to the number of pixels

Portable Computers

2012-01-09T13:45:00.001-05:00

These are laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And portable computing is the leading edge of change in information technology. The movers and shakers in portable computing are Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and others. Not Microsoft, Intel, Dell, HP nor other established players. Change is coming, and it's going to get messy. Microsoft is trying to play catch up. HP doesn't know if it is coming

The case for Thin Clients

2011-12-22T12:52:00.000-05:00

The case against thin clients is that fat clients are so inexpensive that for little or no extra money, why not get a fat client instead of a thin one? Nowadays, it costs more to deploy thin clients and a fat server than it does to put fat clients on every desktop and a central file server (Network Attached Storage device). The prices of some manufacturers' thin clients are higher than many of

Clone a failing Windows hard disk with ddrescue on Ubuntu Rescue Remix

2011-08-25T10:38:00.000-04:00

Scenario: The hard disk is starting to throw "bad block" errors. Windows still works/boots, but who knows for how much longer. And you don't want to have to go through the time and expense of rescuing the data from the failing disk, installing Windows and all your applications on a new hard disk, and re-loading the data on the new hard disk. Solution: You want to use a free Linux tool called

iPC

2010-09-23T15:34:00.007-04:00

Touch-screen technology is the "sine qua non" of Portable Computing. Everything else is a compromise for portability --small screen and keyboard, slow speed, "mobile apps" etc.Some vendors now offer touch-screen monitors, bringing compromise-free Portable Computing to the desktop. Hmmm. This does not compute!It is not portable. It is not ergonomic. It is not efficient. No way would I trade my 24"

Take This Blog and Shove It!

2010-08-16T14:59:00.003-04:00

Apparently I have not been alone in neglecting my blog recently. Newsweek reports that a "recent Pew study found that blogging has withered as a pastime..."Turns out that people get distracted by other things, particularly if they are not getting paid to make "contributions to the hive mind."Here are some of the posts I could have written over the past few months if I were more attentive.

Spin Control

2010-05-10T09:46:00.002-04:00

Here I am after completing the 3-mile Nanticoke River swim. My time was nothing special. But I was the second-oldest person to finish the race!

Conservative Hopes for Financial Reform

2010-04-30T08:59:00.001-04:00

Capitalism needs to be protected from itself. Greed is good, except unchecked it leads to price fixing, pollution, fraud and other ills that have been criminalized, rightly.Because there was an extended run up in the value of certain markets leading into the financial crisis of 2009, especially housing, the rewards earned by money managers on Wall Street and the risks they ran with other

Conservative Hopes for Health Reform

2010-03-28T13:21:00.005-04:00

Republicans have become the defenders of the status quo with regard to health care, and this is the wrong side of the issue. The only virtue of the status quo is that it is "the devil we know." The Democrat health reform law ushers in the devil we don't know, yet. But I have (conservative) hopes that the change will be for the better.The health care system has long suffered from the plague of

Software Perils

2010-02-28T09:42:00.005-05:00

A client recently had a bad experience with Net Nanny software. After uninstalling the product, ContentWatch errors started popping-up every time a user or a service accessed the Internet. With weather, news, IM, etc. widgets on the desktop the pop-ups were more than annoying.We spent a lot of time trying to fix the issue. The Google machine was not much help. Against our better instincts, we

5 More Rules for (Not) Wearing a Speedo

2010-01-23T10:33:00.003-05:00

It's been two years, since I first/last wrote on this topic, and yet the Speedo fashion among men-who-should-know-better continues to grow! Granted, much of the growth has been in the knee-length jammers which show less skin, but Speedo jammers are still skin-tight. So, in a further effort to combat this alarming trend here are 5 more rules for (not) wearing a Speedo: If your underwear is more

The Down-Side of Cloud Computing

2009-12-20T10:42:00.004-05:00

Over the last 50 years, with exponentially increasing power and rapidly declining costs, information technology has proved to be an irresistible and inevitable force. Cloud computing represents the continuing rapid advance of information technology.Cloud computing is a process of outsourcing and applying information technology. It gives organizations huge cost savings, it frees up cash that’s

Google Fumbles

2009-11-29T13:39:00.003-05:00

The answer to almost every question can be found using Google. But every now and then I come across a situation or a problem where the answer is not to be found on Google; at least not near the top of the pile. And believe me, I am pretty good at querying Google to get the answers I need.Only by publicizing such Google "fumbles" can we hope to correct them. So, let's get the word out about the

Swine Flu: National Emergency?

2009-10-25T18:15:00.002-04:00

With the Swine Flu vaccine lagging and the virus widespread, what's the plan here? Call the Army back from Afghanistan to make sure we wash our hands and cover our mouths when coughing?What national health emergencies can we expect in the future? Alcohol, tobacco, obesity, illegal drugs, firearms, AIDS, Alzheimers, homelessness, ... As the Federal Government gets ready to over-take health care,

JungleDisk Works!

2009-09-09T15:43:00.008-04:00

We are busy migrating business clients to cloud storage. The enabling technology for our users is JungleDisk software that allows us to map a drive on the user's PC to his/her/their files in cloud storage at Amazon. Here are the business cases we are dealing with:Instead of using Backup.com for online backup, JungleDisk and Amazon do the job for dimes instead of dollars. Instead of replacing

JScript Compilation Error

2009-08-19T16:24:00.003-04:00

After reformatting and a fresh reload of Windows XP-Pro on a pair of client machines, I started getting a JScript Compilation pop-up error message on both machines after installing Java, then navigating to web pages with Java content. The fix is simple, but I had a hard time finding it on the web. Here it is:Open the browser. Click on Tools on the Menu bar, and click on Internet Options on the

Forcing IE 8 Uninstall

2009-07-17T09:52:00.004-04:00

Need to uninstall Internet Explorer 8? The uninstall fails because files are missing that need to be copied to restore Internet Explorer 7? Here's a solution that I stumbled upon and that worked for me.Download and save the IE 7 installation file from Microsoft. This is an .exe file. When you launch it, it expands the installation files in a temporary directory and then starts the install. When

Office Open XML confusion

2009-07-17T09:27:00.004-04:00

Office Open XML is the Microsoft specification for Office 2007 files that was adopted as an ISO/IEC Standard in 2008. Among the benefits touted for Office Open XML is that one can open, edit and generate these files without needing to buy Microsoft Office 2007. To date, however, there are no practical alternatives to using Microsoft Office to work with these files.Recently, a client of ours was

Corporate Chivalry

2009-07-13T10:21:00.003-04:00

For the moment anyway, corporate chivalry lives on the Web. Chivalry refers to the system of beliefs and practices originating with knights in the middle ages. Gallantry toward women was one of its core principals. And that has given chivalry a bad odor in modern times.Today I discovered that Switchboard.com has started adding people's approximate ages to search results, providing a 5-year age

RTFM?

2009-06-28T18:57:00.004-04:00

The last resort in tech support is RTFM (read the freaking manual)!It is almost impossible to find the answer you need quickly in the manual. Who wants to write a manual? How much to manufacturers want to pay for a manual? Bottom line, the manual may be written by someone with limited English proficiency and no experience with the product.For a "just-in-time" answer to a practical problem, Google

Are you backed-up?

2009-05-27T12:11:00.003-04:00

Here's an all-too-familiar scenario. Someone calls our office and says, "Help! My system's dead." Reflexively we ask, "Are you backed-up?" Of course not; would he be calling if he was? Besides, most people do not bother with backups.So, why do we ask? We do it to remind people that they are responsible for the mess they are in. If/when we rescue them, we become heros; they tell their friends.

Server Backup Puzzle

2009-04-19T10:30:00.008-04:00

Here's the puzzle: while hard disks have gotten larger and cheaper, the day is still 24 hours long. Backup software seems to process files at 20-25 GB/hour, so if you have more than 500 GB on a server to backup each night, you cannot finish one job before needing to start the next. This may lead to problems.Why is backup software so slow? For comparison, a straight file-copy job in Windows or

Lessons Learned (again?)

2009-03-16T16:58:00.007-04:00

Educators say people do not really learn something until they have "learned" it somewhere between 5 and 5,000 times. So, if you are like me, you cannot hear this one too often: BACKUP! Automate your backups and test to make sure that you can restore files from a backup. This one's in the same category as the lesson on backing up; cover your assets. You KNOW you should do it! For example, I

Testimonials

2009-02-16T12:41:00.002-05:00

"I also wanted to say thank you for all the great work you did during our move. Folks have commented to me that [disruption to] the offsite access to their e-mail and the ftp site was so minimal they barely noticed it was down at all. Also the hook up of the pc’s in the new office was fantastic. I think everyone was surprised to come in Monday morning and be able to get right to work. So,

Your Database

2009-01-25T10:07:00.003-05:00

Everybody has a database. Your DNA is a database. Every business and organization has databases - lists, spreadsheets, financial reports, et al. - but does your organization have its "DNA database"? That's a database that monitors and controls the processes that define the organization. Every organization has one or more DNA databases. One might exist in the mind of an entrepreneur. One might

"ConnectComputer" Tips

2008-12-22T16:00:00.006-05:00

Tip #1: Do not wirelessly connect a computer to a Windows Small Business Server 2003 domain using the ConnectComputer browser wizard.If you do, the wizard has you disable the computer's ethernet adapter before you can run the wizard. At the end of the process, the machine is rebooted to complete the wizard and login to the domain. But, Windows does not load the wireless adapter before it tries

Words of Wisdom

2008-12-14T14:49:00.003-05:00

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.No good deed goes unpunished.Greed is good.If it feels good, do it.It's only wrong if you get caught.Finders keepers, losers weepers.The law is an ass.God is dead.There may be kernels of truth in these cynical sayings. But believing them can poison the well of happiness in your life.

Bah, humbug!

2008-11-20T09:34:00.007-05:00

In the past I have posted to this blog suggestions for anyone planning on gifting me during the holiday season. This year my expectations have been reduced, and my gift suggestions have been reduced to one - cash.So to fill out my Christmas gift blog posting this year, here is a cranky list of the 5-worst technical innovations and gadgets on the market. Avoid these items and technologies in

'Cheap' is the New 'Green'

2008-11-14T11:01:00.004-05:00

Oil and gasoline prices have plunged from their historic highs of earlier this year. Based on past experience, you would predict that consumers would be back to their profligate ways, buying large vehicles and driving more. It hasn't happened. That's good for the environment! But only the most ardent environmentalists want to reduce pollution by reducing consumption. "Going Green," as a

Cloud Nine

2008-10-22T09:46:00.005-04:00

A couple of months ago, I started using a diskless, thin-client computer as my principal work machine, expecting to interface primarily with applications and data hosted on a muscular Windows 2003 Server machine that I administer.However, following the lead of one of my clients, I decided to try using Google Apps. I migrated my email to Gmail, and I started using Google Documents instead of

The Priesthood

2008-10-21T14:09:00.001-04:00

Since the dawn of IT, there has existed a Priesthood whose role is the care and feeding of information systems and intermediating between systems and users and systems and the general public.Within the Priesthood there is diversity. There are charlatans that sell totems and indulgences to the needy and gullible.There are priests that work in large organizations where they do everything "by the

Financial News Update

2008-10-01T10:16:00.002-04:00

Paulson's proof of the Greater Fool Theory has not survived review by Congress and the American people.Seriously, see economist Steve Horwitz's analysis of the situation.

kooky john

2008-09-23T17:14:00.002-04:00

honolulu, kinky, jumpy, limo, imino, monopoly, pumpkin, unholy, mommy... these are a few of my favorite words. Why? Because I can touch-type (keyboard, kids) these words using my right hand only. And that is important to me because I broke my left shoulder on Sunday. All these other words entail hunt-and-pecking, which slows me down.Looking on the bright side, I've got the time while I

Paulson Wins Nobel Prize in Economics

2008-09-20T17:46:00.004-04:00

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics for proving the Greater Fool Theory this week. The theory states that no matter how foolish an investment someone makes, there is always a greater fool who will buy the investment and absorb the loss. In a Rose Garden ceremony, President Bush said, "Henry has found the Ultimate Fool, the Federal Government."News of the

Comcast Sucks!

2008-08-30T17:34:00.003-04:00

We use Comcast Business-Class Internet at the office. Thursday night, service went down.Friday morning, the service was still down when we got into the office. Fulfilling our role in Comcast's state-of-the-art network monitoring system, we called Comcast to report the outage (yeah, Verizon!).Springing into action, Comcast's minimum-wage and/or non-English-speaking techs did their voodoo in

Attention Students (and Parents)!

2008-08-25T10:15:00.004-04:00

Back to school time. One of the many documents you are likely to sign, if not read, is some sort of contract or code-of-conduct related to your use of the school's computers, network, software, data, email, Internet, etc. Schools are afraid that a student will do something with his/her computer to create a liability for the student's school. To a lesser degree, schools are also concerned that

"Open" thin-client solution

2008-07-30T10:13:00.003-04:00

If you are looking for thin-clients that avoid proprietary elements as much as possible, here is one solution for you. It starts with the VIA Artigo Pico ITX computer. Get it here for $310 assembled and tested. Shipping is another $20+.The Artigo machine I got has 512 MB of RAM -- no hard disk. My plan was to put an operating system on a USB flash/key/thumb drive and boot the Artigo from the

How to print your Outlook contacts.

2008-07-21T09:10:00.005-04:00

Several months ago, I persuaded a friend to abandon MS Word as a platform for an address book and migrate it to MS Outlook. The Word document was more like a series of biographical sketches than a database. In many instances it described who was born of whom, where they went to school, who married whom, where they had worked, and, sometimes, when they died. There were thousands of names in the

Ubuntu Updates Warning

2008-06-24T11:06:00.004-04:00

Is it just me or have there been A LOT of updates since Ubuntu moved to Hardy Heron (ver. 8.04) in April? I suppose that's a good thing, except that these updates have repeatedly broken VMWare server running on one of my Ubuntu desktop machines.The problem initially happened when I was running an older version of VMWare server (ver. 1.0.4), and I got the message that VMWare was not configured

Email Frustration

2008-06-20T09:21:00.003-04:00

One of the topics I speak and write about often is email. Email has become essential to business. Many of us rely on it in our everyday lives. And yet, there is a persistent frustration with email that indicates both ignorance and inflexibility on the part of many. Back in 1986, Robert Fulghum had a best-seller with his book, “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten.” That book

Support your clients remotely

2008-06-09T09:48:00.007-04:00

We recently added single-click, remote support to Keystone Computer's services. Now, we are kicking ourselves we did not do it sooner. Instead of traveling to a customer's premises, we can remote to the customer's machine and troubleshoot and resolve many common problems. It is a great time saver for us and a money saver for our customers.Key features of the solution we have implemented are:

Nobody wants to hire a 40-year-old IT virgin.

2008-05-20T10:59:00.002-04:00

When in a job interview, here are a few things you should avoid saying: I don't know how to type.Fax machines are amazing.My VCR has been flashing 12:00 noon for years.We have dialup at home.It's a minefield out there! Say the wrong thing, and you can expose yourself, rightly or wrongly as being hopelessly out-of-touch with technology. To wit:I read in the paper that my TV won't work anymore

Seniors Jump

2008-05-14T14:37:00.003-04:00

I've created a home page/portal for browsers on community access computers at a DC senior citizen's residential facility. Please let me know what you think. Here are the jumps that I've put on the page (minus the purely local links):News:Google NewsWashington PostNew York TimesCable News NetworkFinancial News/Info:Yahoo! FinanceWall Street JournalAOL FinanceHealth Info:GoogleNIH Senior

FIOS Actiontec problem solved!

2008-04-21T09:50:00.004-04:00

Passive aggression works for me, and my wife's persistence beats Verizon's resistance.More than a month ago, I wrote, "At this point, I am ready to call Verizon. I'm not looking forward to spending the time with them on the phone to troubleshoot and resolve the problem. Ideally, I'd like them to replace the Actiontec router." Truthfully, however, I was not ready to spend hours on the phone with

FIOS Actiontec MI424WR mystery

2008-03-30T17:31:00.006-04:00

The adventures with my FIOS Actiontec MI424-WR continue. A discussion with Verizon tech support ended with them saying they would check the router and get back to me. I haven't heard boo back from them. But for a while, my sense was that my internet access was more reliable. In hindsight, I think it was simply the placebo effect.This weekend, the problem has been undeniable. On Friday night,

Big Apple

2008-03-23T11:15:00.005-04:00

All of a sudden, I am actually reading the NY Times every day. The Governors, the financial crises, the candidate... rotten or not, the Big Apple is back on my radar! So, I'm wondering what is it like inside the barrel? In the old days, people would be throwing themselves out of windows. No reports of that happening. Instead, I guess they go cry on Oprah about how seven-diamond-ladies are

How often should you blog?

2008-03-16T11:12:00.002-04:00

Once is too often for most blogs.If nobody is reading it, is it actually a blog?If you cannot write, that does not mean you cannot blog. However, text messaging would be better suited for your “talents” and might increase your “readership”.You should be "old enough" to blog. Facebook and MySpace are better suited for the young.Photos and ads are to blogs what live music is to conversation.

On Eliot Spitzer

2008-03-15T15:58:00.004-04:00

This was not to say that [Eliot Spitzer] was anything but sincere when he inveighed against [reprobates]. He could not (from his own knowledge, at least) be aware that he was one also, since it is only with the passions of others that we are ever really familiar, and what we come to find out about our own can be no more than what other people have shown us. Upon ourselves they react but

Trouble with FIOS Actiontec router?

2008-03-14T09:45:00.007-04:00

In my last posting, I alluded to networking issues I was trying to resolve by using my Linksys WRT54G as a bridge/switch instead of a router. Well the problems persist, so I can eliminate the Linksys device as the cause.What's happening is that my FIOS Internet speeds at home slow to a crawl or stop completely for one or more users once someone in the house gets on Second Life and/or XBOX-Live.

How to set up the WRT54G as a switch/bridge

2008-03-11T20:35:00.008-04:00

Lots of people report problems with the router function in the Linksys WRT54G. See here for example. I have a broadband router upstream of my WRT54G, so I thought that I might be able to avoid the network problems I was having by making my WRT54G work simply as a switch or bridge. This is easily done.Connect a computer to the WRT54G and use a web browser to log in to it. (Device default IP

Windows Problem & Solutions

2008-03-06T21:16:00.003-05:00

Here's a comment I posted on Preston Gralla's Blog at COMPUTERWORLD. He wrote, "I've pored through hundreds of emails in the Vista "junk PC" lawsuit, and it still doesn't all add up." Here are my 2 cents on the matter...It seems that every MS Windows release has been plagued with problems initially (continually?). As long as MS gets away with this and other atrocities against customers (Office

More on Office 2007

2008-03-03T11:11:00.003-05:00

A correspondent of mine writes, "As you may have read in his review, Mossberg says:"If you'd like to get more out of Office, especially in the area of how your documents look, Office 2007 is a big step forward, and worth the steep learning curve it imposes. If you're happy with Office now, or you mostly create plain documents where formatting and design aren't high priorities, it may not be worth

Happy Leap Day!

2008-02-29T14:00:00.002-05:00

A Message to ClientsAfter reviewing the work we have done over the past months, and knowing what we do about your home/office network, your computers and your peripherals, you are in the midst of a period of turn-over and change.Key pieces of your technical infrastructure are old and/or failing and will need to be replaced sooner or later.New communications, entertainment and computer

Top 4 Reasons Office 2007 Sucks

2008-02-27T09:36:00.004-05:00

The "Ribbons." This change provides no real benefit for those of us who were competent with prior versions of Office. Microsoft says, "This change greatly improves the user's ability to use and find features in the 2007 Office release." NOT! No "Classic View." How dare they not give us a way to avoid using the Ribbons?!"User education is required," Microsoft warns. We get lots of pissed-off

Good Song, BAD Software

2008-02-20T18:02:00.000-05:00

I encountered Zone Alarm on a client's PC recently. It was not a rewarding experience for me or the client. I've never been a fan of Zone Alarm's constant, misleading, annoying pop-ups; I've never understood how the product keeps getting positive reviews like this. So when my client wanted me to uninstall Zone Alarm, I supported the decision and agreed to do it. When Zone Alarm installs, it

Sync Me Not

2008-02-18T18:28:00.004-05:00

In a prior posting I wrote, "Voice recognition software. This will fundamentally change the way we interact with machines. "Computers" will be embedded in every device so that we can tell them what to do." In that posting, I wrote that current software from Microsoft, IBM, Dragon et al. was not up to the task.Now, along comes Ford selling cars with Microsoft's "Sync," which claims to be a

Oggs of Wisdom

2008-02-15T10:46:00.004-05:00

I've been remiss in posting the radio interviews I've done over the last several months on KFNX, news/talk radio in Phoenix, Az. But the advice and opinions expressed therein are nearly timeless, so here they are; fresh as the day they were born."Practical Precautions for Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft." Broadcast August 5th, 2007."Behavioral Profiling." Broadcast November 25, 2007"

Web 2.N0

2008-02-08T10:22:00.000-05:00

Web 2.0 is a term that dates from 2004. Based on Moore's Law, today we should be talking about Web > 4.0! Anyway, "social networking" is not the new new thing. Now that the money men and women are placing their bets, it will become (has become?) SPAM. Look what happened to email; it is more than 90% SPAM. Look at the blogosphere; its a wasteland.

Y Crimes

2008-01-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

As a serious swimmer and frequent visitor to my local YMCA, I have seen all sorts of offenses committed against decency, public health and the Golden Rule. Here are a couple of cases-in-point.Nowadays, many people are concerned about contracting antibiotic-resistant staph, flesh-eating bacteria, athlete's foot, et al. from sweaty gym clothes, towels and exercise equipment. That's why they are

Ubuntu Update

2008-01-20T14:36:00.000-05:00

A little more than a year ago, I migrated from Windows to Ubuntu. It began as an experiment to see how Ubuntu/Linux compared to Windows, to see if the sacrifices entailed in using Ubuntu were too much for a user like me, and to see how long I could hold out before I went home to Mother Microsoft.I made the change at home and at work. But I've got access to Windows machines if and when I need

Are Windows Vista PCs Disposable?

2007-12-09T14:10:00.000-05:00

When something goes wrong with a Windows Vista PC, don't be surprised if it is more expensive to troubleshoot and repair it than it is to buy a new PC and move your data and apps from the old machine to the new one.For example... recently, a 6-month-old Thinkpad with Vista Business came into our shop for repair, because it had started freezing up. When it froze up, it was totally unresponsive,

Who Is Reading Your Email?

2007-12-02T18:28:00.000-05:00

This a subject I have written about before. It is worth revisiting because most people still think the email messages they send are private, like the US mail or a telephone call or a fax. But they are not. Click here to see my earlier posting.Email and instant messages are nothing more than text files that can be intercepted and copied as they travel from here to there over the Internet.

Online Behavioral Profiling

2007-11-24T09:01:00.000-05:00

In preparation for an appearance on KFNX (Phoenix) radio's Tech Talk show with Tom D'Auria, I did my homework and researched the topic. Here are my notes. I am sure there is more here than we will be able to cover in the time available on the program. 1 - What is behavioral profiling?Behavioral profiling is the practice of drawing conclusions about or categorizing someone based on a limited

On Turning Document into Database

2007-11-19T12:14:00.000-05:00

Imagine you have your contacts - names, addresses, phone numbers, spouses, children, etc. - done in Microsoft Word. Periodically you update it, print it and put it in a binder which you keep by the phone. You started doing this 20 years ago, and you have a lot of names and numbers. The information was entered over time without a lot of regard for standards and consistency. How it printed and

Roll Your Own Ubuntu Desktop

2007-11-07T12:09:00.000-05:00

If you want/need to roll your own Ubuntu installation, here's what to do. Using the text-install CD, install Ubuntu to the command prompt.Apt-get install the packages you need/want to manually configure.Configure those packages and get them working.Apt-get install any other packages you want (including dselect).Get your own or use my list of Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) install packages.dselect the

Short Vs. Long

2007-10-31T12:07:00.000-04:00

Do you know the old saying, "I didn't have time to write you a short note so I wrote you a long one instead?" In other words, it takes more time to be succinct, to know exactly what you want to say, to choose your words, than it does to free associate. It's hard to be pithy. Relative to other bloggers, my postings tend to be long. I know that most people who stumble across my blog will not

Linux Distro Hop

2007-10-26T13:55:00.000-04:00

I tried to run the new Ubuntu release, 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon), last week on a weird-ish machine (two processors and two video cards -- one a PCI card and one on the motherboard). It wouldn't run. Instead the live CD churned a bit and stopped, then dumped the screen to a BusyBox command-line prompt. I chimped on the keyboard a bit before giving up. I decided to see if some other Linux distros

What's Cool About Virtualization

2007-10-22T10:33:00.001-04:00

What's all the buzz about virtualization and VMware? By consolidating servers, many of VMware's 20,000 customers have managed to cut IT costs by 50% or more and increase utilization, productivity and efficiency.That should make the finance boys and girls happy.But here's what I think is cool about virtualization:The "computer" will cease to exist. The network will be the computer. And it will

Interstate Swimming

2007-10-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

When you swim from one state to another state; e.g., from Maryland to Virginia and back again, that is interstate swimming.I am pleased to report that current conditions for interstate swimming in the Washington, DC area are excellent. The temperature of the Potomac River is in the mid 70's, the river is low, and the water is relatively clear. Yesterday I swam solo from Maryland to Virginia and

Practical(?) IT Security:10 Policies & Procedures

2007-10-02T11:21:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to my posting containing 10 Practical IT Security Counter-measures, here are policies and procedures that I recommend that organizations and households adopt to enhance security. These are listed in no particular order. I am not sure how practical these recommendations really are. After all, even I violate one or two of these from time to time. WiFi is a security problem.

Top IT Security Threats & 10 Practical Counter-Measures

2007-09-24T16:15:00.000-04:00

Here are the top IT security threats that your organization faces:Your people. The "inside job" has always been and remains the biggest security threat you face. While innocent mistakes more frequent than deliberate malfeasance, the results are often the same. Your equipment. When your equipment fails (when, not if) you may be out of business. It may be for only an hour or a day or a week

What?! More...

2007-09-20T18:09:00.000-04:00

Lots of hearing aids are "Telecoil (T-coil) equipped." T-coils are designed to pick up electromagnetic signals, as opposed to microphones which register acoustic signals. Certain telephones, cell phones, and assistive listening systems in public places (theaters, museums, etc.) produce electromagnetic signals. T-coil equipped hearing aids are supposed to "inductively couple" with such

WiFi Nightmares

2007-09-12T08:46:00.000-04:00

If you like a good fright, here are a few of my worst WiFi nightmares for you. Homeowners sometimes feel that they have nothing to steal and nothing to hide on their home computers, and so they install WiFi networks without any security measures. But there is a wealth of information on any computer that bad guys can use to steal someone's identity, and thats only the beginning. Homeowners who

Attention Nats fans...

2007-09-07T20:46:00.000-04:00

Thursday's 12:30 PM flight from Portland, Maine to BWI was full. Every seat was taken on this mid-week, mid-day, post-Labor Day flight for one simple reason. Red Sox fans in Maine were making the trip to Baltimore to watch their team play the woeful Orioles Thursday evening.Baseball was absent from DC for a generation, so we are still gaining a taste for the game and the Nationals. It is

T-Mobile delivers a surprise.

2007-09-05T10:05:00.000-04:00

In a recent post, I pointed out that T-Mobile says on its web site that the Nokia 6086 hotspot@home phone is "Temporarily Out of Stock." At the same time, existing customers can login and order the phone from T-Mobile as an upgrade. In my post, I speculated that perhaps T-Mobile had a stash of these phones which they were rationing to their existing customers. But then I asked myself, "What

T-Mobile Hotspot@Home

2007-08-30T12:19:00.000-04:00

Reviews have been critical of T-Mobile for launching its Hotspot@Home service with only two phones to choose from; and, even worse, critics say, both phones are lacking sex-appeal. Now, if you go to T-Mobile online to shop for a Hotspot@Home phone, you find that the Nokia phone is "Temporarily Out of Stock." Your only option is the Samsung. Is this any way to launch a new service!?

Listen To Me

2007-08-29T08:07:00.000-04:00

I get paid to speak to organizations and groups from time to time. It is not that I know anything special or that I have accomplished great things. What I speak about is business and/or information technology; conventional wisdom is my stock-in-trade. My talent, if I have one, is that I can make my talks entertaining and informative for my audience.Over the past several months, I have appeared

Cellphones - No!

2007-08-21T13:35:00.000-04:00

I spent the last two weeks on an island in Maine. Miles from the mainland, cellphones don't work on the island (with rare exceptions). Things change relatively slowly on the island. Social networking is done the old-fashioned way, face-to-face. But, change there is not limited by economic considerations. There's plenty of money. The community can afford cellphone service; people don't want

Getting older is a bitch!

2007-08-02T10:28:00.000-04:00

Ralph - Sorry. I assumed that my memory had failed me and that I had forgotten to send you the invoice. (I didn't think to see if it was paid already.) Turns out my memory did fail me, and I forgot that I did send you the invoice.John

Cheating in the Pool

2007-08-01T10:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, the Washington Post had a story about a new line of swimsuits from Speedo, the FS-Pro, that all the top competitors are wearing because it provides a big performance boost. World records are falling by large margins. In June, swimming's oldest record -- Janet Evans's 1988 mark in 1,500-meter freestyle -- was beaten by Kate Ziegler, wearing the new suit, by almost 10 seconds. These

Answers About ID Theft

2007-07-30T16:18:00.000-04:00

What is “Identity Theft?”Identity theft is a slippery subject. The words conjure up images of body snatchers and zombies from old movies. The connotations are very negative.The news media likes the term, because it is sensational. And so, they use it fairly indiscriminately. I saw a story recently titled, Laptop Thefts: The Latest Form Of Identity Theft. I've also seen purse snatching and

Save Our Privacy

2007-07-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

According to the Washington Post this morning, all the major search engines are tightening their privacy policies in the face of mounting concern about the vast amounts of personal data they collect and store. I don't like the idea of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! or any other organization collecting, storing and analyzing data about my web searches and web surfing. They all say they do it "to

What!?

2007-07-17T13:44:00.001-04:00

I recently found myself living in a strange and different world. People were speaking to me; I knew because their lips were moving, but I couldn't hear them. I suddenly had become "profoundly" deaf, which is the step beyond "severe" deafness.As you might imagine, necessity being what it is, I have gotten smart about hearing aids. For instance, while Moore's Law has held sway in the computer

Real Power Protection

2007-07-06T18:33:00.000-04:00

A colleague of mine challenged my assertion last month that, "there is nothing you can do" to protect your electronic equipment from damage by a lightning strike. I admit, that was a bit of hyperbole. There are things that you can do to provide protection from a lightning strike.The real point is that most consumers lack the time, money and expertise to identify and implement a plan for

What's Your Language?

2007-07-03T13:19:00.001-04:00

So where's the action in computer programming nowadays? Offshoring has had a big impact in some places and in some languages/platforms. The US is no longer where the action is programming-wise, although, the case can be made that the US is still where interesting, inventive programming is being done.Click the graph for a larger view.In the graph above, results of my trend-analysis of computer

iDay Is Here!

2007-06-29T07:57:00.000-04:00

The iPhone goes on sale today. Now we will see if Apple's manufacturing, distribution and quality control are as good as its design and promotion capabilities. Will the iPhone be another iPod? Or will it be a Newton or a Zune?Tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, the news will be all about the SNAFUs and problems that happen with iPhone and about how customers have been disappointed. The

Power Protection

2007-06-22T11:21:00.000-04:00

I've written before about power outages, surges, brownouts, etc. and the problems they cause for information technology and the people who depend on IT (i.e., everyone). Check it out.Unfortunately, for political reasons, these problems are not going to be resolved in our lifetimes. So, today I have some practical advice for dealing with one of the power issues that you and I will encounter --

Blasphemy!

2007-06-09T14:56:00.000-04:00

I have a project that I am doing on spec. It involves a lot of text processing. I've experimented with MS Word macros, but I cannot do everything I want to easily in Word. To borrow an example from O'Reilly's Learning Python, "Suppose you need to replace any occurrence of "red pepper" or "green pepper" with "bell pepper" if and only if they occur together in a paragraph before the word "salad,

Sys Admin

2007-06-05T18:06:00.000-04:00

The system is up and onlinewhich makes me very happy. It does not care.And they take it for granted.It's magic Unless you know what's really going on, orUnless you don't think about it.Like walking.Trouble of some sort.Must I prevail through concentration?That makes me very nervous Because of the time involved.Or will my abstractions support me And show me where the problem lies?Or mask the

High-Tech Scam: Self-Installs

2007-06-01T17:14:00.000-04:00

I've done more than a few Verizon High-Speed Internet "Self Installs" for clients. Generally I get called in after a client has tried on his/her own, failed and gotten frustrated and angry dealing with Verizon tech support.Whose idea was it to market high technology self-installs like this to the general public? Maybe they figured that they could charge less if the customer would do the install

Cell Phone for (Grand) Mother

2007-05-24T12:12:00.000-04:00

I bought my 80-something mother her first cell phone yesterday. She wants to be able to turn it on, say a name and make a call. Here are the functional spec's for her cell phone:Voice-activated dialing.Good signal coverage wherever she goes.Clam-shell design.Hearing aid compatible.She doesn't want anything else that might confuse her. So, no voice mail, three-way calling, speaker phone,

4 Steps to Revive Your PC

2007-05-14T15:32:00.000-04:00

Part 2 of "How to give an old PC a new lease on life." Click here for Part 1, "Questions and Answers."Steps:Back it upClean it upClean it outReload it (optional)Step 1. Back it upYour PC is going to fail one day, no matter what you do to keep it going. You've been lucky so far if it hasn't failed yet. The first step is to back up your data, documents, photos, music and other personal files.

How to give an old PC a new lease on life

2007-05-11T15:24:00.000-04:00

Questions and AnswersWhat are we talking about today? Are we talking about transforming an old klunker into something that can keep up with today's new PCs?Not exactly. That would take a lot of time and money, and with the prices of new machines today, it is easier and cheaper to simply buy a new computer. So, what we are talking about is taking an older computer and restoring it to something

How To Beat Identity Theft

2007-05-03T22:10:00.000-04:00

Have you been the victim of identity theft? I bet you have.A few years ago I was charged on my credit card for an expensive plasma TV by a shop in the UK. On another occasion, my bank, after swallowing up a number of smaller banks around the country, ended up with duplicate account numbers in their system, and somebody else's checks started hitting my account (withdrawals only). Then there was

Bury the Wires - Part 2

2007-04-23T10:04:00.000-04:00

So I emailed my elected County Executive last week about burying the wires. I was amazed to receive a response from someone on his staff almost immediately. While the response was probably canned, i.e., it was not written specifically or originally for me, it was at least on point.Here's the gist:The State's Public Service Commission (PSC) regulates and oversees public utilities. The PSC

Bury the Wires

2007-04-18T15:42:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, we had a lot of rain, high wind and cold along the East coast of the US. My house was one of many thousands of homes that were left without power by the storm. I was reminded again that the reliability of the US electrical power system (and its Canadian cousin) is the Achilles Heel of the information age.Today I am writing about only one piece of the problem: residential

Recommendation: Macintosh

2007-04-12T09:17:00.000-04:00

I used to be an Apple computer user and a Macintosh man. But, I haven't had one for many years.For a long while I avoided Macs because I thought that Apple was going to disappear, like hundreds of other computer manufacturers have. I was afraid I'd be stuck with orphan technology, and I'd lose my work and my data.With the success of the iPod, Apple's future is secure for the time being. Now,

Tax Mystery Explained

2007-04-09T18:55:00.000-04:00

With the upcoming April 15th tax deadline in view, Mr. I. O. Taxes, from Des Moines, asks, "Why do I have to pay a fee to file my tax return online/electronically when the alternative of mailing it in is free?" According to the IRS, most people (70%) qualify for "Free File." Check it out here: http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html. According to the web site, "Free File allows