Month: September 2007

File Hippo for easy program and driver updates

Chris Pirillo was talking about programs that take the headache out of updating program and drivers. I’ve tried a number of products including Driver Agent which will scan your installed drivers and tell you which could be updated. But it doesn’t check program versions and it costs $30/year. I tried it for a year and the time it saved me probably wasn’t worth the money.

Chris mentions a few similar products, but the best of the lot for Windows is File Hippo. It’s fast and free and scans both drivers and programs. It even tells you which are still in beta. Very cool, indeed!

Here is the scan it ran on my Windows XP system. I’ve only tried it on two computers but it looks like a keeper

filehippo

Hamachi – Zero configuration VPN

If you’re looking for a no fuss VPN solution that doesn’t include opening ports, mucking with settings or bribing your IT manager, you may want to give Hamachi a try. A friend told me about it over two years ago and I’ve been using it since that time. One advantage is has over Windows built in Remote Desktop client is that it has clients for Linux and OSX in addition to Windows.

I blogged about this product before it was purchased by LogMeIn. I can’t tell that it’s changed much over time. But it didn’t need to.

I’m not going to provide a ton of detail here because Chris Pirillo does a good job of that here.

 

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Favorite Steve Jobs Quote from today’s iPod launch

I wonder if he came up with this line on his own?

“The new iPod touch. It’s one of the 7 wonders of the world.”

It’s arguable whether or not the new iPod touch is a wonder of the world but the iPod is certainly a wonder for Apple. The numbers of staggering: 110 million sold, 600 million copies of iTunes distributed, 95 million TV shows sold. Incredible.

Engadget has typical fantastic coverage of the event here. Nobody wows them like Jobs. I want an iPod touch with a little more storage. 

ipodtouch  

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Back to School

I woke up this morning and decided I’d accompany Luca to her 1st grade orientation. Luca wore her cute Levi skirt and polo shirt. Kim had fixed her pretty, blonde hair so it bounced when she walked.

We drove to her school and went into her new class along with a few parents and their kids. Most kids were accompanied by their mothers, but there was one other father there besides myself. Her teacher, Mrs. O’Donnell, welcomed us to her class. She was kind, soft spoken and very organized. 

HP2Q3154I doubt that today’s classroom has changed much from the over 30 years since I attended first grade. The alphabet was strung over the chalk board. Cork boards lined the walls. Student projects hung off the back wall as did the large, white clock that if you listened closely could hear the second hang as it circled the clock face. I also saw a rack full of globes that could be mistaken for the perfect sized kick ball. The desks were nestled close together and as I sat at one, my butt barely fit onto the tiny blue chairs. Do you remember putting your knees under the desk and rocking back and forth until your desk tipped over and pencils went flying? Those were fun days.

I enjoyed the simplicity of the classroom and the feeling of learning and exploration in this classroom. As Mrs. O’Donnell explained her teaching style I sat there envious of her position and desire to help so many fantastic young children. It made me want to leave the technology field and go back to school so I could teach. Maybe one day I’ll be in a position to do that. In the meantime, I’m thankful to have a job that allows me the flexibility to come and go as I please and take off time when I need it.

Luca sat at her desk and listened to her new teacher. She was excited to be sitting next to a friend of hers named Laura. As she sat there, she looked back at me sitting a few rows behind her and flashed a huge smile. She was happy to be back in school and I was so very proud of her. She loves to read, loves to learn and I’m certain she’ll enjoy getting to know Mrs. O’Donnell.

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My Favorite Microsoft related book

Over the years I’ve probably read over 20 books about Microsoft, Bill Gates, Windows and various Microsoft related people and projects. As I was adding books to my profile at Goodreads, I thought to myself which is my favorite Microsoft related book?

Many of the books have been interesting but none more so than one of  the earliest I read called “Show Stopper!: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft“showstopper

The book details how a group of renegade programmers, lead by Dave Cutler, created Windows NT. I enjoyed reading about how Bill Gates didn’t have the right people at Microsoft to design and code this key version of Windows so he decided to hire them away from NEC. Gates wanted just Cutler but he wouldn’t budge unless he could bring over his entire team. I believe he was able to force Bill to hire about 20 of his buddies. Cutler is one of the few people who genuinely seems to have intimidated Gates during this time. If you are interested in the early history of Microsoft, this is the best book I can recommend. I found it riveting.

The book details a huge turning point in Microsoft’s history. It also details how shrewd a businessman Gates is by going after the best software architect he could find in Cutler. Who knows where Microsoft would be today had Gates not been been able to convince Cutler to join Microsoft.

–Link to Wikipedia entry for Dave Cuter

Silverlight problems

Microsoft released Silverlight 1.0 tonight and the big news is that it supports Linux. Nice job, Microsoft. But lame job at making it easy to install. I’ve tried installing Silverlight three times from this link without any luck. Silverlight says it has been installed and I should restart my browser. So restart and then go back to the same link and am told I need to install it again. Very very lame experience. Adobe has nothing to worry about if Silverlight is such a pain to install.

Here is the screen I’m presented with even though Silverlight tells me it’s been installed properly.

silverlight

Bulk item shopping

When I go shopping like I did tonight, I like to hang out around the bulk items. There’s just something cool about being able to scoop up dried apples, cranberry granola and wasabi pees without have to move more three feet to either side. Also, there are a few items I have never heard of before like the dried Mung bean and something called Millet. That keeps it interesting.

Tonight I browsed around for a bit before deciding on the bin full of roasted almonds. I noticed the cheap plastic bags hanging among the bins but I hate those things because they break so easily. I went searching for the good bags I’m usually able to find near the apples. Luckily, I was near the squash section and noticed a few of the good bags hanging there. I grabbed one and started shoveling almonds when an employee who was sweeping the floors nearby noticed me. She looked at the bag I was using and then she looked at me. She didn’t say anything but I could tell from her look that I wasn’t supposed to be using the produce bags in the bulk section. 

When I finished scooping what I thought to be about 2 lbs worth, I fastened a twist-tie around the bag and started looking for a pen to write down the bin number. I couldn’t find one and didn’t feel like asking the sweeper would be in my best interest so I memorized the bin number. But when I got up to the register to pay, I couldn’t remember the number. Luckily, the cashier didn’t seem to mind. She flipped through her little cheat book, found the item and ten-keyed the number before I could apologize.

Next time I go bulk bin shopping I’m going to make sure there’s no sweepers nearby and I’m going to put in one more big scoop to reach 2 lbs. I barely scooped a pound and a half of almonds tonight.

bins

Firefox flunking out

When Firefox burst onto the scene it was a breath of fresh air. It was the quick little browser that ran circles around Netscape and Internet Explorer. It was small, fast and stable. Over time, add-ons were written extending the its functionality. Some of these add-ons have become an integral part of my browsing such mouse gestures, tiny URL creator and IE Tab.

But something happened with Firefox version 2. Specifically, stability took a nosedive. I could go weeks without a problem when I ran the earlier versions of Firefox, but with version 2, daily hang-ups and crashes have become the norm. One bug I’ve found especially annoying is when I login to view my email using Outlook Web Access (OWA) and try to reply to an email, the browser hangs for a second and then closes down. It does this nearly every time I first launch OWA. Yet when I go back into my email, everything works fine.

I’m afraid Firefox has become the new Internet Explorer: Slow, buggy, and unstable. Yet I feel as locked into Firefox as I do to Windows as I can’t imagine not being able to run my favorite add-ons, but I’m getting close to installing Opera. I tried Opera about two years ago and it was super fast and included an open plug-in architecture like Firefox. But far too many sites wouldn’t render properly.

I might give IE 7 a try as well. Maybe I can slap a theme on it and make it look a little less homely.

Blogs in education

I read today that the new president of Wesleyan University started a blog.

With my daughter set to begin first grade in two days this made me wonder when her school principal will start a blog. How great would it be if the leaders at every level of education had blogs? I’d like to hear his/her take on education and how we can improve it at the school level.

I’m sure most principals are very busy and may not know where to go to start a blog. But as more do I hope word travels around that it’s not difficult and there’s a lot of people out there who are willing to help.

If any school administrators or teachers are reading this post, here are my two recommendations where you can start a blog for free. Both make it very easy to get started:

Blogger (Google)

Windows Live Spaces (Microsoft)