Month: May 2006

Dinner With The Family

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Went to dinner with my parents, sister and niece tonight. Probably the last time we will do that before the baby shows up. My sister is due next week. I had a head ache since it was hot and I didn’t eat lunch. I have to stop doing that. We had a good time though. Morgan was great as always. Great as in really funny, but not behaving as good as she could tonight.

Other than dinner, work was busy as usual. I meet a rep from a vendor we started using. It was an interesting talk. I had a ton of other issues that I am dealing with, and things are busy. Hopefully the die down a bit after July.

54 Wireless Networks

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With my new Macbook I find 54 wifi networks in my apartment (See the first page of them in picture below). it is crazy. With my iMac or Powerbook I found only like 9. The antenna is that much more sensitive on this new Macbook. Now I have to find out how many of them are open with good signal strength. I also need to make sure my own wifi network is not getting bad signal strength because it is sharing a channel with too many nearby networks.

54 Wireless Networks

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New Macbook

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I broke down this weekend and bought a Macbook. I got the black one. I was hoping for a larger hard drive but didn’t want to special order it. I went to the new Apple store on 59th street. They had a ton in stock, or so it seemed. I decided that I do want a home computer even thought I have a work laptop. I also took Danny’s lead and figured why does my home computer need to be a desktop. I love my iMac. It is fast, and has everything I need, but it also has things I don’t need like tons of size! I also don’t like being locked into 1 monitor size. With a portable I can get a larger external screen if I want one.

So with my new Macbook in hand I will be eBaying my iMac. It served me well, but it does have to go so I can pay for the Macbook. I should get a decent price for it since it is in mint condition, with original packaging and an AppleCare.

I am off to take photos of the gear now!

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Remote Desktop Access

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For a while now we have wanted to solve a problem regarding remote users. We have a few remote users who we want to be able to log into our DMZ and access some web sites and services on our network. The solution we came up with is to use Windows 2003 Terminal Services. We only need to accomidate maybe 5 people at a time on this system. it is not very many users, but it was an important issue to resolve. Now that we have that system up and running I think we came up with a better longer term solution.

I am eyeing using the free VMware Server to host a few Windows XP virtual machines for the same purpose. We don’t need 5 concurrent users, so I won’t need that many VM’s. I also don’t need to deal with Microsoft’s licensing model for Terminal Server (per desktop or per user). VMware is touting their Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. It may be something that fits for us. This initial project is just the first part of our needs for a solution such as this. I have 2 other projects that could require this sort of remote access. I am waiting for time to demo the solution to see how viable it will be for us.

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Useful Mac Applications Part 2

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I had so many new apps that where so cool I had to make a part 2 to my new and notable Mac software.

Skype & Gizmo are both relatively free VOIP clients. Skype is proprietary and very popular, and the Gizmo Project is an open source project. Both allow me to make and receive calls directly from my Mac without a phone. I have had a skype phone number for about a year now, and I just went out and bought the Gizmo number. I don’t use either service as much as I would like, but they both are fantastic. When I travel (not as often as I used to) they are great. I can use my bluetooth headset paired directly with my Mac for a long calls. For $20 I bought a USB handset for Skype that acts like a normal phone handset. It is very cool. Now that both apps are Universal binaries I am happy on my work Powerbook or my home Mac.

Unison is a universal binary Usnet News reader. I go into and out of phases where I use Usenet. I am currently loving Unison’s ease of use. It does bog down my Intel Mac when it is downloading lots of headers, but other than that it is a good all around app.

Rename4mac is a useful program that I have actually been using for a while but I wanted to throw it in. It takes any batch of files and allows you to rename them all in a new format. This is great for me since I can’t stand the format that my digital camera uses.

RDC Menu is a little freeware app that takes Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app for the Mac and lets you access it from the Menu bar. What is really does well is allow you to run multiple instances of RDC so you can have multiple remote sessions at the same time. You can do that with the windows version but until this app you couldn’t do it with the Mac one. For work this is helps out so much.

RPG is a freeware random password generator. It is a universal binary and it even lets you select some characters not to use in its random passwords. For my job it is great to be able to just wip up a few random passwords when I need them. I had a windows app that did the same thing but I finally found a replacement for it with RPG.

SnapNDrag is not as good as snagit for windows (or that is how I feel so far) but it is a great full screen capture program. It also lets you take snapshots of just one window, and more. It is very helpful for documentation. It is a helpful addition to my list of apps.

I will add more as I come across worthwhile software.

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Roundup of Useful Mac Applications

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Every few months I go through a phase of looking for new programs that improve my day to day work experience on the computer. Not sure why I do it in phases, but it always seems when I switch to one program I am getting 5 more. Some end up being really cool and I continue to use, and others are just a fad and I forget about them quickly. Below are quick reviews of the several new applications that are all around great apps!

Growl I something that I installed last year but stopped using it when I switched computers. I guess you can call it a unified application notification system. It gives you alerts and events from several apps as a single system. it can get annoying if you have it notify too much stuff, but once I tuned it I got it working great. I like that it tells me the itunes songs I just started playing, or that I have new email and gives a quick flash of who sent it and the subject.

Rapidweaver is a simple but feature filled web-page and site authoring program for the Mac. Since I started using the Mac I full time over Windows XP I have been lacking a good web editor. I used Dreamweaver for basic page edits, but I never liked it. I always ended up going back to my XP box for Frontpage to do web work. Now Frontpage isn’t that good either but I was used to it, and I didn’t find anything better. That was until I saw a review for RapidWeaver. It does have its limits, but for the home page I have, I was able to redo my entire site in RapidWeaver in a few hours. All 300 megs of photos and all. RapidWeaver is not perfect. I all but can’t use it on my Intel iMac (universal binary version coming soon or so they say), so I use it on my Powerbook. That being said this software was worth the money I spent on it!

HandBreak is a free utility that will take a DVD and convert it for use in iTunes or on your iPod (aka makes a Divix or H.264 format). It takes a while to run, but it works great! I can convert a bunch of DVD’s to my iPod and watch them on the way to and from work!

iSquint is another great program that lets me convert media into Divix and H.264 file formats for use in iTunes and my iPod. iSquint takes existing video files such as MPEG-2, or AVI’s and will convert them. iSquint is fast and easy to setup. With it I can take any TV show I record with my DVR and put it on my iPod to watch later or when I am traveling.

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Slow To Post

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I have been neglecting posting for a while. I keep writing up stuff and posting them way after events have happened. I am going to try and set more time aside to write. To me it is not a chore since I find it relaxing. my only issue is recently I have been stressed and busy, and also my hands hurt from working on the computer all day at work. All good excuses, but I still want to write more. All I can say is I am working on it.

Office Move

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Spent time at the new office today with Dan and our CEO. We went over details with the construction contractor. Not much for me to worry about. I thought that some stupid things where going to be done, but so far everything looks good. I am just eager to get the lease signed. It seems to be taking forever but I am told it should happen soon.

I had to deal with some intermittent site problems earlier in the day. Everyone was freaking about how this issue is a sign that some major issue is going on. It isn’t, but everyone likes to make a big deal about stuff like this so when they are asked why their didn’t meet their goals they can complain about technical issues. It is funny and sad at the same time. Sometimes they make a good spin, but others it is so transparent it is funny.

It is Quiet in Here, Except For The Construction

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My partner in crime is away for a few days on vacation, so my office is not as busy. Not sure why less people come by when Jayson is out. The people that do stop by usually are looking for me, so it is weird that it feels like less people stop by when he is out. It may just be me going crazy. With Jay out I sometimes get more done since there is less distraction. Of course the clanking of construction outside my window doesn’t help my concentration much. I guess I need to get used to sitting by myself since I will be all alone in the new space!

Cable Work

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Jayson and I went to the “proposed” new office with a cable contractor to see if there was cable to our floor from the basement. We need a clean run for our T-1 circuits going in. There looks like there is cable but we have issues with its age, and we cannot 100% confirm where it terminates on one end. on the other end it just doesn’t go where we wanted it to. Instead of extending what we have we may just run brand new cable to ensure it works right.

We did that in the morning and then I dealt with other issues throughout the day.