So I looked at the Apple iChat AV program yesterday. I have also played with it in the Apple store before. It is really cool. I think I would actually try to use it. The only problem is that it only works with other iChat AV users. I am not buying hardware for a chat system that only like 10 people use, and none of them are people I know. I do want to play with a net cam. It is a dead fad, but I think it was a good idea.
Technology
VMware Does Its Thing
VMware does what it is supposed to do. I have been using it to download programs and other crap from the internet so I don’t get worms and stuff on my desktop computer. Well sure enough the VWware session I have that runs Windows 2000 Pro finally got gator. I just deleted it and copied the fresh VMware session of Windows 2000 Pro that I saved and was up and running in 20 minutes. The only down side was that I had to run the windows update to make sure the OS was fully patched. VMware is so cool.
Treo 600 Rumors
The rumor is that it will come out tomorrow 10-27. You know what they say about rumors? Well do you? I think it is a toss up between no one has a clue and rumors tend to be accurate. We will see tomorrow morning.
On a good note is that T-Mobile has announced cell phone number portability agreements in preparation for Nov 24th’ FCC deadline. That is good news for me since that is who I use as my primary mobile carrier. I have an AT&T cell number that I love, but cannot stand there service so I will change the number to T-Mobile at the first opportunity.
This entry was written while listening to Life, In A Nutshell by Barenaked Ladies
Mac OS 10.3
So I went out and bought the new Mac OS that came out Friday. This was actually the first time I purchased an OS without a computer since I bought the upgrade version of Windows 95. I wasn’t sure if the upgrade was worth the money? But I figured I would give it a try.
Being the good engineer that I am, I did a clean install of the OS. I totally formatted the drive and started from scratch. That meant I spent most of the afternoon backing stuff up onto my desktop. I got most of the stuff. I am usually good with backing things up. I just realized what I forgot to save as I was typing this blog. I had a bunch (like 3-4) blog entries that I wrote early this week and never posted them. They are lost forever. I think I got everything else. I burned my app’s to a DVD. I copied my MP3’s to my desktop. I lost the playlist’s in the process but I have all the music. I also copied my personal files to the desktop but in the end I just restored them from a DVD I make last week. I didn’t do anything since then anyway.
I just got through installing most applications I use. I am going to wait on putting the rest on. I have crap that I think I don’t ever use. I also went without putting a classic (OS 9) system folder on it. So far the 12″ Powerbook I have with an 867 MHz G4 and 640 megs of ram is running 10.3 just fine. I haven’t used many programs at once so the jury is still out on it.
More review’s as I use it.
This entry was written while listening to Like A Prayer from the album “The Immaculate Collection” by Madonna
Old Gear & New Gear
I just got a new server in. We are building a Data Warehouse running on SQL 2000. We built one to demo and everyone liked it we have been using it for 4 months on a desktop with allot of hard drive space. The “server” finally showed its desktop limitations, so we are upgrading it to a Dual Xeon 2.4 Ghz server. We are doing IDE RAID, and threw in 2 gigs of ram. For just around 2K it is a nice little box. If you don’t need SCSI you can get server gear cheap now a days. Our dumb-ass vendor forgot to ship us a CD-ROM / Floppy Drive so I have the box open on the floor of my office with a desktop CD Drive and Floppy drive plugged in trying to get Windows 2000 installed. We have been buying Windows 2003 Server since it came out, but for most applications we are just downgrading to Windows 2000 Server. So far today I had no luck getting the OS to install. I think the USB floppy drive I used wasn’t working correctly. I need to cannibalize a floppy drive or buy one for $12 or whatever they are going for these days.
We have some older desktops that we were using as Red Hat web servers that we consolidated to one box. That means I have 2 box’s to use for testing and such. I am trying to demo Exchange 2003 on one and put Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition on the other. Terminal server will not boot off the dam CD from MSDN. The boot disks we have for it wont work either. I am continuing to work on that. I may give up on NT 4.0 and try 2000 server in application mode. I don’t need it for more than 30 days so I should have no problem with the demo mode it makes you use if you don’t have a key code.
As for Exchange 2003, we are looking to see if it is something we may want to move to. For maybe just the Technology department or for the company as a whole. Howard said good things about Outlook 2003 over HTTP. He said it was fast. I am going to look at how Idealab! did their deployment and maybe segment some users onto Exchange for a trial. Not sure yet.
Treo 600
The Treo 600 is out for Sprint. My dad still say’s he is happy with his choice of the older Treo 300. I await the 600 being availible for T-Mobile. Rumor has it that will be on the 13’th or sometime next week. Not sure if that is rumor or if it is true. Either way I will get it as soon as it comes out.
My Treo Is Dead, Say Hello To Treo # 4
My Treo 270 died from unknown causes friday night. It just wouldn’t get a network signal every again. I called T-Mobile and after 90 minutes speaking to 7 different people I finally got a new on shipping to me. I love those Treo’s, but this problem reminds me that my original one worked for not even 2 days before it died on me. I got a replacement after a week that time. This time it should take 2 – 3 days. So counting me selling my second one, I will be on my 4th Treo when the new one arrives. It should last about 1 – 2 months and then I will get the new Treo 600’s when they come out.
Also DOA this week is my blackberry pager. It finally stopped working completely. It went from bad lcd screen, to rebooting when sending messages, to rebooting every 5 minutes. Skytel claims that they can fix the reboot problem, but not the lcd issue. if I cannot read the email, I have no reason for the pager. The problem is that blackberry or RIM the makers of blackberry’s just stopped selling the 850’s, the little pager size units everyone has. they are focusing on the bigger PDA style devices. I am not happy because I want a pager like device. My hardware rep has a lead on something for me, if not I am hitting ebay for a used skytel blackberry.
Snapper Mail
Just found a great new program for my Treo. It is called Snapper Mail. it is a wireless email client that does everything that Treo mail does, for less money and it has more options. I think it is a bit faster at downloading also. I am using the 30 day trial now. When it is up I will see the status of the new Treo 600’s and will decide if I will buy the software. So far, all signs point to yes.
Phone Update
According to a very reliable source (Howard) the Handspring Treo 600 is supposed to kick ass. Not his works mind you, but I am paraphrasing. He knows people who have test units and they swear by them. I am holding onto my Treo 270 until the GSM Treo 600 comes out and then I am switching. I hope it is as good as everyone says.
I saw Howard’s new Sony Ericsson T616 or 61 something. it is nice looking. The screen was nice and bright, and it had a built in camera. The problem is I heard bad things about the reception. Howard said he had good results so far, but I am not sold. If anything I am going with the Treo 600, and if I don’t like that, I probibly will go with the Motorola V600.
For now I wait.
The Best Laptop(s) I Ever Had
Technology is supposed to get better over time. You are supposed to have a “better” computer, PDA, Phone, etc. as time goes by. But is that always the case? Think about cars. My dad talks about some old car he had in the 70’s that was probably the best car he ever had. Tons of people like classic cars, and would go back to them in a flash. Does anyone really want to go back to a 286 computer and use DOS again? That old 10lbs laptop from 12 years ago cannot be dreamed about. I mean you can think back to the good old days with nostalgia, but do you really want that old equipment over what you have now?
I just thought of that when I declared (with Gus) that the IBM Thinkpad T40 I have is probably the best laptop I have ever had. But if it wasn’t wouldn’t we have a problem? It is of course the newest laptop I have. It should be the best. Shouldn’t it? Now my last laptop an IBM Thinkpad T31 or the Dell Latitude C400 I had before that were good solid machines, but the T40 is just rock solid awesome computer. The little things push it over the edge from company computer, to the best machine I ever had.
On that same note, I have to say things about my Powerbook 12″ that I have. You can and cannot compare it to a Thinkpad, or a Windows computer. They are the same, and different at the same time. I think that the powerbook is also one of the best computers I have ever had. I have had machines the size and capabilities of the Powerbook before. It is actually a bit bigger than my Latitude C400. It is just better. The keyboard is the best or one of the best I have ever used on a laptop or off of one. The DVD Burner is amazing. The port layout and other features make it fantastic.
The question is when these machines get a bit older and I upgrade, will I look back and wish I still used them? After all their is always something better just down the production line.