Software

Windows XP SP-2???

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So I sent out a notice to the employee’s not to install SP-2 on any work computers. We still don’t know what it will do to our desktops. We think we are just going to blow away every computer and re-image them with new builds of XP with SP-2 in it. This of course won’t happen for several months. for now no one will do anything, we hope.

I need to walk my dad through how to turn off automatic updates that I turned on his computer when I gave it to him. He is the perfect person for those automatic updates, but who knows what will happen to his computer if he gets SP-2. I would rather turn off auto-updates and take my chances with virus’s and worms vs. installing sp-2 and have him complain to me all the time.

Hey, SP-2 (for XP) may be completely safe. I am just not taking any chances with anyone I know, or any computer that I have to deal with at work…

Palm And Entourage

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I installed the Palm conduit for Microsoft Entourage 2004 over the weekend. After using it for a few days I have no idea why I haven’t been using it for longer. I want outlook like functionality on my Mac. I want free / busy data that works with outlook. Turns out I am a dumbass and have had that all along with Entourage. It makes sense, Entourage is Microsoft’s answer to outlook for the Mac.

I removed the Missing Sync from my Mac and ran the Entourage conduit. it worked great so far. I will put the missing sync back on when the new version 4.0 comes out with support for Entourage. No more iCal & Address book for me. Almost everything sync’ between the palm and Entourage. The only thing that doesn’t is calendar categories. I think that is because the palm doesn’t transfer them, because Entourage has the ability to handle them, and so does outlook.

I am going to try to sync my Treo 600 with my Powerbook today at work, and use the powerbook for my PIM instead of my windows box and outlook. I will see how it turns out. Now all I need is for my Treo to do Bluetooth and I would be a happy camper!!!

Firefox Vs. Mozilla Vs. I.E.

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I downloaded Mozilla’s Firefox 0.91 last night for my Mac. To me it didn’t seem that much different from Mozilla 1.7. Not sure what advanced features they were touting but it just looked like a stand alone version of Mozilla to me. It had better import / export of bookmarks. Other than that, not sure what the big deal is. I will probably start using it, but only because I don’t need or want the newsreader or email client that comes with mozilla.

I find it funny that the government is telling people that Mozilla is more secure than IE. It probably isn’t. it is just less used, so less people using something equals less people trying to exploit it. I still think mozilla is a better browser. We have been pushing mozilla as a browser in my company for over a year. We love it. This past attack on IE reinforces my decision to go with Mozilla. Like I said it probably is not more secure, but in reality it will be attacked less, since fewer people use it. I think that theory is holding up.

My Apartment In Visio

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I can be considered a true computer geek. I am moving. If you read this you know that already. Well last time I moved I took all the measurements of my new apartment and plotted it in Microsoft Visio. My mom and sister measured all the furniture to make sure it would fit in the apartment. I figured why not put that all in visio and see how the place will turn out. I did just that, and it came out awesome.

Due to a freak hard drive accident last August, I lost the visio file, but I found a hard copy a few weeks ago. I took that paper with all the measurements of my furniture, and a copy of my new apartments floor plan (complete with dimensions of the rooms) and created a new visio file. I don’t have the bathroom or kitchen done yet, since I don’t have dimensions for them, but the living room and bed room’s are both done. It looks like all my furniture will fit just fine.

I just have to decide if I am going to take my living room wall unit. It was very hard for the movers to put back together. That costs money. I also may want a wide screen TV this winter. If I get one this wall unit will not fit it. I would need to get a new one then anyway.

I have a few weeks to decide before the movers come. I am still pondering my options. I need to goto ikea and see what I can get for a replacement wall until.

Gmail?

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What is the big deal about Gmail? For many the concept of 1gb of free mail storage is a great idea. What I want to know is why tech guys are so into the Gmail invites? Is it because of the 1gig of space? Or that there are only a few invites floating around?

I am not talking about normal users who use hotmail and such now and gmail is a major upgrade. I am talking about people like myself and others I work with. Gus got a Gmail account and was so happy. I don’t know why. He has his own mail server. he has virtually unlimited mail storage as it is, but he was almost giddy when he got his gmail account. Howard also got one. He was practical in saying it was for life, so it was a good idea to have one. But your own domain with your own mail server is good also. Now most people don’t do this, they have mail through someone, but if you are a tech guy with your own custom home email address running on your own mail system do you really need gmail? Again it is a great idea, but not for me. Howard offered me a gmail invite. I turned him down. I don’t have any use for it. I don’t want something just to have it.

I guess this is an internet trend that I just don’t get. I will stick with my mail system with my own domain (or several domains to be exact)

This blog entry was written while listening to Given to fly from the album “Yield” by Pearl Jam

Must Have Software

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I have said good things about CallShield before. I will say more good things. It filters calls to my Treo 600. So if XYZ person calls and I don’t want them to call, I can send them to voice mail, or refuse the call or hang up on them right away.

The hang up function is great. I have some old lady who keeps calling me. She is so old and or retarded she keeps dialing my number instead of whoever it is she really wants to get. So I programed my phone to hang up on her. I see in the phone log that she calls like 8 times trying to get through. People are stupid.

The reason I am praising the software again is that she tried to call last night at like 1:30AM. I didn’t know this until this morning since the software worked as advertised. My only problem is that I wont want to switch to another phone since I won’t be able to do this kind of filtering on a normal cell phone.

Snapper Mail 2.0 Update

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OK I am having issues with my snapper mail. Not sure if it is the software or my IMAP server but I cannot connect to one IMAP box I want to get to. I can get to others. Not sure if it is because this box has a ton of mail in it. I am going to empty it out and see if it works then.

Besides that the software seems great. it does the sync between the imap server and my Treo very quick compared to versa mail. I don’t use versa mail because it is so slow. Also because you cannot schedule send and receives.

Snapper Mail

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I just downloaded Snapper Mail 2.0 from their website. It is a beta of the latest Palm mail client. I purchased their version 1.9x back in December. it is great, but it didn’t support IMAP. The enterprise version of the new 2.0 does support this feature. I tried it out yesterday and have 60 more days on the demo. So far it looks awesome.

I switched over to the IMAP server that my company uses, versus the second POP account I setup just for my Treo. Now what I read at work will be read on my Treo, and vice versa. I can see what I am doing on both devices. It is great. I use IMAP mailbox’s at work and personal already so this was a great addition for me. Now I can use my Treo, Mac, Work laptop or anywhere and get the same mail. it is the best thing short of Exchange.

So far I am down with buying this upgrade to an already great product. I want to give it a few more weeks to see if I have any major issues. First looks, look great!!!

Product Recovery

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I finally gave into the desire. I just got finished backing up all (i hope) of my data on my IBM Thinkpad T-40. As I write this I am running the IBM rapid restore function. Basically a hidden partition on the hard drive has all the settings and software that the machine had when it was bought. I am just returning it to the factory fresh setup.

I do this every once and a while. I may have done it once or twice before on this particular machine and I have only had it for 11 months. When I had more free time I would do this almost every 2-3 months. Now I don’t have the time, so it is a big pain in the ass to do, but it does wonders for the performance of the box.

I was having issues with the machine freezing up and then begin to work again after 30 seconds or so. I also realized how much crap I had accumulated on the machine. Now I am going to put Windows XP (pro), all the security patches and a few other pieces of software. Everything else I need I will put in a VMWare Virtual Machine. I will put VMWare workstation 4.5 on my machine. I just downloaded the free upgrade from 4.0. I want to keep this laptop as clean as possible. I know deep down that it will never happen in reality, but at least I will try.

I will spend the next week installing the main pieces of software I will need. I will spend the next month after that installing other miscellaneous pieces of software until I am finally happy with the setup.

Whenever I do this I always hope I remembered to back everything up. I almost always forget something. Sometimes important stuff, but usually something stupid, that will just take me time to get again, or I say goodbye forever to it.

CallShield Saga Is Over

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I finally got the Pro version of CallShield working on my Treo 600. Mantragroup makes this cool software call CallShield. I have mentioned it before. I can have distinctive rings on my Treo based off of groups in my address book. I can filter by number, area code, etc. I can also tell the software to go right to voice mail or hang up on someone based off of criteria like #, group, area code, etc. it is really cool.

My problem was that the lite version had a bug that would prevent me from using the distinctive ringer on my Treo 600. It kept rebooting when the ringer would go off. I went through 2 trials of their pro version of the software that worked before I was stuck. The support group was cool. they sent me a key to use the software for an extra week. Then a week goes by and the fix wasn’t in for the lite version. So I email them. Several days go by and they say, hey you have been cool send us your information and proof of purchase and we will upgrade you. I figure great, that was nice of them. I send them the information they require and another week goes by before I hear back from them. In total I bought the product on April 30, and I am finally getting it working without any demo’s today June 2. Not so good.

I do give them high marks for the software being really good. Also they didn’t give me a hard time about the upgrade. it just took a while to get responses back from them.

My bad experiences asside, Call Shield is my new killer app for the Treo 600 along side my Snappermail, & Verichat. This is why I have a smart phone.