Technodad

How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:36:24 -0500

How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide:

…I’m going to let you in on a tool that helps me keep track of, organize, find, and use the information I get from conferences, trade shows, and seminars: Evernote.

Source: Michael Gray - Graywolf’s SEO Blog

Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers (via Wired.com)

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:40:46 -0500

Brazilian Blackout Traced to Sooty Insulators, Not Hackers (via Wired.com):

It turns out pollution was a bigger threat to Brazil’s critical infrastructure than cyber security concerns:

A massive 2007 electrical blackout in Brazil has been newly blamed on computer hackers, but was actually the result of a utility company’s negligent maintenance of high voltage insulators on two transmission lines. … Brazil’s independent systems operator group later confirmed that the failure of a 345-kilovolt line “was provoked by pollution in the chain of insulators due to deposits of soot”

Happy 75th, Carl - let us know what’s out...

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0500

Happy 75th, Carl - let us know what’s out there.

itsfullofstars:

“Dr. Carl Sagan poses with a model of the Viking lander. The Viking 1 lander was the first spacecraft to touch down safely on Mars.”

Instructables shows you how to wire your house with Cat5 or 6...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:52:27 -0500

Instructables shows you how to wire your house with Cat5 or 6 Ethernet cable. I pulled cable through my house last year, and it has made a huge difference in network performance, particularly for my Mac Mini media center.

Pulling cable in an existing structure will be fraught with frustration, and isn’t a one-person job, but the results will be worth it if you do media or file sharing.

Fall 2009

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:41:09 -0400

Download now or watch on posterous

IMG_0015.mov (5708 KB)

A windy last day of October 2009.

Posted via web from technodad’s posterous | Comment »

Hong Kong Park is an amazing oasis in the middle of HK. (Free WiFi for geeks, too.)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:19:42 -0400

Hong Kong Park is an amazing oasis in the middle of HK. (Free WiFi for geeks, too.)

via SimplyTweet

Posted via web from technodad’s posterous | Comment »

Untitled

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:44:02 -0400

via SimplyTweet

Posted via web from technodad’s posterous | Comment »

Hong Kong

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:59:42 -0400

See and download the full gallery on posterous

The Open Group conference in Hong Kong, October 2009

Posted via web from technodad’s posterous | Comment »

Trapani: Google Wave Attempts to Modernize Email (via HarvardBusiness.org)

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:03:56 -0400

Trapani: Google Wave Attempts to Modernize Email (via HarvardBusiness.org):

Gina Trapani gives one of the best layman’s overviews of Google Wave: “Google Wave is a new communication tool that the search giant bills as “what email would look like if it were invented today.” While the plan to modernize email is laudable and ambitious, Google Wave’s whiz-bang features can feel confusing and chaotic to new users. However, if regular people can make the leap that Wave does from email’s message-based system to conversations as co-editing a single document, Wave could revolutionize the way we communicate and collaborate online.”

DRAM study turns assumptions about errors upside down (via Ars)

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:25:46 -0400

DRAM study turns assumptions about errors upside down (via Ars):

Back when I did hardware design in th ’80s, DRAM errors, ECC and worrying about alpha particles in DRAM packaging was a big deal, which we all happily though was put behind us. Maybe not; a study by Google shows:

The headline conclusion in the study is that DRAM errors are vastly more common than is typically assumed. Nearly one-third of the individual machines in the study saw at least one error per year, a rate that’s orders of magnitude higher than previous research had indicated. To give some hard numbers, previous studies report 200 to 5,000 failures in time per billion hours of operation (FIT) per Mbit; Google found that their numbers were between 25,000 and 75,000 FIT per Mbit. On the bright side, most of these errors are the result of a few bad apples. About 8 percent of DIMMs were responsible for over 90 percent of the errors, as DIMMs that produced one error were hundreds of times more likely to produce another error in the same month. Another lesson that Google learned is that older hardware is much more likely to fail; at about 20 months the error rate shoots up drastically.

Maine

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:25:49 -0400

Click here to download:

IMG_0006.mov (5679 KB)

Posted via web from technodad’s posterous | Comment »

Netflix data shows shifting demand down the Long Tail

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:18:40 -0400

Netflix data shows shifting demand down the Long Tail:

Analysis of Netflix movie title consumption shows some real evidence for the long tail.

AT&T Says Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality Principles - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:56:00 -0400

AT&T Says Google Voice Violates Net Neutrality Principles - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com:

AT&T does a judo move by using the FCC’s new network neutrality stance against Google:

At issue is Google’s decision not to connect Google Voice customers to certain conference calling and other lines because of what it says are excessive access charges by the providers of those lines. AT&T, which is required to connect its telephones to all lines, says Google is discriminating against certain uses of its network, a no-no in the network neutrality world.

The article goes on to talk about the fact that AT&T needs to pay termination fees. They may have a point on this; however it could backfire if the FCC stats looking at reducing or eliminating the termination fees. Still, this will be a interesting test of the new policy (or the FCC’s will to enforce it.)

FCC poised to propose net neutrality regulations (via WSJ.com)

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:12:46 -0400

FCC poised to propose net neutrality regulations (via WSJ.com):

Looks like the FCC is getting serious - and it appears to be taking on both wired and wireless ISPs: “The U.S. government plans to propose broad new rules Monday that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, seeking to give consumers greater freedom to use their computers or cellphones to enjoy videos, music and other legal services that hog bandwidth.” Should be an interesting fight.

How would Jesus surf? Contest winner finds out | Seacoastonline.com

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:27:39 -0400

How would Jesus surf? Contest winner finds out | Seacoastonline.com

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the earth yet?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:10:52 -0400

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the earth yet?:

Suffering from LHC angst as the startup date approaches? This site may help.

Chan Lowe remembers Sen. Kennedy.

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:57:46 -0400

Chan Lowe remembers Sen. Kennedy.

Ted Kennedy's Leadership Lessons

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:57:47 -0400

Ted Kennedy's Leadership Lessons:

HBR article on lessons of leadership from Sen. Kennedy. These are always worth re-learning.

Snow Leopard upgrade: Inexpensive, Easy, and Fast (Updated)

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:57:00 -0400

I’ve now upgraded to Snow Leopard on two laptops, and am in the process of updating my single-core Mac Mini used as my entertainment center. (Sadly, no Snow Leopard for the trusty G5 server.) So far the upgrade has been “like buttah” - the installations ran completely smoothly and so far have been hands-off installs. Given the low price and easy installation, this upgrade is clearly worth it - while Snow Leopard isn’t a feature-heavy release, Apple has definitely made a lot of improvements under the hood:

Performance - After installation, my 2.16GHz 15” MacBook Pro was tangibly faster. Standout performance improvements include Finder window opening and manipulation, file operations, and network file transfer. A surprise was Safari: I was running the latest Safari under 10.5.8, but it now launches in a single bounce and renders right away. I also used the donationware utility “Select Startup Mode from A Hatful of Sky to set my system to boot in to 64-bit mode - this seems to have been part of the Safari speedup.
Compatibility - So, far, I haven’t hit any compatibility problems with any of the programs I use regularly. This includes Microsoft Office apps, all the Omni Group apps, and somewhat surprisingly, the Cisco VPN client I use to access my corporate network. The Cisco VPN client did need to be re-installed, but after that I was able to connect with no problems. Another surprise was that my favorite productivity enhancer, Quicksilver, worked flawlessly - since Apple has removed support for Input Managers, I figured it was a goner, but happily continues to work its Zen magic.

There are some things that needed tweaking after the install:

A few of my programs still needed updates. The early ship of Snow Leopard caught a few people still in the process of doing their compatibility updates.
I have a problem of keeping my thumbs from dragging on my trackpad when typing; I usually use a Wacom Bamboo tablet as my input device, but Apple changed the location of the “Ignore Trackpad when mouse is present” option to the Universal Access panel in System Preferences.

So far so good - the upgrade definitely seems to provide a good return of value on the $29 and small time investment. When was the last time you heard of an OS upgrade that was inexpensive, easy, and faster?

UPDATE: 08/09 11:40: I’ve hit my first pothole on Snow Leopard - the WebEx client will not launch from Safari, at least in 64 bit mode. WebEx has gotten a problem report; to their credit, the popup for OS revision on their site does have 10.6 listed. The workaround for now is to launch WebEx conferences from Firefox.

UPDATE: 09/09 12:24 : Per WebEx support:

“Currently WebEx Does not supports customers using Safari Version 4 with MAC 10.6. In 10.6 if Fire fox is used for starting or joining a meeting, it would work fine but Safari version 4 is not supported to start or join meeting in MAC 1.6.”

However, this appears to be another case of 64-bit compatibility in the WebEx application. If you set Safari to launch in 32 bit mode via Get Info in the Finder, the WebEx client will launch without problems. Of course, there will be a performance hit in Safari, so you may want to stick with the Firefox workaround until WebEx gets their client sorted out.

The risk of a double-dip recession is rising (via FT.com)

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:04:14 -0400

The risk of a double-dip recession is rising (via FT.com):

Good overview of the recovery (or potential lack of it) From FT: “This is a crisis of solvency, not just liquidity, but true deleveraging has not begun yet because the losses of financial institutions have been socialised and put on government balance sheets. This limits the ability of banks to lend, households to spend and companies to invest.”