Now that screens are wide, I find vertical space more precious. So I put my XP task bar on the left side of the screen. It’s interesting how many programs now come up underneath it. Commercial packages with large user bases. I’m sure they mind the task bar when it’s at the bottom of the… Continue reading Changing the Unchangeable
Category: Technology
CastleCops: Fare Thee Well
The very useful CastleCops web-site seems to be defunct as of late December, for “an as yet undetermined reason.” Fare thee well. Their databases can now be found on SystemLookup.com.
Save Windows XP
It seems Windows XP is being phased out: Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store shelves in June have papered the Internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to Windows Vista, Microsoft’s latest PC operating system, whose consumer launch last January was greeted with lukewarm… Continue reading Save Windows XP
30 Years from Today
30 years from today–that’s January 19th, 2038–at 3:14am, the 32-bit unsigned clocks of legacy Unix systems will roll over. They’ll read January 1, 1970. I wrote about it here. More serious than Y2K, since all such clocks will roll over. If you recall, with Y2K it was primarily whether the programmer used two-digit years or… Continue reading 30 Years from Today
Consultant’s Swiss-Army Knife (Part 1)
As a consultant, I’m always looking for the perfect Swiss Army knife-type tools related to what I do. Pulling the right adapter or gizmo out of your bag can save the day, avoid embarrassment (yours or your client’s), or make you come off looking like the hero. But you can’t carry a stack of steamer… Continue reading Consultant’s Swiss-Army Knife (Part 1)
Elevator Drives then and Now
My business has been taking me into elevator machine rooms recently. It’s amazing how far the technology has come. These elevator drive motors are circa 1938, and still work fine. These drive motors are new, and a fraction of the others’ size. I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Ten Years of Data
I was looking for a years-old appointment and realized I’ve been using a PDA for ten years now. My data goes back to 1997. (I think I’m on my fourth PDA, but I’ve lost count.) It was a strange realization on a few levels. It was pretty cool seeing appointments from ten years ago. What… Continue reading Ten Years of Data
Quote of the Day
Guy Kawasaki, web entrepreneur: During the dot-com bubble, you needed $5 million to do stupid ideas. Now you can do stupid ideas for 12 grand.
Betting the farm
Doing some exploratory work for a VoIP application, I bought this nifty LinkSYS VoIP adapter. But I find that adapter only knows how to find Vonage. The firmware is programmed that way. Easy for Vonage customers, useless to us. But it seemed to be a reasonable business decision for LinkSys. Sign on with a big… Continue reading Betting the farm
Hyper-deflation
I threw away a bunch of old software today. I threw away the CD-ROMs but kept the (plain) sleeves. Ironic, that. Reminds me of a story I heard: Post-World War II Germany’s hyper-inflation, where someone stole a wheelbarrow full of cash. They stole the wheelbarrow, but dumped the cash. I’d say this software’s hyper-deflation is… Continue reading Hyper-deflation