2006 April

I am impressed. Finally, I was able to find a Microsoft presentation of Vista that really explained why I would bother to upgrade. Thanks to an employee of the Microsoft Corp. featured on “On10.net“, I am now in the know as to what Vista will do for me and just as importantly, anyone I know [...]

A social service organization I work with lost its connection to the Internet. It was more critical to their operations than they realized.
Listen to the podcast: What if your connectivity goes away?
Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.
Last week, in a moment [...]

The SaveTheInternet.com coalition launched a campaign this week to support “Net neutrality,” and to oppose legislation in Congress that would allow backbone providers and telcos to give preferential treatment to companies that pay to have their Web sites delivered more quickly on their networks. Peacefire is a charter member of the coalition.

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Priority Queuing has four different priorities: high, medium, low, and normal, which can be assigned to each packet.
Packets are designated by IP source/destination address, TOS [Type of Service] for DiffServ [Differentiated Services], LAN MAC [Media Access Control] address, TCP/UDP Port numbers (such as HTTP [Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol], [...]

One of the issues that I see many local PC repairmen (or women as the case may be) facing in their work lives is competing with companies like Dell and HP for customers. Now I am not talking about competing to repair PCs. No, I am talking about making sure that when your customers are [...]

Here recently I received an email asking me for a roundup of my preferred free Linux distributions to try.

Every year Microsoft launches its Second Shot promotion that allows you to retake an exam for free if you fail the first time. For those of you who do not check the Microsoft Learning web site on a frequent basis, the Second Shot promotion is currently available.
There are usually some slight changes to the [...]

Research from Ontrack Data Recovery reveals one in four USB stick owners has lost data.
The research, conducted among 400 professionals worldwide, also revealed that 65 percent of professionals own at least one USB-stick. However, their compact size leads many people to store their sticks incorrectly - in suit pockets or bags - leaving valuable confidential [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Patch antennas are used for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other applications (such as satellite radio) and in special locations where directional transmission are needed. Inexpensive and lightweight (less than one pound), they can be wall-mounted or standalone. With a conventional Patch antenna, also referred to as [...]

I have been watching a number of the ajax-based applications as of late. Most of them have been interesting, yet remain pretty buggy. Then we have the one still in development meant to be an Ajax OS. OK, this sounds nuts, this I know.
But even aside from the fact that you become dependent on your [...]

If the study of decision theory, probability, and statistics is to help us in daily life, then we should be able to point to decisions we have made based on rational choice. That does sometimes happen, but often we grossly mis-estimate the relative risks of various activities. We all know people who are nervous about [...]

Full-Time Freelancing: 10 More Things provides a useful list of things Cameron Moll learned in his first year of freelancing full-time as a Web designer. Though it focuses on Web design, much of the advice is useful for other business. Here’s my commentary from a freelance writer’s perspective.

Explore the real-world selection criteria for business intelligence (BI) standardization as employed by leading companies.
This paper benchmarks enterprise data environments, providing quantitative and qualitative assessments of BI requirements useful for your organization’s own standardization efforts.
Download this paper to find out how leading companies across all industries use MicroStrategy for analytical, reporting and real-time [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Microsoft .NET platform is an infrastructure of components based on a client-server computing/network architecture with enhanced use of Internet services called middleware.
Middleware is sometimes referred to as the pipes or plumbing connecting the faucet to the reservoir. In computing certain computing occurs at the client and some at [...]

Earlier I was tinkering with my installation of the open source video aggregator known as Democracy Player. As my day went on, I finally decided that I might hit their blog to alert them to a couple of minor bugs in this beta software. Within a matter of minutes, I received an email from [...]

Received this via my Gmail account today, thought it was definitely interesting and wanted to share it with you:

Want a more positive workplace where you and your co-workers feel happy and motivated? Want to make customers happier so that their loyalty - and your profits - grow? Want to work more efficiently and effectively and improve your health? Authentic Happiness Coach and Customer Loyalty expert JoAnna Brandi shares tips for transforming these wants [...]

Discover the depth and breadth of business intelligence (BI) applications across seven major categories.
This paper provides detailed descriptions, sample reports, key performance indicators (KPIs), and case studies from leading companies that use MicroStrategy’s enterprise BI architecture.
Looking for ideas to jump start your own BI application development? Download this paper for best practices and [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Two other factors are important in a multicast network: Dense and Spare modes.
DM [Dense Mode] uses a “push” model to flood multicast traffic (broadcast) to every device. That is, every device gets the data whether they asked for it or not.
SP [Sparse Mode] uses “pull” or “pull [...]

Sometimes a guy just needs a break. So with that in mind I made it a point to spend my free time on Sunday at a park that I enjoy with a buddy of mine.