IT Professionals

Do You Use A Google Cheat Sheet?

Matt Hartley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:30:40 +0000

On the surface, this might sound like a really odd question. After all, who in their right mind needs a cheat sheet for something as simple as using a search engine? Yet once you realize just how much stuff you can actually do with Google, suddenly the need for a full cheat sheet does not sound so preposterous after all.

Take the series of available cheat sheets available from this article. As you can plainly see, Google can work with everything from mathematical calculations down to the simple product search with the right price in mind.

Perhaps the most useful guide of all, is the cheat sheet designed to make Google act as your own personal calculator. Due to the fact that words can be used in place of = or / or - and so on, there is a real need for a comprehensive guide to ensure you are off to the right start. So go ahead, check out the guides from the link above. See anything new that you did not already know? Perhaps you have a guide of your own you’d like to share? Hit the comments, let us know what your favorite Google tricks happen to be.

Instant On Linux Faces Stiff Competition

Matt Hartley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:23:47 +0000

Something people have been asking me lately is whether or not options such as Splashtop Linux are about to become obsolete? Using this article as a guide, you can see the argument for those individuals who feel that if Google’s Chrome OS is able to deliver an instant on browsing experience, other instant on Linux options will just go away.

I am of the belief that Google could win on brand recognition. However, I do not see it offering Skype functionality, among other applications available in the instant on camp. Still, there is really little question that Google’s Chrome OS could potentially spell eventual trouble for existing solutions today. But there is one problem.

Vaporware. Thus far, Google’s Chrome OS is essentially non-existent. So in order for Splashtop among other instant-on Linux vendors to show concern, there needs to be a product on the market. Thus far, I just have not seen this happen. So at this time, I simply do not see a threat.

Effects Of Stress

Diana Huggins — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:00:56 +0000

It is impossible to live and not experience stress. This stress can be caused by your work, by family pressures, or by a lack of balance of life and work. Stress can have different effects on people which can impact on their health, their productivity at work and their relationships. Stress can actually make you sick as your body begins to react to the high level or long-term consistent stress. Each person will react differently to stress but it can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses.

At work, stress can cause problems with concentration, memory, and productivity by an inability to begin or complete tasks. Stress often causes depression in people who experience it for long periods or experience high levels of stress. This depression can begin to cause not only problems in the effectiveness at work but also in personal relationships.

People who feel stress are difficult to get along with. They can be difficult to work with and to live with. It is important that people take steps to reduce the stress in their lives. Managing stress is important to maintain good health, a successful professional career, and healthy personal relationships.

LANcet Chat v2.3.285

Lockergnome — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:30:52 +0000

LANcet Chat is free software for real-time message exchange over local networks (LANs). With it, you don’t need to install a chat server. All participants can connect any time and they will see each other automatically.

Just run LANcet Chat on every computer and start talking immediately. It allows the sending of private messages. It can start automatically with Windows and stay in the tray. It can use sounds and popup windows for notification. Standard emoticons supported.

[507K] [Win95/98/Me/2k/XP/Vista] [FREE]

Entity Developer Express v2.00

Lockergnome — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:30:30 +0000

Entity Developer Express is a powerful freeware LINQ to SQL modeling and code generation tool.

You can design LINQ to SQL entity models from scratch or reverse-engineer an existing database, in which case you will have the classes and the relations with just several clicks.

Entity Developer for SQL Server uses standard Microsoft SqlClient, LINQ to SQL, and Entity Framework, all of them bundled with .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

[3M] [WinXP/Vista] [FREE]

Kicking The Netmeeting Habit: A Two-Step Program To Unleash The Full Potential Of Web Conferencing

Lockergnome — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:00:29 +0000

Discover how removing the constraints of NetMeeting can enable organizations to realize the full potential of Web collaboration solutions for increased productivity and competitive gain.

While NetMeeting has played an important role in the early adoption of web conferencing — primarily by being a “free” component of Windows that fulfilled early data conferencing needs — it has at least two major shortcomings identified that can severely limit the adoption of Web collaboration in organizations. This white paper presents a simple two-step process to kicking the NetMeeting habit.

Get your free white paper, Kicking the NetMeeting Habit: A Two-Step Program to Unleash the Full Potential of Web Conferencing, today!

Lockergnome has joined forces with TradePub.com to offer you a new, exciting, and entirely free professional resource. Visit us today to browse our selection of complimentary IT-related magazines, white papers, webinars, podcasts, and more across 34 industry sectors. No credit cards, coupons, or promo codes required. Try it today!

North Korea - From DoS Attacks To A Twitter Account

Matt Hartley — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:38:35 +0000

As many of you have likely heard by now, there has been strong speculation of a DoS attack over the fourth of July from “hackers” said to be sympathetic to North Korea. Clearly, with South Korea having broadband speeds that easily triple what most people in the States have, I can only wonder how long North Korea has been war-driving its southern neighbors and using their Wi-Fi. I mean come on, it is really unlikely that North Korea has much in the way of broadband penetration, much less Internet access amongst most of the population.

So why is this such a big deal anyway? Read the bottom of this article and the answer might surprise you.

Experts say North Korea could use cyber attacks as a tool to paralyse the South’s telecoms system before military strikes.

Yes, an online attack designed to allegedly cripple the South’s communication structure. But I would also be inclined to believe that this had to be perpetrated by PCs from other areas than the North, myself.

Have strong opinions on this? Care to let North Korea know where you stand? Not a problem, thanks to its Twitter account. Yes, based on the best of my knowledge, that is REALLY its Twitter account as I know for a fact that the Web site link given in the profile is assigned to its outreach news agency.

Where does this leave us? While North Korea seems to have a handle on using Twitter with the latest tools, it is painfully clear that it is apparently in dire need of a news Web site that was not written in 1998. Clearly, Web 2.0 has yet to arrive in its neck of the woods. I mean come on, the English version of the Web site is hosted in Japan. Why not also hire some local talent to give that horrid Web site some badly needed CPR?

One Step For Privacy And Security

Lockergnome — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:05:00 +0000

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford wrote what he considered to be private email correspondences to a “dear friend.” Unfortunately, the recipient of his email communications had her email account hacked. This unauthorized access meant that Governor Sanford’s private, intimate email correspondences were media fodder for the national and international press. The breach of email security was one of the reasons that Governor Sanford has much unwanted attention and public embarrassment.

This example may be extreme — however, it illustrated a point. What you do on the computer and on the Internet may not be private and secure. What you have on your hard drive, like this year’s tax information, can be accessed by hackers and by malware.

One of the basic ways to protect yourself is to encrypt your computer information.

Encrypt, encrypt, encrypt. Security people have been saying this for years, and we agree. Encryption is an extra layer of protection. Somehow, there is a common belief that encryption is difficult and totally geekish. It’s not at all. SafeBit Disk Encryption makes it easy:

“SafeBit features on-the-fly disk encryption by creating encrypted virtual disk drives where you can hide files and folders, keep them encrypted all the time, but still work with these files just like you work with normal files. Disk Encryption is transparent to the user…”

This program is efficient and easy to use. It effectively provides security and stays out of your way. It really is non-intrusive. And, to encourage you to protect your sensitive data, the SafeBit people are being kind and offering our readers an unbelievable discount of forty percent (40%) off the normal price.

This is an exclusive, time-limited offer that is available to our readers. It expires on July 15, 2009. Safebit supports 32-bit versions of Windows Vista / XP / 2000 / NT.

There are two more things that need to be said. The first is that you may have all the security software protection ever recommended on your machine. You may be protecting yourself from malware, spyware, trojans, rootkits, and all that other garbage. An infection still can compromise your computer. No security software program dares to offer one-hundred percent protection (the person at the keyboard makes errors). And what happens if you lose or have your machine stolen? For example, missing/stolen laptops are reported every day. Then, all your confidential information is available to whoever is powering up your machine. This security breach leads to identity theft. Yes, this type of encryption should be on every government and business laptop. (Give a shout if you want this program in high volume. We will see what we can do for you.)

The other thing is that there is no backdoor. The SafeBit people state this clearly: “The software does NOT include any backdoor. Neither the vendor nor any other entities are able to break the SafeBit Disk encryption.” You must remember your password. There are no two ways about it. The vendor is not going to be able to save you — the program really is that good. Losing your machine may be costly, but losing the confidential personal information on that computer may mean possibly long term anguish. SafeBit is just an efficient, easy way to protect yourself.

The NeoByte people will give you a choice. They are offering our readers a forty percent (40%) discount on their Invisible Secret product. That product was reviewed previously. Both of these programs will help to keep prying eyes away from your sensitive, confidential files. Protect your privacy!

Mercurial: The Definitive Guide

Lockergnome — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:30:24 +0000

Mercurial is the easiest system to learn when it comes to distributed revision control — ideal whether you’re a lone programmer working on a small project, or part of huge team dealing with thousands of files. Mercurial permits a countless variety of development and collaboration methods, and Mercurial: The Definitive Guide offers several concrete suggestions to get you started.

In the book’s preface, author Bryan O’Sullivan explains that his desire to write this book came from a lack of published literature about the subject. “A few years ago, when I wanted to explain why I believed that distributed revision control was important, the field was so new that there was almost no published literature to refer people to.”

He continues: “Although at that time I was working on the internals of Mercurial itself, I switched to writing this book because that seemed like the most effective way to help the software to reach a wide audience, along with the idea that revision control ought to be distributed in nature.”

O’Sullivan takes you step by step through ways to track, merge, and manage both open source and commercial software projects with Mercurial, using Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and other systems.

Mercurial: The Definitive Guide will help you:

Learn the basics of working with a repository, changesets, and revisions
Merge changes from separate repositories
Set up Mercurial to work with files on a daily basis, including which ones to track
Get examples and tools for setting up various workflow models with Mercurial
Manage a project that’s making progress on multiple fronts at once
Find and fix mistakes by isolating problem sources
Use hooks to perform actions automatically in response to repository events
Customize the output of Mercurial

Like the revision system it describes, Mercurial: The Definitive Guide maintains a strong focus on simplicity to help you learn Mercurial quickly and thoroughly.

Email Or Phone Call?

Diana Huggins — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:00:36 +0000

When you open your computer after a meeting and find 84 emails that have been sent to you in the past two hours, do you groan and long for an old-fashioned email? What is even more exciting is when you receive an email that has been forwarded to you from your manager that began more than 10 days before. Your manager has asked, “What do you recommend?” Now you have to read several pages of emails to get the history of the issue. Now the telephone is looking good. I think there can be balance in our use of emails, telephone calls, or brief meetings.

So how will you decide when to use email, phone calls, or a quick meeting? It probably depends on several factors: time, number of people, importance of record of information transfer, or your comfort in emails or phone calls. If your boss is very busy with meetings, then it may be difficult to get a few minutes to meet and it may be easier to email the question. On the other hand, it may be more efficient to get a couple of minutes and quickly ask the question rather than having someone read a long email.

You should probably consider how many people you would need to contact before you decide to make that telephone call. It may be more efficient to email several people at once than to try to arrange a conference call. Sometimes an email is more efficient if you need to have a record of the information that is being transmitted. This will allow you to go back and refer to the information. Most people are very comfortable with email and it is important to remember that some of your colleagues like the personal contact in a brief meeting or a telephone call.

Freebie Notes v3.28

Lockergnome — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:30:52 +0000

Freebie Notes is a great little program for users who just want sticky notes with an alarm timer. With Freebie Notes you can create notes displaying on your desktop.

Your notes can be displayed immediately after creation or in the certain moments of time. You can create notes of custom sizes and colors and set different types for your notes.

[1M] [Win98/Me/2k/XP/Vista] [FREE]

Intel Solid State Drives Technology Video

Lockergnome — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:00:53 +0000

Discover how to wait less and do more with high performance Intel Solid State Drives.

Watch the informative video, Intel Solid State Drives Technology Video, and learn what’s 100x faster than a standard hard disk drive. Bring a new level of storage performance and reliability to your application with Intel X25-M and X18-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives (SSD). No moving parts mean quiet, cool, highly rugged storage. Intel’s unique design provides faster system responsiveness, higher reliability and lower power requirements.

The Google OS Is Real

Matt Hartley — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:27:05 +0000

What you are about to discover in this article is perhaps the most significant thing Google has released since… well, ever. The Google operating system is real; it is to be called the Google Chrome OS and it is going to change the way we think of operating systems.

Google Chrome OS is destined for netbooks, while being compatible with everyday PCs. Built with the Linux kernel and is completely separate from the Android platform used on popular mobile devices, I think we may finally see Google Apps getting the popular attention that it deserves as a result of Google Chrome OS.

So where can you find it? Nowhere at the moment, as it is not even released yet. But according to this official Google announcement today, you will see it on netbooks come 2010. Another thing to consider is that this is not really designed to directly compete with desktop operating systems such as Windows, OS X, and the various flavors of desktop Linux already being used today. Google Chrome OS is, instead, a means to an end. It will be designed to provide a simple, hassle free way to access Google’s application suite and browser without having to jump through the hoops normally associated with the typical application install.

And finally, one last interesting piece of this puzzle. Look back to September 1st, 2008. For those who were paying attention, the release of Google Chrome OS is not so much a surprise, as it’s been expected. As you can see from the previous link, Chrome was destined to become part of its own operating system from the beginning. This is largely why I think Google never really found a need to stop working with Mozilla in continuing to help fund Firefox with its search results. Clearly, Google Chrome was destined to be working from another tier entirely.

Gazelle Vs Chrome For Operating System 2.0

Matt Hartley — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:32:38 +0000

No one really questions the fact that at some level, a big motivation behind Google Chrome appears to stem from providing seamless access to Google Applications. All of which happen to be Web-based software.

But did you know that Microsoft also appears to be dabbling in this area as well? Based on the earliest reports, the Gazelle is designed to provide a more secure environment from one another. So if there is something that infected one Web app, it would be less likely to carry over to the second application. A bold and worthwhile pursuit to be sure. But considering just how late to the game this would make Microsoft, the real question is: Will anyone pay much attention to the project?

Despite my own misgivings on the words security and Microsoft showing up in the same sentence due to its track record with being slow to react in the past, I think that Gazelle might be something to keep a close eye on. Because Microsoft is correct in assuming that security issues will eventually arise with Web apps, it is worthwhile to explore different means of combating the issue before it becomes a problem much later on.

FirstRSS ERROR: "http://xml-us.amznxslt.com/onca/xml?Service=AWSECommerceService&Version=2005-07-26&Operation=ItemSearch&ContentType=text%2Fxml&SubscriptionId=1TNCMT2927RM2D7Z0FR2&ResponseGroup=Large&Style=http%3A%2F%2Ftagjag.com%2Fcss%2Famazon.xslt&SearchIndex=Blended&Keywords=web+2+0" NOT FOUND!

Mitch Garvis Manages Virtual Machines with SCVMM

Greg Hughes — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:00:27 +0000

In this podcast, Richard and I talk to Mitch Garvis about System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM). SCVMM handles Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) migration of computers into virtual machines. It also does Virtual-to-Virtual (V2V) migration from VMWare VMDK to VHD. Besides migration, SCVMM allows operators to understand the load across different VM host machines and move VMs from one machine to another, to handle failover clustering and to provision new VMs as needed.

Mitch is an IT Trainer with a passion for community. Having founded and led two major Canadian user groups for IT Professionals he understands both the value and rewards of helping his peers. After several years as a consultant and in-house IT Pro for companies in Canada, he now works with various companies creating and delivering training for Microsoft to its partners and clients around the world. He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and has been recognized for his community work with the prestigious Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award. He is an avid writer, and blogs at mitchgarvis.com and at itprotoronto.ca.

Mastering Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

Are You Taking Accountability For Your Own Work Life Balance?

Diana Huggins — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:00:10 +0000

As we become busier in our lives with family, work, friends, and home chores, it becomes more difficult to maintain a work/life balance. It is important to remember that we have some control over our lives and often our own expectations lead us to make decisions that make us feel dissatisfied with our life/work balance and can lead to stress. If this has happened to you, you learn to balance work and life.

First, you will need to identify the personal values that are most important to you for your family relationships and professional life. This will allow you to prioritize the time you spend on what you value most and to manage your multiple responsibilities. It is also important to recognize the sources of stress in your life and determine if you have techniques to deal with the stress.

It is impossible to live without stress, but to maintain the work/life balance you need to recognize the symptoms and watch that you are maintaining a good balance for you values. If you take the time to relax and rejuvenate you will find that you have the balance that will allow you to approach your work and life activities with greater energy and enthusiasm.

ManageEngine OpUtils v5.6

Lockergnome — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:30:12 +0000

OpUtils offers the ability to map your switch ports to devices in their physical location. The IP Address Manager tool automatically discovers the subnets and scan them periodically to get the details of used & available IP Address in your network.

It also provides various tools for bandwidth monitoring, network monitoring, wake on LAN, detecting rogue devices in the network, Cisco config file management, MAC-IP resolving, SNMP trap receiving, and more.

[26M] [Win2k/XP/Vista/Linux] [FREE]

The Return On Investment Of Open Source Data Integration

Lockergnome — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:00:16 +0000

Learn the different alternatives to open source data integration, including the costs, visible and hidden, of these alternatives, on several types of projects.

With cost often viewed as one of the major reasons to adopt open source technologies, the Return On Investment (ROI) of open source must be determined precisely when looking at deploying data integration solutions. This ROI white paper looks in detail at all project costs:

License costs (development, runtime, maintenance)
Training and rampup, development and maintenance time
Hardware and operating system
IT operations

It also considers many intangible elements; reliability, predictability and time to market. More than a theoretical report, the ROI white paper provides not only hard numbers but also the tools IT organizations need to assess the return of investment of open source and to compare this ROI with the one of alternative options: manual coding, and proprietary data integration solutions. This ROI white paper is also illustrated by real-life examples from users of data integration technologies.

Get your free white paper, The Return on Investment of Open Source Data Integration, today!

ActiveX Bug That Might Bite

Matt Hartley — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 05:30:52 +0000

First off, I will say that I am happy to see that there is a fix for this ActiveX bug as it could otherwise create hardship for a lot of trusting Internet Explorer users. Clearly, I am not affected as both my platform and browser do not fall into this category. But a lot of you out there might want to look into making the registry adjustments suggested in the linked piece above.

Something tells me, however, that this is hardly the only serious exploit to hit Internet Explorer since going from 6 to 7 and now 8. But to be fair, I can think of a number of exploits being just as malicious for Firefox as well.

For my money, I always make a practice to simply disable the stuff that is in a position to do me the most harm. While not always as straightforward as we might like, I choose to disable Java in all browsers and I avoid any use of ActiveX like the plague.

Now this is just my own approach. Perhaps you have one that is a little less extreme? If so, I would love to hear about it. Just hit the comments here and share your own thoughts on how to best avoid nightmare scenarios like this with your browser.

Complete Web Monitoring

Lockergnome — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:00:46 +0000

Do you really understand your online presence? Are you confident that visitors can use your Web site? Do you know their motivations? How do online communities perceive your company? To innovate and adapt your business quickly, you must know the answers to these questions.

Complete Web Monitoring, by Alistair Croll and Sean Power, demonstrates how to measure every aspect of your Web presence — including analytics, backend performance, usability, communities, customer feedback, and competitive analysis — whether you’re running an e-commerce site, a community, a media property, or a Software-as-a-Service company. This book’s concrete examples, clear explanations, and practical recommendations make it essential for anyone who runs a Web site.

With this book you will:

Discover how visitors use and interact with your site through Web analytics, segmentation, conversions, and user interaction analysis
Find out your market’s motivations with voice-of-the-customer research
Measure the health and availability of your Web site with synthetic testing and real-user monitoring
Track communities related to your online presence, including social networks, forums, blogs, microblogs, wikis, and social news aggregators
Understand how to assemble this data into clear reports tailored to your organization and audience

You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Complete Web Monitoring shows you how to transform missed opportunities, frustrated users, and spiraling costs into online success.

Online Web Conferencing for Meetings

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Tired of business travel? Conduct meetings online with GoToMeeting instead. We've been using it for quite some time for both personal and professional projects - it's worked like a charm! If you're an independent consultant, you owe it to your clients to start using collaboration software for Web-based interaction.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.