Turn a calculator into a metal detector

I haven't tried it yet, but looks interesting (and easy).

http://www.instructables.com/id/HomeMade-Metal-Detector/

Migrating to Ubuntu Linux...

I have considered switching over my desktop environment from Windows XP to Linux for a few years now. This consideration has gone through my mind about three times now. Each time I have tried in the past, I have felt that the graphical Linux environment was not quite ready for the average desktop user. In the past I tried Mandrake Linux and Debian Linux with Gnome on top. I have definitely settled on Debian in general for non-graphical Linux servers I have built -- I find it the most intuitive and the apt package manager is so easy to use, I love it.

Well, I tried again last night by installing Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Desktop on my IBM Thinkpad Z61t which already had Windows XP Pro on it. In a word: amazed. The install was nearly flawless. I downloaded the ISO from the Ubuntu site, burned it to a blank CD, then booted off of the CD on my laptop. I should note that the CD is not only an installation CD, but it's also a Live CD -- meaning you can literally run the OS from the CD without even installing anything to your hard drive. It would be handy to have that CD with you when you travel just in case your main Windows or Linux installation decides to go belly up. Anyhow, after the Live CD has booted, a handy "Install" icon resides on the desktop. Clicking that launches the main Ubuntu install process to get Ubuntu onto your hard drive.

I started the install and it walked me through resizing my hard disk (120gb total) into two separate chunks without losing any data - one for the existing Windows XP install on an NTFS partition, and one for the upcoming Ubuntu install which would be formatted as ext3. I was amazed that my video, sound, touchpad, wifi, ALL worked fine out of the box. I had to tweak some sound settings to get my microphone to work. The only thing I have found that doesn't work out of the box is my integrated webcam, but I haven't researched that much yet to see if I can find drivers to make it work -- I'm hopeful.

The Gnome interface is very nice -- very "Mac OSX" like. You can turn on additional graphical effects for moving windows which are very cool. The OS came pre-loaded with TONS of apps, most everything that the average desktop user might need -- the OpenOffice suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, etc.), graphics apps, Internet apps, and much more. I then found a couple of other things online to install some other apps such as Wine, which lets me run Windows apps right there within Linux. You can literally click on a Windows .exe file to install something, it's amazing. That is a nice piece of mind because if there is a Windows app that I absolutely need to have, I can likely still run it while running Linux. It really makes the transition that much easier.

My next step is to do some testing on my desktop machine. The tricky part there is that I would need to install it on a RAID-1 setup which is running on a Promise RAID controller. I need to do more research to determine if resizing that partition will even work -- and if it does work, if I will be sure to not lose any data. I have very important things stored on that RAID, so I will definitely be backing that up before I try anything fancy on my main computer ;)

I definitely think that there is still a bit more work to be done to get the Linux desktop environment truly ready for the average non-techy computer user, but it's getting very close.

My days running Windows (and other Microsoft products fro that matter) are numbered...

I've migrated from Outlook to Thunderbird/Lightning

Up until quite recently, I've been using MS Outlook 2003 as my email, calendaring, and contacts application. It's nice to have everything all in one and it synchronized very seamlessly with my AT&T 8525 Windows Mobile phone.

However, being away from home more was troublesome because I was getting my mail via POP3 -- leaving about a weeks' worth of data on the server in case I needed to access it while on the road. However, that really was only a little helpful since once I downloaded email into Outlook, I then filed it into my various Personal & Business folders -- so going online via webmail while on the road only revealed the messages all the Inbox, unsorted.

What would I love? An Exchange server -- but that means hosting it myself at my house (easy, but I don't want my email hosted on a Comcast cable modem connection), in a data center on a dedicated or colo server (I don't want to pay $60-$100/month for that), or using a third-party Exchange Server hosting company -- not SUPER pricey, but still more than I wanted to pay (they are usually billed per user and have limits as to how much storage space you get).

I have instead chosen to go with IMAP -- leaving all of my mail on the server, in organized folders, fully accessible from my desktop email application(s), via Web mail, or on my phone. You may be wondering why I didn't just stick with Outlook since it supports IMAP. The reason is that IMAP support in Outlook is, well, crappy. I am a true believer that Microsoft didn't want to make it "too" good since it sort of competes in a way with Exchange, at least at a conceptual high-level.

Anyhow, having switched to Firefox a while back, I decided to go with Thunderbird, Mozilla's open-source email client. It works great. I then use the Lightning extension, which adds calendar functionality to Thunderbird. Then, I use another extension, Provider for Google Calendar, to sync my calendar with my Google Calendar. I have another extension as well to backup/sync my Thunderbird contacts onto the IMAP server in a special folder called Addressbooks Synchronizer, essentially backing them up to the server just in case. And now, when I access my email from the web, I have the exact same messages and all subfolders, so I don't skip a beat.

Additionally, I use GooSync on my Windows Mobile phone to sync my phone calendar with the same Google Calendar that I'm syncing too with the Thunderbird extension.

Take a look at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=540330 for an article that covers the topics discussed in this post (except this guy used a different program (GMobileSync) on his Windows Mobile phone to do the Google Calendar sync).

Zappos: Great service

If you haven't heard of Zappos.com, they're one of the largest online shoe sellers around. Probably their largest claim to fame is that they have free overnight shipping and free returns - effectively eliminating one of the big concerns with buying shoes online: What if they don't fit?

Anyhow, I recently ordered a pair of shoes and they were a bit too big, so I'll be returning them (free of charge). I wanted to then order a smaller size, but they were out of stock. However, their Web site did not indicate when they'd be in stock. I chatted live online with a customer rep to see if I could find out. She told me that it wasn't looking likely, which was good information to know.

The main reason I'm posting though is that at the end of the chat, she suggested I take a look at some other (competitor) Web sites. I think that is very commendable when a company is confident enough in their offering to suggest competitor Web sites, to ultimately keep their customers happy (in this case, to get them the shoes they need as soon as possible).

A step in the right direction for electric cars/plug-in hybrids

A plug-in hybrid is a car which runs on 100% electric power for a period of time (i.e., a certain number of miles), then switches to a hybrid electric/gas model similar to the current production Toyota Prius.



Volvo has unveiled a plug-in hybrid at the Frankfurt auto show. Details and more photos here

On a related note, if you haven't seen the documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car, I recommend it. It's quite disturbing...

Why Net Neutrality is Important...

(Click for larger view)

One Word for IBM's Tech Support: Wow!

About nine months ago, I purchased a new laptop to use while I was away from home. I ended up looking mainly at laptop options from Toshiba, Dell, and IBM/Lenovo. I am an IBM shareholder, so I was able to get a shareholder discount from IBM/Lenovo. Since they are typically a bit more expensive, that definitely helped my decision. Dell was still price-competitive but I ended up going with the IBM Thinkpad Z61t for a few reasons:

1. I have owned an older Thinkpad 600E for a few years, which I bought used, and it is a rock solid machine. It's old and pretty slow by today's standards, but still works great. The only things I've had to do are replace the CMOS as well as the main battery -- both things that are common replacements on a laptop of it's age
2. The new Thinkpad I purchased has all of the fun bells and whistles I thought I might need in the immediate future: bluetooth, fingerprint reader, integrated memory card reader, firewire - and of course wifi and other things that are standard on nearly all laptops. The Dell models had most of these things as options, but it was tough to find one that had them all in a single laptop like the Z61t
3. The Thinkpad lines have a "toughness" about them -- things like shock mounted hard drives with auto-parking (so if you were to drop your laptop, your hard drive would be protected from data loss). If I shake my laptop in my hands a bit, the sensor picks up on it.
   

Anyhow, let me get to the purpose of my post -- IBM's tech support. I have been having a problem with 2 intermittent pixels being out on my screen -- they're not always out, just sometimes (hence the intermittent). The problem is not major, just very slightly annoying at times when I happen to be looking at something dark on the screen.

I went online to IBM's site to submit a support ticket. The form they have was pretty techy -- not very user friendly. It asked some pretty technical questions and some of the fields (like the address line) only allowed a limited number of characters (my address line is not that long, yet I couldn't even get my whole street name in there). The form was just sort of annoying and lame in general.

Now here's where the "Wow!" part comes in. Literally within about 3 minutes, I got a call on my cell phone from IBM. They got some additional info about my problem and then asked if I wanted to talk to tech support or wait until later.

Perhaps you're thinking, "I guess that's cool, they called really quick." -- but the kicker is that I filled out and submitted that online form at about 11:50pm on a Friday night... good job IBM. I have no desire to purchase a laptop other that IBM for the forseeable future.

PS -- unlike some other laptop manufacturers, when you get a extended warranty, EVERYTHING (except the battery) is warrantied for 3 years. Sometimes, you have to be careful because the screen is exempt or is only warrantied for a shorter period of time. I ended up not getting it fixed because the problem is not too bad -- and if it gets worse, I can still get it fixed within the next 2 years or so...

Refactoring vs. Refuctoring

Ran across this via an article on 101 Ways To Know Your Software Project Is Doomed, quite funny (for developers at least): Refuctoring

5 business lessons from Costco - (37signals)

A good 5-minute read: Link

A reminder about the power of email - (37signals)

For those of you that have had the pleasure of me going on and on about my "Content Watcher" app, this blog post at 37signals is exactly why I made it. RSS readers/aggregators are nice and all, but they require you to take an extra step to open the reader and do the reading. Content Watcher brings RSS content to you directly into your email inbox, where you are each day anyhow -- what could be easier? Link: A reminder about the power of email - (37signals)

Microsoft Surface: Hands-on First Look

This is pretty sweet, and despite how advanced it looks, surface computers will be seen in some retail locations by the end of 2007 (according to this video anyhow). Check it out: Microsoft Surface: Hands-on First Look

Thanks Enjay.

Handy Tools for Programmers, Sys Admins, & Web Developers

A nice collection of handy tools: tlbox - the best tools on the web
(thanks Enjay)

The sweetest E-cards Ever

Finally, cards that say just what I have been thinking: someecards.com

What is MySpace.com's Excuse?

MySpace is popular. MySpace has lots of funding backed by huge investors. MySpace probably has lots of developers. Yet, their site seems to always have so many basic issues. When I went there today, they had skinned their home page for the new movie, "The Reaping". The only problem is, you can't even read their fancy page background because it requires a screen resolution in excess of 1152 pixels wide (what I'm running right now). 800 x 600 used to be the standard years ago, now it's probably safe to say that 1024 is a good base standard... and at that resolution their background is even more unreadable. Do they have zero QA people? Their developers are probably running huge-ass resolutions on their huge-ass dual flat screen monitors, but QA people -- managers -- executives -- should notice these things. They're so trivial. Anyhow, I'm always noticing other little bugs and other issues like this that cause me to ask myself, "Are they totally oblivious to basic web development concepts?"

Believe in Music and Make money

Check out SellaBand - a new twist on promoting new musical artists and getting a piece of the profits.

Dogfights: The Best Show on Television

OK...so some people may not be into aviation or World War II, but if you're like me, you're into both -- and a new show on the History Channel, "Dogfights" is right up my alley. It is simply the most ridiculously awesome show I have seen in years. It centers around AMAZINGLY LIFELIKE computer animations of historic dogfights and also shows real photos, video, and recent interviews from people that were there -- recounting the actual story they are reenacting using computer graphics. The graphics aren't just "good computer graphics", they are insane. The quality blows me away with each new episode. I just finished watching the episode, "Guadalcanal", and there was an interview by one pilot, Jeff De Blanc, that was just fantastic. I can't say enough about this show (is it obvious?). You can check out a clip at the Dogfights web site -- but do yourself a favor and watch the show for yourself. New episodes air Fridays @ 10pm (9pm central) on the History Channel.

Send large files to people for free: SendThisFile.com

I recently had a need for someone to send me a large (in my case, ~20 MB) file to me -- I didn't want them to email it to me for obvious reasons. I ran across SendThisFile.com, which is a cool, free site to do just what I need. As a sender, you upload the file, enter the email address(es) for who is getting it, then you're all done. The recipient just goes to the special temporary URL to get the file. It's all really slick, check it out: SendThisFile.com

Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company!

This is a different way of looking at employees within companies -- maybe we don't care that employees aren't behind "the company" and what it's doing. This article poses the question, "what if employees are simply happy with what they're doing on a day-to-day basis?"

Before leaving my full-time job, I dealt with this a lot -- I would go through phases of enjoying what I was doing and literally forgetting about the real reason I wanted to leave the company -- that I didn't own it and wouldn't ultimately get [a substantial] part of anything that might come of it when it finally "made it". I didn't necessarily doubt that the company would "make it", in fact, I think they have a pretty good chance. I gave up the opportunity to be a part of that because the daily grind just wasn't leaving me very fulfilled.

Anyhow, check this out: Creating Passionate Users: Don't ask employees to be passionate about the company!

Matt Heaton, CEO of BlueHost.com

BlueHost is a Web hosting company, and I follow their CEO's blog and have referenced a few posts he's made. He really has a no-nonsense approach to things that I respect. I don't even know this guy, but he's quickly becoming a huge role-model for me... so I invite you to check out his Blog and follow it for yourself to see what you think: mattheaton.com

Skateboard + Snowboard = Freebord

Skateboarding spawned snowboarding, and now snowboarding has spawned Freebord. These look very cool. I don't know any skaters, but if I did, I'd like to get a vibe on how cool these things are from their perspective... be sure to check out the videos.

Gyroplanes kick ass!

I saw a quick thing on Discoveries this Week (on the Science Channel) about the Gyroplane -- unlike a helicopter, which "pushes" off the ground, the forward motion of a Gyroplane causes the rotors to spin, creating lift. One benefit of this is that if you were to lose power, you can slowly & softly come to a landing.

There are a couple of manufacturers, but the one highlighted on the show was Groen Brothers Aviation. Here is a quick intro the Gyroplane: What is a Gyroplane?

The SparrowHawk II is one of Groen Bros.' models, check out some photos & info here.

A spoon or a jackhammer?

This post touches on a big part of my philosophy with Web apps such as Team Cowboy. Link: A spoon or a jackhammer?

Is your product/service/company "Ripe for parody"?

This quick post makes a good point -- "If someone was going to make fun of your company, how would they do it? (And if there’s no answer, is that a sign you’re lacking a defined point of view?)" I suppose sometimes it's good to not stick out in the crowd if you're trying to make a sneak attack...but otherwise, I agree with this point. Link: Ripe for parody - (37signals)

To wear a suit or to not wear a suit...

Granted, I rarely wear suits and only occasionally really dress up, but I tend to agree with this article. I think there's a place for a suit (like, when everyone else is wearing one), and sometimes you just wear one when you're meeting new people -- but I agree with wanting to be comfortable and being able to prove who you are by your skills, not by how much money you decided to spend on a suit to impress people... Link: Mark Cuban on "the suit" - (37signals)

Steve Job's Speech in Stanford Ceremony

A few good life lessons...

Porn Industry: "Respect my Authoratah!"

Slashdot | Adult Film Industry Chooses HD-DVD

Web 2.0 Magazine: Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites

Here's what someone else considers to be the Top 100 Web 2.0 sites... I tend to feel that the term, "Web 2.0" has lost its true meaning, if it ever even had one. Anyhow, some sites on here are total crap, others are great. I found it interesting how many sites are trying to do the same things -- in some cases competing with existing sites that are very well known. Perhaps the best example? www.dictionary.hm -- I wasn't aware that www.dictionary.com and www.m-w.com were doing such a terrible job defining words. Seriously, why would you possibly waste time creating another dictionary web site? Anyhow, here's the link to the "Top 100": Web 2.0 Magazine: Top 100 Web 2.0 Sites

The Youngest Grocer in America - (37signals)

This story made me smile... business because of the fun & need of it, not purely to make a quick buck. The Youngest Grocer in America - (37signals) (quick summary of the story and link to YouTube video)

UIE Brain Sparks » Blog Archive » Long Pages and Short Forms

This is something key to keep in mind for basic page design...
UIE Brain Sparks » Blog Archive » Long Pages and Short Forms

35 most outrageous fees (and how to avoid them) | 1 | Money Magazine

35 most outrageous fees (and how to avoid them) | 1 | Money Magazine