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This is the main blog for Mike McBride Online, where you can keep track of everything I'm in to in one place.
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| Friday, July 11, 2003
More upgrade woes So, Wednesday of this week, I noticed that the Bravenet counters were offline for an upgrade. Yesterday it seemed like they were back with the "new and improved" bravenet, but nothing really seemed to work very well, so I figured they had some bugs in the upgrade. Today everything seems to be working, but their "upgrade" actually made the service worse. They took away features and didn't actually add any new ones, and some of the feautures still don't work the way you would really expect them to, unless all of you are coming here from here. (Under referrers it lists only this page for today.) Good thing I get the access logs from my host, eh? Of course those are a day behind, which is why I had the bravenet counters to begin with, to see how traffic's going right now. Hopefully they gets things working properly. Sheesh! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:32 AM | 0 comments | 
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Thursday, July 10, 2003
Follow ups Lots of discussion about this post from yesterday going on around various places. Notably Geek News Central and Joy. To follow up Joy's point, she's right. I'm not going to sit here and tell you one version of software is better hands down, because it's all relative. MS stuff is better for me in my situation because it introduces fewer problems with users. If I could encompass my whole professional philosophy in one thought it would be this: "Your PC is a tool to help you do your job, whatever the job may be. The measure of any tool is whether you can do what you need to do with it. If you can, with minimal complications, it's the right tool. If it's not, you need a different tool." That part of IT should be simple, the trickier part is anticipating what tool you're going to need 3 years from now! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 3:38 PM | 0 comments |
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Goodbye old friend It appears that VMyths is going to cease operations while Rob Rosenberger is on an extended tour in the Persian Gulf. I'll miss it. Not only did I enjoy Rob's presentation at Gnomedex last year, but I used the site on a pretty conisistent basis as a reference tool, and pointer when dealing with questions from coworkers about those emails their aunt's boyfriend's cousin's sister-in-law sent them. :) Good luck Rob! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:43 AM | 0 comments |
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Windows 2000 SP4 Thanks to Andy for pointing to the list of Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 issues. I haven't installed it on anything yet, so this'll be a nice resource to have. BTW, I'm not neglecting my job, we don't actually have anything running 2000 in the whole office. It's either XP or NT here. I do, however, have a laptop and a desktop running 2000 on my home network. :) Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:53 AM | 0 comments |
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Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Vision coverage.. As a personal note, since I just arrived back in the office from a visit to the eye doctor, and the ordering of new glasses for my new prescription, find a job with vision coverage! :) Seriously, just a small tweak to my prescription was needed, to try and account for the fact that my eyes, apparently, don't play well together. One focuses faster than the other, which I make up for by shutting one of them when I'm reading. Apparently that's a bad thing or something, who knew? Anyhow, new lenses, the eye exam, new frames to replace my now 3 year old frames, a warranty, glare-resistant coating, and all of that starts to add up to some serious cash! Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 2:33 PM | 0 comments |
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Oh someone gets it! Dave pointed to something written by Joshua Allen today that talks about the software industry and where their focus should be. I have to admit, it's a good piece. This line really summarizes my feelings on the whole matter: "And the guy paying for it doesn't care what language, OS, or database you use as long as it works" Since I'm one of those "guys paying for it", I know the feeling. I get occasional grief over the software I choose to use at work, and that's fine, you can disagree all you want. It might not be the latest and most hip software but I know for a fact that it does work. And not only does it work for me, but it works for the 22 other, non-technical, people who work here. Could I install Linux desktops, or buy Mac's to replace all the PC's we have here? Yes, I could. Could I switch to OpenOffice, StarOffice or other desktop apps? Yes I could. Could I switch our whole membership database into a mySQL backend. Yes I could. Would that make life easier for my end-users? Would it "work" for them in the sense that they don't really have to think about how any of it works, they just need to use it? Or would I have to spend months, maybe even years, retraining everyone before they would get any real usage out of it? Would I have to spend months training every time a new hire came on board because we couldn't afford to pay someone who had the proper skillset right off the bat, or couldn't find that person at all? Does that sound like something that just "works"? Yeah the shop would be more politically correct according to some in the software industry, but it wouldn't really "work" for us. My bosses don't pay me to have the most politically correct technology in place, they pay me to have technology in place that helps people get their jobs done. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 9:49 AM | 0 comments |
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Tuesday, July 08, 2003
ActiveWords and what I'd really like So I've been using ActiveWords for a few weeks now, and I'm liking the ability to add some shortcuts, and the auto correction of misspellings no matter what application I'm typing in, but it's missing something. What I'd really like is something that will actually record keystroke or mouse clicks and let you automate certain actions. For example, on my laptop, the one constant complaint I have is that the dialup ISP we use doesn't allow me to use my outgoing mail server to send mail, I have to use theirs. But theirs won't work when I'm connected to my home broadband network, which does allow me to use the server for this domain. In essence that means everytime I connect using dialup and want to send email, I have to go into the guts of Outlook and change the SMTP server name and authentication information, and then when I'm home again I have to change it back. I would absolutely love to be able to just type "dialup" or "cable" in ActiveWords and have all of that done for me when I startup. Maybe it's possible now, but I don't see how it would be. Perhaps I should chat with Buzz about this at Gnomedex, eh? Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 11:06 AM | 0 comments |
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Monday, July 07, 2003
Did it again Despite numerous warnings, I had another staff person take the afternoon off and leave their email logged in today. This time I went a step further, I sent them an email from their own PC, and their own email account. Let's see if that hits a little closer to home.. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 4:58 PM | 0 comments |
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Geek gift. The one actual geek gift I got for my birthday this year, much to my surprise, (because my parents usually steer clear of buying tech stuff) was a wireless/CF card for my Axim. They picked up the Ambicom WL1100C-CF. Installing it was pretty easy, it found my AP right away and after a little configuration, I was off! On the other hand, using the Axim with the wireless card in runs down the battery quite a bit quicker than it does without it running. I suppose I expected that. I'll have to be sure and adjust my usage accordingly and make sure I pull the card out after I download email and get the latest headlines from PocketFeed. It'll be nice to have at Gnomedex, when I will be able to stay in touch with the office through email without having to lug my laptop around all day. Digg this | Post to del.icio.us| FaceBook | Stumble Upon| Google Bookmark| 8:39 AM | 0 comments |
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