Sun, 04 Dec 2011

TreeDBNotes Version 4.1 Evaluation

I'm looking at TreeDBNotes as a temporary substitute for OneNote on a portable drive. So far, so good.

I have tried a couple of things including exporting this note as an HTML entry to apply to the blog. I'm not certain just what will happen, but I'm going to try now. It worked. I had to export this note as an HTML page and then modify the first line to fit the way that the blog software works. It also appears that I have to only put a single carriage return between the paragraphs, otherwise, the software export appears to put an extra paragraph and break set of HTML markup between the paragraphs.

posted 20:50 [/Technology] permanent link

Sat, 12 Nov 2011

Computer Upgrade Woes

I have been working on a one of our laptops ever since I upgraded it to Windows 7 Ultimate from Vista. It has been VERY FRUSTRATING. It's a Toshiba and I finally upgraded the bios and hopefully, things will be OK after that.

This experience shows me that I don't do all that well with things like this. I sure hope that this works as I like to have systems that work and that I don't have to fiddle with. I still have a number of updates to Windows 7 and the Office products to install. One of the problems has been that every time we seem to upgrade things, the system refuses to start and can't repair the startup process.

I'm writing this now on that laptop, so I can only hope that things go better.

posted 13:21 [/Technology] permanent link

Fri, 26 Aug 2011

Where is your Office?

It used to be that your office was the place in a bilding where your desk, chair and phone were -- usually a room with a door and, if you were lucky, a window. Now, more often than not, if you have a set apace to work, it's a cube with a chzir and a phone, but most likely a work surface rather than a desk -- no door and most likely, not within seeing distance of a window.

But the real thing that makes an office is connectivity to the Internet. That puts your office--the place where you work--just about anywhere depending on your technology. Right now, my work space is a netbook on a lap desk in my living room. Eariler today, it was a work surface at an auto dealership where I was getting my car checked. For many, it's a coffee shop which provides WiFi access. Communications technology has placed our office whereever we happen to be or more ideally, where the work IS. With today's powerful laptops, we can take our work environment to a customer site, a conference room, for research to the library, or under a tree in a quiet park. We work whereever we work best and have access to the resources we need.

The portable work space can be an advantege, allowing us to work where it is best, to collaborate and cooperate with those around it. Or it can be a disadvantage, placing us in a situation where concentration is impossible and interference or outright theft can be more esily perpetrated. Having this freedom can also be an isolation experience, surprisingly. How many times have you gone to a coffee shop to see two people sitting facing each other oh their laptops. The human communication of the place has been lost to the more pervasive communication of the internet. It is more important to confer with that faceless community of social networking than to actually look up and see who is sitting across from us. Where ever our office is, I sincerenly hope that it doesn't separate us from the people who are an important part of our world.

posted 05:49 [/Technology] permanent link

Sun, 07 Aug 2011

Netbook - A Look Back

I wrote the article below in April, 2009. I have used the machine since then. I have added a couple of things. The most important for use is a 9 cell battery giving me 5-7 hours of battery life. This makes all the difference in the usability of the device. The battery is BIG, but it sets the device at a good angle for typing and actually makes it easier to carry, of all things. I also have a good wireless mouse. I don't like track pads so this make things better for me. I have also added Ubuntu along with the Windows XP it came with. All-in-all, a good investment. I use the device at work as a note taker. Can't attach to the work network because of security restrictions, but I do get to attach to the guest network which gives me limited Internet access. I take notes and e-mail them to my work accout if needed. At home, no restrictions. My primary tools are OneNote on the Windows side, Basket Notes on Ubuntu, and, of course the browser.

So what about a tablet. Well, first, I can't afford one and second, I'm not sure that it would use one all that much. Rather than a device to consume information, I need one more oriented to creating information. Now if they had a tablet that ran a program like OneNote and a browser over WiFi, I would be all set.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

I got a netbook for Christmas -- an Acer -- and have used it for the past few months. It has Windows XP on it and, for the most part, I'l liking it. Here are my thoughts. (Typed on the netbook, naturally!)

The keyboard is small, but then, so are my hands, so this isn't a big deal for me. I can see where this might be a problem for people with larger meat hooks, however.

The pointing device is a touch pad. You should know that I'm not a big fan of these in general. I really like a mouse or the little eraser button on some Lenovo's and other machines. This one is a bit of annoyance as the buttons are positioned to the left and right of the pad. I have a small, portable mouse that I much prefer to use with the device. I think a small trackball would even be better. But this is a minor annoyance.

The screen is small, but useable. I'm an old guy and sometimes the type gets a bit unreadable, but most of the time things are OK. One of the major problems I see is screen real estate. I have found that the F11 button is a big help when using the browser. This puts the software in full-screen mode and give more size to a web pagpe.

The battery life is around 3 hours. I use the machine on electricity whenever possible. Right now, for example, I am sitting in the living room away from the plug and have been on about an hour. It's good for getting away from your desk and going somewhere to work. Giving yourself a different view of things. Getting out of the same old chair and going somewhere else -- like outside.

I use the system on my home wifi and have had no connection problems. It has worked its way into my home network without any difficulty and a 2 gig USB drive adds to this capability to integrate with other systems.

That's about it for now. More as I work this into my routine.

posted 07:25 [/Technology] permanent link

Sat, 11 Jun 2011

Why are eBooks expensive?

Why does an eBook cost as much or more than a real book?

I was just struck by this when visiting the iTunes store and seeing that they have ebooks for the iPod/Pad/Phone. OK, I don't have anything that can read these, but I was struck, once again, by the cost of eBooks. They are as expensive or more so than the equivalent book. I looked at a book selling in hard cover for $14.99. The electronic edition at iTunes is $9.99 while another electronic edition at a competitor (ok, Amazon Kindle) is $9.99.

No admittedly, I don't usually buy hard cover books, primarily because they cost too much and I can wait for the paperback. But, it seems that electronic books should be less pricey -- especially since I have had to shell out hundreds for the reader. It's the type of thing that keeps me from moving to electronic books and staying with the cheaper paper versions

Just so you don't think I'm a complete luddite (here's something I wrote some time ago about that), I do have a free book reader on a blackberry. I download and read "classic" (read "free") books on this occasionally. You know the ones you should have read in high school or college. And also, don't get me wrong, I'd love an iPad if someone would give me one. Just can justify the cost of the item for viewing things. I need more of a device for creating things (like this blog that no one will read).

posted 08:25 [/Technology] permanent link

Sat, 04 Jun 2011

Tweeting (Revisited)

I have established myself at Twitter. It's interesting thinking in 140 characters or less but I think I will use it to point out the blogs which, although often short, allow more information than 140 characters. It's not that I think what I do is so interesting, but what I think might be interesting to other people and I can point that out.

It has been about two years since I wrote the blog above (6/13/2009) and 892 tweets later I'm still there. Not sure anyone is reading them, but I have gotten some response from people on LinkedIn where they are posted. Most of my tweets are connected to blogs like this one to bring people to a place where I have more than 140 characters to say what I have to say. It's sort of like a promo for my more expansive thoughts. What about you?

posted 08:31 [/Technology] permanent link

Sun, 16 May 2010

Personal Contact

I was using the self-checkout at the market today when I was struck by the extent to which technology is isolating us from personal contact. Even simple things like interacting with the teller is reduced. Have you been to a coffee shop lately? If you don't just rush in and out or even drive through, you see people, often sitting at the same table with their cell phones or laptops out texting to people who aren't at the shop. I have been in a coffee shop in the afternoon which was quieter than a library -- everyone on their laptops in their own little worlds -- the sound of conversation nonexistent. When we walk, we have on our MP3 players, isolating us from even the sounds of the real world.

My wife has proposed that everone should be unplugged for at least half and hour each day. Sort of a luddite period when there is no cell phone, no MP3 player, no laptop, no communication except with any real person within speaking distance of you. Even if you are alone, you can unplug and just listen to the sounds of real things around you. Take a walk and just walk. Don't text while listening to your iPod at highest volume. Go to a coffee shop with a friend and actually just talk to that friend rather than texting to another friend not physically present. Sit quietly and read a book or talk with your family without the media center blaring in the background. I think it's a great idea.

OK, there are times when I want to listen to a podcast while walking or hear that album while reading, but there should be a period each day when we just exist within the realm of our senses and the people and nature around us. When we are open to interaction with people, when we are disconnected from technology.

It's probably a bit ironic that I'm sitting alone at my laptop typing the blog and posting it onto the Internet, but, hey, I have to get your attention somehow. You can disconnect after reading this and take your luddite break for the day.

posted 12:55 [/Technology] permanent link

Sun, 28 Mar 2010

Notes in the Ether . . .

I am in love with Microsoft OneNote (yes, I know, a Microsoft product!). They really got it right. I have a USB that I take with me to various machines with multiple applications on it and I'm looking for something -- preferably open source -- to use like OneNote. So far everything has fallen short.

I'm reticent about using online solutions and storing my thoughts in the ether. There are a couple of reasons:

1. I don't want someone else storing my private thoughts.
   I may be a bit paranoid, but then people may really be following me
2. I don't always have access to the Internet where I work and I'd like a local solution
3. I can't affort an iPhone or other device. I do have a netbook, but I don't always carry that and I'd like something that works from the USB stick on any Windows computer.

I think my biggest deterent to using some internet-based solutions is the feeling that I don't want to send my thoughts into the world for storage until I'm actually ready to publish them. It's a matter of trust, I suppose -- I don't especially. It's interesting, because I trust someone else to contain my mail, I bank online, I have a website. In short, much of my life is already online.

Until I change my mind about online services, I suppose I'll just have to continue to happily use OneNote and continue my search.

posted 07:12 [/Technology] permanent link

Thu, 15 Oct 2009

Thinking Big . . .

The next generation of computer scientists has to think in terms of what could be described as Internet scale. Facebook, for example, uses more than 1 petabyte of storage space to manage its users’ 40 billion photos. (A petabyte is about 1,000 times as large as a terabyte, and could store about 500 billion pages of text.) [source]

When I read this in an article, I was struck by the though that the laptop at which I'm working is a gateway to more data than has been available to anyone at one point throughout history. It seems to me that the problem in the past has been formulating meaningful ideas with too little data. The problem is rapidly becoming turning too much data into meaningful information from which significant ideas can spring.

posted 07:37 [/Technology] permanent link

Thu, 08 Oct 2009

Upgrading a Workstation

When you are assigned a workstation at your "real job", you start working on it. After years, you find that you need to upgrade to a new workstation and the adventure begins. I am going through this now . . .

It's interesting the amount of stuff and you accumulate in the years of using a workstation. You install tools, create scripts, workout methods of doing things and then . . . you need to upgrade. WOW!

Now, you need to make sure that things are migrated from you workstation. But, of course, things change, programs upgrade, drivers change, technology advances and it's not Kansas any more, Dorothy . . .

Simple things like all those configuration changes you made . . . that little macro you wrote . . . those favorites you accumulated.

Oh and by the way, ff you're working in a corporate environment, security issues, standards, even entire programs and operating systems may be involved. In my case, this isn't an issue, except for some minor security policies, but, the migration effort from one laptop to another is still a major undertaking.

I have noticed that you tend to get comfortable with your current environment, even, if, like mine, it's really too slow to be very productive. Because you have configured it over a long time, you tend to forget what you have done. Now, you come to the new workstation and, hey! where's my script! or "sheesh, I forgot about that tweek." As you work, you find things that you use frequently but which non-standard and implemented by you, often years ago.

The upgrade is a chance, however, to clean things up. It gives you an excuse to take all the accumulated stuff and remove it from the system. One of the things that was pointed out to me is that my profile has over 400 megabytes of application data. That's all the stuff that's associated with the applications you use (or don't use, since you have removed them from your workstation or just don't use them). These accumulated files and entries can slow your system, especially at boot up.

So what have I learned. Here are a few things:

1. If you're on a corporate network, keep data files on your shared drive.
   We have a directory assigned to each of us on the corporate LAN, the nice thing about it is that it's backed up regularly. It's also nice not to have to copy all the material to the shared drive just to move it onto the new computer.
2. Remember and backup configurations and macros.
   When you move or upgrade your system, you can retrieve them.
3. Backup things like site configurations and other material that you might need.
4. Record things other places.
   I have started keeping a USB drive that I can move important or personal things onto.

Things are straightening out. I'm sure months from now, I'll find something that I have missed, but, by then it's way too late, so I'll live with it . . .

posted 17:28 [/Technology] permanent link