Say no to the Comcast and NBC merger!

RT @neurostech: RT @freepress: RT @comdown: Say no to the Comcast and NBC merger! http://bit.ly/1WciqP #NoMerger

Remote/ Mouse/ Keyboard App for iPhone and iPod Touch

I’m trying to find the best app(s) for iPhone and iPod Touch to control my Mac. Would like to be able to control mouse, type using keyboard, and bonus would be to use as a remote for certain apps, either pre-built or build-your-own.

Does anyone out there have any thoughts, opinions or suggestions on what to check out?

No Apologies : Current Health Care Reform Bill UnConstitutional

..:: The Conservative Edge ::...

Boxee Blog » a Boxee Box is coming!

http://blog.boxee.tv/2009/11/12/a-boxee-box-is-coming/

Report: Chrome for Mac Beta may appear in ‘early December’

More than a year after Google released its Web browser for Windows, a Mac version is still under development. But a beta version may see the light of day as early as next month.

Eneloop Stick Booster supplies emergency power to your portable devices

Any time a company both enables our gadget addiction and discourages wanton battery consumption we have to consider it a good thing — and, indeed, Sanyo’s wicked-rechargeable Eneloop batteries already have quite a few fans here at Engadget HQ. But what’s a busy gadget hound to do on the go, you ask? Try this one on for size: the Eneloop Stick Booster ships with two AAs and can be used to charge them, via any USB source. From that point the device can be used to power your PMP for roughly 90 minutes. How great is that? To be released in Japan on December 1 for an unspecified price, and worldwide whenever the company sees fit. PR after the break.

Gallery: Eneloop Stick Booster

[Via Akihabara]

Continue reading Eneloop Stick Booster supplies emergency power to your portable devices

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Eneloop Stick Booster supplies emergency power to your portable devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:23:00 EST. Please see our term…

Apple lifts veil on App Store approval status

Thanks, Apple!!

Apple has added a feature to its Dev Center website allowing developers to view the approval status of submitted apps.

HP to buy 3Com in networking, data center bid

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to buy 3Com for about $2.7 billion.

Facebook App developer rejects App Store, irony ensues

So I want to know why is it so hard for real apps to get their apps updated and through to the App Store and yet all these crap apps get in? i.e. “Fart Machines” and “Sexy Girls”.  The App Store is flooded with these pointless and completely useless apps.

Apple, WHY?!?! Just make it open.

Facebook App developer rejects App Store, irony ensues.

Microsoft probing Windows 7 zero-day hole | Security – CNET News

This is why I am not a fan of IE….

Microsoft probing Windows 7 zero-day hole | Security – CNET News.

http://pentestit.com/2009/11/12/day-windows-7-server-2008r2-remote-kernel-crash-exploit-poc/

007: Quantum of Solace – Trailer

Hulu – Quantum of Solace Trailer: TV Guide Specials

MAKE: Blog: Fart power

Enough said.

MAKE: Blog: Fart power

Best of FREE Mac Software: System Settings

Deeper is a personalization utility that allows you to enable and disable the hidden functions of Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, Login window and many Apple’s applications…

UNO derives from the Latin word for one and stands for “as one”.
*UNO is the root of Unity.
*UNO is a theme that brings the sunken unified toolbar/titlebar look&feel to every single window on your system (cocoa or carbon, metal or aqua and already unified windows as well).
*On an higher level, UNO’s main goal is to enhance aqua interface consistence, by making all elements look&feel “as one”.
*UNO is aimed to those who want a clean and un-osbstructive interface while keeping the best of Aqua.
*The unity level proposed by UNO does not compromises overall GUI contrast: UNO and UNO shade can be mixed up in order to achieve that usability goal.
*UNO also fixes some Blue/Graphite appearance inconsistencies.

iStumbler is the leading wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac.

The Unarchiver is a much more capable replacement for “BOMArchiveHelper.app”, the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. The Unarchiver is designed to handle many more formats than BOMArchiveHelper, and to better fit in with the design of the Finder. It can also handle filenames in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. I personally find it useful for opening Japanese archives, but it should handle many other languages just as well.
*Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. Support for so many formats is achieved by using the libxad unarchiving library.

STUFFIT EXPANDER expands all your compressed and encoded files!
** Access any file, download, or attachment!
** Scan your compressed or encoded files for viruses!
** NEW! StuffIt now allows you to open Zip archives encrypted using the 256bit AES method!

UnPlugged is an application to notify when the power cord of the Mac is unplugged or plugged in. Notifications are done using Growl, or with a Alertwindow, when Growl is not installed.

LiteIcon is an application to change System icons. It also includes a function to restore icons.

Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications.
*Why use Growl?
**Control
***Growl offers you complete control over which notifications are shown and how they are displayed. You will not receive any notifications that you do not want, because you can easily turn notifications (specific ones or all of them) off.
**Consistency
***Growl centralizes all your notification preferences into its preference pane – you can control them all from one place, and you know exactly how they are going to behave.
**Ease of use
***When you start up a Growl-enabled application, it will “just work.” Your apps can start displaying notifications right away.
**Powerful
***Growl is very flexible. Notifications can be emailed to you or spoken instead of displayed on the screen.

coconutBattery isn’t just a tool which shows you only the current charge of your battery – it also shows you the current maximum capacity of it in relation to the original capacity your battery had as it left the factory.
*You also get information about the battery-loadcycles (how often did you fully load your battery), the current charger (coconutBattery even warns you if you plugged in a wrong charger for your Notebook) and last but not least information about the age of your Mac.

FanControl : Do you think your MacBook (Pro) is running too hot? Give Fan Control a try then.
*Some MacBook (Pro) are just too hot for daylong use. Fan Control adjusts the minimum fan speed depending on the current CPU temperature. For safety, it leaves the original automatic fan speed control intact.

OnyX is a multifunction utility (maintenance, optimization, and personalization).
It allows you to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure some hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock, Dashboard, Exposé, Safari, Login window and of some of Apple’s own applications, to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview various logs and CrashReporter-reports, to check the Preferences files and more.

AppFresh helps you to keep all applications (third-party and Apple), widgets, preference panes and application plugins on your Mac up to date, from one place. It works by checking the excellent iusethis.com for new versions and lets you download and install available updates easily.

Best of FREE Mac Software: System Maintenance & Backup Utils

Maintenance is a System Maintenance and Cleaning utility.
**It allows you to run misc tasks of system maintenance: repair permissions, run periodic scripts, reset Spotlight’s Index, rebuild the LaunchServices database, delete Application, Font and System cache, check the status of the Hard disk.

BackityMac
Easiest Backup Solution for all your important Files
NOW WITH SCHEDULED BACKUP GOODNESS!!!
Currently registered users will receive the scheduler for no extra charge. ( $10.00 Registration )
Have you ever wanted an easy way to backup the important files in your home directory? Are you tired of sifting through the Library folder to find where your mail, address book, ical calendars are kept? BackityMac gives you an easy way to backup your Apple Mail files, MS Entourage Files, Address Book database, iCal calendars, iPhoto, iTunes, iWeb libraries, Safari, Firefox, Camino bookmarks, documents folder and your entire home folder.
NOTE: Though this software does have an option to pay, which grants you additional features, this FREE portion of this software is very robust and useful.

Carbon Copy Cloner
*In its simplest form, CCC will clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. This is very useful if, for example, your laptop is damaged and you must send it in for repair.
*CCC can also be used to perform regular backups of your data. When you select a source disk in CCC, you are presented with the contents of that disk (hidden items too). Simply uncheck the items that you do not want to backup, and CCC will provide ample indication what will and will not be copied. Select a target disk to which you would like to backup, then press the clone button.

Netrestore
Whether you’re deploying five, five thousand, or 32,000 systems, NetRestore is the software deployment solution for you. Built on Apple’s Apple Software Restore technology, NetRestore can be used to quickly and accurately restore a master disk image to a computer’s hard disk while that disk image is hosted locally, on a network via AFP, NFS or multicast, or on the internet via HTTP. NetRestore can also be used in conjunction with NetBoot to fully automate the deployment of a lab full of machines. NetRestore was designed to be very easy to use, yet flexible, powerful, and extensible. NetRestore supports the deployment of Mac OS X and Windows XP.

VacuumMail is an AppleScript application that performs an SQLite “vacuum” job on Apple Mail’s database, thereby optimizing it and boosting the performance of Mail as it fetches and stores your email. VacuumMail is designed to be incorporated into an automated maintenance routine and run at regular intervals, although you can also launch the software interactively if you need to do a manual run.

AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can’t load the GUI, or don’t have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use.

Best of FREE Mac Software: Pics, Vids and Tunes

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 converter, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Aurora is a free Alarm Clock for your Mac that lets you wake up to your favorite iTunes or iPod playlist or any TV or radio channel from EyeTV.

• Locate and organize all the photos on your computer.
• Edit and add effects to your photos with a few simple clicks.
• Share your photos with others through email, prints, and on the web: it’s fast, easy and free.

Take your photos further with Picasa from Google. Learn more

*Post photos and videos online in seconds
**One-click web upload directly from Picasa, or add photos using a web browser or your Mac.
*Share photos with friends and family
**Share albums exclusively with friends and family, or make your albums public and share with the Picasa community.
*View and save your friends’ photos
**Keep track of your favorite people and see when they add something new. Download friends’ albums too.
*Enjoy photos at their best
**See big photos, scroll through them quickly, rotate and zoom. Have fun with captions and comments.

*BookMaker for Mac
**Now Mac users can create beautifully designed books using our BookMaker software. In addition to our Classic Hardcover book, we offer a Deluxe Hardcover book along with a dozen cover colors and a picture window or book jacket cover option!

*iPhoto Plug-in
**Order your iPhoto books directly from MyPublisher! Get the best quality, the fastest service and special discounts! All iPhoto hardcover books feature cover label treatments.

Flip4Mac With Windows Media® Components for QuickTime, by Flip4Mac™, you can play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content on the Internet using a Web browser.

Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. With Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

Best of FREE Mac Software: For your Menu Bar

SlimBatteryMonitor is a replacement power gauge for Apple’s Mac OS X that tracks laptop batteries. Takes up to 70% less space than Apple’s gauge. Monitors laptop batteries and many UPS batteries as well. Select different views for when powered, charging or on battery. Monitor can hide itself automatically when desired.

MagiCal is a FREE menu-based clock and calendar. It features a huge range of configuration options for how the time and date are displayed, and can operate either in conjunction with, or as a replacement for the built in system menu clock. In addition to this, MagiCal features a handy drop-down calendar that can be torn off and placed anywhere on screen.

MenuMeters is a set of CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring tools for MacOS X. Although there are numerous other programs which do the same thing, none had quite the feature set I was looking for. Most were windows that sat in a corner or on the desktop, which are inevitably obscured by document windows on a PowerBook’s small screen. Those monitors which used the menubar mostly used the NSStatusItem API, which has the annoying tendency to totally reorder my menubar on every login.
*The MenuMeters monitors are true SystemUIServer plugins (also known as Menu Extras). This means they can be reordered using command-drag and remember their positions in the menubar across logins and restarts.
**The CPU Meter can display system load both as a total percentage, or broken out as user and system time. It can also graph user and system load and display the load as a “thermometer”. The menu for the CPU Meter contains several pieces of information I like to have a single click away (uptime, load average, open Process Viewer, open Console).
**The Disk Activity Meter displays disk activity to local disks on the system (anything that is a IOKit BlockStorage driver). It is hotplug aware, and will show activity on FireWire and USB disks as they are mounted. The Disk Meter menu shows volume space details for local drives (it does not display mounted network volumes for speed reasons).
**The Memory Meter can display current memory usage as either a pie chart, thermometer, history graph, or as used/free totals. The Memory Meter menu shows a breakdown of current memory usage and VM statistics. The Memory Meter can optionally display a paging indicator light.
**The Net Meter can display network throughput as arrows, bytes per second, and/or as a graph. Both the arrows and the graph are scaled using a user-selected scaling factor and calculation. Scaling can be done on the basis of actual link speed reported by the network interface or peak traffic and can use one of several scaling calculations. The Net Meter menu shows current interfaces and their status. Interface information is gathered from the SystemConfiguraton framework and thus is MacOS X network location aware (to prevent interfaces from appearing in this menu see the FAQ).

VirtueDesktops is a virtual desktop manager for Apple’s Mac OS. It offers features, eye candy and configurable options that no other desktop manager on the mac has added yet. Sadly, VirtueDesktops is no longer under active development. It is based upon the work done by Rich Wareham on DesktopManager (specifically the CGSPrivate headers), which is an alternate open-source virtual desktop application. VirtueDesktops includes a small amount of Rich’s code from DesktopManager, which means that presently it is licensed under the GPL.

MarcoPolo brings location-aware computing to your portable Mac computer. It allows your computer to determine its location through gathering evidence from your environment (evidence sources), using fuzzy-logic and rule-based matching to make an educated guess (rules), and then performing arbitrary actions upon changing location (actions).

 

 

At first glance, Quicksilver is a launcher. When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. It also supports abbreviations, so you can type entire words, or just fragments of each. When not in use, Quicksilver vanishes, waiting for the next time you summon it.

More than meets the eye!…for real

The future is here!

10 Key Tips for IT Management

It’s easy for IT managers to get bogged down in day-to-day activities and lose sight of the bigger picture of leading their staff. Whether you’re a seasoned pro, or new to the game, the following tips will help you effectively manage your team.

1. Spend time (and money) developing your people
IT is a constantly changing field, and many IT workers love to learn about new and improving technologies. For many, learning is not just enjoyable, but is necessary to do the best job possible. IT Managers should budget for training and development and encourage staff to participate in events whenever possible.

If your budget is tight, explore free regional presentations and workshops, set up in-house training, and get creative with your development dollars. Don’t forget about cross-training exercises as well. Even in a large IT group, there are jobs that only one person does routinely. Make sure others know what to do if that person is suddenly gone for an extended period.

2. Get to know what your staff really does
Although you don’t need to master every task your staff handles (see the next item), you should understand your staff’s normal work routine. Familiarise yourself with each person’s responsibilities, if you aren’t already. Ask team members to explain and demonstrate important tasks — such as data backups.

I once had an existing IT employee transferred to my sub-group. Immediately after the transfer, I began working with the individual to learn his job role. One month after the transfer, during a key production period, the employee suffered simultaneous tragedies — a parent died and the employee developed pneumonia. With no direct backup, I jump in and accomplished the job with the knowledge I had learned during the first month and a great deal of help from others.

As a result, I gained a great deal of respect from the employee, who had previously suffered negative experiences with management. Understanding what your staff does not only increases their level of respect for you, but it also makes you more credible as a manager when faced with difficult situations or decisions.

3. Don’t do it for them
If you move from an “in the trenches” IT worker to a management role, avoid the tendency to take the reins too quickly. Your knowledge and skill level may exceed your employees’, but you must help your staff learn and grow. There is a fine line between coaching and doing. A good manager will know the difference.

While there may be an initial training period where you are more involved in doing the day-to-day work, use appropriate delegation and training strategies to move the work into your staff’s capable hands.

4. Know the business and make sure they know you
It is almost a cliché, but all IT managers must understand the business they support and use this understanding to build services and infrastructure that support business goals. You should also show your direct reports how their work affects overall business goals and ensure that business administrators understand what IT does for them. Showcase your department’s activities through annual reports, regular communications, and frequent project updates.

5. Treat communication as a busy, fast-moving, two-way street
Information is not a limited commodity to hold. It should flow freely and easily between management and workers. If you sense that you are not getting important information, consider ways to increase communication. Likewise, don’t hoard information, unless it is confidential. What seems irrelevant to you may be highly relevant for someone else. Reward information sharing between your direct reports.

6. Encourage everyone to work as a team
The whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. Encouraging collaboration and teamwork helps remove silo-like isolation that often occurs in technical organisations. Cross-functional teams are extremely important because small changes in one area can have significant ripple impact across other IT units. Reward efforts that allow for collaboration and develop an environment where workers can feel comfortable asking for and giving assistance to one another. Frustrations often result when one team member knows something that others spend hours working to resolve. Teamwork will fuel your communication vehicle.

7. Provide feedback regularly and let employees know what you want
Some IT jobs make people feel like islands. They work on a project or assignment independently and may not regularly interact with their manager or co-workers. Be sure your staff knows what they are doing well and what needs improvement. These can be casual conversations, formal performance reviews, or public praise events.

If someone isn’t living up to expectations, be sure that person knows what those expectations are. Staff members may not realise that the assignment you gave them last week was a priority item for a high profile project. Be clear and direct when making assignments. When employees finish a job, make sure they know how pleased you are with the work they did. Geeks need love too!

8. Hire well
If you have never hired before, ask for assistance and do your homework. Hiring poorly can be more costly than not hiring at all. Technical skills are only a small piece of the puzzle. You should know if a person will integrate well with the team. It may also help to get your team involved in the hiring process, when it’s appropriate and allowed. Your staff can help you determine whether the applicant relates well to others and has the appropriate soft skills.

9. Understand best IT practices but don’t just make them buzz words
Learn and understand the best practices that apply to your environment and measure yourself and your department against them. Explore ITIL and determine whether you should implement at least portions of it in your department. Ensure your disaster recovery plan is up to date and ready for action. Perform regular security assessments. Proceed with caution, however; throwing around buzzwords won’t gain you any clout. You must truly understand the ideas and their application to your environment. Then, plan and implement appropriate related changes.

10. Be a good project manager
Did your last project suffer scope creep? Most projects, particularly IT ones, don’t fail because the project itself was bad. Most failures are a result of weak project management. If you haven’t had any formal project management training, find and invest in a good program.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that simply by having regular meetings, you are managing the project. And since IT usually has more projects than people, be sure to train lead workers with basic project management skills so you can delegate specific aspects of the project or even entire projects to their control.

TechRepublic is the online community and information resource for all IT professionals, from support staff to executives. We offer in-depth technical articles written for IT professionals by IT professionals. In addition to articles on everything from Windows to e-mail to firewalls, we offer IT industry analysis, downloads, management tips, discussion forums, and e-newsletters.

Create your own programs or animations!

Have you or kids had interest in creating your own programs or learning to animate a small video clip? Well, the brilliant minds over at MIT’s Media Lab have made that possible. They created, Scratch, “A free programming tool that allows anyone to create their own animated stories, video games, and interactive artworks”.

“With Scratch, our goal is to allow people to mix together all kinds of media… in creative ways.” –Mitchel Resnick

Check out the video clip of the software in this BBC news article BBC NEWS | Technology | Free tool offers easy coding

Who needs a bullet-proof vest when you carry a MacBook Pro!

Who needs to worry about wearing a bullet-proof vest when you carry a MacBook Pro with you!  Another perfect reason why everyone should own a Mac, they are “bullet-proof”.  Need I say more?

If you have any questions, concerns, hesitations, comments or the like concerning owning and using a Mac, drop me a comment.  I might just be able to convince you that Macs are not so bad after all.  After all, over the last few years I have converted about a dozen hardcore PC users to the Mac platform.  Most of which, scoffed at the Mac until they saw the light.  And sadly, I must admit, I was one of those about 7 years ago.

But not today!  I have converted and my life has been the better for it.  So what are you waiting for, it might just save your life! (even if only the stress of worrying about viruses disappears)

MacBook Pro takes bullet like a champ – Engadget

NASA shows off James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble successor – Engadget

A look at the new space telescope to replace the Hubble in the near future.  It looks very sci-fi movie-ish, but hey, if it works!

 

NASA shows off James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble successor – Engadget

YouTube – 1983 Apple Keynote

This is flashback to an Apple Keynote from 1983.  Honestly, not much has changed in the way Steve Jobs presents a Keynote address.  After attending Macworld 2007 this year and being present for the Keynote address, the main difference from his present way of presenting, is that he is much more polished and doesn’t have notes in front of him.

This was pretty cool to see.

YouTube – 1983 Apple Keynote

Been Busy…

So I have been pretty busy over the last few months.  Doing many different things and I have honestly had little time to devote to blogging.  This saddens me as I enjoyed it and enjoyed hearing your comments.  I will attempt to make more frequent posts to this blog and hopefully keep current content on it.

My next post will probably be a “Best Of…” post showing the best Free Mac software solutions.  I tend to be a cheap bastard and don’t pay for software.  That said, I don’t use illegal copies of software, I simply opt to use Open Source/ Freeware/ Shareware versions, even if only in their limited use forms.  While I have found several pieces of software I would really like to get full functionality out of, none have had functionality that was a necessity for me.

I really like finding cool Open Source software that allows me to create a customized build of the application for my machine and Operating System.  If you know of any let me know!!!

Well… stay tuned for my “Best Of…” posting!

Is FREE WiFi really FREE?

In the last several months that has been an increasing number of arrests across the U.S. of people using FREE WiFi services. Many of them have been people using it from their cars instead of entering the place of business where the service is being offered from, but something still seems strange to arrest someone for using an advertised FREE service.

I sort of understand how the law is written why they can arrest them, under the piggyback clause which basically constitutes an illegal entry onto another network that you do not have permission to use. But again, the service is advertised as FREE with no stipulations to purchase or use a particular product or service offered by the entity that is providing the FREE WiFi service.

My opinion: If you are going to offer FREE Wifi service and advertise it, and you do NOT want people using it that are not a patron of your establishment, then create some sort of security clearance. Create a login page that requires some credentials to be entered. If they need to purchase or check out something from you then put the credentials on the receipt. They could be unique for each and every receipt and it would make it much more difficult to “hack” or piggyback your system. And if you caught anyone using it without the proper credentials then their certainly would be grounds for legal action. Otherwise, tough!

The same goes for home WiFi access. If you are going to put a WiFi point in your home, and you are not going to take even basic measures to secure it, then you essentially are saying to the world. You are more than welcome to come and use my internet service free of charge.

That’s my soapbox speech for today. What are your thoughts?

adn.com | alaska : Using free wireless at library described as theft

Michigan man arrested for using cafe’s free WiFi from his car

Why the iPhone will change the (PC) world

Well, will it?  There have already been several pseudo competitors hitting the market or at least announced to hit the market later this year.  But will they stack up to the iPhone? Will the iPhone turn out to be a flop like the Apple Newton?  We will only know the answer to that question sometime during the month of July this year, but for now, check out these articles on why these guys think that the iPhone will make an impact on technology.

Macworld: News: Opinion: Why the iPhone will change the (PC) world

TEDTalks: Jeff Han