Note! If you are going to use the private status on a WordPress blog and you hit "publish" it will NOT be private. That’s dumb. My apologies to Suresh.
Category: Software
Computer tools
Looking to go corp
I love working for myself. I love working from the house. I have worked the past 9 weeks for free because I was unable to collect on my last two major projects. My business practices have to change to prevent this from happening again.
There are five companies in the Knoxville area that could woo me back into corporate life: Scripps Networks, Jewelry Television, Bush Beans, SAIC (wow! SAIC IPO’d!), and Clayton Homes. I am sure there are others. I really know my stuff when it comes to ColdFusion. PHP, MS SQL and MySQL. ColdFusion is my love. I learned yesterday that Jewelry Television has a ColdFusion position available and I am applying. Wish me luck!
Offering New Service
The Apple Computer Store offers a service for $99 per year you can go into the store for up to an hour a week and get help on your computer. I have many requests to help people on their computers but I charge $135 per visit with a 5 hour time limit (The Geek Squad charges that much just to come see you then upsells a bunch). I want to add the Apple Store’s model to my offerings to Knoxville area computer users.
For $200 for a year’s time I will make myself available to you for up to an hour per week for training, computer help, computer advice, and so forth. That’s less than minimum wage! I am charging more than the Apple Store because 1) I will give advice on both PCs and Macs and 2) instead of you going to a store, I will come to you. You must be in the Knoxville area and appointments must be made at least 48 hours in advance.
Need my expertise?
Anyone needing computers services? I can do physical repairs and on-site work in Knoxville, and can develop websites and software applications worldwide. Email: juggler@gmail.com.
Google’s Hidden Search Engine
Google is trying some new tricks. They call it SearchMash. You can actually give feedback on the usefulness of features. It is unbranded as to not skew opinions or results. Google answers some questions here along with some speculation. It looks like this could be the work of Udi Manber, previouslyl of Amazon’s A9 search engine.
See also.
iTunes Visualization Cheat Sheet
For you iTunes junkies out there. Play with your visualizations.
Have fun! There are 11475 form/effect combinations, and 734400 form/effect/color combinations. It would take over 1000 hours to try them all out! And of course you’ll want to try out your favorite ones with different types of music. And if you’re still bored, you can try to experiment with favorite transitions – which should keep you busy for the next 100000 years or so… [Source]
Free Microsoft Introductory Courses To Visual Studio 2005
For you tech types out there, SlickDeals.net has noted that Microsoft is giving away some eLearning courses. Btw, I highly recommend SlickDeals.net and its sister site SlickFillers.net
but you should always read the comments.
How to ask for help online.
IRC was the first an early instant messenger. I use IRC on EFNET daily as djuggler and sometimes CFNinja. I also spend some time in Dalnet‘s #coldfusion. As an independent consultant the people that hang out on the subject specific IRC channel are often invaluable sources of information acting similarly to the team environment you may find in an office. "Hey Joe, did you hear …?" "By the way, you shouldn’t do it that way because this security bulletin released yesterday said …" I program primarily in ColdFusion and PHP using Microsoft SQL and MySQL for databases. You will often find me in the channels #coldfusion, #GPS, #geocaching, #juggle, #php and sometimes, rarely, in #mysql or #sql. In IRC, anyone can create a channel so if you are interested in a subject you can probably find a channel, #ijumpintoicywater.
In the tech channels, people sometimes get a little egotistical or the regulars get tired of the same ol’ newbie questions that could easily be answered with a google search and the "I feel lucky" button. At some point, the regulars quit answering.
My mantra is that the Internet is a reflection of the real world. Like in the real world, if you want an answer, you have to phrase your question correctly. Bash is a service to forever memorialize some of the stupid things (or funny things) that are said in the IRC channels. Remember, the Internet is permanent (and so are those naked photos you put up).
#684045 +(1170)- [X]
<Numi> I was having trouble getting screen dumps in unix so I went into #unix and said
<Numi> "Does anyone know how to do a screen dump in unix?"
<Numi> 5 minutes and no reply, so I modify it a bit
<Numi> "Two hot girls are stripping on webcam for me, how do i take a picture to show you guys?"
<Numi> 13 offers of assistance within 2 minutes. Brilliant.
[Source]
If you use Firefox and are interested in using IRC, an easy way would be to install the Chatzilla extension. Personally, I use mIRC and am one of the 3 people in the world that actually paid the licensing fee.
Bring Me A Rock!
In the Quality Assurance world, we sometimes talk about rocks. Putting aside the middle managers, the product team, customer service, the project manager, the end user and so forth, a product ultimately falls to 2 people or groups: the client and the vendor. The client describes what they want; the vendor fulfills the client’s needs. The industry does not matter; could be software, could be construction, industrial supplies, whatever. And the problems begin with the first conversation. See, the client and the vendor speak the same language but in different dialects. The customer speaks and the vendor thinks they understand and drawing upon their experiences in their industry moves on to make the product for the client.
Here is how it works:
Client: "Bring me a rock!"
Vendor, eager to satisfy: Rushes out and finds the perfect rock. Cleans the dirt from the rock. Polishes it and returns it to the client.
Client: "Not that rock! Weren’t you listening? I said, ‘Bring me a rock!’"
Vendor, thinking he understands better: Goes out, spends twice as long, finds the perfect rock. Cleans it, polishes it, checks with some managers who agree it is the perfect rock. And returns to the client.
Client: "Not that rock! I want flatter rock. That rock is too round. Bring me a rock!"
Vendor, slightly dejected but still enthused: Goes out, kicks around some rocks. Notices all rocks are round here. Travels to another location. Finds a nice flat rock. Returns to client.
Pattern continues…
Eventually…
Client: "Now that’s a rock! Why didn’t you bring me that one in the first place? Could I have two for the price of one?"
The subtle differences in the dialect and the assumptions made on both the client’s part and the vendor’s part often result in a frustrated vendor and a dissatisfied client. Unfortunately client’s often get frustrated when the vendor asks too many questions about the rock in the beginning. The client doesn’t understand why the vendor is so dense. When the client buys into the need to clearly define a specification at the beginning of the project, time, money and aggrivation is saved!
Really, Bring Me A Rock applies to all walks of life. We do this to our children too. "Clean your room." "I’m done. Room’s clean." "That room is a mess!" See the problem?
21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic
SEOmoz Blog has a must read article for bloggers interested in traffic. Let me add that traffic is also something that will come with consistency and time. A lack of comments does not indicate a lack of readership. Many "counters" are inaccurate and do not accommodate readership through news readers (RSS, Atom, etc).
iMac OS X Photoshop 9.0.1 Updater
If you find yourself screaming "Photoshop CS2 9.0.1 Updater for the Mac sucks!" then you aren’t alone. If the updater prompts you to locate the Photoshop application but the application is grayed out, then your version of Photoshop is up to date. Per Adobe support, the updater should not have allowed you to download 9.0.1. If the application cannot be selected then you are up to date.
Install buggy code for free!
Microsoft is offering 100,000 free downloads of its new operating system Windows Vista. This is a beta 2 pre-release candidate 1. That means it should probably work with no problems but you could also end up with a disfuctional computer.
Site Tools – URL Investigator
I have posted about the tools I use when looking at a url, ip address, etc. URLInvestigator is another one new to the scene.
Free Software Exp. Sept 6
Bryce 5.0 is being offered for free download (fully licensed) until September 6. Enjoy!
Are your ports blocked?
Many ISPs, particularly residential, block ports to control traffic or protect their users. This means that if you want to run a webserver from your home and your ISP has blocked port 80 then you have to jump through some hoops to make it happen. How do you know if port 80 (or some other port you need) is blocked? Use the Can you see me? service.
