Saturday, June 21, 2003
Fast Company - June 2003
OODA = Observe-orient-decide-act. John
R. Boyd's decision making loop. [p. 29] This is mentioned in a letter referring
to an earlier article
on OODA in Fast Company.
Book blurb: Somebodies and
Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, Robert W. Fuller, New Society Publishers.
- In a world where everybody is striving to be Somebody, Nobodies might have
the edge. - In order really to be a Somebody (who's famous for more than being famous)
you have to continue to grow, to venture into the unknown, to learn from others
who are more expert than you. In other words, you have to be willing ot be
a Nobody again (and again). [p. 50]
Fast Talk quotes:
- You have to surprise, charm, and engage people. The riskiest proposition
of all is sticking to the status quo, expecially in consservative times. Donny
Deutsch; Cairman and Chief Executive Officer; Duetsch, Inc. [p. 57] - Improvisation is the key ingrediant to collaboration. If you can work together
and master the art of improvisation, there's no such thing as too many cooks
in the kitchen. Alice Waters; Founder, Owner, and Executive Chef; Chez
Panisse. [p. 58] - Somewhere along the way, companies lose sight of their core business. Our
job is to reconnect the company with its customers and start building value
again. Alec Gores; Founder and Chairman; Gores Technology Group.
[p. 66]
The www.meetup.com web site helps organize
meetings anywhere and on any topic. These are real face-to-face meetings, not
on-line meetings. But the site helps people with similar interests find each
other. Groups related to VWs, specific rock groups, political groups, and anime
meet in the Miami area. It uses technology to facilitate f2f interaction. Worth
looking into if you have an interest and want to find others to share it with.
[p.70]
There is an interesting and short article on Wal-Mart and how it works to keep
vital. [p. 76+]
- In reference to the tremendous grouth that Wal-Mart has witnessed and maintains,
the article says, "When you combine a consistent direction with substantial
speed, you achieve something greater than either of those elements alone:
momentum." [p. 78] - "The key to change is first to understand what not to change
and then to feel free to change everything else." [p. 78] - The core principle of Wal-Mart, according to this commentary, is "Using
its power to extract lower prices from suppliers and then passing those savings
along to customers." [p. 78] - "Never think of your company as great, no matter how successful
it becomes. Instead, always stay irrationally worried that it is never
really measuring up to its potential.
I really enjoyed the article about the Pottery Barn and how they changed from
a company that bought merchandise to one that designs everything they sell.
It describes the pride they take in a new line of towels. For example, they
say "it has a great dobby." A dobby is the the woven
band a few inches from the towel's edge. (Even towels have jargon; it isn't
limited to technology.) [p. 106+]
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
PC World - July 2003
Looking for a free web site? PC World lists the 100
Best Free Web Space Providers. I use Geocities, which was purchased by Yahoo,
for a PTA web site that I manage (sporatically) and I am happy with it, but
there are LOTS of other providers. [p. 47]
Do you backup your PC? I have used a program called Retrospect
for more than 10 years to backup my various computers. At first I used a tape
drive to backup up all the Macintosh computers, especially mine, at the university
I worked at. In the IAC at UM I put Retrospect on one computer and used it to
backup all the workstations onto a large harddrive. Now I use Retrospect on
my PC to backup to an external hard drive. (I would prefer using an internal
HD, but that isn't an option on my portable.) Different people have different
backup goals. My primary goals is to be functioning productively in less than
a day if my HD fails. That means that I need to be able to do a full backup/restore
of EVERYTHING, not just my data. Retrospect supports that capability. With my
system, which is overloaded with applications, it takes about an hour to update
my backup with the new and changed files. But PC World ranks Stomp
BackUp MyPC as the best backup software. It is probably worth checking out.
[p. 88]
I am not paranoid about my on-line privacy but I see no need for people to
keep track of where I go on the net. Thus I use a tool to remove the "spybots"
that keep track of what I do and report back to various services. PC World rates
Lavasoft Ad-aware Plus 6
(free/$27) and PepiMK Software Spybot Search
& Destroy 1.2 (free) as (currently) the best
anti-spyware programs. You run these programs on your computer and they identify/remove
(at your option) all of the software that reports on your internet activity.
You might want to take a look at one of these. Don't be surprised if you find
LOTS of things on your computer that it wants to remove. Most are benign cookies
and such, but some are really pests, in my opinion, like Gator and CommonName.
[p. 114]
I really need a way to manage my cell phone's directory on my computer. For
one thing, my wife and I have the same phone and I have set mine up but not
hers. I would love to be able to export my directory and import them into her
phone. Some phones make this easy. Ours don't. But it appears that DataPilot
might handle my problem. [ad, p. 136]
It is possible to create a shortcut that will do things like defrag your hard
drive and then shutdown your system. This
article tells you how. With Windows XP there is no shut down command, but
there is a free program, Kill Win,
that can do it. You will still need to write a little batch file with something
like "defrag c:" on one line and "c:\killwin\killwin.exe /s"
on the next to defrag and then shut down. There is a separate article about
the commands to defrag automatically.
[p. 156]
Monday, June 16, 2003
PC World - June 2003
GE makes a $13 Audio
Hub that I think I may need to buy. I often listen to KBON,
Cajun music, in my office. When the phone rings I want to be able to mute the
audio instantly. This external device seems to do that, among other things.
[p. 74] (Unfortunately the Jasco Products web site doesn't seem to be working correctly, so I can't order it at this time.)
The Zero Blaster looks like an amazing
toy. It makes smoke bubbles and only costs $20.[Ad, p. 82]
There is a great sidebar article that lists Ten
Ways to Stop Disasters Before They Start. It lists things like backing up
your data, monitoring your computer's temperatures, and getting a UPS. This
is a good checklist.[p. 91]
Review/cleanup your startup applications using Start > Run > msconfig
and follow the instructions in the article Background
App Sneak Attack. [p. 92]
Fact: Recording TV in DVD quality requires about 2.4 GB per hour. At VHS quality
it takes about 500MB per hour. [p. 110]
Sony's DRU-500AX DVD writes to
both DVD-RW and DVD+RW formats.
Good article on the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/),
a userful add-on to simplify searching:
- Make the Google Toolbar smaller: Google > Toolbar Options > (clear
all Search Buttons) > Experimental Features > Combined Search Button
> OK > (clear all Search Buttons) > OK [p. 122] - Click a search word icon to highlight the next occurrence of the search
word. [p. 122] - Use "iac site:www.miami.edu" to see if Google has indexed the
www.miami.edu site and found iac on any pages. [p.123] - Remeber that you can search for images and news directly from the Google
Toolbar.
The Way Back Machine (www.archive.org)
keeps records of Web pages from the past. [p. 126]
Hawking Technologies (www.hawkingtech.com)
makes a number of products to extend the range of a wireless network. I might
want to add an omni-directional antenna to my home network so I can get a stronger
signal in my office area. [ad, p. 146]
DirectX controls Windows multimedia functions. DirectX 9 is the latest version.
To see what version you have, Start > Run > (type) dxdiag > OK >
System (tab) > System Information.
BAxBEx FolderBox
is a free add-on to windows Explorer. It allows you to have two folder panes
within the Explorer window. Once installed, use View > Exploror Bar >
FolderBox. Since I copy files between folders a lot, this could be very useful.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
PC Magazine - June 17, 2003
This issue contains the annual Utility Guide, so there are lots of programs
worth remembering.
- PKZIP for Windows- Standard Edition 6.0
was the best data compression utility, with five stars, in the Utility Guide.
(www.pkzip.com) [p. 99] - Defragentation
- Diskeeper 7.0 SE Home Edition was
the best Defragmentation utility in the Utiltiy Guide. $30 online, $35 on
CD. (www.execsoft.com) [p. 101] - Quick View Plus is a file management
utility that lets you few files for which you don't have the application.
[p. 107] - PowerDesk Pro is the best File Management
utiility, with 5 stars, in the Utility Guide. It replaces Windows Explorer
and also adds a number of features directly to Windows. $40. [p.107] - AI RobotForms provides an ad-free
utility to store and recall information that you enter into web forms. $30.
[p. 108] - ieSpell 1.0 lets you spell check anything
you type into a web page, if you use Internet Explorer. This could be VERY
useful for people using the Blackboard system. Free. [This is GREAT! Everyone should get it. It allows you to enter a form and, before submitting it, check the spelling from a menu item in the Tools menu. Fast, effective, and free!] [p. 108] - PopUpCop 2.0.2.31 is the editors choice
in pop-up blockers in the Utility Guide. $20. [p. 109] - Gaim 0.61 and Trillium
both got 5 stars as instant messenger add-ons in the Utility Guide. They can
access AIM, MSN, and Yahoo!. They are both free. [p. 112] - IPaddress is a free networking utility
that displayes your IP address without having to go to a command prompt. [p.
114] - MyWanIP is a free networking utility
that displays your WAN IP address, if you are on a private LAN. [p. 114] - Port Detective is a free networking
utility that checks ports on your computer from outside your firewall. [p.
114] - NetStat Live is a free utility to show
you input and output speeds. [p. 114] - PacketMon is a free protocol analyzer.
Not for the timid.[p. 114] - TCPView shows all open network
connections on your computer with a better interface than the command line
netstat. [p. 114] - GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner checks
a system for vulnerabilities. Five stars. [p. 116] - The online toolkit from www.DNSstuff.com
can be used from a system that you can't access as a sys admin. It provides
DNS lookup, ping, tracert, and more. [p. 116] - The service at www.DNSreport.com
provides a report on a DNS. [p. 116] - NetStubler finds open wireless
networks. [p. 116] - The Boingo client lets you manage multiple
wireless connections. [p. 116] - Wordware 2002 is a Microsoft Office tool
that adds 21 commands and a bunch of new templates. [p. 118] - LiveWeb is a Microsoft
Office tool that lets you easily insert a web page into a PowerPoint slide.
[REVIEW THIS AND SEND INFO TO BLACKBOARD NEWS, IF USEFUL.]
[p. 118] - Glint 1.2 is a free bar to show
system statistics. [p. 123] - Motherboard Monitor 5.3 is a free
utility that monitors temperatures inside your computer. [p. 123] - RegClearner is a free 5-star utility
that clears your registry of unneeded entires. [p. 123] - Registry Medic checks your registry for
errors. The free version fixes 5 problems at a time, the $20 fixes everything
at once. [p. 123] - Startup Sentry analyzes your system
to figure out what is loaded automatically. Registry entries can be quickly
deleted, if that is the cause of the auto-load. $25. [p. 123] - CamStudio is a free utility
that captures screen activity and audio and then creates movies. [REVIEW
THIS AND SEE HOW IT COMPARES TO CAMTASIA. CAMTASIA HAS A LOSS-LESS CODEC.
DOES THIS?] [p. 130]
The Cyberguys advertisement lists
the EZLap and the PowerStrip Liberator. [PLACE AN ORDER
FOR THESE.]
- The EZLap is a pad to hold your laptop and provide ventilation underneath.
I have a product from a different company and like it, but I need another
one, so maybe I will try this one. - The PowerStrip Liberator is a short cable that you use to plug in a power
adapter into a powerstip.It is a VERY short extension cord. I need some of
these. They are on sale for $1.91 each.
