Tech Weekly

You can personalize your own map of visited states HERE. Only 7 more states I will have Bingo!

Labels: Site of the Day

I had to note really quickly this video that I stumbled across at Commoncraft.com. When I first saw the title I thought "Who by now does not know what RSS is and how to use it?"

Apparently after reading the posts associated with this fine presentation there are still quite a few people out there who not only don't know what it is they really don't feel comfortable in trying to subscribe to any feeds and would rather just surf around for sites of interest. I hope that this catchy video will help in prompting those folks to jump in and give it a try. RSS is really quite nice. You can skip along thru the web and if you find a site that you enjoy the authors take on life or writing with a quick couple of clicks you can be privy to each and everytime that he posts to that particular site. And the best thing about it much like those annoying info-mercials late at night. All you have to do is "Set it and Forget it" till you want to check in on them.

Labels: Tech Videos

Don't let the voice at the other end of the phone scare you! Heck for that matter what good is tech service these days? You usually have to pay additionally up front in order to get it and when you do it tends to be sourced outside of this country most often to someone who is not exactly easy to understand or communicate with. My advice to you unless you have paid out some serious money for technical support. Put down that phone and hop online and see what folks are saying about what ever computer problem you are having.

Chances are that you are not the only person that has had the same problem. But first checking the vast Webosphere you are liable to save yourself a huge amount of time and frustration. Now thats not to say that you maight not have times when any information concerning your particular issue can be found. Those are the times when you have to dig in deep spread out the word to your like minded friends online and see if they can help you.

Sometimes all it takes to find that tweak or fix you are looking for is a new set of eyes so to speak. You get so involved in whatever project that you are working on that you don't see the answer right in front of you.

Labels: Tech Pics

Well all along I have been a champion of what is apparently now the most effective seated posture in front of your computer to relieve back strain. Recently a group of Scottish and Canadian researchers conducted a back stress study. And they concluded that the best position in which to sit at your desk is leaning slightly back, at about 135 degrees.

I myself have always been a big fan of sitting this way. However, it does not look very professional to be sitting in your cubicle leaned back like you are taking a quick nap. Which means if you are like me then you sit more often than not like the first canidate slouched forward squinting at the screen because those damn overhead lights are causing a terrible glare on your screen.

Well keep up hope. Maybe our boses will see this study and hook us up with some comfortalble lounge chairs. Please read the full details of this study HERE.

Labels: Editorial

Here is a quick summary of BDD 2007 issues from a very informative article.

• Number 1 - Partitioning within the Unattend.xml
  
• Number 2 - XP disk partitioning
  
• Number 3 - Trying to deploy images with WDS
  
• Number 4 - Failure to join the domain
  
• Number 5 - Drivers
  
• Number 6 - Creating custom WIM image without using /flags
  
• Number 7 - SQL connectivity
  
• Number 8 - Memory requirements for Vista PE
  
• Number 9 - Not removing the MININT folder
  
• Number 10 - Adding Windows PE to console

If you know what BDD 2007 is you probably are already familiar with the above issues in great detail. But for the rest of you who don't know about these shortcomings. If not and you were thinking about using it please take a moment to look at the above list and further reading of the referenced article.

BDD 2007 is the recommended best practice methodology for consistent, repeatable and cost-effective deployments. BDD delivers end-to-end guidance to efficiently plan, build, test, and deploy operating systems and applications, including Windows Vista, Windows XP, Office 2003 and the 2007 Office system.

BDD provides tools and best-practices that can enable you to:

• Follow best practices in planning, building and deploying desktops
• Create a software and hardware inventory to assist in deployment planning.
• Set up an initial lab environment with deployment and imaging servers.
• Automate desktop image creation.
• Ensure that the desktop is hardened to improve security within the environment.
• Deliver lite and zero touch deployment scenarios

Microsoft has two implementations of BDD methodologies (lite and zero touch) that include/use the following Microsoft technologies:

• Systems Management Server 2003 R2
• Windows Automated Installation Kit - WAIK (contains ImageX, Windows System Image Manager and Windows Pre-installation Environment 2.0)
• Windows Deployment Services
• Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0
• User State Migration Toolkit 3.0

How about all those Network/System adminstrators out there. How do you plan to deploy Windows Vista and Office 2007? Or maybe the better question why all the fuss since most will wait at least till there has been a service pack issued on these apps and they are cleaned up a little more.

Labels: Vista

• it suits me
• it shows me
• it knows me
• it reminds me
• it goes with me
• it connects me
• it speaks to me

These are some of the things you see at the end of this video below. I don't know about you but some of these statements scares the heck out of me. Having a device that knows you so well it can do everything for you without you asking is a little much. You tell me.

Labels: Editorial

Ever gone to a site that had those infernal double underlined words that no matter how hard you tried to not hover the mouse pointer over still managed to pop up those annoying IntelliTXT windows with basically useless information? Well I have been seeing them more and more often and I finally got sick and tired of dealing with them. Below you will find three quick fixes for IE7, Opera and Firefox. Sorry I have not found one for Safari yet if you know of one please drop the link in the comment section.

Programmer Brian Donovan has written a Greasemonkey script called Uh Oh IntelliTXT to block IntelliTXT popup's for Firefox users. IntelliTXT can also be deactivated with the Adblock plus Firefox extension by using the string *intellitxt.com* in your filter list.

To block IntelliTXT popup's in Opera browser, simply add the URL http://*.*.intellitxt.com/* into Tools > Advanced > Blocked Content.

To block IntelliTXT popup's in Internet Explorer 7, simply download and install IE7pro and add the string *intellitxt* to your Ad Filter list under the Block list.

For more info on how to avoid intellitxt and other annoying bubble pop ups see my newer article:

http://www.tech-weekly.com/2007/11/browser-tweaks-and-tips-how-to-load.html

Labels: Firefox, IE, Opera