Monday, December 28, 2009

Basecamp alternatives

TeamWorkPM.com
CentralDesktop.com
DeskAway.com
GoPlanApp.com
ZOHO.com (Projects)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Generics not always the same

Not all generic drugs exactly as good as the original ones. NY Times Mostly for heart patients or folks taking drugs to avoid seizures.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

We don't need to be super flexible after all

Looks like being a little "tight" in the hamstring can even make you a more efficient runner. NY Times.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Trying to get rid of Windows 7 freezing every few seconds after it goes to sleep and then wakes up.

Best theories I can find on the Net all correctly point out that if the computer never goes to sleep no problem. So clearly something is being turned off in a weird way that's causing problems. Two main options for me to pursue:

a) Just tried going to the adapter settings and turning off the computer's ability to power off the cards to see if indeed it's a PCI-E bus power down issue.

b) If that doesn't work, did just note that my LAN drivers are from Microsoft and not from the install disc I used so I'd try doing different drivers if this keeps up.

----
Found out the problem - it's my external tuner card. It gets into some weird state. If I pull the mini-usb card out then the hang goes away...hoping the latest driver update from Windows update fixes the issue.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Stargate SG1 explanation

That I'm even putting this down is so sad...

Friday, November 13, 2009

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Friday, November 6, 2009

Guidance on heart rate to lose weight

And that people don't burn more fat once they stop working out. NY Times.

Holy cow, shallow breathing technique for asmtha sufferers

Seems to actually be based in a scientific theory and it actually works. NY Times.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Arg...Windows 7 card reader working slowly...

The only thing that doesn't seems to be working on my new Windows 7 clean install seems to be:

- A flash card reader I have installed on my desktop machine and plugged into a chipset USB connection is running at USB 1.1 speeds, instead of 2.0 speeds. What's up? If I connect an external USB card reader to an externally connected USB hub I get 2.0 speeds.

- Upon waking from sleep my computer seems to pause every few seconds...For now I'm just not letting it go to S3 for now.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Final install

Prep/backup:
- Deactivate Adobe software
- Uninstall SuperSync in case I need to free up the serial number
- Make sure iTunes is up to date
- Consolidate iTunes library (File->Library -> Consolidate Library)
- Deauthorize iTunes (Store->Deauthorize)
- Export Browser favorites

Backup
- Browser favorites (including Yuki's)
- Backup desktop
- Backup Lego data files
- Backup Battlefield 2142 My Documents folder
- Backup data drive
- Including Outlook data file (D:Outlook)
- Make sure photo stuff is backed up

- Check out RAID block size
* 64KB
+ Make sure that Acronis 11 works on the computer
+ Make sure that I have a RAID disk for Windows install

Install phase 1:
X Unplug USB media drive
+ Install Windows
+ Install video driver
+ Install Ethernet driver
+ Install updates
+ Get RAID/DVD/CD driver installed

Hardware
+ Microsoft Security Essentials
+ EVGA E-LEET utility
+ Realtek
+ X-Fi
+ X-FI updates
+ Monitor

+Image

External hardware
+ Huey Pro
+ Epson R1800
+ Epson glossy ICC profiles
+ HP PCL 1220
+ EPSON Scan
+ Bamboo tablet

Image
+ Firefox
+ Adobe Reader
+ TV Tuner
+ Adobe Flash

Image
Software
+ Covenant Eyes
+ Office
+ Office updates
+ Outlook

Image
+ iTunes/QT

Image
+ LR
+ Design Premium (rename c:\Users\Public\Public Documents to c:\Users\Public\Documents
+ Adobe Updates

Image
+ Restore browser favorites
+ FileZilla
+ PlayOn
+ Fix channel line up

----
Didn't install
- SuperSync installer
- VPN
- Battlefield 2142
- Lego star wars
- Lego Indiana Jones
- Logitech game controller vista driver

Windows 7 install problems and workarounds

Here are some problems I encountered installing Win7 and the workarounds I found for them:

- Couldn't recognize by DVD/CD rom drive after the installer launched from the DVD (hello? you just loaded from the DVD player dumb installer?). Turns out it needed the RAID driver for the EVGA chipset. The appropriate driver was on the chipset CD that came with the motherboard, but it was under a folder titled AMD (weird.).

- iTunes 9 didn't install correctly. It stalled out during the step labeled "Status". Fix was to exit out of the installer (at which point it said it succeeded, weird), and then I ran the Apple Updater. It installed 9.0.2 again and this time no errors. Weird.

- The trick to getting Outlook to point to the right non-C drive folder was to go to Mail control panel (so messed up that this isn't controlled in the Outlook 2003 preferences).

- CS4 installation had errors where it couldn't install the English language packs. Arg!!! The solution was found here. Basically rename the C:\Users\Public\Public Documents folder to C:\Users\Public\Documents and it works fine. Man...

Friday, October 23, 2009

Paul T. to the rescue

For instructions on those of us that have legit copies of Vista and want to save money by buying the upgrade version of Windows 7, but want the ability to later do a clean install if things start breaking.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Key articles to getting a blue screen XP install going

Some key sites and insights I learned after spending a full day and a half resurrecting a good friend's computer:

- You will only get the "repair in place" option from the Windows XP install disc if you have an exact match between the type of XPs (i.e., Windows install is Home Edition and the install disc is Home Edition). I tried using a WinXP Pro disc to do a repair install of a Home Edition install and it wouldn't give me the option to do so.

- PC World article on how to create a bootable CD (Linux) that will recognize a USB hard drive (key to getting off data from an unbootable computer).

- Good instructions on how to do a Windows XP Repair Install. It helped me figure out the first point on needing to match XP disc to actual install.

- Key instructions on how to restart a stuck MSI installer instance on XP.

- And finally, the mother of all articles on how to do a manual fix of an unbootable XP install. This was the key to resurrecting the install without having to reinstall the applications.

Important Note: there are two sets of important typos on the above link.
a) The first two lines on the first code section should read:
md c:\windows\tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

b) In the third code snippets the software, sam, security and default files are all under
c:\windows\repair\
not
c:\windows\repair\system\

Hope that helps someone out there!

Stupid status.msi... HP!!!!

I've never found HP software to be any good, but this error just takes the cake:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistahardware/thread/fc920e97-956f-411e-98d2-e79a4602cacf

Man, hoping the fix from Swwillia does the trick...trying now...

This did the trick. Nice!!!!!!!!!

So for those getting the "you need to point to status.msi" error message and don't have your original HP install disks on hand this is your ticket to relief.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Toyota wiper blade replacement numbers

Irks me to no end that the only place I can buy replacement rubber for my windshield wipers is at the dealer. They also kept giving me the wrong driver side part.

Driver side: G600, 85214 YZZD5 TM
Passenger side: G475, 85214 YZZE4

Friday, October 9, 2009

I hope I never have to do this...

But if I'm in charge of a tech conference, good little article on common wi-fi problems:
here.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Most helpful core i7-920 overclocking guides

1 - here on Hot Hardware
2 - on X-bit labs

Stats before changes according to EVGA E-LEET

CPU
Core voltage - 1.235
core i7 920@2.67 GHz

Core speed 2786.0 MHz
Multiplier x21.0
Bus speed 132.7
QPI link 2388.1 MHz

Memory
6144 MBytes
NB Frequency 22122.6 MHz

DRAM frequency 520.7 MHz
FSB:DRAM 2:8
CAS# Latency (CL) 8.0 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay (tRCD) 8 clocks
RAS# precharge (tRP) 8 lcocks
Cycle time (tRAS) 19 clocks
Refresh Cmd Delay (tRFC) 59 clocks
Command Rate (CR) 1T

Voltages
+3.3V 3.31V
CPU VCORE 1.23 V
DRAM 1.54V
CPU VTT 1.21 V
NB CORE 1.09V
+5V 5.05V
+12V 12.11 V
VSB3V 3.26V
VBAT 3.18V

Temps under load
CPU 54.0
VREG 68.0
Systems 35.0
CPU Core #1 68.0
CPU Core #2 64
CPU Core #3 64
CPU Core #4 64

Temps not under load
CPU 32.0
VREG 58.0
Systems 34.0
CPU Core #1 48.0
CPU Core #2 43
CPU Core #3 46
CPU Core #4 43

Fans
CPU 1435 RPM
NB 4615 RPM

Overclocking
CPU 2793.0
QPI 133.0
RAM 532.0
PCIE 99.2
PCI 33.3

Core1 x 22
Core2 x 21
Core3 x 21
Core4 x 21
Turbo mode on
Enable "Brink O/C" off

Voltages
0
1.5
1.1
1.8
1.1
1.1
1.5
1.05

Stability testing for overclocking

Good article on stability testing for overclocking.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

To halloween or not...

Article on FamilyLife about Halloween observance from a biblical perspective.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

To convert Pinnacle TV HD to PS3 compatible format

Used Adobe Media Encoder and used the following export settings:
- MPEG2
- HDTV 1080p 23.976 HQ

Here goes everything....

Going to try setting up my Pinnacle PCTV 80e usb tv tuner for vista media center and clear QAM...I hope this restore file really is going to work...

Helpful links:
- Vista problems with Clear QAM
- Hack to get it working on Vista
- Great PC World article on the update required to make this work

To find the right registry key I had to search the registry for PCTV 80e. Did that and it popped up in the folder: USB28xxBGA

Friday, September 25, 2009

Cheap travel sites

Turns out that Priceline.com has gotten much better. I also was recommended to try Travelocity.

Monday, September 21, 2009

A thought that came to me...

Think about letting your super enthusiast users be your own entrepreneurs. Let them innovate on great ways to use your platform and then really build on their ideas; or just let your platform become it's own business. It'll be interesting to see if that's how Facebook evolves.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Article on unconditional love and parenting. Author seems to be a bit biased himself.

Friday, September 11, 2009

How to overclock Core i7 920

How to overclock Core i7 920
article 1
article 2

Polarizers for use as variable ND filter

Creating a variable ND filter using Polarizers. Didn't work so hot for me, too much blue shift.
Article 1
Article 2

Hoping getting fit in 6 min is possible

NY Times article on getting fit in short periods of time.
I should probably turn on this Lr option for zoom.

Orchid care

Turns out I have a Phalaenopsis orchid in my office. Best tips on care I found to be here. Video showing how to cut off a branch here.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Next time I want to really pick up my clarinet again, 56 Rue Lepic reeds are supposed to the way to go, esp. strength 3.5+. Unfortunately, the local music store, West Valley Music, doesn't keep them in stock.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Hadn't thought about different color spaces when editing in Ps compared to Lr. Maybe I'll do this.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

How to manually force an update of the Outlook address book when using cached mode. See Q6.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Not a good idea to pop ibuprofen before exercising.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Future photography book choices.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

New Mountain View e-waste recycling program
Wow, only $79,000 per month revenue from customers...ouch

And this held up as a sign of success.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

New Tennis Elbow therapy that appears to be much more effective than the old ways.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Got insert key working in VMWare

Thank goodness for the keyboard mapping preference. Went in there and assigned Function-Return to be the insert key. Nice!

Friday, July 31, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The famous Feynman lectures online

I guess I have to thank Mr. Gates for this one. Silverlight...ug...
Here

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Very interesting wiki on fiction writing...

Throw a couple of these together and you have a TV episode, novel...

Monday, July 6, 2009

Drive recovery people in bay area

Everyone swears by these guys, and they're pretty close to the SF office:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lazarus-data-recovery-san-francisco

There was a good thread on SF Ads a couple weeks ago with suggestions about data recovery tools and stuff.

You might want to search the archives for disk recover. There was a ton of good information.

Anyways, you can try this adapter which is recommended by an Adobe employee's blog called "Newer Technology USB 2.0 Universal Drive Adapter"
http://terrywhite.com/techblog/archives/2190

Key remote team take aways

For better collaboration:

- Figure out that culture's metaphors for teams
- Remind people they're on the same team, make team salient
- Treat people in "normative ways" to show part of a team in collectivist cultures
- Video game competitions across seas
- Localization of meeting notes
- Change status reporting to "team showing off events"

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Monday, May 18, 2009

Fixed wireless problem with Samsung Wireless LAN Adapter

Couldn't get it to connect to my wireless WPA2 Personal network. Have a Samsung ln46b750. Had to do two things:
a) Make it publish its SSID
b) Change the WPA Algorithm from TKIP+AES to just AES.

Soooo annoying, but at least it works!
Bob

Monday, May 11, 2009

Free museum days

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito
Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland
Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
M.H. de Young Museum
Exploratorium, San Francisco
Legion of Honor, San Francisco
Judah L. Magnes Museum, Berkeley
Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley
Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco
Oakland Museum of California
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
San Francisco Zoo
San Jose Museum of Art
IMAX movie at The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose
Zeum, San Francisco

For more information on Koret Museum Days, visit

http://www.koretfoundation.org/news/press_releases/pr_20609.htm

Monday, April 20, 2009

Microsoft Project fix

Got all my tasks bleeding over days. From here realized that I had set my default start time to 9am, but the work day started at 8am. Oy. The only way to fix the problem was to change the date format preference to include the time and then to manually go and edit the time in each field. Arg!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Debt settlements not working...

You still can't get something for nothing...NY Times.

Friday, April 17, 2009

To fix mobo power light...

Looks like I need to rewire the 3 pin Berg connector to a 2 pin version. Probably want a crimper and the like. This would probably be a .1" spaced one and something I'd want to Radio Shack over a Fry's for something like this.

Ug. At least this website pointed me in the right direction.

Stupid JMicron error on startup, fixing sleep issues

Ended up disabling in BIOS the JMicron SATA ports on the EGA X58 motherboard that I wasn't using on board and the error went away. The error message had been:
"warning:have option rom can not be invoke" Nice English there...:)

Great article on how to fix sleep problems with Vista/XP with the key powercfg -a command.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Rebuild machine at home

This was how I did my own machine at home:

Prep/backup:
- Deactivate Adobe software
- Uninstall SuperSync in case I need to free up the serial number
- Make sure iTunes is up to date
- Consolidate iTunes library (File->Library -> Consolidate Library)
- Deauthorize iTunes (Store->Deauthorize)
- Export Browser favorites

Backup
- Browser favorites (including Yuki's)
- Backup desktop
- Backup Lego data files
- Backup Battlefield 2142 My Documents folder
- Backup data drive
- Including Outlook data file (D:Outlook)
- Make sure photo stuff is backed up

- Check out RAID block size
* 64KB
+ Make sure that Acronis 11 works on the computer
+ Make sure that I have a RAID disk for Windows install

Install phase 1:
- Unplug USB media drive
- Install Windows
- Install video driver
- Install Ethernet driver
- Install updates

Image
- NVidia ntune
- Realtek audio driver
- X-Fi drivers

- VPN
- RumblePad
- Covenant Eyes
- Huey Pro
- Epson R1800
- HP PCL 1220
- Canon i960
- Scanjet 5300c
- VirusScan
- Nero + update
- Firefox
- Office
- Palm
- iTunes/QT

- Web Premium
- LR

- Battlefield 2142
- Lego star wars
- Lego Indiana Jones


Downloaded, found software for:
- Acronis
- Adobe CS3 Web Prem
- Cisco for Vista
- CE installer
- MS Office 2003
- X-Fi 64 bit drivers
- Epson R1800 64 bit drivers
- HP Laserjet 1200 64 bit vista drivers
- Logitech game controller vista driver
- McAfee virus scan
- Firefox
- [no Vista support for Nero 6 it would seem]
- Nvidia updated driver from XFX
- Huey Pro 1.5
- QT/iTunes
- Lightroom 2.0
- CDM+
- SuperSync installer

Great lists for the Bay Area

This guy on Yelp. His most famous is the one for rainy day activities for kids. He's dead on.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Saturday, April 4, 2009

How to make the old scanjet 5300c scanner driver work on Vista

Here for technical walkthrough
Here for similar info with a guy complaining

Power supply estimator

Right here

573+150 (if go to SLI) +175 (if do an overclock) = 898
So need 900 Watt power to do both, or 750 if not doing SLI.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Offsite process take aways

Good
- Use of video camera to zoom in on writing on the board
- "Shift and Share" sessions to get cross pollination. Included sign up list, and two rotations.
- On Day 2 Design Team redid the grouping
- Everyone had to be there all three days (did hurt when people left)
- Used a number on the back of people's badges for random assignments
- Limited number of chairs to exactly the number of people supposed to be there. Expectation set that all seats were to be filled.
- Handheld mics for recap sessions. Should have had 3 mics instead of two.
- Used paper stuck to large magnetic sheets for transferring information from the white board to the results area.
- Turned back to the team and asked them what sessions are needed in the afternoon, but seeded with suggestions.
- At the right times asking for volunteers, at other times assigning people ahead of time
- Fines to charity for people caught using cell phones/laptops
- Name tags all three days
- Tradeshow format for sharing info (1 plenary, smaller audience ask questions and shift)
- Using 3 people to generate boring definitions and present them
- IKEA example about not knowing what it is until you're done.

Could have been better
- Should have used wireless lavaliere mics
- Used better LCD screens with HDTV so slides were readable
- Started breakfast half an hour earlier than start time. Should have publicized real start time and stuck to it?
- Eating in shifts without enough food meant those that played by the rules didn't have enough to eat.
- Squares listing all the previously generated requirements were taped to each other (hard to remove)
- Paper attached to magnetic sheets involved permanent marker, hard to adjust. Ended up being lots of small writing with bad handwriting.
- Should have said the purpose of the current activity for things that will not change.
- Nametags should always use black bold print
- Should have directed people to find terms that they know something about, and then grab other folks.
- IKEA example also goes better when you know where it's going
- Reference material never seemed to make it into the sessions (Master Feature list, etc.)
- Use cases weren't locked down enough for a real basis of conversation. Too dense. Should have been simplified ahead of time.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

MS project keyboard shortcut

To set up predecessors on unlinked tasks - Ctrl-F2

Monday, March 23, 2009

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Found THE clarinet repairman to go to!

Daniel Deitch (pronounced Diich)
SF Article on him

And if I were to get a shortscale guitar, this might be it...

Friday, March 6, 2009

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sunday, February 1, 2009

LCDS links

adobe 1
adobe 2

There is also a test drive application that Christophe Coenraets created. That’s included in the lcds-samples web application that’s part of the LCDS installation.

Outside of Adobe, brightcove has the best links.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Haven't tried this yet, but to get the iPhone to autocomplete....

Looks like you should use the google search box. i just need it to fill in my email handle, not for the less sundry purposes mentioned in this article.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Artificial tears

For at night my doctor suggested putting these in right before I went to bed:
Advanced Vision Research (company)
preservative-free Thera Tears

For tears when wearing the lenses she suggsted
Blink Contacts (green package)

Finally the solution for disinfecting and cleaning is called:
Opti-Free RepleniSH
Multi-purpose disinfecting solution
Alcon

1800contacts has a competitive price matching offer

Worked pretty good...got me a 18 dollar discount. Just look for the link during checkout.

Contact lenses, glasses prescription

14 day lenses
Acuevue Oasys
O.D. (right eye)
Base Curve: 8.8
Lens Rx: -1.50
Size: 14

Acuvue Oasys for Astigmatism
O.S. (left eye)
Base Curve: 8.6
Lens Rx (power): -1.50
Cylinder: -.75
Axis: 030
Size: 14.5

If I did daily wear without astigmatism correction it would be:
1-day acuvue
O.D. (right eye)
Base Curve: 9.0
Lens Rx: -1.50
Size(diameter): 14.2

O.S. (left eye)
Base Curve: 9.0
Lens Rx (power): -1.75
Size: 14.2

And finally spectacle prescription:
OD (right eye)
Sphere: -1.50
Cylinder: -0.25
Axis: 090

OS (left eye)
Sphere: -1.50
Cylinder: -0.75
Axis: 030

Friday, January 9, 2009

Lightroom 2.1 link

Man, with the crashes I'm experiencing on 2.1, Adobe really needs to fix the link to the 2.1 updater...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=30550264

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Looks like just plunking down a set of drives...

Isn't possible when upgrading a motherboard and also using RAID. Ug...

XP Issue - http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/07/09/move-windows-xp-hard-drive-or-change-motherboard-without-getting-blue-screen-of-death/

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t22879.html

"move raid array to another computer" was a good Google search term

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Test tracks if I ever decide to buy a subwoofer

Beethoven No. 6 track 1
Pictures at an Exhibition - track 14 1:40
Shostakovich No. 5 - track 4 7:32
Tsch No. 4 - track 3

Polk R30 55?
RTi8 40
RM40T

RCA ANT 1250
VHF 25 dB, UHF 20dB

Link between blood sugar levels and decreased memory

Makes sense