When you bought a Mac you got free.Mac access. This included webmail, webspace, and iDisk a location where you can trade files, upload your webpages, etc.
iDisk is a mountable over the Internet drive volume. It uses WebDAV to accomplish this. Basically, it's a WebDAV drive with more spit and polish to it then you generally see.
Now Apple has chosen to charge for the.Mac subscription at $99 a year. For that high fee, you get a whole lot more disk space and features. You can backup data to the iDisk, etc. Those users who already had signed up for the free.Mac got it for half off the price. Many graphics artists use it to trade images and other files. I use it for all sorts of stuff. Primarily to upload a file to and then email a friend an HTML link to download it. I need to do this all the time because of the shifts in security policies at my company and at many others that are stripped executable attachments. It makes it very easy to file transfer just about anything (providing you have the disk space on iDisk 100MB by default - you can pay for more as well.)
Apple now provides the XP iDisk tool to make it easier for the clueless to connect to the iDisk and manage it from a WindowsXP computer. But any version of Windows can attach to the iDisk using MSIE Web Folders because Web Folders supports WebDAV.
There are several Linux or Java WebDAV tools out there that will work as well. CaDAVer being a very nice FTP like client that uses WebDAV instead of FTP.
You can connect to iDisk using the cadaver software which is an open source WebDAV tool that makes it like FTP. It runs under Linux just fine.
Other Linux WebDAV tools must be available, I haven't looked lately. Last I looked, the cadaver command line tool was the most compatible and it feels just like FTP with a few minor changes. Most Linux users are savvy enough to setup a WebDAV client. BTW, you could setup the Apache WebDAV module and configure it to be your own iDisk. (you'll have to override the idisk.mac.com hostname to use the Apple tools and make it think it's really.Mac) There's a few O'Reilly articles at the http://macdevcenter.com
WinXP does not actually need the iDisk tool, as Web Folders can connect to an iDisk with no problem. Just add a network place and away you go! The tool makes it easier for clueless users. It also adds the ability to adjust public folder permissions and it has a nice little disk space bar along the top to let you know how much space you have, etc. It's the same as the.Mac iDisk tool on Mac OS X. The main advantage is you can direct users to download the tool and it will be easier than having you tell them how to use Web Folders.
Of course if you are using iDisk then you most likely have a Mac so you don't really need the tool. MSIE adds the Web Folders feature to older versions of Windows so again, you can attach to iDisk in a fairly easy fashion.
I think all the bands should get together once their contracts end to formulate a joint force against the greed of the music companies.
The artists deserve a bigger cut. The music companies spend a great deal to promote a band and get their music played on the radio but ultimately they end up taking most of the profits and force the band into debt! They thrive on chewing up bands and spitting them out afterwards! There's a lot of talent out there but all they look for are the handful of one hit wonders they can exploit.
If the artists could bypass the music companies and create their own music company to promote the collective bands they would be much better off. Such a collective would have to be non-profit and funded by the musicians.
The collective would need to release music digitally for a reasonable fee. They could partner with large Internet players that can handle the bandwidth. CD's can indeed be produced rather cheaply. The need for studios to record the CD's is not as necessary as it once was. I've heard CD's produced in sound altered homes and accoustically sound structures that is as good as the professional studios. There is no need to pay thousands a day to record an album!
Unfortunately, most bands are currently under contract with the music companies and breaking their contract would open them up to legal attack.
The artists should not be put into debt when the music company makes 8 million in profits, spends 2 in promotion and keeps the remaining 6 million for themselves. Allowing only a piddly sum to the artists. No wonder the artists have to tour to make any money!
Actually iSync requires the Palm HotSync. That means iSync just hooks into the Palm HotSync which does the real work. I run it with a Palm Vx with no problems whatsoever. But Palm can be flaky on PC's too.
I once couldn't get a customers Palm to sync because she had exactly 4GB free on the hard disk. Any multiple of 4GB had a problem with sync. I just made a backup of her 300MB plus Outlook Personal folder and then HotSync'd it again. It worked! Found the bug documented on Google Groups. I believe this particular bug was fixed by Palm on a newer HotSync version. Every now and then folks have Sync problems and it's usually a foobar'd registry key or something. Not generally a big deal. I haven't run into any I wasn't able to fix. You just sometimes need to give it a swift kick in the pants.;-)
The following is my reply to Robert Thompson here's his email address rthompson@nationalpost.com and here's the websites address financechannel@canada.com, feedback@canada.com, letters@nationalpost.com, and fpletters@nationalpost.com
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On Thursday, February 20, 2003 the Canada.com website published "Apple can't recall Jobs to fix company this time" it just hit http://slashdot.org/ on Saturday February 22, @02:02PM. Guaranteed you will be flooded with email!
First of all your article is full of flaws and misinformation. I am actually amazed that you are able to publish such drivel without checking the facts!
"Apple, once a dominant force in the personal computer arena, appears to have no influence on the market and the only people still using its computers are masochists who apparently don't want access to much of the latest software."
This statement is really wrong! Apple still is a dominant force in the industry. They make other companies like Dell or Gateway look really bad. The fact that Microsoft is running a new Switch Campaign and Gateway ran those Profile T.V. ads slamming the iMac prove it. Apples a threat and Apples a leader with which to respect and to train their radar on.
"I have spent the last few years toiling on an old PowerMac, a clunky ancient machine that was slow and unreliable. But newspapers are hesitant to buy new computers, so I continued to churn out stories on the unpredictable machine. I suppose at the time it was purchased, my beleaguered PowerMac was cutting edge, but in today's terms it was more powerful as a paperweight than a computer."
Try that with a PC buddy! If you've had it prior to the Internet then it would be a paperweight if it was a PC. The fact that you were able to run the PowerMac so long and really get your money's worth is a tribute to Apple!
"First of all, my iBook didn't like the software I needed to run my Palm M515. Crashes and screen seizures were regular occurrences."
What are you talking about? I've got a Palm Vx but I'm running the exact same software you are and I have had ZERO PROBLEMS! I can even HotSync it over infrared! Sure I had to convert the cradle from serial to USB but that's accomplished with an adaptor. Heck, I even sync it with the new iSync software (still uses the Palm HotSync software though). I've not even heard of people having problems with any of the Palms on the Mac.
"third party manufacturers have stopped caring about Mac users"
Another falsehood my friend. Intuit just ported QuickBooks and Quicken to the Mac recently. There has been a great many third parties porting to the Mac. Corel, Microsoft, Intuit, etc. Besides why not run VirtualPC to run a couple of Windows software packages if you really need it.
"The problem with lacklustre third party development has prompted Apple to create its own browser, which it calls Safari."
Not true again... Apple wrote Safari to integrate it with iLife and other future Office based applications like Keynote. Safari is not that important it's the developers API that goes along with it that's important. i.e. it's going to be very easy to write an application for OS X and include the rendering abilities of Safari embedded inside the application. Virtually no code needed to do just that!
"Of course all of these technological issues have led to business issues for Apple. Unlike competitors Hewlett-Packard Co. or even Dell Computer Corp., Apple relies primarily on personal computer sales, often to graphics and business professionals."
Besides Dell, Apple was the only other computer manufacturer to actually break even last year! HP merged with Compaq who previously merged with DEC. If you know anything about DEC, you would slamming HP right now. DEC was evil, it's people were so incredibly screwed up it would have gone out of business had it not been for Compaq to buy them out. Compaq is fairly screwed up internally as well. I know people who either worked for Compaq or DEC and some of whom now work for HP. The only reason they are still around is because businesses haven't figured out how screwed they will be when they sign the next contract. Apples not in the same market as HP, not yet anyway. The next generation XServe could change all that however (new processors are on the way wether they are IBM Power4, Power5, or AMD/Intel has yet to be seen).
"In its latest numbers released in January for its fiscal first quarter of 2003, revenue fell from a year earlier and all of the company's major computer lines saw diminished numbers. PowerMac sales were down 20%, while iBook sales fell 8%."
No kidding now go look at the rest of the computer industry! This is not news! They all are hurting but Apples doing better than most, except for Dell.
"The last time Apple was in this state, it brought back co-founder Steve Jobs to fix its issues. He fostered the development of the iMac and secured a US$150-million investment from Microsoft. But there aren't any new iMacs in Apple's future and Microsoft, bolstered by its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice, is clearly not going to help the beleaguered computer maker this time."
Uh wrong again Robert! Apple was much worse off then right now! They have billions in the bank. They've purchased several media software companies and they are spending a whole lot in R&D.
"So what have you got left? Apple is a company that controls around 3% of the computer market, has recently undergone a restructuring and is slowly fading into nothingness."
Sigh... Robert Robert what am I going to do with you... Market share doesn't mean squat! As long as they turn a profit they can survive, which they will when all the computer users realize that the last time they bought new was around 1998 due to the Y2K scare. Maybe if more lame Mac users like you actually purchased a new computer every 3-5 years they wouldn't be hurting so bad. Guess who's upholding Apple on hardware sales right now? Unix users are switching to the platform in DROVES! I can't go to a Unix or Internet trade show without seeing a whole lot of Apple laptops in tow! Best damn Unix laptop ever made!
"Stick a fork in 'em -- this Apple is cooked."
No Robert, that's Apple Pie! Mmmmmm!!! Apple has been proving twits like you wrong for so long it's not funny!
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I really wanted to tell him to stick his head into a link to goatse.cx but thought better of it!
Most of the problem calls that were serious that I took over the last 10 years in tech support. (this discounts the stupid calls where user shoots self in foot or doesn't know what they are doing).
1. DLL Hell caused by third party software installations that are just plain broken. DLL-A is older but still overwrites DLL-B which is newer. Ony a small subset of required DLL's are installed. i.e. ODBC being the biggest culprit. Install application A and it replaces DLL-1 install application B and it replaces DLL-1 with an older version. Application A ceases to function. Reinstall application A and application B ceases to function. This is a direct result of programmers doing a crap job of building the installation package. It's also the fault of Microsoft for not providing a decent installation system. There are maybe 3 mainstream vendors who produce the packaging systems and the most popular happens to be the most complex. The Microsoft installation packager included with VB is absolute crap. Ultimately the programmers are rushed to market and don't QA test their installation packages. 90% of software out there has a broken installer! Microsoft is just as bad but it's worse because their applications integrate so damn tightly into the OS. MS-Office makes over 12,000 registry edits and installs hundreds of files. Same goes for MSIE. It's difficult to even get a file listing of what just changed after an install. You need to use a third party tool track the changes. Windows desperately needs to have a new installation removal system on par with RedHat's RPM or Debian's Apt-Get. At least the tech's could get some information about what went wrong and how to fix it. One needs to be able to verify an installation and be able to confirm that it installed properly. This will put the blame on the third party software vendor where it belongs. Note that XP will fix major system DLL's on the next boot, so this is a step in the right direction but it's not nearly enough.
2. Corrupted user or system Registry. The registry is a binary database that stores virtually ALL operating system settings, configurations, and most application settings. It get's damaged far too easily and there is no decent backup. i.e. OS/2 backed up it's configs at boot time and rotated the automatic backups. You should be able to restore a registry from a system backup when it hangs and states it can't continue because the registry is damaged.
3. The file system layout needs major re-work. Unix is far superior to even XP in this regard. Files end up all over the place and it's still too damn hard to back up user data without losing something. Unix has inherit security permissions on system files. XP doesn't by default. The average user will never ever secure a wide open system. It should be secure out of the box. Sure this will generate more calls but it's worth it in the end. To lock down a clean XP install takes a long time and hell of a lot of testing. That's why companies use Ghost because they can do all that in the lab and then not have to worry so much about it when they roll out a thousand ghosted images.
4. When hardware fails the OS just dies. Motherboard, CPU, or RAM goes bad and then nothing works. Microsoft ought to press the hardware industry to provide better diagnostics. POST code checking is lame and doesn't work well enough. SMART for hard disks actually works well. We need to have something like SMART for motherboard, CPU, and RAM as well.
All of the above is why I run Mac's, Linux, and Sun systems. I get paid for fixing MS problems every day. I am damn good at it. I don't need to come home and do it some more! Unix based systems make so much more sense than Windows it's not funny. It only took be about a week to fully master Mac OS X.
On a Mac the following is true:
1. No DLL hell all the system files come from Apple and are tightly controlled. Applications install into their own bundle (the launch icon is really a container for all the files the application needs). Sure some apps link to things at the system level but it's less of a problem. You can move most applications just by dragging and dropping them and nothing breaks. Even across a network to another Mac. Disk space is less of an issue nowadays. There is no reason to share many libraries. Unless of course you are Microsoft and all your apps are designed to integrate into each other in order leverage your market dominance. MS-Office won't work without MSIE!
2. The Mac uses individual XML based text files to store information that MS stores in a single binary file. Got a problem with one of them? Delete it and it will be recreated. Sure you'll have to reset all the configs afterwards but I can deal with that. Worst case scenario you could get to a console prompt and edit the text file with vi. Journaled file systems make this even more reliable as the file corruption should be less likely to occur under a journaled file system. No matter what anyone says, NTFS is not a real journaled file system. NTFS also fragments very very badly. Even worse than FAT16/32! Buy Diskeeper if you use NT/Win2k/XP!
3. The Mac file system layout is mostly Unix with some differences that are not that difficult to adjust to. The Unix/etc/usr sort of directories are hidden by default (not from the console though). Most applications go into/Applications where each one is a bundle containing every file the app needs. Unix apps such as XFree86 are of course more complex. But then again, those that will use such a system will be familar with it. Most Mac users don't need X11.
4. Apple provides a hardware diagnostic CD which may not be perfect but it's better than what you get with a PC. You could boot and run hardware diagnostics on the system. Most PC users don't have this ability at all. There is less Apple hardware and Apple tightly controls the hardware so there is less to know to test said hardware. On PC's there are thousands of vendors, etc.
I can see it now. It will be hacked nine ways to Sunday. Imagine posing as a posse member and dishing out some executable to all the friends on the list. Heck, you won't even have to hack the new protocols, etc. Just hack the box like always. Pose as little jr and kill his friends computers! Nice way to get oneself kicked out of the posse!
This could backfire in a big way! Look at me Ma, no hands! Oops, Smack, years worth of dental work.
They better come up with better security than what 's on MSN Messenger!
You would not believe how many morons ask me to help them with their computers at home and how much they whine that their new Broadband is slow. I get there and they've got three computers so heavily infected with viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware that it's no wonder what happened to their bandwidth! The number one culprits who caused the mess in the first place? Kids!
All the same it's an interesting idea but a huge time waster. Sounds like a DotBomb idea until MS figures out how to generate revenue from it. Corporations everywhere will end up having to ban it for security and bandwidth consumption.
I made the switch and is cost me $7,000.00+ but I could not be happier. Below is the list of systems I was using followed by the Apple systems I purchased.
Sony Vaio 1.8Ghz - WinXP Pro upgraded from WinME Micron PC 400Mhz PII - Win2k Pro upgraded from Win98 3 Generic Clones ranging from 90Mhz to 266Mhz now running Linux exclusively. Sun Blade 100 500Mhz SPARC 64bit - Used for learning Solaris and Sun hardware. Part time server for training purposes. Gateway Solo 2500 333Mhz laptop - ran Linux for a long time, currently collecting dust.
The above is well over what I paid for the Apples that I will list below. Keep in mind that included with the above boxes I fully bought and licensed every version of Windows and a whole lot of Microsoft software such as MS Office over the years. DOS/Win3.11 Win95 Win95 OEM.B Win98 Win98SE WinME WinNT Win2k Pro WinXP Pro MS Office 95/97/2000
I've been running PC's since my Atari ST 4meg became obsolete. My very first comptuer was an Atari 800XL 64k RAM. My first PC was a 486 33Mhz as my first home PC purchase. Used 8086 286 and 386 computers in my profession before I bought one. I've run Linux since Slackware with a kernel version prior to.99, ran X-Windows on the 486 33Mhz upgraded to a DX266 chip at about the time those Stealth VESA cards were finally supported through XFree86!
So as you can see I've been there and done that. Just prior to MS Win95 I ran OS/2 Warp and was deeply impressed. It's a shame IBM blew it...
I've programmed in everything from BASIC to Java and all the languages in between except for LISP.
Here is what I just spent 7,000+ on from Apple.
- PowerBookG4 550Mhz (OS X 10.1.5 won me over) - MS Office X - PowerMac G4 Dual 1Ghz MDD - 2 - 17" Studio displays. - Miscellaneous accessories and things like memory and a Brenthaven laptop backpack, etc. - Additional software such as CorelDraw! Suite
I switched because Apple finally came out with a professional OS that is Unix based. It combines all the advantages of WinXP or OS/2Warp with all the raw power and flexibility of Unix. Plus I can run mainstream software such as MS Office X and Corel Draw, Adobe applications, X-Windows software, etc.
The Apple hardware designs are truly superior, sure the Motorolla processors haven't kept up but that is not a major issue with me. This Dual processor G4 PowerMac does absolutely everything I need and is plenty fast enough. In fact, I am able to accomplish so much more in a much more efficient manner that my productivity has tripled!
History shows that I am not an Apple nutcase. I never took Apple seriously until OS X made the scene. I've been watching it closely since the earliest releases and drooling over it. I never could afford a NeXT system but I always dreamed of having one. NeXT was so far ahead of it's time that few understood it. Today, Apple's Mac OS X is the next NeXT and it is a tremendous accomplishment!
I refuse to buy anymore PC's (unless OS X is ported to the x86 Intel/AMD platform)! I will be replacing the Sony Vaio running XP with an iMac 17" before the end of this year. This box serves as a family PC and I am getting tired of fixing it and patching the security issues that come out every 2 weeks. I've got the damn thing firewalled twice plus I filter it's communications with the outside world for fear of spyware and trojans that NAV could miss.
It's a brave new world and Apple will get us there. Bravo Apple! I am a switcher!
How about combo VCR's and DVD players, or low-cost DVD players, or just plain VCR's? Most of the new ones suck so bad they die about 4-8 months after you buy it. i.e. Walmart Taiwan/Korea manufactured ultra cheap home electronics.
I know people who are on their third VCR/DVD player because then dang things keep dying and they are not worth repairing. One person has been through 2 Sony highend digital VCR's as well so it's not just the cheap stuff.
Lot's of failures lately, this explains a whole lot.
Apple should consider making the iBook case easier to remove and offer a variety of high quality skins. i.e. have some artists design say 10 different designs and offer them installed at the apple store.
Then again, they just patented some funky light based color scheme, theme that can change. So it's possible that the exterior of an iBook in the future could change colors on it's own. Hummm a retro 60's tie-dye in motion like the iTunes Visualizer reflecting on the exterior case would be awesome!
Yup, I will repeat what everyone else appears to be saying. This is a huge security issue! There are many ways to provide remote shell access securely even across multiple platforms and operating systems. AIM is not one of them. You are asking for serious trouble.
OpenSSH connection to a Perl script to prompt users appropriately, would be worlds better than AIM.
You need to clarify exactly why you want to use AIM over another solution to convince Techies.
For example, you want the server to go online to AIM and alert someone, who's monitoring, of a problem and then said person can connect via AIM to resolve the problem. There are many other ways to alert someone including Pager, email, etc. These listed alerts would be better because who's to say the person will actually be on AIM when the server needs them to be there.
Even if you are on a secure connection, you are still using AIM which relies on AOL servers to receive and send the data. This means it goes over the Internet unencrypted and can most certainly be intercepted. Would you want someone who stumbles across you packets connecting to this server and sending commands that execute locally on the server? This scares the hell out of most techies.
Again, state your reasoning and exactly what you are trying to accomplish. If it makes sense then you'll get a logical answer to the question. If it's a poor idea, it will be torn to shreds.
You may be just scratching the surface of an innovative idea that could be solved in a more secure fashion. It's just that you are going about it the wrong way.
Zope is very capable of this, you can even add a Zope Wiki Product. Wiki it away to start with then build some custom Products for just about anything you can imagine.
Zope runs on Solaris, Mac OS X, Linux, and even Windows. It is quite the system.
Look for Two-way radio's and Cell Phones, or another client in the building with radio equipment. I get speaker pops and monitor shake when some cell phones are used near my monitor and speakers. We used to be able to reboot older Compaq laptops by just keying up a two-way Motorola radio. If my buddy on the other side of the cube pissed me off I would just hold the radio to the side of the cube wall and key up. His laptop would just spontaneously reboot itself.
That's fine, go ahead. It's of course your choice. I use remote control software every single day all day long. I need it to be lighting quick and it absolutely has to work over dial as well as LAN/WAN. At times I have two pcANYWHERE sessions open and 2 SMS Remote sessions open on four desktops. I have used VNC, XP Remote Desktop, and pcANYWHERE. They all work but pcANYWHERE works the best. It's easier and faster to use pcANYWHERE. It is more than 2-3 times faster and more responsive to SMS Remote. SMS Remote is too slow for dial use, so I don't even bother. When you click a menu and it takes it 60 seconds to even draw the menu (on a 10Mbps LAN no less), then it sucks. pcANYWHERE is soooo much better.
Yeah it's expensive but if you rely on remote control, then get pcANYWHERE. Otherwise use VNC. If you have X-Windows use VNC with compression and encryption, it works pretty well. However it takes a lot of work to setup compression and encryption.
pcANYWHERE is only available on the Windows platform. I use X-Windows networking features at home and VNC at times at home. I use pcANYWHERE and SMS Remote at work because that is what was provided. I've tested VNC on the Windows platform and it works and works better than SMS Remote but pcANYWHERE kicks it's butt all over the place in speed.
When you need professional remote control that is fast, encrypted and easy to use, look to pcANYWHERE. If you have no budget or are very cross platform look to VNC. Run, don't walk away from any MS remote desktop or control software it's just plain piss poor.
If we were running Unix for everything, it would all be console based OpenSSH, Telnet (internal private filtered server management LAN only), and serial console routers. GUI X stuff would be VNC encrypted with OpenSSH and compressed. It's a beautiful thing.
Until management realizes they can have Windows File & Print servers that are every bit as reliable and trouble free as our midrange Sun boxen and more than a 1/10th the cost of midrange; by using Linux or FreeBSD on our Compaq Servers instead of NT. It will be a much better world.
What about pcANYWHERE? It's faster and more stable than Remote Desktop, Remote Control SMS, and VNC. pcANYWHERE works very well over dialup as well, much faster this way. Remote Control SMS simply is useless over dialup. pcANYWHERE's compression and video driver plugin accelerate remote control sessions much faster than any other solution. Yeah, it's not Open Source, but if it works, I will buy it.
1. Pre-heat the soldering iron. 2. Apply some solder to the tip. 3. Wipe the tip with a damp sponge. 4. Place the tip on the contact point and let it get good and hot before you apply the solder. You want a little bubble of heat to build (a second or two). 5. You know it's right when the solder gets very shiny. It should not appear dull or flat. This would indicate a cold solder joint where there could be an air bubble in the middle.
I recommend picking up some stuff from Radio Shack to practice on for a few minutes. Get a board and solder some wires through the holes. Do about 20 or so till you get the hang of it.
It's not that hard, really. You could send the drive out but it's not cheap. Most services charge at least $300.00 to just evaluate the possibility of data recovery then most charge about $1,000 - $2,000 for the actual recovery process. You could save your self some money doing it yourself.
If you have a good soldering iron, make sure you get silver solder, not the plumbing stuff. Radio Shack is probably the easiest place to find some. Take an old IDE cable and plug it into the connector with the broken pins (preferrably NOT an ATA66/100 but an older ATA33 cable as the wires are bigger). Then determine with a multi-meter which pins are fubar, i.e. no continuity (open, no connection).
Then carefully determine which small wire in the ribbon cable is the right one(s) and cut it loose from the drive side of the ribbon cable. An Exacto Knife should work well. Go SLOW and be as careful as you can. You can separate the wires in the ribbon cable. Watch out for exposing adjacent wires you don't want to short it out.
Then strip the remaining insulation off the IDE wire(s) and solder it to the control board where the connector is attached. Hopefully, it will be easy to get to it and you won't have to disconnect the control board from the drive. If this is the case, try to prop it up so it doesn't short out against something like the computer case. Lay the board on something non-conductive like small piece of wood.
Sounds like you write utility programs for system administration type tasks.
You were a little vague but you did state it 'wasn't programming'. Well if you are manipulating files and writing batch files to execute your command line programs then I would highly recommend Python.
The ActiveState Active Python is FREE and comes with the PythonWin IDE that performs code completion, color syntax highlighting, Windows COM interface (you can automate MS-Word, etc.), and a limited debugger.
Python is simple, clean, elegant, and much more powerful than at first look. It's very object based but you are not forced to write classes. It's byte-compiled like Java but much faster. You simply execute a text.PY file and it auto-compiles into a.PYC file so fast you won't even notice it. You can distribute the.PYC file if you don't want to leave source code lying about.
It comes with an interactive python interpreter that allows you to type code in to test or experiment.
Python can hook into C/C++ libraries and use their API's. An example of this is the COM interface.
It includes the TK GUI which is simple to code and you won't need a WYSIWYG RAD environment to create the windows. It can automatically align objects in the window. It's perfect for simple interfaces that are quick to create. There are several other GUI options available for multiple platforms as well.
If you are looking for a more powerful IDE, ActiveState's Komodo is quite nice but the PythonWin IDE is not bad either. There is also an IDE written in Python called IDLE that is simpler than PythonWin but still effective. In order of power: IDLE, PythonWin, Komodo, and VisualPython (plugs into.Net Visual Studio).
Obviously, you are trying to avoid buying.Net Visual Studio so VisualPython is not what you are looking for. Basically, VisualPython creates.Net executables written in Python rather than C# or VB.
You can even get Jython and compile your Python code into Java Byte Code! Great for prototyping Java code or just doing small things quickly.
To top it all off Python runs on many different platforms, is very easy to read, is very productive, includes the TK cross-platform GUI, and you'll like it's price; FREE.
Ruby is another interesting language but since it's so very new, there are few books. Python has ton's of excellent books as well as many online tutorials and forums.
It is not necessary to leave the entire state. Just get the heck out of the big cities or expensive counties. Rent or build a large office near a major highway in the suburbs where there are hotels nearby. I know the big attraction for cities was because that's were it all happened. But it hasn't been necessary to be in the heart of a large city for about 10 years.
I hate commuting into large cities the traffic is unbelievable and it's entirely unnecessary. Plus you don't need to layoff your workforce and re-hire just stay somewhat nearby and folks will go the distance. I happen to like the high rate of pay and average cost of living. I don't want to make $8.00 in Oklahoma when I can may $40 an hour on the east coast!
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When you bought a Mac you got free .Mac access. This included webmail, webspace, and iDisk a location where you can trade files, upload your webpages, etc.
.Mac subscription at $99 a year. For that high fee, you get a whole lot more disk space and features. You can backup data to the iDisk, etc. Those users who already had signed up for the free .Mac got it for half off the price. Many graphics artists use it to trade images and other files. I use it for all sorts of stuff. Primarily to upload a file to and then email a friend an HTML link to download it. I need to do this all the time because of the shifts in security policies at my company and at many others that are stripped executable attachments. It makes it very easy to file transfer just about anything (providing you have the disk space on iDisk 100MB by default - you can pay for more as well.)
iDisk is a mountable over the Internet drive volume. It uses WebDAV to accomplish this. Basically, it's a WebDAV drive with more spit and polish to it then you generally see.
Now Apple has chosen to charge for the
Apple now provides the XP iDisk tool to make it easier for the clueless to connect to the iDisk and manage it from a WindowsXP computer. But any version of Windows can attach to the iDisk using MSIE Web Folders because Web Folders supports WebDAV.
There are several Linux or Java WebDAV tools out there that will work as well. CaDAVer being a very nice FTP like client that uses WebDAV instead of FTP.
You can connect to iDisk using the cadaver software which is an open source WebDAV tool that makes it like FTP. It runs under Linux just fine.
.Mac) There's a few O'Reilly articles at the http://macdevcenter.com
.Mac iDisk tool on Mac OS X. The main advantage is you can direct users to download the tool and it will be easier than having you tell them how to use Web Folders.
Other Linux WebDAV tools must be available, I haven't looked lately. Last I looked, the cadaver command line tool was the most compatible and it feels just like FTP with a few minor changes. Most Linux users are savvy enough to setup a WebDAV client. BTW, you could setup the Apache WebDAV module and configure it to be your own iDisk. (you'll have to override the idisk.mac.com hostname to use the Apple tools and make it think it's really
WinXP does not actually need the iDisk tool, as Web Folders can connect to an iDisk with no problem. Just add a network place and away you go! The tool makes it easier for clueless users. It also adds the ability to adjust public folder permissions and it has a nice little disk space bar along the top to let you know how much space you have, etc. It's the same as the
Of course if you are using iDisk then you most likely have a Mac so you don't really need the tool. MSIE adds the Web Folders feature to older versions of Windows so again, you can attach to iDisk in a fairly easy fashion.
Bash is not the default shell but it is available if you want it. The tcsh is still the default shell.
I think all the bands should get together once their contracts end to formulate a joint force against the greed of the music companies.
The artists deserve a bigger cut. The music companies spend a great deal to promote a band and get their music played on the radio but ultimately they end up taking most of the profits and force the band into debt! They thrive on chewing up bands and spitting them out afterwards! There's a lot of talent out there but all they look for are the handful of one hit wonders they can exploit.
If the artists could bypass the music companies and create their own music company to promote the collective bands they would be much better off. Such a collective would have to be non-profit and funded by the musicians.
The collective would need to release music digitally for a reasonable fee. They could partner with large Internet players that can handle the bandwidth. CD's can indeed be produced rather cheaply. The need for studios to record the CD's is not as necessary as it once was. I've heard CD's produced in sound altered homes and accoustically sound structures that is as good as the professional studios. There is no need to pay thousands a day to record an album!
Unfortunately, most bands are currently under contract with the music companies and breaking their contract would open them up to legal attack.
The artists should not be put into debt when the music company makes 8 million in profits, spends 2 in promotion and keeps the remaining 6 million for themselves. Allowing only a piddly sum to the artists. No wonder the artists have to tour to make any money!
Actually iSync requires the Palm HotSync. That means iSync just hooks into the Palm HotSync which does the real work. I run it with a Palm Vx with no problems whatsoever. But Palm can be flaky on PC's too.
;-)
I once couldn't get a customers Palm to sync because she had exactly 4GB free on the hard disk. Any multiple of 4GB had a problem with sync. I just made a backup of her 300MB plus Outlook Personal folder and then HotSync'd it again. It worked! Found the bug documented on Google Groups. I believe this particular bug was fixed by Palm on a newer HotSync version. Every now and then folks have Sync problems and it's usually a foobar'd registry key or something. Not generally a big deal. I haven't run into any I wasn't able to fix. You just sometimes need to give it a swift kick in the pants.
The following is my reply to Robert Thompson here's his email address rthompson@nationalpost.com and here's the websites address financechannel@canada.com, feedback@canada.com, letters@nationalpost.com, and fpletters@nationalpost.com
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On Thursday, February 20, 2003 the Canada.com website published "Apple can't recall Jobs to fix company this time" it just hit http://slashdot.org/ on Saturday February 22, @02:02PM. Guaranteed you will be flooded with email!
First of all your article is full of flaws and misinformation. I am actually amazed that you are able to publish such drivel without checking the facts!
"Apple, once a dominant force in the personal computer arena, appears to have no influence on the market and the only people still using its computers are masochists who apparently don't want access to much of the latest software."
This statement is really wrong! Apple still is a dominant force in the industry. They make other companies like Dell or Gateway look really bad. The fact that Microsoft is running a new Switch Campaign and Gateway ran those Profile T.V. ads slamming the iMac prove it. Apples a threat and Apples a leader with which to respect and to train their radar on.
"I have spent the last few years toiling on an old PowerMac, a clunky ancient machine that was slow and unreliable. But newspapers are hesitant to buy new computers, so I continued to churn out stories on the unpredictable machine. I suppose at the time it was purchased, my beleaguered PowerMac was cutting edge, but in today's terms it was more powerful as a paperweight than a computer."
Try that with a PC buddy! If you've had it prior to the Internet then it would be a paperweight if it was a PC. The fact that you were able to run the PowerMac so long and really get your money's worth is a tribute to Apple!
"First of all, my iBook didn't like the software I needed to run my Palm M515. Crashes and screen seizures were regular occurrences."
What are you talking about? I've got a Palm Vx but I'm running the exact same software you are and I have had ZERO PROBLEMS! I can even HotSync it over infrared! Sure I had to convert the cradle from serial to USB but that's accomplished with an adaptor. Heck, I even sync it with the new iSync software (still uses the Palm HotSync software though). I've not even heard of people having problems with any of the Palms on the Mac.
"third party manufacturers have stopped caring about Mac users"
Another falsehood my friend. Intuit just ported QuickBooks and Quicken to the Mac recently. There has been a great many third parties porting to the Mac. Corel, Microsoft, Intuit, etc. Besides why not run VirtualPC to run a couple of Windows software packages if you really need it.
"The problem with lacklustre third party development has prompted Apple to create its own browser, which it calls Safari."
Not true again... Apple wrote Safari to integrate it with iLife and other future Office based applications like Keynote. Safari is not that important it's the developers API that goes along with it that's important. i.e. it's going to be very easy to write an application for OS X and include the rendering abilities of Safari embedded inside the application. Virtually no code needed to do just that!
"Of course all of these technological issues have led to business issues for Apple. Unlike competitors Hewlett-Packard Co. or even Dell Computer Corp., Apple relies primarily on personal computer sales, often to graphics and business professionals."
Besides Dell, Apple was the only other computer manufacturer to actually break even last year! HP merged with Compaq who previously merged with DEC. If you know anything about DEC, you would slamming HP right now. DEC was evil, it's people were so incredibly screwed up it would have gone out of business had it not been for Compaq to buy them out. Compaq is fairly screwed up internally as well. I know people who either worked for Compaq or DEC and some of whom now work for HP. The only reason they are still around is because businesses haven't figured out how screwed they will be when they sign the next contract. Apples not in the same market as HP, not yet anyway. The next generation XServe could change all that however (new processors are on the way wether they are IBM Power4, Power5, or AMD/Intel has yet to be seen).
"In its latest numbers released in January for its fiscal first quarter of 2003, revenue fell from a year earlier and all of the company's major computer lines saw diminished numbers. PowerMac sales were down 20%, while iBook sales fell 8%."
No kidding now go look at the rest of the computer industry! This is not news! They all are hurting but Apples doing better than most, except for Dell.
"The last time Apple was in this state, it brought back co-founder Steve Jobs to fix its issues. He fostered the development of the iMac and secured a US$150-million investment from Microsoft. But there aren't any new iMacs in Apple's future and Microsoft, bolstered by its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice, is clearly not going to help the beleaguered computer maker this time."
Uh wrong again Robert! Apple was much worse off then right now! They have billions in the bank. They've purchased several media software companies and they are spending a whole lot in R&D.
"So what have you got left? Apple is a company that controls around 3% of the computer market, has recently undergone a restructuring and is slowly fading into nothingness."
Sigh... Robert Robert what am I going to do with you... Market share doesn't mean squat! As long as they turn a profit they can survive, which they will when all the computer users realize that the last time they bought new was around 1998 due to the Y2K scare. Maybe if more lame Mac users like you actually purchased a new computer every 3-5 years they wouldn't be hurting so bad. Guess who's upholding Apple on hardware sales right now? Unix users are switching to the platform in DROVES! I can't go to a Unix or Internet trade show without seeing a whole lot of Apple laptops in tow! Best damn Unix laptop ever made!
"Stick a fork in 'em -- this Apple is cooked."
No Robert, that's Apple Pie! Mmmmmm!!! Apple has been proving twits like you wrong for so long it's not funny!
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I really wanted to tell him to stick his head into a link to goatse.cx but thought better of it!
Most of the problem calls that were serious that I took over the last 10 years in tech support. (this discounts the stupid calls where user shoots self in foot or doesn't know what they are doing).
/etc /usr sort of directories are hidden by default (not from the console though). Most applications go into /Applications where each one is a bundle containing every file the app needs. Unix apps such as XFree86 are of course more complex. But then again, those that will use such a system will be familar with it. Most Mac users don't need X11.
1. DLL Hell caused by third party software installations that are just plain broken. DLL-A is older but still overwrites DLL-B which is newer. Ony a small subset of required DLL's are installed. i.e. ODBC being the biggest culprit. Install application A and it replaces DLL-1 install application B and it replaces DLL-1 with an older version. Application A ceases to function. Reinstall application A and application B ceases to function. This is a direct result of programmers doing a crap job of building the installation package. It's also the fault of Microsoft for not providing a decent installation system. There are maybe 3 mainstream vendors who produce the packaging systems and the most popular happens to be the most complex. The Microsoft installation packager included with VB is absolute crap. Ultimately the programmers are rushed to market and don't QA test their installation packages. 90% of software out there has a broken installer! Microsoft is just as bad but it's worse because their applications integrate so damn tightly into the OS. MS-Office makes over 12,000 registry edits and installs hundreds of files. Same goes for MSIE. It's difficult to even get a file listing of what just changed after an install. You need to use a third party tool track the changes. Windows desperately needs to have a new installation removal system on par with RedHat's RPM or Debian's Apt-Get. At least the tech's could get some information about what went wrong and how to fix it. One needs to be able to verify an installation and be able to confirm that it installed properly. This will put the blame on the third party software vendor where it belongs. Note that XP will fix major system DLL's on the next boot, so this is a step in the right direction but it's not nearly enough.
2. Corrupted user or system Registry. The registry is a binary database that stores virtually ALL operating system settings, configurations, and most application settings. It get's damaged far too easily and there is no decent backup. i.e. OS/2 backed up it's configs at boot time and rotated the automatic backups. You should be able to restore a registry from a system backup when it hangs and states it can't continue because the registry is damaged.
3. The file system layout needs major re-work. Unix is far superior to even XP in this regard. Files end up all over the place and it's still too damn hard to back up user data without losing something. Unix has inherit security permissions on system files. XP doesn't by default. The average user will never ever secure a wide open system. It should be secure out of the box. Sure this will generate more calls but it's worth it in the end. To lock down a clean XP install takes a long time and hell of a lot of testing. That's why companies use Ghost because they can do all that in the lab and then not have to worry so much about it when they roll out a thousand ghosted images.
4. When hardware fails the OS just dies. Motherboard, CPU, or RAM goes bad and then nothing works. Microsoft ought to press the hardware industry to provide better diagnostics. POST code checking is lame and doesn't work well enough. SMART for hard disks actually works well. We need to have something like SMART for motherboard, CPU, and RAM as well.
All of the above is why I run Mac's, Linux, and Sun systems. I get paid for fixing MS problems every day. I am damn good at it. I don't need to come home and do it some more! Unix based systems make so much more sense than Windows it's not funny. It only took be about a week to fully master Mac OS X.
On a Mac the following is true:
1. No DLL hell all the system files come from Apple and are tightly controlled. Applications install into their own bundle (the launch icon is really a container for all the files the application needs). Sure some apps link to things at the system level but it's less of a problem. You can move most applications just by dragging and dropping them and nothing breaks. Even across a network to another Mac. Disk space is less of an issue nowadays. There is no reason to share many libraries. Unless of course you are Microsoft and all your apps are designed to integrate into each other in order leverage your market dominance. MS-Office won't work without MSIE!
2. The Mac uses individual XML based text files to store information that MS stores in a single binary file. Got a problem with one of them? Delete it and it will be recreated. Sure you'll have to reset all the configs afterwards but I can deal with that. Worst case scenario you could get to a console prompt and edit the text file with vi. Journaled file systems make this even more reliable as the file corruption should be less likely to occur under a journaled file system. No matter what anyone says, NTFS is not a real journaled file system. NTFS also fragments very very badly. Even worse than FAT16/32! Buy Diskeeper if you use NT/Win2k/XP!
3. The Mac file system layout is mostly Unix with some differences that are not that difficult to adjust to. The Unix
4. Apple provides a hardware diagnostic CD which may not be perfect but it's better than what you get with a PC. You could boot and run hardware diagnostics on the system. Most PC users don't have this ability at all. There is less Apple hardware and Apple tightly controls the hardware so there is less to know to test said hardware. On PC's there are thousands of vendors, etc.
I can see it now. It will be hacked nine ways to Sunday. Imagine posing as a posse member and dishing out some executable to all the friends on the list. Heck, you won't even have to hack the new protocols, etc. Just hack the box like always. Pose as little jr and kill his friends computers! Nice way to get oneself kicked out of the posse!
This could backfire in a big way! Look at me Ma, no hands! Oops, Smack, years worth of dental work.
They better come up with better security than what 's on MSN Messenger!
You would not believe how many morons ask me to help them with their computers at home and how much they whine that their new Broadband is slow. I get there and they've got three computers so heavily infected with viruses, trojans, worms, and spyware that it's no wonder what happened to their bandwidth! The number one culprits who caused the mess in the first place? Kids!
All the same it's an interesting idea but a huge time waster. Sounds like a DotBomb idea until MS figures out how to generate revenue from it. Corporations everywhere will end up having to ban it for security and bandwidth consumption.
Yeah! Duh... For months dude! For months!
Well you didn't pay for this update now did you?
I made the switch and is cost me $7,000.00+ but I could not be happier. Below is the list of systems I was using followed by the Apple systems I purchased.
.99, ran X-Windows on the 486 33Mhz upgraded to a DX266 chip at about the time those Stealth VESA cards were finally supported through XFree86!
Sony Vaio 1.8Ghz - WinXP Pro upgraded from WinME
Micron PC 400Mhz PII - Win2k Pro upgraded from Win98
3 Generic Clones ranging from 90Mhz to 266Mhz now running Linux exclusively.
Sun Blade 100 500Mhz SPARC 64bit - Used for learning Solaris and Sun hardware. Part time server for training purposes.
Gateway Solo 2500 333Mhz laptop - ran Linux for a long time, currently collecting dust.
The above is well over what I paid for the Apples that I will list below. Keep in mind that included with the above boxes I fully bought and licensed every version of Windows and a whole lot of Microsoft software such as MS Office over the years.
DOS/Win3.11
Win95
Win95 OEM.B
Win98
Win98SE
WinME
WinNT
Win2k Pro
WinXP Pro
MS Office 95/97/2000
I've been running PC's since my Atari ST 4meg became obsolete. My very first comptuer was an Atari 800XL 64k RAM. My first PC was a 486 33Mhz as my first home PC purchase. Used 8086 286 and 386 computers in my profession before I bought one. I've run Linux since Slackware with a kernel version prior to
So as you can see I've been there and done that. Just prior to MS Win95 I ran OS/2 Warp and was deeply impressed. It's a shame IBM blew it...
I've programmed in everything from BASIC to Java and all the languages in between except for LISP.
Here is what I just spent 7,000+ on from Apple.
- PowerBookG4 550Mhz (OS X 10.1.5 won me over)
- MS Office X
- PowerMac G4 Dual 1Ghz MDD
- 2 - 17" Studio displays.
- Miscellaneous accessories and things like memory and a Brenthaven laptop backpack, etc.
- Additional software such as CorelDraw! Suite
I switched because Apple finally came out with a professional OS that is Unix based. It combines all the advantages of WinXP or OS/2Warp with all the raw power and flexibility of Unix. Plus I can run mainstream software such as MS Office X and Corel Draw, Adobe applications, X-Windows software, etc.
The Apple hardware designs are truly superior, sure the Motorolla processors haven't kept up but that is not a major issue with me. This Dual processor G4 PowerMac does absolutely everything I need and is plenty fast enough. In fact, I am able to accomplish so much more in a much more efficient manner that my productivity has tripled!
History shows that I am not an Apple nutcase. I never took Apple seriously until OS X made the scene. I've been watching it closely since the earliest releases and drooling over it. I never could afford a NeXT system but I always dreamed of having one. NeXT was so far ahead of it's time that few understood it. Today, Apple's Mac OS X is the next NeXT and it is a tremendous accomplishment!
I refuse to buy anymore PC's (unless OS X is ported to the x86 Intel/AMD platform)! I will be replacing the Sony Vaio running XP with an iMac 17" before the end of this year. This box serves as a family PC and I am getting tired of fixing it and patching the security issues that come out every 2 weeks. I've got the damn thing firewalled twice plus I filter it's communications with the outside world for fear of spyware and trojans that NAV could miss.
It's a brave new world and Apple will get us there. Bravo Apple! I am a switcher!
Microsoft be damned...
How about combo VCR's and DVD players, or low-cost DVD players, or just plain VCR's? Most of the new ones suck so bad they die about 4-8 months after you buy it. i.e. Walmart Taiwan/Korea manufactured ultra cheap home electronics.
I know people who are on their third VCR/DVD player because then dang things keep dying and they are not worth repairing. One person has been through 2 Sony highend digital VCR's as well so it's not just the cheap stuff.
Lot's of failures lately, this explains a whole lot.
Apple should consider making the iBook case easier to remove and offer a variety of high quality skins. i.e. have some artists design say 10 different designs and offer them installed at the apple store.
Then again, they just patented some funky light based color scheme, theme that can change. So it's possible that the exterior of an iBook in the future could change colors on it's own. Hummm a retro 60's tie-dye in motion like the iTunes Visualizer reflecting on the exterior case would be awesome!
Yup, I will repeat what everyone else appears to be saying. This is a huge security issue! There are many ways to provide remote shell access securely even across multiple platforms and operating systems. AIM is not one of them.
You are asking for serious trouble.
OpenSSH connection to a Perl script to prompt users appropriately, would be worlds better than AIM.
You need to clarify exactly why you want to use AIM over another solution to convince Techies.
For example, you want the server to go online to AIM and alert someone, who's monitoring, of a problem and then said person can connect via AIM to resolve the problem. There are many other ways to alert someone including Pager, email, etc. These listed alerts would be better because who's to say the person will actually be on AIM when the server needs them to be there.
Even if you are on a secure connection, you are still using AIM which relies on AOL servers to receive and send the data. This means it goes over the Internet unencrypted and can most certainly be intercepted. Would you want someone who stumbles across you packets connecting to this server and sending commands that execute locally on the server? This scares the hell out of most techies.
Again, state your reasoning and exactly what you are trying to accomplish. If it makes sense then you'll get a logical answer to the question. If it's a poor idea, it will be torn to shreds.
You may be just scratching the surface of an innovative idea that could be solved in a more secure fashion. It's just that you are going about it the wrong way.
PowerBook G4 550Mhz - OS X 10.1.5/10.2.1 - IR Port works with my Palm Vx and syncs via Palm Desktop without a problem. Works quite nicely.
I haven't tried IR printing but that's not necessary with HP JetDirect printers at home and the office.
I don't use IR for anything else. Wonder if you can connect to PowerBook's with IR?
Yeah but what about cross platform calendar support? Anyone have Windows or for that matter a Linux Calendar application that supports:
1. Webdav
2. vCalendar files
Would Outlook work with that?
Zope is very capable of this, you can even add a Zope Wiki Product. Wiki it away to start with then build some custom Products for just about anything you can imagine.
Zope runs on Solaris, Mac OS X, Linux, and even Windows. It is quite the system.
Yes we do! Especially on a Monday night when it's dead at work and boring as hell.
You won't catch me buying from EMC, now that I've read all the horror!
Look for Two-way radio's and Cell Phones, or another client in the building with radio equipment. I get speaker pops and monitor shake when some cell phones are used near my monitor and speakers. We used to be able to reboot older Compaq laptops by just keying up a two-way Motorola radio. If my buddy on the other side of the cube pissed me off I would just hold the radio to the side of the cube wall and key up. His laptop would just spontaneously reboot itself.
Take a look at the Darwin HFS+ code. http://publicsource.apple.com/
Also look to http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-hfsplus
Nothing is complete or very useable yet, but if you are a programmer, I am sure they could use all the help they can get.
That's fine, go ahead. It's of course your choice. I use remote control software every single day all day long. I need it to be lighting quick and it absolutely has to work over dial as well as LAN/WAN. At times I have two pcANYWHERE sessions open and 2 SMS Remote sessions open on four desktops. I have used VNC, XP Remote Desktop, and pcANYWHERE. They all work but pcANYWHERE works the best. It's easier and faster to use pcANYWHERE. It is more than 2-3 times faster and more responsive to SMS Remote. SMS Remote is too slow for dial use, so I don't even bother. When you click a menu and it takes it 60 seconds to even draw the menu (on a 10Mbps LAN no less), then it sucks. pcANYWHERE is soooo much better.
Yeah it's expensive but if you rely on remote control, then get pcANYWHERE. Otherwise use VNC. If you have X-Windows use VNC with compression and encryption, it works pretty well. However it takes a lot of work to setup compression and encryption.
pcANYWHERE is only available on the Windows platform. I use X-Windows networking features at home and VNC at times at home. I use pcANYWHERE and SMS Remote at work because that is what was provided. I've tested VNC on the Windows platform and it works and works better than SMS Remote but pcANYWHERE kicks it's butt all over the place in speed.
When you need professional remote control that is fast, encrypted and easy to use, look to pcANYWHERE. If you have no budget or are very cross platform look to VNC. Run, don't walk away from any MS remote desktop or control software it's just plain piss poor.
If we were running Unix for everything, it would all be console based OpenSSH, Telnet (internal private filtered server management LAN only), and serial console routers. GUI X stuff would be VNC encrypted with OpenSSH and compressed. It's a beautiful thing.
Until management realizes they can have Windows File & Print servers that are every bit as reliable and trouble free as our midrange Sun boxen and more than a 1/10th the cost of midrange; by using Linux or FreeBSD on our Compaq Servers instead of NT. It will be a much better world.
What about pcANYWHERE? It's faster and more stable than Remote Desktop, Remote Control SMS, and VNC. pcANYWHERE works very well over dialup as well, much faster this way. Remote Control SMS simply is useless over dialup. pcANYWHERE's compression and video driver plugin accelerate remote control sessions much faster than any other solution. Yeah, it's not Open Source, but if it works, I will buy it.
Oh yeah, some soldering tips.
1. Pre-heat the soldering iron.
2. Apply some solder to the tip.
3. Wipe the tip with a damp sponge.
4. Place the tip on the contact point and let it get good and hot before you apply the solder. You want a little bubble of heat to build (a second or two).
5. You know it's right when the solder gets very shiny. It should not appear dull or flat. This would indicate a cold solder joint where there could be an air bubble in the middle.
I recommend picking up some stuff from Radio Shack to practice on for a few minutes. Get a board and solder some wires through the holes. Do about 20 or so till you get the hang of it.
It's not that hard, really. You could send the drive out but it's not cheap. Most services charge at least $300.00 to just evaluate the possibility of data recovery then most charge about $1,000 - $2,000 for the actual recovery process. You could save your self some money doing it yourself.
If you have a good soldering iron, make sure you get silver solder, not the plumbing stuff. Radio Shack is probably the easiest place to find some. Take an old IDE cable and plug it into the connector with the broken pins (preferrably NOT an ATA66/100 but an older ATA33 cable as the wires are bigger). Then determine with a multi-meter which pins are fubar, i.e. no continuity (open, no connection).
Then carefully determine which small wire in the ribbon cable is the right one(s) and cut it loose from the drive side of the ribbon cable. An Exacto Knife should work well. Go SLOW and be as careful as you can. You can separate the wires in the ribbon cable. Watch out for exposing adjacent wires you don't want to short it out.
Then strip the remaining insulation off the IDE wire(s) and solder it to the control board where the connector is attached. Hopefully, it will be easy to get to it and you won't have to disconnect the control board from the drive. If this is the case, try to prop it up so it doesn't short out against something like the computer case. Lay the board on something non-conductive like small piece of wood.
Sounds like you write utility programs for system administration type tasks.
.PY file and it auto-compiles into a .PYC file so fast you won't even notice it. You can distribute the .PYC file if you don't want to leave source code lying about.
.Net Visual Studio).
.Net Visual Studio so VisualPython is not what you are looking for. Basically, VisualPython creates .Net executables written in Python rather than C# or VB.
You were a little vague but you did state it 'wasn't programming'. Well if you are manipulating files and writing batch files to execute your command line programs then I would highly recommend Python.
The ActiveState Active Python is FREE and comes with the PythonWin IDE that performs code completion, color syntax highlighting, Windows COM interface (you can automate MS-Word, etc.), and a limited debugger.
Python is simple, clean, elegant, and much more powerful than at first look. It's very object based but you are not forced to write classes. It's byte-compiled like Java but much faster. You simply execute a text
It comes with an interactive python interpreter that allows you to type code in to test or experiment.
Python can hook into C/C++ libraries and use their API's. An example of this is the COM interface.
It includes the TK GUI which is simple to code and you won't need a WYSIWYG RAD environment to create the windows. It can automatically align objects in the window. It's perfect for simple interfaces that are quick to create. There are several other GUI options available for multiple platforms as well.
If you are looking for a more powerful IDE, ActiveState's Komodo is quite nice but the PythonWin IDE is not bad either. There is also an IDE written in Python called IDLE that is simpler than PythonWin but still effective. In order of power: IDLE, PythonWin, Komodo, and VisualPython (plugs into
Obviously, you are trying to avoid buying
You can even get Jython and compile your Python code into Java Byte Code! Great for prototyping Java code or just doing small things quickly.
To top it all off Python runs on many different platforms, is very easy to read, is very productive, includes the TK cross-platform GUI, and you'll like it's price; FREE.
Ruby is another interesting language but since it's so very new, there are few books. Python has ton's of excellent books as well as many online tutorials and forums.
It is not necessary to leave the entire state. Just get the heck out of the big cities or expensive counties. Rent or build a large office near a major highway in the suburbs where there are hotels nearby. I know the big attraction for cities was because that's were it all happened. But it hasn't been necessary to be in the heart of a large city for about 10 years.
I hate commuting into large cities the traffic is unbelievable and it's entirely unnecessary. Plus you don't need to layoff your workforce and re-hire just stay somewhat nearby and folks will go the distance. I happen to like the high rate of pay and average cost of living. I don't want to make $8.00 in Oklahoma when I can may $40 an hour on the east coast!