1. Entourage sucks ass. I just moved over to Mail.app in Tiger and it's a much better experience. Of course, things other than mail don't carry their way over. Oh darn. iCal can upload a.ics file via WebDAV and other iCal users can check my calendar.
2. RDC - Take a look at http://rdesktop.org/. Much more configurable. Works great.
3. I've had other issues with Office 2004 Mac. Excel likes to munge weblinks and row heights. Not to mention it doesn't save things where you think they should (i.e. saving HTML document where I opened it makes me save a new file in a new directory. YECH). I haven't found any solutions for this yet.
I've been Macified since Jan 2004 and I won't look back. I do have a PC next to it (using http://synergy2.sf.net/ so no keyboard and mouse) and I use it for the basic things... i.e. my Windows based phone software and other cranky Winapps. It's old and slow so I use it infrequently. I do use it for VNC because I have yet to find one VNC client on the Mac that Just Works.
Griffin also released the "SmartDeck" - a remote/tape interface. This ought to make integration with car radios cheaper and nicer, sans the Alpine/iPod kit ($200 for the deck, $100 for the iPod adapter + installation).
My new Uniden 2.4GHz phones work great with WiFi. Put the phone next to the WiFi card and I get no interference. Granted, the base station is 15 feet away from the WAP, and the microwave is 30 feet away from the WAP, but I've never noticed any interference at all. The WAP is a Linksys WAP54G, BTW.
In the Ponemon Institute survey, 83% of the experts said e-voting is either less or much less secure against election tampering than traditional paper ballot machines
The biggest thing I've found so far is if you're testing your own application, you have an unfair advantage. Something that looks obvious to you might not to the average user. You might know to click here, type in this parameter this way, etc, while a user doesn't know what's going on inside your head.
For most testing, I pass my code to my team mates. My boss has an especially easy time finding funny and stupid bugs. Keep in mind I'm actually complimenting his ability here. Saves me a bit of embarassment is he catches it before a user ever sees it.
So testing really needs to be done by people who need to use the application in it's environment (and their environment too).
Most thin clients (which I've seen run either Windows CE or NT Embedded, possibly they're on XP Embedded now) have native support for Terminal Services.
They actually have some other nifty features too. Some of the Wyse ones I worked on previously had telnet support so when (not if) the Citrix server went down (oh yeah, they usually support Citrix too) our users could telnet straight from the thin client.
My employer is super flexible with interruptions and what not. I've taken a week or two off here or there because of family interruptions, even for moving, all without a hitch. And I'm coding for a living too (besides reading Slashdot...).
Other jobs I've had where the employer was not as family friendly made life quite a bit harder - like taking unpaid time off.
If you've been with your company for a while (and assuming it's in the States) you can take unpaid (or sick time) off via the family medical leave act (act?). There's nothing they can do about that.
My Treo 600 does pretty much all I need to do at home. No use firing up the computer when I can hit a website from the phone in less time than it takes my computer to boot.
POP3 email works great.
Livejournal works fine.
Etc etc.
I'm surprised anything gets done at the post office. Up until the handheld scanners came out, the newest piece of technology my dad (mail carrier) used was a ball point pen! His words, not mine:)
The post office is known for making bad decisions. They really should have investigated electric cars a LONG time ago. The technology has been okay for years, but it could have saved the post office a huge amount of money (although they would have found a way to have blown all the savings easily).
I think it would be great to see the mail carriers putting around in an electric or hybrid vehicle. It's a perfect match!
Not to mention, when they're driving around, most of the time they're at idle. Leaving the neighborhoods with lots of useless gas exhaust.
I'm using the Kensington TurboBall right now on my left hand. I'm a righty by nature, but trying to avoid the need to become a lefty. It's a good five button trackball with a scroll wheel. It's not optical, but it does well enough for me.
Slashdot Mirror
Hook up a camera to http://effectv.sf.net/ (EffecTV) and play with some of the different effects. Very nifty!
But for some reason I like to torture myself so I'll probably end up trying it again in a month or two...
1. Entourage sucks ass. I just moved over to Mail.app in Tiger and it's a much better experience. Of course, things other than mail don't carry their way over. Oh darn. iCal can upload a .ics file via WebDAV and other iCal users can check my calendar.
2. RDC - Take a look at http://rdesktop.org/. Much more configurable. Works great.
3. I've had other issues with Office 2004 Mac. Excel likes to munge weblinks and row heights. Not to mention it doesn't save things where you think they should (i.e. saving HTML document where I opened it makes me save a new file in a new directory. YECH). I haven't found any solutions for this yet.
I've been Macified since Jan 2004 and I won't look back. I do have a PC next to it (using http://synergy2.sf.net/ so no keyboard and mouse) and I use it for the basic things... i.e. my Windows based phone software and other cranky Winapps. It's old and slow so I use it infrequently. I do use it for VNC because I have yet to find one VNC client on the Mac that Just Works.
My Toyotas have both CD and tape players. Helps they're the huge style (Double DIN perhaps?).
Link here: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/smartdec k/index.php
They automagically upped my shipping from $6 ground to $10 2nd day air without my approval though. Watch your shipping charge.
Oh yeah, they say it'll ship in Q2 2005.
It's funny that I downloaded that game very near to the 1,000,000 mark. I wonder how close I was.
Unless, of course, there are people who want to drive faster than me. I'll get over for them. Most of the time.
It's great, but it http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=deta il&aid=982164&group_id=59275&atid=490467failes on multiple monitor mac server configurations.
Too bad... cause this is PERFECT for what I need.
My new Uniden 2.4GHz phones work great with WiFi. Put the phone next to the WiFi card and I get no interference. Granted, the base station is 15 feet away from the WAP, and the microwave is 30 feet away from the WAP, but I've never noticed any interference at all. The WAP is a Linksys WAP54G, BTW.
Now where are these 17 so called "experts"?!?
And what are they experts in? Solitaire? :)
For most testing, I pass my code to my team mates. My boss has an especially easy time finding funny and stupid bugs. Keep in mind I'm actually complimenting his ability here. Saves me a bit of embarassment is he catches it before a user ever sees it.
So testing really needs to be done by people who need to use the application in it's environment (and their environment too).
They actually have some other nifty features too. Some of the Wyse ones I worked on previously had telnet support so when (not if) the Citrix server went down (oh yeah, they usually support Citrix too) our users could telnet straight from the thin client.
Must have been copy protected...!
majkqball /at/ yahoo /dot/ com
Tenku
Other jobs I've had where the employer was not as family friendly made life quite a bit harder - like taking unpaid time off.
If you've been with your company for a while (and assuming it's in the States) you can take unpaid (or sick time) off via the family medical leave act (act?). There's nothing they can do about that.
My Treo 600 does pretty much all I need to do at home. No use firing up the computer when I can hit a website from the phone in less time than it takes my computer to boot. POP3 email works great. Livejournal works fine. Etc etc.
I'm surprised anything gets done at the post office. Up until the handheld scanners came out, the newest piece of technology my dad (mail carrier) used was a ball point pen! His words, not mine :)
The post office is known for making bad decisions. They really should have investigated electric cars a LONG time ago. The technology has been okay for years, but it could have saved the post office a huge amount of money (although they would have found a way to have blown all the savings easily). I think it would be great to see the mail carriers putting around in an electric or hybrid vehicle. It's a perfect match! Not to mention, when they're driving around, most of the time they're at idle. Leaving the neighborhoods with lots of useless gas exhaust.
So, then couldn't we relabel Bluetooth to be more patriotic? Yeah, United States Bluetooth. or USB for short.
Computing just wouldn't be as confusing if we only had one standard... :)
Don't you mean the histerical value? :)
I'm using the Kensington TurboBall right now on my left hand. I'm a righty by nature, but trying to avoid the need to become a lefty. It's a good five button trackball with a scroll wheel. It's not optical, but it does well enough for me.
Thanks! I got really tired of those messages...
Now if they only had good interoperable clients...