Tips and Tricks General tips and tricks. http://azbay.net/taxonomy/term/26/atom/feed 2006-08-16T09:50:34-05:00 Blackberry Pearl 8130… http://azbay.net/blackberry_pearl_8130 2008-03-05T02:15:18-06:00 2008-03-04T21:16:48-06:00 dave …I recently upgraded my Blackberry from the 8703e to the 8130 Pearl. I've been a huge fan of the Blackberry since I first received my 8703e a couple years ago, and I really liked the 8703e because of it's large screen and full QWERTY keyboard, so when the opportunity to upgrade came about I wasn't sure if I should go with the straight upgrade to my 8703e which is the 8830 or the smaller and more media oriented 8130. There were two downsides to the 8130 which I'll address one at a time; first the smaller screen, and this issue was definitely a big one.

]]> …I recently upgraded my Blackberry from the 8703e to the 8130 Pearl. I've been a huge fan of the Blackberry since I first received my 8703e a couple years ago, and I really liked the 8703e because of it's large screen and full QWERTY keyboard, so when the opportunity to upgrade came about I wasn't sure if I should go with the straight upgrade to my 8703e which is the 8830 or the smaller and more media oriented 8130. There were two downsides to the 8130 which I'll address one at a time; first the smaller screen, and this issue was definitely a big one. I really liked the large screen that the 8703 sported but when I started checking into the specs for the Pearl I found that though the screen is smaller in size the resolution is still fairly high. Yes you're still giving up some screen real estate but because of the high resolution the screen is extremely easy to read, and there's still a lot of info there at one time.

The second issue is caused again by the Pearl's small size, to save on space RIM went with a QWERTY layout but two letters per key. So you loose some of the ease in typing… or so you would think. To help out with the obvious problems presented by adding two letters to one key, RIM came up with a system called SureType to help out with figuring out what you're intending to type. The system is remarkably intelligent, it comes with a dictionary that will work for most people out of the box, and for those in law or medicine there are addible dictionaries for specific terms to those areas (as well as many languages other than english). Not only does the system support this static dictionary but it also learns from words you type that it doesn't know already, names in your address book, and text from all your messages (or messages from specific lists of senders if you get spam on your Blackberry). I was not at all looking forward to learning a new typing system, let alone working with the smaller keyboard. I was, to put it lightly, highly impressed with the keyboard and how quickly you could type. After about a day or two typing on the SureType I was able to enter text faster than on my full QWERTY 8703, yes I was actually able to type faster. It seems that the predictive text and my thumbs being much closer together actually makes it easier to type quickly than with the full QWERTY keyboard, go figure.

The last push I'm going to make for this device above the other Blackberry devices is the fact that it has a built in 2.0 megapixel video/camera, and a microSD slot that supports SDHC cards (up to 8GB as far as I know). The 8130 sports the Blackberry OS version 4.2 that has a movie, music player and a lot of other multi-media support.

]]> Tips for the day… http://azbay.net/tips_day 2007-08-10T15:28:47-05:00 2007-10-16T10:06:51-05:00 dave …are (in no particular order):

]]> …are (in no particular order):

  1. If you're utilizing Stuffit (I'm on version 11.0.2 which I think is the newest version) and you suffer from Finder re-starting or dying after you right-click it is the Stuffit context menu module that's causing the issue. From what I understand there is a fix on the Stuffit web site, but as I never use that Context menu item anyway (I rarely use any that are part of software packages other than Toast's "Toast It" plugin, I just deleted the StuffitCM.plugin from /Library/Contextual Menu Items. I have also heard it can exist in ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items as well, at least that's where the fix I read said to go and it wasn't there so I checked my main Library. You'll have to restart or logout to delete the file from your trash but it's a small price to pay for the most annoying thing I have ever experienced with the Mac. What made it so much worse is that I didn't realize that it was related to right-clicking and then of course the context menu so I've been driving myself nuts for the past 3 months or so googling "finder re-start" or "finder dies" "finder problems" on and on! Alas, it's fixed!
  2. I found out today that there's a new version of Remote Desktop Connect (Beta at least) from Microsoft and it's WAY better than the old 1.0.3 version. Definitely an upgrade you want. So what's my tip here? Well occasionally one needs to connect to the console of a terminal server, or if you're doing remote administration sometimes it makes sense to use the console to remotely login. With the new version of RDC they've changed form the text configuration files where you just added a line to a neat new XML pref style configuration file for different logins. This is a good move but how-oh-how do I get it to connect to console? Easy, and I'm sure they'll update this later as it's really dumb not to have it as an option in the preferences, in the connect window you type your host abc.xyz.com and add /console to the end, thus "abc.xyz.com /console" and click connect. Unfortunately they didn't choose to include the functionality of the command-click the connect button, which in the previous version would also allow you to connect to the console (which is much easier than editing the text config file). Anyway, if you save the connection preferences with the /console it will automatically conect to the console when you open that RDC's pref file. Add some aliases to a folder and pull the folder to the Dock near the trash and you have instant access to your RDC connections.

So there ya go! Happy computer tips of the day. Hope they help someone in the future.

[composed and posted with ecto]

]]> Mac tip, get as much RAM as possible… http://azbay.net/mac_tip_get_much_ram_possible 2007-07-31T00:37:25-05:00 2007-07-30T22:14:45-05:00 dave …and when you think you have enough get more. I'm not exactly sure why, I'm guessing it has something to do with the way that OS X uses and manages virtual memory vs. Windows, but it's very obvious to me that OS X performs much better when running multiple programs (usually 5 or more) when you have 1GB of RAM or more. Add in even another 512MB and you can run almost twice the number of programs at once without much slowdown. I bought my MacBook Pro with 1GB of RAM initially, and if you read past posts you'll know that at first I had completely thought to myself “why did I just spend this money on a new computer, it's running like a snail”, I thought well let's just try a little RAM upgrade and then we'll see. And the 1.5GB did make a lot of difference in performance, and as the number of programs that run natively or as Universal applications increased, so did the performance of my computer, to a point.

]]> …and when you think you have enough get more. I'm not exactly sure why, I'm guessing it has something to do with the way that OS X uses and manages virtual memory vs. Windows, but it's very obvious to me that OS X performs much better when running multiple programs (usually 5 or more) when you have 1GB of RAM or more. Add in even another 512MB and you can run almost twice the number of programs at once without much slowdown. I bought my MacBook Pro with 1GB of RAM initially, and if you read past posts you'll know that at first I had completely thought to myself “why did I just spend this money on a new computer, it's running like a snail”, I thought well let's just try a little RAM upgrade and then we'll see. And the 1.5GB did make a lot of difference in performance, and as the number of programs that run natively or as Universal applications increased, so did the performance of my computer, to a point.

Recently, I had noticed that with Parallels Desktop, the Mac VM for running Windows, the performance of my computer began to slip. I had also noticed that when running 10+ applications at once, there was a huge performance decrease. I decided, what the heck, all I need is another 1GB chip and I'll have 2GB and that's only a small investment and it had worked in the past. So, as any computer nerd would, I decided to add two matched chips to the machine (rather than one Samsung chip and one Micron). Anyway, what did this do for the performance? It's back to it's incredibly speedy self. I almost always am running Terminal.app, BBEdit, Photoshop, iPhoto, Mail.app, Safari, iCal, iTunes, ecto and Parallels (yes all of these) at the same time. Since the upgrade even when running Parallels the system is running like a bat outta hell. I had almost given up on having any “good” performance out of Parallels even when running only Safari and Mail.app (which I have to have running, period). It didn't matter how I set the cache settings (for OS X performance or VM performance) Parallels would drag on startup and run at a tolerable level after boot-up. When switching back to an OS X application the system would be pulled to it's knees, without being able to move back and forth between Parallels and OS X what is the use of Parallels anyway, here isn't. So I was about to give up on the whole Parallels experience at this point, but after adding the extra 512MB, for a full, 2GB Parallels not only boots about twice as fast, now I can run multiple applications on top of Parallels.

Anyway, I don't think this is a weakness of Mac OS (and if anyone out there can tell me why, I'd love to hear the ins-and-outs of why OS X likes to have more RAM than Windows to keep a number of programs running and the programs in the foreground running speedier, for all I know it's some flaw in Windows that allows foreground apps more CPU/memory than background applications, I'd love to hear it. I don't have time to do any research to find out for myself, I only have the anecdotal evidence of this post. If I do get time I will try to run some benchmarks to backup my claim. But when I compare to Windows I don't know if I'll be able to demonstrate the issue as I would like or not. We'll See.

[composed and posted with ecto]

]]> Work and other torturous acts… http://azbay.net/work_and_other_torturous_acts 2007-07-16T20:26:11-05:00 2007-07-16T16:26:12-05:00 dave

…so, if you're a reader from the NMSU community, please stop reading NOW! Just kidding, actually, I wanted to say that if you are from NMSU you've probably been aware that we are in the process of moving from just the standard ID Card to an Enhanced ID card which is actually a Wells Fargo Visa Check-Card as well as your NMSU ID. It's an extremely good idea and will be beneficial to both students and staff, the University as a while and Wells Fargo. I'm really all for it, and I can't wait until we go-live with the project hopefully sometime in early August.

That said, I'm about to practice the ancient Japanese art of Seppuku, more commonly known as hari kari. Yes, I'm half a bubble away from sliding a razor sharp blade through my gut and letting my intestines, blood, and all that fills the bowel drop on to the floor of my office. And no, this isn't a cry for help, it's a joke. So if you're (still) reading this it's my attempt to say, I'm about ready to kill myself over the project we're working on. And really Seppuku isn't the real thing I want to do, I really want to bash my own head with a hammer.

]]>

…so, if you're a reader from the NMSU community, please stop reading NOW! Just kidding, actually, I wanted to say that if you are from NMSU you've probably been aware that we are in the process of moving from just the standard ID Card to an Enhanced ID card which is actually a Wells Fargo Visa Check-Card as well as your NMSU ID. It's an extremely good idea and will be beneficial to both students and staff, the University as a while and Wells Fargo. I'm really all for it, and I can't wait until we go-live with the project hopefully sometime in early August.

That said, I'm about to practice the ancient Japanese art of Seppuku, more commonly known as hari kari. Yes, I'm half a bubble away from sliding a razor sharp blade through my gut and letting my intestines, blood, and all that fills the bowel drop on to the floor of my office. And no, this isn't a cry for help, it's a joke. So if you're (still) reading this it's my attempt to say, I'm about ready to kill myself over the project we're working on. And really Seppuku isn't the real thing I want to do, I really want to bash my own head with a hammer.

Why would one resort to such a vile and disgusting act as Seppuku in a cubicle? Because I have to send a file feed to said Bank and the documentation is… well… let's just say, less than thorough. I seem to be having issues with file encodings. Which would be partially my fault because I am using a Mac, so we start off with Mac Roman encoding and the good ole, Mac newlines (which consist of only a carriage return character, or is it line feed? Anyway, if you do it in terminal it's UNIX which I think is linefeed and if you do it in Textedit it's CR) Anyway, not only does the file need to be encoded in good 'ole ASCII (back from DOS) it also needs the PC/DOS newlines (CR LF) so I get that squared away, or at least I think I do. On top of this, there is an image portion of the record that is inserted into a TEXT file as BINARY data. What, what you say? You must be using UUENCODE? MIME? NO, they just have an ASCII text file with a BINARY JPG file just inserted into the file. Gravy dude. Gravy.

So I've been spending the past month or so trying to get this file right (not the entire month, I have other duties, but a good 25-40 hours total), back and forth with tech support. Nothing. So today, I open up 0xED the hex editor from heXll! And I create the file (IN ASCII) basically by hand. Just got done doing that and if it doesn't work now, I have basically jumped through every hoop that tells me it's their freakin' problem. Seppuku avoided… for now!

]]> Themes galore... http://azbay.net/themes_galore 2006-08-16T13:49:14-05:00 2006-08-16T09:50:34-05:00 dave

Yes, I'm a bit of a theme well for the lack of a better word, whore. I switch themes so much that I can't keep track of all the different versions of my website. I tend to like the newer Web 2.0'ish looking sites, nice rounded corners and other fancy CSS, but I really think I'm liking this theme I've applied today. It's called Marvin, after Drupal's Marvin, and it's quite plain but has everything that I think is necessary for a good page, a nice layout, easy navigation and it's easy on the eyes.

From now on, I think I'm going to try my hand at theme customization, and/or building my own theme. I'm sick of having a website that literally any geek with a little time can duplicate. I want something more my own, well OUR own as this site belongs to my wife and I both. I need to practice theme generation anyway as I'm hosting my friend Kyle's site and it's going to take quite a bit of work to get it looking the way he wants it. He had a site that was homegrown and extremely difficult to maintain and edit (I'm sure) and wants the new site I've setup to have a similar look/feel to his old one. The only problem is there is no way to move his old theme that was all done with HTML and Javascript to a modern CSS, XHTML compliant page.

]]> Yes, I'm a bit of a theme well for the lack of a better word, whore. I switch themes so much that I can't keep track of all the different versions of my website. I tend to like the newer Web 2.0'ish looking sites, nice rounded corners and other fancy CSS, but I really think I'm liking this theme I've applied today. It's called Marvin, after Drupal's Marvin, and it's quite plain but has everything that I think is necessary for a good page, a nice layout, easy navigation and it's easy on the eyes.

From now on, I think I'm going to try my hand at theme customization, and/or building my own theme. I'm sick of having a website that literally any geek with a little time can duplicate. I want something more my own, well OUR own as this site belongs to my wife and I both. I need to practice theme generation anyway as I'm hosting my friend Kyle's site and it's going to take quite a bit of work to get it looking the way he wants it. He had a site that was homegrown and extremely difficult to maintain and edit (I'm sure) and wants the new site I've setup to have a similar look/feel to his old one. The only problem is there is no way to move his old theme that was all done with HTML and Javascript to a modern CSS, XHTML compliant page.

The work will be long and hard, but hopefully I'll be able to learn a few tricks to add rounded buttons and a few other things that I really like to my site, that's a little plainer and easier to use.

Keep your eye out for the changes.

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