In competition with Google Sky, this application allows you to take a look at the stars through multiple images of constellations and what not.
Pretty much think Virtual Earth, but for the sky and you basically have it figured out. It's actually a pretty interface, and seems to work decently as long as you fulfill the Windows requirements. Bravo by Microsoft Research for this product. I'm not so sure if this product would make me cry though.
Despite Scoble push, I did find that not having any screenshots or even videos for those that are on non-Windows operating systems slightly disappointing. Outside of that, the interface itself is worthwhile as a tool to teach astronomy. Take a look if you find some time.
One of the best commands during audits without tearing open a physical Solaris box is iostat. What I usually use it for is the finding out size of drives and type:
iostat -En command will give you the size of the devices that are connected via the io interface.
So everything from hard drives to optical drives. It gives you not only the size of the drive, but it also tells you the vendor, and serial numbers. This makes it extremely easy to find out how many drives are connected in your system and the total space there. It also allows you to see if there are drives that are failing with errors so you know if you have to replace anything.
Got to love friendly commands like this which are the difference between servers and workstations.
In one of the audits I had to do for work, there was a need to figure out what processors were running in the Sun boxes. Since it's really just not cost effective to go to each of the multiple switches and tear open the box to see physically, there had to be a way to see if there is indeed X number of processors and at what clock speed they are currently performing.
psrinfo -v will provide this information.
What's interesting is that in later Solaris versions, (I'm not definite on 9, but definitely in version 10), prtdiag will give a much better looking output including memory and slots.
Unfortunately, with a stock Solaris installation, you need to take what comes with the system and this will assist you in cpu proc auditing.
When you're in .NET, sometimes there are resource binaries and XML file formats used within the platform. The goal of this tool is to allow you to edit those binaries and give you the ability to not only edit names, string pairs, and import bitmaps and icons, but also allow you to merge multiple resource files together from different sources.
Resourcer for .NET is basically a resource editor for .NET. Another great third party development tool that is free for Windows.
Reflector for .NET is a tool that most .NET programmers know about. It's actually one of the few freeware tools that is invaluable in a coder's arsenal.
What's it do? Well, it decompiles any binaries that are assembled in .NET so that you can read it in the .NET languages (C#, VB, IL). It allows you to view the classes, has an explorer function, and allows you to navigate through the source code and such. This is one of the few tools that have been used to find malicious code written into .NET binaries and how some programmers were stealing not only credit card information but also identities.
At a recent dinner meeting for digital media executives, they asked me several questions about social networking, and how I viewed the digital medium. I explained my views on advertising and subscribers but then we got into social networking.
Don't get me wrong, social networking is great. It fits a niche and helps drive different types of advertising. But the question is more of, is social networking right for your product? Let's take the powerhouse Facebook for example since currently they're one of the social kings. Have you ever noticed that they've never ever offered to take more detailed personal information in a survey form? Perhaps incentives to get you to give it up? Why not? They advertise, but they blanket advertise. To me, that's just a waste, especially in a social medium.
When given a social medium, you're already grouping your audiences together by whatever. For example, college alumni will be parts of alumni groups. Thus, this information is invaluable for those vendors that sell school products or even discounted plane tickets to X,Y,Z game. There are all sorts of ways to target your audience in a social medium, especially in such a clean interface as FaceBook.
Another question you must ask is, is social networking right for your product? Or are you just leaping on the bandwagon because that's the funky new internet term that you've picked up this year? Social networking is great as long as you understand how your audience views your current product and can be applied in a similar fashion. But in the case that your audience doesn't usually share your product with others anyways, then it becomes a useless gimmick that is a costly expense. Think of it in this fashion. With the street racing, aftermarket parts such as NOS tanks and stabilizers are very useful. But if you're driving a Yugo and you stick a NOS system on it, then not only is it pretty useless, but you weren't in the same league to start.
The real determination when it comes to products is that while new Internet tools and terminology is great to be a part of and you want to leverage the hot tech terminology, if it doesn't fit your product then don't use it. Product design and development is a process of research and analysis, not so much of marketing fads. Can the two be mixed? Sure, as long as you keep them separated. The moment you start leaping on bandwagons without understanding why, could be the downfall of your product line.
Photo Credit: (JoonYoung.Kim)
If you're a small business, chances are you have an attorney to take care of your most basic of needs but otherwise the cost of drafting up custom documentation is a hard hitter on your pocket.
While all common sense dictates that an attorney's word rules above anything you get on the Internet, Docstoc is a good resource to find FREE legal and business documents that others have uploaded.
Now, if you use this, you have to use a grain of salt and perhaps understand how to reword some parts of it to make it fit your business, and on top of it, it's not guaranteed to be legally water-tight until an attorney looked it over. But for the most basic of policies such as terms of service, privacy policies, and perhaps even basic contracts, this site could save you a whole lot of headache and a little bit left in the wallet.
However, there was a great thing that happened. Robert C. Cooper, whom directed and produced this film, basically provided the ending via a film. The goal was to shift the television series to a straight-to-DVD type format and provide fans with not only resolution of the storylines, but understanding of where and how the Ori went and how the Priors were pushing for a religious war that eventually was not justified.
Personally, I found the best part of Stargate - The Ark of Truth
This was a great film that left most satisfied with the ending and looking forward to the new Stargate: Continuum movie that is currently in production (2008).
One of the most interesting things I do with hardware is DVD firmware hacking. Except, that I don't actually mess with the firmware.
Nah, that stuff was back in college days. These days, I let other people do it. What's most interesting to me when I get a DVD player is the ability to be region-free. There's a good reason for this. Region-free players allow other regions DVDs to play. This allows you to play imported DVDs without having to actually having to have multiple DVD players.
Before people get all huffy about this, do realize that pirated DVDs are actually region-free already so making your player region-free? Won't really be useful at all. In fact, it's the only way to keep paying for legal DVDs if you happen to watch a lot of other region movies (as I do, and I buy direct from Yes Asia USA).
So the goal is to do the research, and check a place like Video Help, or any other database to make sure that there is a maintenance window mode or firmware upgrade available. If you're lucky, then you too can watch movies from other countries too with a little bit of firmware flashing, or maintenance windows tinkering.
Photo Credit: (Br3nda)
Seriously.
What gives?
Are you just too lazy to even reach for that lever when you shift from lane to lane?
What about when you turn left, or right?
I know it's a group of muscles that you rarely use, and outstretching a few fingers is painful even for the youngest of folks, but it really would mean the world to those that are driving around you to actually know what you're doing.
I know I might be asking too much here, seeing that we just met and all, but really. If you can't do it for me, do it for that special someone in your life.
Okay okay, do it for yourself. Either way. Those muscles in your fingers will thank you. People around you will thank you. And I for one won't have to wonder if you're shifting into the lane that I'm about to shift into or if you're just daydreaming about a date with a young Hollywood star and drifting over.
Being that it's our first time, I urge you to go slowly. I know it's a long and difficult road ahead, but you might want to practice doing it while parked. When you feel like you're ready for the next stage, then perhaps you can start to move around and signal while turning in a parking lot. Adventurous ones can play on the major roadways but be cautious for there are others out there.
Others just like you used to be.
And they must also be educated in the ways.
Photo Credit: (ismh)
One of the most annoying things about news sites is the blend of advertisement and news. In fact, if you notice the difference between blogs and news sites, there's an inherent design difference between the two. The former is usually very clean.
What's interesting here is that blog theme designers take into account the single thing that most news websites do not: "single page layout". If you look at a print newspaper, it's set in a finite space and thus it's spaced out very evenly so that you can take in each individual piece without getting thrown into a mess of things. Things are easy to find.
Similarly, news websites, particularly small local papers that have websites, need to remember to do the same but on a single page. This means that you shouldn't just jumble all your ads together to try to appease advertisers, nor should you use all your space for news. There's a fine balance between the two, and actually very passive ways to go about making things work in your favor.
Remember that without readership, your advertisers mean nothing. The audience is everything for your business. Thus, a clean design should not only be absolutely key to your process, but it should be a part your entire process from beginning to end. There is too many-a-time that I visit a newspaper website or a local news website to find myself jerking my fingers across the mousepad to get the piece as quickly as possible and get out of there.
Clean design is the key to everything. And don't think that print layout is any different than the web. Medium might differ, but there are many things that you can learn from the more matured process.
Photo Credit: (Patrick Haney)
