OK, OK, so the stores didn’t get completely made over. I know that the stores I did see they were remodeled. But as far as I saw they all said Cingular. The web site has been rebranded with at&t and the web address has even been changed. so that’s that.
Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
Well I can say I am liking what I have seen so far with Windows Vista, RC1. I had been running Beta 2 in VM since it became available via the CPP (Customer Preview Program). For those of you who signed up for Vista Beta 2 in June for the CPP you should have received an e-mail allowing to download Vista RC1. For those who did not sign-up or get to sign-up they will be opening up to new participants in the next couple of weeks.
Now for for the rest of the story. I down loaded Vista RC1 last Thursday and have rebuilt my laptop with it as the my main OS. The last couple of days I have finally been able to get my laptop to some semblance of order and to a point of being able to use it as my primary machine. So between work, family, and computer building my time has been totally consumed, sleep being a bit lacking initially. So that is where I had disappeared off to, and contrary to popular belief I had not taken holiday to Pluto.
Well… I would have only been 10 years old, when all this was going on. Yet, I still remember bits and pieces. All I can say is what a long way things have progressed. It is cool to think about those things and then realize just what was high-tech. I, myself, remember having a top loading VCR and our family Commodore 64 as a part of my 80’s. I would like to give Engadget a huge kudo for this little trip down memory lane.
Source: Engadget 1985 - Engadget.com
I have a new blog to add to the AnderTek fold, Dev-N-Progress, . In reality it is not new, it is my development site that I have consolidated from having one for each blog instance to one. So it has been around in some fashion for a while now. It will be postings pertaining to my blogging experiences from an admin perspective.
Well… it looks like this site for testing and development just might also end up being a blog on such. The basic format, or actually theme would probably be a better way to describe it, or even more vague would be direction, is my time and journeys I take in my blogging admin duties.
I would be glad to receive any comments or suggestions for content. As I stated above this will be my development site for now so there will be the possibility of it being down at times.
Happy Blogging
…with GSM and Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA). Nokia has started the public trials of GSM and UMA in a real world environment. There are 50 lucky families Oulu Finland that will be conducting the tests with Nokia’s new 6136 GSM/UMA enabled phone. What is unique about this is that it will allow for roaming between 802.11 b/g WiFi networks and GSM phone networks.
UMA technology makes it possible for users to seamlessly roam and handover between local area networks and wide area networks using the same dual-mode device. Instead of constantly communicating with a base station, UMA allows the phone to also make calls through WLAN internet networks. In turn, this will also make it easier and cheaper for operators to expand their area coverage by implementing WLAN hotspots instead of costly base stations.
This project is in cooperation with Nokia, the DNA/Finnet group, and the City of Oulu, which builds on the Pan Oulu project announced last year by the city to have WLAN access via the Hospitals around the city.
It would appear that Microsoft has released an evaluation to kick the tires (in keeping with the test drive theme) of the Office 2007 System Beta. Now you don’t have to spend the time waiting to download or have the it mailed. The Test Drive does require that you have a Live ID, what they are now calling Passport accounts. The Test Drive is provided through a Citrix MetaFrame session (a software solution that allows for virtual desktop sessions running on a server), and as pointed out by the article on ArsTechica is not a display of web application capabilities of Office 2007. Once you get through the registration it puts you in queue for the next available session to open. My wait was started with 80 minutes, ended up taking about 11 minutes.
The biggest change and the item that is going to have the highest learning curve will be the Ribbon Bar. The new Ribbon Bar is replacing the nearly two decade old Button Bar implementation, along with redesign of the menu system. A brief look through the applications the core applications thing do not seem to have changed on the surface for other looks, feels, and layouts.
I am currently debating going strictly beta for a few weeks, Vista, Office, etc. to really test the waters of the applications. There was an update (SmartPhone Thoughts) to the new Device Center sync tool in Vista that will allow me to sync with my Windows Mobile devices which will resolve one of the biggest issues I was having.
As a side note it also appears that a new Vista Build was released to a select number of Beta Testers that is putting rest some of the comments about the product being ready for its planned release date, and also a bit of a new question, why this latest was not the Vista Beta 2 release.
Microsoft ships first post-Beta 2 build of Vista
Microsoft released the first post-Beta 2 version of Windows Vista last week, sans fanfare, but it does have some interesting features. For starters, it installs in 30 minutes and is more stable than Beta 2. There’s also more consistency in the interfaces, improved network detection and browsing improvements within Internet Explorer 7. Even the mouse cursor is improved, with no more rough edges. Why wasn’t this version the official Beta 2 in the first place?Fierce Enterprise - Newsletter June 27, 2006
What can I say, you just can never have enough disk space, prepare to drool.
Seagate has announced a 750GB hard drive. The Barracuda 7200.10 will be an SATA drive, with 8MB or 16MB cache, and a 5 year warranty. Suggest retail price is set to be $559. Now that is a huge jump the largest I have seen is 500GB. This huge jump is due to a new technology called Perpendicular Recording, acquired when Seagate bought it’s competitor Maxtor. Perpendicular Recording is when the the bits on a drive’s platter(s) are recorded vertically instead of in the horizontal position allowing for greater density for data on each platter.
This looks to be a promising step to the capacity we will be needing with all the media that will be recorded or bought in the near future. And as for my friend the Library Despot inquiring as to me preordering the drive, it’s a bit too steep to buy two. :-)
Hello there folks, a happy belated 25th birthday to NASA’s Space Shuttle first launch, known as STS-1. NASA celebrated the day by giving a glimpse in to the future of the space program. With a peek at the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle), the replacement to the Space Shuttle. CEV is being developed at Dryden Flight Research Center, using the Apollo missions as the guidelines, to get us to the Moon and then to Mars. Currently there is scale model and wind tunneltesting going on with CEV.
(Source - NASA Shuttle Program… - c|net News)
Ever had one of those days where everything is just falling down around you? Well that was my day yesterday, April 9th, I must say, a …Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
All I have to say is…
"I HATE BACKUPS!!!"
There now I feel much better. OK, OK, maybe it's just the tape drives or robots when they are not working, but I can truly say after yesterday I hate it when that happens. Ended up working 14hrs, ouch, yuk. Then to top it all off it was my birthday. So, there we have it folks that was my birthday. [My] …Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
Backups are a good thing don't get me wrong, in fact as an IT Professional it is my duty to make sure you know that. 
But when dealing with enterprise backups and compliancy it makes for some very hectic times.
There now I feel very better, thank you for your time.
Well, well looks who is joining the portable game. Microsoft appears to be readying a it answer to the well… I’m not really sure; iPod, PSP, Nintendo DS, you pick. I would have to say it’s a wait and see game, again, although it would appear that Microsoft is probably prepare more of a mobile entertainment device and not necessarily a mobile gaming device. This would just be another piece in there quest for the Entertainment provider extraordinaire include:
- XBox 360
- Windows Vista
- Music Store
And possibly include:
- Origami/UMPC
- Windows Mobile
Anything is possible at this point, but we will just have to wait and see, and from what I’ve read it sounds like this has been in the works for a little while.
(Source: Microsoft’s Plans for Handheld Game… - PocketPC Thoughts)
(Source: Microsoft developing”Xplayer,”… - arstechnica)
