Sad day.
According to news reports today, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the widow of television director/producer/writer and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, died today (December 18, 2008) as a result of complications from leukemia. You may remember her as the first officer from the original Star Trek pilot and then from the series as Nurse Christine Chapel.
Tags: Majel Barrett, Star Trek.
It’s a snow day here in the Redmond/Puget Sound area, which translated into road closures and a seven mile backup on Highway 520. The connection had been lost to the WSDOT Seattle traffic cameras site (that’s not a good sign) but comes up every now and then. On the television news, I saw that the traffic is still pretty bad there (see this link to TV news for local coverage). I won’t be driving to main campus today, and was impressed that a few brave (? 😉 souls made it in (as Tweeted here).
But I’ll be hard at work save a few diversions to clear the driveway and walks with one of the few snow shovels in the area, a vestige of by Canadian upbringing. Thanks to the wonders of Microsoft Unified Communications, I have meetings throughout the day via phone and conference. My office phone can ring through directly to my mobile or our home phone with a single mouse click, and I can even join my Live Meeting conferences via the web complete with video camera from my PC (but I think that I’ll keep that feature turned off).
Now to the snow shovel (we own one of the few around) before my next meeting.
Tags: snow, Microsoft, Unified Communications.
(See an update to this article in “It’s nearly back to school time: here’s info on buying a new PC“, Aug 14, 2009)
As per my previous Tweet, I recently updated my answer to a popular question around this time of year: “What kind of a computer should I buy?” I noted that there is something for everyone, at all price points. It seems that new PCs are high on many people’s holiday shopping lists, and the price:performance is better than ever before.
This week, Tony Hoffman from PC Magazine has posted a timely article on How to Buy a Bargain Laptop.
“Everyone likes a good bargain—the trick is distinguishing what’s truly a worthwhile deal from something you may regret after you’ve used it a while. We define bargain laptops as ones costing $1,000 or less, though you can find great deals at any price. These days, with retailers going the extra mile in an attempt to boost flagging sales, laptops that might otherwise be out of reach for the frugal shopper have been descending into the affordable zone. Here we’ll look at what you should be able to get for $1,000 or less.”
$1,000 or much less, I’ll say. Actually, I said in my previous post…
For under $500 at one of the big box office stores (on sale or after rebates), you can find a name-brand notebook with a 15.4-inch screen with (as I concur with many of my associates) a decent 1280×800 resolution, Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200, 120GB HDD, 2GB of memory, six cell battery, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, 802.11b/g wireless and a CD/DVD Burner running Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic (splurge and get Windows Vista Home Premium for a few dollars).
For many general computer applications (surfing the ‘net, writing term papers, listening to music and watching DVDs, streaming video from Netflix) this would fit the bill. And more.
This tops the 1.73GHz Dual-Core processor (T2080), half GB of memory, an 80GB drive and a double layer DVD Burner with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic I noted last year for the same amount.
For under $1,000, you can get a very nice 15″ laptop with Core 2 Duo, 4GB, 320GB & DVD Burner (after current discounts). Or even better if you’re looking for a desktop replacement with a bigger screen, I found a 17″ (1440 x 900 resolution) notebook with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 3GB memory, 320GB SATA Hard Drive, Intel 4500MHD Graphics, 802.11g wireless, 8X Slot Load CD / Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive, 2.0M webcam, 9 cell battery, all running on Windows Vista Home Premium Edition SP1.
Very nice when you consider a year ago the same amount got you a 17″ widescreen with a Core Duo Processor (T2350), 2 GB of memory, 120GB hard drive and DVD SuperMulti drive. Ouch.
For $679, I was able to get a new Sony with a 15″ widescreen, Intel Core 2 Duo T5800, 250GB HDD, 4GB of memory, Wireless-N (draft 802.11n).
Hoffman’s recommended specs are similar to what I’ve noted here previously:
“The processor should be 2 GHz or faster; Core 2 Duo is best, although an AMD Turion should also be fine. It should come with at least 2GB of RAM (you’ll need that to run Vista effectively), preferably 3GB or 4GB. Integrated graphics are okay, while discrete graphics are better, particularly if you plan to do any 3D gaming or rendering. One caveat: A discrete graphics card uses up more juice, which will reduce battery life. And speaking of batteries, an ideal laptop battery will be at least 50 Wh (watt-hours), six cells or more. Your laptop should come with at least a one-year warranty; two years standard and international warranties are even better.”
Although IT Pros and devs may not find what they’re looking for here for general office use, here are some of Hoffman’s recommendations, which should meet the need of your average home user (and more):
Laptops Featured in This Roundup:
Dell Studio 15
$599 direct
Retaining many of the XPS’s qualities while selling for Inspiron prices is what makes this Studio laptop a winner.
HP HDX16t
$999.99 direct
The HP HDX16t is the sexiest 16-inch media center on the market, assuming you can live with the limited battery options.
Toshiba Satellite M305-S4835
$950 street
Whether you carry it on the road or leave it at home, this mainstream laptop has what it takes to excel in any environment.
Apple MacBook 13-inch (Penryn)
$999 direct
The Apple MacBook 13-inch has been upgraded, but Apple continues to sell the older model at its site for a considerable discount.
Fujitsu LifeBook A1110
$799 direct
The A1110 would fare better against the competition had Fujitsu spent more time designing a sleeker-looking chassis.
In addition, I’d suggest you consider models from Acer, Lenovo, Sony and others.
More info: Upgrade or buy a new one? Suggestions from the Seattle Times
Tags: shopping, RSS, Microsoft, New PC.
As I posted previously on the December Updates to Daylight Saving Time and Time Zones, we have released a cumulative DST update for Windows operating systems, KB article 955839, December 2008 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems. This release replaces KB article 951072, and is now via Automatic Update (as of December 9, 2008), categorized as a roll-up and be included in the ITMU CAB.
Additional time zone changes have been included since the previous cumulative update, including (in the form of Registry subkey name and (Display name): Argentina (Buenos Aires), Central Brazilian (Manaus), E. South America (Brasilia), Egypt (Cairo), Iran (Tehran), Israel (Jerusalem), Mauritius (Port Louis), Morocco (Casablanca), Pacific SA (Santiago) and Pakistan (Islamabad,Karachi).
We also published the new or modified TZI keys in an update to Microsoft KB article 914387 for IT professionals and sysadmins who may need that information. Our goal is that our customers and partners can plan on rolling out and installing/ deploying these regular, scheduled cumulative update roll-ups as they are published.
Please note that KB 955839 also applies to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 in order to address the time zone changes in other countries.
As we update the Microsoft daylight saving time and time zone help and support pages at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/gp/cp_dst, I expect that other product teams at Microsoft will also provide information on their products and publish the associated documentation (KBs, blog posts) in the November and early December time frame. Groups will note any changes and updates in their documentation, products and services, and guidance for their support teams and the field.
More DST and TZ product updates and guidance is available at http://www.microsoft.com/time and http://blogs.technet.com/dst2007.
As a reminder on our annual cadence (outlined here) and in a prior post, our product teams are moving to an annual product update cadence (with provisions for semi-annual as needed). We recently posted the Microsoft Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests, which addresses the established annual update schedule for Microsoft Windows has to cover changes in daylight saving time (DST) and time zone (TZ) releases. As noted, many of our product teams also follow an annual product update cadence such a Windows, with provisions for semi-annual cumulative updates as needed. For each update release, Microsoft accepts change requests up to a few months (generally four to six) prior to the release date.
As I originally posted here, most Windows applications (and some services) reference the underlying OS for DST and time zone information, but some do not. The product and service groups with offerings that have internal DST or TZ references have agreed to follow the regular schedule for cumulative Windows OS DST & TZ updates. The regular Windows release provide a regular schedule for other product groups to follow, as noted in the DST & TZ Product Update Cadence policy. We hope that this will provide a more predictable way for our customers to anticipate and plan for our cumulative updates.
Let us know if you have questions. And remember, the next daylight saving time change in the States and Canada is March 8, 2009.
Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, RSS, DST, Mauritius, Morocco, Brazil, Pakistan.
It’s been a busy few days, preparing for all sorts of stuff at the office… up too early and to bed too late. But a quick post to share some of the items from my reading pile, in addition to cracking open again my copies of Eckhart Tolle’s "New Earth" and "Lincoln on Leadership" by Donald Phillips.
Arctic Silver’s instructions on removing old thermal compound: Removing old product and reseating can be tricky. To get it right, see the instructions on Arctic Silver’s site.
The Onkyo TX-SR606B 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver (via Live Search cashback) Highly rated by Home Theater magazine, this AV receiver has plenty of HDMI connections.
Track price drops with ShoppingNotes.com – CNET News — This free service sends you e-mail alerts when there’s a price reduction on a product you’re tracking. Posted by Rick Broida on December 5, 2008… "Want to know when there’s a price reduction on that PS3 you’ve been eyeballing? Or the Amazon Kindle? Or just about anything else sold online? "ShoppingNotes.com tracks individual products and sends you an e-mail alert whenever there’s a price drop. "There are two ways to use ShoppingNotes. First, you can copy and paste a product-page URL into the site’s Web form, then enter your e-mail address for receiving alerts. Alternately, you can install the ShoppingNotes bookmarklet, which greatly simplifies the price-watch process: when viewing a product page, just click the bookmark."
Ning Blog » Our Most Popular Features — Posted by Gina Bianchini on December 2, 2008 – 2:11 pm "We just got done looking at a distribution of the features used across the social networks on Ning for the month of November by page views generated: "I think this reinforces a few of the key things you can do to create a great social network. At the very least, it’s interesting. "Update: Our blog feature is included in profile, given that every profile on Your Own Social Network for Anything includes a blog.
Add Licensed Indie Music To Your YouTube Videos, Courtesy Of Rumblefish by Robin Wauters on December 5, 2008 "YouTube has partnered up with music licensing startup Rumblefish to enable users to add fully licensed songs from its 25,000 tracks strong catalog of independent artists to videos. Users can add the songs through the AudioSwap feature, giving them a much broader choice than was the case until now. "To use the feature, just pick any uploaded video and browse the provided audio library. You’ll get a preview, and with the click of a button YouTube will start processing the request. Note that adding a song will completely replace the current audio from the video."
Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, 15,500,000 (up from 4.88M a month ago); 15,300,000 (up from 900K a year ago)