PRODUCTIVITY: New plan to deal with winrot plaguing XPS

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-2178

http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0158183

Buy a new hard drive for the XPS. ($200)

Preserve the old one as is.

Install the new one.

And restore from scratch using the recovery and distribution media..

If I missed anything, then I have the old one easily accessible to copy from or fall back to.

After everything works, I’ll take an image backup.

This will serve for the next time.

At some point in time, I’ll nuke the extra drive and use it for Linux effort.

Comments?

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Everybody should have a cash stash!

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/02/25/
why-i-keep-cash-under-my-mattress/

http://tinyurl.com/23s4v4

Why I Keep Cash Under My Mattress
February 25, 2007 @ 9:00 am – Written by Trent
Categories: Insurance

***Begin Quote***

It’s true. After all the financial advice I give out on this site, I keep a decent amount of cash “under my mattress” (actually, it’s in another secure place in my home, but it’s effectively the same thing). At first, this seems to fly right in the face of everything I preach on this site. Why isn’t this money at least earning 4.5% in an ING Direct savings account, if not earning a lot more in a mutual fund or something else? No, because this is a different kind of investment.

***End Quote***

Me too. And, gold coins.

Power outages, political instability, or a bank holiday.

There are all sorts of things that can happen. Bail out a relative? How much is up to you? The Mormons keep a year’s food supply. If you practice stock rotation, it can be a hedge against disruption and unemployment.

Everybody should have a stash!

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: MINDMAPPING as a web service

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

http://duffill.blogs.com/beyond_crayons/2007/
02/mindomo_raises_.html

http://tinyurl.com/33ovfs

THe “Beyond Crayons” blog has pointed out this out.

*** begin quote ***

Mindomo raises the bar for mind mapping software

Mindomo is a Web-based mind mapping software tool that runs in your browser, with the maps being stored on their server. But what distinguishes Mindomo in this growing field is genuine desktop-quality functionality. Pretty much everything you need from basic desktop software is there – rich formatting, curved lines, images and symbols, relationships, notes fields, task data, drag and drop editing, Web hyperlinks, and import from Mindjet MindManager.

*** end quote ***

I always liked mind mapping as a pair-of-dimes (paradigm) for communicating ideas. It seems better than power point for “mapping” a problem space. I’ve used it when consulting to scope engagements. I think it made me look smarter than I really was because when I’d “build” my map in real time, it would engage the audience like no powerpoint presentation ever did for me. It was tricky when they’d take it in a different path than I planned. The pitches always “sold” so I think it’s a great tool.

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Posted by reinkefj

XPfails – luggable – GADWIN PRINT SCREEN v3.5 – This is now the second most annoying problem

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Recap:

For some reason, after several months of use, now when I start GPS35, it doesn’t appear to “do” anything. It doesn’t splash. It takes memory. (I can see it in XP’s process list.) But, it just doesn’t do anything anymore. I’ve uniunstalled and reinstalled. Help?

Haven’t found any help. Need to dig deeper and harder.

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: 23 fascinating facts

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/
this_britain/article2296846.ece

http://tinyurl.com/39jbl9

23 fascinating facts about the number twenty-three
To most, it’s just what comes between 22 and 24. Yet to surprisingly many – including the makers of a new film – it means much more.
Cahal Milmo and Tom Willetts explore a bizarre obsession
Published: 23 February 2007

*** begin quote ***

17 The first morse code transmission – “What hath God wrought?” – was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23. In telegraphers code 23 means “break the line”.

*** end quote ***

Weird, but you can’t just read one!

-23-

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Posted by reinkefj

XPfails – luggable – PLAXO acting differently

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I was transferring my LinkedIn contact to my Outlook address book and Plaxo stopped check to to see if they were in Plaxo. Strange?

Update at 0930: plaxo has returned to operating as expected. Perhaps, their site was “down”. If not site, service? And, there’s no idication in the LookOut client that an add in is dead? Interesting that perhaps is the reason for all the non-responding stuff. 

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Software, who owns what and how do you prove it and use it

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I was thinking last night that the computer user is in a very weak position as opposed to the software makers.

Microsoft imposes all sorts of limitation on what I have bought and really wants me to rebuy what I already have.

There is the whole “installation” nonsense. Why does software have to be “installed”. Good software, by my definition, just runs. Copy it here, it runs. Copy it there, it runs. I like that “portable” movement.

Then, there is the who serial number, or product key, nonsense. So, I may have bout it, have the distribution media, but if I’ve lost the serial number or misplaced it, I’m dead.

Finally, there is the Activation monster. Activation, Windows Genuine Advantage, and such all conspire to make my life miserable. My personal desktop at home, TYNETOP, has been flag several times by these things. It’ sitting with a McAfee induced error in the registry which periodically offends the Microsoft Gods. I’ve had to call a few times to get it to “reactivate”. And don’t believe the barbara striesand about major changes. That pig hasn’t had any new lipstick for a long time.

So, I’m mad and have no way to discharge the madness, except by blogging about it.

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Posted by reinkefj

PRODUCTIVITY: WINROT is rapidly making LUGABLE unusable

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I’m being forced to consider a “bare metal” restore (i.e., wipe everything clean and start over).

And, in thinking about it, perhaps I should buy a new hard drive for luggable and swap it in for my bare metal restore. That’s one way to ensure that I can always fall back should a critical file be missed. After a good restore, (an how does one ever know that you did it all), I could probably get one of those external usb disk drive cases to save the value of the drive.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: True charity can NOT come from the gooferment

Monday, February 26, 2007

http://apnews.myway.com/article/
20070226/D8NHEJI00.html

http://tinyurl.com/yq3xll

*** begin quote ***

“If you want to get educated or want to succeed, the welfare office don’t care,” Foster said. “I don’t think they really care what you do once the benefits are gone.”

*** end quote ***

Isn’t that the essence of gooferment? They don’t really really care. True charity requires that personal commitment to the goal. That’s why I like Homefront, spear headed by dedicated troops. They really care and so they are effective.

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: So what are politicians really watching … …

Monday, February 26, 2007

… … when the lens caps are on?

http://timesnews.typepad.com/news/
2007/02/politicians_pla.html

Friday, February 23, 2007
Politicians playing soldiers: picture special

;-)

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Posted by reinkefj

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