I’ve started a new blog called The Web Guy, the place where I talk about everything technology-related. I decided to do this because my personal blog– what you’re reading right now– was getting too cluttered with computer and technology stuff. So all of that kind of writing– from beeping ThinkPads to the Email toolbar in Word– will now be at The Web Guy. Every now and then, I will do a recap of what I’ve written over on The Web Guy blog. Here’s the first one, for the month of August 2007.
Archive for the 'Computer Tips' Category
I just installed Windows Vista Home Premium on my Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad Z61t. Yes, after many months, I finally got fed up with XP and decided to dive into Vista with a fresh install, deleting my previous partition and starting off new. It was a fairly smooth experience, and I definitely like what Microsoft has done with Vista over XP.
Two gripes:
- Internet Explorer 7Â is automatically installed, no questions asked.
- Homepage is set to MSN.com by default. Thus, virtually every single person in the world will see MSN.com, no matter what. Continue reading ‘Windows Vista Review’
Running your own server and writing your own scripts is really tough work. Now I need to go learn about HackTool.Linux.ProcHider.a.
I spent a few hours trying to find this, and now that I’ve found it, I feel rather stupid. I kept reading about an audio import module for Drupal which works with the Audio module to allow users to import audio files already on the server. That means large audio files (greater than 2 or 4 MB) could be uploaded via FTP and then imported. I looked all over the Drupal website and tried a bunch of searches on Google and Yahoo, to no avail. Finally I gave up and decided I’d just upload the file. I looked in the audio directory, and there it was! Audio import! It was under my nose the whole time, under Modules. Here’s what it looks like there:
Last week, I went to IVTCF’s Summer Conference at Maranatha in Idyllwild, CA. As part of that experience, I went on their new Guided Prayer Walk an decided to document their experience. Take a look at the horizontally-scrolling site and let me know what you think.
I’ve lately been thinking a lot about how to get more people blogging. I’m really convinced about the benefits [gunthers.org] of blogging, as I’ve said before. But how do you get started, especially with no technical background? There are two great choices for people who don’t want to have to deal with hosting their own blog: WordPress and Blogger.
This came to mind today because I realized just how much Blogger’s templating and hosting system has improved. Previously, you could have your blog hosted by them on BlogSpot, or host it yourself on your own server. Hosting it on your own server meant that their server has to use FTP to upload the static files. This means constant rebuilding and republishing, and it’s really slow and annoying.
But now they have new options, and they’re all totally free. (This is unlike WordPress.com, which charges some fee for domain hosting.) And I think only Google can truly afford this long-term, because they run the advertising network (AdSense) and they take a cut of everyone’s AdSense earnings to keep the company– including Blogger– running. The new option for hosting which totally changes everything is custom domain hosting. The really great part is that this works with any hosting service you’re using. It works with an unlimited number of blogs, and Google takes care of everything. Just add a CNAME record to your DNS settings (DreamHost supports this perfectly).
It’s a really tough choice. Each has pros and cons, so I’ll list a few here so you can make the right decision for yourself. Continue reading ‘Blogger or WordPress? I now recommend Blogger’
I was using iTunes just now, and I wanted to locate the audio file for a podcast on my computer. So I right-clicked its row and selected “Get Info.” That brings up a window which has the path of the song, but this field is not left-click selectable. (I use iTunes 7.1.1.5.) I was afraid I might have to resort to typing the path in the Windows “Run” box, but fortunately I tried right-clicking the area. To my surprise, this context menu appeared, and it was as if it had read my mind!
Good guidelines for choosing computer names.
Microsoft has a surprisingly good-looking learning center for developers! As I’ve said in the past, I encourage everyone to learn the basics of programming.
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