Steve Holden's Blog

  • Three Strikes And I’m Out

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    Today was a Jimmy Jett marathon.  I think I listened to ten shows in a row.  I learned from a show in early April 2005 that I have been doing three things seriously wrong during my podcasts.

    To keep your voice "ideal" you should:

    • Not drink alcohol (I frequently will drink a beer during a podcast)
    • Not drink coffee (it has caffeine, I do this consistently during Tech Tidbits Daily)
    • Not drink anything else with caffeine (if I not drinking beer or coffee, I’m drinking Diet Coke)

    Ouch … maybe I should consider a new hobby? Or maybe a bottle of water.

    BTW … Jimmy Jett rocks. If you aren’t listening your aren’t getting enough of nothing. He is everything good about authentic radio DJs that I use to love during the ’80s.

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  • Tech Tidbits Daily for Apr. 28, 2005

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    This is your Tech Tidbits Daily for Thursday, April 28th, 2005. Today’s podcast contains one technical news item and one listener feedback.

    The Neverfail Group has announced a new release of their high-availability solution for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server. Key features: monitors SharePoint for content changes, and backs those up immediately to a fail over server; seamless fail-over to the secondary server in extreme failure cases; and it also protects SharePoint content in Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange, among others.  This software can also be configured to work with VMWARE’s virtual server technology. I personally have been using SharePoint at my work for several years.  It has really been a key collaboration tool for doing information technology (IT) management for myself.  I’ll definitely have to take a look at this tool to make sure we have better up time capabilities.

    Today’s feedback is again a post to Podcast Alley by TL. Thanks for the great feedback!

    For more information about the links mentioned in this podcast, or for
    more details on how to subscribe to this podcast check out www.technewsradio.com. You can also email feedback to technewsradio@gmail.com; or you can leave audio comments by calling 206-337-1533. Have a great day.

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  • Good Discussion on Backup Solutions

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    I highly recommend going over to Kevin Devin’s In The Trenches site and giving a listen to the  ITT – 04-25-2005 podcast. There is a good list of suggestions on doing backups (yours truly has some input), and there is great A2A ("Admin To Admin") segment from George Starcher that looks at network switch spanning trees.

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  • Tech Tidbits Daily for Apr. 27, 2005

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    This is your Tech Tidbits Daily for Wednesday, April 27th, 2005.
    Today’s podcast contains one technical news item, and one subscriber feedback.

    Arxan Technologies has developed an application that provides effective protection against reverse engineering, code lifting, and unauthorized changes to software applications.  The tool is called "EnforcIT" and it is based on new technology created at the National Security Agency’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security, located at Purdue University. EnforcIT provides user selectable and adjustable levels of security.  These can be added to binary executables before distribution so that tamper-proof "Guard" algorithms are inserted into the executable itself. The Guards do not interfere with the functions of the executable, but increase its level of security and resistance to tampering and reverse engineering.  Currently targeted systems include Windows on Intel, and VXWorks on PowerPC.

    The listener feedback is from a post to Podcast Alley by hawks5999.  Thanks for the support!

    For more information about the links mentioned in this podcast, or for
    more details on how to subscribe to this podcast check out www.technewsradio.com. You can also email feedback to technewsradio@gmail.com; or you can leave audio comments by calling 206-337-1533. Have a great day.

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  • Tech Tidbits Daily for Apr. 26, 2005

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    This is your Tech Tidbits Daily for Tuesday, April 26th, 2005.
    Today’s podcast contains one technical news item, and one subscriber feedback.

    Mena Trott one of the Founders at Six Apart has a blog post that outlines her perspective as their flag ship product Movable Type has been maturing and growing.  One of the more interesting things that they recently did at Six Apart was hire a professional quality assurance team to track down and fix new and old bugs.  This effort has resulted in a new version 3.16 that was just recently released and it is probably the quality of code that users of their product have grown to expect.  As a very happy user of TypePad which utilizes MovableType, this should be good news for me and my subscribers. Kudos to Six Apart.

    Next up is a quick review of a comment posted by Glenn T on Podcast Alley.  Thanks for the feedback.

    For more information about the links mentioned in this podcast, or for
    more details on how to subscribe to this podcast check out www.technewsradio.com. You can also email feedback to technewsradio@gmail.com; or you can leave audio comments by calling 206-337-1533. Have a great day.

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  • TabletPC Thoughts And Plans

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    Back on 05.03.09 I blogged about the pain I was suffering related to my TabletPC (the HP TC1100) hard drive failing with no warning.

    Then I had a bunch of things to do: go on vacation, attend eTech, take on some new job responsibilities at work, go on work travel, and continue to have a very full schedule since then.

    So … quickly moved over to a Compaq nw8000 laptop that was suppose to be server in a mobile demo presentation system to hold me over until I could get the TC1100 back and running. But I haven’t gone back yet to my TC1100, which I think was ready to go back to early last week.

    Some reasons why I haven’t moved back to the TC1000 is because of some key features I didn’t realize I was missing until I started using a mainstream laptop day-to-day:

    • Large screen with 1600 x 1200 resolution
    • Faster processor (it feels 2x)
    • Excellent sound output

    But I am also missing from the TC1000 side:

    • Mobile form factor (laptops have nothing on the TC1100 design)
    • Weight (the nw8000 is pretty heavy and almost to big put into my backpack)
    • Pen input (probably the thing I miss the most)

    So … it looks like there is a big need to do a new market survey and see if I can get all this worked out.  Good news is that Microsoft WinHEC is going on and the coverage seems to point to some great new solutions coming out.  Also Eric Mack has done a ton of research recently and published it.

    I do have to look a little closer at Michael Hyatt’s post "Why I Ditched My TabletPC" post.

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  • Tech Tidbits Daily for Apr. 25, 2005

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    This is your Tech Tidbits Daily for Monday, April 25th, 2005. Today’s podcast contains two technical news items, and one subscriber feedback.

    First is that W2K News recently had a pointer to a new column on SearchWinSystems.com called "Beginner’s Guide to Scripting" by Christa Anderson, a noted authority on the subject.  The first article for this column covers: Objects, properties and methods; Scripting hosts and the interpreter; How are scripts interpreted?; and Data types you’ll use.  This seems like a great getting started resource.

    Next is eEye has announced a new free wireless network scanning utility called Retina WiFi that can detect wireless devices connected to your networking environment.  It can also find rogue access points or improperly setup transmitting laptops.  In addition, there is also advanced reporting capabilities enabled so you can better access your security posture.  Currently the released versions are for Windows, an optimized Japanese version for Windows, and PocketPC.

    User feedback is from Eric and it was a comment posted to Podcast Alley.  Thanks for taking the time to post a comment for Tech Rag Tear Outs!

    For more information about the links mentioned in this podcast, or for
    more details on how to subscribe to this podcast check out www.technewsradio.com. You can also email feedback to technewsradio@gmail.com; or you can leave audio comments by calling 206-337-1533. Have a great day.

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  • Are You Staying At A Boutique?

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    The San Diego Union-Tribune did an article over the weekend entitled "Going The X-tra mile: As boutique hotels flourish, they are changing how larger chains accommodate free-spending Generation X travelers."

    Pretty heavy tech focus, in that GenXers want wireless access and MP3 players with thier leisure hotel stays.  Plus they like to do more leisure lifestyle stuff that "boutique" hotels seem primed to provide them.

    Some mentions of some local hotels: Hotel Solamar (operated by Kimpton Hotels) and the "W Chain" (operated by Starwood) plus for the San Diego area there are also: Hotel Parisi (La Jolla), Prava Hotel (downtown), 500 West (downtown), and Tower 23 (Pacific Beach – opening in June). There is also Morgans Hotel in New York, and Kimpton in San Francisco. 

    Only 217 of the nation’s 49,000 hotels are consider boutique but their impact is growing as GenXers are spending on average $1297 on a leisure trip, compared to Baby Boomers with $1155.  Some companies mentioned as making moves to be "cooler" include: Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Intercontiental (operated by Holiday Inn).

    NOTE: Sorry for the lack of URLs to some of the hotels.  I ran out of time.

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  • Covey, Guiliani, & Welch on 15Jun05

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    This is not a paid advertisement … just FYI … I am considering taking a break for the day-to-day and going to this … since I had to add it to my calendar … I might as well cut and paste it into a blog post:

    "Principles of Leadership: From Effectiveness to Greatness" featuring Stephen Covey, Rudolph Giuliani, and Jack Welch.  Presented by http://www.luminaryseries.com on 15Jun05.  Broadcasted live to over 33+ cities.  More info by calling 800-289-0051.  In San Diego County, it will be at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, CA.

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  • Monday (05042005) LinkFest

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    Podcasting:

    Mobile Computing:

    Blogging:

    Open-Source Audio?:

    Software:

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