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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wipe Those PDAs:
If you’re thinking about selling your old PDA without doing some major memory cleanup, think again:
Selling your old phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your diaries. All sorts of information can pile up inside our cell phones, and deleting it may be more difficult than you think.
A popular practice among sellers, resetting the phone, often means that sensitive information appears to have been erased. But it can be resurrected using specialized yet inexpensive software found online.
Since I am a Treo user, I was most interested in this:
Palm Inc., which makes the popular Treo phones, puts directions deep within its Web site for what it calls a “zero out reset.” It involves holding down three buttons simultaneously while pressing a fourth tiny button on the back of the phone.
But it’s so awkward to do that even Palm says it may take two people. A Palm executive, Joe Fabris, said the company made the process deliberately clumsy because it doesn’t want customers accidentally erasing data.
Read about the zero out reset here. Basically, it involves holding Power, Up, HotSyncing, AND pushing the reset button. In other words, a single person is very challenged to try this maneuver without some intervention from a second party, just as the article says. Still, it’s better than giving someone your personal or corporate proprietary data.
Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
4:18 PM
I've not followed much about the "secret holds" story in the news lately, but I see that Senators Stevens and Byrd, two of the most pork-loving legislators in history, were behind it.
Now, it seems to me like such tactics take the tyranny of the minority to a new level. What bothers me more is that these public servants chose to hold up a bill that would make the public trough more visible. To me, this isn't a left or right issue. This is an issue about how we are governed, and there is nothing wrong with transparent governance... unless someone up there on Capitol Hill is afraid of being accountable. And that's probably why they are so afraid of S. 2590 anyway.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
4:17 PM
Treo 650, Push Email, and Blackberry Connect
I’ve been looking for a good solution for my IT department that would provide push email, but I’ve been reluctant to embrace the Blackberry hardware. I’m not that happy with any Blackberry device I’ve ever used. I prefer the ubiquity of software available for the Palm OS. The Palm OS interface is much more elegant. The Palm APIs are better understood by our programmers. In sum, I need Blackberry functionality without the Blackberry.
So, today, when Palm announced its agreement with Cingular Wireless today to provide Blackberry Connect access for Treo 650s, I was intrigued right away since I am both a Treo 650 owner and a Cingular customer. We have a corporate Blackberry server, and our IT staff can (but does not presently) have access to it. So it seems like a perfect match.
However, I’ve investigated further, and I’m not sure that I am willing to add $44.95/month per user plus voice costs to the bottom line just for push email. A more cost-effective solution would be ChatterEmail EX and Exchange 2003, which has Outlook Web Access (OWA). Chatter reads OWA nicely; I’ve tested it, and I like the functionality. However, we have a nasty little security feature in place called SecurID, and Chatter does not support SecurID authentication.
Our present solution is VB code that calls MAPI and sends attachments and forwarded emails to external IMAP accounts. However, that isn’t the most elegant solution, and it doesn’t provide Blackberry-like access to calendars, contacts, and tasks. But it is definitely the most cost-effective. All it requires is a $39 email client, our Exchange server, and any number of free IMAP accounts in existence.
As much as I like the idea of going with Blackberry Connect for Palm 650, until I can see a real business need for real-time access to non-email items, I’m going to have to stick with the VB/MAPI solution. Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
4:09 PM
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Going Mad at Midnight:
As I sit here at midnight central time, I hear a cacophony of children playing relentlessly at our local private park. The question begs to be asked: why are these children playing outside at such an hour?
These aren't teenagers, mind you. They are tiny kids, not much older than my spry 2.75 year old. Our rural subdivision is quiet by most standards, so the presence of youth outdoors at this time of day tends to stand out. I keep wanting to step outside and ask "where's Mommy?" I can't imagine why a parent would allow their kids outside this late, especially young ones.
Do they value sleep at all? Are they naturally nocturnal? Perhaps they are secretly vampires feasting on unknowing inhabitants who just happen to stroll through the park. There has to be some supernatural explanation, because common sense dictates that 4-8 year olds should be IN BED AT MIDNIGHT.
Maybe this explains why kids these days are generally ornery and sassy, since, if this is the norm, they cannot possibly be well-rested. I'd be ornery and sassy too if I needed to sleep 10 hours and my irresponsible parental unit(s) left me outdoors into the wee hours.
In fact, since I'm sitting here listening to the neighborhood play date outside, and since my physical self likes to be asleep well before midnight, I can detect an ornery and sassy streak manifesting itself in me right about now. If only I had the authority to discipline any and every kid in the neighborhood...
Wait, what's that? Silence outside? Crickets and a slight breeze is the only audible thing out there? It's about time.
Off to bed I go. Finally. And I guess I won't have to get Child Protective Services, the Sheriff, and Homeland Security involved.
UPDATE: There appears to be a straggler still out there. Give 'em an inch, and they take a foot.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
12:28 AM
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Tonight at a local IT managers meeting, I noticed something very strange that I've noticed before tonight. Whenever, in a room full of people, if one person exhibits some form of change in their posture or position, someone else seems to adopt it shortly thereafter.
Let me explain. During one of the technology segments, I decided to shift my weight and sit with my arms folded above my head, to relieve stress on my back. Seconds later, a man adjaent to me did the very same thing. And then. So did a man behind him. So then, I decided to lean forward and fold my arms across the table. Sure enough, within a minute, another man near me did the same thing. It's as if there is some kind of suggestion happening subliminally.
I don't get it, but it seems to happen quite often. But then again, there are only so many poses one can adopt in a seat. So who knows. Still, it's weird.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
9:21 PM
In the News Today:
As news stations maintain their 24/7 coverage of the discovery of JonBenet Ramsey's killer, we also read about a couple who planned to blow up a Transatlantic flight using their baby's bottle as a suicide bomb.
I bring up both of these instances because they involve children, and because of this simple fact: Evil exists in this world.
It's time we stopped trying to find root causes, and accept the fact that there are bad people in this world. God help us if we continue to rationalize evil behavior.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
9:45 AM
My previous post noted why I don’t believe Ned Lamont will prevail in the Connecticut general election for United States Senator. I’d like to elaborate on another point – Ned Lamont’s candidacy might actually hurt the cause of the Democratic Party.
Imagine that the left decided to target all moderate Democratic candidates in other states, such as Nebraska’s Ben Nelson. Let’s suppose also that a more liberal candidate was able to win in the primaries in those states. Let’s also then suppose that those candidates, detecting the anti-war schism in their party, decided to also run as independents, just like Joe Lieberman is doing. Unless the election is being held for an office in a generally liberal state like Massachusetts or Oregon, the odds are that the independent incumbent would succeed in retaining their seat. This is, of course, a supposition on my part, but my gut feeling is that the moderate electorate would see through the efforts of the left and vote for the more moderate incumbent.
If these assumptions held true, the Democrats could actually lose several seats in Congress even though Democratic incumbents would remain in office. Would that affect the party caucuses? It depends. Loyalty only holds true for so long. Would you vote as a bloc with a party that shunned you during the election season? I’m not so sure every candidate would. In fact, it would seem being an independent incumbent would be license to actually think for oneself and vote based on some set of principles instead of on allegiance to a group. That would be great for America, but terrible for the Democratic Party.
So maybe the best thing that could happen would be for the Kossacks to infiltrate the Democrats, divide them, and purge themselves of politicians like Joe Lieberman. Maybe we will even see the advent of a legitimate third party. Whatever happens in November though, if the Democrats continue to move to the left, and if moderates continue their exodus from the party, it will definitely hurt the Democrats in the long term.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
8:40 AM
Why Lamont Won’t Win in Connecticut:
Connecticut is rich in Democratic presence. Conservatives, and hawks especially, are in the minority there. But the majority of voters there are not Democrats, but are actually registered as independents. Independents exceed both Democrats and Republicans, and rival their numbers when the two are taken in aggregate. And party affiliation is required for the primary season. Thus, Independents vote for in general election, and not in the primary. Ned Lamont, who defeated Joe Lieberman last week, did so by a wafer thin margin of 4 percentage points. But how does Lamont fare with Republican and, more importantly, Independent voters?
According to Quinnipiac:
Lieberman leads 75 - 13 - 10 percent among likely Republican voters, and 58 - 36 - 3 percent among likely independent voters, while likely Democratic voters back Lamont 63 - 35 percent.
Those are huge margins, suggesting that Lamont needs somehow to appeal to those voters. However, an agenda of “I’m not affiliated with Bush like my opponent is” and “let’s bring our troops home now” without much else to offer isn’t going to sway anyone outside the sphere of influence of Kos and the like. Unless something major happens between now and November, Senator Lieberman will remain Senator Lieberman, and Ned Lamont will be a historical footnote.Labels: Archives_2006
.: posted by
Dave
8:21 AM
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