France

I'll be in France in October.

You won't.

This trip was enabled by NOT buying any of the numerous name brand e-books, marketing/writing courses or other "find yourself and get rich quick!" crap off of the Internet.

Listen to your own voice and your own heart and do not get sucked into the vortex of Internet blogging hype. NOTHING you can buy off of the Internet will create success for you.

You've got to do it on your own.

Then you too can go to France.

The Netflix Culture

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: While it is interesting, keep in mind that the weakness of Netflix is that they are TOTALLY DEPENDENT on renting a product PRODUCED BY SOMEONE ELSE. So they have an enormous Achille's Heel.

Culture

View more presentations from Reed Hastings.

HP Laptop memory upgrade

Today I took the 4gb of RAM I had left from upgrading my Sony and installed them into an HP laptop that had 2gb of RAM.

I checked on the HP model (DV9700 as I recall) and the memory looked like it would work.

Well, I removed the AC power from the laptop, took off the battery (no sense risking ANY potential voltage when installing any internal hardware upgrades to ANY computer), removed the 2 1gb PC-5300 SODIMM and installed the 2 2gb PC-6400 SODIMM.

Replaced the battery, plugged the AC back in and booted up the laptop.

Nothing! The laptop "stalled" on boot up and offered various keys to do things including opening the BIOS settings, but NONE of the keys would work!

So I thought about this and replaced the old SODIMMs into the laptop and booted up into the BIOS settings. Sure enough, the boot order had the laptop hard disk drive in third place after USB floppy and network boot! Well, let me tell you that simply will never work when you do a RAM upgrade. The system needs to rapidly boot up without hesitation in order to recognize the new RAM. (That's the non-technical explanation).

I set the laptop hard drive as the first boot up device (CD/DVD drive as second, fyi) and while I was in the BIOS, set the built in video up to use 128mb of RAM, from 64mb just for an additional performance boost.

I replaced the new RAM back into the laptop and it booted up correctly. However since this HP is only running x32 Windows it can only use 3gb which is still a 50 percent memory upgrade. Sometime in the future I might upgrade it to x64 Windows, but it was enough of a puzzle getting it upgraded to 4gb of RAM today.

More Michael Jackson Neverland Rides at CA State Fair 2009

Michael Jackson Neverland rides at California State Fair 2009

My error! Sony's head is DEFINITELY parked up their ass!

Bah! Turns out Sony has disabled the Intel VT and the ability to enable it using the computer's BIOS on ALL of their personal computers due to some bullshit worry that consumers might get attacked from the Internet. The technical challenge to do this and succeed is about as likely as having a UFO land in your backyard and deliver a pizza.

So I am sorely PISSED since the ONLY way to turn on VT (Virtual Technology which I need for Virtual PC development under Windows 7) is to use a hack developed by Igor Levicki in Serbia. Granted Igor should be out gathering brains for Dr. Frankenstein, but I am grateful that the hack exists. I am not too happy that if I attempt it and it fails that my new Sony notebook will be turned into a brick, as in no longer working in any manner at all.

Well, stayed tuned. I don't know what I am going to do about this.

P.S. (8/26) I did the patch and it worked! Woo-hoo! I have to put on clean underwear now, but it was certainly a thrilling experience.

Sony FW Memory Upgrade from 4GB to 8GB

Here's the solution which I bought from Amazon for $360:

Patriot Signature 8 GB (2 x 4GB) PC2-6400 DDR2-800 SoDIMM Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit - PSD28G800SK

Granted I've been a computer consultant for 40 years and have assembled my own computers since the mid-70s. It's cheaper in today's market to buy the core PC or laptop and then just do upgrades such as high end video boards, more robust power supplies, etcetera.

Let me tell you, it was a gamble that the above memory worked as there was nothing on Sony's site to give you a technical clue. Basically the only site I found that listed memory matched to my laptop was at crucial.com. However they wanted $229 per 4GM stick plus tax and shipping. So, without further ado, I started researching for a memory stick that appeared to match Crucial's. Well as shown above I found the kit on Amazon, which saved me money on the price as well as no taxes or shipping.

The memory arrived yesterday. I just removed the laptop battery and the one screw on the bottom of the laptop that covered the memory; removed the old memory and installed the new. Put the cover back on the memory, put the laptop battery back on and booted up the laptop.

After clicking on Computer and then right clicking to get to Properties, the laptop showed that it recognized the 8GB of RAM and all is well. Keep in mind that for this to be useful you must be running a 64 bit version of Windows (or whatever other 64 bit OS you might have).

The Parade

My theory regarding various states of involvement is (and you can quote me on this):

"Sometimes it's better to watch the parade than ride the elephant"

Sony's head is somewhat parked up their own ass

I bought a new Sony VGN-FW465J/H laptop for development last weekend to replace my aging Dell D620. It wasn't the optimal laptop available but I could buy it from Amazon without paying sales tax and it carried a $100 rebate, so basically I saved about $180.

However I found that I needed to "upgrade" it from the Windows Vista Home Premium x64 OS to Windows Vista Ultimate x64 in order to run Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2.

That required reformatting the hard disk drive, which of course erased all the the good and bad Sony utilities. So, upon going to Sony's site to download their utilities I discovered that because this particular model (VGN-FW465J/H) isn't sold with Vista Ultimate x64 that many of their utilities will not work under Vista Ultimate.

Of course this is total corporate bullshit.

One, why would you write drivers that only work under one particular version of Vista? Sounds like more work than just writing the driver normally.

Two, some but not all of the programs work under Vista Ultimate anyway, despite what Sony's site states.

Three, what I lack now is the ability to use the special keys for volume control and the built-in webcam which is a real pisser.

Four, Sony somehow makes it impossible to reach the BIOS on their systems.

Five, Sony seems to ship a different notebook model everyday and finding system RAM for this laptop has been a real pain it in the ass. I need to upgrade from 4 gb to 8 gb and hopefully the Patriot RAM I ordered from Amazon yesterday will work. ($75 cheaper than Crucial's RAM)

Six, there's no cable lock opening on this laptop, so if I am using it in a coffee shop and have to use the restroom, I will have to pack up the laptop and take it with me as there is simply no way to secure it.

Seven, will my next laptop be a Sony? Based on this experience, probably not.

Eight, it's not like I haven't spent money with Sony. I have two Sony Blu-ray players and have purchased 2 Sony PCs for my daughter, a Sony VAIO VGC-LS30E Desktop PC and a Sony VAIO VGN-FW290. I also have a Sony stereo, a Sony LCD TV, a Sony telephone, a Sony cell phone and probably a Walkman and God knows what else kicking around.

Cognitive Surplus

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, has a post (linked above) on Cognitive Surplus. This post is actually an excerpt from one of his speaking engagements.

It interested me as an unrealized concept that when we watch TV (I mean MINDLESS TV, not the news, although even the "news" is turning in mindlessness) we are spending time that is well defined as Cognitive Surplus.

Mr. Shirky better explores Cognitive Surplus than I can explain it, so please go away now and read his posting.

SharePoint sales pass the $1 billion mark

Let me tell you it's not because of anything Microsoft's SharePoint team has done. Nor have the MVP dolts passing themselves as SharePoint experts done anything to help the successful implementation of SharePoint in enterprises.

The SharePoint product needs an entirely new management team to set a strategic direction for the product that can be communicated to corporate clients and they totally need to clean up the product as it has many technical areas that need, for lack of a better terminology, repair and modification.

The Microsoft team presently handling the SharePoint product line needs to be removed right now from the top down. They simply are not providing actual improvements to SharePoint nor are they offering coherent enterprise solutions to the business community.

The MVP community needs to be eliminated and rebuilt from scratch with tangible requirements other than someone at Microsoft liking one's SharePoint blog. Nothing and I emphasize nothing, critical EVER comes out of the MVP community. Frankly it's a waste of my time to even discuss them any further.

I'll talk about the joke that is SharePoint 2010 in a later posting.

Pray for my Shih Tzu

I don't belong to the religious/superstitious club, but feel free to pray for my Shih Tzu, Minie, who is going in to have a lump removed from one of her breasts and get spayed.

She's healthy and joyful and nine years old, and I truly hope she outlives me because she is my pal.

Footnote: Minie survived the spaying and removal of the tumor but a biopsy has shown that the tumor was cancerous.

I FINALLY found a Starbucks!

Yeah I know. Finding a Starbucks doesn't sound quite like stumbling across the lost city of gold or anything cool. However, I've been working in Redwood City and living in a hotel in San Carlos and to find a Starbucks where you can quickly buy coffee while not getting stuck in the clusterfuck of Bay Area peninsula traffic is a challenge.

So after a LONG spell of not having my Starbucks, here is what I have concluded:

"Starbucks is the Viagra of consciousness"

Yes, you can quote me.

WoW Login Server Is Down

11 million people paying Blizzard $15 a month and they cannot even manage to scale out their systems or do something like keep their login server running!

They must hire the cheapest IT labor that they can find, because it's obvious that they don't have anyone technically competent on their staff.

Blogger to WordPress conversion

OK, now I’m outraged!

I can appreciate people making or wanting to make money on the Internet. However there are a LOT of people struggling to find a way to create Internet based income. Unfortunately a great many sites sell you training and e-books that bring income in for THEM but not for you.

Well the entire Internet marketing scenario is a vent for another day.

However, I was rather PISSED to see that one wants-be-a-famous-blogger/marketer-someday person is selling Blogger to WordPress conversions for $97!!

That is just taking advantage of people who lack the knowledge of how to do the conversion.

IT IS NOT MARKETING! IT IS NOT A SERVICE!
IT IS FRIGGING WRONG TO RIP OFF PEOPLE!

So here is how to convert your Blogspot blog to WordPress FOR FREE!

1. If you wish to save a copy of your template go into your Blogger dashboard and navigate to Layout then Edit HTML. Right there is a link to let you save your template to your computer.

2. This is the ONLY point at which you MIGHT want to pay someone to help you and that is ONLY if you are so in love with your Blogger template that you want it converted to look exactly the same on your new WordPress site. Frankly there are so many WordPress themes out there that I would advise that you save your money on doing a template conversion.

3. OK! The real meat of the conversion is all that wonderful content that you have created that now resides in Blogger. Conversion of your content from Blogger to WordPress is A NO BRAINER!! You can do this! Assuming that you have set up a WordPress site, go to the Administration panel and on the Tools menu click on Import.

4. Click on Blogger. WordPress will then give you a screen of information and other details you need to read and fill in. Like your Google password so that WordPress can access your blog content.

5. So, now you click Authorize.

6. You enter your Google e-mail address and password.

7. You get a message from Google that WordPress is requesting access to your account, so you click on the Grant Access button.

8. WordPress spins around behind the curtain for a while, depending on how much content you have on your Blogger blog for importing. Eventually WordPress displays your WordPress Administration panel and you click IMPORT to complete the content importation process.

9. This was assuming that you are the sole blogger on your site, converting to WordPress where you will also be to sole blogger. If you have multiple bloggers, you can individually assign them using the Set Authors button and drop down box in the WordPress Administration panel.

There! We're all done! Hopefully I saved you $97!!

Maybe I'm confused

I'm too young to be old
and
too old to be young.

This week's Amazon annoyance

So, I ordered an "in stock, qualifies for Amazon Prime" book on Monday along with another book that also was in stock and qualified for Amazon Prime (2 day shipping for those who don't know what Amazon Prime is).

Book#1 arrived yesterday.

Book #2 is scheduled to arrive on Monday. A week after ordering it! So where does "Prime" come into play here?

Seesh!

All Has Been Explained!

I couldn't figure out why Windows 7 would not install the x64 version on my Dell D620.

Some sage pointed out that the D620 only has a 32 bit processor, so there's no way a 64 bit OS is going to install on it.

My brain must have been firing on only two cylinders that day. DOH!

Anyway in other news (Hey! Who doesn't want to read about my old and only notebook?) the main battery has failed, so after MUCH research I found one of those extended batteries that stick out of the front and sort of give you a wrist rest as well as additional battery life.

I already swap out the DVD drive for a secondary battery when I travel on a plane, so when this new big battery arrives on June 16th, I should have enough juice to almost fly to Europe without running out of power. OK, not Europe but, um, at least Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean.

I'll blog about that battery as its from one of those Internet vendors you never heard of, which usually makes my butt pucker when I send money into the vast unknown ether......

Cold Calling Yuck!

You should probably drift over to IttyBiz and read this posting about doing cold calling =>http://ittybiz.com/how-to-cold-call/comment-page-1/#comment-9866

Personally I find cold calling to be an act of the desperate when there are many other marketing methods that are more rewarding and less stressful, but to each their own.

D-Day 2009 65 years later

I think that for this massive event that established a foothold on the beaches of France, it is interesting that while the US lost 2300 combatants, only 19 French died that day.

You read that right. Nineteen.