Most of the time my Firefox browser will have many tabs open, but at the minimum it will always have gmail and google reader open. This morning my memory usage for Firefox was hovering at 900mb and reached over 1gb. Needless to say the performance in the browser was horrible. Even closing Firefox took about 3 minutes. On restarting Firefox the performance would be better but eventually the memory usage does creep back up again.
I read in a recent blog post from The Windows Club about the free SpeedyFox – this compresses the sql-lite database that Firefox now uses for internal storage. Download the program, quit Firefox and run the small executable – no install necessary. It will show the default Firefox profile but it is also possible to select other profiles in a drop down box. It took about 20 seconds to run on my profile although the more information page mentions it could take 5 to 60 minutes to run.
The author also recommends that the program is also run about every two weeks. This can be done by creating a scheduled task using the case sensitive /default_profile switch or using /profile:name or /profile:path (needed when Firefox portable is being optimized. Slightly more information is available within the Help menu of the program. Note that if you were running this automatically you would have to exit Firefox first – this could either be accomplished using autoit or by just killing the program with “taskkill /im firefox.exe”
After the program was run I relaunched Firefox and the performance is so much better. Granted I’m running from a new launch of Firefox but I was able to stream a Youtube video immediately with no buffering requests, I was able to type this post in the browser without having to wait for the text to catch up with me and so far everything works great (my memory usage is currently up to 126mb with 3 tabs open.
I’m not going to promise that this program will do the same thing for everybody’s browser but it is definitely worth running. Currently the program is Windows only, but a Mac client is in development.
There may be a few of us left out there who don’t have an iphone, but WordPress for Blackberry v1.0 is now available. Although this is a 1.0 application, it has gone through several 0.xx versions so should be stable enough to use.
The blog posting at the Blackberry WordPress blog has the full details including the over the air installation link. This means you do not have to download the blackberry app store to the Blackberry just to download the WordPress application.
The one big feature I like about this new version is that it shows pending comments so you can now approve them from the Blackberry without having to log into the main website.
At the firm where I work, we do have a set of wireless microphones that are used quite often in our main conference room for CLE sessions, and other events. The system has been there longer than I have, so I’ve never really paid much attention to it, but have made a note to go look at it with our facilities folks next week after being made aware that any wireless mics broadcasting in the 700MHz band will be illegal as of June 2010!
Certain wireless microphones have operated in frequencies that are needed for public safety. When these microphones were first designed, the frequencies they used were in between the frequencies that television stations used to broadcast television programs. With the completion of the digital television (DTV) transition on June 12, 2009, television stations no longer use the frequencies between 698 and 806 MHz (the 700 MHz Band) for broadcast. These frequencies are now being used by public safety entities (such as police, fire and emergency services) and by commercial providers of wireless services (such as wireless broadband services).
The wireless microphones that had been operating in the old TV broadcast channels can cause harmful interference to these public safety and wireless consumer services. Therefore, all users of wireless microphones (or certain low power auxiliary stations) that operate on any of the frequencies in the 700 MHz band – including both licensed users (under Part 74) and unlicensed users – now have to stop operating in this band.
I had no idea. Did you? Here’s hoping ours are 2.4GHz wireless mics!
“Mattie Stevens, a young boy of the early 80′s, dreams of owning a Commodore 64. He sets out to convince everyone this is the perfect gift. But, along the way runs into opposition from his parents and everyone around him including old Santa Claus”
Friends in tech has made several really great holiday specials over the years. If you are itching for something to listen to while you wait for A Geek Christmas Story try out our previous productions!
Friends in Tech presents a new Christmas Special for 2009, A Geek Christmas Story.
“Mattie Stevens, a young boy of the early 80′s dreams of owning a Commodore 64. He sets out to convince everyone this is the perfect gift. But, along the way runs into opposition from his parents and everyone around him including old Santa Claus”
I am a big fan of two factor authentication where possible for high value logins. This is where you enter a changing number to go with your password. This number comes from a device you carry with you. In particular I use the free Verisign mobile token on my iPhone. They make it for many other cell phones. You can install and use it for free with services like paypal, ebay, some banks and even with the free service called PiP (Personal Identity Portal) from Verisign.
You can get a pip account and use it for any site that supports openID. Giving you two factor authentication even for a lot of blog commenting and forum systems. PiP can be found at: https://pip.verisignlabs.com/
Verisign has a quick demo video of the mobile token on youTube. Check it out and add some extra protection to your accounts. Especially if you use eBay or paypal.
Recently, I was listening to a podcast from David Allen, the man behind the “Getting Things Done” methodology, and he recommended (paraphrase) “…to be more effective, Outlook users should start their app in calendar mode. “
It’s true. Each morning, I find myself getting side-tracked by the inbox when I should first be looking at the “hard landscape” of the calendar first. An hour can easily pass while I process my inbox before I realize what the rest of my day looks like, that’s just wrong – and I knew it. When I heard this tip, I had one of those slap-your-forehead moments and said “Of course!”.
Here’s how it’s done:
Locate your OUTLOOK.EXE file on your hard drive. Typically it’s under C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office somewhere. You can use Explorer’s search feature to locate it precisely.
Once located, right click and use the Send To> Desktop to create a shortcut on the desktop. If you already have an Outlook icon, be sure you note which one just got added. You may not be able to edit the correct properties of the default icon.
Now, locate the icon on the desktop
Right click and select “Properties”
Choose the Security tab and locate the “Target” field. At the end of the value in that field, add: [space] /select outlook:calendar
Click OK to save your changes
Try the new icon
Once you are done reviewing your calendar, use the normal means to go to your inbox and start processing. Congratulations, you just became a little more effective.
(I typically launch Outlook from the Quick Launch bar since my desktop is usually obscured by one app or another.)
I’m not sure how long this has been around, but I noticed that Google Maps now has the ability to show alternative routes when using directions. This is great when you know that you want to avoid a particular area but do not know the next best route.
To use this feature, get directions using google maps and then hover over the alternative routes. The new route will be displayed on screen at the same time as the original one. See the screenshot below for more details.
I was reading Kevin Eikenberry’s blog this evening, specifically his post on the Most Overlooked Networking Opportunity, about networking within your organization, and this bit really caught my eye:
Be a silo buster. If your organization operates in a fragmented, highly departmentalized, siloed way, decide to be the silo buster. All these ideas can help you do this, but the point here is to make a conscious decision to network with the purpose of building relationships that will begin to break down these barriers.
That certaily sounds like most IT departments to me. How many IT departments have a tech/(l)users mentality, where you don’t really see the people you supports as anything more than users, and they don’t see you as much more than a bad SNL skit? How much better would things work if your IT techs were seen as actual human beings? In this economic climate, how much more value to you appear to be bringing to the table when everyone knows you, talks to you, and respects you, when you’re taking the time to learn about what they do and how technology might be able to help? How much could that value mean when it comes time to decide who to lay off?
Give it a shot, you might be surprised just how talented and interesting those (l)users are.
That you can embed in to your blog spreadsheets, documents, and forms created with Google Docs? I didn’t, until today.
It’s actually quite easy. Take for example this simple form below.
To generate such a form, log on to Google Docs, create a new document, and select Form. Create the fields you wish to receive responses to then select Embed. The code necessary to embed the new form within your blog is then presented.
Now, to get it in to your blog you’ll need to ensure that you are in HTML mode before pasting the content in to the body of your post. That’s all there is to it!
Any other tips and tricks with Google Docs? Please share.
It has been a long time since you had audio on the the FiT feed. Well here we go again. This time around several of us got together and had a chat. We talked where we have been in 2008 tech wise. What we expected to get for Christmas and where we are going in 2009.
I have an older WindowsXP based Media Center pc made by HP. It is the model z545. This is a discontinued unit which is too bad. I liked how the black case fits right in with your entertainment gear.
Last night my wife says the remote control quit working. This happens now and then, but a simple reboot usually fixes it right up. This unit is connected to dual Directv receivers. I found to my dismay when the system rebooted it claimed something was corrupt and could not see any tuners. Spending my weekend rebuilding the OS was not something I looked forward to.
After some poking around here is what I did to fix it. Otherwise it was time to look into a Mac Mini as a media center. I just liked having my xbox360 be able to pull tv from the directv over my network.
The media center stays powered on all the time. So it can record shows at any time, keep the guide updated etc. So I turned it off and unplugged it. Charge can build up in hardware. Since things were working and suddenly quit this was the most likely main issue.
I found I still had two older movie programs installed. Cinemanow and Movielink. Cinemanow tends to update itself every now and then. It was one thing acting odd and we don’t really use them. So mark these for uninstall.
Since I was getting messages about corruption and suspect Cinemanow did something I rediscovered System Restore Point. This is something I have always ignored.
So after the full power off and leaving unplugged to discharge for 15 minutes I restored to a system point from last month. Then I uninstalled the unnecessary extra media software that might try and update components in the future. Rebooted and everything was working again. Both the unseen hardware components and software component corruption was all fixed up.
While a normal episode of Geek Cred features an interview from tech, sci-fi, games, or anything geek, Geek Cred Live is back and going to be a monthly thing. What is Geek Cred Live? Geek Cred live is all about you, the listener. With no special interviews, and no set format or set topic, you are the guest–it’s all about hanging out and talking geek!
The next Geek Cred Live will be on this Friday, November 28th, at 10:30 PM EST (GMT-5)
The live show will be done via TalkShoe.com. If you want to participate, if you aren’t already, sign up over there, download and install the TalkShoe software, and when the show starts, join the Talkcast here, which will let you listen to the live stream and participate in the chat room. If you have something to say, dial-in by calling the number (724) 444-7444, enter the Talkcast ID, 52365, and your pin number, and use the software to request to speak. That’s it!
Look forward to seeing you there!
To find out more about Geek Cred, you can visit the show website at http://www.geekcred.net.
Sometimes the cutting remark can blunt the cutting edge. Every year firms spend millions of dollars on hardware and software, but when we asked third-, fourth- and fifth-year associates about their firm’s technology as part of our annual midlevel job satisfaction survey (August 2008), we heard a lot more about long waits and condescending IT staffers than we did about innovative products. Specifically, we found, the quality of tech support — the size and organization of the help desk, and the responsiveness and attitude of its employees — often was the make-or-break factor in respondents’ opinion of their firm’s IT efforts.
I saw this first hand a number of years ago. Not specifically with a help desk, but I saw how a crummy attitude, and an unhelpful support person can ruin a tech project. I came in to an organization that had a fairly complex, yet very useful database system. Unfortunately, hardly anyone ever used it for anything outside of it’s main membership function. It had meeting planning, and subscription modules, and no one used them. When I suggested using them to some folks, I was met with fierce resistance, and came to the realization that everyone in this small organization simply hated this database, and I couldn’t really figure out why. I made an effort to educate people on the benefits, help them learn how it worked, etc. and nothing helped. Everyone still hated it.
It was only a couple of years into this job that I learned the reason why. Apparently, when they purchased this software, the software company sent a trainer to work with all of the staff. This person was not especially helpful to new users, had no patience for questions, did not do a good job training, and just generally wasn’t very nice. Everyone hated her, ergo, everyone hated the product.
I’ve continued to see the same thing play out over and over again. If your tech support folks convey a bad attitude when it comes to questions about your IT efforts, it will influence how people view the projects thesmelves.
Have you seen this play out in your own workplaces? Share your stories!
It’s time to roll back our clocks one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time, and as many sources recommend, a good time to swap out batteries for things like smoke detectors or carbon monoxide detectors.
A few years ago, we picked up a couple of smoke detectors of this type for our family — It’s a vocal smoke detector. It comes with a recommended script for yor recorded message. It’s a very short and basic message calling out your child(ren) by name and instructing them on what to do. Of course, this also means that you must have a family evacuation plan and have worked through it with your children. The recording time is rather small, but that’s the way it’s meant to be — keeping the message short for kids so as not to be too complicated or confusing.
I can’t say I recommend or suggest this specific device, but just wanted to share which device we chose for our family. This model is a few years old, so there may very well be newer, better models on the market. Do a little research first to determine which type of device is best for you and your family. Whatever you do… at least have SOMETHING.
I got the idea to make this great should strap for my camera From PhotoDojo. In essence it is a strap that hangs across your chest that lets your camera hang at your waist allowing you to grab the camera and bring it to your face for quick shots, but also be out of your way when not in use.
I made this strap from 2 straps. I had one wider strap from a free laptop bag I got when I ordered my MacBook pro, and the thinner strap is from an old, and I mean old, camera bag.
The laptop bag strap had great hardware and shoulder pad. I cut off the hardware which was a swivel clip and that allowed me to remove the shoulder pad. The swivel hook’s part that attached to the original strap was wider than the new one which will allow it to slide.
I took the thinner strap, put on the shoulder pad, slid on the clip hook and made the thinner strap one piece with a plastic slip hook. Afterward, I put an eyelet hook on the bottom of my camera in the tripod mount socket. It is a little long, but it works.
Now my camera can hang at my waist and I can pull it up to take a shot without the whole strap moving. You can see an example of how it works here . If you want to order the original you can do so at that link too.
I found myself struggling to create a simple, efficient countdown timer in PowerPoint and finally found a solution to share with you.
My situation is for a training course. I want to give the students 5 minutes to work on an exercise. Rather than making separate slides and have each one run for 60 seconds, I wanted to consolidate text (or graphics) on one slide and display each for the appropriate amount of time. The catch to all this is I want the “5″ to go away when the “4″ appears. Having this all one on slide makes it easy to reuse the slide for other exercises later in the training, rather than copying six (one for each minute and one to say “TIME!”) several times.
Many of us on Friends In Tech are keen photographers and therefore have decent cameras that are capable of shooting in Raw and JPEG mode and a lot of the cameras are capable of shooting both at the same time. This has an advantage in that you don’t really need specialized software to edit the JPEG files and the Raw photos are still available for the heavy duty editing that may be required.
However shooting both Raw and JPEG files in the camera slows the writing of files to the media card and also takes up extra space. In my Canon XT camera the jpg files take up an extra 25% of the media space.
By switching to Raw only, you will always have the benefits of the full original file and detail to work from but it makes it harder for quick edits if you need the JPEG formats.
From a hint on Photoshop Insider by Scott Kelby comes a link to the free (registration and email address required) RawWorkFlow.com’s Instant JPEG From Raw utility. The Photoshop Insider link also has some interesting history on the Raw format and a video on how to use Instant Jpeg from Raw too.
Note that the application does not register itself in the start menu or on the desktop – you just select your Raw files, right click and choose the Instant JPEG from Raw menu option.
“Mattie Stevens, a young boy of the early 80′s, dreams of owning a Commodore 64. He sets out to convince everyone this is the perfect gift. But, along the way runs into opposition from his parents and everyone around him including old Santa Claus”
