BeardmoreWeb

I recently downloaded and installed Safari 4 on my MacBook Pro and my initial reaction to the software is awesome!  Today, I enabled the Develop part of the program and started playing with it while working on a web project.  After troubleshooting a few css issues on a website using the development tools on Safari, I must say I am very impressed!

I especially like the resources view that allows me to look at what elements of my sites are taking the longest to load.  Prior to using Safari 4, I was a frequent user of the Firebug toolbar for Firefox.  Safari 4, in my opinion is much better for usability and is more aesthetically pleasing.

This impression may change in the future, but so far I am very pleased with the flexibility, the ease of use, and the design of the Develop functions of Safari 4!

Applications, General, Technology, Websites Firebug, Safari 4

I recently worked on a computer that the user had lost the Show Desktop icon from the quick launch menu in Windows Vista. After trying to fix it in the OS I turned to Google and found a great article about how to fix the problem from Microsoft. It involves opening notepad and pasting some code and saving the file as desktop.scf

The code to be pasted:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

You can find the article at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=190355

General, Problems, Technology Desktop Icon, Issues, QuickLaunch, Vista, Windows, XP

Recently my family purchased a MacBook Pro for my brother to use at college.  The original intent was that he was only going to use Windows but after he came back from orientation, we found that he would need Windows.

Windows XP SP2 installed without a hitch up until I went to update to Service Pack 3.  Even though I had plenty of space left on the bootcamp partition, an error message came up every time I tried to install SP3 saying that there wasn’t enough space in the install location.  After searching the web, I found this fix and it worked perfectly!

http://www.windowsreference.com/general/error-there-is-not-enough-disk-space-when-installing-sp3/

Problems, Technology

I have had this issue numerous times before but finally I found where the iWeb files live.  Before re-installing OS X or moving to a different machine, copy the file that is located at /users/CURRENT USER/Library/Application Support/iWeb/

The file will be a .sites2 file and when you copy that over to a new machine or install iWeb will have all the information, files and settings that it needs, including .mac information.

Applications, Problems, Technology

In the beginning of December, I was elected as Chief Web Officer for the University of Minnesota Entrepreneurship club. With this came the responsibility to update the site www.ceomakers.com and make it run with a CMS to allow more interaction with club members. I am pretty accustomed to using Joomla! with most websites that I launch for clients but I have recognized that it definitely has its weaknesses. Naturally because of prior experience, my initial thought was to use Joomla! for this site but unfortunately I couldn’t get it to do everything that was needed for the project.

My specific needs for this site are to have the ability to have a custom content type for the CEO’s that speak at our meetings. This schedule on the old site is added into the database using PhpMyAdmin and then the main page has a little blurb covering the events for the upcoming week. The speaker data is also available as a list and then when a user clicks on the speaker’s name, it takes them to an individual page that has a full bio of the speaker. This is a very important item that needs to be on the site and I just didn’t see any extensions for Joomla! that would add this functionality.

Because of this, I decided to check out Drupal because I had watched a Google Tech Talk session about implementing Drupal and it seemed like it would be able to provide the ability to add a custom content type. I decided to install Drupal on a stand alone server to take a look at its functionality. After playing with the software for two hours, I found that it has all the functionality that I need and much more. With Drupal’s CCK module, I was able to make the speaker content type in about ten minutes and then through the Views module, I was able to create all the content views that were available through the old site.

Another great thing will be that the new ceomakers.com will also have a graphical calendar that will pull from the speakers list and an events list as well.

After playing with Drupal, I came up with a list of things that I really liked.

1. CCK which makes custom content types is a tool that I can’t believe that I have lived without.

2. User control is so much more extensible than Joomla! Drupal gives the ability to create unlimited user permission sets and also gives the ability to create custom user profile fields right in the Drupal core.

3. Drupal modules are so much more empowering than Joomla! extensions. Drupal modules are more able to integrate with other site services to create a unified site. The best example of this is how the calendar module that I used was able to pull from multiple content types to create an integrated graphical calendar. Joomla! extensions just don’t provide that ability to work with other extensions to create a seamless solution.

All in all, I feel that my eyes have been opened to what a CMS should include. Drupal just provides so many more functions that Joomla! can’t do.

To document my experience of using Drupal, I plan on posting about my experiences as I go through the re-design process of ceomakers.com

Technology CCK, CMS, Drupal, Entrepreneurship Club, Views

Try QLab from Figure 53. It allows sound designers to totally pre-program their show without the hassle of showing their soundboard operators how to run different pieces of equipment and have to teach them decent fades. This software application does it all! With a few extra licenses which are very reasonably priced, one can easily run an entire show including video, fog machines, motors and lights all from one Mac running Tiger or Leopard.

The interface is very intuitive with mostly drag and drop. It is very easy to number cues however a person wants! The best thing is that the software is constantly being updated. QLab’s web site www.figure53.com is continuously being updated with new information for support and case studies. The case studies show some truly amazing setups where designers setup QLab to do some pretty cool things with their shows! One case study that was published showed that a one person performance could be run by triggering cues from a rigged cell phone that beamed commands to the computer! This is of course and extreme example, but for the person who simply wants to run sound cues, it is a great piece of software.

At UW-La Crosse we use a FireStudio 410 FireWire audio interface with QLab which allows us to control eight different speakers at the same time! With eight speakers, one could easily make sound pan all around the room immersing the audience in the scene!

The video license allows one (assuming that they have a powerful enough computer) to drive eight different displays at the same time with full video! I would have loved to have this soft of sophistication in my shows in High School!

A plus is that QLab is not very resource intensive at all. I ran Christmas Carol with many sound effects all happening relatively quickly on a PowerMac G3 with zero problems.

Also, since QLab runs on OS X, its stability is great. I have not had one single freeze when working with QLab.

Rock Solid Stability + Great User Interface + Free = One Great Application!

Check it out today at www.figure53.com

Applications, Technology

Hello everyone from the La Crosse PC Users Group, thank you for having me, I had a great time showing you Vista!

Here is the information that I promised:

• For starters, here is the break down of the different versions of vista (click here)
• Second, the TV tuner that I used in my brief demo of Media Center for Vista is a WinTV PVR 2 USB which is made by a company called Hauppage. NewEgg currently has it for $124.99 (click here to go to newegg’s listing)
  
• Third, The Build that I had on the Dell Inspiron 1520 that I did the demo with is here

Dell Inspiron 1520 Laptop

• Fourth, I will see what I can do with the video, we ran a little long so a large part of the presentation did not make it on the tape. Check back in a week and hopefully I will have posted something by then.

Also from my presentation, I would like to remind you that for home use, The version to go with is Vista Home Premium, unless you want all the neat features of Vista Ultimate then spring for tha, but for general computing Vista Home Premium will be perfect.

For more Vista and microsoft information there is a great podcast Windows Weekly which has a ton of great information about what is going on at Microsoft.  This podcast is part of the TWIT (This Week in Tech) podcast network run by Leo Laporte (former The Screen Savers host from TechTV)

Please let me know if you have any questions about what you learned at the demo and I would be happy to answer them. E-Mail

Technology