You've probably already tried this, but just in case any of you haven't, try Foxit Reader. If you are sick of the size of adobe reader, sick of the prompting to download other programs, sick of the crashing it does, Foxit reader is for you. It's zippy and compact at 2.55 M! And it's available for Linux too!
Get it at http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php.
Yesterday was the first day back on my job after a much-needed vacation. It was very busy yesterday, but still feel the euphoria associated with goofing off. I didn't go anywhere, but had a graduation party for my youngest son, built a gazebo from a kit and chaueffered my upstate NY mommy around to see the sites here. (She said it's like an oven here south of Baltimore). The graduation was wild - 457 grads including my pride and joy. Then we wanted to grab a bite to eat and we closed Bennigans down! My ex even paid my bar bill (boy has HE mellowed). Ok, I'm a lightweight... just one glass of house white, but he used to be how do you say .....um... slightly stuffy. This is a big step forward.
I did learn something last week. Ok, it's not computer related. Mom and I went out to breakfast but the only place open was Denny's. Beggars can't be choosers and we knew they had coffee. We stopped. One look at the menu and I realized why I didn't go there. I complained to the waitress that the meals were too large... like platters. She said I could order from the senior menu! I didn't finish that meal either, but it's handy to know you do have options other than carting around a doggy bag with food you probably will end up tossing. So fellows, if your date complains about portion sizes, ask the waitress if the smaller portioned senior menu is an option.
OK, now back to the job that paid for my goofing around!
I was reading an article about why you shouldn't daisy chain UPSs. Initially, I couldn't understand why this was even article worthy. I'm thinking who in their right mind would do that. Then I thought maybe someone had leftover UPSs from a downsized company.
It's finanacially smarter to buy the UPS you need than two half the runtime. On a 120V battery, 2 hours might cost you 40$ whereas 10 hours might only cost you another 20$ more. It's a no-brainer to go for the 10 hour. I know you can find them cheaper than this, but i am talking in "for instance."
Ok, but supposing you had a big stockpile of UPSs that weren't been used anymore. Can you daisy-chain them? The answer is yes, you CAN but why would you want to. Here's three reasons why you shouldn't.
- First, it's not UL recommended.
- Second, you're not going to get 4 hours off 2 2-hour UPSs. Once the electric cuts, the UPSs sense that the electric is cut and you'll be using both UPSs at the same time.
- Lastly, do you really want to listen to beeping for more than 2 hours?
The electric cut at my work last week. Maryland has had a record amount of rain. The reservoirs are full. The trees are falling over and power lines go SNAP! My UPS kicked it and let me tell you I didn't even make it 2 hours and the beeping drove me nuts i powered off my UPS. The UPSs kept the servers up long enough to get the generator turned on. No one sits in the server room so no one listens to all that racket.
So basically, if you have a stockpile of UPSs, put them on ebay or donate them.
The other day I was called to the desk to fix someone's browser hijack. Ran Adaware and spybot and still it was hijacked. Looked through the processes in task manager and control panel add/remove programs.; I deleted everything suspicious. Still it was hijacked. If you haven't tried super antispyware yet, do try it. It was the winner. It found and destroyed the spyware. Get it at http://www.superantispyware.com.
Just a note on Lavasoft Ad aware 2008. It does seem to be considerable faster and better than 2007. Too bad their support is practically non-existent. If you are going to do world-wide business, your support should be world-wide. They have NO telephone sales reps.
Just in case you don't have a iso recorder, visit http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm to download a free xp powertoy. It will help you burn your iso file to CD.
A laggy old PIII was my test subject yesterday. Installed xubuntu desktop v. 8.04 (a linux distribution) on it and it was browsing the internet as fast as my desktop which I am continually tweaking. It was unbelieveable. Just wiping Windows turned a reject computer into something I'd want to take home with me! Incredible.
Xubuntu is available at http://www.ubuntu.com free of charge. The desktop version is 544 mb for x86 computers. The iso needs to be put on a cd. The install is a breeze.
Choose guided instead of manual partitioning and the swap partition will be made for you.
Kicking myself for thinking crappy old computer when indeed it was crappy old Windows.
Without a doubt, the best value around for techs is IEEE membership. The dues includes a subscription to Computer magazine, podcasts, online periodicals. A full-year membership is $165, but you receive so much for that amount. There are 1300 online training classes to choose from. They are tech and business related so there is something for everyone. Visit
http://www.ieee.org for more details.
If I were to establish a motto for my career, it would have to be "Making technical concepts understandable to my users." If someone walks away from a help desk thinking, "Huh?" then it's not a successful encounter.
The department I am proud to be a member of recently won a service appreciation award. I take that as a success for us.
Over the months that follow, I'll be sharing what I learn about the various technologies that we employ at my place of employment. We utilize Microsoft technologies, E-business, SQL, Wireless, and much more, but I will only be sharing on the areas that I learn about. I'll be jumping from topic to topic; this is intended. I hope that you can glean some pearls from the items I share here in this cyberspace.
Joyfully,
Janet