Jimiz.net – Jim Becher on the web

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I decided to jail break again. I really like the sbsettings That lets you turn things like wireless, bluetooth, and other features on and off with a simple click.

I also use mywi to tether when on the road, since I purchased the app it is very useful.

Some of the other reasons to jailbreak are to test out some fun themes.

To jailbreak I used the always up to date lifehacker post:
http://lifehacker.com/jailbreak/

Beyond the main applications I normally use I also installed the best jailbreak apps from lifehacker

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It is that time of the year.  I love Christmas.  I just realized at work that the the only pictures of the kids I have are getting pumpkins and a Christmas tree (multiple years).   Yesterday we went and got the tree.  It is always a fun event, and we have had snow each year we go.  We have been going the same place for the last 6 years.   (buy local

In the spirit of things we have been listening to Christmas songs since ThanksGiving (my kids love them).  But here are a few of my favorites:
These are songs that I’ve just enjoyed for a while.

1. Merry Christmas from the Family (REK) – Fun song

2. Merry Christmas from the family (MG) – just a fun twist

3. Dido (Christmas Day)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7heCppIC0_E&feature=related

4. Dave Matthews (Christmas Song) Live

 

5.
 

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I have started biking into work again.  It has been enjoyable and an interesting adventure.   This time around I’m using my commuter, a converted mountain bike (Schwinn S9five6 – Purchased in 1995).    This is one of my favorite bikes, I’ve had a great amount of fun over the years with this bike.   In the last 5 years it has sat in my garage gathering dust.

When I started commuting this year I was using my Fuji road bike.  I love that bike, it is fast, light and nimble.  However, using it for commuting became difficult.   The route I take to work takes me across 2 major roads.  One of those roads does not have bike path.   To accommodate I typically ride on the sidewalk.  The road bike does not handle the sidewalk that well.  Too many curbs and opportunities to pop a tire.

To make commuting easier I decided to use the Schwinn.  I have put Bontrager slicks on it and added some safety lights and flashers.   Other than the items above and adding a Roc Shock back in 1998 it is stock.

Over the last week it has been fun to ride to work.   Not having to worry about what I ride over; curbs, cracks and gravel.    Though I only ride 6.8 miles into work, it is about 30 minutes across a few busy roads and a few bike paths.

I typically don’t ride on a sidewalk, especially on the road bike but it is much safer earlier in the morning.   People don’t often look for bikers when they are driving into work.

If you have not tried to commute into work via bike, I would suggest trying it a few times.

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I currently have many things that I would love to acquire.    Some of these I consider great design and others I find as great tools.

Seating:

Eames Aluminum office chair – a great office chair that is comfortable and also good looking:  http://store.hermanmiller.com/Products/Eames-Aluminum-Group-Management-Chair

Eames Lounge – I have  wanted this chair for years.  It would be a great addition to the house as both a show piece and also seating:  http://store.hermanmiller.com/store/servlet/dynamicKit__10151_-1_10051_1097?CAWELAID=846660089

Backpack – Waterproof backpack that would be great for commuting and work:  http://www.missionworkshop.com/products/bags/backpacks/rucksack/sanction.php

Backpack – Not as good looking as the mission backpack but the same function: http://www.amazon.com/Overboard-Liters-Premium-Waterproof-Backpack/dp/B004D13NCE

Commuting coat – Mission workshop makes some of the best looking functional items: http://www.missionworkshop.com/products/apparel/jacket/waterproof-orion.php

 

 

Digital Lock – A door lock that kids can use on the house, never leave a key lost: http://www.amazon.com/Schlage-FE595VCAM619ACC-Camelot-Keypad-Accent/dp/B000NJJ1TY

 

Stereo – I love hi-tech gadgets but this is just pure vintage goodness.  My father had the Pioneer SX-727.  I have been watching for a good version of this.  Pioneer SX-1010 - http://www.classicaudio.com/value/pio/SX1010.html

This is just a good list of things.  I will eventually get around to buying  a few of these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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For the last 2 months I have been standing up at work.  I’ve borrowed a rolling laptop cart to be my stand up desk.  You can see from the pictures that it is adjustable and also has a mouse tray to the side.

 

The stand I am using is an instand, deluxe with roller wheels. Using a standup desk has been a great learning experience.  The first week my feet were killing me.   At the end of the day all I wanted was to sit down and take off my shoes.   After about 5 days my feet got used to it.

I also found that people are very curious about the stand-up desk.  I work in a large corporation and there are many cubes in my area.   I would get about 1 person a week stopping over and asking me questions.  Most of the questions were regarding health.  Many people asked if I was doing this because of back issues.   I find that interesting that everyone relates standing to back pains.

The reason I decided to give this a try was from an old email I found.  I had wanted to know how long I had gmail and looked back at the oldest email I had in my account.   I had forwarded an article about a future treadmill desk from one of the furniture makers.  In that article they talked about the benefits of standing while working.    I did a few searches and found that it is a growing trend and a health one.  I’m not saying that I’ll die if I sit at work like this article, but standing could be healthier.

http://mashable.com/2011/04/22/standup-desks/#13017A-standup-desk-in-action

 

There are many solutions and desks available for standing, I chose this one because it wsa available.    The only issue I have is that there are 3 rollers on the bottom and because of where I have it positioned one sticks out towards me while I am working.

Overall I have found that standing is a great way to work.  I am not sure I could go back to sitting all the time.  I have found that for some tasks sitting is more appealing.  I find that I am most comfortable talking on the phone when seated.  I also realized that If I am doing any type of heavy mouse usage that sitting helps.

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I find myself in a command prompt in windows a lot.  I enjoy using it.  From simple items like getting an ip address or copying files (robocopy)  I use it a lot.   More recently I have been in powershell a lot more.  Powershell uses most of the same tricks as the command prompt.

I have used these tips and tricks from the command prompt - http://commandwindows.com/vista-tips.htm

Recently at teched I found another great tip the “F7″ key.  I think almost everyone knows that you can use the up arrow to get to your previous command.  ”F7″ allows you to list all your recent commands and then select them.  So image a long select script in power shell, you can hit “f7″ and look at the script.

 

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It seems like just yesterday I upgraded to Vista x64.  It was a pain in the rear, display drivers did not work, things were a little difficult to get intalled (sharepoint development environment). Some of the main software I used did not work, like screen (screen capture app), pdfprinter, and even simple things like Cisco VPN.    It took some time but the x64 vista was worth it.  I had a machine with 6 gigs of ram and I could use it.  I was not hampered with using XP and limited to 3.something for RAM.

Today I was reading a quick link on twitter regarding x64 and the steam network. It seems that for windows users x64 has taken over 32bit.  Here is a link to their hardware survey that shows 40% of windows users being x64

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

That is pretty good.  Since Windows 7 has only been out for a short time.   My feeling is that most new computers are now coming with Win 7 x64.  In fact, I have not seen an add that did have 32bit any more.   Why would you, it limits the RAM usage to 3 gigs.

64 bit has gone a long way since I first switched.  I now use 8 gigs of ram and many virtual machines…  I would never want to switch back.

 

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I am very pleased with my newer T410 laptop.  The only complaint I have found is the resolution.  It is set to 1280 x 800, which is not bad. It is a wide screen but not too high of a resolution.  I was used to a T61 with a 1680×1050 resolution WSXGA+.   It is amazing how you can miss that real estate.

When I started looking for a smaller laptop (14 or 13 inch), I was amazed that there were not that many high resolution machines to select from.  I was able to find a few T410′s with 1440 x 900 resolution but they tend to be a lot more expensive.  The T410s also had a higher resolution.

The question I have, is where have all the high resolution laptops gone? You can get a 15 inch or greater laptop with unreal resolution but the smaller (14 inch ) or less have limited resolution.   Is there a reason for this?

You can find this type of resolution on a laptop a few years old, but not too many new ones.  I’ve found it is difficult to get used to a smaller resolution, especially when using visual studio.  In fact I’ve been frustrated enough that I’ve been looking for any t410′s with 1440 resolution to purchase and sell my current one.

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I have been looking at new a new laptops and have been watching how people use them. My reasons for this are simple. I am a firm believer in the trackpoint, the little joystick thing in the middle of a laptop keyboard. Particularly on the IBM thinkpad laptops. The new laptop I will be using is a Dell and may or may not have have the trackpoint available. It is difficult for me to understand why a person would use the touchpad. I will go into detail for both, but I must warn you I have only used the touchpad on limited occasions. So let’s start this argument.

Reasons for the Trackpoint

1. You never have to let you fingers leave the keys. You can just move your pointer finger over and move the mouse and then click while still on the asdf key sets.

2. It is easy to use and learn on.

3. Takes up less space on the laptop. This is not an issue with todays Monster desktop replacements.

4. I find it very accurate.

Reasons for the Touchpad

1. Touchpad allows for multiple functions – scroll, slide, click and application launching

2. It seems to cause less stress on the wrist when using

Failures of the trackpoint

1. The pointer stick often gets dirty (kinda sticky)

2. You may hit it by accident when typing

3. There is not scrolling option unless you have a newer IBM.

Failures of the touch pad

1. People often hit it it when they are moving their wrists or fingers.

2. Difficult to learn quickly or use accurately

3. You cannot use it with one hand.

4. It can get very dirty , chips and dip are not very nice to the touchpad.

So who wins. Well have you ever been to an airport or at a seminar and watched all the laptop users fire up their computers and then pull out a mouse. Why is this. Why not use the built-in mouse. Well my thoughts are the fact that the touch pad sucks… They spend all this money for a laptop and then have to go out and get a mouse. To me, it is not a laptop then it is now just another computer. I have noticed and figured out that most IBM thinkpad users tend to stick with the trackpoint and end up dropping the mouse. I have not found any surveys, but it would be interesting.

From a usage standpoint, the trackpoint allows you to do development and movement very effectively. I can type and move the mouse to the properties section of the Visual Studio IDE quickly.

I would love to hear peoples thoughts. When I was in our IT group and new people started and were issued a new thinkpad. They always wanted a mouse. In about 2 days we would get the mouse back. They would get the hang of the trackpoint.

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I use Filezilla as my main FTP client. It is a wonderful tool for ftp, ftps, scp (sftp) and other transfer protocols. I am getting a new laptop and needed to transfer / backup my settings. I have a lot of sites stored and did not want to go looking for all the username and password information.

Filezilla allows you to backup your information and transfer it to a new system. To do this you need to:
1. Open Filezilla
2. File | Export

3. select (export site manager entries and export settings)
4. Save the XML file to your hard drive.

This backup contains all your site manager information. It also stores your password in the clear. If you look at the XML file you can see the element has your passwords. This is not a safe thing, for those of use who are security conscious. I am no-longer storing my passwords in filezilla and will be prompted when using ftp or sftp. As much as I like filezilla, I’ve started looking for an alternative. One option I’ve read about is to use a password storage tool like “keypass” to use with filezilla I will have to try this.

If anyone has suggestions please let me know.

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I love technology. I love how the process of doing tedious tasks can be simplified. I can remember when creating an favicon was a true task. You had to download some type of app that would transform your image to a PNG then do some maniuplation to make it the right size.

Today there are some great sites that take your image (almost any size) and generate a favicon.

• http://www.favicon.cc/
• http://www.html-kit.com/favicon/
• http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/

If you are creating an iphone or ipad app you can also create an image online. Here is a pretty good site for doing so. http://www.midnightmobility.com/iphone-icon/

I thank those who run the above sites and how they have made my life easier. Happy icon generating.

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– UPDATE: Part 2

A few years back, while in Holland during the summer I ran into an old friend on the beach. He was with his kids and they had long boards and were walking down the beach. My friend was wearing the strangest shoes. I had never seen shoes with toes on them. That was the first time I had seen vibram five fingers. After talking to him he used them for everything, skateboarding, walking, and just being with the kids.

The next day I headed down to The Outpost and purchased a pair. I think they only had one color and one type. They were $89 bucks for the sprint. I wore them for the afternoon (took me a while to get them on) and then a few days outside. They were not the most well built shoe, and the seams on the toes started to break after a week. I took them back and got another pair this time a size larger and have had them since. That was back in the summer of 08 or 09. I have been happy with them since.

Later that fall, my wife and brother-in law read a book called “born to run” that talked about barefoot running. Being a runner I was interested in reading. What I did not know what that the five-fingers were part of that barefoot running craze. That winter I started running on the treadmill with the five-fingers. Up until that time I used them for just being outside, running around with the kids and driving.

I got up to about 10 miles indoors, and figured I’d start outside when it got warm. My second run out with the five-fingers I hit a large rock on my middle foot and got a huge bruise. That got me out of running barefoot for a while. It took me till laste summer to jump back into the five-fingers to run.

I’m now a happy runner in my five-fingers. It is just funny that I got started for other reasons than running. Overall what a great shoe. I intend to get another pair or getting the new more “more shoe like” merrells.

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What browser do you use. I’m a chrome user. Have been for about a year. The features that draw me to chrome are the very simple view with tabs, easy search by the address bar, and sync of the bookmarks. Also, did I mention speed.

These great features that set chrome apart are not part of both IE9 and the new Firefox. I’ve read the reviews of each and decided to try them for myself. I have to say that I’m impressed.

So far I’ve found that the good features (download manager, minimal window size, and speed) have all been addressed by firefox and ie9.

In terms of reasons to use a browser, I’ve been in love with firebug on firefox for a long time for development. however, recently I’ve been using the inspect element in chrome as well.

In my own personal test I was taken by the performance of FireFox. It appeared to run faster and open quicker than before.

Though I’ve started using FireFox as the default browser for the last 2 days, I have also been using ie9.
IE9 has incorporated a lot of nice features from both FF and chrome. I even like the on browser modal notification for downloads and issues.

Overall both browsers have succeeded in adding new features, being faster, more secure, and more of a minimal feel. Can’t wait to see what else is coming.

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I’ve mentioned before that I recently got another Thinkpad (t410). After receiving the laptop I’ve had wireless issues / performance problems with it. At first I just thought it was due to my wireless network. I use a combination of DDWRT and Airport Extreme to provide wireless to my house. The airport provides the wireless as a dedicated AP and I use ddwrt as a bridge at the far end of my house to provide some LAN connections.

My new ThinkPad was utilizing the ‘N’ wireless network and I figured that maybe the T410 and it’s Intel Centrino 6200 Advanced wireless card were incompatible with the ‘N’ version on the airport extreme. I spent some time adjusting the wireless settings on both the router and the laptop and still got an inconstant performance or just poor performance overall. In order to troubleshoot some more I disabled the wireless N on both the router and T410 and reverted to just “G”. After that change, there was no performance improvement. Basically the connections from the net Thinkpad were running at about 200k – 100k and dropping pings. I did a quick comparison to my old thinkpad (side by side) and it was getting around 7 Mbits per second.

After a few days of troubleshooting I figured I could just live with the performance, because I basically use the laptop for browsing and coding. This proved to be untrue, It was horrible when trying to move files and update sites.

So today I called Lenovo support and discussed my issue. The Customer Agent was friendly and very helpful. She walked me through 2 similar tests that I had done: Validate the settings and remove / reinstall the driver. After those tests, she asked if I would like to Send my laptop in for support to replace the wireless card. I referenced the lenovo thinkpad support forums I had been checking to see if others had the same issue.

I have been working in IT for many years and consider myself very familiar with ThinkPads, and do not like sending anything out for repair. I asked if they could just send the card and I would install it. She was very helpful and said they would do that right away. They are sending a card that will arrive in 1 day.

I hope someone at Lenovo reads this quick post and thanks their team for being friendly and helpful while providing customer support. I’ve been on the other end of tech support and appreciate it when someone is helpful, friendly and supportive.

Overall the call took 11 min, and that is a win in my book. Again, Plus 1 for Thinkpad.

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I love the press and the new release that Apple is getting with the iPad2. I recently read an article regarding the Xoom vs the iPad http://blogs.computerworld.com/17907/motorola_xoom_versus_the_ipad_2_the_xoom_is_a_clear_winner

The base argument is around the horsepower and processor in the device, the multi tasking features, flash support (soon), gyroscope, and tabs on the browser. As I look at how the iPad is used at our house and how I use it. I don’t think I need any of those things. They are nice, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what I use.

An interesting counter argument is brought up by Robert Scoble (http://scobleizer.com/2011/03/02/no-apps-no-sale-ipad-2-vs-motorola-xoom-vs-rim-playbook-vs-hp-touchpad/) I agree with his view.

1. Apple iPad 2. Has apps. 65,000 of them.
2. Motorola Xoom. Has no apps. Oh, sorry. 16. At least no apps designed for the large format. Designing an app that works on a smart phone isn’t the same as designing one that works on a large screen. Most of the apps I’ve “stretched” really suck compared to their iPad equivalents.
3. HP TouchPad. Has no apps. Heck, it isn’t even shipping yet.
4. RIM PlayBook. Has no apps. Heck, it isn’t even shipping yet.

Overall the new tablets that are coming out may have better hardware than the Original iPad but are very close with the iPad. If you are a hardware junkie then you may care. If you surf the web, remote into computers, use an ssh terminal, play games, watch movies, or check email. You probably don’t care. You just want an easy to use robust device, like the iPad. The item I am amazed that people forget it the battery life… I think Apple wins on that item.

You also want apps. What a simple word “app”. Apple has them, the others don’t. Yes, the apple store may be the only place, and it’s not open to everything, but it is solid. I’m a linux user at home and a passionate opensource advocate, but the iPad is such a solid device.

What are your thoughts?