Archive for September, 2009

Moore’s law is a technical expression on the ability of computer horsepower to double every 24 months. But where does that much horsepower get us if it’s all stuck in one box? I often remark that having a single purpose network server is like having a bulldozer to move a wheelbarrow of dirt. It works – but what a waste of horsepower! This is where virtualization steps in.


If you are like me, and grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, there are few words more abused in the Sci-fi lexicon than the word ‘virtual’. Now the term has popped up in the technology world too – but not just as some playground for the latest aliens versus humans gore fest. Now it’s being sullied as a way to improve the bottom line and reduce risk. So, what is virtualization, and more importantly, what does it do for our business?


For a long time computers have been able to mimic or emulate computers of lesser power. Bill Gates developed the BASIC language for Intel chips using such an emulator. Today’s systems are powerful enough to emulate a complete computer within a computer – in fact – several. With a powerful computer hosting several virtual computers, each virtual system can run an application as if it had a whole system to itself, with no conflicts or interference with other software sharing the server. Best of all, these ‘virtual’ machines can be started or stopped at will – great for a payroll application that runs only twice a month. This may affect the software licenses required, and lower your IT costs. Better yet, virtualization can be used to ‘ship’ a virtual system from one location to another. This is a key aspect of business continuity and disaster recovery.

Sometimes the hunt for the latest and greatest tech gadget can take a wrong turn and lead down tangent lane… That’s what happened to me this month when I stumbled across the WhyCry Baby Analyzer. This little device listens to your baby crying and gives you a little translation of what she is feeling! There are five outputs: hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy or stressed.

Now, I’m not sure how much this works – as I’m fresh out of babies to test with – but I have to ask myself how useful this really is? Any new parent has struggled with trying to figure out what exactly their baby is feeling (I know from experience) but the question is: do you want to rely on a $119 appliance to know your child? Mother’s instincts have been delivering the same outputs for millenia, why rock the boat?

Well, one good reason I can think of is the 13 year old girl you’re entrusting your child with when you go out for mom and dad time. Babysitters have decent training programs and must be certified these days, but wouldn’t it be nice if they knew how your baby felt? It may help foster empathy with the sitter and get your baby a little bit of extra warmth in that difficult time away from mom and dad.

When all is said and done, though – what a cool little gadget!

Ahh, passwords! What 30 years ago was the realm of little kids in tree forts and secret agents, has now become part of everyone’s world. If you have any sort of online presence, you’ve more than likely got a multitude of passwords. Passwords for e-mail accounts, for Facebook and Myspace…the list can be endless. It is this very ubiquity that has stripped passwords of their importance for most people.

For example, many people use the same password (or a variant thereof) for all online services. While this seems like a good idea at first (one password to remember, so it can be more complex), it quickly can become a nightmare if one of those services is compromised.

If someone manages to hack your Myspace account and discovers your password, they might then start trying the same password at Hotmail, Facebook, and so on. All of a sudden all of your accounts have been hacked, and your digital identity is in shambles. The best defense to this would be completely unique passwords for each service. However, the problem then becomes remembering each password, as well as which password is used for which site.

My favorite solution is to use the same password root for each site, but to customize it as well. I use 60SPF sunblock, so we’ll use that as the root. My Facebook password might be 60SPFILFB5 (short for I like Facebook plus the number 5). My Hotmail password might be 60SPFILHM7.

This method allows for nicely complex passwords, and a relatively good amount of variation between passwords.

Quick Calendar Navigation

(For these quick keys to work, you go into your Calendar and then into Options and then set the Enable Quick Entry to No.)

Schedule an appointment – Press C

Change to Agenda view – Press A

Change to Day view – Press D

Change to Week view – Press W

Change to Month view – Press M

Move to the next day, week or month – Press Space key

Move to the previous day, week or month – Press Shift key + Space key

Move to the current date – Press T

Move to a specific date – Press G

Quick Message Navigation

Within a message

Reply to a message – Press R

Reply to all – Press L

Forward a message – Press F

File a highlighted email message – Press I

View email address of a contact – In a message, highlight contact – Press Q

To view display name again, press Q

In a message list

Open a highlighted message – Press Enter key

Compose a message from a message list – Press C

Mark a message as opened or unopened – Press Alt key + U

View received messages – Press Alt key + I

View sent messages – Press Alt key + O

View voicemail messages – Press Alt key + V

View SMS text messages – Press Alt key + S

View call logs – Press Alt key + P

View all your messages again – Press Escape key

Moving around a message list

Move up the screen -Press Shift key + Space key

Move down the screen – Press Space key

Move to the top of a message list – Press T

Move to the bottom of a message list – Press B

Move to the next date – Press N

Move to the previous date – Press P

Move to the next unopened item – Press U

Move to the next related message – Press J

Move to the previous related message – Press K