By Eric Bell on
4/29/2009 3:40 PM
Netflix has it wrong, multiple rental queues can be managed better.
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By Eric Bell on
2/9/2009 11:46 PM
Time magazine makes an argument to pay for the news and they convincingly assert that news coverage costs money. But are you getting what you pay for?
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By Eric Bell on
2/6/2009 8:06 AM
"People fail to deliver projects on a timely basis because they don't have a system in place to organize their work, GTD or Getting Things Done solves this", paraphased from David Allen's book Getting Things Done. He argues effectively that the widely used To-Do lists are virtually ineffective because they don't account for the work itself require to ...
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By Eric Bell on
12/9/2008 2:32 PM
LogMeIn is one of the remote control tools like GoToMyPC that is a real boon to supporting your own computers remotely and other people's computers too. But with the increasing security consciousness, we use firewalls to block misbehavior of others. Once LogMeIn is installed on the client computer (the computer that will be remotely controlled), it should set its required firewall port open but it doesn't.
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By Eric Bell on
11/20/2008 8:17 AM
11/19/08, Westin Copley hotel in Boston, MA. WebTrends, Teradata, and Stratigent held on of their WebTrends Connect seminar in Boston and these three companies understand their missions and believe in them. About 50 people attended this seminar that was organized and presented well. What was interesting about this 3 hours seminar?First, WebTrends which was the lead sponsor is in their own words changing their mission from a "web analytics company to a marketing optimization" company. They started in 1993 as one of the first analytics companies and have progressed to one of the big three along with Omniture and Coremetrics. How are they going to change mindset from web analytics to marketing optimation - I don't know really. They clearly have products that can be sold into the marketplace and shaped to optimize marketing....
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By Eric Bell on
11/5/2008 9:25 PM
Most small biz web sites are not maintained and the fix for this is 3 steps that none would think of. Once undertaken, the web site will be in a position to be maintained and be profitable in time.
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By Eric Bell on
5/24/2007 12:21 PM
What is the killer app of today and possibly tomorrow? Another spreadsheet, another wordprocessor or a new Wiki? No, the next killer app is the app that is simple to understand, simple to use and executed well. Its the app that provides immediate feedback. These may not be objective criteria but the formula works. The question for the company that comes up with this app is ...how to make money and supply this app? A simple app with immediate feedback that is my thesis. Not solving a particular problem like tax preparation software, word processors, spreadsheets. These apps are not particularly simple but they do provide immediate feedback. But 1 out of 2 isn't the point. Both are needed ...simple with immediate feedback Web browers were considered to be a killer app at one time and occassionally are trumpeted up to be the next killer app. The truth is they were and are and will always be just that, a killer app. The are simple to use if you use only the basic feature of navigating the world wide web....
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By Eric Bell on
5/20/2007 1:37 PM
People seem to like the new Office 2007 but don't like the Fluent interface, the ribbon bar, that has changed the menuing system. I found an add-in to the various office programs most notably Word and Excel that adds a menu bar with the old menuing system. Its from a Chinese company, AddInTools, whose web site allows you to download the add-ins apparently for free, yet will charge you $29.95 for the license which includes support.
This is a very simple idea, create an add-in module that installs a menu bar with menus and menu items that run the corresponding methods of the program. The average use could just about do this with the macro features of these programs but what AddInTools has done is a great service which is to do all of the work for you in the package which is a menu bar.
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By Eric Bell on
5/14/2007 8:15 PM
More or less I now have my new 64 bit notebook using VMWare to create environments that I want. Working with the new version 6 WMWare shows the work VMWare has put into the latest release. Had I understood all of its features I could have saved myself time and hassle.
I created several time the base Vista VM each with a larged virtual disk because I ran out of space with each crop of application that I needed to install. First, a 14 GB disk was too small, then a 20 GB disk was too small and eventually I needed a 24 GB disk. Getting to 24 GB was the interesting part.
After several tries at creating a VM the right size, my last attempt was at 20 GB which I thought was surely enough only to find out that I ran out of room. How could this be I thought to myself, 20 GB for Vista, Visual Studio 2005, documentation and some tools. Worse, I didn't even have all the tools installed when I ran out of room. The thought of recreating the VM and installing all the apps from scratch was almost unthinkable....
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By Eric Bell on
5/14/2007 7:00 PM
The wife wanted to know when people or cars come in the driveway and some research provided me with a few ideas. These products seemed the most sensible and suited to the endeavor:
http://www.autobarn.net/designtech-30078.html
http://www.autobarn.net/dakota-alert-dakwma-3000.html
While at Radio Shack I found a wireless motion sensor that can be used to monitor your driveway, doors, or other places for people or cars passing by. Called "The Reported wireless alert & security system", its an infra-red proximity detector meant for outdoor use that communicates with a small base station wirelessly.
I assembled the few parts making up the sensor in about 10 mins, mounted it on a tree at the mouth of my driveway about 3ft off the ground, tested it by waking by the sensor several times and overall find it to be a decent little device. I can even add up...
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