IT Professionals

Washington State’s Taxing New Law

Matt Hartley — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:31:25 PDT

It’s days like today, that I really despise living in Washington State. Apparently, our elected officials have decided to subject us to a tax that in my opinion, is even dumber than a semi-recent law that made it illegal to even write about, much less link to, online gambling websites. No, I am serious.

This time however, elected “officials” in Olympia have decided that we need a tax so unlikely, so difficult to even fully understand that it needs an FAQ just so a person can get their heads around exactly what is being taxed.

So what is being taxed exactly here in the Great State of Washington? Digital downloads. Yes, MP3s, software, it’s all here.

What is exempt, then? Freeware and SOME open source software. Yes, according to the given exemption rules that I am reading, it clearly states:

Yes. Digital goods that are not offered for sale are exempt from tax when they are:

Noncommercial (such as personal email communications).

Created solely for an internal audience.

Created solely for the business needs of the person who created the digital good and is not the type of digital good that is offered for sale, such as business email communications. (See section 605 of the digital products bill).

So it seems potentially, open source not being sold yet used in an enterprise setting, could be taxed. Should be interesting calculating the tax on ZERO!

But maybe there is a bright side, perhaps Washington thought this through enough to realize just how incredibly unenforcible this really is? And hey, what better thing to do when commerce is slowed down than to tax something, right? Give me a break. It’s days like today I miss my old home state…Alaska.

Forget Mobile, The Future Is Washing Machines

Matt Hartley — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:55:35 PDT

I am still finding myself doing a double take at the prospect of Internet powered washing machines and these same machines now embroiled in what will become what the mobile market place is now - a hotbed of competition.

While some are thinking that Google Android makes a lot of sense in the embedded world for such devices as washing machines, others feel that Microsoft Windows is the best approach. As a matter of fact, Microsoft argues that in the grand scheme of things, paying their license fees actually saves the OEM money. How? Apparently MS feels it is cheaper to develop applications for their platform than others based on Linux. I think we know that is a matter of tools, talent and marketing that decides this, but whatever. Apparently there are other thoughts that lead me to conclude that I am right.

To take things to consider as well includes why anyone outside of possibly George Jetson needs the Internet on a washing machine. I can see it now. Complaints rolling in when the latest firmware upgrade created too much spin or flooded the basement due to a surplus of water used…

How To Write A Resume

Diana Huggins — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:00:10 PDT

When you are preparing to apply for a new position it is important to write or update your resume. Your letter of application and your resume are your first introduction to the potential new employer so it is important to give careful consideration of what you include in the resume and what you include in your letter of application.

The resume usually begins with personal information that includes your name, address and contact information. You may decide to put the position that you are applying for on the resume but I prefer to include an accompanying letter of application in which I include the information related specifically to the position. Some also include objectives in the resume but prefer to include this information in the letter of application.

After the personnel information I would include my educational experiences. This would be listed in a chronological order, starting with the most recent first. In this section I may also include any certificates that I received as a result of my education. I would then outline all my work experiences, again in chronological order starting with the most recent. This would be followed by professional activities, such as boards and committees that I have had membership and participated. I would also include other professional work that I have completed, including articles written, presentations and workshops given and lastly, I would include professional organizational memberships that I have currently and have had in the past. It is also important to include any professional development that you have participated in and highlight any honours or awards that you have received. Remember that this resume is your way of showing your prospective employer what you will be able to offer in the position.

As a final suggestion, it is important to keep adding to your resume. As you enhance your educational experiences, publish new articles, or participate in new boards or membership opportunities, add these to your resume so you won’t forget to include them. Remember if you feel that some information is not relevant to the current position you are applying for you can always remove it.

IncrediMail v5.8.6 Build 4184

Lockergnome — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:30:15 PDT

IncrediMail lets you take full control over what your emails look like. Select from hundreds of email backgrounds that fit any mood or occasion. The people you send IncrediMail emails to don’t need to download anything in order to see these backgrounds.

[Discovered via Major Geeks]

[10.7M] [WinXP/Vista] [FREE]

Stiqmo Mobile Desktop.

The High Performance Information Workplace

Lockergnome — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:00:41 PDT

This white paper reviews how utilizing an integrated approach to incorporating content from collaborative sources can reduce business and IT risks and costs.

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It’s Called A Netbook, People

Matt Hartley — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:02:58 PDT

Sometimes I cannot help but wonder where Microsoft comes up with some of the most confusing ideas I have ever heard of. I mean, the idea of renaming netbooks to “low cost small notebook PC.” I suspect this will be about as successful as renaming podcasts to netcasts and PCs to Windows boxes. In short, not going to happen, folks.

But this is brought to you from the same company that thought that the once used Clearification campaign for Vista would interest potential users by striking a chord with the Generation Y users.

Uh, all that made me want to do is rush out and promote home schooling if this is what’s making sense to kids today, yikes. And what does this nonsense have to do with Vista? At least the Seinfeld commercials were “remotely” related to the Vista OS, sort of. If nothing else, it is pretty funny what with the Platinum Clown Card and all.

But coming back full circle to the idea of Microsoft trying to rename the netbook, they clearly do not have the PR magic to even dream of pulling this off. Despite some entertaining pieces from the past…

Microsoft needs to work on its software and quit trying to remake already logical standards into something more complicated than they need to be. Besides, it’s a whole lot easier to do a commercial for Windows 7 on a netbook than “Windows 7 on a low cost small notebook PC.” It’s so obvious, but maybe this is why Microsoft’s commercials generally don’t do that well anymore these days? Who knows?

A Gnomie Discount For WinPatrol Plus

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:55:29 PDT

There is a myth about computer security that survives. It goes something like this: ‘you can stay out of trouble if you don’t visit bad sites.’ This is not true. First of all, what defines a ‘bad’ site? And, with the expertise and sophistication of today’s criminals, any site can be compromised and turned into a site that delivers malware. For example, it may be an exploit of an existing flaw that has not been patched. So you could be exposed to malware by going a site that has been a regular Internet visit for years. Just recently, on June 1, 2009, Ryan Naraine reported that 20,000 sites were “hit with drive-by attack code.” Some security people are estimating that it is 40,000 sites.

A drive-by attack means that you don’t have to click anything and malware junk will find its way onto your computer. And this garbage will install on your machine without asking for your permission. Then your computer is infected.

Your computer needs a watchdog. This is the concept of WinPatrol PLUS and “Scotty” is the watchdog. WinPatrol PLUS runs in the background and the watchdog Scotty will give an alert when there are any changes attempted on your machine. Scotty will alert if you are installing any program. This may be an annoyance but it is minor. It shows that WinPatrol PLUS is doing its job. It will save so much trouble when there is a rogue program trying to install itself on your computer.

WinPatrol PLUS is easy on the computer resources and it is on many people’s “must have” list. A recent example is Steve Erbach. This is a program that has an excellent history — and countless recommendations over the years. WinPatrol has been available for over ten years, thanks to the work of Bill Pytlovany. The improvement functions packed into this program will surprise you.

For the Lockergnome / Chris Pirillo readers, we have an exceptional offer. Until June 10, 2009, we have a ten-dollars-off ($10.00) feature from WinPatrol PLUS. Use coupon code: Gnomes.

This is a security program that is recommended without any reservation. The people who use this program have nothing but good things to say about it. Bill Pytlovany is a trusted name in computer security. He is a recognized MVP by Microsoft — and he stands behind this product. If there is even a hint of an problem, let us know. We can reach Bill easily and so can you. He is @BillP on Twitter. That is one place he keeps an eye on current security issues. Stop by there and say “hi” to Bill — tell him you read our computer security stuff and thank him for this generous offer. He’s a good guy — and his WinPatrol PLUS program is just top notch.

The Importance Of Reading Part III

Diana Huggins — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 11:00:20 PDT

There has been a great deal of debate about the quality and type of books that children read. Some teachers who argue that only high quality texts should be used by parents to select books to be read by their children or that parents should use lists of books recommended by the librarian of the school when purchasing books for their children. However, who gets to defines high quality.

We all read different types of books when we get to select our own reading materials. I might select a book on child psychology, someone else might select a book about gardening or cooking, other may choose science fiction, while others may select books on computer repair. We all have favourite authors and styles that we like when we read for pleasure. For example, some enjoy magazines, some enjoy novels and some may enjoy comic books.

As parents we want to encourage our children to read often and to enjoy reading so it is important that we recognize that all types of texts are read by adults. Some of these materials may not fit our idea of high quality texts (i.e. comic books) but it is important to consider the end goal. In addition, I am suggesting that you should be aware of what your child is reading and even encourage them to consider other authors or genres. We can be a strong influence on the their reading preferences but not at the expense of interfering with their choices. Our goal is to support reading development, not stifle it.

JavaRA v1.14 Build 1655

Lockergnome — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:30:29 PDT

JavaRa is a simple tool that does a simple job: it removes old and redundant versions of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Simply select “Check for Updates” or “Remove Older Version” to begin. JavaRa is free under the GNU GPL version two.

[Discovered via Major Geeks]

[70k] [Win95/98/Me/2k/XP/Vista] [FREE]

T&E Expense Management: Using Data To Drive Performance

Lockergnome — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:00:24 PDT

Aberdeen research shows that best-in-class companies are using key technologies and services in combination with developing critical organizational capabilities and strategies to improve compliance with corporate Travel and Entertainment (T&E) policies.

T&E is an area of significant spending within a company and continues to grow, forcing companies to devote their attention to how best to manage a multi-million pound category of company spending. As a global economic slowdown looms, it is more important than ever to control T&E expenses, which is the top pressure identified by 54% of the companies for addressing T&E expense management.

Get your free white paper, T&E Expense Management: Using Data To Drive Performance, today!

Ready Or Not, Windows 7 Is Just Around The Corner

Matt Hartley — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:42:31 PDT

Despite the criticism that I receive from time to time, I have no problem with Windows… even though I am a very happy full-time Linux user. When I need Windows, I run XP in VirtualBox in seamless mode on my notebook that came pre-installed with Ubuntu.

For its time, circa 2001-whenever, XP was not bad at all for most people. Its single big issue was security though. And it was here that Vista offered some assistance with this, despite the fact that some of the security improvements were less than foolproof.

But Windows 7, for Microsoft at least, is an opportunity at a fresh start. Speed that Vista really should have had, along with the self-described XP compatibility mode that many users are going to expect out of the box for various key legacy applications. Assuming everything goes well on the legacy software and new hardware driver front, Windows 7 could be this year’s Windows XP.

And as long as the casual user does not open up his or her copy of Windows 7 only to find that instead of Windows Mail, they receive an explanation that they are out of luck, I think 7 has a shot at doing really well with its release.

And perhaps most important, we will see Microsoft realizing that not everyone out there is excited at the prospect of junking their PC with each new OS release. I heard for years that this is not true, but the specs speak for themselves up through Vista. And even then, Vista was being sold on PCs that were hardly enough to run it successfully. Based on my experience with the early 7 beta(s), I am confident that it will run all right on most PCs from within the last 2-3 years. And I deem that to be reasonable myself.

My Own Must-Have Downloads For Windows

Matt Hartley — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:22:39 PDT

Just because I do not live in a Windows world anymore myself does not mean that I am not staying hip to the must have downloads for pretty much any Windows release. Today, I see that Lifehacker posted its top list, so I figured I might post my own to see how it might compare.

Firefox - When setting up a PC for one of my Windows-using family members, this is one of the first things I do. Despite some serious improvements with IE, I just trust Firefox not to get creative with its security settings. That said, I still disable Java by default though.
Trillian - While I tend to lean with Pidgin on Ubuntu, I prefer using Trillian on a Windows box. And after showing other current Windows users just how powerful this application is, they tend to agree with me pretty quickly.
OpenOffice - While still using ThinkFree Office on my Linux desktop, I find that in most cases OpenOffice does a great job for most of my office needs.
AVG - Again, on a Windows box, with the possible exception of using avast! in some cases, I have found that for the casual user, AVG cannot be beat.
Jungle Disk - Mozy is great for some folks, but I have never had any reason to not use Jungle Disk as it does everything I need and lots more with regard to off-site backups. This is what I use on my mom’s PC and I know each day that her data is backed up without one single exception since the app’s installation.
ZoneAlarm - The Windows firewall leaves me pissed off about half the time. And because I have no access to IPTables on Windows, I find that using ZoneAlarm is the next best thing.
musikCube - I wanted to say SongBird, but it is so full of errors half the time, I have a tough time with that. It works well with most MP3 players, although I have not tested it with the iPod. Still, any self-mounting MP3 player should work though.
GIMPShop - I prefer GIMP myself as it is what I know best. But for folks that are simply used to a proper Photoshop layout, GIMPShop makes a lot of sense.
KompoZer - I just do not require a ton from my HTML editors. So for me, KompoZer is the perfect editor to get the job done in my house. It’s based on Nvu.
Skype - As much as I hate it some days, it is a cross-platform standard that binds us all together. I’ve really tried using other apps, but for VoIP I always come back to this application. I use it both on Windows and Ubuntu 9.04 (<- running skype-static via the medibuntu repositories).

And that is it. These are the apps I would install today if I was using Windows on a full time basis again. Each one of them has been a solid performer for what I need.

The Importance Of Reading Part II

Diana Huggins — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:00:27 PDT

We recognize that in order to be success at complex activities it helps to practice. Individuals who are successful in sports such as Wayne Gretzky or others who have been successful as musicians i.e. Don Petty, all understand the importance of practice, particularly when you are learning a new skill. We all know from writing high school exams that it is important to study in advance and to study a little bit every day. In fact, long term success in future academic study was based you learning how to study or practice what you have learned in that course. Reading is no exception.

Practice is reading is most important for the novice reader. It has been estimated that during the course of the first year of school the more successful readers read four times the number of words (in texts) than the less successful readers. By the middle years of schools this difference has increased ten -fold with the low achievers readers reading about 100,000 words per year while the more successful students are reading more than one million. Not all of this practice can be achieved in school. That is why it is so important to have your child continue to read at home and develop a joy for reading that will ensure continued practice and improvement.

CutePDF Writer v2.73

Lockergnome — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:30:47 PDT

Portable Document Format (PDF) is the de facto standard for the secure and reliable distribution and exchange of electronic documents and forms around the world. CutePDF Writer (formerly CutePDF Printer) is the free version of commercial PDF creation software. CutePDF Writer installs itself as a “printer subsystem.” This enables virtually any Windows applications (must be able to print) to create professional quality PDF documents with just a push of a button.

Free for personal and commercial use! No watermarks! No popup Web ads!

[Discovered via Major Geeks]

[1.53M] [Win95/98/Me/2k/XP/Vista] [FREE]

Total Telecom

Lockergnome — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:00:29 PDT

Total Telecom is The Economist of the communications industry.

It provides expert commentary and authoritative analysis on the crucial issues affecting the global telecommunications and networking sectors; unique and comprehensive international analysis of both fixed and mobile communications services; exclusive insights; and powerful understanding of today’s business models in telecoms.

Get your free subscription to Total Telecom, today!

Bing, Bling, Blah

Matt Hartley — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:40:13 PDT

This may surprise some of you, but I held out some high hopes for Microsoft’s Bing. Not caring who ran the search engine, I was simply hoping for something new to check out that might give me a reason to begin the switch to the latest technology. Thus far, it’s worse than LiveSearch…

I have done a number of queries, mostly of the how to variety. And while technology was relevant in the long tail, the results were definitely based on word count at least at some level. I was shocked at how unhelpful Bing turned out to be. Don’t get me wrong, Bing blows the doors off of Google’s results presentation, which is becoming really dated these days. Bing provides me suggestions for many searches on the left while also giving me content previews without having to click anything else.

And while something like a query for a new car starts off feeling like a query made to Ask.com, you soon see that Bing does have better guessing abilities… or does it? Let’s try clicking deeper into this query.

New car prices from both search engines with the suggestions on the side.

The query: What Is the Cheapest New Car on the Market?

Bing’s results.

Ask.com’s results.

Ask destroyed Bing in this query for the results provided ON THE SIDE bar of the results. Considering Bing’s results and overall approach are more like that of Ask than Google, I seriously do not see Google having anything to worry about unless things improve fast. Bing has potential, but it is definitely still a beta product.

Regular Expressions Cookbook

Lockergnome — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:13:51 PDT

Every programmer can find uses for regular expressions, but their power doesn’t come worry-free. Even seasoned users often suffer from poor performance, false positives, false negatives, or perplexing bugs. Regular Expressions Cookbook offers step-by-step instructions for some of the most common tasks involving this tool, with recipes for C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and VB.NET.

Many books have been published to ride the wave of regular expression adoption. Most do a good job of explaining the regular expressions syntax along with some examples and a reference. But there aren’t any books that present solutions based on regular expressions to a wide range of real-world practical problems dealing with text on a computer and in a range of Internet applications. This cookbook provides more than 100 recipes to help you crunch data and manipulate text with regular expressions.

With the help of this book, you will:

Understand the basics of regular expressions through a concise tutorial
Use regular expressions effectively in several programming and scripting languages
Learn how to validate and format input
Manage words, lines, special characters, and numerical values
Find solutions for using regular expressions in URLs, paths, markup, and data exchange
Learn the nuances of more advanced regex features
Understand how regular expressions’ APIs, syntax, and behavior differ from language to language
Write better regular expressions for custom needs

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced user, Regular Expressions Cookbook will help deepen your knowledge of this unique and irreplaceable tool. You’ll learn powerful new tricks, avoid language-specific gotchas, and save valuable time with this huge library of proven solutions to difficult, real-world problems.

The Importance Of Reading Part I

Diana Huggins — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:00:30 PDT

The current age of technology and gadgets has seriously affected literacy among younger generations. Many young children today prefer to play videos games instead of reading books. The impact is of this is quite disturbing with approximately 50% of the nation’s unemployed youth age 16-21 being functional illiterate.

When your child was born you probably received some information about the importance of reading to your child and perhaps you even received a child’s book to begin. You may have thought that when your child was only a few days old it was not that useful to read to them. You were busy feeding, changing and bathing your child. However, it is important to get into the habit of reading regularly to your child. Reading to your child should not be something that is done occasionally but should be part of your daily routine.

Research has shown that children who are read to regularly will be more successful in school. The amount of preschool storybook as opposed to other types of literacy related activities is related to reading achievement in school. These children see that reading is something that they can master, in fact they have can probably read several books that have been read to them multiple times. This success gives them the belief that they can deal with the ideas and words in new books. They understand that stories have meaning and they can use the ideas presented in stories to predict some of the words that will be in the books. They have also heard the literary language in books that will help them to deal with the language in stories. In addition they have learned how print works in books. These skills are important for your child to have an easy transition into school and be successful in school. You can help to establish these skills by reading to your child regularly.

MediaMonkey v3.1.0.1249 Beta

Lockergnome — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:30:00 PDT

MediaMonkey is the music organizer for the serious collector.

Manage a music library consisting of small to very large collections (50,000+) of audio files and playlists, whether they’re located on your hard drive, CDs, or a network. Organize, browse, or search music by genre, artist, year, rating, etc., and never waste your time trying to find mp3s you know you have. Automatically identify tracks that are missing information, whose tags are not synchronized, or that are duplicated elsewhere.

[Discovered via Major Geeks]

[10M] [Win95/98/Me/2k/XP/Vista] [FREE]

Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache

Lockergnome — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:00:41 PDT

Learn about everything you’ll need to build and maintain your Linux servers, and to deploy Web applications to them.

Whether you’re planning on running Linux at home, or on a leased Web server, this book will walk you step-by-step through all of the common administration tasks, from managing traffic reporting to log-file rotation.

This guide even includes step-by-step instructions on installing Linux (Fedora 4), Apache 2.0, PHP 5 and MySQL 4.1 on a home or office development server, so you can test all of your applications before rolling them out.

Get your free 191-page preview of Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux & Apache today!

Online Web Conferencing for Meetings

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:30:00 PST

Tired of business travel? Conduct meetings online with GoToMeeting instead. We've been using it for quite some time for both personal and professional projects - it's worked like a charm! If you're an independent consultant, you owe it to your clients to start using collaboration software for Web-based interaction.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:30:00 PST

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:30:00 PST

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:30:00 PST

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:56:13 PDT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.