Tempus Fugit

I have SocialScope on my Blackberry and today they had a new release so of course in opted to install it. The first install failed but before I could look onto the issue they send me an email saying “we see you’ve had a problem, here is how to fix it”. Impressive.

Just to show my good old blog some love, I’ve installed a very nice new plugin called Wptouch. Now I didn’t opt for the Pro version (yet) the basic one is quite amazing. So, what does it do? well, it take your WordPress site and delivers it to mobile devices like the iPhone, iTouch, and yes even a Blackberry! Their website bills the plugin as “magical transformation” and I’d have to agree since I don’t have to do anything, just install and activate and not my site looks like a iPhone app.

I guess this is what happens when you have lots of time on your hands to just surf around the net. It’s been a cool, cloudy, windy day at the lake and I spent a lot of the day catching up on Lightroom stuff on the NAPP and Lightroom Killer Tips site

I had the GPS on capturing our ride tracks for the Saturday afternoon MDH ride, and all of the Sunday Buffalo Gap trail ride. You can install Google Earth here and then check out our ride. Unfortunatly, no tracks for the Saturday a.m. ride on the MDH II. Photos are on flickr.

I feel an iPhone coming closer to me.

Lotus Notes/Domino adds iPhone support – Industry Watch – IT World Canada

IBM’s Lotus Notes/Domino collaboration platform is adding support for Apple’s iPhone. Domino server 8.5.1 is the first version to natively support the iPhone via Lotus Notes Traveler software, allowing automatic synching for e-mail, contacts and calendar data to the popular handset.

IBM makes iPhone more attractive to businesses – Technology Live – USATODAY.com

IBM just announced it is hooking up with Apple to try to popularize the use of iPhones in the workplace. Big Blue says Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes Traveler can now be paired with iPhones to allow users to automatically synchronize their corporate e-mail, contacts and calendar data on the hot-selling handset.

Like anyone still needs a reason.

Today, the helpful Microsoft updater offered to upgrade IE7 to IE8. Always a sucker for some new software and always forgetting the more that occasional pain associated with installing new software, we let it do it’s thing on the home computer. Not a good idea.

After the update, IE8 would not access any web sites, not even Microsoft. That’s bad. Even worse, Firefox now won’t access any web sites. It’s not the Internet connection because I’m checking out the Home computer over a remote session. A quick search shows that there are others having the same problem. Even more amusing is those saying that there is no way IE8 could be responsible. Like this response to a guy who describes a problem similar to mine.

red alert: IE 8 shuts down my web REGULARLY. – Technology Questions

Again, installing IE8 could not possibly have caused other browsers to fail.
The environment in which you installed it could have.

1. If you don’t own the computer in question, you should NOT be upgrading
IE, period.

2. The various security measures put in place by your employer may well be
related to the problems you encountered after installing IE8. These include
any GPOs and Admin Templates.

3. For best results, you should disable (a) the anti-virus application, (b)
all real-time “system protections” (e.g., those afforded by any third-party
application, (c) any third-party firewall and then (d) enable the Windows
Firewall prior to installing AND uninstalling an IE upgrade.

However, I disagree! IE8 or some other evil that gets done by it’s installer screws things up. Several other folks with this same issue uninstalled IE8 and their problem was gone. I uninstalled IE8 and problem gone. The bad news was that it still left IE7 behind.

Goggle Reflections

A little more Photoshop practice. The manipulation that you can do is quite surprising the first time you do it. Even though I knew what was going to happen, the first reflection in the goggles gave me quite a jolt. I hear the little inside voice say, “You’ve got to be kidding!”.

Since when did they start offering rewards?

Group launches strategy to block Conficker worm from .ca domain

CIRA said Tuesday that it is taking a number of steps to stop the Conficker worm, also known as the Downandup worm, from using the .ca domain to perform malicious actions on behalf of those who control it.

The worm has been spreading through the internet since the fall, and a group of internet groups and businesses led by Microsoft has offered a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible.

Phone, PDA, touch screen all in 1992!

IBM Simon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The IBM Simon Personal Communicator was the first attempt to market a commercially viable smartphone and was a joint venture between IBM and BellSouth. Simon was first shown as a product concept in 1992[1] at COMDEX, the communications industry trade show held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Launched in 1993[2] it combined the features of a mobile phone, a pager, a PDA, and a fax machine. After some delays it was sold by BellSouth in 1994 in 190 U.S. cities in 15 states and was originally priced at $899[3].

Besides a mobile phone, the major applications were a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, e-mail, and games. It had no physical buttons to dial with. Instead customers used a touch-screen to select phone numbers with a finger or create facsimiles and memos with an optional stylus. Text was entered with either a unique on-screen “predictive” keyboard or QWERTY keyboard.

The Simon smartphone appeared in the movie “The Net”, released in 1995 (see http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/net/, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113957/).

I saw this via Twitter to a fellow employee’s blog. It’s quite an interesting accumulation of facts. Then, the question gets asked, “What does it mean?”, but there are no answers.