29 March
Anyone familiar with stress testing in Windows is probably familiar with Prime 95. Problem is, if you head to the mersenne.org website, you won’t find a link to a Mac OS X version.
Head to their *forums* however, and you’ll come across this thread which has links to download the latest beta version (25.6) for a few operating systems, including Mac OS X! Only downside is the link is broken (it’s missing the .org in mersenne.org). Either fix it manually in the URL bar, or click here [ftp://mersenne/gimps/mprime256-MacOSX.tar.gz] to download it.
Just so you’re not in for a surprise… the Mac version is all text-based. No fuzzy GUI like in the windows version. Run the program and a terminal window will open. However, it’s still easy to use, and still great for stress testing your machine. If you’re in the middle of stress testing and want to cancel and go to the main menu, hit CTRL-C.
25 March
Here’s the background. I’m a Wordpad/TextEdit kinda guy. I don’t use office suites unless I have to, and the few times I do use them, I just want to get my task done and move on to something else. I’ve got to be able to find what I want quickly which means most of the options have to be easy accessable. At the same time, I hate a cluttered interface, so having every option plastered over the screen makes me less than happy. Yes, I can be both picky and tough to please.
Moving on, for my last blog entry, I had done a small benchmark and wanted to be able to present the numbers in a chart, since it’s easier to visualize differences in nice colorful bars than it is a zoo full of numbers. Before going on, if you’re a professional user who plans to use a spreadsheet every day, this review isn’t for you. I’m really just comparing something relatively basic between 3 programs. I certainly *don’t* recommend you make a multi-thousand dollar corporate purchase decision based on what I say here. If on the other hand you’re a casual home user and are just looking for the opinions/insight of some others when it comes to a spreadsheet program for the Mac, I dare say you’ve come to the right place. Just promise you’ll research what others have said too 
I had 3 programs available to use:
- NeoOffice - Based on OpenOffice, an office suite tailored specifically for the Mac. Strong points are that it’s free, and apparantly excels at opening files from other office suites.
- iWork ‘08 - Apple’s own set of office apps. From what I’d read, Keynote (the presentation app) is a very impressive program, but Pages and Numbers are a little weak. We’ll see. Not free, but there’s a 30 day free trial. A reasonable $79 otherwise.
- Microsoft Office 2008 - The king of office suites, and the one used in just about every office, school, and business. Quite powerful, and finally runs natively on Intel Macs. $199.95 for the Home & Student edition. Thankfully most home users won’t need the “full” Microsoft Office edition wihch weighs in at a whopping $549.95. Fortunately, Office was installed on the office machine here, so I was able to try it out too.
So what are we looking for here? Read more…
18 September
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to slap together a Vista PC and give Microsoft’s latest Media Center a try. An HTPC is something I’ve actually thought about for awhile, and for me, something that seemed to make sense.
The nicest thing about Media Center is the all-in-one aspect of things. You can use it to watch TV, play DVD’s, watch videos from the hard drive, listen to music, and more. The down side is Read more…
04 February
Recently, I decided it was again time to look into getting a cell phone. I’ve had many in the past on contracts/plans, but the fact is that I really never used them all that often. It’s too easy to get into the habit of using it constantly, which can cause overcharges if you go over your montly daytime minutes. That is of course why so many providers do offer “unlimited first 3/6 months of calling” on a contract. If they can get you into the habit of spending a couple hours a day on the phone, it’s going to be tough for you to throttle back your usage when the 3/6 months is over. Many people will either end up going over their allotted minutes, or will end up having to upgrade their plan to one that offers more.
Can’t blame the companies for that… it’s simply good business practice. Kind of like in the drug trade where they pull in new customers with the the “your first hit is free” line of thinking. Well not exactly the same, but you can see the similarities.
Regardless, that’s not my issue with the contract phones. My big issue is with the fees. For example, you can get a phone on a basic $20/month plan, which usually gives you something in the neighborhood of a some daytime minutes and free evenings and weekends. You might think that after taxes, you’re looking at maybe $22-23/month.
Guess again! Read more…
10 November
Forums are great resources. If somebody got a dollar for every time I had a problem and found a solution on a forum, well… if that dollar came from my pocket, I’d be broke, and they’d be filthy rich.
Anyway, there’s one aspect of forums that really bothers me. I’ve seen this oh so many times. You’ve undoubtedly seen it as well, and it goes something like this:
Person 1: How do I …insert question here…?
Person 2: It’s been asked a hundred times. Use the search.
…and that’s it. Read more…
11 September
For some reason or another, certain things from your past pop into your head at the strangest times. Here’s a program that came with my old Sound Blaster (way back in the day of 386’s and 486’s… back when computers didn’t have onboard sound and you had to actually buy a soundcard for $40-60). Read more…
07 July
A silly little issue that one of our computers was faced with… the top and bottom bars (fullscreen controls) in WMP10 weren’t automatically disappearing. It’s a simple problem with a simple fix fortunately. If the same thing is happening to you, here are a few quick fixes that you can try. Read more…
05 May
Looking through low-priced battery chargers, I decided to go with a brand-name charger. I narrowed the choice down to either a Duracell or Energizer charger, both around the $25-30 mark. Both included NiMH batteries, but the Energizer had batteries with a higher capacity rating, so I went with it. After a few months of usage, I have one statement that sums up my thoughts on this thing…
What a piece of junk. Read more…
02 May
The beauty of Windows XP is that it really makes sharing files and printers across a network rather easy. Those of you who’ve done it know that it’s a simple matter of right-clicking the folder or printer you want to share, and then choosing a few options. It’s then available to anyone on your network.
Unfortunately, Windows Server 2003 doesn’t make things that easy. At the very least, it requires entering a user name and password before connecting to the folder/printer. This is ideal in a secure networked environment, but there are situations where security isn’t as big a concern, and the Server 2003 way of “sharing” is quite simply a pain.
But this can be changed. Here’s how. Read more…
27 April
With the recent increase in the price of gasoline to over $1 per liter across Manitoba - an increase that looks as though it’s here to stay, the simple act of driving has again become more expensive. There is however one aspect where Manitobans are receiving a break, and may continue to do so for some time - insurance premiums. Read more…
