Archive for the 'General' Category

Aug 13 2007

Image upload problem with Live Writer

Published by under General

I’ve been trying to figure out why image uploading doesn’t work for some Blogtown NZ customers, and I accidentally found the issue. I’ll run some test posts here and see how it goes…

This image does not have a link:

amazon-books

That worked, now lets post an image that links to a URL:

flowers

That also worked, now lets post an image that links to the source image which is resized:

DSC_0261

Good – that also worked. Now the one that breaks it: lets post an image that links to the original-sized source image:

stuart-at-desk

Hmm – that worked, I wasn’t expecting that! How about if I upload a larger file and try to link to the source image: (just changed the size of the thumbnail too, and removed the drop shadow)

IMG_1546

OK – I’m stumped! This breaks on my personal blog (http://stuart.amanzi.co.nz) but not on Blogtown NZ. Hmmm, further investigation required…

No responses yet

Aug 13 2007

Image upload problem with Live Writer

Published by under General

I’ve been trying to figure out why image uploading doesn’t work for some Blogtown NZ customers, and I accidentally found the issue. I’ll run some test posts here and see how it goes…

This image does not have a link:

amazon-books

That worked, now lets post an image that links to a URL:

flowers

That also worked, now lets post an image that links to the source image which is resized:

DSC_0261

Good – that also worked. Now the one that breaks it: lets post an image that links to the original-sized source image:

stuart-at-desk

Hmm – that worked, I wasn’t expecting that! How about if I upload a larger file and try to link to the source image: (just changed the size of the thumbnail too, and removed the drop shadow)

IMG_1546

No responses yet

Aug 11 2007

The almost perfect HP notebook

Published by under General

I placed an order for a new notebook last week as soon we will be needing two of them around the house. Obviously I will get the new one and the 3 ½ year old notebook will get passed down to Deb to use.

A little side note here before I continue – although the old notebook is 3 ½ years old it still has a reasonable specification and can run Vista with the Aero interface comfortably. This is because when I bought it, I avoided all of the cheap, entry-level notebooks, and bought one that should last for 5 years.

That side note is important as when I came to buy a new notebook for myself I wanted it to be able to last for about 5 years. So the only way to do that is to spend as much as you can so that you get all the latest components. My budget for the new notebook was around $2500 (ex GST). I posted a while back about the specs in a notebook I was looking for:

My requirements so far are:

  • Must be compatible with my docking station – i.e. it must be an HP.
  • Must have high resolution.
  • Must have at least an Intel T7200 processor.
  • Must have at least 1GB RAM, with a free slot.
  • Must have dedicated graphics card with dedicated memory.

Some “nice to haves” are:

  • 802.11 n (or draft-N?) wireless connectivity
  • Must be reasonably mobile, i.e. no 17 inch monster displays on this notebook.
  • 100GB or bigger SATA drive.
  • Fingerprint reader, or other enhanced security.

Despite the fact that I said that it had to be an HP to fit in with my docking station, I did look at IBM and Apple notebooks too. IBM have some very good notebooks that matched the specs above but none so good that warranted buying a new docking station too. The Apple notebooks are beautiful works of art and have great specifications. There’s also the added benefit of getting to play with OSX too, but the MacBook Pro was just a tad too expensive and the cheaper MacBook wasn’t as good as I wanted.

While shopping around I further refined the specs I wanted to this:

  • 14.1″ screen size with 1440×900 resolution
  • T7500 processor
  • 1GB RAM with a free memory slot
  • 7200RPM hard drive – 80GB or larger
  • Dedicated graphics card

Unfortunately, in HPs latest notebook range (with the Santa Rosa chipsets) there wasn’t a 14.1″ screen with 1440×900 resolution so I was a bit stuck. I could go up to a 15.4″ screen which but I wanted the portability of the smaller form-factor. I had some hope restored, though, when I spoke to the HP notebook product manager in NZ and he let me know that they did have the 1440×900 screens coming out soon in their 6910p notebooks.

Although this model isn’t yet on the HP NZ website, I’ve placed an order for the top-of-the-line 6910p which has the following specs:

  • 14.1″ screen size with 1440×900 resolution
  • T7700 processor – 2.4GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 4 MB L2 cache
  • 2GB RAM (2 x 1GB)
  • 7200RPM hard drive – 120GB
  • Dedicated graphics card – ATI X2300
  • 802.11abgn, and Vodafone 3G Broadband
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • along with the usual stuff found on a notebook…

This notebook exceeds all of the specifications I wanted and adds some of the “nice-to-haves” too, such as the N-draft wireless access, fingerprint scanner, and even wireless broadband if I sign up for a data plan with Vodafone. All this in a compact and light (2.0kg) form factor.

So is this my perfect notebook? Not quite – I suppose that all notebooks could get thinner and lighter but this is pretty good for now. The only feature that I can think of that this notebook is missing is a built in camera. I really like the idea of always having the camera ready and waiting without the need to plug in cables.

Update: Mauricio has just blogged about an interesting request that HP have put out to the blogosphere:

The HP product design team wanted to reach out to users and invited some bloggers and industry experts to relay to them what consumers want in a laptop.

My response to that would be a thinner, lighter 6910p, that matches the specs above but with a built-in camera.

[tags]hp,notebook,geekzone,amanzi,stuart maxwell,6910p,santa rosa,ibm,apple,macbook[/tags]

No responses yet

Aug 10 2007

Books I’m reading

Published by under General

While the NZ dollar has been so strong over the last few weeks, it was a great opportunity to do some shopping online on Amazon. Here are the books I’ve bought recently:

amazon-books

Geek books:

  • Active Directory, 3rd Edition by by Joe Richards, Robbie Allen, Alistair Lowe-Norris
    This is the Active Directory bible as far as I’m concerned and the 3rd edition was updated to include ADFS and ADAM as well as the AD-related changes in Windows 2003 SP1 and SP2. I’m not even close to finishing this but it’s also useful as a reference guide so I don’t feel pressured to get through it soon.
  • Microsoft Windows PowerShell Step By Step by Ed Wilson
    I haven’t started this one yet, but getting some in-depth knowledge on PowerShell is way up on my priority list.

Productivity/Life/Business books:

  • Getting Things Done by David Allen
    If you haven’t heard of this book then you haven’t been reading enough blogs. GTD is considered to be a life changing book that teaches you how to organize, process and do all the stuff that comes your way. I’m hoping that this leads to a more stress free personal and business life – I’m only a few chapters into this and can already see the light!
  • The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris
    This is another book that I first heard about through the blogosphere but to tell the truth I don’t know too much about it. Nic Wise pointed me to an interview that Robert Scoble did with the author Tim Ferris but I haven’t had time to watch it all yet. From what I understand it’s all about getting a good balance between work and home life which is something I definitely need at the moment.
  • The Dip by Seth Godin
    I love reading Seth’s blog and I learn something new every day reading about his business and marketing advice. This book takes an interesting twist on business advice by teaching you when to quit. The idea is that the top business people in the world quit before it’s too late and focus their energies on their project. I’m looking forward to reading this and hope that if I do have to quit my business venture, I don’t do it too late.

No responses yet

Aug 10 2007

Word of the day: Steampunk

Published by under General

From Wikipedia:

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date.

Steampunk
Interesting links:

No responses yet

Aug 09 2007

Unlimited Potential Geek Event

Published by under General

As I posted before, I made it along to the Gadgets, Games and Geeks event that was hosted by Unlimited Potential (UP) at the Wellington Convention Center. It was an interesting night, I wasn’t too sure what to expect but I was hoping that there would be lots of gadgets to look at. Disappointingly there were no gadgets on show apart from a demo of the Apple TV by Hamish from Soundline.

The speeches were interesting though and for me the highlight was Brian Sweeney’s inspirational talk about NZ Edge and how living on the edge of the world definitely has its advantages. There were also talks on marketing in a Web 2.0 world, game development in NZ, OpenSolaris, and a fun talk about some of the new Apple products.

The post-speeches dinner was great – lots of oysters, mussels, eel (a first for me), prawns, salmon wraps, etc… I met up with Brenda, Sandy, and Mauricio, and also had an interesting chat with John Clegg from ProjectX.

Sandy spent some time explaining to me what ‘Agile‘ is all about, and although it originated in the software development world, it seems like a lot of the Agile ideas could apply to infrastructure projects too. I’ll have to look into this some more.

Update: Photo of Sandy, Brenda and me taken last night
Sandy, Brenda, Stuart

No responses yet

Aug 07 2007

Gadgets, Games and Geeks

Published by under General

Haven’t been blogging much recently, as you can tell by the lack of posts. I’d like to say that I’ve been too busy (I have) but the amount of time I’ve been spending on Facebook says otherwise.

Unlimited PotentialAnyway, I’m heading along to the Gadgets, Games and Geeks event hosted by Unlimited Potential (UP) tomorrow evening (Wednesday, 8th August.) If you’re heading down there too, let me know and I’ll shout you a beer (they’re free!) Call/text on my mobile (021766940) or let me know through email or Facebook.

No responses yet

Aug 02 2007

Take your dog for a walk

Published by under General

Somebody searched Google for “double dog treadmill” and found my blog as the number one search result. The post that gets me into the search results was titled: “Height of Laziness” and was linking to a Gizmodo article. So hopefully whoever found my site might consider actually taking their dogs for a real walk – outside! And if you can’t take your dog for a walk due to health reasons, try one of the many dog walking services in your area.

No responses yet

Aug 02 2007

Wellington bloggers meetup

Published by under General

As Wanda Martha just mentioned, last night we had the first meetup of the Wellington Bloggers Facebook group (or the catchy ‘WBFG‘ for short) at the Southern Cross bar. It was great fun and quite surreal meeting bloggers in real life for the first time – especially as we already knew so too much about each other already. Unfortunately nobody thought to take any photos so I can’t post any pictures of the happy bloggers discussing blogging, Facebook, RSS, anything 2.0, and all those other cool, geeky things.

If you’re a blogger in Wellington and you’re not on Facebook – you’re missing out.

Update: Mauricio did what I couldn’t be bothered to do and linked to everyone who came along. Read his post here.

No responses yet

Aug 02 2007

Career Advice

Published by under General

The Dilbert Blog: Career Advice

No, this isn’t some funny Dilbert cartoon, this is Scott Adams giving some great advice on how to be successful.

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

  1. Become the best at one specific thing.
  2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

No responses yet

« Prev - Next »