Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Microsoft Releases Windows XP SP3; Vista Still Bad

Posted

Despite the gradual disintegration of Windows I’ve talked about before, many of us—and I’m no exception—still have to run the Microsoft operating system. In my case, the laptop issued by my employer came with Windows XP. Although our IT guy is pretty open-minded and was willing to let me install Linux on the machine (with the understanding that I was on my own if I needed tech support), many of our business applications (like our electronic timesheets) require Windows so I couldn’t make the switch. I also need to make sure my web sites work on the Windows platform, so having a copy around in Parallels Desktop on my Mac is a necessity as well.

I am running Windows XP as my preferred Windows now, so the big news for my Microsoft-branded sub-universe is today’s release of Windows XP Service Pack 3, which is available through Windows Update. SP3 includes a ‘roll-up’ of most/all security fixes in XP to-date, as well as some relatively minor feature enhancements. If you’re behind on your Windows Updates, I strongly recommend installing the service pack. Even if you keep up-to-date, it’s worth installing (I’ve already upgraded my two XP installs with no hassles). SP3 is expected to be the ‘final’ version of XP, excluding further security updates, so if you’re avoiding Vista this will be what you have to live with for the long-haul—unless you’re switching to Mac OS X or Linux, that is.

Read more . . .

Mei Mei the Wet Rat

Posted

Mei Mei, our goofy little orange tabby, is not a big fan of getting baths. This is pretty standard for a cat, but—since Melissa is allergic to cats—regular cleaning is part of Mei Mei’s life. My favorite part of this process is how, afterwards, she looks like a giant, spiky, wet rat. Today, she jumped up on some furniture in my office, perched herself right over the lamp, and commenced her drying-out (which involves standing in curious yoga poses and licking herself).

Implementing Google’s ‘20% Time’ in a Small Contracting Firm

Posted

Background

Google is one of the most successful and innovative companies of the digital age. They have been so successful that ‘Googling’ has become a synonym for performing an Internet search, and Google’s web sites are quickly becoming the main Internet destinations for news, maps, email, and more. Their original search site remains the most widely used search engine on the Internet by a significant margin.

One of the keys to Google’s success has been a program known as ‘20 percent Time’ or, officially, ‘Innovation Time Off’. All of Google’s software engineers are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their time—one full day per week—on an unofficial project that interests them. Some of Google’s newer services, including Gmail and Google News, were hobbies started by company employees during their ‘Innovation Time Off’ that were later expanded into official, flagship Google projects. These projects, each now recognized as innovation leaders in their respective fields, would not exist if employees were expected to spend all of their time on their assigned projects (or, in terms employees of contracting firms might be more familiar with, if their employees were completely ‘billable’).

Read more . . .

Hosting Change; Significant Performance Improvement

Posted

Forgive me for posting two ‘site’ postings in a row, but I’ve been hard at work quietly getting the site moved to Dotster, our new hosting provider (and long-time domain registrar). The move went smoothly and everything seems to be working fine. Dotster’s servers are known for being much more speedy and reliable than the servers at PowWeb, our previous host, so you should notice significant improvements in site performance.

One-by-one, Melissa and I are moving all of our web sites over to Dotster. Pretty much everything except Melissa’s is done already, and tying the rest up is my project for the weekend (working out some minor kinks with the host before I dive into moving Melissa’s site). Enjoy!

Update April 27—We’ve completed the move and all of our web sites are now hosted on Dotster. Additionally, I performed some long-overdue maintenance on Melissa’s store (poke poke).

New Feature: ‘Tagging’ (Archives by Subject)

Posted

I just introduced a new feature to Off on a Tangent called ‘Tagging’ or, in my personal nomanclature, ‘Archives by Subject’. This is a built-in feature of the WordPress blogging and content management system that I’m using that will hopefully help you to more-quickly find related content. For example, if you click on the ‘Politics’ tag, you’ll find all of my political content (whether it be opinion, reporting, endorsements, or analysis). If you click on the ‘Technology’ tag you’ll find all my technology content (whether it be reporting, analysis, or reviews). And so on.

Some of my older content isn’t tagged yet, so it’s not a ‘complete’ implementation, but it’s getting there. You can see the full list of subjects in the right column of the site.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.