March 09, 2010

Macintosh Page

Just started putting together a reference page for all things Macintosh. I have a lot of experience with using the Macintosh over the years, and I thought I put a single page together for reference.

The page has useful links to popular applications for the Macintosh, such as FTP and Journal Applications. Might be useful if your looking for those types of applications.

Its just a start, and I plan to continue to add more useful content on the page as I encounter them.

March 03, 2010

Home Office

We are in the process of building a home office. A very exciting and rewarding home improvement project. We have painted the ceiling and walls, added Ethernet and phone jacks and updated the electricity in the room.

One of the problems that I have encountered is when I moved my desk into the room, it was going to block the Power and Ethernet jacks. We had a flat power plug power strip available, but I haven't been able to find a flat Ethernet cable.

I have search several websites for a flat Ethernet Cable and the only thing that I keep finding is a flat cable that goes under a rug. I haven't found a low profile cable anyplace. I know there was a company that made these, I just can't seem to find them right now.

One of the places I was looking at is X-TremeGeek.com they sell all sorts of cables and the popular Power Strip Liberator Cables, which I have plenty of in my power supply bin in the basement. 

Another good source is CyberGuys, they have all sorts of great technical products. I was not able to find any Ethernet cable products that would fit my needs. Still a great place to shop, lots of neat things!

February 25, 2010

Filler Text in Word

Here's a great tip that I found on the Official blog of the Microsoft Word product team. Seems like a good blog to visit often if you use Microsoft Word and want to get some good information.

Quick Tip: Filler Text

It's super easy to put generic text into a Word document for all of your filler text needs (especially useful during demos and presentations). Just start a new paragraph and:

1. Type "=rand()" and press Enter for three paragraphs of text
2. Type "=lorem()"and press Enter for three paragraphs of random characters that approximate a normal distribution of letters know as Lorem Ipsum

February 12, 2010

Bill Clinton Quote

I remember this quote from Bill Clinton on Electon night in 1992:

President-elect BILL CLINTON (Little Rock, AR 11/3/92): "My fellow Americans, with high hopes and brave hearts, in massive numbers, the American people have voted to make a new beginning."

Change will be coming back to Washington in 2010, very different than it did in 2009. Massachusetts started it with Scott Brown, other states will follow....

February 02, 2010

Breevy

I have been looking for tool very similar to TextExpander by Smile on my Mac. This is a great text replacement tool that allows you to type in some characters and the text gets replace. For example if I type in tx it gets replace with Thank You.

TextExpander is great, but its for Macintosh Only. Which is a problem since at work I use Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

I am currently testing Breevy, by 16 Software. So far the application works great! I am not seeing any performance issues with my computer. I run Visual Studio 2008, Outlook and several different browsers and don't see any performance hit by using a text expander program.

The application is very easy to install and can be access by clicking on the icon in the Task bar. The Typo Auto Correction is very cool as it automatically replaces misspelled words in any application.

I am still testing it out to see if its worth purchasing it for $29.95. I am liking the results that I see thus far, and I think that it will definitely help my performance at work. My trial period ends on March 1st.

January 27, 2010

Amana Refrigerator

We had a problem with our Amana Refrigerator; model number ABB2227DEB, the cooling part stop working around 4pm last night. Both the Refrigerator and Freezer were not keeping cool and the ice in the freezer has started melting. We could hear the refrigerator running, it wasn't making any strange noise, and the light turned on when we opened the door.

We called several places in the Framingham area to see if someone would come out last night. We made about 10 calls and wasn't able to find anyone. We were surprised that there wasn't a 24-hour service available in the Framingham area. After about 20 minutes of trying, we decided that we would wait till the morning to call a local repair company.

I took a quick trip to Stop and Shop and got six bags of ice (cost $12.50). We packed up all the perishables and put them in a couple of coolers we had. We put the coolers on the deck, since it wasn't going to get above freezing overnight. We put some of the frozen foods in the spare freezer in the basement.

This morning we called Belcher's Appliance Center in Framingham, (508) 626-2321, to see if someone would come out to fix the refrigerator. Someone was at the door within 5 minutes of calling them. What great service! This isn't the first time they did this, last April when we had a problem with our washer someone came within 10 minutes of calling them.

The guy initially thought the issue was with the fan since it was running slow and replaced it with a new one that he had. However that one was also running slow. He then said it was probably the Control Board that wasn't working correctly. He had a new Control Board in his truck and was a part that was able to replace it very quickly. He told me that it�s a common problem in some refrigerators and that's why he had them.

Once the new Control Board was in place, the fan worked fine. He told us to wait a few hours for the temp to get to normal before putting in any of the food that we took out. He was able to fix everything within a half hour.

Site Note: About a week ago, we noticed a problem with some items in the refrigerator freezing. This should have been an early warning sign for us since we had the exact same issue with our last refrigerator in Newton. So be aware, if you discover some of your items in the refrigerator starting to freeze you might be having a problem with the Control Board.

 

January 25, 2010

Panasionic FV-11VHL1 Fan

We have a Panasonic fan that was not working correctly in our bathroom. We decided to look for a replacement and was surprise that there weren't that many fans that fit in the ceiling opening. We were unable to get any information from the Panasonic website since, at the time, we didn't know the particular model that we have.

We consulted several people and eventually the owner at The Lighting Showroom, in Orleans Ma, was able to tell us that we should be looking at FV-11VHL2 model fans. We didn't buy it a new one from them since we were able to identify one online for about $200 cheaper than what they were selling them for.

We ended up buying the fan at National Trade Supply for $270.30 including shipping.

When it came time to replace the fan we had our electrician do the installation. He took a look at our setup and determine that our problem was not related to a bad fan but that the exhaust valve was blocked. He cleaned all the dust and the fan worked fine.

The electrician was able to identify that we have a Panasonic FV-11VHL1.

The lesson learn in our fan replacement journey:

• Identify the fan you currently have. Early on, we thought we had the correct model number but it turns out that we had the fan engine model number.
• Don't count on Home Depot or Lowes for fans, both have a limited selection to large fan sizes
  
• Don't open the fan box until you are sure that you really need the fan.
  

January 19, 2010

Election Day in Massachusetts

Who would have guess that today's election in Massachusetts would be huge:

Latest polls suggest State Senator Scott Brown could defeat state Attorney General Martha Coakley, which would be a huge upset in this traditionally liberal New England state, take away the Democrats' supermajority in congress and thereby reshape President Barack Obama's agenda after just one year in office.

I don't know who will win, but everyone that I have talked to seem to favor Scott Brown. The polls close at 8pm tonight and it will be interesting to see when they call the race.

This election is the first time that voters can change the outcome of a major piece of election in Congress.