Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Most firewall security analysis tools either look at past activity and warn you about what has already happened in the past or they look at your current settings by hammering the network with tons of packets and telling you about the results. AlgoSec takes a different approach. They analyze your network’s settings and run simulations without sending a single packet over the network. They then warn you about possible future breaches of security so you can fix them before someone exploits them.

I first saw this at ldswebguy.com. I tested this myslef and was quite surprized. The #1 spot on a google search for “church” returns lds.org, the official homepage of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Result #7 is a link to mormon.org, a site geared toward people who are not memebers of the Church who want to know more about it. This isn’t meaningful in the long term because these things can fluctuate. But it does indicate trends on the web and what people are linking to when they talk about church.

I wish Dell wouldn’t use weird connectors for their laptop hard drives. I opened up an HP laptop and there was no unusual connector, it was straight IDE. Two of the laptops I have gotten from Krissy’s dad are missing the converter from IDE to some proprietary thing. Now I get to troll around on eBay and bid ninety-nine cents and pay six dollars in shipping on these things. I can’t wait for the UPS ground to get from Florida to California. Let’s see how long it takes.

Vonage is the most popular VOIP system in use in the US. Some aspects of VOIP are different than regular telephones. Sometimes it’s not straightforward getting things set up and running just the way you want them to. Vonage users come together to help each other accomplish what they need using Vonage and VOIP tools. If you are a Vonage user check it out. If you are interesting in Vonage they have all sorts of help available for you, too!

Sometimes you might be working on your blog and need a tip getting something customized just right. If you’re like me then you often receive programming assignments and find yourself stuck on one little tiny problem that you just can’t seem to solve. I don’t have very much experience with Java and that’s what language all of our programming assignments are in this year. It gets really frustrating sometimes when I know what I want to do but can’t quite figure out the right way to do it in Java. CodeCall Programming Forum is an excellent resource for getting help with programming problems big and small. Programming experts and professionals frequent the forums and offer their help for free! Whether you need help with Java, C, or even just plain HTML you can hop onto the forum and get answers.

My father-in-law works at a great place for finding abandoned computers. Organizations for higher learning are constantly ditching old computers and things that have only minor problems with individual components. He got me three Dell laptops that have only minor problems. I only have a single hard drive for the three of them, so that’s obviously a problem. One of the laptops is missing the connector for the hard drive as well as the hard drive itself. One of them has a problem with the keyboard where the “8” key only works if you twist the display a little bit. That’s obviously a contact problem somewhere. My hope is to get at least one of them working so that Krissy and I can each have our own laptops instead of sharing one.

On Costco’s website they have information about the Ninendo Wii and the upcoming release. They say that you will be able to preorder it, but they don’t have it available yet. They have Red Steel and Twilight Princess available for preorder, though. I don’t want to do that, though, becasue Costco is well-known for their bundles and I want to wait and see if they are selling the Wii bundled with a game or two. I’m guessing they will bundle the Wii with Excite Truck and le tpeople buy Twilight Princess seperately, though. This is getting more and more exciting!

If you’ve read much on this blog then you would know how much I love geocaching. GPS technology has always fascinated me. It’s positively amazing that you can have a tiny little device receiving information from multiple satellites in orbit around the Earth. Geocaching is a lot of fun, but I really would like to know where I’m going while I’m in the car and sync that up with a map. I was able to get a lot of information about GPS and sat nav from currys, a large online retailer of satellite navigation equipment. Whether you are looking for a TomTom Go or a good old Garmin like what I’ve got, they’ve got you covered. Give them a try and see what you find.

I just finished up a programming assignment for my Data Structures and Algorithm Development class simulating a CPU and a preemptive real-time operating system’s handling of jobs. It was relatively complex so I expected there to be a bug or two to track down when I thought I was finished coding. When I finished the last function and ran the program the output was right on! Usually I have to spend an hour tying to figure out what’s throwing the whole thing off, but not this time. What a relief. I didn’t expect to be done last night, but there I was, done.

It can be a daunting task for a large organization with multiple properties to keep track of all of them. Siterra seeks to change all of that. Whether it is multiple retail locations, cell towers, oil wells, or any other properties Siterra’s Asset Tracking Software makes it easy to keep track of every aspect of maintaining and keeping everything up to date. They include tools for mundane things like tracking leases, but also allow for comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits of relocation, etc. This is another fine example of web-based software that is accessible from any computer with an Internet connection.