Come to ReMix UK 08

 

 

Are you interested in aspects of web design and development?  Do you work for a design agency or dabble in your spare time?

 

 

ReMix has an early bird offer on at the moment which means that you can save £110 on the conference price of £349.  Mike has blogged about on  ReMix, where it’s going to be, and an oblique reference to Monty Python.

If you’re interested in attending, click on the register link on the web page.  Previous ReMixes have been really well attended so it’s definitely worth a look if you can’t get to Mix in the US.

Wonder if there are any women in IT attending so I can get myself a ticket?…

Technorati Tags: remixuk08,silverlight,expression,MIX,Remix

So what do you think of Vista?

A lot of my friends have never used Vista and have poor perceptions of it as an Operating System.  These perceptions seem to be worldwide too.  so we showed Vista to a group of people who had never seen or used Vista before and we called it Mojave.  Hover over some of the individual images (3rd from the left on the top row particularly made me smile).

and their reactions when they’d seen Vista were exactly the same as the reactions of my friends when I showed them my copy.  Like their perception of Vista running slowly that I talked about last week.

Nod to Jason, Mel ,Sunshine, and Steve of course (and some great comments on Tom’s post too).

 

Just goes to show – you shouldn’t believe everything people tell you about Vista – try it out for yourself…

Technorati Tags: Mojave Experiment,Windows Vista

Why does Vista take so long to start up?

..is a question I get from users who have installed loads of extra stuff on to their PC’s and I get so irate that they’re annoyed about

Often, when people add 3rd party applications, the developers decide that these applications are so vital, that they need to be loaded into memory when Vista (or XP starts) .  Things like QuickTime, ITunes, Adobe, Nokia software, OEM applications and various other rubbishy utilities.

 

And Microsoft get blamed for the poor performance.  It makes me seethe.

Look at all of the unnecessary stuff on this PC – all of the HP stuff, the Quicktime, Adobe, and Nokia – do they really NEED to be loaded at startup?  They’re all unnecessary and can be invoked by a click of the icon. They DO NOT need to be there at Start up!

 

ALL of these programs wil run if you invoke (click on)  the icon.  But instead, they’re all loading at startup and taking resources away from XP and VIsta and making them perform slowly – and making you think that it’s OUR fault!

SO,

How do you fix this? (in XP and Vista)

 

Start / Run MSCONFIG.EXE

Choose the Startup Tab, and take the check box off any of the unnecessary programs that you don’t need at startup.  Each application may take 1 second more to invoke but they DON’T need to be there all the time.  Take out the check boxes and reboot.  Don’t uncheck services like Anti virus of course (or your other essential applications).

You’ll find that Vista and XP reboots much more quickly and is much more responsive without those extraneous applications getting in the way.

 

So spread the word to your friends.  XPOCONFIG.EXE is your friend – and your defence against those badly written rogue applications.

 

Go and fix your friends computer – and earn yourself a beer …..

 

Technorati Tags: MSconfig,Vista

A brain of 2 halves

Woah.  What a video!

I’m catching up on my RSS feeds, email and admin as all of my team are out of the office and there’s a lot less for me to do this week as a people manager.  So I’m reading all of the links I’ve stored in OneNote and just generally slowing down after the madness of the last 2 weeks – giving my brain a rest.

So I was amazed to watch this video this morning, where Jill Bolte Taylor, a Brain scientist talks about the day she had a stroke and her unique ability to watch what was happening inside her brain.  It’s also interesting where she shows just how separate the 2 halves of our brain are, and compares one half to parallel processing and the other half to serial processing. I know that some of you are interested in this right brain left brain stuff as you all mailed me with advice when I was tormented by that annoying dancing woman the other month

 

Nod to Steven for pointing me to this video

Compelling stuff and well worth listening to the end.  Not for the squeamish though – that’s a real brain she’s holding in her hands and you can see both halves really easily…

Technorati Tags: stroke of insight,Jill Bolte Taylor,Left brain,Right brain

Lessons you’ve learned in life

Paul has made some interesting observations about lessons he’s learned in his life.

1. The 80/20 rule.
2. Parkinson’s Law.
3. Batching.
4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.
5. Be proactive. Not reactive.
6. Mistakes and failures are good.
7. Don’t beat yourself up.
8. Your attitude changes your reality.
9. Don’t compare yourself to others.
10. 80-90% of what you fear will never really come into reality.
11. Don’t take things too seriously.
12. Write everything down.
13. There are opportunities in just about every experience.

In addition to his 13 ideas and the fact that I’m uneasy about having 13 on the list, here are 2 of mine: that I try to use every day.

14: Smiles are infectious.  Spread them. When you’re happy, you smile, and when you smile, you are happy. (nod to Anand here)

15: Believe in yourself – because if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.

What’s your best lesson you’ve learned?…

 

Technorati Tags: lessons in life

TechEd EMEA – the other way round!

Well I’ve been talking about TechEd all year and the fact that I’ve been to several TechEd’s last year (and several more this year too) but I’ve forgotton to mention the fact that Teched EMEA is now open for registration (both for Developers and IT Pro’s.

This year we’re running TechEd IT Pro’s BEFORE TechEd Developers – so don’t get caught out if you have both Developer and IT pro responsibilities in your role.

Early bird registration is still available too:

Super Early Bird Deadline – 31 July 2008
Save €300 off the full conference price plus value add benefits
€1,945 +16% VAT

• Super Early Bird Cap

• Priority Keynote Seating

•Preferential rate hotel accommodation

 Early Bird Deadline – 26 September
Save €300 off the full conference price
€1,945 +16% VAT

 

and here are the links to register:

www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/itpro/

www.microsoft.com/emea/teched2008/developer/

Hopefully I’ll be manning the ask the Experts welcome desk during IT pro week so it would be great if you could come over and say hello if you see me – it’s always great to get to chat to you and get some insight into your roles and your challenges – so we can tailor our roadshows and Technet sessions to better give you what you need to do your job better.

 

Technorati Tags: TechEd EMEA,IT Forum

TechEd US – Women in Technology videos

I noticed that the video’s from the Women in Technology lunches I hosted at TechEd Orlando last month are on the web.  You can see how the lunch went if you weren’t able to get there yourself. 

Developer WIT page

IT Pro WIT page

Developer Library

IT Pro Library

There were some totally inspirational women at the lunches at both TechEd Developer and TechEd IT Pro – not only the panelists, but also some inspirational women from the audience too.

Roll on TechEd Australia…

 

Technorati Tags: Women in Technology,TechEd,Australia

BlackBerry security vulnerability

Steve sent me a mail the other day which I thought I’d let you know about in case you’re using a BlackBerry mobile device to connect to your work networks.

Users can inadvertently expose their corporate networks simply by viewing malicious PDF files on their Blackberry device. There isn’t a fix for this problem yet – the vendor (RIM) recommends disabling the PDF viewer feature.

The details are available here:

Better to be safe till the fix comes out…

 

Technorati Tags: blackberry,security vulnerability,RIM

Too many emails

Well I may have to quit doing all these emails which have been building up and are backlogged after my trip to the Le mans Classic race and taking some time off.

But after 12 hours solid with my keyboard burning, i really need to go and pack to get ready for the flight to our global briefing in Atlanta.

So the backlog of mails, the blogs i want to do, and the phone calls I need to make will have to wait.

hopefully I’ll have more time on the other side of the pond…

Technorati Tags: MGX

How close do you like your media experience

Dean had an interesting post the other day which got me thinking about what I prefer. 

• 3” mobile – “1ft user experience”
• 19” laptop – “3ft user experience”
• 50” TV screen – “10ft user experience”
• 10’ Billboard – “100ft user experience”

My eyes are too poor now to “enjoy” media on my phone, I can’t see a Zune screen properly and have to squint to read my email on my phone without my glasses.  Video is blurry and I have to guess at the song track i want to find.  My laptop is fine – but it’s a very solitary experience – I can’t share things with others, cuddled up on the sofa watching a film.  TV in the room – better – but my TV isn’t big enough to be a “home entertainment centre”

and a billboard?  too impersonal – i want to share my experience for sure – but not with everyone passing by.  Too impersonal.

So my question is – which is the best to get the best experience?  DO I need to embrace all of these (get better reading glasses and a huge TV screen) or continue with the limited options I currently use.  I’m definitely a lean back consumer which is probably why I love going to the cinema and watching TV from the sofa. 

But does one size fit all?  or do we need to have one of each for the full media experience – I really don’t know.  So over to you.

What sort of media experience do you prefer?  Do I need one item to cope with every bit of my media consumption or should I go for the media experience on every form factor possible?

How do you consume your media?…

 

Technorati Tags: Digital media