Review

I really like the VLC open source media player. It is a great little (17mb) player that handles just about everything with a clean and tidy interface. It runs great using default settings, yet provides either a simple or complex view into all of the possible options you might want in a media player.

While I still use Windows Media Player for my music collection database, I use VLC for everything else.

Some of the uses I've had for VLC include...

I finished Guy's book "Reality Check" (RC) a little while ago and must say I really enjoyed it. I'm in the middle of starting about 5 major projects and found RC to be a great resource as I work my way through these diverse "starts".

The book is written in easily digestible chunks (the book was admittedly derived from his previous book "The Art of the Start" (TAOTS) and his blog) and the chapters are well organized in related sections.

While there is some repetition and cross reference between Guy's other projects, I found RC to be better organized and a much easier read then TAOTS. It is also more current and, I felt, a little better informed.

I do a lot of design work. I'm better at systems internals than I am at UI, but I know what I like in a UI and can usually mimic it (especially within the confines of a predefined UI set of rules such as Windows MDI or Google Android, if you follow what I mean).

Anyway, I'm intrigued by product design, architecture, photography, graphics layout, video editing, etc. and they all require an understanding of design and design principles (or at least the ability to mimic them) so I'm often on the lookout for theoretical works on the subject.

I enjoyed reading Matthew E. May's PDF "In Pursuit of Elegance" for that reason.

This short 6 page work is really just a preview to May's book of the same name. As he says in the last lines of the PDF:

"there is only one matter left to discuss in order to bring the search for elegance to its conclusion, and that is an understanding of a technique by which the power of the missing piece can be applied in such a way that it maintains its power and place in whatever we attempt—an unpacking, if you will, from the travels through elegance.

"And for that, I’m afraid, you will need to purchase the book."

What makes this PDF worth reading (for the price)? It raises interesting issues about the definition of "elegance" and provides some interesting examples. He does trot out some rather worn stories (hasn't everyone heard that Michelangelo said carving the statue of David was "simply a matter of removing the stone that was not David"?) and there are a few typos, but I did find it an interesting read.

The definition he uses, that "Elegance is at once symmetrical, seductive, subtractive, and sustainable" is a good one and is, itself, elegant.

Good enough definition that I might even buy the book, or at least get it from the library. (Hey, if you click on that link and pre-order before May 19, 2009 or buy the book after that, I get some Ama$on.)

Well, I've had my Dev1 unit for a few days and thought I'd share my first impressions of the device and the Google OS. There are a lot of reviews already for the T-Mobile G1, so I'll mainly focus on the differences and my specific experience along with a basic run through of what I've seen so far.

I switched recently to slicehost.com for my VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting. VPS allows you to run your own virtual server out in the "cloud". Instead of dealing with all of the headaches associated with shared web hosting accounts and other hosting options, or the cost of a dedicated physical box, the VPS gives you everything you are used to having with a physical server, but running as a "slice" of processor, memory, and disk on a larger, managed, server.

I've been using www.copilot.com for over a year. Copilot is a website with two software download components that allows you to take over a remote computer and help the remote user with whatever issues they might have (at least as long as both of you can get connected to the internet).

I used it a little during the beta program in 2007 (or was it 2006?) 2005 and have used it many times since. Awhile ago, I found out that during weekends the service is FREE!

Here's how it all works...

I picked up the Dell Inspiron 910 Mini for a client and thought I would document my impressions.

The unit was pretty well maxed out on the options with 1gb memory, 16gb flash disk, webcam, and bluetooth. The 16gb disk shows as having 14.3 available of which 10 is free.

The Dell Inspiron Mini (from now on I'll just call it the mini) comes in what can best be described as "mini-malist Dell" packaging. It is well packed in a very tiny box without the usual Dell "onion layers" you have to deal with. (It seems there is a rule at Dell that whenever they ship a Dell laptop, the box it comes in must always be 100 times larger in volume than the actual laptop.) In the case of the Mini, the box is only about 1 or 2 inches bigger in every dimension than the laptop. A little foam sleeve and some foam wrap and that's it! I like it...

I accidentally discovered a new breakthrough in USB thumbdrive technology from Crucial memory. I was ordering some memory from them and they had an offer for a free 1GB Gizmo Jr drive. I wasn't really interested because most 1GB drives have dropped so far in price that they are practically "disposable". What did I need another thumbdrive for? We have a box full of them that we hand out when someone needs one.

Well, once the package arrived, I was stunned to find...

I've been a big fan of virtualization for a few years, especially after VMWARE released their Server product for free. I've used it on several projects for things like software development, software testing, OS testing, and "trial runs" for new product testing. I haven't really liked Microsoft's Virutal PC product, mostly because of the restrictions they had on it early on.

These days, virtualization is really taking off. I think this is largely because the virtualization products and commodity hardware are catching up with the hype. With disk, processor, and memory as cheap as it is, you can build several screaming fast, isolated, virtual servers running foreign OSes on one physical server for less than you'd think.

Always looking for something newer and "free-er", I decided to give innotek's (http://www.virtualbox.org) VirtualBox a try. An open source version is available, but you have to go with binaries if you want some of the special new features such as the RDP server.

I went with the binaries because the project I'm working on was to find a way to allow remote access to Quickbooks without installing a Windows Server Terminal Server or another PC by better utilizing an existing Ubuntu server running SAMBA. The binaries provided for RDP access without having to allow it from XP.

I figured if I could use the Ubuntu server to run a virtual XP box, I could provide a single remote user with access to the local network, QB running natively, and allow it to connect to the current QB database server running on an XP workstation. If that worked, I could try to switch the database to run on the virtual box itself and get the data back on the server where it belongs and like it was before the client upgraded to QB 2007 (which required the data be on the local disk of a QB-database-server-capable XP box).

If this works, the cost to the client will be for one license for XP or about $140. This will save them about $500 for a dedicated XP box with remote control (plus the power to run it 24x7 for the occassional use it might get from the remote user) or even $2000 for a system and software to run Windows Server with Terminal Server for 5 users, given that architectually they really want to move the database off an XP box and onto a real server.

So, here's my process...