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Gearhead

Delivering audio
04-05-07
In the last two weeks we've cleaned up our MP3 collection, played with Wi-Fi, looked at the annoyingly high radio frequency attenuation properties of our walls, and solved our connectivity problems using HomePlug (aka Ethernet over powerline). (See "Organizing audio," and "Connecting audio," for all the details.)

Dumping TM, watching IIS, managing lists
03-08-07
We have three topics this week. First, reader James Curcurato wrote in to ask about Process Explorer, one of the topics of last week's column, "Polishing Windows." Curcurato's question was essentially, how do you replace Task Manager with Process Explorer? The answer is easy - when Process Explorer is running go to Options and select "Replace Task Manager." Process Explorer will now appear whenever Task Manager would have.

Reader feedback plus the Nokia 770
02-13-07
A few weeks ago we discussed the Sony Reader and its fabulous display. From your letters it seems that there’s a roughly 50/50 split between those who think that e-books have a future and those that think they will make nice landfill.

Kicking virtualization up a notch
02-01-07
Of all of the technology trends that have been important in the world of enterprise IT, there's one that stands out as the 800-pound gorilla - the pink elephant if you will - of the last few years: virtualization.

The perils of precaching
12-15-06
Sometimes life gets too interesting. That’s when you blow a day tracking down some weird, esoteric issue, which was exactly what happened to us a couple of weeks ago after a story was posted in Gibbsblog.

Tableau: PivotTable on steroids
12-08-06
Tableau Professional Edition Version 2.1, published by Tableau Software, outdoes Microsoft Excel in quantitative analysis.

Operating systems for the Web
10-16-06
How about an operating system for the Web?

Replacing Outlook
07-03-06
Thunderbird is really impressive, and we plan for it to become the Gearhead standard.

Real tools for real geeks
06-26-06
Tools are a big deal here at the Gearhead Underground Test Bunker and Sausage Factory. ... When we write "tools" we mean, not just software tools but real tools, because when it comes to moving equipment or data centers, having the right tools is the difference between getting a really nice result and getting something that looks like it was mangled by a herd of wild buffalo.

Recommended tools for the tool kit
06-19-06
Some time ago we asked for recommendations on tools you thought should be in the Gearhead tool kit. Here are a few reader recommendations that we've been able to test.

A puzzle, some junk, electric sheep
05-29-06
Yep, when you start poking around in Windows, it is staggering what you can find that is running but doesn't need to be. What brought this topic to mind was finding the Java Update utility, jusched.exe, running on one of our PCs.

Using U3 to create portable programs
03-13-06
As cool as U3 is, a serious issue is that it is very narrowly focused, applying only to Windows 2000, XP and 2003. That leaves all those Windows 95, 98 and ME systems out in the cold (and rightly so) along with Macs and Linux.

VMware Player follow-up
12-19-05
One interesting aspect of the VMware Player that we hadn't noticed and isn't in the manual is that if you shut down the Player before shutting down the guest operating system running in the virtual machine, the Player will automatically save the state of the guest operating system VM!

A good tool to manage e-mail
12-12-05
In our quest for tools to manage e-mail, specifically, to find ways to stop Outlook from becoming a dead end for messages (the program's export feature is pathetic), we came across a product that we now recommend highly: Aid4Mail from Fookes Software.

The insanely cool VMware Player
12-05-05
With the Browser Appliance VM just under 220M bytes and the VMware Player under 20M bytes, this could be an interesting opportunity to use a USB thumb drive to create an ultra-private browsing environment.

Book reviews and virtualization
11-28-05
This week we have two topics on our minds: books and virtualization. First up, books. Over the last few weeks we have got our hands on some books you need to get your hands on.

An impressive photo-archiving tool
11-21-05
Coppermine is a remarkable gallery system that appears to be very powerful and easy to administer. The default look-and-feel is a little clunky, but we changed our look-and-feel to be Mac OS X-like.

Fun with an online photo gallery
11-14-05
It was a simple enough requirement: We wanted to put photographs of our son's football games online so parents and supporters of the team could buy prints, with the profits going into the team's coffers.

Goof fix, Outlook nicknames, more VoIP
11-07-05
In response to our question last week about how to purge the cache that Outlook uses to auto-complete names entered in message address fields, readers Road Larse, Brian Tinsley and Kevin Square all responded more or less at the same time with the scoop.

Linksys VoIP phone for Vonage a treat
10-31-05
We just tested a new Skype-related product from Linksys, the Cordless Internet Telephony Kit (otherwise known as the CIT200), and we're very impressed.

Connecting existing phones to VoIP
10-10-05
this week, more VoIP, specifically devices to VoIP- enable existing phones. The first of these is the Internet Phone Wizard from Actiontec, which is designed to provide access to two lines: A VoIP line using Skype and an optional plain old telephone service line.

Remote pings and remote control
09-05-05
We think NetOp Remote Control is the best remote control system we've used. Highly recommended.

Days of Winrot and OS what-not
08-22-05
Our main desktop has Winrot so extensively that among its many new and interesting behaviors, it can easily take 60 seconds for a Word document that is being sent as an e-mail attachment using Word's "Send to" command under the file menu to appear as an e-mail message under Outlook, even when Outlook is running.

DesktopX, Dashboard, Konfabulator
08-15-05
This is such a great set of tools that we have to officially declare Konfabulator fabulous. Now when will they bring out an enterprise version?

High availability and Heartbeat
06-13-05
Heartbeat is a subsystem that allows a primary and a back-up Linux server to determine if the other is 'alive' and if the primary isn't, fail over resources to the backup.

Neat gadgets and Linux clusters
06-06-05
Stealth Surfer II is said to support secure, anonymous surfing and e-mail, and it makes for a clever and reasonably simple solution for portable privacy.

751,075,200 seconds after the PC launch
05-30-05
The Linux Enterprise Cluster is a how-to book and explains how to convert two or more PCs into a high-reliability, high-availability cluster based on Linux and inexpensive hardware using free and mainly open source software - what would have been an unthinkable configuration back when mainframes ruled the earth.

The RSOD and challenging responses
05-23-05
First up this week: The Red Screen of Death. "Hold hard!" we hear you mutter, "surely you mean the Blue Screen of Death?" Nope, red it is, at least currently where Longhorn is concerned.

A revised review, the aftermath of real life
05-02-05
We still like the idea of the RocketVault, but until Intradyn makes the product easier to use and improves support, we will downgrade our review's conclusion from positive to neutral.

Open source opens opportunities
04-18-05
No matter how much effort is put into developing services and technologies for proprietary operating systems, over the next few years open source development will provide a bigger foundation for richer and more sophisticated operating-system platforms than anything any vendor in the commercial market can achieve.