New Project! 98MarketSt.com
I'm happy to announce the start of a new project: 98MarketSt.com. I've started this blog to discuss my home renovation projects, which currently consume most of my free time. I talk about things like jacking support beams, restoring stone foundations, and other home improvement topics. If you have any interest I hope you'll check it out!
The Power of the Application Compatibility Toolkit
I never quite understood the power of the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) until I watched this video. It shows how simple it is to create and apply popular program shims in order to make old applications compatible with newer version of Windows. Enjoy!
Going 64-Bit: A Cautionary Tale
Recently a customer of mine who makes a living testing patient's hearing and troubleshooting issues with their hearing aides bought a new laptop to take out on call. The laptop he bought was an HP Pavilion TV5, a powerful system with a very reasonable price. Last night I stopped at his office to configure his diagnostic software and devices on the new laptop, and ran into a major issue that was anything but surprising.
The Pavilion TV5 comes with Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition preinstalled. Niche industries such as my client's are often years behind in operating system and platform support, and 64-bit architecture is no exception. None of my client's hardware or software were supported by his new system. So what's a geek to do?
HP will not provide or support a 32-bit operating system for this laptop. Microsoft will not allow us to exchange the operating system for the 32-bit equivalent. Best Buy will exchange the laptop but the only replacements they offer running Vista 32-bit are, for lack of a better word, crap.
Did manufacturers jump the gun with the switch to 64-bit?
Update: Apparently this post caused some controversy both here on my blog as well as on my submission over on DZone. In an effort to keep the discussion going, I replied to some reader comments in a separate entry, called Going 64-Bit, Revisited.
There’s Nothin Like Experimentin’!
Due to how much I despite the WordPress admin console I decided to take the plunge and upgrade to the WordPress 2.7 Release Candidate which was just made available tonight! Though I'm excited to test out this bleeding edge version of my favorite blogging platform there may be some issues with the upgrade. Let me know if anything seems out of the ordinary!
PDF Download: Beware of Fake Antivirus Programs
In the last few weeks I've worked on more than a dozen computers infected with some varient of the "Win32/FakeSecScan" virus which sneaks onto your computer by pretending to be legitimate antivirus software. In an effort to help my clients avoid the headache and cost of a cleanup, I wrote this Beware of Fake Antivirus Programswhich describes how to identify and avoid the FakeSecScan virus. Feel free to Beware of Fake Antivirus Programs!
A Break From My Regularly Scheduled Posts
I had planned on finishing my series on defragmentation this week. Unfortunately I'm away for MCITP training and I don't think it would be appropriate to test hard drive optimization utilities on a virtual machine on my laptop. I'll be back to my regularly scheduled posts on Monday. In the meantime, I'll post some interesting tidbits that I pick up in my classes.
What is Fragmentation?
Fragmentation is one of the primary ailments that infects a slow computer. You might have heard the word before. Someone might have even taught you how to fix it. But most of us don't know what fragmentation is, how it occurs, and--unlike a virus or spyware--why we're stuck living with fragmentation in our lives. Without getting into too many technical details, let me explain what fragmentation is.
Silently Installing QuickBooks 2008
I have provided two sample batch files for silently installing QuickBooks 2008. In order to determine the variable names and values for a QuickBooks 2008 installation I used Microsoft's Orca tool which comes with the Windows SDK Components for Windows Installer Developers kit. The first batch file called install.bat installs QuickBooks 2008 on the local machine. You will have to edit this file to provide your own License and Products numbers for the installation. The second file is called deploy.exe and it uses psexec.exe to deploy the application to a remote machine on your network. If you want to do remote deployments, you will have to edit this file to provide your own network credentials.
Download the Unattended Installation Script for QuickBooks 2008
Reich Consulting Web Design Articles and Tutorials
Just last week I began teaching a class on web design for my primary employer, SUN Area Career & Technology Center based on the Thompson Course Technology Dreamweaver MX 2004 Basic textbook. Though the book and the accompanying PowerPoint presentations are sufficient for the lessons taught in class, I've decided to write a series of articles and tutorials to that add to my in-class lessons that expand on the topics that we will discuss. I'm going to begin with some basics regarding the World Wide Web and the the languages and protocols that make it work. If you are taking my class or just find web design and development interesting, I hope you'll stop by often to read this series of articles.
Sign Up: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Class at SUN Tech
I'm going to begin teaching a night class on web page design using Macromedia Studio MX 2004. It will be held at SUN Area Career & Technology Center starting Wednesday February 13, 2008. It will be four three hour sessions. Contact the school to sign up! Their number is (570) 966-1031.
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