Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld:
"Dell Latitude ON
Dell announced this week a new feature called Latitude ON that enables the use of e-mail, Web surfing, basic PIM functionality, and document reading -- all without booting Windows. The idea is to enable basic use without having to wait for the main OS to boot, and also to extend battery life.

A more accurate name than 'Latitude ON' would have been 'Windows OFF.'

The codename was 'BlackTop,' a combination of 'BlackBerry' and 'laptop.' The original aim of the project was to give users the same basic functionality of a BlackBerry using their laptops' full-size keyboard and screen.

Are you ready for event-driven business? - watch this webcast.

What Dell is really doing here is building the equivalent of a secondary ASUS Eee PC into a full-featured, full-size laptop. The Latitude ON feature uses a low-power Intel Arm processor (just like the new Eee PCs), flash storage and Linux (Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) separate from the laptop's main CPU, hard drive, and Windows OS. But unlike a subnotebook, the Latitude ON system won't allow you to install applications. It's essentially a 'cloud computing' device that depends on the Internet for much of its functionality.

As far as I can tell, none of the applica"
------------------

I only just read this, and this excerpt is from a broader post, but this Dell Latitude ON feature seems pretty frickin' killer to me!

I mean, I travel quite a bit (lately) and I see people pulling out laptops and waiting for them to start up or shutdown, or even hibernate, etc, while on a plane, and it seems like such a huge waste of time for little return (this is obviously my opinion... but I'd rather sleep on a plane or read a book for fun ;-). The other part that seems like such a waste to me is battery life. Granted, the laptops and batteries today are SO much better than just a few years ago... but batteries can and do go bad, which shortens the life you have to use them without power. I have a Dell Latitude D620 for work, and I have two extended life batteries for it. They are supposed to give me 4hrs each of life off the plug. Well, BOTH have dropped in capacity to literally minutes of battery life before going critical and the PC shutting itself down. I obviously need to get them replaced, but that would also mean I no longer hold the excuse that I *can't* work on the plane. ;-)

Anyway, I suppose this sort of turned into a rant about batteries, didn't it? Oh well. I think that anything we as an industry can do to lengthen battery life is key. I also am really interested in the slimming down of operating systems to the bare essentials for certain applications of operating systems. Like smartphones and other, what I like to call, "appliances". Normal multi-purpose desktop PCs should probably remain pretty fat, otherwise they start to lose their multiple purpose use.

I am still looking for the perfect inexpensive internet device for browsing, email and blogging. I think the EeePC, or something similar, could be it... but the price is still rather high and it lacks the full-size screen and keyboard I like so much. All in all, I want incredible battery life with very little heat generated and as little moving parts as possible (i.e., no spinning HDD). The EeePC with the (nicer) 10" screen seems to ONLY come with Windows XP. I don't know that I want something that bloated for that type of "appliance"... but if managed properly, I suppose XP would work.

Checking SQL Server or MSDE Version and Service Pack Level - Cisco Systems

Checking SQL Server or MSDE Version and Service Pack Level - Cisco Systems:

"SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')"

The above SQL query string was all I needed to verify the SQL Server version, SP level and type (in my case, the type was "Enterprise Edition", but I *thought* it was only "Standard Edition"... so this was helpful in figuring out why my attempts to upgrade to SQL 2K5 Standard were being "blocked").

Pretty soon I'm gonna be a DBA!! (just kiddin)

Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek: Lifesaver: Renaming a SQL Server 2005

Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek: Lifesaver: Renaming a SQL Server 2005: "This one has saved my bacon a few times.

I usually do test installs of whatever I'm doing at the tiem with VM - most of the time I am able to restore these installs to the client environment. But I always forget to change the machine name. Once I do I get weird issues with the SQL Server if there is one installed. I always forget the SQL format for chnaging the name of the default instance of the server which is based on the machine name. So here it is so I don't forget it and you can use it:

sp_dropserver
GO
sp_addserver , local
GO



To find out the existing name of the server (before and after) execute the following:

select @@SERVERNAME



Then restart the SQL Server."

This one saved me!!!

Linux for spare

I have tried to use my little Nokia n800 tablet to blog in the past and find the lack of physical keyboard to be ultra annoying. I honestly haven't given the handwriting recognition a chance at all, so I may try that, but my experience is that it is never 100% and not easily edited/corrected like typing with a keyboard. Meaning, I don't type 100% accurate either, but it's a synch to hit and even hold the backspace button and re-type something.

The on-screen keyboard of the n800 is great, but you can't touch-type or type really fast with it because you have to sort of hunt and peck with the stylus. I've also tried the full-screen finger keyboard on the n800, and while this makes life better for typing, it is still less than perfect and has it's own flaws.

My desktop PC is by far my favorite device to use for everything having to do with computers, but it is a "desktop" and sits in my office in the basement. So, I'm essentially anti-social to the family when I'm down there. I have an old laptop that my mother-in-law was using and the HDD got fried... so it sat for a while until I figured I'd try it as a Linux install for blogging and internet browsing for upstairs. It has a really nice screen with higher than usual resolution (1400x1050) and lot's of other goodies. My one worry is that it may not be long for this world because the fan seems to be on it's last leg. At any rate, I dropped a 100GB HDD I had sort of lying around and got Ubuntu 8.10 installed on it in a snap. We'll see if it can last a while for me. If not, I may try and pickup a used one like this for cheap.

Hopefully, this will allow me to browse and blog with greater ease. I think I would love an Asus EeePC, but I can't see shelling out that much for an ultra-small laptop. If all I am doing is browsing the web and blogging/twitting with it, then it doesn't have to have a lot of horsepower... but screen size and resolution make all the difference in the world for those things.

Plus, I kind of wanted to keep Linux in my life in ways... so this can help with that.

Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically | H1DD3N.R350URC3

****EDIT*****
Upon looking at the location described in the article, my registry information does not look the same. It is similar, but there are many of the values missing, and one that is not in the poster's image. That is "RatinsInfo" and has a whole mess of GUIDs and such. It would appear to me that MS may have changed this info in the registry with Vista SP1 possibly.
****/EDIT****

Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically | H1DD3N.R350URC3: "Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically"

It kind of bugs me that some games make it in here, while others do not... and dragging the games EXE into this folder does nothing more than create a shortcut to it... the other information on it doesn't auto-magically show up like a "supported" game.

It's only a slight annoyance really, but when I was trying to figure out why I found this post on how you can kind of hack it to manually put that info in. I doubt I'll go through the trouble of all this because it's not that big of a deal, but thought I'd share if anyone really needed to do this.

Bottom line on what I found out is, only certain games will show up and download information and performance ratings in this folder. Not sure why it can't get any game that is reviewed by www.allgame.com since that's apparently what it uses for it's info.

The one that was bugging me is "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" not showing up. I mean, this game came out well after Vista and it is reviewed on www.allgame.com as well. It's also an extremely popular game! "Call of Duty: World at War" shows up, and that's what made me look.

FOXNews.com - Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive - FOX Car Report

FOXNews.com - Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive - FOX Car Report: "Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive"

Sign me up!! Now I just need to get my pilot license. ;-)

Windows 7 Quick Launch - Where'd it go?

Live Search QnA - Windows 7 Quick Launch?:

"Just add the folder '%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch'
as a Toolbar."

I started using the Windows 7 Public Beta as my main OS, and so far I have to say it is *really* solid. I've been going through the steps of installing all my applications I use, drivers, etc, and I noticed the QuickLaunch toolbar to be missing. A quick search found the above link and there was a gentleman by the name of Geoffrey on there who had the solution. For whatever reason, I still like to use the QuickLaunch bar for odds and ends. It's just so much easier to me to have a quick list of apps or things I use often.

My true test for whether or not Windows 7 will cut it for me was to try some gaming. I just installed LOTRO (Lord of the Rings: Online) and it played as well as on my Vista install. I will install and try Call of Duty 4 tomorrow and make sure that runs as well too.

My PC hardware is in need of an overhaul. My CPU and RAM are a bit long in the tooth and are proving to be my bottleneck in just about every case. I will hopefully be able to do that if I get a tax return... but we'll see.

Look back here for more updates and opinions on Win7... It's too late for me to try and capture it all now... need to get some sleep. ;-)