Windows Tip: Scheduled Tasks written by Greg Melton on Monday ...
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If you always forget to scan for viruses, update virus protection, run Disk Defragmenter, or run any other system tool, look to the Task Scheduler for help.
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roundup Plus: Autodesk updates hobbyist tool...LogicLibrary buys bug catcher...Think local, act Google.
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Working on code today, may be limited updates.
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Mike Potter (from Adobe) has issued an invitation for all PHP and Ruby developers attending the MAX Conference to track each other down, as well as him.   I think this would be a perfect time for these groups of people to get together, showcase what you're working on, and talk about the problems that you're facing.  We're working out the details of MAXUP, but if you're going to MAX, plan on arriving on the Sunday so that on Monday we can get together and showcase and talk about the work that's going on with Flex and languages other than Java and ColdFusion.   He suggests using the entry's comments to help coordinate the meetings. The Early Bird pricing is still in effect for the conference, so there's no time like the present to reserve your spot.
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Sample code that exploits a yet-to-be-fixed Windows flaw is circulating. Microsoft plans to deal with it on the next Patch Tuesday.
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A lot of things are happening in the Ruby world right now, and I wanted to highlight a few of them here:  At FOSCon this year, Amy Hoy has asked people to start writing more instructive articles about parts of Ruby or Rails so that newbies would have more "fine manuals" to read.  I've tried to do my part with two short series (so far), one on RubyInline and the other on ruby-prof.  The RubyInline articles are: RubyInline, making making things faster easier, and RubyInline: Going a bit Further.  The ruby-prof articles are:  Profile and ruby-prof, ruby-prof and call graphs, and Profile and ruby-prof:  getting specific. Another blog related event is the current blogging contest being run by Ruby Inside.  They're offering $100 US to their favorite informativ, ruby related blog post this week (Aug 14-20).  There have been a lot of interesting entries so far.  It would be pretty cool to see more contests like this crop up. We're getting close to a couple of Ruby conferences, I wrote about RubyConf*MI in my last post.  RailsConfEurope is also comingu up quickly.  If you're reasonable close to either of these, you should consider registering. O'Reilly has released the Ruby Cookbook.  It's a massive tome, chock-full of Ruby goodness.  I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but what I've read looks good, and I'm hearing good things from folks I trust.  Looks like another good book to add to your Ruby bookshelf. APress is getting ready to jump into Ruby and Rails in a big way.  They've got ten titles listed on their 'Rails Roadmap', and have lined up some well known Ruby names to write for them.  They're still looking for some Ruby authors according to this blog post. No Starch Press is also starting to make some Ruby related noises.  I can't be specific yet, but there's a good looking Ruby book on its way into their catalog.  If the book is half as good as what they've talked to me about, it's going to be another 'must have'. The Pragmatic Programmers also look like they're set to add some more titles to their Facets of Ruby line.  James Gray has said that he's writing a book for them that should be announced soon, Ezra Zygmuntowicz also has a book on the way, and I've recently signed a contract with them for a Ruby related book.  It looks like the PragProgs aren't going to be content to sit on their Ruby laurels. Finally, Developerdotstar is close to announcing a couple of books about programming.  Neither of these is Ruby specific, but from everything I've heard I think they're going to be solid, language independant books about becoming a better programmer.  Just the kind of thing you'd expect from these guys.
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A few notes on the NY Times outline... 1. I switched it back to the frequency sort, having tried it as an alphabetized list for about 18 hours. Now I want to see what happens with it flipped around so the most frequent keyword bins appear first. 2. Not sure, but I think it will empty out later this afternoon, as yesterday's stories expire, and before tomorrow's stories ship.  3. It seems that at least some people have bookmarked the site and are refreshing it. If so, I'm glad -- because that's the way these pages are most useful, they tell you something about what changed. Remember this is "news" not olds. 4. The outline view is something like TechMeme for the Times news flow. Not exactly because the keywords are assigned by people. Unseen news mavens. Where do they reside? Are they on the upper floors or in the basement of the NY Times skyscraper on 8th Ave, or somewhere inbetween? Maybe they work out of their homes. My mind wants to visualize these people, but I have nothing to cling to. It's not an algorithm that's determining where things sort out, it's people. Otherwise known as editors? Or are they librarians? 5. Do you bookmark the outline or the river? I'm a river guy for sure. I wonder about other people. 6. Francine Hardway twitted at me: "Times River is awesome on my iPhone! Was reading it while waiting for eye surgery and it was very distracting." Amen. That's the big secret. I wish there were a way to get everyone to look at the river on their cell phone. Eyes would open. 7. Thinking about integrating the two views, cross-relating them. Not sure exactly what I'll try first. That's why I wanted to let it settle in for a bit before moving in a other directions. 8. Of course, I know that if this ever becomes a "real" product, the user is going to control the view he or she wants to be the default. But for right now I'm experimenting. I want to see what people think. Enough people were asking for an alpha view that I wanted to see what would happen when I gave it to them, and if anyone would scream. Screaming isn't a bad thing, it's data.
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Microsoft's technical support personnel only just this week discovered that its various patches for Windows, Exchange Server, Outlook, and other tools should be installed in a precise order, otherwise they may not actually be patching networks to properly deal with the upcoming Daylight Savings Time shift, now one week earlier.
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Master the server Windows Server 2008 is due for release on February 29, and as with most Microsoft releases, the fanfare from Seattle can be heard worldwide. Will it do what you want it to? What skills do you need? Is it any good?â¦
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Paul Jones has posted a teaser concerning his talks(s) at the upcoming php|works conference this year. One is about organizing your applications to make them easier to maintain and work better and the other is a follow up to some previous benchmarks he created comparing several of the popular PHP frameworks.   About The Benchmarking Talk - Easy one-liner: "Statistical Histories for Fun and Profit." And I do mean profit: the better your apps runs on a given stack, the more eyeballs you get on your ads (or, the more users you can handle).   He will be talking about why benchmarking your app is important, how to benchmark a framework and, the thing everyone's waiting for - his benchmark stats comparing several popular frameworks.   Paul also requests that, if possible, one developer from the teams of each of the other frameworks (besides Solar of course) could be in attendance to critique the talk and help point out issues either with the talk or in his methods.
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(InfoWorld) - The new DST (daylight-saving time) is drawing near. Do you think you're ready? Run down this checklist to be sure. 1. Do a datacenter inventory. You need to know exactly which applications and systems you have running so that you can locate appropriate patches and fixes. 2. Find out what needs to be patched. That could take some time. Fortunately, many of the big-name vendors have prepared (even if you haven't). Below is a list of DST resource sites for various companies. Most, if not all, include lists of solutions that will be affected. Apple BlackBerry Cisco Dell Hewlett-Packard IBM Microsoft McAfee Novell Oracle Palm Red Hat Sun Symantec Also be sure to update your JRE (Java Runtime Engine), as apps running on older versions of JRE may report incorrect times. Info is available here. If one of your vendors isn't listed above, check out their Web site or call their help desk as soon as possible and ask about DST patches. 3. Devise a game plan. Mission-critical, time-sensitive applications should take priority, but also consider software -- such as firewalls -- that isn't time sensitive but that feeds time-sensitive information to other programs, such as security event management products. 4. Deploy patches or, where necessary, manual fixes. Use your centralized software management toolbox such as Microsoft Systems Management Server or Novell ZenWork Patch Management (if you have one). Otherwise, you'll have a lot of manual patching to do. 5. Test your patches and fixes. Be certain you come up with proper times and dates. You also have to check that your applications are interacting properly. 6. Make sure your partners and service providers are prepared. Just because you've done your due diligence and updated your systems doesn't mean one of your critical suppliers, for example, has. 7. Schedule IT personnel to come in on March 11. Try as you might to prepare, it's entirely possible something will slip through the cracks. Have IT staff on hand to check the status of systems, run tests, and fix problems.
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DecemberÃ¢ÂÂs Patch Tuesday finds Vista in the bad guysÃ¢ÂÂ sights. Plus: Get Office 2007 SP1, get your fix for Flash, and avoid an HP laptop disaster.
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I'm starting to realize that my blog is a bit of a time machine.  For example I can create a blog entry to warn myself about something that WILL happen in the future.    My current NTP  blog entry is a good example.  I wrote this for myself as much as for the people who read my blog (or find me via Google).  I know for sure that NTP on Debian is going to bite me sometime in the future and I'm going to forget WHY.  Then I'm going to (of course) go to Google or my aggregator and search for NTP and then find my blog post.    I've done this about a dozen times now and its saved me a TON of time!
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As part of its new advance warning policy, Microsoft on Thursday said next week&#39;s regularly-scheduled patch day will feature five fixes for Windows, none of them more severe than &quot;Important.
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Y2K flashback? Turning the clock forward early is causing headaches for IT pros, and consumers should pay attention, too.
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A Microsoft program manager found himself conducting a tricky bit of PR yesterday, providing for his team's blog a lengthy explanation of a documented feature in Windows that independent researchers discovered only this week: the ability for the Windows Update service to update itself, even when the user's setting for Automatic Updates is "off." Researchers had charged the company with updating software on users' systems without their consent.
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December's Patch Tuesday finds Vista in bad guys' sights. Plus: Get Office 2007 SP1, get your fix for Flash, and avoid an HP laptop disaster.