Voted off the Island
Well, I never made it to La Palma. As I posted previously, we were having trouble flying to La Palma from Tenerife in the Canary Islands. We tried one last day to fly but we were thwarted again. Since we missed the window of opportunity for our business plans we decided to return home as scheduled, after a little more sight-seeing of course.
Tenerife was very beautiful, the food was excellent and the people were extremely friendly towards us. I would definitely recommend the Canary Islands if you’re looking for an island-style vacation.
“Stuck” on Tenerife
I am currently in Puerto de la Cruz on island of Tenerife, which is part of the Canary Islands. I said I am “stuck” here because I am supposed to be on the island of La Palma for business but can’t seem to make it there. The small plane we took from Tenerife to La Palma had to abort its landing (at the last second I might add) due to high winds and returned to Tenerife. I have never seen so many people look for the exit and double check if they remembered where the life vests were located. We tried to go again this morning but all flights were canceled so instead we did some sight seeing around the island. The weather has been beautiful, despite the wind, and between the beer and paella, I am certainly having a good time “working”. We will give La Palma one last try tomorrow morning otherwise we will just have to go home. C’est la vie. Wait….that’s French. Oh well.
The LaPazz Graphic Tablet (WP8060-TAB08) on OS X
If you are having trouble with your LaPazz Graphic Tablet on OS X keep reading for the solution.
I recently purchased the LaPazz Graphic Tablet, WP8060-TAB08, from Geeks.com. The product advertises that it works on Intel Macs with OS X 10.2.6 and higher. As you have probably guessed, it didn’t work as advertised. After installing the driver software and plugging the tablet into the USB port on my MacBook Pro, all I could get the tablet to do is register mouse clicks. The cursor refused to move about the screen as I moved the pen. Downloading and installing new drivers from the LaPazz website didn’t improve the situation.
How to Fix the LaPazz Driver Issue
After poking around a bit I realized the driver is not loading at startup. LaPazz creates a new directory at /Library/StartupItems/PenTabletDriver and installs the driver there but for some reason it is not running at startup. Instead I setup the driver to run at login and it worked. To configure the driver to run at login follow these steps:
- Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu.
- Choose Accounts from the View menu.
- Click the name of the user.
- Click the Startup Items button
- Click the “Add {+}” button and select the PenTableDriver application at /Library/StartupItems/PenTabletDriver
- Reboot
The tablet should work now!
If anyone has any ideas why the driver doesn’t launch properly on startup I would love to hear from you. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your working tablet.
Online Video Killed the TV Star
It finally happened. Last week I watched more video online than a I did on TV. It is only a matter of time before a significant number of people are doing the same. I hope this forces cable companies to offer a la carte channel price plans. I am currently paying too much money for a bunch of channels that I have never watched while some other channels that I would like are only available on the Super-Duper-Ultra-Premium Plan. Alternatively I can watch what I want, when I want, where I want with video online.
Some of the videos I watch online are traditional network tv shows like ‘Lost’ and ‘Numb3rs’. All three networks let you watch some or all of their shows on their websites. NBC also launched Hulu which streams shows from their various network and cable channels as well as some movies.
I also enjoy some programs that were made just for the net. Revision3 is a “TV network” on the internet that has a dozen or so shows to watch. Many of the shows are quite geeky which is why I probably like them. My favorites are ‘Tekzilla’, ‘Systm‘, ‘Diggnation’ and ‘PixelPerfect’. Using my favorite video player, Miro, I download these shows automatically when new episodes become available. Miro hosts thousands of channels and allows you to search for video on the net as well. For a little comedy I like to watch short clips from the Onion News Network (yes, that Onion). Another popular channel on Miro is TED which hosts “Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.” I should also mention Joost, which is another video player/platform that hosts both content made for the web as well as shows from traditional TV. I don’t like the interface as much as Miro’s but it is still worth checking out. Finally, if you subscribe to Netflix, you can stream movies instantly to your computer (no joy for Mac users though) in addition to receiving DVD’s in the mail.
What do you watch online? I’d like to hear about some great videos or programs you have discovered.
Recommended: OpenDNS
I have been using OpenDNS for maybe a year now and I thought others might like to know about it as well. It is a free DNS service that protects you and your children online while speeding up your internet browsing at the same time. It replaces your ISP’s DNS (think of a massive phone book for the internet) with a larger, more reliable one from OpenDNS providing a faster browsing experience. Phishing scam sites are automatically blocked and you can also set it up to filter out adult content or other categories you need blocked. I like this approach since it keeps objectionable material off my network without degrading performance like other programs do. It is really easy to set up as well. I chose to enable OpenDNS on my router so every computer in my home is automatically using the service. If you have children in the house or want just a little more surfing umph!, I think this a no-brainer.
Spitzer’s Debacle is Nobody’s Gain
It saddens me that so many people are taking so much joy from the news about N.Y. Gov. Eliot Spitzer. We are so quick to tear people down and then gleefully watch the resulting train wreck. What the Governor did is wrong, he should resign and that should be the end of it. It doesn’t matter if he was a Democrat or a Republican. I don’t care if his wife chose to stand next to him at a press conference. I’m not interested in the details of his marriage. I don’t want to know who can capitalize on his downfall. Nobody gains. His family are the ones harmed by this, not some political candidate. I’m not saying this isn’t important news and or that it shouldn’t have an impact on us, but our reactions to the news and what we do with it have a great influence on society. I’m afraid many of us have adopted the motto “I’m not happy until your not happy.”
Faster Firefox
If Firefox is your browser of choice (and if it isn’t please see me after class) you may not be getting the speed you need. A short video clip over at Tekzilla shows you how to configure Firefox for faster browsing. Follow the instructions in the video or see my summary below and you’ll see quite an improvement. Before making the change I was only able to view 10 cute kittens in 1 minute but now I am up to 25 cpm [cats-per-minute]!
Faster Firefox Instructions
- In your address bar enter about:config
- In the filter field enter the word pipe
- Double click network.http.pipelining to set it to true
- Double click network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to true
- Double click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and enter a value of 30 or greater
- Restart Firefox
Riley’s Walking!
Riley took his first steps the other day. He is so proud of himself. He has been able to do it for quite some time, taking one or two steps and then deciding he would stick to crawling for a little while longer. He would also walk for minutes at a time all over the house using the walls and furniture for support. When he finally decided to try a few more steps he was so excited and started doing it again and again just to please his audience. The video shows him walking about a day or so after his initial steps. He is currently 11 months old and a joy to watch.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM6YmlKufZU
Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder
I think I’m well on my way to acquiring Attention Deficit Disorder. According to this article on CNET News it is possible to actually acquire a form of ADD.
“Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist who’s studied attention deficit disorder for more than a decade, has identified a related disorder he calls attention deficit trait, and he says it’s reaching epidemic proportions in the corporate world.”
While I don’t have a CrackBerry and am not addicted to my cell phone I have found plenty of other distractions. I subscribe to about 120 blogs that I subscribe to using Google Reader. I have 5 email addresses that I check (work, home, Gmail, blog, church webmaster). I also check several news websites throughout the day. Add to that a few phone calls during the day and I can begin to see how distracted I can get. I have started blocking out specific times for these activities to prioritize and limit them. I am definitely more focused. Time will tell if I can stick to this regimen.
Always Get a Second Opinion
We recently contacted three roofing companies to provide a quote to re-shingle our house. One contractor quoted us $7000 and another quoted $3000. The third contractor didn’t bother to show up even though we had agreed on an appointed day and time. What a difference between the three companies. I’m not sure how you stay in business when you stand up a customer but I’m glad they didn’t show. They saved me the headache of tracking them down after they didn’t finish the work. I am also amazed that there can be a 130% difference in price for the same job. But the question is will a $3000 roof be good enough and will it equal the quality of the $7000 one? It’s hard to know without some good references. I think some additional quotes are warranted as well.