Active Desktop of Slowness...or NOT!

I have always LOATHED Active Desktop in Windows. It always made the PCs so SLOOOOW!

But, I found another use for it today, and I have to say, I'm very impressed.

Check this out!

My G1!!! (Updated January 3, 2010)

So, as you probably have guessed, I got myself G1.

It has surpassed my dreams and I could probably go on about it's awesomeness for the rest of this post, but enough drooling -- down to business.

My favorite apps (alphabetical order):

	Babbler ($1.49): Facebook app that beats the "real" Facebook app.
	Babbler Lite: Free version of Babbler.
	Barcode Scanner: Scans regular and 2D barcodes, like the QR codes you see to the left.
	Bloo ($0.99): Facebook. Better then Babbler after the last Babbler update (they made it green and very slow).
	Bloo 1.4 Beta: A free version of Bloo. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to.
	Bubble: A level (just really cool).
	DailyStrip: Comic strip viewer.
	FlashLight: It took me a while to find a good flashlight app.
	Google Goggles: Just awesome.
	Google Maps: Because it has Latitude.
	Google Sky Map: I love the stars, this gives me a real-time view of the stars. I can hold it up to the sky in front of me to see where things are.
	Key Ring: Stores all of my key-chain cards (Dillons, Kroger, Dick's Sporting Goods, etc.) so the store just has to scan my phone. Haven't used it yet, but I'm anxious.
	Listen: A Google podcast manager with pause/resume capabilities.
	Locale: Really cool app. I don't use it, but it makes the list.
	Movies: A fantastic app that lets you look up movies, see information, watch trailers, find showtimes (for theaters around your location) and even manage your Netflix queue.
	Note Everything: A nice notepad which includes the ability to draw pictures.
	Shazam: I've been a fan for a long time, now I have it!
	ShopSavvy: Another barcode reader, but with many more features dealing with finding the best price(s) both online and locally as well as reviews.
	Silent Time: I originally used Locale but it turned out to be overkill since I just wanted my phone to automatically turn off my ringer when I went to sleep and turned it back on when I woke up.
	SnapPhoto: A replacement for the default camera app that includes stability and some effects.
	SnapPhoto Pro ($0.99): Paid version. This is my next purchase.
	TaskPanel: A great task manager with auto-kill and ignore lists.
	Toggle Settings: This is a nice app. It has replaced Silent Time and given me a bit more control.
	Weatherbug: I have always hated WeatherBug with a passion because the version for regular computers is full of spyware and junk software that slows your computer down. This version is the complete opposite; it is a fantastic app.
	WeatherBug Elite ($1.99): Paid version with no ads and animated RADAR. I bought this.

Anybody else have any good ones?

A Visualization Study for MANET Performance Metrics

I thought I'd post my presentation(s) from my summer internship over here; It was a really cool summer at MIT Lincoln Laboratories. And since my work was all unclassified... Have fun checkin' it out!

C Lydick. "A Visualization Study for MANET Performance Metrics."

Basically: I ended up taking the PCAP and GPS data from one of the Dartmouth Experiments on Crawdad and extracted the metrics in an attempt to find underlying multivariate relationships between network metrics. I think we did. :-)

Let me know if you've got questions/comments. I may end up posting the memo that accompanies this presentation -- we'll have to see.

Roadtrip & Latitude Part 2!

OK, since it was such a success... and really helpful for those who were curious about where I was...

I'll post this again.





BTW... The icon looks funny. I'm going to see if I can adjust that...

I just cleared my cookies...oh, wait...I missed some!

I'm not one of those uber-paranoid people that wipes out my cookies each time I close my browser. Quite frankly, I just don't care that much.

But little did I know, that little "Clear Cookies" button can miss a few here and there.

According to this article it is possible for websites to use Flash-based cookies to track you, and they aren't cleared out with the normal button.

You actually need a Firefox Add-on like BetterPrivacy, or even an extra application like CClearner.


Yet another bit of proof that the best way to ensure security is to not rely on the "comfort" of the Erase button.

Oops...I forgot how to Administer

Forgotten administrator passwords can be a pain -- especially in Windows.

Here's one method for resetting it if you've forgotten it.

Remove Unhelpful Help

I hate that stupid "Help & Support" option on the Start Menu.

• Click Start->Run and type 'Regedit.exe'


• Navigate to the following location:
  
  HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced



• In the right-pane, create a new REG_DWORD value named 'NoStartMenuHelp'


• Double-click 'NoStartMenuHelp' and set it's value to '1'


• Close Regedit.

Thanks winxptutor.com for the help!