Sometime when a computer can not get to a certain website, the problem can be their hosts file. The “hosts” file is used by your operating system to associate host names with IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. For a www (World Wide Web) address to work it must first be translated into the IP address.
In English, this means that a computer sees yahoo as a number (66.94.234.13) and not the name yahoo.com. When a change is made in the hosts file, it tells the computer, if you’re looking for 66.94.234.13 goto www reallybadsite com instead.
This is going to be a really simple step by step with pictures for anyone that has never check their host file and may need to (my family)

Split Browser for FireFox is a plugin that splits the content area of the browser window as you like. It will help you in various cases. For example, to compare multiple webpages, to show a calendar always, and so on.

There is some ways to split window.

* Choose the “Split Browser to” menu in the context menu.
* Choose the “Load in Split Browser” menu in the context menu on link.
* Click popup-button on top/bottom/left/right edges of the content area.
* Drop links, bookmarks, etc. to popup-button on top/bottom/left/right edges of the content area while dragging.

You can split browsers over and over. Status of split browsers are saved, and automatically restored on the next startup.

If I find a graphic or photo that I want to link to either in one of my blogs or a forum, there are usually many steps that need to be taken. This will most the time stop me from adding the pic to my post (because I’m lazy)

Not anymore ! This software has been writen about other places but since I just came across it yesterday and this blog is about things i’ve learned, here goes..

Novell NetDrive allows you to map a drive on your workstation and, via the internet, connect to a folder on Novell, Windows or Linux server. You can also map multiple drives to multiples servers. The drive mapping will show up in Windows explorer and look and act like a local drive. It can map drives via FTP, SFTP, WebDav, and iFolder.

NetDrive is an OEM/re-branded version of WebDrive from South River Technologies. Novell licensed the WebDrive technology from SRT for use in a Novell Netware setting. It is mainly used to access Novell user directories remotely, and is distributed on the Novell Netware CDs. They do not distribute it on their site due to liscensing issues.

In english this means I will have a drive letter (say z:) and it will be connected straight to my server that my blog is on. The way i’ve set mine up is I’ve created a new login that went straight to a folder on my server, this way I have one spot all my images are at and easily know where to link them to. Another plus is if I see an image I like online I can just drag it to the drive letter and it auto sends it to the server. Gone are the days of right click, save as.. then start ftp program, connect, choose directory on both the server side and the client side, upload. Now I drag to drive letter and done.
Like it says in the quote from Wikipedia, “They do not distribute it” but if you do a google search you’ll find a link to it (hint usually from an university and probably a couple pages into google)

With a 4-mph top speed, the humanoid is either the slowest Honda in the lineup or the fastest robot in the world.
What’s being described as a “breakthrough version” of Honda’s humanoid robot Asimo made its North American debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
Asimo can now run at nearly 4 mph, push a cart and hold hands with a human. The Honda robot is also getting smarter via an optical communication function. It can now recognize and find you in a 360-degree range. Honda says the long-term goal of the robot is to help those who lack full mobility or to work in environments dangerous for humans. What this means to you: Honda isn’t just working on automobiles. It has its eye on some pretty futuristic stuff.

This week Google hit the #1 spot for the top 100 places to work. It sounds strange but one of the larger problems Google has is cooling their servers. I’ve met a couple people that have worked at Google. Many of their stories of the 10’s of thousands of servers, Power station upgrades and scooters to get across the multiple football field sized data centers, makes this quote even more believable.

Google produce so much excess heat in their day-to-day operations that it takes them the same amount of money to dissipate that heat as it would to give every last human being on the face of the planet 2 pieces of Bazooka brand bubble gum at its retail cost, annually. It could also be said that for a billion dollars you could build about 10 decently sized cities or, if you’re so inclined, buy all the Viagra in the world and still have enough money left over to buy 50,000 or so Russian brides ‎(And you thought free meals at the Googleplex were an effective employee incentive…).

Oren Goldschmidt also has a couple ideas on how google could fix the overheating problem. I do like the idea of moving to a cooler climate. With this thinking the huge data center here in Atlanta, GA doesn’t make sense. (but from other employees I’m told the reason they moved here was energy cost was a tad cheaper than other large cities and a tad times a billion adds up)

Reading through the 100 best companies to work for I started to wonder how they came up with this list.

I’ve worked for one of the top 10 and know people that have worked for #1 and just like any company there are the ups and downs. Everyone has some problem with their company, no matter how good of a place it is. The place I worked at, i will agree was a great place to work, good people, great pay and just the feel at the place was nice. It was just my job I didn’t like, which isn’t what the list is about.
The list is the top places to work, so how to they find this out? Part of the process is surveying employees with a 57 question survey. Each company also is surveyed about demographic makeup, pay, and benefits programs, and open-ended questions about the company�s people-management philosophy, internal communications, opportunities, compensation practices, diversity programs, etc.
105,000 employee surveys sent out to 446 companies, the 446 companies are chosen out of the 1500 companies that make it through the company survey. But how are the 1500 companies chosen to start the entire process? They sign up for it, yes each company has to sign up each year to be part of the listing. From the site:

(Any company that is at least seven years old with more than 1,000 U.S. employees is eligible.) The deadline for applying for next year�s list is March 31, 2007; for an online nomination form, go to

So even if I’m the best company to work for, I need to remember each year to sign up for the top 100 list. This seems a bit odd to me. I understand that the ranking company couldn’t send surveys out to every company in the US or world but it seems there has to be a better way. Or maybe my problem is I haven’t learned to toot my own horn enough

Today I was invited to beta test The Venice Project. This project is something I signed up awhile back and wanted to be part of. I’ve beta tested many games and even worked as a game tester for a couple months on Gears of War, but this is a different type of beta for me.
What is The Venice Project? From the site:

We’re working on a project that combines the best things about television with the social power of the internet - a project that gives viewers, advertisers and content owners more choice, control and creativity than ever before.

I don’t want to post any info about it until i’ve gotten to test it and play around with it, so far all i’ve done is watch a few short shows.

CellBlock allows anyone that has a cellphone with a camera to instantly add photos to their site as a slideshow, as the pics are taken. I’ve used and tested many plugins for wordpress for galleries and cell photos but this maybe one of the easiest. By signing up with cellblock you get an email adress to send the photos to as you take them, they are then updated as they come in on the site. Code is provided to cut and paste into your blog, myspace or anyother site. Below i’ve tested this and as I take the pix the slideshow is updated.
Since the photos are sent to an email address this would be great for events where you post “watch as the event goes on” or for a group of people to have the email address and all post what they see.

After reading GTD “Paperless” Hack I thought, why not take this one step further. In John Federico’s blog, he suggest that by using one of the online faxing services and software with his Mac to create the image file (rename to TIF) and then tag the image correctly you can then search and find it when needed. But why not go the next step and run OCR on the image?
I haven’t tested this yet (since it’s 2am) but I did do a few searches. In theory someone could signup for J2 fax to email, once the the fax comes to your email, rename to a TIF file. Then upload the TIF file to one of the couple online OCR programs. Some lister here and one that adds an upload widget to your Google homepage here. Once the files are read, the text file is then emailed to you.
This does involve another step, but you don’t have to worry about missing a tag when you can search the entire document. This is also for those away from home, because yes a scanner would probably be much easier.
It all seems like a good idea but depending on how well the image from the fax is and how well the recent OCR software works, this could be just a wish

PodCamp is a FREE BarCamp-style meetup for podcasters and listeners, bloggers and readers, and new media types of all stripes.

It was held for the first time from September 8-10 at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center and at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and is now spreading around the country and across the globe.

You do NOT need to be a podcaster to attend a PodCamp. If you’re interested in podcasting, if you’re a listener, if you’re a podsafe musician (or want to be), or just someone curious about podcasting and new media, then please join us — and bring a friend or colleague.

• Podcamp Atlanta - March 16-18, 2007 at Emory University