Author: George

I have been in the IT profession over 27 years. Most of my experience was providing Workstation / Desktop support for several clients.

American Holidays Happy New Year

Happy New Year

I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Last year was a little rough for me on the job scene. In December 23rd 2008 I was informed my work assignment would end in January 2009 and I would be “on the bench” until the end of February 2009. I had several interviews which were all a bust until mid-February. A client for my employer at that time was looking for someone for Quality Assurance in the IT field. I took the interview and it was apparent I didn’t have all the qualifications needed, but I stuck the client as someone who is willing to work hard, learn the job, and have a positive attitude. The job was near the Philadelphia International Airport about 30 miles 1 way from my house.

Several months later I received a call from another company who wanted to interview me for an IT support role to support Windows XP, Vista, and Server 2003 / 2008. My interview went very well and I accepted this assignment. The big bonus, the main office I support was 5 miles from my home, the second office was 2 miles closer. The saving in gas alone was like receiving a bonus. Plus the job is exactly what I want to do in IT. In late October I found out I would not be hired by the new company taking over IT support the client I was working for. About 10 days later I was informed that an offer would be made to me soon. I accepted the offer and will start on February 1, 2010.

The past year also had many good time with friends and family. My family went on vacation to Avalon, New Jersey during the July 4th and the following week. Although the sunburn was not pleasant, I still had a great time seeing my parents, my brothers with their families, and enjoying a 18 hole round of golf. I even chipped in a shot on the second hole. I enjoyed riding my bike with my family, signed up my son for Cub Scouts, went on a camping trip in early November, and took an active role in his pack.

I am looking forward to 2010 and all the challenges it will bring. I am looking forward to watching my children grow and discover new things, complete more of my goals at home (got to finish building my basement office), and exercise more. Maybe I’ll set aside time to learn the game of Golf and take some lessons.

Tags American Holidays, Happy New Year

Sports Steelers

Steelers Playoff Scenarios

Post author By George
Post date December 29, 2009
No Comments on Steelers Playoff Scenarios

Here are the Steelers Playoff scenarios as provided by the NFL:

Steelers win + Texans loss or tie + New York Jets loss or tie
Steelers win + Texans loss or tie + Ravens loss or tie
Steelers win + New York Jets loss or tie + Ravens loss or tie + Broncos loss or tie

Hopefully the Steelers will make it to the playoffs this year. If the Steelers fail to make the playoffs or are eliminated I need to deiced which team I want to back for the Super Bowl.

Tags Sports, Steelers

Christmas Personal Wii

Band Hero / Lego Rock Band for Wii

Post author By George
Post date December 28, 2009
No Comments on Band Hero / Lego Rock Band for Wii

For Christmas, my family received from “Santa” Band Hero and Lego Rock Band for the Wii. Of course the kids were excited about reciving these gifts Christmas morning. While breakfast was cooking, I hooked everything up and made sure Band Hero was working.

My son and I spent hours playing Band Hero taking turns between the guitar and drums. I tried the mic to see if worked. I swear I heard the Wii complain about my lack of singing skills. I guess that’s OK, because I know I don’t have a voice for singing.

Today I wanted to try Lego Rock Band for the Wii. The guitar was working well but I problems with the drums. I could not get the red drum to work at all. The red drum is the snare drum and is also the back or cancel button for the game. Without it, it is impossible for Lego Rock Band to work correctly.

I checked the Internet to see if others were having problems with the red drum like too. It turns out the drum set will work (minus the orange cymbal) as long as you have the Wii remote installed correctly into the drum system. I thought, “I have it installed correctly. How else would I be able to play drums on Band Hero already.” The key for me was to remove the wrist strap from the remote before installing it into the drum system. Now I can play the drums on Lego Rock Band with no problems.

I created a Lego character and formed a band called Chicken Wizards (random name the game picked for me.) I played 2 gigs, and several practice sessions with the drums and guitar. It’s a lot of fun and before I knew it, it was after 2:00PM and I’ve still haven’t started my chores.

I would recommend both games for anyone with some music skills. If you are lacking in musical talent, just set the instrument for Beginner and you can still join in the fun. For New Year’s I we are having some family and friends over. I’m sure the new Wii games will be a big hit.

While I was writing this post, my son was sitting down here in the game room singing Mr. Roboto by Styx.

Tags Christmas, Personal, Wii

American Holidays Christmas

Merry Christmas

I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas. Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I can remember as a kid looking forward to Christmas, seeing what Santa brought me and my brothers, and spending time with my family (cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.)

Over the last 15 years, we spend time at home on Christmas Eve watching our favorite Christmas movies:

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
A Christmas Story
Scrooged
The Santa Clause (1, 2, and 3)
It’s a Wonderful Life

This year we are feeding the reindeer “special” reindeer food which the kids sprinkle in the yard. Santa still loves his eggnog (I think it keeps him jolly during the season) , and we might read A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) today.

During the Blizzard of 2009, I took a picture of a Holly Bush in my yard. The picture hollybush_2009.zip is located in the Box.net flash plugin on the right.

Tags American Holidays, Christmas

Firefox Google Chrome Opera

No Size Limit on Google Chrome

Post author By George
Post date December 23, 2009
1 Comment on No Size Limit on Google Chrome

Yesterday I was talking with another colleague about Google Chrome and why he won’t use it anymore.

What??

Of course I was skeptical with that statement, but his HDD was running out of space – fast. On my Windows 7 computer I checked Google Chrome on my PC and I’m using about 350MB of cache. Well, that’s a drop in the bucket on a 160GB HDD, but left unchecked, I can see it growing to several GB in no time. Nowhere can I find an option to set the size limit of my cache folder. I checked IE 8 and Firefox 3.5.3 and both can be configured to any size I want. My cache settings for both browsers is set for 50MB.

The same can be said on my Ubuntu PC. I can’t set a cache size limit in Google Chrome. I can set the cache size of Firefox 3.5.2 and Opera 10.10 to 50MB each.

Why would Google want me to fill my HDD with Internet cache? Do they want me to remember empty my cache on every time I start or close Chrome. This is a basic function of every browser that I’ve used. Talk about poor programming or short-sightedness on their part.

Tags Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera

Office 2007 Work

Clear Email Address Cache in Outlook

Post author By George
Post date December 23, 2009
No Comments on Clear Email Address Cache in Outlook

Monday I received an e-mail from a colleague’s personal e-mail address. He was calling sick and asked to to complete a few tasks, and to contact him by e-mail if I had any questions. I send him an e-mail, but I wanted to remove his personal e-mail address from Outlook’s address cache. I would hate to accidentally send him a message at home when it should have gone to his work e-mail or worse, accidentally using his personal e-mail address on a respond to all.

I remember reading a post at How-To Geek regarding clearing out e-mail addresses from Outlook’s address cache file. The directions work for Outlook 2007 also.

A Thank you to the folks at How-to Geek.com

Tags E-mail, Office 2007, Work

E-mail Evolution LinuxMint Thunderbird Ubuntu

Thunderbird 3

Like many out there, I migrated from Thunderbird 2.23 or whatever version came with Ubuntu 9.10 to Thunderbird 3 the day it was released. The upgrade went painlessly for the most part. I also installed Thunderbird on my Linux Mint 8 USB jump drive. I really enjoy this new version, and must say it’s about time for an update.

Since the initial migration from Evolution to Thunderbird, I’ve never considered moving back. Thunderbird 3 is solid, reliable, multi-platform (Mac, Linux, and Windows), easy to use, and has a clean interface. I’ve installed the following add-ons: Quicktext 0.9.10, Silvermel 1.3 (theme), Lightning 1.0 pre, and Provider for Google 0.6 pre (both had to be download from Mozilla FTP site). Everything installed with no problems, and since I already had Quicktext installed before, all my signatures imported easily.

I think my only gripe, like almost everyone, Lightning should be included by default with Thunderbird. Why have an e-mail client without a calendar plugin?

Tags Evolution, Linux Mint, Thunderbird, Ubuntu

FaceBook

Privacy Settings for Facebook Users

Post author By George
Post date December 17, 2009
No Comments on Privacy Settings for Facebook Users

Tonight I read a interesting post at allfacebook.com. Since Facebook released updated privacy settings, I figured I should look into it. Take a read and see if you need to adjust your privacy settings.

Tags FaceBook