I've spent way too much time in the past 24 hours driving my cat absolutely crazy with a little laser pointer. It's hilarious to watch her chase that bright red dot all over the room, across the floor and up walls and around/over furniture. But hey, it's great exercise. Heh.

I got the little laser pointer with my new holography book that recently arrived in the mail. I decided recently to give the one form of photography I've not yet done a try. The rest of the needed materials are on order, will be here before too long.

I've wanted to make holograms since I was a kid. My dad's a physicist and he has mostly always worked with lasers in some shape or form (and he still does today). I remember when I was a kid and he brought a laser home one night and showed me how it worked. I think he explained the inner workings, too, but that night I was amazed by what I saw. I was completely hooked and since then have been fascinated with them. I still enjoy learning about them. Add to that several years of professional photography experience, and - well - this is just a natural when-I-get-around-to-it hobby for me.

The book I just received is called Shoebox Holography, and I ordered a good, inexpensive laser pointer with the book. The book is very good, and any teachers or students looking to use holography for school projects would find it excellent and easy to understand, as well as quite complete in its explanations. Recommended.

But the cat's getting locked out of the room when I make holograms. Something about that combination seems unworkable.

Web services - are you ready for it? Take the quiz at CIO magazine online. Find out where you rank. I scored 80. Of course, we're already grokking them. How about you?

Platform, vendor and language independence - sounds pretty good to those people who are responsible for tying all these systems and companies and technologies together. When Microsoft launched their .NET initiatives a while back, the industry thought it was a lock-in situation - that Microsoft was making a move to own a market and that the effort was doomed to fail. But as it turns out, what the .NET story and other efforts have driven (at least in part - it's not just a Microsoft thing at all) is the continued growth of interoperability - through web services. Walls have been torn down in the process, not built up.

And now we're starting to see the popular landscape (this is not anything new, it's been around for years now) shift more toward a services-oriented model of application development. Some say it's Google taking on Microsoft. Whatever. What really matters (or should matter) to businesses today is participation. Time to get on-board if you're not on this rocket ship already.

(via Adam Gaffin)

If you didn't notice, Research in Motion - the wildly successful and smart company that created and sells BlackBerry devices and the services they run on - has been the subject of great debate recently, due to a patent conflict that's working it's way through the U.S. courts. In a nutshell, there's this other company that claims they own the rights to the concepts that the BlackBerry devices run on. RIM says not so.

People have been all but freaking out every time a news article comes out that suggests the patent dispute could cause BlackBerry services in the U.S. to be shut down. Anyone who reads the court decisions and can follow the parallel court cases can tell that the likelihood of this is very low. But hey, "news" is just acting like it's old typical self (meaning hyperbole and emotional button pushing). The patents claimed by RIM's opponent (a company called NTP) have been challenged and practically invalidated. But since that's happening in another court, I guess the news services just selectively choose what to report on.

Anyhow - What I think is the most interesting event to come out of the recent news, though, is the fact that the U.S. Government's Department of Justice has made an argument in the courts that the RIM/Blackberry services are necessary as a matter of national security. As it turns out, their highly-secure infrastructure and right-now capabilities of the network and servers has become a critical piece of how many government employees and agencies communicate.

The government department wants 90 days notice before a U.S. trial court enforces the potentially crippling injunction on BlackBerry devices in the United States to ensure public workers can keep using the devices, which many users call "CrackBerrys" for their addictive nature.

Lance Johnson, an intellectual property lawyer in Washington, D.C., said the filing is good news for RIM.

"This really throws a wrench into things [for NTP]," Mr. Johnson said. "It brings to this [legal] forum a national-security and government-functioning imperative that was not there before."

The U.S. government also said the extra time is necessary so the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can reconsider the validity of wireless e-mail patents held by NTP. The Patent Office has already overturned the five disputed patents filed by since-deceased inventor Thomas Campana Jr., although NTP has asked the patent office to reconsider its decision.

If the patents are overturned, the four-year-old court case would be rendered moot, legal experts say.

The real test of technology success today is acceptance and dependence, let's face it. And RIM has put together a quality service and set of infrastructure and devices over the past several years. You want to know how hard RIM is to knock over? Pretty hard, I'd say. A little more coverage is available here.

Time for a weather post, so someone out there can complain about how lame weather posts are...

The temperature has officially dropped below the freezing mark here in my part of rural northwestern Oregon for the first time this fall. Just a little crunchy effect walking across the lawn, and dang, it's kinda cold outside.

Snow is on the mountains and the ski hills have started to open. That's a lot more than you could say for last year, when the ski season was pretty much terrible. Maybe we'll end up with another of those storms that snowed us in a couple years ago. Well, we can always hope.

Well, it's getting more and more interesting (and official) with each passing day. The anti-spyware team at Microsoft has announced the new name for their anti-spyware application (which really handles more than spyware). It's going to be called Windows Defender, and will ship with Vista. That's good news. Even more good news comes in the later part of the blog announcement, where Jason Garms explains the package will also be available to Windows XP users.

They'll be delivering the malware signature updates over Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), as well. As a result, "Windows Defender" will begin appearing in the WSUS product list and a category called "signatures" will also appear. It sounds like a beta will be released sometime in the future that will take advantage of those update facilities.

Read the announcement here.

Yahoo! released a new version of it's mapping web service today, and it has a bunch of notable changes and improvements. the first thing I noticed was the "ajax-y" UI, which lets you do the gotta-have-it, grab-and-drag scrolling that's all the rage, and which adds a fairly nifty animated zooming feature that's quite a bit fancier than the competition's. Plus Yahoo! Local is integrated. And you can mash-up with their APIs. Check out this cool mashed-up application that shows local events using maps, images, local search, and other services all combined.

Another cool feature of the new mapping service is live traffic conditions for major thoroughfares, color coded for easy analysis:

I also like that I can get multi-point driving directions from Point A to Point B, then Add Point C and D and on and on - The result is one full set of directions for a full trip worth of driving, all on one map. Quite useful, and very easy to use.

Check it out at http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/ and provide Yahoo! with your feedback by clicking here.

The security geek in me is a happy guy today. The Anti-Malware product team at Microsoft has fired up their new blog. They're "the team responsible for building Microsoft's antivirus and anti-spyware technology (along with anti-rootkit, anti-bot, and other stuff)." Malware, for those who are not yet familiar with the term, is short for "Malicious Software."

"We already have two pieces of technology our technology shipping: the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which helps to remove some of the most prevalent malware from a user's machine. We also are shipping a beta of the Windows AntiSpyware technology. We'll talk more about these in future blog posts. We also have a bunch of other cool stuff in the pipelines."

This will be one worth watching, I imagine. The security threat landscape has eroded, changed and reshaped itself significantly in the past year, and things are only getting more and more complicated. So, it's good to see the face of a critical team in Redmond and to have some insight into what they're addressing.

Subscribed.

Do you live in or around Toledo? Are you a professional, experienced network administrator with Unix/Solaris experience? If you are, Corillian is looking for someone to join the Corporate IT department to support network and computing needs in the company's Toledo office, as well as other offices in the region.

If you or someone you know fits the bill, get in touch. I can be reached at 503-629-3771 (my desk number) if you have any questions. I'd be glad to chat. We're looking for experienced professionals that can operate both on their own and in a team. This is a terrific job for someone who has the self confidence and skills to own making all sorts of technology things happen reliably and well.

Note: I am posting this because readers of this weblog might be interested in the job opening mentioned here. This post is my own doing, and is not a communication by or on behalf of my employer. I am just trying to make people aware of some opportunities that I happen to know about. I won't be compensated for this hire or anything, since the position reports into an organization I manage, anyhow. Do not pass go, do not collect, etc...

Here's the high-level job description for the position:

LAN Administrator - Toledo

Manages and is primary person responsible for maintenance, setup and changes related to the corporate local area network infrastructure. Evaluates and/or recommends purchases of computers, network hardware, peripheral equipment, and software. Consulting management regarding use of computers and networks to satisfy business needs. Installs, configures, and maintains servers and workstations. Maintains proper levels of security of systems and information using patches, virus management, and domain-level security tools. Travel and providing after hours support on a rotating schedule is required

Essential Functions/Job Duties:

• Manages operations and maintenance of corporate computer network infrastructure, along with associated systems and attached devices. Provides reports and maintenance of corporate computer network infrastructure, along with associated systems and attached devices. Provides reports and maintains physical, logical and information security related to all networked systems. Protects against internal information systems damage by viruses and users.
• Assists users in-person with network and computer issues and questions.
• Performs desktop and portable computer setup, maintenance and repair and associated record-keeping/tracking in Help desk issue tracking software, in support of desktop support personnel as-needed.
• Keeps abreast of new developments and trends in areas of responsibility; makes recommendations to manager regarding enhancements, additions or replacements.

Knowledge, Skills and Ability Requirements:

• Training and/or certification in computer network systems management and maintenance; extensive experience and/or training in LAN infrastructure and software, maintenance, configuration and troubleshooting; experience working with applications and performing system setup and network configuration on workstation- and server-role computers.
• Specific knowledge, experience and training in Active Directory administration, setup and troubleshooting. Experience building, maintaining and troubleshooting LAN infrastructure equipment and software; Excellent organizational, decision making and communication skills.
• Administration experience with Solaris 7, 8, 9, and 10, and HP-UX 11i Operating Systems.
• Windows NT/2000/2003 Server, Server hardware, PC?s and other networked computer equipment.
• Experience with Weblogic.
• General office environment. Considerable stress may occur at times. Occasional lifting in excess of 50 pounds to an overhead position. Travel is required.

HO-LY CRR-AP!!

Okay, so... When Microsoft says the XBOX 360 is a whole new level of gaming machine, they're serious.

I just played a couple shooters on a XBOX 360 game console and that's it, I'm sold. The graphics are GREAT. The visuals make the gameplay amazing, and it's clear the processing and video power is extreme. Add to that the Media Center connections and, well... Wow.

If you want to get your hands on one, go to the Best Buy in Beaverton, Oregon on Cedar Hills Blvd. Apparently, at least according to the sales guy there, that store is the second one to get a working display setup (the first one was a WalMart in California, he said). Some Microsoftie walked in with a bunch of boxes, set up the display, and just left. "No one knew what to do!" said the Best Buy kid. Heh. Cool.

The crowd was excited. A sign is taped to the end cap where the 360 resides that says "5 minutes, please." The crew of giddy people (mostly adults by the way) quietly contained themselves and politely took turns splattering people with their virtual firearms. It pretty much rocked. Ooohs and Aahhhhs abound.

Check it out if you can. I'll try to post some pics in the next day or two if I can get back there. This was the first day in months I didn't have my camera with me, go figure.

I've been using my X41 for a few months now, and overall I like it a lot. It's one of the better portable computers I've used.

Charles Jade over at Ars Technica has put together an "unreview" of the X41 and it's a fun read, not to mention an interesting evaluation of this specific Tablet PC computer, as well as a commentary on the Tablet PC edition of Windows, which he frequently refers to (in his somewhat sarcastic but also accurate fashion) as "WXPTPCE2005."

He finds both good and not so good things to write about. I liked the review. Read it here.

Can you tell it's almost Halloween? I can. And I can also tell how much traffic one little blog article can drive. My stats for the past few days are awash with Google and other searches landing people on this site for pumpkin carving patterns, since I wrote about a great deal I found and how to get them them the other day. Here's a small, partial listing of a small portion of the search referrers for pumpkin carving, taken from today's web traffic stats on this site:

 

pumpkin carving patterns (www.google.com)	34
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	29
pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	29
free pumpkin stencils (www.google.com)	21
free pumpkin carving patterns (www.google.com)	13
pumpkin patterns (www.google.ca)	11
pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	11
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.com)	11
pumpkin designs (www.google.com)	10
free pumpkin carving stencils (www.google.com)	10
pumpkin stencil (www.google.com)	10
free pumpkin stencils (www.google.ca)	9
free pumpkin patterns (www.google.ca)	9
pumpkin carving pattern (www.google.com)	9

And it just keeps going from there, too. Hundreds of similar search combinations and terms in addition to those. Definitely noticing the increase in the number of visits (still a small drop in the bucket, but interesting to see).

"Microsoft: Connecting with the IT community for a pain-free future"

Did you know that 1% of bugs account for more than 60% of errors? As a result of the Windows XP error reporting dialog box, Microsoft has reduced crashes in the consumer products by as much as 80%. Leveraging this program, Microsoft formed WE-SYP, which stands for "We Share Your Pain," a direct feedback program that connects customers to the people responsible for programming the portion of code that creates your frustration.

Oh, if only it was true, hehehe... But the video (take off from TechNet) is hilarious, and the premise is great. View it here.

(from ActiveWin)

Unless, of course, you die today... In which case, you probably don't care much about this right now.

Hugh over at gapingvoid.com writes hilarious (and often poignant) cartoons on the backs of business cards. Come of them are decidedly off-color, granted - but they're worth looking at as long as you don't have easily offended sensitivities or something.

Oh and many of the designs are available as T-Shirts and BlogCards.

Halloween is coming, and for those who really get into the event, carving pumpkins is a lot of the fun. No better place to discover the intricacies and tricks of the jack-o-lantern carving trade than the Internet.

The Pumpkin Carving 101 site has lots of information, history, tips and tricks to make you a real pro in the carving biz. Whether you're doing traditional, old-fashioned carving or going the stencil route, there's lots of help there. They even have tips for photographing your carved work of art.

If you're looking for patterns and stencils, SpookMaster has a few free ones as well as a HUGE number (more than 200) of inexpensive designs, all of which you can get for a one-time fee of $5.95 - not a bad deal. When you subscribe, you get access to their subscriber site, which you can continue to use through at least January of next year. I just ordered them for a youth group even that's coming up, and I think it's a great deal. The patterns can be downloaded in PDF or JPG formats.

They've even got your NFL teams set up with stencils to carve, as well as stencils for other holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas (which is an interesting concept and another conversation entirely). Pop culture, famous people, traditional Halloween images - it's all there.

Enjoy.

(via Make blog)

Over at bandwidth.com they've added a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) test to let you check your Internet pipe for factors relevant to supporting VOIP phone services. The VOIPTEST "gives you the inside track to understanding how many VoIP phones you can support, evaluates the quality of your Internet connection and provides insight into your firewall configuration."

Click to run the test. (it's free)