Archive for September, 2009

Polaroid4

// September 24th, 2009 // View Comments // Photography

Polaroid4, originally uploaded by dpollitt.

A shot I took of some friends over the summer. I was hoping for some more deterioration in the expired film. But I still enjoy the yellow faded look.

-DPollitt

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Can you upgrade from Windows 7 RC to the Final RTM Version?

// September 21st, 2009 // View Comments // Windows

SELECT
CASE
/* NOT CONF */
WHEN tran_status =  ’2′ AND tran_dttm < GETDATE()-3 THEN ‘{{BGCOLOR=RED}}’
/* NOT CONF IN TOLLERANCE */
WHEN tran_status = ‘2′  AND tran_dttm < GETDATE() THEN ‘{{BGCOLOR=YELLOW}}’
/*RESEND */
WHEN tran_status = ‘2′  THEN  ’{{BGCOLOR=#FF8000}}’
END as color,
guid, file_name,  tran_code, userid, tran_dttm, date_added, tran_status, GETDATE()
FROM t_pending_trans_off
WHERE    convert(datetime, tran_dttm, 101)  between ‘~from_date~’ and  ’~to_date~’ + ‘ 23:59:59′
ORDER BY tran_dttm DESC

win_logoIf you have installed any of the Windows 7 Beta editions or release candidates, you might be wondering if an upgrade to the Final RTM Version is possible.  Well right out of the box, the answer is no.  Windows officially does not support this, and recommends a full wipe with a fresh install.  As reported by Engadget, Microsoft recently updated us with the knowledge that you don’t have to wipe your drive off, but instead of upgrading, it really just stores all of your old files in its own folder that is available to you within a fresh copy of Windows 7.  Finally, to confuse you even a bit more, there is a workaround that is very easy to do that will allow you to do a regular upgrade.  It can be found at howt0geek.com.  Essentially you just open the file that does the version checking, and do a simple hack.  To take care of it yourself, simply open up the cversion.ini file in the sources folder and change the MinClient value to 7000.  Head to this article at howtogeek for the more detailed instructions with screenshots though.

-DPollitt

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Groom Prep

// September 21st, 2009 // View Comments // Photography

Groom Prep, originally uploaded by dpollitt.

A shot that I liked from a wedding this summer. Anyone looking for some stock photography?

-DPollitt

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Why you should be using Google Chrome

// September 7th, 2009 // View Comments // Review, Software

Google Chrome

Google Chrome

You may ask yourself, why should I switch from Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari to Google Chrome? Well, I think I have plenty of reasons for you to at least give it a try and maybe you’ll convince yourself.  One of the biggest reasons that I think Chrome rocks is the JavaScript engine behind it.  The JavaScript virtual machine that Chrome is based on, V8 – is one of the fastest on the block.  Give it a test for yourself on javascript heavy websites such as Gmail, Google Docs, or Facebook.

Some major features you’ll love-

  • Automatic root URL highlighting
  • Every tab runs independantly, so if one crashes, everything else will stay
  • Drag any chrome tab out of the window and into a new one
  • Drag and drop downloads out of Chrome’s status bar and onto your desktop to save them there, or into any Explorer window to save them there.
  • Click and drag any textarea corner to resize it to your liking, such as in a comment box on a blog
  • Extremely fast startup and loading of pages

If you are serious about testing out Chrome, I would strongly suggest trying the dev channel.  Google has three different versions of Chrome that you can try.  The first is the main public release(stable), then the beta, and finally the dev edition.  They are supposed to progressively become less stable as they push the newest features and test less as you go down the line.  I have been on the dev channel for a few months now and have had few issues.  So if you don’t mind being a bit risky with your browser, this is the way to go.

The Google Chrome Early Access Release Channels(beta/dev) can be found here:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel

If you want to try out the stable current release just head over to http://www.google.com/chrome

Click and drag any textarea corner to resize it to your liking
Drag and drop downloads out of Chrome’s status bar and onto your desktop to save them there, or into any Explorer window to save them there. (You already know you can drag and drop a Chrome tab out into a new window, or back into an existing Chrome window to dock it there.
Drag any chrome tab out of the window and into a new one.
Automatic root URL highlighting
Extremely fast startup and loading of pages
Every tab runs independantly, so if one crashes, everything else will stay.
The JavaScript virtual machine that Chrome is based on, V8 – is one of the fastest on the block.  Give it a test for yourself on javascript heavy websites such as Gmail, Google Docs, or Facebook.

-DPollitt

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Blackberry Storm Tip: How to turn your Storm into a flashlight

// September 7th, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry, Software

Flashlight Storm

Flashlight Storm

Sure, you might be saying, turn on the screen and its a great flashlight. Well, there is a better way. If you have played with the camera at all, you know that the flash is extremely bright. But you only get the flash for a second or two before you take the picture. What if you want to keep the flash on for 20seconds? The trick is to head to the Video Camera function, then to Options. From there select the option that says “Video Light” and set this to On. It will warn you that your battery life will be impacted by this, give it a “Yes“, and now you are set.

Now you will get a seriously bright flashlight.  If you rotate the phone, it will delay for a second while it rotates the screen, but the light will come back on.  Now if you add a shortcut on your home screen to the Video Camera, you’ll have a free built in flashlight app!

-DPollitt

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