Windows Vista drivers for a 3Com 3C902

For those of you contemplating the upgrade to Windows Vista I strongly encourage you to visit the manufacturers website to see if all components of your computer have Vista drivers. I started playing around with Vista on my Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop only to find out that 2 components (the 3Com network card and fax modem) were not detected.

Even though the score of Vista came out to 1.0 (because of the score on the integrated ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 M7 video card) it still generally runs ok - although I soon picture moving back to Windows XP.

For those curious to get this laptop running with Windows Vista you will soon enough find out that no drivers can be detected for the 3Com 3C902 network card. Well, I'm not sure if it's because network technology between Vista and XP hasn't changed but you can install the Windows XP drivers found HERE to get it running in Vista. Download the file 3c90x1.exe and double-click. Once the files within that archive have been uncompressed to a new directory, have Vista search the newly created directory.

Windows Vista drivers for a 3Com 3C902

For those of you contemplating the upgrade to Windows Vista I strongly encourage you to visit the manufacturers website to see if all components of your computer have Vista drivers. I started playing around with Vista on my Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop only to find out that 2 components (the 3Com network card and fax modem) were not detected.

Even though the score of Vista came out to 1.0 (because of the score on the integrated ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 M7 video card) it still generally runs ok - although I soon picture moving back to Windows XP.

For those curious to get this laptop running with Windows Vista you will soon enough find out that no drivers can be detected for the 3Com 3C902 network card. Well, I'm not sure if it's because network technology between Vista and XP hasn't changed but you can install the Windows XP drivers found HERE to get it running in Vista. Download the file 3c90x1.exe and double-click. Once the files within that archive have been uncompressed to a new directory, have Vista search the newly created directory.

New Ford Escape

I think Ford's acquisition of a partial stake in Mazda did wonders for both companies. Mazda now has some additional funds to play around with new models, and Ford can infuse some design cues from Mazda models ... not much to be said of Ford styling. I think they hit the jackpot with the Ford Escape - Mazda Tribute (I still wonder if the designs for each were switched ... the Tribute seems ugly enough to be a Ford model).

I'm very surprised there aren't more Ford Escapes on the road today ... with the unbelievable lease rates on 24 month terms, and the low-$20,000 pricetags ... and it wasn't that bad-looking of an SUV. Perhaps there were some issues with the Duratec engine (sounds like a brand-name electronic accessory you'd get at Walmart).

Now the 2008 model year is coming out completely redesigned ... wait a minute, it's looking alot like the old Ford Explorer. You have to wonder if some old fart in the Ford upper ranks has an itching to re-use the Explorer moniker. Perhaps it's the same fart that wants to rename the Ford 500 the Taurus. Let the names rest in peace guys ... I don't think anybody wants to relive the memory of those cars.

New 2008 Pontiac G8

MSN Autos has an interesting read on some of the new 2008 automobiles coming out for the North-American market. Among them is the 2008 Pontiac G8 based on the design aspects of Holden, GM's Australian subsidiary. I'm surprised GM of North America hasn't enlisted some of Holden's designers earlier.

I made a trip to Australia in 1998 and had wondered the same thing. Holden had some very stylish cars even for 1998 ... although the price of the Holden Commodore was well into the $40,000 AUD range (this was at a time when the Australian dollar was hovering above the Canadian loonie, and when gas in Canada was around $0.50 a litre.)

I've got to hand it to Pontiac for coming out with some more stylish cars and SUVs ... the G5, G6, Torrent ... and in some strange way the Montana mini-van (yes, I said mini-van). Hopefully their interior designers took a cue from their exterior designers and got rid of those rounded curves and clunky dash parts.

Hooray for getting rid of that body side cladding that was a Pontiac trademark of yesteryear.

CBC was screwed by the NHL

CBC sure got the short end of the stick when they renegotiated with the NHL on when and which NHL games they could broadcast for the 2007-08 NHL season. I can even see some of the effects during the 2006-07 season's playoffs.

The semi-finals are here with the Ottawa Senators playing the Buffalo Sabres, and the Detroit Red Wings playing ... that other team ... what was the name again ... doesn't matter. I'm sure all the NHL fans are equally split between Detroit, Ottawa, and Buffalo.

We are now going into game #5 between Ottawa and Buffalo, with Buffalo on the verge of elimination with Ottawa leading the series 3-1. I have to hand it to Buffalo because they've fought hard all season and one of the few teams that deserves a chance at the Stanley Cup. But on the other hand, Ottawa is just as deserving especially with losing their chances the last couple of years being remarkably kicked out by the Toronto Maple Leafs (to this day I still believe that Toronto paid off Ottawa to lose in the name of greater advertising revenue .... just a theory).

On to game #5 and it's this Saturday in Buffalo at 2pm? What the H-E-double-hockey stick ??? Who in their right mind watches hockey in the afternoon on a Saturday? Those time slots were relegated to Sunday afternoons to teams like Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Florida Panthers, and Carolina Hurricanes (no offense to those teams ... I only say that because their viewer crowds have not yet been developed).

Instead of the usual beer, nachos and popcorn saved for Saturday evenings in front of the big screen, I'll have to eat my hot dog, hamburger and fries indoors. Sheesh. I think this is all the NHL's doing in pleasing the US tv-networks like Fox (ie. WUTV in Buffalo .... "he shoots he scores" Ed Kilgore-outbursts)

GO REDS GO!

An ideal photo gallery template

For those of you who designing websites and are not newbies, here's a website that in my opinion has the ideal photo gallery template design. Although it is not for the faint of heart as it involves Movable Type and some custom scripts. The site is by Douglas Bowman and can be found here : http://dbowman.com/photos/.

I've based one of my website's photo gallery on his general design. Although the website photo gallery I created was based in ASP .Net and still has some manual procedures in the process, it's general "feel" is that of Douglas's site.

Photos are uploaded through an admin interface and added to a SQL database. The only process I have yet to automate is the cropping of each photo album. Each photo album's thumbnail is a cropped copy of one of the images within the album. Right now I use 2 separate programs to perform the adjustment.

My photo gallery can be found here : photo gallery

Google Browser Sync

A USB-key becomes a lifesaver for people who constantly work with computers. You're likely to find hundreds of links online that you obviously bookmark. But what happens when you're at home and need the link of the site you bookmarked at work? That's where the USB key comes in ... save the bookmark to your USB and when you go home take it with you.

But the problem lies there ... why hassle yourself with the constant back and forth and perhaps losing the key? That's when I stumbled across a website called Fortuitous. More specifically the article titled Living Online with Web Apps. After reading it I made the push to use both Google Spreadsheets and Google Browser Sync.

Google Spreadsheets I now use to track bill payments and business information. Now I can access the data from wherever I am ... even while on my ski trips. I only wish there was some sort of scripting language like VBScript in Excel. I've written some handy functions that separate costs for bills that cross the calendar years (note: why can't companies adhere to the calendar year for billing cycles? It would be much easier to get a bill from January 1-31 than from December 20, 2006 - January 19, 2007)

And finally for the time-saver! Google Browser Sync. Although I was somewhat reluctant to give up my Internet Explorer, the force to move to IE7 annoyed me enough to switch to Firefox. Now I use it all the time. Google Browser Sync is a plugin for Firefox that will store your bookmarks in Google, and allow you to pull them up on any installation of Firefox across the world. It's made my life easier.

Now, if Google could design some sort of service that allows you to create groups of users who you are friends with ... so that your bookmarks get shared among them all. Perhaps a special "social network folder" that can be separately defined with its own list of subscribed users.

OCZ USB key on spin cycle

Not too long ago my OCZ 1gb USB key was in my shirt pocket when I decided to do the wash. While pulling out the wet clothes it was sitting at the bottom of the washer. 4-letter S-word, 4-letter S-word, 4-letter S-word.

Lucky SOB I was as everything was copied off, the key reformatted, and back in use. I think it should be added to PC Magazine's list of Top 10 Washable Tech Products

Giveaway of the day

Here's another interesting site I stumbled upon. Giveaway of the day (link: http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/). They essentially give away quality software for free each day. On occasion there may be a utility that you will find useful , but best of all it's free! But act fast as it only allows you to download the software during each 24hrs.

Free money from the Bank of Canada! Well almost

If you're a Canadian and you either have a bank account or know somebody who does, be sure to check out the Bank of Canada's search page for unclaimed bank balances. If you have opened a bank account and have no activity for 10 years, the account and its balance do not get lost ... they get transferred to the Bank of Canada.

Type in your name, type in your parents names. Heck, type in your neighbour's name and let them know if they have any outstanding bank accounts!

You know you listen to too much Boys from Buf when ...

The Boys from Buf is an ethnic Macedonian band that plays across Ontario, New York and Michigan. Ask any Macedonian if they've heard of "The Boys" and they are sure to answer yes. They are even known in Australia!

They are my favourite Macedonian band so much in fact I had to pay special tribute to them by writing the following piece (to which I wrote for a Boys from Buf fanclub group) :

YOU KNOW YOU LISTEN TO TOO MUCH BOYS FROM BUF WHEN ...

1. You call up Z103.5 and tell them to "pump" the "Bufksoto" on the "pump it or dump it radio show"
2. Your cell phone ringer is the clarinet solo at the beginning of the Bufskoto.
3. You're cruising the Danforth in your mother's Oldsmobile playing "Imeto Makedonsko" with the windows down hoping to cause some shit.
4. You walk into a dance and the Boys from Buf shout your name like Norm from Cheers.
5. You have the same white jacket and pink shirt that Chris wore for the 1979 album Boys From Buf.
6. You think Mitsotakis is still president of Greece because "Pesna za Mitsotakis" is one of your favourite songs.
7. Every time you get invited to a wedding the first thing you think is, "I hope they get Boys from Buf"
8. The only time you wish you could get married again is so that you can get "Boys from Buf" to play at your wedding, and dance on the tapan.
9. You wonder why "Tommy on guitar" plays every other Boys from Buf function.

... and finally the #10 reason why you know you listen to too much Boys from Buf is ...

10. Every function the Boys from Buf plays at you end up buying another CD because you don't know which CD player you left your last copy of Boys from Buf in.

Solar panel farms

Green energy sources are popping up all over the landscape. Colorado mountains are planning on using water run-off from the Rockies during summer months for power. Giant wind turbines are off the coast of Europe in the sea generating power from the wind current.

There is even a gigantic farm of solar panels somewhere in Spain harnessing the suns rays (link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15698812/). Which leads me to ask the question, "Why is it necessary to build unsightly farms of reflective panels when all we could do is reproduce the same experiment we used to perform as kids with a magnifying glass, the sun, and a poor little ant?"

Why not use a giant reflective lens either positioned on a high tower or up in the hills to concentrate the sun's rays into a single solar panel? If a magnifying glass can fry an ant, why can't it mutiply the effectiveness of a single panel? Perhaps the cost of a giant lens would be too costly.

And to go one step further, create a mirrored-surface parabolic dish (such as the Bell ExpressVu or DirecTv satellite dishes) with some sort of tennis-ball size "solar panel" to collect all that energy. Combine the satellite dish and solar panel into a single unit and distribute it across North America.

Good timewaster : Knuttz.net

Here's a site that will amuse you and can be considered a great site to lose your train of thought when you need a break : Knuttz.net.

There are lots of interesting galleries of pictures and you can spend hours, if not days just looking. One of my favourites is the Sumela Monastery. Most people wonder how the pyramids were built ... that seems simple compared to climbing an almost vertical mountain with building materials.

Free online file conversions

I was given the task of creating a DVD presentation for an organization. Most of the material I had was originally available on Youtube and a few files in .FLV format (Flash Video Player). My first task was retrieve these files.

That is where Zamzar comes in. After some googling for free utilities that ripped videos from YouTube, I found Zamzar. What a delight this website was to use. Open a browser window on Youtube, copy the URL, and paste it into the file box on the Zamzar homepage. Receive an email notification within an hour, and download a link. Easy enough.

I was using Ulead for my PC DVD production, and iLife on the Apple ... mainly to see which product had a more appropriate theme for me to use. After some experimenting with iLife I found the need to use Zamzar once again ... to convert my PC-based files in .mpg over to the Apple-based Quicktime .mov files. Again easy enough.

Next was finding a player to view my .flv files. Geez, was that a pain in the bazooka. Zamzar came in handy again. It was able to convert the .flv files effortlessly.