Submitted by nlippincott on 6 February 2012 - 9:29am
Build a home entertainment system with a big screen TV, satellite receiver, surround sound system, DVD/Blu Ray player, Roku, and a game console, and what do you get? Remote clutter. I had five remote controls, three of which were required just to turn on the morning news. This is where the Logitech Harmony remote control comes in, pushing aside the pile of remote controls and replacing them with a single, easy-to-use device.
Submitted by nlippincott on 2 January 2012 - 8:03am
I manage several web servers, and a solid backup strategy is absolutely essential. I have been using Amazon S3 (Amazon Web Services, Simple Storage Service) for quite some time, for the purposes of storing backup files for the long-term, and keeping those backup files away from my production systems (essentially "off-site"). One item which I have needed to address since I have been using S3 is the subject of backup retention, or more specifically, automated purging of backup files no longer needed. Well, just sometimes, good things come to those who wait.
Submitted by nlippincott on 19 December 2011 - 8:15am
Having recently acquired a new Internet-enabled Blu-ray player, I signed up for an account with Vudu, the Walmart-owned online streaming service. I have been a long-time Netflix user. This Blu-ray player included bundled apps for both Netflix and Vudu, and included a $5.99 credit for Vudu, enough to get one free HD movie. These are my first impressions for this service, and my basis for comparison is Netflix, as I have a good deal of experience using their streaming service.
Submitted by nlippincott on 6 December 2011 - 10:00am
Many are saying that the end of Firefox is near. The Mozilla Foundation's major funding source, an agreement with Google, has expired, and there is no revenue stream to make up for the loss of income. In addition, Chrome is gaining ground on Firefox, and according to some (not all) sources, Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the second most popular browser.
Submitted by nlippincott on 19 November 2011 - 6:43am
I believe in freedom of choice, particularly when it comes to software. And when I have choices for software, I usually choose open source. I like the philosophy behind open software, and I generally find that it provides a good quality product.
In higher education, we place great value on making informed decisions. We encourage students to think for themselves and to be leaders. The college's mission statement even refers to "the education of the next generation of leaders".
Submitted by nlippincott on 1 November 2011 - 8:25am
I hate snow. For me, it represents a lot of manual labor for the sole benefit of being able to get out of my driveway. I found myself into about three hours of shoveling the day after an unusual October nor'easter, looking out at my back yard, and reveling in the fact that the predicted warm temperatures for the week ahead will make this 14 inches of snow all go away. Then it hit me. This would make a great time-lapse video; watch it melt over the next eight hours.
Submitted by nlippincott on 25 October 2011 - 5:49am
Like many users these days, I have many usernames and passwords for the various systems that I use. On occasion, one of these systems will give me cause to consider the password for that system to be "at risk," or one that I believe has high potential for being compromised. Ideally, we should use a different password for every system that we use. This isn't practical, and I suspect very few people would even consider doing so.
Submitted by nlippincott on 9 October 2011 - 10:22am
I am fairly new to Drupal, having installed my first test site about five months ago (as of this writing). Some three and a half months later I launched my first live Drupal site, the very site you are reading right now. I have found Drupal to be an excellent content management system in its basic form, but going beyond the basics takes a lot of patience and a lot of time. It provides a very powerful and very extensible framework, for which many modules exist to provide all kinds of functionality.
Submitted by nlippincott on 3 October 2011 - 10:31am
I am a long-time Firefox user, starting with version 0.7 when the browser was called "Firebird". It has been my default browser, for the most part, ever since. Earlier this year, I had given Chrome, or its open-source counterpart, Chromium, a short run as my default browser, but I eventually reverted back to Firefox. According to a recent report, Chrome is expected to unseat Firefox as the number two browser by the end of this year.
Submitted by nlippincott on 26 September 2011 - 10:04am
In the late 1980's, as I was about six or seven years into my professional career as a programmer, I sat in a job interview. In that interview, I was asked the question, "How do you feel about standards?" Giving the question a very brief moment of thought, I replied, "They're essential." I feel strongly about standards to this day. But every so often, I encounter a system that just seems to have pushed standards aside. Other times I encounter a system that shows its developers are clearly lacking in support of standards.
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