STFU && RTFM

I do not think there has ever been any confusion on this; This site is a good example of why not. I post under my full name, standing firmly behind my opinions. The same thing goes for other websites. I am registered with my name on all of the sites on my Online Profiles section of the links page where it is possible. I do not hide behind a moniker or nom de plume. There are several reasons for this. It is not coincidental, it is by choice. I believe strongly in the right to freedom of speech, but I also believe that debate only really becomes useful when people understand that words may have consequences. I think that, by posting my opinion using my name, I keep myself honest and accountable. I do not post things I do not believe, and I do not post things solely to embarass someone.
 
A sometime participant in public debate, my opinions are my own. I claim them as such, and share them freely. I believe in sharing, free use and attribution, and I believe that, while copyright laws are useful, and sometimes necessary, there are better alternatives out there. Specifically, I think Creative Commons does a better job of defining exactly what rights you claim, and how you allow other people to use your content. The counter argument is that people can just go ahead and take your content. While that may, to some extent, be true, it is no more true than it would be if you claimed full copyright, unless you start using some fairly draconian measures to protect your content, measures which I, for one, am not comfortable with.
 
While I may disagree with the tactics and approach of Anon, I do understand them. I think doing things “for the lulz”, is the worst kind of reasoning there is. Doing them because you believe it is right, even if there is also an element of lulz is fine, but the root of it, the driving force and thought behind it, should always be that it makes the world better, that it is the right thing to do.
 
I am not Anon, but I think they have their place.

You will hopefully already have heard a lot about SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently working its way through the US Senate, and if we do not take a stand RIGHT NOW, we may lose the internet as we know it. The irony of it all, is that the US State Department is currently very outspoken against internet censorship, as they should be.
 
The below infographic was created by activist group organized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Creative Commons, Mozilla, Public Knowledge, the Free Software Foundation and others who oppose the bill. Please share it, please make sure people know what is happening. Follow the links in this post, and do your part. SPEAK OUT!
 

The information in this article applies to:

• FotoWeb Desktop 7
• Microsoft Office 2007

 
SYMPTOMS
After rolling out or installing FotoWeb Desktop, the “From FotoWeb” button is not available from the Insert menu in Word and Powerpoint.
CAUSE
The problem occurs when Microsoft Office 2007 has not been fully updated using Microsoft Update.
RESOLUTION
Download and install Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Office 2007, then download and install all critical patches for Microsoft Office 2007.
To automate the process, we recommend activating automatic updates for Microsoft Office in Microsoft Update.

As promised last week, I am today reviewing my new eBook reader, the Amazon Kindle. Or should that be Amazing?
 
Now, let me start out by saying that I have been highly sceptical of the Kindle, but decided to spring for it, for two major reasons: Ease of purchase, and the fact that it is backed by one of the largest retailers of books in the world. Now, I don’t think that a monopoly is a good thing, but I do think that I, as a consumer, should take advantage of the advantages that are available to me.
 
But, this is not an op-ed-piece, it is a review! So, on to it!
 

Build quality

The Kindle is lightweight and feels solid, though the back panel could do with some stiffening, as it sometimes feels like it gets pushed in a little. The keyboard has decent feedback, and the pageturner buttons are well placed. All in all, the Kindle feels like a well built product. It’s lighter than the Sony Reader, which is mostly due to being built in plastic instead of metal.
 

Ease of use

Where the Sony Reader at times felt a bit clunky, the Kindle is noticeably quicker, improving the already remarkably good readability, and updating pages much quicker. The menu system feels much the same, and navigates just as easily as the Sony Reader. The feature that makes the Kindle stand apart is simple, and fairly obvious; I can buy books directly on my Kindle. I have many times already finished a book, and immediately picked up the sequel, which is delivered within seconds.
 

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a cheap, user friendly ebook reader, the Kindle is most certainly worth looking into. I am very happy with mine, and have already taken it with me on vacation. I bought a few new books then, too.

Ever since I got my Sony Reader, I’ve been very happy with the reading experience, but of late, it has not been seeing as much use. This us due to a few things.
 
The first thing is that it has been getting increasingly hard to get ebooks for my device, at least legally. I used to get my books at Waterstones.com, but they are no longer selling to Norway. The only sites I have found that do sell to Norway, either do not carry the books I want, or are selling them at a premium, making them considerably more expensive than their paper counterparts.
 
The second thing is that the battery life has become much shorter than it was, and annoyingly so.
 
The third thing, which has annoyed me from day one, is how heavy the device is.
 
The fourth, and last reason, is that transferring books was kinda clunky, even though I found software that did it considerably better than Sony’s own software.
 
So, what did I get, you ask? Well, the review is coming next week…

After Apple CEO Tim Cook announced their newest offering of iPhone, it was immediately clear that fans and commentators alike were disappointed that he did not announce the iPhone 5. My question is simply, “Why?”
 
First of all, Apple do not conform to usual naming conventions, which is exemplified by the fact that their most recent operating system, Mac OS X Lion, is numbered 10.7, and not 11 (or rather 17, as it’s the seventh Mac OS X to be released), so it strikes me as odd to expect them to do so now.
 
Secondly, while it might not conform strictly to how they have been naming the previous iterations (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4), it does make a kind of sense. I also suspect that they were trying to tell their customers that it wasn’t the revolutionary iPhone that would, again, change everything, but rather an upgrade of the existing platform.
 
My last point is that it’s just a name. If they had not used numbering, but rather an apparently random string of names (I’m looking at you, HTC), I seriously doubt that there would be the same fuss. And the fuss, after all, is what Apple is best at.

By default, FotoWeb directs users to download the FotoWeb Desktop installer files from FotoWares servers. If you, as an administrator, should want to control exactly what version is made available to your users, you need to make a few changes.
 
Before you start, make a backup of FWDTInstaller.fwx, in case things should go wrong.
 
You will first need to download the installers for both Windows and Mac OS, and make these available on a server, using HTTP. The FotoWeb Desktop installers can be found on the FotoWare Update Center.
 
Then, find the file called FWDTInstaller.fwx. It is located in the Documents folder of the FotoWeb site. Open it in Notepad, or your editor of choice. Modify the URLs in the highlighted lines of the file, then save your changes.
 

 
Please note that you will need to make sure that the version of FotoWeb Desktop you make available is compatible with your version of FotoWeb.

I’m at a loss for words right now, other than to say that a visionary in our industry is no more.
 

Originally found at: http://blog.steveisaacs.com/

Another of the changes brought about in FotoWare 7, SR 4, is a decreasing dependency on SilverLight in Operations Center. By running less of it in SilverLight, access to OPC is a lot quicker.
 
When you load OPC, it will load the front page first, then load the subsequent pages. If you switch from the settings pane to the log pane of a service, this is stored if you switch to a different service, then go back.
 
Additionally, as OPC loads all of the OPC pages, they will remain loaded as long as you have OPC open. This makes for not only quicker loading of OPC, but also for quicker work and switching between services.
 
Caveat lector: I work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.

One of the really nice new features in FotoWare’s fourth service release of version 7, is that the Operations Center is now run as its own service, shedding the need for IIS on the server running the FotoWare suite.
 
This has a few practical upshots:

• Members of the FotoWare Administrators and Operators groups no longer need to be local administrators on the server
• There is no longer a need to troubleshoot IIS

 
Note, however, that if you are going to run FotoWeb, you will still need to run it on some kind of webserver, though, starting with Service Release 4, this may be either IIS or Apache.
 
Caveat lector: I work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.