April 2005 - Posts
My Toshiba e800 Pocket PC died again, and this time I let it go peacefully. I spent one day in mourning, and one day researching its replacement - I bought and have been using an HP iPaq rx3715 for about a week now and I love it. It's actually called a “Mobile Media Companion” - it even came with ear buds. And when did they start putting cameras in Pocket PCs?
I don't normally watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition, but I will be watching this one [This is a press release from the Freedom Scientific web site]: http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_news/PressRoom/en/2005/nr_EMHE_4-26-2005.asp
Sunday's Extreme Makeover Home Edition Includes Freedom Scientific Products
(St. Petersburg, Florida, April 26, 2005) - Be sure to tune in for a special two-hour broadcast of Extreme Makeover Home Edition this Sunday, May 1, from 7 PM to 9 PM EDT, featuring an accessible home for a blind Florida resident.
The highly-rated ABC TV series focuses on the construction of the house for Jamie Dolan, a St. Petersburg resident who was blinded in a November 24 shooting. Several companies, including Freedom Scientific, contributed products, time, and labor to the community-wide effort. Freedom Scientific contributed JAWS®, the SARAT Scanning and Reading Appliance, a PAC MateT QX440, the StreetTalkT accessible GPS, and the FSReader DAISY player for both PAC Mate and Desktop.
Because of public interest and the abundant content of this show, ABC has extended the usual one-hour broadcast to two hours. The national broadcast will be preceded at 6 PM EDT by a one-hour pre-show, aired only in the Tampa Bay area by the local ABC affiliate. The pre-show will spotlight the local volunteers and companies that contributed to the home.
After the May 1 air date, clips from the series and product information can be viewed on the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Web site. Freedom Scientific's participation is highlighted in an article on the ABC Action News Tampa Bay Web site.
On Monday, May 2 at 8 PM EDT, the Dolan home again will be featured on the one-hour ABC series, How'd They Do That? The broadcast will go behind the scenes to show more about building the home's accessible features.
Steve Easton, a FrontPage MVP, has created a new tool called FPCleaner that will delete the temporary files that may get left behind when you exit FrontPage. It will also delete the *.web files (the cached copies of your site that can occasionally get corrupted and cause problems). I've been using it for a while now and gotten into the habit of running it just before I start FrontPage - in fact, it has a button to launch FP when you're through cleaning up.
Google is under fire from blind bloggers due to the implementation of a captcha at Blogger on April 12. Google's visual captcha requirement means that blind bloggers can no longer sign up for accounts without sighted assistance. The case highlights the need to be mindful that in the rush to block comment spam and spam blogs, bloggers and blog hosts need to be aware that tools such as captcha’s can also block legitimate users from commenting on a blog, or creating a blog in the way it was intended.
This is why I am sticking with this skin on my blog, even if it means cleaning up the feedback spam.
From MSNBC: VATICAN CITY - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, a hard-line guardian of conservative doctrine, was elected the new pope Tuesday evening in the first conclave of the new millennium. He chose the name Pope Benedict XVI and called himself “a simple, humble worker.”
Ratzinger, the first German pope since the 11th century, emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he waved to a wildly cheering crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing as pope. Other cardinals clad in their crimson robes came out on other balconies to watch him.
The Microsoft Security Web site now offers Microsoft® Alerts. This service lets you receive important messages through MSN® Messenger, Windows® Messenger, your e-mail program, or your mobile device. You choose how and when you receive alerts during the easy setup process.
For the last week, I've been trying to connect to the VPN at work, using the Nortel Contivity VPN client, through my D-Link DI-524 wireless router, and it's just not working. It makes the connection, and then immediately loses it. I have flashed the firmware to the latest version (1.05) and followed D-Link's configuration instructions, but nothing is working. I know it's not the PC, because the VPN connection works on dial-up.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Update: problem solved. After struggling with this for a week, I called D-Link Tech Support (you may recall I've raved about them before). They had me disable Norton's Internet Worm Protection and Bingo - in like Flynn! Norton thought the VPN traffic trying to get in was a worm; specifically:
Rule: Default Block Bla Trojan Horse
Direction: Inbound
Local address: 192.168.0.102
Local port: 1042
Remote address: 159.247.3.231
Remote Port: 500
Protocol: UDP