Copilot's tag line is "Safe. Secure. Simple".  I would agree 100%.

I used Copilot this past weekend to help out my in-laws and it was easy to use and well worth the $5.  I love helping people with their computers but doing it over the phone, where  you can't see what's happening on the other end, can be very painful.  I wanted something that would be simple to use for my in-laws but give me the control that I needed.

With Copilot all my father-in-law did was go to Copilot.com and enter the invitation code I read to him over the phone.  He then downloaded the small app, click a couple of buttons, and then I had control of his machine.  I needed to work on my monther-in-laws machine too and the $5 was good for 24 hours and no restrictions for the number of machines I could connect to.  Cheap and easy!

Giddy Up!

I've been as asked to be a contributor over at A Complete 180 (from Saul to Paul).  This will be something totally new for me and I'm looking forward to it.  Living outside of your comfort zone is when you grow the most - I should grow a lot.

If you're not familiar with the site I suggest you stop by.  Here is a blurb from their mission statement.

"...Yet, like all men, we face a world and systems that challenge our intentions each day. We don't give up or quit. We battle. We fight. We band together as brothers. We pray. We seek grace. When we fail, we ask forgiveness. At our core, we want all men to do the same. It’s the very mission and prayer of each of the authors and contributors of ac180.com."

Thanks Aaron.

Giddy Up!

I need to get a desktop lamp for my cube at work. I started my new project last week and I've got a powerful machine, nice LCD monitor, and good chair to sit in. However, there is a big lighting problem. There is too much indirect light reflecting on the screen and it's causing my monitor to wash out. It's starting to hurt my eyes so I'm looking to get a lamp to light up my monitor.

Ott-Lite Vision Saver Crane Lamp is the one I want but it's too expensive.

Lorell Computer Desk Lamp"looks" similar but is closer to what I'm looking to spend.

If anyone has a favorite or is willing to recommend one - I'm open.

Giddy Up!

 

I don't know if I would call myself a "Software Craftsmen" but I totally agree with Joey about the tools you use to build software.  Joey seems to be a little more dedicated than myself because he carries his keyboard to and from work everyday (I only carry my mouse & iPod back and forth each day).  Before I started up my new project I made sure I had everything I needed on my keychain to get my new machine up and ready to go ASAP.  A new machine just doesn't feel like home until it is "just right".

Critical Apps:
ReSharper
Beyond Compare
SlickRun
Textpad
Fiddler
Reflector
TcpTrace
Open Command Window Here
Expresso
Task Switch XP
Firefox + Extensions

Critical Settings:
Visual Studio Settings
ReSharper Settings
SlickRun Magic Words

Giddy Up!

This post is more about a couple of neat features that Tooth & Nail Records have in their podcast than it is about the podcast.

Notice in the screenies.

In the timeline of the podcast there are tick marks that indicate segments of the show and the podcast logo is displayed.

A click of the advance button brings me to screenie #2. I've advanced to the next segment in the timeline but notice that the album art has changed. In this segment they are talking with the band pictured (Thousand Foot Krutch).

Two more clicks brings me to screenie #3. Again, I've advanced a few segments ahead in the timeline but they've changed the album art again. This time we're listening to a song called "The Flame in All of Us" and they put up the album cover.

These do not replace the quality of the content (awesome by the way) but they are nice features to have. It just shows the time and effort they put into the production of the podcast. To be honest, I'm surprised DotNetRocks hasn't done this already.

Giddy Up!

I finally got the guts to pave my machine and install Windows Vista.  I'm pretty particular about backing up all of my settings and documenting what I have installed but there is always one straggler that I forget about or didn't backup correctly.  This time it was Hamachi.

If you're not familiar - Hamachi is a free VPN service and the Wikipedia entry is pretty good at describing it.

If you want to keep your existing Hamachi IP and settings - BACK UP BEFORE YOU REINSTALL.  Otherwise, it's too late to do anything.

I was in the "too late to do anything" crowd.  During the re-install of Hamachi the start up screen told me I needed to startup Hamachi so I can get a Hamachi IP address for my machine.  There was no option to enter my settings from a current account.  This was my indicator that I had done something wrong.  I powered up Hamachi, got a new IP, and joined my network.  However, now I had a machine in my network (the old one) that I couldn't do anything with and it just happened to be the "owner" of the network so I couldn't remove it from the network either.

I only have a few machines in my network so it was easy to create a new network and move the other machines over.  I would hate to have had this problem on a larger network and have settings configured to the IP addresses.

Hamachi support forum with the details
Hamachi How-To backup your settings

Giddy Up!