Pem’s Tech Blog

Get fast start menu access to most used programs. This is how I customize my Windows start menu. Right click the start icon (or taskbar) -> Properties -> Start Menu tab. Select “Start menu” (not the inferior “Classic Start menu”). Click “Customize”. Use “Small icons”, and 30 for “Number of programs on Start menu” (if your vertical screen resolution won’t fit 30, don’t worry because it will just show a shorter the list). This is more useful for Windows XP, since Windows Vista has “Start Search” (which I consider a great upgrade), but it’s useful in Windows Vista too.

Pem (Admin) :: 2008/03/31 (Monday, March 31, 2008) :: Windows OS :: 1 Comment »

Here was my initial basic list of ideas for category names:
Blogging: Blog Admin, other blogs
Hardware: computer hardware, hardware devices, cell phones, media players, gadgets, hardware accessories, physical products
Software and Services: software programs, tech-related services, online services, etc
Broad Tech: tech-related thoughts, broad tech issues that don’t fall into the other categories

My initial idea was for every post to only be in 1 category, but I think that makes naming the categories more difficult. Maybe “Software” and “Services” should be seprate categories. Microsoft Outlook is “software”. But is gmail and yahoo email “Software” or “Services” or “Web”? An area of the topics I may post about are “Software / Services / Web”. I don’t think whether (you install an application and run it on your local machine) vs. (you run the application through a web browser) should make it go in a separate posting category. There is plenty of software that has both versions (such as instant message).

So I’ll have to think more about the categories. I think they could be a really useful way to organize my posts in the archives.

Here’s another brian storming attempt at categories:
Hardware -> Computers: computer laptop, desktop, workstation/server hardware
Hardware -> Devices: gadgets, cell phones, media players, hardware accessories
Hardware -> Accessories: peripherals, audio, other
Software / Services / Web: software programs, tech-related services, online services, etc
Software / Services / Web -> Communication: email, instant message, social networking
Blogging: Blog Admin, other blogs
Broad Tech: tech-related thoughts, broad tech issues that don’t fall into the other categories

Again, this is just brain-storming. I thought about “Hardware -> Devices” being “Hardware -> Gadgets”, but I’m not sure what “gadgets” exactly means. By “Devices”, I really mean anything smaller than a laptop (making the Asus Eee PC a laptop, and the iPhone a device).

This should also give some idea about what I plan to write about. But feel free to comment to suggest a topic, or ideas about how to organize the posts better (and thanks if you do).

Pem (Admin) :: 2008/03/30 (Sunday, March 30, 2008) :: Blogging :: No Comments »

Part of why I created this blog is just to try it out and learn about blogging (as a technology, and as a tool for writing etc)

I’m hoping that even if I never get any readers, Pem’s Tech Blog will at least be an additional method for me to take notes for me to reference on computer / technology topics (a blog can at least be a diary to yourself). But in addition to that, I expect to enjoy the “learning by doing” aspect to learn about blogs.

This is only my third post, so I am in the experimental stages of my blog, and learning how to use WordPress etc. I have notes about content I’d like to write, but at this point I’m really just learning about how to create a blog and set it up etc.

I’m not sure how much I will post about the details of creating the blog (as a first time blogger), but I made my first category called “Blogging”. I even thought about calling the category “Blog Admin”, because it’s likely to be a potential resource for blog admins / authors (in terms of technical aspects of blogging). At least initially, I expect my posts in the “Blogging” category to describe some of my own experience as a blog admin and blog author.

Pem (Admin) :: 2008/03/30 (Sunday, March 30, 2008) :: Blogging :: No Comments »

Use alphanumeric date/time (organize your file names with a good date/time standard).

I’ve noticed a general standard (in the US) for dates: (March 24, 2008) or (3/24/08)
And for time: 10:15pm

But this standard is not alphanumeric. For anything relating to (or using) computers and software, such as file and folder names, alphanumeric is better (in other words, alphanumeric is better). For ex, it organizes more easily in any file explorer. For ex, you can process the files more easily with scripts. For ex, it lines up better (easier) in a spreadsheet or text file.

Here is a much better format for date/time: (2008/03/24 10:15pm) or (2008/03/24 22:15:15) (22 hr 15 min 15 sec)
Or for a file name: 2008_03_24_2215_15
ISO 8601: [YYYY]-[MM]-[DD]
If we were closer to 10,000 A.D., then I’d support: [YYYYY]-[MM]-[DD]

The first setting I adjusted in WordPress was its default date and time format:

Default date format: Y/m/d (l, F j, Y)
Default time format: G:i (g:i a)

I put the “bad” US standard time in parenthesis, in case the better format confuses anyone. I have to admit that I’m actually kind of trained to see clocks in 12-hour AM/PM time, even though I would never use that for a file name.

Anyway, the point is to make it alphanumeric (with two digits for month, and two digits for date, such as 2008/03/01) (year then month then day).

Update (2008/03/29):
* updated screen shot for wordpress 2.5
* I noticed that WordPress can use a good date format URLs this such as /index.php/../pemtech/2008/03 and /index.php/../pemtech/2008/03/24 – yay for WordPress!

Pem (Admin) :: 2008/03/24 (Monday, March 24, 2008) :: Blogging :: 1 Comment »

Hello World! I am Pem, and this is my tech blog.

The plan is for my posts to relate to technology products, software tools, computer tips… Some of the things I post may be more technically advanced than what you might get from (cnet.com) or (pcmag.com) or (greekbrief.tv podcast) or (tekzilla podcast) or (cranky geeks podcast) or (TWiT – this week in tech) or (Unwired podcast) or even (tomshardware.com)… But in that area.

My posts are from the point of view from a sotware developer (who still loves to improve computer skills) (and I sometimes go too deep into a topic, so I’ll try to be careful). But this is not a software engineering blog (it is Pem’s Tech Blog).

Please talk back with a reply if you think I’m too wordy (or too short), or with whatever you have to say. I have some ideas about what I’ll post, but I’d be glad to take positive feedback on content/etc. Please comment with something friendly and/or insightful.

However, I plan for my posts to be things that any tech-savy or tech-enthused individual can understand (not just professional software engineers / developers). Overall, I hope for my posts to be focused on the practical / useful (well, assuming you are interested in tech-related computer-related stuff), but some of it may just be interesting / fun.

Well I guess the initial purpose of this is to try out blogging.

If you read any of this, Thanks

Pem (Admin) :: 2008/03/19 (Wednesday, March 19, 2008) :: Blogging :: 1 Comment »