Handspring Visor

Handspring Visor

I bought myself a Visor Deluxe last night, they're made by Handspring. It's pretty darned cool so far, I already have it set up to access my e-mail and to synchronize with the University's calendar server. It'll be handy tonight when I'm traveling to my grandparents' house, as I'll be able to catch up on some old e-mail's while I'm in the car (I'm not driving).

I wanted to get one of the black (or graphite as they call it) ones, but all they had available at Staples was blue. So, I have a blue one now, but I'm perfectly happy with it, it even matches my car. I ordered myself a belt-clip for it, and I'm well on my way to learning graffiti, the handwriting system that Palms and Visors use.

Win-Doze Training

Win-Doze Training

I started my Windows 2000 training course today. The first two hours were boring, all we did was install Windows 2000 server and review the features, which was all stuff I knew or had done. Probably the biggest benefit of the day was the time spent with the other systems people from campus, working out the campus plan for setting up our Domains, Trees, and Forest. Confused? Don't worry about it, it's confusing to those of us who spent all day talking about it too.

At least we got out early, the instructor for the course somehow corrupted his lab computer's Administrator password, and since his was the domain controller, we couldn't finish the third lab without that password. He accused us of changing it on him, since it was set to "password", but I didn't do it, I swear! That got us out somewhat early, but I still have four more Thursdays to go!

(Han) Solo 2300

(Han) Solo 2300

Tomorrow, I start my Windows 2000 training. Microsoft course number 1560 is being taught locally, and eight of us from UNI are attending. It's very pricey, at $1800 per person, but it gives us 40 contact hours. The training lasts from 8 to 5 for the next five thursdays, and I think it will turn out to be well worth the money in the end.

What a boring day, I've spent most of it reformatting and cleaning up an old Gateway Solo 2300 laptop. It's not the speediest thing in the world, luckily I have a good book to read while I wait for various things to install.

The Bell Tolls for Corel

The Bell Tolls for Corel

While surfing Corel's site, I noticed that Service Pack 3 is available for WordPerfect Office Suite 2000. It weighs in at a hefty 80MB. This is why I use a networked install for WordPerfect 2000, they issue massive service packs so often, I'd never be able to keep my users up to date!

According to this story over at Slashdot, Corel's merger with Borland/Inprise has fallen through. It was reported a few weeks ago at MaximumPC that if this merger didn't go through, Corel was going to be out of money within a couple months. While I don't really like WordPerfect, I'd like to see it continue to be updated. I imagine it'll be sold off to some other company if Corel folds, how many owners has that product had now? I will be sad if Corel Linux is no longer produced, as it's a distribution that's very easy for a Windows person to use and configure.

Insufficient Brain Space

Insufficient Brain Space

MacNN.com is reporting that Mac OS X has been delayed yet again. An e-mail from my boss who is at the WWDC informed me that he got his hands on the Developer's Preview Four version that they're giving out there. Mac OS X is the only thing that might make me dump my trusty PeeCee for a Mac. I don't expect it to win me over, but it has a realistic chance. So does the BeOS if it can produce a decent web browser and IMAP client.

I just encountered one of the strangest, stupidest errors I've seen yet. I was installing Norton AntiVirus 2000 on one of our new Dell Laptops. After installing the program, it attempted to run LiveUpdate, which is when I got the message that "There is not enough room for the update on the hard drive..." which is very strange, considering that there is 4GB remaining. After trying to uninstall and reinstall, and restarting, I jumped on Symantec's site, only to find this:

This happens when you have exactly 4 GB, or a multiple of 4 GB, of free disk space and is related to the way that available disk space is calculated. If this happens, the easiest solution is to create a temporary folder and copy 40 to 50 MB of files into that directory. After LiveUpdate runs successfully, you can delete the temporary folder and its contents.

That's just plain weird, looks like I'll just add StarOffice to the machine, that ought to consume some disk space...