Wired News just posted this article affirming what we’ve known about the overall value of the new intel macs.

Going where Symantec Ghost™ and SuperDuper! only dream of, NetRestore successfully takes on the task of cloning both the OS-X and Windows partitions of a bootcamp enabled Intel Mac. The procedure may look daunting, as the included instructions tend to over communicate a bit, but hey, its better than the usual under communication that plagues most tech documentation. With this essential (and free) piece of software, you can crank out duel configured macs in under 30 minutes.

I found this freeware gem while I was looking for an easier way to slipstream the copy of Windows XP that came with Virtual PC for the Mac so that I could use it in Bootcamp / Parallels / VMWare Fusion. In short, nLite makes it easy to slipstream service packs and patches for Windows, while as a bonus, it enables you to remove unnecessary apps like Windows Media Player, Outlook Express, Messenger, etc. It makes a bootable image that you can save to iso or burn on the spot. Here’s the feature list from the developer: (more…)

Such a nice code green: “Consistently amazed that a dept. of five people are so on the ball about assisting the many Zingerman’s businesses. We always receive instant extra mile service from them - even for our prehistoric technologies. After saying they were going to send us a whole new heatless laminator, 3M actually sent us a part that we had no idea how to install. Hannah took it down to IT and they proceeded to completely dismantle it, install the new part and reassemble the laminator quickly and immediately. Truly excellent above and beyond service on a technology outside their job descriptions, I’m sure.”

You can now easily check the status and location of the bus from your smartphone. I’ve setup a favorite from my Treo and it works quite well–just scroll to the bottom of the results page for the info. Here’s the full scoop from Scott at carfree ann arbor:

A while back we got the tip on AATA’s new RideTrak internet service. Choose a route at the AATA website, and it gives you the current location and status (early, on-time or late by X minutes) of the bus. While we were excited about finally getting access to the info, we mostly grumbled about how the service could be better. We, and many others, contacted AATA through their comment form to throw a bunch of well-intended, if demanding and uninformed, suggestions at them. High on that list was mobile access to the updates.

Well, ask and ye shall receive. The front page of theride.org now announces that riders can direct browsers on their PDAs and mobile phones to mobile.theride.org for mobile access to bus updates. We haven’t tried out the mobile edition yet, but are impressed with what seems like a pretty fast response to rider requests by AATA. If you have tried the mobile version of RideTrak, let us know how it worked in the comments.

This is a really nice little app for the Treo featuring:

• Comprehensive information on traffic conditions in more than 30 U.S. major metropolitan areas, including Detroit and A2 area highways.
• Detailed driving directions with traffic estimates to avoid congestions
• One-touch recall of favorite locations and routes
• Integrated search results for business locations, restaurant reviews, hotel amenities and hours of operation
• Interactive maps to explore further, reaching beyond current locations
• Satellite and aerial views.

Download directly from the browser on your Treo: www.google.com/gmm

Did you know that if you delete a a mail message in Outlook, it’s not necessarily gone from the system? The message is simply moved to your “Deleted Items” folder. Over time, your “Deleted Items” folder can become very large, and take up precious space on the mail server.

One way to think of it: You’ve got some really old potato salad in back of your fridge that you finally get around to relocating to your kitchen garbage can. It then sits in your kitchen garbage can, festering, until you take it out to the curbside trash.

Here’s how to take out the festering trash in Outlook:
1. Open Outlook. Go to the Tools menu and select the Empty Deleted Items Folder option.
2. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to permanently delete all the items in your Deleted Items folder. Click Yes.

Bonus Round:
Automatically Empty the Trash every time you exit Outlook:
1. Open Outlook. Go to the Tools menu and select Options.
2. Click on the Other tab
3. Check the “Empty Deleted Items Folder upon exiting” box. Click on “Advanced Options” button.
4. Check or uncheck the “Warn before permanently deleting items” box. If you leave this box checked, Outlook will prompt you to confirm the deletion every time you close outlook.
5. Click OK.

Appointments in Entourage between March 11th - 31st are off by 1 hour. A fix is apparently still in the works. Here’s an explanation by Entourage guru, Paul Berkowitz:

“Since the old Daylight Savings Time (up to 2006) started on the first Sunday in April, and the first Sunday in April in 2007 is April 1, and the new Daylight Savings Time from 2007 starts on the second Sunday in in March, and the second Sunday in March in 2007 is March 11, and since Entourage 2004 was released back in 2003 before these changes were passed into law, it stands to reason that precisely March 11 to March 31 (day before April 1) will be off by an hour. How can you be surprised now that you know about the changes? I think that you can expect that sometime before March 11 (my guess: sometime between Macworld SF in early January and March 1) an Office 2004 update will fix it. Just enter the time you want and don’t worry about it until March 1.”

Here’s an interesting story from Birmingham, England where the city government’s IT Dept rolled out linux desktops to their government offices:
Birmingham City Council claims open-source success

Hmm. Wondering about whether it would be productive to have a video camcorder inhouse for shooting various gigs around the ZCoB? Could be used for facilitator training, huddles, staff meetings, events, classes… Maybe. Most likely scenario would be taking it to a video format like a podcast rather than studio quality. Questions to answer: is there a potential demand, who would provide time doing the shooting, who would do the studio/editing work, what would be the best equipmnet for this purpose? Last first…

HD Camcorder looks like the way to go. MPEG-2. 7 hours of room at highest quality. No tapes, no mess.

Apple tutorial on making video podcasts

Sony DCR-S100 or for future proofing go HD with the Sony HDR-SR1 AVCHD
Sony DCR-S100 Review and Sony HDR-SR1 AVCHD Review