Top Tip: Need advice on buying RAM!

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Mac buying advice needed

Mac buying advice needed 12/15/2003 08:08 PM

I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I'm almost 100% certain it's going to be a Mac. I'm going to be using it as my primary personal computing platform, but the vast majority of what I do with a computer is browsing, using email and messing around Python, Apache and other geeky toys. I'm sorely tempted by one of the 14" iBooks. Since I'll be using this thing a lot (and I've never been a huge fan of laptop keyboards) 12 inches seems to small, and I'm not convinced that the extra cash for a PowerBook is worthwhile now that iBooks go up to 1 GHz.

One major concern is that this is likely to be my only computer purchase for the next couple of years, and will likely be the machine that gets me through my final year of University. With this in mind, I'm not sure if shelling out the extra for a PowerBook is a better investment than I think it is.

I'm hoping that a fair number of Mac users will read this, so here's a whole bunch of questions that have come up during my research:

1. Buy from Apple, or buy from some other place like MacMall? Is it worth shopping around for a good deal or does Apple fix the prices to the point that I may as well buy straight from them?
2. Will I really, really regret buying an iBook right now in a few weeks time? The Mac Rumours Buyer's Guide says "Buy - Product recently updated" as the iBook was last updated 54 days ago. I'm just worried that the price will go down significantly after Christmas.
3. RAM. I've been told that it's best to buy the lowest configuration system from Apple and upgrade the memory myself. If I do this, where are good places to buy compatible memory online?
4. Battery life: how long can I expect a standard iBook to last on battery? Is the expensive upgrade to add a second battery worth the investment?
5. Are there additional advantages to getting a PowerBook over an iBook that I haven't considered?
6. Finally, a question about Virtual PC. Now that Microsoft have bought it can I still use it to run Linux? I know it's possible to run most Linux software on OS X but I really like the idea of a sandboxed Linux install I can futz with without fear of destroying anything, especially since we use Linux heavily at work.

Advice

Advice 02/17/2004 02:37 AM
Understanding Women & "The Rules" For Men, or Think of it Like Driving in England

john-ross.net/advice.htm
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Advice For Children

Advice For Children 07/17/2004 04:10 PM
Patrick Hughes has more excellent advice for children, but people of all ages will probably find it useful. Heed what he says about Skinhead Katrina. He knows of what he speaks.

Advice on Moving

Advice on Moving 08/27/2004 01:52 PM

One word of advice when moving make sure important keys get put in a place where you will be guranteed to find them. Need I say more.

WiFi Advice

WiFi Advice 08/27/2004 01:54 PM

Over at Technobiblio, Chris has a great post about Improving Wi-Fi's Workability Quotient in Your Library. A must read.

Advice on anything except sport

Advice on anything except sport 12/08/2003 03:29 AM
Need advice? Ask Pud. Having apparently created a good income for himself, Pud will tell you how to do it too. And let you know what his kit's like. And brief you on the future of your career in the IT industry. And give you a tip on street food in NY. And tell you the quickest way to learn French. And he gets to the point about chickens and eggs pretty quick too.

Jobseekers Advice

Jobseekers Advice 09/24/2004 05:41 AM
Jobseekers Advice
http://www.JobseekersAdvice.co m/

Jobseekers Advice is the original jobseekers website, setup to provide jobseekers a place to go for independent and unbiased information and free career advice. Their website states they are the largest independent free career advice website on the web run by professionals from around the world who volunteer their time to help you. This has been added to Employment Resources Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.

Advice to newlyweds

Advice to newlyweds 05/17/2004 01:34 AM
John Scalzi, a very talented humour writer and novelist (I like to think of him as the "edgy Dave Barry"), has written a bunch of notes for the newly married gays and lesbians of Massachusetts:

It's your best man's (or the equivalent's) job to remind people that at a wedding reception, as at the Academy Awards, speeches are best very short. You didn't spend an obscene amount on the catering just to have it grow cold as Uncle Jim blathers on.

Remind the DJ or band that they work for you, and they'll damn well play anything you want. For some reason I think this may be less of a problem at gay weddings. Thank God.

There will be drama of some sort at the reception. If the wedding party lets any of it reach the newlyweds, they haven't done their job.

Don't fill up on bread. You'll have to dance later.

Link (via Electrolite)

FC Now: Free Advice

FC Now: Free Advice 03/22/2005 07:29 PM
I was just wandering around the blogosphere, looking for good design-related blogs (nominate your favorites here), and found this collection of advice from designers, collected by Ellen Lupton, the curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and...

Sensible Security Advice

Sensible Security Advice 06/03/2004 04:46 PM
The Security Mentor provides sensible, well-written advice for keeping your data's nose clean: His advice often includes wireless networking tips, such as this post. The mentor writes in a way that reminds me of Brian Livingston's long-running and now-deceased Windows Manager column in InfoWorld....

Bad writerly advice

Bad writerly advice 05/18/2004 06:20 PM
Teresa Nielsen Hayden -- a swell writer and respected editor -- may not have invented the genre in which clueless advice to new writers is mercilessly dissected, but she certainly perfected it. Today. Teresa shreds a really stunningly gormless "cover-letter advice" page:

Tip Eight: Call. That's right, Call. Introduce yourself. Be confident. Let them know your work is coming. It's the surest way to get out of that slush pile and on to a desk. Too afraid to call? Write out what you want to say, call AFTER HOURS, leave a voice message. It's not as good talking to a real person, but hey, it's better than nothing.

The surest way? Say what? Calling in advance is an irritating waste of the editorial department's time, and will do nothing to get you out of a trade publishing slushpile. Leaving a message after hours is even more clueless. I can't imagine where he got this idea, unless he's been taking advice from someone who's secretly out to get him.

There is one significant effect this might have. Because you've phoned to say something about a submission, someone may write down your name and the title of your book, and pass the note on to the slush readers. They'll be puzzled--why did you say you were phoning again?--and will stick the note up on their bulletin board. When your manuscript crosses their desk, they may remember that there was something-or-other they were supposed to remember or do about it, and will set your manuscript on the "inscrutable problems" stack for later diagnosis. Some slow afternoon--of which there aren't many--they'll have a go at the "inscrutable problems" stack, and will look at your manuscript again. They won't be able to tell what the problem was. They'll set the manuscript aside for later. After several cycles, they'll either figure that any manuscript that's been around this long should be returned to its author on general principles, or they'll move on to another job and the new slush reader will run your manuscript through several more "inscrutable problems" cycles before returning it to you on general principles.

Link

Show me the way to go (for e-biz advice)

Show me the way to go (for e-biz advice) 07/16/2004 11:52 AM
The Register Jul 16 2004 3:47PM GMT

Advice for the Dems

Advice for the Dems 12/19/2004 03:55 PM
The DNC sent me an email today touting their 2004 accomplishments and asking for feedback. OK, they did some good things. But there's also a whistling-past-the-graveyard quality to the note. Here was my feedback: • Spend more time on developing...

Advice to my 12 year-old self

Advice to my 12 year-old self 03/13/2003 10:25 AM
I read at Slashdot a great question: "What advice would you give your 12 year-old self?" Here's mine: Dear 12...

FC Now: Valuable Advice

FC Now: Valuable Advice 04/13/2005 06:43 AM
Quick, what are your company's values? Don't bother reaching for the corporate handbook - suffice to say most of us realize our companies have them, we're just not sure what they are. They come to us in a boring little...

Dick Advice

Dick Advice 06/24/2004 09:19 PM
Mr. "Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney .. stupidity and vindictiveness .. angry, hostile, man .. Dick Advice .. Wonkette

wonkette.com/archives/dick-advice-016782.php
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Tomato Advice

Tomato Advice 03/13/2003 10:16 AM
I spoke to my mother about growing tomatoes last night. Her advice: Purchase the yummy-looking varieties, but also some early ones. The growing season in Maine is all too short, and a September frost can kill the late-bearing varieties. If this happens, you need to pick all the green tomatoes and take them inside, where they'll turn red--but never properly ripen. So if you want to be guaranteed that ripe tomato taste, you should plant at least one variety which ripens early.

Hey, Dummies, you can get advice on PC
too

Hey, Dummies, you can get advice on PC
too 07/26/2004 10:50 PM
Electric New Paper Jul 27 2004 3:18AM GMT

A New Map of the Universe, With Advice
From Einstein

A New Map of the Universe, With Advice
From Einstein 01/16/2004 11:02 AM
Two Princeton astronomers have now produced what we might call an Earthling's view of the universe.

Sensible Home Wi-Fi Security Advice

Sensible Home Wi-Fi Security Advice 02/14/2004 06:37 PM
Solid advice on securing your home Wi-Fi network: This straightforward About.com article notes six steps to securing your network, all of which are sensible and well explained. (The link is for page 2; page 1 explains what Wi-Fi is.) Along these lines, Windows XP users should note that Microsoft recently released a set of patches that fix 802.1X and WPA problems. Read the summary. Point No. 6 in the About.com article is to keep current on patches!...

India's advice to the U.S.: Invest in
yourself

India's advice to the U.S.: Invest in
yourself 04/20/2004 12:18 AM
Salon Apr 20 2004 4:12AM GMT

AdWords Advice From Google

AdWords Advice From Google 04/15/2004 09:00 AM
WebProNews Apr 15 2004 1:04PM GMT

Advice for John Kerry

Advice for John Kerry 04/28/2004 06:57 PM

Chief Wiggles needs advice

Chief Wiggles needs advice 12/10/2003 05:47 AM
a situation on his hands .. request for aid .. HELP

chiefwiggles.blog-city.com/read/386819.htm
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Bus safety advice 'ignored'

Bus safety advice 'ignored' 04/22/2004 02:24 AM
A bus safety group criticises a council, claiming it is ignoring safety recommendations from an inquest jury after the death of a schoolboy.

Advice for Job Seekers: Google Yourself

Advice for Job Seekers: Google Yourself 04/23/2004 06:56 PM
Do you Google yourself? "Yes," say people -- millions, probably -- who regularly look up their own names and other identifying features on the popular search engine.

What Is Your Greatest AdSense Advice?

What Is Your Greatest AdSense Advice? 12/29/2004 10:12 PM

Linux out, Mac in, advice wanted

Linux out, Mac in, advice wanted 01/24/2004 10:16 AM
I've grown weary of reinstalling Windows 2000 on my father-in-law's computer, so I reformatted and installed Mandrake 9.2. I've had problems before using Linux as a desktop system (starting around July 10 here), but this time I figured it would work. After all, my problems in the past had to do with trying to get the desktop up to Windows' level of application functionality, but my father-in-law uses his computer only for browsing. So, with just one application to worry about, Linux should provide the stability at which Windows curls its painted lip. Mandrake 9.2 installed like a dream. It...

"Some Advice for the Bloggers @ Google"

"Some Advice for the Bloggers @ Google" 05/14/2004 03:37 AM

Rob Enderle responds to advice

Rob Enderle responds to advice 08/17/2004 05:19 PM
Pamela Jones was nice enough to send me a note this afternoon alerting me to the fact that Rob Enderle has taken the time to respond to the advice I gave him, last week. Enderle's response can be found here, on the LinuxInsider site.

Microsoft set to backtrack on SP2 advice

Microsoft set to backtrack on SP2 advice 08/17/2004 05:27 AM
Computer Weekly Aug 17 2004 10:14AM GMT

Resume Writing Advice

Resume Writing Advice 04/11/2004 10:19 PM

The Rockport Institute has a six-part series on how to write a resume. (hat tip to Angie McKaig for the pointer.)

Their advice is fantastic, and capitalizes on the idea that you should do "active personal marketing" with your resume:

THE NUMBER ONE PURPOSE OF A RESUME

The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview. If it does what the fantasy resume did, it works. If it doesn't, it isn't an effective resume. A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.

A great resume doesn't just tell them what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It presents you in the best light. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career.

It is so pleasing to the eye that the reader is enticed to pick it up and read it. It "whets the appetite," stimulates interest in meeting you and learning more about you. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.

I would recommend this series of articles to anyone looking for a job change or career change.

Part two of the series says that resumes are scanned, not read. I'll agree with that point completely. I generally spend less than 15 seconds with each resume that I receive on the first pass. If nothing in the resume grabs my eye, I throw it away. If something catches my eye, I put it in a pile of resumes to follow up on later.

Parts three and four give a lot of great tips on writing a resume, some of them are especially powerful:

• To write an effective resume, you have to learn how to write powerful but subtle advertising copy.
• If you are applying for several different positions, you should adapt your resume to each one.
• The resume is visually enticing, a work of art.
• All the basic, expected information is included.
• A resume should be targeted to your goal, to the ideal next step in your career.
• Shorter is ususally better.
• Telephone number that will be answered. (I'd add that your email address better be a good one that won't bounce too.)

Part five covers 'choosing the right job' and is an advertisement for Rockport's services, and part six is a great list of power words that should be used over other passive words that might crop up in your resume.

Advice from the SkyMall catalog

Advice from the SkyMall catalog 04/09/2004 04:11 PM
- Fly your flag proudly! - Stay cool for deep, restful sleep. - Think again, before it's too late! - Don't hit the garage wall! - Organize your priorities. - Hold that thought! - Drink no wine before it's time. - Express your love. - Spend some time in England. - Get smart! - Keep 18 pairs of shoes handy....

Some advice to anonymous bl0ggers

Some advice to anonymous bl0ggers 04/09/2004 04:09 PM
Don Park has a good warning post on potential XSS hacks. A typical example of these is Haloscan, who does provide commenting and trackback capabilities also to a number of Finnish bloggers.

However, sometimes no clever hacking is required. Haloscan actually provides RSS feeds of all the comments, making it really easy to subscribe to the comments of a blog. This is cool and clever, and I wholly applaud this. The Feed can be found at:

http://haloscan.com/members/rss.php?user=<username>

You can figure out the username by looking at the HTML source, or just by guessing (most people use their blog names).

Up until last weekend, Haloscan also provided IP addresses in the feeds. This meant that IF an anonymous blogger was commenting in his own blog, it was possible to find his IP address. If the said person would then comment on other blogs under his real name (or visit your own blog, where you have some sort of site tracking), it was possible to either figure out his real identity, or at least the Pinseri account name (a known Finnish aggregator). Haloscan has now removed this feature, so it's safe again to use it. I have not checked other comment services whether they also have this issue.

Note that figuring out the IP address does not reveal your identity. But if combined with other information, it may be possible to figure out who you are. Or at least make a very educated guess.

Another issue you have to be careful with if you are an anonymous blogger is that if someone sends you email with a link, don't click it. If you do, something like this might appear on the recipient's log files (let's assume the anonymous blogger has an yahoo.com mail account, and I've sent him an email to ask to come to my weblog.)

cs65129.pp.htv.fi - - [31/Mar/2004:16:52:08 +0300] 
"GET /ButtUgly/ HTTP/1.1"
 200 35547 
"http://us.f413.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=4207_26017
7_12756_
 
1095_187_0_87_-1_0&YY=51786&inc=25&order=down&
amp;amp;sort=date&
  pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox" 
"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us)
AppleWebKit/124 
(KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.1"

Due to the referrer (mail.yahoo.com) it's rather easy to figure out which of the hits came from your mysterious web friend. Now we know that he lives in Helsinki and has a cable modem, and that he uses a Mac OS X 10.3 computer. If you embed suitable Javascript on your weblog, it is possible to figure out even some more things. If he, however, had cut and paste the address from the mail to the address, you get something like this:

cs65129.pp.htv.fi - - [31/Mar/2004:16:59:34 +0300] 
"GET /ButtUgly/ HTTP/1.1" 
200 35558 
"-" 
"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us)
AppleWebKit/124 
(KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/125.1"

There's now a lot less evidence to tie the mysterious Yahoo user to a specific IP address because of the missing referrer field. Yet, it is still possible, but it will require a bit more data and logic. Of course, if he'd wanted to be absolutely safe, he would've used a service like Anonymizer, in which case the line would look like this:

outgoing.anonymizer.com - - [31/Mar/2004:17:02:12 +0300] 
"GET /ButtUgly/ HTTP/1.1" 
200 34933 "-" "Mozilla/4.78 (TuringOS;
Turing Machine; 0.0)"

Not a lot to pinpoint you, yes?

So, a couple of practical tips, if you want to protect your online anonymity:

• Don't click on links from web mail, cut-n-paste them to your address bar.
• Check out all the services that you are using that none of them is leaking information about you
• If possible, use a web proxy (like anonymizer), or only assume your anonymous identity

...

Should MI5 release security advice?

Should MI5 release security advice? 04/30/2004 06:17 AM
Britain's security service, MI5, has published its terrorist threat assessment and safety advice to the public for the first time. Do you agree with such a move?

Advice for Libraries from My Aggregator

Advice for Libraries from My Aggregator 04/29/2004 11:11 PM

PC Mag Says Death to 802.11b (Almost)
"PC Magazine rounds up several 802.11g routers, and says they're cheap enough, they're good enough: 802.11b no longer enjoys a large enough (or any) price differential for quality Wi-Fi gateways that include WPA encryption support, PC Mag says. So while you can still find 802.11b devices on the market, they recommend new gear have 802.11g built in...." [Wi-Fi Networking News]
Lesson: Make sure you buy 802.11g for your library.

Making CD-R's Last
"From Doug Kaye I learned of an interesting article on how long CD-R's will last and things you can do to increase or decrease that time. I've always just popped down to Staples and bought the cheapest disks I could find. For some of my uses (the latest Suse distro, for example) that's fine. But this article makes the point that if you're using the disk to archive important material, you need to be more careful. The article contains information on how to select good media and media that's appropriate for the drive that you'll be recording on. This may be especially important for organizations building large collections of CD-R's that they need to keep to meet regulatory or other business requirements." [Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog]
Lesson: If your library is using CD-Rs for backups, archiving, or preservation, pick the right ones!

Game Boy Advice SP Price Cut

Game Boy Advice SP Price Cut 09/01/2004 09:08 PM

Direct and Related Links for 'Game Boy Advice SP Price Cut'

Nintendo cuts price on Game Boy Advance so company can try to entrench its number one position in the handheld game market. “Beginning Wednesday, the flip-up, color screen Game Boy Advance SP will retail for $79, down $20 from its price since debuting in the United States in March 2003.” Ooh, I feel sorry for anyone who bought a Game Boy last week at full price or higher than the new price….

Random advice for composition

Random advice for composition 02/10/2004 02:51 AM
Here's a procedure that I almost always find useful for improving almost any kind of written composition -- a speech, an essay, an op-ed or a story. As a first pass, try cutting the first 10 percent (the "throat clearing") then moving the last 30 percent (the payoff) to the beginning of the talk (don't bury your lede!). About 90 percent of the time when someone gives me a paper for review, I find that it can be improved through this algorithm.

Weirdly, I almost always need someone else to point this out to me. I circulated a draft paper for comment this week, and it took Grad to remind me that I'd buried my lede and spent too much time throat-clearing. It turned out that he was completely right, but I didn't see it until it was pointed out to me.

Just a bit of random foo for the day.

MI5 security advice goes online

MI5 security advice goes online 04/30/2004 12:32 AM
The security service, MI5, is publishing for the first time its terrorist threat assessment and advice on keeping safe.
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Top Tip: Need advice on buying RAM!

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