Last year, I started looking for a linux laptop and ended up just migrating my old Windows laptop over to Ubuntu Linux. Since my personal preference is for smaller sized laptops, I have also been keeping an eye on the new low-cost netbooks. Currently, I'm leaning toward the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 with Ubuntu already installed. However, my personal sweet spot for a laptop seems to be in the 10 to 12 inch range.
Today, at Dell.com I came across reference to a yet to be released Inspiron Mini 12 (1210)! While there have been rumors circulating on the Web that Dell will be introducing a 12.1 inch Mini netbook or (and) E Slim, I don't think anyone has reported seeing actual references of the Inspiron Mini 12 at Dell.com. Until now! Perhaps we'll be seeing the Inspiron Mini 12 released this week or possibly next week? If the price is reasonable and Ubuntu is available, this Mini 12 will be my next notebook.
The single reason enterprises with Windows networks prefer Internet Explorer over Firefox and other browsers: Group Policy.
For those of you who might be new to Group Policy, here is a quick background. Let’s first assume you use an Active Directory environment to administer the computers in your corporate network. If that is the case, Group Policy provides a wide set of policy settings to manage IE8 after you have deployed it to your users' computers. These settings are locked down and cannot be changed by users, as they are always written to a secure tree in the registry.
I began running this website on Drupal 6 shortly after the official release. Before then, I periodically installed development versions of Drupal 6 on the production server during the weekends so others could judge the progress that was being made. During this period, I made the claim that I didn't really need any contributed modules to run my site on Drupal 6.
As I said last week, it's amazing how many people overlook the power of Drupal...even without its contributed modules. Yes, I'll be glad when the Views, Panels, and even the TinyMCE contributed modules are ready to use with Drupal 6. But I've always looked at contributed modules as modules of convenience and not necessity.
It could have been a bold statement that I made at the beginning of the year. Although Drupal 6 interest has finally overtaken Drupal 5, there still are a number of popular modules still under the designation of release candidate, beta, and even alpha. My site has shown that you don't have to always wait for contributed modules to upgrade a site to the latest version of Drupal. However, my statement was a lie. By the time Earl Miles released Views 2.0 Beta 1, I found I didn't want to live without my essential modules for very long.
The following are a list of contributed Drupal modules that I wouldn't want to do without here at CMSReport.com. I am neither the first word nor the last word of which modules you should be running for your Drupal site. In fact, by coincidence, Kathleen Murtagh has just written a similar list of contributed modules that should be considered. Some of the modules on my list are still going through their development phase and you'll have to assess the risk of using the modules on your own sites. Personally, I like to take the risk for my hobby sites such as these, but I am more cautious when using development code for sites managed at my day job. Whichever modules you choose, be sure to thank the developers that have made your site possible.
There are a number of comment and subscription related modules for Drupal. However, I found this module to be very convenient for both users and administrators.
Sends e-mail to notify both registered and anonymous users about new comments on pages where they have commented. The goal is to drive one-time users that comment back to you site to convert them to real registered users. This conversion step is an essential one in building a blog comment community.
By now you've heard of Google's new Chrome browser which is currently in beta. But did you ask yourself, why would Google want to enter the Internet browser market? There are a number of reasons to why Google may have developed this browser, but I believe the explanation given by an article posted at CNET's Webware is the most likely reason.
On the Web, a site that responds a few milliseconds faster can make a big difference in people's engagement. It's for this reason that Google believes its new Web browser, Chrome, is a project worth investing in rather than a footnote in the history of the Internet.
Chrome, Google said during its Tuesday launch event, is much faster at showing Web pages than the most widely used browser, Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Google's hope is that performance will open up the bottleneck that chokes the speed and abilities of today's Web-based applications...
...Why speed means money Google benefits materially from fast performance. First, when it comes to search, Google discovered when its search page loads fractionally faster, users search more often, which of course leads to more opportunities for Google to place its highly lucrative text ads. Second, a faster Web application foundation means that Google's online applications for e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, and calendars can become faster and fuller-featured.
This Labor Day marks the end of my Summer Technology Break, a self-imposed exile from spending too much time at the computer when instead I could be enjoying family, the great outdoors, and the real world. How did I do? Well, the family spent some time in Michigan visiting family, friends, and the fish. My 4 1/2 year-old son caught his first trout on his first fishing trip (thanks to the patience of Jason and Jean Stephens from Head Hunter Guides). We also spent a week camping and hiking in the Black Hills of South Dakota which included a family hike up Harney Peak. For the most part, I would say my break from technology during my hours away from my "day job" was a success.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Wordpress 2.6 is more than a blog and is quickly evolving into a full-fledged Web content management system. While they're a little late, some of my competitors (CMS Watch) also recently noted the trend of blogging applications such as Wordpress taking on more CMS-like duties.
Those that have read my blog know that I do get on my soapbox from time to time about the state of education in the United States. I can't help but be concerned about the future for America's young adults. Too many students are not opting to stay in school to continue their education. If U.S. students continue their lack of motivation in pursuing an education, I can't help but be gloomy on America's place in the 21st century as a world leader.
