Cerberus Starraiser

Today’s Random Microsoft Excel Creation – 1 July 2010

While demonstrating things for a customer today, here’s the final creation, in Microsoft Office Excel 2007, that resulted.  It amused me and I decided to keep it as a wallpaper.

Microsoft, Intel Announce Intelligent Ads; Say You Look Good in Levi’s

This week, Intel announced the availability of technology made especially for digital signage.  The new platform, based on Windows Embedded Standard 7 and running on Intel Core i5/i7 processors, along with technology such as touch screens to allow interactivity from a passerby.

>>>Read More at GearLive.com>>>

Mitigated Speech and the Help Desk Consultant

This article was written by me for my company, and reprinted here with permission.

Mitigated speech is a method of conveying a concept while selectively choosing syntax that will soften the impact of the concept on the listener.  It can be in deference to authority or position, or to appear polite and not causing offense.  The reasons for mitigating one’s speech vary, but usually center around what one feels the proper interaction with the listener should be.

Power Distance

Geert Hofstede performed studies to demonstrate how culture affects the behavior of the people and their organizations and found that there are five specific ideologies.  In his book, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, Hofstede identifies the following as “dimensions” within society.

I.                    More Equal Than Others (power distance)

II.                  I, We, They (individualism)

III.                He, She, and (S)he (masculinity versus femininity)

IV.                What Is Different Is Dangerous (uncertainty avoidance)

V.                  Yesterday, Now, or Later? (long-term versus short-term orientation)

Mitigated speech is found most often in the first dimension of Hofstede’s work, in the realm of high “power distance.”  Power distance is a measure of how accepting society is of the fact that power is distributed unequally.  Cultures with a low power distance are “less distanced” from those who have authority in their society.  Hofstede says “In small power distance countries there is limited dependence of subordinates on bosses, and a preference for consultation, that is, interdependence, between boss and subordinate.  The emotional distance between them is relatively small: subordinates will quite readily approach and contradict their bosses” (Hofstede 1991, 27).

Cultures that have a high power distance are “more distanced” from those who have authority; society acknowledges power based on the position held.  Subordinates are more dependent upon bosses and accept decisions made by superiors based solely on their position.  It is considered impolite or insulting to correct or question a superior’s decisions.  Culture dictates that superiors know better than their subordinates, resulting in a fear to disagree openly with one’s boss.

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Samus vs. Goomba – Super Mario Bros. Crossover

I don’t normally review Flash games.  While they undoubtedly have a place in the big gaming industry, I tend to group them together in that big category that includes Facebook games that I never play.

However, in this particular case, I’m making an exception.  Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a Flash-based game over on Newgrounds that scores big nostalgia points by accurately capturing some of our biggest 8-bit memories packaged into one little game.

Crossover, in its purest form, is the original NES classic Super Mario Bros.  8 worlds, 4 levels each, et cetera, et cetera.  The novelty comes in the form of using other Nintendo characters in place of Mario. After each level’s successful completion, you have the option of switching to a new character to play; besides choosing the classic Mario, you can select Link, Bill, Simon, Mega Man, and Samus Aran, from the original 8-bit games Legend of Zelda, Contra, CastleVania, Mega Man, and Metroid, respectively.

>>>Read More at Polygamerous.com>>>

03 – What Qualifies As Art?

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McAfee pushes bad update, takes down Windows XP computers

Yesterday, McAfee pushed out a DAT file for its Enterprise virus-scanning software that tracked down a core Windows XP system file and quarantined it as malware.  Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of computer systems were damaged as a result.  Windows XP cannot run without the quarantined file, SVCHOST.EXE, and as a result, automatically shut itself down.  Other weird settings and symptoms were evident, such as taskbars disappearing, blue-screens-of-death, and other crash-related symptoms.

On one hand, relief simply did not come fast enough.  On the other…what more could McAfee have done to repair the damage?  McAfee rolled back the virus definition as quickly as it found out, and released an addendum file that could be manually applied to infected PCs.  The servers hosting the offered file were strained by the demand, resulting in disconnect errors and failures to update the McAfee software.

“We believe that this incident has impacted less than one half of one percent of our enterprise accounts globally, and a fraction of that within the consumer base,” said Barry McPherson, on McAfee’s blog Wednesday.  He goes on to identify the error in the update, stating that it was an attempt to detect a potentially damaging virus, and the update “clearly did more harm than good.”

>>> Continue reading at GearLive.com >>>

02 – Fanboy

Based on something someone ACTUALLY said to me.

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Have You Tried Rebooting?

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What’s Your Opinion: Electronic Arts and Bioware Raising the Stakes on Used Games

About a month or two ago, I decided to start catching up on all my gaming. Being out of it for a while, I had not been paying attention to some of the great storylines and games I had been missing out on. I had an old copy of Mass Effect collecting dust, decided to give it a whirl. It took me about a month to beat it, but I was hooked on the epic of Commander Shepard. The game was incredible, and the downloadable content was reasonably priced and a lot of fun.

I waltzed into my local GameStop and asked for the newly released Mass Effect 2. As per the usual long list of questions that every GameStop consultant must ask you (seriously, you can’t even cut them off—say “no” before they’re done, and they talk right over you until they’re done asking you to reserve a game), I was asked if I wanted to save five bucks on a used copy of the game. Throw in my discount membership, and that’s another five bucks off the used copy. A sixty dollar game for fifty bucks? Duh!

I returned home, viciously removed all of the packaging, and popped the game into the system.

Hmm. Says there’s a code in the packaging to unlock the downloadable content.

However, upon reviewing the packaging, there was no such code to be found. Did the previous owner not leave it in the case? Then, I came to a mind-shattering, earth-moving, playing-field-changing conclusion.

Whoever had this game before me used the code already!

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There’s an App For That

Well, I have my Motorola Droid, and for the most part, I love it. I have a few gripes about it, but I’ll go into detail about that in my secondary review to be posted on GearLive.com.

What I’m really psyched about is this app I found called WPtoGo. It allows you to post to WordPress blogs like this one. I can view and edit older posts, view and review comments, and it even has some basic formatting tools.

So maybe I can post just a little more often on the personal blog, eh? We’ll see. Maybe write some more of my idle thoughts. I’ve worked very hard to tone the emo down, and it has become easier as I work through my divorce and find out who I really am. I believe I’ve made some great strides. I am a much different person than the man who struggled with self-hate and loathing, blaming himself for his cheating wife, unable to truly put the blame where it truly lied and wash his hands of it.

I lost a lot of friends along the way: those who hate me for who I was, and those who drop my various social network friendships for being tired of hearing my depressed rants and avoid me in person. It is unlikely I’ll get either group of people back, but in the end, I can only rely on myself.

So, we’ll see.

Synchronizing OneNote 2007 with Office Live

Excited that I finally figured this out, here is a step-by-step how-to that will enable you to put your OneNote notebook online with Office Live, allowing for Live sync and sharing amongst multiple computers.

DISCLAIMER:  At this time, Office Live Small Business gives free webspace in the amount of 50 MB.  If your books are smaller than this, then you will be fine.  If you choose to upgrade your server space, you can do so by purchasing additional space.  $4.95 a month plus taxes gets you 1GB of space.

If you are only using Windows Vista or 7 machines, you will NOT want to use this method because there are free WebDAV providers out there that OneNote will be compatible with.  Only use this method if you are looking for a free or cheap way to sync with multiple computers that include Windows XP computers.

If you want me to explain how I set up my personal Vista machine to sync via WebDAV with a public provider, let me know.

Let’s get started.

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Soundproofing?

I knew that my company was upgrading some of the recording equipment we had.  I teach webconferences online, I record classes for our clients, and our company records helpful clips for our customers.  I wasn’t sure what to think when I walked into the “recording room” this morning.  I sure laughed, though.

As ghetto as it looks… it works, and it was a marked improvement over our previous equipment.  I record because I have a strong voice, and I’ve always wanted to podcast and stuff, but I never really got the chance to.  Besides, I’d much rather write. 

(I still giggle when I see this stuff though.)

A Bill of Assertive Rights

Taken from When I Say No, I Feel Guilty by Manuel J. Smith, Ph.D.

1. I have the right to judge my own behavior, thoughts, and emotions, and to take the responsibility for their initiation and consequences upon myself.
2. I have the right to offer no reasons or excuses for justifying my behavior.
3. I have the right to judge if I am responsible for finding solutions to other people’s problems.
4. I have the right to change my mind.
5. I have the right to make mistakes—and be responsible for them.
6. I have the right to say, “I don’t know.”
7. I have the right to be independent of the goodwill of others before coping with them.
8. I have the right to be illogical in making decisions.
9. I have the right to say, “I don’t understand.”
10. I have the right to say, “I don’t care.”

I have the right to say no, without feeling guilty.

To Whom It May Concern

I’m sure that you are aware that recently, Wizards of the Coast decided to take a slightly different direction with their prized Dungeons and Dragons content.  They changed many aspects of the game mechanic, gave different entry methods to the game in the manner of modified classes and races, and overall, made the game more accessible to the newer player.

Whether you like the system, or hate the system, it bodes well from a business standpoint.  The old rules will persist for all time; no one would be forced to accept the new rules.  Third Edition rules will be available for people to play.  Besides, no one says that anyone has to play with any set of rules in particular, including the published ones: that’s the brilliance of Dungeons and Dragons!  But, add another layer of Dungeons and Dragons rules that allow “newbies” to get right into the throw of the game, and you have what almost amounts to a separate product aimed at assimilating more mainstream consumer base into your brand name.

People will have their preferences in game, Third Edition, Fourth Edition, or hell, I know some folks still playing Advanced D&D Second Edition.  But, it is still a common standpoint in which we can talk about the adventures we have had, because the emotions and actions span across the gaps of edition rules: only game mechanics change in each edition.  It should put us on a common plane.  And, as businessmen, put us in the line to make a lot of money from each subset of player, by providing the supplies for them no matter what their preferences are, supportively and with great passion for serving our customers.

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Stunted Growth

WARNING:  There are spoilers concerning the DLC for Lost Odyssey and of Final Fantasy IV in here.  Read at your own risk.

I *love* gamerscore.  I want more.  I play and play on my Xbox to increase that score, and eventually, as I see more and more people with a lower score than my own, I feel just awesome.

I also love RPGs.  I get into the stories and emotions of the characters.  I enjoy immersing myself into a world that is not my own, and living the lives of these people.  That is why I play these games.  I am not the kind of RPG gamer who plays a game to get every single item in the game, or to say they’ve done everything they can possibly do (“Completionists”).  Sometimes, running around for hours and hours and hours to level up to defeat an optional boss or monster that has NO direct bearing on how the story will end for a single item that will probably over throw the balance of the game anyways (Read: Economizers) just doesn’t seem WORTH it.

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