Do videogames influence us?

Aug 5, 2008 // by Pedro // Current Affairs // No Comments

This week the murder of a TAXI driver in Thailand by a student who was “carrying out a scene” of the Game Grand Theft Auto IV, prompted authorities to ban the game nation-wide. Once again the question reigns: Do videogames influence people? Well, I have some comments on the matter not from a 3^rd person perspective, but from a 1^st person.

Web 2.0.5? Rethinking Content Management and Portals

Jun 17, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // 2 Comments

Back in 2002, I ventured myself into the wonders of open source Content Management System (CMS). Being a former SysOp for two Bulletin Board Systems during the mid-nineties, I was extremely excited with the prospects of what could be built using free tools to create dynamic and rich web portals – the web was finally making sense, I thought! However, a lot changed since 2002, and it seems that the open source Content Management Systems are lost in the plot.
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Runing Linux on a Windows Home Server simuntaneously

May 27, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // 7 Comments

I read a few weeks ago in some of the Windows Home Server forums that some enthusiasts are trying to install Linux on a HP MediaSmart server. While I do find it to be a quite interesting exercise, I fail to see the benefits of replacing Windows Home Server with a copy of Linux, particularly since HP has their own Linux-based home servers, plus it would be probably cheaper to build a custom one.

On a personal note, I rather like the idea of having a Windows-based server at home. But I do miss having the ability to play with Linux hacks. So I was thinking what I could do to have Linux as an option at home when I came with a solution where I could have both Windows Home Server and Linux on my MediaSmart server running at the same time: Virtual Server.

Gartner says: Windows is collapsing (really?)

Apr 18, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // No Comments

If you are into IT, you probably heard the news that Gartner, the big USA research and advisory company recently warned the industry in a conference that Windows is in danger of collapsing. A bold statement, and once you read Gartner’s argument, it can give the impression to neophyte readers that it is a smart and throughfully researched argument. Well, not really.
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Capacitors what?

Mar 25, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // No Comments

So you consider yourself a hardcore IT techie. There is no computer issue so far that you couldn’t sort.
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Linksys WAG54G v2: The Hidden Pages

Mar 8, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // No Comments

I have been eagerly waiting for the Wireless-N standard to be rectified so I can finally change my home router for a new one. I must say that during the years I had enough of Linksys routers. Although owned by CISCO, I’ve been quite disappointed with the level of features provided by my WAG54G router. However, while browsing www.linksysinfo.org I found about two quite useful configuration pages which seem to be ‘hidden’ in the router. In particular, there is a page to configure DHCP reservation; a feature that I’ve been missing badly!

webDAV and SharePoint: Customising the search results

Mar 5, 2008 // by Pedro // IT, SharePoint // No Comments

If you are using Enterprise Search for a network location accessible through webDAV, you will find that clicking on search results will try to open the results in Internet Explorer. Here is a quick method to add an option for users to open links as Web Folders.

NOTE1: This only works in Internet Explorer 5 or above.
NOTE2: You will need SharePoint Designer for this tutorial.
NOTE3: You must have a knowledge of html (understand tags, elements and attributes).

Installing VNC on a Windows Server using Remote Desktop

Mar 3, 2008 // by Pedro // IT // No Comments

One of the first things I decided to do with my Windows Home Server was to install a VNC server on it. VNC is an open source solution (i.e.: free) that allows remote access to a computer in a similar way that of Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). However, because my Windows Home Server is a headless computer which can only be accessed remotely with Microsoft RDP, the installation of VNC is not as straightforward as it seems. In this documentation I’ll explain how I successfully installed VNC on my Windows Home Server.

ReadyNAS NV+ vs. Synology CS-407

Jun 18, 2007 // by Pedro // IT // No Comments

Since an unfortunate even last year with an IBM “DeathStar” hard drive which almost cost me all of my files, I have been evaluating the prospects of acquiring a decent Network Attached Storage (NAS) with RAID (which is geek for disaster control). This is what I am looking for: Read more >>

HRM Exam: How Wikipedia helped me (and so can help you)

May 22, 2007 // by Pedro // Current Affairs // Comments Off

Yesterday I had my first examination of my MBA programme: Human Resources Management. I don’t plan to talk about all my exams, but since this was my first one, it was quite significant. In particular, I would like to mention how I actually used Wikipedia as a way to help with my studies.

Of course the name Wikipedia raises all alarm bells when talking about research and academic studies. Every lecturer I know has strong feelings against the use of Wikipedia as a source. Use Wikipedia as a reference and bibliography and you are likely to be penalised.

But if used correctly, Wikipedia can help you. In case of studying for my HRM exam, here is how I used it in my favour, in two different ways. It might surprise you. Read more >>