VMworld Performance lab had performance problems

Last night I barely completed my first VMworld 2011 lab, “Improve Troubleshooting and Performance Tuning for Your Virtual Environment,” because the lab itself was having performance problems. It looked like about a quarter of the lab workstations were vacant. There were lines of attendees waiting, so there wasn’t a shortage of interest. WiFi access at …

Google Contacts, sort by last name

Finally, Google Contacts lets you sort your address book by last name for Google Apps accounts. You’ll find this feature under the More button. For those of us with large address books, this is such a welcomed feature that users have been requesting for a long time. While Google’s “Merge Contacts” feature does a decent …

My former uncle-in-law was attacked by a flash mob

My former uncle-in-law Mitchel Sommers was randomly attacked by a flash mob of teenagers last month in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina. Here’s an excerpt from the local paper: Downtown Greensboro “Flash Mob” Beating Investigated By Police Greensboro, N.C. – You’ve probably heard of the term “flash mob.” It’s when groups of people use social media …

How to get started in genealogy for free

I am an amateur genealogist. I’m frugal. I’m internet savvy. And in 10 years, I’ve amassed about 20,000 ancestors and descendants in my family tree; conducting most of this research for free. Researching your family history is done in five basic steps: Free: Gather informal history from family and online strangers Free: Input and merge …

Copyright infringement on forum posts

Yesterday I was searching the web in an effort to find a solution to a technical issue I’m attempting to resolve. Among the results was a link to a new site I hadn’t checked out before. As I started reading the site, I realized I was reading my words; words that I had posted on …