Mr Alewine

Another benefit of Firefox, along with the THOUSANDs of others...
When typing an address into the address bar (the box to type a web address, I don't know what it's called), Firefox will begin searching for possible sites that have the letters you have typed. This is nothing new, but Firefox has taken this a step further. Not only will it search for a possible web address, it will also explore sites where those letters show somewhere within the page.
For example, I earlier searched for www.hulu.com.
As I was typing, "hu" I had a list of possible websites, including all the different pages I had opened in the hulu site. I also got a link to an article I had read earlier from www.espn.com, saying, "Isiah Thomas says he's HURT by Magic Johnson's comments." I tested this and typed "es", and saw links to all the ESPN sites I had visited, along with a link to my Facebook status "If I ever had the chance to meet Colin Cowhere from ESPN radio, I believe I would pass."
This is simply incredible. I will never use another web browser again... Hopefully

Last night was my first experience with Open Office, and as someone who has spent my life using Microsoft Word, I am impressed. From what I can see thus far, Open Office has a similar layout and appearance as Word and uses similar icons and commands. For a novice computer user, Open Office offers helpful tools found in Word, including a text feature that will complete long, commonly used words when I start to type them. I can also use Spell and Grammar check, shortcut icons for printing and saving, and an easy to read tool bar.
As it stands now, the comparison is fairly even, with Open Office enjoying a slight edge because... well, it's free.

I'll be honest, at the first thought of Open Source/free software, I was skeptical. My brain still operates on placing value through dollars for most goods, and amateurs making software just for fun sounds more like an undergrad technology project than something I would want to run my computer with. I, however, was very wrong...
In IT521, we have beat this idea to death, yet it still fascinates me. Geniuses of technology are working together to bring their work and software freedom to the masses, like William Wallace with a keyboard... but with no killing. In this experiment, I hope to use as much Open Source software as I possibly can, and document my experience here. The primary programs I will be using are Firefox and Open Office since an internet browser and word processor are the programs I use the most often. I will use Ubuntu through the Dell Dr. Pfaffman issued to me at times during this experiment as a means of comparison with my Mac and campus computers. I will not use it all the time, though, because it is not practical to carry with me on a regular basis for the simple reason... it's too damn heavy. (I may sound pathetic, but I'm okay with that.) This will also allow me to see how prevalent Open Source is with other machines.
This first post will be describing my experience the last couple of weeks with Firefox.
Up until recently, I used computers as little as possible and would feel exhausted and irritable if I sat in front of a computer for more than a half hour doing anything other than write a paper. I used the programs I was instructed to use, which included (of course) Internet Explorer. When my wife gave me a Macbook for Christmas last year, I made the switch to Safari, which ran circles around Explorer. Throughout these years, Firefox was always around but I knew nothing about it. As an undergrad, I thought it was used as a tool for other operations, that I as a peasant computer user would no nothing of. When I would visit the computer lab at ETSU (where I earned my undergrad), I would move to a different computer if it was the only browswer available on the computer I was on.
However, I have seen the light and my eyes have been opened to the wonders of Firefox and its ability to make my life a little easier. It features all the same tools as Safari, and has considerably more than Explorer. My internet use is primarily restricted to ESPN, Yahoo!, iGoogle, Facebook, UTK, and various news sites (BBC, NPR, MSNBC, etc.) With ESPN being the site I visit the most, I use it to watch games on ESPN360 and listen to ESPN Radio. I also use MSNBC to watch their streams of Sunday night NFL games, and Hulu to catch up on the Office and 30 Rock (I don't have cable). All these operations use a different system and tools to provide these videos, and Firefox handles them all with appearant ease. In fact, it streams NBC's NFL games (which works through Microsoft Silverlight) better than Safari. Firefox also allows users to save their ID and passwords on most sites that require them. The top of the window features a Google search box, an easily recognizable icon for a home site, and will make suggestions for previous sites based on what I enter into the address box.
Simply put, Firefox is comparable to Safari and greatly supasses Explorer... all while charging ZERO to the user. When competing against the giant numbers posted by Microsoft and Macintosh, zero can be the largest number of all.

For a project for my class, IT521, I am trying to bring my Dell Inspiron back to life. It's a quality computer and done me well, but has recently kicked me out like a moody girlfriend. My password to log onto Windows no longer works, and before it was running incredibly slow.

So, this is my emergence response. I began with Dr. Pfaffman's suggestion to do a search Google serach for "Forgot Windows Password". I came across the Windows site resetwindowspassword.com, which is Microsoft's site for resetting a password. I found what I thought was a program to download, and began loading it to my Mac. I burned the program to a DVD and inserted it into my Dell. I then waited. Absolutely nothing happened.

I checked back over the site and found what I had downloaded was actually just a Demo. (Apparently my abilities to pay attention and follow directions are not where they should be.) The actual program is $19.95 for the least expensive version, so in the name of open source software, I moved on.

I then found the blog, geeksaresexy.blogspot.com, and there was a post for this very issue. The author suggested a certain program they found to be most effective, so I checked it out. The site was home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpassword. I was ready to begin downloading when I saw a warning that scared me away. "NO WARRANTY WHATSOEVER!" flashed at the bottom of the screen with a message saying the site was not responsible for any damage done to my computer by downloading the program. I know I am being a bit of a wimp, but I didn't know if this was a sure sign to think twice about using this product or if it was normal to post it with websites like these. So I am waiting to ask someone who knows...