Microsoft developer environments and maybe other realms use the key combination CTRL-Break to interrupt execution of code for testing and debugging. Problem is, some keyboards, including my Dell Latitude 13, no longer have a Break key.
At least on the Dell, try combination of CTRL-FN-F12. Great!
Snagit is a terrific, professional grade screen capture utility for Windows users (now also finally available for Mac users). Use it for preparing documentation or for documenting support issues with your software. You can learn more here: http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/default.asp.
One minor frustration has focused on its lack of integration to Gmail or other webmail. Here is a blog post with a good, partial solution that works:
While I recommend VMWare to clients who have VMWare as part of their infrasturcture because the Mac virtual machines can be opened on a PC or enterprise server, Parallels gets high marks as well. Here's a nice summary I found:
http://www.mactech.com/2010/12/16/preview-virtualization-benchmarks
We switched our Linux server hosting to a virtual server solution. Two different servers host the majority of our sites and over the past year and a half each server has had one period of unavailability. Turns out the problem was caused by a cPanel update each time.
While updates are good, getting them unexpectedly is bad. Our philosophy is server updates are treated just like application releases - they are planned.
Verify your Server Configuration >> Update Preferences for these settings:
Fresh from its publishers, here are hot tips on being more productive with Basecamp:
http://basecamphq.com/tips
Also see Database Designs own quick resource guide: http://www.dbdes.com/resources/basecamp
This past week we out-clevered ourselves. A small site has a SQLServer database with an admin tool created in Microsoft Access. Access has a direct link to SQLServer. A new column for a binary field was added in SQLServer and tested in SQLServer by setting a couple of rows with SQLServer Management Studio. The rest of the rows were left untouched.
Pidgin is great Open Source instant messaging software for Windows and Linux. It manages multiple chat clients seamlessly, low overhead, no ads, no clutter. Get it free at www.pidgin.im
With some routers, it may have trouble making the initial connections to Google Talk.
By default VMWare Fusion sets the network setting to NAT (Share the Mac's network connection). The advantage of this setting is as your Mac switches networks, your virtual PC (guest operating system) will switch too.
However, some Windows programs are designed a bit differently, such as the admin software that controls our phone system and it expects to communicate directly with the physical network. It wants Bridged (Connect directly to the physical network).
Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 is a great keyboard for both Mac and PC. Both also have phenomenon of a delay between pressing an initial key and the keyboard responding. This is not a problem of lost keystrokes once you start typing. They keyboard is terrific, ergonomic and responsive. Its that first keystroke, once an area of the screen gets the focus...
In an Excel 2007 spreadsheet, if you have long text in a a cell, the text may appear as a line of "#"--it can't fit in the cell. To fix this, take these steps
1. Right click in the cell (or column, etc), and click "format cells."
2. Under "Number," change from Text to General. This is the non-intuitive part that seems to have changed with Office 2007.
3. On the Alignment tab, select "Wrap Text." This is the older part, always been true.
4. You may also need to check that your row hight is not set to a fixed number. From the ribbon, select Format -> Row Height and check.
