OfficeSnapShots just posted pics of the new Digg office… I need to get some Guinness for my office fridge!

http://www.officesnapshots.com/2008/04/21/the-diggcom-tour-office-snapshots/

So at my day job we were taken back by a sudden surge of user sign ups for our project management app and started to look at google analytics… only to find that we were featured in PCWorld magazine!

Yeah baby!

Read more about it here

I work on an application that only works in IE 6+ so moving to the mac has required me to find a way to test the application. I have found that about 90% of it works in Safari (but not FF) but the remaining 10% is critical to access at some points for testing.

Because of this I have been using Parallels running Windows 2k3. Basically the only thing I run on it is IE7 and I needed it to be able to access the Apache instance running on Leopard. Since Apache is running on 127.0.0.1, and Parallels was using shared networking, 127.0.0.1 and the actual IP address would never reach Apache.

After some looking around it appears that Parallels uses a NAT service that creates a local IP address for both the host OS (Leopard) and the guest OS (Win2k3). because of this I can use that IP address to access both machines back and forth. Here is how..

1. Find the IP address that Parallels assigns the host OS. This can be done by doing Terminal > ifconfig. Find the IP address for en3 (if you have more then one network adapter this could be en4 etc). Copy that.
2. 2. In the guest OS (windows) create a host entry by editing C:\{windows root}\system\drivers\etc\hosts

hostcomputer 10.211.55.2[the address you copied]

(I actually just changed the localhost entry to make things easier, you might not want to do that though)


That’s it. Put in http://hostcomputer in IE and it should pull up your Apache instance on Leopard.

The guys at StuffWhitePeopleLike have outdone themselves again. Their latest entry is #93 Music Piracy. This is one that made me cringe it was so accurate! :-)

So I ordered some letterhead and envelopes from VistaPrint about 2 months ago. I know that they have really good quality and that there are some quirks to their system… such as there is ZERO QA when it comes to their printing and you basically have to get them to reprint your order if there is ever an issue such as color etc. I have gotten business cards done and 1 set will be perfect and the other will be TOTALLY washed out. You just can’t beat their price for 4/c anything. It is worth the back-and-forth. They have been really nice about getting the order reprinted and would usually 2-day them regardless of your original shipping method.

the letterhead turned out nice but the envelopes were shifted and the bleed didn’t bleed like it was suppose to. I normally call but this time I decided just to submit my compliant via their email form since I don’t really need the letterhead until I do a mail out sometime end of April.

So I get the standard “Thank you for your email” auto-response but didn’t hear anything back from them. I didn’t think much about it since i have been busy on other things and then 2 days ago I get this email:

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting VistaPrint, the online solution for “Best Printing. Best Price.”

We apologize for responding so late to your email. We experienced a technical problem with our email processing system
and as such our team was not able to view and respond to your email. We have since corrected the error but are not able to
retrieve your email.
We do want to assist if possible. We hope that perhaps you have called us at our toll free number – 1-800-961-2075. Or if you prefer to email us,
please send us an email from our contact form - http://www.vistaprint.com/customer-care/contact-us.aspx?xnav=foot.
Again, we apologize for this situation and the inconvenience or frustration it may have caused. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Your VistaPrint
Customer Service Team
—– jay@cyber-jay.com Wrote —–
Webform Contact
The letterhead looks great but the envelopes are about an 1/8th of an inch off. The flap was suppose to have a bleed and does in the document but there is a white line along the left side when it was printed. Please reprint the envelopes.

Ok so that was the entire email… something look funny to you? Yeah the email they claim to not have is at the bottom of their email. Um ok. So you weren’t able to recover my email yet you were able to reply with it? WTF?

yeah… someone needs to smack them upside the head.

One of the cool things about the mac that is different then XP is it’s ability to natively allow you to select different backgrounds for different monitors in a multiple monitor setup. I was surfing the ‘net the other day and came across this resource:

http://www.mandolux.com/

They have quite a few high quality backgrounds with multiple resolutions for both the left and right monitors. That is awesome because I use my MacBook with a 20 inch’r and they both are at different resolutions. It create a really cool effect to have it span across both monitors as one image. They even have an RSS feed to notify you when they add more.

So I have the new MacBook all up and running and attached to my nice 20 inch Viewsonic wide screen flat panel. The problem I am running in to is I am using a Microsoft Desktop 2.0 wireless keyboard and mouse that I used with my old laptop. It is working OK but I am not real happy with the feel of the mouse and the fact I don’t have certain mappings on the keyboard. I went to Mac Authority to look at my options and I would really like to go with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I like the mighty mouse just fine but what was Apple thinking with the new wireless keyboard? It is basically a freak’n MacBook keyboard with no number pad which is annoying. Bluetooth on it is nice it but my word it seems really small.

So my question is: What external keyboards do you guys use? Any 3rd party ones that work well?

Mariah Carey’s new video for Touch My Body just dropped and it is hilarious!

I want to be the guy who pitched this treatment… “Ok so Geek Squad shows up at her door and then there is a unicorn and guitar hero… and then it ends with Mariah saying ‘802.11n’” Hot!

One of my favorite blogs OfficeSnapshots, which features photos of Internet related companies across the world, has released a new blog called… HomeOfficeSnapshots. I always love seeing how other people work in their homes and steal ideas from them.

Funny funny stuff…