A parking ticket can teach a lot about productivity [Globe and Mail 5/19/2005] Mobile ticketing technology boosts productivity in new ways for the cities involved. The technology allows municipalities to issue more tickets and reduce errors, and it eliminates the cumbersome and time-consuming data entry involved with handwritten tickets. It's possible -- through a wireless connection to a back-end information repository -- for officers using the portable devices to check the history of tagged vehicles and immediately summon a towing company to cart away any found to have numerous outstanding citations. That equals more revenue for the city generated by each parking enforcement employee. The cost to equip a parking control officer -- including handheld device, printer and the software -- is about $6,000. The payback in terms of increased efficiency and revenue for municipalities is realized in as little as six months... 5/19/2005 10:00:59 PM    

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Create your own BSOD in Windows XP (on request, that is) [TechRepublic.com 5/18/2005] As puzzling as it may sound, it can be quite useful to create your own Blue Screen Of Death in Windows XP. From troubleshooting your Startup And Recovery settings to demonstrating to end users what to do if they encounter a BSOD, this tip will come in handy. Here's how to create a BSOD: 1. Launch the Registry Editor Regedit.exe. 2. Go to HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesi8042prtParameters. 3. Edit, select New | DWORD Value and name the new value CrashOnCtrlScroll. 4. Double-click the CrashOnCtrlScroll DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value Data textbox, and click OK. 5. Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP. When you want to cause a BSOD, press and hold down the [Ctrl] key on the right side of your keyboard, and then tap the [ScrollLock] key twice. Now you should see the BSOD. 5/19/2005 7:06:59 PM    

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