Rob Jensen’s Blog

It has been way to long since I’ve posted anything.  There have been a lot of changes with work (I’m still employed) and been busy spending time with my family.  The summer goes by too fast.

A few weeks ago, SolidWorks launched their beta program.  I’ve been a beta tester in the past and I recommend it to everyone.  It’s a great way to get a sneak peak at the upcoming release and provide feedback.  The one thing I hate about the beta program is the way it’s set-up for users on SolidNetwork licenes.  Basically, you have to download a temp license, save it on your PC and for through 12 steps to get SolidWorks up and running.  And the funny thing is, at the end of the instructions it says….and i quote…”Try to launch SolidWorks 2010 Beta.”  I love that.  Every time SolidWorks says “try” i get a little nervous!!

What I would like to see is SolidWorks issue a temp serial number that would expire after the beta program.  SNL customers already get a home use license, why not a beta license?  Or better yet, use the SolidWorks on a stick concept from a few years ago at SolidWorks World.  For anyone that isn’t familiar with SolidWorks on a stick, it was a USB drive that had SolidWorks loaded on it.  It was all concept and after 90 days it was invalid.  The great part about this was you didn’t have to LOAD any software on your PC.

So, will I be beta testing?  I don’t think so.  I’ll look at the What’s New document (which anyone can download from the customer portal) and that’s about it. 

I’d love to hear your comments on the beta program.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything.  I’ve been helping out on a hot project at work and to make things even worst, my DELL M90 started to have some major issues.  After having a DELL tech come out 3 times and replace my graphic card twice (replaced a FX 1500m and a FX 2500M) and replaced my motherboard twice, they gave me a new M6400.

We have a good warranty through DELL at work.  But I’m not very impressed with there support.  I lost a lot of time with crashing, etc. and it took 3 visits over a months time to get a replacement.

Right now my new laptop is getting imaged by our IT department.  I’ll do some benchmark tests on it and post a review once I get my hands on it. 

Here are a few images of what I’ve went through the last month.  The first one is a SolidWorks file I have open.  As you can see, it doesn’t really look like a model.  But it’s in there somewhere.  The second image is a PDF file.  The only way I could view a PDF is by re-sizing the window until it was so small you couldn’t see it anyway!  Fun stuff.

The reason I haven’t been posting anything is that my wife gave birth to our second child on March 23rd.  We were planning on having the baby in April, but he wanted to come out a little early I guess.  Aiden Robert was born at 2:44am on March 23rd. 

Now, a new baby is a lot of work.  But having a 20 month old daughter and a new baby is a challenge at times.  Zoie will be 2 in July.  My wife Lisa and I wanted our kids to be close, but maybe not that close..:-)

So, being the great husband that I am, I took a few weeks off work to help out at home.  Zoie loves her new brother and I couldn’t be happier..!!  I’m truly blessed to have 2 beautiful children and a wonderful wife.  I’ve been a little tired and its been really crazy around the house, but it’s well worth it.

This has nothing to do with SolidWorks, but I thought it would be valid for those of you that have never been selected for jury duty.

My tip:  Bring something to do!!

They don’t tell you this in the nice letter they send you, but when you are waiting in a room for 3+ hours it gets a little boring. 

More SolidWorks tips, tricks and info to come!!!  Stay tuned.

Well, its been about 5 months since i started this blog and to be honest, I really didn’t know if I would enjoy it or have enough to write about. I took Richard Doyle’s advice and started this blog with Blogger which is a free service, but limited to what I want to do.

So what I’m currently looking at is moving this to a self hosting site and using WordPress as my blogging software. I hope to provide a lot more videos and tech tips in the future.

My goal is to have this done by April before #2 child arrives. Otherwise, it might not happen…….

Thanks for reading…!