Jon Arcilla

R.I.P. Buffalo TeraStation

2010-01-08T12:05:00.001-08:00

INTRO

So after 4 years of service, my Buffalo TeraStation finally died. It served me reasonably well, although at the end, I really would have like to have a really expensive RAID array provide me a more "graceful" recovery for my data other than "Sorry, I'm dead, I don't want to come back, and although your data is intact, good luck finding a machine with 4 individual IDE/PATA connectors that's not another Buffalo TeraStation"! So with my data now pretty much inaccessible, I decided to look into newer solutions.

AT A GLANCE

So my requirements were pretty basic as I only stored my MP3 library, my digital pictures, and a handful of ISO images for installation which meant that the only real requirement was lots of storage accessible from all my computers!

I liked the idea of the Synology line of NAS devices which was that instead of using a RAID solution, provide an automated backup of the device to an external USB device. After hearing a number of horror stories of folks that used a RAID solution to provide fault-tolerance only to find that although RAID protects from hardware failure, it doesn't protect from software data failure. In other words, if someone (like a loved one) accidentally hits delete, it propogates that deletion across the entire array! Besides that, for home use, I really didn't need fault-tolerance and during the 4 years that my Buffalo Terastation provided, it only went down 3 times, one of which required rebuilding of the array, once to update the firmware after a power failure, and this last time. My point being that RAID'ing the device provided no real advantage for my needs since I didn't need always up! The Synology line also provided "nice to haves" like a built-in iTunes server, torrent client, FTP access, and even a web server!

The unfortunate problem with the Synology line is that they aren't readily available here in Wilmington, NC. After doing a little more research, I ran across the HP MediaSmart line of "Windows Home Servers" that Newegg had on sale. After giving it careful consideration, I decided against these as the model that was on sale only had 640GB of storage and the larger sized boxes cost significantly more. Then it hit me, "These little babies run Windows Home Server and I'm still a registered Microsoft Partner, why don't I build my own Windows Home Server!"

COMPONENTS

Since I wasn't sure how this would turn out and didn't want to spend another $800 on another NAS device, I looked at buying the cheapest possible components and building the system myself. I decided on the following:

(1) Foxconn R20-S4 Barebones kit with Intel Atom 330 Dual-Core CPU

(1) Kingston 2GB DDR2 Module

(1) Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II Hard Drive

(1) Western Digital MyBook 1TB External USB Drive

(1) Windows Home Server OEM License

The truth behind this all is that the only decision factor was price, not quality, not performance, but because all these items were either on sale, or I had lying around the house from some other aborted project.

THE BUILD PROCESS

Installing all the components into the Foxconn R20-S4 chassis was relatively easy. The Atom 330 CPU already comes mounted to the motherboard, so the only things that needed to be added were the memory module (which only required securing via the usual SDRAM clips) and the hard drive which was a little more tricky. The instructions were clear, but contained an odd mounting procedure for the hard drive which required the removal of the front panel and the drive cage, but as a whole went smoothly. Being a small form factor ITX chassis, the Foxconn R20-S4 feels like it takes up less space than my old Buffalo Terastation, although having only a single 1TB drive as opposed to (4) 250GB drives probably helps.

Windows Home Server is based off the same code as Windows 2003 Small Business Server so the installation process itself was pretty much a standard Windows server installation. The only kink I threw in was to load it from a USB stick since I didn't want to spring extra money for a CD-ROM drive and I figured it would install faster from USB anyway. (The truth is that I really was just too lazy to look for my portable external USB CD-ROM drive!).
A great article on installing WHS can be found here.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The downside of building your own Windows Home Server as opposed to buying one from HP, Acer, Asus, or the rest is that you don't get some of the bundled software. The plus side though is that you can build a better product with better quality components (although I'm not saying that the quality of my "on sale" components are better!).

Out of the box, you get a standard SMB based file server, a UPNP/DLNA compatible server, and automated backup for all your Windows PCs. Also, there's a pretty large Windows Home Server community that has produced some great add-ins including an iTunes server, FTP server, IIS server, Bittorrent client, PHP server, MySQL server, and even a TiVo publisher!

With this new setup, I was able to replace my development web server which was an old laptop that I had lying around running SUSE in a LAMP configuration, the aforementioned Buffalo Terastation, and now I could access all my MP3's and digital pictures from my all my computers, XBOX 360, TiVo, and even my iPod Touch (through a UPNP client)! In all, a good deal for around $300!

Editor's Note: Automated backup only works for Windows PCs and requires installation of a client software CD, but since all my home computers are Macs w/Time Machine, I didn't really play around too much with this feature although there are some hacks to enable Time Machine backups on Windows Home Server. Also, automated backup only works for clients, not the server itself, so I'll save those hacks for another time!

MS09-034 - Critical: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (972260)

2009-07-29T20:25:00.001-07:00

This isn't the first time that Microsoft has released an out-of-band patch for Internet Explorer, but they are certainly pretty rare. I'd patch for this one as soon as reasonably possible.

MS09-034 - Critical: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (972260): "Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update is being released out of band in conjunction with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035, which describes vulnerabilities in those components and controls that have been developed using vulnerable versions of the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL). As a defense-in-depth measure, this Internet Explorer security update helps mitigate known attack vectors within Internet Explorer for those components and controls that have been developed with vulnerable versions of ATL as described in Microsoft Security Advisory (973882) and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035. This security update also resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights."

(Via Microsoft Security Bulletins.)

MS09-032 - Critical: Cumulative Security Update of ActiveX Kill Bits (973346)

2009-07-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

MS09-032 - Critical: Cumulative Security Update of ActiveX Kill Bits (973346): "Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability that is currently being exploited. The vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page with Internet Explorer, instantiating the ActiveX control. This ActiveX control was never intended to be instantiated in Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights."

(Via Microsoft Security Bulletins.)

MS09-029 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in the Embedded OpenType Font Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (961371)

2009-07-16T15:19:00.003-07:00

MS09-029 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in the Embedded OpenType Font Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (961371): "Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in a Microsoft Windows component, the Embedded OpenType (EOT) Font Engine. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution. An attacker who successfully exploited either of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system remotely. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights."

(Via Microsoft Security Bulletins.)

MS09-028 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft DirectShow Could Allow Remote Code Execution (971633)

2009-07-16T15:19:00.001-07:00

MS09-028 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft DirectShow Could Allow Remote Code Execution (971633): "Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability and two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft DirectShow. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opened a specially crafted QuickTime media file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights."

(Via Microsoft Security Bulletins.)

OSX on a Dell Mini 9

2009-07-05T15:36:00.001-07:00

Well, my wife's iBook G4 12" is finally starting to show it's age, so I just joined the netbook craze, settling on a Dell Mini 9. Although there were definitely cheaper alternatives, I got a great deal on the Dell model that included the 32GB SSD and 2GB RAM upgrades which allowed me to use OSX flawlessly. This particular configuration allows for all the functionality that currently plagues most other netbooks when running OSX, particularly the WiFi, built-in Ethernet, sound, and sleep mode. I'm definitely impressed with the build quality and performance. Although both don't match my MacBook Pro, it cost roughly 1/4 the price of it, 1/3 the price of a MacBook and provides all the basic functionality needed for mobile computing. QuickTime movies work well. The upgrade to 10.5.7 went pretty smoothly as there's quite a bit of info on how to do it available online. This install is certainly not for the tech-illiterate, but there's plenty of info available on My Dell Mini. Note that this setup is not endorsed or supported by either Dell nor Apple, and may violate the terms of your EULA, so caveat emptor.

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2009

2009-05-14T07:07:00.001-07:00

This month, Microsoft treats us to an update for all versions of Microsoft Office Powerpoint. The real drag about this one is that there are already exploits that have been running in the wild since the beginning of April and this one is listed as a critical, install now update, so hop to it!

Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for May 2009

Windows Live Sync

2009-05-03T08:36:00.001-07:00

INTRO

I've been using a great new product from Microsoft called Windows Live Sync. Windows Live Sync is actually based on technology called FolderShare that Micrsooft bought a few years ago and recently added to their "Windows Live" service. I've always had this nagging problem in keeping my iTunes Library in sync across multiple computers. I like having my music accessible on my desktop, my laptop, and my wife's netbook, but running sync software manually is a kind of a pain. It's really more like a manual backup, but without the tape. Enter Windows Live Sync...

AT A GLANCE

Windows Live Sync is a client-based application that sends sync information about folders to a web UI that's part of your Windows Live account (meaning you need a MSN Passport!). The basic idea is that you add a "shared" folder using the web UI from a computer, then on any other computer that has the Windows Live Sync client installed, you can then sync that folder when it's online in one of two modes. In "Automatic" mode, the folders are synched without any user input. "On demand" mode allows for manual synchronization of changed folder data. Folders can also be "shared" with other Windows Live users. You can even sync folders between PC and Mac!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS

So far, Windows Live Sync has worked great at keeping my iTunes Library in perfect sync so I'm quite impressed. The only downside is that there's currently a limitation of 20 sync folders and 20,000 files which has prevented me from sharing my iPhoto library as well, but hopefully Microsoft will figure out how to address that. One last thing to note is that only synchronization info is stored on Windows Live and not the actual files, so it's not a online storage solution like Windows Live Desktop, but Microsoft is hard at work on it's beta of Windows Live Mesh which promises to combine the best of Windows Live Sync (folder synchronization) and Windows Live Desktop (online storage).

GIJOE the movie?

2009-02-06T07:14:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad on this one, but it appears that Paramount is trying to ride the wave of the 80s toys turned movies and is promoting "GIJOE: The Rise of Cobra". Growing up in the early 80's, I remember my dad buying me Snake Eyes who came with an UZI and a pack of explosives and then got sucked into the downward spiral culminating into a collection of over 100 "fully posable action figures". Anyways, for any little boy in the 80's, Im sure this will hit a soft spot, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to see my action figures come to life on the big screen yet. Now where was that box that had my GIJOEs?

Click here "GIJOE: Rise of Cobra"

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-001 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in SMB Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958687)

2009-01-14T10:14:00.001-08:00

Yes folks, it's that time of the month. And it looks like someone's New Years resolution to stop hacking Microsoft products has been broken already.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-001 - Critical: Vulnerabilities in SMB Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958687)

Published: January 13, 2009

Version: 1.0

Executive Summary

This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution on affected systems. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Firewall best practices and standard default firewall configurations can help protec"

First Look: Windows 7

2009-01-12T08:04:00.001-08:00

INTRO

Over the weekend, I downloaded the Windows 7 Beta from Microsoft. Interestingly, the TechNet site isn't compatible with the Safari browser which meant that after an hour of assuming that the download site was busy, I finally had to boot up my trusty Windows XP/Boot Camp image to download it. The file 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso contains the Ultimate version of Windows 7 and as such contains all the features.

AT A GLANCE

At first glance, not much has changed except that the task bar has been slightly redesigned. The quick launch icons are integrated with the task bar in such a way that programs that are assigned a quick launch icon also now contain their window title. Not sure if I care for it or not yet. Also, the widgets for sidebar are no longer confined to the sidebar dock, they can be detached and displayed anywhere on the desktop.

PERFORMANCE

I haven't done any real benchmarks as of yet, but I can say that the response time of the full screen VMWare Fusion image of Windows 7 running on my MacBook Pro seems to run better than a similarly configured Vista image. Not quite as fast as my Windows XP Boot Camp image, but close enough to make most productivity apps run quite well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This one's still fresh with a few subtle graphics anomalies, but certainly nothing that I would consider a show-stopper. Compared to previous betas, this one appears quite usable and unlike Vista which barfed at a lot of my XP drivers, Windows 7 seemed to take all my legacy Vista drivers without a hitch. I'll update this item once I've had more time with Windows 7, but so far, I have t say that this one looks a little more promising and might eventually replace my Windows XP in my Boot Camp partition. I've also downloaded OpenSuse 11.1 and OpenSolaris 2008.11, so look for those "First Looks" soon.

Upgrading a MacBook Pro

2009-01-05T17:17:00.001-08:00

INTRO

So after a little over 2 years since I switched back to Mac after 20 years, I found myself really maxxing out my 2007 Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pro in terms of both memory and disk space. Chalk it up to my vigorous use of my digital camera, a growing MP3 collection, or my insatiable appetite for virtual machines (i.e. how I get my Windows work done!), but I finally found myself out of hard drive space. I tried all the usual Mac tricks of stripping out unused languages and binaries, clearing out all the caches and old PLISTS, but alas, I was finally time to upgrade. Although the newer unibody Macs were really enticing, I just couldn't see myself parting with $2000 when I could just upgrade my existing system that's served me well for the last two years for about $200. Even if I could get $1000-$1200 for my current model, it would still be $800 out of pocket that I really didn't feel like spending. At first, I thought it might be a bit of a daunting task, but as it turns out, memory and disk upgrades aren't as difficult as one might think. Memory upgrades consist of removing the battery, three screws that hold the memory cover in place, and presto! I now have 4GB of memory as opposed to the 2GB that it came with. The second task of replacing the hard drive was the one that was a bit more daunting, but thanks to a great tutorial by iFixIt and about 3 hours, I was in business with a new 320GB/7200RPM/16MB Cache Hitachi drive, almost 3x the capacity and certainly a much better performer than my factory installed 120GB/5400RPM/8MB Cache Fujitsu drive.

TOOLS NEEDED

The basic tools needed for this "operation" are a small phillips screwdriver (I happen to use this one), a T6 Torx screwdriver (this one), and a "spudger", a small flat piece of plastic used to "pry" cases apart, something I happened to have lying around when I ordered a replacement digitzer for my old Dell Axim X51v off of eBay. You could probably use a flat blade screwdriver if you're VERY careful, but I chose not to since I actually had the right tool and didn't want to chew up the MacBook Pro's aluminum case.

REFERENCES

You can download the "how to" guide from iFixIt.com located here. They also have guides for other Macs, so check 'em out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In all, the actual hard disk replacement only took about 20 minutes, the bulk of the 3 hours was due to copying all the data, which I used Carbon Copy Cloner for, the remaining 40 minutes was reading the guide and testing the new config before I put all the screws back in. In all, not bad for an afternoon's worth of work.

Why RAID is not enough...

2009-01-05T07:50:00.001-08:00

JournalSpace, a popular provider of blog hosting has closed its doors and selling off its assets. It's reason? They didn't have backups! They had been running a RAID 1 implementation for redundancy and assumed that it would prevent them from catastrophe. Although the specific cause is unknown, it appears that somehow the database that runs the site was wiped out and could not be retrieved. They did acknowledge that a database copy did not exist which does pose a question. How many organizations do proper backups? More importantly, how many of them test their restores on a regular basis to ensure that what was backed up can actually be restored properly?

Click here for more info straight from the horse's whatever...

Microsoft's Pay-As-You-Go PC?

2008-12-31T11:53:00.000-08:00

I know it sounds as if Steve Ballmer and co. have been spending too much time with the big cell phone guys, but it appears that they've applied for a patent with allows for a pay-as-you go PC.

Click for the full story via Fast Company

This has some interesting permutations as it has the potential drastically reduce the cost of computers by bundling services. If you coupled this with their cloud computing strategy, it would seem that they're serious about changing their business model from shrink-wrapped packages to a services-oriented offering. Given the changing landscape in IT towards more open systems and service oriented architectures, perhaps MS is actually getting ahead of the curve on this one and taking things to the next level.

Now if they bundled 3G networking, let me upgrade every two years, and allow me to "roll over" my unused computing cycles...

TouchGraph Facebook Browser

2008-12-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is a cool new app that visualizes your contacts and interconnections in Facebook.

TouchGraph | Products: Facebook Browser

BookNotes on MineZone wiki

2008-12-19T13:50:00.000-08:00

A little something I recently ran across. A great site that has some concise "Cliff Notes" on a number of business books.

BookNotes - MineZone Wiki

IE bug being exploited by Word Documents

2008-12-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

IE bug being exploited by Word Documents, (Fri, Dec 19th): "We've published several articles over the past few days detailing the latest IE flaw. However, now one of our readers (thanks roseman) writes in with an article posted over on ComputerWorld.

Turns out that this bug is now being exploited through Word documents. While this is basically a simple evolution of the exploit method, I imagine that this is only the first or second evolution. There are more to come I am sure. We don't have any samples of this malware yet, so if you have any, we'd like a few examples.

-- Joel Esler http://www.joelesler.net

(Via SANS Internet Storm Center, InfoCON: green.)

MS08-078 - Critical: Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714)

2008-12-19T13:26:00.001-08:00

Okay folks, this one's gotta be important. Microsoft rarely releases an out of band patch so they're obviously worried about this one and there are also reports of exploits on the prowl so be sure to install this one.

MS08-078 - Critical: Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714)
Bulletin Severity Rating:Critical - This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

(Via Microsoft Security Bulletins)

iPhone/iPod Touch 2.2 Update

2008-11-21T13:52:00.001-08:00

For those that haven't gotten the word yet, Apple updated their
software for iPhone/iPod Touch to version 2.2. I just loaded it on
mine and haven't had a chance for a full review, but here's a partial
list of features:

Enhancements to Maps
• Google Street View*
• Public transit and walking directions
• Display address of dropped pins
• Share location via email
• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls

Enhancements to Mail
• Resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching of email
• Improved formatting of wide HTML email

Other Enhancements
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes application (over
Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Improved sound quality of Visual Voicemail messages
• Pressing Home button from any Home screen displays the first Home
screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard Settings

So go out to iTunes and download the new update!!!

More info here :
http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

Things vs. OmniFocus

2008-11-21T10:53:00.001-08:00

INTRO

So after playing around awhile with OmniFocus as my GTD/To Do list, I started to realize some of its shortcomings. Don't get me wrong, it's a great app, but one of the things I've always liked about the Franklin Covey system is the idea of urgency and importance, along with a "today's list". OmniFocus, while great at what it does, didn't seem to have this. Also, because of it's project/context mantra, it didn't seem all that flexible. Specifically, you couldn't assign two contexts to a project item which wouldn't allow me to do something like a task that was a phone call for real estate which meant that I couldn't view all my phone calls or all my real estate tasks. Enter Things.

FIRST LOOK

So initially, one of the major reasons I didn't go with Things was it's lack of support for multiple iCal calendars which I frequently use to keep as backup data. Well, I don't know if it was a lack of focus or what, but as it turns out, the iCal sync is actually better in Things for multiple calendars than OmniFocus. Here's why. First off, a limitation of OmniFocus is the ability to sync only contexts with calendars. At first, it seemed fine, until I noticed that over time, my iCal items were drifting outside of the calendar they should be in! For me, I like to group my projects into calendars! With Things, you can not only sync multiple iCal calendars, but you can filter synchronization by tags! By tagging each item with it's respective calendar name in iCal, each item gets synced properly. Now, it did take the extra step of ensuring that each item is tagged, but it ensures that it's synced right which is way more important to me. Fortunately, Things supports multiple tags, unlike OmniFocus' single context mentality! Lastly, my "Today's list" is back which means that I can get back to working the way I was taught in the Franklin Covey way!

PROJECTS/CONTEXTS vs. PROJECTS/AREAS/TAGS

There's a distinct difference between the way each one organizes it's to do list. With OmniFocus, it takes an approach where each item belongs to a "Project" and has a "Context". This rigidity is fine for the most part, but I found that Things is more flexible. As mentioned before, each item in OmniFocus can only have one context. In Things, each item can belong to an "Area of Responsibility" or a "Project" and then can have multiple tags assigned. In Things, most items will be in an "Area" unless it's part of a process/project, in which case it would belong to a "Project". Then, like OmniFocus, you can add a "Context", or in the case of Things, a tag, or multiple tags! The big downfall with "Projects" in Things is that you can't schedule individual items within a "Project". You can however assign due dates to the entire "Project" and schedule reminders for the entire "Project". It seems like an awkward limitation, but so far, I've been able to do what I want within this construct. Lastly, you can even delegate individual items and "Projects" to "People" which is a great feature! In OmniFocus, you could create a separate context for each delegate, but because you're limited to a single context, you would loose the ability to filter if it was a phone call vs. e-mail, etc.

IPHONE CLIENT

The iPhone client for Things is very fast and works very intuitively. The only real drawback is it's lack of support for Things' "Areas of Responsibility". It's not necessarily a show stopper, but it seems odd that they put the functionality into the desktop client without implementing it on the iPhone client. Toss in the fact that you can schedule individual tasks within "Areas" which you can't do in "Projects" and it makes it that much more complicated! Hopefully they address this soon! Syncing in Things is pretty straightforward and is actually easier to setup than OmniFocus, but neither is difficult at all.

OVERALL

While the simplicity and flexibility of Things appeals to me, OmniFocus does have more bells and whistles including being able to set whether items are sequential, parallel, or individual. Also, OmniFocus tends to be more stable, although it didn't quite sync right with iCal after awhile, and certainly has more maturity than Things. That said, I think I'm going to stay with Things for now since it does work more to the way I'm used to than OmniFocus. A special thanks to Stefan Groschupf who supplied me with an excellent AppleScript to move all my to do's from OmniFocus to Things!

Apple vs. Palm vs. Windows Mobile vs. Franklin Planner and a little IIS7

2008-10-28T11:34:00.001-07:00

INTRO

After years of using my trusty Franklin planner, I decided to switch to a PDA a few years ago to keep my schedule/contacts/todos because quite frankly (excuse the pun!) I got tired of lugging around my 5lb. organizer with me everywhere. After trying an HP iPaq 5550 (WM2003), a Dell x50v (WM5), a Dell x51v (WM6-Football), I finally settled on a Palm TX. Why? Well, because Windows Mobile really just worked too slow for me. I was looking for something that was instant-on and could take notes quickly. While all the bells and whistles of Windows Mobile 6 were great, it really didn't work well. Call it personal preference, but coming from a Franklin planner, the Palm TX with Agendus Pro really just worked well. The only thing I didn't like was that at the same time, I switched from Windows Vista to Mac OSX for my primary laptop and it just didn't sync right until I got MarkSpace's Missing Sync. Well, my Palm TX finally gave out, although I will admit that it was my fault for breaking the screen on it. After checking the usual places for a screen replacement (which I did twice before on a Dell x50v and x51v), I decided to try using the Apple alternative as my PDA. It made sense to me because even Palm has pretty much given up on the PalmOS, opting for Windows Mobile on their new devices, and I had already pretty much made up my mind on Mac OSX as my main OS for home. I can hear all my PC friends sighing and scratching their heads already, but really, Mac OSX works the way I want and still allows me to use Windows and all the Unix/Linux tools I need under BootCamp/VMWare Fusion. Incidentally, I did try it the other way around using a Win XP machine with VMWare workstation running Mac OSX86, but I found myself spending more and more time in Mac OS anyways, and for some reason, the virtualization of OSX86 tended to run somewhat poorly on my laptop!

FIRST THOUGHTS

Well, after plopping my $$$'s down for an iPod Touch, I have to say that I was really impressed when my wife picked it up and pretty much took to it right away. For those that don't know my wife, she is not technology-savvy and has the "special gift" of causing gadgets to stop working by just touching them!

After using it for about a week, I really like the interface. Mail works the way it's supposed to, syncs with my Gmail account through IMAP, the pop server from my restaurant website, and even the Exchange server at my house. Best of all, it pulled all the settings for these from my Mac, meaning that I didn't even have to configure it! The app store has plenty of free apps that were able to replace all the cool gadgets that I had on my Windows Mobile devices, and even had a VNC client that I could use to remote control my Mac and Linux machines!

The only real disappointment came when I tried to sync my todo list which I keep in iCal on my MacBook Pro and found out that THERE'S NO SUPPORT FOR TO DOS! Apple's solution is to store them on an IMAP server and pull them as part of mail! Huh? Yes, you read that right NO TO DOS on iPhone/iPod Touch. Although the app store has a lot of to-do programs, most of them don't sync with iCal which is how I'd pretty much setup everything which left me with only three options. The first was an app called "Things" which although did sync with iCal, only synced one calendar which is a problem for me because I like to categorize my to dos into multiple calendars on iCal, so that one was pretty much out. The second option was to go back to using my Franklin planner which as mentioned before was over 5lbs. and was already getting unwieldly when I ditched it a few years back. The third was another app called "OmniFocus", which is what I finally settled on.

OMNIFOCUS

One thing that seems to be a big trend amongst all the new productivity apps is the adoption of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" approach to doing things which is quite different from the Stephen Covey approach of "Big Rocks First". What really kind of got me hooked on OmniFocus was the integration with other Mac apps like Mail where with a hot-key I could quickly add things to my to do list. A quick press of CTRL-OPT-ENTER on a mail item brings up a quick add toolbar where I can quickly add a context , project, and time estimate to handling that mail item.

NOTHING'S PREFECT (I mean "PERFECT")

There's two drawbacks of using OmniFocus, one technical, one procedural. I'm used to grouping things in "Urgent/Important", "Important", "Urgent", "Everything Else" using the Stephen Covey method. Using the "Getting Things Done" method requires a retraining of my brain to look at things in terms of "Projects" and "Contexts". That said, OmniFocus does add the ability to "Flag" things which I used to add the dimension of importance, meaning that I could still get the same Franklin-style data, but just in a different way which required me to think a little differently. The second, more important drawback is with the sync to iPhone/iPod Touch which requires either a MobileMe or WebDAV server to handle synchronization. MobileMe didn't make much sense to me since all my stuff is backed up through Plaxo for Mac (which is why I was reluctant to give up iCal as my to do list). This left WebDAV as my best option since I figured I could just enable WebDAV on my IIS7 box at home to handle everything. WRONG! As it turns out, the version of WebDAV isn't quite feature complete, sort of. Microsoft's implementation of WebDAV requires an MSI package download from Microsoft as an add-on. The unfortunate part is that for some reason, they didn't implement WebDAV locks which apparently Apple decided it needs in order to write files back to the WebDAV published share. It seems that the locking functionality isn't part of the original WebDAV RFC, so Microsoft in their haste to bring Windows Server 2008 to market, decided to drop that "feature" from their first release of WebDAV! Refusing to be beat, I remembered that Mac OSX had Apache built-in. Five minutes of tinkering with Apache's configuration files and I had a WebDAV server that did support locking and OmniFocus had what it needed to sync with my iPod Touch!

FINAL THOUGHTS

After two weeks with my iPod Touch, I'm really pleased with the user interface experience. As mentioned before, my wife really took to it and could figure out pretty much everything. I really like the Mac-like look and feel and Safari really rocks and is infinitely more usable than Blazer on Palm OS! Not to mention all the great apps like FaceBook, LinkedIn, PageOnce, and others. The most interesting tech that fascinates me is the WiFi based locator technology. I've tried it at various places around the city and it seems to be pretty accurate. Or at least accurate enough to utilize all the location-based apps like Maps and AroundMe! I'm still getting used to the "GTD" way of managing to dos and am hoping that better integration between OmniFocus and iPhone/iPod Touch using BonJour comes pretty soon, but overall, I'm pretty happy with my iPod Touch as a PDA! Now if only I could sync iTunes using WiFi instead of a cable, I'll be set!

Google and Porsche Problems

2008-10-16T13:49:00.000-07:00

You gotta love the internet. I've been having a problem with my 2001 Porsche Boxster (my trophy from my dot-com days) where I couldn't always get the key in or out of the ignition to start the darn thing. It's been an annoyance, but I've put up with it for the better part of two years since for the most part, it's been relegated to the status of garage queen. Finally, about a month ago, after my wife and I enjoyed a meal at the good old Olive Garden, the key refused to come out. After "wiggling it" a bit, it finally came out, but for some reason, it stayed in "accessory" mode and left the radio and pretty much anything electrical on. I parked it back in its home, and by the next week when the weather was good, it wouldn't start at all. Dead battery... Well, after a quick call to the nearest Porsche dealer (120 miles away), I got a quote for $700-$800 to have it picked up, fixed, and delivered back to my doorstep. Being unemployed, I didn't really see the need to spend that kind of money for a car I drive maybe once or twice a month, so I did what any IT person would do when they ran across a problem that they couldn't figure out on there own. I "googled" the problem and lo and behold, it's a known problem with all Porsches made between 97-03. An electronic ignition switch that has a plastic head that fails and the steps looked simple enough (or so it seemed). After replacing the faulty plastic window regulator on my Lexus last year, I figured "how hard can it really be"? The only real problem being that Porsche stopped selling the replacement part a few years ago because of the high failure rate, but it happens that Porsche still continues to use VW/Audi parts. A quick look at some of the switches and cup holders in an Audi A4, and it's clear that Porsche sourced them from VW/Audi. So I called up the local VW dealer (only 15 miles away) and had them order the part. Seems that even VW is having problems getting this part because the guy that answered the phone wasn't quite sure he could still order Audi parts. VW yes, Audi not sure since they no longer sold Audis. Anyways, the part took three days to arrive and I started out today by ripping apart the underside of the dash as the "guide" I found on the internet had suggested. Problem #1 arose when it suggested I take out the driver's seat to get better positioning under the dash. Seems that Porsche in their infinite wisdom decided to use "security" bolts that held the seats in place with some kind of "six pointed star" bolt that was really stubborn coming out with a standard hex socket. After checking with neighbors and the local Sears, it seemed that I was out of luck, but was still determined to replace the "electronic ignition switch". Now, I had most of what I needed out of the car and could get to one of the retaining screws that held the switch in, but access to the other was blocked by the driver's side vent that wouldn't seem to come out as easily as the "guide" had suggested. Another quick trip to Google and I found another "guide" on how to actually remove the entire driver's side vent assembly. After dropping the screwdriver a few times, I finally got the driver's side vent out and the tubing that was in the way and I could now get to the other side of the ignition switch and the remaining retaining screw that held the switch in place. After fumbling around and dropping screwdrivers a few more times (once behind the fusebox which necessitated removal of the fusebox just to retrieve my screwdriver!) and I was on my way. Replacing the switch was as simple as unplugging it, removing the retaining screws, and sliding the old one out! After spending another hour or so putting everything back the way it was, I was able to start my baby back up and take it out for a spin. The moral of the story boys and girls is that Google is your friend, regardless of what you're looking for! A quick thanks to George Giggey at industryfigure.com and the folks over at the Renntech.org forums for compiling all the information necessary to complete the task!

Here's what the old part looked like. Kinda looks like dried ketchup stuck in the switch! There was a lot more before I "cleaned" it up! Unfortunately, the camera on my MacBook Pro won't pick it up, but if you were to look closely at it, you'd find the "4 interlocking rings" Audi logo stamped right on the switch!

A Quick Look At VMWare Server 2.0

2008-10-07T06:57:00.000-07:00

FIRST LOOK

So I after being mildly underwhelmed with the version 2.0 beta of VMWare Server, I decided to upgrade my primary instance of VMWare server with the production bits in order to start getting more used to the interface. For those that don't know, I've been running VMWare since its inception and was one of the first customers to implement VMWare ESX, helping bring virtualization to my last employer where we immediately saw a $50,000 savings on our deployment of Active Directory and Exchange 2000. Instead of having a standalone client for remote control, VMWare has finally moved away from it and now employs a browser-based plugin for remote access across all of its product lines. It seems that version 2 of VMWare Server was really meant to bring non-ESX customers more in line with the same user experience afforded to ESX/VI customers by providing a web/ajax based interface for configuring and accessing the virtual host. Their implementation seems to work well, but I have to say that performance of the interface is definitely slower using the web console as opposed to the old standalone client. Also of note is the addition of reporting and more granular security options for managing VMWare Server.

INSTALLATION/UPGRADE

Upgrading the instance on my Ubuntu Hardy-based system was straightforward and consisted of downloading the .tar file, extracting it, then running the installation script. The script found the old installation, removed it, and installed the new version, keeping my old configuration. Certainly a lot easier than installing 1.06 on Ubuntu which required installing kernel header files and having to create symbolic links!

FINAL THOUGHTS

With low cost alternatives in Microsoft's Hyper-V, VirtualIron, and XEN, VMWare certainly has it's hands full trying to innovate, and although I still prefer the older standalone client (call me "old-fashioned!), the new web console certainly is a step in the right direction in terms of providing a more seamless migration path from VMWare Workstation/Fusion to VMWare Server to VMWare ESX Virtual Infrastructure.

DD-WRT

2008-10-02T06:28:00.001-07:00

So my wireless router finally gave out. Having used Linksys routers exclusively at home for almost 10 years, I decided to replace it with a new one. After scouring the local ads, I ran across a Linksys WRT54GS that was on sale at the local WalMart for $39.99. Cool! Ran down and picked one up and rushed home to hookup the new router so I can get back to net surfing! After getting it set up and configured, I remembered a friend of mine telling me about a great firmware replacement for Linksys routers called DD-WRT. I did a web search and found it at www.dd-wrt.com. First, a little bit about DD-WRT. It started off as a bunch of programmers who took the GPL'd source of Linksys' firmware and made improvements, starting off with allowing radius authentication and a few UI improvements and transformed into a whole platform for supporting hotspot revenue generation. Hmmm... More control over my router, and a way to make some money! Well, after re-thinking how much I really want to open up my wireless to my neighbors, I decided to stick with just more control over my router. So, after about 30 minutes of reading/re-reading the install notes and uploading a couple of firmware images to the router, I was finally up and running. What I ended up with was a router with the following:

- 4 Wired Connections
- Secure 802.11b/g wireless access using WPA and MAC filtering (yes, I know you can sniff MAC addresses and spoof them, but I figured it was one more thing to get in the way of nosy neighbors)
- DHCP for all my clients including static address reservation for key devices (This is REALLY nice for my printer!)
- Local DNS using DNSMASQ (this is also REALLY good for name resolution of DMZ machines since I'm a glutton for punishment and use separate name spaces for each subnet and didn't want to put up a server in the DMZ just for DNS!)
- Better QOS and control over my Vonage phone (my Vonage phone kept leaving a bunch of UDP connections open which over time was flooding my LAN, setting the timeouts lower eliminated a lot of that)
- Neato graphs and reports on traffic usage

Overall, I'm very happy with the FREE firmware upgrade to my router. I'm only disappointed that I got the latest version of Linksys router that doesn't support any of the more fully featured versions of DD-WRT.

Note: Newer versions of Linksys routers only support DD-WRT micro which doesn't include IPv6, builtin PPTP Server, builtin OpenVPN server, SNMP, Samba, and a host of other features!

A long time...

2008-09-04T15:55:00.001-07:00

So I have been busy since the last blog post. In that time, I've gotten married and moved to beautiful Seabreeze, NC. It's a little unincorporated area between Wilmington and Carolina Beach. I moved from one beach to another by way of Interstate 40 which I travelled from end-to-end, arriving at the doorstep of my new home in about 4 days. I also quit my career in IT and went into the restaurant business which I can definitely say is much tougher than managing smart IT people like I was used to doing. Last year (2007), I was blessed and privileged enough to visit 23 of our great 50 states during a few long road trips encompassing some 7000 miles, mostly along Interstates 405, 15, 40, 30, 35, 77, 76, 95, and 295. I even made 3 stops through Knoxville, TN in 2 days! If you ever get the opportunity to do a long road trip, I highly suggest it. There are plenty of sites to see including the Parthenon in Nashville, the Bourbon trail in Kentucky (including the Maker's Mark Distillery), Gettysburg, Washington DC, and of course the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken! I've met some great people in my travels and am looking forward to resuming my career in IT. I also picked up surfing again after a 20yr. hiatus and I have to say that the waves on the east coast, albeit not as big are still great rides. And the water and beaches are pristine compared to California. Also, the water temperature in the summer is usually around 80 degrees which means no need for a wetsuit! That's all for now and god bless!

PONG clock!

2006-01-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

It’s the PONG clock! Need I say how cool this baby really is?

http://mocoloco.com/archives/001766.php

Another interesting use of technology!

2005-12-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

In another use of technology, someone’s making tables out of hard disk platters. Check it out here:

http://www.grandideastudio.com/portfolio/index.php?id=1&prod=20

What’s next, a couch made out of a 42U rack?

Patch Tuesday!

2005-12-13T23:21:00.000-08:00

Once again it's that time of the month. 2 new patches from MS, 1 critical. Details here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-dec.mspx

What's interesting is that a kernel level patch is listed as only "important" and not "critical" because it requires valid credentials to perform the exploit. As I recall, Gartner quotes 80% of all break-ins are internal. That said, I think the 2nd patch needs a bit more review before ignoring it.

Interesting use of modern technology

2005-12-05T15:16:00.000-08:00

In one of the most interesting uses of modern technology, I ran across this interesting gadget.

http://www.ion-audio.com/home/products/turntables/iTTUSB.html

It’s a turntable with USB output to rip your LP’s at high speed!

November Microsoft Patch

2005-11-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

We all get lucky this month. Microsoft is only releasing one critical patch as follows:

MS05-053 Vulnerabilities in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Code Execution (896424)

We’re recommending installing this patch at work and we’re applying it this weekend.

Free Microsoft eBooks

2005-10-18T12:59:00.000-07:00

Microsoft is giving away two free Visual Basic .NET e-Books:

- Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers - [Click Here]

- Upgrading Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 to Microsoft Visual Basic .NET - [Click Here]

While I was browsing their site while downloading my free e-Books, I also noticed that they did another update to their Windows Server System Reference Architecture which is a collection of best practices/recommendations on deploying/maintaining Windows-based Infrastructure. Get it here:

- Windows Server System Reference Architecture - [Click Here]

New iTunes 6.0 - Again!?!?!?!?

2005-10-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

With Apple’s announcement yesterday of the new iPods that include video support, Apple also introduced iTunes 6.0 which now offers guess what? Video! At $1.99 a pop, Apple is looking to capitalize on their vast marketshare and expand into the next logical evolution. The new iPods are a bit smaller in size, but include a larger screen than previous models. QuickTime Music Videos, Movie Trailers, Pixar Shorts, along with TV Shows from ABC/Disney (like Desperate Housewives and Lost) are now available. There’s a walkthrough on how to transfer DVDs from a Mac to the new iPod located here : http://digitalmusic.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000680063198. This begs the question, why not just get a Mobile PVR like this one from Archos? http://www.archos.com/products/av_700/index.html. I guess time will tell if Apple is able to duplicate their success with the iPod and video, or if the iPod becomes the next Newton…

New Microsoft Patches for October!

2005-10-12T12:17:00.000-07:00

It’s that time again! The following link will take you directly to the Microsoft Technet patch webpage for full technical information on each individual patch:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-oct.mspx

Happy Patching!

Back from Europe

2005-09-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

I had a great trip to Europe. In Rome, we visited the Colosseum, Palace Hill, Piazza Navona, and Argentina Square(where Julius Caesar was assassinated). Rome is a very old place and not what I imagined. A lot of graffiti covered ancient walls which was somewhat disappointing. Also disappointing to find out was that the Roman Catholic church “recycled” some of the ancient Roman and Egyptian ruins and artifacts to build their monuments. Don’t get me wrong, some of the works were astonishing, it’s just a shame that they came at the expense of other astonishing works.

Greetings from the United Kingdom!

2005-09-22T05:06:00.000-07:00

The company has me traveling this week for the European IS meeting. So far, I’ve made it to Burnham, UK which is about 30 minutes west of London. It’s a sleepy little village with some brick tudor-style buildings that date back some 600-700 years. The “high street” or main street as we’d call it back in the states consists of a quaint little village that reminds me a lot of Solvang in central California. The streets here are a lot more narrow than in the U.S. and they drive on the opposite side of the road which has caused quite some confusion, but I’m starting to adapt. The quality and selection of lagers and ales here is incredible rivaling that of many micro breweries back in the U.S. Homes here are very small. The 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1 car garage company house that I’m staying in is about 1200 sq. ft. with a lot size of approx. 2500 sq. ft. And I thought that houses in the U.S. were small!

Been busy and new iTunes.

2005-09-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been a bit busy with a large move of servers from our current data center to our new facility 10 miles away. While it doesn’t seem like much, the amount of coordination and communication involved in moving 107 servers each with different applications and owners can be a daunting task. Fortunately, we came through relatively unscathed with the exception of a major issue with our network provider. I did have some time over the weekend to install the new version of iTunes 5.0. What little free time I’ve had lately, I’ve put into BattleField 2. Check the Team AlphaForce link for more info.

Another Real Estate Podcast

2005-09-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Another good podcast that I’ve been listening to is Bill Fitzpatrick’s “Master Real Estate Course”. Not a true podcast in the sense, but whereas Palmer Often’s “Real Estate Rant” gives you some general inspirational ramblings that loosely match some of Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” series, Bill Fitzpatrick uses more of a drill-sargeant, Stephen Covey approach and provides very specific actionable steps to reaching financial freedom through Real Estate in a “how-to guide” fashion. A self-proclaimed “shaolin master”, Bill’s series of podcast courses also includes success, small business, and his “action principles” which provide “mantras” on how we should live our lives (this is the Stephen Covey-lie part). Check out Bill’s site at http://www.success.org.

Knoppix

2005-08-31T16:17:00.000-07:00

Knoppix is a live linux distribution that you can carry around on (1) DVD. On-the-fly compression also allows you to install up to 2GB of additional software for use. Check it out at http://www.knoppix.com.

Konfabulator

2005-08-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

I’ve been playing around with a great tool called Konfabulator. It basically allows you to keep “widgets” on your desktop for various things. With the gas prices rapidly approaching the stratosphere, I’ve got local gas prices and the traffic report right at my fingertips! Check it out at http://www.konfabulator.com

In The Trenches

2005-08-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

For all you System Administrators out there, you might want to check out the "In The Trenches" podcast. Run by Kevin Devin of Bothel, WA, this podcast has some pretty good war stories and tips for all you SA's. Check it out at http://kevindevin.com.

The "Real Estate Rant"

2005-08-26T08:14:00.000-07:00

I’ve been listening to an interesting Podcast called “The Real Estate Rant” on my way to work lately. Run by Palmer Often (don’t think it’s his real name as he’s been referred to as “Mike” on occasion), the show has a lot of good info for Real Estate beginners. Palmer claims his background is in Finance and IT before turning to Real Estate as a profession. Since I have an appreciation for all 3, it’s an entertaining mix. There’s also a forum for links, notes, and general show discussion. Check it out at http://freedom.smassackers.com.

A little about BattleField 2 and corporate management

2005-08-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

As we’ve been playing quite a bit of BattleField 2, I started to draw some interesting parallels between the command and control system employed by BattleField 2 and corporate management. Team AlphaForce (http://teamalphaforce.blogspot.com) was playing a few nights ago for the first time together. We had the common sense to setup our own squad and began attacking random targets. After about 15 minutes of futility of dying repeated deaths, we decided to concentrate our efforts on one specific flag. This seemed to work better as it gave us a common goal of trying to take the same objective. But the problem was that we still lacked focus, each of us trying to rack up kills for ourselves instead of working as a team. Everytime we got to the flag, we’d be routinely outnumbered and unable to take the flag resulting in a death. After more frustration, we then organized ourselves a bit better by “specializing”, one being a medic, one an anti-tank soldier, one a sniper, one a support soldier, and the other an assault. We then planned our assault a bit more methodically with the medic and sniper teaming up. The goal was to keep the sniper alive who served as our squad leader and mobile spawn point. The sniper would call out enemies that he saw through his scope and passed the info along to the others. The assault and anti-tank guys would work their way towards the flag, while the support soldier would cover them, with the medic roving around keeping everyone’s health up. Each member of the team now had specific orders that were clearly understood. Each member now also knew each others responsibilities and only focused on their domain. We were now organized and had a plan. The sniper would now call for UAV support and artillery from the commander to support our advance. After only a few minutes, we had the flag that had eluded us for over 30 minutes and moved on, taking two more flags before the round was over. While we did continue to struggle, it was clear that working as a true team with a clear objective, clearly defined roles, and a good game plan made all the difference as the squad score at the end of the round was over 3 times that of the others with members of our squad earning the gold, silver, and bronze stars. Have any of you ever experienced this in the corporate management?

Better start patching!

2005-08-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

For those who haven’t done so already, you really should look at deploying the recently released MS05-039 patch as soon as possible. We’ve been pretty fortunate that we haven’t gotten hit, but the following link highlights the critical nature of this patch.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050817/ap_on_hi_te/computer_worm

August MS Patches

2005-08-09T12:12:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just released their patches for August. 6 total, 3 of which are deeemd critical. Only MS05-038 is deemed critical on all systems as it’s an IE update. The full information on these patches is listed here:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-aug.mspx

BattleField 2 Command & Control Daemon

2005-08-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

We finally got the Command and Control Daemon working for BattleField 2. The program provides a GUI interface to a remote BattleField 2 Server and also supports BF2 RCON command lines. It still is a bit buggy as for some reason the .profile for Team AlphaForce keeps getting corrupted and erasing all map info. I’ve taken some precautions by making a 2^nd copy of the .profile which seems to work well. We also tried getting Codebasher’s Co-Op mod to work, but to no avail. We’ll keep trying, but for now, it’s plain-jane BF2. On another note, we’re starting to get some traction around moving up the BF2 ranks, but it hasn’t been without some great frustration. BF2 is beginning to highlight the need for a good C&C structure for battle as Team AlphaForce has been getting worked over on some maps due to poor leadership. Well, guess we’ll have to exercise some of our “Administrative Powers” to take control of the “Commander” roles.

MS Patch Preview

2005-08-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has a doozy planned for “Patch Tuesday”. This one contains 6 new patches. Get ready!

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/advance.mspx

Battlefield 2 Server having problems already!

2005-08-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

So I was a bit pre-mature in announcing that our server was ready for prime-time. In a series of freak events over the weekend, we had 3 separate diskpacks go out. The boot partition stayed up as only one of the mirrored drives failed, but the RAID 5 set actually lost 2 of it's drives. This was extremely unexpected and highly rare, but we got it back up and running at full steam this afternoon. We also noticed that we were not getting a lot of activity on the server so we added a few leading spaces to the server name to hopefully get more traffic on it. Lastly, we did enable VOIP support and gave it a quick run through last night which seemed to work like a champ. Should be good to go so give it a whirl.

1st Real Estate Post

2005-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

I haven't made any posts regarding Real Estate yet so this one will be my first. Having been pretty much ace'd out during our recent trip to San Francisco, we're now currently looking at more properties on the East Coast. Though new construction is running some small negatives on the cashflow side, resales are looking pretty promising from a cashflow perspective, but the appreciation isn't as strong as other parts of the country. For those new to the Real Estate arena, you might try "Creative Real Estate Online". It's got some good info on various strategies on investing in Real Estate along with the usual e-store to buy everything from real estate books to inspirational material to you name it. The url is http://www.creonline.com

Initial thoughts on Skype and Gizmo

2005-08-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

Gayle and I did some basic testing with both Skype and Gizmo. Both worked well at home, but I did have a problem with Gizmo at the office that I'm still working on. Skype bandwidth utilization ran between 8k-13k pps, mostly hovering in the 10k range. This test was done using SSL as the connection method and worked pretty reliably with good clarity on both ends and very little latency.

Photo Frenzy Rally

2005-07-31T21:38:00.000-07:00

Gayle and I won 1st place in a gimmick rally today. This rally was put on by Porsche Club of America's Orange Coast Region in which driver/navigator teams competed to follow route instructions and answer questions about specific photos of different stops along the route. It was certainly a different switch as Gayle and I are more used to the traditional Time-Speed-Distance events that both PCA and SCCA use extensively. We actually finished with a perfect score of 35, but not without some help from other participants along the way. All in all, it was good prep to make sure the car's still in shape and practice reading routes for Gayle. Looking forward to the next PCA rally at the end of September. Gotta keep our undefeated streak going.

BattleField 2 Server up and running!

2005-07-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

The first official Team AlphaForce BattleField 2 server is now up and running. You can find it listed as "-=[AF]=- Team AlphaForce". It's set for 64 users, but we haven't had enough load to see how well it runs. The current server is a Compaq ProLiant with Dual Xeon III processors, RAID 1/5 on two logical drives, 2GB RAM on a dedicated DSL connection. Give it a try!

Free VOIP Solutions - Skype & Gizmo

2005-07-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Just started to play around with a couple of free VOIP solutions from Skype and Gizmo Project. I'll keep you all posted on some of my thoughts once I've done a more thorough evaluation. You can find more info on these at :

Skype - www.skype.com
Gizmo - www.gizmoproject.com

EA Battlefield 2 Server

2005-07-25T13:22:00.000-07:00

We're working on getting a couple of dedicated servers up and running for EA's Battlefield 2. Team AlphaForce has been practicing the last couple of weeks on the new hardware and we hope to have at least one of the servers internet-facing in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Back from San Francisco

2005-07-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted, but it's because I've just returned from an exciting real estate trip to San Francisco, where Gayle and I got engaged on Alcatraz island. Not much tech-talk this week, but I do have to say that the free wireless connection at the Travelodge in Monterrey worked great!

MS Patch Tuesday for July

2005-07-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just released their latest patches for the month of July:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-jul.mspx

- Vulnerability in Microsoft Word Could Allow Remote Code Execution (903672)
- Vulnerability in Microsoft Color Management Module Could Allow Remote Code Execution (901214)
- Vulnerability in JView Profiler Could Allow Remote Code Execution (903235)

Summary:

If you're using a fresh copy of Windows XP SP1a or newer along with Office 2003, you're pretty much ok. It's older versions of Office or apps that use Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine that seem to have the issues. The more intriguing issue is the the potential use of an ICC file that could be used to dupe a web surfer into giving unwanted access to a person's machine. It seems that some script kiddy is working overtime to uncover the least used facets of the Windows OS and exploiting them.

Recommendation:

Patch away!

Welcome!

2005-07-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Today I'm starting my new blog. The old one is lost somewhere on my now defunct server. This one is free so I'm taking advantage. I just upgraded my workstation so I've officially joined the 64-bit world with an Athlon 64 running Windows XP x64 Edition. I hear the linux camp balking at this notion, but for the time being anyways, supporting Windows-based environments pays my bills. So until then, it's Windows for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Windows is a better OS, but as JFK once said, the Chinese word for "Crisis" means "Danger" and "Opportunity". And the "Opportunity" of Windows is what pays my mortgage.