Creating encrypted usb drives with Truecrypt

http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2008/03/14/creating-encrypted-usb-drives-with-truecrypt/

Vista networking resources

Successful Sharing involves some general consideration in Network settings,

http://www.ezlan.net/sharing.html

As well as specific adjustment of each computer according to what it is
allowed to be shared.

Vista File and Printer Sharing-

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Windows XP File Sharing -

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304040

Printer Sharing XP -

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/networking/expert/honeycutt_july2.mspx

Windows Native Firewall setting for Sharing XP -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875357

Windows XP patch for Sharing with Vista -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922120

Mapping drives in Vista

Press Start.
Type CMD in the Start Search box and press enter.
Right click on cmd.exe and choose run as administrator.

At the command prompt, use the following command:

net use x: \\computername\sharename /persistent:yes

(x is the drive letter you wish to assign.)

Mediaportal: A free open source PVR for Windows

http://www.team-mediaportal.com/

Make NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices work in Vista

If you are like me and have a NAS device on your network that is not
compatible with Windows Vista, now you can tweak Windows Vista to make
it work again. You do not even have to wait for your device manufacturer
to release a new firmware any more! Just follow these steps below:

Click on the Start Button and key in secpol.msc in the search box and
hit Enter.
When the Local Security Policy editor has loaded, expand Local Policies
and select Security Options.
Scroll through the list and locate "Network Security: LAN Manager
authentication level." Right click on this setting and select Properties.
Change the setting to "Send LM & NTML - use NTLMv2 session security if
negotiated"
Hit OK and your NAS will work again.
Using theses instructions I was able to make my 1 TB Buffalo TeraStation
work with Windows Vista. Prior to changing the authentication level, I
could not access any secured shares on my NAS.

-- From 9/1/2006 by Steve Sinchak
http://www.tweakvista.com/article39001.aspx

Dualscreen wallpapers

http://www.dualscreenwallpaper.com/index.php

Macfuse

http://code.google.com/p/macfuse/

Getting more storage for your Google services

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/simple-way-to-get-more-storage.html

Mount online storage services as local drives

http://www.gladinet.com/p/index.htm

Bulk rename utility

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Screenshots.php

One iTunes library on multiple computers

http://theappleblog.com/2008/10/13/one-itunes-library-on-multiple-computers/

Simple BASIC

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx

Put downloading on a timer and other things

http://www.cybershade.us/winwget/

Slim Down Open Office

http://go-oo.org/

The Windows download is 167MB.

Winmail.dat Reader

http://www.kopf.com.br/winmail/download.php

More on handling this sort of thing in Thunderbird:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Winmail.dat_attachments

Alternative to ERD Commander 2005

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Open Source alternative to Ghost that works for Windows, Mac, and Linux!

http://clonezilla.org/

Share Thunderbird Addressbook

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_address_books

LiveMesh

http://lifehacker.com/398716/live-mesh-connects-folders-and-desktops-across-windows-pcs

Running VMware ESXi inside VMware Server 2

http://eightfour.com.au/content/blogcategory/31/57/

PDF online conversion services

http://www.pdfonline.com/

FAQ for Google Documents

http://www.labnol.org/internet/office/google-docs-guide-tutorial/4999/

Turn Firefox into an FTP client

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4724

http://fireftp.mozdev.org/

Share printers over the Internet

http://www.printeranywhere.com/

Five Best DVD Ripping Tools

http://lifehacker.com/380702/five-best-dvd-ripping-tools

Gbridge Does Simple but Secure File Sharing, Syncing, and VNC

http://www.gbridge.com/

Sync Thunderbird Contacts with GMail

http://hogiblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/synchronizing-google-contacts-and.html

Top 10 Network Utilities

http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-network-utilities-267208.php

Control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse

http://lifehacker.com/software/dual-monitor/hack-attack-control-multiple-computers-with-a-single-keyboard-and-mouse-254648.php

How to Sync Any Desktop Calendar with Google Calendar

http://lifehacker.com/399407/how-to-sync-any-desktop-calendar-with-google-calendar

Repair My Word Rescues Text from Corrupted Documents

http://www.repairmyword.com/

Enable Remote Desktop Connection on Vista Home Premium

http://www.unet.fi/fransblog/2007/08/30/enable-remote-desktop-connection-on-vista-home-premium/

http://www.wegotserved.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Enable_Remote_Desktop_Connection_For_Vista_Home_Premium

How to fix corrupted VMs

http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk/vmdk-when-its-too-late.html

Automount on MAC OS X

http://sial.org/howto/osx/automount/

Automount maker
http://jm.marino.free.fr/?switch=sw_&title=automountmaker

NFS Manager
http://www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html

Video Tutorial
http://happybeggar.com/index.php?s=automount

More info
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070202190047133&query=automount

For Leopard
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071028194033157&query=automount

Startup Delayer

http://www.r2.com.au/software.php?page=2&show=startdelay

Online secured storage of information

https://pip.verisignlabs.com/

Protect Your Kids Online Using Open DNS

http://blogs.howtogeek.com/mysticgeek/2008/08/07/protect-your-kids-online-with-any-os-using-open-dns/

A better Windows application removal tool

http://www.revouninstaller.com/

Also,

http://www.zsoft.dk/index/software_details/4

Create your own background for webpages and desktop wallpaper

http://www.bgpatterns.com/

Access Web-Based Email Accounts from Thunderbird

http://webmail.mozdev.org/

test2

test2

How to create shortcuts with a relative path for use on USB drives

http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/07/24/how-to-create-shortcuts-with-a-relative-path-for-use-on-usb-drives/

Install SSH Server on Windows Server 2008

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/install-SSH-Server-Windows-Server-2008.html

Change the size of VMware virtual disks

http://tinyurl.com/change-virtual-disk-size-vmwar

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/faqs.html

Give tech support control of your machine

http://lifehacker.com/399227/give-tech-support-or-grab-files-remotely-on-any-system

Backup Windows drivers

http://boozet.org/dd.htm

Run Windows from a flash drive

http://mokafive.com/solutions/solutions-overview.php

Open HFS+ Mac drives in Windows

http://hem.bredband.net/catacombae/hfsx.html

Accessing Gmail on mobile devices

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=75726

Outlook AutoComplete Addresses Transfer

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2833/outlook_transfer_autocomplete_addresses_to_a_new_computer

http://www.123macmini.com/

http://www.123macmini.com/

Free Online backup services

http://www.spideroak.com/

http://www.mozypro.com

Enhance your Gmail with these tools

http://marklyon.org/gmail/gmailapps.htm

Integrates Gmail into the Windows Desktop with gAttach

http://chris.wood.name/gAttach/

If you use Gmail web-based email, this utility is helpful.

With gAttach!, you can:

Send emails directly from:
Windows Explorer
Microsoft Office
Adobe Acrobat
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Internet Explorer
Mozilla Firefox
.. and many more
automatically attach files from your PC to a new email without manually
uploading each file; choose to suppress the annoying standard text
provided by Windows ("Your attachments are ready to send..");
handle "mailto" email links in web pages.

Recover Lost Passwords with Free Tools

http://lifehacker.com/394039/recover-lost-passwords-with-free-tools

Official Thunderbird Gmail Info Site

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite

Windows SteadyState

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/default.mspx

A little review of the program.

http://lifehacker.com/397786/kid+proof-your-pc-with-steadystate

A Mirror Site for Thunderbird Extensions

http://forum.addonsmirror.net/

Free File Splitter and Joiner

http://www.jaist.ac.jp/~hoangle/filesj/index.html

Free website templates

http://www.openwebdesign.org/

A free easy to use Wake on LAN tool

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30476/235/

http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/wake_on_lan.aspx

Setting up a password protected FTP Server

http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/IIS/iis1.php

Virtual RAID5 over Internet

http://home.arcor.de/webknight23/

Minimize Application Windows to the Tray

http://www.whitsoftdev.com/trayconizer/

http://www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm

http://www.4t-niagara.com/tray.html

Print from the Internet

http://www.printeranywhere.com/

http://cloudprint.hpl.hp.com/

Free Files Encryption Programs

http://www.flexcrypt.com/flexcryptfolder.html

http://americas.utimaco.com/safeguard_privatecrypto/

Help Copy Files in Windows More Efficiently

Unless you use Vista, Windows has a nasty habit of stop the copying
process whenever it encounters an error some simple to mysterious
reasons. Then you have to start the whole process of copying over again.
There are programs out there that embed themselves into the Windows
shell that bypass this annoyance.

http://www.copyhandler.com/en/home/index.php

http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

http://www.ranvik.net/totalcopy/

Redirect My Documents Folder to a Network Share

http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/a/windows/2004/08/24/folder_redirect.html

Thunderbird modifications

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/611

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Mail_and_news_settings

Various password cracking programs

http://lifehacker.com/394039/recover-lost-passwords-with-free-tools

Wealth of advanced Windows troubleshooting tools

http://live.sysinternals.com/

AJAX Templates

http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/

PDF Conversion Tools

http://somepdf.com/

Print posters with basic printers

Print out poster size images without the need of a large format printer

http://posterazor.sourceforge.net/

Website of interest for PC Technician

http://radified.com/index.rad

Using DD-WRT as HotSpot

This is really fun. Part I and II.

Create your own font for free

http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/

Convert the Flash video on YouTube to MP3

http://flvto.com/

Why? Sometimes a YouTube video contains great audio that you want to
hear offline from your mp3 player.

A useful add-on for Thunderbird for creating Tasks

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/7125

Free Security Scan

If you want to know if you have the latest versions of popular Internet
applications, here is a free scan tool.

Secunia Software Inspector

http://secunia.com/software_inspector/

Sync Gmail Contacts with Thunderbird

http://www.zindus.com/

Toshiba service manuals

I called Toshiba today and they told me that the company does not
release service manuals from all of their laptops, only the user guide.
User guides are useless for the technicians. I am pissed at Toshiba for
this. They have just lost one customer. Also, I will no longer recommend
them to my customers.

Fortunately, I found this site that focuses on Toshiba laptop repair.

http://www.irisvista.com/

This site is a clearing house of laptop repair manuals and tips.

http://www.notebookrepairguide.com/

Introduction to Cygwin

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/geek-to-live-introduction-to-cygwin-part-i-179514.php
http://lifehacker.com/software/cygwin/geek-to-live-introduction-to-cygwin-part-ii-more-useful-commands-180690.php

Get Cygwin
http://cygwin.com/

Great free panorama tool

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

How to set up XP as a fax machine

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/learnmore/crawford_02october21.mspx

TeamDrive

http://www.teamdrive.net/en/index.php

Cannot write files to drives in Vista?

Vista UAC is getting on people's nerves every time they want to do something as simple as writing to a drive. When a drive, whether it is internal or external, was created under XP, by default everyone has access to it because of XP's relatively lax access restriction policy. Vista changes all that because in Vista, you are not really the root user (super admin) when you are the admin. This idea was taken from Unix and is found in Linux and MacOSX. So to fix the problem of you as the "admin" should be able to write to a drive that you were able to access in XP, do this.

1.Right-click the drive letter in Explorer and select properties
2.Click the security tab
3.Click "Edit." You will be asked to elevate. Remember, until you do you are still in admin approval mode and for all practical purposes you are not an admin
4.Select "Users" and check the Modify box
5.Click OK enough times to get back to where you were.

The Holy Grail of Calendar Sync?

http://www.fusecal.com/

Would you like to feel a dead hand?

Quick Log Off and Log Out from XP

If you want to do a quick log off of your XP machine, create a shortcut to:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -l -t 00

If you want to do a quick log out, just use the keyboard Windows Key + L.

The difference between log off and log out is logging out does not close any programs running. Therefore, The process of logging out is very quick.

Good Resource for Home Networking

http://lifehacker.com/software/home-server/

This link contains great tips and tutorials on how to run servers and networking services from home. Running servers from home can get pretty addictive and may get you into trouble with your ISP.

Speak without speaking

Finally, some peace and quiet on the bus.

Share and Sync files over the Internet

https://www.foldershare.com/

https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Welcome.aspx

http://synkron.sourceforge.net/index.shtml

http://www.getdropbox.com/

Remote Desktop for Mac

http://lifehacker.com/365673/get-back-to-your-mac-without-paying-for-it

This is akin to Remote Desktop for XP Pro. This feature, called Back to
My Mac, is only available in Leopard.

Slipstream PostSP2 patches into XP install CD

http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack-sp2.html

This should save you at least 30 minutes of the installation time.

Free "clientless" FTP program

When you need to do some serious ftp transfers and do not want to use the jack-of-all-trades web browsers to do the job, then this Java-based client is for you. It's basically a Java applet that you download and run from your desktop.

Granted, some of you may feel nervous about giving these websites the right as a proxy to your FTP account. The same can be said of any program you use to access the Internet to log into private accounts like emails and your online bank. Basically, there is no complete safe way to access the internet. You just have to keep an eye out for any suspcious programs. While it is doubtful that the people who make Firefox would send a copy of that secret log in that you did using the browser, malicious hackers out there can exploit security holes in the program to piggy back on it to steal your private info. This is why given people use web browser so much, they have to keep the programs up to date with security fixes. Incidentally, there is an extension to Firefox that acts like an FTP client. It's called Fireftp.

http://www.anyclient.com/

http://www.net2ftp.com/

http://www.01ftp.com/

http://www.jscape.com/sftpapplet/index.html

FINALLY!

http://googledataapis.blogspot.com/2008/03/3-2-1-contact-api-has-landed.html

If you are a Google Apps power user like myself, you know exactly what I
mean by the exultation.

Calendar sync with Gmail for Outlook and Thunderbird

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955

The above link app is made by Google itself. It only works with Outlook.

However, if you are an avid Thunderbird user like me, have no fear, there is an add-on that offers the same two way functionality for Thunderbird. Actually, this is more of an add-on for an add-on because Thunderbird itself does not have calendar capability. However, an add-on called Lightning provides this functionality nicely. Therefore, this calendar sync add-on is for Lightning. The good news is the upcoming Thunderbird 3 will have Lightning incorporate into it. As with many add-ons, when such add-ons get popular and useful enough, they will become part of the main program. Therefore, I have no doubt that this calendar sync add-on will be absorbed into Thunderbird as well with version 3.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/sunbird/addon/4631

Free software from Microsoft

The good kind. The otherwise expensive kind. You have to be a student though.

https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/Overview.aspx

What was old is new again

I was cleaning out some junk in the attic and came upon a sheet of paper with my old email account from Yahoo. It was way back to year 2002. Just for fun, I tried to log back in using one of my old passwords (it was my girlfriend's name at the time). It worked! This account has been lain dormant in the Yahoo server all these years. Well, the account was still active, but all of the emails were purged. I emailed my ex girlfriend using this account just for fun. So far, no reply yet.

I wonder how long Yahoo keeps their inactive email accounts.

Annoying bug in Thunderbird and Gmail

I use Thunderbird to access my Gmail account. I really like Thunderbird for its clean interface and the fact that it is open source. This means if there is any problem serious enough, it can be fixed quickly. However there is an annoying bug which I am not sure it's in Thunderbird or Gmail. It's not a serious one, but annoying if you are a neat freak. In the folder list in Thunderbird, you see a folder called [Gmail]. This is basically the core system folders on Gmail. System folders are the ones that come with the account: folders like Inbox, Sent, Draft, and Trash. If you create your own folders, then these do not appear inside the [Gmail] parent folder.

To remove this annoying folder, go to the Advance option in the configuration in Thunderbird. Enter [Gmail] in "IMAP server directory". If you use GoogleMail, enter [Google Mail] instead.

Now the folder listing column in Thunderbird is cleaner. You can still create your own folders and organize your emails in them and have them accessible when you log into Gmail via a web browser. These folders have the [Gmail]/ prefix to them as labels on Gmail. For example, let's say you create a folder called Jokes to store all those dirty jokes that your Uncle Fester sends you. On Gmail when accessed via the browser, this folder has the label of [Gmail]/Jokes.

This method works great if you never use a browser to access your emails including sending out mails from this interface. However if you do, then the sent mails stay in the Sent Mail folder "on the server," one that is not visible in Thunderbird. So keep this in mind. Incidentally, this Sent Mail folder has the label [imap]/Sent in the browser's interface.

For more tips on how to setup Thunderbird using Gmail, see this link.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Using_Gmail_with_Thunderbird_and_Mozilla_Suite

Free screen capture tool

http://www.utipu.com/app/

It's a pretty basic tool but it will do just fine if your needs are modest. However, if you need features like editing your captured footage including adding additional audio tracks, then I highly recommend Camtasia Studio or its little cousin SnagIT from Techsmith. SnagIT is primarily a static screen capture tool akin to the free PrtScrn option in Windows. With SnagIt, you can also capture with short video clips. With Camtasia Studio, there is no limit as to how long you want to "video tape" the screen. As far as I can tell, there is also no time limit for uTipu as well. You can download Camtasia and SnagIT to try out for 30 days.

Other free screen capture tools are:

http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html

http://www.jingproject.com/

http://www.bugshooting.com/web/index.php5

http://lightscreen.sourceforge.net/

A violation of the Laws of Thermodynamics?

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9051/msi_employees_stirling_engine_theory/index.html

Basically, this device uses the expansion nature of heat to move a
piston that moves a shaft that spins a fan that cools a metal grid that
is heated up by the same heat whose expansion pushes the piston in the
first place. Wow.

Enhancement for Windows Explorer

Let's face it, Windows Explorer is crap given the complexity of the OS. The best you can get is a two-panel window to navigate and manipulate files. For most people, this is fine which I guess why Microsoft has it this way, but for a geek like myself who manipulates a lot of files in
Windows, it's a real hassle.

Fortunately there are add-on utilities out there that enhance the default anemic Windows Explorer. I use this free one on both my XP and Vista systems. There are two versions of this utility: free and paid. For my work, the free version is fine.

http://www.zabkat.com/

The free version gives me 3 columns. I assume the paid Pro version gives me unlimited columns. Given that almost all computer monitors these days are wide screen, there is enough space to display 3 or more columns.

Copy multiple files from different locations

This is what is said on its website:

http://www.conceptworld.com/Piky/piky_features.asp

With Piky Basket, you can reduce repetitive tasks when copying/moving files and folders in Windows. Piky Basket allows you to select files/folders in to a "basket" from different locations. Once you are done selecting, you can paste them all at once to the target folders. It also allows you to selectively paste the files to the target folder.

Piky Basket is integrated with Windows Explorer. You do not have to run Piky Basket as a separate program. It can be accessed from the menu which appears by right clicking on any files/folders in Windows Explorer.

Piky Basket is a replacement for Windows file copy/paste operation

Piky Basket can save lot of time when organizing files on your hard drive

Piky Basket can be very useful when copying same set of files to different locations

Piky Basket can be used when taking backup of files and folders from different locations

Piky Basket can be used when burning a CD which requires copying of files and folders from different location

Another webpage embedded tool

A few posts ago I mentioned PDFMeNot. There is an even better tool that does the same and more because this tool enables you to embed additional file types such as Word and PowerPoint.

http://www.scribd.com/ipaper

Putting a timer of multiple downloads

Sites like Rapidshare allow people to upload and download massive files.
Unfortunately unless you are a paying member, you have to wait for a
certain period of time between download. This site offers a ways to put
all those downloads in a queue so that these downloads will take turn
without your intervention.

http://www.rapget.com/en/

Backing up your blog

One would think that the information in your blog here would be backed up by the people who run the site. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. But if I were a betting man, I would not rely on other people to take care of my data. I am not saying that the good people who run this blog site do not care about my data. I am saying that they still may lose the data if they do care and back it up. I have been in the tech support business long enough to know that no matter what people tell me that they take care of my data, I will back it up myself thank you very much because per chance that they lose my data, no matter who is at fault, the data is still gone. With that said, there are tools and ways to back up the blog posts here. You can either save it like a book or mirror it locally on your computer.

Here is the blog page that shows you how to do it.

http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-to-backup-your-blogger-blog.html

The two programs you can use are HTTrack Website Copier and Blog Collector.

Embedded PDF

There is a service on the Internet called PDFMeNot. It offers you the ability to view any pdf files without the need to have a PDF reader installed locally on your computer. This is great if you try to access a PDF file online on a public computer that does not have this reader installed and you have no permission to install it.

I like it for its embedded option. Basically, instead of posting a link of the pdf file on the webpage that requires the visitor to download the file and view it offline, I can embed the pdf file as an inline document. You can see an example below.

There is an inherit danger here though because for this to work, you must give permission to this website to have access to the PDF file. This is not an issue if the file in question contains no confidential info.

This embedded feature works on Internet Explorer7 and Firefox2 on a Windows PC.

The only code I put in this post is this:

FreeNAS

I used to manage a computer lab at a high school with 20 iMacs running OSX 10.4. The reason for me choosing a NAS box was the old Windows Server 2000 machine at the time acting as the lab's fileserver had some serious problems.

Firstly, some files stored on the W2K box got corrupted. The files themselves were fine if they were accessed on a Mac client, but when I attached a firewire drive to the W2K machine for backup, a lot of files got messed up. Lesson learned: don't store files created on a Mac on NTFS.

Second, thanks to Microsoft's licensing policy, only 10 clients can access the server at a time. Given that there are 20 clients in this lab (more if someone brings in their laptops), some people had to wait in line until someone else logged off before they can access the server. Microsoft says that this limitation is imposed because when there are more than 10 clients in a network, it would be a mess to manage the computers without a centralized server. Well, should I be the one to determine this?

Third. Mac data files have the resource folk and the data folk integrated. The users in the lab work on collaborative projects where they would color code the files for easy identification. Files saved on the W2K machine (if not corrupted) had this color info removed. Interestingly, under FreeNAS, if the users access these color coded file under SMB, the colors are gone, but under AFP, the colors show up!

Fourth. Perhaps this is why files were corrupted. The Mac OS seems to be more liberal with the naming scheme. Mac users in general love to use unsual characters as the file names. Once a file with these "unconventional" file names were saved onto the W2k server, it got corrupted and would not be accessible by the very same Mac that had created it.

Fifth. The W2K server was slow serving out files. Maybe it was trying to work its way through the protocol stack to the Appletalk one. Also, sometimes the Mac client could not connect to the server at all.

So these were the reasons I was looking for a better storage solution.

I stumpled upon FreeNAS and gave it a shot. I installed it on a P4 with 128 MB of RAM and a 20GB IDE drive. It took me several tries to set it up because FreeNAS kept telling me that there was error in mounting the drive in the GUI, but I ignored it and it worked. Basically, it was a false positive. I could not make FreeNAS boot from a 512MB CF card attached via IDE so I settled with a two partions scheme on this 20GB drive. This FreeNAS file server was in service for nearly a year and no problems. It survived 3 unplanned shutdowns: 2 from power outages and the other because some student yanked out the powercord. The best part was no 10 users limitation. Speedwise, it was definitely faster than the old Windows server. I upgraded the NIC to gigabit as the switch in the lab was already a Neatgear Gb switch and all the iMacs were Gb as well. There was a little speed increase, but there was less congestion when multiple people access the server. The lesson here is gigabit may not give you the speedboost, but it does provide additional bandwidth. With a fatter data pipe, there is less congestion.

One major gripe I have about FreeNAS (version 0.681) though is user permissions. Although I could create groups and members to put into these groups, they all had the same access permission (read and write) to the files! Therefore, if one user in the lab carelessly or intentionally deleted all files, they would be all gone! I attached a firewire hardrive to one of the iMacs and backup all the data (18GB) everyday just in case.

In short, other than a security "problem", FreeNAS rocks. By the way, the people who used the lab were reminded frequently that the data saved on the fileserver or locally on the Mac client were not secured so if they wanted security, they had to store their files on their own USB sticks.

Remove email addresses before forwarding the email

For some email clients, when you forward an email, the text of the forwarded email appears in the body of the new message. This somewhat blurs the line between the new and the forwarded message, and replying to the original message can get cumbersome and confusing after the original email has been forwarded a few more times. In other words, the original email will get lost in the chain, or worse, it gets replicated every time it is forwarded.

Forwarding these messages as attachments however solves these problems nicely because the original message now acts like a baton in the relay foot race. No matter how many runners the baton goes through in the race, there is no confusion where the baton is. Encapsulating the original email as an attachment keeps the various people in the conversation from going off topic.

So that was a little back ground info on potential problems with forwarding an email. Now let's talk about one side effect of making the forwarded email an attachment -- at least in Thunderbird.

When you use Thunderbird version 2 with its default configuration to forward an email, the program encapsulate the original email as an attachment. This causes a problem if you want to forward an email but you do not want the recipient of this email to see some or all of the email addresses to which the original email was sent. When Thunderbird sends the original email as a attachment, there is no option to remove these email addresses. However, if you tell Thunderbird to send the original email as "inline", you have the option to completely or partially remove these email addresses.

Tools --> Options --> Composition. Under Forward Messages, choose Inline.

The above change is now part of the configuration of Thunderbird. However, let's say you only want to do this address removal as a case by case basis. In other words, you still want Thunderbird to send the original email as an attachment in the forwarded email, but once in a while, you prefer to remove the addresses from the original emails before forwarding it. Open the message you want to forward.
Select Message --> Forward As --> Inline from the menu. Remove the addresses as you wish.

A Glimpse of Windows 7?

Now that Vista is a bit of a flop -- it's the WinMe of the NT family -- we want to look forward to its replacement. It used to be called Blackcomb, but now it's being referred as Windows 7. Let's see, Windows 1, 2, 3, 4 (NT4), 5 (Windows XP), 6 (Windows Vista), and now Windows 7. Notice that I skipped Windows 95, 98, and Me. This is because given that Microsoft has completely abandoned the so-called Win9x architecture, there is no point in including them in the lineage. I hope Microsoft learns a lesson with the unpopular Vista and goes back to the basics where less is more. This is the theme of the video presentation. The basic core of Windows 7 in this demonstration runs on 40MB of RAM!

Here is the link:

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071019/eric-talk-demo-windows-7-minwin/

The Irony Did Not Escape Me

This is event is embarrassing and none of you want to have to experience this, but hell, I am sure it will happen to all of you if you live long enough.

On my way home from work from a graveyard shift as I was getting off the bus, my lower bowels decided to have a 9 alarm fire. Dammit, I thought. I was so close to home. Six freaking blocks. I decided to make a run for it. After two blocks, I realized that this baby was not going to wait for me until I get to the privacy of my throne. I ducked into a restaurant asking for the toilet. The employees there gave me one of those looks. You know, the one that says if I am not a customer, I can bleed to death for all they care. After I told them that I would buy something, they directed me to the secret hole. But before I went there, I felt like I should order something on the menu just to show them that I was sincere. As I scanned for the cheapest item on the menu list, it dawned on me that most of what they were selling were burritos. The irony was as transparent as the stool that would soon enough coming out of my butt. I picked an item after taking a few seconds deciding if I wanted chicken or pork and ran to the toilet. Actually, I did not run, I didn't want them to know the dire situation that God had put me in. I nonchalantly walked away.

When I got there, the men's side was locked, but the women's side was open. It was really early in the morning so I thought that no one would be using the place, so I dived in. Ok, I should fast forward a few minutes in this story because even the most infantile brained among you would want to know the details. All I would say was as I was in there in the stall, every sound I heard could mean some unsuspecting woman could be coming into the room. I did not have time to do any thorough job, just enough to triage the emergency. As I walked out of that room, I was as happy as a schoolgirl.

The moral of the story is even if you do not want to take a dump at work like me, at the first sign of any intestinal discomfort, please hold your pride and modesty and just do your duty there because when the shit does hit the fan, you might not be anywhere near a toilet.

The burrito that I unwillingly bought was delicious. It usually cook my own meal at home, but I might as well enjoy this Mexican specialty now that it's mine while pondering the mysteries of the Universe.

Making Vista Smaller

There is a program that claims to reduce the footprint of a typical Vista installation. The program would permanently remove components that are not part of the core of Vista. So without them, Vista should still be functioning. Components like Media Player and Messenger. I will definitely give this a try because a typical Vista installtion takes up about 10GB of disk space whereas XP only takes about 2GB. Until I have tried it, I will not know if this will speed up Vista or reduce Vista's hog on system resources.

http://www.vlite.net/index.html

The new Star Trek teaser trailer

I would not be a geek if I do not post it here. But I am not geek enough to stand in line in the rain to get into the theater watch it on its first day showing.

History of the Internet

The speaker is Vint Cerf, one of the co-architects of the Internet.

What is Google Documents?

I use Google Docs (short fot Google Documents) almost everyday. This is where I keep all of my work documents. This way, I can work on them while at work, and I can resume working on them when I get home (only for emergency of course). Some of these files are published to the blog here. Just to be safe, I export any really important files on GD onto my USB thumbdrive. This way, if I have no access to the Internet, I can still have access to these documents. Google backs up these files for me, but if for some reasons, the files are lost on the Google server, no matter how much I complain to Google, the files still are lost. When it comes to backing up my data, I always do it manually onto my own drives even if the data is supposedly backed up by someone else.

A nice tutorial explaining RSS.

The all-powerful about:config in Thunderbird and Mozilla other offerings

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config

I will definitely plan on reading more on this. Other email clients offer the same customizations. Outlook has its own version of about:config, but it requires intimate knowledge of programming such as VBScript. Thunderbird uses XML which at its core is simply a plain text file. The XML parser then takes this XML file and put the settings into effect. Therefore, as long as you can understand XML syntax which is not that difficult to learn, you can be quite a "programmer" for software packages that use XML as its configuration base. I use VMware Player. I am not sure if it uses XML, but its configuration is just a plain text file as well.

In case you want to see what is on this file, it can be found here
If the link is broken, here is a copy.

Thunderbird Display Name in Contacts

By default, Thunderbird displays the first and and then the last name in that order in the Display name field in its Contacts. One can modify this behavior by going into the Config Editor under Advanced. This is the semi-GUI portion of Thunderbird.

Click Tools -> Options
Click the Advanced "tab".
In the filter box, type lastnamefirst.
Double-click mail.addr_book.displayName.lastnamefirst
Change the value to true.
Double-click mail.addr_book.lastnamefirst
Change this value to one of the following options:
0 - display the "Display Name" value as the contact's name.
1 - display Last Name, First Name as the contact's name.
2 - display First Name, Last Name as the contact's name.
The change should be noticeable in your address book immediately.

This works with Thunderbird 2

Dictionary for Decoding Women's Personal Ads

I found this tidbit on the Net. Too funny not to pass it on.

40-ish..................................49.
Adventurous..........................Slept with everyone.
Athletic................................No breasts.
Average looking.....................Moooo.
Beautiful..............................Pathological liar.
Emotionally Secure..................On medication.
Feminist...............................Fat.
Free Spirit.................................Junkie.
Friendship first.......................Former Slut.
New-Age.........................Body hair in the wrong places.
Old-fashioned........................No B.J.'s
Open-minded.........................Desperate.
Outgoing..............................Loud and embarrassing.
Professional................. ..........Bitch.
Voluptuous...........................Very fat.
Large frame...........................Hugely fat.
Wants soul mate.....................Stalker.

My New Certification

Today I passed the exam for the Suport Center Analyst. The exam consisted of 65 questions where to pass, one must get at least 80% correct. There are four sections in the exam: leadership, policy and strategy, people management, resources, and process and procedures. The bulk of the questions are in the last category which I for some reason got 65% of the questions correct, whereas the rest of the area, I got 90% correct. Now I will work on my Apple and Dell certification. My ultimate goal is the MCSE.