Archive for October, 2008
What a strange thing to name your son…
Oct 22nd
I love me some XKCD and don’t read it as often as I used to. But I came across it posted on a blog today and it had me rolling. If you are are geeky as me you will enjoy this for your afternoon chuckle. And if you don’t get it… Just keep it moving :)
And if you missed it a little while back here is the answer to what does XKCD actually stand for…
Daves Mess via Xkcd
Windows Home Server (WHS) + HP = AWESOME!
Oct 17th
The good folks at HP sent me one of there Windows Home Servers and I just got it up and running. Stay tuned for the wife and I to put it through our usual battering of tests. This terabyte of storage looks like a great place to store the media for my TiVo’s. I am loving the thought of the integrated iTunes aggregator, remote access and automagic client backups. Comments? Thoughts on integration into our lives?
Are you running a Windows Home Server? What Brand? Home Brewed?
Share Share Share!
Confessions of a dude quiting Microsoft Cold Turkey.
Oct 16th
Open Source cake… Here is an excerpt that caught my eye that I wanted to share with you:
I have now been Microsoft-Free at work for about 7 weeks. I have also found solutions for almost all of the initial hurdles I encountered in the first week.
Here is the list:
Email – I now have Thunderbird working flawlessly as my email client in sync with Exchange. I do need to talk to the Exchange admin to change a setting on the Exchange Server so I can use the Calendar functionality with Sunbird. I am currently use Webmail for my calendar.
Office – Open Office has worked well with Word, Power Point, Excel, and Adobe documents. I can use Wine to install Visio on my Ubuntu desktop. This doesn’t allow me to be totally Microsoft-Free but there is no answer for Visio’s proprietary format that I am aware of. This is not an issue with Open Source, the problem is that Microsoft doesn’t use an open standard for
their Visio product. Open Office Draw works fine for creating new drawings but can’t import Visio documents saved in Visio format. I also downloaded OxygenOffice Professional that gives me the much needed templates and clip art that Open Office was missing.Browser – I have been using Firefox at work for years so this a no brainer.
Printer – I do have one unresolved issue. I have an old HP Laserjet (about 8 years old). Although I can see the driver I can’t get the printer to work. I have not invested a ton of time trying to fix it.Before all of the Microsoft defenders start slamming me, let me put my disclaimers out.
My goal of this article is to prove that people can be productive at work without the need of Microsoft software. I am not saying that because I can be productive that everyone should abandon Microsoft and start a project to implement Linux corporate wide. However, I do recommend to those who are open to exploring alternatives that they should start a small pilot project with a handful of desktop users. I think a 5-10 person pilot with Ubuntu or Mepis would be a great way to learn about the opportunities and challenges that an Open Source OS resents.
This is low risk and high return.
A pilot like this will give your IT shop an opportunity to try out alternatives without disrupting the day to day business.When I first started my experiment I was trying to keep it a secret out of fear of attacks from angry Microsoft worshipers (especially from the admins and desktop support). What I am finding out is that most of the folks that I was hiding from are sick and tired of supporting Windows and are proponents of Linux. Several of them are using Linux at home. One of the guys I talked to has Vista and XP installed on his laptop. He swaps out the hard drive when switching between OS’s. He is less then impressed with Vista and complains about the slow boot time (2 times slower then XP).
I recently moved to a new office and a desktop guy saw my Ubuntu desktop when I was moving. I expected an ear full but instead the guy said he fully supports a move to Ubuntu and wished the company would move in that direction.
These stories are coming from Microsoft certified engineers who have spent years supporting Microsoft tools. These stories are not coming from anti-Microsoft people who worship Linux.
My Hard Drive Is Click click clicking! Help what is wrong?
Oct 16th
Our faithful reader Michael writes in from New Jersey:
HELP!
My hard drive (my largest storage drive h:\) just started to make these light intermittent clicking noises. Sometimes the drive does not show up in bios nor in My Computer. Then it magically reappears after a few restarts – but its getting louder and now there is another click. So its like click – click – LOUD CLICK – whirllllll. What should I do Backup? Ghost? Raid? I have somewhat of a budget and I’m home sick today! HELP! Did I Say HELP!
Normally a clicking sound coming from your machine is a Very Bad thing.
It is probably a precursor to full out drive failure, so my immediate advice is “BACKUP WHAT EVER DATA IS ON THAT DRIVE!” ASAP! Any way you can, as quick as you can! Copy the contents to another drive burn dvd’s, cd’s, zip disks whatever it takes. You need to realize that after another restart the drive COULD never spin up again! If the drive really fails, you’re out of luck – unless you have a BIG budget to do data recovery.
BUT Seeming your an ATA reader chances are you have a full backup already (hopefully) and then you can continue on to see if we can get you fixed up.
Alright so you feel confident about your full backup and all your data is safe now lets try the following steps to see if the problems with the drive are reversable.
On XP, you can check run a hard drive error check by executing Microsofts CHKDSK utility. Restart your computer and tapping the F8 function key while it’s booting up. When you see the option list choose Safe Mode, and continue. Click the Start button, then click Run, then type CHKDSK C: /F /R in the run box and then press Enter. The /R option tells CHKDSK to scan for bad disk sectors, and the /F option means to fix any errors found.
If CHKDSK offers to recover lost data, “convert lost chains to files”,, or fix something else, you should let it do its thing. After CHKDSK finishes, restart your computer normally and see if the dreaded click of doom is gone. If not, the drive is most likely damaged, and should be replaced as soon as possible.
I Know It Sounds Weird But – Is Your Hard Drive On The Level?
This blew my mind and definitely worth the read – But before you trash your troublesome drive, you should try one more thing… Some (older) hard drives are very sensitive to non-level surfaces, and will not function properly if they’re sitting on a slant. Shut down your computer, make sure your system unit is on a flat surface (use a level to make sure), and then restart. I was all set to give up on an old server that was doing its click-click-whirl routines, but the drive had come loose inside the machine and was no longer on a level surface. The missing screw was replaced some dust was blown off using a can of clean air and the problem was gone!
That clicking sound MAY signal impending hard drive failure, but keep in mind you don’t always get such a warning. So play it safe…BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP! Did i Say Back Up?
By the way that is a stock photo and no actually hard drives were hurt in creating this post – Mike get back @ us and let us know how it went!
Hide Drives in My Computer
Oct 15th
Captain: Cloak drives (L, M and Y) in My Computer sector.
Lieutenant: But why captain?
Captain: The program acquires an access to some files on the network; we’ve mapped their folders as drives within My Computer. Now we don’t want the user to realize their existence, even if they do…they might mistake it with the local drives, and decide to work in it.
(If you hide the C drive, then Open explorer and type c: and it will still take you there)
More >
Excel 2007: Selecting Cells with numbers only in a sheet
Oct 12th
So you’ve spent a long time making this excel sheet and formulating it’s cells for your future needs.
In the rush of work you’ve fed the empty cells with numbers and saved over the original file -the one for general purposes – and now you are busted in tears :’(
Wipe your nose for God’s sake, there is actually a way to select only cells with numbers, skipping all cells with formulas and text:
1) On your keyboard press (F5) or (Ctrl + g) and a (Go To) window will popup.
2) Click on (Special) button.
3) Click on (Constants) and uncheck everything from (Text) down to (Errors) leaving (Numbers) checked.
Note: take a moment to see all the other selections you may need for other scenario’s, you never know when you’r gonna need them(Ex. like selecting all the formula’s of text).
4) Click (Ok) and all the required fields are selected and with a one (Delete) press on your key board they are all empty again.
Here are some hotchicks……Err, I mean hotkeys you might wanna know:
- (CTRL+`): Switch between numbers-View and Formulas-View in all Cells.
- (CTRL+` or F4): Repeats last possible command or action.
- (CTRL+;): Enters the current date into selected cell.
- (Alt+ Enter): For a new line within a cell (don’t be surprised a lot of people don’t know that).




