Tech Juggler

Microsoft announced today that Windows Vista will include a new technology called Freeze Dry.

Simply put, Freeze Dry is supposed to keep maintain all application states and all unsaved documents you have open; including when your pc is rebooted.  The scenerio that I heard explained it this was this.  You set your workstations to automatically install updates late at night when nobody is there.  The computer reboots in order to finish the install.

This is not a problem, because you have all the employees trained to save often.  Right?  Hopefully to a shared drive that you backup daily, right?  And surely they wouldn't leave an unsaved document open ready to tackle in the morning.

Well, they would and don't call me Shirley.  But in Windows Vista, Freeze Dry automatically saves your system state and open documents and restores them when the system starts.

This will be great if A) it works right and B) it can be turned off.  I don't want my application states restored if they forced errors and caused a reboot.  Nevertheless, I'm excited about the possibility.

Say what you will about Microsoft in general and Windows in particular (and I'll be right there with you) but I can't wait to start using Vista.

-master3bs
aka Scott

I've was trying to buy desktops, notebooks and printers for my organization.  I knew the specifications and about how much I wanted to spend on it.  Armed with this knowledge and my optimistic spirit I began my search.

My search primarily included the HP, Lexmark, Dell websites.  Specifically, I was looking in the state and government contract areas, but didn't limit my search to that side.

Even knowing what I wanted, it took forever to find it.  These companies present you with the handful of models they want to sell; compartmentalized into predetermined categories.  What that means is I have to go to each individual category, view what is there and compare it on my own to what is in another category.  In the individual categories I can't see what each model's base price is without clicking on it.  Even opening new windows to make comparing easier leaves me with a dozen IE windows that I have to navigate in and out of.

Some of the areas in the sites have a compare feature, but even then it was difficult to compare what  I wanted to.

What I want is an advanced search form.  Let me enter spec criteria and price criteria, then give me a crisp form to choose between.  Admitably, HP has one area of the website I found that has almost just that.  But when I selected a model it didn't allow me to customize it.

When did online shopping get so difficult?

 -master3bs
Scott

I was reminiscing about the days back when I did phone side tech support, and remembering some of the great things I heard people say.  Fortunately,  I wrote some of them down so I'd remember.  Or rather, as Indiana Jones' Father said, "I wrote it down so I wouldn't have to remember.":

• You want me to look at my tower or my computer?
• I downloaded it off the uternet.
•  *flush*
• I said "On the left side, does it say 'Switch to Classic view or Switch to Category view?'" He said, No I'm using XP."
• My computer had a virus on it so I rebooted.
• My world is still spinning so I know that its not ready.
• The Irate end user said "My IQ is 179. What's yours?"  I of course said "180."

The big question: Can your system handle Windows Vista?

The hardware requirements are pretty steep.  Vista will change from implementing bitmap images to vector graphics. I am excited by this change, but it will require some changes.

I've read that a 128MB graphics card is needed, and a 256MB card is recommended.  You'll also want to have a processor with Hyper-threading capability.  You don't need it, but the OS will take advantage of multi-threading so you'll want it.

Monitors are a real issue too.  Read this if you don't believe me.

Memory is an issue as well.  If you go with the 32-bit computing (which is likely to be the norm) then 512MB of RAM is going to be needed.  However, as is usually the case, you will need to double that for optimum usage.  And if you want or need the 64-bit version; double those numbers again.

Personally, I don't recommend buying any new system with less than 1 GB of RAM.  But looking around the office where I work I don't see many that have that capability.  How many of you do?

S-ATA 2 hard drives are needed.  I haven't read anything about disk space yet, but it's going to be huge.  That's a discussion for another day.... the more lines of code in an OS the greater the possibility for stability, performance and security issues to crop up.

In short, you need a great system to run Vista well.

The birth control pill is a common method of... well of preventing pregnancy.  Hence the name and all that.  It actually works in three ways.

1. It prevents ovulation (when the egg is released from the overy; this is the only time of the month you can get pregnant.)
2. It can causes the mucus in the cervix to change so that sperm are not allowed to enter
3. If the first two methods do not work, the pill makes the woman's body discard the fetus so that it dies.

What was that again?

Yes, you read that right.  The common birth control pill can cause an early baby (within the first 7 days) to be discarded.  This, by the way, is a chemical abortion.

It does this by irritating the uterus' lining, preventing the baby from attaching to it.  This keeps the young fetus from being able to get food from the mother.  It cannot survive.

So what?

Regardless of your views on abortion, and I know they are likely to be strong, I think anybody taking or considering birth control pills should be aware of this information.  In essence, many women who would never chose an abortion are nevertheless opening themselves up to having one without their knowledge.

Because of that (and many other reasons,) it can be hard to get the word out.  My wife brought this to my attention some time ago.  She has mentioned it to friends and family; some who have listened, some who have refused to do so.  I can't speak for them, but I think they may prefer ignorance to learning a truth that might be hard to take.

Another reason this is not known by most is the way terminology has been used.  In order to gain acceptance it has been maintained that pregnancy starts at implantation.  That is to say that the egg is fertilized with the sperm, conception has begun, but has not attached itself to the uterus yet.  That is called implantation.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Tietze, of Planned Parenthood and the Population Council suggested about this issue ?not to disturb those people for whom this is a question of major importance.? (Discussion, Proceedings of the Second International Conference, Intra-Uterine Contraception, held October 2-3, 1964, New York City, ed. Sheldon Segal, et al.., International Series, Excerpta Medica Foundation, No. 86, page 212)

For those of you that read my blog, I wanted to bring this to your attention.  And I'm not saying that anyone who has taken birth control pills has been wrong.  I'm saying there is a great chance that they have been misinformed.

I can't seem to find a straight answer on whether or not Windows Vista will include a new command line interface.  At one point Microsoft was going to include it, then they weren't and now nobody seems to know.  Conflicting information is all over the internet and Microsoft simply isn't saying.

The command-line exists in the Beta 1 release and is codenamed Monad.

I want to wave my arms in the air and beg Microsoft to include monad.  The power and precision available in a command-line setting makes administration and troubleshooting easier.  And we have long needed a stable command-line environment for the odd occasion when the GUI won't boot up.

And frankly the geek in me relishes the opportunity to learn a new command-line interface.

I work for a secure correctional facility.  That situation has challenges unique unto itself, like the new one I just found out about.

Some of the guests (if you will) in our facility now need to have internet access.  To give it to them I have to setup computers on our network, which potentially presents security issues.  Additionally, I want to make sure I know what is being accessed on the computers.

The administrator in me doesn't want to risk it, but then that's not my choice to make.  So help me, the geek in me relishes the opportunity to lock the pc's down and then see if the users turn out to be smarter than me.

I have several ideas I'm implementing to lock the pc's down; but I need to know if they work.  What excites me is some software I learned about from a friend that he is using.

It's called eBlaster.  It monitors and records all activity.  This includes emails, chats, peer-to-peer, programs, web pages, logons, keystrokes and IM's.  Now a lot of that should be blocked but if I fail, I'll know about it. 

The best part is it emails a copy of everything to me.

My plan is to implement server side security procedures as well as locking down features using registry changes on the workstations.  And eBlaster will be my backup in case I miss something.

Frankly this is one of the funnest projects I'm working on right now.

It recently came to my attention that there are actually people out there reading my blog.  Needless to say, I'm shocked.  What is the world coming to?

Nevertheless, I now feel responsible to write something constructive.  Failing that, I'd at least like to write something enjoyable.  Naturally, my mind went to comedy.  Did you know that according to some guy passing by in my hallway, 65% of all Americans need a better sense of humor?

There you have it. Something worthwhile.  I am going to give you a quick guide to developing a sense of humor.

1. Comedy is often the things to happen to other people.
    It's true.  Watch some guy spill hot coffee on himself, or someone else accidentally hitting himself with a hammer.  Under the right circumstances its funny.  Now watch it happen to yourself.  Not so funny.  Now I am not advocating attacking people with coffee or hammers for a joke.  But the principle remains.
Here is some field research to help you learn about the humor of other people's problems:
The Pearls Before Swine daily strip

Click here for a readable version of the above strip.

2. Comedy takes intellect.
     The more you know, the funnier you can be and the more humor you will notice.  There's an old saying that Dying is easy, comedy is hard.  People sometimes think that people who make others laugh (comedians, actors, or just regular people who are funny) are somehow less talented or intellectual.  The opposite is often the case.  So read more, think more, learn more.  And think about what is different about the things going on around you.
Here is a resource that might help you with this step.

3. Delivery and presentation is everything.
    This is something that has to be learned through experience.   I'm going to use an advanced technique to help you with this.  Nothing in the Brevity strip is ever funny.  Sometimes the premise has the potential of humor but it just never works.  So study what this guy does and make sure you never duplicate it.  I guarantee you'll be funnier if you follow that advice.

The above strip is not funny

Okay, I admit it.  I don't read End User Liscense Agreements.  Sure, I used to.  Every line was read in the first ten or so EULA's I agreed to early in my IT career.  Then I skimmed.  Then I simply clicked I agree and went back later to remove the spyware.

I did develop a habit of saying "I do not agree," everytime I clicked agree figuring that made the entire process non-binding.

I read an old article from TechDirt about a company that offered $1000 to to the first person who asked for it.  The result?  Four months later somebody read it and got the money.  It shows I'm not alone in not reading the agreements.

Now there is some software that reads EULA's for you.  If it does what it says, it will be of great benefit: "EULAlyzer can analyze license agreements in seconds, and provide a detailed listing of potentially interesting words and phrases. Discover if the software you're about to install displays pop-up ads, transmits personally identifiable information, uses unique identifiers to track you, or much much more."  It is distributed through:

First a disclaimer: I have not installed this software yet, and am not endorsing it.  I'm simply passing the word.  I heard about it in a Techdirt article that linked to a blog that linked to a site you can download it from.  You don't have to go through all that though.  The software is called EULAyzer and can be downloaded from Majorgeeks or directly from the Corel Distribution network (this link is to the exe.)

One other word of advice; if you decide to use the software as I have; be sure to read ITS EULA.  One of the first things it says is "You are downloading the installer for EULAlyzer(TM) (along with the other items noted below, the "SOFTWARE PACKAGE")."  I haven't gone through it with a comb yet.  You certainly will want to know what you are agreeing to with this software.

I have a friend who was picking on me because of my blog.  Now, she's apparently a good enough friend that she continues to read the blog, but seems to find the material somewhat lacking.

The pessimist in me thinks that she does this because technology isn't really her thing.  She overheard a conversation I had today about processor speeds and RAM and her eyes glazed over so much it made me crave some Dunkin Donuts.

So, today's blog is for her.  I am going to type some words and phrases that are sure to interest her.

• Sean Hannity
• Florida Gators
• Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
• Rum balls

There you go my friend.  :-D

Windows turns 20 years old this year.  Happy birthday and all that.  Above you can see an image of Microsoft Windows 1.01's bootup. 

I'm going to do a short series of a lookback at the Windows operating system's history; followed by a look ahead at Vista.

Windows 1.x

No, I never actually used this version.  I did use DOS, which this version of Windows ran on top of.  It had file management in the form of a program called MS-DOS Executive.  (see below)

It also boasted a very limited set of tools such as notepad which couldn't open anything larger than 16K ; as well as a calculator and paint.

I have heard, but have not verified, that it is possible to run some of 1.x binary programs in XP.  I'd like to get a copy of one and try. 

Largely though, this was window-dressing (if you will) for DOS.  It was cumbersome, applications could not be overlapped, and there were very few commercial applications. 

The versions included 1.01; 1.02; 1.03 and 1.04.  When 1.04 was released, Microsoft also released OS/2 with IBM.  OS/2 never really took off; and 1.x was eventually replaced with version 2.0 in 1987.  (I actually did work on a pc once that had this Windows 87 running on it.

Take a close look at these pictures, then look at your pc and imagine how different our computers will look 20 years from now.

Windows 2.x

Windows 2.0 came out in 1987, and sold for only $100.  It allowed the user to overlap and resize windows, a feature that has long since been taken for granted.  It also added icons, and early development of Excel and Word for Windows were available.

The later versions of 2.x supported PS/2 devices.  This version was sometimes referred to as Windows /286 or even Windows /386 for the versions that were able to access memory higher than 640K.  It had the makings of an operating system, but wasn't quite "ready" yet.

That brings us to the system requirements.  As this ran on top of DOS (As every version through ME did) you had to have DOS installed (Anywhere from 3.x to 5.x.)  You also needed a hefty maching to run this OS.  We're talking a 286 Procesor with 512 KB of RAM.  Compare that to the upcoming Vista Requirements from my September 6th blog.

This OS never took off.  I actually got to work on a pc that had it installed years ago.  There was little support for it from developers or the general public.

There's a mildly humerous ID-10T story below, but first some background.
 
Many years ago, I had just arrived at a new job that initially involved sales and some minimal HTML design skills.  Eventually my position grew to include computer support, but not at first.
 
Well, I decided within the first week there to open up my PC and fix a problem.  The engineer came by and, rightly so I might add, informed me that I was not to take it upon myself to fix the computers there.  They were his responsibility, and you he know anything about my background.  For all he knew I would end up blowing the things up.
 
Of course as time went on we worked together on a lot of the computer issues and probably ended up teaching each other quite a bit.  I took on a larger role on pc's because the company learned I could do so and there was great rejoicing.
 
I truly appreciate his concern now.  I am the only computer tech/administrator/etc in a medium sized facility that has been without any computer tech pretty much since it opened.  The Business Manager did an admirable job but 1) It wasn't her primary responsibility, 2) She had no real prior experience and 3) She was just too busy to deal with the majority of the problems.  As such, most of the computer users here learned to fix their own problems, making the computers much worse off than before.  Note the sarcasm.
 
What prompted this blog is that I'm still finding some of these so called "fixes" and encountering some users that try to apply new ones before coming to me.  As such, my job security continues to increase which is probably a good thing.  The most recent thing I found was somebody that plugged a speaker cord from the motherboard into the hard drive jumper pins thus making the hard drive inoperable before I corrected it.  What possessed somebody to do that is beyond me.
 
So anyway, even though I knew what I was doing back at that other job; I now greatly appreciate the engineer not letting me fix the pc at first.

Blog comments don't get read as often as the blogs themselves; but this comment from my End User Delight blog has to be shared:

From jepott:

I can relate to that!! 

I recently had an end user who decided that he would upgrade the memory in his computer... not all that difficult for the average person, BUT this was no average person.  He opened the case and found the open memory slot.  He proceeded to put hs new 512MB Corsair PC3200 memory module in. 

 As I recall, he said "it was a bit stuborn but I finally manged to get it in."  He then closed everything up and turned on the computer..... to his dismay nothing came up on the screen.... suddenly the aweful smell of electrical smoke filled the air.  He quickly turned it off and re-opened the case.  He took out the new memory module only to find some light charring on it.... being hopeful he turned the computer back on.... NOTHING.... that's when he called me.

  I had him bring it in and I took a look at it....yep, he did it.... he put the memory module in backwards - even with the keyed notch.... no wonder it was a bit stuborn.  I simply told him - yes, I can fix it but I'll need to send it back to the manufacturer to get the smoke put back in...

God gave us two ears but only one nose; and that nose has two nostrils.  I think that should tell us something.

The background

I purchased an HP Color Laserjet 4610n with a Jetdirect Printserver for our facility.  It's a great machine.  The hardest thing was getting it out of the box; but once that nightmare was over it was time to connect to the printer.

It was easy as pie.  This baby is network ready.  I was printing from my Notebook within minutes.  Ditto the next three machines I tried.  The speed and quality were excellent.  I was in network printing paradise.

The problem

Did any of you read my Who supports Win 98 discussion?  About 90% (actually, its down to 85% now) of the pcs here are running Windows 98.  And guess what printer is not compatible with Windows 98?  That's right, the HP 4610n.

The solution

The installation disk wouldn't run saying 98 isn't supported.  Knowing that not being supported, or even not being compatible doesn't automatically mean it is not possible; I began looking for possibilities.  The HP website had no 98 drivers.  No other website did either.

So, I installed the printer on a 2000 machine and set it up to be shared on that machine.  I then used the add printer utility and found an existing driver that would run (the HP Color Laserjet PM.)  It printed and I found I was no longer in the tenable position of explaining to the business manager how I had purchased a $1200 paperweight.

I also learned to take a close look at all system requirements before buying new equipment.  (Although today wouldn't have been nearly as exciting had I done that in the first place.)

Let's take a moment away from the world of IT.  If I may (and it's my blog so I may) I'd like to discuss a Biblical misconception.

The local Christian radio station is running Pastor Appreciation messages from the respective pastor's congregations.  One such message went something like this:

We love and appreciate Pastor so-and-so from such-and-such church because he doesn't compromise the Word of God.  (Good for him I thought when I heard this.)  He preaches out of the King James Version (KJV) - the 1611.

I find it very hard to believe he preaches from the 1611 publication of the KJV.  For those who are still reading and don't know, there is the idea in some church circles that only the King James Version is the authoritative Word of God and all other versions should not be used.  Among those circles is the idea that only the version produced in 1611 should be used; despite the fact that most of these people have never seen a 1611.

I will not take the time right now to address either side of the KJV debate.  I do want to point out the misconception about the KJV from the year 1611.

Take a look at your copy of the KJV Bible.  Turn to a well known verse; John 3:16.  If it reads like this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." then guess what? You are not holding a 1611 KJV.

If it reads like this then you do have one: "For God so loued ye world, that he gaue his only begotten Sonne: that whosoeuer beleeueth in him, should not perish, but haue euerlasting life."

It will also look more like the writing below:

It will also contain the Apocrypha, other possible translations of some verses, have obscure spelling of most words and look & sound substantially different from what we reagrd today as THE King James Version.

There, I said it.

I have a notebook I purchased for use at my company.  Up until recently it has worked wonderfully.  Then one day I noticed on the screen what I thought were dead pixels but later determined it was a small scratch.  I am still at a loss as to where the scratch came from; but that's not important.  What is important is the frustration that ensued.

I really don't like to complain very much about companies so I won't tell you the name of the company.  However, I will let you know that it rhymes with swell. 

To be fair, the company sub-contracted to the dude that came out and every representative I've talked to on the phone has been pleasant and more knowledgeable than your average phone tech.  Because of that you shouldn't infer anything by the fact that I used the word swell to rhyme when it is only one letter removed from swill. 

I called the tech support line to exercise my warranty and within a few minutes my next business day rep was on his way to replace the screen on my laptop.  There was much rejoicing.  If I had the time I would have written a glowing blog about the service.

The man came, took my Notebook apart, replaced the screen.  Upon reboot I discovered my keyboard didn't work.  He took it apart and plugged the keyboard connector in.  No problem.  He left and I began working; at one point opening a program that opens and consolidates multiple IE windows. 

My system crashed.

I turned it back on; started over and it crashed again; then coming to the blue screen and performing a memory dump.  I logged the information; rebooted and Windows reported it had recovered from a "serious error."  I logged the information; sent the error report and was informed by the service that device drivers were at fault.

Now I could deal with this problem myself, but I figure I have a warranty for a reason.  Even though its doubtful replacing a screen could cause this I wanted it on record that it had happened.  I called tech support, we spent over an hour talking and determined that a Symantec driver and a CD/RW writer had conflicted (interesting as I hadn't been running the CD/RW software.  She had me uninstall both and then asked me if I had the CD/RW disk to reinstall.  "No, it's not in the software that was shipped even though it came installed."  She determined that because it wasn't shipped she couldn?t resend it.  For the record I have since solved that dilemma on my own.

Well we get off the phone, I walk away and my computer is off.  I did reboot after an update and its possible I shut it down by mistake but I don't think so.  I decided to let it go and deal with the driver issues myself.

Then I get to the end of the day and close my laptop.  Well, I tried to close it, but that function no longer works.  When the tech put it back together he must have put something back out of place; so I get to call back again and have him come back out.

There is not nearly as much rejoicing now.

In a recent Q/A, someone had problems accessing web sites from IE.  My answer included the following advice: "Go to Internet Options. On the general tab click settings. Lower the number of "amount of disk space to use" to 20 MB.  Click OK once. Click Delete Files on the general tab."

He asked, quite fairly I suppose, the following question: "Can you please tell me the purpose of reducing the disk space for temporary Internet file? How would it help?"  As the user does not allow private messages and the question is closed, I'll answer right here.

This is a tip I learned back in my High Speed Internet phone support days.  There were a number of times when a speed issue or a browse issue was resolved by changing the cache size to 20MB and clearing the files.  The reason is that when IE loads a website it first looks to the cache to try and bring it up quicker.  However, going through too much offline data actually slows the process down.  This can even get to the point of timing out and not being able to pull a website.  I've fixed too many issues this way to discount it as a option.

In fact, I highly recommend making a habit of always lowering your cache size to 20MB.

Life is a lot like a newborn baby.  It's sticky.

So here is the rest of the Notebook story from my War-anty blog.

I called Dell back and we determined that they shipped the wrong size screen.  It was too thick, preventing the case from closing.  I decided then to give the tech guy the benfit of the doubt since he received the wron part and it seemed to fit.

Well a different guy came and showed me where the screen has to be grounded; and that the first screen that was shipped would not reach and was not grounded.

Proof that the previous tech guy knew something was up.

I'm a genius.  At the moment I am also a tad insufferable; but that will pass.  I try to not blog more than once a day; but this was too good not to share.  You can thank me later

I was presented an old Win 2000 (pre service packs) Latitude Notebook that needed to be networked.  It had no NIC and no wireless adapter.  The part came in today; but troubles arose.  The setup wizard needed Internet Explorer 5.5 or better and this was running 5.0.  It was not an insurmountable problem; but as stated there was no network connection to download the update.

I tried manually installing the card, but the installation includes software needed for it to function properly.  So I went back to getting IE 5.5 or 6 on the machine.  I had no IE setup CD; and as you know downloading the "setup" program from Microsoft only downloads a file that then connects you to the internet to download the rest.

I went to the administrative Update site; but remember that this OS has no service packs on it; and you have to have at least service pack 3 to download any updates that way (and I believe that 5.5 was included in one of the first two service packs.

I tried using Firefox and setting it as the default browser but the software is hardcoded to look for the current version of IE.

Hardcoded.  Current Version.  Inspiration hit me.

I went to the registry, told it that the IE version was in fact 6.0.2800.1106.  The software believed me and I am downloading 2000 Service Pack 4 at this very moment.

Many have wondered what my handle means.  Master3bs?  What's that?  Is it a pun?  An insult?  Some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy?  No, I'm afraid it's none of the above

	Simple put; it refers to one of my favorite hobbies: juggling.  I call myself master3bs which is short for Master of 3 balls.
Frankly Decent4bs and WorkingOn5bs didn't have quite have the same ring to it.

At any rate there have been a lot of discussions here lately about reducing stress and not getting burned out.  While it can be frustrating at first; juggling is a great stress relief and its a lot of fun.

I have taught many people of various skill levels to juggle and how to do several tricks.  Since you can't all come to my house I'll give you this link instead.

Keep in mind these points:

1. Practice & keep working at it even if its only 5 minutes a day
2. Put it down.  If it gets too frustrating stop for a few minutes or even for the day.  It will be there when you get back

There are countless possibilities and benefits to juggling.  For those of you in IT (most of us here I imagine) it is a good past time for when you are doing a long installation.  I learned to juggle back when I was doing phone side desk support.  It gave me great pleasure to say "I assure you sir, you have my undivided attention," while performing the 3 ball Mills Mess.

Oh, and my icon is a picture of an acryllic ball used for something called contact juggling. And if WorkingOn5bs stinks as a handle; Beginner1bCJ is even worse.

So it turns out that XBOX 360 games will be available before the XBOX 360 itself.  Presumably, this is to generate more hype about the games themselves.

I'll bet you it will also generate game shortages when the system finally arrives (admitably only a week later.)  The games to be released early include Call of Duty 2, Condemned: Criminal Origins, DOA 4, Kameo: Elements of Power, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Quake 4.

I know its only a week early; but this seems a lot like releasing Windows Vista in 1995.  "Don't you wish you could install this?"  Hey at least the cases they come in will be nice to look at.

I put up a discussion about this here; figuring I'd get more feedback; but I wanted to have a record here on the ol' blog too.  I'll go into a bit more detail here to make it worthwhile.

I installed Mandrake Linux. In general the process was a lot easier than redhat was years ago, but I did get an error installing package libxorg-x11-6.7.0-3mdk.i586.

I went back and determined what it was that was not installing correctly. Turns out it has to do with the graphical interface.  It was listed as a "must have" on the installation guide so I decided to continue anyway; as I can always reinstall.

Well I now have a very powerful command line OS.  That is fortunate I guess, because I believe in knowing the command line of any OS if it exists.  It had been some time since I used linux at all; and I was hardly a command line expert in it.

Well it didn't take long to relearn the ls; su; cd; and other commands; and only slightly longer to get the text editor to work.

I then learned to go to the /etc/inittab file and change it to boot to the GUI instead. Before doing that; I learned the startx command and tried it. This gives me a series of no such file or directory errors.  Because of that, I assume that changing the inittab file will only lead to disaster.

So I'm going to reinstall mandrake again. In the meantime I'm downloading a centOS ISO and will grab a debian next.

Mandrake is supposed to be one of the easier flavors to install; so I'm going to at least get a graphical interface to work on it before moving on to another flavor.

There, I wrote more.

I often hear about people migrating to Linux having problems getting hardware to work or finding software that will run on their new systems.  As usual, I did things backwards again.  My problem turned out to be a hardware/software problem on Windows; not Linux

I have downloaded ISO's for Debian, SuSE, Mandrake & centOS.  I burned the images onto CD and went about the install process.  Every single one of them failed at some point in the installation; having various problems reading various packages.

I downloaded them from various sites and from various connections.  Everyone failing told me that the problem was with the burning itself.  centOS had an app in the install that tested the CD; which verified the problem with the CD's.  I was using Sonic; so I installed IOMEGA and was able to burn properly.

In the process I found centOS to have the most intuitive installation interface.  Mandrake, however, was the only one to be able to run even a command line OS after the failed install.  This is doubtless due to the fact that the packages it could not read were related entirely to the GUI interface.

Right now I am installing Debian from the network CD.  The ISO was only about 108 MB; and it installs the rest of its packages over my internet connection.  It is the coolest thing ever.  (Or, "it's edgy" as the kids say.)

Episode III went on sale today and fanboy that I am; I purchased it right away.  I needed to see it again; I yearned to look at the deleted scenes; I just had to watch all six films from start to finish. Oh, and I had to find out the truth about Darth Vader's father.

I can hear you now.  "Darth Vader's father?  Didn't he watch the films?  Vader had no father!"  Not so, and I can prove it.  Remember from Episode I, Qui-Gon asked Anakin's mother who the father was.  She said he had no father.  Let's assume she wasn't lying.  She seemed nice enough.  Now remember Qui-Gon tested Anakin's blood for the mysterious midi-chlorians and was astonished at how many there were- more than in any Jedi.

Fast forward to Episode III.  In the opera scene, Palpatine tells Anakin, "Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life ..."  He went on to say that his apprentice (later revealed to be Palpatine) learned Plagueis' secrets.

Obviously, either Palpatine or Plagueis was the "father" of Anakin.  Anakin wasn't conceived naturally but was brought about by a Sith's manipulation of the force.  I caught this on the first viewing in the theatre; possibly because I joked going in that we would find out that Palpatine was Vader's Father ala:

       "Your mother never told you the truth about your father did she?"
       "She told me enough!  She told me he smelled bad and she was going to lie on him so that nobody would ever know she let someone like that get close to her!"
       "No...  I am your... er.  She said what?"

Or something like that.  Well the DVD's have commentary from George Lucas himself.  I popped in my DVD and went to the appropriate scenes with the commentary on.  AND GUESS WHAT!?!?

They don't say.  It wasn't even mentioned.  Oh well, I still have the DVD.  Maybe it's in those deleted scenes...

My regular blog readers (and you know who you are) know, I've been working on setting up a linux box.  Right now I'm running centOS 4.2 and struggling to get it to access files on the Windows server.

And I'm struggling to get good at Konquest.  I was poking around the system today looking at what was available and discovered the game.  For those that don't know, its a galactic sized Risk type game with bad graphics.  And I couldn't put it down.

I have an XBOX for crying out loud!  Still, I was fascinated not only with the game itself but my inability to play it.  In 10 tries I only won 3 times.  I may have to wipe the system now if I'm going to get any work around.

Co-Worker #1: Why is my computer so slow?
Me: There could be a number of reasons; I'll need to look at it
Co Worker#1: Do you want me to defrag it?

Co-Worker #2: I've defraged my computer but I still can't get on the network drive
Me: Defraging has nothing to do with getting on the network.
Co-Worker #2: Do you want me to try it again?

I've been in my position as head of IT (and only IT worker for that matter) for about 3 months now.  In the past the staff has had to A) have the business manager who has some IT knowledge but 1000 other jobs or B) deal with the issues on their own.  When they went with option B, obviously somebody told them that defraging was the answer to everything.

They are getting better about coming to me first with their issues (which in itself keeps me busier than ever) but I still run across comments like these.  Worse, I still find issues that have continued to worsen without anyone bringing it to my attention until the problem has become a crisis.  A handful of the people still think like this.

Co-Worker #3: My computer runs slow and half the time I can't print.
Co-Worker #4: Why not have the new IT guy look at it?
Co-Worker #3: No, I think I'll just try defraging again and see what happens.

Windows has a bad reputation for bad security.  If you don't believe that; I'll be glad to discuss the issues the next time I update my spyware definitions; virus definitions; scan for exploits or reconfigure my firewall settings.

Fortunately; that lax security can be used for good as well.  Let me introduce you to some new tips that take advantage of windows' problems.

Scenerio 1: Product Key

Scenerio 2: Forgotten password

Scenerio 3: Forgotten XP Administrator password

First, let me tell my non-IT friends that this blog should interest you too.  (Yes Jeff, this applies to you and to your laptop).

I am a latecomer to Firefox, but now that I've used it for a month I'm hooked.  To those who don't know, Firefox is an internet browser that rivals Internet Explorer.  Appropriately enough, you can get it at http://www.getfirefox.com.  There are several reasons why Firefox is superior to IE; but the two top ones are Tabbed Browsing and Extensions.

Tabbed Browsing:
I multitask and in IE, I constantly right-click links and open them in new windows.  This keeps me from leaving a page I am still looking at; while continuing a search elsewhere.  It also clutters up the taskbar and potentially hurts performance.  The answer: tabs.

This makes navigating the web smoother, faster and more productive.  In the above example, a google search has been performed and results are opened up in the same browser.  (Jeff, this makes Kings of Chaos attacks a dream.)

Extensions
A close second to the tab advantage are the extensions.  Simply Click on the tools menu, Extensions, and then get more extensions and you add functionability to your internet expierience. I'm amazed at how much you can do with these. 

Below are the extensions I currently use:

NoScript: Provides protection against scripting on websites. I can tell it what to allow and what to block
.
IE View: You may still prefer to view pages in Internet Explorer.  This extension automatically opens the pages in IE at your request, and even allows you to tell IE to always open for particular pages.

CustomizeGoogle: This is a nifty tool that I haven't fully utilized yet.  Remove google adds, add other searches to google, prett much tell gogle how you want it to search.

Bork Bork Bork!  Hilarious!  Converts all website text to Bork language.  It turns my last blog from saying:

"Windows has a bad reputation for bad security.  If you don't believe that; I'll be glad to discuss the issues the next time I update my spyware definitions; virus definitions; scan for exploits or reconfigure my firewall settings."

to reading "Veendoos hes a bed repooteshun fur bed secooreety.  Iff yuoo dun't beleeefe-a thet; I'll be-a gled tu deescooss zee issooes zee next time-a I updete-a my spyvere-a deffeenishuns; furoos deffeenishuns; scun fur ixplueets oor recunffeegoore-a my furooell settings."

Copy Plain Text: If you highlight it, you copy it to the clipboard.  Very useful.

Tiny URL Creator: Creates a small url that never expires for any webpage.  For example, my blog page can be found at  http://tinyurl.com/7ulkb

FasterFox: Some people find FasterFox to speed up FireFox, others don't.  On my system it makes things much faster.

If you haven't already, download it now and enjoy!

I was going to make my next blog about peer-to-peer file sharing, but this can't wait any longer.

I have a co-worker that eats possum. What she eats in her free time
is none of my business aside from the obligatory sarcastic comments.
The problem is that she is A) insistent that we are all missing out on
a great treat and B) baffled that nobody else eats roadkill.

She goes on and on about how good it is fried; especially the skin.
It's to the point where it's so easy to make fun that it's not fun
anymore. Now I just stare at her like a frightened animal in the face
of an oncoming car. The irony is not lost on me.

So I put the question to you, my faithful readers. Do you eat
possum? And how would you deal with a co-worker that insists you should?

It's the most wonderful time of the year. I
sincerely mean that, despite all the hassles that go along with
Christmas. And lest anyone hassle me about the topic I chose to bring to
the soapbox, I promise to bring this around to IT by blog's end.

This is the time of year I can listen to Christmas music without having to
explain that, "yes I realize it's the middle of March."
Incidentally, it's also the time of year that I hear people complaining how
repetitive Christmas music is on the radio. Never mind that there are
still radio stations playing the same 25 songs they play over and over all year
long anyway.

But that's not the problem. Here's the problem. Including this
sentence, I've already used the word "Christmas" four times in three
paragraphs. Is anyone offended yet? If not, I'm surprised.
Why else would many companies forbid their employees from wishing a "Merry
Christmas" to customers? Didn't you get the memo that Christmas is
offensive?

Each year we hear new stories about manger scenes being protested or even
removed. We hear about more regulations imposed on what people can say or display without causing someone else to be affronted.

This year I've already talked to a friend that was unable to buy a Christmas
tree. All the stores are selling in our town this year are "Holiday trees."

Ho, ho, ho.

As my friend put it, which holiday are the trees for? For instance, how
many Hanukah trees have you seen decorated so far this year? I thought so.

Our culture seems increasingly uncomfortable with anything resembling
Christianity. I could write about the historical heritage of Christianity
in America
and Christmas, but let's take a different route. In fact, I'll only share
two bullet items:

1. Christmas is not just
   religious
2. What is truly offensive?

And yes, this will eventually
deal with IT. I have a computer solution to the problem.

First let's look at point #1. Christmas is not just religious. Now
I am a Christian, and I love this time of year to celebrate the coming of Jesus
into the world. Was He born on December 25th? Probably not, but at
year's end it?s a good time to reflect and celebrate His birth.

Now that I've mentioned "The True Meaning Of Christmas," many of you
are about to respond that many elements of Christmas started out as a secular
holiday. That is in fact, my point.

Not everyone that enjoys
Christmas does so from a religious perspective. Rudolph did not come into
the world to die in our place so that we could be reconciled to a holy
God. To protect people from Christmas on religious grounds doesn't make
sense when there are so many secular elements as well.

That brings me to point #2.

I am not offended by people who celebrate Hanukah. I do not agree with
their religious beliefs, but their practice of said beliefs do not infringe on
me in any way.

"Happy Hanukah to you Scott."

"Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you."

I'm not offended by Kwanza either. If
anything, it amuses me, especially at a time when the manufactured elements of
Christmas seem to bother people. I'm not offended by the atheist who
doesn't believe in God, the Jehovah's Witness who celebrates no holidays at
all, or the Mormon who distorts the message of the virgin birth.

Many of the above people's beliefs bother me because I know them to be
incorrect and harmful. I'm always glad to discuss the beliefs with
people. The thing is, in addition to the Bible, I also believe in the
First Amendment. It makes for good reading, especially if you've never
read it in its entirety.

What offends me is the idea that we can keep from offending everybody. It
offends me that "freedom of religion" has come to mean "freedom
from religion." It is an affront to ask my beliefs & traditions
to be trampled upon to protect the sensibilities of people with thin
skin. We have become a culture whose members think they have a right to
never be confronted with something that disagrees with their beliefs.
Then many of those same members call those that do have other beliefs close-minded.

That is offensive; but there is a solution. I told you this would
eventually get back to technology. I've written a simple computer
program. This is the 21st century so it should be child's play to upload
this program into everyone's brain; and have the program executed during
Christmas season.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

(Want to see who's next On the Soapbox? Find out in
the Blog Roundup newsletter. Use this link to automatically
subscribe and have it delivered directly to your Inbox every Wednesday.)

Option Explicit
Private Function GetOverIt_Input(Input As String, Response As String)

Dim mood as emotion
Dim anal-retentive as Boolean
Dim skin as integer

if skin <= 0 then
skin=10

response=?I?m sorry that I expect the world to cater to my every whim.
Please accept my apologies, and take this $20 as an advance on the Christmas
gift I?ll be buying you this year.?
call
function AddMaturity()
end if

if input contains ?Christmas? AND anal-retentive=True then
response=?Have a
Merry Christmas, and God bless us everyone.?
skin=skin+5
set anal-retentive
to False
Call function
Smile()
end if

if mood IS LIKE ?grinch? then
mood=?festive?
response=?I don?t know what came over me,
but I?m changing my ways, or my name isn?t Ebenezer Scrooge.?
end if

Return
End Function

(Want to see who's next On the Soapbox? Find out in
the Blog Roundup newsletter. Use this link to automatically
subscribe and have it delivered directly to your Inbox every Wednesday.)

Coming soon will be a summary of these misadventures in fixing a certain Human Resources laptop. 

For now I want to share an article I had published recently.  It is about comic books in general, and is located at the Sequential Tart
website.  Each month they publish one article by one male, and I
got the chance to be a guest writer.  Sadly, it pays the same
amount my previous writing assignments have.

You can see the article here.  It feature is called the Redirected Male (please no jokes, I didn't name the feature) and my article is entitled

Happy Holidays! What I Want From Comics This Season

For those that only enjoy reading about tech stuff, I try not to go
more than two blogs without a tech article, and my last blog entry
counts as half of one.