x(perts)64 : OffTopic

A Lighter Moment

Charlie Russel — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:42:06 GMT

I ran across a perfect commentary on how the life of a Microsoft MVP works, in this comic on the xkcd site. Of course, it was sent to me originally by my wife. Wonder what she was trying to tell me......(read more)

Unwanted Services when installing iTunes (for SHAME, Apple!)

Charlie Russel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:22:00 GMT

OK, we've all complained about unnecessary services and silent installs, but to give them credit, Microsoft has done a pretty good job of cutting back on that sort of thing. Heck, they even allow installing a server without a GUI, finally. So I recently...(read more)

ExchangeDefender is a Winner

Charlie Russel — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:47:00 GMT

As most of you know, we run our writing and consulting business on Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2. It includes Exchange Server 2003 SP2, and we've been using the same, quite public, email addresses for at least 17 years since our first book...(read more)

My New Favourite Excuse for Everything

Charlie Russel — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:12:00 GMT

From the Washington Post: Here's an innovative excuse from White House spokeswoman Dana Perino yesterday: "I can't be held accountable for statements I make when it turns out later on I didn't know what I was talking about." I love it. Charlie....(read more)

CPU Temperatures - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Charlie Russel — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:36:00 GMT

I've long been a believer in keeping my systems as cool as possible. Not because I overclock, but just because it's better for everything and improves the stability of the system. I've discovered, over the years, that cheaping out on cases is a bad idea...(read more)

Windows Home Server

Charlie Russel — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:44:00 GMT

OK, this is going to be cool. I'll bet I can even use it to store programs for my TiVo! The new Windows Home Server is a headless multimedia storage, secure backup, and remote access server that sits in your closet and just does it's job. Quietly and...(read more)

Bloggers getting Ferrari Laptops

Charlie Russel — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 16:51:00 GMT

So, the net is buzzing (what's new) about several bloggers getting brand new Ferrari laptops . And the cries and moans of those who didn't get one are all about how this will compromise the bloggers, etc. Horsepucky. Now I confess, I didn't get one. I...(read more)

Evaluation VHDs from Microsoft

Charlie Russel — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:18:00 GMT

Microsoft has finally broken down and is providing pre-built VHDs of Server software. They're running eval versions, obviously, but this is a definite step forward. The VHD home page has details, as does The Virtual PC Guy . Charlie....(read more)

Cool new tool/toy

Charlie Russel — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 23:51:00 GMT

OK, I admit, I'm a hopeless toy junkie. But sometimes, something comes across my desk that I think is so simple and obvious, I wonder why no one ever did it before. The new USB to IDE/SATA Bridge Adapter from Granite Digital is one of those things. For $40, all in, you get a well designed, high speed, bridge that lets you connect any IDE or SATA drive you happen to have lying around to any computer. Without opening up anything, and without worrying about one of those chintzy cases causing thermal drive failure.

Now I admit, I'm not surprised that Granite Digital did this. They have a long standing reputation, well deserved, for quality components. I first ran across them in the late 80's or early 90's, when I was trying to build SCSI systems so that I could dual boot between DOS and UNIX. These days we're spoiled, with SCSI devices that have built in active termination being the norm. In those days, you actually had to plug in the 3 resistor packs on the drive that was going to be the last one in the chain. And the chances of a cable being bad, or the spacing on the cables being wrong, etc., were quite high. After spending literally hours at my local system builder, swapping cards and drives and cables in and out, trying to get something, ANYTHING, to work, Finally, the owner of the shop said "you know, you should talk to Granite Digital. They can fix this." Well, he was right. They did. Turned out to be iffy cables and even iffier termination. No problem. New cables from them, and an active terminator (if they didn't invent active termination, they were certainly the very first I ever saw of it) and we were in business. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the card and drives I'd chosen, just a noise SCSI buss. Since that day, the only times I've ever had problems with a SCSI system were when I wasn't using their stuff.

So, back to this little bridge thing. It's basically two components - a dual-headed, dual-switched, power supply that has a SATA power head and a standard 4 prong internal device head on it. Chose the one you need, and plug it in to your drive and switch on the power. (For a notebook IDE, you don't use a separate power connector, it's built in to the main Notebook IDE connector.) The other component is the actual bridge device itself. This has connectors for IDE and and notebook sized IDE, plus a cable that has a standard SATA connector on it. Plus, of course, a cable with a USB connector on it. So, plug the appropriate connector in to your HD, and plug the USB into your PC or laptop, and there you are. No drivers required, it works just fine in XP, XP x64, and Vista x64.

All this in a nicely made little package that will now go with me on every service call. Plug it in, using any old spare HD you've got lying around, and you've got a quick, safe backup device BEFORE you start working on it. Or, need a lot of room to hold VHDs when you're doing a class or presentation? No problem, even when my Acer Ferrari has no spare room on it. Just load all your VMs onto a HD and carry it with you.

Charlie.

AMD and ATI

Charlie Russel — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:40:00 GMT

Oh, my. AMD is buying out ATI. This may not be directly x64 related, folks, but it will definitely have a huge impact on x64 hardware. Currently, the most popular chipsets for AMD boards are from ATI’s main competitor – Nvidia. I suspect they’ll be shifting their focus to Intel CPUs now, though I find it hard to believe that they’ll completely abandon AMD - they’ve made a lot of money on AMD systems over the last few years. And is Intel likely to want to use ATI chipsets on their own (and their reference) motherboards? Not very likely.

My real problem, however, is trying to figure out how this is going to benefit either company. I’ve seen enough mega-mergers in the computer world to know that this will have a major effect on the productivity of both companies in the short term. And this at a time when AMD is back to playing catchup with Intel? It just doesn’t make sense.

Charlie.

Blog Skins

Charlie Russel — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:33:00 GMT

Ah, new blog skins available thanks to Susan. Had to try a different look. We’ll see what the comments are and what I think after a while with this one. If we don’t like it, we’ll go back to FoggyBottom.

Update: We're back to the old look. The other one didn't grow on me.

Finally, BlogJet back!

Charlie Russel — Mon, 29 May 2006 15:15:00 GMT

Many thanks to Susan Bradley, the extraordinary MVP who manages this blog space. After much pain, she has managed to get the underlying Community Server that we run on to work with BlogJet, my preferred tool for uploading blogs. I’m not sure if it will have me updating this space more often, but it will sure make it easier!

Charlie.

Longhorn Server - New Server Manager

Charlie Russel — Tue, 16 May 2006 20:54:00 GMT

Want to know more about Longhorn Server and how it will be administered and confirgured? Then tune in to the TechNet Webcast coming on Wednesday, May 31. http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032294712&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

This may be the first chance you get to see the new interface, but it's probably also one of the last chances we have to help change it. So pay attention, ask questions, and speak up if something doesn't look right. I know I've got some questions about where Monad fits in this, how I'm going to script installs and configuration, and especially how I'm supposed to configure a headless server if I don't use images (and I don't).

Charlie.