WHS

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In the last few days, the WHS suddenly acted up.  L started having problem downloading stuff from it and let me know.  I tried to open up all the ports for it on the router.  That didn’t help.  I went in and checked the settings and everything that needs to be set is set.  And he was able to download stuff before.  I ran out of ideas and thought ok, maybe the box isn’t being recognized by the router.  I’ll just disable and enable the NIC and see if that would help.  As soon as I disabled the NIC, I realized what a big mistake I have made.  I essentially disabled the only way that I can get to the box. 

See it’s a headless server, meaning it doesn’t have keyboard or a monitor attached.  You use remote desktop to get to it and do stuff.  That means the network has to work for you to do anything on it.  So I started searching frantically on the web for solutions.  I found this exact thread on

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http://www.homeserverland.com/forums/f/110/p/344/5776.aspx

If you have a headless device like the HP MediaSmart Server you can connect an USB keyboard and wait about 30 seconds. Next press CTRL + ALT + DELETE  and then enter your WHS Administrator password and hit the ENTER key.

Then enter “windows + R“, (where windows is the windows key on your keyboard) this will open the run dialog and then enter  “ncpa.cpl” (without the quotes) this opens up network connections dialog.
Press the DOWN ARROW key (only once) and then press ENTER enter which will enable the NIC card, if you have multiple NIC adapters you can toggle using the right and left keys and YES you have to do it blind so make sure every keystroke counts.

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But I tried it for 4 hours and it just doesn’t work.  I even took out the extra hard drives that I put in hoping it would have less time booting up as I was rebooting it and rebooting it.  I was also doing the same thing on my Vista notebook to see it step by step.   I knew that it should work and because I couldn’t see what I was doing, I knew the cursor/highlight wasn’t at the right place.  Finally, it dawned on me to try typing ‘L’ instead of using the down arrow for the last step.  And it worked!!  The light in the back of the box started flashing signaling the network connection coming alive.  But by then, I was exhausted from trying and that was the last thing I did on the computer yesterday.

L was still having problem this morning.  So I defined the port for 443 on the router and direct it to the WHS besides the web server port 80.  L tried, and it worked.  The problem was finally solved.

But I still don’t understand what happened to require the specific port forwarding now but worked before.  It would remain a mystery I guess.

Google Chrome

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Trying out Google chrome browser now.  The first impression is better usage of the screen space. The top part where the tabs and buttons and menu bars reside takes very little real estate as compared to IE.  And I like that.  Making efficient use of the top leaves more room for the web page you want to look at.  And there are a lot of themes you can try out.  I’m using Stefanie Posavec, a feminine pinkish border peeks through at the top.  I like it so far.

From the little info I read about it, you can start typing a website address and google will start suggesting sites to you.  I think that’s cool.  And as I use it more, I’ll find out if it remembers the sites I often visit.  If Google Chrome is not as bloated and touchy as IE, I would be a convert soon.  But the sad thing is you still need to build your website by testing it on IE and the others.   But just to navigate around, I can get used to using the Chrome browser quickly I think.

Break Through

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E wants to send flyers made in Word to the mailing list.  But phplist won’t take a word file.  That’s the delimma.

So I was online looking for solutions and trying things out all day today.  I’ve tried and did not succeed with:

flashpaper – it doesn’t want to install on my Vista or Windows 7
SWFPrinter – swf doesn’t work in phplist
Print2flash – it costs money
Scribd – phplist wo’t take embeds
Websnapr – thinking I can make a small image of the page and link it to the real thing.  It won’t take the scribed page.

And a few other things that I can’t even remember.  But the thumbnail idea actually lead me to the solution.  I thought I would just take a portion of the Word file and put a link to the Scribed page.   But when I zoomed out a bit I was able to catch the whole page and saved it as a png file.  Then I just put the image file in a generic web page container between the <body> tags and made a template out of it on phplist.  And the text is clear and nothing more needs to be done after that.  I was also able to crop a portion of a web page that she wanted to include in the email and then put a Read More with a link to the actual web page. 

Very relieved that I found this solution.  And very amazed at the quality of image that Jing has captured from the screen.  Great product and it’s totally free.  No need to mess with flashpaper’s issue with newer version of Windows since Adobe isn’t supporting it any more.  Scribd is still a very good tool to embed Word or PDF file into a web page.  And it’s free too.

Remote Starter

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E asked for remote starter for her car for Christmas.  I looked at all the models available at Bestbuy and decided on Viper 5101 last week, called the store, ordered the unit and scheduled the installation for today.  First of all, you need

the bypass $79.99 + 29.99
relay 9.99 + 29.99 (power lock)
hood in switch 9.99
material $5. 

So the cost is immediately doubled.  I  decided to go ahead with it as it’s the Christmas present and it’s something that she asked for and would help her a lot in the winter time.  The story gets long though after that.

The appointment was for 10am.  The problem is though that I went to bed at 2:30am.  I knew I needed to go to bed early so I can get up and walk the dog before I go.  But I just couldn’t fall asleep last night.  So I stayed up and watched a couple of movies on Netflix.  And before I knew it, it was 2:30am.  I had a fitfull night of nightmares, partly because I was nervous that I may oversleep.  Fortunately, I woke up in time, walked the dog, went over to B’s and switched the cars and arrived at Bestbuy ahead of the scheduled appointment even.  Kevin took the car and had no problem finding the paperwork, he was the guy I talked to and he got evreything ready to do.

So I went over to Border’s for my first cup of coffee and a slice of banana bread.  It hit the spot.  I got the current issue of “Spin it” and “Iphone tips, tricks and hacks”.  And I flipped through every page and read all the articles.  That was great.  I rarely finish a whole issue at one sitting.  This forced quiet time gave me the opportunity to read them from cover to cover.  And I learned a few new things and a couple of new apps to look at.  While I was reading the mags, there was a lady that held court at the Cafe.  She first met with her financial advisor (I think) and they talked for over an hour.  Then one of her clients came and she did an interview with the client.  I still don’t know what kind of business hes is conducting.  The client is obviously being trained to do something.  But she asked such personal questions of all her family members and relatives, I wonder why she would need to know.  Things like are they married, how many kids, do they work, do they own their home.  Whatver business the young lady is trying to enter, they shouldn’t need to  know in such details about her family.  I wasn’t really paying attention to what they said but they sat at the next table and carried on their business as if it’s their office.  It’s quite interesting.  Then I knitted a few rounds of the Pi Shawl.  By then, 4 hours have passed.  I headed back to Bestbuy.

As I got in the door, Kevin just finished leaving me a voice mail.  The install was done.  He is a very nice young man, I love to listen to him talk for some reason.  He has a nice way of speaking.  He explained how to operate the remote starter and let me try it too.  And waited to see if I have any question.  Didn’t rush me and was very pleasant.  I signed the paper and drove the car back to B’s, got my car. and went to Station 59 for dinner.

On my way there, Kevin called and said he apologizd to call but he thought he left a tool in my car.  And if I can drive it back so he or his co-worker can check.  I told him it would be after 6 or Wednsday.  He was very polite and said it doesn’t have to be today.  So I went and had my dinner at 4, went home fed the pets and walked Benny and got right back out again.

Went to B’s picked up the car, drove to bestbuy.  Steve the coworker came out with me.  He said Kevin said he might have left it inside of the hood.  As he tried to open the hood, the device fell right into his hand.  It took about 2 seconds.  He shook my hand and thanked me and I drove back to B’s.  Switched to my car and finally got home at 7pm.

Whew!! Waht a day.  Didn’t expect to spend the whole day for the remote start but it did and I’m already in bed exhausted from the lack of sleep and the driving back and forth to the same places twice all day.

But I love the remote start.  It’s easy, one push of a button and the car starts.  No mess no fuss.  One remote that starts the car and opens the door.  I love the idea that you can start the car and let it warm up in the winter before you go out into the snow and the freezing temperature.  I didn’t get the iPhone starter which can be installed later.  But the idea of starting the car anywhere is very interesting.   Although this one has a 2000 feet range, it’s amazing someone thought of writing an app that can start the car from another city if you want.  The iPhone really revolutionalized how we envision the possibilities in life. 

I can’t imagine going back to any other phone after the iPhone.  I won’t be able to live without all the apps I have grown used to having right in the palm of my hand.

Sunday Movie

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Bennyand Manfred woke me up this morning.  Climbed out of bed and saw the rain through the windows.  I fed them and made coffee.  But Benny wanted to go so I put his raincoat on and we went.  He walked like an old dog and stood by the steps for a few moments contemplating if it’s a good idea to go out.  We did go for a short walk and all the time he walked like it’s hard to even think about taking another step.  It’s funny.  He’s such a dainty dog.

Came back, climbed back into bed.  Checked email.  L isn’t on.  I turned on the Xbox and found Holiday.  Enjoyed the movie totally.  So befitting of the season.   Never watched so many movies.  Ever since the EPS adapters came and the xbox and appleTV are hooked up to it.  I started watching movie from Netflix and Xbox.  Riding the emotional tides of the plots, losing track of time.  The luxury of not working and being alone.  Not quite all alone, there is Benny, Manfred and Tido always around me.   Never have I had this luxury of time and freedom. 

However, a mindless day is fun but mindless days are not.  Finding a goal, something to learn, some thing to achieve, a finished project well done.  That makes your life energetic and purposeful.  So now I go and search for the meaningful day I am going to have.

work day

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It’s my Tuesday work day agian.  Had my lesson with M last night, it’s been couple of months since my last one with him.  I was semi-waiting for his call to cancel again.  But fortunately, he didn’t and we had our lesson.  I still love to take lesosn with him, I learn a lot of techniques with him.  We worked on Samba yesterday since that is one dance I never really learned from T.  And we probably will do a samba solo at the showcase next time.  The argintine Tango group lesson was interesting.  I’m still not quite used to the close hold and body contacts.  But I am determined to stay in and learn this dance for the showcase.  I wouldn’t want to learn it any other way with any partner anyway. 

My boss called and we setup his smtp server so that he can send email from anywhere.  He’s pretty happy about that.  And I am too.  Yeepiiiii.

Computer maniac

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The Windows Home Server arrived Tuesday.  So I’ve been working on setting it up and copying media files all day yesterday.  And today, I decided to reinstall the OS on the Vaio since it’s giving me fits and won’t do the Windows Update or more importantly install the Home server client so I can back it up.  So now I’m setting this up too.  Reinstalling the OS was not bad at all, it’s trying to keep useful files that took the most time.  I went through all the folders trying to see if there is something I like to keep before I wipe the disk and do a fresh install.  This time around, I’ll try to really make an effort of keeping the files orgniazed.  Still haven’t found the camera driver yet.  So video chat is out of the question right now. 

E has left for Kenya since last Friday.  And she wrote a few email already.  Life over there is totally different and primitive.  It’s a brand new experience for her.  But she wrote today and said she caught some kind of bug and was running fever and having diahrea all night.  Man, that’s not good.  Of anything you don’t want to get sick over there.  Hope she recovers soon.  But she said thousands of people came to the clinic from just word of mouth news that they are there.  How they have to suffer without medical help over there! 

The desire to knit is coming up again.   Want to start a pair of socks again and also have been Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop.  I want to try and knit a bog jacket for myself with the brown yarn I have spun.  Sweaters.  I don’t have many sweaters, should knit some. 

Weather has got cold in the past few days.  Benny walking has been a bit tougher especially when it rains or when the wind is blowing.  But he’s been very cooperative, only when the rain was coming down hard did he turn around and refused to go for a walk.  I don’t blame him.  I didn’t want to either.  Tido is again hiding inside of my jacket trying to be warm.  He likes that and will stay in there for hours as long as I let him.   And I let him.

I lost a bluetooth headset the second day I bought it!!!  I can’t believe it.  And I’m very upset about it.  It’s a Jabra Halo.  And it’s not cheap, the Bestbuy salesman gave me a 20% discount and it’s the first set that I liked over my ears.  I can’t stand those that cover my ears, they hurt my ears after I wear them for a couple of hours.  And this set is the first one that are comfortable on my head.  I thought I put them in my purse on my way out but they were gone when I got home.  Couldn’t remember where and when I took them out!!!  I’m so forgetful now, it’s scary.    Got to keep track of things better.  Mostly I think it’s just putting your mind to it and pay attention to what you are doing now instead trying to jump ahead and plan what you want to do next or what you had done.  Here and Now!!!