Category Archives: Technology

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.

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.

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.

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!!!

I had a very unpleasant dealing with the bank today.  All the rules and protection they put in for themselves when you need to get money from them.  But when they take money from you?  It takes no time.   Anyway, after the frustrating incident, I was so pissed that I went to Best Buy and bought a netbook that I was eyeing for last time I was there.  Here is the brand spanking new Eee PC 1005 HAB. 

From Gadgets

Remember I was bitching about hauling the big Vaio around and how hot it gets that almost burns my leg?  Ya, I solved THAT problem.  Here is my first impression of this netbook.

Since I have been using Vista and now Windows 7 for a long time, going back to XP take a bit of adjusting.  Things are not as well polished as the latest OS.  Also, this thing has only 1 gig of RAM.  It shows even when I’m typing.  Sometimes I would be typing ahead before the letters catch up with me.  But that was when Live Update was running in the background.  Now, it’s much better.  The keyboard is a bit smaller than the standard though.  It will take some time to get used to it.  The biggest problem for me is the page up and down keys are hidden under the the up and down key.  That is, you have to use the combination of the function key with the up and down key to use the page up and down.  I just realized that I use those pageup and down key a lot when I’m web browsing to quickly go down a page.  (Note, I found that the space bar can do the page down thing.  So one down. And shift-space is pageup. Duh!  The two finger parrell gesture can move up and down just like the iphone too!  Yeah!!)

I looked online for the 2 Gig RAM upgrade.  It doesn’t seem as straight forward as it should be.  But I didn’t spend too much time on it. 

As soon as I got home and plugged this thing in, I used Skype to call L.  He sounded like he was falling asleep.  But he answered and we talked for maybe half an hour.  I’m glad to see him albeit it was dark and fuzzy.  Finally after over a month and a half, I am starting to miss this old guy.  😉  I’m still busy and there are tons of things to do.  But it is very nice to talk to him and see him and just chat about nothing.  The webcam worked.  But he said it’s a little fuzzier than when I was on the iMac.  Understandable.  I can even tell on my end.  When I move, you see ghost movements. 

The screen is only 10″ so email and blog entry screen both look crammed.  But compared to iPhone’s small screen and thumb keyboard, it’s much better.  I bought the one with 6 cell battery.  Supposedly, it will last 6 hours.  I’ll see.  I am hoping for a longer and cooler unit than Vaio.  And I think I won’t be disappointed. 

The touch pad has the same zoom up and down finger gesture as the iPhone which I like.  And I just uploade the pictures form the SD card on this thing.  I like that!  I think it has all the things I want from a light netbook.  I just have to get used to the slower processor, the smaller screen and the smaller keyboard.  Things are just not as snappy as it’s big brothers but that’s kind of what you expect anyway.

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After using it for a couple of hours sitting in bed, browsing, blogging on this little book.  I think I like it more and more.  It’s light and the battery goes on and on and on.  Right now, it still has more than 80% left which equilents to 6+ hours.  I hope that’s true but even if it’s 4+, it’s more than enough for tonight before I clunk out. 

I should have go tone yeons ago.  🙂

This question has been in my mind lately.  Often times, I get the urge to write throughout the day but I either don’t want to haul the notebook out of the backpack or the thought of  going downstairs or sitting uncomfortably in front of the PC just prevents me from doing it. 

The best device would be small enough to carry around all the time and has internet access anywhere you go.  Yes, a netbook sounds nice but you have to look for wireless access still, you can’t just whip it out any time you have an inspiration and have it up and out of your mind.  But it is the closest it can get for now.  Maybe soon wireless access will be a none issue with the speed of technology advancement today.  And everybody will be walking around with a netbook like we have cell phones now.

The iphone is much better than a unitask cell phone and it combines the PDA function with the phone which is what I always wanted.  It only lacks the ability of downloading audible books wirelessly that I was able to do with my previous PDA phone running Windows Mobile.  I liked that phone a lot but web surfing was not good at all.  And it didn’t have the wow factor of the apps on the iphone. 

I love my Vaio I can do anything I want on it, but it is big and clunky and the battery gets so hot it burns you when you place it on your lap.  Then you need to put a fan under it and that makes it so bulky you just don’t want to haul all that around even in the house. 

I love Evernote, it has such a potential to keep everything you want to remember or have a record of  in one place, but it requires a computer and the internet access to be as useful as it can be.  So that comes back to a perfect laptop with internet access at all times.  Yes, it can be done, I know.  A usb dongle with a cell phone plan.   But why should we pay $40-60 a month just to have the ability to access the interent at those moments of need.    It doesn’t justify the cost if you are just a casual onliner instead of a on-the-road business person. 

I love my MacBook Air, it’s light and it doesn’t get as hot as the Vaio and it’s powerful.  But it can’t do everything I need to do.  I can’t upload pictures because it doesn’t have a card reader built in, I can’t run my PC apps because it is a Mac. 

There is just no one thing that you can take with you and not have to worry about bringing all of the necessary usb cables and devices along to cover all your needs.  Oh, I can’t wait when such a thing is invented and I’ll be the first one in line to get it.

Ya, coding today.  E wants a poll for the showcase so I went on my site and started playing with pollphp.  In the beginning it was not intuitive that the admin is where you go to see all the poll lists and templates.  After poking around a while, I finally got the hang of it.  But it still took a lot of trial and error to make the survey somwhere close to what I like.   And then embed it into a page on the studio site.  Pretty happy with what I’ve done. 

Last night sitting in bed watching TV and knitting, I got the urge to write.  But I didn’t like to balance the heavy and usually hot Vaio on my lap, so I just had to sit and wait out the urge.  Having something light like the MacBook Air was certaily suited very well for those moments where hauling a heavy notebook is not desirable.  Netbook seems to be the closest to that advantage and it’s not very expensive.  hmmm.

Also in the process of figuring out how to be more mobile with my photos and music.  Right now, they are on a few external drives shared from a desktop at home.  But when I’m on the road, I lose access to them and have to wait till I get home to do what I need to do.  Maybe a small external HD would do the job.  I’m carrying one to backup the studio data anyway and it would be nice if I can also bring all my “data” with me on the go.  Just checked and after all I only have 5 Gig of photos and under 30 Gigs of music anyway.   The advantage is I’ll always have those with me when I need to add more photos or listen to some music.  The downside is I’ll have to sync it with the hard drives at home so I have a permanent place for them.  hmmm. I wonder how online storage works.  Will it be easier for backup purposes?  I should check into that.