93 words
After reading a blog entry by wantmoore about typing speeds, I just had to try it myself. I decided just to post my first score, rather than practicing or anything.
I got 2 words wrong and 93 correct in 60 seconds.
Those years of not-sports have really paid off!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Sword of the Spirit
This week Justin Marbury continued our study on the Armor of God in Ephesians 6 by going over the Sword of the Spirit.
Ephesians 6:13-19
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.(emphasis added)
The Sword's Substance
In Roman times, swords were made of sturdy metal, were double-edged, and had a sharp point. The idea behind them was to be able to stab the enemy, piercing through the armor they had on. During the study we looked at a photo of another sword with a similar length, but it was made of cardboard and duct tape. The question posed was "Which would you rather take into battle?"
The answer is obvious, I'd rather take the real "Gladius" sword (or whatever the Roman sword was called). If we would rather take a real sword in our physical battles, shouldn't we also want to take a real sword in our spiritual battles as well?
Biblical Specs
- 66 books
- 40 Authors
- Written over a 1500 year span
- Billions of Bibles have been sold
- Translated into over 2200 languages
- Historically validated
- Archeologically supported
- Prophetically proven
It also answers the most important questions in life. Why we are here, who we are, is there a God, and what does God expect of us? How do we handle the difficult issues in life?
The Bible is double-edged, is useful for every good work, and gives us God's word, which is all we need for life and godliness. This is the sturdy, durable, and effective sword to take into spiritual battle.
Feel-good books, seminars, and regular entertainment that we take in on a daily basis are like the duct-tape sword (no offense Dr. Phill), and while they may look like a sword fit for spritiual battle when highly polished, they will not withstand the battles we face in life.
The Bible has revealed truth to us. Psalm 19 gives a good description of the truth that God has revealed.
The Sword's Purpose
So what now? We have a sword, ready for battle, but does knowledge of it automatically equip us?
We need to:
- Understand It
- Believe It
- Live It
- Share It
The world wants us to think that the material world is all that there is, that the "Here and now" is all there is to life, and that it is all about us. But the Bible tells us that there is both the material and spiritual world, that there is the "here and now" as well as eternal life, and that it is all about God, not us.
Our Enemy
Our enemy is spiritual, not physical. We waste our time if we fight against people. Jesus died for everyone, and we should love everyone, not fight them. But we should, however, fight fiercely the spiritual battles that are all around us.
Fighting against the harvest will only rob them of a loving relationship with God. Nobody will be won over by being defeated. We must defeat the lies of the enemy and fight against the enemy's tactics, but not against the people the enemy (the Devil) has deceived.
Friday, April 11, 2008
When can we start using email as a memo replacement?
Over the past few months I have had more email support requests than anything else, and one of the primary reasons is because apparently using email to send audio, video, and photos does not always work.
Sometimes sending files will be blocked by:
I have had no problem with my 7KB text emails in the years of working at this organization, but when users start sending mass emails from their mail clients to keep their ministries up-to-date, especially while sending photos of the previous event or a special book they recommend, our Mail Server gets sluggish, our Spam Filter has to work overtime, our users run out of storage space, and sometimes our IP gets blacklisted.
Apparently, using email as a text-based communication device does not have these side effects, and there are plenty of alternatives for transferring files (such as the File Transfer Protocol). For some reason, our users, and many many many outside organizations insist on sending EULA's, PDFs, manuals, radio spots, video previews, etc. etc. via email.
When can we stop sending cars in the mail and start sending letters as to where to go pick up the car? Meaning, send me a link to a website that manages EULA agreements, lets me download radio spots, lets me preview videos, and lets me download large files?
I understand there are services like constant contact for sending bulk mail out, and YouSendIt for uploading large files and emailing a link to them, but when are businesses going to start using them?
I'd love to simply block all non-text-based email if I could. Then again, I think it should be borderline illegal to use frames on a website or require a specific browser or operating system to view a web application...
/me votes for simplicity
Sometimes sending files will be blocked by:
- Sender's Mail Server due to outgoing policies
- Sender's Mail Server due to storage constraints
- Sender's Spam Firewall due to outgoing policies
- Sender's Mail Virus Scanner due to false positive
- Recipient's Mail Server due to incoming policies
- Recipient's Mail Server due to storage constraints
- Recipient's Mail Client due to Junk Mail settings
- Recipient's Spam Firewall due to incoming policies
- Recipient's Mail Virus Scanner due to false positive
I have had no problem with my 7KB text emails in the years of working at this organization, but when users start sending mass emails from their mail clients to keep their ministries up-to-date, especially while sending photos of the previous event or a special book they recommend, our Mail Server gets sluggish, our Spam Filter has to work overtime, our users run out of storage space, and sometimes our IP gets blacklisted.
Apparently, using email as a text-based communication device does not have these side effects, and there are plenty of alternatives for transferring files (such as the File Transfer Protocol). For some reason, our users, and many many many outside organizations insist on sending EULA's, PDFs, manuals, radio spots, video previews, etc. etc. via email.
When can we stop sending cars in the mail and start sending letters as to where to go pick up the car? Meaning, send me a link to a website that manages EULA agreements, lets me download radio spots, lets me preview videos, and lets me download large files?
I understand there are services like constant contact for sending bulk mail out, and YouSendIt for uploading large files and emailing a link to them, but when are businesses going to start using them?
I'd love to simply block all non-text-based email if I could. Then again, I think it should be borderline illegal to use frames on a website or require a specific browser or operating system to view a web application...
/me votes for simplicity
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Armed for battle: part 1
key points that gets overlooked is that in the scripture on the armor
of God (Ephesians 6:13-17) the first item mentioned is the belt of
Truth. We often loose sight of the fact that all of our pieces of
armor are held together by the Truth in God's Word.
If we let ourselves believe things just because they make us feel
better, then we deceive ourselves and will not be effective in our
battle. We can't believe things just because we want to, we need to
seek out the truth and test the spirits and take joy in the service
our Lord has called us to.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Not taking notes
meetings at times.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Expelled preview
I had the opportunity to watch a preview of Expelled: no intelligence allowed. It was a very enlightening movie that was presented in a very mature fashion. I also, however think that if Christians want to be heard, we also need to be willing to listen. I have seen too many Christian arguments that have no thought behind them. I agree with my fellow Christians most of the time, but I still wish the debates we start would allow the opposing side the same respect we demand of them, as was presented in this movie.
What makes this movie so easy to relate to is the fact that it is not making a religious argument, but rather that the debate on evolution should have two sides. A one-sided debate is pointless and stifles growth and knowledge. I think anyone in favor of free speech and the freedom to think should watch this movie. Anyone who does not agree with the freedom of thought should continue to yell at people who don't agree with them, and should not be surprised when one day we give up entirely on searching for truth in favor of making the world fit our preconceived notions of how we think it should work.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Paper templates for my podcast
printing and cutting some forms for my planner. For some reason I have
gotten on a "write everything down" kick in an effort to keep things
simple. To see if it works, check out geekons.com over the next few
weeks.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Truth-Land Security
"Truth-Land Security"
2 Timothy 4:1-4
2 Timothy 4:1-4
One of the subthemes of this passage is apostacy, or a falling away from the truth.
The emerging church: claims there are no absolute truths.
Illustration: a cow only has 4 legs, even if you call the tail a leg.
2 timothy 1-3 goes over all of the signs of apostacy. 1 john 2:13, revelation 2-3, and many others show examples of churches falling away from the truth. Churches have always been at the forefront of the battle for truth. The church is ground zero, which is why we always
have to be on guard.
The world council of churches claims churches need to get past the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The emerging church came from a desire to update the church, but wound up giving up on absolute truth.
The same thinking was happening when 2 timothy was written. Because of this, Paul was focusing Timothy on the truth, ensuring that regardless of what was going on around him, he needed to preach the gospel because Jesus is coming back, and we will be judged, and we need to be ready for it.
The bottom line: we know too much to fall for this line of thinking.
Paul reminded Timothy that people would exchange truth for a lie and fall away from the church, but he still (in view of the second coming) charged him to preach the Word (the truth of the scriptures). So he may lose members of the flock, but it is better to have pure truth
than a big following.
How we feel is becoming more important than what is true, and we need to change that.
We want to be the most well fed church, which is why we dig into the word to get to the truth of God's word.
Blogging photos directly from the iPhone
iPhone, I have decided to share a photo of some plates.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The iPhone just has to have center stage.
ok, I am getting better at typing with the iPhone keyboard. It gets much easier when you learn the simple shortcuts, like hitting space twice to enter a period, or allowing yourself to make mistakes, hoping that the autocorrect will catch it ( it usually does).
The new thing I am discovering about the phone is that using the wifi feature too close to a cordless phone will knock out both my iPhone and the cordless phone. Weird.
Of course the solution is to simply unplug the cordless transmitter for the house phone, but for some reason I don't think my wife would be too happy about that.
The new thing I am discovering about the phone is that using the wifi feature too close to a cordless phone will knock out both my iPhone and the cordless phone. Weird.
Of course the solution is to simply unplug the cordless transmitter for the house phone, but for some reason I don't think my wife would be too happy about that.
making a change, not a switch
I just got an iPhone and a MacBook for work. To give you an idea of how fun it is to blog with an iPhone, I think I'm going to stop now. I'm sure I'll get used to it at some point, but I'm just too used to keyboards. It is kind of weird, sometimes the keyboard is incredibly slow, and sometimes I can type pretty quick.
Well, this turned out to be pretty boring. I'll post more later about broadening my platform horizons when I have a proper keyboard.
Well, this turned out to be pretty boring. I'll post more later about broadening my platform horizons when I have a proper keyboard.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
In search of the ideal home office
As a code designer and graphic developer, I've found myself to have acquired a geeky sort of body type. The type that encourages nice cloths and activities involving popcorn. (Not quite the type that encourages bathing suits and protein shakes.) I've also developed a nice bezier curve that makes reaching the keyboard and monitor much easier than sitting straight-backed.
Apparently I have discovered this to be more a result than a development, so I'm trying to remedy the situation. (Primarily because I keep reassuring myself that the remedy does not include giving up coffee or more money, which could be spent on coffee.)
I am currently typing this while sitting on an exercise ball with my laptop on a snack tray. (Better a laptop than pizza, eh Steve?) . The only problem I have with the current situation is that my snack tray is just a tiny amount too tall and is angled down (great for snacking, bad for typing).
Well, that and the fact that I can't easily plug in my computer speakers, so I'm stuck with the laptop's built-in speakers. They aren't bad, but a nice 2.1 set are so much better.
I'll give this a day of designing code and see how well it works.
Apparently I have discovered this to be more a result than a development, so I'm trying to remedy the situation. (Primarily because I keep reassuring myself that the remedy does not include giving up coffee or more money, which could be spent on coffee.)
I am currently typing this while sitting on an exercise ball with my laptop on a snack tray. (Better a laptop than pizza, eh Steve?) . The only problem I have with the current situation is that my snack tray is just a tiny amount too tall and is angled down (great for snacking, bad for typing).
Well, that and the fact that I can't easily plug in my computer speakers, so I'm stuck with the laptop's built-in speakers. They aren't bad, but a nice 2.1 set are so much better.
I'll give this a day of designing code and see how well it works.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Is ignorance worth the bliss?
I currently administer an Active Directory domain, and am learning how to via on-the-job training. This usually works really well for me, but I've discovered group policy objects, organizational units, and login scripts... which all make administering the network much easier.
Imagine.... I can write a GPO to install software that will report back all of the software and hardware settings of each computer within an organizational unit... and I can look in a single window and see a list of all the computers on my network along with a brief description of each.
Unfortunately, this means that when someone decides to purchase non-standard hardware/software, I now know what I'm missing... I know that the new iMac won't identify properly on the network. OS X Leopard did add on an official "Active Directory" feature in the Directory Utility, whose sole purpose in life, apparently, is to prevent the computer from binding to an Active Directory Domain. So the fact that I knew Tiger could bind to AD makes Leopard even worse.
Now, the question I'm presented with is whether or not ignorance is worth the bliss.
Should I stop learning all the amazing things we could do with our resources, knowing that we will slowly be migrating to equipment that lack these features? Would it be better to throw in the towel for everyone, or attempt to manage 2 networks. I would imagine that the "fun" and trendy network with no rules and shiny animations would beat out the boring network that is managed and secure.
On a scale of "Bad=> OK => Best" if "Best" isn't even an option, would it be better to be ignorant of all the "Best" methods and benefits?
This situation brings up a lot of frustration which breeds bitterness. Bitterness is sin. In order to have a positive attitude about it, I only see two options; 1: be ignorant of what we could do and be happy with mediocrity, or 2: find another job.
The next problem is, are there any jobs that don't enforce mediocrity? Previous experience indicates that at most companies the non-technical staff make decisions (in an effort to add cool and useful features) that prevent company-wide coolness and usefulness. Most IT staff will look at that, laugh at the irony, and check their monster.com account for any leads.
I think I'll stick with where I am, and just pray that God will get rid of my bitterness. Now I just need to make sure this feeling of defeat isn't sinful as well.
Imagine.... I can write a GPO to install software that will report back all of the software and hardware settings of each computer within an organizational unit... and I can look in a single window and see a list of all the computers on my network along with a brief description of each.
Unfortunately, this means that when someone decides to purchase non-standard hardware/software, I now know what I'm missing... I know that the new iMac won't identify properly on the network. OS X Leopard did add on an official "Active Directory" feature in the Directory Utility, whose sole purpose in life, apparently, is to prevent the computer from binding to an Active Directory Domain. So the fact that I knew Tiger could bind to AD makes Leopard even worse.
Now, the question I'm presented with is whether or not ignorance is worth the bliss.
Should I stop learning all the amazing things we could do with our resources, knowing that we will slowly be migrating to equipment that lack these features? Would it be better to throw in the towel for everyone, or attempt to manage 2 networks. I would imagine that the "fun" and trendy network with no rules and shiny animations would beat out the boring network that is managed and secure.
On a scale of "Bad=> OK => Best" if "Best" isn't even an option, would it be better to be ignorant of all the "Best" methods and benefits?
This situation brings up a lot of frustration which breeds bitterness. Bitterness is sin. In order to have a positive attitude about it, I only see two options; 1: be ignorant of what we could do and be happy with mediocrity, or 2: find another job.
The next problem is, are there any jobs that don't enforce mediocrity? Previous experience indicates that at most companies the non-technical staff make decisions (in an effort to add cool and useful features) that prevent company-wide coolness and usefulness. Most IT staff will look at that, laugh at the irony, and check their monster.com account for any leads.
I think I'll stick with where I am, and just pray that God will get rid of my bitterness. Now I just need to make sure this feeling of defeat isn't sinful as well.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Adventures in Drive Imaging: Part 3 - Restoring the Image
Well, I got Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) installed, and even got Compiz-fusion running (with all the shadows, 3d effects, and stuff like that). But because I still haven't found a good Outlook clone that ties securely into our Exchange server, it is time to get back to business.... Vista Business.
I rebooted with the UBCD4Win in the CD drive, and with the USB drive plugged in that we saved the image to yesterday. Not surprisingly the live version of XP we are running on this disk was unable to properly mount the linux partitions, and therefore considered my USB drive as the "C" drive.
I still fired up Self Image and told it to grab c:\backup\HPdc5750\whateverIcalledTheImage.img.gz and put it on Hard Drive #0
It warned me that sometimes when you wipe a drive clean and put a new image over it, you will loose all of the data on the drive you are wiping clean. (Actually, according to them, it happens 10 times out of 10.)
I figure we really don't need Linux on this machine anymore, and I click OK, and it starts decompressing the image and saving it to the hard drive.
In the time it took me to write all of this, it has gotten to 30%. That's probably because I'm decompressing a 20GB file from a USB drive, and because I type fast.
I would guess that when I save the images to a partition on the internal drive in the future it will go much faster. But hey, it has only been about 5 minutes, so 10 to 15 minutes to restore a computer isn't bad!
---Waiting for the image to finish restoring---
Well, it looks like the blank space was being restored pretty quickly, so it has been 25 minutes and we are now at 75%.
Fortunately I had a few other support tasks to take care of in the meantime, including a triple Americano at the cafe we have here. Mmmmm fresh roasted espresso!
---Still Waiting---
Oops! I ran out to help with a support call and came back and it was done! So I don't know how long it took.
I do know that it took no more than 40 minutes, but it may have been just 30 or 35. Either way, when you factor in getting the USB Drive, CD, and kicking the person off their computer, I can expect about an hour of downtime for the user.
Kind of cool.
--Rebooting--
--Logging into Vista Business!--
It works!! That is AWESOME!
Considering I installed a separate boot manager (GRUB, which came with Ubuntu Linux), changed the partition table dramatically, and have wiped the drive a total of 2 times, and I'm able to flawlessly log back into a fully functional Vista Business Environment, I'm pretty excited!!
Wo0T!
I rebooted with the UBCD4Win in the CD drive, and with the USB drive plugged in that we saved the image to yesterday. Not surprisingly the live version of XP we are running on this disk was unable to properly mount the linux partitions, and therefore considered my USB drive as the "C" drive.
I still fired up Self Image and told it to grab c:\backup\HPdc5750\whateverIcalledTheImage.img.gz and put it on Hard Drive #0
It warned me that sometimes when you wipe a drive clean and put a new image over it, you will loose all of the data on the drive you are wiping clean. (Actually, according to them, it happens 10 times out of 10.)
I figure we really don't need Linux on this machine anymore, and I click OK, and it starts decompressing the image and saving it to the hard drive.
In the time it took me to write all of this, it has gotten to 30%. That's probably because I'm decompressing a 20GB file from a USB drive, and because I type fast.
I would guess that when I save the images to a partition on the internal drive in the future it will go much faster. But hey, it has only been about 5 minutes, so 10 to 15 minutes to restore a computer isn't bad!
---Waiting for the image to finish restoring---
Well, it looks like the blank space was being restored pretty quickly, so it has been 25 minutes and we are now at 75%.
Fortunately I had a few other support tasks to take care of in the meantime, including a triple Americano at the cafe we have here. Mmmmm fresh roasted espresso!
---Still Waiting---
Oops! I ran out to help with a support call and came back and it was done! So I don't know how long it took.
I do know that it took no more than 40 minutes, but it may have been just 30 or 35. Either way, when you factor in getting the USB Drive, CD, and kicking the person off their computer, I can expect about an hour of downtime for the user.
Kind of cool.
--Rebooting--
--Logging into Vista Business!--
It works!! That is AWESOME!
Considering I installed a separate boot manager (GRUB, which came with Ubuntu Linux), changed the partition table dramatically, and have wiped the drive a total of 2 times, and I'm able to flawlessly log back into a fully functional Vista Business Environment, I'm pretty excited!!
Wo0T!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Adventures in Drive Imaging: Part 2 - Making a Need for the Image
Well, now that I've got a new drive image, what's the point if the computer is working well?
I could install viruses.. virii... uhm... malware, but I'd rather not, so I won't.
Instead, I'm going to install Linux! Ubuntu 7.04 desktop to be exact. I'm running it on my laptop at home and I really like it. I've been running Ubuntu for a few years now, and it is great for lazy people like me who want to ease into a new area. Now that I'm used to the interface I'm getting more comfortable with the command line. It is like Linux with training wheels, but like any good kids bike, not only is it free if you can run fast, but you can also take the training wheels off when you are comfortable with it.
I popped in the Desktop CD, checked its integrity, and it seems like a pretty stand-up CD so I went into the live CD environment. Everything booted fine, I've got a good 1280x1024 display by default (unlike Windows' 1024x768 default on the same machine) so I went ahead and double-clicked the installer.
I think there were like 6 choices to make, such as what language I speak, and what language keyboard I use, and what time zone I'm in, then it asked me about the drive to install it on. I selected the option that wipes the entire drive and installs Ubuntu on it (since that is the simplest)
It seems to be stuck on the "downloading package list" part, which makes since, since it is plugged into the corporate network which won't let it on the internet until I assign it a static IP.... oops... clicking "skip".
Now it is finishing up the install, which should take another 30 seconds or so. (Pretty quick on this AMD Athlon 64 X2 machine)
I am now restarting into a nice reliable non-networked Ubuntu machine, giving it an IP address, then restarting for grins. Oooh! 78 updates!
The crazy part, after installing them all and restarting, there shouldn't be any more updates after that... they roll them up quite intelligently rather than having me update, reboot, update, reboot, rinse, lather, repeat. Like other operating systems I know. (emphasis on plural... Windows isn't the only non-free popular operating system that has done this to me...)
Anyway, long-story short, I installed Linux. It took about 30 minutes because I wasn't paying attention to the fact that it was trying to download stuff when I had it blocked at the router from seeing the internet. Oops...
Join us tomorrow for the conclusion - Reluctantly Restoring, where we will attempt to go from Linux to Vista in less than an hour.
(It is impressive considering it will have all of the exact preferences, user accounts, passwords, etc. that I set it up with previously. If this all works, we'll be installing XP and making an image of that, since I'm not ready for Vista yet.)
I could install viruses.. virii... uhm... malware, but I'd rather not, so I won't.
Instead, I'm going to install Linux! Ubuntu 7.04 desktop to be exact. I'm running it on my laptop at home and I really like it. I've been running Ubuntu for a few years now, and it is great for lazy people like me who want to ease into a new area. Now that I'm used to the interface I'm getting more comfortable with the command line. It is like Linux with training wheels, but like any good kids bike, not only is it free if you can run fast, but you can also take the training wheels off when you are comfortable with it.
I popped in the Desktop CD, checked its integrity, and it seems like a pretty stand-up CD so I went into the live CD environment. Everything booted fine, I've got a good 1280x1024 display by default (unlike Windows' 1024x768 default on the same machine) so I went ahead and double-clicked the installer.
I think there were like 6 choices to make, such as what language I speak, and what language keyboard I use, and what time zone I'm in, then it asked me about the drive to install it on. I selected the option that wipes the entire drive and installs Ubuntu on it (since that is the simplest)
It seems to be stuck on the "downloading package list" part, which makes since, since it is plugged into the corporate network which won't let it on the internet until I assign it a static IP.... oops... clicking "skip".
Now it is finishing up the install, which should take another 30 seconds or so. (Pretty quick on this AMD Athlon 64 X2 machine)
I am now restarting into a nice reliable non-networked Ubuntu machine, giving it an IP address, then restarting for grins. Oooh! 78 updates!
The crazy part, after installing them all and restarting, there shouldn't be any more updates after that... they roll them up quite intelligently rather than having me update, reboot, update, reboot, rinse, lather, repeat. Like other operating systems I know. (emphasis on plural... Windows isn't the only non-free popular operating system that has done this to me...)
Anyway, long-story short, I installed Linux. It took about 30 minutes because I wasn't paying attention to the fact that it was trying to download stuff when I had it blocked at the router from seeing the internet. Oops...
Join us tomorrow for the conclusion - Reluctantly Restoring, where we will attempt to go from Linux to Vista in less than an hour.
(It is impressive considering it will have all of the exact preferences, user accounts, passwords, etc. that I set it up with previously. If this all works, we'll be installing XP and making an image of that, since I'm not ready for Vista yet.)
Adventures in Drive Imaging: Part 1 - Making the Image
Somehow I have gotten to this point without ever making an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. Well, that all changed this morning when I made my first "UBCD4Win". The only customization I did was to update AVG Free Edition with the latest virus definitions. (making this CD obsolete tomorrow, rather than last month)
It looks like I could even have installed Kapersky if I wanted to spend the $$. Cool.
The idea behind UBCD4Win is the same as BartPE, to the extend that I don't know the difference, other than I installed UBCD4Win rather than BartPE, purely by chance.
What's this got to do with imaging? Well, I'd tell you, but I'm too busy getting off topic.
By restarting the computer with my UBCD4Win in the drive I was presented with a weird version of Windows XP that doesn't run off the Hard Drive, instead it runs from the CD and from memory. (So make sure you have enough RAM, or this could potentially be uncomfortably slow!)
I've got 1GB of RAM in this machine, and it worked just fine.
It has Drive Image XML and Self Image in the package, and while I've only used Drive Image XML, I was more curious about Self Image because it also grabs the boot sector, cool!
So step 1 was to make a Drive Image XML copy of each hard drive partition from the computer to an external USB drive. (Since I'm comfortable with Drive Image XML, I felt it would be a safe "backup")
Step 2 was to use Self Image to copy the entire disk (including 2 extra partitions HP made to contain restore software and drivers) using Self Image. Because I wasn't using the hard drive, none of the files were in use, so it was quick and reliable.
Step 3 was to re-do step 2, but this time with an NTFS enabled USB drive, since the final file (for this 75GB Hard Drive) was around 22GB, and FAT 32 only supports around 4GB per file. (boo FAT 32!)
And, that anticlimactically concludes Part 1 of Adventures in Drive Imaging. Visit us next time for Part 2 - Making us need the image, where I will describe how I formatted the whole drive and installed Linux, just to make sure I totally changed the Hard Drive's contents and layout.
It looks like I could even have installed Kapersky if I wanted to spend the $$. Cool.
The idea behind UBCD4Win is the same as BartPE, to the extend that I don't know the difference, other than I installed UBCD4Win rather than BartPE, purely by chance.
What's this got to do with imaging? Well, I'd tell you, but I'm too busy getting off topic.
By restarting the computer with my UBCD4Win in the drive I was presented with a weird version of Windows XP that doesn't run off the Hard Drive, instead it runs from the CD and from memory. (So make sure you have enough RAM, or this could potentially be uncomfortably slow!)
I've got 1GB of RAM in this machine, and it worked just fine.
It has Drive Image XML and Self Image in the package, and while I've only used Drive Image XML, I was more curious about Self Image because it also grabs the boot sector, cool!
So step 1 was to make a Drive Image XML copy of each hard drive partition from the computer to an external USB drive. (Since I'm comfortable with Drive Image XML, I felt it would be a safe "backup")
Step 2 was to use Self Image to copy the entire disk (including 2 extra partitions HP made to contain restore software and drivers) using Self Image. Because I wasn't using the hard drive, none of the files were in use, so it was quick and reliable.
Step 3 was to re-do step 2, but this time with an NTFS enabled USB drive, since the final file (for this 75GB Hard Drive) was around 22GB, and FAT 32 only supports around 4GB per file. (boo FAT 32!)
And, that anticlimactically concludes Part 1 of Adventures in Drive Imaging. Visit us next time for Part 2 - Making us need the image, where I will describe how I formatted the whole drive and installed Linux, just to make sure I totally changed the Hard Drive's contents and layout.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Making my own intranet, Part 1
The General Idea
So I've decided to make my own intranet, eh? (oh wait... I'm not Joe Burns)
I have decided to make my own intranet at work, and have opted against out-of-the-box solutions because I plan on doing some heavy development on little projects here and there that I want to integrate nicely into the intranet.
Since I'm having fun doing this, I thought I'd describe just what I'm doing to make my life a little bit easier.
The Content Management System (CMS) Idea
First off, I wrote my own CMS which is uber-lame. It is a table that looks up the URL in a database and lets the database tell it the title of the page, whether or not the page is available or not, and it gives it a small string which is a path and file prefix for the actual content of the site...
Yeah, I'm horible at describing things, so let's start with an example, if you go to http://ourserver/intranet/myhr/ then it looks up "/intranet/myhr" in the database to find the following data:
title: "My HR"
file: "myhr"
enabled: y
Yay, we have a title and it is enable, things are looking good!
Now it goes to my super top-secret folder that is not accessible via the web and looks for the following files:
myhr.head.php
myhr.content.php
myhr.tail.php
The head is called before anything is displayed on the screen, but right after sessions have been started.
The content is what is displayed in the middle of the page... this should really do nothing more than display what was processed in the head.
The tail is the file included at the bottom of the page, which I doubt I'll use much other than to include javascript calls that need to be made at the end of the document.
The content page is required, but the head and tail are optional. If the content page does not exist, it displays an error page instead... if I were smart, I would send 404 headers in the notfound.head.php file, just to maintain standards.
The Cool Idea(s)
Cool idea 1: tossing the milk when it goes bad
I've also got launch and expiration dates in the page table, so the page only displays during the time it should be displayed... I will probably also write a script to browse the database for pages that are nearing expiration to send me an email reminder, which means I can set a 1 year expiration on every content page if I wanted to, then have it remind me in a year to review the content for accuracy then make changes and extend the expiration date.
Cool idea 2: group-based access
I've always enjoyed user and group-based access levels, and with the magic of Active Directory, LDAP, PHP, and some out of date trail mix I've been able to do just that! (and get a stomach ache)
Basically I've thrown together a short script that authenticates usernames and passwords against LDAP (which is pointed at our Active Directory domain controller) and after authenticating I'm grabbing the "memberof" attribute of the user since I've already got a valid ldap bind.
This means I can take all of the users and groups I'm already managing for file permissions and use those same users and groups to manage permission on the intranet! Wo0t!
Cool idea 3: wiki-style page creation
Quite possibly the second-coolest idea (sorry, but that ldap thing is cool !), adding some code in the page-not-found script to add a "create this page" link if the logged in user is a member of the intranet admin group!
I could also add an "edit this page" link at the bottom of each page, or possibly just assign a shortcut key or something to edit the page.
I would do 99% of my coding in the Zend Development Environment anyway, but man it would be nice to manage user permissions, expiration dates, and things of that nature in a nice GUI other than phpmyadmin!
More to come...
So I've decided to make my own intranet, eh? (oh wait... I'm not Joe Burns)
I have decided to make my own intranet at work, and have opted against out-of-the-box solutions because I plan on doing some heavy development on little projects here and there that I want to integrate nicely into the intranet.
Since I'm having fun doing this, I thought I'd describe just what I'm doing to make my life a little bit easier.
The Content Management System (CMS) Idea
First off, I wrote my own CMS which is uber-lame. It is a table that looks up the URL in a database and lets the database tell it the title of the page, whether or not the page is available or not, and it gives it a small string which is a path and file prefix for the actual content of the site...
Yeah, I'm horible at describing things, so let's start with an example, if you go to http://ourserver/intranet/myhr/ then it looks up "/intranet/myhr" in the database to find the following data:
title: "My HR"
file: "myhr"
enabled: y
Yay, we have a title and it is enable, things are looking good!
Now it goes to my super top-secret folder that is not accessible via the web and looks for the following files:
myhr.head.php
myhr.content.php
myhr.tail.php
The head is called before anything is displayed on the screen, but right after sessions have been started.
The content is what is displayed in the middle of the page... this should really do nothing more than display what was processed in the head.
The tail is the file included at the bottom of the page, which I doubt I'll use much other than to include javascript calls that need to be made at the end of the document.
The content page is required, but the head and tail are optional. If the content page does not exist, it displays an error page instead... if I were smart, I would send 404 headers in the notfound.head.php file, just to maintain standards.
The Cool Idea(s)
Cool idea 1: tossing the milk when it goes bad
I've also got launch and expiration dates in the page table, so the page only displays during the time it should be displayed... I will probably also write a script to browse the database for pages that are nearing expiration to send me an email reminder, which means I can set a 1 year expiration on every content page if I wanted to, then have it remind me in a year to review the content for accuracy then make changes and extend the expiration date.
Cool idea 2: group-based access
I've always enjoyed user and group-based access levels, and with the magic of Active Directory, LDAP, PHP, and some out of date trail mix I've been able to do just that! (and get a stomach ache)
Basically I've thrown together a short script that authenticates usernames and passwords against LDAP (which is pointed at our Active Directory domain controller) and after authenticating I'm grabbing the "memberof" attribute of the user since I've already got a valid ldap bind.
This means I can take all of the users and groups I'm already managing for file permissions and use those same users and groups to manage permission on the intranet! Wo0t!
Cool idea 3: wiki-style page creation
Quite possibly the second-coolest idea (sorry, but that ldap thing is cool !), adding some code in the page-not-found script to add a "create this page" link if the logged in user is a member of the intranet admin group!
I could also add an "edit this page" link at the bottom of each page, or possibly just assign a shortcut key or something to edit the page.
I would do 99% of my coding in the Zend Development Environment anyway, but man it would be nice to manage user permissions, expiration dates, and things of that nature in a nice GUI other than phpmyadmin!
More to come...
Sunday, April 22, 2007
U7.04 Step 2: Boot and Install
Ubuntu 7.04 Install Step 2:
Boot and Install
On to the fun stuff! After downloading and Burning to CD I booted the live CD on my HPzv6000 laptop and pressed F4 at the boot menu to change the VGA mode to 1024x768 (even though I would later need to up it to 1280x800 to fill the screen). I've just had really good luck using the max resolution on flat-panel monitors because some old hardware doesn't appear to tell the Ubuntu CD what the acceptable resolutions are, so it defaults to 640x480, or something else that isn't supported. Either way, it did the trick!
It booted into the live mode, and of course didn't recognize the wifi card, but thank intellectual property rights and lazy hardware manufacturers for that. I plugged it into one of the free ports on my wireless router and it quickly recognized the internet and got an IP via dhcp. (yay!)
I double-clicked the install, not caring if anything else worked in live mode, because I'd be using a different partition anyway.
Following the steps I kept clicking "forward" until I got to the step that tries to partition my drive for me.
Because I pre-planned when installing windows on it, I had a 30GB partition waiting for Linux. (and another 20GB partition for a FAT 32 system that would share files between Linux and Windows).
After configuring the partitions (a 1024MB SWAP and the rest of the 30GB for an ex3 "/") I clicked next, and it actually showed my two accounts (one for myself and one for my wife) from Windows XP. I chose to migrate both of our Firefox settings and our "My Documents" folder. (photos and music are primarily stored on the machine I'm using to post this, which currently runs XP Pro.)
I set up my account as the default account, gave it a name (penguinshark, since I've got a shark-themed network and I want to distinguish between the windows version "tigershark" and the linux version "penguinshark"... kind of lame, since the rest are real sharks, but hey, the only thing cooler than a penguinshark would be a ninjashark, but we all know ninjas are not fans of open-source, so you take what you can get.), and I even told it I want to participate in some package surveying thing. (had to click "more options" or "advanced" or something to get to that checkbox.)
After reviewing all the settings I clicked "Next" and when it started formatting, partitioning, and installing I realized I should have been documenting it, so here I am, documenting after-the-fact trying to remember as much as possible.
I apologize to you three reading this if I left anything out.
Boot and Install
On to the fun stuff! After downloading and Burning to CD I booted the live CD on my HPzv6000 laptop and pressed F4 at the boot menu to change the VGA mode to 1024x768 (even though I would later need to up it to 1280x800 to fill the screen). I've just had really good luck using the max resolution on flat-panel monitors because some old hardware doesn't appear to tell the Ubuntu CD what the acceptable resolutions are, so it defaults to 640x480, or something else that isn't supported. Either way, it did the trick!
It booted into the live mode, and of course didn't recognize the wifi card, but thank intellectual property rights and lazy hardware manufacturers for that. I plugged it into one of the free ports on my wireless router and it quickly recognized the internet and got an IP via dhcp. (yay!)
I double-clicked the install, not caring if anything else worked in live mode, because I'd be using a different partition anyway.
Following the steps I kept clicking "forward" until I got to the step that tries to partition my drive for me.
Because I pre-planned when installing windows on it, I had a 30GB partition waiting for Linux. (and another 20GB partition for a FAT 32 system that would share files between Linux and Windows).
After configuring the partitions (a 1024MB SWAP and the rest of the 30GB for an ex3 "/") I clicked next, and it actually showed my two accounts (one for myself and one for my wife) from Windows XP. I chose to migrate both of our Firefox settings and our "My Documents" folder. (photos and music are primarily stored on the machine I'm using to post this, which currently runs XP Pro.)
I set up my account as the default account, gave it a name (penguinshark, since I've got a shark-themed network and I want to distinguish between the windows version "tigershark" and the linux version "penguinshark"... kind of lame, since the rest are real sharks, but hey, the only thing cooler than a penguinshark would be a ninjashark, but we all know ninjas are not fans of open-source, so you take what you can get.), and I even told it I want to participate in some package surveying thing. (had to click "more options" or "advanced" or something to get to that checkbox.)
After reviewing all the settings I clicked "Next" and when it started formatting, partitioning, and installing I realized I should have been documenting it, so here I am, documenting after-the-fact trying to remember as much as possible.
I apologize to you three reading this if I left anything out.
U7.04 Step 1: Download Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Ubuntu 7.04 Install Step 1:
Download Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Of course the first step in installing anything is to legally download it. (Store-bought CDs are so 2005).
I chose the torrent file from the Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Release Page for a desktop 386 system. (my hp zv6000 laptop, with not a ton of hard drive space, and even less RAM, so we'll see how this works)
Here I am about 15 minutes later with a nice ISO file and no ISO burner... So I head over and download ISO Record v 2 and realize I've already downloaded it. So I'm going to log out, log in as an admin, and install ISO recorder, burn the CD and get ready to install Ubuntu on an empty partition on my laptop!
(No, I am not an admin on my own machine at home, and no, I haven't had a single malware problem since. Run no-script in Firefox and set yourself as a limited user account and you almost couldn't damage your windows machine if you tried... it's almost like running linux with a start-bar, but there are actually vendor-provided drivers... it's crazy I tell you, crazy.)
Download Ubuntu Feisty Fawn
Of course the first step in installing anything is to legally download it. (Store-bought CDs are so 2005).
I chose the torrent file from the Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Release Page for a desktop 386 system. (my hp zv6000 laptop, with not a ton of hard drive space, and even less RAM, so we'll see how this works)
Here I am about 15 minutes later with a nice ISO file and no ISO burner... So I head over and download ISO Record v 2 and realize I've already downloaded it. So I'm going to log out, log in as an admin, and install ISO recorder, burn the CD and get ready to install Ubuntu on an empty partition on my laptop!
(No, I am not an admin on my own machine at home, and no, I haven't had a single malware problem since. Run no-script in Firefox and set yourself as a limited user account and you almost couldn't damage your windows machine if you tried... it's almost like running linux with a start-bar, but there are actually vendor-provided drivers... it's crazy I tell you, crazy.)
Friday, March 23, 2007
A Pleasant Purchase exPerience
For the two readers that aren't close-friends or reluctant relatives, I work at a Church. We do all kinds of charity work which gives us some super-cool buyability over at the compu-hut in Redmond.
I won't name names or list prices, but we'll just say the average charity organization pays about 15% the cost of a popular professional version of office-type software.
Now, how does the average charity organization go about doing this? Well, the first step is to see if you are really a charity organization. The best way to do this is to call someone "in the know" and ask "Are we really a charity organization?". Hopefully, the person will know and can tell you.
Next, you take the documents the guy gave you along with the puzzled yet strangely sympathetic look. (I think he considers you "special" because of the silly questions you've been asking of late... but for some reason that doesn't prevent him from handing you copies of legal tax documents. Let's remember not to trust him with important stuff in the future, he is obviously a spotty judge of character.)
You then find an authorized reseller that can sell charity licenses. I found one that we'll just call Computer Distribution on Wheels, or "CDW" for short. (completely random naming, just a variable)
So our guy at "CDW" says he can sell them at price x. I say "cool, if we buy a ton of this, like I'm hoping we will, can I get a couple of gigs of RAM for my laptop thrown in for free, so I can start testing Vista for the company?" He says, "Sure, what kind of laptop do you have?".
After much thought, consideration, and a french press (That's coffee, not an easily escaped wrestling move...) I called our rep back and said, "Actually, could you just try and stay in that budget and throw as many extra licenses of Office for Windows as possible so we can upgrade more computers?"
His response:
"I will still try to get the memory in on this one." (and he linked to the quote)
In the quote, he had added 6 licenses!
I just checked the local megalomart and they are charging just shy of $500 for the same software (retail)!! That means retail I saved $3,000. But for my purposes I saved closer to $500. Either way, that is a lot of money for a Charity organization to save!
Not to mention possibly getting some ram for my laptop so I can test Vista! (Which also saves my company the cost of buying a new vista capable machine for me!)
This was just too cool of a savings to not mention it. If you work for a Charity organization, please please please avoid buying retail or even OEM copies of software. OEM operating systems that come with your PC are perfect if you don't plan on building your own computers in the future, but buying office software as OEM means once your computer breaks, you cannot transfer the license to a new computer!!
Charity licensing is definitely the way to go, and finding a company to handle a majority of your tech purchases can make things much easier, especially when they beat some of the big box stores and are willing to haggle for an even lower price!
Hope this helps, or at least made you smile, or made you want to give me a dollar, which will make me smile.
I won't name names or list prices, but we'll just say the average charity organization pays about 15% the cost of a popular professional version of office-type software.
Now, how does the average charity organization go about doing this? Well, the first step is to see if you are really a charity organization. The best way to do this is to call someone "in the know" and ask "Are we really a charity organization?". Hopefully, the person will know and can tell you.
Next, you take the documents the guy gave you along with the puzzled yet strangely sympathetic look. (I think he considers you "special" because of the silly questions you've been asking of late... but for some reason that doesn't prevent him from handing you copies of legal tax documents. Let's remember not to trust him with important stuff in the future, he is obviously a spotty judge of character.)
You then find an authorized reseller that can sell charity licenses. I found one that we'll just call Computer Distribution on Wheels, or "CDW" for short. (completely random naming, just a variable)
So our guy at "CDW" says he can sell them at price x. I say "cool, if we buy a ton of this, like I'm hoping we will, can I get a couple of gigs of RAM for my laptop thrown in for free, so I can start testing Vista for the company?" He says, "Sure, what kind of laptop do you have?".
After much thought, consideration, and a french press (That's coffee, not an easily escaped wrestling move...) I called our rep back and said, "Actually, could you just try and stay in that budget and throw as many extra licenses of Office for Windows as possible so we can upgrade more computers?"
His response:
"I will still try to get the memory in on this one." (and he linked to the quote)
In the quote, he had added 6 licenses!
I just checked the local megalomart and they are charging just shy of $500 for the same software (retail)!! That means retail I saved $3,000. But for my purposes I saved closer to $500. Either way, that is a lot of money for a Charity organization to save!
Not to mention possibly getting some ram for my laptop so I can test Vista! (Which also saves my company the cost of buying a new vista capable machine for me!)
This was just too cool of a savings to not mention it. If you work for a Charity organization, please please please avoid buying retail or even OEM copies of software. OEM operating systems that come with your PC are perfect if you don't plan on building your own computers in the future, but buying office software as OEM means once your computer breaks, you cannot transfer the license to a new computer!!
Charity licensing is definitely the way to go, and finding a company to handle a majority of your tech purchases can make things much easier, especially when they beat some of the big box stores and are willing to haggle for an even lower price!
Hope this helps, or at least made you smile, or made you want to give me a dollar, which will make me smile.
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