I still feel a little blind working with Linux...like I'm constantly bumping into things, then feeling them to figure out what they are. When I want to find them again, I sort of have to stumble around again and the process repeats. It's getting better, but it's just a steep learning curve for a Windows-only boy like me...
My Own Confluence
I've managed now to get a Confluence personal installation running nicely (with hands-on help from Atlassian) inside Ubuntu 6.10.
Confluence seems to be the perfect solution to a problem I've had in managing certain kinds of customer and company information...I can create a 'home' page for each customer, new pages for each of their computers/systems, pages for repair notes and site visits, etc. So far, it's just about perfect...for one thing, all the information is available anywhere I can get an Internet browser fired up, and having complete searchability is a huge bonus.
One other nice benefit is I can configure each customers' entry in Business Contact Manager so their BCM 'home page' points to their 'Home Page' in the Confluence installation. This links the two systems pretty cleanly, as I can quickly pull up their extended information in Confluence by clicking the link inside Outlook.
Of course, Confluence is excellent for managing all kinds of information, and I'm using it daily to store all kinds of phone, meeting, and other data. If I run into problems with this combination, I'll post it here; but for now, Confluence is perfectly filling a huge information management void for me.
Version Control via SVN, too!
I've also now got SVN installed, configured, and working very well on that Ubuntu box. Previously, I had 'local' SVN repositories on 3 different machines at 2 locations. Having a 'real' SVN server means I can consolidate all those projects (sheesh, there are more than I thought!) in one place. While I'm the only developer that uses them, it's nice to just have one system to worry about backing up.
It's worth pointing out that while I found a lot of articles explaining how to install/configure SVN server on Linux/Ubuntu, this one was perfect in it's detail (for me, at least). After that, this article was just as good at helping me move the subversion repositories from the Windows local repositories to the Linux server.
After installing ISA server on an internal network, I noticed that file upload via FTP no longer worked. It took way too much Googling to find this link, which explains the simple solution:
- Right-click the 'SBS FTP Outbound Access Rule' (in a default installation)
- Choose 'Configure FTP' from the bottom of the context menu.
- Deselect the 'Read Only' box on the dialog
- Restart your FTP client application, and voila!
I stumbled across Meebo on another blog, and thought the idea was a good one. Essentially, you embed a little piece of HTML (actually, a flash object) in a web page, and visitors to your web site can chat live with you through it's interface. All you need is a Jabber client on your machine.
It works as advertised, and it's free. The downside (and the reason I gave up trying to use it) is that every time someone visits your page, you get a pop-up window asking if you want to add the person to your contact list. Even on this blog, where I get low traffic, it's incredibly annoying.
According to the developers, this pop-up issue is part of the Jabber standard and won't be messed with. Too bad, I liked the overall idea.
OK, so I get a fair number of requests from clients to rescue, copy, and/or move files that are located on an old, damaged, decrepit, and/or broken Windows machine. Usually the hard drive is fine, sometimes the machine might even be able to boot up. Most of the time, we're talking about hundreds (thousands) of files; documents, QuickBooks records, and most importantly, family pictures.
My usual (and pretty successful) approach has been dependent on whether the machine will boot into Windows. If it won't boot, then I'll slave the machine's hard drive into one of my own machines and copy away. If it will boot, the process depends on what version of Windows they have (or had, as the case may be). Newer versions of Windows (98SE, 2000 Pro, ME, and all flavors of XP) support USB, so I can just plug in my handy external drive and copy away.
If the old machine has Windows NT, 98 (First Edition), BackOffice Server, or something older, I'm back to slaving their hard drive into my PC for some copying.
Here's the problem. I don't like having someone else's old hard drive (full of who-knows-what) in my computer. Also, I don't like messing around inside a computer that's close to a decade old...I find that the dust has settled just right, and to mess with any components could cause an oily-dust-shift (I just totally made up that term) that can kill a processor fan or short out a mobo circuit.
Enter my new plan: a Knoppix Live CD. As long as the motherboard can boot from the CD drive, I'm in business. Boot to Linux, and I have read access to the entire hard drive (or drives). Attach an external USB drive, Knoppix recognizes it, and I'm off to the races. Copy, copy, copy, unplug the drive, take out the CD, and reboot the machine. It's like I was never there.
You gotta love Linux, if only for that kind of simplicity.
OK, there are a lot of services out there to 'speed test' your Internet connection, but this one is pretty fun to do...
You get to watch a speedometer as it tunes in your connection speed.
Several years ago, I bought a Red Hat Linux CD at a local retail store. I never figured it out...I couldn't get it to install, and didn't really 'get' the whole Linux thing anyway. Recently, I gave Linux another look, after reading an article about how a bootable Live Linux CD might be useful in rescuing a Windows system that can't boot.
Since then (just a couple weeks), I've tried both Knoppix and Ubuntu flavors of Linux. I've booted both from Live CD versions, which is sweet for Windows users that just want to check it out without losing their Windows systems. Essentially, Linux loads from your CD drive, and once it's loaded it acts like it would if it were the only operating system on the computer.
Of the two, I like Ubuntu a little better, I think...for two reasons. It comes in 3 different flavors (desktop, server, and alternative install), and if you boot from a Live CD and decide you love it, you just click a shortcut to completely switch over and ditch Windows.
Anyway, I've decided I definitely 'like' Linux now...for several reasons.
- It works. You just run the installer, and Linux figures out how to use the hardware you've got. Printers are easy too...you add them much like you do in a Windows system (wizard style).
- It's intuitive. Well, it's as intuitive for the casual user as is Windows. You have nice, pretty UI's with meaningful buttons and labels...you can find what you want at least as well as on a Windows machine. You can surf the Internet, check email, and type documents largely like you do in Windows.
- It's free...as in no money. Even better, it lets you turn that old junk PC into a really nice server or extra computer for the kids.
- Related to #3. It doesn't demand great hardware to install and run. I have an Ubuntu file server runnning (amazingly well) with 128MB of RAM, a 6GB hard drive, and a 733Mhz processor.
- With Ubuntu at least, adding and removing programs is a breeze. Much like the add/remove programs applet in Windows, you can easily see a list of programs installed on your computer. The big difference is that Ubuntu lets you see a list of all the (free) software available for your computer. If you want it, just check the box, and it installs.
- Updates don't force a reboot. I'm only a beginner here, but Ubuntu has downloaded and installed hundreds of updates, never once complaining that it has to restart to apply the changes.
- Community support - It does feel strange for a Windows guy to be typing on the Linux command line (shell) all the time (sudo this, grep that, nano this, etc.). The best part of that, though, is when you're stuck, you can Google the error you're seeing, and a half dozen forums and articles show up to guide you through. To be fair, I'm comfortable with the Windows (DOS) command line because I've been using it for 12 or so years...I'm confident the Linux shell is just 'hard' for me because it's 'new' to me.
I can see tremendous potential for many of my clients here. Linux plays nice with Windows computers on Windows networks, can act as a file/print server, and a dozen other useful things. The potential is that the price point is low, the reliability is high, and the price point is low (oops, did I already mention that?)
As I get further into this, I want to post more about my experiences with Linux. So far, though, what I've seen is very exciting and promises to help with a number of problems I've seen in the past.
Wow. This is one of the driest, funniest sites I've ever seen...
http://www.dullmen.com
Hours of 'entertainment' in there...
It seems logical...an MSN Radio premium subscription should be accessible from a Windows Mobile 5 smart phone, using the phone's data service. Speed and bandwidth certainly aren't an issue, since I can use the phone as a wireless modem for a laptop, then stream MSN Radio from the laptop.
I tried pasting the URL from media player (in Windows XP) to the location in Windows Media on he mobile device, but that doesn't work either.
Someone has to have written about it somewhere, but I can't find it...
I've found the Windows XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FAST) to be a great tool...you just run it on your 'old' computer, run it again on your 'new' computer, and voila!...your old desktop, files and network connection settings all appear like magic.
I just had a problem, though, that caused a little panic. The situation was that the 'old' computer and the 'new' computer are the same machine. I ran the wizard to an external (USB) drive, formatted drive C: and reinstalled Windows. When I re-ran the wizard, I got a message that apparently means the FAST backup is corrupted:
"The location that you specified does not contain any stored information."
The solution (for me, at least) was to run Windows Update until there were no more updates to be had...install everything. After that, I re-ran the wizard, and the files restored beautifully. Bottom line...the data wasn't corrupted at all, but for some reason Windows couldn't see it.
A few extra minutes of preparation would have prevented the panic. One good suggestion is to run the wizard on the 'old' computer right after you do the FAST backup. If it starts to restore your data, you're in good shape. If you get the above error, delete the backup and try again. Thanks to aumha.org for the tip (though I didn't find it until after I was dead in the water).
Since Wende's giving me a hard time, I took a minute to put up more pics on our Flickr account.
Samples:
Finally, a solution. I must have right-clicked an de-selected the language toolbar 50 times. You'd think I'd lose patience waaaay before this and look for an actual answer.
http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/144689.html
In case that link becomes unavailable, the answer is in Control Panel>Languages and Regional Settings. Look around in there for the 'load language bar on startup' checkbox (that's paraphrased)...
A few weeks ago, I traded in my (practically new) Dell Axim x51v for a new UTStarCom 6700, mostly because it would incorporate a wireless data package and cell phone in the same device with Windows Mobile 5. Actually, I sold the x51v on eBay, but that's another story.
The 6700 is bigger than a cell phone, so it looks a little...bigger...on a belt, but it's better than carrying a PPC and a cell phone separately.
It turns out it's WAY more useful than I expected. I've found a handful of my already-favorite sites have PocketPC versions (Gmail and The Weather Underground for example), and being able to synch with my Exchange server remotely is very, very handy.
Also, a recent flash update for the 6700 lets me enable DirectPush technology with the Exchange Server, so I'm seeing noticeably longer battery life, but getting email delivered within a minutes of the server receiving it.
The only down-side (so far) is a complaint that I saw elsewhere on the Internet...the 6700 doesn't hold on to its stylus very well...I've already lost one of the two they sent with it.
According to this post on the MSDN blog, it looks like we might finally have a chance at synchronizing Windows Mobile 5 devices with Outlook's Business Contact Manager update.
It seems (to me) like Microsoft sort of ignored this issue for this entire version of Outlook, since most of the post's focus is on Outlook 12. It's too bad, I bet there are a number of customers turned off enough that they won't come back...
It says development for Outlook 2003 is 'currently under development', but I can't imagine it will get much priority since a whole new version of Office will be released...they'd be retro-fitting to Outlook 2003 when the marketing guys are pushing Outlook 12??
It seems like this rumor has existed in some form for the past couple of years, but maybe there's a little truth to it this time??
Apparently, Axiom Entertainment has plans/hopes to build an 1,800 acre waterpark just south of Grayling MI (near the 4 Mile Rd exit).
News sources:
Sheesh. This thing is impressive. Looks like all the kids that grew up watching Transformers have gone to college and come back...I can't wait 'til there's a pill to give you spider-sense.
For some reason, my Windows Mobile 5 device (a Dell Axim x51v) recently stopped sunchronizing completely with Windows XP. I started seeing the following error whenever I'd try to sync:
"Synchronization cannot be started because you are not able to log on to the network and access information. Restart your desktop computer and synchronize again. If the problem persists, contact your network administrator."
It appeared that everything synchronized except for Notes, which would be left with the 'Attention Required' comment next to it. On closer inspection, though, there were a number of tasks that I'd created on the device that weren't making it back to the PC's task list.
I found a suggestion on the Internet that I should use 'scanpst.exe' to repair the Personal Folders file. That didn't really apply to me, since my Outlook 2003 installation is synchronized with an Exchange Server, but I thought I'd try it anyway. Once I got to the folder where 'scanpst.exe' is located, I saw that there is a 'scanost.exe' program too. It turns out that an OST file is the local cache of the Exchange Server data.
I ran 'scanost.exe' and let it repair all folders...and it worked!
By the way, both scanpst.exe and scanost.exe can be found here by default:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033
After updating Small Business Accounting to SP2, I found that I could no longer export an invoice to my custom template as I did before. I would just get this error message in a dialog:
OLE received a packet with an invalid extension
To resolve the problem, I (eventually) opened my custom invoice template for editing, then closed it without making any real changes. When the dialog asked if I wanted to save changes, I clicked 'Yes'. After that, exporting to my template works just like before.
I'm assuming the template had to be updated with the new fields that SP2 allows in templates...the memo field is the only one I can recall reading about at the moment.
|