Staring at glass…

You know, it’s 2009 already.  I believe that we’re far enough along in the technology age that certain things should just work.  Now, I don’t always get my way.  I work with computers every day, and part of the reason I have a job is because of the problems.  But some things should just work.

Like backup. I mean, come on, we’re just copying files here.  Why should I have to fight tooth and nail to make sure that I’ve got a second copy somewhere?  It can’t be that difficult.

Well, there’s some who are proving that it’s not.  MozyHome and Carbonite are two services that I’ve tried out and I can recommend either one.  I’m using Carbonite, but they each provide the same level of service.  MozyHome is free for the first 2GB of data, and after that it’s $5 per month for an unlimited amount.  Carbonite is just a flat $50 per year for unlimited backups.

Here’s how it works:  You download a small application onto your computer which just runs in the background.  You choose which folders, or your whole computer, to backup, and it just quietly keeps it backed up.  It “trickles” the data to their servers, strongly encrypted.  Only you, with your account, can get at it.  When you need to get files back, it is just a couple clicks.  Did I say you could backup your whole computer?  There’s no space limit.  You’re just limited by the speed of your connection.

For $50 or $60 a year, I find this a no-brainer.  Some might feel nervous about having their stuff out there somewhere, despite the security measures, but I see it as a strength.  I can get my files back from anywhere.  If there’s a disaster in my home, or I replace my PC, I just install the client and restore.  There are some additional steps (for security) when you install on a different PC, but overall I found it quite clean.

It’s nice to have something that works.

Sometimes the GUI just doesn’t go far enough. I guess M$ finally figured that out, and therefore, POWERSHELL!!

I was trying to find a particular error message in our Exchange 2003 Event Log, but the string I was looking for was in the Description (or Message). You can’t filter on that in the Event Viewer, so I went looking for alternatives and naturally thought of PowerShell.

While I’m not familiar, exactly, with WMI, a little searching and testing gave me this:

Get-WmiObject -computer <server> -query “SELECT * FROM Win32_NTLogEvent WHERE (Logfile = ‘application’) AND (EventCode = 7004)” | SELECT * | where{$_.message -match ‘<search string>’}

It’s so satifying to know you’re getting exactly the information you need. Instead of wading through everything all the time.

This is starting to get easier.  Closer to how it should be

I installed Ubuntu 8.10 64-bit, and endeavoured to use any built-in features to get my dual monitors configured.  I had successfully used instructions from the Ubuntu Forums on past revisions, but I kept thinking that it shouldn’t be that difficult.

In 8.04 I had unsuccessfully tried the third-party Hardware Drivers control panel, so I thought I’d try again.  This time it worked.  That is to say, the third-party drivers successfully downloaded and installed and appeared activated.  Then, it was only a matter of finding the ATI Catalyst Control Center.

So, here’s my steps:

1. Go to: System –> Administration –> Hardware Drivers
2. Let it search for available drivers
3. Highlight the driver and click ‘Activate’
4. It should now download and install the driver
5. Reboot
6. Once you’re logged in, go to: Applications –> Accessories –>ATI Catalyst Control Center
7. Configure as you please
8. Reboot

This is what worked for me, and I was pleased.  It was a whole lot less messing around than I’ve done previously.  If it doesn’t work, I highly recommend trying the link to the forums and try the ‘Big Desktop’ configuration.

Previously, I wrote about iCloud, and that I wasn’t too sure who would really use it, and why.  However, I must admit that I was terribly short-sighted, which I suspected at the time.  I just couldn’t get my mind around it.  But several things have happened in the mean time that has changed my perspective.

First, I went to VMworld in Las Vegas in September.  There I saw more and more the direction of virtualizing everything.  If you virtualize it, you can present resources as needed, instead of deploying whole machines to perform a single task.  From Firefox to Exchange, you can virtualize it all.  Now, I knew this going in, but it’s really reaching a whole new level we haven’t seen before.  At least with Windows apps.

Also,  Google is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.  I’ve taken a closer look at Google Apps and come to another conclusion:  “If Google can convince the world that all you need is a browser, they win.”  And for a lot of people, that’s probably already true.  Google apps will do most of the functions the average person uses, with nearly perfect up-time, and no loss of data.

One more thing I came across.  I got a new computer recently, and the motherboard has the ability to load a mini-OS on the board, complete with a browser.  Interesting…. What if all I needed was a browser?  What if my company could remotely serve a virtualized app I need?

Yes, I’m beginning to see the light.

Good grief!!  Here we go again.  I’m referring to my previous post which followed my original post.

I upgraded to VMware Workstation 6.0.4 on my Vista laptop and the BEEPS are BACK BIG-TIME!!

Apparently, VMware has moved the ‘config.ini’ to a ‘preferences.ini’ in a totally different location.  Here’s what I had to do:

• Edit “C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\VMware\preferences.ini”
• Add the following line to the bottom:  mks.noBeep = “TRUE”
• Restart VMware Workstation (this may be an unnecessary step)

Until next time…