How to increase your VirtualBox disk size for Windows

A lot of times that I blog, it's made up of things I want to remember for future issues. This is one of those times.

For my Crystal development contracting, I utilize Oracle's VirtualBox. It's a great free tool you can check out here. One of the issues I'd encountered was that, like most people, when I configure a VM I'll usually pick the smallest HD size I think I can get away with, somewhere like 40gb or so. However, that goes away quickly once Windows, MSSQL, Crystal, and the application I develop for are all installed, not including the size of customers' data that I restore for testing.

Today, I had a customer deliver a 33gb database for development. Not huge, by most standards, but very large for this application. I was out of space. Creating a secondary drive wasn't an option, as it needs to be restored to SQL. So, I shut the VM down and got into the settings console.

There was no option to change disc size. Crap. What now? New VM? I'm a fixed-bid contractor, so every extra hour I have to waste on this is money out of my pocket. So, using some Google-fu, I found a few people discussing using the VBoxManage command.

Problem for me was that my VM's are stored on a massive drive, not the OS drive where VirtualBox is installed. So, with some modification, here are the steps and commands I used:

1. Close your VM. 
2. Open a command prompt, and cd into the directory where VirtualBox is installed (usually C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox) cd C:\"Program Files"\Oracle\VirtualBox
3. run the modify hd function with the new size (this needs to be in MB). You must specify the location of the .vdi file you wish to increase. I choose 70GB (70 * 1024mb = 71600MB)
   

   VBoxManage.exe modifyhd G:\VirtualBox\VMName\VDIName.vdi --resize 71600
   

4. VirtualBox will start the process of resizing your hard drive and you will see the a percentage progress bar telling you how far along the process is.
5. Now start up your Virtual Windows Machine. Right Click on "Computer" and choose "Manage"
6. Click on the "Disk Management" option on the left panel under Storage. You will notice some "unallocated" black space next to your C:\ drive if everything was done correctly.
7. Right Click on the C drive and choose "Extend Volume" Follow the Windows wizard and you will have successfully increased the size of your VirtualBox disk.

Mad props to this guy for getting me about 80% of the way.

Drag and Drop Broken - Windows 7/2008 r2

Ever had drag and drop stop working on you?

Oh yeah? Me either. Until this week. I work on a remote computer for some of my contracting (hence the multiple posts on RDP here), and drag and drop is crucial for what I do. So, when it stops working? Yuck.

Well, with some google-fu and some "I can't believe the fix is this simple", here's the solution:

Left-Click on a file in windows explorer. Hold the left-click. Click Esc. Seriously. That's it.

I love it when fixes are easy.

Conditionally hide SSRS expand/collapse button

Over the last year and a half, I've transitioned into a full-time BI role at my new job. Among the many changes I've had to deal with, learning the differences between Crystal Reports and SSRS (Microsoft SQL Reporting Services) has been one of the most interesting.

Each tool has its' own nuances and issues. I've found that each has significant pros and interesting cons. Take for instance SSRS:
Significant pro:

• Horizontal grouping. Let's not talk about cross-tabs in CR, as I don't consider that horizontal grouping - too many weird formatting and display issues. It's a hack, at best. It's ugly, users don't like it, and I hate developing them. 

Significant con:

• Multi-item editing. You mean to tell me you don't support me clicking on a number of items, right clicking and having all the similar formatting tools at my disposal? Wow. Sure, I can click them all, then go into properties and format, but I'd have to remember the SSRS code for a percent or a standard currency format. It's just strange.

So, with knowing that each tool has great features, and great quirks, here's one of the quirks I found in SSRS, and how I worked around it.

Situation: Users request a high-level report detailing how much each support call costs, at each support level (tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3). Summary totals are presented at the top, and detail assumptions and data that drive the total is presented at the bottom. 

Gotcha/caveat: Detail data (which includes avg headcount cost/salary per level) should be hidden by default, toggled on request. Detail data also should only be shown to specific users. Basically, only managers can see the report, but only a subset of said managers can see the detail data.

There is no way to conditionally show a toggle item in SSRS that I know of (this is using SSRS 2008 R2). 

Workaround: It's very simple, almost silly really. I placed the matrix table containing the detail data inside a rectangle. The rectangle's visibility options are set to hide on load, and are set to be toggled by another text box in the summary data.

Great, that gets me to the point where the user can toggle, but how can I control who toggles the switch? You can't. But, you can control who sees the textbox the toggle is in. Simple answer, make the visibility settings on the toggle textbox change based on the user.

SSRS has a built in user parameter that tells you who is attempting the access the report, so we can use that parameter to know who is coming in. 

Here you have two options:

1. Hard code the users in the expression of the toggle text box (tb76 in my case. Original, I know. Terrible naming conventions). 

2. Pull from a table.

I chose route 2. I built a Dom_ReportUsers table in my database that stores the name, credentials, reportname, and type (is it an entire report, a subsection of a report, etc) for any report with special permissions. I've found it very useful.*

So, I have a 2nd dataset in the report called "Users" that pulls everything from that table, filtered with the hardcoded report name and where the credentials match the aforementioned Users parameter.

Then, on tb76, I set the visibility property to "Show or hide based on an expression" and set the expression to =IsNothing(First(Fields!Name.Value, "users"))

This way, if the user isn't in that Dom table for this report section, they don't see that box, and can't toggle.

It's pretty simple, and works well.

* The table is probably only needed if you want to control permissions for multiple reports or sections from a single place. I didn't want to have to spin up visual studio and redeploy to give someone new access to that section, plus I'm using this table to control security on 3 reports currently. Additionally, with this report, we're doing 2 levels of filtering, one where only managers can see the report, and then section filtering where only certain managers can see the details, if that makes sense.

Crystal Reports 2008 SP3 upgrade hangs

I know, it's been a LONG time since my last post. During this time, Crystal FINALLY rolled out a SP3 build, thus replacing the need to go SP0 (who does an SP0 anyway?), SP1, SP2, and then SP3. It also should fix the issue I detailed here.

But, in rolling to the new build on a fresh install, my installer froze on the "Determining disk space requirements" screen. For hours.

I tried everything. Cleaning my registry with CCleaner. Rebooting. Etc and etc. Nothing worked.

Until I tried to most unlikely thing of all:
1. Check the French language pack during install.
2. Instead of selecting "Typical", choose "Custom" and don't click anything, just click "Next"

Voila! It's installing.

What the? Why in the world would that fix it? Checked some SAP forums, and it looks like I'm not the first to figure that out, so hopefully they'll get that fixed too....

Until next time.

Get RGB values from Excel cells

I do custom Crystal reports for customers as a side-job and was presented with an interesting challenge this last week.

The issue was that the customer wanted to color-code fields in their Crystal report based on pre-defined fields. They provided a spreadsheet with the colors, and it was my job to get them somewhere that the report could use.

In the end, I had to use some VBA and some new SQL tables, but it works, and works well.

The first challenge was this - in Crystal reports you really only have a couple of conditional formatting options for color, either their color constants or an RGB scheme:
// This conditional formatting formula must return one of the following Color Constants:
//
// Color (red, green, blue)
// crBlack
// crMaroon
// crGreen
// crOlive
// crNavy
// crPurple
// crTeal
// crSilver
// crRed
// crLime
// crYellow
// crBlue
// crFuchsia
// crAqua
// crWhite
// crNoColor

Since the customer was providing the colors, I knew I had to go with RBG. But how to pull those values out of the provided spreadsheet? Enter VBA.

Thanks to the power of the Google, I took and modified some VBA code to pull the unique R code, G code, and B code (since Crystal expects 3 distinct strings, not a single string in their RBG formula) for each cell:

Function showR(rcell)
Dim myStr As String
Application.Volatile

myStr = Right("000000" & Hex(rcell.Interior.Color), 6)
showR = Application.Evaluate("=Hex2dec(""" & Right(myStr, 2) & """)")

End Function

Function showG(rcell)
Dim myStr As String
Application.Volatile

myStr = Right("000000" & Hex(rcell.Interior.Color), 6)
showG = Application.Evaluate("=Hex2dec(""" & Mid(myStr, 3, 2) & """)")

End Function

Function showB(rcell)
Dim myStr As String
Application.Volatile

myStr = Right("000000" & Hex(rcell.Interior.Color), 6)
showB = Application.Evaluate("=Hex2dec(""" & Left(myStr, 2) & """)")

End Function

That worked like a charm. I then dumped those values into the database, where I was able to use conditional formatting to push those values out of the database into the field.

After a large amount of work, it works like a charm.

Getting better battery life out of your HTC Evo

Yes, I am nerdy. And I'm okay with it. So, when I read the specs on the HTC Evo that was to be released on Sprint in June, I knew (since my contract was up) that I was going to preorder, and then upgrade.

I mean, let's be honest, these specs rock.
Display - 4.3" screen - 800 x 480 resolution
Processor - 1 GHz Snapdragon
Size - 4.8" tall, 2.6" wide, .5" thick
Weight - 6 oz
OS - Android 2.1
Storage - 8GB MicroSD included
Camera - 8MP in back, 1.3MP in front for video conf
Video Recording - 720p @ 25fps
GPS, Compass, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, proximity sensor

And it's worth every penny. I'm not naive though, and I'm not blind to its' shortcomings. That said, here are my issues with it:

- The screen size is gorgeous, but the resolution could be higher without losing much of anything.
- The screen is a fingerprint magnet. Thank heavens for Boxwave anti-fingerprint screen protectors. Check them out at here.
- Battery life. It's not nearly as bad as some reviews make it seem, and comparing it to the iPhone's battery life is downright stupid, considering that you can do true multitasking on the Evo. Of course the iPhone has better battery life, it allows one thing at a time. That's another rant.

That said, I have made a couple small tweaks and have been able to get much better battery life out of my phone. I mean consistently unplugging the phone around 7-8 AM, and not plugging it in until 10:30-11 PM and still having 40% battery life. And the best part is? I didn't stop using my phone at all. Some reviews I've read advocate that restricting phone use will save battery life. Duh. I didn't spend $200 on a paperweight. So, here are a few of the things I've done:

1. Turn off the GPS. It's on all the time, and it's a battery suck. Anything that needs the GPS (like Google Maps, for instance) can turn it on automatically anyway, so there's no reason to leave it on all the time. They have a bunch of widgets for these, so tap the + button and then go to Widget / Settings and find the one for the GPS. Then turn it off.

2. Turn off Wifi and 4G. Similar to above - especially if 4G isn't quite up or is spotty in your area. If you leave these on, they'll constantly be scanning for networks. For instance, I can get 4G at work, but not home. So the only time it's on is at work. There are widgets for these in the same place as the GPS one above.

3. Disable "Always On" mobile data. I have no idea what this does, but haven't noticed a single problem/issue with turning it off, and my battery savings jumped with this one. Go to Settings / Wireless & networks / Mobile networks. Tap "Enable always-on mobile data" to uncheck the box.

4. Turn off the background updates/sync. There are a lot of things that sync of update on a regular basis, like Gmail, Facebook, News, Weather, etc. You should either turn these off, or turn back the update time. For instance, I have News and Facebook set to not sync, weather is set to 3 hours, and Gmail is real-time (I like getting email as soon as it comes in). This is changed in Settings / Accounts & sync. Your accounts will be listed here. Tap the "Account Settings" box once in an account to change this.

5. Use an App Killer. This is a sensitive subject for a lot of people, as there are many in the Pro-AK camp and many in the Anti-AK camp. I think, if used wisely and correctly, AK's can work well. I use Advanced Task Killer, only have it set to auto kill the random Sprint Apps (like navigation, TV, stocks, etc) that I know for sure I don't want, and then only have it auto-kill when I turn off my screen. I would not recommend auto-killing any services or apps that you aren't sure about, as you can royally mess things up. For instance, when I had my HTC Hero, I unknowingly killed the SMS service, and it took me 2 days to wonder why I wasn't receiving any texts (and none were going out either).

6. Run an app like OverclockWidget. This one is complex, because it requires rooting your phone (another post in and of itself), but once done, this widget can actually slow down your processor to any speed when the screen is off. I have my 1GHz processor slowed down to 200MHz when my screen is off.

Additionally, there are some more obvious things like lowering your screen timeout, removing the sync-heavy widgets (like FriendStream) or other things like that, but those have all had a minimal battery impact. The ones above (for me) had by far the most impact.

Good luck!

It's been awhile....

I realized the other day that's been 6 months since I updated this blog. That's shocking, to be honest. I've done a ton of blog-worthy stuff the last few months, but finding the time to do the blog-worthy activities and finding the time to blog about those blog-worthy activities are two very different things.

Here's a brief overview of the things I've done that are blog worthy these past 6 months (so expect blogs dealing with them at some point):

- Finished our basement (I did all the low-voltage wiring - gigabit network, in-wall surround speakers, in-wall HDMI, etc)

- Bought a WDTV Live HD, and hacked it with custom firmware (thanks B-Rad!)



- Found out 1.5 months after I bought the WDTV Live HD that WD released a new product called the WDTV Live HD Plus. Not only did this suck because the Plus product contained the firmware to stream Netflix (but not Hulu, so I don't feel too bad), but it obviously drove the price of my version down.

- Was pleasantly surprised at the response my last post about upgrading Crystal 2008 has received. I've literally gotten emails from all over and found my blog linked in a number of Crystal-related forums. Not surprised that I'm not the only one with those issues, just more surprised that even now, SAP has shown no desire to fix the issue. Odd, to say the least.



- Upgraded to an HTC Evo on Sprint. Love it. Absolutely love it. With a few tweaks and changes, I have great battery life on an amazing smartphone. Combine that with my plan pricing, and I'm in cell phone heaven for not a lot of dough. I'll do a post tomorrow about all the ways I've figured out to save some serious battery life and still use my phone as often as I'd like.

- Bought a 40GB Apple TV with the intent of hacking it with either Boxee or XBMC. The laziness in me took over, however, as I found a unit pre-hacked for a great price, and bought it instead. :)

Crystal Reports 2008 Upgrade to SP1 error - Fixed!

For work I use Crystal Reports, a lot. Recently, I was able to get a new laptop, and of course, reformatted and put Windows 7 on it (which I LOVE, but that's for another blog entry). In doing so, I also upgraded from Crystal Reports XI to Crystal Reports 2008. Of course, by this time, SAP has released a number of service packs, and I had to get SP0, SP1, and SP2. So I'm humming along, installing everything, when I see the following message: "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter an alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'CrystalReports.msi' in the box below."

Wait. What? You gave me a pre-packaged install file that is supposed to unpack everything I need. Only it didn't. And I don't have the CrystalReports.msi installed anywhere. Ugg. Now what?

I couldn't find it to download, I couldn't find it on my computer, I couldn't find it in the install package.

What I ended up having to do is reinstall Crystal. Completely. But, when I got to the screen asking if I wanted the typical or custom install, I didn't click next. Instead, I went to the temp directory it unpacked to (as you can see above - it's C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp\) and sure enough, there's a RarSFX1 folder there, which gets deleted upon install. I copied that folder to my desktop and proceeded through the install.

Then, when I got back to that error message, I simply pointed it to my desktop, which had the RarSFX1 folder (with the CrystalReports.msi inside) and it took it and let me install the rest of the way.

What a mess. SAP really needs to fix this issue, but even though I'm not the only one with the issue, they've not posted any fixes or instructions. Needless to say, this RarSFX1 folder is getting zipped and saved on my hard drive (as well as backed up offsite) in case I need it in the future.

PSP Hacking

My brother gave me a PSP 2000 with some damaged goods a while back. Namely, the bars that hold the UMD disc door in place and help it close were severely bent and had popped off. Sidebar - I guess letting a 4-year-old "play" the PSP isn't such a good idea :). Anyway, I was able to get it back together with some mad needle-nose plier skills, but it still was somewhat finnicky to get the disc door closed. So, I decided to devote my time to hacking the PSP so I wouldn't need to use the discs anymore.

In a nutshell, what I needed to do was hack my PSP, overriding the "stock" Sony firmware with custom firmware. What that firmware would do is unlock the full potential of the PSP unit, things like allowing me to play my UMD Iso's straight from the memory stick, the ability to install cool apps (more on that later), and so on. There are a lot of really easy to follow tutorials out there, so I won't bore you with lists of them. The important thing to note is that you can't hack your PSP 3000 just yet, only Fats (the 1000 series) and Slims (2000's). There are also a number of ways to tell which on you have.

I purchased a Pandora's battery (a tool necessary for the hack) and went to work. All in all, the process was fairly simple. Once I was done, I was then able to install the following:
- Emulators: NES, SNES, GBA, GBC, N64 emulators to play all the games I owned as a kid
- ISO compressor: to compress the backups I made of my PSP games, so more would fit on my 4GB memory stick
- Custom themes: to make your PSP look "cool"

All in all, it was worth it just to play my games from memory stick instead of UMD, but the emulator is just cherries on top. Since installing it, I've beat Metroid, Zelda, Startropics (ok, I got to the end guy, but haven't beat him yet), and am currently working on Mike Tyson's Punch Out. Ahh, the memories.

Fix BootMgr is Missing Error Message

BootMgr is Missing

So you've got a new Vista/Server 2008 (Server 2008 was the culprit in my case, but I've read of it happening on Vista as well...) install on your desktop, and you reinstall to finish some updates. As you're booting, you hear a beep, and see: "BOOTMGR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart." Crap. What now? The Windows repair disc doesn't fix it, and you're not sure what to do.

As best I can tell, Serv08 just got confused between my IDE and SATA drive, and even though it installed Server 2008 to my SATA drive, it dumped the boot files on the IDE drive. Why? I'm not sure.....but it did. Thus, the error.

Using the Repair Disc, I loaded into the Command Prompt, figuring that I'd need to copy files over. The problem is, what files should I move?

First, I needed to find out where everything was:

• c: to switch to the C drive.
• dir /a to view all the files. The "/a" switch is to show the hidden ones (the files you are looking for, listed below, are hidden).
• d: to switch to the D drive.
• dir /a to view all the files there.

What you're trying to find is your BOOT folder and the BOOTMGR, since this is what's missing. Then you also need to find the WINDOWS folder, since the BOOT and BOOTMGR need to be on that drive.

Once you know that, you need to copy them....

• c: to switch to the C drive, or wherever you determined the boot files to be.
• xcopy /h bootmgr d: to copy the BOOTMGR file to the D drive, or whichever drive you need to copy them too. The "/h" switch ensures that you'll include hidden files, which is important.
  
• robocopy c:\boot d:\boot /mir to copy the entire BOOT folder from the C drive to the D drive. The "/mir" grabs the entire directory and its' sub-folders and files, keeping the same file structure.
  

Sure enough, once I moved those files over, everything booted up fine. Thank heavens.

Remotely Logoff Terminal Users

One of the things I use this blog for is to augment my bad memory. Specifically, when I find a solution or fix a problem, I like to document it so I can easily find it later. Today I've got two. If nothing else, I'm sure I'll be using these again down the road.


Remotely Log Off Users

I frequently use Remote Desktop, especially when I'm at home and need to access my desktop at work. Nothing stinks more than logging in, only to see this:

This happens because Windows by default only allows two simultaneous terminal services connections to the same machine. Usually one is my console user, but at various times other people remote into my machine to grab things, and don’t explicitly log out of machines when they disconnect from remote desktop which causes their sessions to remain active.

First, how can we query to find out what users have a session on a remote machine? Windows provides the qwinsta.exe command which we can use to query for the sessions that are running The format is as follows (from a command screen, of course, so go to Start | Run | cmd - and you must be an administrator on the target machine - for instance I'm an admin on the 10.1.2.230 box):

qwinsta /server:

So, in my case it's qwinsta (or quser works as well) /server:10.1.2.230

It shows the user and the session ID, and quser shows the idle time as well (which is handy for determining who to boot).

Now that we know what users are on a machine, the next step is exercising those Administrator functions, and kicking them off. The command is logoff.exe.

logoff  /server:

So for mine, it was logoff 1 /server:10.1.2.230. That kicked Nate off my box, and allowed me to remote in.

WARNING BEFORE YOU DO THIS:
If you log someone off, whatever they had open or whatever they were doing is lost. Be prepared for angry people, unless you're really sure they're idle or done...

Windows 7 Release Candidate pt 2

Upon further use.......I still like Windows 7. The RC seems to be a little "heavier" than the beta, so it's not quite as "snappy" as I initially experienced with the beta, and this is on a faster machine then the beta was on, but I'm still a happy customer.

I haven't had any driver issues, and haven't had any other issues to speak of really, other than the typical change management issues one experiences when using a new OS. You know, the typical "Crap I know where that link was located on [insert other OS/software here]....now where is it?!" moment that one has when using an updated piece of software.

Anyway, I've had a few people ask how to get their hands on a copy, so without further hesitation, here's the information on downloads and other stuff:

Get the RC here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Main points of info
1) How long is the key good for?
June 1, 2010

2) What happens then?
You will need to upgrade to a newer version of Windows 7 before then (generally the releases go Release Candidate (one or more) -> Final version).

3) Can I upgrade from the beta release to the RC, or from RC to Final?
Yes, with the workaround discussed here, but let's be honest, I wouldn't recommend it. By 2010, you'll be needing a fresh reinstall anyway.

4) Where can I get an antivirus program that works on Windows 7?
Check out this page

5) Will my Vista drivers work on Windows 7?
Yes.

Windows 7 RC

I did it. I put Windows 7's RC on my main computer (my Dell Vostro laptop). I'm not sure why I did. I had to reformat anyway, to get a lot of the extra crap I'd had to install for the last 2 semesters of school, but I took a gamble.

And I'm loving it.

Sure, W7 isn't complete yet, and I'm sure I'll encounter bugs, but I haven't yet. For those that don't know, the RC (Release Candidate) is a version of a program that is nearly ready for release but may still have a few bugs; essentially the status between beta version and release version.

I blogged about the beta, and was happy with it, but it wasn't my main machine. This is. And now I'm using it every day, I'm finding some things that are frustrating, but nothing huge. And there are some really useful features, such as built-in ISO burning. Yeah I know, who burns an ISO nowadays? I've had to a few times, and it's nice. I just wish it had built-in ISO mounting as well (which it doesn't) and that Daemon would release a W7-supported version. But I digress.

For those that are on the fence, I say try it. I've enjoyed it.

Cool Free Software Part 3

Ever wanted to be in control of what album art is applied to your music? Don't trust what iTunes decides to place as the art? Don't use iTunes?

Wait no more!

I use Winamp at work for my media, mostly because I don't want to install iTunes, and since my work machine is ALWAYS on, I can install Winamp Remote and stream that music from anywhere, anytime. Problem with that is that I'm missing a lot of album art and Winamp just doesn't have the ability to find album art (that I could find...).

Enter Media Art Aggregator. It's a cool little program. From the description on the site: "A digital media art aggregator. Finds cover art for music, tv shows, movies or any other type of media. Searches different sources including Google Images, Yahoo Images, Live Images, Deviant Art, Amazon.com and Walmart. Additional sources can be customized by defining the url to get the source from and a regular expression to determine the image url or by defining new classes that inherit from a base class."

So, it finds album art for you. Cool thing is that you get to choose your album art. So, it brings up choices.


You can see for this Our Lady Peace album, I have 2 choices, which look pretty similar but have different sizes (one is 500x500 and the other is only 446x500). Of course, I pick the 500x500 one. You can also see the options for image database to search.


Here you can see more options. The current album art was only 200x200, whereas MAA allowed me to see a bunch of better looking covers.

Pros: It's easy. You can set it to search on double click, where it will just simply copy the highlighted text on the left and search by it. That works for people like me, who try to label their folders as Artist - Album Name, but wouldn't work as well for people who don't label their folders that way.

It works for various media types, not just CD's. That's nice.

It's free. You can't beat that.

Cons: It has a hard time finding some lesser-known bands. It also is subject (in some cases) to user-inputted pictures, which really sucks. For instance, the album art for my Classic Queen album looks like junk, and I couldn't find a better one (you can see the black on the bottom and right).

There are also some covers that show people actually holding the album and taking a picture. Of course, since you have so many search engines the chances of that are less, but still...

It also hasn't been updated in some time (since 2008), and that may not change, but that isn't going to be an issue unless the sites change their formatting and it breaks the search.

Overall it's a nice, lightweight alternative to iTunes, and one that gives you a large amount of control.

The Office Quote of the Day

This is actually the quote from the weekend, but I've been busy at work.

"There are thirteen people working in this office. So thirteen times a year, Michael gets a cake, and balloons, and some sort of joke gift, and makes a toast. And there are two types of toasts: one is a joke about how old you are... and the other is something inappropriate, or horrible. Or both."

-Jim

Cool free software part 2

Today's piece of software is one that is pretty neat. Essentially, Synergy gives you the ability to control multiple computers from one keyboard and mouse, over your network (the computers must support TCP/IP). You install Synergy on both machines (the client and the server), then simply configure them. Configuration is easy and is done on the server. You simply say "Laptop" is 0 to 100% to the left of "Desktop" and "Desktop" is 0 to 100% to the right of "Laptop". Once that's done, you fire it up on both machines and start it, and it will connect, and viola! You can share the mouse and keyboard.

Additionally, Synergy gives you the option to auto-start the process upon user login or upon computer boot, making it easy to reconnect.

It's a light-weight client (you can see the process usage in the screenshot below), and it supports multiple platforms (from their website):

• Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (the Windows 95 family)
• Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (the Windows NT family)
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
• Unix
  • X Windows version 11 revision 4 or up
  • XTEST extension
    (use "xdpyinfo | grep XTEST" to check for XTEST)
    

Ultimately, there are a ton of options out there for this type of thing. Multiplicity (not a free program) by the Stardock guys, Input Director (a free program) are two examples. There are others, and to each their own I guess, but Synergy is light, free and easy to setup.

It has downsides. The updates and changes are slow to come. It also suffers when doing processing-intensive things (in my case it's when backing up SQL databases or doing really heavy SQL queries, etc) where it will literally break the connection. Also, I've found that if I try to unlock the "server" if I've hit Ctrl-Alt-Del with the mouse on the "client" machine, the keyboard is unresponsive past the initial Ctrl-Alt-Del. But, even with those "issues", I've yet to find a program as good as Synergy.

Cool free software part 1

I'm cheap, I'll admit it. I don't like paying for things when there are free alternatives available. Because of that, I've grown fond of open-source type projects, and like playing with them.

One I recently stumbled across was f.lux. The idea behind this piece of software is that the closer you get to bedtime, the more that the light from LCD's can affect sleep patterns. I'd read about this before, and although I have no idea if it's truly legit science or not (there are some links on their site), but decided to give it a go. f.lux is designed to adjust the color temperature of your LCD/Screen based on the time of day. So you download the program, install and run it, and input your zip, and it will automatically adjust the screen. Since I'm writing this at 10PM, it's a much lower temperature (3400K) then it is during noon (6500K). It took a day or two to adjust to the orangish (is that a word?) tint, but it's cool, and since I'm on my laptop usually before bed, if it helps, it would be even cooler.

Word Clouds

Word Clouds are kind of cool. So, I found a site that will create one for you, based on a number of things. Here's one based on this blog.

Ever lost important files?

I'm sure you've had this happen - you're in the middle of a paper. You're working hard and things are going good. You step away from your computer for some grub and a night away, and by the time you come back - POOF! - your computer it blue screened (I know, I know, Mac users probably don't have this....but until someone buys me a Mac, I'm sticking with the cheap Windows that meets my needs) and you're stuck with the last auto-save that Office did (if it can recover it).

This is why you need to BACK STUFF UP. I personally use SyncToy to back my laptop up to my server. But I've come to the realization lately that it's not enough. What happens if my stuff gets stolen? What if I want to go back to an older revision and I've overwritten it? The solution? Off-site backup.

There are a number of ways to do this, and an even greater number of online places to do this: Amazon's S3, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Carbonite, and Mozy. I'm using Mozy. This is for a number of reasons:

1. Price. It's FREE for 2GB of online storage. Yes, free. No strings attached. Obviously, 2GB isn't enough to store a music collection, or a full set of home videos, etc, but it's PLENTY for me to save all my school work and other important documents. If you really need the extra space, they offer unlimited backup for $4.95/month.
2. Location. I'm a Utahn, born and bred. If I can support a homegrown company versus Amazon or MS, I will.
3. I know employees. The company is solid.
   
4. Encryption. It's safe and secure.
5. Block-level incremental backups. This is cool. This method only backs up the blocks within the file that changed, rather than copying the whole file.

Convinced?
Go to Mozy.com to sign up for an account and download their software. It's free. You can thank me later.

Are you a university student? Want Server 2003/2008 for free?

Two posts in one day? What?

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition
This is available from Microsoft's Dreamspark website. Windows Server 2003 is specifically designed for a server environment, but can easily be configured to use as a workstation. Once configured as a workstation, it is basically Windows XP, but a more secure code revision. Windows XP drivers nearly always work perfectly on Server 2003, with very very few exceptions. Users also report gaming performance is equal to Windows XP, and better than Vista.

Windows Server 2008
Available through Dreamspark (see above), instructions here to configure it to workstation so it looks more like Vista except without the bloat.

Thanks to various people on SlickDeals.net (the best deals site, IMO) for the info. I've gotten a key from Dreamspark for 2008, and will grab one for 2003 here soon.