Share/Save

One annoyance I have though is with the ActiveX based remote desktop. Unfortunately, I am stuck with IE6 at work. I am not allowed to install IE7, Firefox, Chrome or any other browser than IE6. I also prefer not to run the ActiveX plugin in full-screen mode. I like to be able to quickly and efficiently tab to another window on my local desktop. Running it from the browser requires me to hide/un-hide the address bar and standard buttons though. I have Visual Studio 2005 though. So, I made a very quick little tool that allows me to maximize the space in which the browser sits. It is a Windows application but has nothing except a web browser object that fills the entire window. The default URL is http://www.logmein.com. It allows me to save my IE6 toolbar settings and maximize the space for my remote desktop!

I know, I know the tool is really simple and lame, but I figured not everyone has access to the development tools to make something like this. So, for the non-developers out there, I present FuGeRTech’s LogMeIn Interface v0.1.

Code is released under the MIT License.

Share/Save

I had a backup process running at work that would back up my server’s databases into a compressed folder. Everything was fine until my SharePoint database and another database grew larger than 32GB. My backups began to fail with an error that read:

The process cannot access the file
because another process has locked
a portion of the file.

I was stumped! I contacted a colleague that is a SQL Server expert, and she suggested using FileMon to watch for intruding processes. It may be the anti-virus software requesting the file in the middle of backing up. At that time, I ran my backups manually singling out the two that were failing to backup. I noticed that they would consistently fail at the 32GB mark. That drew my suspicion, and I did some googling to find that Microsoft SQL Server 2005 does NOT support compressed folders!

So, I moved my backups to a regular folder and all is well again. Even my expert colleague did not know of this problem. Luckily, I have read that SQL Server 2008 will support compressed folders.

I hope this information gets grabbed by the web crawlers as finding this information was NOT as easy as it should be.

Here’s another blogger that found this problem a year earlier than me!

http://clay.lenharts.net/blog/2008/01/28/backing-up-to-a-ntfs-compressed-folder/

Share/Save

This machine in particular is a 1277 rev B. Here’s the specs.:

• Processor/Cache
  AMD K6-2 433MHz, 100MHz Bus, 512KB L2
• Memory
  64MB SDRAM (soldered), 1 SO DIMM 144-PIN SDRAM slot (upgradeable to 192MB total)
• Storage
  IDE Controller, 4.8GB Hard Drive, 3.5″ 1.44MB Floppy, 24x CD-ROM
• Display
  13″, SVGA (800×600), 24-bit (16.7 million colors) display
• Video
  Trident Blade 3D AGP, Shared Video Memory (UMA), External Display up to SXGA (1280×1024)
• Audio
  Sound Blaster 16/Pro, Integrated Microphone
• Input Devices
  Keyboard, Trackpad
• Telecom
  PCI Fax modem, 56Kbps, ITU V.90/Hayes AT command set
• Expansion
  CardBus Type II, 15-pin HD-15, 4 PIN USB Type A, RS-232 DB-9, IEEE-1284 DB-25, PS/2 style mouse/keyboard, RJ-11 phone line, 3.5mm headphones, 3.5mm microphone

I did not have this specifications list in front of me at the time, so seeing the 433MHz K6-2 and 64MB of RAM was funny to see at first. Onto the rest of the story. So, Tamara’s father asked me to clean it up and make it run smoothly so that Tamara’s mother can use it for gathering information on trips, etc. I power it up and the first thing I notice is…

That’s right folks Windows 98. Now I know what you’re thinking, “but that machine came with Windows 98 from the factory.” Well, it did. I know that. I just expected to see it running Windows 2000 I guess… So, it’s not a shock, but I haven’t seen this splash screen in so long…

So, the machine is running quite slow. I hop online and pray that I can find memory for this thing. Luckily, it wasn’t that hard. I found a handful of places still selling memory for this dinosaur. I ordered the largest DIMM I could (128MB). It was about $20 after shipping. This upgraded the machine to 192MB total.

I proceeded to attempt to install Windows XP. This was a mistake as XP was just about as slow as the old, hosed up Windows 98 (despite Microsoft’s published minimum requirements). So, I found an old Windows 2000 disk and slapped on that OS.

I also ordered a Linksys CardBus Type II wireless card (model: WPC54GX) from eBay for ~$20. I got it installed without a hitch and was then able to go to the Internet to get the latest Service Pack installed. I noticed a very annoying sound coming from the speakers when the wireless card was actively transferring data. After some brief Googling, I found that Compaq had a flawed design where the CardBus slots of their 1200 series and many other Presario models lacked proper EMF shielding. The sound card was susceptible to this EMF noise. The two solutions:

1. Try to get a plastic-coated MU-Metal shield package from Compaq/HP
2. Plug in some headphones

Having headphones plugged in to the laptop routed the noise to the headphones. I found an old pair of headphones that I did not care about and cut the wires off of the plug. This proved sufficient for hiding the noise while using the Internet… better than nothing I suppose.

Now the machine is up and running and ready to go with Windows 2000, Office 2000, McAfee Anti-Virus, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Spyware, upgraded RAM, and a wireless card. It appears to run very smoothly. I forgot how nice and paired-down Windows 2000 is compared to XP and Vista. I really miss the simplicity of the operating system. It will make an excellent laptop for data gathering on the road.

Share/Save