Author: George

I have been in the IT profession over 27 years. Most of my experience was providing Workstation / Desktop support for several clients.

Network Tools Work

Using Real VNCViewer

This was a busy week at work. Usually is when you come back from vacation. Every month we generate a report which displays which PCs are out of our 95% compliance for all Microsoft patches. Usually we are at or just over the company compliance of 95%, which is amazing considering we have three times as many PCs as other sites in the U.S.

In order to get the PCs up to date and complete my work at my desk, I am using Real VNCViewer to connect to the PCs who need a little manual love for one reason or another. I am connect to 2 PCs on the production floor using Real VNCViewer and using No Machine for access to my Ubuntu Linux box (which I am using for this entry). Plus Windows Vista (YIKES!!) is busy doing it’s own stuff such as connecting to the Ticket Monitor System, running Outlook 2007, checking e-mail at home, and a separate Citrix connection that I forgot to disconnect from.

If you have never took advantage of using VNC, No Machine, Terminal Server Client or Remote Desktop Connection, you should try it. The only thing you need to be careful of is which PC you have displayed. You don’t want to be deleting something from PC X when you thought you were in PC Y.

Now, if I can only figure out why this Vista image won’t load.

Tags Network Tools, Work

Subnet Calculator

I was catching up on some blogs at Planet SUSE and came across OpenSUSE Linux Rants, a blog I followed for several years when I was using openSUSE instead of Ubuntu.

Scott wrote about iptables and how to block hostile machines at the kernel level. He then mentioned a cool little tool called Online IP Subnet Calulator. It would have been nice to have when I was studying for my MCSE back in 1999.

Tags Network Tools

Personal

Historic Cold Spring Village

Post author By George
Post date July 14, 2009
No Comments on Historic Cold Spring Village

During our family vacation to Avalon NJ, we stopped at Historic Cold Spring Village in Cape May, NJ. After going through the Welcome Center, the children went for a horse drawn wagon ride. Everyone got a change to pet Levi the horse and feed the sheep.

From there we walked the village and toured the Marshville Schoolhouse (the tour guide for the schoolhouse was fantastic…lots of information and very enthusiastic) , the Pottery Shop where we saw a demonstration on how to make a bowl, checked out the Dennisville Inn, walked through the Lewis Corson Gandy Barn, enjoyed a nice presentation at the Spicer Leaming House on cooking and baking (the instructor was making a wineberry cake during her presentation), and bought candy and other items at the Village Store. They had a demonstration at the David Taylor Shop on basket weaving, and the leather-smith was making belts to be sold at the Village Store.

Unfortunately many of the buildings were not open (my father wanted to see the John Finley Blacksmith shop, but he was not in) or the guides were out for lunch. Since I was planning on grilling bratwurst, hamburgers, and hotdogs for dinner, we decided not to stop for dinner at The Grange Restaurant.

Tags Personal

Personal

How to Replace the Cabin Air Filter in a 2007 Subaru Outback

Post author By George
Post date July 13, 2009
39 Comments on How to Replace the Cabin Air Filter in a 2007 Subaru Outback

Well after getting back from vacation in Avalon, NJ, I had plenty of work to do. One task was to replace the engine air filter and the cabin air filter in my 2007 Subaru Outback Sedan. I was able to purchase the new filter for $28.00 at the local auto parts store. The procedure should take about 15 minutes to complete (longer if your taking pictures of the process.) Please note I am not an auto mechanic. This post is more for my records than anything. Subaru states the cabin air filter should be replaced yearly. The filter in my car is 2 years old. It should look pretty nasty.

Open the glove-box and remove everything. The filter is behind the glove-box.
Open the passenger side door and remove the right end cover. This piece pulls off. I held onto the back while prying off the top and front.
Unhook the small retracting cable and using a small Phillips head screwdriver, remove the screw which the glove-box door hinges on. Careful, the clip which the screw is inserted is cheap plastic, no pressure is needed. I was able to get the screw part way out and then pop out the pushpin clip.
You need to pop out the two plastic “gliders” from the grooves on each side of the glove-box door. One they are out, the glove-box door should be free.
Remove the three screws on the right side of the glove-box compartment.
Remove the box which holds the owners manual.
Remove the three screws which holds an “L” shaped metal bracket. The bracket helps keep the air filter in place and remember, the bracket is braced against three alignment stops.
Pull up the piece of fabric.
Pull the carrier out by pushing the four clips (one on each side) towards the center. For me it kept hanging up on the right side. I had to force the opening a little. Once the four clips cleared the beginning of the opening, the rest slid out with no problems.
Once the filter is out and you see how nasty it looks, just replace it with the new filter you purchased.
Follow the steps in reverse order and you should have everything back the way it should be.

On Monday July 13th I called the local Subaru dealer to see how much they would charge to replace the cabin air filter… the service desk representative said $90.00! Glad I did this one on my own.

Tags Personal, Subaru

Personal

Happy 4th of July

I would like to wish everyone in the United States of America a Happy Fourth of July!! Here is a video clip of the American Anthem.

Like many across the USA, we will be traveling to meet up with my family. (Hopefully the roads won’t be too congested….Riiight). Some of them I haven’t seen for a few years. We stay in touch by e-mail, phone, and Facebook. All in all it should be a fun vacation with plenty to do. I’ve never been to the Jersey Shore, I know the children will like it. I might have to pick-up a box or two of Salt water taffy. That way I have something to offer my co-workers who are dealing with server room maintenance over the following weekend.

Some of the places I’ve been to for the Forth of July include; Disney World, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh (city near my old hometown), Myrtle Beach, and Washington D.C. The fireworks usually were spectacular. My favorite fireworks display was in Washington D.C. in 1998. With D.C. being so crowded and our hotel faced the National Mall, we had a nice dinner and enjoyed the fireworks display from the room. The closest I’ve been to a fireworks display was in Pittsburgh, PA. I was on the Monongahela River bank near the Fort Pitt Tunnel. I think they were launching the fireworks from he North Shore or from Point State Park.

Have a safe and happy holiday!!

Happy 4th of July

License to Grill

Tags American Holidays

FCM

FCM 26 is out

The latest issue, number 26 of FCM (Full Circle Magazine) is out.

From FCM Web site:

“Full Circle is a free, independent, magazine dedicated to the Ubuntu family of Linux operating systems. Each month, it contains helpful how-to articles and reader submitted stories.”

Tags Good Reading Material

Linux Stuff Ubuntu Video

Downloading Who’s Line is it Videos from YouTube

Post author By George
Post date June 30, 2009
2 Comments on Downloading Who’s Line is it Videos from YouTube

One of my favorite TV shows was “Who’s Line is it Anyway” from ABC. I was bummed the show was cancelled several years ago, and never thought too much of it since then. About two weeks ago I was on YouTube and found clips from Who’s Line. After watching a few of them, I decided to download the video to my Linux PC and move the video into the path /home/george/Video/YouTube/Whos Line. However, the YouTube down is not installed with Ubuntu. You need to install the file from the universe repository using the following steps:

Open a Terminal Window
enter without quotes “sudo apt-get install youtube-dl”
enter your password

Leaving the Terminal Window open, you can down run the command youtube-dl <url address of the video>. In a few minutes the file will download to your /home directory as a .flv file. Now I hate the fact when the file downloads the title of the file make no sense to me what so ever. If you change the command to youtube-dl -l <url address>, the title of the video will be inserted into the file name. To see the list of other parameters for downloading videos type youtube-dl -h.

Tags Ubuntu, Video

Personal

Be Happy at your Job

Today I was mowing the lawn before heading out with my family for a day of fun. When I finished mowing the front, I heard this home improvement contractor complaining about my neighbor; “Yes Mrs D…Yes Mrs. D.” Then he asked me; “Do you have an extra bullet?” Of course I looked at him and said no.

All I could think while putting my mower away was that guy is a jerk. He was doing a nice job with power washing the cement walls for the foundation, filling in all the cracks, and painting with a tinted waterproof paint. It was looking really good that I though about asking him for a quote, but after listening to him complain, I’ll look around for someone else.

If you don’t like your job, find another line of work. Don’t complain about your customers, you never know if you next potential customer is observing you or your work.

Tags Personal