Category: Personal

Happy Labor Day 2012

Happy Labor Day my fellow Americans!

I’ve made it another year staying employed as an IT consultant. The last year was very productive for me. My project for migrating the client I’m assigned to from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office is almost complete. We migrated everyone from BlackBerry to iPhone 4S for Exchange server connection (including iPads), and shortly we will be migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Tonight I’ll be feating on slow cooked ribs, grilled corn on the cob when the rain stops (thanks remnants Hurricane Isaac). I might tape off a small section of my office to complete the accent stripe for the office walls, and maybe read a book tonight.

Tags American Holidays, Personal

Home PC linux Personal

Goodbye Dell Dimension 8200

Post author By George
Post date August 25, 2012
No Comments on Goodbye Dell Dimension 8200

I would like to take a moment to say goodbye to my Dell Dimension 8200 system. 😦 I’ve slayed many monsters and demons on the Diablo series, and fragged many friends playing the Quake series, and destroying the the AI players in HOMM3 (plus actual work stuff).

When it’s time to decommission your home PC, think about the following:

Do you have a current backup?

Your first answer should be, “Let me double check.” There are a lot of options available such as; portable USB hard drive, DVD, CD, NAS, and cloud storage. I use a portable USB hard drive on my main computer, cloud storage to keep data synced between devices, and DVDs for long term storage.

Do you really need to recycle that PC?

Sometimes you can format the hard drive, reinstall the OS and start with a “factory build” image (make sure you have all your serial numbers and installation media or programs). You could also install Linux which requires far less system resources. My Dell 8200 ran Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and TurnKey Linux over the last few years.
Check with family and friends or nonprofits in your area. Some nonprofits will supply a tax receipt for your donation. Take the time during the hard drive wipe to double check the federal tax laws, and be honest when it comes to the value of your PC.

Wipe the hard drive!

Besides finding websites that will install malicious software to kill your PC, you can download free hard drive wipe programs, purchase wipe programs on-line or at a retail store, or use a bootable Linux OS from a USB or CD to wipe the drives. The wipe process will take hours to complete. My PC took 6 hours to complete.
Over the last 10+ years, many of the companies I worked for required the hard drive be physically destroyed in addition to wiping. Some might call this excessive, I call it standard procedure. You need to remember, that hard drive once stored every bit of information about you.
About a year ago I purchased a new paper shredder which can shred credit cards, CDs, and DVDs. I’ll go on record stating how much fun it is shredding DVDs.

Now that your ready, take the PC, glass tube monitor, and other accessories to the recycle event in your community. My community holds regular events for disposal of electronics, household hazardous waste, and other recycling programs.

Tags Dell, Home PC, Linux, Personal

Dropbox Home PC iPad LogMeIn Personal Skype Video

My New iPad

Apple iPad 3

After 2 years of shopping around for tablets, I finally purchased an iPad 3 aka The New iPad.

I was going to mention what took me so long to purchase the iPad, but it is a boring story about saving money, looking at tablets at least once a month, reading blogs about with everyone’s opinion, and just waiting for the tablet that had all the right features. For a few months, I thought the Asus Transformer 201 was the right device. Nvidia quad core processor, Ice-cream sandwich for the OS, and the optional keyboard to “transform” into a netbook.

But when I compared the iPad 3 to the Transformer 201, I felt the iPad was a better tablet. Yes, the iPad was more expensive, but over the last year I was becoming more use to the IOS interface, providing support for iPhones and iPads at work, and I really like my iPod. I have also noticed when I need to check my personal email away from home, or look at the calendar, I usually went to the iPod over my Android phone. Plus my Android phone needs to be replaced. Too many lock ups with apps, and I have to reboot it once a day.

I love my new iPad! I have used it every day for the last week for work and home. I take it to work and use Evernote to take notes of computers that I’m working on, use AIM app to keep in touch with colleagues and friends, listen to music, and attend web meetings with AT&T Connect. Plus several customers at work have made suggestions on apps and other accessories. I purchased a case at Amazon.com called the Bear Motion, in black. The case props up the iPad at a good angle for typing (writing this post on the iPad now), and for video calls using FaceTime.

I don’t have any major issues or complaints about the iPad. I do want to find a good office suite for the iPad, and it would be nice if Microsoft would realse a version of Office for the iPad. I know Pages, Numbers, and Keynote are available. I had several colleagues recommend Documents To Go as an option. However, after all these years of trying different office suites, nothing compares to Microsoft Office. It is a standard, and I’m familiar with the programs.

I would recommend the iPad to anyone, but i also tell people to look at all the options. They might like an Android or Windows tablet over the iPad. Maybe picking up the iPad 2 would be a better option for someone instead.

Now, let’s see if I can figure out how to upload a few screenshots I made last week using the WordPress app.

Lock screen for my iPad. Feels like a Star Trek Univerise

Tags Dropbox, Home PC, iPad, LogMeIn, Personal, Skype, Video

Linux Stuff LinuxMint Personal Ubuntu VirtualBox Windows 7 Windows Stuff Windows Vista Windows XP Work

Moving On to a New Job

New Job creative sign with clouds as the background

Today is my last day with my current employer and working for a fantastic client here in Delaware. I made a lot of new friends in IT and on the production floor. Some of them I will stay in contact with on Facebook or Google Chat, others I will see in the area. But now it’s time for me to move on, to take care of my family’s needs. Sadly the new job will not include Linux work, but there are high profile projects which are scheduled to begin shortly after my start date.

NPT_Office — My notebook running Linux Mint 11 and my fart bank

During my two year stay, I really appreciate the client giving me a wide latitude to develop my Linux skills. When I first arrived in 2009, my cube was filled with twelve PCs all running Windows XP or Vista. Shortly afterwards I installed Ubuntu 9.04 to learn how to use Linux in a production environment. Soon, I was running two Linux boxes; one as a personal file server with Samba and NFS, the other as a VM host for multiple Windows XP machines in multiple non-trusting domains.

By the time I left, I had four Linux PCs (one as a Linux Mint 11 notebook with a Windows 7 x64 VM, my original Ubuntu file server, a new Ubuntu 11.04 x64 file server with an external RAID 5 1.3TB disk box running Samba and NFS, plus a Linux Mint 11 PC running a Windows XP VM in the other domain for Active Directory support). I’ve also deployed Ubuntu 11.04 to my manager’s Dell M4500 notebook, Linux Mint 11 to a colleagues’ notebook, and started training another colleague, on using Ubuntu 11.04 with NFS and Samba.

I also had the chance to deploy RHEL 6 workstation as a host with a disk box for off-site archive, and a introduction to ESX for creating new Windows Server VMs.

I wish all the best to previous employer, my manager, my colleagues (local and other sites through out the U.S.), and to all the people I supported at the Delaware locations. I will miss working with you, and hope to see you soon!

Tags Linux Mint, Personal, Ubuntu, VirtualBox, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Work

Home Remodeling Personal

First Day of Summer

Summer Solstice!

Summer officially starts on the American East Coast at 1:16PM, and I’m looking forward to it this year. I plan on spending more time with family and friends and enjoying the outdoors. My brother asked me to help install a swing set for the kids (returning the favor from a few years ago), grilling steaks, veggies, hotdogs, and bicycling in the morning and evening.

I am also taking a week off from work this summer to spend time with my children. We’ll make a few stop at Rita’s, maybe catch a movie, and hopefully catch a Wilmington Blue Rocks game too. Who knows, maybe I’ll surprise the kids this year and take them to the beach for the day.

On a final note, my office (man cave) will be complete this year! I’m still working on a few ideas, but I will have a wall mount for a future LED monitor, and a work area for working on PCs. I was originally going to move the Linksys E4200 router to my office, but I changed my mind. I will run a CAT 6 cable from the router to my office and connect it to a Linksys SE2800 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet switch. I could get away with a 5 port switch, but there may be a time when I need a 6th port for something.

I hope your summer will be fun and memorable.

Tags Home Remodeling, Personal, Recreation, Summer

Personal

Pinewood Derby Weigh-in 2011

Post author By George
Post date March 17, 2011
No Comments on Pinewood Derby Weigh-in 2011

Tonight was the official weigh-in for the Pinewood Derby for our Cub Scout Pack. Track setup is Friday night after the fish fry. Saturday is race day!! The Scouts are excited about Pinewood Derby, it is one of my favorite Cub Scout activities too.

Here are the rules Council Rules for Pinewood Derby.

Cars must be contracted from official BSA Pinecar kits (BSA item #Q17006). Under no circumstances will substitutes be allowed. The rules that are supplied with the kits must be followed.
Wheels and axles must be from the official BSA Pinecar kits. The only exception will be wheels and axles from official BSA replacement parts kits (BSA item Q17007).
Wheels and axles can not be altered in any manner, except to remove burrs, casting marks, etc. They must remain flat.
Cars will not weigh more than five (5) ounces.
The wheelbase of the car must not be altered in any manner. Axles must be placed in the pre-cut slots provided on the cars.
Cars must have a minimum bottom clearance of 3/8 inches. and bottom must be completely flat.
The overall length of the car can not be extended in any manner.
Weights may be added to the top of the car or counter sunk on the bottom. No weights can protrude from the bottom of the car. THE BOTTOM MUST BE COMPLETELY FLAT.
The only lubricant allowed is gray graphite.

My son wanted a yellow car with a pirate theme. He did a great job with picking the cut, tracing the design on the block, sanding, painting and putting the stickers on the car.

UPDATE:

Weigh-in was a success. All but five Scouts brought in their cars. About 2/3 of the cars weighed in at 5.00 ounces. The rest were over or under by as much as 2 ounces. Tonight we are setting up the track and hooking up the PC and projector. I did not volunteer last year for track set-up, but this year we need to train some new people to replace the other adult leaders who are moving on after this year.

Tags Cub Scout, Pinewood Derby

Geek Stuff Home PC Network Tools Personal Sager Ubuntu Windows 7

New Linksys E4200 Router

Just over 4 years ago I purchased a Linksys WRT54GS router from Best Buy. The main reason was to use my work notebook PC because I was not able to go downstairs due to a foot injury. The Linksys WRT54GS worked great. I never had a problem with firmware updates, the radio signal was strong, and everything I connected through Wi-Fi (including the Wii) worked. But lately I’ve had a desire to replace the unit to take advantage of wireless N which is on my Sager notebook and my work notebook (Dell Latitude E6400).

I am happy with Linksys products, I’ve recommend them to family, friends, and clients. So when I heard the Linksys E4200 was available, I had to get it. But yikes, look at that price!! Way too expensive, besides the WRT54GS is working fine, no need to upgrade. However, almost every week, Best Buy or some other company would have ads in the Sunday paper showing me the router I wanted to get, but could not justify the price point.

Then this past Sunday, Best Buy had the router on sale, save $30.00. Then I remembered I had a Reward Zone $5.00 coupon that was going to expire within 2 weeks, and a $10.00 Best Buy gift card that was waiting for me to use. My inner voice now said, “How do you feel about saving $45.00 on the router you want? It has wireless N with a max speed of 450Mbps, guest wireless access, USB drive hookup, and GB wired connections.” Let’s go shopping!!

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So on Tuesday I purchased the Linksys E4200 and installed it inplace of the WRT54GS. The design looks business class. The Cisco logo lights up. When the light it solid, everything is good, it blinks during power on or if something is wrong. The port lights on the back light up, but you can turn them off via the internal web page for whatever reason. The power supply looks like something your would expect to see in a notebook. I like this design over the large block which seems to always take 1.5 – 2 spaces on most power strips and surge protectors. However, the cord from the AC outlet to the transformer could be a little longer.

You can setup the router with the Cisco software or via your Internet browser at address http://192.168.1.1. The default password is admin. I prefer to use the web browser because I have better control of the features I want to enable. Plus I’ve installed the Linksys software once before on my old Dell PC. the software brought the PC to an unbearable performance level.

Fist thing, CHANGE THE ROUTER PASSWORD. Everyone who has a Linksys router has the same password. If you want to help keep people out of your network, pick a nice complex password, or better a pass-phrase. Now that’s done, time to setup the wireless. In my opinion, setting your router not to broadcast your SSID is false security. Anyone can use Wireshark or other applications to scan the wireless spectrum and will see your SSID anyways. I like themes, and the last 10 years has been a Star Trek theme for just about everything. So with my new router, I am going with a new theme. Now the SSID has a name which reflects the theme I am going with on my PCs.

I left both 5.0 and 2.4GHz on the same SSID with the default channel settings and signal strengths. Time to start the Sager notebook and experience all the goodness of wireless N… and nothing. What?? I know the Intel 5300 AGN is a wireless N card like the name states. Checking Ubuntu Forums, I found an answer from user scarey9. After modifying the config file, I rebooted the notebook and was ready to experience wireless N… and now what?? Why is my speed fluctuating from 420 Mbps to 1Mbps?

Accessing my e-mail, Internet, playing videos from Youtube was painful. So let me try booting into Windows 7 x64. I made the connection to my new router, and I was having the same speed issues. Playing Battlefied Heroes was terrible. Something is not right because my old router at a solid 54Mbps can play my on-line games just fine. Time to do some research again. Everything I could fine regarding this router stated how great and fantastic it was. Even after installing the first firmware from Linksys did nothing for me.

I ended up going to Linksys and using WebEx on-line chat. The technician started helping me by supplying directions on how to configure the router. After about 45 minutes and looking at the clock (yikes, it is 1:00AM) he said I should take it back to Best Buy an get another one. Something was wrong with the Wi-Fi. So I printed the chat history and took it with me when I wen back to Best Buy.

The second router works much better. The best consistent speed I received is 270 Mbps. I did see it jump to 450 Mbps, but it does not stay there. Now I kept some of the suggestions the Linksys tech gave me such as:

Setting both 5 and 2.4GHz Network Mode to Mixed.
Setting the Channel Width to 40MHz on the 5GHz and moving to Channel 48 – 5.240GHz.
Setting the Channel Width to Auto on the 2.4GHz and moving to Channel 9 – 2.452GHz.
Enabling SSID Brodcast on both radio frequencies.

What I don’t like about the E4200

Two things that I am very disappointed with this router: USB interface and lack of Parent Controls as in the Linksys Valet.

First, the USB port is 1.1 and 2.0 compliant. Why not USB 3.0? It’s been out for a little while, and from what i gathered, the pin connection has not changed for at least 6 months, if not longer. Plus the performance of the USB port is terrible. All of my FTP clients and smb connections (Windows shares) timed out.

The Parental Controls via the web interface and the Cisco software are terrible. With the Valet router I saw, you can select one of the radio buttons for Parent, Teen, Child. Why would they not include this in the E series? To my knowledge this is not a business class router. I can only block a total of 8 URLs on the router. This is a poor design and should be addressed for the next firmware update.

On last thing which I am confused about is the guest access. Basically you grant someone access to your wireless connection, they get a 192.168.133.x address and open their web browser. they enter the password and off they go. But from what I gathered is they will always have access to you guest network as long as you don’t change the SSID or the password. This would be OK if the lease expired in a week. But you can only have a maximum of 10 devices connected. So if grandma visits for the week with her notebook and does not come back for three months, does that mean I am down to 9 available device connections? This should be addressed too. Let me kick off the guest device without having to reset passwords.

I would still recommend this router to anyone who is looking for a high performance unit. The design is pleasing, the speed is there, the guest access is cool, but I am not impressed with the USB port.

Tags CiscoSystems, Geek Stuff, Home PC, Linksys, Network Tools, Personal, Sager, Service set (802.11 network), Ubuntu, Windows 7

American Holidays Personal

Happy Labor Day 2010

Happy Labor Day my fellow Americans!

This year my in-laws came to visit for the weekend. We took a trip to the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware to visit the Delaware Children’s Museum. The kids had a great time, and so did I. Watching all of them run around, try out some cool stuff and learning about the human body was fun. We took a break and had lunch at Joe’s Crab Shack, then headed back for more fun.

On Sunday I’m grilling burgers, hotdogs, maybe some seafood or steaks. We have plenty of soda, juice bags, and giant freeze-pops for the kids. I guess I’ll relax on Monday, maybe purchase a new book or wash the cars early in the morning. I know the kids ans I will go for a bike ride, maybe even stop at the local park.

Tags Delaware, Holidays, Labor Day, United States