T3CHNOT3S

Logoff Idle Windows Sessions via Screen Saver

2011-04-21T11:37:00.001-07:00

I wrote this in KiXtart and compiled with AdminScript Editor. To see the actual code just run the EXE with a "/SHOWCODE" switch.

The EXE and SCR are the same thing (one does not need the other). A little known fact about Windows....if you rename an EXE to SCR, you can still launch it like an EXE but also launch it through the Screen Saver settings.

Download ZIP
Note: The password to the ZIP is "screensaver" (all lower case - no quotes).

Since I wrote it in KiXtart, the actual base code is this simple call....

$OKCancel = MessageBox("Your Windows Session has been idle for too long and you are about to be logged off!@CRLF@CRLFIf you do not wish to be logged of, Please select CANCEL Now! Otherwise, your Windows Session will be logged off in less than 1 minute.", "Logging Off Your Session!", 262193, 60)

If Not $OKCancel = 2

$Nul = LogOff(1)

EndIf

Essentially, this is popping a message box to the end user warning them they will be logged out in 1 minute unless they click CANCEL. If you use the "/SHOWCODE" switch, all of the rest of the stuff is the code for the "/SHOWCODE" switch to work.

To implement:

Put the SCREENSAVER LOGOFF.SCR in the SYSTEM32 folder on the base Windows image (rename the file if you need to).

In a GPO, enforce this as the screen saver and set the timeout desired.

Apply the GPO however desired (Group, Machine, Users, etc.).

Since I was just asked for this, I figured I would post here as I just tested this on Win7 and 2008 R2 and it works on those OSs as well.

How to Image and Replace a Hard Drive for a Server 2008 System

2011-03-25T22:31:00.001-07:00

While hard drive replacements aren't much of an issue for me anymore (I run all VMs in vSphere servers), I had a need to replace a server 2008 R2 hard drive with one of a different size (larger or smaller doesn't matter so long as the partitions still fit). Try as I might, I could not find a valid procedure from anywhere for the longest time. I even called up my old buddies over at my previous employer and they didn't know either and they had experienced a similar issue of imaging off a Server 2008 drive needing replacement, but not finding a valid procedure they ended up reinstalling from scratch.

Well, as luck has it I finally found the resolution over on an obscure forum about a product called GParted Live CD (stands for Gnome Partition Editor). This is an open source utility for graphically manipulating your drive partitions (much like a System Commander or Partition Magic type of tool).

Well, as mentioned, after much digging, I did find the procedure and test it....and it worked!

Imaging a Server 2008 System

In my case, it should be noted, I am doing all of this in a virtual machine environment but the same procedure still applies for physical hardware.

Note: Click images for larger versions.

BACKUP ALL OF YOUR DATA! It's always a good thing to do! ☺

Shut down the Server 2008 system.

Install the new hard drive as the secondary drive (in my case, SCSI ID 1 and the original drive is SCSI ID 0).

From another system, download the latest GParted Live CD ISO image.

If you're doing this procedure on a physical system, burn the ISO to a CD (Windows users, you can grab a copy of Free ISO Burner if you don't already have something to burn an ISO file into a bootable CD). For virtual machine environments, simply mount the ISO as a CD inside the virtual machine.

Power up the system and boot from the GParted Live CD. You'll see a screen like the one below.

Ensure the top option "GParted Live (Default settings)" is selected and let it continue to boot or hit ENTER if you're impatient like me.

The next set of screens will be asking for geo/locale info only to get GParted booted. You should be able to hit ENTER through all of these provided you are in the U.S. and want "English" as the interface language.

Once booted into GParted, you'll have a graphical representation of your drives. On the upper right side, you'll want to ensure the primary drive (a.k.a. the old drive) is selected. This will be denoted as "/dev/sda" and show the total size.

Now, here's the slightly tedious part. You'll want to copy each of the partitions in the proper order (from left to right), however if you've not initialized the disk, it won't have a width="400". Below is a short video showing the creation of the partition table and copy of the partitions in the correct order. Remember to hit APPLY once you're ready for it go.

Bear in mind, THIS WILL TAKE AWHILE depending upon the amount of data being copied

Don't forget to set the boot flag for the first partition (for Server 2008 it's the small one roughly 100MB in size).

Once you've copied the old drive to the new drive, you'll need to close out of GParted and shut the server down.

If it's a physical system, you'll need to pull the original drive out and set the new drive to be the primary drive. On a virtual machine, you'll need to do the same logically for the VM. In my case, I removed original virtual hard drive defined as SCSI ID 0 and redefined the new virtual hard drive from SCSI ID 1 to SCSI ID 0.

At this point, we need to fix the boot partition, so insert the Windows Server 2008 (R2 if you're doing this to an R2 system) DVD/media and boot off of it. Don't forget to press a key during the boot process...

By the way, if you DO NOT get the "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" prompt, then you DID NOT set the boot flag on the first partition!!! Reboot into the GParted CD and set the Boot Flag as shown in the Video.

Now you should be booting into the installation media.

Once booted, you'll get the following. Select NEXT when ready.

At the installation screen, select "REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER" in the lower left corner.

At the System Recovery Options OS Selection window, click the OS Install to repair then click NEXT.

If you get to this screen and you DO NOT have any Windows Server 2008 OS to repair (e.g. The screen is blank), then you DID NOT set the boot flag on the first partition!!!

At the System Recover Options Recovery Tool Selection window, click on COMMAND PROMPT.

In the Command Prompt window, browse to the "X:\SOURCES\RECOVERY" folder and execute STARTREP.EXE.

Once repairs are finished (should only be a minute or so on faster systems), click the FINISH button to reboot.

When rebooting this time, DO NOT press any key to boot into the Server 2008 install media. Let it boot into the OS.

If all went well, your system should have booted into the Server 2008 OS on the NEW DRIVE!!!

Hope this helps you in replacing your Server 2008 (or Server 2008 R2) drive with a newer one.

ThinApp Sleep Utility

2011-02-09T22:14:00.001-08:00

Well, I finished wrapping up a homemade tool which will do a very simplistic trick to get a "Progress Bar" to appear in either a "wait" fashion (run the progress bar and wait for it to finish) or a "filler" fashion (run the progress bar while letting the application fire up). It'll also do a simple "Sleep" without showing anything to the user (except a temporary icon in the system tray).
It's totally my own little tool which I wrote in KiXtart and compiled with AdminScript Editor by iTripoli and compiled....which means it's completely unsupported by VMware.

Disclaimer:

Here's where I tell you I'm not responsible for your actions...

Use of this tool or any software or recommendations mentioned on this Web site, Blog, or any mentioned or linked web site or blogs is done at your own risk. I am not responsible for any loss of data or any other damages done to any systems caused by this or any other tool, software, or recommended configurations you may have read about or downloaded from here or on any linked web sites found here. Use any settings, configurations, tools, and software at your own risk!

Why use this tool?

Typically with ThinApp packages there are two different scenarios needing either a silent sleep or a displayed wait of some sort.

First is either a launch or shutdown of a ThinApp packaged application where the application does not provide some sort of "verbose processing" interface or status to the user. While this is usually the case during startup or shutdown of the ThinApp packaged application, it can also be anywhere during the operation of the application.

Second is either a hidden sleep or delay during any portion of the ThinApp package timing.

This utility can do both - show a progress bar or silently count out a delay based upon the ThinApp packager's chosen amount of time.
In the video, I'm showing the straight forward commands being passed directly to the utility outside of ThinApp for this video. Additional assistance and information about the application can also be shown by either executing the application without any command line switches or by using a "/HELP" or "/?" switch when launching the utility.
The way to utilize this tool is first figure out what and where to place the necessary delays. For example, if a slow to start ThinApp packaged application has no user interface while starting, then this tool can be used to display a simple progress bar while the application is launching. Conversely, if the ThinApp package is slow to shut down, this tool can also be used to keep a progress bar in front of a user while the ThinApp packaged application works to stop services and child processes.
And, in the event a silent sleep is needed during execution of a ThinApp packaged application, this tool can also be used to provide that delay.

How does it work?

Well, I had to do a small bit of scripting within KiXtart to get things to behave the way I wanted so if you'd like to see how it works, simply run the EXE with a "/SHOWCODE" switch.

Below is an example script I created to go with it. The commented lines should be in Green and the enabled lines are in other colors. I've also attached the script. Just rename it from TXT to VBS.

AdminScriptEditor Script Conversion


Function OnFirstSandboxOwner
     Dim WshShell, oExec
     Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
     
     'Use a comma as delimiter
     'DO NOT LEAVE SPACES BEFORE/AFTER COMMAS!
     'Color options are RED, BLUE, GREEN, YELLOW, WHITE, & BLACK
     'NOTE: Time in seconds is approximate due to system resources.
     'NOTE: All Lines are commented out
     
     'Use the graphical interface example:
     oExec = """ThinApp Sleep.exe"" /bar,5,Starting Your Application,Please Wait...,YELLOW"
     
     'Use the silent delay example:
     'oExec = """ThinApp Sleep.exe"" /nobar, 5"
     
     'Launch the ThinApp Sleep Utility and don't wait example:
     WshShell.Exec oExec
     
     'Launch the ThinApp Sleep Utility and wait example:
     'WshShell.Run oExec, 1, 1
End Function

Download the ThinApp Sleep Utility.
Download the ThinApp Sleep VSCript Code example which calls the utility in various fashions.

A How-To on Using Windows Live Writer

2011-01-15T13:42:00.001-08:00

In instructing my family (who all have Windows computers) on how to post a blog article, I’ve decided to write a “How-To” on creating a Blog Posting using Windows Live Writer.

Instructions:

Open Windows Live Writer. If the shortcut isn’t on your desktop, browse to the shortcut in your start menu.
If you have multiple blogger accounts (i.e. you post articles to multiple sites), then ensure the blog you are going to be posted to is selected.

To select the correct blog, see the upper right-hand corner of Microsoft Live Writer (noted in RED in the example below). It should show your blog you wish to post to. If not, click on it and select the correct blog.

NOTE: It also shows in the lower right-hand corner what blog you have selected.
Enter a title for the Blog Posting. Just type one in…Really!
Enter the Posting Categories. To do so, go to the bottom of the Window and click on the “SET CATEGORIES” drop down. A window will appear showing various categories already in use which you can add your blog posting to, or you can type a new one in manually.

NOTE: Please make sure to spell the word correctly and capitalize the first letter.
Now move to the Post Body and start typing!
To insert something into the blog such as a picture, click the item you wish to insert in the right-hand pane and select the item.
- To insert a picture, click “PICTURE…” in the right-hand pane and browse to the picture file on your computer (NOTE: You can also select the picture from the Web if you know the URL address to it by selecting the “FROM WEB” tab).
  - If you wish to add image effects, click the picture once inserted into the article and select the effects you wish to use in the right-hand pane.
    BEWARE, there are many options! :-)
- To insert a photo from a photo album in your MSN/Live account (if you have one) by clicking the “PHOTO ALBUM…” option in the right-hand pane. I’m not going to show that here as most of my family doesn’t use MSN Live.
- If you wish to add a hyper-link (e.g. Link to another article, posting, or web site on the Internet), this can be done by highlighting the text you wish to make the link, then clicking the LINK button in the toolbar and pasting/typing in your link.
  
  Here’s a short video on how to add a link in Windows Live Writer.
  NOTE: Click on the FULL SCREEN button in the LOWER RIGHT corner of the video to view it full size. You can also DOWNLOAD it for offline viewing as well.
- Among other things, you can also add a map to your posting.
  - Just click “MAP…” under the INSERT section and browse to the location you wish to show on the map. Don’t forget to set the Map type (Roads or Arial) and the correct ZOOM and PAN settings. You can also just type in where you want to show and adjust manually from there.
Once you’ve finished your article and are ready to post it, I always suggest previewing it and reading it over again to ensure it flows correctly.
- If you wish to see how it will look on the blog, click the PREVIEW tab at the bottom left-hand side of the main window.
Now you’re ready to save it. Go ahead and save it locally first, as this is always a good thing to do in case Windows or Windows Live Writer decides to crash (this is usually when things do decide to crash – after finishing up and about to publish).
- Click on the SAVE DRAFT button to do this.
- You can also click on the FILE menu and select SAVE LOCAL DRAFT.
- Additionally, you can hold the CTRL key down and press the “S” key at the same time (commonly denoted as “CTRL-S”).

Uploading a Blog Post

You’re now ready to post online.

Once you have an Internet connection, reopen Windows Live Writer and select this posting. You’ll see it in the DRAFTS section in the right-hand side of the Windows Live Writer screen.
Once the posting is open (assuming you had closed it earlier), we need to ensure a few things are set.
- Set the Posting Category if not already set (see above Step 4). One thing to note here, you can have multiple categories assigned to an article (i.e. “Travel”, “Italy”, etc.).
- If – AND ONLY IF - you wish to upload the blog posting but have it go live at a certain date and time in the future (i.e. NOT IMMEDIATELY), then click the SET PUBLISH DATE drop down in the lower right-hand corner and select the DATE and TIME you wish for the posting to go live.
- Otherwise, if you are ready to post it, the click the PUBLISH button in the upper left-hand corner.

Adding Plug-Ins to Windows Live Writer:

If you wish to do additional things to your blog posting, you can add many numerous plug-ins to your installation of Windows Live Writer by clicking the “ADD A PLUG-IN” in the right-hand pane.

Doing this will take you to the Windows Live Writer Plug-in site on the Microsoft Live web site.

To add a plugin…

Browse the site to find the plug-ins of your choice.
When you find a plug-in you wish to install, click on it to select it, then follow the wizard to install the plug-in.
Accept all of the default settings (it’s usually the easiest).
Once the plug-in is installed, you’ll need to close and re-open Windows Live Writer for the plug-in to appear in the left-hand pane under the INSERT section.

AppleScript to Map Time Capsule Attached USB Drives

2011-01-03T17:29:00.001-08:00

Have you ever wanted to have your Mac automatically map network drives - specifically USB drives attached to your Time Capsule?

Here's a Apple Script I created with the help of some code from the Internet which pings the Time Capsule and then maps the drives defined.

Sample Code:

property LocalNetwork : ""

property thePing : ""

property DriveName1 : "<USBDrive Name 1>"

property DriveName2 : "<USBDrive Name 2>"

property DriveName3 : "<USBDrive Name 3>"

property DriveName4 : "<USBDrive Name 4>"

property TimeCapsuleIP : "<your Time Capsule IP>"

property TimeCapsuleName : "<your Time Capsule name>"

try

set thePing to do shell script "/sbin/ping -o -c 5 " & TimeCapsuleIP

on error

set LocalNetwork to "false"

end try

if LocalNetwork is equal to "false" then

-- If LocalNetwork is not found, UnmountDrive

tell application "Finder"

if ( exists the disk DriveName1 ) then

eject DriveName1

--do shell script (" umount -f /Volumes/'" & DriveName1 & "'" )

end if

if ( exists the disk DriveName2 ) then

eject DriveName2

--do shell script (" umount -f /Volumes/'" & DriveName2 & "'" )

end ifif

if ( exists the disk DriveName3 ) then

eject DriveName3

--do shell script (" umount -f /Volumes/'" & DriveName3 & "'" )

end if

if ( exists the disk DriveName4 ) then

eject DriveName4

--do shell script (" umount -f /Volumes/'" & DriveName4 & "'" )

end if

end tell

else

-- If LocalNetwork is found, Mount Drive

tell application "Finder"

if (not ( exists the disk DriveName1 )) then

mount volume "afp://" & TimeCapsuleIP & "/" & DriveName1

end if

if (not ( exists the disk DriveName2 )) then

mount volume "afp://" & TimeCapsuleIP & "/" & DriveName2

end if

if (not ( exists the disk DriveName3 )) then

mount volume "afp://" & TimeCapsuleIP & "/" & DriveName3

end if

if (not ( exists the disk DriveName4 )) then

mount volume "afp://" & TimeCapsuleIP & "/" & DriveName4

end if

end tell

endif

You'll note I have the code set to unmap the drives if the Mac cannot ping the Time Capsule. This can be done either by use of the EJECT [DriveName] command or by use of the "DO SHELL SCRIPT..." command. I prefer to use the EJECT command as it's simpler and is more reliable in my experience.

In order to use this, you'll need to type in the name of your USB drives attached to your Time Capsule (NOTE: This is Case Sensitive) as well as you Time Capsule and your Time Capsule IP address at the top of the script in the variable definition section (The text you need to replace should show in Purple above).

The next thing you'll want to do is make an Application out of this so within AppleScript Editor, select SAVE AS then change the FILE FORMAT to Application. From there, move it where you need to. If you want to change the icon, right-click or CTRL-click on the application, select GET INFO, then drop in your GIF on the icon and it will be changed.

The last thing to do is add the Application to your Login Items under your account options.

Download a TEXT version of the above AppleScript.

Issues with Apple's Airport Firmware 7.5.2

2011-01-03T17:04:00.001-08:00

I have 3 Apple Airport Express units and one Apple 1TB Time Capsule and I must say I truly enjoy using the wireless speakers with my iTunes on my MacBook Pro via the Remote Control app on iPhone and iPad when in my kitchen, downstairs, or in my garage as I can hook an Airport Express to any set of speakers temporarily or permanently and play music from my Mac's iTunes to these speakers. Additionally, I have them all hooked via Ethernet cabling back to my 1GB switch and acting as Wireless extensions for my WiFi network. This way I or my Wife can wander around the house with whatever device (Mac, iPhone, or iPad) and still have access to the home network (Internet, Printing, File Sharing, and even Backup - via the Time Capsule) all-the-while playing music on whatever speakers. Very cool!
But recently I updated the Airport Express units and Time Capsule to the latest firmware from Apple - version 7.5.2 and unfortunately, this caused an issue. Fortunately for me, it only caused one issue - but still it was annoying.

The Issue

What was the issue? Well, upon upgrading the Airports and Time Capsule, my iPhone could no longer connect to the wireless network - specifically, the wireless connection on my iPhone 3G (iOS 4.2.1) would connect and disconnect repeatedly without staying connected. After much research, I came to the conclusion it was not a DHCP issue as some suggested, not a MAC address restriction issue as others suggested (I don't have that enabled as I have friends and family who come over from time to time and that would be a nuisance), nor was it anything specific to settings in the iPhone (as others suggested). For more suggestions, see this thread on the Apple Discussions Forum.

A Temporary Resolution

What is causing the issue is still a mystery, however I am certain it is something with the 7.5.2 firmware as downgrading the firmware on the Airport Express units and Time Capsule does resolve the issue.

How to Downgrade an Airport or Time Capsule

Note: Click Images for larger versions.

Open Airport Utilities.

Select the Time Capsule or Airport Express device.

Click the MANUAL SETUP button.

Select the Summary page if not on it.

Move the mouse pointer over the word "Version" (Note: Yours will likely say it is at Version 7.5.2 where mine is already rolled back in the example image). An arrow will appear to the left of it.

Click the arrow to the left of the word "Version" and a drop down window will appear.

In the drop down window will be a drop down menu to select the previous versions of firmware.

At this point, your Airport Utility will download the previous version if needed and then upload to the selected Airport Express or Time Capsule. Once that is done, the selected device will reboot.

Additionally, you must do this to all of your Airport Express units AND your Time Capsule if you have multiple devices appearing in your Airport Utility application.

UPDATE: I just tested firmware 7.5.2 with iOS 4.3.1 and still have the same issues.

Happy Birthday Travis!

2010-12-20T04:00:00.000-08:00

Here at T3CHNOT3S, we welcome the newest member to the "Old People" club.

Happy Birthday, Travis!

Italia Train Station Windows FAIL

2010-10-02T01:19:00.001-07:00

Saw this in Rome.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Mobile Office

2010-09-25T16:43:00.001-07:00

At times, you just need to be uber-mobile.

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Hollywood Computer Hacker Humor

2010-09-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

Someone emailed this to me awhile back...thought it was quite humorous and figured I'd share.

NOTE: Click Image for larger version

Why My XBox 360 is Like My PC

2010-09-12T12:19:00.001-07:00

More and more of late, my wife has been asking me why I play XBox when all I do is yell and scream at it. The only other computer systems which drove me this mad were my Windows computers. So this got me thinking, what other similarities did my XBox and my old Windows computers have in common? I should forewarn you, these are mainly my perceptions.

1. Both are built by Microsoft - at least the operating systems are. Now, the XBox 360 system isn't actually a Windows operating system. It's a Linux based system which isn't hardened. See http://free60.org for XBox 360 info and mods.

2. Both the XBox and Windows are glitchy. I'm currently on my 4th XBox 360 due to the Red Ring of Death (RRoD) issue, and - well Windows issues can speak for themselves. I won't bother to go into the plethora of Windows issues here. Just look at the number of Windows OS Issues reported for support here.

Microsoft has just recently released an updated XBox 360 called the XBox 360 S.

3. Both are slow running. Windows itself wasn't super slow in older versions, but Win Vista and Win 7 are absolute pigs with all the running background services needed. And if you don't have the very latest hardware AND infrastructure (I'm talking about a super high-speed home network and a super fast Internet connection) then your experience will be slow due to other bottle necks. The same goes for XBox 360 systems. Especially whe playing online against others. Nothing frustrates me (here in the U.S.) more than being paired up against someone on a Far East Internet connection (or at least, against someone with a super latent Internet connection) and they are given the benefit of the doubt during a head-to-head battle. MW2 is very famous for this - where you'll be six steps past the corner behind a building and end up dead because MW2 gave your killer the "hidden handicap" calculation due to their latent connection.

Specific to MW2, IW tried to revamp this, but the fix only ended up pitting one against others who highly outclassed them. And since this revamp, the number of people playing MW2 has drastically dropped, so now both this issue and the above exist - with no fix in site.

For more on this frustration specific to MW2, see Stargater07's Youtube video - specifically his number 6 and number 3 items are high on my list - but all of his top 10 are valid.

4. Both are old systems (technologically speaking). The Windows operating system still has and utilizes code from the mid 1990's. What surprises me is how many people are totally unaware of this. And while the XBox system is quite a bit newer, parts of it's OS is still 5-6 years old. To be fair, there aren't any game consoles with newer OS's, and newer isn't always better either. You can easily search for a list of glitches on the XBox 360 in general.

5. Games on both systems are glitchy. Infinity Ward's Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 has glitches all through out it which gives players who know how to take advantage of these glitches an unfair advantage. Specifically, the Fuel map has the Rock glitch where people can jump into the rock and be protected (for the most part) from people outside the rock. Halo 2 had a huge "super jump" glitch which was almost impossible to code out (in fact it still exists but anyone doing it will have their stats reset - whoop-dee-do). Halo 3 had some of those issues as well. As for Infinity Wards CoD -MW2 Fuel map Rock glitch, it looks as if they are favoring not fixing this while ensuring the upcoming release of Call of Duty - Black Ops is released on time for the Christmas demand and rush. While I can understand this, it certainly is irritating to be playing "half baked" code. I've been tempted to snap that MW2 DVD on many occasion.

6. Both have a large number of users. This has pros and cons though. One of the biggest pros, there's a large number of players with whom you can play against or with. One of the biggest cons (and huge detriment), there's also a large number of hackers - both of the games and of the XBox 360 OS and hardware.

7. I'm looking for replacements for both. On my Windows systems, I've either replaced, retired, or relegated them to less important operations until I can retire them completely. I now use Macs and other Apple products as my primary systems and couldn't be happier. If Apple made a gaming system which a.) didn't break, b.) controlled glitches via updates and forced game manufacturers to fix games, c.) had as wide an audience, and d.) had as many gaming options, I would be retiring my XBox 360. As it is, I'm working on replacing my Exchange email system with Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

Again, these are mainly my perceptions, but to some extent, perception is reality. And maybe its time I took another look at OnLive...

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General Geek/SciFi Humor

2010-09-12T09:54:00.001-07:00

Just some general geeky SciFi Humor. :-)

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How to Clean and Repair a Phillips Respironics CPAP Machine

2010-08-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT THE HECK IS A CPAP?

For those of you who don't have or know what a CPAP machine is, CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure and is a medical device/machine which people who have Sleep Apnea wear at night when they sleep.

YOU DID "WHAT" TO YOUR CPAP?!!

Last week I was out of town on business and since I was driving, I loaded up a few "extras" such as my favorite Iced Coffee mixture (which includes caramel syrup) into my car. The business trip was uneventful and I was able to power through all of my work and meetings quicker than expected on that Thursday. Since I was a bit overloaded with requests and could use the whole day Friday to try and answer or accommodate those, I decided to check out and drive home Thursday night. Long story short, I ended up packing the big Starbuck's bottle of caramel syrup into a plastic bag and put that into my CPAP bag (as it's a pretty decent sized bag). Well, I think you can see where this is going....at some point, the bottle got a little too warm in the back seat foot well and as it expanded, pushed the caramel syrup up through the pump on the bottle and subsequently out onto (and in) to the CPAP machine. Unfortunately, I ended up not noticing this until I walked into the house around 9pm and tracked caramel syrup all over the house as well. Did I mention I HATE STICKY!!? :-/ Fortunately the floor mat was the only casualty in my (still very new) VW Touareg (other than the caramel smell).

Well....after a couple of hours that night of wiping, mopping, and scrubbing up sticky all over, I decided to wash off enough of the caramel from the CPAP as I could but not use it that night and just leave it to dry (in the event I may have wet some of the electronics with water or caramel).

Needless to say, I ended up having to completely disassemble the unit and clean each part by hand since the water only slightly dissolved the caramel and migrated it to other areas of the CPAP...other areas which were much harder to get clean.

SO HOW DO YOU CLEAN A CPAP MACHINE?

While I'm not going to go through disassembly and cleaning process, I will describe how to properly put this CPAP unit back together (you can pretty much by following the below in reverse).

A couple of things to note:

First and foremost, you need the proper tools. I have a Phillips Respironics REMStar Auto 550P and G.E. put this thing together with star screws.

Tools:

Star Head Screw Driver Kit. I used a GorillaGrip(R) Star Head set, but really all you need is Star Head drivers which are T8 and T15 in sizes.

Roll of Paper Towels. Plain white paper towels which don't have any ink or chemicals should work. Scott Shop Towels work to.

Disinfecting Liquid Soap. A good plain, clear, disinfecting liquid soap is fine here. Nothing too fruity or sweet smelling (after all, isn't caramel syrup sickeningly sweet enough?) since you will be breathing this at night.

Cans of Air (note the plural word "Cans"). Any can of air used for blowing dust from a computer is fine. Make sure you have at least two. By the way, don't turn the can upside down as the contents will come out and freeze whatever it touches (that includes skin, water, caramel, liquid crystal screens, etc. - all of which is not good in relation to cleaning a CPAP machine). Ohhh...and the contents of an air can are flammable!! So stay away from sources of ignition if you feel like turning the can upside down.

Tips:

Next thing to note, taking apart this unit isn't too hard so try and set aside a space to store each and every part such as screws and some way to document the order in which you take it apart and what it's for. I would suggest a couple pieces of regular 8 1/2" X 11" paper to place the parts on and note what they are for and what step you removed them. A digital camera is always helpful as well.

Also, keep in mind it is a medical device which should be relatively clean and free of germs so wash your hands before assembly and even during disassembly numerous times. I had cleaned the outside of the CPAP about 4 times before I even opened it up so this eliminated a lot of sticky, dirty fingers as well. And it helps to not have sticky fingers when taking notes with paper, pen/pencil, and camera.

After cleaning and before assembly, even after blow drying all parts, you will want to let them air dry for about 12 - 24 hours just to ensure no moisture remains. Moisture and electronics still don't mix...no matter if it's water, caramel syrup, or a combination. ;-)

SO, IT'S CLEAN, HOW DO YOU PUT A CPAP BACK TOGETHER?

Here's where we get to the step-by-step procedure.

Take the bottom case and place it in front of you.

Ensure the foam insulation is clean and dry and place it into the bottom of the case.

Take the clear bottom fan casing and fan and place them into the bottom of the case.

Insert the Humidifier attachment wiring harness ensuring the plug is mounted in the slot and correctly oriented for the Humidifier to plug into it. Also, ensure the wires leading away from the plug are routed down the side of the unit.

NOTE: The plug is in the socket and wires are routed down the side of the box.

Slide the side wall with molded air flow pipe into place, ensuring pipe seats firmly into bottom part of fan housing.

Ensure rubber grommet is clean and place snuggly into holes on top of air flow pipe.

Take the clear fan cover and thread the cord with two small plugs up through the round hole. You'll likely need to carefully pull the rubber seal up the cord towards the end (closer to the plugs) by about an inch or two in order to get some slack for the next steps.

Firmly seat the round rubber seal into the hole from the underside of the clear fan cover. After the seal is firmly in place, but before seating the Clear Fan cover down over the fan, place the fan screws into their respective holes in the clear fan cover.

Gently place the clear fan cover into place over the fan, ensuring all screws mate with their respective threaded slots. I found it best to start each screw to ensure it was threaded in place without completely tightening down. Then, once each screw was threaded, gently push the clear fan cover down into place and carefully pull up the inch or so of slack in the cord through the rubber seal.

NOTE: Tighten each clear fan cover screw only with thumb and index finger so that it is snug. DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN!

You may slide the plastic outer wall into place at this point but note that you may need to remove it temporarily to plug in cords later. At this time, move both the fan cords/plugs and the computer board display cord aside.

Taking the computer board in hand by the edges, flip it over so the air flow and humidity sensors are viewable (see first image below). These will align with the holes in the rubber grommet in the lower image when correctly placed.

Carefully align the sensor ports on the bottom of the computer board with the holes in the rubber grommet and lightly snug them into place while at the same time, align the computer board to it's respective screw holes.

NOTE: You may need to ensure both the fan cords/plugs and the computer board display plug are routed properly and are going to be easily plugged in once the computer board is tightened down.

Place the computer board screws into their respectively aligned holes and carefully tighten down without over tightening.

At the same time, plug in the computer board display plug and the fan cord plugs.

NOTE: You may wish to remove the plastic outer wall temporarily so you can more easily handle the cords and plugs. Replace the plastic wall when done.

Slip the plastic cover in place around the Computer SD Card socket and ensure it is properly aligned.

Gently snap the top cover back in place, ensuring the metal spinner fits through the cover hole. Additional things to be aware of here are the rubber RESET button (lower right corner of the unit face) as this can fall out if not careful. Also, ensure the back side of the clear display cover is clean and free of finger prints, smudges, and dirt.

Once the cover is firmly in place (should snap into position), carefully flip the unit upside down and drop the two long screws into their holes and gently tighten down (DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN).

Align and place the control knob onto it's shaft. This should be like placing a control knob onto a stereo system (for those of you who've handled these).

Power it up and test it out! Don't forget to clean your hoses and masks as well as the air filter in the back of the unit!

WE'RE DONE!

This should be everything you need to do in order to get your CPAP back up and in working order in case you ever have a nasty spill like I did!

How to Disable Skype's Auto-Mic Volume on a Mac

2010-07-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share with those of you who use Skype for your phone.

Skype on the Mac has always irritated me with its automatic microphone volume changes. The Windows version has the ability to disable this option in the preferences pane, but the Mac version does not. After some searching on net, I found a solution for the Mac version of Skype.

Quit Skype and open the folloving file with TextEdit: ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/shared.xml. At the end of the document, you'll see the section "VoiceEng":

Simply add the "<AGC>0</AGC> to the "<VoiceEng>" section to look like this (adding one new line):

<VoiceEng>
<AGC>0</AGC>

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad (NOTE: BlogPress posts in HTML code)

Cool, Fun, and Useful iPad Apps

2010-07-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

So I thought I'd post on some of the neat, fun, and useful ipad apps I've loaded up and used.

EDUCATION:

First and foremost, let's go with some neat educational apps.

Star Walk is a really cool educational application for even the occasional star gazers.

What's really cool is it's ability to automatically (based on the compass and internal gyros of the iPad) show the sky you are looking at with labels. Here, I'm looking north and up at the Northern sky.

Of course, you can tilt and zoom manually on your own as well. Here, I've rolled up to nearly straight up to catch Ursa Minor (or "Little Bear").

The Constitution for the iPad is always a good educational read! How many of us Americans can say we've read this in it's entirety (since we were in grade school)? What's great is the cost - Free! The makers have also created Declaration for the iPad which, as you may have guessed, is the Declaration of Independence. Good stuff!

Next is the Popular Mechanics digital magazine. Probably not an actual "Education" app but, of all apps, this is one of the few I was extremely impressed with. This is what a digital periodical should be - and what all others should model themselves after.

ENTERTAINMENT:

Moving into the entertainment section, NetFlix is absolutely the right way to go when on the road and needing to catch a flick. No more being stuck watching "hotel TV" or unable to watch TV in bed because the spouse is sleeping (lightly) and your headphones don't reach all the way to the TV.

A good mental muscle "flexer" is a crossword puzzle in the Crosswords app by Stand Alone, Inc. What's nice here is not only can you get the daily crossword from any number of periodicals, but you can download past crosswords from all sorts of periodicals in their list.

UTILITIES:

Moving into the Utilities section, the first is the Converter Plus tool. Very nice for conversion of measurements. The only thing this is missing is something I could use in my "technical" life - a data rate conversion. Still, the app is very nicely done and I expect "Data Rate" will appear in a future update.

The next in this category is something a bit "regional" to me - the Seattle Freeways app. Works on both iPhone and iPad. It allows someone to quickly see how their commute to/from home is going to play out. The cameras option are nice and "travel times" is very handy when an electronic road sign is nowhere nearby. You can also zoom into specific sections and if you're anywhere within the map area, you can hit the GPS button and it will locate you on the map. The only downside to this app is it doesn't have as updated a map as exists online on the "Puget Sound Area Traffic" web site. But I would expect as the app is upgraded, there will be map expansions as well as links to the other maps in the Puget Sound area (as shown on their web site).

So along with traffic should come weather (at least, that's the way my local news stations do it here in the Pacific NW).

Rain Radar USA (shows as WeatherUSA on iPhone/iPad screen) gives you an updated weather radar map for wherever you're at (as long as you're near a radar station).

SHOPPING:

Moving into the category, I'll start with my favorite shopping app. That's Amazon's iPhone/iPad app. It works great, does everything I need, and looks very sharp.

Now we'll go with an app my wife likes. Zillow.com.

Just like the web site, Zillow.com allows you to search for houses, apartments, and condos for sale or rent. I was impressed with how well this app was written. It links directly into (I believe) Google maps (what's already included on the iPhone when using the "Maps" app). Also, you can use the GPS to search near you or enable the Satellite or Hybrid views in the map to help you get to that Open House.

And, yes, I know...I was dreaming a bit out of my reach on the above image.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Lastly is Photogene - the tool I used to modify these iPad screenshots directly on the iPad to post from my iPad blogger app (BlogPress).

Photogene is pretty slick - allowing any various number of common photo modifications, including Red Eye removal! The borders and filters options are also quite nice and extensive. While it has the ability to post photos directly from the app to Twitter and Facebook (assuming you have an account on these services), the only thing I wish it had was the ability to upload the pictures to an online photo site such as Screencast, Picasa, or Flickr. I'm sure these will all be added eventually as they are quite popular sites.

That's it for now... I'll post more later.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Blogging on the iPad

2010-07-12T21:24:00.001-07:00

One of the things which I've wanted to do and finally figured out how, was to be able to blog very simply. I have an iPhone from my employer but it isn't the easiest thing to blog from - nor was there a good app to edit/create blogs through on the iPhone (at least not for "Blogger"). TypePad (a resource my employer uses for their company blog pages) has an iPhone app - but the app is somewhat limiting.

Above is a screenshot from my iPhone of TypePad.

Personally, I use Blogger as (being a geek) I have had a Google account since before they were publicly available. Therefore, I was thrilled to find a blog editor for Blogger which links into all sorts of things such as my tech blog here, my family blog, as well as online photo albums (both Picasa and Flickr), as well as YouTube. There are even links to a Twitter account so new blogs get posted to your Twitter account as well.

What's even better is I can remove the TypePad app and use this instead as then I don't have to shift the iPhone only app into 2X mode for the iPad.

So, happy blogging for me....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Tech Humour

2010-05-17T12:43:00.001-07:00

I forget where I found this years ago online...but it always makes me smile.

It really is a "Feature" - not a "Bug"!

Toshiba 1TB USB Drives and Using the Apple Time Capsule to Host Old USB Drives

2010-03-28T12:20:00.001-07:00

Ok...call me “Johnny-come-lately” if you already know this...but I figured out a cool Mac tip combined with my iTunes and Time Capsule and had to share. Hopefully it helps others...

My Issues

I had been trying to move my iTunes library off to my network to keep local disk space available for other things like Windows VMs, but I still needed/wanted a copy of it to be portable.

Toshiba 1TB - Sleep Issue

I was doing something like this with an external Toshiba USB/SATA II drive – but this proved futile and frustrating as the Toshiba USB/SATA drives have a tendency to sleep at random (if you don't believe me, just search Google) – which is not a good thing for iTunes and especially for iPods/iPhones since anything iTunes cannot find it will subsequently remove from the iPod/iPhone (including apps and movies as well as music). Not to mention, this was only an external drive solution and not network attached (you'll see where I'm going with this part later).

After doing much research, I found the sleep issue was just not resolvable!

Toshiba 1TB - Virtual CD

Additionally, the Toshiba had this nasty Windows configuration of auto-mounting a virtual CD in order to install their software. Very, very annoying! At least this was resolvable with a Toshiba Drive Converter (version 1.07) tool and a reformat to "Mac OS (Extended Journaled)". This tool can only be executed from within Windows where the Toshiba USB drive is attached - however, this will work on a Windows Virtual Machine (VM) under VMware Fusion on a Mac. ;-)

But this still left the more detrimental sleep issue...

Toshiba 1TB replaced by Seagate 1TB - Above Problems Solved!

After repairing my iPhone and iTunes DB for a 3rd time I moved everything back to my local drive and replaced the Toshiba 1TB with a super small Seagate FreeAgent Go 1TB drive (USB powered!) from Costco's (link is to Amazon for reader reviews). It never sleeps (yeah!!). The only downside is this drive is not SATA compatible (no worries though since the Mac Driver for my Dynex card has never been updated). So with the above issues solved, I moved my iTunes Library over to the new Seagate 1TB drive and have not had any issues with sync'ing so long as my drive is attached.

Cool Tip!

So...here’s my cool tip that I figured out. I discovered (through reading the Time Capsule manuals) I can plug in a powered USB hub (I use the Belkin USB powered hubs as most seem to work OK - but don't settle for the cheep ones) to the back of the Time Capsule and am able to plug in all of my old USB drives – including the 1TB Seagate - even if the drives draw power via USB. Mounting them is easy as all you have to do is open Finder, browse to your Time Capsule (connecting to it), and then double-click to open each drive (they will appear as folder icons with the term "Sharepoint" in the "Kind" column if viewing details). In the image below, each line is a separate drive attached to my Time Capsule drive (bottom Sharepoint). Now here’s the cool part. Whether these USB drives are attached directly to your Mac or attached to your Time Capsule and mounted across the network, OS X (for the most part) sees them the same way! Since my iTunes DB now resides on my portable Seagate drive, when I'm at home, the drive is attached to the USB hub on my Time Capsule and when I'm on the road, the drive comes with me and I attach it directly to my Mac.

NOTE: For this to work the USB drives must be formatted “Mac OS (Extended Journaled)”.

What to do with spare 1TB drive?

So, as you can see from the above image, the Toshiba 1TB was yanked from it’s case and put into a new Antec MX-100 SATA II hard drive case. No sleepy-time drives anymore! Plus, after reformatting and the aforementioned tool, there's no Virtual CD either. Now it doesn’t matter if I want to sit on my deck, sit downstairs in front of the TV, or be working in the Office. I can listen to my iTunes (or watch a TV show or sync my iPod/iPhone) just the same!

Ohh!!! And if you assign pictures to the drives, they show up just like normal on your desktop when mounted through the Time Capsule!

Creating a Cisco VPN Connection on a Mac with Snow Leopard

2009-09-29T17:13:00.001-07:00

The following are steps to use the built in Cisco VPN client within the Mac Snow Leopard (OS 10.6).

1. Open the Mac Network settings under the System Preferences app.

2. In the NETWORK window, click the “+” button to add a new network service.

3. Select VPN, CISCO IPSEC and name your VPN setting in the properties window.

4. Open a Cisco VPN Client PCF file from your previously installed Cisco VPN Client on your Mac or from your Cisco VPN Client on your PC.
NOTE: In Windows, it is usually found in “C:\PROGRAM FILES\CISCO SYSTEMS\VPN CLIENT\PROFILES”. In your Mac, it may be found under “/etc/CiscoSystemsVPNClient/Profiles/”. You may need to view hidden files to show this location.

5. In your PCF file, get the following information.
HOST --- This will be the SERVER ADDRESS
USERNAME --- This will be the ACCOUNT NAME
!GROUPNAME --- This will be the GROUP NAME
ENC_GROUPPWD --- This will be used to generate the SHARED SECRET.

6. For SERVER ADDRESS, copy the HOST value and paste it into the SERVER ADDRESS window.

7. For ACCOUNT NAME, copy the USERNAME value and paste into this setting.
NOTE: If you don’t have a USERNAME value present in your PCF file, type in your network login ID. If you don’t have this information, you may be able to get it from your network administrator.

8. Leave the PASSWORD box blank.

9. Click the AUTHENTICATION SETTINGS button.

10. For GROUP NAME, copy the !GROUPNAME value from the PCF file and paste into this box.

11. For the SHARED SECRET…browse to http://www.google.com/ and type in “cisco vpnclient password decoder” and click I’M FEELING LUCKY.

12. Copy the ENC_GROUPPWD value from the PCF file and paste it into the box on the web page from the previous step and click DECODE.

13. Copy the decoded password from the web site and paste it into the SHARED SECRET box.

14. Click OK on the MACHINE AUTHENTICATION window.

15. Click APPLY to apply the settings.

16. Click CONNECT once settings are applied to test.
NOTE: You will be prompted for your Cisco VPN credentials and if two-factor authentication is configured, you will be required to enter any two-factor authentication information to validate and connect.

If your test is valid, you now have a VPN connection via your Mac’s built in Cisco VPN client!

Snow Leopard Experiences

2009-09-20T20:56:00.001-07:00

Now that Snow Leopard has been out for about 4 weeks, I thought I'd share my experiences in upgrading to it.

My Stats

I have two MacBooks - one is mine and one is my wife's.

I have a 2009 17" MacBook Pro. My wife has a 2009 MacBook Air. Both came with Leopard installed.

Initial Upgrade

I was out of town when my Snow Leopard install DVD arrived...so I had to wait while others did their upgrades and communicated their experiences. Upon my return home, I did my upgrade to Snow Leopard. Being a good IT person, I ensured a good backup was in place before doing my SL update. I also went through every piece of software I have installed to the Mac and did a software update check - and updated the software if an update was necessary (except on MS Office 2008 as SP2 for that was originally broken ...apparently now it is fixed though. See my post on Office 2008 SP2).

Once the apps were updated and my 17" MacBook Pro was backed up (I have a Time Capsule as well as other external USB drives) I installed the SL DVD and ran the update. One thing to note here is I did the update from within Leopard.

After the Upgrade

Once the upgrade was completed, I noted the following:

Cisco VPN - My CiscoVPN had items in the start-up group. After the upgrade, those were gone and the Cisco VPN client wouldn't start. My initial fix was to go into Time Machine and recover these items. Once restored, the Cisco VPN worked fine after went into a Terminal session and reset the VPN client by issuing the following command to resolve the "Error 51" issue.

sudo /System/Library/StartupItems/CiscoVPN/CiscoVPN restart

NOTE: This was what I did initially...I didn't stay with this resolution (read on). Also, see my article on using the built in Cisco VPN in Snow Leopard.

Mac Apps - A lot of the older MAC apps are useless after the upgrade if moved to non-standard folders (would be nice if Apple did some accommodating search of the OS to see if things were moved). If they are left where Mac originally placed them, they would have been overwritten, but I had either copied or moved some of them around to folders. So, when I upgraded, I had to delete the old ones and then move the new versions back into those folders. Since the apps are packages like ThinApp and not shortcuts like on Windows, this was something I hadn't thought about...but it only took about 15 minutes or so to clean up.

Flip4Mac - My Flip4Mac add-on needed an update to work correctly on SL.

UnderCover - My UnderCover software needed an update to properly handle SL.

Microsoft Remote Desktop - The Microsoft RDC client needed to be updated to properly work on SL.

Onyx - Onyx just flat won't work on the newer SL. I'm still awaiting an upgrade to become available.

Logitech Software - My Logitech Mouse and Keyboard software stopped working properly after updating to SL. To resolve this I downgraded to LCC 2.0 (http://logitech-viva.navisite.net/web/ftp/pub/techsupport/mouse/mac/lcc260.zip). After the installation finishes, copy EXPOSE and SPACES from the Utilities folder to the Applications folder (don't move).

Dynex 2-Port eSATA II ExpressCard Adapter - The SIL3132 driver for this device does not support Snow Leopard.

Dynex doesn't have an updated driver for the 2-port eSATA II ExpressCard Adapter (yet). Actually, they OEM the driver from Silicon Image...so keep an eye here for the updated universal driver as it will come first from Silicon Image.
NOTE: Silicon Image does not support end users - they provide the OEM'ed driver to hardware manufacturers for them re-stamp as their own.

Misc Apps - Various other apps (before and after the upgrade) needed updating which wasn't a big deal. Almost all were a simple matter o running the app, running the app and doing an update check via the app's HELP or [APP] menus directly. Most of these I found before I upgraded to SL but a few were missed and very detectable afterwards (usually due to some misbehavior).

Issues

I did have one issue after my upgrade to SL. My MacBook Pro wouldn't do a backup to my Time Capsule. It would issue the infamous kernel panic every time. It would even do the same when copying large amounts of data between the MacBook Pro and the Time Capsule (I have shares setup there as well). At first I thought it might be a firmware incompatibility on the Time Capsule with SL...but after upgrading my wife's MacBook Air to SL without any issues and not seeing this same kernel panic when backing up or copying to the same Time Capsule, I knew it had to be something on my own MacBook Pro.

Deciding not to call support immediately (I figured they'd be swamped with calls anyways), I decided to stretch my technical prowess by troubleshooting my first ever MacBook Pro issue. At first I thought it was something with Time Machine...but testing Time Machine backups to a separate USB drive gave me a completely successful backup (and file copying as well). So the only thing I could think of that might be causing this was somehow network related.

As it turns out, I started to put a couple of things together....one; being this issue occurring when large amounts of data traverse the network, two; I noted one of the SL features was an embedded Cisco VPN client, three; reattempts of the upgrade would not resolve the issue. Therefore, I decided to do a complete backup of my system via Time Machine to an external USB drive and then wipe and reinstall. Only...something weird happened...

Call this my ignorance around a Mac, pure luck, whatever - but I thought booting from the Mac SL DVD would give me the option to wipe and install fresh (documentation of doing this with Leopard indicates this to be so). Rather, it only did another update (and I checked - I do have the full install DVD, not the upgrade DVD)...but doing this upgrade fixed my issue! So something with the network drivers (I'm guessing) or possibly the externally installed Cisco VPN client, and maybe the combination of doing a fresh upgrade but booting from the DVD instead of from the installed OS fixed the issue.
NOTE: After additional research afterward, I found the Snow Leopard install does allow for the clean install option, however, it is hidden under the UTILITIES button.

Rather than restoring my Cisco VPN, I just decided to use the built in one now...which is very cool and much easier to use than the older installed Cisco VPN client - and it supports two-factor authentication! See my article on Creating a Cisco VPN Connection on a Mac with Snow Leopard.

Conclusion

Snow Leopard is very nice - it resolves the slow starting apps and some other little glitches. I definitely enjoy using it over the old Leopard.

I think the Snow Leopard Update should be designed to search the system for "moved" or "copied" Mac OS apps. Some things like DASHBOARD, EXPOSE and/or SPACES got moved and my other apps (like the Logitech and Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard add-ons) didn't know this right away and things ended up being disabled until an update came out for those or I figured out a work-around.

Snow Leopard should be a little more verbose on apps that may not work properly with the SL Upgrade, such as the Cisco VPN client.

It would also be nice for Apple to push harder on existing software manufacturers as well as support them with pre-release (I'm sure they do) versions to ensure their software works with the SL upgrade. Same thing with drivers.

64-bit

Running Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode has brought some controversy to the industry. There are some misleading articles out which state not much is gained by doing so...when, in fact, my own tests indicate that running under the 64-bit kernel is a drastic improvement!

A couple of things to note about 64-bit...

Apple only allows very few certain systems to boot into 64-bit mode!! They have apparently made the decision, from what I can ascertain, to block most Mac systems which otherwise could boot into 64-bit kernel mode from doing so. I hope this is only due to OS level issues they have found in running 64-bit systems and not something like greed.

If your system can boot into 64-bit mode, simply holding down the "6" and "4" keys during boot will trigger it to start in 64-bit kernel mode. Once that is done, there are two ways to determine if you are running in 64-bit mode.

Open Terminal and type in "uname -a". You will see a response that should include "X86_64" (see below).
Run "System Profiler" and select "Software" in the left pane of the window. In the right pane, you'll a "Yes" next to "64-bit Kernel and Extensions".

To tell if you can run 64-bit, and if you can, to force your Mac to always start in 64-bit, use the "32-bit or 64-bit Startup Mode Selector" written by Dr. Markus Winter (Don't forget to donate $ as the program is free). He does an excellent job in explaining the differences, the how's, and the why's and this program is top-notch.

If you wish to know how to manually configure your system to always boot into 64-bit mode (don't want to use the above program to force it and don't want to always hold "6" & "4" down on each boot), then see this article on the Mac Performance Guide site as they do a good job explaining how to configure it by hand (see the "The nerd method for always booting into 64-bit" section).

Once your system is set to always boot into 64-bit Kernel mode, you should be able to hold the "3" & "2" keys to boot into 32-bit mode...but I've not had much luck with this.

ALWAYS 64-BIT NOTE: If you haven't already updated your iPhone to 3.1 and still have tethering abilities, these will not be available (neither USB nor BlueTooth) once you boot into 64-bit mode (either by holding "6" & "4" or by modifying the system to always boot into 64-bit mode). You must boot back into 32-bit mode in order for tethering to work again.

Completely unrelated...My wife wants a Bluetooth, truly Ergonomic, Mac Keyboard. I know Logitech has the "Wave" but, I don't want to see a Windows logo on my keyboard, and the "Wave" is not a true ergonomic keyboard.

Office 2008 SP2 for Mac - FLAWED! -- UPDATED!

2009-08-03T20:47:00.001-07:00

Color Me Surprised!

The other day I decided to update the Microsoft Office 2008 installation on my Mac to the latest update, Service Pack 2. Ohh! For those who weren't aware, I switched from Windows to a Mac about two months ago as I, after nearly 15 years in Windows PCs, finally had enough with spending 30% of my productivity on maintaining the Windows system which I utilized for work (in fact, I think the last straw was an Outlook 2007 issue).

So, imagine my shock, dismay, and severe aggravation at finding out the only Microsoft software loaded on my Mac could no longer open XML formatted documents, spreadsheets, and presentations! If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a conspiracy by the Windows demons to take one last stab at giving me heartache...and on my Mac of all things!

The issue actually appeared earlier today when I attempted to open an XLSX file emailed to me and Excel 2008 popped up an error box stating it couldn't open the XML Spreadsheet and would I like to go to the Microsoft article on why. Upon clicking YES, I was taken to this Microsoft site.

After reading through this, my mouth was sitting on my desk in utter shock, because I knew that when they released this Service Pack, THEY KNEW THIS ISSUE EXISTED AND THIS WAS NOT AN OVERSIGHT! Can you imagine if Microsoft had done this to their PC users??!!

1. They never would have dreamed of doing this to their PC users. This would not have been an acceptable fix for the PC business units.

2. I wouldn't be surprised if this put a serious dent into Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (MBU) sales.

Repairs:

The first option, and probably the quickest, easiest, and most reliable, is to use Time Machine to restore your Office 2008 installation to a prior copy (12.1.x). This is what I did and I was back up and running in minutes. Specifically, I restored all but the Entourage Database in the Office subfolder.

Secondly, I've seen where some people have attempted to conduct a reinstallation or repair installation but I've also seen where that is not always successful.

Third is to do as Microsoft suggests at the afore mentioned web site which is uninstall Office completely (potentially losing all your settings and data) and reinstalling Office 2008 but not installing SP2.

Finally, I suppose people can always switch to iWork or Open Office. ;-)

I'm sure there are other solutions...just Google for them.

But might I suggest getting yourself a Time Capsule or at least a large USB drive and reformat it for use with Time Machine?

As the saying goes, "Backup, Backup, Backup. And when all else fails, restore from Backup!"

UPDATE:

Microsoft has fixed this issue with Office 2008 caused by Update 12.2.0 with update 12.2.1. I have tested this and all seems to work well now - and I can open XML based docs such as DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX. One note on this, though. You need to install 12.2.0 first before installing 12.2.1.

Oh, and make a backup first!! ;-)

ThinApp Side-by-Side Updating Video

2009-06-24T18:10:00.001-07:00

Here's a video demonstration on the ThinApp Side-by-Side Updating feature.

Restoring Original Virtual File in ThinApp Virtual File System

2009-06-22T17:22:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick video on how to restore the original file within the ThinApp virtual file system by modifying the registry rather than by dumping the whole sandbox.

VMware ThinApp from Start to Finish in 20 Minutes

2009-04-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a video that was created to show how easy and quick ThinApp can be configured and a packaged application built.

How to Resize the ISO Folder within Xen

2009-04-01T13:55:00.001-07:00

Instructions

In a default XenServer installation, the ISO directory at/var/opt/xen/iso_import/ is limited. If you want to store more than 2GB of ISOs there, you can put them in an NFS or SMB share directory on the network and mount it to the XenServer Host, or you can use LVM to add additional space to the ISO directory.

The following procedure uses LVM to add additional space to the ISO directory.

Open a text console on the XenServer Host Dom0.
Type the command lvm and you should get the prompt
lvm>
Type the command vgdisplay and write down the vgname which shows after ---Volume group---. Also write down the Free PE / Size, which shows the space (free extents) available on the volume group.
Create an lvm volume as shown in the following example. In this example, we create a 12 GB space, where VG_XenStorage-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is the vgname you wrote down above.
lvcreate –L 12GB –n iso_storage VG_XenStorage-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Now exit the lvm prompt by typing the command
exit
Next, the lvm volume we created needs to be formatted by executing the command:
mkfs.ext3 /dev/VG_XenStorage-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/iso_storage
Once done, make a directory where you can mount the volume:
mkdir /mnt/iso_import
Now mount the volume on the mount point you made:
mount /dev/VG_XenStorage-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/iso_storage /mnt/iso_import
Now remove the original iso_import directory:
rmdir /var/opt/xen/iso_import
Next, create a symbolic link to the new mounted volume:
ln –s /mnt/iso_import /var/opt/xen/
Finally, edit the /ETC/FSTAB file and add the volume to your fstab as
/dev/VG_XenStorage-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx/iso_storage /mnt/iso_import ext3 defaults 0 0

You now have a new 12 GB space to load ISO images.