Buying a Laptop - Stuff To Know 3
In a prior article here, I outlined some important things to ensure when you’re looking for a new laptop. With the release of Windows7, some of those things aren’t necessarily as important as they were under Vista and I’ve learned some new things in my shopping for a new laptop myself.
Windows WMI Security - a Mystery
I use virtualization … a lot. I started writing an article entitled Converting WinXP from VirtualBox to KVM today, but couldn’t due to issues.
The latest thing I’m trying to accomplish is to migrate to KVM for all the current VM needs that I have. This may not be a good idea since we’re running Xen, VirtualBox and ESXi VM hosts. Today I attempted to convert a WindowsXP Professional install running under VirtualBox 3.x to KVM. I’ve attempted this conversion before, but it failed, badly. This time, I’m using VMware Converter and it failed before it even got started.
Automatic QuickStream Fix Processing for VideoRedo Plus 2
Here’s a little program that automates Video Redo Plus Quick Stream Fix, QSF, processing.
CPU Performance Differences with Comskip 1
I use comskip to locate commercials in mpeg2 TV recordings. It is a fairly heavy CPU user, enough that I can feel the system slow down when it is used. Of the multiple systems I’ve run it on (the exact same binary), they each show different frame rates that I thought to share today.
MCE Buddy Rocks for 7MC Conversions and Commercial Skipping 5
I don’t know how to say this any clearer. MCE Buddy Rocks!. It is free, but they request a donation. I haven’t seen any nag-ware.
If you run Windows Media Center 7 and want to do anything with the TV tuner recorded files, check out MCEBuddy. It does the simple stuff by default. I suppose it will work with older versions of media center too, but cannot confirm that. What is the simple stuff?
Best Articles Here on Technology, Finance, Investing
Over the years, I’ve been using this blog to help myself remember how to do things and to share some great tools and techniques with you. I figure it is time to recap some of those articles whether they are computer, financial/retirement, or just interesting things.
Mostly Dead Dell 1535 Laptop 5
Last evening, I noticed that my Dell 1535 Laptop wasn’t responsive. It was recording a TV show with the Hauppauge 950Q USB QAM tuner at the time, among other things that it always does.
Below I’ll discuss symptoms, trouble shooting methods and my resolution
New Server Build - Part 2
So with all the equipment here, I began the server build. Refresh your memory for components by reading New Server Build – Part 1.
The Old Machine
Before beginning this build I booted the old machine; it was running FreeBSD previously. It had an Athlon 1800+XP CPU, 2GB DDR RAM and AGP graphics. It also had an S3-Virge PCI video card AND an SMC 1000base-tx GigE NIC. Both the NIC and video card were reused in the new server build.
The old machine also had (3) IDE devices – (1) DVD-RW and (2) WD 250GB disks. The motherboard only supports 1 IDE cable, so I’ve connected it to the DVD and 1 of the disks. At some point, I need to boot off USB or get/scrounge a SATA boot disk. I do have a spare 3.5" 1GB SATA, but that is used for weekly off site backups currently. I’ll probably try using a 2GB SDHC flash drive for boot since the host OS only runs the hypervisor.
Bad Parts
New Server Build - Part 1
I’ve needed to build a new server for about 6 months, but delayed spending the money as long as possible. I’ll be reusing many old components and have purchased the main new items listed below.
Server Purpose
Does Windows7 Run .... X
I follow a few email lists. Whenever they list is not related to Linux, there are always MS-Windows questions. With the release of Windows7, more and more of those questions are about specific software working under Windows7, especially when there were issues under Vista. Most of this article was taken from an email concerning Investors Toolkit, TK6, and whether it will run on Win7 on a Netbook.
