Living with 7

I installed the Windows 7 beta to see if I liked it more than Vista. I did not have to live with the software so I put it on a junk drive on my laptop and used it only long enough to see that it had some skills.

At the same time I installed Jaunty Jackaloupe on another junk drive on the same laptop. Very nice but it was not a long term option because of the software I use. I did notice a big difference. Cellular modems turned out to be a surprise for me.

In my day job I have to setup and install Verizon PC5750 air cards on Windows 2000 and Windows Vista. There are bugs and tricks to the VZmanager software and you have to force it onto either OS. On Windows XP you can use the standard download software and you are fine.

I borrowed one of these aircards one weekend and decided to see if the new OS flavors were up to the challenge. Ubuntu identified the new hardware and I was online in a few seconds. The rest of this post will chronical the steps I took to get online with Windows 7. For the tech-weak knees turn away now.

I had decided that my 2gig, 2 year old laptop ran Windows 7 better than a new 4gb Dell Optiplex with Vista so I would try a longer term Windows 7 trial. Thanks to rare and brilliant move by Microsoft to allow for an unheard of Release Candidate trial period of Windows 7 I decided to commit.

I upgraded my Dell Latitude D620 to 4gig of Ram and a 7200/8mb cache/260gb hard drive and installed Windows 7 RC. I won't deny that there are a few odd "vista" like issues with 7 but overall I like it. That is now that I fixed the major problem. Verizon Air Card!

I downloaded the VZAccessManager from the Verizon website. I ran the setup and it asked for me to insert the card into the PC. I popped it in and nothing. Windows 7 had a message that it did not have the drivers for my new hardware that it called Pantech PC card. The install failed telling me that the OS was not supported. I figured that the VZ software worked but that the card install failed.

The normal course of action would be to go into Device Manager and update the drive to the drivers manually. I found that the Pantech folder was not in Program Files. I drilled down to \Program Files\vzmanager\drivers\pc5750\install\ and only found setup.exe. I ran this but it did not do much of anything but tell me that the OS was not supported. I heard this somewhere before.

I googled and googled but did not find much info. I guess that is why I am writing this.

I took the setup.exe out of the install folder and ran it on my Windows XP desktop. This created a nice directory filled with drivers! Yeah. I copied the files to my laptop. I used device manager and updated the drivers individually. This solved one problem. Windows 7 could now see the modem right but VZaccess manager still would not use it.

Using a tip from a posting online I uninstalled VZaccess manager and killed the modem in the network connections folder and rebooted.

This worked!! I was able to create a custom dial up connection and make a connection.

To recap the Verizon Air Card install on Windows 7:

Download the VZAccessMgr software from Verizon's website
Install the software on a Windows XP machine.
Copy the PANTECH PC Card folder from the XP machine to the Windows 7 machine from the Program Files directory on the XP box.
Insert the PC card into the Windows 7 PC.
It will fail to install the drivers.
Go into the device manager and update the drivers for each of the ! error devices with the drivers in the PANTECH PC Card folder.
Reboot.
Go into the network sharing center and setup a new connection and select Dial Up Networking.
All I put in was the #777 as the phone number, no password and no username.
This worked!!!

Milage may vary. I am pretty lazy about this sort of thing but I appreciate those people that aren't lazy about documentation. I hope this helps those in this situation.

Where did April GO

In 8th grade April sat behind me in state history class. She thought my drawing of a rock band made up of fruits and vegetables was funny. Her bedazzled denim jacket and bubbly handwriting could not have foretold her grunge high school days. Just like I lost touch with the Jr. High April I have lost the month of April. Where did it go?

With the tax deadline, Easter holiday, carpentry work, sick kids, new tires, and the hellish torment known as the blooming of the lugustrium, it was a crazy month.

May is looking better. I will finally get my big bad laptop hard drive and memory in. The specs of said laptop would make most geeks laugh. I plan to put Windows 7 RC, Ubuntu - Jaunty on this puppy. I get to setup my first production Server 2008 network.

The month is young. I have ambitions of posting more this month. I think this will be a great month. Afterall I did not go to school with a May. I did know a May. She went to our church and she walked all over town selling Avon. Crazy.

Not really on the topic but the class after the class with April was Industrial Arts. Industrial Arts is also known as "shop" or "prison training". As a part of the grand failed experiment called "Deseggregation/Integration" I learned real quick that "shop" is not for the college bound. I think my next post will have to be more about this.

Slipping Out

Once again I find myself sitting here wondering why I am not asleep. Instead I am looking at old digital photos. This is a black hole of time for me. Where have the years gone?

I have some activities coming up this summer and I am wrestling with this question: Do I take the Nikon D200 with me to take tons of photos and then make a slide show and maybe a Blurb book OR do I buy a cheap video camera and try to take my daily cuts and put it together with stills in a video/still montage?

I am leaning toward the still shot answer. Here is my thinking. I have access to this really nice camera, lenses, case, extra batteries and stuff. I have the software to make a kick butt slide show with timed music and everything. While I have a 7 year old 8mm video camera and a capture card I don't have a battery or tripod. Buying a new camera would not be easy considering that to have any value on the projector screen I will have to spend $200 - $300. That is some serious jack right now.

I guess I could borrow a video camera but then I have to pack around a tripod and other junk everywhere I go. I also have to setup at least a little bit ahead of the action and then remain stationary for a little while.

I think this post has talked me out of the video option. Maybe one day I will be able to afford the kind of gear that I can great things with. Right now I will go the cheap route.

If I buy anything it will be a couple of high speed 16 gb CF cards.

Always the bridesmaid

It seems to me that if you want something bad enough and you are willing to do anything to get it that you will eventually meet the guy that got it for free even though he does not want it or understand it. Can I get an amen on that one.

At present I am a contractor. A mercenary in the non-violent, economic sort of way. I am present but must not participate. I am observed but must not lead. Nonessential but cheaper than full on employee commitment.

At heart I am a patriot. I don't want to shake off the disdain at the end of each day like the postman in from the storm. I want to wrap myself up in the flag of my fathers and charge ever onward despite my enemies. Forsaking my detractors and flying in the face of the nefarious nare-do-wells and all like that. I want to be a part of something important even if anonymously.

I have to lead a double life in order to have a small role in the greater good. After hours unpaid citizen airman doing what no one will pay me to do.

I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't gamble. My resume is terse and succinct without embellishment or liberties and absolutely true. Maybe all of these things I hold as virtues are standing in my way. Perhaps people just assume that since everyone else is so screwed up that I must be lying about something. Maybe I need to reveal that I am a chronic procrastinator and a Lego Maniac. That ought to reel em in.

The bouncer at the What I Want Club keeps me behind the ropes and giggles like a geisha each time he lifts the rope for some punk to skip me.

Maybe I am secretly that bouncer and the guy in the front of the line is Destro and I am forced to stare into his shiny head right back at me and ignore the fact that he has rocket arrows on his wrist bands. Or maybe it is the wrist band rockets that tell me not to let him in.

I have given up on getting the job that puts me standing cross ways but rightously in the way of oppression or terror or something else pretty bad. I have given up on that call that says "we have noticed your work and would like to discuss your future". This will not ever happen.

I have to wonder if how much my adversion to the masonic mystery cults and charasmatic fire eaters of the world has harmed me. My inability to blend and fold into the shiney inner fabric of society means I will always be on the fuzz laden and stained outermost layer of the bedspread that is the middle class.

Blog More, Call Less

It is my new campaign slogan.

This weekend was all about the yard. I am not a yard guy really but I borrowed a self propelled 6hp mower this weekend. That rocked. I can't believe I have never used a self propelled mower before. Where has this been all of my life?

I then put a commercial grade string on my weed eater and went to town on the miles of sidewalk surrounding my house. I have to say that the yard looks good.

I found all sorts of yard things in the sunday ads today and I got all inspired. I may have to become a yard guy. They have sand with some polysomething built in so when you do pavers it holds better or something. I don't care, I am ready to buy it right now. All of a sudden I want to pull up my patio and put in some of that poly sand. I am ready to go!!!!

I also made burgers on the grill. Time to refill the tank and buy some steaks!!!! Spring is here.

Skip the introductions please...

I have officially spent enough time with Windows Home Server. About 1 hour. It may have a place in some homes but not in mine. The $100 you could spend on the WHS OS is better put toward a Buffalo NAS or DROBO.

I read a few articles about the technology behind the WHS. Its impressive but I am left scratching my head. I get that the backup software is supposed to be great but why put it in such a top heavy server? There is enough Server 2003 bits left in there to mess up your server if you don't know what you are doing. A warning tells you this as you log in.

The option I would rather chase is a DROBO. If you have not seen this you need to check it out. Couple the DROBO with a backup program like the WHS has and you would have a winner.

I am going to format this drive and toss the eval CDs into the trash. So long home server. I may have clients that need this one day but I won't be needing it.

My next step is to try out FreeNAS. I may just ditch all of this "replacing server" talk and put Windows Media Center on this PC and call it a day. I have a feeling that will not dazzle me either. The OS world has just not caught up or on to the home market yet.

Another Technology post

I have feedback from my only reader that I sound depressing. Well, to use the worst saying ever: it is what it is. This is a cathartic spew of melodrama and mixed metaphor and I am turning to this more than ever now. I can't say it will get any better but here is something for those still reading.

Windows Home Server - I have to say that I was a little confused when I requested the free 120 day eval from Microsoft. I had it in my head that this was a media center server or some combo like that. Man was I wrong.

If you are looking for an in depth probe of the features and buttons of this OS then you are in the wrong place. I am not a fan. I am not a hater either. I suppose that if I had the cash to buy a shiney new HP home server with the version of Windows Home Server that does not destroy your data then I would be happy with what it does. It has a place in the world of computers but... I don't have a use for it.

I should explain my situation. I have a operated a domain controller for 8 years now. I have a Dell GX1 and other than the rare reboot I have only had to shut it down for hurricane evacuations. I have Windows 2000 with software IDE RAID on old junk drives and a throw away refub chassis. It runs the little P3 500 MhZ processor at 75% 24/7 dedicated to folding @ home. This is a print server, file server, music server, DNS, DHCP, Account Control, so on and on. I guess I am spoiled.

Windows Home Server on the other hand is more defined by what you can't do (not supposed to do). There may be ways around all of these limitations but that is not the point. If you have to hack it there are far better hacker friendly open source projects out there than this. You can't run a domain from WHS and it can't join a domain either. The server can't be wireless but your clients can be. I will add more to this list as my demo lets me down.

I should also mention that the requirements are widely optimistic in MS fashion. I have a P4 2.8 with 512mb of RAM. This is minimum or better than minimum according to the package. It took over an hour to install. I went to bed at 1 hour. I don't really know how long it really took.

I watched enough of the install to see "Installing Windows Server Small Business 2003" at one point. This tells me that this is a product that they gutted and put some lipstick on. The lipstick is cool but not worth the price of admission.

I am on a mission now to upgrade my old server. I don't know if I will just move my domain to the newer PC or if I will keep the old GX1 until it goes out and put freenas on the new gear. I will keep you informed.

I am pretty sure that no one is reading now so I could be writing about gang-land debauchery or lethal stage dives and no one would know.