I’ve been trying to have the whole digital home experience for a while now. I’ve reviewed Vista Media Centre, Home Server, Wireless N before, the experiences there are documented.
The impossible dream I am thinking of consists of seamless integration between:
C’mon guys - no logins for Technet subscriptions - if you can’t keep your directory up maybe you should consider OpenID.
Jesper had a similar problem last week.
This is why I learnt a long time ago - if you have an AD problem - it’s probably DNS.
Creating an empty DNS zone with the same name as your internal zone can lead too all sorts of frustration - especially with the multiple locations in AD that it can end up in. You’ll find yourself knee-deep in ADSI Edit faster than you would ever want to be.
I love DNS, but it’s gotta be right, and it’s easy to get wrong.
Sheesh - at the exchange rate - no wonder public transport is expensive! Pounds Sterling - what next - Euro’s?
This is of course on top of what would have to the slowest proximity readers on the planet, displays that are impossible to read, an arcane array of “beep” codes, and an “Auto Top Up” function - that doesn’t.
Great system guys, matches your train network perfectly.
I decided that my home made winch mount 
needed to be tested so I could trust it somewhat. I see from some of the conversations I am not the only one with doubts. The mount performed perfectly, although he synthetic winch rope broke.
The tests were all done on the first layer of the drum to give maximum tension. This also places additional load on the mount due to the increased height adding leverage.
Test 1 - Drag Car on Dirt (Wheels Locked)- Passed
Test 2 - Drag Car on Dirt Up Hill (Wheels Locked) - Passed
I wanted to fit a winch 
to my ‘98 HZJ105 without wearing a huge weight penalty, or spending too much money. That ruled out walking into ARB and handing over the Credit Card for a new Bullbar and Warn. It meant I had to DIY this little exercise.
I wanted to keep the weight down, so decided a 9500lb was smaller and lighter than a 12,000lb. If I needed more pulling power, I would use a pulley block.
When I first heard about Windows Home S
erver (WHS) - I was pretty reluctant to bother. I was happily running Server 2003 with a 1.5TB software RAID 5 array and am not a fan of NAS, so didn’t get the point.
With the release of Power Pack 1 (PP1), and support for external USB backups, I decided to take another look. I have not looked back.
OK - at it’s simplest WHS does three things
Like many people concerned with water use and reducing the impact of my excessive capitalist wasteful bourgeois lifestyle I decided to put my greywater to better use. It’s easier than putting my greymatter to better use, and arguably a more valuable resource.
I had a few ideas I wanted to stick to, as well as keeping it within reason from council approval. You’ll have to read up on your own council approvals for greywater. I’m basing mine on the “I won’t tell them and they won’t care” legal principle.
The main principles I wanted were
The Lihir Gold Mine is a large open pit mine in the middle what remains of the one of the volcano calderas that make up Niolam (Lihir) island. Lihir is located in a highly active seismic and geothermal area. Half of the caldera is missing, disappeared into the ocean several thousand years ago, brining the seashore right up to the edge of mining operations. If you add in 4000mm of rain each year and an unstable soil you get a less than ideal situation for landslides.
http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/Mypapers/whatknow.htm
And this is why we have to wean business off Excel.
Just like programming - it’s all mistakes mistakes mistakes.
When I upgraded to Vista, I lost the ability to run one of my favourite XP Power Toys - Image Resizer.
I like to be able to resize stuff easily and quickly for a number of uses. It’s one of the main reasons I use Live Writer for this site - it’s quick and easy to to the image management.
Luckily a free replacement with all the simple “Right Click - Resize” features turned up - VSO Image Resizer. And it’s free for personal use.
This just turned up with my rego renewal.
They are a scam, it’s so well documented I can’t even be bothered linking the hundreds of articles.
Scammers, Charlatans, Scumbags, Liars, Theives, Con Artists, Rip Off Merchants, Fools and Money.
What next - Hyclone ads? I’ve got some magic fairy dust I would like to sell you…..
I have to sit through far too many piss-poor Powerpoint slide decks that just send the audience to sleep. Here are some examples of how to use Powerpoint properly.
Brilliant Video Session
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/187
Great tips from a great presenter
http://blogs.technet.com/jesper_johansson/archive/2005/08/24/Death-by-PowerPoint.aspx
Advice from a specialist
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2005/09/whats_good_powe.html
TED Talks Al Gore- New thinking on the climate crisis (video)
I thought it was brilliant, and this inspires me to make better choices.
I like music in my house and have a mild audiophile fetish, not as bad as some, but enough. I wanted a nice system for the main living room that would be used for background music, the loud stuff being out on the deck, or in the home theatre room. Despite being quiet, it still had to be “nice”.
It also needed to be small an un-intrusive, and fit on some small bookshelves. This ruled out most amplifiers, as they just don’t come in small sizes.
Speed, I need speed, and speed with coverage would be good. I was using a Netgear DG834G previously, and had a pretty good run out of it. I know Netgear kit ain’t the best, but it beats DLink in my experience, and is probably the biggest selling home and SOHO kit in Australia.
I recently bought a new secondhand small Euro diesel car, and had numerous debates with several people re. its safety for my kids vs my large 4WD Toyota Landcruiser.
My approach was to get something 5 star rated, with curtain airbags. Head injuries from side impacts with 4wd’s being a known problem with small cars.
Here are some vids I found that were very enlightening.
This is some of the best discussion of motorcycle helmets and testing I have seen anywhere. It certainly made me rethink a lot of my assumptions.
Basically, do you want a tough helmet, or a soft and squishy one. I’m thinking soft and squishy is probably best.
Here is the testing and analysis http://motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/hatz/
And here is a more general discussion relating to same, and links to heaps and heaps of resources. http://www.webbikeworld.com/motorcycle-helmets/motorcycle-helmet-faq.htm