Playing with Google Sites

Woke up to find Google Sites has been released for Google apps. Logging in to Google apps I couldn't find where I can start using Google Sites. Turns out you have to add the service from a link right above your existing services. My existing services were start page, chat, web pages, email, calender. I had two more services that I could add. Google Docs and Google sites.

I just had a few minutes to play, looks like a nice wiki tool for your site. You'll find more information here.

Vsp1cln.exe - Vista SP1 File Removal Tool

I've been running Vista SP1 for the past few days, and the system is quite stable. It was time to make Vista SP1 permanent on this machine. I had 45.6 GB free before running the above tool. Vsp1cln.exe is described as:

Vsp1cln.exe is an optional tool that you can run after you install SP1. This tool removes older versions of components that have been updated in SP1, which are stored during the installation in case you need to uninstall SP1 later. Saving these older components increases the amount of disk space that is used. Typically, you should run Vsp1cln.exe if you want to reclaim this disk space after applying SP1 and if you will not need to uninstall SP1. Note, however, that you cannot uninstall SP1 after you run this tool.

UAC asks for permission when running the tool, and a command prompt pops up asking if you want to make SP1 permanent. After the tool had run on my machine, disk space went from 45.6 GB to 47.3 GB. If you're sure you are going to be keeping SP1 this might be a worth while tool to run.

Slashdot or how we will do anything to get clicks...

How in the world does:

"Microsoft has stopped automatically distributing a prerequisite piece of software for Vista Service Pack 1" (emphasis is mine)

Translate to:

"news.com reports that Microsoft is withdrawing SP1 for Vista."

Windows Web Server 2008 and Powershell

Powershell is included as part of Windows Web Server 2008, however it wasn't installed on my machine by default. I had the "Initial Configuration tasks" window open where I chose the "Add Features" option. You can also go to start, search for "Server Manager" and then choose "Add Features". Select Windows Powershell and install it. And thats it. It doesn't ask for your DVD or anything.

Activation

While trying to activate Windows Web Server 2008, I kept getting an error "DNS name does not exist".

From this site, I found re-entering your product key, and then activating fixes the problem, and activates Windows.

Playing with Windows Server 2008

I have an ancient machine, a beige box inherited long ago from a departing roommate. Its a 1Ghz machine with 512MB of Ram that I use for testing things. Ubuntu runs pretty stable on it, Windows Vista installs, but their are no drivers for the network card. Its a 3com 3c905b card, and I've tried installing some old drivers that I found online. In Vista the drivers install, but the network card fails to function with those old drivers. Windows Server 2003 works fine on the machine though.

Windows Server 2008 Web Edition installs on the machine, however like Vista, the network card has no drivers. I tried the old drivers and unlike with Vista, they work. I'm quite impressed with the performance of the operating system. Its quite fast, I can tell no differece between Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. I haven't done much with it yet though. Its just sitting their serving files for now.

Update: Just in case you're wondering why the screenshot shows Service Pack 1, like I was, here is a probable explanation.

virtualbox

I installed the new beta of virtual box for OS X and installed Vista on it for a test. It is quite stable itself, but OS X gets a little unstable. Its the first time I saw OS X freeze up. This happens when removing an external monitor I had attached to the macbook pro. At first I thought it was freezing up completely. However, when playing a video from a DVD, the audio kept playing and only the display seemed to freeze up. I guess the display driver has problems.

Another weird problem is that firefox fails to exit cleanly after I running virtualbox. I have to "force quit".

Other than that, the virtual machine itself is quite stable. Its still beta and I hope they will have these issues cleared soon.

Image Resizing by Seam Carving

via del.icio.us

Windows right click option for "Open in Emacs"

Warning: Be careful when editing the registry!

This article shows you how to add an entry in the right click menu to "Open in Notepad". Its quite easy to change that for emacs. Just change the notepad.exe %1 to:
C:\Program Files\emacs\bin\runemacs.exe "%1" and that should work.

Their is one problem with this. Each time you do this, a new emacs window will open. I'm sure their is a way to not let that happen, I just haven't had time to deal with it on windows yet.

via Lifehacker

ubuntu gutsy on my XPS 1330

I bought a 1330 before the 1330n (ubuntu version) came out. Which means my system has an Intel 4965 AGN card. I was worried this might not work in Ubuntu, but actually it works out of the box. However, I am connecting to a "G" network, not "N". Don't know if "N" will work.

Skype 2.0 beta video works, but the builtin internal mic has problems. Following the instructions from Dell Wiki I was able to get the mic working. However, the volume on the mic is pretty low. Opening up alsamixer and playing with the "Digital" and "Capture" volumes fixed the problem for me. Now I have everything I need working on the machine! :)

I'm a PC, I'm a Mac

via A Solaris guy

Test Gnome-Blog

Could'nt get other editors to work with blogger yet. Trying gnome-blog.