TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Free Fiction Books  Link

Cecil found this excellent program, I’ve actually seen this but never used it.  HTTPWatch verifies that your website is secure, allows you to look at performance and Allows you to ‘see’ your traffic at all stages.  HTTPWatch Free allows well known sites to be analyzed vs. the Pro version that allows for all websites.  Can be used to time your website (ensure site is optimized)

There are several programs available to make a virtual cd on your computer.  When would you do this?  I have a series coming up on Windows Server 2008 and SQL 2008.   SQL 2008 is in an ISO format.  Now you can use WinRAR to unzip it (You shouldn’t),  you can burn the ISO with an ISO burner or you can download virtualcdcontrolpanel from Microsoft and create a virtual CD, Mount it, and point to the ISO for an install.

Although this says XP, I’ve used it on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003 and Server 2008.  Link to download.

Recently we installed a new system cleaner on most of the computers throughout the school.  Ironically a couple of computers crashed a few days later.  Was it related to the system cleaner?  Probably not. We did discover that one program wrote temporary files (and relied on them!) to run.  Regardless of the cleaners that we use, the program would crash.   That is when we discovered the computers had a program that wrote temporary files and saved information (critical to them).  Call me crazy, but programs today may still require temp files after or when they load – but they should NOT rely on these files all of the time!  You’ll never be able to clean the computer without setting rules to ignore the files the program creates.

Because of the internet, you should use cleaners to CLEAN your computer.

ALSO, if students or people would stop and look at computers that have crashed around the school.  Less than a dozen or so.  Same room, same  users.   One room that keeps crashing, has power issues.  Bottomline, we can take a computer from the room, hook it up in our room and ta-da, no problems.  Take it back, blue screen!  Remove it, take it back to my room and wa-la it works!  Take it back to the room, blue screen!    The instructor in the same room had the same problem.  When we put her on a UPS power backup, she hasn’t had a problem since.

ALSO, many people think their anti-virus software, cleaners and anti-spyware are useless.  They are the ones usually that don’t surf the internet safe, do download files and music from illegal or questionable sites and open any and every email from everyone.  You have to practice safe computing.   Again, they should give out internet driver’s license.   After so many points, you’re not allowed on the net for a while.  lol

Look around you.  Notice users, family and friends on the internet.  The ones that usually have problems are usually the ones that don’t clean or scan their systems.

Don’t blame software until you look at the situation and the end users.

Check this out

I viewed some of these.  Some are old but good and some are very new.  Check it out.

TechBooks Link

Project Guntenberg has over 28,000 Books for download.  Here’s the URL-

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

 Great place to test your Internet Speed  (Link)

 Slower than yours at home?  Well, we are pulling 17 servers and 400+ computers through three DSLs and 1 T-1!   

Test Your Hard drive speed (Link)

If this is true, this could be something similar to a virus years ago that wiped the BIOS.  In this case, however the malware impacts the BIOS and sets there.   The consumer would reformat and after a reboot, the malware would come back.  hmmmm…..Article  (Thanks Debbie)

Now I agree that it would require the computer to be compromised physically or with a rootkit…

Great article recommended by Cecil on the performance of these OSs. CNET

An earlier study we did.  Link

Basically, the article says Windows 7′s performance is awesome.

John Carney the City Editor for the Times-Gazette asked me to write a technical article for the local paper.  John is a great techie with a lot of Web 2.0 skills.  Article

How to Optimize VirtualBox on Your Windows PC

If you need to save space on you host computer, you can use the compact command to shrink and optimize the vdis you have on the machine.

https://www.dreamspark.com/Products/Product.aspx?productid=24

Chrome appears to have survived the hacking competition.  Article.

Finals  of PWN2OWN Article

Cecil sent a recent article on hiding your computer in a network.  With Netscan and IP Scanners, the computer can be found.  However, below is the method they used.

Windows XP

WinBubble can be used – Under Tweaking Toolbox, you can select to hide your computer.  (Remember in a corporate environment, the firewall and servers will find you.)  These tips are good for home users to ‘hide’ in their network or if you are at a hot spot.

The server service can also be used if you go to a cmd prompt and type:

Net config server /hidden:yes

(Remember, if you have shared folders they will still be seen (you are invisible in Network Places)

 Windows Vista – open the cmd prompt as Administrator: Start Menu -type “cmd” - CTRL+Shift+Enter and hit Continue.

Remeber, your firewall is the best bet when hidding.

To check if your computer is hidden in the network neighborhood go to the cmd prompt and type:

Net config server

Server Name \\computer_name
Server Comment

Software version Windows Vista (TM)  Version
Server is active on
NetbiosSmb (The computer’s name)
NetBT_Tcpip_{4365E532-AF25-4C8E-C31E-5D3BG50F7043} (MyPC)

Server hidden Yes
Maximum Logged On Users 10
Maximum open files per session 16384

Idle session time (min) 15
The command completed successfully.

Want to Show it Again?

Net config server /hidden:no

Good article…. hiding computers in a ‘hot spot’ or in a public area isn’t a bad idea.  Remember, browsers that don’t keep your cache (privacy) or hiding your computer in a corporation is fruitless.  The servers and firewalls (hardware) will rat you out.

Another way to make Vista or Windows 7 faster is to disable Windows Search.  Files are constantly indexed causing the CPU and Harddrive to be used.  If you are unorganized and search a lot, don’t disable it (a substitute is below).  Want to be alittle faster?  How?

• Click on Start button.
• Select Control Panel.
• Click on System and Maintenance.
• Click on Administrative Tools.
• Double click on Services.
• Scroll down to Windows Search.
• Right click and select Properties.
• Use the drop down and disable the service (Stop).

Substitute with the Everything Search Program (it indexes like Vista when YOU want it to).  Works with XP, Vista, 7 and Server Software.

How to make Look@LAN portable for your flashdrive.

Download the Look@LAN Installer Program

1. Run the installer file you downloaded.
2. If you accidently install it to the C: drive,  copy the Look@LAN directory from your program files directory  to your USB flashdrive (this will make it portable).
3. To start the program, double click on the LookAtLan.exe file.

This program works great in XP…Run as administrator in Vista…

We’re starting a small aviation club at school in the next couple of weeks.  Information Technology is stressful enough, it should be a good escape.  We just attached a V-Tail Mixer on a Predator (Version B).   Because the plane is 62″ , we also attached a FMADirect Co-Pilot.  The predator has alerions for roll, ruddervator (rudder and elevator combo) for yaw and pitch.  The FMADirect Co-Piolot is between the ailerons and elevator to control pitch and roll in case I get stupid.  The nose has a wireless mini-camera (2.4 ghz) with a servo to allow the camera to be turned.

Parts are from HobbyCity and Nitroplanes

Microsoft’s Web Platform Installer 2.0 (in Beta – also known as Web PI) is a tool that keeps components such as IIS, SQL (Database information), .NET and Visual Web Developer up to date.  Open source ASP and PHP are included…Link

A couple of students recently (under the supervision of their teacher) launched a balloon that went in the neighborhood of 100,000+ feet.    Article and picture.