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• How can I troubleshoot a "Hardware Malfunction" blue screen?

  - by AaronSieb

  My computer has suddenly started crashing to a blue screen with the following text: hardware malfunction call your hardware vendor for support *the system has halted* The crash occurs randomly during normal use. I have thus far always been able to reproduce it by transferring the contents of a large folder... But I'm not sure if this is caused by the file transfer, or simply because the transfer takes long enough for something else to trigger it. A bit about my hardware I have an dual core Intel CPU, and Asus motherboard. Video card is by nVidia, and connects via PCIe. My hard drives are in pairs, and connect via SATA to a RAID controller on the motherboard. They are configured to use a RAID0 configuration. What I've tried so far There is nothing in the Windows Event Log. WhoCrashed was unable to find any crash records. ScanDisk runs to completion (it launches prior to Windows load) and reports no errors. MemTest reports no errors (to 200% coverage). System temperatures are in the range of 40 to 50 degrees Celsius, with video card temperatures in the range of 60 to eighty degrees Celsius. I have stripped the system down to a minimal configuration (hard drive, video card, one memory module, motherboard, CPU, power supply). The problem still occurrs. However, this has allowed me to rule out a few components: It is not the video card because the problem still occurred after replacing the video card another one I had on hand. It is not the hard drive or anything software related because the problem occurred after a fresh installation of Windows on a replacement hard drive. It is not the hard drive cables because I replaced those with new ones and still had the problem. It is not the power supply because the problem still occurred after replacing the power supply with another one I had on hand. It is probably not the memory because I've tried three different memory modules in three different memory slots and was still able to replicate the issue. Is there anything I can do to confirm what's causing the issue? At the moment it seems as though it must be either the motherboard or CPU, but those are both difficult components to replace... In addition, both components are relatively new (two to three years old). I will gladly edit in any additional information I can get my hands on, and/or focus the question as I can find more details...

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• HP DAT72x6 autoloader

  - by ericmayo

  Hoping someone here has seen this similar issue and can offer soem advise... I have an HP DAT72x6 auto loader tape backup unit. The external kind, here is a link to an owner's manual I found of it. http://www.dectrader.com/docs/set2/emr_na-c00070400-1.pdf I purchased the unit used about 6 months ago. The unit stopped working after 3-4 back-ups, it's used one day a month to do a monthly backup of another system. Suffice it to say the unit gets very little usage. There is an amber light on the front of the unit called the OAR (Operator Attention Required). The manual states to call for service when this light comes on and stays on. I've tried a few things to resolve but none are working. I've tried power cycling, re-securing the SCSI cables at both ends. Unit was used so I didn't pay much ($500) and so I don't want to spend a lot to have it fixed; might as well buy something new one if fixing this is going to cost more than $100-$150 bucks. I'm curious to see if anyone here has been around these devices or possibly is an HP repair person that can give me some things to try to resolve. The manual states that a solid amber OAR light indicates a hardware failure. When I power cycle the unit I see one of two scenarios so far. The unit powers up, shows self test in the LCD, then LCD changes to show all possible images and the OAR light comes on. The unit powers up, LCD is completely blank, the green lights go through some sort of process of going on and off and later the amber OAR light comes on and stays on. If it's a simple misalignment issue, I may be able to fix myself but not knowing what could cause the OAR light to come on gives me no where to even start. Google around gave no help either. I hoping someone here has experience with this and can help or point me in the right direction. Also, I don't have the HP Diagnostic tools mentioned in many manuals. The unit is connected to a Linux box. The 3-4 backups I've done with it so far have had no issues. We run amanda backup. Before this incident the unit was backing up and reading tapes fine. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

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• Windows 7 x64 installation freezes on new PC build

  - by jhsowter

  Symptoms While attempting to install Windows 7 (64 bit) on my new PC build, it freezes usually at the point where it is expanding the windows image, but has frozen as early as accepting the licence agreement, and as late as just after the first restart. My specs are at the bottom of the post. So far I have tried the following to identify the problem, in rough chronological order: Tried different hard drives with different sata cables. Same symptoms. I later used a different computer to install windows on the same hard drive with no problems. Tried the RAM in different slots, and tried one RAM stick instead of two. Same symptoms. Updated the BIOS to 1.60. Same symptoms. Ran Memtest86+ with RAM in dual channel. It passed about 6 times when I left it running overnight. Used USB to install windows instead of an optical drive. Same symptoms. Change SATA configuration from AHCI to IDE. Same symptoms. Tried various different SATA ports. Same symptoms. Updated BIOS to 1.70. Same symptoms. I saw the RAM did not list my motherboard as being supported even though the motherboard did list the RAM as being supported. So I tried some Kingston DDR3 1333MHz RAM instead. Same symptoms. Other (possibly) pertinent information My CPU idles at about 30 °C. I can't tell what it gets to when it's working. When I installed the CPU, the lever which locks the CPU in place took quite a bit of force to pull down. Now I didn't just yank it down without rechecking the CPU was seated properly about 5 times, but it does seems unusual, and I wonder if the CPU was seated badly if I would see these symptoms? I am out of ideas and don't know how to diagnose any further. I suppose either the motherboard or CPU must be the problem. I am on the verge of taking it to a specialist. The Question How should I proceed from here? Is there anything I can rule out as being the source of the symptoms I am seeing? My Specs CPU: Intel i5 3570k RAM: G.Skill RipjawsX 8GB kit HDD: single 3.5" 500GB SATA or 160GB 2.5" SATA (at different times and sometime together. But no RAID or anything). MB: ASRock Extreme4 Z77 PSU: Silverstone Strider Plus 600W ST60F-P

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• Intermittent internet access on a flat network - Router is connected

  - by Naveed

  I’m looking for some help with network settings. I’ve just started a new job (non-IT!) and we have problems with our office network. I’m the most IT literate in the organisation (15 permanent employees) and so have been dealing with IT issues. Our main bit of software is web-based so we need constant web access but it sometimes goes down for between 20 minutes and 3 hours despite everything seemingly working fine. It’s a flat network with wireless APs, BT Business Broadband 8Mbit connection and that’s about it. We have no servers and no standard settings and staff are encouraged to bring in their own laptops and connect! The network basically exists to provide internet access and that’s it. We also have students accessing the wireless (and I know there’s a whole list of access and content issues etc but right now we just need internet access stabilised). This is what we have: Building 1 Cisco SLM-224P 24-port PoE 10/100 switch with 2 gigabit ports 3 x ZyXEL NWA-3160 wireless APs Samsung OfficeServ 7100 phone server which borrows the building’s wiring Building 2 Netgear GS605-UK 5-port 10/100/1000 switch 1 x ZyXEL NWA-3160 wireless AP 1 x BT Business Hub – 2wire BT2700hgv – is the DHCP server We have 2 link cables between the buildings. One connects the two switches on a gigabit port. The second (oddly) connects the switch in building 2 to the OfficeServ server in building 1. When the internet goes down I can still access the router through a wireless connection. I can also ping websites and get a response. Firefox just says “Cannot connect” etc. The system then heals itself when it feels like it. (Sorry if this is asking too much but) These are my immediate questions… Why would browser-based internet go down? I don’t know enough about protocols etc but I can try to standardise settings. The WAPs have a DNS server setting and I don’t know whether it should be “None” or “From DHCP”. What should be the DHCP server? The router or the Cisco switch? Or something else?! Would there be any problem in connecting the second link from switch to switch? Is that good practice? Is it worth swapping the Netgear GS605 with either a Cisco SG200-08 or Netgear GS108T-200? Is it worth upgrading the router to, for instance, a Cisco RV042G Dual Gigabit router which would also act as a switch? Or is it better to have a separate router and switch in Building 2?

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• Optical SPDIF audio from motherboard not working with receiver

  - by simon b

  Hi, I hope someone can help; I can't get my SPDIF optical out working through my receiver and all the responses I can see on the web assume you have a sound card, while I settled for the (seemingly high end) sound on my motherboard (Asus P7P55D-E PRO), which appears to limit some of my options. My set-up is a "new out of the box" one and is: *Windows 7 PC (using PowerDVD10 for DVDs/Blurays and Windows media player for music) *Asus P7P55D-E PRO motherboard - has 8-channel audio TRS jacks and SPDIF optical and coaxial out *An old Yamaha receiver, whose only multi-channel input options are optical in and 6 channel RCA in. However, it still can handle DTS and DD *Boston Acoustic Soundware XS 5.1 speakers I've currently got the SPDIF optical out from the motherboard connected to the in on my receiver, have SPDIF enabled in the sound menu and the light is glowing red down the fibre. But I'm getting no sound at all. What I want is to be able to play DVDs/BluRays in 5.1 but also to be able to play music in multi-channel mode (even though I know this will be "fake" multichannel; it's more about where I sit in the room and my requirement to use the sub because the Boston is a satellite/sub set-up) My questions are: *Will optical work at all for multi-channel? THe latest posts I can see suggest it does but some people seem to say optical only outputs stereo. Whom to believe? *Even if it does work, I've read that I have to disable AC-3 decoding, or make various other changes, which don't seem to be possible without the menu options that a sound-card brings. Is the motherboard-only option just too inflexible? *Although my SPDIF device is enabled in the sound menu, it insists under "Jack information" that it is a "rear panel RCA jack", when of course it is not (both TOSLINK and rCA jacks do exist). Has the PC just forgotten that it has an optical? *I think I could relatively easily connect the 8-channel 3.5mm TRS jacks to my receiver 6-ch input jacks by way of TRS/RCA cables, but would that not stop me from being able to play music from media-player in multi-channel mode, as I'm not sure the motherboard can cope *Or do I need to bite the bullet and buy a sound-card? And if so, how can I be sure the one I get doesn't have the same problem? Any thoughts gratefully received, Cheers, simon

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• USB mouse disconnecting and reconnecting randomly and often

  - by Marc

  Specs: Q6600, evga 780I sli mobo, 4gig RAM, logitech MX518, windows 7 64bit, evga gtx 260, 650W power supply (single rail) The problem I am having is my mouse will reconnect/disconnect (will even hear the sounds from windows) and the light on the bottom of the mouse will turn off/turn on as it starts working again. It really sucks to be playing a game (and happens on desktop as well) for the mouse to just die out for a few seconds and come back. Sometimes it will not happen for days and other times it will do it 2 or more times within 15 seconds. I have tried two different wired mice, have tried multiple USB ports (on front of computer, back of computer, have also used a USB hub and have also plugged in a card that connects to the USB connectors on the motherboard and adds a few usb ports to the back of the computer, and I also bought a USB 2.0 PCI card and that did not help). Nothing else seems to reconnect like this, my usb keyboard has never once cut out like the mouse does and neither have any of the other devices I have connected (webcam, usb hub, various devices sometimes connected through usb cables, and IR reciever for windows media center remote). I have disconnected all usb devices except for my keyboard and mouse and the problem still occurs. I guess it could be something wrong with my motherboard but since no other devices behave similarly I'm just hoping that it is some kind of driver conflict. Installing logitech's drivers has had no effect. It seemed at first that if I go to device manager and uninstall HID-compliant mouse (that and logitech mx518 are listed) that would fix it but it doesn't seem to work anymore or at least not every time (it keeps reinstalling). I have googled "usb mouse disconnects and reconnects" and it seems to be fairly common but none of those were resolved. To stick some easy steps: It happens with or without the drivers installed It has happened with multiple mice on the same computer Bios is the latest version (P08) Motherboard drivers are the latest version Device manager is listing no problems on any USB devices Happens with every usb port, even addon usb cards Happens when all usb devices aside from mouse and keyboard are unplugged I read that maybe it is an IRQ conflict and I tried to look into that but did not really know what was going on, but didn't see anything obviously wrong. Thanks for any help guys, its driving me crazy!

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• Get 5.1 surround sound from computer through a VCR config?

  - by Wedding Nails

  I'm posting to see if my idea of this setup is right and can be done. I currently have the following "equipment": a JVC VCR -quite old-, which has built in surround sound (aka it has several speaker outputs, which I believe is 5.1 and are connected to several speakers that are in every corner of the room), a computer with SPDIF optical output and a new flat screen TV (with built in HDMI). I want the computer to take advantage of the VCR's surround system (all the speakers in the room) in order to play mainly music and video always with all the speakers (5.1) and with the maximum sound quality. Currently, the computer plays sound only through the front speaker (I connect one output to the on board pc audio input) and the quality is really bad. As a side note, the computer video runs with S-video (old school), and the picture quality as you would imagine, is really bad with the new big LCD screen. My main goals are: to upgrade the picture with a new video card which would support HDMI (my tv has HDMI). to buy a SPDIF optical cable, connect one end to the VCR SPDIF input and the other end to the PC output This is theoretically what I've researched so far, and I came out with several questions: in this case, with the SPDIF cable connected, and all the configurations done in windows allowing the 5.1, will I get every content I play "converted" or played through all of my speakers? (I read this forum post). I already know that in order for this setup to play from all the speakers, the content/audio source has to be 5.1. but my question is, if there is a way to play from all of the speakers no matter what type of content I'm playing (that's why I said conversion there) I already know that HDMI cables carry digital sound. Is there a way I can only use said HDMI cord to the tv, and get sound through the VCR? (I'm not too sure about this, I would have to disable the TVs speakers and use the VCR surround as default, but I have no clue wether this can be done or not). Update: The ultimate question is, do I really have to rely on "sound virtualization" technology to get sound from all the speakers, no matter what content I play? (do I require a newer sound card, like a creative soundblaster with said technology?) Thanks!

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• Link aggregation with freebsd8 and a cicso 3550, what am i doing wrong?

  - by Flamewires

  Hey, I am trying to setup Link Aggrigation with LACP (well, anything that provides increased bandwidth and failover using my setup will work). I'm running FreeBSD 8.0 on 3 machines. M1 is running 2 10/100 ethernetcards setup for link aggrigation using lagg. for reference: ifconfig em0 up ifconfig tx0 up ifconfig create lagg0 ifconfig lagg0 laggproto lacp laggport tx0 laggport em0 192.168.1.16 netmask 255.255.255.0 I plugged them into ports 1 and 2 of a Cicso 3550. then ran: configure terminal interface range Fa0/1 - 2 switchport mode access switchport access vlan 1 channel-group 1 mode active (everythings in vlan 1) Now Im able to connect the other computers to other ports on the switch and failover works great, i can unplug cables in the middle of a transfer and the traffic gets rerouted. However, im not noticing any speed increase. My test setup: load balancing: i tried dst and src on the switch, neither seemed to give me a speed increase. I am SCPing 2 500 meg files from the lagg computer to other computers (one each) which are also running 10/100 full duplex cards. I get transfer speeds of about 11.2-11.4 Mbps to a single host, and about half that (5.9-6.2) Mbps when transferring to both at the same time. From what I understood with destination load balancing the router was suppose to balance traffic headed for 1 computer over 1 port and traffic headed for another over a diff(in this case) the other port. With destination-MAC address forwarding, when packets are forwarded to an EtherChannel, the packets are distributed across the ports in the channel based on the destination host MAC address of the incoming packet. Therefore, packets to the same destination are forwarded over the same port, and packets to a different destination are sent on a different port in the channel. For the 3550 series switch, when source-MAC address forwarding is used, load distribution based on the source and destination IP address is also enabled for routed IP traffic. All routed IP traffic chooses a port based on the source and destination IP address. Packets between two IP hosts always use the same port in the channel, and traffic between any other pair of hosts can use a different port in the channel. (Link) What am i doing wrong/what would i need to do to see a speed increase beyond what i could do with just a single card?

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• Are FC and SAS DAS devices standard enough?

  - by user222182

  Before I ask my questions, here is some background info that may or may not be useful: For the first time I find myself needing a DAS solution. My priority is data through-put in a single direction. I can write large blocks, and I don't need to read at the same time. The server (the data producing device) is not really a typical server, its a very powerful single board computer. As such I have limited options when it comes to the add-in cards I can install since it must use the fairly uncommon interface, XMC. Currently I believe I am limited PCIex8 gen 1 which means that the likely bottle neck for me will be this 16gbps connection. XMC Boards I have found so far offer the following connections: a) Dual 10GBE ethernet controller, total throughput 20gbps b) Dual Quad SAS 2.0 Connectors (SFF-8XXX) HBA (no raid), total throughput 48 gbps c) Dual FC 8gb HBA (no raid), total throughput 16gbps My questions for you guys are: 1) Are SAS and/or FC, and by extension their HBAs, standard enough that I could purchase a Dell or Aberdeen storage server with a raid controller that has external SAS or FC ports and expect that I can connect it to my SAS or FC HBA, be presented with a single volume (if I so configured the storage server), all without having to check for HBA compatibility? 2) On a device like a Dell PowerVault (either DAS or NAS) is there an OS on it to concern myself with, or is it meant to be remotely managed? Is there a local interface in case I cant remotely manage it (i.e. if my single board computer uses an OS not supported by Dell OpenManage). Would this be true of nearly any device which calls itself a DAS? 3) If I purchase some sort of Supermicro storage chassis, installed a raid controller with external connections, is there a nice lightweight OS I can run just for management of the controller? Would I even need an OS since the raid card would be configured pre-boot anyway? 4) It is much easier to buy XMC based 10gigabit ethernet cards (generally dual port). In what ways would I be getting into trouble by using iSCSI as a DAS are direct cabling with SFP+ cables? Thanks in advance

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• Blank displays after inactivity, mouse cursor not showing up

  - by Mike Christiansen

  I have a Windows 7 Enterprise x86 machine that is exhibiting some strange problems. After some inactivity (it varies how long it takes), when I come back to my computer, both of my monitors are black. The monitors are on, with a black display. Moving the mouse and pressing keys on the keyboard do not work. This happens at least once a day. When I first encountered the issue, I performed a hard shutdown and restarted the computer. About 10% of the time when I did this, the resolutions on my monitors were messed up. The native resolution on the primary monitor is 1600x900, and the native on my secondary is 1440x900. None of the widescreen resolutions would be present in the display properties. I had 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024. As a workaround to this issue, I've found that if I plug in my secondary monitor as the primary monitor, and leave the secondary unplugged, then Windows will start in 1024x768 on the secondary. Then, I can use Windows 7's "Detect" feature and it finds the 1440x900 resolution, and sets it. Then I have to connect the primary monitor to the secondary port and set it as the primary. Then I can switch the two cables, putting the primary into the primary, the secondary into the secondary. Then use the "Detect" feature again, and it finds the correct resolutions. Some time after performing the above, I discovered that when the screens were blanked, I could simply press "Control+Alt+Delete", type in my password, and everything comes up fine - except my mouse cursor. All applications and features work as intended, except there is no mouse cursor (the mouse actually works though...). I have the "Show location of pointer when I press CTRL key" option selected, so I can press CTRL and use my mouse as normal - but I have no actual cursor. When the computer is in this state, UAC is also not functional. Whenever a UAC prompt appears, the screens go black (the original symptoms) and I have to press Escape to exit UAC. Because of the above symptoms (the UAC black screen thing, etc) I beleive winlogon.exe may be the culprit. However, I have no idea how to fix it. I am unable to restart winlogon.exe due to the problems I am having with winlogon.exe (the UAC black screen) Looking for any ideas.... More information Windows 7 x86 Enterprise Domain environment (I have a secondary account with administrator rights) Dell Optiplex 960 Cannot perform "optional" windows updates due to an activation issue (I am testing a windows 7 image, and an activation infrastructure has not been created yet. However, this issue was happening before I was unable to perform windows update, and windows was up to date at the time Updated video card driver (as an attempt to fixing the resolution issue) Disabled all power saving options Please let me know what else you need to help me solve this issue! Thanks in advance, Mike

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• Why might one host be unable to access the Internet, when it can ping the router and when all other hosts can?

  - by user1444233

  I have a Draytek Vigor 2830n. It's kicking out a 192.168.3.0 LAN. It performs load-balancing across dual-WAN ports, although I've turned off the second WAN to simplify testing. There are many hosts on the LAN. All IPs are allocated through DHCP, most freely allocated from the pool, but one or two are bound to NIC MAC addresses. All hosts can access the Internet, save one. That host (192.168.3.100 or 'dot100' for short) gets allocated an IP address (and the right gateway address, DNS server addresses, subnet etc.) dot100 can ping itself. It can ping the gateway, and access the latter's web interface via port 80. It's responsive and loss-free (sustained ping over a couple of minutes reports no data loss). Yet, for some reason that evades me, dot100 can't ping an external IP address or domain name. I suspect it's never been able to, because it was getting some Internet access from a second adaptor (different subnet), but that's now been turned off, which exposed the problem. In dot100, I've tried: two operating systems (Windows 8 and Knoppix), to rule out anti-virus programs etc. two physical adaptors two cables, on each adaptor two IPs (e.g. .100 and .103 assigned by Mac and .26 from the pool) both dynamic and assigned (MAC-bound) DHCP-allocated IPs but none of this experiments yielded any variation in the result. dot100 is a crucial host. It's a file server for the network, so I need it to be reliably allocated a consistent IP. Can anyone offer a potential solution or a way forward with the analysis please? My guess My analysis so far leads me to believe it's a router issue. I've checked the web interface very carefully. There are no filters setup in Firewall - General Setup or Filter Setup. I suspect it's a corrupted internal routing table, but the web UI shows this as the Routing table: Key: C - connected, S - static, R - RIP, * - default, ~ - private * 0.0.0.0/ 0.0.0.0 via 62.XX.XX.X WAN1 * 62.XX.XX.X/ 255.255.255.255 via 62.XX.XX.X WAN1 S 82.YY.YYY.YYY/ 255.255.255.255 via 82.YY.YYY.YYY WAN1 C 192.168.1.0/ 255.255.255.0 directly connected WAN2 C~ 192.168.3.0/ 255.255.255.0 directly connected LAN2

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• Strange monitor issue - screen goes black after a few seconds

  - by Scott Szretter

  My LCD monitor display is going black (turning off). It's a Samsung SYncMaster 2233 widescreen. I am trying to figure out if there is anything I can do about it, or if the monitor is junk. I have tried multiple computers, all have the same issue. I have tried a different vga cable, same issue. Power and video cables are tight / double checked. When I power on the monitor, the blue light turns on at the bottom. Then a second or two later the video comes up as expected and it looks fine. However, about 2-3 seconds after that, the screen goes black. The blue light is still on and solid at the bottom (blue light normally flashes when the monitor is sleeping). If I power cycle the monitor, same thing happens. With no computer connected or when I unplug the vga cable, I see the searching for signal message "digital", then the screen goes black. However it usually shows "digital" then "analog" after that and switches between the two a few times. The buttons on the side do not do anything, although they may be, I just can not see if they are or not. I can usually get the "digital" message by pressing the buttons on the side, but then it quickly goes black again. What is really strange is sometimes I can get it to work fine. I am not sure what the difference is. Last week I connected it up and it worked fine and it stayed fine for at least a week! I did not turn it off or anything, I just let the OS put the display to sleep. Then this week one morning I started having the screen going black issue again. Seems like something is either loose inside or beginning to fail. Do you think there is any hope for it? update: pushing the input select button causes the "digital" and "analog" messages to flash on the screen, but only for a few seconds then it goes black. When it was working properly, those messages would flash back and fourth for probably 10-20 seconds then a message would show saying check input signal, but now just a black screen.

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• new PC not work with existing router, but works fine when directly connecting to cable modem

  - by user34786

  I bought a new desktop PC (eMachine ET1331G-03W from WalMart) with windows 7 installed, but I can not access internet by connecting to my existing wireless router(LinkSys BEFW11S4) with wired cable. Though all other existing desktops and laptops have no problem connecting to the same router. However, the new desktop PC works fine and able to connect to internet if I bypass the router and directly hook up with the cable modem. At new PC when connecting to the router, I got the below information by typing ipconfig, the IP address looks wrong to me: autoconfiguration IPv4 Address: 169.254.71.140 subnet mask: 255.255.0.0 default gateway: (empty) NetBIOS over Tcpip: Enabled Typing ipconfig at all other desktop and laptop have values like below, which are good to me: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.140 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1 The wireless router was on 192.168.1.1, I do not know why the new desktop got 169.254.71.140 IP? It should have something like 192.168.1.xxx, and it was configured to automatically get IP by DHCP. I have tried to switch cables,power off cable modem, router and reboot new pc many times and got no luck. So I believe this is only an issue related to router or new pc configuration. Can someone help me figure out the issue?

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• ZFS Recover from Faulted Pool State

  - by nickv2002

  I have a six disk ZFS raidz1 pool and had a recent failure requiring a disk replacement. No problem normally, but this time my server hardware died before I could do the replacement (but after and unrelated to the drive failure as far as I can tell). I was able to get another machine from a friend to rebuild the system, but in the process of moving my drives over I had to swap their cables around a bunch until I got the right configuration where the remaining 5 good disks were seen as online. This process seems to have generated some checksum errors for the pool/raidz. I have the 5 remaining drives set up now and a good drive installed and ready to take the place of the drive that died. However, since my pool state is FAULTED I'm unable to do the replacement. root@zfs:~# zpool replace tank 1298243857915644462 /dev/sdb cannot open 'tank': pool is unavailable Is there any way to recover from this error? I would think that having 5 of the 6 drives online would be enough to rebuild the right data, but that doesn't seem to be enough now. Here's the status log of my pool: root@zfs:~# zpool status tank pool: tank state: FAULTED status: One or more devices could not be used because the label is missing or invalid. There are insufficient replicas for the pool to continue functioning. action: Destroy and re-create the pool from a backup source. see: http://zfsonlinux.org/msg/ZFS-8000-5E scan: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM tank FAULTED 0 0 1 corrupted data raidz1-0 ONLINE 0 0 8 sdd ONLINE 0 0 0 sdf ONLINE 0 0 0 sdh ONLINE 0 0 0 1298243857915644462 UNAVAIL 0 0 0 was /dev/sdb1 sde ONLINE 0 0 0 sdg ONLINE 0 0 0 Update (10/31): I tried to export and re-import the array a few times over the past week and wasn't successful. First I tried: zpool import -f -R /tank -N -o readonly=on -F tank That produced this error immediately: cannot import 'tank': I/O error Destroy and re-create the pool from a backup source. I added the '-X' option to the above command to try to make it check the transaction log. I let that run for about 48 hours before giving up because it had completely locked up my machine (I was unable to log in locally or via the network). Now I'm trying a simple zpool import tank command and that seems to run for a while with no output. I'll leave it running overnight to see if it outputs anything.

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• QNAP (469L) with Debian: can't connect to router

  - by agtoever

  I've been running my QNAP 469L with Debian (Wheezy deb7u3) for a few months. Yesterday I upgraded the memory to 4 GB. The system boots fine, but since the upgrade, I'm not able to connect the server to my router (a TP-Link WR941ND). My configuration: The router runs a DHCP server (192.168.67.100 and up), with a preconfigured ip address for the QNAP (192.168.67.10). The router is on 192.168.67.1. As said, Debian is installed on the QNAP (which can be regarded as a normal computer). Networking hardware on the QNAP: Intel PRO/1000 Network Connection using the e1000e kernel module. This is what I have tried so far: Replace the network cable (tried 3 different cables on different router ports). Check for messages from the kernel: dmesg | grep eth. Besides the normal hardware messages I get a ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready for each call to ifup. Manually restart the network sudo server networking restart Check sudo ifconfig (eth0 is up, but no ip addresses). Check the /etc/network/interfaces which has (besides the loopback device) an allow-hotplug eth0 and iface eth0 inet dhcp, which is afaik the default Debian configuration. Since the server has two ethernet ports, I checked if I'm using the right port (checked the hardware address that ifconfig reports for eth0 is the same as the hardware address that is in the preconfigured ip address for the server in the router. Do a manual sudo ifdown eth0 && sudo ifup eth0 with no results (but an extra ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready in the kernel log) Do a dhcp request dhclient -v eth0: for about a minute requests are send (according to the terminal) and at the end I get a No DHCPOFFERS received. No working leases in persistent database - sleeping.. Check the router system log if DHCP requests are received. I see them for some devices (my Mac, my iPhone) but not from the QNAP. The log entry looks like: DHCPS:Recv REQUEST from 84:85:06:07:75:6A and then a DHCPS:Send ACK to 192.168.67.101. There are no records from the QNAP's hardware address. So the two error messages that I do get are: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready for every ifup and No DHCPOFFERS received. No working leases in persistent database - sleeping. for every DHCP call.

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• OEM sound card with no drivers or support

  - by randy

  I thought my sound card was going out so I bought a sound card online. Everything seemed to work ok, I do have sound. But after a few months, I noticed the extra software that downloaded with the sound card drivers didn't work. I ended up contacting creative and after a month of e-mail support, they asked for the serial number and/or model number. Their reply back was I had purchased an OEM sound card and they could not provide support for that, and informed me that that is why their drivers and software didn't work. They informed me that I had to contact the company that distributed the sound card and install their software. Is there anything I can do to find out who distributed this sound card, or is there anything I can do to get other features to work? I have 4 speakers and a sub but only 2 speakers produce sound. The only control I have is the volume. Creative's driver update program will find my sound card, download updates and even added software, but if I try to click on a downloaded program like Creative's Toolbox or Media Center, I get an error that it cannot find the devise. That is why I contacted creative in the first place. EDIT Thanks for the responses everyone. Here's an update. I thought I'd go thru my old computer stuff for my classes at school. I have a lot of old stuff saved, boxes and cables and stuff. I found the box the sound card came in. It looks like a box you'd buy at the store, like Best Buy or CompUSA. I worked with creative for such a long time, it went past the point of being able to return it to the junk online store this shipped from. The box did have an install CD, so I thought I'd start over to reinstall the drivers and software that shipped with the card. I noticed that the install would uninstall a program, then reinstall it. so I thought things were working out. But no good. Everything still works but the programs were still bad. I'd get an error trying to load them - not found. I'll look on the card the next time I get a chance and see if I can spot any kind of name on it.

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• How can I minimize the amount my router slows down my Internet connection speed?

  - by Lord Torgamus

  Background I'm working with what I assume is a pretty common Internet setup: a cable modem, a wireless router and a few Internet-connected devices. Lately, I've started being more demanding on my Internet connection, and noticed that using my router slows down my download speeds considerably. I just kind of dealt with it until Zune Marketplace on the Xbox 360 told me that a movie was going to take well over ten hours to download, and I just didn't want to wait that long. Good little scientist that I am, I tried to reduce the problem down to one variable. The test As a control, I turned off all the devices in the house that use wireless Internet, and unplugged all the wired devices except for the Xbox. I also power-cycled both the modem and the router. I then tried to download the movie again, and was told that it would still take over ten hours. Next, I unplugged the router, and connected the Xbox directly to the modem. The movie downloaded in just over one hour. As far as I can tell, this means that my ISP, other cable users near me, the remote servers, anything wireless-related and my machines' disk speeds can't be at fault. A similar experiment that replaced the Xbox with a wired laptop produced similar results. To me, this says "the router is responsible for things taking around ten times longer to download." My question I'd still prefer to use the router for a few reasons: it's a pain to connect and disconnect everything every time there's a big file to download direct connection to the modem isn't good for security only one machine can be connected directly to the modem at a time What can I do to have fast connection speeds while still using the router? I don't mind turning other machines off, as long as I don't have to mess with power and ethernet cables. EDIT : After asking this followup question and then this one, I installed dd-wrt on my router, and I seem to be getting higher and more consistent speeds. Perhaps more importantly, my memory use is fairly constant. I know this isn't an answer — which is why I'm not posting it as an answer — but it is how I resolved the situation, and hopefully it'll be helpful for someone.

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• Google Chrome OS

  - by Piet

  It’s about time someone took this initiative: Google Chrome OS I especially like the following: Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. I recently had the ‘pleasure’ witnessing several 60+ yr old friends and family (all respect for everyone in their 2nd or 3rd youth) buying their first pc, taking their first steps using a pc and the net. Have you ever seen the gazillions of little ‘useful’ tools that are installed on a new standard Vista pc or laptop ? This is like learning to drive a new car and being placed in an airplane cockpit. And all the messages one gets about virus/security checks, fingerprint nog being enrolled, trial period expiring (because half those really useful tools come with a trial period), … If I was in their shoes, being confronted with this as a total newbie, I guess I’d just give up pretty soon. As a matter of fact, I actually gave up on Vista on my work-laptop, it was driving me crazy. Thank god I was allowed to install XP. I’m a Linux user at home, and Vista was such a frustrating experience that Windows XP actually felt like breath of fresh air. And what are those people using? Email, browsing…. and maybe writing a little letter now and then or storing their photo’s if they have a digital camera. Actually (side note), I get the impression that hearing about facebook is a major motivator for the digital newbies to finally take the plunge, buy a pc and get on-line. And OK, we’ve seen initiatives like this before, but Google is a brand everyone knows… unlike Ubuntu, Debain or Mandriva. Google = God. If I was Microsoft I’d be wetting my pants knowing Google was about to release their own OS, without a doubt fully optimized to use their own on-line office suit. On the other hand, the old adage ‘no one ever got fired for choosing Microsoft’ still holds a lot of truth. I hope I’ll be able to give it a big thumbs up if a would-be pc-user asks me what kind of pc/OS they should go for in the near future. On the other hand, if I’d do that, I’m pretty sure a couple of weeks later I’d get a call asking how to install this game or photo editing tool they got from one of their Windows using friends… or that nifty photo-printer they just bought. But then, I also get those questions now from newbie Windows users. It takes a couple of years before Newbie pc users understand that some things just don’t work and aren’t worth the time trying to fix them. I’d just wish they’d go back to the shop when something doesn’t work. You also don’t let you mechanic friend try to fix a problem with your brand new car. But that’s another story… Wait and see…

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• Leaks on Wikis: "Corporations...You're Next!" Oracle Desktop Virtualization Can Help.

  - by adam.hawley

  Between all the press coverage on the unauthorized release of 251,287 diplomatic documents and on previous extensive releases of classified documents on the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, one could be forgiven for thinking massive leaks are really an issue for governments, but it is not: It is an issue for corporations as well. In fact, corporations are apparently set to be the next big target for things like Wikileaks. Just the threat of such a release against one corporation recently caused the price of their stock to drop 3% after the leak organization claimed to have 5GB of information from inside the company, with the implication that it might be damaging or embarrassing information. At the moment of this blog anyway, we don't know yet if that is true or how they got the information but how did the diplomatic cable leak happen? For the diplomatic cables, according to press reports, a private in the military, with some appropriate level of security clearance (that is, he apparently had the correct level of security clearance to be accessing the information...he reportedly didn't "hack" his way through anything to get to the documents which might have raised some red flags...), is accused of accessing the material and copying it onto a writeable CD labeled "Lady Gaga" and walking out the door with it. Upload and... Done. In the same article, the accused is quoted as saying "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain." Now think about all the confidential information in your company or non-profit... from credit card information, to phone records, to customer or donor lists, to corporate strategy documents, product cost information, etc, etc.... And then think about that last quote above from what was a very junior level person in the organization...still feeling comfortable with your ability to control all your information? So what can you do to guard against these types of breaches where there is no outsider (or even insider) intrusion to detect per se, but rather someone with malicious intent is physically walking out the door with data that they are otherwise allowed to access in their daily work? A major first step it to make it physically, logistically much harder to walk away with the information. If the user with malicious intent has no way to copy to removable or moble media (USB sticks, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, or even laptop disk drives) then, as a practical matter it is much more difficult to physically move the information outside the firewall. But how can you control access tightly and reliably and still keep your hundreds or even thousands of users productive in their daily job? Oracle Desktop Virtualization products can help.Oracle's comprehensive suite of desktop virtualization and access products allow your applications and, most importantly, the related data, to stay in the (highly secured) data center while still allowing secure access from just about anywhere your users need to be to be productive.  Users can securely access all the data they need to do their job, whether from work, from home, or on the road and in the field, but fully configurable policies set up centrally by privileged administrators allow you to control whether, for instance, they are allowed to print documents or use USB devices or other removable media.  Centrally set policies can also control not only whether they can download to removable devices, but also whether they can upload information (see StuxNet for why that is important...)In fact, by using Sun Ray Client desktop hardware, which does not contain any disk drives, or removable media drives, even theft of the desktop device itself would not make you vulnerable to data loss, unlike a laptop that can be stolen with hundreds of gigabytes of information on its disk drive.  And for extreme security situations, Sun Ray Clients even come standard with the ability to use fibre optic ethernet networking to each client to prevent the possibility of unauthorized monitoring of network traffic.But even without Sun Ray Client hardware, users can leverage Oracle's Secure Global Desktop software or the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client to securely access server-resident applications, desktop sessions, or full desktop virtual machines without persisting any application data on the desktop or laptop being used to access the information.  And, again, even in this context, the Oracle products allow you to control what gets uploaded, downloaded, or printed for example.Another benefit of Oracle's Desktop Virtualization and access products is the ability to rapidly and easily shut off user access centrally through administrative polices if, for example, an employee changes roles or leaves the company and should no longer have access to the information.Oracle's Desktop Virtualization suite of products can help reduce operating expense and increase user productivity, and those are good reasons alone to consider their use.  But the dynamics of today's world dictate that security is one of the top reasons for implementing a virtual desktop architecture in enterprises.For more information on these products, view the webpages on www.oracle.com and the Oracle Technology Network website.

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• Ask the Readers: Backing Your Files Up – Local Storage versus the Cloud

  - by Asian Angel

  Backing up important files is something that all of us should do on a regular basis, but may not have given as much thought to as we should. This week we would like to know if you use local storage, cloud storage, or a combination of both to back your files up. Photo by camknows. For some people local storage media may be the most convenient and/or affordable way to back up their files. Having those files stored on media under your control can also provide a sense of security and peace of mind. But storing your files locally may also have drawbacks if something happens to your storage media. So how do you know whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages or not? Here are some possible pros and cons that may affect your decision to use local storage to back up your files: Local Storage Pros You are in control of your data Your files are portable and can go with you when needed if using external or flash drives Files are accessible without an internet connection You can easily add more storage capacity as needed (additional drives, etc.) Cons You need to arrange room for your storage media (if you have multiple externals drives, etc.) Possible hardware failure No access to your files if you forget to bring your storage media with you or it is too bulky to bring along Theft and/or loss of home with all contents due to circumstances like fire If you are someone who is always on the go and needs to travel as lightly as possible, cloud storage may be the perfect way for you to back up and access your files. Perhaps your laptop has a hard-drive failure or gets stolen…unhappy events to be sure, but you will still have a copy of your files available. Perhaps a company wants to make sure their records, files, and other information are backed up off site in case of a major hardware or system failure…expensive and/or frustrating to fix if it happens, but once again there is a nice backup ready to go once things are fixed. As with local storage, here are some possible pros and cons that may influence your choice of cloud storage to back up your files: Cloud Storage Pros No need to carry around flash or bulky external drives All of your files are accessible wherever there is an internet connection No need to deal with local storage media (or its’ upkeep) Your files are still safe if your home is broken into or other unfortunate circumstances occur Cons Your files and data are not 100% under your control Possible hardware failure or loss of files on the part of your cloud storage provider (this could include a disgruntled employee wreaking havoc) No access to your files if you do not have an internet connection The cloud storage provider may eventually shutdown due to financial hardship or other unforeseen circumstances The possibility of your files and data being stolen by hackers due to a security breach on the part of your cloud storage provider You may also prefer to try and cover all of the possibilities by using both local and cloud storage to back up your files. If something happens to one, you always have the other to fall back on. Need access to those files at or away from home? As long as you have access to either your storage media or an internet connection, you are good to go. Maybe you are getting ready to choose a backup solution but are not sure which one would work better for you. Here is your chance to ask your fellow HTG readers which one they would recommend. Got a great backup solution already in place? Then be sure to share it with your fellow readers! How-To Geek Polls require Javascript. Please Click Here to View the Poll. Latest Features How-To Geek ETC The 20 Best How-To Geek Explainer Topics for 2010 How to Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista How to Use the Avira Rescue CD to Clean Your Infected PC The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials Is Your Desktop Printer More Expensive Than Printing Services? 20 OS X Keyboard Shortcuts You Might Not Know Winter Sunset by a Mountain Stream Wallpaper Add Sleek Style to Your Desktop with the Aston Martin Theme for Windows 7 Awesome WebGL Demo – Flight of the Navigator from Mozilla Sunrise on the Alien Desert Planet Wallpaper Add Falling Snow to Webpages with the Snowfall Extension for Opera [Browser Fun] Automatically Keep Up With the Latest Releases from Mozilla Labs in Firefox 4.0

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• Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c : Enterprise Controller High Availability (EC HA)

  - by Anand Akela

  Contributed by Mahesh sharma, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center team In Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c we introduced a new feature to make the Enterprise Controllers highly available. With EC HA if the hardware crashes, or if the Enterprise Controller services and/or the remote database stop responding, then the enterprise services are immediately restarted on the other standby Enterprise Controller without administrative intervention. In today's post, I'll briefly describe EC HA, look at some of the prerequisites and then show some screen shots of how the Enterprise Controller is represented in the BUI. In my next post, I'll show you how to install the EC in a HA environment and some of the new commands. What is EC HA? Enterprise Controller High Availability (EC HA) provides an active/standby fail-over solution for two or more Ops Center Enterprise Controllers, all within an Oracle Clusterware framework. This allows EC resources to relocate to a standby if the hardware crashes, or if certain services fail. It is also possible to manually relocate the services if maintenance on the active EC is required. When the EC services are relocated to the standby, EC services are interrupted only for the period it takes for the EC services to stop on the active node and to start back up on a standby node. What are the prerequisites? To install EC in a HA framework an understanding of the prerequisites are required. There are many possibilities on how these prerequisites can be installed and configured - we will not discuss these in this post. However, best practices should be applied when installing and configuring, I would suggest that you get expert help if you are not familiar with them. Lets briefly look at each of these prerequisites in turn: Hardware : Servers are required to host the active and standby node(s). As the nodes will be in a clustered environment, they need to be the same model and configured identically. The nodes should have the same processor class, number of cores, memory, network cards, for example. Operating System : We can use Solaris 10 9/10 or higher, Solaris 11, OEL 5.5 or higher on x86 or Sparc Network : There are a number of requirements for network cards in clusterware, and cables should be networked identically on all the nodes. We must also consider IP allocation for public / private and Virtual IP's (VIP's). Storage : Shared storage will be required for the cluster voting disks, Oracle Cluster Register (OCR) and the EC's libraries. Clusterware : Oracle Clusterware version 11.2.0.3 or later is required. This can be downloaded from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html Remote Database : Oracle RDBMS 11.1.0.x or later is required. This can be downloaded from: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/index.html For detailed information on how to install EC HA , please read : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E27363_01/doc.121/e25140/install_config-shared.htm#OPCSO242 For detailed instructions on installing Oracle Clusterware, please read : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/install.112/e17214/chklist.htm#BHACBGII For detailed instructions on installing the remote Oracle database have a read of: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/documentation/index.html The schematic diagram below gives a visual view of how the prerequisites are connected. When a fail-over occurs the Enterprise Controller resources and the VIP are relocated to one of the standby nodes. The standby node then becomes active and all Ops Center services are resumed. Connecting to the Enterprise Controller from your favourite browser. Let's presume we have installed and configured all the prerequisites, and installed Ops Center on the active and standby nodes. We can now connect to the active node from a browser i.e. http://<active_node1>/, this will redirect us to the virtual IP address (VIP). The VIP is the IP address that moves with the Enterprise Controller resource. Once you log on and view the assets, you will see some new symbols, these represent that the nodes are cluster members, with one being an active member and the other a standby member in this case. If you connect to the standby node, the browser will redirect you to a splash page, indicating that you have connected to the standby node. Hope you find this topic interesting. Next time I will post about how to install the Enterprise Controller in the HA frame work. Stay Connected: Twitter |  Face book |  You Tube |  Linked in |  Newsletter

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• Technology vs. Antiquated Methods

  - by AreYouSerious

  So Here I am talking with my Program lead, about technology, and how while my father is the VP of a major company, he still doesn't have a blackberry, or a smart phone. and I think it's funny. Most people would say it's a generational thing. That because he's older, he dosen't accept technology, and that's why. I have trouble swallowing that because this is the same man, who bought a satellite radio for his car, and made sure that the printer for the house was networked so that his and my mom's laptop could print wirelessly from the living room through their wireless network. I think it has to do with more with necessity, and partially with finical responsibility. My father is very financially conciencious. Think about it yourself. you pay for internet at your home. You have internet access at your office. But if you get a smart phone you're going to pay almost the same amount just for that access. A lot of people take it as just another fixed cost... I'm one of those. I don't even think about it, as I check my facebook from the bus, train, or even while sitting in traffic... The convience of having connection everywhere outweigh the financial responsible person screaming at in the back of my mind. However This conversation lead us to another venue of discussion.... what happens when the power dies. if you left your charger at home, or you phone or navi just stops working... are you going to be able to continue on as you did when it was working... let take the navi as an example... if your navi stops working, how many of you know how to use a map, and navigate? can you even find where you are on a map using the cross streets that your stopped at? This is a skill that unfortunatelly is overlooked these days in the child rearing process. Most people don't see the value, while some others can't do it themselves, so how can they teach their offspring? Take another example.... what if your phone gets lost... or stolen, or you drive over it? do you have the numbers in their memorized? are they recorded somewhere? I know that if it weren't for google sync I wouldn't have them backed up... not sufficiently. And what good does that do if you're in timbuckto and your phone dies, think you can get on the internet to look up those numbers? Don't get me wrong. I'm the first to see the value in technology, and am willing to pay the price to not have to wait for prices to come down. I will pay extra to have that newest thing right now. but let me tell you what.... I know that should I ever procreate it will be a requirement for my offspring (children) to learn how to do something manually before I'll let them use technology. Food for thought?? Let everyone else know what you think.... just sayin'

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• Stand-Up Desk 2012 Update

  - by BuckWoody

  One of the more popular topics here on my technical blog doesn't have to do with technology, per-se - it's about the choice I made to go to a stand-up desk work environment. If you're interested in the history of those, check here: Stand-Up Desk Part One Stand-Up Desk Part Two I have made some changes and I was asked to post those here.Yes, I'm still standing - I think the experiment has worked well, so I'm continuing to work this way. I've become so used to it that I notice when I sit for a long time. If I'm flying, or driving a long way, or have long meetings, I take breaks to stand up and move around. That being said, I don't stand as much as I did. I started out by standing the entire day - which did not end well. As you can read in my second post, I found that sitting down for a few minutes each hour worked out much better. And over time I would say that I now stand about 70-80% of the day, depending on the day. Some days I don't even notice I'm standing, so I don't sit as often. Other days I find that I really tire quickly - so I sit more often. But in both cases, I stand more than I sit. In the first post you can read about how I used a simple coffee-table from Ikea to elevate my desktop to the right height. I then adjusted the height where I stand by using a small plastic square and some carpet. Over time I found this did not work as well as I'd like. The primary reason is that the front of these are at the same depth - so my knees would hit the desk or table when I sat down. Also, the desk was at a certain height, and I had to adjust, rather than the other way around.  Also, I like a lot of surface area on top of a desk - almost more of a table. Routing cables and wiring was a pain, and of course moving it was out of the question.   So I've changed what I use. I found a perfect solution for what I was looking for - industrial wire shelving: I bought one, built only half of it (for the right height I wanted) and arranged the shelves the way I wanted. I then got a 5'x4' piece of wood from Lowes, and mounted it to where the top was balanced, but had an over-hang  I could get my knees under easily.My wife sewed a piece of fake-leather for the top. This arrangement provides the following benefits: Very strong Rolls easily, wheels can lock to prevent rolling Long, wide shelves Wire-frame allows me to route any kind of wiring and other things all over the desk I plugged in my UPS and ran it's longer power-cable to the wall outlet. I then ran the router's LAN connection along that wire, and covered both with a large insulation sleeve. I then plugged in everything to the UPS, and routed all the wiring. I can now roll the desk almost anywhere in the room so that I can record, look out the window, get closer to or farther away from the door and more. I put a few boxes on the shelves as "drawers" and tidied that part up. Even my printer fits on a shelf. Laser-dog not included - some assembly required In the second post you can read about the bar-stool I purchased from Target for the desk. I cheaped-out on this one, and it proved to be a bad choice. Because I had to raise it so high, and was constantly sitting on it and then standing up, the gas-cylinder in it just gave out. So it became a very short stool that I ended up getting rid of. In the end, this one from Ikea proved to be a better choice: And so this arrangement is working out perfectly. I'm finding myself VERY productive this way. I hope these posts help you if you decide to try working at a stand-up desk. Although I was skeptical at first, I've found it to be a very healthy, easy way to code, design and especially present over a web-cam. It's natural to stand to speak when you're presenting, and it feels more energetic than sitting down to talk to others.

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• Use Case Actors - Primary versus Secondary

  - by Dave Burke

  The Unified Modeling Language (UML1) defines an Actor (from UseCases) as: An actor specifies a role played by a user or any other system that interacts with the subject. In Alistair Cockburn’s book “Writing Effective Use Cases” (2) Actors are further defined as follows: Primary Actor: The primary actor of a use case is the stakeholder that calls on the system to deliver one of its services. It has a goal with respect to the system – one that can be satisfied by its operation. The primary actor is often, but not always, the actor who triggers the use case. Supporting Actors: A supporting actor in a use case in an external actor that provides a service to the system under design. It might be a high-speed printer, a web service, or humans that have to do some research and get back to us. In a 2006 article (3) Cockburn refined the definitions slightly to read: Primary Actors: The Actor(s) using the system to achieve a goal. The Use Case documents the interactions between the system and the actors to achieve the goal of the primary actor. Secondary Actors: Actors that the system needs assistance from to achieve the primary actor’s goal. Finally, the Oracle Unified Method (OUM) concurs with the UML definition of Actors, along with Cockburn’s refinement, but OUM also includes the following: Secondary actors may or may not have goals that they expect to be satisfied by the use case, the primary actor always has a goal, and the use case exists to satisfy the primary actor. Now that we are on the same “page”, let’s consider two examples: A bank loan officer wants to review a loan application from a customer, and part of the process involves a real-time credit rating check. Use Case Name: Review Loan Application Primary Actor: Loan Officer Secondary Actors: Credit Rating System A Human Resources manager wants to change the job code of an employee, and as part of the process, automatically notify several other departments within the company of the change. Use Case Name: Maintain Job Code Primary Actor: Human Resources Manager Secondary Actors: None The first example is quite straight forward; we need to define the Secondary Actor because without the “Credit Rating System” we cannot successfully complete the Use Case. In other words, the goal of the Primary Actor is to successfully complete the Loan Application, but they need the explicit “help” of the Secondary Actor (Credit Rating System) to achieve this goal. The second example is where people sometimes get confused. Within OUM we would not include the “other departments” as Secondary Actors and therefore not include them on the Use Case diagram for the following reasons: The other departments are not required for the successful completion of the Use Case We are not expecting any response from the other departments (at least within the bounds of the Use Case under discussion) Having said that, within the detail of the Use Case Specification Main Success Scenario, we would include something like: “The system sends a notification to the related department heads (ref. Business Rule BR101)” Now let’s consider one final example. A Procurement Manager wants to place a “bid” for some goods using an On-Line Trading Community (B2B version of eBay) Use Case Name: Create Bid Primary Actor: Procurement Manager Secondary Actors: On-Line Trading Community You might wonder why the Trading Community is listed as a Secondary Actor, i.e. if all we are going to do is place a bid for a specific quantity of goods at a given price and send that off to the Trading Community, then why would the Trading Community need to “assist” in that Use Case? Well, once again, it comes back to the “User Experience” and how we want to optimize that when we think about our Use Case, and ultimately, when the developer comes to assembling some code. In this final example, the Procurement Manager cannot successfully complete the “Create Bid” Use Case until they receive an affirmative confirmation back from the Trading Community that the Bid has been accepted. Therefore, the Trading Community must become a Secondary Actor and be referenced both on the Use Case diagram and Use Case Specification. Any astute readers who are wondering about the “single sitting” rule will have to wait for a follow-up Blog entry to find out how that consideration can be factored in!!! Happy Use Case writing! (1) OMG Unified Modeling LanguageTM (OMG UML), Superstructure Version 2.4.1 (2) Cockburn, A, 2000, Writing Effective Use Case, Addison-Wesley Professional; Edition 1 (3) Cockburn, A, 2006 “Use Case fundamentals” viewed 20th March 2012, http://alistair.cockburn.us/Use+case+fundamentals

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• Beginner Geek: How to Use Multiple Monitors to Be More Productive

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Many people swear by multiple monitors, whether they’re geeks or just people who need to be productive. Why use just one monitor when you can use two or more and see more at once? Additional monitors allow you to expand your desktop, getting more screen real estate for your open programs. Windows makes it very easy to set up additional monitors, and your computer probably has the necessary ports. Why Use Multiple Monitors? Multiple monitors give you more screen real estate. Hook up multiple monitors to a computer and you can move your mouse back and forth between them, dragging programs between monitors as if you had an extra-large desktop. People who swear by multiple monitors use them to display multiple things on-screen at a time. Rather than Alt+Tabbing and task switching to glance at another window, you can just look over with your eyes and then look back to the program you’re using. Some examples of use cases for multiple monitors include: Coders who want to view their code on one display with the other display reserved for documentation. They can just glance over at the documentation and look back at their primary workspace. Anyone who needs to view something while working. Viewing a web page while writing an email, viewing another document while writing an something, or working with two large spreadsheets and having both visible at once. People who need to keep an eye on information, whether it’s email or up-to-date statistics, while working. Gamers who want to see more of the game world, extending the game across multiple displays. Geeks who just want to watch a video on one screen while doing something else on the other screen. Hooking Up Multiple Monitors Hooking up an additional monitor to your computer should be very simple. Most new computers come with more than one port for a monitor — whether DVI, HDMI, the older VGA port, or a mix. Some computers may include splitter cables that allow you to connect multiple monitors to a single port. Most laptops also come with ports that allow you to hook up an external monitor. Plug a monitor into your laptop’s DVI or VGA port and Windows will allow you to use both your laptop’s integrated display and the external monitor at once. This all depends on the ports your computer has and how your monitor connects. If you have an old VGA monitor lying around and you have a modern laptop with only DVI or HDMI connectors, you may need an adapter that allows you to plug your monitor’s VGA cable into the new port. Be sure to take your computer’s ports into account before you get another monitor for it. Managing Multiple Monitors With Windows Windows makes using multiple monitors easy. Just plug the monitor into the appropriate port on your computer and Windows should automatically extend your desktop onto it. You can now just drag and drop windows between monitors. To control how this works, right-click your Windows desktop and select Screen resolution. Choose an option from the Multiple displays box. The Extend option extends your desktop onto an additional monitor, while the other options are mainly useful if you’re using an additional monitor for presentations — for example, you could mirror your laptop’s desktop onto a large monitor or blank your laptop’s screen while it’s connected to a larger display. Be sure to arrange your monitors properly so Windows understands how your monitors are physically positioned. Windows 8 allows you to extend your Windows taskbar across multiple monitors. You’ll find this option in the taskbar’s options window — right-click the taskbar and select Properties. You can also choose where you want Windows to display taskbar buttons for open programs — on any monitor’s taskbar or only on the taskbar on the associated monitor. Windows 7 doesn’t have these convenient features built-in — your second monitor won’t have a taskbar. To extend your taskbar onto an additional monitor, you’ll need a third-party utility like the free and open-source Dual Monitor Taskbar. If you just have a single monitor, you can also use the Aero Snap feature to quickly place multiple Windows applications side by side. On Windows 7 or 8, press Windows Key + Left or Windows Key + Right to make the current window take up the left or right half of your display. You could also drag any window’s title bar to the left or right edges of your screen and release the window. How useful this feature is depends on your monitor’s size and resolution. If you have a large, high-resolution monitor, it will allow you to see a lot. If you have a smaller laptop monitor with the seemingly standard 1366×768 resolution, you won’t be able to see much of each snapped window at once, so snapping windows may not be practical. Image Credit: Chance Reecher on Flickr, Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center on Flickr, Xavier Caballe on Flickr     

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