March 2008 - Posts

• Here at last

  After 4 long days on the road and over 1500 miles, yesterday afternoon I arrived here in Redmond, WA safe and sound (and exhausted) and after a brief bit of vegetation and unloading my vehicle of a number of things I made friends with the bed for the night. Come morning I decided I needed a few adventures in town so embarked on a quest for groceries, mail a couple of things, check my PO box and get the process started on titling and registering my vehicle in Washington... something I needed to do quick as my South Dakota registration was expiring in a week. I was thrilled to learn upon finding the emission testing station that because my vehicle was built during an even year... I don't have to get it tested this year and even was directed to a local licensing place (privately run as it turns out) to go title and license my vehicle... so I was off. Currently I'm staying in the central side of Redmond and after getting lost in the nice town that is Woodinville I found my target (it took a couple of phone calls) and now... these beauties: Have been replaced with this: Dakota State University Represent! <Imagine a picture of me in DSU garb while waving gang signs> A nifty thing about South Dakota is that license plates are assigned based on the county of vehicle registration (43 being Lake County where Madison is located) and while I cannot say the official reason it is done today... it's always been a nice thing so that if someone is (aside from the obvious folks from Minnesota and Iowa)... so it's going to be a shame not to have that if/when I return to SD in the fall for deer hunting... instead I'll be another one of those damn out-of-staters paying a small fortune for a hunting license (grrr). Posted Mar 22 2008, 02:36 PM by I Hate Linux

• Moving Day + (-1)

  Twas the night before moving day and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a tv... No... that doesn't sound right. No TV and no beer make Brendan something something. Tomorrow the packers and movers come to load up virtually everything I own into the back of a truck and drive it out to Washington for me. In preparation for this I've spent lots of time doing various bits of packing, cleaning and sorting to make the move easier. Today was crunch day when a packer came by to crate up my tv, a couple friends came by to buy my chest freezer (oh how I'll miss being able to have ~100 lbs of frozen meat at hand) and some others to loan me a shop vac (so I could vacuum out my car before the drive). Of course the whole time I was trying to pawn off whatever I could here and there to people who were here and I thought might want it... or who I think I could get to take it. Need some super-duper long power cables? I've got a whole box. Want an old Gateway 2000 Mouse Pad? Have two! Want a giant spool table (I'll take some pictures tomorrow)? Please, I wont have room for it, come on, you know you want to be hip and trendy with a spool. During this whole process a pair of Mormon Missionaries came by (I see them ~6 months) to try to sway me and we got a chatting, they offered to help me move and I tried to pawn stuff off on them... got one of them to take a couple of old Garfield books off my hands and nearly had him sold on a 24 port 10Mbs network hub... sadly he refused. Most of the big things I wanted to do before this move have been done... I've eaten at a few of my favorite local (and/or regional restaurants)... all that remains really is collecting all of those little bits I cannot live without for the next 2-6 weeks (or don't trust outside of my control (ie firearms)), a few early morning errands in town, meet up with some friends tomorrow evening for some going away drinks and dinner, make a few last minute stops in Sioux Falls on Tuesday morning and finally hit the road ~10 am for a new life in a new state with a new job. Posted Mar 16 2008, 08:26 PM by I Hate Linux

• Cleaning, Packing and Selling

  I hate moving and it's why I've lived where I have for nearly 5 years now. With my upcoming move to Redmond I've spent a great deal of time going through stuff here as well (as at both parents house in Minneapolis) and deciding what to keep and what to throw away... now and then I'd find something I'd totally forgotten about (like a folder from a computer class I took in 1991), as well as some items I was putting off dealing with, items that hopefully have some value to someone. Now some of those items are up on eBay are: 1987 Minnesota Twins Wheaties box 1987 Minnesota Twins Wheaties box Gateway 2000 Mouse Pad Gateway 2000 Mouse Pad (with URL) Lot of 26 Star Trek Books + 6 Parody Books Death of Superman (and related) lot of 23 comics Admit it... you want one of those Gateway 2000 mouse pads. Posted Mar 04 2008, 03:33 PM by I Hate Linux

• New Home Server Add-in: Media Connect Controller

  Even though Windows Home Server allows the creation of virtually unlimited shares... it only directly allows exposing of 3 of those shares via Windows Media Connect which enables other devices and PCs in the home to more easily access the content. What happens if a person wants to have two or more separate music or video shares that are all available via WMC? With Media Connect Controller (previously discussed)... this can now change. Now this (on an Xbox 360): can be turned into this: Due to the release (and subsequent disappearance) of the HP MediaSmart Server More Media Sharing add-in, I was once again reminded of the need for this kind of functionality and wanted to make available this cleaner functioning version that still lacks some of the more advanced functionality I want to add at a later date. How it works The HomeServerControls assembly exposes a type named UIExposedShare which provides much more information (and control) than IShareInfo... one of the methods of control is enabling/disabling WMC for the given share (a topic I'll blog on in more detail another day). Usage Two options exist for configuring WMC for shares via this add-in, in a later version I will remove one of the methods... just as soon as I decide which one is preferred (likely Settings): Option 1: Main Window After installing the add-in... Launch the Windows Home Server Console Select the Media Connect Controller tab Select a share Click the Enable tool bar button Option 2: Settings Dialog After installing the add-in... Launch the Windows Home Server Console Launch the Settings dialog Select the Media Connect Controller tab Locate desired share Select On/Off button to change state Click the OK to save changes and exit Settings Uninstallation Uninstalling this add-in does not automatically revert WMC settings to their original state, instead prior to uninstalling this add-in a user should manually go through and enable/disable WMC for each share as desired. Known issues Updating of files in shares may take some time, a reboot of the WHS and/or the receiving device can speed this up. State when set with Media Sharing tab may not be saved when Music/Photos/Videos share was previously enabled through Media Connect Controller. Fully closing the Home Server Console (or rebooting the machine) should resolve this. Downloads Media Connect Controller installer Posted Mar 03 2008, 11:41 AM by I Hate Linux