A client brought me their laptop today to do a simple refresh. No problem, right? WRONG!

First they had tried to do a reinstall themselves, and canceled the install mid way. So now there is a Windows XP Setup item. Grrr…

I removed the drive, and put it on a USB to IDE cable. Hooked it up to my trusty Toshiba, and in Disk Manager I see there is 3 partitions. One 64Mb called EISA Configuration. Once called System and one called Data.

So I wipe the System and Data partitions… Now I try to delete the EISA Configuration partition. No go. Not a delete partition menu item. OK, its the Dell Tools partition. I decide to leave it.

Stick the drive back in the laptop, and try to boot from the DVD drive. No Go. The system says 0 Active. I click Enter, and it says no boot devices found, press f1 to retry or f2 for setup utility. From the setup utility, I run the diagnostics. It complains that the DVD drive is bad.

So I spend the next 2 hours trying different ways to get the OS to load. I try an external DVD drive, External USB hard drive. Still no go.

After talking to a techie friend of mine, I popped the drive in my toshiba, and try to boot from the CD. 0 Active is all it says. OK, now I know the EISA Configuration partition is causing problems. I know my DVD drive is good.

I use Diskpart to whack the partition, and magically the DVD drive is working, and it’s installing.

Wow… What a day.

When I first got my AppleTV, I got an old USB stick, and installed the Boxee/XBMC platforms to the appletv. It was great, I could watch hulu content over the internet on my Apple TV. Well , that is no longer, at least for now. 2 bad things happend. Hulu blocked the boxee browser from streaming it’s content, and Apple came up with an update for the AppleTV that completely wiped any evidence I had Boxee/XMBC on my Apple TV.

March 6th, Boxee posted a tweet that hulu is back working under Boxee, and will update the boxee UI to indicate if hulu is working or not.

So now I have to find the procedure to re-update my AppleTV so I can use Boxee on it again. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update: 03-09-09 - I downloaded the latest version of the ATV-Patchstick, and copied the image on my 1Gb Lexar USB stick. Booted the Apple TV and got back my xbmc, and boxee. Unfortunately Hulu wasn’t working, but I ran across something called NitoTV. It is supposed to give all kinds of features to the Apple TV. I will keep you posted.

No this article isnt about sibling rivalry. It’s about Brother Laser Printers.

A year ago or so, I bought my wife a Brother HL-2170W Wireless Laser Printer. This printer has been such a great device, when I needed a new printer for my business, I bought the same printer for myself. That is when all hell broke loose.

I installed and configured the printer, and installed all the software for it. The setup program detected both printers, and I went through the setup configuring the new printer on my computers. Once setup and configured the printer in both OS X and Windows XP, I was able to print from either machine.

Now once the printer went to sleep, this is where the problem began. No mater what I tried, the printer responded that it was offline. I could hold the main console button for 10 seconds and print the network settings page without error, but from either machine a print job would fail.

Now the printer my wife has started doing the same thing. Once asleep, she could not wake it, and it reported it was offline.

Once I removed the new printer from the network. My wifes printer started responding normally again. So how did I resolve this problem? I took the printer back to staples. And I bought a Brother MFC-7440N instead. Now this is a SWEET printer.

This is basically the same laser printer as the HL-2170W, but it does not have the 802.11G wireless built in, it only has the ethernet option. It does include however the Fax, Copier, and scanner options.

So now both printers are on the network with no ill effects since they are different models, and are distingushable to all the computers on the network.

I recently upgraded my verizone wireless phones to BlackBerry Storms. I really love the phone, despite all the bad press about it. Leo Laporte doesn’t like the Storm, and that really disappoints me, since I really respect his opinion, but I don’t think he gave the phone a fair review.

Anyway, this article isn’t about the storm as it is about Verizon Wireless Service. I live in the sticks. I am between tower coverage, and really get low signal in my house. Outside I get about 3 bars, inside I go from No signal to 2 bars.

The sotrm seems to be very picky about the signal strength. It will randomly drop calls even at 3 bars of signal. Actually, its when I am walking through the house, and the coverage drops below 3 bars, the call will drop.

This frustrated the heck out of me. So I made a call to my local verizon store, and found out about the VerizonWireless Network Extender. This device is a Samsung SCS-26UC4, and works like a “mini” cell tower in your home.

Network Extender

This device works great for me. I get full signal on all my phones. Oh forgot to mention it works with ALL verizon cell phones. And it’s cheaper then the Zboost cell phone extender that TigerDirect sells. The Samsung SCS-26UC4 uses your existing broadband connection and a GPS antenna to become your cell tower.  If you have low signal at your home or office I recommend this device. Although its a bit pricey, $249, its a one time fee, and you don’t pay a monthly fee to use it.

Resources:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/networkextender/

See My Blackberry Theme called the iMac

I have been trying to setup an internet radio station to stream technology for a few weeks now… And what I do not understand is how is everyone doing it? Sure I know you use the ShoutCAST or Icecast streaming server, and use Winamp with the DSP plugin, but what I don’t understand is how they are streaming the content without the people listening have their client software, winamp, realplayer, or itunes constantly rebuffer.

I read in the shoucast forums that it could be upload speed… Well a check at speedtest.net shows an upload speed of over 4gb. So it cannot be the upload speed. I have tried several servers, trying to find one that is relibable enough to use.

I have contacted a lot of content providers getting their permission to re-broadcast their work, I joined GarageBand so I could stream music, I had to partner with them and agree to write music reviews. I have done tons of leg work, and still cannot find a server that doesn’t cause the clients to have to rebuffer on a regular basis… By that I mean once every couple of minutes, the stream stops and the client has to re-buffer the stream.

How can Internet Radio be so difficult?

I was considering all the different media players, and settled on either the iPod Touch, or the Zune.

It seems that the Zune had a bad New Years Eve.

Apparently around 1:30am Wed. December 31st, almost all of the 2006 30Gb Zunes have died. Well maybe locked up is a better term, or do they call it a BSOD? MS calls it Frozen.

Anyway MS claims the problem has been resolved, and to fix it you have to let it discharge fully, then WAIT until after 7am Eastern time on Jan 1 to sync and charge it…

It also states that if you had a full battery it may take a few hours… What? A few hours to discharge a full battery? Even my SanDisk Sansa will go 8+ hours on a full charge.  Am I glad I don’t have a zune.

So is this some sort of worm? Virus? Trojan? MS isn’t saying.

Got ZUNE? Get eBay! Sell Zune, Buy iPod.

Source: Engadget

Source: Microsoft

First off let me say Happy New Year to everyone. This is a time to start over, and a time to “get it right”.

As people start reciting their new year’s resolutions, like losing weight, start using the gym membership, drink less, etc I decided I would post my resolution, and you, my loyal readers can hold me accountable.

My resolution is to post at least 1 article in each of my blogs, EVERYDAY. This shouldnt be so hard to do either… not like a resolution to start using a gym membership. Now that takes dedication. Dedication I don’t have, to be honest.

The second part of my resolution is to podcast more frequently. I really enjoy podcasting, though I don’t feel I’m all that good at it, but I think if I did it more, I would get better. I almost failed public speaking in high school.

Well again, Happy New Year to everyone, this should be an interesting year for the US, and technology.

I have just completed the speed test at http://www.speedtest.net on all 5 machines that I have on my desk. The results are surprising.

I started out using the test on my XP machine. The reason I ran the test in the first place is because my MagicJack software update kept failing, when it failed it sent me to a web page to download the update.exe file to update it locally. The file size is like 2.1Mb, and it was taking forever to download. So I ran the speed test to see what was up.

This machine runs my VMware FreeNas server as well as my Test Winserver machine. It has a 3Com 10/100 network card.

• Download: 263Kbs
• Upload: 413Kbs

This prompted me to try the other machines I have in the “computer lab”…

My Intel iMac:

• Download: 2967Kbs
• Upload: 264Kbs

My Intel MacBook:

• Download: 2879Kbs
• Upload: 207Kbs

My G3 PPC iMac:

• Download: 2526Kbs
• Upload: 404Kbs

My XP Development Machine:

• Download: 2651Kbs
• Upload: 427Kbs

I suspect the problem with the first machine has something to do with the VMWare and all the virtual network devices it added. My frustration is the speed is slow even if the VM session is not running. But what really gets me is the other differences, mainly on the upload. All are hard wired to the same 16port switch, all the ports are setup the same. So why the difference of 200Kbs upload between machines? Is there that much difference between brands of network cards? Even the ping times are not the same.

While I can live with the differences between the machines, I need to fix the speed on the VMware XP box. Like I don’t already have enough to do…

Update: I just updated the VMWare to 1.08 and it improved the speed of the XP VM Server.

• Download: 1208Kbs
• Upload: 407Kbs

I can live with those speeds, Even though it’s not up to par with the other machines around it.

I have just finished setting up the myDigitalVibes Toolbar. This toolbar gives you quick access to my blog feed, as well as my twitter feed. It also includes local weather, email checker, google search, and a podcast player that includes the MikeTechShow podcasts as well as my own. You can also add internet radio stations to the player. I also included some fun gadgets like sudoku, crossword puzzle, calorie counter, calculator, and many more.

The toolbar works in Windows, Mac, and Linux (the player only works with Windows media player installed).

Check it out at: http://mydigitalvibes.toolbar.fm/

I know its a bit late, but we were at my sisters house with no internet. But I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your turkey day was great, as well as the fellowship.