Richard Bedwell

Making Cacti Function properly on QNAP NAS TS-410U - Teaser

2012-03-15T19:10:38-04:00:00

It's all about the crontabs baby!

useful augmented reality

2012-03-08T05:10:37-05:00:00

Okay this isn't going to take long.

THIS IS A CALL TO ALL YOU PROGRAMMERS OUT THERE....

maybe more of a challenge. Augmented reality is a cool function utilizing your GPS, camera, and software to change your view of where and what you are looking at, (simplest explanation).

I challenge you to use Augmented reality to become revolutionary. When you view something with augmented reality software, how about doing live translation of signs. Say you're in Paris, and don't know what the sign says, because you don't read or speak french. open your AR software, and immediately (based off settings) the AR software shows the sign, augmented with 'english', or 'yiddish'. This would be something that could be marketed to anyone, want to head to mexico, but your spanish sucks, that's okay, take out your AR enabled device, and read the menu in your native language. not sure what the sign on the wall says, no worries. Easily understood with AR.

Anyway. Let me know if you get this working, and Please make sure it translates German to English.

BBerry IOS vs. Android

2010-09-15T12:37:23-04:00:00

So everyone knows that there are going to be differences in the way that companies (Cell) impliment certain features on their platforms. Some do better in some areas while others excell in others.

I have used both the Black Berry Storm, and the Storm 2, and am now a user of the HTC Incredible running the Android 2.2 Froyo OS. the Storms OS eventually capped out at the 5.xx.....715 before I went to the Android.

BBerry

Black Berry truly has done one thing right in their OS implimentation, they do multitasking well. I mean better than anyone else. I haven't used the IPhone, but on the two systems that I have used, BBerry wins. nuff said.

Minus, well it's not really a minus, because even though I have moved to a more entertainment oriented OS, I don't use it that much more than I did on the BBerry. I will say that one of the things that irritates me is the Droid system doesn't do Multitouch like the BBerry does. It takes more to select, cut, copy or paste than it does in the BBerry.

So if I were to list the reasons that I went to Droid....

Multiple home screen
more game apps
better screen
multitouch in zoom in gallery, and internet
Tabbed browsing

Things that I miss from the Storm 2

True Multitouch between applications
Sound Schemes
Multitasking
Facebook applications is better on bberry
intuitive touch Keyboard

Other than that, I believe that as with most things, the OS's are pretty much similar. So That's my simple evaluation between BBerry Touchscreen, and Android 2.2

Anyway let me know what you think. Is there something from other OS's that you would like to see somewhere else? Reasonable to get all the good things together and make one super Phone that everyone could love?

Working with Active Directory and Windows Small Business Server 2008

2010-03-16T05:15:21-04:00:00

I have to say that in most of my time as a network engineer I have had the opportunity to play with servers, but mostly it's been to put our management software on, and that was about it. I have been a Systems Network Engineer for about three months now, and as such I have been respnosible for the configuration of our test devices... this being said, I have had to start working through how to configure and apply such things as GPO through a new forest, domain and OU.

I have configured about three different GPO's and applied them to different locations. The first laptop that I brought into the domain took the default Domain group Policy... this was cool, I got excited... then When I tried to bring in the second Laptop, it didn't take the policy. I looked at the configuration, and the default domain policy was applied to domain computers, however since the laptop resides in the SBS Computers of the OU that was created, SBS created individual policies for XP and Vista for that OU, which I was unaware of. So the default policy for that ou overrode the domain policy and none of the options that were defined in the Domain policy were applied... this being said, I am now working on putting the default Domain as an applicable policy in the OU, thus I won't have to reconfigure another policy to mirror the Domain Policy... here goes nothing!!!.... More to follow Later.

Technology vs. Antiquated Methods

2010-03-09T12:23:08-05:00:00

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'

Memory Glutton

2010-03-06T11:41:01-05:00:00

I have to admit that I can't get enough storage. I have hard drives just sitting around in case I need to move somthing, or I'm going to a friends and either they want something I have or I want something they might have. What I'm going to talk about today is cost effective memory for devices. I don't know how this particualr device will work in a camera, as That's not what I use in my camera, in fact I don't have a camera that doesn't either use SD, or the old compact flash card, that's not so compact anymore.

There's this thing that uses two micro sd cards to double the capacity of your memory, and it costs about 4 bucks, without the Micro SD card. I have had one for about a year and was going to throw it away because I couldn't get it to work with my computer, or with my Sony Reader. However I found out by one last ditch effort that this thing works beautifully with my Sony PSP. there is no software to speak of associated with this thing, you simply put in two SD cards of the same size... (if you put in two different sizes it will still work, you'll only double the smallest cards size though) and format through the psp. Viola you know have a 29 GB memory card for your PSP. why is this important ? well for starters you can carry more music and more videos. Second if you have gone the way of the hacker.... you can store more games on your card...

There are just a few things you have to note.... I speak from experience... you have to use the usb connection to the PSP to do any file moving, as I said previously the card doesn't play well with my computers or card readers... I not saying it won't work at all, just hasn't worked with anything I own. Second, If for some reason you try to Hack/crack your PSP don't attempt to delete a game from the psp, use the usb file browser to remove games. if you delete from the PSP you are likely to have to move all your files off, reformat and start again... just a couple things I have noticed... if I had done something like that.

anyway, Here's a link....

http://www.photofast-adapter.com/

and if you want to buy one, get it off ebay, I've seen them as low as $1.99

Can you say Reverse Telnet?

2010-03-03T12:53:33-05:00:00

So I am a Network Engineer, and something that has always been troubling me is this concept of Reverse Telnet.

The theory is that from a router that you can connect to, you can use the aux port of that router to connect or "Telnet" into another router or devices' console port.

Pretty simple concept, however everyone and their brother posts and says for this to work you need a straight thru cable... (568A, or 568B cat 5, 5e, or 6)

Pretty simple concept... I know... but what these idgits seem to have gotten wrong, is that you don't use a straight thru cable, or a cross over cable, or even a rollover cable, you use an ethernet rollover cable, basically a rolled over straight thru cable.

Example... http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=1312

Once you do that configuration is simple....

Cables

Straight Thru (B) Cross over

S1 o/w-o-g/w-b-b/w-g-br/w-br o/w-o-g/w-b-b/w-g-br/w-br

S2 o/w-o-g/w-b-b/w-g-br/w-br g/w-g-o/w-b-b/w-o-br/w-br

Rollover Ether Rollover

S1 o/w-o-g/w-g-b/w-b-br/w-br o/w-o-g/w-b-b/w-g-br/w-br

S2 br-br/w-b-b/w-g-g/w-o-o/w br-br/w-g-b/w-b-g/w-o-o/w

on cisco devices you go into the Line Aux0 and configure modem inout. Then check line numbers, you'll see a line associated with Aux 0, usually on newer routers this is 1, add 2000 to that and you have your port number....

Once you figure out the port number of your line simply connect the cable, and telnet to the lo0 using that port number.... Simple...

Cellular device WIFI Capability

2010-03-03T05:55:04-05:00:00

I don't know about the IPhone, because I don't have one, and I'm willing to bet that most of you won't be able to answer this either; but here's a scenario. You have your phone unlocked so that you can use another GSM SIM in your phone... say you are going to Europe, and want to use a prepaid SIM card. Here's a limitation I found on the BlackBerry Storm 2. If you take out the Verizon/Vodafone SIM that comes with the phone, you loose WIFI capability. The moment you put in another SIM the phone removes all the service books and routing tables. The problem with that is the phone no longer knows how to route WIFI information.

What would be interesting to find out, is when the IPad comes out with the WIFI 3G capability, whether they will have this catch as well. Think about it, you Travel to another country, and instead of spending 100 bucks just in roaming fees, you pay 40 bucks for a local number, and say 10 euro in charge.... The moment you change out the SIM you're no longer going to be able to use the WIFI in your device. At least it's this way with the BBerry Storm 2.

Now don't mistake what I'm getting at here. I love my BBerry Storm2 (BBS2). I am a non-conformist. I don't want what everyone else has, So while I was initially interested in the IPhone, when it because a common device, I lost interest. That's when I found the BBS. I'm not saying I haven't had any issues, but you always expect that with a brand new product, as people continue to use them in ways that they were never intended to be used. With the knowledge that they are coming out with a WIFI only version, I'm sure that Apple has addressessed this issue, however it would be interesting to find out, I don't know how many of you actually have taken out your SIM in your IPhone and still tried to use it. but I would think it's no different than the ITouch, which has WIFI, the IPhone just builds on that; Much I'm sure the IPad has as well.

Todays Contracting word of the Day

2010-03-03T05:27:20-05:00:00

So I just got into work this morning, to find out that our Customer has yet to pay for our next installment on our contract. What does this mean? This means that I learn a new term... - Forced PTO. This is where there is no money to pay you for the rest of the "Term" until the money hits, and since it's illegal to charge against money that isn't there, then you are "Suggested" to take PTO. For those of you that are unclear, PTO is Paid Time Off. It's basically paid leave, and you only get so much per year. This is basically your vacation time. But if you want to get paid, you need to take it, otherwise you're just not going to get paid. I'm sure there's many different variations of what happens when this type of thing happens, but now I'm wondering if I need to start looking for another job. Lovely Process of being a contractor. At least when I was in the Army I knew I was still getting a paycheck.

Welcome to the Grind

2010-03-02T12:21:00-05:00:00

Are you seriously taking the time to read this? Who exactly do you think you are? You have got to be kidding me. Anyway, I am a very opinionated individual, who likes intelligent conversation as well as constructive criticism. I am not always right. That being said, I am almost always right. I tend to do my research before opening my mouth, as I don't like to look like an idiot. I hope you enjoy my Blog. This is going to have no real focus, as I don't really have any focus'

I Image that I will be griping about the stupidity of Humanity and things that irritate me, and for the most part those gripes will pertain to technology, and the way that some people swoon over a product simply because the name attached to it, or because someone told me that it was good.

I hope you enjoy the information I impart, and Look forward to seeing if anyone will even be reading me...