rebelpeon.com

Category: electronics

  • Where's My Disk Space?

    WinDirStat will tell you!

     

  • Large File Transfers

    One of the problems I know I’ve had in the past, especially at work, is transferring large files between two places.  Usually this happens with virtual machines, and developers needing access to the originals.  There has never been a good way around this.  I’ve tried various things: FTP, Dropbox-esque cloud sites, sneaker net, etc.

    However, I stumbled upon a new site that is doing things a bit differently.  Basically their system just maximizes the route between two endpoints and then you send the file directly.  Obviously this isn’t a good choice for upload once, consume a lot items, but if you just need to get things sent once, it could work pretty well.

    The site is called Sendoid, and they have both a web and desktop application.  Looks pretty basic and worthwhile.  I haven’t tried it yet, but it could also work well for distributed backups (house my files on someone else’s computer like my parent’s).

  • MSDN Downloader Link

    I hate when I go to MSDN and am downloading a large ISO only for something to happen and the download manager closes.  I don’t have a shortcut on my desktop to it, so it is a pain to find.

    In case this happens to you, here is the link load it back up.

    “C:WindowsDownloaded Program FilesTransferMgr.exe”

     

  • IIS Log Analysis

    Some good things to use when trying to do analysis on IIS logs:

    • TXTCollector – This will make all your individual IIS log files into one large file.
    • Log Parser – Write SQL queries against your IIS Log files
    • Visual Log Parser – No command line (but sometimes a pain in the ass to install)!
    • Log Parser Lizard – Visual Log Parser doesn’t want to install anymore, so a new tool it is!
    • Log Parser Studio – Free from MS!

    Some common Log Parser queries:

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
cs-uri-query, cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average,
 Max(time-taken) as Maximum
from <logfile>
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-uri-query,
 cs-method
order by average desc

     

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-method
order by pagecount desc

     

    select top 500 cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-uri-query,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-uri-query
order by pagecount desc

     

    select cs-uri-stem as url,
 cs-method,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as pagecount,
 sum(time-taken) as total-processing-time,
 avg(time-taken) as average,
 avg(sc-bytes),
 max(sc-bytes)
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%.aspx'
group by cs-uri-stem,
 cs-method
order by pagecount desc

    UpdateI’m just adding more queries I frequently use, and fixing the formatting.

    select quantize(time-taken,5000) as 5seconds,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as hits,
 cs-uri-stem as url
from <logfile>
group by url, quantize(time-taken,5000)
order by quantize(time-taken,5000)

     

    select
 quantize(time,3600) as dayHour,
 count(cs-uri-stem) as hits,
 avg(time-taken) as averageTime,
 cs-uri-stem as url
from <logfile>
where url like '%.svc'
group by url,
 dayHour
order by dayHour

    select
TO_LOCALTIME(QUANTIZE(TO_TIMESTAMP(date, time), 3600)) AS dayHour,
count(cs-uri-stem) as hits
from <logfile>
where cs-uri-stem like '%/page.aspx'
group by dayHour
order by dayHour Asc

  • Installed Items

    Again, this post is purely for me to remember and it is in no particular order:

    Optional Items (depending on machine):

  • Kindle 3 Reboots

    Every since getting my Kindle 3 for Christmas I have mysterious lockups, restarts, etc.  It has been driving me bonkers, especially since it kept losing my page in the book.  It seemed to be reverting to a previous state all the time, and I couldn’t figure out why.

    So I emailed Amazon support.  Their response was that I should be hitting the “Home” button every time I wanted to stop reading.  Talk about an awful answer, so I emailed them again and said that was an unacceptable answer and that it needed to be fixed.

    I received a similar response back.

    Then the day after sending those emails my Kindle was completely locked.  I couldn’t get it out of sleep (no green light when you slide the power button).  I tried to hold down the power button, but apparently not long enough.  I called Amazon and they basically had me hold it down longer.  At least I was able to use it then.

    I also noticed that it happened more in the cold.  For example, when it just sat around my house I never had a problem, but whenever I went into work with it (barring it to the colder outside) it would always lose my spot and restart.

    Well, it turns out that they symptoms were correct, but my correlation to why it was happening was not.  Turns out it wasn’t because it was cold out, it was because it was getting jostled around more when I was carrying it than when it sat at home.  I am not the only one that is having this issue.  It is all because of the Kindle Cover – Without A Light.

    One of the new things they’ve done is created a cover that draws power from your kindle (lighted cover).  It is pretty slick because the hinge is metal, which plugs into the Kindle, makes contact with a electrical pad, and powers the light.  However, the cover without a light also has a metallic binding, but there is no where for the charge to go and so it just shorts out causing the Kindle to do all sorts of strange things.

    It looks as though Amazon is now aware of the issue as all Amazon branded non-light covers are now not being sold.  However, any other non-light cover that has the Amazon binding seems to be having the same issue (the Kate Spade and Timbuktu covers too).  It should be an easy fix for them, just make the binding some sort of ABS plastic, but talk about a huge oversight.  I mean, common sense.

    Back to my story, I’ve since put packaging tape (thinest tape I could find) over the bottom hook of my binding, and today I haven’t had a restart.  I’ll probably update this story in a few weeks one way or the other.

    Update:

    After using the cover with the fix for 3 weeks, I can attest that the tape fixed the issue.  No more reboots means lots of carefree reading!

    Update #2:

    Over two months later, and still no reboots.  Consider it fixed!

  • Kindle for WP7

    And it is out.  Go and grab it!

    AppsFuze Description

  • Windows Phone 7

    Well, it’s been a few years, and I finally bought a new phone.  I used to have the Touch Pro 2, and while I enjoyed the keyboard, there was a lot not to love to.  Let me count thy ways:

    1. Windows Mobile 6.5 (even with all the hacked ROMs that I used)
    2. Thickness.  Man was that thing a pocket sore
    3. Windows Mobile 6.5

    Pretty much everyone I work with either has an Android powered phone or an iPhone.  While I’m sure either would’ve worked just fine, I was holding out for the new Windows Phone 7.  I loved playing with a friend’s Zune HD.  The interface is just so much more fresh and, I’m not all that into apps, which is what both Android and iPhone seem to be centered around.

    I waited, and I waited (and I was in Singapore for a few months), but I finally received my phone a week before Christmas.  All-in-all, I’m very fond of it, and getting around is so much better.  I ended up with the HD7, since I’m on T-Mobile through work, but I’ve also played with the Focus as that is what all the AT&T guys have.

    There are a few issues which I’ll get to, but talk about a completely awesome overhaul.  The touchscreen is smooth and responsive, the icons are finger friendly, and most of all the integration is very intuitive.  The one thing I was really worried about was moving away from a keyboard.  On all my smartphones I’ve had a physical keyboard of some sort.  However, with the Windows Phone 7 keyboard, I’m able to type just about as fast and accurately.  Also, I never used to use my phone for music, but now I’m using it quite a bit.  The Zune integration is nice, and my (overly expensive) headphones sound excellent on them with no static/electric background noise.

    Overall I am very happy, and I know with all the money that Microsoft has banked on it, it will at least try to become a large player and continually grow.  However, as mentioned there are a few annoyances that I have (there are more comprehensive lists elsewhere):

    • Dialer does not auto-complete names and numbers.  This is something that was great with WinMo 6.5.  In fact WP7 does it for text messages, just not for the dialer.  Boo.
    • No gapless playback with MP3s
    • I’m sure there are other things, but nothing that actively bothers me…

    Microsoft has said that there is an update coming out in January/February timeframe to fix some of the other issues (copy/paste, etc), and I’m sure there will be many other updates to come to fix other issues.  However, right now, I’m glad I jumped on board.

    If you’re interested, here are all the WP7 phones available now.

  • Offline SharePoint

    I’m sure a lot of you have heard about Colligo for offline SharePoint.  Unfortunately, the SharePoint sites that I continually access where for my company have some interesting security setup and therefore I’ve never been able to get Colligo to work.  Since I had originally tried, I never really bothered to figure it out as we were told it simply wouldn’t work.

    However, when I installed Office 2010 I noticed that there was a SharePoint Workspace 2010 which does offline SharePoint too.  Since we only use MS products for security I was very optimistic about getting Offline SharePoint finally working (incredibly useful for working on flights).  Well, I attempted to use it and quickly realized it will only do offline SharePoint for SharePoint 2010.  Unfortunately we were still on 2007.

    Fast forward through a bit of searching, and I ran across a nice KB article that explains how to sync a SharePoint 2007 site with SharePoint Workspace 2010 using groove.  I don’t really care how it works, as long as I can have offline editing and syncing.  Yay!

  • Another Xbox 360 Dead

    That’s right folks, almost exactly three years after my first Xbox 360 died (from the exact same issue), my replacement one has also just bit the dust.  What is hilarious is that is was doing something so complex as streaming a video from my Media Center PC.  Strenuous indeed. 

    While my Xbox is technically out of standard warranty, because I am once again getting the three light, red ring of death, my warranty is extended 3 years which would expire in December of 2010.  Sadly unlike last time, they don’t send you a box, so I have to find adequate shipping materials to send it to them asap.