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SysAdmin Appreciation Day

July 27, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Just a reminder for all users out there: hug your sysadmin tomorrow. July 29th is System Administrator Appreciation Day.

Although in every day life I’m a programmer, I also manage a Linux server running a Wiki (amongst other things), two HP-UX machines that run our main databases (although I might be considered more of an operator/victim there), and of course several computers at home. So I feel connected to SysAdmin Day, in a small way.

A shout-out to the guys at Blogger, who have kept this blog and thousands of others running. Thanks guys.
And to all the SysAdmins who keep the websites I visit on a daily basis running: Digg, SlashDot, The Dilbert Blog, Lifehacker, Wired, and last but not least the Shawn Hogan Fan Club.

Happy SysAdmin Day!

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

TiVo Series3 units shipping “soon”?

July 19, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Zatznotfunny has an installation page for CableCARDs in the upcoming TiVo Series 3 receivers. Also on the page is an excerpt from a letter from TiVo to the FCC and cable operators, informing them of the capability of the Series3 to accept up to two CableCARDs, and that the product is currently being test and will be generally available soon.

If only Charter Communications would make the CableCARD available in our area (southwest Virginia)…:)

Filed Under: PVR

Windows Genuine Advantage fails on Virtual PC

July 14, 2006 By 1 Comment

Wow. That sucked.

Today I ran across an announcement that Microsoft Virtual PC was available for free. Since I need to install a new release of some software, and didn’t want to risk my main machine, I thought Virtual PC would be nice. And it is. Right up until you want to run Windows Updates.

After going through some updates for the checker, the Windows update decided it was time to validate my Windows installation with Windows Genuine Advantage. Which failed miserably. Several times. With an error code 0×80242006.

Before you accuse me of piracy, this is an Enterprise copy, installed on all our machines at work (and as you can tell by the posting time, I’m at work…). This morning one of the admins used that same copy to install and update a regular machine. So it must be something with the VirtualPC.

It turns out I’m not the only one: a quick google for 0×80242006 resulted in about 86 hits. The top one (www.mydigitallife.info) immediately sent me to the right site to download the Windows Genuine Advantage update directly. Yeah, I know this link is to an executable. It seems to be safe though.

After installing this update, all seems well. I’m actually continuing the installation now, and dreading the upgrade from SP1 to SP2 in a Virtual PC…

Filed Under: Windows

Happy 4th of July…

July 3, 2006 By Leave a Comment

In anticipation of the celebration of Independence Day, I ran across this post from Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert guy), concerning the subjects currently before Congress.

You may want to keep an eye on where your fireworks are, and where they land – before you know it you’re a terrorist!

And now back to home automation…

Filed Under: Miscellaneous