2006 June

A golf simulator? Yes indeed, I have a client who wants me to advise them on locating and installing a reasonably priced golf simulator for their son. What has proven to be a challenge thus far, is locating an option that I can feel comfortable in recommending.

Last time around I featured a simple scheme that could be used to fool investors into thinking they had found a genius at predicting the stock market. For some reason, in looking for examples of statistics, probability, and decision theory, it is relatively easy to find examples of how to use a bit of knowledge [...]

Once you have become an IT professional, your life becomes consumed with IT. Long hours of programming, support, or planning and irate spouses become your life.
There seems to be no way out of the IT circuit and the rule is diversify or die. What was popular today is gone tomorrow and to keep employed you [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
OFPF [Open Shortest Path First] is a Link-State routing protocol which broadcasts or advertises routing information only when a change occurs by sending “hello” messages.
Key points of Link-State protocols are:

Maintains knowledge of all routers

Route information is flooded to all routers called advertising

Each router builds their own routing tables

Over the years, I have certainly used my fair share of converters. From POST test cards to PCI-based IDE controllers for people who did not wish to spring for a new motherboard, I’ve used them all.

So I have received some interesting responses to my Laptop Article thus far. While there is not a huge list of offerings just yet, the feedback that I have received certainly gave me a “cause for pause”. Check out the most recent responses so far…

Problems with videos and animations are usually attributed to a display adapter driver that does not support DirectDraw. If videos and animations are not correctly displayed on the monitor, your first step should be to determine if the video card adapter driver supports DirectDraw.
This can be accomplished using the DirectX Diagnostic Tool. From the [...]

Fomine Net Send GUI is a simple alternative for the Windows Net Send functionality. It automatically presents a list with all online users, and you can select which one(s) to send a message to.
Fomine Net Send GUI uses it`s own own TCP/IP protocol, and while it is fully compatible with Winpopup LAN Messenger and [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
Multicasting is not always used within a single network or AS [Autonomous System]. An AS is a group of IP [Internet Protocol] networks operated by one or more network operators which has a single and clearly defined external routing policy.
An AS has a unique number associated with it which [...]

You know, there are just some days you have to sit back and smile. I have put a stop to my repair business sometime ago. And yet, I am still receiving those crazy service calls. In a compromise with myself, I decided to take three of them to heart. Yup, I added them to my [...]

The previous installment of this article looked at one of the ways that you can resolve issues with poor display. However, if the latest driver is installed, you may need to adjust the resolution and refresh rate (this is the rate at which the video card redraws the screen) for the video adapter card. Incorrect [...]

I recently visited China for an eye-opening whirlwind tour and adventure. You can read some of my comments in the IS China 2006 report. It has been a wake-up call for me to the realization that indeed we are on the verge of a new era of globalization. Unfortunately for us in the west the [...]

Hard drives do a lot for computers. They hold the operating system in which the computer needs to run the programs it stores and holds the data files for those programs to use. Data files, good ol’ data files. Lots of information can be had from such files. Sometimes it’s just where you’ve [...]

Get in-depth training and practice with the skills measured by the core exams for MCSE certification for Windows Server 2003 - all in one box! Covering Exams 70-290, 70-291, 70-293, and 70-294, these four, all-new Microsoft study guides pack the tools and features that exam candidates want most - including in-depth, self-paced training based on [...]

I have been a fan of movies for as long as I can remember. Yet, finding a way to get your favorite movies onto your computer is still pretty limited.

If the contents of the start up process appear on the monitor but the display is blank after it is complete, this would indicate that there is an operating system video related problem. For example, an incorrect video driver may have been installed such as one that is not compatible with the operating system.
In Windows [...]

Targeting those new to Oracle data warehousing who need to get started right away, Easy Oracle Data Warehousing : Practical Examples For Data Warehouse Success by Donald K. Burleson and Mike Ault presents real-world problems and issues with managing large volumes of data in an Oracle database.
All aspects of Oracle data warehouse management - [...]

Part I: Backing Up Data And Things to Have:
Hurricane season or not, you should always be backing up your data. Whether you plan on riding out the storm (a bad idea) or evacuating to another location, you should have a backup of your computer data either on an external hard drive or optical media such [...]

The animated TECHTip Tutorial is available here.
This is a review of Cisco router switching modes. It is recommended that a review of Cisco’s router product line and a detailed understanding of the various router platforms such as small, medium and high-end routers be completed prior to any examination.
Netflow switching adds administrative controls, collecting [...]

In my mind, the jury is still out with regard to the $100 laptop. In the first place, it has been said that these units will actually cost about $130-$140. This by itself is not the end of the world I suppose, however it is just one more issue that stands in the way of [...]