Skip to content

Technology’s Infestation of my Life

Examples of how technology has permeated every single bit of my life.

hMailServer

One of my personal quests of life is to try and adopt Open Source Software (OSS) when ever possible. Examples of this practice in my life can be seen everywhere. My web site powered my PHP, mySQL, and WordPress. On the personal side, I use Firefox, Thunderbird, and I’m begining to move towards OpenOffice…but that one will take some time. The latest Open Source Software to inhabit my life is going to be implemented soon. hMailServer will replace Deerfield.com’s VisNetic Mail Server. This is the second time I’ve rejected Deerfield and this transition will completly cut them out of my picture, assuming hMS works as planned. SourceForge.net lists them as “Mature”. hMS will also allow me to add more users and more domains, so if your looking for a good mail server, drop me a line.

Email Echolocation

About half a dozen times a day, a massive chorus of beeps is emitted from many of the cubicles around where I work. It didn’t take me long to figure out what it was, the Outlook beep for new mail received. Interestingly enough, the beeps seemed to be staggered at random intervals, all occurring within a second or two though. Depending on the sequencing and the location, it’s pretty easy to tell what group the email was sent to.

I think I’m going to have to bring in my laptop and stereo microphone to see what I can measure.

Too Much Technology?

One of the “perks” of working at Nordstrom is the RFID card. Actually, just about every company has something like it. The point is to keep people who shouldn’t be in, out. It also makes it easier to track where people go. And if someone loses their card, you only have to disable their card number (instead of replacing the lock and ALL the keys).Yesterday, my card wasn’t working to well. For some reason, being in my wallet was making it not work. The problem was solved by simply taking my card out of my wallet. Easy enough.

Then just now I remembered that I already had an RFID card in my wallet, my school ID card. I had never used its RFID function, so I didn’t think about it. So when my Nordstrom card and my Blaster card were both in my wallet, they both scanned, and the reader freaked out. Interesting.

Canon Rebel XT

Engadget has a review on PC Mag’s review of the Nikon D70. However, PC Mag indicates “that they still prefer the less expensive Canon Rebel XT.”

So I looked at the Canon and I think I might end up getting that one. I know I want either a Canon or a Nikon. One of the big hanging points for me was standards. By getting a Canon, it leaves the door open to purchase a Canon video camera down the line and have the ability to interchange lenses. The Rebel also has 2 more mega pixels than the D70 and was Editor’s Choice in PC Mag.

UW Makes DARPA Cut?

I looks like UW has made DARPA’s cut for the 2006 Grand Challenge, although it’s not that obvious. A picture of UW’s vehicle cross-referenced with a DARPA press release (PDF) lead me to that conclusion. This is rather exciting news since I worked on a similar (concept?) vehicle last year at UW.

I hope that Mines gets on the boat and starts a Grand Challenge vehicle soon. I would do it myself, but my plate is pretty much full for the time being with new CSM Broadcasting Club and whatnot.

Google Web Accelerator

Saw this on my Slashdot RSS feed, downloaded it and I’ve already saved 6.5 seconds….and I’m on my colleges connection. Interesting.

From slashdot.org:

Lukey Boy writes “Google has released a free web accelerator product for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. According to their information page the software uses Google servers as a proxy for web content, delivering the pages to your system more rapidly and compressing them beforehand.”

I think the most unique aspect of this is that it’s geared towards DSL users and not dial-up users. I also wonder if this will help me view pages that have been Farked or Slashdotted.

Here’s the direct link to Google’s Web Accelerator.

Niiiiiiicola (Rymes with Ricola)

Just got off the line with Nicola Stephen. Yes, the Nicola Stephen from Scotland. She was very suprised to hear from us (Peter and I). The best part was that it only costs 2 cents a minute when you go through Skype. Anyways, after about 30 minutes of talking to her on the phone, I finally realized she could download Skype and we could take to her on the computer. So, Nicola now has a Skype address. If you care to have it, drop me a line and I’ll tell you.

Encode MP3’s in WMP

I have music, lots of music. I was fine with using the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format for a while, but then I realized that it would be better to have all my music encoded in MP3 format because it would be more portable to various programs and portable music devices, such as iPod. However, there is a problem, Windows Media Player (WMP) doesn’t come with the MP3 codec! If you want to encode an MP3, you have to shell out some money to get the codec. We’ll, shell no longer! Simply download this MP3 codec and registry file and you’ll soon be on your way to encoding. If you use Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows XP:

  1. Copy the L3codecp.acm file to your C:\windows\system32\ directory
  2. Double click on MP3_XP.reg and click “Yes” when the computer asks are you sure you want to add the information to the registry.
  3. Open Windows Media Player, click Tools > Options
  4. Click on the Copy Music tab
  5. Select MP3Encoding from the Format Tab

If you use Windows XP or Windows NT4:

  1. Copy the L3codecp.acm file to your C:\winnt\system32\ directory
  2. Double click on MP3_W2K.reg and click “Yes” when the computer asks are you sure you want to add the information to the registry.
  3. Open Windows Media Player, click Tools > Options
  4. Click on the Copy Music tab
  5. Select MP3Encoding from the Format Tab

Registry Window
Step 2
Options Dialog
Steps 4 and 5

Cisco 67x

Welcome to the Cisco 67x Website Setup Page

This page discuses how to set up your Cisco 675 or 678 DSL router so that you can have a web server on one of your computers. The requirements are as follows:


The first thing that you need to do is gain access to your router. You can does this in two ways: with the management (Mgmt) cable or via telnet. To connect with the Mgmt cable, follow these simple steps:

  1. Locate your Mgmt cable
  2. Plug the ethernet side into the MGMT port of your router and the serial side into your computer
  3. Start HyperTerminal
  4. Open a session using the appropriate settings that came with your router
  5. Press the “Connect” button
  6. You might need to press a couple of times for the router to responde
  7. The router will say:
    User Access Verification
    Password:
  8. Press <enter> as there is no password set (unless you’ve already set a password, then type that password in)
  9. The router will then display
    cbos>
  10. Type enable
  11. The router will display:
    Password:
  12. Again, press <enter> (unless you have set a password)
  13. The router will display:
    cbos#

    14. Type
    set nat entry add <ip-address> 80 tcp
    <enter>
    (<ip-address> is defined in step 16)

  14. Type:
    quit and press <enter> to exit the Cisco modem.
  15. is the private IP address of the computer that will host the web site. To find this IP address click Start>Run: and type command <enter>. A MS-DOS window will come up. Type: ipconfig <enter>. The number next to were it says: IP Address is your <ip-address>. Note: this procedure (just in step 16) needs to be complete on the computer that will be hosting the web server (known as the “host computer”). The host computer must also be connected to the network so that it can obtain its IP address. Type exit <enter> to exit the MS-DOS command.


The next step is to load your Server Software. Both Windows 98 and Windows 2000 come with Microsoft Personal Web Server (PWS). PWS should be located some place on the WIN98 CD-ROM for Windows 98. For Windows 2000, go to Start>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components and make sure there is a check mark next to Internet Information Service (IIS). Follow the wizard that comes up. If you don’t want to use PWS, there are also a variety of other server software that is available. The best place to start looking is http://www.tucows.com. The main things to consider when getting server software is what you want to do on your website.

These include things like:

  • Server-Side-Includes SSI)
  • Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
  • CGI
  • SMTP
  • FTP