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December 10, 2005
Engelking photos of old ...
I'm playing around with a program called Picasa ... Google makes it. I've been wanting a way to upload pictures in an easy to view and friendly format. If I had a Mac, it would be rather easy with iPhoto. But, since I'm Mac-less at the moment, I had to find an alternative method.
Enter Picasa.
Picasa has a way to export images collected on your machine to a template-based Web page. I've created one today and uploaded it. It took no more than 30 seconds of my time to do so. So, behold my first uploaded picture gallery:
The Engelking Family - An Older Perspective
Most of these photos I aquired from mom's old family albums. They were taken prior to and then up to about 2 years of my birth back in 1978. My goal now is to create a way to provide more information about each picture that is being displayed.
This is my favorite image out of them all. If I remember correctly, this is mom, dad and Bill at Kings Island back in the day.
Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy.
~out...
Posted by ed at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)
These are a few of my favorite things
I have a whole list of applications that I use to help me when I'm working on the site or at home. I've never really thought to share these with anyone before, mostly because I've done most of the work on my own and never needed to share them with anyone. But, as I've been working with Solarity, I've found that it can be really helpful to other IT people when you show them the tools you're using to make your life easier.
So, here is my top 10 tools/applications/utilities that I use on a regular basis:
1. ProduKey
This is one of my current favorites. If you've lost a license key for Microsoft products, just run this simple app and you'll have them again. It's also handy for use across networks, as it has a command line interface that's great for scripting purposes. With the right batch file, you could feasably collect all license keys across an entire network within seconds.
URL: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
2. Steel Inventory
I was turned on to this app by one of my co-workers, and I've been using it since. It's an open source asset tracking system for computer hardware and software. The concept is simple: you intall this program on a machine with proper network administrative rights, and it will query a range of IP addresses or a subnet using RCP to provide information about all the machines on your network (that are turned on, of course). I used to use a similar product called Network Inventory Navigator by Alloy Software, but the upside of Steel Inventory is that it's 100% free and doesn't require any per seat licensing.
URL: http://www.steelsonic.com/steelinventory.htm
3. WinSCP
I do alot of file transfer between servers using FTP ... but I've never really been a fan of the FTP protocol for its lack of security when it comes to the transmission of data. SFTP is the way to go, in my opinion. So, I found this nifty little app called WinSCP. What's nice is that you don't have to risk installing a FTP server on your system. Instead, all you need installed is SSH and you're ready to go.
URL: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php
4. Putty
I've been using Putty for so long, I really can't remember when I first started using it. It's been my defacto SSH client to access the UCANweb servers for years. Granted, it doesn't have all of the nifty bells and whistles that some of the bigger and expensive SSH clients have, but it's small, fast and gets the job done.
URL: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html
5. RDC Clients
I only use RDC to connect to Windows machines when I want to work remotely. Windows XP comes with an RDC client by default, but what are you to do when you need to RDC using a Windows 2000 or Windows 98/Me box ... or for that matter, a Mac box? No worries, as Microsoft distributes an RDC client for these operating systems as well.
Win URL: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
Mac URL: Click here (it's too long to post)
Linux URL: http://www.rdesktop.org/
Note: The RDesktop client isn't supported by Microsoft.
6. VNC
Another remote access tool that I've used in the past is VNC. Originally developed by AT&T Laboratories in Cambridge, it has been released via GPL to the world. As a result, there are a ton of variations of the client. The most popular to me is the RealVNC client, which by chance is also the one that I use.
URL: http://www.realvnc.com/cgi-bin/download.cgi
Note: Most Linux distributions ship with a version of VNC these days.
7. Audacity
A fantastic audio recording application released under the GPL. I've been using Audacity since it's first initial release, and have been a big fan of it since. It's very powerful and best of all, it's free. I know alot of people that have started using Audacity to record their podcasts these days. While I plan on using it for the same purpose, I've been using Audacity to record and convert audio to MP3 and make music mixes.
URL: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
8. DVD Shrink
When I need to make a backup of the DVD's that I've created, I use this application. It has all kinds of features that I won't go into here, but it works really well. I highly recommend using it in conjunction with the Nero Burning ROM.
URL: http://www.dvdshrink.org/what.html
Note: The binary isn't listed on the Web site due to US regulations. Just do a Google search for DVD Shrink and you can generally find it with minimal issue.
9. VMware Player
This little app is one that I came across recently. It's a way to run VMware virtual machines without the need to purchase VMware Workstation. The downside to this application is that you need to have an existing VMware file, but that's not so much a problem either. There have been several Linux distributions that have developed their own VMware file for download to use with the VMware Player.
URL: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
Browser Appliance URL: http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/browserapp.html
Note: This "browser appliance" is actually Ubuntu Linux with a minor VMware makeover. It's fully functional to use, including the Synaptic application manager. The root password is "vmware" without the quotes.
Novell URL: http://www.novell.com/linux/vmware/
Note: You can download Novell Linux Desktop 9 and Linux Enterprise Server as a VMware file for free, but it does require registration on the Novell Web site.
10. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor
Either you know someone who has lost their user or administrator password, or you've done this yourself ... it's not the best feeling when you can't get into your Windows box because of a lost password. I've used this utility to reset passwords for a while now, and it does a great job. The only downside is that it is command line only, which may frighten some people away. But when your only other option is to reformat your machine, I'm sure you'll try anything once. :)
URL: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
Note: The irony is that this bootable CD uses a custom Linux distribution to hack a Windows registry to reset a password. I just love it.
And there you have it ... my top 10 tools/applications/utilities that I use on a regular basis. I hope that this information can help out someone who's in similar situations that I've been in in the past.
~out...
Update: I know that this is a list of my 10 favorite items ... but there is one that I MUST add:
11. ClamAV for Windows
Most people aren't aware of Clam Antivirus. And even those who may be aware of it think that it is only for use with Linux machines. Well, I'm here to tell you that there *is* a GUI Windows client called ClamWin, and it's a great utility. Since it's open source, it can be used for personal or professional workstations. Heck, you can even install it on servers if you want to do so, which all other "free" clients won't allow. I used to use AVG, but I was irritated by the licensing scheme for the free version ... not to mention that downloading it required going through the maze that is the AVG Website. ClamWin is free as in beer and works great. I have it running on all my machines.
URL: http://www.clamwin.com
Posted by ed at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)