Archive for January, 2008

Deep Freeze Scare

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 8, 2008
in Advice, Deep Freeze and Work
. 0 Comments

If any of you are managing labs/computers with Deep Freeze, I’m sure you probably know it’s some pretty cool software. Currently the Enterprise administration console resides on my personal PC and we’re going to be moving that to a server just so it’s easier to access, always running, etc.

To do this you just need to have your customization code and send out an update to change the network settings before you install the admin software somewhere else. Well, I thought I’d try pushing out a configuration update file on one computer to test things out. So I entered the network settings on a new file, saved it as a configuration file and pushed it.

I then found out that all fields need to be filled in, like the password for example. I didn’t quite know what to do because my PC couldn’t communicate with this machine anymore and I couldn’t login locally on the machine to turn Deep Freeze off. Luckily, the calvary arrived in the form of a One-Time-Password.

To use the One-Time-Password feature you have to first get the token from the login window on the machine you need to create a password for. Use that token to create a password in your configuration administrator and you’re good to go. I was then able to login, change the network settings and unfreeze the computer. Now I could talk to the rogue machine again with the admin console on my PC.

So, if you’re going to make a configuration file, I would first open the executable you used to originally install Deep Freeze on that machine or lab, make your changes and then save it as a configuration file.  This way you’ll be sure to have all the settings you need.

Listen up Guitar Hero fanatics

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 8, 2008
in Computers, Games and Software
. 0 Comments

You can now play your favorite guitar songs on your PC.  Check this out.  A big thanks to Andy from TeamSoell for informing me about this.  It looks pretty cool and apparently you can download lots and lots of songs.

ImTOO MOV

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 7, 2008
in Software
. 2 Comments

The other day at work my boss asked me to find a way to convert MOV video files for him.  If you didn’t know, those are Quicktime video files and are a real pain to work with.  Some other people in my department do a lot with video and they just love it when people bring in these files from their digital video cameras.

We decided to go with ImToo MOV Converter.  You can download a trial and convert 5min segments of video.  For $29.00 you can purchase a license for it.  It’ll convert your files into WMV, WMA, MP3, AAC, AVI, MPG, DIVX and WAV.  The interface is pretty clean and it seems easy to use.  I haven’t used it extensively, I just ran a couple test files through, but it seems to be a decent little program.

New Year’s Eve

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 3, 2008
in Life, Liz and Story
. 3 Comments

So Liz and I had a party of sorts for New Year’s Eve.  There was a plethora of fondue stuff to eat, a plethora of people for our small apartment, games, guitar hero, Dewey the dog and Arya.  If you don’t know who Arya is, she’s my niece, or more specifically - Liz’s niece.  It was like I got a free upgrade to “uncle” when I got married.  Arya isn’t quite two yet, but she’s pretty mobile and talks more than some 4 year olds.  Like most kids her age, she doesn’t have the longest attention span.

We all kind of took turns keeping on eye on exactly just what she was doing and also watching to see how Dewey interacted with her.   We weren’t sure if he liked kids or could handle being poked, prodded and jabbed by two little fists that could simultaneously fit themselves into a Pringles can.

Luckily, Arya and Dewey got along quite well.  So well, that Arya started playing with his kennel/cage when Dewey wasn’t there.  She put her Elmo in there and told him to go to sleep.  Then, she decided to crawl in and play around.  That thing is kinda dirty and disgusting.  It’s not that bad, because we keep it inside, but I knew Karen, her mom, probably wouldn’t love the idea of Arya playing where the dog sleeps.  So I said,

“Hey Arya, do you like playing in Dewey’s cage?”

“Ok.”

“Well, if you’re going to play in Dewey’s cage and go to sleep, I’m going to have to shut the door and lock you in there.”

That quickly ended her playtime in kennel-land and she ran off to do something else.  Now fast-forward to a few hours later.  I think it was going on 2am or so.  Karen and Rajeev, Arya’s parents, were rocking it on Guitar Hero 3 and Arya was doing her classic scream-because-I’m-not-getting-what-I-want.  So I took Arya,  picked her up and said, “Hey Arya, you need to stop crying.”  Nothing happened.  “Hey Arya, if you don’t stop screaming I’m going to lock you into Dewey’s cage.  That’s what happens at my house if people scream and cry.”  Nothing happened.

I then took three steps towards the room with Dewey’s cage in it and Arya immediately stopped.  She told me she’d be a good girl.  So I let her down.  Now, that didn’t exactly stick because about 5min later she was screaming again and Liz was trying to trick her with ice cream.  It’s not like I was actually going to put her in there and lock her in, it’s just one of those things I’ve observed my mom do that almost always works on kids.