Win XP Tweaks

Remove text from taskbar running program icons: http://tweaks.com/windows/39472/remove-text-on-taskbar-icons-like-windows-7/

Very nice background switcher program: http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/

New cell phone plans

Jen and I are switching over to prepaid cell phone plans. We both transfered our "known" phone numbers to Google Voice, so that it is easy to switch plans and not have to worry about transferring the number.

I am still on Lockheed's cell phone plan, but we just bought Jen a sim card and 1000 minutes on T-mobile prepaid. The first challenge was getting Jen's cell phone an old Cingular phone unlocked so she could use it (all the prepaid phones are pretty ugly).

In the end I had to call AT&T to get the unlock code, but they didn't have a problem giving it to me, even though I had already canceled my plan with them, so that was nice. Here is the process:

1. Get the IMEI number: Dial: * # 0 6 # and it will show up. I had to put in the old SIM card so that I could find this information. So get it while you can.
2. Call the phone company (AT&T: 1-800-331-0500) and get the unlock code ours was: 4992009364755526, though I doubt it will do much good for anyone else.
3. Enter the unlock code, for our w300i we had to press left, left, star, star while it was booting up. You can probably find instructions for most phones online.

The only problem is how to get the callee to see our GV number instead of our disposable phone number. You can do it multiple ways.

• If someone texts you, the text will appear to come from some random number, you can call this and it will appear as if GV called them.
• You can program in the number to call as , <2>, . the comma's are pauses, you also have to set GV to not ask for a password when the call comes from you mobile phone.
• You can make the call from GV itself, and it will call your phone then your callee's.

Not a prefect system, but probably the best they can do w/o becoming a provider.

NFS is a ...

I recently started my new job and have been tasked with creating an embedded application to speed up the processing a certain web pages. The process for embedded application at Trane involves booting the SC from a NFS mount, so that you can build your application and it is immediately ready to run and debug.

It was really strange, the SC would boot once, then it would return a -13 error during boot. Running the NFS daemon in the foreground showed me that it was complaining about my /etc/exports. I had my export set to "10.*", which seemed to cause a problem, even though the client was a 10..

Anyways changing the export to * seemed to fix the problem, so I am going to go with that for now. Might try to look at it again if things slow down again someday.

Gift list for my forgetful mind.

Chris:

• Kinect (Mom and Dad)
• Awkward Family Photos Book (Jen)
• Lips (Mom and Dad)
• Lips Party Classics (Jen and Stephon)
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved (Jen and Stephon)
• Darth Vader Flash Drive (Stephon)
• Food Chopper (Mom and Dad)
• Black Socks (Mom and Dad)
• Pizza Wheel (Mom and Dad)
• Ornament (Mom and Dad, for all)
• Undershirts (Mom and Dad)

Jen:

• Pie Server (Mom and Dad)
• Cricut Cartridge (Chris)
• Pizza Wheel (Chris)
• Craft carrying case (Jen and Stephon)
• Cupcake carrier (Mom and Dad)
• Waffle Maker

Nick:

• Santa Hoodie Towel (Jen and Stephon)
• Little Green Elmer Fudd Hat (Jen and Stephon)
• Bear Hat (Mom and Dad)
• Play tape measure (Chris and Jen)
• Hand made sock monkey (Jen)
• Little People Santa and Reindeer set (Mom and Dad)
• Money Jar (Mom and Dad)
• Recycle remote control car (Chris and Jen)
• Me Hungry book (Chris and Jen)
• 2nd Christmas ornament (Mom and Dad)

BCK-08 AD2P

I wanted a blue tooth headset I could use to watch movies on the TV through the computer while in bed w/o disturbing Jen. They are prohibitive expensive though, so when I saw the BCK-08 on deal extreme for 12 bucks I wanted to give it a shot.

Deal extreme is a pretty amazing site, that has cool electronics for ridiculously low prices. The BCK-08 is an AD2P stereo receiver and hands free headset. At the same time I purchased a blue tooth adapter SKU: 11866. I did not have much luck with the adapter though.

Fortunately, I did have another larger adapter which I was able to get the headset to pair with. It works pretty well, I am impressed. The distance is plenty for my purposes, the only issue is if the laptop gets in between the two it breaks up.

Setting up PXE boot

This was done on a Ubuntu install.

1. Create /tftpboot directory
   
2. Copy pxelinux.0 from /usr/lib/syslinux to /tftpboot
3. Statically assign an IP address to the MAC of the ethernet adapter (192.168.1.200) (I use tomato on my router so it is pretty easy).
4. Create a pxelinux.cfg directory in tftpboot.
   
5. 192.168.1.200 is C0-A8-01-C8 in hex notation so add the following 0 length files(use touch) to the above directory:
   C
   C0
   C0A
   C0A8
   ...
   C0A801C8
6. Also "touch" a file with the MAC address of the client adapter. Prepend 01-... For example: 01-23-55-03-34-09-11 (use you MAC address)
7. Add dchp-boot=pxelinux.0,,ip of tftp server - to the custom dnsmasq configuration (again in tomato advanced->DNS).
8. Enable the TFTP server.
   

If you start your client computer you should get to a boot screen. If you try to boot, there won't be an image there yet. Will get to that in the next post.

Reference websites:

• PXE Boot with Tomato
• PXELinux
• Setting up a PXE Boot Server
• Myth diskless frontend

My web domain

Recently my contract with my hosting service came up. The cost is $190 for 2 years, which seemed high, since new contracts were going for less then that.

Well a couple months ago, they recommended switching my email to google apps which was pretty painless and much better then their mail app.

So I was thinking, I don't do much on that host anymore so could I get rid of them. Turns out I could and save myself $190 a year. I am now using dnsexit.com for my dns purposes, which will freely take care of DNS for mail and sub-domains on your domain. And Google Apps for the website I use, and email (plus calendars, docs, ect for gratis).

Only cost (6.99 / yr) will be if I can't figure out how to forward the mail domain from my router to google as well. But even requiring a www at the frontend isn't that big a deal.