How To Install VMWare Server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04 Server

I just finished installed Ubuntu 9.04 server, and VMWare Server 2 and I can't be more pleased with this pair! The last time I wrote about installing VMWare server was back in Ubuntu 8.04. With that you had to install VMWare server using the VMWare-any-any patch. I can tell you that this is NOT the case in VMWare server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04!

No, I guess the VMWare team finally decided to make an Ubuntu friendly version of their software, and made installation relatively easy! Also, they have done away with the VMWare server console and have gone with a very easy to use Web console! That means less headache for you and me!

So lets get to the nitty gritty. This is what you need to do to install VMWare Server 2 on Ubuntu 9.04:


Note: Since ubuntu server doesn't have a GUI, I had to register for the download then download it to my Windows machine. after that I transferred the VMWare server TAR ball over to a SAMBA share on my Ubuntu 9.04 server. Feel free to get the tarball onto your server any way you see fit ;-)

Now, to the install steps:

1. Install the necesarry prerequisites


sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd


2. Now change into the directory where you saved your VMWare TAR ball. I saved mine in /home/paul/vm
   
   cd /home/paul/vm
   
   
   
3. Now Extract the TAR ball and run the installer
   
   tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
   
   cd vmware-server-distrib
   
   sudo ./vmware-install.pl
   
   
4. You can hit enter for all of the defaults, except when asked for a name of an alternate administrator. For that enter your username. If you don't, you will have to reset the root password as that is the default administrator for VMWare Server. Also, when asked for the direcrory of virtual machines, you have the option of saving them in a different directory. I for instance like to save mine in /home/paul/vm.
5. Near the end, you will have to enter your serial number which you received when you first registered for the download.
6. Done! Now you are ready to login! You can login to the web console by browsing to http://servername:8222
   
   
   

After building your first machine, you can view it through the web console in IE and Firefox after installing the correct plugins which you will be prompted for in the web console.

That is it! Seriously! Can you believe it? In just about all previous Ubuntu versions, and VMWare Server versions it has been 1.5 bitches to install. This time it is really really easy!

After installing it, let me know what you think in the comments!

[EDIT 6/2/09] - A Lot of you have been experiencing the vsock error. I have not experienced this, but for those of you that have, I found a Pearl script that should resolve your problem. You can download it here: (VSOCK FIX)

To run it open a terminal, and do the following:

1. CD into the directory where the Pearl script is
   
   >cd /path/to/vmware-config.pl
   
   
2. Make the script executable
   
   >chmod +x vmware-config.pl
   
   
3. Patch!
   
   >sudo patch /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl /path/to/vmware-config.pl

Let me know if that works or not. If not, and if you found a better solution, let me know!

Technorati Tags: vmware, ubuntu 9.04, server, how-to

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Don't Waste Your Ad Space on Google PSA's!

I have been an Adsense user for quite a while now. It by far has brought me in the most revenue from my little blogging hobbie. I also use a couple of others like Chitika and also Amazon Associates. The other two are okay, but Adsense is where the money is at frankly.

The problem with Adsense though is that if they don't like your content, or they don't have anything relevent to your content they will display Public Service ads, or just blank space. Neither of which will give you any revenue. So what can you do about that? Well, Adsense also gives you the option of posting other ads from an alternate URL. Okay, but all of the other ad companies give you some kind of Java Script code right? How are you supposed to translate that into a single URL?

Easy! Just take the code from your alternate advertiser and paste it into your favorite text editor then save the file as alternate.html. Now you just need a free host. If you are already using a hosting site, just upload it. If you are using Blogger like I am, you need to find a place to host it. I happen to have another site hosted on a 000Webhost which is a free hosting site. There I keep all of my alternate ads.

Once you have your html files hosted, you can ad those links to the alternate URL code in Google Adsense and you can say goodbye to those worthless PSA ads!

For example, here is a link to one of my alternate ads: http://taurinocerveza.com/Ads/BP-Gear.html

There are sites dedicated to this such as AlternateURL.com, but to be honest, you will probably never see any money coming from there. I recommend putting in ads from a true Adsense competitor with known money making potential.

If you are using Adsense, what are you doing for alternate URL advertising? Is it working out for you? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: adsense, psa, alternate url, how to

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How to get rid of your Cable Box and Tivo forever!

Not that this is totally a plug for MakeMeASammich.com or anything at all. I swear I'm just bringing you some great content and information. But if you are just interested in the list of free TV and Movie sites you can happen to find those on http://makemeasammich.com/FreeTV.aspx. Now that has been said lets bring you the real start to the article.

So there's a lot of things you can do to get good media to your TV but I'm going to go over the steps I use. First things first you'll need a way to access the internet or at least your local intranet from your tv. This can be in the form of a PC(Both), a Wii(Internet) or Xbox(Intranet).

If you setup your PC directly to your TV you can really watch just about anything. From any of the sites listed below or movies or TV shows that you've downloaded or even your Netflix Watch it now queue. This however would require setting up a media center or just using a wireless keyboard or mouse, and an extra pc to put in your living room. I have my PC in my living room that also acts as my Media Server running Vista Media Center, TVersity and PlayOn. Now don't laugh at me running VMC there's a ton of free plugins out there for all kinds of things to add to it which can be accessed by many extender devices.

Next thing I have setup is the Nintendo Wii. With it I've purchased their web browser and can access the internet. Since it supports flash there's a lot you can watch with it. Many of my links down there will work with it and you can also setup TVersity to stream media from your pc to your Wii. Now the quality is always a little lower since the Wii doesn't quite have the hardware of the other consoles but it works and you get used to it quick. A tutorial to setup TVersity to stream to your Wii can be found here.

Now there's the Xbox. This is my preferred method of watching content on my TV. It picks up all my media servers from my pc. Also with a gold membership which comes bundled with a lot of good add-ons for your Xbox that you'll probably buy anyway you can watch all your Netflix watch it now queue. Also with PlayOn you can also watch your Netflix and Hulu on your Xbox. Granted it's a $40 purchase but this is just a one time purchase where as with cable you're paying probably that every month. So to get Hulu on your Xbox PlayOn is really your only option. I've tried several other services that are free but none of them have worked for Hulu content. Also the benefit of using TVersity to stream your media to your Xbox is that it'll take care of the encoding for you so no need to convert videos you've downloaded to play them on your xbox.

So I'm sure some of you are wondering, "Hey what about the PS3?" Well I don't have a PS3 and nor do I plan on buying one. So unless someone wants to donate one to Bauer Power or Make Me a Sammich then we will not be blogging about them. So suck it Sony.

Here is the list of sites to watch Free TV online and Free Movies online:

http://www.dailymotion.com
http://www.watchtvsitcoms.com
http://www.moviesforfree.tv
http://quicksilverscreen.com
http://www.tvduck.com
http://freetube.110mb.com (WARNING: May contain Adult content.)
http://www.ovguide.com
http://thepiratecity.org
http://www.watch-movies.net
VH1 Popup Videos

"Sammich or Die!" - Mr. Epic Fail

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The Matrix Runs on Windows

I found this gem from College Humor poking a little fun at Microsoft Windows Matrix style! It's a pretty funny concept. What if the Matrix really did run on Windows? This video certainly gives you something to think about.

Here is that video. Enjoy!

Gotta love that damned paper clip! What was your favorite part? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: matrix, windows, college, humore, spoof

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Sundance Gets a Mention on Diggnation!

As many of you know, earlier this year Sundance and I made new years resolutions to become power diggers on Digg.com. We succeeded, and actually were able to get quite a few articles to the front page. Our only problem? We couldn't get anything of our own to the front page.

We started off submitting cool stuff we found, and worked with others in our networks to drive some stuff to the front page. Our goal of course was to get consistent at that, then we should be able to drive our own stuff to the front page. Well, it turns out that it doesn't work that way. Digg's algorithm works pretty hard to prevent stuff like that from happening.

Anyway, enough rambling about that, and back to the point. The point is that one of Sundance's submissions not only went front page, but was also popular enough to make it on Diggnation!

I told Sundance that if one of his submissions made it on Diggnation, that I would re-post it here on Bauer-Power! Here it is, Sundance's (Popflyking) mention on Diggnation!

Did any of you see that episode? Did you see that story on Digg? Pretty cool right?

Congratulations Sundance!

Technorati Tags: sundance, digg, diggnation, google, atlantis

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Blockbuster Succeeds in Keeping People Out of Their Stores

The title of this post may just become reality if Blockbuster keeps going down the road they are going. Flash back a few years ago when they first got into the online, video by mail game to compete with the fast rising Netflix. Back then, Blockbuster would pull out all the stops to retain their dominance in the world of video rentals.

One of the things that Blockbuster was offering was unlimited in store rentals along with your online rentals. All you had to do was take your mailers into the store and trade them in. Bam! Automatically you are now getting twice the videos that Netflix could offer. Also when you turned your mailer into the store, the next videos in your queue would get mailed out, so you would get them faster.

One of the reasons I left Netflix was because I was "renting too fast" so they began sending my videos from a distribution center on the east coast instead of from the L.A. distribution center a few hours away. I was getting a little tired of that, and told Netflix that if they didn't start shipping to me faster again that they would lose a customer... They did!

I gladly left for the welcoming arms of Blockbuster's online program. It was faster, and I could get the free in store videos too. Win win!

That didn't last too long. About a year after they were offering the unlimited in-store rentals, they lessened that number to only 5 per month. I guess there were a lot of people like me that took full advantage of the fast shipping, and the unlimited in store rentals. Still, 5 free per month still gave me 5 more videos than I would have with Netflix.

Well, I just found out tonight that Blockbuster will still give me free in store rentals, now with no due dates, or late fees. What's the catch? Now I won't get any movies from online until I return them to the store... So where is the incentive now? Now I am not getting any more movies than I would with netflix. I might as well not go to the store now.

One of the reasons for using online rentals is for the convenience right? Without the added benefit of the EXTRA in store rentals, why the hell would I waste my precious gas driving to the store?

I foresee many more people like me going exclusively back to the convenience of online. Hell, I may even venture back over to Netflix. I mean, they offer downloads along with the videos you get in the mail (I guess Blockbuster does too though). Who knows?

What do you guys think? Stick with Blockbuster? Go back to Netflix? What would you do?

Technorati Tags: blockbuster, netflix

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Find all Domains on an IP address

Our IT department and I have been going back and forth on who’s duty is is to get a list of all the domain names from the web server for this big web server move we’re having. Since I am the Web Developer and Semi-Web Admin they felt it was my duty. Now with this server move they will be taking away my admin access to the server and they will be doing all administrative work to it. I will at that point only have access via FTP to the server and that’s it. So I feel that they should have to get this list of domain names as they will be doing all the administration on the server after the move so they should do the work to set it up.

After asking and them (and them taking a day to respond to) if there is an easy way to just look it up by reverse DNS or something and assumed they Googled and looked for a way to do this. They came back and said that there is no easy way to get this info. Also for them to look through our domain name provider for all the DNS entries pointing to the old IP address was just way too long for them to do. I guess me having to go through all the IIS entries and pulling out all the host header names is apparently a little less tedious so to not burn any bridges I decided to do some research.

Of course when I do research I always end up finding more Epic Fails on our network. Like Domain Names being pointed to our web server but the web server not setup for them. Since they don’t really matter I’m just ignoring them. But then I realized there’s no report or export list for advanced DNS settings for all our domain names. So I decided to just do the Obvious. Just Google It!!

And right away I found myIPneighbors. Here you just put in one of your domains and hit search. Next thing you know you got a list of all the sites on your IP Address. This also works great if you have your sites posted on a shared hosting provider to see what other sites could be sucking out your bandwidth. So to find a list of all websites on your IP address or a list of all sites that share an IP with your domain check out myIPneighbors.com

PS: If any of you IT Admins are reading this. No hard feelings. I understand you can’t just Google things. I understand you’re busy or you just don’t know how to use Google search. In case you don’t know how to google, LMGTFY or even LMGTFY.

By Sundance of MakeMeASammich.com

Technorati Tags: reverse, dns, ip, lookup

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Epic Fail 1.0: Comodo AV Defense+

We’ve talked about the Free Comodo AV, Defense+, Internet Security and whatever else it does. I’ve tried it out and used it on a few pc’s especially virtual ones that I abuse the hell out of. But I’m sorry even if it is free I mean come on it’s not 1985 anymore!

Typical exceptions can and should be made for applications BEFORE you send it out to the public. I mean really. Windows Notepad is going to cause an Buffer Overflow attack and crash my pc? Seriously I can deal with some of the odd things that software picks up and says it may harm your pc even though I know that there’s really no chance in hell of that happening but come on, NOTEPAD?!?!? WTF?!?!?

Just put in a damn exception for at least Notepad. Hell I can drop a known infected javascript file into IE and let it run and turn my pc to dust and it won’t say a thing about that till it tries to actually execute some of the stuff it’s downloaded. Oh but it’ll stop that nasty Notepad from executing those every so harmful Text files when opening them via Open With. Watch out “I Love You" the infamous Notepad is here!

By Sundance of MakeMeASammich.com

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IE8 FTW Baby!! Yeah!!

So Microsoft has released IE8 Right NOW! And hopefully companies will pick it up quickly as it really is far better that Firefox or Chrome. Really MS has actually redeemed itself in this release of IE. I’d even say that it does better at Malware protection than any other browser out there. (with the exception of maybe a text browser) You can download it HERE. I urge you to try it. From as long as I’ve been using it in beta, it’s run faster and safer than Firefox and by far more so than IE 6 or 7. Also from a web developer standpoint they have come a long way also. One of the key features is their Compatibility mode, which will help to ensure better web standards across the net but for those sites that are not XHTML compliant that’s what it’s there for. Much like Opera does.

Now for those skeptics out there that think it really can’t be better. NSS Labs did a test and from the data they collected, IE8 RC1 was 69% effective at catching malware before it did harm to your pc. Where Firefox came in at second with only 30%.

IE 8 will also be the standard for the Windows 7 OS. In the first time in Microsoft’s history, as far as I know, in Windows 7 they will actually give users the ability to turn off IE 8 as a feature on your pc. So see Microsoft is turning over a new leaf and actually making good software now. So try out IE 8, You’ll love it.

By Sundance of MakeMeASammich.com

Technorati Tags: ie8, internet explorer 8, microsoft

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Technology + Fat Asses = Good Advertising

In the Netherlands there is a fitness company called First Fitness with one of the most creative advertising campaigns I have ever seen. Their advertisement is actually designed to shame fat asses into going to their gym!

What they did was rigged a scale under a bus stop bench, and wired it to an ad right next to it. When people sit on the bench, their weight is displayed proudly for all to see. Check out the picture:

Isn't it great? Can you imagine if this happened in the United States? There would be law suits up to yin yang!

Would something like this motivate you to join a gym? Let us know in the comments.

Via [Wired]

Technorati Tags: humor, odd, first fitness,

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Computer Builders: Make Your Mark

How many of you out there have built your PC? Went out, got the sweetest case, the baddest motherboard, a heap load of RAM, a high end video card, and a monster hard drive to store all of your games, movies etc? Quite a few I am willing to bet. You have made everything custom right down to the little glow in the dark decals. Why not make your mark with the operating system as well?

This post is more geared towards private consultants that build PC's for clients, but can equally apply to the PC builder who does it just to make the best gaming system in town. I am talking about branding your Windows operating system the way the big boys like Dell and HP do. When you right click you’re My Computer icon and select properties, what do you see? If you have a Dell or HP with the OS that came with it you will see their logo prominently displayed. Why not do the same with your logo, or killer design?

I found this cool little utility a few months ago, and simply fell in love with it. It is called OEM Logo Stamper. Just create your design or logo, fill out the information you want displayed as far as support information (this is really great to help promote your consulting) update the changes and voila! After you stamp your logo, you can uninstall the program.

This is also good if you work in IT, and you have been tasked with creating a custom standard Ghost Image, or RIS distribution of Windows, and your company wants it's brand all over like on the wallpaper, and everything. Why not add your company logo and give the support information for your help desk right there? (Be a hero and propose this to your boss)

It is such a simple program, and yet so much more. Imagine the possibilities if you are a small computer company trying to get your name out there! Now you too can do it the way the big boys do.

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How To Setup Bridge Networking for Virtualbox in Windows

I am a big fan of Sun's Virtualbox. I have written about it in the past. I still like it better than VMWare when running it on my local workstation to create test boxes and such on the fly. It is lighter, and simpler than VMWare desktop for the most part. The thing it doesn't do too well is bridged networking.

The bridged networking never bothered me before. I just would use NAT and be done with it. However today I had to do some testing of an antivirus suite I am evaluating and needed to have a machine I could infect with Antivirus 2009. This machine needed to be bridged so it could successfully report back to my test server.

You can however configure Virtualbox for bridged networking, you just have to do some simple fenagling. To configure your Virtual machine for bridged network in Windows do the following:

• Open Virtualbox, select the VM you need bridged networking on.
• In the right panel, click on "Network".
• The settings box will pop up.
• Look under Host Interfaces. You will not see anything listed there.
• Click the "Add New Host Interface (Ins)" button.




• Give the interface a name. I called mine "VirtualBox Host Interface 0". Click Ok.
• Changed the "Attached to" drop down box to Host Interface. Click Ok.




• Now click on Start>Control Panel>Network Connections.
• Click on your NIC, then hold down control and click on your new VirtualBox host interface you just created. Right click and select "Add to Bridge".




• A new network bridge will be created, and now your VirtualBox will operate in Bridged mode!

I hope that helped you out. If you know of a good write up on how to do this on Ubuntu I would like to know. Hit me up with a link in the comments.

Technorati Tags: sun, virtualbox, bridge, network, how to

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How To Monetize Your Tweets

Now that I am drinking the Twitter Kool-Aid, I am always down for new Twitter apps, clients, doo-dads, and whatzits. Most of them are kind of cool on the surface, and fun to play with for a minute or two, but only a small handful are truly worthwhile.

The one I found yesterday, on its own isn't too much to brag about as far as a general Twitter app goes. It does however have three noteworthy features that you Twitheads may find valuable.

The tool I found is a web-based tool called HootSuite. HootSuite does the following three things well:

• Allows you to schedule future tweets
• Allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts in one convenient location
• Allows you to monetize your tweets with Google Adsense

Yep! You read that last one correctly! HootSuite has their own URL shortening tool built in called Ow.ly. When you post links through HootSuite on Twitter, they automatically shorten the URL with Ow.ly and at the top is a nice little Adsense ad that can potentially bring you in a little extra dough.

In the end, I think I will stick with Digsby for regular every day tweets, but if I need to share a URL, I think I will probably post the tweet from HootSuite. Why not right?

Know of a similar tool? I would really like to see something like this in a client. If you know of something like that I want to know! Hit me up in the comments!

Also, if you aren't following me on Twitter, please do! Click Here!

Technorati Tags: twitter, client, app, adsense, monetize, hootsuite

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Introducing the Bauer-Power Book Club

Hey readers! Just thought I would let you know that I will be doing some periodic segments where I will be reviewing various books. These books of course may be of interest to you. That is, they will all be technology/internet related. You know, related to all the stuff you come to Bauer-Power for in the first place!

I was approached a few month's ago via email from Random House Publishing to do some reviews. Now, I will let you know right now that they are not paid reviews. Random House is just sending me advanced copies of some of their upcoming books so I can share my thoughts with you guys, my loyal readers.

The first book I will be reviewing, is one that just came in the mail tonight! It is called, "Stealing MySpace - The Battle To Control The Most Popular Website In America" by Julia Angwin.

According to Amazon, the book will be available on March 17th, and is currently listed at $17.82. If you want to, go ahead and pick up a copy and read along with me!

I have a lot of extracurricular activities going on right now, so I can't give you a date that I will be done with this book. I can however, promise you that I when I do give you my review, that I will give you my honest opinion about the book, and won't blow any smoke up your back side.

I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but looking at the image of the book, what's you first impression? Does it look like something you would read yourself? Do you think MySpace is even relevant any more? Let me know your initial thoughts in the comments.

Technorati Tags: book, review, stealing myspace

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Taking SSD's to The Extreme

I received an email from a guy calling himself Vincenzo from TheViralFactory.com and he asked me if I could re-post a Youtube video his group did for Samsung to demonstrate the awesomeness potential for their SSD (Solid State Drives).

I get a lot of random solicitation emails through my contact form on the blog, so I decided to check it out to see if it was Bauer-Power worthy. Well, guess what... It is! These guys take 24 SSD drives, and RAID them together for 6TB of storage, and some eye popping performance!

From their Youtube description:

We took 24 256GB Samsung MLC SSD's and put them in RAID to make this awesome computer! See how we did it, and what the results were!

Here is their video:



Pretty crazy right? I mean, opening up all of Microsoft Office in 0.5 Seconds? I can't even get Outlook to open in under 30 seconds by itself on my work computer!

Any of you out there going to try this? Have any of you tried something similar? Let me know in the comments!



Technorati Tags: Samsung, SSD, MLC, record breaking, Skulltrail, QX9775, 8 cores, 2 GB/s, super fast, solid state drive, multi layer controller, hard drives, 256 GB, gigabyte, extreme, HD

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Open Source Laptop Recovery

Back when I used to work for Websense, there was a lady in the Marketing department (who shall remain nameless) that would go through laptops like you might go through underwear.

She would go to traveling shows, and conferences with her crew and she would often times come back saying that her laptop was stolen, or lost and she needed a new one. We often joked that we needed to start monitoring her eBay account.

In all seriousness though, what we really needed was something like Lo-Jack to track all of these laptops. If they were truly stolen, then we could alert the authorities to get the laptop back. That would be ideal if it weren't so costly. Perhaps that really isn't an issue in the corporate environment when losing a lot of laptops can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over time, but for the average user, it may not be that practical.

I have found a free solution though. It isn't the best, but it does beat not doing anything...Oh, and its free so why not?

You see, back at Toorcon I sat through a presentation on a free, Open Source tool that you install on your Windows, Linux, or Mac computer, and it periodically sends an encrypted file out the the service giving identifying information about the location of the laptop. All it needs is an active Internet connection. This software is called Adeona. Here is a brief overview from their website:

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there's no need to rely on a single third party. What's more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner's choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data, but also ensure that the ciphertexts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.

Now the one big drawback (that pretty much everyone at the conference was thinking) was that this product assumes that if a laptop is stolen that the thief will not wipe the drive. The thief would have to be a friggin' idiot not to do that!

However, it did occur to me that most laptop thefts are probably done by "average user" company employees. They know they could take the laptop, and just report it stolen to get another one, and BAM! They now have a free laptop that your company just bought them. Whats more is that they may not be as smart as the thief, and will most likely NOT slick the drive. If that is the case, then this tool could prove useful by both getting your company's laptop back, and also firing shady employees who take expensive office equipment.

In conclusion, I look at this product as a nice to have, free-so-why-not, better than not having type of product. Other than that, if you truly want to get your stuff back at all costs, then you need to go with a more reliable solution like Lo-Jack.

Whats your opinion on this? I want to hear from you in the comments.

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Friday Funny – Ultimate Car Battery Hack

Hey guys. It is my last day in Colorado, and I am killing time at Denver International Airport, so I decided to write a piece for for tomorrow (I guess it is today now isn’t it?) Trouble is I couldn’t think of anything good to write, so I did what any other blogger would do. Look for a cool vid to show you guys.

Today’s video is pretty hilarious. I was actually looking for a video on hacking, and stumbled on this one. It is obviously full of crap, but funny as hell! I decided to post it to give you all a nice, well deserved Friday chuckle!

Here it is, The Insane Car Battery Hack!

What did you guys think of this “hack”? What’s your favorite part? Mine was the light saber vs screw driver bit. Let me know your favorite part, or if you thought it was LAME in the comments!

Technorati Tags: humor,funny,insane,car,battery,hack,spoof

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Just Say STOP to StopSign Antivirus

I was chilling with my folks this week in Colorado. They are pretty laid back, and don’t do too much. In fact, when I come to visit, we usually sit around watching old westerns and Fox News.

Well, after the westerns were over a commercial came on TV for StopSign Antivirus. They were saying stuff about how bad viruses, pop ups, spyware etc is. Then they come out and say that their product will keep you computer secure. They also go on to say that their product is the only product you will ever need.

Don’t just take my word for it, here is their ad from Youtube:

What they don’t tell you is that their software started out as a rogue antivirus program. You know the kind that pretends to be an antivirus software, but actually causes virus like symptoms like throwing up pop-ups saying their full version is the only thing that can remove the alleged infection. If you didn’t want it it was 1.5 bitches to remove it!

Now, I saw one CNet forum thread saying that StopSign has since stopped those practices. Still though, there are so many better programs available. Why would you use a product that was born out of rogue-ware?

If any of your relatives ask you about this product, do them a favor, and point them to something more trustworthy like AVG, Avast, Comodo etc.

Are any of you using StopSign? Know anybody who is? Let me know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: stopsign,stop,sign,antivirus,rogue

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Hide and Go Seek With Power Outlets at The Airport – A Rant

By the time you read this I will already be in Colorado working on a colocation facility build out. I am currently writing this from the San Diego airport while waiting for my plane. Just thought I would give you that little tid bit of info, so you know why I am complaining about this now.

I have been business traveling off and on for a few years now. Mostly with the Navy, and starting last year for my current employer. One thing has remained constant the entire time. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH FRIGGIN’ POWER OUTLETS!

Now, I was lucky enough to get to my gate with plenty of time to spare. I was one of the few lucky S.O.B.’s to find one of the three friggin’ power outlets available. Of course it wasn’t at my gate. No, it was two gates down! After sitting around tweeting, checking email, and browsing the net, two more people with laptops came up. One guy got his laptop out quicker than the other, and was able to get to the open jack before the other poor sap. Survival of the fittest at its best!

Just stop and think for a minute. If you work for an airport, stop and think with me too. How many business travelers come through each and every day? How many of them carry laptops? Not to mention those that aren’t business travelers, and carry laptops, portable DVD players, or anything else that needs to be plugged in? I am thinking somewhere in the thousands. What about you? Do ya think two or three hidden power jacks is sufficient to support all those people? No, I don’t think so either!

Sure you might say, “Thats why you have batteries.” Well what if you are going to be on a four hour cross country flight, and you want to save those batteries for the plane? I guess you could always lug around multiple laptop batteries, but that is just too much of a pain to deal with.

Anyone else share this frustration? There is no way I can be alone on this one. Let me know your take in the comments!

Technorati Tags: airport,rant,power,outlets

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My Favorite Free Web Host

Well, I guess that should read my free favorite web host next to blogger. I mean I do have two of my blogs on blogger. Still, there is a really awesome web host you have got to check out. Especially if you are looking for you own web hosting, and you are a cheap ass bastard like us here at Bauer-Power!

Yes, my new favorite FREE hosting company is called 000WebHost. I do mean absolutely free. Not like those ass clowns over at FreeServers.com that only give you a subdomain, and plaster banner ads all over your site! I mean free, as in here you go, do whatever the hell you want!

I can even tell you this, they are currently hosting our official, unofficial beer sponsors Taurino Cerveza! (LOL)

With 000Webhost you get the following for absolutely NOTHING!

• 1500 MB Disk Space, 100 GB Data Transfer
• PHP with MySQL Database Support
• cPanel Control Panel
• Fantastico De Luxe 1-Click Autoinstaller
• Website Builder Software

Of course if you want some additional features, more bandwidth and other bells and whistles, they also offer paid hosting packages. If you don’t need anything too fancy though, this might just be the solution you are looking for!

Know of any other free hosting sites? Let us know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: free,web,hosting

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CD/DVD Drive Not Working

So since I’ve moved over to web development I haven’t had too much Tech Support type stuff to write. But now I do. I had to load a Virtual Box to test site in XP SP2 with IE 6… yeah I know some people are still using that :( but anyway. My CD drive wasn’t working when I went to go mount it into my virtual box. I tracked it down and found out in the Device manager I was getting an error stating that it couldn’t load my CD Drive. Well like with most things I didn’t read the error and just shut the PC down and re-plugged the power and IDE cables.

The PC came back up and I notice that it wanted to boot from the CD. So I thought to myself. Well it must be working. Windows came up and I logged in but still no CD Drive. “Damn it, I hate when stuff doesn’t work!” So I decided to actually look at the error and noticed it was one I’ve seen before:

“Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged.”

Oh well that’s not too hard of of a fix. I just had to track down that registry key again, which was an Epic Pain in the arse. So I figured I’d tell you guys about it and without further adieu:

To fix a CD or DVD drive that is not working due to the error:

“Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged.”

Click Start

Click Run (Or press Windows+R on the keyboard)

In the run box type REGEDIT and hit ok or press enter

Make a backup of your Registry (as always when you make any changes)

Navigate to the following Registry Key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

There will be keys named UpperFilters, LowerFilters and Installer32

Delete all those keys

Close Regedit

Right click on My Computer

Click on Manage

Click on the Device Manager

Find your CD Drive that has the Yellow exclamation point on it

Right click on that CD Drive

Click Uninstall

Click OK on that Popup

Now Right click on any device in there and click Scan For Hardware Changes

And that should fix it. If not try to reboot. I’m not sure exactly what causes this but I’m assuming probably software like Nero or what not. Let us know if this helps you out at all.

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