Category: Software

Categories
Software

Setup WHS on VMWare Server (2.0.1 b 156745)

The setup of this VM is actually very easy, with a couple of key things to note…

  • Use the Default “Microsoft Windows 2003 Standard Edition (32-bit)”;
  • Make your HD Capacity at least 65GBs (recommend 70GBs);
  • Make the HD a single file (File Options > “Allocate all space now”);
  • Make the HD a IDE Drive (Virtual Device Node > Adapter: IDE 0 > Devise: 0);

Then sit back and wait, which takes about an hour…

Do not forget to run Windows Update after the base install.

NOTES:

If you do NOT set the “Virtual Device Node” to IDE, the Setup program will ERROR saying it cannot find a disk.

If you allocate a disk size lower then 65GBs you will get an Error message during the GUI setup installation.

Hope this helps!

– Andrew

Categories
Reviews Software

First Impressions of WHS (Windows Home Server)

I had been hearing about Windows Home Server (WHS) from various sources for some time, and finally decided to take a look.

In reviewing the Main WHS website, I ordered the DVD media and paid the Shipping & Handling (nothing is free), and got the kit in about a week.

Not having any spare hardware to run a “Full” WHS on, I setup a VMWare VM, and was able to take it for a “Test Drive” for a couple of days.

In general, I was rather impressed with how easy it was to setup. Boot from the disk, and a few questions, sit back and wait.

You will need at least 70GBs of disk space, and once done, that disk will be split into (2) partition: OS and Data.

For any family that is really going to use this, they should seriously consider getting at least 1TB of HD,especially considering the cost of such drives, and if you really want to protect your data, consider getting a second HD to backup the primary.

The main concept of WHS is the ability to connect (wired & wireless) a household of computers to a centralized server for File and Music sharing, then initiate backups of those machines and publish a Family website, which should be a real interest to technically savvy Home SysAdmin.

Acer and HP seem to have embraced this market space, and if you happen to have some extra hardware laying around, you might consider creating your own “Frankenstein” server. The requirements are surprising low.

From what I have been told, if you already happen to have a Active Directory Domain setup at home, in about 45 days, WHS will start to warn you that it has detected your AD, and will start to shut itself down.

So for the price, an OEM (Acer or HP) machine or a “Frankenstein”, and you already do not have a AD,the WHS is worth considering.

– Andrew
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Categories
Add-Ons Reviews Software

LR2/Mogrify – Adobe LightRoom (Plug-in)

LR2/Mogrify by Timothy Armes is easy to use Adobe Lightroom plug-in is for those that want and need some pre-publishing work.

“LR2/Mogrify is a post-process plugin for Lightroom 2 and later that can embellish your images as they are exported from Lightroom. It’s flexible interface allows you to add outer and inner borders, watermarks and text annotations to your images.”

Personally, I use this export utility plug-in for adding Event/Location and Copyright info before posting to various services (Facebook, Flickr, Stock Agencies, etc.).

Basically, this is a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for ImageMagick®, which is a well documented application for processing images:

“ImageMagick® is a software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF. Use ImageMagick to translate, flip, mirror, rotate, scale, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.”

– Andrew
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Categories
Adobe Reference

Books: Adobe Lightroom – “The missing FAQ”

I am always looking for good books on topics, so here are a few references:

“Adobe Lightroom – The Missing FAQ” from Victoria Bampton

As I find more, I will post them.

– Andrew
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Categories
Software Tech Talk

Excel/Word 2007 “The Document Information Panel was unable to load”

Does the following sound like something you have had happen to you?

“I select the Office button > Prepare > Properties, I get the message “the document information panel was unable to load”.”

It seems that several folks have been running into this issue with both 2007 MS Excel and Word, and there is not a very good explanation of why it occurs, but a potential simple resolution for me was the following:

  1. Close your MS Excel/Word application;
  2. Copy the “IPEDINTL.DLL” from
C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Designer Tools\Office\121033
> to <
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\121033
  1. Re-launch the application, and try again.

Thanks to the folks at: PC Review (UK), and Ben at Freewarecritic on Blogspot.com for the answer!

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