Tech Spot

Wow - one of the largest banks in the world -- JP Morgan Chase -- has a website outage in the prime U.S. business hours of the day. The company I work for is substantially smaller, but we use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that hosts a friendly maintenance page whenever our "origin" web server farm goes down for planned maintenance or an unplanned outage.  In addition, some top-tier DNS providers also have the capability to re-route web traffic to a fail-over/DR site to maintain up-time.  Even if this is a DDoS attack, there are some technologies (including those in the aforementioned CDN) that can discard velocity attempts based on IP, geographic region, browser user-agents, etc.  If it's a botnet, well certainly then the traffic can be a lot harder to discern from legit traffic. I'd be happy to consult with them for a tiny fraction of any lost revenue or negative dollar impact of this outage to help them improve their web architecture.  Ha!

I had an issue where a Windows 2003 to 2008 upgrade (non-R2 since R2 does not provide an upgrade path from 2003) kept freezing at the graphical startup screen (black background with green scrolling status bar).  I was sure that it was an issue with choosing the OS type, but I tried both 2008 32-bit and 64-bit, and no dice.  Various forum posts on the VMware Communities didn't help, but the one thread below gave me an idea.  I changed the number of vCPU to 1 and then restarted (note the OS selector was set back to 2003 32-bit).  This worked, and got me back into the second part of the 2008 upgrade! http://communities.vmware.com/message/922147 The other thing which may have helped to resolve the "STOP:0x0000008E." BSoD was to manually edit the .vmx file with the following setting: piix4pm.smooth_acpi_timer = TRUE http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1897287

Skype 5.5 is quite possibly one of the most infuriating software releases ever.  As a monthly paying customer, I am quite disappointed.  Here are a list of my issues: Update reminders are too frequent and furious (clicking 'Not Now' is taken literally.. because a few seconds later it is no longer "now" and it asks you to update AGAIN). Volume slider has been moved inside the connection guide (why?!  there is PLENTY of space in the call window to leave it there). Dial tones (DTMF) are buggy.  If you frequently dial in to conference calls or bridge lines, you will probably have to keep trying or key in the tones slowly (very slowly). Solution: Downgrade to Skype 4.2.  I have been using it for a few days now and the dial tone situation is much improved.  I also have squelched the reminders (Tools > Options > Advanced > When a new version of Skype is available... [uncheck Automatically download, uncheck Notify me]). Skype 4.2 download link fro...

I just recently upgraded to Outlook 2007 (in 2011, I know).  The calendar reminders weren't working even though I made sure default reminders were turned on.  I missed a meeting or two. :(   What worked for me was to close Outlook, then open a Command Prompt (Start > Run > cmd).  Then go to the directory containing outlook.exe to clean the reminders database.  Type the following (in bold ) from the command prompt: C:\Documents and Settings\User> cd "\program files\microsoft office\office12" C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12> outlook /cleanreminders Start Outlook and your reminders should pop up.  If not, follow this link to an in-depth article for more troubleshooting: Outlook Reminders Problem

Amazingly simple fix for this, yet mind-boggling as to why it works.  I run Windows 7 64-bit Home Premium on my desktop PC, and MP Navigator kept crashing whenever I tried to scan something from my Canon Pixma all-in-one. This solution is courtesy of some posters on answers.microsoft.com  .  There are some shortcuts in a directory, maybe from when your PC manufacturer installed Windows.  I only had a MSN link in there. You may want to back up other shortcuts if you have added some yourself and copy them to the Desktop or add them to your browser bookmarks. THE FIX: "Believe it or not, the solution to this is so much simpler. Go to the following directory: C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts And delete the short cut in there to web sites. All fixed!"

Many people already use the fantastic (and free!) VideoLAN VLC media player or Media Player Classic (also free) to play videos.  But newer digital cameras and camcorders with 720p or 1080i/1080p output are using the AVCHD ( A dvanced  V ideo  C oding  H igh  D efinition)  output format.  Unfortunately this means you get to see a blank video or extremely choppy video when playing it back on your computer. Here's how to play without choppiness (provided your Windows computer is relatively newer and not say, a netbook). 1) If you don't already have it, download the excellent  Media Player Classic HC version  (offshoot of the "original" MPC, which appears to have ceased development).  Remember to pick the "x64" download option if you are running Vista 64-bit or Windows 7 64-bit. 2)  Download the ffdshow codec  and install. 3) Run MPC-HC, go to View -> Options and select 'Output' under Playback.  Change the Direct...

It seems hard drive makers have long struggled with fierce competition, leading them to manufacture disks that are not terribly reliable.  Hitachi/IBM had the infamous Deskstar 75GXP (aptly renamed the Deathstar by exasperated owners and amused bystanders).  I do believe Hitachi has long since recovered from that.  When my Samsung HD642JJ 640GB SATA drive started showing a S.M.A.R.T. B8 end-to-end error code, I sought to find a good replacement without having to set up RAID.  My initial research brought me to the Western Digital Caviar Black series, and then to their enterprise offering, the RE3 and RE4.  However, reviews on Newegg.com and Amazon.com showed no anecdotal improvement in reliability (around 10%+ DOA and quick failures, though poor packaging may have been to blame).  I ended up getting the well-reviewed Samsung HD103SJ 1 TB SATA 7200 RPM 3.5" HD.  Now here is how I ended up almost botching the data transfer: 1) I read that XXCLONE was mu...