In the computing world, it can be dizzying trying to pick the right software for our needs.  Everyone knows we need to have anti virus software loaded on our Windows work stations but trying to find the right one out of hundreds can be daunting to say the least.  Luckily for us, some companies offer free alternatives that offer some of the features we are looking for.  Once in a while, we actually come across a piece of software, at no cost, that works the way we would hope it works.  Enter Microsoft Security Essentials, a Virus, Malware, and Spyware software package at NO COST! Read more…

So, after hitting issues left and right, solving them and posting them on various sites including this one. I had gone dry for a while, there were no issues… I thought to myself “This is too good to be true;” sure enough, it was. However, this is only a minor inconvenience, but one that requires solving none the less. Read more…

Introduction
While Olympus is well known for its quality line of film and digital cameras, less is known about their other products. One that I will be looking at today is the DM-20. It’s billed mainly as a digital voice recorder, but triples it’s functionality by incorporating a music player and USB data storage device into its duties. It’s sleek, portable, versatile and comes equipped with enough accessories to justify the $299 SRP. The one location I was able to find it online, DM-20 (click here), listed it for $269. If you were to look for a voice recorder, MP3/WMA player and USB storage separately you can count on spending three times as much for similar quality devices. Read more…

There has been great anticipation for Verizon Wireless customers to have an iPhone competitor in their pocket.  With the release of DROID, they will have a new love for WHS as well.  The DROID phone runs Google’s Android OS and with the new release of SubSonic, they now have an app that can stream music to your phone… for free.  Still waiting on iPhone support Read more…

I can’t tell you the reason you may need to access a command prompt on VMware ESXi, but I can tell you that I had issues with a vm and needed to manually delete it from disk.  This process couldn’t be done for me from the VI Client, so I did so through the command line. Read more…

Having been a longstanding fan and avid user of the Lian Li line of computer chassis; I find that it is difficult to be absolutely wow’ed by another manufacturer’s attempt to overthrow the chassis king.  Zalman is not new to the game, having been in business since 1999; they have manufactured products in a slew of different genres starting with quiet computing and traveling into the ridiculously priced.  The GT1000 is not a bargain basement chassis but is it worth the $380.00 Price tag? Read more…

Windows Vista has a lot of things that bother a lot of people.  I, however, don’t mind some of the things that bother other people.  Vista has a feature called UAC (User Account Control) enabled by default.  The purpose behind this utility starts many applications in a restricted shell, offering the user a reprieve from apps that he or she may not want installed.  In previous versions of windows an application can be executed as administrator without the user’s knowledge.  This was one method in which many malware infected systems.  Vista, in trying to reduce one avenue for these applications, opted to restrict applications to this shell and prompting the user to elevate the installer. Read more…

In my efforts to keep my production server separate from these articles I write here on C.O.D., I have implemented a test server.  With that said, this box is my playpen.  During the initial configuration, I was prompted with a mysterious error while trying to configure the box for remote access. The error comes in a dialogue box and displays the confusing error: Windows Home Server Could Not Find an Installed Website Gateway Provider. Read more…