Talk about frustrating - Windows update wanted to install a bunch of updates. I obediently allowed it to shut down, now the NB200 won't boot, keeps getting the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Nothing works, even these suggestions:
http://www.stateofthetech.com/?p=117
Even this didn't work:
Solution : rollback of KB971486 on its own DID NOT resolve the issue. However, rollback of KB971486 and additionally - KB958869( GDI+ security changes) and KB969059 (Indexing Service security changes) sorted this out instantly. Kudos to Marcel for leading the way to enlightenment.
So, back to my previous backup (thanks Ghost), and just say no to the windows updates?
Friday, October 23, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
NB200 connects to the Internet via my Palm Treo 500 with Bluetooth
I know this may seem old hat to most people, but it was cool to me.
I have a Palm Treo 500V that has a good priced 3G connection here in Spain using MasMovil. I used to connect my old laptop via a cable to the treo, and connect to the Internet from anywhere. Now I have my NB200 with Bluetooth, I thought it would be nice to dispense with the cable. Sure enough, worked great!
Right Click on the Bluetooth icon in the task bar and choose Add New Connection. Connect to your phone, choosing a PIN on both machines. Then go into Internet Sharing on the phone, and select Bluetooth PAN. It connected right away, and now I don't need to remember the cable any more!
However, early testing (this morning for example) shows that the Bluetooth Pan connection isn't very fast or as reliable as the USB cable connection to Internet Sharing on the Treo. It's a good backup for when I forget the cable though...
I have a Palm Treo 500V that has a good priced 3G connection here in Spain using MasMovil. I used to connect my old laptop via a cable to the treo, and connect to the Internet from anywhere. Now I have my NB200 with Bluetooth, I thought it would be nice to dispense with the cable. Sure enough, worked great!
Right Click on the Bluetooth icon in the task bar and choose Add New Connection. Connect to your phone, choosing a PIN on both machines. Then go into Internet Sharing on the phone, and select Bluetooth PAN. It connected right away, and now I don't need to remember the cable any more!
However, early testing (this morning for example) shows that the Bluetooth Pan connection isn't very fast or as reliable as the USB cable connection to Internet Sharing on the Treo. It's a good backup for when I forget the cable though...
Securing the NB200 Hard Drive with Truecrypt
Another consideration with the NB200 is that if it is stolen, someone can read the contents of your hard drive easily enough by just removing it from the NB200 and connecting it to another computer. The only way to avoid this is by encrypting the hard drive.
The NB200 only comes with XP Home, which doesn't include file encryption. Fortunately, Truecrypt exists, and is an awesome piece of Open Source software.
Before starting, I did a full backup of my drive using Norton Ghost 14, just in case something went wrong.
Then download and run the latest Truecrypt. I chose to encrypt the system drive completely, since all I care about is if someone steals the computer, I'm not trying to hide anything else, although Truecrypt has lots of features to do that.
Almost immediately I ran into a problem, Truecrypt requires that you have a CD or DVD writer attached to the machine, which I don't to write out a recovery disk. The way around this is to disable the ISO checking. I did this by opening a DOS window, going to the Truecrypt install directory and typing "truecrypt format.exe" /n
This bypasses the check for the recovery disk. Make sure you save the ISO file somewhere though! (I saved it on my main laptop)
Then I pretty much chose all the defaults, and now I have a secured hard drive!
The NB200 only comes with XP Home, which doesn't include file encryption. Fortunately, Truecrypt exists, and is an awesome piece of Open Source software.
Before starting, I did a full backup of my drive using Norton Ghost 14, just in case something went wrong.
Then download and run the latest Truecrypt. I chose to encrypt the system drive completely, since all I care about is if someone steals the computer, I'm not trying to hide anything else, although Truecrypt has lots of features to do that.
Almost immediately I ran into a problem, Truecrypt requires that you have a CD or DVD writer attached to the machine, which I don't to write out a recovery disk. The way around this is to disable the ISO checking. I did this by opening a DOS window, going to the Truecrypt install directory and typing "truecrypt format.exe" /n
This bypasses the check for the recovery disk. Make sure you save the ISO file somewhere though! (I saved it on my main laptop)
Then I pretty much chose all the defaults, and now I have a secured hard drive!
Toshiba NB200 Synchronizing with Vista machine using SyncToy, Wifi
I've always taken my main notebook around with me, but now I'd like to have my NB200 on trips. So, now I need to synchronize data between the two. Not a problem with all my internet based data like email, Evernote, etc, but I do have lots of stuff in My Documents. Syncing is the best way to avoid the headache of keeping things organized.
Synctoy 2.0 from Microsoft seems to be a decent solution.
My Wifi is unsecured (bogus router from Telefonica), so I didn't want an unsecured file share going out to all my neighbors. Fortunately, on Vista you can specify Password Protected File sharing. This way, since my main laptop is password secured, you have to know that password and login to get at the shared files.
So, on my main machine, I shared My Documents. Then on the NB200, ran SyncToy 2.0 and set up a Folder pair between the two machines to sync My Documents between the two. Works like a charm.
Don't share anything on the NB200, so you won't be exposed at Wifi hotspots, also, you might turn off all exceptions in the Windows Firewall as well when out and about.
Synctoy 2.0 from Microsoft seems to be a decent solution.
My Wifi is unsecured (bogus router from Telefonica), so I didn't want an unsecured file share going out to all my neighbors. Fortunately, on Vista you can specify Password Protected File sharing. This way, since my main laptop is password secured, you have to know that password and login to get at the shared files.
So, on my main machine, I shared My Documents. Then on the NB200, ran SyncToy 2.0 and set up a Folder pair between the two machines to sync My Documents between the two. Works like a charm.
Don't share anything on the NB200, so you won't be exposed at Wifi hotspots, also, you might turn off all exceptions in the Windows Firewall as well when out and about.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Toshiba NB200 Single Partition
NOTE: Only try this if you are very brave! I'm not responsible for you if you screw up and erase any of your data! Be super careful, awake and not drunk!
I don't like the way Toshiba sends out their NB200 with two partitions, C and D. I prefer a single one. Well on a NB200, without an external DVD drive, (but I do have a USB hard drive and USB Flash Memory Stick) this is what I did using Norton Ghost 14:
1) First, create a bootable USB Norton Rescue SRD memory stick using these instructions
http://krisrowland.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/boot-norton-ghost-14-srd-from-a-usb-stick/
First, I created a Norton Recovery DVD (or cd, it is only 300mb) using Ghost 14 (This is the SRD)
Then boot my old laptop using this SRD DVD, and put in the memory stick afterwards.
-Choose Analyze, Open a command shell, then follow the instructions in the above post.
hint, after you do the select disk, do another list disk just to make sure you select the right one, any mess up now, and you can format your hard drive!!!
it took a while to format a 1GB memory stick.
After the format, you can copy everything from the SRD while still running Norton, use AnalyzeExplore my computer.
2) Next, install Ghost 14 onto the netbook - I copied the INstall directory from the Norton DVD onto my USB hard drive. Hooked up the USB HD to my NB, and ran setup.exe for Norton Ghost.
3) I didn't have much on my netbook, but I'd gone through the trouble of cleaning off all the bloatware, and didn't really want to buy a portable DVD writer just to create the rescue disk. I'd rather use Norton Ghost for everything anyway, and save an image of the C: drive to my USB hard drive. Same difference, no?
So, run Ghost 14 on the NB, and backup C: to the USB HD. D: only had the backup image, but I backed it up anyway.
4) Remove the memory stick from the old machine and put it into the NB200. '
Reboot.
Hit F12
Choose USB
It should boot into Norton. The first memory stick I tried didn't work - gave a corrupt file warning. The second one worked, an old 512MB I got free.
If so, plug in the USB HD with the backup.
The next part is not for the faint of heart. You will be erasing the hard drive on the NB200, then restoring from the backup.
If you are nervous, try restoring the backup you just made to the C drive. This will also make sure the backup is OK.
Now, if you are confident, then let's move on.
We will be using almost the same sequence we used to erase and format the memory stick, except this time on the NB200 hard drive.
Open a command line from Norton on the NB. (Remember we just booted from the Memory stick right?)
Plug in the USB Hard Drive with the Ghost backup.
Now, go back to Norton and restore the C drive backup. Note, it will complain that the restore points are no longer there, but you can select the actual backup file on your USB Hard Drive. I forget the actual sequence, but it isn't hard to find. Then watch it as it copies the data into the new bigger C partition.
Reboot, and enjoy your new big partition with more space available. (149GB Free!)
I don't like the way Toshiba sends out their NB200 with two partitions, C and D. I prefer a single one. Well on a NB200, without an external DVD drive, (but I do have a USB hard drive and USB Flash Memory Stick) this is what I did using Norton Ghost 14:
1) First, create a bootable USB Norton Rescue SRD memory stick using these instructions
http://krisrowland.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/boot-norton-ghost-14-srd-from-a-usb-stick/
First, I created a Norton Recovery DVD (or cd, it is only 300mb) using Ghost 14 (This is the SRD)
Then boot my old laptop using this SRD DVD, and put in the memory stick afterwards.
-Choose Analyze, Open a command shell, then follow the instructions in the above post.
hint, after you do the select disk, do another list disk just to make sure you select the right one, any mess up now, and you can format your hard drive!!!
it took a while to format a 1GB memory stick.
After the format, you can copy everything from the SRD while still running Norton, use AnalyzeExplore my computer.
2) Next, install Ghost 14 onto the netbook - I copied the INstall directory from the Norton DVD onto my USB hard drive. Hooked up the USB HD to my NB, and ran setup.exe for Norton Ghost.
3) I didn't have much on my netbook, but I'd gone through the trouble of cleaning off all the bloatware, and didn't really want to buy a portable DVD writer just to create the rescue disk. I'd rather use Norton Ghost for everything anyway, and save an image of the C: drive to my USB hard drive. Same difference, no?
So, run Ghost 14 on the NB, and backup C: to the USB HD. D: only had the backup image, but I backed it up anyway.
4) Remove the memory stick from the old machine and put it into the NB200. '
Reboot.
Hit F12
Choose USB
It should boot into Norton. The first memory stick I tried didn't work - gave a corrupt file warning. The second one worked, an old 512MB I got free.
If so, plug in the USB HD with the backup.
The next part is not for the faint of heart. You will be erasing the hard drive on the NB200, then restoring from the backup.
If you are nervous, try restoring the backup you just made to the C drive. This will also make sure the backup is OK.
Now, if you are confident, then let's move on.
We will be using almost the same sequence we used to erase and format the memory stick, except this time on the NB200 hard drive.
Open a command line from Norton on the NB. (Remember we just booted from the Memory stick right?)
- Run the diskpart command line app. (Type: diskpart)
Enter the rest one after the other:
- list disk, to find the drive number of your NB200 hard drive (mine was 0).
- select disk #, to select the NB200 disk (put the number you found in the previous step in place of the # – be absolutely certain you have the right number!)
- clean - This wipes the hard drive!!
- create partition primary
- select partition 1
- active
- format fs=NTFS QUICK Volume="MyVolumeName"
- assign
- exit
Plug in the USB Hard Drive with the Ghost backup.
Now, go back to Norton and restore the C drive backup. Note, it will complain that the restore points are no longer there, but you can select the actual backup file on your USB Hard Drive. I forget the actual sequence, but it isn't hard to find. Then watch it as it copies the data into the new bigger C partition.
Reboot, and enjoy your new big partition with more space available. (149GB Free!)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Case sensitivity in Tomcat - sort of solved for IIS isapi_redirector
Basically, the problem is that URLs are defined to be case sensitive, but no-one thinks of them that way. Everyone expects:
www.mysite.com/GeoServer/
to act the same as
www.mysite.com/geoserver/
when in fact, this should not be. Tomcat acts in a case sensitive fashion, according the the spec. So, to make this conform not to spec, but to peoples expectations, we would like Tomcat to be a little less case sensitive, at least in the first level of the URI.
One way to do this is using the Rewrite Rule file in the isapi_redirect.properties file that controls the behavior of the isapi_redirect filter. Add this:
#rewrite rule file to get rid of the problems with case sensitivity
rewrite_rule_file=D:\OGI\Programs\Tomcat\Tomcat 6.0\conf\rewrite_rule_file.properties
to point to a rewrite_rule_file.properties file which contains:
# Simple rewrite rules,making the top level of the uri less case sensitive.
/geoserver=/GeoServer
/GEOSERVER=/GeoServer
/Geoserver=/GeoServer
Note: the rewriting happens AFTER the match in uriworkermap.properties, so change uriworkermap.properties to contain:
/examples/*=worker1
/GeoServer/*=worker1
/geoserver/*=worker1
/GEOSERVER/*=worker1
/Geoserver/*=worker1
Restart IIS, and then typing in any of the following will work:
www.mysite.com/GeoServer/
www.mysite.com/geoserver/
www.mysite.com/GEOSERVER/
www.mysite.com/Geoserver/
Now, the rest of the urls are still case sensitive, and I'm leaving them that way in case there is some reason for this way down in the bowels of GeoServer.
www.mysite.com/GeoServer/
to act the same as
www.mysite.com/geoserver/
when in fact, this should not be. Tomcat acts in a case sensitive fashion, according the the spec. So, to make this conform not to spec, but to peoples expectations, we would like Tomcat to be a little less case sensitive, at least in the first level of the URI.
One way to do this is using the Rewrite Rule file in the isapi_redirect.properties file that controls the behavior of the isapi_redirect filter. Add this:
#rewrite rule file to get rid of the problems with case sensitivity
rewrite_rule_file=D:\OGI\Programs\Tomcat\Tomcat 6.0\conf\rewrite_rule_file.properties
to point to a rewrite_rule_file.properties file which contains:
# Simple rewrite rules,making the top level of the uri less case sensitive.
/geoserver=/GeoServer
/GEOSERVER=/GeoServer
/Geoserver=/GeoServer
Note: the rewriting happens AFTER the match in uriworkermap.properties, so change uriworkermap.properties to contain:
/examples/*=worker1
/GeoServer/*=worker1
/geoserver/*=worker1
/GEOSERVER/*=worker1
/Geoserver/*=worker1
Restart IIS, and then typing in any of the following will work:
www.mysite.com/GeoServer/
www.mysite.com/geoserver/
www.mysite.com/GEOSERVER/
www.mysite.com/Geoserver/
Now, the rest of the urls are still case sensitive, and I'm leaving them that way in case there is some reason for this way down in the bowels of GeoServer.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)