I thought this writeup was interesting on the idea of using a web interface to customize a livecd. I’ve built a couple livecd’s (that I still use) for tech support, but I’m always thinking of one more tool that I’d like to have. After looking through their wizard it seems a bit limited in the granularity of what can be chosen (at least for what I’m thinking of.) But… it might introduce a new interest in the use of livecds.
Category: Hardware
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WiFi signal hacks….
As long as there have been wireless networks there have been people trying to squeeze out just a bit more range… there was the cantenna and now there are other variations on trying to collect and improve the amount of signal getting to wireless adapters… here is just a sampling of what I’ve looked at (and expiremented with) lately… instructables how-to using seive… and another page along the same lines and for wireless hardware that is a bit more powerful… Keenan Systems sells engenius/senao wireless products that tend to have higher sensitivity/power output than the average linksys/dlink.
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Epson stylus photo 825 clogged print head woes
I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned my Epson stylus photo 825 before, but I’ve had one for a couple years. The really nice feature (I thought) was the ability to print direct from camera memory cards (at the time I bought it, this was much more rare than in current printers.) Anyway, it had GREAT print quality and could print up to the edge of the paper. Unfortunately, I use my laser printer (monochrome hp 4p) for 95%+ of my day to day printing and the epson sat unused for stretches of time and eventually I’ve wound up with a bunch of jets clogged on the print head. I’ve been taking increasingly drastic steps to try to get the thing to print well again.
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Sleuthkit – windows and linux file recovery
http://www.sleuthkit.org/ Sluethkit… is a collection of tools for forensic analysis of a system. Usually it’s something that would be done when you’ve had a suspected rootkit on the system and you boot to another operating system with sluethkit installed (maybe livecd/etc.) and want to try to analyze and hunt for traces of the rootkit. However you do have some similar procedures for forensic analysis that you would for the “I accidentally deleted a file” syndrome… For both situations you DON’T want to be running the live filesystem that’s affected.
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WiFi Locator
There are all sorts of these things out there on the market – I saw an ad for the Hawking HWL1 802.11b/g WiFi Locator… and it looked interesting (directional)… I’ve seen mixed reviews, but some might find it good/useful. I know, I know…. “why buy a wifi locator when you could pull out a laptop/pda”…. part of it is probably because you DON’T want to drag out a laptop, part of it is looking for a device that will give just a quick scan of what networks are available and what kind of encryption if any.
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Ipod warning for Vista owners
If you’re upgrading to Vista and use an ipod (true Apple branded iPod)… you might want to refrain from hooking the ipod up to the Vista pc. theregister has reported that Apple is sounding the alarm over a serious data corruption issue due to an incompatibility with Vista. It sounds as though users should wait for the next release of iTunes before using their iPod with Vista… there is a workaround….
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Dell 17″ laptop advisory… (9400/e1705/m1710/m90 even Inspiron 6400)
Shocking bit of news here…. (sorry, I couldn’t help it.) This is a serious piece though. Apparently the Dell models listed above (Inspiron) and their other 17″ cousins may be affected by a rather peculiar, but serious problem. The screws on the bottom may be putting out 19-65 volts AC (oops.) From the linked article, this issue can be worked around by using the 3-pronged (read-grounded) power adapter that is available for the laptops. (However, Dell has not said anything publicly, it sounds as though the 2 prong adapter may be standard for these.)
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Dell “open source” PC’s for sale
I saw yesterday that Dell has a page advertising computers with NO preinstalled OS. Dimension line… n series and they are targetted towards people that want to install an Open Source operating system like Linux. They do ship with a freedos install disc, but come without formatting/preinstalling anything on the hard drives.
They do note that they don’t support a non-dell installed operating system. (i.e. even if you put XP pro on it well make you prove that it’s a hardware problem.) Still, it’s good to see the option becoming available.
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Fab@home 3d printing
I wanted to make a note here about a recent news story related to a topic that’s fascinated me for the ~10 years or so since I first heard of such things…. For some time there have been 3d printers. Devices that would use a liquid of some sort to “print” a real physical object. Usually these were plastic-ish prototype parts/proof of concept samples. These “printers” cost 10s of thousands of dollars and typically just have one material to choose from. Certainly out of reach for a home tinkerer… But recently I read this article about a desktop fabricator… The project name is fab@home and for ~$2500 in parts YOU can build your own personal fabricator….
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Software raid fun…. device detection order
Anyone that’s setup software raid on a system with multiple storage adapters has probably run into this kind of issue, but I thought I’d mention it. Last weekend I built a machine to replace my server (the server was to be captured into a VM). The main system was going to be installed onto dual IDE drives, the VM partition and other data on dual 400GB SATA drives. Well, install went well after getting past some of the irq issues I mentioned in a previous writeup. md0 was /boot and so on…. (md0 residing on the dual ide drives.) When the system went to reboot though it didn’t get very far. It complained of not finding a boot image (I think that was the message – didn’t make a note.)