Wow! The past few days have been hectic.
– On Wednesday, I packed boxes for an office move. The office move is simple: one building to another. Why? Why not! The cube looks the same. The furniture is identical. But I have moved by commuting bike to the other end of the parking garange. It’s a hundred yards less of a commute each way.
– On Thursday, I sealed the last boxes and checked out.
– On Friday, movers tooks the boxes and computer equipment and loaded them on a moving van. The van drove around the corner and unloaded. What a concept! Somehow, I am missing the efficiency of the move. But mine is not to wonder why. Actually, there are good reasons. But they relate to economies of scale – not to the efficiency of moving any single individual. So I soldier on.
– On Saturday, I needed to replace the TV/DVD/VCR/universal_gizmo receiver at home. The previous incarnation died on Wednesday. So I trekked off toe Best Buy. I found a great unit with the minimal features I needed and a price point I could stomach. But the store was out of inventory. So I wrangled with the sales rep. He was too young to know what was going on. So my insinuations about “bait and switch” tactics were lost on him. And he didn’t have the “authority” to sell me the floor model at an “open item” discount. It didn’t seem worth the hassle. So I went across the street to Ultimate Electronics. They had the same unit in stock for $20 less. I could live with the 10% discount. Best Buy lost their chance at my money.
– Every time I purchase new audio gear, it forces the resolution of other problems. One of my surround sound speakers was causing me problems. Actually, it was a kitten that caused some crossed wires – but that’s a different story. So I chose to rewire the run. Nothing big – just time-consuming. More drilling, more wires hung from the floor joists,… But now the surround sound is working.
– Why do these things always happen when I have big projects looming? I spent the balance of the weekend capturing game films for my daughter’s basketball coach. I also worked on music selection, photo editing and movie capturing/editing for the post-season video. And the season isn’t even over!
– The first big game in the state tournament is Thursday. Dana thinks they can win this one. I think she’s right. After all, they just beat this opponent by 22 points last Thursday. If they can work a good game plan, then they can play a good inside-outside game and separate the defense. Dana is preparing and praying for a 30-point game. I hope she gets it.
On a totally different front, I saw a note about a new DVD. Apparently, “The Greatest American Hero” seasons 1 & 2 are now available. I loved this show. I am so psyched about it being available. I can’t wait to see Ralph, Pam and Bill save the world all over again.
Ciao for now.
-The Cycling Roo-

It must be the week for software upgrades beacuse here comes another one. Doppler 2.0 has finally been released. It must also be the week for podcasting to hit the mainstream press. Yesterday, USA Today had several articles on podcasting. For those who don’t follow podcasting (or podcasting on Windows), the Doppler announcement will be meaningless. So here’s a quick overview of podcasting and Doppler.
Podcasting is a means of distributing canned audio content across the Internet. This doesn’t sound like anything new. And on its surface, it really isn’t anything new. After all, you’ve been able to get live radio broadcasts from the web for years. You’ve also been able to download MP3 files for delayed listening. But podcasting is like Tivo for the web audio biz. A podcaster records audio content (e.g., vocal commentary, music, etc). This content is then posted on a web site for downloading by end users. The podcaster is responsible for creating a syndication (or “feed” of audio files). BTW, the means of syndication is the RSS (really simple syndication) protocol.
The client uses an RSS reader to assemble the “feeds” into a downloadable list of files. I use the Firefox Live Bookmarks facility for most RSS text feeds. But a typical RSS reader does not take care of the business of downloading the recorded audio broadcasts. That’s where Doppler comes into play. Doppler can read the RSS feeds. Doppler will then download the audio files for use either by WMP (Windows Media Player) or iTunes. I use both but prefer iTunes. Again, either will work. And you don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast. You can download and listen to content w/o an iPod. But the iPod (or an iRiver, or any other MP3 player) can make your podcast listening a portable experience.
There are lots of podcast sources. I won’t even try to list them. But here are a couple of good sources to scan: Podcast Alley, and Podcast.Net. Personally, I listen to Adam Curry’s Daily Source Code and the The Living Word. But I am sure that you will find something to meet your needs.
-CyclingRoo-

Remote desktop support is nothing new. I’ve used remote desktop tools for PC support for a number of years. But the tools are becoming more readily available. If you are using Mac OS/X or Linux (or event Windows) then you should actively consider VNC. It is freely available for most platforms.
But my main system is a Windows XP Professional installation. So I’ve been running the Microsoft RDP system rather than VNC. Don’t get me wrong. I love VNC and its capabilities. But I’ve already paid for the Windows XP license. And since the client is freely available on all Windows XP systems, this became the easiest means to provide remote desktop capability to both myself and Cindy.
Setup is easy.

1. Turn the service on. From the sytems Properties function, you will find a Remote tab. On that tab, you can select the checkbox that enables the service.
2. Configure the Windows firewall on your system. If you have a different firewall, make sure you configure it to allow TCP port 3389. BTW, if you don’t have a firewall on your system, shame on you! Please see the teacher for a remedial lesson on basic PC security.
3. Configure your broadband router to forward the relevant ports. This is a relatively simple task – depending upon your broadband router. I have a Linksys WRT54G (running HyperWRT 2.0). I simply added TCP port 3389 to my port forwarding list. Of course, I forward it to a fixed IP address. But the details to set that up are discussed elsewhere.

So why did I even spend the time to write this stuff down? After all, I have had this stuff going for over six months. Well, I was logged on at home and heard the alarm for incoming email. So I launched Thunderbird and checked my email at home. Then I realized something. I _heard_ the mail notice. I was very curious whether all sounds get passed through the RDP connection – by default. So I launched iTunes at home. I picked a song. I then hit “Play.” To my minor surprise, I started to hear the music wafting through the speakers on my laptop. I have no idea how many network links exist between “here” and “there.” But I am sure that there are quite a few.
Bottom Line: Networking is great. And it is becoming thoroughly transparent (i.e., commoditized). With no special gear, I am managing my home PC and getting sounds as well as sights. I have no intention of using this feature. After all, it’s not my bandwidth to burn. And I also have an iPod Shuffle. So I carry some of my music with me. But this is still quite cool!
-CyclingRoo-

In addition to my day job, I help a friend of mine with his systems monitoring business. Without going into too many details, Tony is CEO of Midwest Internet Solutions. His corporation provides WiFi installation and management services to over four dozen hotels throughout the Midwest. He monitors and supports over three hundred access points thoughout that network.
At this point in time, all of the monitoring and support for his company is done by exploiting the OpenNMS platform. From this single platform, Midwest Internet Solution monitors service availability across an eight-state infrastructure. At the same time, SNMP performance data is collected from all of the routers and access points through the network. When outages are identified, trouble tickets are initiated. In some cases, this results in a truck roll. In others, it results in simple system restarts. But this entire infrastructure is “mission-critical” for his company.
Well, the wizards on the OpenNMS team have released their next revision (unstable) of the code base. This version is the second release candidate for the 1.2 version of the product. This version demonstrates significant improvements in performance – especially for the polling sub-system. Furthermore, even more of the code base has been moved towards the ultimate goal of a 100% Java code base.
So why is this announcment important? Well I am thrilled that IT service management is becoming even more commoditized. No longer must an organization rely exclusively upon complex (and expensive) service desk tools like OpenView or Tivoli. While these tools are indeed useful, not everyone needs these kinds of solutions. Indeed, many companies just need a good monitoring and dispatching tool.
And OpenNMS is a great example of how “open source” technology is becoming a disruptive technology for the service management disciplines within IT.
-CyclingRoo-