News and Views of a Technical Nomad

Dec

28

Well, after a few teething problems, the new Mini-ITX box is up and running on my home network and I can access it using Remote Desktop via my laptop.

The box uses a PCI WiFi card for communication although the motherboard also sports two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The main problem that I had was fitting the PCI card securely in the case because the bracket which would fix the board to the case in a normal PC was too big and so whenever any pressure was applied to the antenna, the board popped out of its slot! Another problem was that the hole in the case that the entenna used did not quite align with the antenna which also added pressure on the card to pop out.

I solved the problem by borrowing a small round file and filing the case to make the hole bigger so that the antenna had room to stick out. This did not solve the problem of the card being a little unsteady in the slot so I cut down the metal bracket to fit in the Morex case and secure the card properly.

This has worked a treat and the card no longer moves around or comes loose.

I am now installing software to turn the machine into my main test and development machine.

Dec

25

Regular readers of this web log (a rare species no doubt) will be aware of my plans to build a Mini-ITX box for development purposes, the idea being that it is cheaper to build a Mini-ITX PC than to build an equivalent laptop and it can easily be accessed from another PC using Remote Desktop so you don’t need an extra Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor etc.

Well, now that I am back home, I spent a few hours yesterday putting it all together and I am in fact now typing this entry from the new PC.

On the whole things went very smoothly and I only had a few minor hiccough. The main hiccough being that the internal DVD drive died trying to read the motherboard Driver CD after I had successfully used it to install Windows XP and so far has not come back. The BIOS does not recognise it and no power seems to get to it.

This would be a real pain, but fortunately the BIOS recognises USB-CDs so I can use an external DVD player. Even better, the motherboard BIOS can boot from an external DVD,

The other problem I had was that somehow Logic Supply fogot to include a power converter cable to convert a 4 pin internal power socket to a SATA power docket, so Ihad to run around looking for one today.

I had also hoped to use a low rise WiFi PCI Adapter, however the nearest hole in the back panel of the case did not quite align with the card with the result that the card did not stay seated in the socket. For now, I am using an external Linksys USB WiFi Adapter as a substitute until I can find a way of enlarging the hole in the back panel to line everything up. 

The system is now up and running and I am now installing software. One of the things I am considering is installing Virtual PC and setting up a number of alternative Virtual machines for different versions of Visual Studio.

Dec

24

This site would like to wish all its visitors a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Dec

19

This blog has been a bit quiet in recent weeks and as usual the technology world continues to constantly move ahead, so it is high time I reported the most interesting news.

There has been a lot of attention paid to the news that the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the upcoming SQL Server 2008 is now available for download from Microsoft here.

TechRepublic have a good article covering the main points of the new release.

I intend to install the CTP on my new development box once I have built it along with trial versions of Visual Studio 2008 in the near future.

Microsoft have a good graphic here detailing the new features which have been added.

Dec

12

PDA Delays

December 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Well, we’re now in that frustrating period of actually waiting for the product to be shipped!

I decided, after some research, to order the HTC Touch Cruise from Expansys. Unfortunately, since then, the arrival date of the stock has been put back a few times and is now sitting at 20 January 2008 which is a bit of a pity as I was hoping to see it sometime before then.

It looks like the Ultimate 8150 will be in stock before then, but at this point I’m still aiming for the Touch Cruise as it is lighter and has GPS and, in my humble opinion, better looking!

If the Touch Dual had had WiFi, then I would have bought one of those.

Interestingly enough, after my complaints that the original Touch did not have enough memory, HTC have now released the Touch Enhanced which now has 256MB/128MB which is the same as the Touch Dual and the Touch Cruise! Expansys have these in stock!

Curses!

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