I do enjoy the process of reloading linux. I am currently using Ubuntu 9.10. The first thing I do after installing ubuntu is install SSH and set a few config changes (PermitRoot = no). SSH allows me to access the machine from anywhere. After that I add my favorite program DenyHosts. (DenyHosts)

DenyHosts is a security application that monitors the “/var/log/secure” log. If it sees suspicious activity it will add the IP address to the /etc/hosts.deny file.
This is a great simple security app that keeps bad people away.

It is worth a read to hear how DenyHosts was created and what motivated the developer to write the application (HackTale)

Of all the 13.1 inch laptops out there this was the most reasonable in terms of price. It has the AMD vision processor (though I’m not a fan of AMD). A very nice aluminum / brushed case that is really small. The price was hard to beat, $499 for a 13.1 inch laptop is pretty hard to find. The purchasing experience was interesting. I had been looking for a deal both online and locally, when I found this at officemax. Two of the 3 local stores did not carry it. When I did find it, the sales team was very admit that I needed an external mouse, and many other accessories / software if I purchased this machine. I am guessing they are suggested to offer these items to anyone purchasing a computer. However, that process of telling a computer shopper that they need to purchase software or other items makes me angry.

So far (day 2) the machine is great. I had to (decrapify) the computer but I was expecting that. The little guy has a great keyboard, fun to type on. The machine has no DVD or CD-rom drive. Not having a media drive is just fine with me, we don’t have any CD’s or DVD’s anymore. So far the battery life has been as expected 4 plus hours. It is now loaded with Windows 7 (x64) and has pretty good performance.

Overall, this will be my wife’s primary laptop that she takes with her and uses at home. I HP did a great job on this laptop.

After a little searching I found some methods that use “Bart PE” and some other slipstream ideas. It looked like I would be able to create a one use USB drive (XP or Vista) but not all versions.

I ended up using (WintoFlash) to create my bootable USB drive. I only tried this with XP but it mentioned that it works with other versions of windows.

I am now armed with a XP rescue USB that I can re-install an OS.

1st on my Media center / TiVo I lost the channel data (comcast no longer provides this to analog users) I have preferred basic
2nd – they are making me get a Digital cable box to use (has it’s own remote, and does the channel changing)
3rd – as far as I know there are not any options with a tuner card that will do or contain a cable card (since I have 2 tuners – I would need two of them)
- here is a quick post list of options with the DTA http://getsatisfaction.com/comcast/topics/using_pc_tv_card_and_windows_media_center_with_comcast_digital_tv_converter_box

I am a bit angry at comcast for this change. I get the new and improved service, but what about us techies and people using newer technology.

I have also been training more and running more often.  Running gives me time to think and if I run on the treadmill I get more time to watch movies.    The most recent movie was War Games 2 – (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0865957/). 

I love Netflix and use that in conjunction with my Media Center 7 system when I am running.  Media center makes recording TV (soccer) and watching Netflix really simple.

In my sparse spare time I have been attempting to sell almost all my old computer parts / stuff on craigslist.  I have made it a game that I try to sell something each week and pay for gas.  During the evenings I attempt to read some, recently I have finished 3 of the James Bond collection (Thunderball, From Russia with love, and Devil May Care ).   Another great title I have been reading and need to finish is O’Reilly – Inside Cyber Warfare.

It is worth the read.

http://blogmaverick.com/2010/02/24/senator-al-franken-is-requesting-user-caps-on-internet-bandwidth/

To do this you will need to install a small application Nullfile (http://www.feyrer.de/g4u/nullfile-1.02.exe) This allows the empty disk space / unused data bytes to be filled with zero-bytes. You can read more about this at (feyrer.de/g4u/)

Once you have the file copy it to your Virtual Image. Run a disk defrag on your Virtual box system. After running a few defrags, you now need to just run the nullfile.exe. You only need to doubleclick the .exe.

Once the file is done, shut down your virtual image.
Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where your vdi file is located. Mine is c:\vpc

Once in that directory we will be running the vboxmanage utility. On my Windows 7 pc it is located at C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe

Here is the command we will be using modifyhd -compact

“C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe” modifyhd -compact “c:\vpc\BaseXP.vdi”

Once this was completed my virtual image went from 4.3Gig to 2.7Gig.

Have fun with this utility. I was able to shrink my typical Windows 2008 server image to a much smaller size.

My absolute favorite : Web Guide (WebGuide) will not work with 7.  I hope they come up with some type of fix / new version

However, there are a few great plug-ins that you should look at for media center 7. 

Hack7mc has a great list that I think covers almost all of them.  The only item I think they missed was MyMovies.

So head on over and check out the list.  You should add this to your MC7:

http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/04/5-plug-ins-every-windows-7-media-center-install-should-be-using.html

The wonderful thing about this install was that there was no upgrade. You just get the joy of a fresh install.

I did use my new favorite installer (http://www.allmyapps.com) to get all my easy applications back.