Lord Madmunki

Due to the recent economy changes our WSG (Windows Support Group) at work has had an abundant supply of extra computer hardware, especially HP Thin Clients (T5720 and T5730). I am talking about several hundred of them collecting dust and waiting for the economy to recover. My interest in Windows Embedded sparked me to take one of each home and tinker with them…

The first thing I did was to take the thing apart so I can visually inspect the hardware. To my surprise these things were actually pretty decent! The T5720’s had an AMD 1 ghz cpu (upgradeable), 512mb ssd (upgradeable), 512mb DDR ram (upgradeable), and a pci slot. The T5730s have an AMD 1 ghz (upgradeable), 1gb ssd (upgradeable), 1gb ddr2 ram (upgradeable), and a pci slot!

So what can I do with the two thin clients? My first thought was to make a custom xp embedded image that runs IIS/ASP/NET…

The IIS Server
I downloaded the Windows Embedded Standard 2009 Trial and took a stab or two at creating a custom embedded image for the thin client. For the most part, I am able to get around. I havent figured out how to make an image into a binary and flashed to the SSD, but I am able to boot to a USB drive that has Window PE on it, and I can manually move my image to the SSD. The OS is booting and coming up, I can get to the desktop, but haven’t been able to get the IIS/ASP working correctly… Will come back to it later, as for now my attention deficit disorder is kicking in, and I’m off tinkering with another project…

The Source Code Control Server
Like all developers, I have a few personal projects that I work on that needs a Source Code Control (SCC). Although I am a “Microsoft Software Architect” I don’t always do the Microsoft thing. I am one of the few that can actually stand back, analyze the requirement and respect the best tool for the situation. My business requirement is simple:
1. Integrate with Visual Studio.
2. Free (or cheap) client licensing (accessible from the internet, may have a few renegade developers to help).
3. Secure! (See Requirement number 2).
4. Easy to administer
5. Run on an HP Thin Client hardware!

Visual Source Safe:
My first consideration was Windows XP (embedded?) and Microsoft Visual Source Safe Server (VSS). VSS is very outdated, so I worry about security, cost money, and recovering from repository corruption is an issue, however it is very easy to manage! However I decided to pass on it to look for something better.

Team Foundation Server:
Violates and sodomizes business requirement number 5.

Subversion/Linux:
Visual Studio integrates very well with subversion using VisualSVN. I use this combination at work and love it. Linux is very secure will easily run on the hardware, however I am not a linux guru and setting it up, backups and managing it would be an issue.

Subversion/XP:
Usually installing subversion on a windows operating system isn’t easy or preferred. However the guys at VisualSVN also make a VisualSVN Server! They package up apache & subversion and include an easy to use MMC snapin for administrating the repository. By using XP, I can also RDP (Remote Desktop) into the system from time to time to check the health.

Flash and Solid State Drives have a limited number of read/writes. So I decided to cannibalize an old P1-133 notebooks hard drive (2GB) and stuff it into one of the thin clients. This will make IO and space not an issue.

XP or XP Embedded?
Since I am using a normal hard drive, and only have a trial version of Windows Embedded 2009 I decided to go with a full version of Windows XP/SP3 and use XPLite to carve out some of the components that are not needed. I may convert it over to XP Embedded if I can get my grubby hands on a retail/full version of Windows Embedded Standard 2009…. anyone??

stay tuned, pics coming…

I have had my Xbox 360 for a few weeks now and have the following “guitar” games:

Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, and Rockband 2.

I have to say that Rockband 2 is a much better game than the Guitar Hero. The progression of the Guitar Hero tour is very linear, you have to play predetermined song list gig in order to progress to the next gig. So if a gig has a stupid song like (Muse - Knights of Cydonia) you have to complete it in order to advance to the next gig. Rockband is different. When you start the game you have a choice of 3-4 cities you can play in. Each city has a couple of gigs you can play. Each gig will have two or three preset songs (that you can play in any order, or not at all) and you can choose weather to play your own songlist, and/or a random songlist. Playing songs gives you stars for that gig (depending on how well you do) and you gain fans. The amount of fans and stars you have determine the unlocks. For example to unlock a certain gig or city, you need xx fans and xx stars. Instead of just unlocking gigs and songs, there is a story behind the unlocks on Rockband. I started in California (I made it my bands hometown), and only able to play in a couple cities in Cali, like San Fransisco, Los Angeles, etc. As you play the gigs in those cities and increase your star and fan count, you unlock a Bus. The Bus allows you to travel outside California (aka unlocking Boston, Dallas, Seattle, etc). Touring the United States and building fans/Stars you unlock the plane (giving you international travel?? haven’t unlocked it yet). So the game play of Rock Band 2 rocks! I am very impressed. Guitar Hero has a much better song list (imho). Guitar Hero’s song list is much more metal rock, while Rock Band is more new age alternative, which my wife likes better.

From the outside this looks like a pretty stupid game, slightly above playing air guitar.

Several months ago, a good friend of mine was talking about it one day, and I expressed my opinion about how stupid the game looks. He was going on and on how the game is really fun and he plans on buying Guitar Hero III for the Nintendo Wii next week. So the next time I was over (next week) he wanted to break out the Nintendo Wii and show me the game. He played a few songs and was showed me the song list. Being a rock/metal head there was a few songs I liked (SLAYER!), and so decided to give the “stupid game” a try… well, I was hooked… I called the wife on the way home that day telling her I GOTTA GET ONE and that weekend I picked up the Nintendo Wii and Guitar Hero III.

I started the game on easy difficulty, but easy is just too easy, medium is kinda easy, and there is a big difficulty gap between medium and hard. I managed to complete an entire “tour” on medium difficulty in about a week. Since then I have completed most of the Tour on hard difficulty, but there is just a few I cant do…

I looked into playing the other “guitar” games while I waited on Guitar Hero World Tour, but it seems the only other game I could play without having instrument compatibility issues is Guitar Hero 2. I could play the Rockband games (Rockband 1 & 2), but I would have to buy new controller(s) since the Guitar Hero controllers were not compatible. My buddy who got me into the game didn’t seem to mind the instrument compatibility issues and purchased Rockband games with new controllers. His living room now looks like a recording studio with 5 guitars & 2 drum sets.

So before buying anymore games, I waited until the latest Guitar Hero and Rockband were out and the instrument compatibility reports started coming in. After reading the reports, it seems that of all the platforms (Playstation 2/3, Wii & Xbox 360) the Microsoft Xbox 360 has the fewest issues. The Xbox 360 instruments (Guitar, Drums, Mic) for Guitar Hero are compatible with all the games; Rockband 1 & 2, Guitar Hero II, III, and Guitar Hero World Tour, and not to mention all the “add-on” packs (Aerosmith, AC/DC, etc). So if your a fan of these games, the Xbox 360 is the way to go. I ended up buying a Xbox 360 with the Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit. This is the perfect setup, as now I just need to buy the other games (not instruments) to play them.

Social Liberalism aka I don’t want to be responsible for my actions.

My boss is an extreme liberal. He will proudly tell you that the political line to him is a dot. So working with him I get a daily dose of liberalism, especially with today’s economy its pretty hard not to talk about the economy and politics. He is a guy that is so far left, that Hilary’s free socialize health care plan looks red to him. He wants the government to control everything, where you don’t have to take any responsibility yourself.

Here how things should work in his perfect world:

If you decided to use a hair dryer in the shower, that the hair dryer should automatically turn off enable to prevent you from electrocuting yourself.

If you had too much to drink, your car shouldn’t start.

Coffee machines should not be able to make coffee hot enough to burn (even if you intentionally pour the coffee on yourself).

Firearms should be able to check the target prior to firing.

After the government has paid all your bills, your given what is left of your paycheck.

He had a notebook computer come up missing that was in his possession. He feels it is not his fault or his responsibility to safe guard the computer that was given to him for testing an application. Prior to the computer coming up missing, I had told him several times that he needs to keep up with the computer and at least get it out of plain sight when no one is around to watch it, as he constantly leaving it sitting out on a desk in an empty cubical over weekends and holidays. He says that security is not his job, and that the building has hired security (This hired security is 2-3 people that control the front desk in a lobby of a 8 story building). How 2-3 people can monitor every valuable possession in an 8 story building, with approx. 1000 employees is a wonder. In his opinion, it’s not his problem that security is under staffed. Even after this incident, he still refuses to secure his daily work notebook that is in his cubicle, less than 7 feet from where that last notebook was stolen. Today he is out, and the notebook is there sitting on his desk completely unsecure (not to mention logged into the domain and sitting at the desktop)…

When looking for french onion recipes, I found quite a few variations to making French Onion Soup. There is even a website dedicated to the variations of making French Onion Soup! Many of the recipes do not specify which type of broth to use, and some of them even recommend using bullion cubes (yuk!), or omitting the cheese & crouton topping! So I found a recipe that I felt had the necessities of a good onion soup, beef broth, Gruyere Cheese and a good crouton! If I could cook like Gordon Ramsey, I would make this! Since I am not, I’ll have to settle with something a little more easier…

French Onion Soup
Ingredients:

2 tablespoon Oil
3 tablespoon Butter
6 cups thinly sliced Onions
1/2 teaspoon Sugar
2 1/2 quarts Beef Broth
1/2 cup Dry White Wine
sprig Fresh Thyme (optional)
Salt and Pepper, to taste
8 slices slightly stale French Bread
2 cup grated Gruyere Cheese

Preparation:
Heat the oil in a heavy 5-6 qt. pan. Add the butter. When the butter has melted, add the onions and cook slowly, covered for 10 minutes. Add the sugar and salt. Cook onions slowly until onions caramelize and turn to a rich brown color. Do not let them burn! This will take 45-60 minutes.
Add the wine and cook 5 minutes, still over low heat. Add the stock and check for seasoning. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.
To serve:
Toast the French bread slices until golden brown. Ladle the soup into a ovenproof bowl, add the toasted bread and cover with the cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 minutes or 5 minutes under a hot broiler.

This easy to make sausage gravy is excellent, and only takes a few minutes to make.

Ingredients:
1lb sausage roll
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
Salt & Pepper to taste
8 prepared biscuits

Directions:
Crumble and cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until browned.
Stir in flour until dissolved.
Stir in milk.
Simmer gravy until thick and bubbly.
Season with salt & pepper.
Serve hot on biscuits.