JacobyTech Blog

I just found a simple little utility to resize entire folders of photos quickly and easily.  It’s free, it doesn’t need an install, and it works pretty well.

The unusual part about it is that it works differently depending on what you name the executable.  You can see what I mean by reading the information on the developer’s website.  But basically, you use their online tool to generate a filename for their executable, based on what your requirements are, then you download the program and change the program’s name to whatever their online tool gives you.  Then, simply drag a folder full of pictures onto the executable and watch it work!

I just tested it at the school that I’m working at today and it’s pretty amazing.  It dropped the total size of a folder of pictures (124 of them to be exact) down from 174MB down to 12.5MB.  I had them resized to a screen-friendly and web-friendly 1280 x 851 pixels (although I set it to 1280 x 1024).

You can do the same thing with other software, but most are more complex to use and cost lots of money, sometimes in upwards of $500.

Give it a shot!  http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

THIS is what’s wrong with the cloud.  Companies that have “Terms of use” statements like Amazon’s current one. Here’s an excerpt:

1. 5.2.Our Right to Access Your Files.You give us the right to access, retain, use and disclose your account information and Your Files: to provide you with technical support and address technical issues; to investigate compliance with the terms of this Agreement, enforce the terms of this Agreement and protect the Service and its users from fraud or security threats; or as we determine is necessary to provide the Service or comply with applicable law.
2. 5.3.Security.We do not guarantee that Your Files will not be subject to misappropriation, loss or damage and we will not be liable if they are. You’re responsible for maintaining appropriate security, protection and backup of Your Files.

Read more…

Just found two linux software solutions that appear to be alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows Home Server Operating System.  They look promising, although they don’t have the “automatic backup” functionality that WHS provides for its client computers.  I haven’t tried WHS yet, nor these alternatives, but if you’re looking to use something like WHS, give these a look while you’re at it.  Just check what’s included, you might be surprised!

Zentyal: http://www.zentyal.org/

SME Server: http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page

Amahi: http://www.amahi.org/

ClearOS (formerly ClarkConnect): http://www.clearfoundation.com/ (Don’t know about this one as a WHS alternative, but I’m looking into it).  Right now, it looks more like a gateway product, much like Untangle

While looking at other things today, I inadvertently stumbled upon other software solutions that might be alternatives to WHS too.  They’re pretty much just network file storage systems (NAS’s), but one of them has other features such as IP Camera support (security cameras), Mobile access and apps for, you guessed it, iPhone and Android, and a bunch of other features. It’s called Synology, and they seem to only sell the hardware and isn’t free like some of the others.

FreeNAS: http://www.freenas.org (I’ve written about this one before).

Synology: http://www.synology.com/us/

From http://isoc.org/wp/worldipv6day/:
On 8 June, 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks will be amongst some of the major organisations that will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test flight”. The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

Test your connection now at: http://test-ipv6.com/

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/forms/12794-advanced-bluevoda-form-processor.html

Haven’t actually tried this yet, but I’m posting the link in case I have time to test it out sometime.  Looks like it might work well, and it says that it doesn’t require “Blue Voda”, whatever that is.

I’ve recently had some issues with new installations of Exchange servers that were trying to send out NDR responses to spammers, which quickly filled the Exchange Queues and delayed emails.
This article explains what and why this happens, and also helps you fix the problem.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Server_Software/Email_Servers/Exchange/A_4257-Exchange-2007-2010-Backscatter-and-how-to-resolve-it.html

I have a few customers that run Windows Small Business Servers, and with using the default configuration, the server’s hard drive space can be completely filled in a matter of months by old updates.  This is because of the WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) service that runs by default in SBS machines in order to keep all computers up to date and to prevent all of your computers from downloading the same updates over and over again.

However, if left unchecked, it could prevent your users from saving files, especially if you have folder redirection enabled.

It’s simple to reclaim the wasted disk space that has been used by the overzealous downloading of the WSUS server as long as you know what to do.

So for those who don’t know how to cleanup their WSUS server, I will provide some simple instructions on how to do so:

Read more…

But apparently I didn’t.

I’ve been using MDT2010 for Windows 7 deployments for a few months now, and I gotta say, it’s a pain in the rear sometimes.

I heard about FOG a while ago and thought that I posted information about it, but I don’t see that I did.  So, if you’re looking for a free way to image computers (even Win 7) give FOG a shot: http://sourceforge.net/projects/freeghost/

Now, you’ll need a Linux computer to run it on.  If you don’t have one, you can try using VirtualBox and install Ubuntu on a virtual machine in order to run it.

I haven’t quite found out if it’s possible to do via this configuration yet, and I’m unsure about having client systems being able to boot from a virtual PXE host, but if you can’t get that working then try to find a decent system that you can just turn into a dedicated linux FOG server.

Well, I’m off to download all the files I need in order to try this out.  Wish me luck!

Should be fun.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html