Gadget Man's Blog

Using SCVMM Console on a foreign Domain

2010-06-03T14:46:00.001+01:00

Microsoft designed windows AD Domains to put security boundaries around organisations, and enable structured administration of them. There are some times when you wish that your machine could be a member of more than one domain, but that is just not possible without setting up AD domain trusts etc. My home lab is a good example - My laptop is on my employer's domain where other people in other

Hyper-V Remote Management without Domains?

2010-06-02T12:57:00.000+01:00

If you have a home lab system, and dont run a 'real' AD domain, Hyper-V's remote admin tools can be un-cooperative. Until I discovered John Howard's Hyper-V Remote Management Configuration Utility that can fix all those annoying security issues that prevent two machines that dont have a domain from managing each other. 8-)

Twitter controlled lights?

2010-03-22T16:16:00.003Z

Just in case you though I'd gone away, here's a little hack to enable you to use Twitter to send commands to your BBSB (Bye Bye Standby) Online Controller.This is a software hack, involving no Arduino's or soldering(!) In this post, I use the Linksys NSLU2 Linux based NAS appliance, but I'm sure any Linux machine will happily play along with this, provided you've isntalled Perl. Once you're set

Putting your watts on the web (Part 2) for CC128 users!

2010-01-15T08:53:00.003Z

Just a quick update on the CurrentCost interfacing to the NSLU2. I posted earlier, thanks to manutitou over at pachube.com, he's figured out how to force the NSLU2 serial port to the higher default baud rate of 57600 that is needed for the CC128 CurrentCost.He tells me that this is working for him: (take a look at his feed)stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 speed 57600 raw cs857600stty < /dev/ttyUSB0speed

HomeEasy Update - Dave's Bedroom Light Controller

2009-12-04T20:42:00.010Z

Strap yourselves down, it's my biggest load of waffle ever....There's been quite a bit of activity over on the HomeEasy pages on Arduino.cc, and several people have mailed me to say that they have made progress with various HomeEasy related Arduino Projects. Hi to David Edmunson, for posting his latest project for an alarm clock, (above) - nicely done - like the interface, clearly, unlike me -

HomeEasy Meets Arduino - HomeEasy Automatic Protocol

2009-10-04T10:39:00.004+01:00

After several late nights on this one, I've finally cracked it. Thanks to Barnaby and Peter's postings on Arduino.cc I've managed to build an Arduino sketch that will send On/Off signals to a HomeEasy HE302 socket via a little 433 mhz transmitter.This code takes a HE device code (6 digits) and sends an on signal, then an Off signal.Code is here, If you want to build this, you just need a little

BBSB Meets Arduino (Part 3) Home Easy to BBSB Repeater

2009-09-26T19:48:00.004+01:00

Thanks to some sample code found here, I've churned out a handly little HomeEasy to ByeByeStandby RF Repeater. This little project will pick up selected HomeEasy Advanced Protocol devices (like the HE300 Remote and HE303 PIR) and translate them into any ByeByeStandby device code you want. Arduino Sketch is Here. PDF Build instructions are here. Thanks to Barnaby and Peter here, and several

Putting your Watts on the Web..

2009-09-21T20:48:00.008+01:00

Several people have blogged about their solution to publishing their electricity usage online. Here's our solution: Using a CurrentCost Classic, a cool little Linksys NSLU2 (Unslung), and Pachube, the excellent cloud based sensor monitoring service.Quite a few folks are activley monitoring using this hardware solution, but I think this solution gets the 'quick and dirty' award, as very little

Hyper-V RDP Issues on Windows 2008? - Disable yer Large Send Offload.

2009-09-11T19:16:00.005+01:00

Nasty one this - Hyper-V on Windows 2008 R2 just wouldnt give a stable network connection for remote desktop to Guests, and the host sometimes.I spent hours searching for a solution on the net, fiddling with Netsh, MTU sizes, switches and NIC drivers, until I spotted this blog entry. Turn off the Large Send Offload setting on the NIC. POW Fixed. Thanks to Daniel Petri. No reboot required.

BBSB Meets Arduino (Part 2)

2009-06-19T21:25:00.004+01:00

Ok, So a better BBSB Repeater project would be able to do everything the previous post refers to, AND be able to recieve BBSB codes and send them to the BBSB Controller - unfortunatley this requires some interrupt driven Arduino magic, which I havent been able to get working - so , as the king of unfinished masterpieces - here is an RF->Network only repeater version. Arduino Sketch is here.You

BBSB meets Arduino (Part 1) - updated.

2009-06-14T18:25:00.006+01:00

In the first of several posts, here's a nifty little project that may help if you have radio signal range issues with your ByeByeStandby (BBSB) Online Controller. We have lots of thick brick walls at home, and the controller cant send messages to all our sockets:I have to admit, this work has been 90% google and 10% coding - there are already libraries for Arduino on the net that can transmit

iPeng for IPhone and SqueezeCenter

2009-05-18T08:51:00.004+01:00

Do you like the idea of multiroom audio, Sonos or Squeezebox Duet? (Image: http://penguinlovesmusic.de/ )Well, if you have one (or more) squeezebox players, and an iPod Touch/iPhone, how about iPeng?This little £5.99 iPhone app by Coolio is actually more pretty than the Squeezebox Duet remote, and if you have a iPod touch or iPhone works really nicely over your WiFi connection - it even 'finds'

Update: Squeezecenter on Synology CS407

2009-05-18T08:35:00.002+01:00

Our music library is quite large, and is slowing down our Media Center PC as it lives on our home NAS. I just moved SlimCenter to our Synology CS407 NAS where our music lives for better performance.If you want to get IRBlaster (see below) to work on the Linux/Synology version of SqueezeCenter, then there are a couple of spookily similar little tweaks required:IRBlaster will give the 'unable to

Taming the Logitech Squeezebox - Controlling your amplifier!

2009-05-05T20:24:00.004+01:00

Some time ago Logitech launched the excellent Squeezebox Duet multiroom capable audio system. Naturally, I bought one seeing as I was already very impressed with the Squeezebox 3. Now, if you have dribbled over the Multiroom Sonos audio system, one of the things you can do with this system (and more expensive built-in systems), is start/stop and control music in any room where there is a player -

New version of SleepTool with BBSB V2 Support

2009-03-01T09:31:00.004Z

If you have one of those nifty ByeByeStandby online controllers, you may have upgraded it to the new V2 firmware, or just bought it with that on.Here's a new version of my SleepTool system-tray utility, this version has BBSB V2 support, so you can now send your PC to sleep with a BBSB V2 controller.As ever, please dont use this as a shining example of how to code in VB6, the code quality in here

Is this the Treos last stand?

2009-01-05T20:46:00.000Z

Shiny newish htc s620 has arrived. Treos meet your ebay maker.Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Taming the Linksys DMA2100

2008-10-25T22:38:00.005+01:00

We aquired a DMA2100 a couple of months ago to replace our CAT-5 S-Video boxes, for some increased picture quality- it's an impressive little unit, but there are some issues..There have been a number of posts on the GreenButton here that indicate that MS/Linksys didnt really think through the real-world behaviour of people's extenders and their MCE machines.If your MCE machine goes to sleep

WakeUpTool (!) - Waking up your PC's with Domia Lite or BBSB Network Controller

2008-09-08T10:16:00.005+01:00

If you've been reading closely, you'll have discovered an application on my blog for 'Sleeping' PC's on reciept of a configured Domia Lite / BBSB device code or event. Well, for some time, I've been pondering a solution to the other problem - that of 'waking up' PC's according to a Domia Lite command.Now, you could take the brutal approach, and put a Domia Appliance Module on the power feed for

Another new build.. SleepTool 1.0.23

2008-08-17T11:09:00.002+01:00

Oops, dumbo bug in the last build, meaning that if you wanted to send DLC commands from the application, you needed to specify your device codes with a trailing Zero.Oops. Fixed in this build - thanks to StephenN for pointing out that it didnt work in the previous 1.0.22 build.Download build 1.0.23

New version of SleepTool for BBSB/Domia Lite

2008-08-09T10:16:00.004+01:00

Crikey, it's been a little while since I posted - sorry about that - I'm still here honest.This new version of SleepTool is a masterpiece of unfinished work, it does however now have code in it to support sending of BBSB/Domia codes to the BBSB Online Controller.Reposting this due to broken links etc, code is included if you can still remember VB6 - enjoy.Download ZIP of binary and VB 6 code.I'd

Update: BBSB Controller availability and Support..

2008-02-22T09:49:00.003Z

I've had a few comments from readers about getting support for the BBSB Online Controller and related items.I followed this up with Domia, and they confirm that they will respond within 24 hours on weekdays to e-mail support requests to 'Technical at SimplyAutomate .co .uk". - so if you have questions or issues with controllers , or the website service give that a try.I'm also pleased to confirm

Domia Lite or Home Easy?

2008-02-18T20:15:00.005Z

Further fuel to the rumour that actually B&Q's 'HomeEasy' range manufactured by Byron is actually spookily similar to Domia's Domia Lite range appeared today on Simply Automates new look online store:On the left is the HomeEasy HE200 , On the right, is the new Domia Lite 'Timer' ...hmm.New on the SimplyAutomate online store: http://www.simplyautomate.co.uk/acatalog/domialite.html is item above,

Windows Home Server: What's inside..

2008-02-02T21:33:00.000Z

I couldn't resist trying out Windows Home Server recently, so I sent off for the 180day eval DVD set and it arrived the other day.Interestingly, a lot of the useful features are quite straightforward to implement on a normal Windows XP or Vista workstation, or on Linux if you're that way inclined.A .homeserver.com Domain Name and SSL Cert.Access to the server remotley is under SSL encryption in

Network events from the BBSB controller!

2008-01-18T20:38:00.002Z

Great news on the BBSB Online controller front -How to get controller events on your local Lan - something that has been a bit of a mystery to us.Reader Marcus J has posted a comment on my earlier BBSB Online Review about how he set about writing his own software to control the BBSB controller device locally on his LAN. - While we'd already discovered how to 'control devices' by talking direct to

Does your Media Center sleep through the night?

2008-01-13T18:25:00.000Z

Mine does, but initially not the way I wanted it to.. so:You'll all know that you can set the power management settings in Vista, and MCE2005 to Sleep/Hibernate your MCE PC when it's not being used, but this doesnt take account of 'fixed time events', like when you go to bed at night for example, and doesnt ensure that the MCE machine is 'awake' when you want it to be - like when you sit down to

A critical Media Center process has failed

2008-01-02T16:34:00.000Z

I dont usually rant on here, but this one has got me all annoyed.My Vista Media Center machine has been in 'production' in the house for a good 5 months now, and apart from a few annoyances (see below), it's been relativley plain sailing.Until the christmas hols that is:Just when it was time to book in all the rubbish xmas TV recordings over the festive season, I got the ominous 'A critical Media

Do you have enough Cat5?

2007-11-28T20:15:00.000Z

Like me, you might have sneaked a few CAT-5 cables into the walls when you were decorating, or maybe you've strung some across the loft to move your network from place to place. You probably also thought, "Hey, I'll never need more than a couple will I?" - So did I , until I needed a 3rd to the same place for another device.So, there is an easy answer here, put in a Switch, or a Hub. However,

Using AutoDVRConvert on Vista Media Center..

2007-11-04T19:18:00.000Z

If you've followed my post below about Pete Tong living on my IPod, and you have a Vista Media Center, you'll be a bit stuck right now, because the steps using AutoDVRConvert dont work in the way described on Vista.Never fear! - here's how to fix the conversion - it's not AutoDVRConvert at all that causes the problem, it's the LAME mp3 DirectShow encoder I linked to below.Do the following from a

Juice and Vista Media Center

2007-10-31T20:29:00.001Z

Juice, the popular podcast catching application works quite nicely on XP Media Center, but doesnt behave that well by default in Vista Media Center , as it was never written for Vista.People keep asking me this, so here's the solution - having had to figure the last part out again because I forgot 8-) - it is possible to make it work just fine in Vista .. here's how:Building on Chris Pirillo's

BBSB Office

2007-10-12T18:02:00.000+01:00

Just as I'd pressed the submit button on the review below, look what Domia are launching at the E2 Energy Solutions Expo in London:http://www.byebyestandby.co.uk/byebyestandbyoffice.htmlThis includes, from the initial information on the site above:Some more 'secure' appliance modulesA different RemoteA 'PC' Service (perhaps similar to that described in my wishlist below) that can tell appliance

Bye Bye Standby ONLINE Review - Outsourced Home Automation anyone?

2007-09-05T20:42:00.000+01:00

I've now completed this review, and re-posted it in one section so it's easier to read - enjoy.I refer to Domia Lite and Bye Bye Standby (BBSB) in the same breath here - the devices are one and the same from a hardware standpoint, and cross-compatible.IntroductionDomia have released the much anticipated 'bye bye standby online' controller - this little box , about the size of 1/2 a Netgear router

Bye Bye Standby..

2007-05-07T17:37:00.000+01:00

Noticed there werent too many reviews on the net for the Domia 'Bye Bye Standby' product, so I thought I'd post my experiences with it:Essentially, it's a big stick-up (or screw-up) switch, that when you press the 'green' bit, it turns off all the bye bye standby mains switch units (or in Home Automation speak Domia Lite 1000w Appliance Modules) , and turns them back on again when you press the '

Pete Tong lives on my IPOD

2006-11-10T21:01:00.000Z

Sometimes gadgets are irritating, they do almost everything you want. - I can record Pete Tong on my Media Center, but had to think about how to put him on my IPOD...This, with some help from some excellent utilities on the internet, is how I turned my Media Center 2005 PC into private podcast feed of recorded TV shows just for my IPOD:Firstly, this works for anything you've recorded on Media

Update: Caller ID

2006-10-14T16:15:00.000+01:00

In response to a request for the nasty VB app code to interface to the CD50 Caller-display, here it is if you want to get the unit outputting phone numbers of incoming calls into your applications or Media Center (using the details in my previous post below) , the VB app shells a batch file with any name known or number from the incoming call, from which point you can integrate easily into

Living in Harmony (688)

2006-03-31T14:48:00.000+01:00

I dont know about you, but our living room had 7 Remote controls on the armchair, and frankly watching anything other than just the TV involved switching stuff on, selecting inputs, and finally changing channels. -- and dont get the wife started on why we need 'em all!Most people who have a home cinema system suffer from this I imagine, and if you have a significant other, they probably suffer

Ring Ring!

2006-01-27T07:12:00.000Z

Ok. Not content with Media Center, and distributing it to all the TV's in the house, it was time to add some gadgetry to the telephone.Caller ID to Media CenterThere are a number of caller-id interfaces for the British telephone system, which present the callers number to a serial port interface while the phone is ringing. Apparently UK Phones use a different system to most of the rest of the

The Media Centre of the universe...

2006-01-06T20:20:00.000Z

I have some friends who are *deeply* into home automation, and have motorised curtains, talking bookcases and all that, but somehow, I just couldnt face routing out all those cabling runs all over again and laying more cables 8-)My PVR SetupFor about 2 1/2 years, I've kicked myself for not buying a Tivo - that you could get in the UK, for a while, and as the supply of 'display' ones dried up in

2005-08-20T17:40:00.000+01:00

friday wrote mrs kiplingthere are downsides to being on holiday and not having a clue what is going on in the world - not that weather reports are generally that accurate but if I had known it was going to pee down with rain I may not have chosen flip flops and a long floaty skirt on my shopping yesterday.still, at least we got to use our ponchos ! (we're not proud).did my shopping penance today

2005-08-19T14:46:00.000+01:00

Thursday wrote mr kipling..... Visited Madame Tussauds for the first time in about ten years... and then remembered why this was. All the people there were completely different from last time as you'd expect, but then came the clincher... Remember the London Planetarium you might have visited as a kid? those fantastic stars and photographs of planetary landscapes?.. that projection contraption

2005-08-17T20:59:00.000+01:00

day - whatever plus umm two.....guess where we ended up today !we made it - yahoo and other suitably cheerful phrases.of course - having managed to meet brother for lunch we cheated for the very last time and got on a boat to grenwich pier - well, we thought we should finish in the style to which we have become accustomed !its still quite a way from the pier to the barrier though as we were good

2005-08-16T21:07:00.000+01:00

Day whatever + 1: Hammersmith to Pimlico A slightly delayed start today, we overslept! Breakfast was 'inc' this morning, so we donned our boots yet again (eugh!) and marched on..As we observed the other day, the river is much wider, and there are far less boats.We spent much of the day at the 'London Wetlands Centre', an amazing wildlife centre built from the remains of a redundant resevoir in

2005-08-15T21:34:00.000+01:00

day - whateverwell, breakfast was not inc this morning so we packed up and headed off for a breakfast bagel at maccy d's. perfect for curing our sake hangovers - one shot between the pair of us so that we could say we'd tried it - didn't know it was served hot. I don't think the waitress knew what to make of my gurning attempts as I tried frantically to swallow.breakfast done we wandered along

2005-08-14T22:36:00.000+01:00

Day 16 - I think but who cares!. If there was a title for todays entry it would be 'Sushi and the man with chips in his handbag'Spent a day roaming Hampton court Palace today, much walking but mostly under instructions from one of those talking tourguide things round your neck. Hampton court truly is huge, and (with many of my waking hours thinking about food) I noted that the kitchens they had

2005-08-13T19:41:00.000+01:00

day - we've lost count and I think I got it wrong yesterday - martyn thinks 14 so we'll go with that.only a little walk today - 6 and a bit miles through sunbury and molesy to hampton court. Highlights of the day include viewing sunbury regatta from the opposite bank and walking through the concrete bollards of the old ww2 anti tank defenses. We did find a cool sundial in hurst park though - you

2005-08-12T21:37:00.000+01:00

day 14 - windsor to shepperton.last day of cheating today - we got the boat to runnymede. Made up for this by walking four miles around the site and also walking to america ! - those of you in the know will remember that the queen donated the acre of land the jfk memorial is on to america - we were okay though - apparently they are good enough to assume we were pilgrims and so didn't require a

2005-08-11T21:13:00.000+01:00

Day 13 - 'Kay and the fuzzy hat men'just before we get on to our exploits with a serious castle I felt I had to mention camelot - which we came across yesterday.....doesn't look so bad in the picture but believe me - 'tis a silly place !We explored windsor today, one of those strange things isn't it, you travel all over the world, but you never properly explore what's on your doorstep. (well *our

2005-08-10T21:35:00.000+01:00

Day 11 (we think) Hurley to Windsor (maam). We think she's here because the flag is flying..either that or its out to dry because they washed it. Speaking of which kay has turned our already v small hotel room into something of a chinese laundry - something to do with our socks being able to walk by themselves I think.....Bit of downsizing today, from the *largest* hotel room we have ever seen (

2005-08-09T20:46:00.000+01:00

Day 10 - Henley to Hurley (no liz)just a baby walk today - six and a bit miles so we wandered into henley to buy lunch and then meandered very slowly along the riverbank whilst I astounded martyn with my rowing knowledge (most of which I gleaned from the museum yesterday but which provided very useful cover for me to ogle the rowers nice shoulders !)I tried to distract him further by motivating

2005-08-08T22:06:00.000+01:00

Day 9 - Reading to Henley. Awoke to a nice hotel breakfast and a newspaper this morning, stuff the camping lark. Realised that although we'd been skilful in selecting a nice hotel for tomorrow night, neither of us could find the piece of paper with the name or address of it on. Still after a moment of amused panic, I realised that I had yet another chance to bankrupt myself by using Google on

2005-08-07T21:20:00.000+01:00

Day 8 - Burghfield to Reading (!).Refreshed after our brief stop, we left with fresh supplies of clothing (most important), no tent, no sleeping bags, and no other camping gear to weigh us down!. By far the best way to get into central Reading on foot is to follow the canal path along the Kennet and Avon canal. We picked it up at the cunning man pub (after a brief stop for refreshment), and

2005-08-06T20:06:00.000+01:00

day 7 - a trip to see the rarer wildlife along the thames (not) - martyn said he'd take me back to my roots so we went to monkey world in Dorset for the day. (no, we didn't walk there)After a not inconsiderable amount of time spent in traffic, and some impressive gymnastics to move from the front passenger seat to the back seat so we could get to our lunch (cunningly left in the boot) we arrived

2005-08-05T21:54:00.000+01:00

day 7 - wittenham to ermmmm burghfield common (ahem).yes well - unscheduled stop facilitated bya car journey home and caused by waking up to rain, sore legs and a very sore throat this morning. Hotel parents had another booking tonight so we had to move on somewhere and quite frankly my legs were going nowhere manually !Anyway after sleeping the day away in my own bed I felt much better and we

2005-08-04T20:08:00.000+01:00

Thursday - Day 6. A nice peaceful morning on the river. Took the Salter brothers river cruise from Oxford to Abingdon, weaving its way like the 30 ton beast that it is. Interestingly (or crucially if you're a 30 ton boat), the river is much wider here and there is quite a bit more boat traffic.Kay also notes that Salters also do a number of other services to other towns on our route to London...

2005-08-03T20:20:00.000+01:00

Day 5 - Oxford to um Oxford.Stepped outside this morning into warm sunshine, and had a continental breakfast at the cafe across the road.Back on schedule today, investigated the boat trip itinerary for tomorrow's little 'cheat' down the river to Abingdon.Demonstrated my skills as a tourguide today, getting us completely dis-orientated in the centre of the town where I grew up as a lad. Managed to

2005-08-02T20:40:00.000+01:00

Day 4 - Tadpole bridge to ... er Oxford. What an interesting day we have had. Started early morning at 8.45, a cool mist greeted us as we started our walk. Despite looking like a kayak, the orange bag is a 'survival bag'. Apparently for use in emergencies. Well apart from burning it, I don't see what use it would have been in helping us with our emergency last night - not sure if it is the cooker

2005-08-02T07:40:00.000+01:00

Day 3 - letchlade to the trout inn (again). Yes there are two trout inns one after the other!. Not so original with their names round these parts. Saw some herons today, a very large bull (in all departments). Why do cows always congregate near the style that leads out of the field??. Kay was propositioned by an elderly gentleman today from his river boat: 'I say.are you going all the way?'....

2005-07-31T17:16:00.000+01:00

day 2 - cricklade to letchlade, 10.something miles. Still not much of a river in these parts, Saw two Germans on bikes, two Herons (they didn't have bikes), and a white slug. There were also a number of dragon flies.Much of the path at this point goes through fields and can be quite narrow, with some nasty nettles and thistles (martyn knew this, so didn't wear his shorts today, unlike his wife..

2005-07-30T20:41:00.000+01:00

day one - saw two herons, a stoat, fifteen slugs and lots of birds we didn' t know the names of.not surprisingly source of thames was dry as a bone - had to walk about four miles before we saw water! feet hurt, legs ache, shoulders sore but we made it - not so far tomorrow. more then.[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

2005-07-29T12:31:00.000+01:00

Well. this is it. we don't appear to have fully sorted out our packing yet. We do however know where we are going but not exactly how long it will take to get there!We also have no idea how we will carry 3 weeks of clothes, food and our tent when it all is so heavy. maybe we should have a large river barge to tow all our belongings on.[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

2005-04-26T21:52:00.000+01:00

Well, expect to see a few more of shots like this as we 'do' the entire thames path this summer......[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/ from a treo 600 smartphone... oh yes. My blogging has gone mobile. 8-) Norm. This thing is awsome. The scrappy ol' treo camera isnt so bad after all I think.]650 still hasnt made it to the UK, but hey, theres' so much fun to be had with