2/9/10: Calendar data has been entered and is now updated every 15 minutes with my live schedule!
2/7/10: Fixed many broken video links on the site. Also added the calendar page back into the website. Expect calendar data to become available within a few weeks.
I feel like starting this post on the topic of recycling. If you are like me, you have heard of the 3 R’s. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the 3 R’s are Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse. A good portion of the news and current events in society encourage recycling and saving the environment. For the most part, the world is moving towards saving the environment and the world as we know it, and that is great.
You may be asking what the heck does the movement to save the environment have to do with an IP title. IP stands for Internet Protocol and the internet runs on this protocol (means of communication). When using IP, your computer uses an address that makes it reachable by all other computers in the world. Normally, you can think of IP as the United States Postal Service (USPS) and an IP Address as your mailing address or P.O. box. The internet currently uses 2 major versions of IP, version 4 and version 6. IP version 4 has been around since the dawn of the internet and can support a little over 4 billion computer addresses at once. Due to special addresses within the IP version 4 range, only about 2 billion of these addresses are actually usable. Due to this limitation, IP version 6 was born around 10 years ago to support a much bigger address system (it still has a limit, but its far bigger than anything could ever use). The problem is, IP version 6 is going to be a pain to shift to because it will require everyone to switch at once. Most system admins believe in not fixing something unless its broke, which could hinder this a lot.
Quite a few years back, there were a few ranges of ip addresses that were reserved to be private addresses. This means that if you used a private address, no router on the internet would accept traffic from this range of addresses and forward it onto other networks. This allowed for the usual wireless router at home with that all too familiar ip address 192.168.0.1 or something similar. I’m sure if you’ve ever touched one of these, you would see that number somewhere in the documentation. The idea of this is to put a bunch of computers behind a single internet ip version 4 address and allow all the computers to communicate with the internet without actually needing to be directly on the internet. This process is called Network Address Translation (NAT) and all routers practice this. the 192.168.0.x range allows for 255 computers to be connected simultaneously. For bigger networks in need of more addresses, there is the 10.x.x.x where x is a variable number from 1-255. This allows for many more computers, about 16 milion addresses to be a bit more precise.
Technically, using all 10.x.x.x network addresses on the internet, we could likely last a long time to come without requiring IP version 6. So, why don’t we use more private addressing?
I asked myself a very good question, and my answer is that I don’t know. Obviously, we need to have public IP addresses to some degree to allow for websites, virtual private network gateways, and other services to the internet. Putting internet accessible services behind NAT devices would knock out the entire internet. On the other hand (and the main purpose of this post) is that there are several universities and companies and institutions that horde public IP addresses and do absolutely nothing with them.
A prime example of this hording can be seen here at the University at Buffalo. UB owns a class B block of ip addresses 128.205.x.x and recently licensed another block of ip addresses in another range to support their continued growth. Normally I wouldn’t be against this, but UB is in a tight position because the state government is failing at maintaining a good budget and IP addresses now cost a lot since there aren’t many left. UB probably gets a volume discount, but for me, I pay $20/year for each public IP address that I am assigned and most of that cost goes directly to the naming corporation that handles all IP addresses. This is a classic supply and demand problem. Also, UB firewalls most of their IP addresses entirely, I can name no more than 20 computers on the UB network as a whole that I’ve accesses that absolutely need access to the internet (Web servers, etc). The rest of the UB network computers are holding onto valuable public IP addresses that are 100% fire walled and inaccessible from the outside world. Why does UB waste money and horde IP addresses that it doesn’t need?
Many other universities like Berkley, and Princeton have similar sizes of IP address blocks and I’m sure that they do the same basic stuff. Now onto the ISPs. Wildblue and Verizon both assign public unfirewalled IP addresses to their customers. I can see why they might do this, but really, do customers need a public IP address just to potentially compromise the network and the internet computers around them? Probably not.
I really feel that public IP addresses should only be handled by the major internet providers and datacenters that handle internet accessible servers. Private companies that want real IP addresses should need to justify the use of those addresses. If this was enacted, I’m sure that the internet addressing crisis would be a lot less of a problem.
Nat can definitely be the key to fixing the problem, but first, these big institutions that horde IP addresses need to give those addresses up and use them as they need them, just like many of the major hosting companies currently do.
At the time of beginning this post… it is 12:01am Eastern Time, January 1, 2010. My first words are: Happy New Year! and Happy new decade! Hopefully this decade will bring a lot more fortune than the last one I just want to quickly look back on the last 10 years of my life and the funniest videos of the year that I’ve found.
Ten years ago from today, I did not know much about a computer. I can assure you that I did not know how to turn one on, and I only had a slight clue about what the internet was. At the time, I had high hopes of becoming an electrical engineer and I loved playing around with circuits. I was also much younger and had a lot to learn (obviously). I also wasn’t entirely sure about what all the Y2K stuff was all about, so it didn’t really affect me. Finally, a last tiny tidbit… I have spent *every* new year of my life in my own bedroom here at home. I might be a few feet off from the same position each year, but I’ve basically in the same spot. This is only the third year of my life that I’ve been up to witness the new year come in.
So, how does it feel? I doesn’t feel any different… its just another day. For some people, its an iconic day I suppose, being a new year and all, but for me, nothing has really changed. I will continue to live and will continue to do what I do every day. The only difference is, I will have to get over the annoyance of not remembering to write 2010 on any documents I create for at least the next few weeks (probably about a month or two in reality).
2009 brought me 8 hard drive failures in various machines that I’ve worked on, 2 being my own. It also brought some bad fortune with the passing of my grandmother. On the brighter side, it brought Windows 7, Microsoft Exchange, XM Radio, 2 new Laptop computers, a new server, and the magic of Verizon wireless high speed internet here at home. It also brought me a wonderful job at my college and lots of new knowledge about computers. Overall, 2009 for me was a decent year, especially considering the killing I made on Ebay selling Michael Jackson dolls (I sold quite a few within the first day after his death). Of all the stuff that 2009 brought, perhaps the biggest was a new and improved FamousPhil.com. Within the next few weeks, FamousPhil.com will change slightly again to become more smooth in color transitions
In 2009, I watched a lot of amazing video. I think its time to share some of the more memorable youtube links of the best videos I saw in 2010! I’m also going to leave this blog post here. I hope that your 2009 was as enjoyable as mine and that your 2010 brings good tidings Enjoy!
Ancient Modem that still works (seen on Yahoo for several weeks back in June, 2009)
World’s Fastest Speed Reader reading the original Health Care Bill – Cavuto (Fox News)
Glen Beck – Turtles on TV (You may have to get half way through this partially edited clip)
Next up is from a movie that was hilarious (Monsters vs. Aliens). I also liked High School Musical 3.
I discovered something about geiko!
And finally, the video that combines it all together perfectly!
As of yesterday, Microsoft’s Exchange 2010 team announced the release of the Exchange 2010’s RTM here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/10/08/452775.aspx#comments. This is exciting news because I can finally request the RTM and begin migrating my systems to the new Exchange. I have been waiting a few months now for this release because it will be the start of many changes to my web hosting services as well that I need to take further steps to secure and improve performance on.
For those of you who don’t know what an RTM is, this is the Release to Manufacturing version that usually becomes the full version within a few months automatically. Unlike Release Candidates, the RTM version of any software packages will become the full version meaning they don’t require any re-installation or pose any security threats to use in production.
Exchange 2010 is important for me because it will introduce the send as function like hotmail and other providers have. I have many email addresses, but my University at Buffalo address is my most important, so I send as my @ Buffalo address. With 2010, this will no longer be the case because I will reply to email as the address it was sent to. I believe this will prevent a lot of confusion to contacts that don’t recognize my university address.
With Exchange 2010, I will also be upgrading the hardware that hosts my email infrastructure. I will be supporting Server 2008 R2 which is the latest operating system for Windows Server. I believe this was only fully released a few days ago and it is very similar to Windows 7. For those of you who don’t keep up with new releases of Windows, Windows 7 will be released to everyone late this month. I am currently using the RTM version of Windows 7 and I find that it is about 10x faster and more stable than Windows XP. Compared to Windows Vista, I’d say its about 50x more stable, faster, and more efficient. Since Server 2008 is Vista’s server operating system, I prefer to stay away from Server 2008 entirely.
For those of you who are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, I’d strongly recommend it! First, if you are running Windows Vista, you’d be nuts not to goto Windows 7 within a few months of its final release. Windows 7 is practically the same but much more efficient. You will find that everything will be much easier to use on Windows 7 than Windows Vista. For those of you on Windows XP, it might be time to bite the bullet and upgrade (like I did). For the most part, if your system runs Windows XP fine, it will not have any issues running Windows 7 fine. I did find a few minor problems with XP applications (mostly MIDI musical instrument related) not working on Windows 7, but support is fairly good otherwise. Just one word of caution to the developers out there, if you want to run Visual Studio 2005/2008 on Windows 7, don’t install any Microsoft Office 2007 compatibility pack or PDF package. These will make Visual Studio’s Installation fail (on my preliminary tests).
Now to get into some security updates. I plan on migrating all of my systems to a more secure environment shortly after Exchange 2010 is fully implemented. I will have 1 gateway server that serves as a connection point for all services within Matthouse to keep everything tightened down. Within the next few months you can expect performance increases on sites that I host including my own (this one).
I have a lot more to blog about, and I hope to get around to it all as time permits. My next blog will hopefully be something about mail filtering.
For as long as I can remember, I have always had multiple computers on that I use simotaneously. With multiple computers sitting on the same desk, I have always had a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Unfortunately, the tray under my desk only has room for a single keyboard and mouse. This means that I often clutter my desk unnecessarily with an extra keyboard and mouse.
Another unfortunate fact is that I have tendinitis in both of my wrists. Putting my hands on the keyboard and mouse that sits on the top of the main desk really hurts my wrist and hand to the point where I can’t bear the pain. This pain has triggered me to find alternative solutions to using the same keyboard and mouse that sits where I can easily use them without the pain.
One of my best solutions up until today has been using a KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switch. This essentially connects many physical computers to the same KVM. This works fine on a single monitor setup when I only need one screen at one given time. What happens when I need to have access to several monitors at once when I’m trying to read something and work on it at the same time? There simply isn’t enough room on a single 17″ monitor!
It has been a while, but I’ve been moving back to college and such and haven’t really had the time to write new blogs about technical topics. I hope that after this next week is through, my normal college schedule will be finalized and any bugs in the FamousPhil calendar / countdown system will be fixed (yes, there are bugs ). This is a blog that I drafted about 4 months ago, but haven’t really finished until now, so I feel that now is an appropriate time to open the topic then provide video / photos later. Read the rest of this entry »
A week ago, I noticed that Microsoft has released Windows 7 (the release to companies and their developer network users) to my MSDN account. I have been a long user and have sworn by it because at service pack 3, it is very stable, fast and secure. Windows Vista came out and I gave it a quick look and decided that it was too big of a pig for what little it improved on from XP. Now I am doing the same stuff with Windows 7 and the rest of this post will detail why I like it!
My first look at Windows 7 came in the form of a beta last April (2009). I had a spare hard drive on my desktop computer that is meant for testing operating systems like this. I spent a few hours going through an installation process very similar to Vista and I compared all the memory and cpu usage details to that of a similar Windows XP and Vista install. Compared to XP, it was about the same, compared to Vista, it was about 50% less. This alone hinted that I would very much like this version of Windows. I then uninstalled it and prepared for a Windows XP to 7 migration when the release becomes available to me.
We are now at the release version of Windows 7 that will be supported through the end of the Windows 7 frenzy. I decided that I should upgrade my systems from XP now because its the final week of summer and I may not get a chance to perform an upgrade without any risk until next year sometime (and personally, I want the new flashier features that XP doesn’t have and Vista sucks at showing).
The Windows 7 install was very much like that of Windows Vista, its a very flashy interface and very easy to navigate. There wasn’t that much to it, simply do the “next next finish” routine that Windows has implemented so well. After the install, the release version I have looks somewhat like the beta was but is much more refined and clean. I also see that it uses a touch less than Windows XP does on a fresh install to this computer. To me, that is wonderful. On the fresh install, it only requires me to install 3 drivers which is better than Vista and XP combined!
Overall, I would recommend Windows 7 to anyone who can get their hands on a release copy and hates Vista. I would consider it stable enough to use for every day work and it has caused no harm to me. Although I have only been on 7 for a mere 5 days, I already like it a lot more than I ever liked XP and its a massive improvement over the failure called Vista.
First, I think I should put in a plug for exchange hosting. I got exchange 2007 up after deciding to get a bigger server and host a few more people. Exchange 2007 is a bit more bloated but has nicer spam fighting features and has a much nicer interface in browsers like firefox. I’m still looking for a few people to help me pay for the server. I put all the details on codecall in this thread: http://forum.codecall.net/hosting-registrars/18780-exchange-2007-email-hosting-offer-personal-server-looking-4-more-people.html. If you’re interested, feel free to drop me an email
Now onto the rest of my blog (and the main reason why I’m even blogging)
I really think its time I take the time to update other parts of my site. My blog gets a lot of my attention because it is fun to write when I get a chance to write about stuff I care about!
Lets start with why am I taking this sudden initiative to update the rest of my site. A few days ago, I was talking to John who has a low page rank (PR) on his blogging site at johnciacia.com. John wants to increase his PR. I currently have a much higher rank than he does but I’d like a higher rank too. Higher PR means more popularity and higher search rankings for common key words.
Why would I want a higher PR? Higher PR means my popularity will go up on search engines and I will get more traffic to my site. I really want to get 10,000 people reading my blog within a few years. I feel this is a very obtainable goal because I tend to write 2 to 3 very technical articles per month that aren’t easily obtainable elsewhere on the web. I constantly find the Microsoft knowledgebase is insufficient at helping me fix my own problems, so when I come up with a solution elsewhere, I tend to post it either here or on Adminreference.com. I have looked back on AR quite often to find my own solutions to recurring problems due to corruption, etc.
Now time to move onto my photo gallery
I finally got around to putting a few photos up from the same old photos forever. I have yet to filter out the spam comments, but they will go eventually. Within the next week or two, I plan on posting a few of my nature photo galleries that I’ve kept on my computer now for quite some time. These include a fox that comes to our house quite often and a rare shot of baby skunks.
Anyways, I would like to point your attention to my latest gallery: http://famousphil.com/gallery/?level=album&id=4 (You can get to this from the main page by clicking the photos navigation link). This is of a practice barn burning for the Humphrey Volunteer Fire Department (no website available). Our Fire Department is very small and right down the road from us. We had a barn on our property that was falling down and we felt it was time to burn it before someone got hurt in it from beams falling, etc. Anyways, I got a few really cool shots and thought I’d share them Look forward to more nature photos in a few days.
It seems that anymore, wherever I look, I always seem to find myself in a discussion about global warming, either in my head while watching the news or with other people. To save myself a lot of future useless breath discussing my feelings, I think that I am just going to refer everyone to here Read the rest of this entry »
In this post I’m going to detail my first week with the MagicJack. This device converts a USB port into a Phone Jack that is compatible with any landline phone that you might have around the house. I will touch on clarity and ease of use.
This is part 3/3 of my evdo quest for fast internet. In this post I hope to explain the shortcomings of all of my available options for internet access and which one turns out to be the best. I will be providing several screenshots of different internet connection methods to prove a point including actual ping trials. I actually had to borrow a dialup account to do this and was sort of unsuccessful at obtaining a speedtest (so I had to borrow one).
I just want to quickly look back on the last 10 years of my life and the funniest videos of the year that I’ve found.
). This is a blog that I drafted about 4 months ago, but haven’t really finished until now, so I feel that now is an appropriate time to open the topic then provide video / photos later. Read the rest of this entry »
Read the rest of this entry »