For some reason, Adobe decided to permit McAfee to piggyback McAfee Security Scan Plus onto the most recent Flash update. Unless the user clears a checkbox during the Flash update, McAfee Security Scan Plus will be automatically installed by Adobe's updater software. Some readers may recall that in April, 2010, an errant McAfee anti-virus program caused thousands of corporate computers to spontaneously reboot. I would guess that anyone affected by that outage would prefer NOT to have this program automatically installed.

We understand the vagaries of software, and that computer systems do fail and break. Accordingly, we try to be fully transparent about our own technical problems, including providing a real-time link to the status of our servers.

We would prefer if the Security Scan Plus installation was NOT selected by default. Perhaps knowing that some consumers would be searching for how to uninstall McAfee Security Scan Plus, McAfee provides a web page in their Corporate KnowledgeBase titled "Unwanted McAfee Security Scan Plus popup windows" dated April 9, 2010.

Today Verizon reconfigured residential FiOS in the Washington DC area to block TCP port 25 to non-Verizon servers. They claim this is for network security reasons, and I understand that this change will ultimately be made to the nationwide FiOS network.

SMTP interception: Not a new issue

For a long time we've recommended to our clients that they use port 1025 for sending email to our servers. Our servers listen to this port in addition to port 25. The main reason we recommend this is that many ISPs, in particular hotels, redirect port 25 to their own email servers. We definitely do not want our email to traverse these servers!

For those clients who have already switched to port 1025, today's action by Verizon was a non-event. For other clients (and indeed my own computers at home!) outbound email was broken until the clients were reconfigured.

Problems with Apple

Switching to port 1025 worked well for our clients using Thunderbird, but Apple Mail presented a unique problem. Old Apple Mail clients (2.1.4) worked, but for versions 3.1 and 4.2 the port setting would not survive a reboot. Fortunately Apple Mail tries multiple ports: 25, 465, and 587. So by adding port 465 to the list of ports we were already listening to, these Apple Mail clients started working without any reconfiguration.

The Quick Answer

A 50 foot cable is fine, but not every output device can work correctly with such a long HDMI cable. The devices that work correctly output their content over the long cable and the TV renders the content perfectly. The devices that don't work correctly are unusable - the image they render on the TV is not acceptable.

For an unusable device, it's not clear how long a cable can be before the output becomes unusable, but 50 feet is clearly too long.

The Detailed Answer

My PC has two completely different devices that can output HDMI:

1. An MSI R4550 Video Card - NewEgg.com link
   
2. A Blackmagicdesign Intensity Pro Card - manufacturer's link
   

I wanted to output video that I create to my 42" LG TV and to use the TV as an external monitor. The distance from my PC to the TV is long, so I needed a 50 foot HDMI cable. There are expensive cables and cheap cables. Amazon sells a 50 foot HDMI cable for $21 including shipping, so I bought it. 

The MSI R4550 is unable to use the 50 foot HDMI cable successfully. The images it renders on the TV are full of video static, video noise, sparkles, etc. The HDMI audio works OK. I tried making a few adjustments but no matter what the TV image was unacceptable. I'm not sure if the TV could be damaged under these circumstances, so I unplugged the cable ASAP.

The Intensity Pro renders its content perfectly over the 50 foot HDMI cable! Video and photos are stunning and there are no video artifacts or defects. The HDMI audio is fine. Using the Intensity Pro as the content source, I don't see how a more expensive HDMI cable would give me better output on the TV.

Using the MSI R4550 and Intensity Pro as a Video Card with HDMI Output

Since the MSI R4550 is a standard video card, its HDMI output can be setup and configured with the standard Windows tools. However even though the MSI R4550 has 3 interfaces: HDMI, DVI, and VGA, and 1GB of memory, it can only use 2 out of 3 of the interfaces at a time. So for me, with a dual-monitor setup, even if the MSI R4550 worked with the long HDMI cable, it would still be unacceptable because I would have to give up one of my desktop monitors to use the TV as a monitor. What I do like about the MSI R4550 is that it cost < $50 and it doesn't have a fan, so it doesn't add any ambient noise.

The Intensity Pro is an HDMI video capture and output device. It's output capabilities are not the same as a video card - you can not control the Intensity Pro with the standard Windows display setup tools. This is because the Intensity Pro renders its output only through special plugins for Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. You can't just look at an image or video on your HDMI TV without first starting up one of these programs and opening the image or video. On the plus side, the dual-monitors continue to work independently of the Intensity Pro's output.

Additional Thoughts and Questions

I don't know if an expensive 50 foot HDMI cable would work properly with my MSI R4550. Long HDMI cables can cost $300 or more and I'm not interested in paying more for a cable, since I now know that any display problems which result from using long HDMI cables are the fault of the output device, not the cable.

I would still like to be able to find a video card that does the following:

1. Works with a 50 foot HDMI cable output.
   
2. Is able to drive 3 or 4 output devices simultaneously, including a single HDMI output, without needing to use a dual-video card setup, and still being able to use standard Windows display setup tools.
   

If you have experience with such a video card, please contact me and let me know - thanks!

We've recently started investigating Amazon EC2 for some of our computing needs. So far our progress has been excellent. I've been focusing on using the Amazon-supplied Fedora 8 (F8) images, in particular ami-48aa4921, although the problem I describe here applies to all of the F8 AMIs that Amazon provides.

One significant roadblock has been a problem with rsync. In particular, we use the excellent dirvish for our online backups. Unfortunately, Amazon uses the 2.6.21 kernel in its F8 images and this version does not support the lutimes system call. The version of rsync that comes with F8 uses lutimes to set the modification time on directories. lutimes isn't available until the 2.6.22 kernels. For more information on the issue with rsync and lutimes, see the rsync bug entry.

The symptom is errors in the dirvish rsync_error log files of the form:

rsync: failed to set times on "<directory-name>": Function not implemented (38)

Dirvish sees these as fatal errors and marks the images as failed. This prevents dirvish from performing its incremental backups.

Because rsync does not have a runtime switch to ignore lutimes, the easiest way to solve this is to produce a version of rsync that doesn't use the call at all. Unfortunately rsync does not have an autoconf switch to turn off lutimes, so I had to patch configure.in and rebuild. The change is simple, here's the diff I use:

--- rsync-2.6.9/configure.in.orig        2010-01-29 15:37:35.000000000 -0500
+++ rsync-2.6.9/configure.in    2010-01-29 15:38:07.000000000 -0500
@@ -528,7 +528,7 @@
 AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL
 AC_FUNC_ALLOCA
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(waitpid wait4 getcwd strdup chown chmod lchmod mknod mkfifo \
-    fchmod fstat ftruncate strchr readlink link utime utimes lutimes strftime \
+    fchmod fstat ftruncate strchr readlink link utime utimes strftime \
     memmove lchown vsnprintf snprintf vasprintf asprintf setsid glob strpbrk \
     strlcat strlcpy strtol mallinfo getgroups setgroups geteuid getegid \
     setlocale setmode open64 lseek64 mkstemp64 mtrace va_copy __va_copy \

I created a new RPM for rsync. Here's the diff for the .spec file:

--- rsync.spec.orig     2008-04-09 10:36:56.000000000 -0400
+++ rsync.spec  2010-01-29 22:21:13.000000000 -0500
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary: A program for synchronizing files over a network.
 Name: rsync
 Version: 2.6.9
-Release: 5%{?dist}
+Release: 5%{?dist}.trueblade.0
 Group: Applications/Internet
 # TAG: for pre versions use
 #Source:       ftp://rsync.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync-%{version}pre1.tar.gz
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 Patch1: rsync-2.6.9-acl-xattr-delete-bug.patch
 Patch2: rsync-2.6.9-hlink-segv.patch
 Patch3: rsync-3.0.1-xattr-alloc.diff
+Patch4: rsync-2.6.9-disable-lutimes.patch
 BuildRequires: libacl-devel, libattr-devel, autoconf, make, gcc, popt-devel
 Prefix: %{_prefix}
 BuildRoot: /var/tmp/%{name}-root
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@
 %patch1 -p1 -b .acl_xattrs_bug
 %patch2 -p1 -b .hlink_segv
 %patch3 -p1 -b .xattr-alloc
+%patch4 -p1 -b .lutimes
 
 %build
 rm -fr autom4te.cache
@@ -62,6 +64,10 @@
 %{_mandir}/man5/rsyncd.conf.5*
 
 %changelog
+* Fri Jan 29 2010 Eric V. Smith <eric@trueblade.com> 2.6.9-5.fc8.trueblade.0
+- Added patch4 to remove lutimes, since the EC2 kernel in ami-48aa4921 does
+  not support it.
+
 * Tue Apr  8 2008 Simo Sorce <ssorce@redhat.com> 2.6.9-5.fc8
 - Security release: http://rsync.samba.org/security.html#s3_0_2 

Once I had the new RPM, I signed it and added it to our local RPM repository. Because it has a newer version than the one supplied with F8, it will automatically be picked up by "yum update".

The only remaining complication is that the AMI I'm using supplies its own copy of rsync in /usr/local/bin, in addition to the one supplied by default in /usr/bin. I'm not sure why Amazon did this, because the /usr/local/bin version has the same problem as the /usr/bin one. The /usr/local/bin version does not come from an RPM, so I just delete it using our automated server configuration tool. The files to delete are:

/usr/local/bin/rsync
/usr/local/man/man1/rsync.1
/usr/local/man/man5/rsyncd.conf.5
/usr/local/share/man/man1/rsync.1
/usr/local/share/man/man5/rsyncd.conf.5

Once the new RPM updates rsync and the unneeded /usr/local files are deleted, rsync and dirvish are again working correctly.

I'd rather solve this problem by upgrading the kernel to 2.6.22 or newer, but upgrading the kernel is a non-trivial task with AWS. I'd rather let Amazon handle that issue and instead focus on using the provided images. This way we can more easily upgrade when Amazon produces newer AMIs.

For a number of other approaches (but with fewer specifics), see this thread.

Recently I read an article that advocated using USB headsets (not analog) for improved audio clarity and lower background noise levels during Skype calls, WebEx, recording audio directly to the PC, etc. The idea makes sense — it's difficult to remove all the electrical white noise generated by a PC if you use an analog microphone, so use a USB based headphone instead to improve the audio quality and reduce noise. 

My headset search brought me to the Plantronics MX500i headset, currently ~$35 from NewEgg.com. A photo of the headset and a photo of its USB interface are shown below. 

As is True Blade's custom, we first bought a single headset for testing. My partner Eric verified that the headset was good and had clear audio. I then bought my own MX500i and it arrived today. 

Once I set up my MX500i tonight, I promptly made a Skype call to Asia (from New York City) and it was the clearest PC based audio I've ever experienced. The sound was really that good. 

This headset's design is a bit unusual, with the bulk of the headset resting under the ear, not on top of your ear. That seems odd, but so be it. I can't say it's the most comfortable headset I've ever used, but as of now, I own a new headset with the clearest PC based audio I've ever experienced. Recommended. 

Bravo, Plantronics and NewEgg!
 

Photos of the Plantronics MX500i USB Headset and its USB Adapter

The January, 2010 PloneNYC.org meetup will be about implementing interstitial web pages in Plone.

Interstitial web pages are web pages that display prior to anticipated content. Common usages are:

* Agreement to a Website's Terms of Service
* Disclaimers
* Advertisements or Special Offers or Information
* Capturing User Information

In addition, website login pages and introductory pages which precede and explain subsequent content are other suitable uses for interstitial web pages.

At the January, 2010 PloneNYC meetup, Eric V. Smith and J. Robert Burgoyne will explain the path we chose for implementing interstitial pages in Plone using jquery. jquery is the de facto javascript library for AJAX applications and according to Eric Smith: "I think it's worth spending a few hours with it [jquery]."

For a terrific example of an interstitial web page that uses jquery, see this website:

http://yensdesign.com/tutorials/popupjquery/

We plan to host the meeting in our office in the Graybar Building and we will also deliver the presentation online via WebEx, for those who cannot attend but would still like to learn the information.

If you will attend in person, please RSVP now.

If you plan to attend via WebEx, please Contact Us and let us know you need the WebEx credentials for the meeting. Online attendance is limited to 20 participants.

Read more about interstitial webpages on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstitial_webpage

2010-01-20 — Here's a link to Eric Smith's presentation.

We were instructed years ago that one of our most important tasks as business owners was to develop and nurture a competent set of vendors. 

Thomas Friedman's article generously shares a list of the vendors his friend, Ken Greer of Greer & Associates in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recently used while producing a video. Since we're also a small business producing our own videos, it seems worthwhile to take a deeper look at the vendor list and offer our own suggestions as well. 

We tip our hat to Mr. Friedman and Mr. Greer - thanks for inspiring us to write about our own filmmaking experiences.

I was encouraged to see that Motorola recently decided to drop Windows Mobile from their future cell phone offerings to focus on Android. 

Now Robert V. Green of the well-respected investor website Briefing.com writes in an article published today that he believes Android could seriously erode the Windows monopoly over time. 

Based on our own experiences using Android on the HTC G1, we'd say there's a long way to go before Android replaces Windows on the desktop, but it's nice to see the investment press taking notice. 

Apparently the main power failed at superb.net's DCA2 facility, and though the switchover to backup power occurred, some of superb.net's router equipment did not properly receive power from the backup source. 

Thus, our servers never powered down or rebooted, but they were not accessible until all power was restored. More information is available here. 

As a result we thought it would be a good idea to create a Twitter account: truebladeStatus so that we can quickly inform our clients and partners of any technical problems. 

Follow the technical status of True Blade's services on Twitter at http://twitter.com/truebladeStatus

I've been using Verizon FiOS for Internet service for years. In general I've been pleased with the service: it's very fast and very reliable.

I've been running FiOS without using the Verizon supplied router. Instead, I plugged the incoming CAT5 cable directly into my Linux server. This did require that I use a slightly complicated configuration supporting PPPoE, but once I finally got it set up it has been problem-free. My Linux server has also been my DNS server and my DHCP server. I'm sure Verizon doesn't like this configuration, as it gives them less control over and less visibility into my network. But that's fine with me.

However, I recently switched to using FiOS TV. Because of the way the TV set top boxes (STB's) need to communicate upstream for program information, I'm forced to use the ActionTec router that Verizon supplies. As long as I'm forced to use this router I decided to use a more normal, less techy configuration and just let the ActionTec be my DNS and DHCP server. This has generally worked without issue, at least for the first few days.

Last night I decided to change the default domain name that the router uses. It defaults to "home", but it's better for me if it uses "trueblade.com", that way I can more easily resolve domain names. In any network I've ever worked on, this would not be a problem. The only thing it should affect is that when a client asks for a name like "mail", it would first query for "mail.trueblade.com".

However this morning my home network wasn't able to connect to my mail servers. After a lot of poking around I discovered that my internal systems were not able to resolve fully qualified DNS names like mail.trueblade.com. After a lot more poking around, I discovered that the ActionTec would not resolve domain names ending in trueblade.com if its default domain were also trueblade.com.

So the solution was simply to change the default domain name on the ActionTec back to "home", or indeed any other string. That's frustrating, because it means that I can't type domain names like "mail", but I need to use the fully qualified "mail.trueblade.com". But it's only a minor frustration. The only time I don't use fully qualified names is when I'm debugging. All of my systems use fully qualified names for their configuration files.

I'll probably switch away from using the ActionTec as my DNS and DHCP servers. In addition to this problem, you're limited in the amount of configuration you have over the DHCP server in particular. I'll post more when I've made the decision to switch off of the ActionTec for DNS and DHCP.

In order to reliably build our servers, we use kickstart and PXE to give us a simple, repeatable process. During this build process, we need user input to decide exactly which configuration to apply to the system being built.

In order to do that, we run a Python script in the ks.cfg %pre section that uses the snack library to get information from the user. Snack is the (poorly documented) UI toolkit that comes with kickstart/anaconda. Here's how you use it in %pre.

First, you need a %pre section that runs the python interpreter. To do that, start the section with:

%pre --interpreter /usr/bin/python

Next, you need to realize that the kickstart screen you usually see runs on tty3. But the snack UI will show up on tty1. So we use a little routine to switch tty's:

def set_tty(n):
    f = open('/dev/tty%d' % n, 'a')
    os.dup2(f.fileno(), sys.stdin.fileno())
    os.dup2(f.fileno(), sys.stdout.fileno())
    os.dup2(f.fileno(), sys.stderr.fileno())

Next comes the function that actually calls snack to get the user input. Don't worry about the host_config parameter, instead focus on how snack is used. This code build a dialog box with a listbox and an OK button:

def get_user_input(host_config, default=None):
    # get the hostname, from it the other params are computed
    # return the hostname and everything that's derived from it
    # which for now is just the disk layout scheme

    from snack import SnackScreen, Listbox, Grid, Label, Entry, Button, GridForm

    def host_list():
        def hosts():
            return sorted(host_config.keys())

        lb = Listbox(height=len(host_config), returnExit=True)
        for host in hosts():
            lb.append(host, host)
        if default in host_config.keys():
            lb.setCurrent(default)
        return lb

    screen = SnackScreen()
    form = GridForm(screen, 'Select host to configure', 1, 2)
    form.add(host_list(), 0, 0, (0, 0, 0, 1))
    form.add(Button('OK'), 0, 1)

    # now run the form
    result = form.runOnce()
    screen.finish()

    hostname = form.childList[0].current()
    return {'layout': host_config[hostname],
            'hostname': hostname,
            }

Finally, put it all together:

set_tty(1)  # change to tty1, we're called by kickstart with stdout as tty3
user_args = get_user_input(host_config, args.args.get('tb-host'))
set_tty(3)  # restore

If you ever need to find information on snack, it helps to know that it's a wrapper for newt. So you can Google on "snack newt python" to get some useful answers. But be warned that there's not much there and you might have to look through the source code to snack.

Yesterday I dropped my daughter off in Washington, DC at Georgetown Cupcake. If you've ever been to Georgetown, you'll appreciate that I had to park about 10 blocks away. When I was walking back to join her, I realized that I didn't remember all of the turns I'd taken in order to find a parking space. Plus, all the quaint houses look the same, so I was having difficulty retracing my path.

So I used my new G1 (the "Google phone") to find my location and a local map. I did have to turn on the GPS, since I usually leave it off to extend the battery life, but other than that it was simple to find my location and a map, all without breaking stride (which was important because it was starting to rain!).

I was also able to use the phone's voice search to find the store's address. This even worked with the background noise of a jet taking off from the nearby National Airport.

Today at 9:56pm I received an email with a virus in an attached zip file. Others are probably receiving the message as well so delete the email if you receive it.

For testing purposes, I uploaded the zip file to a Linux server and unzipped the zip file to look at what was inside. At that point AVG anti-virus was able to immediately identify the .exe file within the email as a virus.

The email came with a .zip file attachment called M2f318a54.zip with file size 28357 bytes.

Inside the zip file was an executable program: M2f318a54.exe, 45056 bytes, and dated Jan 18, 2038. Delete this email if you receive it; do not open this email or forward it to others. Below is the email's header and body.

Return-Path: <commiserationep3@sobmen.ru>
Received: from murder ([unix socket])
         by deleted (Cyrus v2.3.7-Invoca-RPM-2.3.7-8.fc6) with LMTPA;
         Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:56:17 -0400
X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3
Received: from psmtp.com (exprod8mx279.postini.com [64.18.3.77])
        by tok.trueblade.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 478131818164
        for <deleted>; Tue,  1 Sep 2009 20:56:14 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from source ([173.74.55.173]) by exprod8mx279.postini.com ([64.18.7.10]) with SMTP;
        Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:56:16 GMT
Received: from 173.74.55.173 by mail.sobmen.ru; Tue, 1 Sep 2009 20:56:09 -0500
Message-ID: <000d01ca2b68$28a0f230$6400a8c0@commiserationep3>
From: "Misty Fournier" <commiserationep3@sobmen.ru>
To: <deleted>
Subject: Western Union transfer is available for withdrawl
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 20:56:09 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
  boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0006_01CA2B68.28A0F230"
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180
X-pstn-neptune: 45/43/0.96/77
X-pstn-levels:     (S: 0.06505/99.18051 CV: 0.0000 FC:95.5390 LC:95.5390 R:95.9108 P:95.9108 M:9
7.0282 C:98.6951 )

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0006_01CA2B68.28A0F230
Content-Type: text/plain;
        format=flowed;
        charset="iso-8859-1";
        reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello.

The amount of money transfer: 2111 USD.
Money is available to withdrawl.

You may find the MTCN number and receiver's details in document attached to this email.

Western Union.
Financial Services.

The advanced Plone class was taught by Joel Burton from Plone Bootcamps. I've attended Joel's basic Plone class a few years ago, so when I heard he was teaching his advanced class in Chapel Hill, I decided to attend. I'm very glad I did.

Here's what I learned:

• Plone is designed by some very smart people. Once you understand a handful of concepts, it's simple, elegant, and extensible. It's true that some of the concepts take a while to understand, but I think it's worth it. And Joel helped tremendously.
  
• Plone is improving with each release. Over the years I've been using Plone, it has added locking, easier workflow configuration, a much-improved setup facility, and an install process based on the awesome zc.buildout. If you're not using zc.buildout for your Plone deployments, you should be. And you might want to think of using it for other installations, too.
  
• Joel is an excellent educator. He not only knows Plone inside and out, but he also understands how to teach.
• Zope's acquisition is much maligned, but it's incredibly useful. We had an example in class where we wanted to add a portlet only when we were under certain folders, and to make the content folder specific. I couldn't figure out how to do it, but a 2 line Python method and acquisition solved the problem. Incredible!
  
• Chapel Hill, as you'd expect, has some awesome barbeque places.

We recently setup a new Dell Optiplex 360 PC in a client's office. This PC needs to be a Windows Remote Desktop host for an offsite user. The PC has Windows XP Professional and an Nvidia GeForce 9300 GE video card, with 512MB of memory.

Microsoft publishes a series of instructions for how to setup a PC so that it can be a Remote Desktop host. After following these instructions, we were unable to establish a connection to the PC. We tried making changes to the Windows firewall, etc. all without success.

A Google search eventually turned up a posting by someone with a similar problem, which was eventually traced back to an older Nvidia driver.

Updating the PC's old driver with the new driver immediately fixed the problem, and the PC was then able to be used as a Remote Desktop host.

The Nvidia driver that works is Nvidia driver version 6.14.11.9038, dated July 14, 2009. The Nvidia GeForce 9300 GE video card's BIOS is version: 62.98.42.00.06.

As any business owners knows, having excellent, dependable vendors is a key factor to providing great client service and maintaining a successful business.

For True Blade, an excellent vendor meets all our needs and provides exceptional service, often anticipating what we'll need in the future, based on what we're doing today.

With that in mind, True Blade Systems decided to create our TB Excellent Vendor Award.

Today we want to make you aware of the vendor we use to host our servers: HopOne Internet Corp. The service is known as Colocation. We use HopOne's DCA2 facility in McLean, Virginia. The staff are friendly, competent, and professional and the facility is first rate. We've had our servers there for several years and never had a problem.

Congratulations, HopOne, and thanks!

--
True Blade Systems, Inc.

I rebuilt a Dell Vostro 200 with updated hardware and installed Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 in March, 2009. I've been using it as my primary desktop PC since then. All my other PCs run Windows XP.

I haven't had any issues with Vista over these four months.

Today I needed to print something in color, so I had to install printer drivers for the two color printers in our office:

• An HP Color LaserJet 3800, and
  
• A Konica Minolta C250
  

I'm impressed with how easy it is to add a network printer.

From the Windows Control Panel, Printers, click "Add a printer", then click "Add a network, wireless, or Bluetooth printer".

Windows Vista then polls the network and found the HP Color LaserJet 3800 and automatically installed the printer driver. When it was finished, everything worked. There was no other effort required.

Vista did not discover the Konica Minolta C250, so I clicked on "The printer that I want isn't listed". Next I clicked on "Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname" and entered the Konica's IP address. Within a few moments, Vista was setting up the printer, and when it was finished, everything worked.

For me, setting up a new printer under Vista is much easier than in Windows XP.

UPDATE - June 29, 2009 - The APC Smart UPS 750described below figured out its battery had been replaced, and now gives the correct status message, without power-cycling.

True Blade Systems has been using APC UPS products for many years. They're reliable, integrate well with our Linux servers and we've generally been pleased. We run apcaccess and apcupsd to monitor what's going on with the UPS. 

But a recent experience with a battery replacement in an APC Smart UPS 750 left us asking the following question:

Why make the UPS' batteries hot-swappable but NOT clear the battery warning indicator upon replacing the old batteries?

APC's technical documentation for this unit notes:

"This UPS has an easy to replace, hot-swappable battery. Replacement is a safe procedure, isolated from electrical hazards. You may leave the UPS and connected equipment on during the replacement procedure."

The above is true. Although I was a bit afraid to swap the batteries without turning the unit off, nothing bad occurred during the swap. But replacing the battery module (actually two batteries) did not clear the Replace Battery LED on the front panel. 

So I waited a day to see if time would clear the LED, but the LED stayed on. 

Thus on June 24, 2009 I called APC on (800) 555-2725 and spoke with a support rep. The support rep informed me that to clear the Replace Battery LED I must power-cycle the UPS. For me that means I must also power-cycle the server that's plugged into the UPS, which is not acceptable for me. So I'll have to wait for a weekend night to power-cycle the UPS. 

The rep created an internal case for future reference, case #C1-1041119483. 

Here are some other relevant details from apcaccess, the Linux based program we use to monitor the UPS:

APC      : 001,040,1009
DATE     : Wed Jun 24 14:36:56 EDT 2009
HOSTNAME : kenya.[deleted]
RELEASE  : 3.12.4
VERSION  : 3.12.4 (19 August 2006) redhat
UPSNAME  : TBSI_UPS
CABLE    : USB Cable
MODEL    : Smart-UPS 750
UPSMODE  : Stand Alone
STARTTIME: Sat Jun 20 13:40:37 EDT 2009
STATUS   : ONLINE REPLACEBATT 
LINEV    : 123.1 Volts
LOADPCT  :  24.7 Percent Load Capacity
BCHARGE  : 100.0 Percent
TIMELEFT :  36.0 Minutes
MBATTCHG : 5 Percent
MINTIMEL : 3 Minutes
MAXTIME  : 0 Seconds
OUTPUTV  : 122.4 Volts
DWAKE    : -01 Seconds
DSHUTD   : 090 Seconds
LOTRANS  : 106.0 Volts
HITRANS  : 127.0 Volts
RETPCT   : 000.0 Percent
ITEMP    : 35.5 C Internal
ALARMDEL : Always
BATTV    : 27.3 Volts
LINEFREQ : 60.0 Hz
LASTXFER : No transfers since turnon
NUMXFERS : 0
TONBATT  : 0 seconds
CUMONBATT: 0 seconds
XOFFBATT : N/A
SELFTEST : NO
STATFLAG : 0x07000088 Status Flag
SERIALNO : AS0721121024
BATTDATE : 2009-06-18
NOMBATTV :  24.0
FIRMWARE : 51.13.D USB FW:7.3
APCMODEL : Smart-UPS 750
END APC  : Wed Jun 24 14:37:04 EDT 2009

Let us know if you have had a similar experience with an APC or other manufacturer's UPS.

Yesterday, Google suffered an outage that affected people using Google Calendar and Google Mail. The services were either unavailable or extremely slow.

In the past year, True Blade has become a big fan of Google Calendar, Google Contacts, and Google Mail. They've become critical to how we do our work and we highly recommend each of the services to our clients.

So when any of these services go down, we know first-hand that it's painful, and we understand that users are concerned.

It's especially frustrating that with technology problems the time required to restore service is often unknown. Nonetheless, we remain confident that Google aspires to high standards and that data saved on Google servers will always be safe, if not always available at every moment of the day or night.

More information about the Google Service Outage of May 14, 2009:

Official Google Blog 

NY Times Blog Entry on the Google Service Outage

Internet connectivity in Taiwan for residential users is available from the Cable TV company or via DSL, similar to the USA.

The residence where I'm staying uses a DSL vendor known as KBT or KB Telecom. KBT enforces PPPoE, but the Linksys WRT-54G router I installed handles the chore of establishing and maintaining the PPPoE connection.

The monthly service cost is NT$393 for the ADSL fee from www.hinet.com + NT$279 for the ISP, www.kbtelecom.com. So the total monthly service cost is NT$672 with a one year commitment. At today's exchange rate of US$1 = NT$32.864 the monthly cost is $20.45, including all taxes. The service is rated at 2Mbps down and 256 Kbps up. Such a deal!

The service is reliable and the Internet speeds are excellent. I'm getting 1,362 Kbps down and 207 Kbps up to Speakeasy's Seattle, Washington servers. Here's a comparison of the measured bandwidth from various ISPs.

I'm having no problem getting work done with our company's IMAP server & Plone webservers in New York and Virginia.