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Three Computer Repair Books
This is 162 pages, well written, with good humor and full of practical advice for the person starting out on a shoestring.
| Title | Date | Comments | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New 21.5 inch iMac review | 2011 09 | 2011/09/12 NickBarron | |||
| - I could replace the MacBook Pro (or buy the MacBook Air), but my iPad answers 99% of my portability needs - I felt that either a Mac Mini or an iMac would be better. After hemming and hawing this way and that, I decided to go with the 21.5 inch iMac. It has more memory expansion, and more raw cpu. - | |||||
| Three Computer Repair Books | 2011 03 | ||||
| - This is 162 pages, well written, with good humor and full of practical advice for the person starting out on a shoestring. - | |||||
| Tips on Hard Drive Problems | 2011 02 | 2011/03/02 BigDumbDinosaur | |||
| - Back in the 1980's, I could count on earning a few hundred dollars every month from hard disk failures. - | |||||
| Rebuilding failed Linux software RAID | 2004 10 | 2011/10/26 kuntergunt | |||
| - Rebuild crashed Linux raid. Recently I had a hard drive fail. It was part of a Linux software RAID 1 (mirrored drives), so we lost no data, and just needed to replace hardware. However, the raid does requires rebuilding. A hardware array would usually automatically rebuild upon drive replacement, but this needed some help. - | |||||
| First you open it.. | 2006 12 | 2011/11/28 anonymous | |||
| - How to open a Dell SX270. This morning I wanted to pull the hard drive from an old Dell Optiplex SX270 I have hanging about here. I looked the darn thing and saw that someone else had been this way before: all the screws had been removed from the case.. but as it turned out, that was a complete red herring. You don't need to touch a screwdriver to open this puppy. Well, maybe one, but I never saw it in, so I'm not sure. You do have to be brighter than I am, but just in case you are equally challenged, here's how you open a Dell Optiplex SX270. - | |||||
| Operating System Concepts | 2003 05 | ||||
| - Basic OS concepts. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the heart of any computer, but the operating system is the brain. Unfortunately, understanding exactly how these things really work can be difficult, because it's fairly hard to "play" with the operating system that you are actually using. You can do quite a bit with sophisticated debuggers, but eventually you run into confusion and difficulty. And, as you try more complex tasks, you run the risk of interfering with the real machine's operating system. Finally, modern CPU's are very complex, and that complexity can make it more difficult to understand basic concepts. - | |||||
| What is a Managed Switch? | 2005 08 | 2010/05/15 TonyLawrence | |||
| - A managed switch allows you to control the individual ports of your switch - | |||||
| RS232 Wiring Diagrams | 2001 12 | ||||
| - Color coded diagram for understanding RS232 EIA-232 Wiring pinouts printers, terminals and modems. DB9 and DB25. - | |||||
| Log Serial Port Data to a Specified Logfile | 2002 09 | 2010/10/23 TonyLawrence | |||
| - I wrote this script to capture log data from our T1 routers for debugging purposes. - | |||||
| RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Failure | 2008 12 | 2011/10/16 anonymous | |||
| - Forcing driver with Realtek RTL8111 - an "lspci -vv" revealed that things were not right.. - | |||||
| A Nonvolatile Memory Overview | 2004 10 | 2010/06/21 SaraToktamGhiaie | |||
| - This paper presents a basic nonvolatile memory (NVM) overview. Section I begins with the introduction including a brief background of NVM's and the common terms used in the memory industry. The description and explanation of how an NVM is programmed (adding electrons) using hot-carrier injection is covered in section II. Section III covers the erasing or removing of electrons from floating gates of NVM's. A brief mechanism of Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is covered. Section IV introduces the model that can be used to predict the NVM programming characteristics. The hot-carrier injection model addressed is the "Lucky Electron" model. Section V covers the reliability aspects of NVM's. The common reliability issues an NVM encounters are the data retention, endurance, and disturbs. - | |||||
| What causes a Segmentation fault? | 2006 02 | 2010/11/01 lambros | |||
| - Short answer: it's most likely hardware unless you wrote the program or just now installed it on your machine. - | |||||
Hosted Kerio Mail, Hosted Kerio Workspace: Don't want to run your own hardware? Kerio Connect and Workspace Hosting is available. Contact me for more information or visit APLawrence at That! Collaborate | |||||
| New Battery for MacBook Pro | 2009 02 | 2011/06/18 raj | |||
| - I bought this Macbook Pro three years ago this February. When I first got it, the battery life was decent, but not up to the advertised specs. At best I could only get two hours out of it. Because of that, I bought a spare a few months later - I figured that was a good thing to have anyway. - | |||||
| Granite Digital USB to SATA/IDE Adapter | 2006 12 | ||||
| - Handy tool for techs mounts hard drives by usb: While this is definitely NOT the way you want to run an external drive for any length of time, it is sometimes very handy to have quick access to a bare drive that you just tore out of something and that isn't going to have a permanent home again. This can be for recovery, file transfer, or just sanity checking: if you are a tech, you want to be able to do this: - | |||||
| Linksys RV042 VPN | 2008 11 | ||||
| - VPN errors with Linksys RV042 routers - | |||||
| wiring for apc ups cables smart ups uninterruptible powersupply -->APC UPS Cable wiring | 1997-2004 | ||||
| - It's another day in UPS hell. For the zillionth time, I find yet - | |||||
| Parallel printer cable length | 2004 07 | ||||
| - The docs for OS/2 stated that 6 feet was the maximum length the printer cable could be for a parallel port connection. So, I guess the OS has something to do with this spec? Limits to Parallel printer cable length. Given that reliable parallel port operation limits one to a cable length of no more than 15 feet, network print servers make a lot more sense. - | |||||
| AIX Secure Image Installation Procedures | 2002 11 | ||||
| - NOTE: Screenshots are from an ASCII installation of AIX 5.1 using Windows HyperTerminal. - | |||||
| Netgear PrintServer PS110 | 2001 02 | ||||
| - Although it is usually easy enough to find a Windows PC to configure these with, it isn't absolutely necessary. You can assign an IP address using arp (the MAC address is printed on the bottom of the unit) and then ftp to it, using the "Device name" printed on the unit as the login name, "get config", edit that and then put it back. A final "get RESET" will cause the PS110 to read the new config file. - | |||||
| Digiboard Port Server | 2000 01 | ||||
| - Digiboard PortServer - | |||||
| Essential Linux Device Drivers | 2008 05 | ||||
| - I admit that it's very hard to write a good book in this area. You simply have to make assumptions about the readers knowledge - if you don't, you'll be writing an encyclopedia or two. - | |||||
| Reading SCO tapes on Linux | 2003 01 | ||||
| - Reading SCO tapes on Linux - | |||||
| Panasonic LF-D201U DVD-RAM | 2001 09 | ||||
| - DVD-RAM is optical storage that: * Is relatively inexpensive * Holds a large amount of data (4.7GB per side at this writing) * Can be re-written hundreds of thousands of times * Has an expected media life of 30 years * Is bootable * Is really ideal for small system backup - | |||||
| Used Servers - Black, White or Gray Market? | 2007 01 | ||||
| - Buying used server equpiment: In the field, the word "gray market" is typically thrown around with disregard for it's real meaning (product acquired from an overseas channel at lower prices than said product is provided in the local channel) in order to spread FUD. Some reps will even go as far as to refer to used IT hardware as "black market" or stolen/counterfeit equipment. - | |||||
| Adding Memory | 2007 10 | ||||
| - Adding RAM to your computer - how-to and pictures. Nowadays we need more and more RAM. If you have Windows boxes, you know that 512MB is becoming bare minimum, the same is true for Macs and although Linux can get by with less, more is better.. - | |||||
| smartctl: Tech Words the Day | 2005 01 | ||||
| - 2005/01/23 smartctl - | |||||
| Multitech RF550VPN SOHO VPN Router | 2002 03 | ||||
| - Multitech RF550VPN SOHO VPN Router - | |||||
| Pentium Pro Processor System Architecture | 1999 03 | ||||
| - Book review Pentium Pro Processor System Architecture- Tom Shanley - | |||||
| Tape Autoloader on 2.4 Linux | 2003 01 | ||||
| - Rob Fantini explains how he got an autoloader tape unit working on RedHat Linux This info may not be clearly written, but shows what I did to get autoloaders working on 2.4 linux. - | |||||
| Digiboard Port Server changes tty device permissions | 2010 11 | ||||
| - Earlier this week, one of those customers called with a problem of changing perms on his /dev/tty* devices. He needs them set with write permission (666), but some were seemingly randomly resetting to 600. - | |||||
| Tape Drive or CDROM Not Found | 2002 10 | ||||
| - sco tape drive not seen troubleshooting solutions - | |||||
| IOMEGA REV Drive with Fedora Core 2 | 2004 09 | ||||
| - Unfortunately, that was a system I wanted to use the REV on. - | |||||
| Badram, Badmem, and Memtest86.bin | 2005 02 | ||||
| - when you get almost-random stuff going wrong like that, and you know that your using what should be a fairly stable OS the likely culprit is going to be flaky hardware - | |||||
| Western Digital My Book USB drive | 2007 05 | ||||
| - Simple 250GB USB drive - | |||||
| The Intel Microprocessors-Fifth Edition | 1999 12 | ||||
| - This is an expensive book, even by computer book standards. At 966 pages, it does packs in a tremendous amount of information that isn't easily found elsewhere, so it may very well be worth it. - | |||||
| Caches | 2003 09 | ||||
| - In the case of computer caches, we aren't trying to hide data, just make our access to it quicker or more convenient. - | |||||
| Paradigm ImagePRO Ci40m HD TCP/IP setup | 2010 04 | 2010/04/16 TonyLawrence | |||
| - Okey-dokey. I double checked all the bad cable, bad port, ip conflict stuff. Nothing wrong there. - | |||||
| Multitech RF850 Linux Router | 2009 01 | ||||
| - Multitech RF850 is a linux based router that is no longer manufactured. If you come across one, here's what you need to know. - | |||||
| Lego Mindstorms NXT One-Kit Wonders | 2008 12 | ||||
| - Lego Mindstorms NXT One-Kit Wonders is an expensive toy or an inexpensive robotics kit - however you want to see it. - | |||||
| Why I'm not buying a High Def TV (yet) | 2008 11 | 2010/10/09 BigDumbDinosaur | |||
| - My eyesight just isn't good enough to bother with HDTV and the features aren't there yet - but are getting closer! - | |||||
| What I want in my next GPS | 2008 11 | ||||
| - I want these features in the next GPS I buy - | |||||
| Printers Down | 2008 09 | ||||
| - Ancient unix system with two dead printers - | |||||
| Kerio Mail Transfer | 2008 07 | ||||
| - Transferring Kerio Mail Server. I had a small Linux server running Kerio at a local customer. The server had been put in quite a few years back; it didn't have a lot of disk space and it wasn't exactly a blazing performer in any sense. - | |||||
| iPod Shuffle | 2008 07 | ||||
| - ipod shuffle second generation - | |||||
| Creative's Vado Video Recorder | 2008 07 | ||||
| - I never owned a camcorder. When I considered how infrequently I'd have any use for one, I just couldn't justify the price. Yes, I am a product of generations of Yankee thrift. - | |||||
| Small Form Factor PCs | 2008 06 | ||||
| - This is about using little embedded computers for various little projects. That's great fun and the authors go into sufficient detail about the various problems you could run into. - | |||||
| Big Book of Apple Hacks | 2008 05 | ||||
| - This is the Mac book I've been waiting for! This isn't the often silly or cosmetic hacks you'll find all over the web; - | |||||
| Forget 500,000 songs - I'll use it for backup | 2008 04 | ||||
| - silly reports on IBM's race track memory - | |||||
| Cables and switches basics | 2008 04 | ||||
| - Basic Network Hardware Most networks use RJ45 connectors plugged in hubs or switches - usually switches today. The first thing to understand is that everything you want working has to somehow be connected to everything else. I'm going to mostly ignore wireless here and concentrate on physical wiring, so it should seem reasonable that everything needs to connect, right? - | |||||
| You want a GPS | 2008 04 | ||||
| - gps systems are inexpensive and essential - | |||||
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| iStatPro and Antec CPU Cooler | 2008 04 | 2010/11/04 TonyLawrence | |||
| - monitor cpu temperature and more - | |||||
| SuperBox Mark I | 2008 01 | ||||
| - The mythical Superbox Mark I was not announced today: I had an exclusive opportunity to speak with Brian Casales, CEO of Gapple, Inc. about the heavily rumored upcoming "Superbox Mark I" that is supposed to shake our industry to its knees. - | |||||
| Wireless print servers | 2007 06 | ||||
| - Wireless print servers - why? - | |||||
| Your Public Avatar | 2007 05 | 2010/05/18 TonyLawrence | |||
| - Fantasy review: Imagine if you never had to travel anywhere because a robotic avatar could go in your place. - | |||||
| No more Parallel/Serial? | 2006 12 | ||||
| - Is parallel port printing gone? - | |||||
| Insert System Disk | 2006 08 | ||||
| - All righty, there is an intermittent problem here. Maybe the hard drive, but I looked in the syslog and there was nothing there. So, I put the machine under heavy load: reading and writing the tape drive, continuous "ls -lR /" loops running, copying big files to /tmp in other loops, all with random sleeps. Sure enough, twenty minutes in the disk stopped responding. Nothing in the logs still, but the machine was locked up. - | |||||
| Debugging a network failure | 2006 08 | ||||
| - A heat wave can cause electrical problems: This morning I had a call from a Boston customer. "Everything's down", he said, "Internet and our servers. We can't get to anything. But.. the guys who came in early are still working." - | |||||
| Legacy ISA | 2006 07 | ||||
| - I found a professed "competent" student at the local university who spent a couple of hours destroying the setup in one of the machines. We now have one machine working.. - | |||||
| Jim Mohr's SCO Companion | 2005 07 | ||||
| - - | |||||
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