jaclaz

http://www.oldapps.com/VLC_Player.php?system=Windows_2000 jaclaz

No. jaclaz

On a side note (and apparently now the branding is public) Microsoft has officially grabbed onto the Internet of Things and will be using it as part of a new Embedded product line. You can see their use of the term here: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/community-blog.aspx Well, they seem like designers dreaming of the future, nice, wishful thinking, but come on: http://blogs.microsoft.com/iot/2015/06/17/room-service-how-iot-creates-a-custom-hotel-experience/ I have built hotels with "smart technology" starting some 20 (twenty) years ago, and though admittedly people (average customer) were at the time less "technologically advanced" the end result has always been to have the customer pass much more than 12 minutes on the "smart" control panel, and all in all what was running was a dedicated RTOS embedded (historically proven to be slightly less prone then common Windows OSes to BSOD's ) and everything was cabled (and shielded and - within limits - tamper proof) and OBVIOUSLY completely detached from any external connections. Now, what could happen when you depend on IoT for utilities (given that the "system admin" is your average little hotel manager and there is no end of exploits due to any number of mis-configurations and/or bugs in the actual protocols (let alone the actual software), and additionally all this under the risk of a "forced" update that can, even if "planned" bring down the whole stuff for - say - 4 hours (due to loss of connection to the internet, intervention time of the IT specialist (if any knowledgeable enough actually can intervene and he/she is within 1 hour driving distance) or *whatever* else? Heck, even SCADA systems (usually devised and maintained by someone on average more educated than the average hotel manager) have been hacked, and you are telling me that I should rely for vital things like security (door latches), temperature of hot water, lighting, conditioning system etc. on something that can be jammed by - say - a modified garage door remote and a bunch of AV trasmitters? jaclaz

Well, to be fair to Chester Gould's (right) concept the thingy was actually a phone (or radio): a self-contained communicator, not an extension for another device (the iPhone), that nags you. Speaking of distractions, all it can do - more or less - is to nag you about every tweet, every news, tells you (possibly when you are already speeding 15 miles down the highway) that you forgot the lights on, etc., I would define it "a glorified remote control for your iPhone with astounding nagging capabilities", and no, I don't want to know what my heart beat rate is every ten minutes, I already know that I should most probably exercise more, and firmly believe that words like "photoplethysmography" should be banned outside spelling contests[1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666 and yes, I don't see much point in sharing a "haptic" feeling with a friend (or loved one) let alone with a stranger: http://www.imore.com/how-send-someone-your-heartbeat-apple-watch http://www.wired.com/2015/05/lonelyheartbeats-subreddit-for-apple-watch-owners/ jaclaz [1] the word "haptic" is not even good for that and could be banned completely with very few people protesting about it missing from the dictionary, with the exception maybe of the Urban Dictionary : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=haptic

As often happens I may well be wrong, but I see the Apple watch as a (nice looking ) solution to a non-problem , I am not at all surprised that once the WOW! and Cool! exclamations for the new gadget are over people is puzzled by the lack of any "real" practical use of the features of the thingy. jaclaz

Someone is going against the general trend of awe towards Docker (just for the record): http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2v4fqe/docker_is_fundamentally_flawed_useless_hype http://iops.io/blog/docker-hype/ Though both the article and comments are rather technical, the cited comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/2v4fqe/docker_is_fundamentally_flawed_useless_hype/coeo7c7 seems to me like a good summing up of the risks of using this kind of technologies (not necessarily and specifically Docker, but the whole idea of containerization) for *everything*: it seems like it is not the one-size-fits-all solution for *any* problem (which is more or less what most techs seem to believe). jaclaz

As often happens, OT , but not much an article from 2001 (yes, 14 - fourteen - years ago) that with just replacing the name of a few new technologies that are currently hyped/marketed/pushed could be re-used fine: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html ... though the good MS guys would need to be really good to keep a straight face when they will say of the upcoming Windows 10 something along the lines of: or: jaclaz

You forgot Windows RT, the brand new, revolutionary environment that never was.... jaclaz

jaclaz

Well, then you may appreciate this: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/137826-what-makes-office-2003-better-than-97/ particularly the article and grapphs here (too bad they haven't been updated ): http://www.oooninja.com/2008/05/openofficeorg-microsoft-office-moores.html I would also check LibreOffice, as last time I compared them it seemed to me a little bit snappier BUT the good guys senselessly removed Windows 2000 support so last version working on 2K should be 3.6.3: http://www.oldapps.com/libreoffice.php?system=Windows_2000 It goes without saying YMMV. jaclaz

You are welcome , though I will throw on the table (and quickly hide my hand behind my back ) how there is seemingly a new kid on the block, the ipxegrldr in grub4dos 0.4.6a (the experimental "branch"), as always details are scarce as there is basically only some chenall's notes about it (in Chinese): http://chenall.net/post/grub4dos_ipxe/ which are not that bad in Google translate: https://translate.google.it/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fchenall.net%2Fpost%2Fgrub4dos_ipxe%2F&edit-text= As said in one on the threads previously referenced, the 15 seconds you are going to "get used to live with" may be equivalent to 1.5 Gb worth of image downloading with wimboot/http ..... Isn't it all about speed and power? Just in case: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174002-windows-7-possible-advisable-to-disable-the-page-file/?p=1101586 http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/174002-windows-7-possible-advisable-to-disable-the-page-file/?p=1101616 jaclaz

Good, which means bad in this case. If you have to use that Cisco thingy as DHCP server you will then need to use one of the alternatives (client side): http://www.0xf8.org/2012/04/the-30-second-delay-in-booting-windows-pes-pxeboot-com-via-pxelinux/ though cannot say exactly how they can be implemented, the referenced post is not fully clear (to me at least). We had a very similar thread here, but it was not finalized/it is not fully clear what works or how exactly: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/158363-slow-pxeboot0-with-3rd-party-tftp/ Personally I would use (as always) grub4dos: http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/pxe.htm but really-really I would try (if it suites your needs) as suggested in the other thread the iPxe/http/wimboot booting: http://reboot.pro/topic/17520-booting-winpe-via-http/ jaclaz

Well, IMNSHO you cannot write "Office 2007" in a post declaring that you want your PC "as functional as possible" personally I used to have it installed in offices where productivity was too d@mn high, in order to reduce it by 20-25% . There are valid browsers (please read as "Opera") working on 2K, though it starts to get a little bit outdated on a few sites, but there are recent enough Firefox versions running (I believe with some of the available OS extensions). The Itunes (a recent version) will most probably be the biggest issue. jaclaz

I really don't know. Cisco iOS is often like a black box, a sorcerer (i.e. a "certified Cisco engineer") makes some spells on it and suddenly (correct) packets start flowing out from it, you try the same (but without knowing the exact magic words) and it sits there doing nothing. I have spent more than one sleepless nights to just change a few addresses/options in an already configured router and managed switch, and it took many more to tame it into doing what I wanted to do, the language is clearly powerful and direct /and once properly set and working the thingies are exceptionally robust) but in my experience it is extremely picky on syntax and as seen it has it's own "queer" parsing ways. The Wireshark trace definitely misses the option 252, here is a similar trace with option 252 working (for comparison): http://xyfon.com/tech-tips/how-to-configure-dhcp-custom-options-on-a-fortinet-fortigate/ You can try starting again from scratch, deleting the DHCP pool , this reportedly worked to solve the opposite problem (removing option 252): http://www.airheads.eu/t5/Unified-Wired-Wireless-Access/There-is-probably-a-simple-answer-DHCP-option-252/td-p/87678 jaclaz

I am not familiar on how exactly it is possible to trace what actually happens, maybe Ethereal/Wireshark: http://www.wireshark.org/ would do? See: http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/CS-028533.htm jaclaz

Well, now that you are pretty sure that your configuration does serve properly the wpad.dat you should try with the same "plain" contents as in the originally cited post: http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2010-March/014174.html or try following this (that provides two possible approaches): http://www.0xf8.org/2012/04/the-30-second-delay-in-booting-windows-pes-pxeboot-com-via-pxelinux/ This latter clarifies that the question was more abut avoiding the need to set the option 252 on the server, I completely missed that. However, as said, the use of WPAD this way is not "standard", the script is for the "browser use" or "canonical" use of WPAD as proxy redirector, the script is to be interpreted by the browser and I don't think that PXE has this capabilities. It is possible that we are (I am) mis-reading the original post, as it is ambiguous : It is possible that you are right, that is you should have: option 252 ascii "\boot\BCD" or: option 252 ascii "http://192.168.1.3:85/boot/BCD" or: option 252 ascii "/boot/BCD" which IF the issue is the CISCO parsing bug will become: option 252 ascii "\boot\BCD " option 252 ascii "http://192.168.1.3:85/boot/BCD " option 252 ascii "/boot/BCD " (with the space at the end). Generally speaking it wouldn't be the first (nor the last) time when the forward slash vs backslash has created issues .... jaclaz

What do you mean "test"? A plain USB cable is nothing but an "extension cord", any multimeter would do to check for it's continuity, BUT there are cables that include some current limiting hardware, and there is in practice (short of laboratory devices) no way to check if there is a "leak" or "cross-talk" at high speed transmission. Be aware that there are cables that are "fully supporting" USB 2.0 speeds 480 Mbps and other ones that will only do the slower speeds like 1.5 Mbps, see also: http://voyager8.blogspot.it/2013/04/how-to-choose-good-usb-data-and.html The simplest is to test the cable with another couple devices and see if it works or just get a new one. jaclaz

Well, no. A given DHCP/TFTP/PXE/BINL server like the mentioned TinyPXE can point to a given file, another server (like your Cisco one) may or may not provide the same feature, if you prefer the specific TinyPXE server has a built-in provision simplifying the use of option 252 for PXE booting. You posted here about using the wpad.dat file but using in it a string that was different from the one suggested in the resource you cited, and I highlighted only this fact. The WPAD protocol: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol is in this case used "improperly" (but still the file that needs to be passed as option 252 is a wpad.dat, as this AFAICU is the only way to tell the thingy to get two files, the bootmgr.exe and the \boot\BCD). Additionally, seemingly (at least some version of) Cisco iOS have a bug in the parsing, see here: https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/10074211/dhcp-option-252 Try again with the suggested space after and with the contents of the wpad.dat EXACTLY as in the cited source. See also this: https://proxyadvices.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/how-automatic-proxy-detection-really-works/ the way a CISCO iOS will parse (and thus serve) the string needs to be checked. jaclaz

You just copy the: \BOOTMGR <- File \boot\ <- Whole directory and all its contents from the "200 Mb" partition to EITHER the one you created on the HD OR to the one on which you have now XP (which should be the active one). Then you need three more things: 1) make sure that the Windows 7 partition/volume on HD still gets drive letter C: when booted 2) repair/adapt the \boot\BCD 3) find a way to chainload the BOOTMGR on the hard disk volume[1]. It is perfectly possible to do these things manually leaving the current MBR "untouched" (and using the currently booting XP NTLDR as "main" boot manager), but each of them may result complex, since you do sound (no offence intended ) to be completely unaware of how a Windows NT 6 OS boots or it is setup normally. So I would advice you to BACKUP the current MBR "as is" (you never know). Then clear the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices of the (offline) Windows 7 Registry, boot to a Windows 7 install CD and "repair" the installation. This basically should: Change the MBR code to the Windows 7 one, "upgrading" it from the Windows XP one or from the OEM one now in the MBR (and in the backup you just made)Change the PBR/VBR code (aka bootsector or $Boot) of the Active partition from the one invoking NTLDR to the one invoking BOOTMGRWrite to the root of the Active partition the BOOTMGR and the \boot\ folder (ncluding its needed contents)Create a new \boot\BCD with the "normal" Windows 7 entries + an entry to load the previous XPYou will need some time to understand HOW EXACTLY a Windows NT 6 (please read as Vista/7/8/etc.) dual boots with a Windows NT 5 (please read as 2K/XP) when in s "default" setup (i.e. using the provisions of MS tools), i.e. read attentively this WHOLE site (just mentally substitute "Vista" with "7"): http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ jaclaz [1] There are several ways this is possible, using only the MS provided mechanism or using third party bootmanagers such as grub4dos.

Windows 8.2 10 should have - more or less - the same hard disk space requirements as 8.1, i.e. between 16 and 20 Gb for a normal installation (wich BTW is more or less the same amount of space needed for Vista, Vista SP1, Vista SP 2, Vista SP3 WIndows 7 and windows 8: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/919183 http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/system-requirements http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/system-requirements When the final version will be released, the new mechanism that is replacing wimboot: http://www.howtogeek.com/196416/wimboot-explained-how-windows-can-now-fit-on-a-tiny-16-gb-drive/ most probably will allow to make it much smaller (do not expect miracles, possibly a couple of Gb saved): https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/2062/microsoft-explains-os-compression-in-windows-10 cannot say if such mechanism is already available in these beta's . jaclaz

Bump! (#3) jaclaz

You might want to post EXACT hard disk models. For *some* models there may be ways to recover the password or specific free programs, for most a ATA secure erase initiated through secure erase: http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/Secure-Erase.html or hdparm will do (of course completely losing any content, but this should not be an issue for you). There may be some compatibility issues between Secure Erase and the hard disk or between hdparm and the OS/driver (under windows) take some time reading this seemingly unrelated thread: http://reboot.pro/topic/13601-software-to-wipe-a-systemdrive-from-windows/ Consider how - IF the password is recoverable - recovering the password is a matter of seconds/minutes for each disk, while an ATA secure erase on a 1 Tb disk is likely to be in the 6-10 hours range of time (still for each disk). jaclaz

Well, surely you miss a leading backslash and you have "wrong" quotes (when compared to the given source): http://www.syslinux.org/archives/2010-March/014174.html You can try with: "\boot\BCD", "bootmgr.exe"but cannot say if the issue is that one. As a side note, if you use a DHCP server that has been developed to provide among others that option through BINL, you should have not the issue, and if at the end of the day what you are looking for is a faster PXE booting, you may want to experiemnt with alternative approaches, http/sanboot or wimboot: http://reboot.pro/files/file/303-tiny-pxe-server/ jaclaz

And you find it "queer" that Windows 98 has issues with that? As my good friend Mr.Spock would say: Fascinating... See if any of these help you: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/149743-question-about-using-a-sata-drive-with-windows-98se/ http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/172569-sata-installation/ http://reboot.pro/topic/2384-alter-group-universal-ata-driver-for-windows-nt351nt42000xp/ It is entirely possible that a specific "manufacturer" driver for your motherboard exists, you need to post the EXACT details of the hardware involved. jaclaz

Is the SATA bus/device (in the BIOS) set to "SATA" (or "AHCI") or in "IDE compatibility mode" (or similar)? jaclaz