VNC over router; Remote desktop access; Dynamic DNS services; Network network utilz

I’m just crazy with networking stuffs nowadays. I already formatted my old dell laptop into Windows XP. This I will be giving to my dad so that he can retire his old Windows Me Acer laptop. So I thought before sending it home, it would be really nice if I can remotely access this pc. The guys at home don’t know much of tech stuffs, so it would be an advantage if I can connect to it. So I can easily fix any problems or issues they have remotely.

As a start, I installed RealVNC into both machine. Got some problems with my internet ip. I was running on a Linksys wireless router. I wasn’t able to connect using RealVNC. Tried configuring my router using DynDNS.com, and mapped a dedicated RealVNC port to that PC. It was a breeze making it work. I just diligently follow the steps.

Running a Home Server with Dynamic DNS in your Router

Then I found some more additional interesting things to do with my router.

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router
Upgrade from Linksys to DD-WRT mini

It really didn’t quite get me excited as I didn’t need the QoS and signal amplification. It could have been cool if it can increase my bandwidth and download speed.

Lifehacker has posted some cool network utilities. I’ll be trying some of these out maybe later.

Lifehacker - Top 10 Network Utilities

In search of good Tablet PC Applications

I have already finished installing my Windows Server 2008 CTP VM. Sort of. Its not that perfect though. SQL Server 2008 Katmai is not supported in Windows Server 2008.

I thought I want to move forward by looking more into how to maximize the usage of the tablet pc features it can offer. So I decided it is time to check out some applications out there.

Searched the net for the Top Tablet PC Applications and saw these:

Top Tablet PC Apps
Updating the Top Tablet PC Apps In My Tablet PC Toolbox
Laptop Magazine - Top 10 Tablet Applications - June 2005

I found out that most of the post are really really old. I think people or mostly the market lost touch with Tablet PC for a while. Now that Windows Vista has came. I think this should totally change. There are just lots of things to be done with ink. Hopefully they will reduce the price of the hardware as it is the major factor why people tend to disregard it. Well for now, I still have lots of applications to try like OneNote 2007 and some available tools in MS Download site. I’ll go ahead and post the interesting stuffs here soon.

Link: Vista Integration May Spur Tablet PC Growth

Windows Server 2008: Extending Volume Size

Extending volume features of Windows Server 2008 rocks. If you remember, from my last post, I was looking into extending the size of my VM Virtual hard disk as I misplanned the size of it. So I did use the command and it worked! After that I booted up my machine and tried to check if the size did increase and found out that it was still having the same size! So bad bad. So then I tried to go inside disk management and now realized that it was indeed successful and some unallocated disk space is lying there unused.

Now I was thinking. How will I allocate it to the current volume that I have? I thought previously in the “olden days”, I would need to install a disk management software e.g. Partition Magic in order to do this. When I tried exploring Windows Server 2008. I found this feature called extend. I tried it and it worked really cool! This feature is by the way also offered on Windows Server 2003 version.

More info here: How to use the Disk Management Snap-in to manage Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows Server 2003

PS: Just an Update on my VM. I have already managed to install these on it :

- Windows Server 2008 Beta 3
- Visual Studio 2008 Orcas Team Suite Beta 1
- (Not) Visual Studio 2008 Orcas Team Foundation Server Beta 1 (Sharepoint Services 3.0 not supported)

WordPress Smiley!!!

WordPress smiley==>  

I just noticed it today! If you look at the WordPress main page after logging in. You’ll get a very very tiny smiley at the bottomest left part of the page. Anybody knows the story about this? Was this done to be somewhat like an Easter Egg? If it is, it is just to obvious. Most probably it is just a way for wordpress to tell us to smile. Keep on smiling guys and be happy always. 

   

Virtual Machine madness; Increasing the size of VMWare Virtual Hard disk

 

Been busy for a while now installing applications in my tablet pc. I told myself now that I have a good machine. I need to brushen up my skills and be up-to-pace again with the fast ever evolving technology.

I started by creating a Virtual Machine that I can play with. Downloaded a lot of CTPs and betas and got started by installing Windows Server 2008 yesterday night. I am using VMWare workstation 6.0 by the way. Why not VPC? Check this out. But me, I am just a VMWare fan. Got better experiences using it before. Hehehe

Here is the configuration I am planning to get:

- Windows Server 2008
- Visual Studio 2008 Orcas
- Team Foundation Server 2008
- Sql server 2008 Katmai
- Sharepoint Services 2007
- Silverlight
- more

 I named this VM after my favorite anime Bleach. My VM Name is IchigoLonghornCTP. Since this has almost all CTP, Beta and the like products, I am planning to have another VM with these configuration:  

- Windows Server 2003 R2
- Visual Studio 2008 Orcas
- Team Foundation Server
- Biztalk Server 2006 R2
- SQL Server 2005 (Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter)
- Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 SP1 or SP2
- Microsoft Project

This would still depend on the space I will have after finishing the installation of the first Virtual Machine. I might just install those software I need on top on my host operating system, but I really want to get away from doing that as that would affect the performance of my system.

If you happen to have a similar issue as I did regarding wrong planning on the initial virtual hard disk size. You can try increasing it using this method:  HOW-TO: Increase the size of an existing VMWare Hard Disk (VMDK). For other issues, you can refer to VMWare Workstation FAQ.

Evolution of Windows - Pictures

From monkey to something. Hehe

http://content.zdnet.com/2346-9595_22-61343-1.html

First post using ink with new Asus R1F

Hi there it’s me tablet. this is my first post using my new Asus RIF. Its getting late now. I am super sleepy already. I’ll end it here now. Go Ink Power!!! Gudnite