Painful experience of installing SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1

I didn't realized that I was opening such a big can of worm when I started installing SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1. But darn here I went.

First I found out that I COULDN'T even proceed SQL Server 2005 SP1 update. It kept bitching me about not being able to authenticate. Back then my machine has nothing in it. Then I wapped out the machine, installed Visual Studio .Net 2005. And then installed SQL Server 2005, and at the end of SQL Server 2005 installation, I install the SQL Server 2005 right away. And darn it worked.

But then after I rebooted, and found that the SQL Server Integration Services was not able to start up at all. Then I found a TechNet article about the BUG and the corresponding hotfix. So I installed the hot fix, and finally have the problem resolved. Notice that you need to install the hotfix .exe in PROPER order, and you can find the order here.

Messy.

M-Audio Firewire Solo mess again

Remember I recently reinstalled my Windows XP OS? Today I have a need to use my M-Audio Firewire Solo to do some audio work, so I plugged it in my machine. Suddenly the machine just rebooted. And then the following mess happened:

- All USB Devices stopped working (that includes my USB keyboard and mouse)
- The Firewire Solo power light was NOT on.

This happened before. Partly the reason was that I turned on the MacOS side, and it detected the Firewire Solo and updated the firmware. It seems like the firmware update was not completed when I turned of the Mac OS side. I follow the notes I wrote in previous blog (Turn on the Mac OSX side, get the Firewire Solo firmware updated and see the M-Audio light on. Then reboot the machine back to WinXP.) AFter then the system recognize the Firewire Solo and attempted to install driver. However, it was AFTER the Firewire Solo updated that the USB back to normal.

So here's what I learned:

- It's always great to have a PS/2 based mouse and keyboard around. Like today. I may have totally stuck without these PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
- Don't connect the USB keyboard to the USB port on the PCI card. I plugged the wireless adapted to the on board USB connection and things went smooth after then.

However, right now I am still trying to figure out how to change the sample rate of Firewire Solo to 44000Hz, since many of my apps cannot work with 96000 Hz, which is the setting currently on the Firewire Solo adapter.

How to make VMWAre working with ZoneAlarm

I read several posts about using VMWare with ZoneAlarm, and the result was not encouraging. Apperently ZoneAlarm cannot distinish whether the IP request is from VMWare or other app since VMWare's virtual network done so good a job that even Zone Alarm cannot tell if it's from VMWare.

So my final soultion is EXPLICTLY put the IP Address assigned to the VMWare OS in ZoneAlarm's trust list. Of course, if my VM OS couldn't even get the IP address from the DHCP server from the first place, then I have no choice but turn of ZoneAlarm, let VM OS get the DHCP IP, then turn Zone Alarm, and specify the IP address in Zone Alarm.

A bit of manual work, but at least I find a way to keep using VMWare while being protected by software Firewall.

Resolve one VMWare network fustration, but then ....

I was fustrated for a while wondering why the Ubuntu cannot connect to the Net. Finally I figured it out: it's because my system has two network card, and the VMWare somehow took my InTRANET network card as the tunnel for it's virtual network. To resolve the problem, I need to :

(1) Select [Edit] -> [Virtual Network Setting]
(2) Select Net0 (Bridge) one, instead of allowing it to automatically pick a network card, explictly specify my internet network card.

Of course this assume that you can use "Bridge" has network setting. At least now it works.

Now I need to figure out how to keep my software Firewall (ZoneAlarm) running while still being able to let VMWare able to access the Internet.


Moreover, I experienced something new and strange regarding to VMWare. I was running Ubuntu 6.0.6 on VMWare, and was downloading some latest service pack. STrange thing happened when I switched out of the VMWare, I found that my left button was NOT working on the host WinXP OS. BUt then after I turned on VMWare, everything back to normal! It only happned when I use Ubuntu OS on VMWare. Really strange.

Tried Vista in Parallel for Windows XP, and not too impressed

Most people use Parallel on a Intel Mac. Me, on the other hand, using Parallel on a Intel box running Windows XP. Stimulated by the discussion in Podcast Security Now, I tried running Vista RC2 on Parallel, and I was not too impressed. It's as slow as running it on VMWare Workstation 5.5 .

So .... darn. I'll probably stay with VMWare for a while.

Tried Vista in Parallel for Windows XP, and not too impressed

Most people use Parallel on a Intel Mac. Me, on the other hand, using Parallel on a Intel box running Windows XP. Stimulated by the discussion in Podcast Security Now, I tried running Vista RC2 on Parallel, and I was not too impressed. It's as slow as running it on VMWare Workstation 5.5 .

So .... darn. I'll probably stay with VMWare for a while.

Tried Vista in Parallel for Windows XP, and not too impressed

Most people use Parallel on a Intel Mac. Me, on the other hand, using Parallel on a Intel box running Windows XP. Stimulated by the discussion in Podcast Security Now, I tried running Vista RC2 on Parallel, and I was not too impressed. It's as slow as running it on VMWare Workstation 5.5 .

So .... darn. I'll probably stay with VMWare for a while.

Getting my ASUS Mother Board to see the USB 2.0 Harddisk

After being very frustrated and disappointed with Windows Vista RC2 (it's like marriage: nice in the first several days, and then go downhill afterward), I was so ready to get back to Windows XP.

Actaully I would like to go for Ubuntu, but I got some native app that needs to run on Windows natively.

So I unplug to network cable (ultra important for the sake of not getting spyware), put in the pre-SP1 WinXP installation disc to go thru the install, and then put in the SP2 disc. Right away I experienced something shitty:

- The system didn't see the wireless keyboard and mouse right away, so I have to yank out the old school PS2 mouse and USB keyboard.
- The SP2 takes super ultra long to run. I don't know why. BUt I partly blame the motherboard and the fact that I didn't run installation disc to update all the motherboard driver and video driver before starting SP2 installation.
- The USB 2.0 hard disk was not being recognized. This is ultra frustrating, because all my app were in the USB hard disk. I didn't know exactly which item solved the problem, but after I did the following two, the system was started to recognize my hard disk:

1. Install the Intel Chipset Inf Update Program from the installation disc.
2. On the harddisk profile, right click on "Intel 82801EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 24DD" and did an update on the driver.

I just finished adding Traditional Chinese support on the system. Right now I am waiting for the sixty something Windows Update got completed.

Reinstall the system is never a simple point and click task.

Right way to shrink a VMWare drive

I was not aware that merely using "vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -k" cannot guarantee the vmware disk file got shrinked properly. To make sure the drive got shrink effectively, I have to do the following:

- Mount the VMWare disk to the machine. (Yep, you can suddenly see the drive file becomes a regular drive on your desktop.
- Use "vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -p" to prepare the disk to be shrinked.
- Unmount the drive from desktop.
- Shrink the disk.

Here's an example:
To Shrink C Drive

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-mount.exe" J: "D:\deecay\VMWare OS\W2K3 with VS.Net 2K3 Dev - Barebone Setting\Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.vmdk"

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -p J:

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-mount.exe" J: /d

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe" -k "D:\deecay\VMWare OS\W2K3 with VS.Net 2K3 Dev - Barebone Setting\Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition.vmdk"

"Save Image in Folder" - Great Firefox Extension for saving Image

The more I use the Firefox "Save Image in Folder", the more I found it an awesome must have tool to save images on my PC. Here's the feature that I cannot find anywhere else:

- Support the latest FireFox 2.0 .
- Support Hotkey (more later)
- Just work.

To optimize the usage, I need to do the following:
- In [Save Image In Folder]->[Edit Folder...], [Misc] tab, check "Perform left double click ...". That way, when I hold Alt key and double click on a photo, it will save it to my previously used folder.
- However, if you have Flashgot, it will interfere with yout Flashgot setting, so go to Flashgot and disable alt click support.
- But then the stupid Firefox may still pick up the Alt double click as Firefox download. So I have to set the download folder for Firefox, prohibit a Download window to load up, and clean up the messly download that Firefox still insist doing. But that's just a simple tiny price to pay for using "Save Image In Folder", and I can endure that.

downloadhelper problem

I was trying out the Firefox extension, but found out that it actually prohibit some site from complete loading the page.  That sucks!  Don't use the downloadhelper-1.94-fx+fl.xpi  extension ... unless this has a new bug fixed version.

Shrinking File headache with VMWare

During my process of shrink the VMWare OS drive in order to fit the OS in a DVDR disc, I found out something very irritating: the OS drive does NOT seem to shrink at all.  I am still working on resolving the problem, but .. man ... this sucks.
  

Experience with Image Download extension for FireFox

Here's my experience with Image Download externsion for Firefox:

save_image_in_folder-1.0-fx.xpi
- Nothing fancy. Just allows you to download files to a certain directory.
- Need to setup a download directory before using it.

batch_download-1.0.9-fx+mz.xpi
- Very handy if you know that the filename of your image you want to download is in certain sequence in the filename.
- Seems a bit complicate to use.

bazzacuda_image_saver-2.0-fx.xpi
- VERY handy for download a bunch of pictures each in their own tab.
- You need to first setup the base folder

Shrink a VMWare Disk

Thanks to the info of this site and the offical instruction, I realized that I can use a bundled VMWare utility to shrink a harddisk.

By the way:
- A pre-allocated hard disk image cannot be shrinked. So you have to use the commandline Vdiskmanager utility to convert a pre-allocated drive to a growable drive, like this:
"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager" -r "D:\Drive 1.vmdk" -t 0 "C:\Drive 1.vmdk"

- For a pre-allocated drive, each drive is made up by two files: xxx-flat.vmdk and xxx.vdmk file. When using VMWare utility, use the xxx.vdmk instead of using xxx-flat.vmdk.

-

To convert .ogm to PocketPC playable MP4

I had quite a collection of anime related .ogm files which I want to watch on my Pocket PC. The PocketDivXEncoder_0.3.60 was not working for me. So I have to use WinAVI MP4 Converter.

The conversion was processed OK, but here's a few things that you need to pay attention:

- By default it will take the first track of the .oGM file. So if you want the second audio track, you should click the [Advance] button, and then select the track you want. This works for both converting to iPod and converting the MP4

- By default the conversion gives you 320 x 240 resolution. That seems like of low in video quality. So make sure you (1) choose convert to MP4, since converting to iPod gives you the tiny 320x 240 screen. (2) click the [Adance] button and select the video size to be "as original".

Vista RC2

I was glad that RC2 was released to the public yesterday, so I downloaded it and install it on my machine. It's definitely more stable and better than RC1. Some bugs on RC1 has been fixed on RC2. Still after the RC2 expired, I will definitely go back to Windows XP because there's really nothing really must have on Vista.

Some changes I experienced:
- Nero 6 no longer works properly on RC2. So I have to use the build in DVD Burning feature of Vista. The DVD burning seems working fine, though.

- The problem which any DVDR disc was being recognized as blank DVD has been fixed.

- TrueCrypt seems to be working fine with RC2 now (there was some issue with RC1)