Fix-it

VMWare Workstation Performance Settings

KyleCaulfield 2 Comments

If you are hosting large performance intensive virtual machines in Windows 7 / Vista you will start to notice even if you allocate a large amount of memory to the virtual machine windows will not use it and will even start having paging issues trying to clean up memory used by the machine.  Below are settings for VMWare Workstation’s config.ini.  These settings are global so just make them once and they will effect every VM that you have.  What these settings are doing is telling windows to allocate the memory at boot time and not to dispose when the vm is not using it.  I noticed my VMs speed increase dramatically after these settings were changed.

prefvmx.useRecommendedLockedMemSize = “true”

prefvmx.minVmMemPct = “100”

mainmem.useNamedFile = “false”

bios.bootdelay = “5000”

 

The config.ini file is commonly located in: C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataVMWareVMware Workstation

Windows Media Center Movie Library with xbox 360

KyleCaulfield 25 Comments

If you are like me, you have been banging your head against the wall trying to get your xbox 360 working correctly with your Windows Media Center’s Movie Library. I went on and on figuring it was a codec problem. The issue you are seeing should be that when logged directly into the media center it sees your movies, but the xbox 360 shows an error: “There are no items in the library yet …”

The solution is stupid… you just need to add the folder FROM the xbox 360. You would think it would pull the settings directly from the media center PC just like it does for music and pictures library, but it does not. Anyways, just go to settings, Media Libraries and add a movie library to the share (or folder) where you have your videos.

Now, if only these videos had cover art etc. Well, you could add each video and find cover art for the video and spend the rest of your life doing that for each video… or you could use an easy windows service that will easily find the name of your video and download cover art and even extra meta data. It doesn’t work for every movie but in my collection it covered about 80%.

The tool you need to download is called Yammm (Yet Another Media Meta Manager). Before you install though you should know that each video needs to be in its own folder. You can easily complete this by running this dos command inside your videos folder:

FOR %i IN (*.*) DO (IF NOT EXIST “%~ni” MD “%~ni”) & (MOVE “%i” “%~ni”)

When this command completes point Yammm to the root of your movie folder, click save and walk away. It will create artwork for any new movies you put in this folder as well!

Permalink for WordPress – IIS 6 mod_rewrite FIXED – Free

KyleCaulfield 165 Comments

If you install WordPress on IIS you will notice your friendly URLs do not work.  This is because WordPress wants to use an apache add-on called “mod_rewrite.”  The quick rundown of that this does is it will take your friendly browser URL and actually change them to index.php on the back end.  One problem with this method is that IIS does not load apache mods.  Here is an easy and free way around this:

  1. On your IIS Server download and install ISAPI_Rewrite Lite.  This filter does the job of mod_rewrite for IIS.  When downloading make sure to use the free Lite version.  This Lite version does not limit the product very much and will be perfectly fine (and free) for our wordpress blog.  Just install Rewrite Lite to the default locations for this tutorial.
  2. Next add the ISAPI filter to your IIS Site.
    You will find this setting by right clicking yourIIS site -> properties -> ISAPI filters tab -> Add …  Name the filter whatever you wish and your path to your executable should be:
    C:Program FilesHeliconISAPI_Rewrite3ISAPI_Rewrite.dll
    Click OK on both windows to save your settings.
  3. Next navigate to C:Program FilesHeliconISAPI_Rewrite3
    Here we will edit httpd.conf  (Note:  This is the difference between the pay version and the Lite version.  In the pay version you will need to edit the .htaccess file on your web folders root)
  4. Open the httpd.conf file in wordpad and paste in these lines:
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?p=$1 [NC,L]
  5. Save and exit this file.
  6. To complete your IIS changes, Go to start, run and run the command:  iisreset /restart
  7. Now lets change your WordPress settings.  Navigate to http://yourblog/wp-admin
  8. Navigate to the left side menu bar -> settings -> Permalinks
  9. Now you get to choose how you want your posts to look.  I choose a custom setting and just: /%postname%  This is how you see this blog working today.
  10. Click “Save Changes” and you should see your new friendly URLs!

How to get rid of wasps in aluminum siding … for good!

KyleCaulfield 26 Comments

After finding yellow jackets in my siding I tried everything to get rid of them… sprays, dusts, waiting… they just would not go away!  Tired of spending money I found a quick and easy way to take care of the pests for good.  This will work with any flying pest, too.

Items Needed:

  1. A Shop Vacuum
  2. Bleach
  3. Long Extension Cord
  4. An hour of time

I think you know where I am going with this, as it is pretty straight forward.  First, take about 1/2 gallon of bleach and put it in the bottom of your shop vacuum, then fill it about half way with water.  Place the lid back on and make sure the exhaust port is not open and the filter is connected to your vacuum.

Now you are ready to take out some wasps.  Carefully move your vacuum over to your siding hive and carefully move the suction tube close to where the wasps are flying in and out of their hive.  It is okay if you do not get it perfectly near the hive, within a few inches is perfect.  Next run your extension cord to the nearest outlet and plug in your vacuum and turn it on.  You will need to let it run for about 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes go back to your wasp killing machine.  You should see no bees coming in or out.  If you do, just give it a few more minutes, you can enjoy watching what is left get sucked into the tube.  If you have come out to find no wasps left you can walk up and bang on your siding with your open hand.  This will shake up the last of the wasps protecting the hive.  They will fly out and get sucked into your trap.

At this point you should be able to turn off the vacuum.  SLOWLY open it up and you will see just how many you caught!  Wait until tomorrow and see if any wasps are back.  You should be good to go, but if there are any just suck them up like the day before.

After a few days the queen should die and it will be over, you won.  What about the nest you say?  Well, new wasps will not come and use that nest so you can leave it.  When winter comes go outside and seal up any holes that the wasps were using.