Steps for adding Exchange 2003 front end to Exchange 2000 site.
Had an interesting conversation with an IT guy named Scott who was planning migration of his existing Exchange 2000 front end onto new hardware running Exchange 2003. For the time being, at least, he's keeping the back end/mailbox server on Exchange 2000.
He wanted some input from me on his plan of attack, so I gave it, although I didn't really have much to add to what he was already doing based on my cursory search of the Microsoft website. There just wasn't a lot out there that I could readily see to cover this situation.
Basically, his plan was to demote his Exchange 2000 box off of front end status and build up the new Exchange 2003 box and make it the new front end.
What's wrong with this picture? 4:3 is NOT HDTV.
Sorry for not posting much in the past month, but a lot has been going on in my life for past few months that has taken a toll on me and my motivation to blog.
Anyhow, on to the show...
A friend of mine is looking for a new 27"ish size TV and stumbled on to this Samsung model that claims to be HD.
Say what? Let's start with the definition of what HD TV is. Over on Wikipedia it is defined as as 1080 active interlaced or progressive lines, or 720 progressive lines, using a 16:9 aspect ratio. This definition is from the industry's governing body.
Update: It isn't HD and it's crappy to boot!.
As I wrote in my previous article "What's wrong with this picture? 4:3 is NOT HDTV", my friend is looking to buy a new 27"ish TV.
He recently went to Circuit City to check out the Samsung not quite HD 26" TV and came back with this to say "Samsung's TV is a sham of a travesty of a mockery of HDTV". In other words, not only is it not HDTV, but apparently it's a crappy display to boot.
Compared to his old Panasonic regular 4:3 CRT he found the Samsung to be quite lacking and not worth the $600.
My boss starts blogging: Good cooking tips.
My boss, Simon, started blogging a few weeks ago. So far he's mainly posted some recipes he's come up with for those who need to come up with something quick and easy. You know, us geeks or other people who are pressed for time (like parents).
Anyhow, I'm still waiting for his grilled cheese recipe as well as instructions on how to cook latkes.
Enjoy.
Extremetech: Why gaming sucks on Linux.
I saw this Extremetech piece while going through my feed list today. Kind of makes me wonder if this jibes with the experiences of most other gamers who have tried to run Windows games in a Linux environment.
I've heard of people running City of Heroes and World of Warcraft in Linux flavors using various technologies like WINE and such and the few that I've run into had good experiences doing so, but I wonder about those PC gamers out there who have tried and found the whole process wanting.
Lenovo support lacking when it comes to dual channel memory.
Here's something to be aware of when purchasing desktops from Lenovo, or from anywhere really.
Most modern motherboards and chipsets have what is called dual channel memory architecture.
Basically, this means that the memory bus can read from two sticks of memory at once.
Problem is that (at least as far as I know) both sticks have to be of same size and same speed. In fact it's best to purchase identical pairs of memory sticks (usually DDR2 SDRAM DIMM modules these days) for modern desktops.
Some laptops might have the same feature, but I'm not aware if they do or don't.
Sony SXRD HDTV: "Yellow stain" woes.
I've previously written about the Sony SXRD HDTV sets and my experiences with them here and here.
Unfortunately, while I still like the sets and think that the technology is the best out there dollar for dollar for large screen TVs (50" and up), I have recently run into a problem with my set.
My set developed what is being called elsewhere as the "yellow stain" issue. Basically, something goes wrong with the display engine (probably in the SXRD chips themselves) that makes the TV start to put a yellow tinge to the display, most notably in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The longer the TV is on, particularly when displaying static images, the worse it gets. The problem goes away after the set is turned off for a few hours, but then comes back again after the SXRD HDTV has been on for a little while.
Sony SXRD HDTV: Careful when replacing the lamp.
As I blogged yesterday, I had to get my Sony SXRD HDTV fixed because it caught the "yellow stain" bug.
I learned something interesting about the design of these particular HDTVs from the repair person.
There are two microswitches that the TV uses to detect that there is a lamp and that the lamp door has been properly closed.
Problem with the design is that both of these microswitches are very fragile and can be damaged pretty easily.
So keep this in mind when replacing the lamp on your SXRD set. Be very careful when taking the lamp door off, when taking out the old bulb and inserting the new one and when putting the lamp door back on.
Scobleizer is wrong: Apple TV not 1080i.
For some unfathomable reason, at least to me, my brother bought an Apple TV last night.
Why do I say this? Because the guy already has devices in his system that offer the same/similar functionality such as his satellite DVR and his Xbox 360.
Anyhow, it's his money and he can certainly spend it on what he wants. The biggest problem with his post is that he says that the Apple TV supports 1080i HD. This is, quite frankly, wrong.
While it will certainly output at 1080i to match the input of a given TV, the max resolution of the video that it will handle is 720p.
Xbox Live Marketplace DRM problems with replacement 360s.
You've probably doubtless read in countless other stories about how Microsoft has been having problems with a lot of Xbox 360s dying with the "red rings of death".
In the last few weeks I've heard of at least 3 of the units owned by friends succumbing to this fate.
As far as I can tell, it's caused by a failure of the thermal material Microsoft has been using to connect the heat-sinks to the processors, although Microsoft hasn't really given much information on what is causing the issue or what they are doing to prevent it from happening on more recently released Xbox 360s.
Refresh.