The Windows Firewall has always been a point of arguments for me and my co-workers.  It never quite works the way we want it to work; and we always disagree on what to do.  My manager usually decides to disable the Firewall completely.  I don’t think it’s the best way to go, but if you’re in a situation where you absolutely need to the Windows Firewall on all Windows client, this is how you do it on a Windows 2008 server. 

1. Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Policies
2. Select the policy to edit (Usually: the default policy), right-click and choose “edit”.
3. Go to Administrative Templates > Network > Network connections > Windows Firewall > Domain Profile.
4. Disable the “Protect All Network connections” rule.  Just to be sure, you can do the same for the “Standard Profile”, as well.

Now, all that’s left to do is update the clients.  It’s up to you to find a way that suits your needs.  Personally, I usually go to the client machines and use the following command:

gpupdate / force

Or, you could log off and log on again.  I wouldn’t recommend it on a network with many clients, though. 

Just a friendly warning:  Disabling your Windows Firewall might work for you, and solve your problem for now, but it’s not a safe way of working.  You should always have a firewall running.  Microsoft “Experts” will claim that the Windows Firewall must run at all time, but firewalls from third parties work just as well – or often even better.  For example, we use Trend Micro Worry Free, and the built-in firewall works perfectly for us, as it’s less “harsh.”  Find a firewall solution that works for you, and stick with it.

Here is the Recap Video for the first Motive of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

About:

I will be uploading step-by-step piecemeal performances of Les Barricades Mystérieuses (Lay Berry-Cod Mysteri-ose) to serve as a tutorial for those who visually learn, like myself.

Here is a recap for the third part:

4:53 – Make sure camera attenuator is off

Little things add up. You don’t have to be out picking up garbage at 4:30 AM, but these little things make a difference, without trying too hard.

1. Shop thrift store and vintage! It’s easier on your wallet and on the planet! Plus, you will be a complete individual.

2. Just say no to plastic bags. If it’s a small purcahse, drop it into your purse (yes, you have room in there) or buy one reusable bag for big shopping trips.

3. Wrap presents (Christmas is coming) in old magazine pages or recycled paper that you can draw on. And do you really need piles of candy cane wrapping paper strewn around your house?

4. Win the war with the person inside who wants to buy every lipgloss and eyeshadow before you’ve scratched the old stuff. Use it up, enjoy it, and then buy new things.

5. Donate your old and unwanted clothes to charity, not to a landfill.

6. Don’t throw magazines away when you’re done reading them- make a collage, give it to a friend, or donate it to your local women’s shelter

7. Take notes on BOTH sides of the page, please and thank you.

8. Resist the urge to continually blot your lips and face. Trust me, I’m sure it’s not that bad. And your lip stick is prettier on your lips then on a tree.

9. Tired of your purse? Hold a purse swap with some friends instead of buying a new one.

10. Use Blackle instead of Google for your web searchs. It is powered by google, but has a black screen so it saves energy!

-Luinae

Go here for a great wool dyeing tutorial, dyeing is simple enough to do at home with every day items for tools e.g.
# Wool
# Stock Pot
# Plastic Container
# Water
# White Vinegar
# Dye
# Potato Masher
# Strainer
# Kitchen Stove
# A place for the wool to drip dry
For those who are after a more in depth look at the process, this is a really great bit of information for those interested in dyeing.
You do need a degree in chemistry to be able to understand huge swathes of it, but there is so much of it there that everyone is bound to find something useful!

Locate a DRM-free song you want in iTunes and take note of the start and stop time of the section you want to use for the ringtone. It can be up to 30 seconds in length.

Right click the song and choose “Get Info” and click on the “Options” tab. Enter the start and stop time values in the appropriate section. Click OK.

Go up to “iTunes/Preferences…” and under “General/Import Settings…” choose “AAC Encoder” Click OK. Click OK again.

Go back to your song, right click and choose “Create AAC Version”. After it’s done converting your song, right click the newly created AAC file and choose “Show in Finder”. Change the .m4a extension of this file to .m4r. Keep this window open.

Go back to the original song in iTunes and zero out the start and stop times you set earlier so your song will play in it’s entirety again. Delete the AAC file you encoded from the library. Choose “Keep File” when the dialog window appears.

Go back to the window that has your .m4r file and drag it into iTunes under the Ringtones section of your iPhone. You’ll see your iPhone light up and sync. Once complete, on your iPhone go to Settings/Sounds and change your ringtone to the one you just created. Isn’t that lovely?

DISCLAIMER: This is simple stuff but it’s done at your own risk. If you mess anything up it’s your own fault.

Video by Michael Rutherford of COPE Farms filmed at our farm in March, 2009.

Kim demonstrates the do’s and dont’s of growing mushrooms to a captive audience!

• Apple Seeds Fall Far From the Tree
• A Twig in Time Saves Mine

With grafting, a single apple tree may grow more than one variety.

Tom Burford is a 7th generation orchardist from Amherst County, Virginia.

Grafting captures the best traits of the rootstock and the scion wood. For instance, the rootstock can control whether the tree is full-sized, semi-dwarf, or dwarf. It brings with it certain hardiness, disease resistance, soil preferences, and the like. The scions, however, control the apple variety, ripening season, and pollination characteristics. Some apple varieties require pollinating from another variety, while others can self-pollinate.

And what about those seeds that the child Burford collected? Those were used to grow new rootstock for later grafting.

Modern orchardists may use a scion or a bud to accomplish grafting. With scion wood, representative twigs are harvested during the dormant season, kept cool and damp until spring, then grafted on in the spring. With bud grafting, autumn buds are harvested and then grafted onto the limbs or rootstock prior to annual dormancy. According to Burford, grafting almost always will succeed as long as sound contact is created between the thin vascular cambium layer of grafted tissues and the graft is kept from drying out. The images below originate from the Cider Museum Hereford, in the heart of England’s cider region.

A sharp knife and manual dexterity are required for grafting. Image from the Cider Museum Hereford.

To learn more about apple grafting and heirloom apples, try the following links:
• Lucy Cook’s All About Apples featuring Tom Burford and apple-cheese pairings
• The Cider Museum Hereford
• Tom the Apple Man, another English site
• The Willow House Chronicles
• The Howling Duck Ranch

Enjoy! TPJ

After a long flight, the last thing you want to do is pull a dozen pieces of luggage off a baggage carousel to check if theyre yours, since they all look pretty much the same. The best way to avoid this is to buy unique luggage, but if youve already got luggage that looks like everyone elses, here are some ways to make it stand out.

via How to Make Luggage Easier to Spot – wikiHow.

Hi guys! I am teaching a class called Sexy Bondage at Servitus LA. PLEASE RSVP in order to assure a spot in the class, the address will only be given out to those who RSVP to SomaSnakeoil@gmail.com.

This class will cover rope bondage safety, choosing the right type of rope, and versatile ties and positions for sexy bondage fun. Sexy Bondage is rope centric class for males and females, Tops and bottoms, and all levels of bondage experience.

Don’t forget to bring your questions; and for added fun bring your favorite ropes and a willing partner for a hands-on tutorial experience. Ropes will not be provided during the class. For more information: MsNikkiNefarious.com

I am really excited about this class as not only am I teaching this class at My F/family dungeon, but I will also have My mia as a bondage bottom since she’s visiting Me during that time!! I really hope to see you guys at my class!

I’ve been hard at work sewing together my niece’s felt tea party. I’ve used some wonderful patterns from UmeCraft on Etsy, but I won’t share her secrets! Sorry!

I’ve promised to keep you posted on the progress of the tea party and I’m currently in the middle of crafting a strawberry shortcake. This tutorial will give you an idea of how to put together the strawberry slices for the cake (tutorial to come for cake!)

For this you’ll need some red, pink and green felt. I used a cream color embroidery thread for the seeds, green on the leaves, and red thread to pull it all together.

Your basic shape is a heart! Make sure the bottom is rounded and not a point, and that the lobes at the top are nice and wide and rounded. To start off, stitch in your “seeds” scattered around the surface of the heart.

First, ignore my nail polish. Sewing is harsh on nails…and I’ve never been diligent that way. Fold the heart in half with your seeds on the inside. Start whip stitching within the dip in the top of the heart. You’re going to sew along the humps at the top of the heart from the folded side to about where my white knot is. I like to start further away from the seem at the side with the fold, and as i sew outward start placing my stitches closer to the edge. When you turn your strawberry back out again, it will make the curve at the top of your berry rounder and smoother.

Tie off your knot and turn your berry inside out. There should be a nice curve at the top! Place the berry down on the pink felt like you see here. I just cut around them but if you prefer, use a fabric pen to draw the outline of the berry onto the pink felt.

This pink piece will be sewn to the open side of your strawberry. Cut an elongated red heart to stitch into the center of the pink piece. I hate tieing knots so I try to do all of this in one swoop! Before finishing off the stitches, stuff the strawberry and seal it up.

If you like (it depends on how you attach the berries to your cake) you can and a green star shape to the top of the berry with green thread. Free-style cut them and they’ll look more organic!

I will post soon how to make the felt cake to go with these berries…but they’re beautiful all on their own!

My wife’s 3 year old Thinkpad Z60t stopped working after showing “Fan Error”. Such a failure always happens when the warranty becomes expired (ended last May). Did it show any sign before it happened? Yes, the fan became running more often and louder, and everything starts to run slower and slower. Did I ever clean the fan? Yes, multiple times with my Dyson vacuum, one of the greatest engineering products.

I had three options: 1) Buy a new laptop since this is old Pentium-M, which will costs $$$; 2) Buy a replacement fan part from Ebay, which will costs $$; and, finally, 3) Try to fix a fan, which costs nothing, but may cost a big waste of my precious time. Well, I define myself as an engineer, so why not trying to fixing it? The results was very successful. It was much simpler than I thought. Here I show some photos and step-by-step guideline for the guys who may end up with the same three questions I had.

You will need small philips driver set, lubricant (WD-40 works great), cleaning alcohol, and CPU thermal compound.

Thinkpad is well designed physiologically, though probably not esthetically, which makes us easy to replace its parts. As usual disassembly begins with removing many screws. Remember there are some hidden screws you need to figure out. Two screws are hidden with rubber caps (see arrow below at bottom). Plug out rubber caps, then you will see screw heads. Secondly, there are two screws with  that are used for external monitor port.

Remove battery and drives, and remove all remaining screws to take out the bottom cover. You may want to draw which one comes from where, since they are many.

The picture below shows the system with bottom cover detached. See the fan enclosed inside the gray cage? We can’t take out that fan from this side.

Flip over the system. You will notice the palm rest is already loose. See the black square thing next to the yellow thing, which is the connection between the system and the trackpad. Pull it upward, it will come out very easily.

The next is the keyboard. Same thing. Keyboard is already loose, so flip over. If you see one connector, disconnect it.

Now it’s time to take out the remaining cover which is blocking the fan. Unscrew the screws holding the black frame to the system, and take the cover off.

Finally, you will see tiny speakers (L & R). These speakers are pretty bad with very low volume, which is one of my complaints with Thinkpad laptops. Now we’re almost there.

Remove two screws which fix the left side speaker assembly. Then remove four screws which fix the heatsink to the motherboard. See two silver rods lying parallel on top of copper heatsink? Two screws are there at the end of each rod. The fan and heatsink comes with one part. Three pictures below show the system and the fan after they are detached.

As soon as you take the heatsink assembly out from the system, you will see the thermal compound spread on the CPU and the heatsink bottom face. I strongly recommend to clean these surfaces and put fresh compound for best heat dissipation. Now, see the very small screws on the fan cover? Remove them and you will see the fan blade under it (See the last picture).

Now detach the plastic fan case (black) by removing screws.

The image below shows the heatsink after removing the fan case, with the exhaust segments zoomed in. Actually, I cleaned with vacuum and brush before removing it. Nevertheless, the heat dissipating segments look still dirty with oily dust. The oily surface and residual dust would attract more dusts and become clogged easily. The easiest way will be submerge the heasink into the soap water, and clean with sonicator. Unfortunately I have no sonicator. Instead I cleaned it with alcohol and brush.

The picture below shows the heatsink after cleaning. Okay, I am satisfied.

Now it’s time to solve the major problem: “fan error”. If you take the blade off from the fan axis (by just pulling out), you will see the motor assembly. Since the blade and the core are not touching (magnetically repelled each other), the source of the noise should be on its axis; either by wear or by poor lubrication. For this small part, even if there is wear, it would be small and can be overcome by enough lubricant. So, I applied small amount of WD-40 on its axis, put the blade back, and spin it by hand. Guess what? I felt it became much smoother, and that was it! I half assembled the fan, plugged the power cord, and try to hear the noise but could not. It sounds like when I first bought the laptop.

Re-assembly all parts in reverse order. My laptop is not completely usable without noise, though it cannot compete with Intel’s current Core 2 Duo products.

BE A CONSTITUTIONAL WATCHDOG

How do you do that?  All you have to do is keep an eye on your Elected Officials and keep track of the legislation that they either author or vote on, keeping an eye towards the Constitutionality of each and every piece of legislation to ensure it does not encroach on the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.  By contacting these people every time they screw up and usurp the founding documents, we are keeping then “on notice” that “We the People” are watching and they will not get away with their underhanded, un-American, and dare I say, traitorous schemes.  If I can do it, so can you.  This web page is dedicated to that purpose.  Contact your reps and do it regulary!!

Artigo publicado pelo colaborador André Flores

Basta que saibam que eu trabalho com TI – apenas “informática” para alguns – pra que me peçam ajuda com muitas dúvidas. A principal destas dúvidas é “Que computador eu compro pra mim?”

Como escolher?

Ao meu ver, a principal orientação que deve nos guiar a escolher um computador é a finalidade do uso. Escolher o melhor processador, a maior memória, o monitor de última geração atrai qualquer nerd ou geek , incluindo eu, mas isso traz um custo que nem sempre podemos pagar.

O problema é que os fabricantes ou vendedores geralmente apresentam as características dos equipamentos, o que não serve ao leigo: como saber se “2Gb DDR3 1333MHz” são suficientes pra abrir a página do banco e escrever documentos?

Pra tentar ajudar na associação destes detalhes técnicos às necessidades do uso, vou traçar o caminho desta escolha em algumas etapas.

Etapa 1: Note ou Desk?

As duas principais linhas são os desktops – CPU, teclado, mouse e monitor – e os notebooks.
Os notebooks, além de estarem na moda, possuem algumas vantagens:

• Fácil de carregar pra qualquer lugar
• É compacto, cabe em mesas e espaços pequenos
• Não usam tantos fios e cabos

Por estas vantagens, eles geralmente possuem um custo maior do que os desktops com a mesma configuração.

Eles também tem desvantagens, das quais eu acredito ser a mais importante a restrição para atualização de seus componentes: por serem integrados, poucos destes componentes podem ser trocados por outros melhores.

Já os desktops, mesmo não tão elegantes e compactos, ainda são em grande maioria em comparação aos notebooks, apesar de já perderem nas vendas.

A principal vantagem deles é sua modularidade, que permite a quem compra escolher as peças que preferir separadamente, ajustando-o para o uso ideal.

Mesmo que as principais marcas vendidas não disponibilizem esta gama tão grande de customização, existem muitos profissionais no mercado que são capacitados pra montar um desktop ao gosto do freguês.

Etapa 2: Qual marca?

Muito ainda se pergunta sobre as marcas. Minha visão é que elas são apenas montadoras: os fabricantes das principais peças – procesador, memórias, discos rígidos – são os mesmos.

O maior dos benefícios que as marcas podem oferecer como diferencial competitivo, além da qualidade, que nem sempre significa muito, são os serviços, principalmente a garantia e atendimento, fundamentais na hora que mais precisamos.

Uma boa maneira de escolher é comparar equipamentos de configuração igual ou similar e de marcas diferentes e saber: qual é o tempo de garantia? como é o atendimento em caso de problema? qual o tempo sugerido pra resolver o problema?

Outra ferramenta interessante, pra pesquisar a reputação destas marcas, são o próprio Google, fóruns e sites de informática e tecnologia.

Etapa 3: E os detalhes?

“Já sei pra quê quero, o tipo e a marca, mas ainda não entendo aquelas coisas todas…”

Os detalhes são importantes, não é à toa que eles aparecem nas etiquetas das lojas ou nos sites dos fabricantes. São os principais recursos exigidos por sistemas operacionais (Windows, linux, macOS) e programas para que funcionem em um computador. Faz parte do trabalho de avaliar sua necessidade saber o que você pretende usar no computador e escolher estes componentes para atender a esta utilização. A familiaridade com estes componentes e quais atendem aos principais programas que conhecemos por aí vem com o tempo.
Vamos aos principais:

Processador
É ele o responsável por toda a execução lógica e matemática do computador. Sua característica mais apresentada é a frequência de processamento, medida em Ghz (Giga Hertz): esse valor corresponde a quantas vezes ele faz um cálculo simples por segundo. Quanto maior, melhor.
Outras características importantes são a quantidade de núcleos (single (1), dual (2), quad (4), etc.) e a memória cache (a memória do próprio processador, diferente da memória RAM), lembrando que quanto mais melhor, mas nem sempre é necessário o mais moderno.

Memória RAM
É a memória utilizada pelo sistema operacional e programas pra guardar as informações que eles utilizam quando você os utiliza. As características mais apresentadas são a quantidade nominal em Gb (Giga bytes), a tecnologia (DDR2, DDR3) e a frequência de trabalho (a quantidade de vezes por segundo que ela se comunica com os demais componentes: 667, 800, 1066, 1333) em MHz (Mega Hertz).

A quantidade de memória RAM do computador pode ser notada em situações como: carregamento do sistema operacional, utilização de diversos programas ao mesmo tempo e navegação na internet utilizando diversas abas ou janelas.

Cabe clarear uma confusão de responsabilidades que existem entre a memória e o processador e disco rígido: a velocidade com que o computador e os programas funcionam é uma combinação entre estes três componentes, sendo o processador o maior responsável. A memória é importante, mas não responsável pela velocidade em que os programas são executados.

Sempre que um novo programa precisa ser executado, o sistema operacional verifica: “Existe memória para este programa?”. Caso não, ele tem um trabalho de “liberar” memória para que este novo programa possa ser executado, daí aquele tempo que parece uma eternidade. Pra que este efeito seja reduzido quando utilizamos muitas coisas ao mesmo tempo, é ideal que a quantidade de memória seja maior.

Disco rígido
As características mais divulgadas deste componente são a quantidade nominal para armazenar informações, em Gb ou em Tb (Giga bytes e Tera bytes respectivamente) e a quantidade (7000, 10000, 15000) de rotações por minuto (RPM).

Imagine uma vitrola. Lembra? É bem parecido: quanto mais rápido rodar o disco, mais vezes a agulha de leitura vai passar na mesma informação, o que significa que será possível ler mais vezes em menos tempo.

O disco rígido, ou HD (Hard Drive) é onde os programas e arquivos do computador são armazenados. A principal diferença entre o disco rígido e a memória RAM é que o primeiro conserva a informação lá mesmo quando o micro está desligado (não-volátil) e o segundo não conserva (volátil).

A memória RAM é mais rápida e eficiente do que o disco rígido; em compensação é bem mais cara, por isso seu computador tem menos memória RAM e muito mais espaço em disco rígido, que é uma tecnologia mais barata pra guardar informação. No entanto, ela é muito lenta pra fazer o papel da memória ram.

Uma rápida explicação de como funciona:

O computador guarda arquivos (do usuário e dos programas) no disco rígido. Quando um programa é utilizado, o computador copia seus arquivos (ou parte deles) para a memória RAM até que este programa seja fechado. Nessa hora, o computador guarda o que foi alterado (arquivos do usuário) de volta no disco e remove da memória RAM o que não é mais necessários (arquivos do programa).

Juntando as peças

Agora, com base nestas idéias, espero que fique mais fácil escolher o que é ideal pra você. Pra dar mais uma força, vou citar alguns exemplos de computadores e periféricos e a finalidade onde geralmente se encaixam:

Notebooks
Geralmente utilizado por pessoas que necessitam trabalhar com eles não só em casa ou no escritório: ele vai na mochila, onde estiver o trabalho.

Também são alvo de usuários que gostam da simplicidade, elegância e discrição. Não precisam daquele emaranhado de fios e cabos.

Netbooks
São aqueles notebooks menores, com telas de 8” a 12”. Muito visados por pessoas que trabalham na rua o tempo inteiro e precisam acessar seus arquivos. Também ganham dos notebooks no quesito praticidade e peso, o que os torna ideais pra carregar em qualquer mochila ou bolsa sem despertar atenção.

Desktops
São os mais comuns, pra quem apenas precisa utilizar em casa ou no trabalho. A principal vantagem (ao menos pra mim) é o custo reduzido para trocar seus componentes independentemente, seja:

• Trocando os componentes principais, tornando-o um micro atualizado, mas mantendo seus periféricos preferidos (teclado, mouse, monitor, webcam, etc)
• Trocando os periféricos para novos, sem precisar trocar os componentes principais, que são mais caros

Destes periféricos, alguns atrativos que lembro:

• Monitores que podem chegar até as 22”, possibilitando ver filmes ou até mesmo TV, bastando instalar uma placa de captura de vídeo
• Mouses e teclados sem fio, mais elegantes e mais ajustáveis por não depender dos fios
• Tablets, pra quem precisa trabalhar com arte e ter precisão além do mouse
• Webcams diversas, desde as mais comuns às com resolução maior com sensor de movimento, pra quem precisa ou gosta de chat com vídeo
• Placas de vídeo com processadores gráficos (GPUs) de maior poder de processamento, pra quem gosta de jogar ou precisa trabalhar com vídeos e/ou imagens de alta resolução e tamanho
• Placas de som de alta fidelidade, pra quem trabalha com música, em casa ou em estúdios.

Já dá pra explicar pro vendedor?