Use the command line to set power options in Windows 7 and up
A computer, fresh out of the box, has a default setting to put itself to sleep after 10 minutes of inactivity. I prefer to keep computers alive so I can run maintenance scripts after hours without disturbing users. A handy command line tool is powercfg which can be used to set the power options. The […]
Opt-out of the Cox "bad domain" advertising
If you use Cox for your internet service at your home or office, you may have noticed that Cox redirects all non-existent domains to finder.cox.net. This can get especially annoying because you have to retype the entire domain name into the browser bar again, instead of looking it over and correcting the spelling mistake. To prevent […]
Blocking Referrer Spam with .htaccess files
If you are using Google Analytics on your websites, you may have found a number of sites linking to yours generating a lot of hits. Hits are great, unless its not a user, but a botnet looking to use your site for nefarious purposes. Some of this traffic is from unscrupulus SEO tactics that may lead […]
Your employees live and work in America, why is someone in China accessing your accounting data.
For many small business that operate in America, there is no reason to allow the entire planet access to business resources. Sure, SMTP and WWW traffic can come from anywhere, and you should keep that in mind, but that isn’t a compelling reason to allow everyone in China access to your accounting system, or that […]
Installing VMWare Tools in Ubuntu 14.4 LTS
After installing Ubuntu, update everything sudo apt-get -y update sudo apt-get -y upgrade Install build tools sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-server build-essential Mount VM Tools virtual CD. Mount the virtual CD in Ubuntu sudo mkdir -p /media/cdrom sudo mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom Change to the directory and copy the files cd /media/cdrom sudo cp VM*.tar.gz /tmp […]
Excel 2010 Slow to open
On a couple computers, I had an issue where Excel would take upwards of 45 seconds to open. It would take this long if double clicking on an excel file, or just launching the program directly from the start menu. I found that if I disconnected the network cable, excel would launch instantly. I verified […]
Outdoor Wireless network for Crescent City Classic Timing information
Bourn Technology has been asked to design and quote an outdoor wireless network for the timing information for the Crescent City Classic again this year in partnership with Tomba Communications. The customer was very happy with the network performance last year, but I saw plenty of room for improvement. Last year over 40,000 people passed through the […]
Changing License Key in Office 2013
I had a client purchase 5 copies of Microsoft Office 2013 from a local big box store. The license comes on a card that has to be entered into a office.com account to retrieve the CD Key. On Office.com however, there is no way to tell them apart. Because of this confusion the same key […]
Cassidy Park Wifi
While brainstorming with the staff of the Museums of Cassidy Park on how to attract and connect with younger visitors we came to the conclusion that tablets and smart phones were the interface to today’s youth. Media presented via a smartphone that related to the displays at the museums allowed for opportunities to engage with […]
Extracting Fault Cuts directly from the database, Kingdom SQL
I have come into a situation where a Geologist names his fault cuts as the throw of the fault cut. This was done as a workaround to enable posting both depth and throw on vertical sections. But the unintended consequence is that there may be multiple fault cuts in a single well with the same […]