This was a good chance for Microsoft to add something funny to the end of an error message.

I was trying to start the “Performance Logs and Alerts Service” on a server, and it started and then stopped immediately. I then received this error message.

“The Performance Logs and Alert service on Local Computer started and then stopped. Some Services stop automatically if they have no work to do, for example, the Performance Logs and Alerts service.”

Microsoft could have saved some words if they just said “for example, this one”. Another option would be to add “Dumb A$$” to the end of the message.

Posted in Errors, Funny, Server 2003, Windows 4 Comments »

I can’t honestly tell you that I’ve been regularly checking out the web site of the long time Tech giant CNET. Although I have ran across it from time to time, I just don’t visit it that often.

Until now.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I just can’t seem to sit down in front of the computer and watch videos for more than a few minutes at a time. I’ve talked about some of my favorites, like Webb Alert and Textra, which are both short duration, but I hadn’t looked at CNET TV before now.

CNET TV is also short little clips, but there are a whole bunch of them, and you can even see what’s coming up next. Not to mention the ability to skip ahead if you want.

Pictured to the right is a closer picture of their player, and you can see the upcoming clips listed in the red highlighted section below the video.

This works well, because instead of one short video, I can watch several short videos, which do a better job of keeping my attention than a longer duration video would.

Since it is only tech news, and most of the time I just need the audio, I’m pretty happy just jumping to another application to keep working, while the clips continue to play in the background.

Now, I do this with the video podcasts as well, but let’s face it, like Steve Jobs at the mock turtleneck store, iTunes and/or QuickTime decides to throw a fit once in awhile if they aren’t the center of attention.

On the other hand, my web browser isn’t as picky. As a matter of fact, I’ve never seen it in a mock turtleneck.

Back to CNET TV, I did notice one strange thing though, there are music videos thrown in to break up the tech clips. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but the nice thing about the player is that you can skip right over them if you want to. Of course, if you aren’t a tech news junkie just hurting for a fix, you can watch them too.

So if you want to see some tech related content and news, check out CNET TV.

Posted in Podcasts, Recommendations, Tech-News 3 Comments »

This past week has been just a little bit crazy. Of course, my clan had a great Thanksgiving, I really enjoyed the time off, and I hope the rest of you did as well.

The really crazy part of this week is that Pearl submitted me to Stumble upon, and just in the last 7 days, I’ve had 9,556 Visitors, and 19,473 pageviews! Just about all of the hits have been on my “Find out What is Using up Your Hard Drive Space With WinDirStat” post, and some of the posts in the “related posts” section of that page.

I was pretty impressed, until I exchanged a few emails with Pearl today, and she has been getting crazy amounts of traffic on her “Best 101 Lists” post. She said 40,000 hits (Digg it here) just recently.

I really had no idea how many visitors these sites can generate. Last month I posted about being stumbled twice, but that incident had only generated about 650 visitors, I didn’t see a big increase anywhere else. This time though, I doubled my subscribers, and have seen a small percentage of the visitors go to other pages on the blog.

So, if you’re reading this, and you’re one of the new subscribers, Welcome to Port 16!

Elsewhere in my field of blog-o-vision, the mumblr has a new theme, looks pretty nice, and it isn’t just the looks, check out this post for some free software.

I hope to get back on a better posting schedule, and try to work in some posts for everyone. If you see a something that is too technical, or not technical enough, please stick around, since I try to cover a wide portion of the spectrum.

And as always, feel free to ask questions, Kellypea asked a great question about the difference between storage and memory in the comments of the WinDirStat post, and I think I may even have to create a whole post about that subject. Trust me, it isn’t even close to the first time that I have been asked that question.

Thanks to everyone who continues to come back for more, as well as all of you who comment. Stay tuned, there’s more coming.

Posted in Digg, Stumble Upon, Updates 13 Comments »

If Outlook is set up to use a Microsoft Exchange Server, then you can use Shared Calendars, a handy little feature.

Note: Sharing your calendar gives other users access to the details of you appointments, subject, location, etc. You do not have to share your calendar if all you want to do is let other user’s know when you are available, that is already done using the Free / Busy Information.

Using the Navigation Pane:

Step 1: Click on the Calendar Shortcut button

In Outlook, Click on the Calendar Button in the Navigation Pane. The button may look like this:

Or if the shortcut bar is not expanded, it may look like this:

Step 2: Click the Share My Calendar Link

Scroll down to the Bottom of the pane, and there is a link titled “Share my Calendar”.

Note: The “Share my Calendar” Option only shows up if you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server.

After Clicking the link, the Calendar Properties page will come up, and you can assign specific permissions.

Step 3: Use the Calendar Properties Page to Assign Users the Appropriate Permissions

Below you’ll see a picture of the Calendar Properties Page

The “Default” entry is used to set the permissions that you want all of the users in your organization to have.

If you only want specific users in your organization to have access, leave the default permissions in place, and use the “Add” button to add users from the Address book.

Once you have added users, you can assign them permissions by highlighting the appropriate user, and check or uncheck the check boxes corresponding to the permissions you want to grant or deny.

Shortcut

The quickest way to set permissions is to use the “Permission Level” Drop Down. The Reviewer role gives the user selected read only access to your calendar. You can also use these to quickly give a user some basic permissions, and then make the specific changes that you want.

I also have a post that shows you how to open other user’s shared calendars in Outlook 2003.

Posted in Calendars, Groupware, Microsoft, Office 2003, Outlook 3 Comments »

I hope all of you have a happy Thanksgiving. The wife and I are doing a non-traditional thanksgiving this year. We’re going to have buffalo chicken wings, and some other wing flavors.

Last Sunday I indirect grilled a brined turkey on my new grill. I used some hickory to add some flavor, and it came out pretty good.

I hope all of you get to have some great time with your families, and get to enjoy the time off.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Posted in Thanksgiving 8 Comments »