3/2010: Looking for a way to automatically and regularly backup your Windows Server system to a remote site without paying high service and storage fees? That answer might be found here!

12/2009: Thinking of changing your track or pendant lights to LEDs? I want a cable lighting system and need it LED driven, but can't get comparable specifications. So I'm ordering a whole bunch of 12V LEDs that mount in MR11, MR16, and GU5.3 fixtures and am measuring their characteristics. See the LED lighting test report here!

11/2009: If you are having problems getting other operating systems running in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Virtual Server, the answer might be here!

6/2009: The current trend of the day on the web are mouse-over pop-up ads. I HATE THEM! They bug me so much, one particularly annoying site that had them all over the place and my mission in life (or at least for the next 15 minutes) became making all those ads disappear forever. It was easy, and I'll show you how you can do it too! Right here! Kill those mouse over pop up ads forever!

Another hot item I've recently completed -- you've got a Microsoft Access database (.mdb) file and it runs very fast on your workstation. But when you copy it onto a network share and use it there, it runs slower than molasses. Perhaps it didn't use to be that way. I know why this happens! Read My Database runs fine on workstation and slow on the network.

4/2009 - A Dell PowerEdge SC420 server doing the BSOD shuffle every half hour. What is happening and hopefully what can be done about it.

4/2009 - Are you getting errors with volume shadow copy, trying to run NTBackup, or other errors? Your fix might well be here!

3/2009 - A guide on how to be safer online and minimize your cost to recover from any malware infection

9/2008 - A guide on how to recover your system from a particular collection of malware and other problems it causes.

7/2008 - Anatomy of a Botnet. I sent in a story to Windows IT Pro, which was turned into an article you can read here. What got published was very high level and lacked the technical meat you would need to recognize or repair such a problem in your organization.

Here is my version of the identifying and cleaning a botnet article giving all the details and steps taken. It is an early draft, subject to change!

3/2008 - Here is a how-to on getting Server 2003 installed on a non-server system board.

3/2008 & 8/2008 - How-To recover a system from continuous blue screens of death

4/29/2007 - Microsoft Webcast on the Art of Debugging Information - The webcast I did for Microsoft is on using a network sniffer to diagnose common network and isolate systems / application issues. The webcast can be found on Microsoft's site, but a link directly to it is here. If you want to become an expert in network troubleshooting, this is a must-watch webcast!
 

2/8/2007: Anatomy of an eBay Phishing site! Come see how the bad guys steal your information! Click here to see it!
 

Most of the projects I've done are for companies and the property belongs to them. However, being in love with the craft I take on some just because they are there. Kind of like some people climb mountains.

In 1987 seeing a program for the HP41C calculator that took the last 5 or so digits of your Illinois Drivers License and told you your sex and birth date, I was curious about the algorithm.

So I did some research and found the whole algorithm, then  wrote a program to encode your name, birth date, and sex into your Illinois Drivers License number. Over the years I've heard from numerous folks how much they like it -- mostly people in law enforcement or private investigators -- and a copy can be downloaded here:  ILLDL.EXE

Back in high school, we played a game called Trek73 which was originally written in HP2000 time shared Basic. I've ported the game to the PC, and the program and documentation can be downloaded here:  TREK73.EXE    TREK73.DOC

I recently did a data recovery on a hard drive that worked fine if you shook it just right. The video of this most bizarre data recovery can be downloaded here

Totally non-computer related, but this was as good a place as any to make this available. Listen to Doyle Brunson's interview given at Barge 2009. Audio was taken with an iPhone sitting on the table and minimal post processing to level the volume. As good as I could do on short notice with what I had in hand, but it is better than nothing. Right click here and save-as to your local drive.