Transmit Buffers save the day

For the past several days I have battled with a Mazatrol M Plus controller connected to a Mazak V65 machine center and after rigging up a 25 to 9 pin null cable was having no luck sending programs from the PC to the Mazatrol.  We were able to send from Mazatrolt to PC. Hmm.. tried everything under the sun.

Different cable – same diagnosis. Different PC – same diagnosis.  Then returning after my lunch break I pondered FIFO buffers.  Geeky yes. Irrational – no.

Turns out the Transmit Buffer on the PCI Serial ports default to an ITL or transmit buffer of 14 – whereas the incoming buffer size on the 10+ year old Mazatrol is likely less. I  changed it to 4 and low and behold we were sending and receiving.  The Receive Buffer on the PC would work at default 16 due to the lower incoming buffer size of the Mazatrol.  When you think of it like a geek – IT does make sense.

iGet it

Having dicked around with this iMac for a week and some – im very impressed.  Upgraded Tiger to Snow Leopard and it took about half an hour.  I didn’t have to touch anything.   Compare that to a Vista-7 upgrade on comparable hardware – with the upgrade option – at about an hour or so. 

Productivity-wise I’ve not yet taken the plunge.  Finding OSX applications for the best Adobe apps are easily obtained.  So too, is Microsoft Office.

Hardware-wise I have to really respect the 3-year old design of the machine and its style/function but feel sadness at its 1gb DDR2 667 ram.  Considering my main rig has 12gb of DDR3 12800 ram.  Yeah – just a tad of differential.  Compare the 2.0ghz 2mb cache duo core with my main rigs quad processor @ 3.6ghz Corei7 920 with 8mb cache.  What can ya do. Buy the big mac? Not there yet.

All-in-all I enjoy its placement on the kitchen island – as it looks classy – makes for quick use – and feels like a quick in and out type function as opposed to my main rigs cockpit type setup.  Simplicity saves the day.  So simple, the goldfish can figure it out. 

But when you need to blow some shit up – I don’t think I’d start with an iMac – however as the first proverbial bite into my apple experience – im genuinely impressed and left dreaming for the flow and style of OSX snow leopard vs. Windows 7.

And wait until i get home later today – I’ll have some keen rants on how even I felt .. well.. wrong – feeling impressed with Windows Vista/7 before playing with Tiger/Snow Leopard.

Biting into an Apple / Seeing it right

Last night I picked up a 3 year old 20” Core 2 Duo iMac with apprehension. The minute i turned it on I realized I was in for something far better than my demonic PC innuendos declared.  I come from a Windows only background including nearly every iteration of Windows from 3.11 until 7, including every sever based kernel and all apps in between including Visio, SQL Server, etc. 

I use MSN everyday  – I use Microsoft Office – I rely on NTFS.

What the hell am I doing?  I’m looking to be challenged on new fronts. Not just a Windows Junkie – but THE Windows Junkie – I’m bored with Windows – bored with networking complex Windows-based networks. Ha – i think the keyword was complex.  I think i come full circle in the facts of toying with PC’s as a youth and now living the life as a dude who would not otherwise be successfully employed as a Network Admin, SQL Admin, Web Admin, <Your Favorite Technology> Admin, Etc. – without the world of Windows. 

So – i set up this iMac and without any issue im hooked up to the network – im watching dvd – im surfing the web – im watching DVD’s.. was this Windows 7.. NO! This was OSX which came out over 3 years ago.  Phenomenal.  Can I query my SQL Server from my iMac? Now that’s the real question.

I’ve even added a new Category to the blog. Can you feel the domino effect? (just wait)

Computer Chair Ga Ga

Fundamental to every great system, perfect overclock, midnight blog post, whatever it may be you indulge in while on a personal computer – focuses on the chair you’re sitting in. 

I’m about to upgrade from a run of the mill wal-mart special to a leather high back blah blah something or other.. hmm.. maybe i should go open that box up.

Windows XP and Windows 2000 Support Ends July 13th, 2010.

FINALLY!

A leaner network.

Aging systems demand aging solutions. Im too young for that shit. Let’s modernize. Forced integration is best. Especially when it sheds light on so many problems.

Custom Reports from SQL work best for us as ASP .NET files (Start Me Up)

Where was I? Oh yes – querying our database like a madman with mojo. We’re talking months from now. I see it. Excel Sheet? Crystal Reports? No! –> ASP.NET See, our JobBOSS thingy works on the ie shell – so running an asp page works like butter to integrate. Although i’ve never really integrated butter – i think its a minority thing. Anywhile, we’re committed to raping this database for all it’s worth (intellectually) is there any other way? And in creating custom reports I’ve found that *cough* the easiest way to get these two deployed the fastest and with the least amount of hassle to our IE7 wwwroot was to use *cough again* FrontPage 2003.

Migrated to Windows 7

Migrated all office PC’s to Windows 7 from Windows Vista Business. Awesome stuff. Missing a few Group Policies for the 7/R2 level but thats ok. The best is the ease of network backups. Love it!

Less resources – good performer – im stoked.

Ran into a few snags upon upgrading where a few systems were stuck @ 72%. Here’s the fix:

Variable Name: MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS
Variable value: IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll

The Cat Came Back

Hawleywood 5, Cats 0

A new geek love: MSSQL

You know a POSTS >> ADD NEW is actually going to mean something when you have to create a new category for it.  Such is the case with MSSQL.  It started as a requirement to facilitate a growing Access database used on a piece of extensively used software.

So – what’s the next logical step when facing an ailing access db? migrate to sql is what i thought or what i knew to do. Not exactly understanding the underpinnings of SQL – the table, the columns the connection strings the ODBC, the ’sa’ user – NONE OF IT!

Seems ignorant now – or maybe naive – perhaps more of an innocent desire to start somewhere. Ahh.. i like that!

So it started as that – An installation of SQL Server 2005 with Management Studio. What the heck was management studio.. well the name blandly explained what was involved.. but – to what extent i anticipated relying on and utilizing this studio of management was not even a twinkle in my eye.  We’re talking a year ago – and I’d read up on my SQL installation and how to create a new database and how to back up a database but we’re talking truly simpleton tasks at this point – however having grazed over reference material for days – i felt inclined.

A year or so later – here I sit having urges to type a transact-sql query to mine a piece of data out of our precious database. Urges that feel like a 7 or 8 year old yearning to wake up extra early on saturday to watch cartoons or play video games.

Simply amazing.