Classic ASP debug error messages in IIS 7
unfortunately some of us still have to maintain ASP websites and even write code on a daily bases using it.
thought Microsoft were nice enough to include an ASP addon for IIS 7 which works a treat on server 2008 but there are a few things that need to be addressed first.
mainly turn on debug info!!
on server all you need to do is bash this into the command prompt
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd set config -section:asp -scriptErrorSentToBrowser:true
yes that was easy.
on windows 7 or vista you will need this as well
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpErrors -errorMode:Detailed
Took me best part of a day to work that second line out since I didn’t need it on server 2008.
Not to mention you will need to mess around with the firewall and other things but this should help someone! most likely me next time I need to set this up.
NAS Vs. File Server
Since storage is 1p for 4GB (at time of writing on a 1TB drive) there is really no reason not to have a central storage solution. Even if you only have one computer its still very useful because you may have a PS3, 360 or even a blu ray player that can read file servers. But the question is do you build/buy a machine that can handle all your file sharing needs and many more or do you buy a network attached storage device?
Well 3 years ago you would have laughed off such an idea and had said network attached storage (NAS) since they were cheaper and used less power than a traditional server.
Now its role reversal a U1 NAS box can now cost about 3 times as much as a cheap U1 windows server (with OS). now since NAS boxes can be evil to set up and maintain, mainly because they use a very cut down version of Linux/Unix so when something goes wrong it normally means digging through Google search results for a few days until you find a solution.
So in an rack environment a server wins without question since you can actually have control over it remotely without headaches (as long as you install a full OS on it).
But how about in a small business or home environment, The reason I’m lumping these together is because to be honest they have very similar requirements these days, apart from a small business will do backups more often (in real life this is never the case).
Now this is where it gets a bit more complicated. If you are sensible about this you can avoid massive headaches and punishment to your bank balance. ok so a cheap single bay NAS box will set you back about £30 – £100 (though £50 is about right), this are great though they lack raid and other features from the dual or quad disk boxes (Though for a cheap solution go for it).
Now the Quad boxes are a total waste of money you’ll pay over £250 for once on these (with no disks). These are only useful when up time is critical since you can have a hot swap. But from experience you spend more time restarting Netgear readyNAS drives than actually using them (not used any other 4 bay NAS).
For this just get a server and save yourself the headaches and wasted days. When you think about it you can get a cheap motherboard with RAID that support 8 disks, a CPU, PSU case and RAM for the same price as these.
This just leaves the 2 Bay NAS boxes, this is a strange area of the market since they cost between £50 – £150 and the cheapest ones aren’t generic no brands.
D-Link and netgear have a good foothold here but the major difference is the D-link models are much more user friendly (really it shocked me to) and you don’t need to restart them once a week like the netgears (also netgears have a bad habit of overheating). In netgears defence they offer better more expensive models and they also run much more quietly.
If you are wondering about technical support and advanced features like OS plugins then netgear wins, but there support is still horrible (but D-link is next to none)
For £60 you can get a DNS-320 (pictured above) which is a bargain and with features like one touch backup and print server it will suit a home or small business no problem.
This only leaves small business servers for 2 disk drives. This is a very fast developing part of the market that used to be highly dominated by VIA. In recent years the Intel atom has come onto the scene bringing the price down rapidly. the D510MO (pictured below) is only £50 and offers a 1.5 Dual core HT chip passive cooling, 2 SATA and 8 USB (it only lacks raid).
So there are viable solutions in the small business/home data storage server department but they will set you back about £200. So for this sector NAS still wins.
Conclusion
Its rather simple really NAS boxes are still a cost effective way or getting simple file servers up and running quickly (no permission per user etc. etc.). But when it comes to more complex setups such as in a rack or 4 Bay NAS boxes for small/medium business A server is more productive and in the long run can be a lot cheaper (due to lost time dealing with the NAS boxes mini OS).
For Joe Bloggs in the home the NAS box still wins for the simple things in life regarding media/file sharing and backups mainly because of the cost of home NAS boxes. Though for the people out there who need more than just a file share a nice ITX setup will be the best choice by far (shame about the cost though).
Netbook Confusion 2
Well I looked some more and I found 2 that were almost perfect apart from the first one was battery life and the second was price and battery life.
Samsung X120
Asus Eee PC VX6
http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=30dqaE10a0LUo9XJ
But now I’ve given up I surrender it doesn’t look like we are getting any of the nice netbooks the states have had since this time last year any time soon so I’m gonna bite the bullet and loose 168 pixels 
so its either
Samsung NF210
Samsung N150
in terms of number there both pretty much the same apart from a few minor details (thought the NF210 is £60 more!)
Though another very good netbook (which I’m gonna look at again) is the
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3s
its 760p but the problem is its almost impossible to find a 6 cell model (4 cell is £200 on amazon) which means its battery life it about 5 hours plus its a single core. But for the extra pixels it might be worth it. bah I’m confused again
Netbook Confusion
This shouldn’t be this hard…
First off my problem was I needed a portable computer solution so I spent a long time (3 months) weighing up the pros and cons of each.
my needs are
- to be able to write code easily on the go with the possibility later to have 3G mobile internet for emergency work when ever and where ever I am.
- watch video (HD if possible)
- long battery life (7 real hours+)
- short charge time
- small form factor 11.6 screen max
- matte screen (unless I opt for a touch screen device)
- sub £400 price tag (a little flexible here)
Tablets
now I was first I didn’t even consider a tablet since the amazing iPad step backwards in technology but then the Zoostorm SL8 caught my eye (plus it was £410 on ebuyer)
Now first off the think looked really sexy with its 11.6" "HD" multi touch screen, HDMI, long battery life, 32GB SDD and for a shockingly low price when you think about it. But it would of been nothing more than a pointless toy since it lacked a keyboard and touchpad.
Though I could of easily used it with an external keyboard and mouse and it would of worked easily as a horizontal 3rd monitor for work but alas ebuyer sold out (no surprise), plus It didn’t really fit my "portable" computing solution package.
Multi Touch note/netbooks
now this would be the ultimate package for me a nice multi touch (swivel of course) netbook/notebook. first off the reason why the netbooks ones are bad.
well for one there is only really two of them first being the Eee PC T101MT and the second being the new Dell Inspiron Duo Sparta.
first up the Eee PC T101MT the major issue with this one is that it uses the dated GMA 3150 graphical chipset which only output at 1024 x 600 (and not much better externally). other issues are is uses an N450 atom CPU 1.66Ghz, which in turn means DDR2 is its limit. Then you look at the price £445 and yea it just feels very expensive.
Next up was dells lovely looking but strangely named Duo Sparta, this is priced just below the Eee PC T101MT. Now this baby is loaded to the teeth with its N550 dual core and its 1366 x 768 screen (still 10.1 using the dated GMA 3150) and its multi touch "hybrid" screen (which I think would would better than a swivel, less things to go wrong). Along with Accelerometer and magnetometer (the later seems pointless). It also comes with 2GB DDR3 (for some reason clocked at 800Mhz).
Now this seems almost perfect at the first glace but it still has the GMA 3150 (just overclocked a little to get the extra oomph) but it failed at battery life. Dell states UPTO 4 hours battery life, which is shocking since Samsung use the same CPU and chipset and they state 13 hours (ok in real life it 8.5) but we all know they over state the battery life.
In the notebook field they are normally around the mid £600 mark and offer a nice balance of speed and battery life along with 11.6" screen but they are very hard to locate any solid data on any products you can actually buy. the only one I could find that was kind of in stock was the Acer Aspire 1825PTZ on amazon.
i5 "budget" (SU series) cpu with 8 hours battery life, decent gpu and multi touch, shame its a tad bit expensive at £580) and 2 years old.
Netbooks
now this is an interesting market since they all use the same cpu’s and gpu’s across the board. Which is rather annoying since NVidia have some lovely mobile chips (ion and ion 2 ) designed for netbooks but not even managed to get a glance of one this side of the pond.
To make matters worse the N550 (dual core atom) only in a few models so its an N455 or leave it. Then if you do find one with a decent cpu and battery life the graphical side lets it down. Its damn annoying.
The Samsung N150 with the N550 CPU seemed to fit the bill perfectly (for my needs so no touchscreen) for a lovely price of £200 but the damn GMA 3150 gpu lets it down. Now if it had a 768 high screen instead of 600 I would be sold I wouldn’t even mind losing some battery life for it (battery life is 8.5 real hours) and paying some extra bucks but paying more money doesn’t seem to be able to get you a 768 high screen in the UK which is starting to get a little annoying.
Conclusion
None, I’m still as confused as when I started. There just doesn’t seem to be a notebook/netbook that fits my requirements. The Samsung N550 was the closest since it was the only one that came under the £400 price tag but it lacked the extra 168 pixels. its an annoying compromise to make I would rather drop down to a lower CPU for the sake of the GPU but that isn’t a real option.
almost time for you to lose your head wanker
well the day of another TF2 update is getting near and still no news on what its going to contain no fair. well here a little bit of fun (i know its a very old image)
just need to brush up on my sniping skills
and its a real shame this is a fake those weapons looks really good, and anyone notice that the boomarang is the same as the scouts new bat??? considering this image came out last september EMMMM me thinks value borrowed the idea.
VB6 == Windows 98
BLEH! god I hate VB6 but if thats what i need thats what i’ll relearn…
took me a whole 2 weeks to unlearn it as well…
now first things first geting the VB6 ide to work… YAY. i must admit this really sucks after using extremely fast C libraries then trying to run a simple VB program… its a total joke even java put it to shame
oh well i’ll carry on or i might just carry on with “The Longest Journey”, which is a hell lot better than I expected it to be for a point and click game I’m starting to see why everyone who plays it rates it so high. it makes a change to play a modern good point a click game for change
its well worth getting and its only $24.99 off steam (that includes the sequel Dreamfall: the longest Journey) or its just $9.99 on its own.
well back to brushing up on my 1337 VB6 skills… stupid god forsaken ancient microsoft shit…
42 to go.
well thats the first 10 weeks done and I must say this week has been the most relaxed and enjoyable week so far. It might have something to do with the fact I’ve done no stressful programming and I feel as though the game is nearing completion but i’ll hold judgement on that until the game gets some tracks and bikes… (still waiting)
but I heard the new boss man talking to someone on the phone about motocross and it looks like now golf is finished and urban UK and EU are coming to a close (the games no where near finished but big boss man in the US wanted it submitted to Nintendo yesterday) then they will be focusing on the other projects like battle rage and motocross and maybe even Call for heroes, so I’m not to fussed at the minute but I think next week will be busy good thing i booked time off then 
(hasn’t been confirmed yet though…)
but in light of my few days off I’ve brought some new games and the reason why I got some news games was the guys I went to lunch with wanted to get SC 4 so while waiting for them I had a peak in the 4 for £20 section of 360 games.
and I only really wanted two of them but at £8 each for the each £4 i might as well get anything and if i don’t play them flog them on Ebay or something.
first up was the main reason I got these games
Forza 2
now i’ve been meaning to get this game for ages now just never really got round to it. but £5 now thats a bargin.
WarTech: Senko no Rondo
Now this game I enjoyed when i downloaded the demo from the jap marketplace and once again £5 is a good price and I can thank IGN for that for giving another reasonable game a very bad score(5.1). its amazing really if the game i not over hyped or made by the top ten companies its equal bullshit yay go IGN.
now here are the pointless ones I just got for sake of it.
Shadowrun
now was a fun game it just go alot of bad review for being online only but once again £5 its worth every penny
Kengo Zero AKA Kengo: Legend of the Nine
now i’ve noy heard one good thing about this game but hey it should be worth it just for some gamer points… right?
well either way I should be able to atleast start some of these in the next week…
but saying that I still have
Ace Combat 6
I just need to be in the mood for this.
and lastly I got this before christmas and i only played the first mission a few days after Christmas (then my profile got corrupted stupid oblivion)
Earth Defence Force 2017
now honstly this seems like a good game and amazing considering its a budget game its odd it looks terrible but its hard to find a bad review on it.
the return of the desk space
ok the new monitor is ordered
ok it was the samsung at the final cost was £170… which is a bit more than the digimate one but this was based on reviews of the product, put it this way the reviews were all good (67 of them) apart from 4 who mentioned a single dead pixel but those reviews were back at the end of last year since jan this year not a single bad comment.
I know i’m still at risk of a dead pixel but ebuyer will swap it if you have one. but over the last 4 years i’ve brought 5 TFT’s and 6 Laptops and not one has had a single dead pixel so i’m pretty confident (i just jynxed it didn’t i)
well atleast this way I don’t need to buy a TV becuase it comes with DVI and VGA, which is perfectly fine for the 360 and the PS3 when i get it. but i’m still gonna need something for the wii…
and also this is my only big purchase this month. game wise there is nothing I want already got smash bros plus i still have left over pay from last month… and it is too help me work by giving my desk back.
on another note does anyone want a very olf 15″ CRT… that should of really died of old age by now.
force of habit
ok so I have a pile or work to do still and it really doesn’t seem to be getting smaller… but after today all I want to do is crawl into bed…
but who knows after a pot of coffee I might be up for an evening of work… and I really need to start drinking coffee again if it going to be like this everyday.
yummy coffee and here was me hoping I could give it up for the next 16 months… but oh well I can give it up after the last year of uni.
oh and a quick update on me getting a PS3. well the verdict is in and the answer is a No! well not this month anyway. But thats not enough for you people is it you want to know a reason
done
ok becasue I was asked here was the final spec of my new system and the final cost
CPU
Core 2 Quad Q9300 @2.5Ghz OEM
after cooler Zalman CNPS7500
RAM
4GB (2x 2GB) DDR 2 PC2-6400 (CL 4-4-4-12)
Graphics
Inno Geforce 8800GT (windforce silent edition)
Motherboard
ASUS P5K-VM (once again a very good asus board)
Misc
750GB Samsung HDD (next time i’ll get something more expensive)
26-1 card reader (instead of floppy drive)
20x DVD multi rewriter drive (silent)
120mm amber fan
total cost £550 (give of take a few pound) inc shipping a VAT
oh and the case
Aerocool M40 £40
so £590 inc shipping and VAT
of course if I was to do this from scratch I would need to buy a PSU which would be another £40 so the total cost would be about £650.
now considering this can play Crysis with everything on high at a constant 30FPS (lowest is ever dropped was 22).
my only complaints with this PC was first the case the motherboard risers where a total bitch they just stick out the bottom of the case so they don’t ever stay still so if i ever want to remove the board I it would be a bitch because the risers would come out with it.
and my last complaint is with the noise.
ok the noise the graphics card is near silent and the CPU fan is silent and the 120mm amber fan is silent so over noise from them is nothing. ok the problem is the hard drive and the PSU now the PSU was me just being cheap but the hard drive WTF! its idle noise is the loudest thing in the case, well atleast I can get another one near the end of the year and be done with it.
ok picture time
it never looks like much does it but its all there (minus the PSU)
here we go the classic CPU to fan to stick of chewing gum, really I thought the core 2 would be smaller but hey the fan isn’t…
installed you can see it takes up half the damn board and just misses the stupidly high ram heat sink.
I wish I took a picture with this installed because it took up the hole length of the board as well as 2 slots, but at least its silent.
and the final completed cude complete with in and out tray on top .
and as you can also see 25 C at idle which is very nice.