David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • Bamboo Invoice: Online invoices made awesome

    I work as an independent consultant while going back to school and keeping track of my customers, time sheets, projects, hours, invoices, and rates is a daunting task. That’s why I’m so glad I found Bamboo Invoice. While evaluating various other fee-based online applications (invoiceIt, etc.) that can generate invoices, I stumbled upon the Bamboo…

  • Crap! Xbox 360 error E64

    One and a half years after I got my XBOX 360 the DVD drive finally gave out causing an error E64 (DVD drive problem) and one quarter red on the XBOX circle of life. Prior to the E64 the DVD drive had been making a braking/slipping noise on occasion causing a disc unreadable error but…

  • Xbox Media Center extender woes

    When I first heard about the dashboard update on the Xbox 360 I was excited about the new Netflix feature that would allow existing members to watch streaming movies using the Xbox (similar to those roku boxes). After upgrading I found that to use the Netflix feature you also had to pay for a Xbox…

  • Win2k3 Blacked out Logon Screen Fix

    I recently had a Windows 2003 Server installation that ran out of disk space on the operating system partition due to known problem with Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 virus definitions (KB2007111509244948). After fixing the Symantec problem, my servers logon screen remained strangely messed up. The logon screen was completely blacked out with only the blinking…

  • Debt collection phishing scam

    I’ve recently been getting phone calls from an automated system that claims to be a “professional debt collection service.” The voicemail left by these automated calls (click here for recording) uses a computer voice to say a person’s name & claims that you must call back at 877-290-2705 to resolve the matter asap. The person’s…

  • Restrict client DHCP requests using DHCP snoop

    What do you get when a multi-site network with several different domains was setup using a single class C IP subnet and an 8 bit mask? Broadcast storm mayhem! While ideally the solution for this organization would be to logically re-segment their network into smaller domain specific subnets such that inter-domain communications are not broadcast…

  • Allow or deny DHCP by MAC address

    I recently found this little gem on petri.co.il and subsequently discovered its origin at the DHCP technet blog. MAC Filter Callout DLL is a free dll file which allows a windows 2003 DHCP server to check a requesting client’s MAC address against a list of allowed or denied hosts before issuing an IP address.

  • Remove Tunnnel Adapters from IPCONFIG

    I’m a network administrator and I use the command <ipconfig> a lot. Unfortunately Microsoft has managed to complicate almost every aspect of Windows networking in VISTA including the <ipconfig> command. It now displays the status of 14 useless (until you start using IPv6) Tunnel Adapters and pushes the info you want to see out of…

  • China Olympics Opening Ceremony – Shock & Awesome

    With a stunning display of precision, pride, technology and beauty China sends a message to the world: “We are pretty rich and awesome!” Checkout a Gallery of image with highlights of the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony.

  • Capture and record component video (YCrCb)

    Hauppauge has just released the worlds first commercially available HD Component video capture device (review & unboxing). The HD PVR is can be picked up at selected retailers now and I want one before the MPAA shuts them down. SageTV has already announced that the it will work with their Media Center application and I can’t wait to…