David Vielmetter

Adventures in stupid technology

  • iPhone + Twitter + Facebook + Digg = Timesuck

    One thing I’ve learned by going back to school with a bunch of “Millennials” (aka Generation Y) is that these kids are definitely more up-to-date, connected and informed than my generation (Generation X). They’re in constant communication with each other through Facebook, Twitter, IMs, and texts; busily updating their various networks of “friends” on “what’s…

  • TV got scared to death

    A few months ago my decision to buy a plasma TV in 2006 finally caught up with me. I’d just finished watching the Blair Witch Project, when my TV suddenly clicked, popped and then turned off indefinitely. In its defense I should mention that leading up to this lackluster finale it had been suffering some…

  • Keep your hardwood floors clean

    My new place has hardwood floors throughout. With two cats and a litter box it can be a chore to keep it clean. Every week cat hair accumulates under tables and in corners and walking barefoot yields tiny rocks stuck to your feet…ew! I used to sweep the place regularly, but while relatively effective at…

  • 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.