AndrewKMitchell.com The online home of Andrew Kenton Mitchell

Dynamic DNS with Bind

Monday, 21 December, 2009

I work with a number of clients who have dynamic (or rolling) IPs assigned from their bandwidth provider.  Since many of my clients require remote help, this can be a problem.  However, many clients choose not to pay more for static IPs. That’s why I chose to setup a zone in my domain name server [...]

Authoring Video DVDs with DeVeDe

Thursday, 26 November, 2009

I recently started authoring Video DVDs.  There were several things to learn first.  For example, Commercial DVD’s are “pressed” not burned.  This process eliminates media compatibility concerns.  However, since we’re burning which media should be used?  The answer, DVD+R.  Most modern players support other types as well but DVD+R is what is generally supported by [...]

Accessing LUKS encrypted Volume Groups (and other filesystems)

Tuesday, 24 November, 2009

As a consultant you often get called in only when something has gone very wrong. Sadly this more often then not means that someone has lost access to data the need. I have begun to notice that with many of the Linux clients I support that there is a common misconception as to the accessibility [...]

Using older hardware? Windows7 is worth it!

Saturday, 21 November, 2009

I had an interesting request recently…  A friend and I were discussing Windows7 and the improvements even for older computers.  We decided to see just how it would do on “old-school” hardware. Both of us are open source geeks and often laugh at the bloat that is Windows.  I must admit, the results were surprising. [...]

OMA Device Management – What is a device management solution???

Thursday, 15 October, 2009

OMA Device Management is a device management protocol specified by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Device Management (DM) Working Group and the Data Synchronization (DS) Working Group. The current specification is OMA DM is version 1.2, the latest modifications to this version released in April 2006. OMA DM specification is designed for management of small [...]

NetApp Filers – from the command line

Monday, 12 October, 2009

Quite a few people use NetApp Filers.  Not a lot of people like to use the command line to perform various ONTAP functions, but even less take advantage of the command line control options at the controller prompt.  I’ve found that knowing the control options makes my command line work much faster as a general [...]

Using a Bluetooth Headset as an audio (input & output) device with Linux

Thursday, 8 October, 2009

Since I face physical challenges myself, I find it rewarding to help those with similar needs when I can.  Today I was asked to help a young lady setup a Bluetooth Headset as an audio input device (microphone), as well as an audio output device (speaker).  This way the headset could be used in conjunction [...]

The Basics of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs)

Monday, 5 October, 2009

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly [...]

Key Tips For Securing Your Storage Network

Monday, 5 October, 2009

The storage network is now of the utmost importance to any enterprise; not only does it hold essential data, the lifeblood of any organization, it also provides the capacity for running business-critical applications and services. Unfortunately, this makes the storage network a potential target for malicious attacks from outside the organization and also renders it vulnerable to accidental damage from within the company.

OpenOffice.org Calc: Basic arithmetic and statistic functions

Sunday, 4 October, 2009

The other day my olde man called and asked me to help him with a formula. He told me he had printed and read the included documentation, which basically turned out to be nothing more than a glossary of terms. As I started looking around for resources to point him to, I realized there was not really any good basic information about building and/or using formulas in OpenOffice.org’s Calc (spreadsheet) program. So, I decided to write something.