A380

On its way to South Africa ;-)

Update time again

I took the opportunity to install a fresh Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my main Linux server and workstation to change finally to the 64 bit version. Additionally I introduced an "Icy Box Trayless IB-168SK" for easy swapping of the secondary HD.

I really like this device and will integrate it into my other computers with the walk of time ;-)

Oracle, APEX and BMW

As I made my first experiences with Application Express (APEX) within a project I made for BMW, the following news was great for me:

"BMW Oracle Racing’s America’s Cup: A Victory for Database Technology
...
BMW Oracle Racing turned to Oracle Data Mining in Oracle Database 11g to extract maximum value from the data. Burns and his team reviewed and shared raw data with crew members daily using a Web application built in Oracle Application Express (Oracle APEX)."

(cf. http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/information-indepth/database-insider/apr-10/bmw.html?msgid=8639967&eid=4821275773&lid=2)

;-)

SAP Certification

Just received the "SAP Certified Business Associate with SAP ERP 6.0" certification after attending TERP10 course at FH Frankfurt - thanks to Prof. Dr. Buhr for the competent course!

This adds up to my previous certifications:

• ITIL Foundation V2, 2008

• Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (NT), 1999

LogiLink WL0049A v.2.0

As Conrad.de offers this WLAN USB adapter for € 9.95 at the moment, I decided to try one with Ubuntu 9.10.

Having a Realtek chipset - as the earlier described HAMA stick - just swapping the 2 sticks was successful!

So sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-karmic is the solution here also!

Is there any cheaper Ubuntu compatible WLAN stick?

SCALEO P D1740 Upgrade

I replaced the motherboard again with a Biostar GF8200C M2+, installing the recovery XP. Installation of drivers was very easy, due to the installation application from Biostar.

SATA Adapter

IDE auf Serial ATA SATA Adapter Konverter Trifoo works perfectly to connect an old IDE HD to SATA.

HAMA 150M WLAN USB-Stick

Works perfectly under Ubuntu 9.10 after

sudo apt-get install linux-backports-modules-karmic

;-)

Next update

As one of my Vista systems showed more and more signs of aging (spooler subsystem problems) I decided to upgrade it to Windows 7.

Took again about 2 hours and showed no problems so far.

More positive experiences

Brother MFC-490CW multi function center

Another HTPC

As my parents asked for their own HTPC, I built one for them ;-)

This time I am using an Asus M3N78-VM motherboard with an AMD Athlon II X2 240 CPU and 2 GB RAM as basis, again in a Digitainer case. A 1 TB WD10EADS harddisk from Western Digital completes the system, no optical drive has been installed so far. The motherboard is larger than the one I used to refurbish my Digitainer, but it just fits into the case.

Software is again Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and XBMC.

HTPC and LCD

When I first connected my old (but refurbished) HTPC via VGA to the LG LCD TV the screen resolution was auto configured to 1360 x 768. Changing via nvidia-settings to 1920 x 1080 was only possible for the running session and gone after reboot.

Trying to make it permanently via the "Save configuration to X conf" button resulted only in "Failed to parse existing X config file ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf’"...

Solution was found at Wetware:
recreate xorg.conf with sudo nvidia-xconfig and save the settings permanently with sudo nvidia-settings afterwards ;-)

Thanks to Wetware!

Recent positive experiences

With the following products I have made positive experiences recently:

• Sony BDP S360 Blu-ray player
• LG 32LH3000 LCD TV
• Epson SX600FW printer, scanner, copier and fax with WiFi
• DIGITUS external NAS case for 3,5"-HD

Ubuntu servers

Recently I had to configure two servers on older hardware, in both projects I chose Ubuntu 9.10 32bit Server edition as base for the systems.

• Server 1 (AMD Athlon Processor 1.1 GHz, 640 MByte RAM) is an internal file server with remote access via SSH and Apache on the stored files.
• Server 2 (AMD Sempron Processor 3000+, 768 MByte RAM) publishes an Oracle Apex driven website with about 10.000 views per month.

For remote administration webmin is being used in both cases.

Digitainer upgrade

Since being replaced by the new HTPC, the Digitainer which served this part for nearly 3 years, was due for an upgrade:

• Biostar GF8200C M2+ motherboard
• AMD Athlon II X2 215 cpu
• 2 GB RAM
• 500 GB Samsung HD502HI harddisk

It runs with Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and of course XBMC.

As remote controls I use

• Generalkeys 2.4GHz mini wireless keyboard with mouse function
• Auvisio remote control VRC-1100 (Vista MCE Remote Control)

Home Theatre PC

My new HTPC is making progress:

Hardware

• Sapphire PI-AM3RS785G motherboard


• AMD Athlon II X2 250 cpu


• 2 GByte RAM


• Samsung 750 GByte HD HD753LJ


• Samsung DVD writer


• Auvisio remote control VRC-1100 (Vista MCE Remote Control)


• Compucase 7K09B-FP25U black case


• Asus VW161D TFT monitor

Software

• Ubuntu 9.10 amd64


• XBMC 9.11

Thanks to Klaus Hertle for support!

Notebook upgrade

The upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 on my Medion Akoya P6620 took 2 hours without any problems.

Presentation at DOAG Conference

Today I gave a presentation about Application Express in teaching "APEX in der Lehre" where I shared my experiences with APEX in various courses.

You can download the presentation here.

Arnoldshain IX

The ninth Arnoldshain Seminar takes place at the moment in Montevideo and Punta del Este in Uruguay - we have near live coverage with pictures due to wireless LAN and my Netbook ;-)

Ju 52