Michael Valverde's Blog

Well, I finally got all the parts in for my new server. I am building the follow: MSI Mobo AMD LLano 2.7 GHZ Quad Core Processor 32GB of DDR3 RAM 64GB SSD - for the host OS 1 TB 7200RPM SATA drive for Virtual HDs 2 U Server Case 350 Watt PSU Well, I realize the BEST virtualization host software out there is VMWare's ESXi - unfortunately the 64-bit version is not free - so I have to pass. Microsoft's HyperV is free - but it doesn't like my hardware - couldn't find the network card. Citrix Xen wouldn't even load. So now I am about to install Fedora 16 XFCE and just use Virtual Box. I use Virtual Box on windows and runs great, so I am not concerned as long as I can Virtual Box to install. My Linux skills have really deteriorated since Windows 7 came out. I'll give an update once I get the server up and running!

Well, the project from hell is finally winding down. We've done a tremendous amount of code in just a few short(but felt very long!) weeks. I know more C++ now than ever - and actually gotten use to coding in C++. The only thing I come to realize is Microsoft's Visual C++ compiler leaves a lot to be desired. Anyone who has done a large project (well over 20K lines of code) in C++ is probably well to familiar with the requirement to clean before every compile and after a few hours, you have to delete the obj folder because it just won't clean anymore. Of course a daily reboot is required too. With .NET I'd have to reboot about once a month!!! Of course, we just heard the vendor is changing the product platform from Windows CE to Linux in the next firmware version, so I am looking forward to getting to use GNU gcc compiler! Oh well, hopefully things will get back to normal this week and I can actually spend sometime at home doing all the things I've been negle

Well, with the project from hell going on at work (working 7 days a week is getting old!), I at least came across something to help my eyes after hours and hours of coding. Studio Styles to the rescue! Check them out! It is a great place to get a Visual Studio Editor Templates. They support 2005, 2008 and 2010. I am sure 2011 support is just around the corner! I've personally gone with Son of Obsidian here. Its easy on the eyes and really helps keep the fatigue down.

Well, I've always wanted to create a video game. The first time I ever wrote the famous Hello World, I was in the fourth grade. My parents had Santa deliver a Coleco Adam computer. Originally for my sister Nikki, but in few short weeks she tired of me wanting to be in her room to play on it - it was moved to my room. I don't think my parents realized just how much I would naturally take to computers. Yeah, we had an Atari 2600 that I had about worn out playing, but to their surprise I was printing and writing programs that printed things almost immediatly. I discovered magazines like Family Computing and Compute that would publish programs in pring and I'd tirelessly type them in and run them! I taught myself how to store data sequentially and create a program to catalog my 8 or 9 records. I create a program to print me a checklist for my baseball cards. I even wrote a little drawing program that I took to school and showed off to one of my teachers. Computers bec

Well, if you are like my wife's employer - then you are using Outlook as an email client to Google's gmail system. Google offers wonderful email hosting solutions - Google Mail Hosting Also, Microsoft's Outlook works great with it(isn't that ironic!). However, my wife noticed she wouldn't get new email notifications for a while in outlook - but instantly via her web browser at gmail.com. After a little pokeing around, I found the setting she needed to change so she could get new email notifications within 1 minute. While in Outlook - press CTRL+ALT+S and this windows pops up. Change your "Schedule an automatic send/receive every" option to 1 minute and now Outlook will poll Gmail every minute - not every 30 minutes by default!

Well, I signed up for a night/weekend course the other day. If enough people sign up, I be taking a A+ Test Prep course. It has been a while since I was in the classroom on that side of the podium - but you can never stop learning and I am looking forward to getting hands on with hardware again! Even though I build my personal computers from parts (and the best place to get them is NewEgg ), I really haven't done much with hardware in a few years. Besides the occasional GPU upgrade, there really hasn't been a reason to upgrade anymore. I remember back in my college days upgrading almost every summer! Guess when your priority isn't to play the latest/greatest video game at max settings, you don't really push hardware! Well, hopefully class will be fun!