Sunday, May 19, 2013

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Arduino Programming! - How To Make A LED Blink



source code:
/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.

This example code is in the public domain.
*/

// Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards.
// give it a name:
int led = 13;

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
// initialize the digital pin as an output.
pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
digitalWrite(led, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(led, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}

Friday, May 10, 2013

Product Review! - Arduino Uno Rev 3

The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Byte Size Tips #6 - HTC EVO 4G "Factory Reset"

I normally like giving out my old phones because there is always someone that can use it. Well, I had the HTC EVO 4G and wanted to give it away. That means I needed to erase it before giving it away.



check out the video:

Monday, May 6, 2013

Microsoft SQL Server Error 18456 Login Failed for User

18456 Error Problem

So I was connecting to Microsoft SQL Server and trying to use the SQL Authentication method and I received this event ID error 18456 login failed for user you provided. See below example.




I did some research online and found out that this usually means that your connection request was successfully received by the server name you specified [so why didn't it work], but the server is not able to grant you access for a number of reasons and throws error: 18456.

Below is a list of reasons and some brief explanation what to do:
SQL Authentication not enabled: If you use SQL Login for the first time on SQL Server instance than very often error 18456 occurs because Windows Authentication (only) is set in Server properties (security section).

To Access Server Properties, Open SQL Server Management Studio, go to Object Explorer pane (use view if you can’t see it). Use the connect button to connect to database engine for your server. Once connected you will see it in object explorer. Right click server and click properties. Server Properties window will appear.


See below screenshot that might be causing SQL login to fail



You should set Server Authentication to SQL Server Windows Authentication 


Invalid userID: SQL Server is not able to find the specified UserID on the server you are trying to get. The most common cause is that this userID hasn’t been granted access on the server but this could be also a simple typo or you accidentally are trying to connect to different server (Typical if you use more than one server)

Invalid password: Wrong password or just a typo. Remember that this username can have different passwords on different servers.

less common errors: The userID might be disabled on the server. Windows login was provided for SQL Authentication (change to Windows Authentication. If you use SSMS you might have to run as different user to use this option). Password might have expired and probably several other reasons…. If you know of any other ones let me know.

18456 state 1 explanations: Usually Microsoft SQL Server will give you error state 1 which actually does not mean anything apart from that you have 18456 error. State 1 is used to hide actual state in order to protect the system, which to me makes sense. Below is a list with all different states and for more information about retrieving accurate states visit Understanding “login failed” (Error 18456) error messages in SQL Server 2005

ERROR STATE ERROR DESCRIPTION
State 2 and State 5 Invalid userid
State 6 Attempt to use a Windows login name with SQL Authentication
State 7 Login disabled and password mismatch
State 8 Password mismatch
State 9 Invalid password
State 11 and State 12 Valid login but server access failure
State 13 SQL Server service paused
State 18 Change password required






Disable 'Offline Files' with Group Policy

You want to disable the 'offline files feature' for caching network files and folders.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Product Review! - 3 Port PCI Low Profile 1394a FireWire Adapter Card ( D...

This 3 Port PCI Low-Profile/Half-Height 1394a FireWire Adapter Card turns a motherboard PCI slot into two external IEEE 1394a FireWire slots.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Episode 12 – MDT 2012: Sysprep and Capture



In episode #12, I begin by creating a reference computer. You can do this either by manually installing Windows 7 and the needed applications, drivers and software updates on the reference system, then capturing the reference computer with MDT 2012.

Now you are ready to capture an image of your reference computer. To do this, you are going to use the Sysprep and Capture task sequence template, a new type of task sequence template included in MDT 2010 and still continue to be in MDT 2012. This task sequence does not install Windows on a computer. Instead, it syspreps an existing Windows installation on a computer, reboots the computer into Windows PE, captures a *.wim image file of the installation and uploads the captured image to a network share you specify.



Finally, got the time to create a video with sysprep and capture and keep the customize settings as is. check out Episode 39 & 40.

I had some issues with activating Windows 8. It didn’t allow me to enter another serial number, so I did some research and found out about SLUI.exe command. check out the video for details:

How to solve "Your profile could not be opened correctly" issue in Chrome

I worked for a company that uses Google Chrome as there default browser. The reason for this is because they migrated to Google Apps. One Monday morning [like always, it always has to be on Mondays], one of the users in the office came up to me saying that there Google Mail was not loading up in chrome. When I went to the user’s workstation I saw this dialog box:

 
The cause of this issue seems straightforward and I was assuming that some files were corrupted. I did notice that chrome.exe in the task manager did not want to go away, so I had to restart the machine to flush it out of the system.

MDT 2012: Capturing a Reference Image - Part II

I was asked if there was another way to do the sysprep and capture process within MDT 2012. I said to myself, Heck! Yeah! There are several ways to do this, so this blog is a part II of Episode 12 on my BJTechNews Channel.

While you could use MDT 2012 to install all the software needed, or even group policy, imagine the time this would take and therefore the amount of time that PC would be sitting there installing software rather than using it :).

The simple way around this is to create a reference image of a PC and then capture an image of it to install onto all your other computers [lazy; but it works :)]. With MDT 2012 this is a very simple task and here’s how to do it.





Product Review! - NETGEAR Prosafe® 8-port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch wit...

Today's growing businesses are both placing more demands on and relying more on their network. Companies are putting more applications and demands on their Ethernet Infrastructure. Using VoIP phones and IP cameras require more than simple plug-and-play connectivity.

Hope you guys enjoyed. I really appreciate the feedback. Hit the like button & show support it doesn't hurt :)

NETGEAR Prosafe® 8-port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Switch with 4-Port PoE:
http://www.netgear.com/business//products/switches/prosafe-plus-switches/GS108PE.aspx#

Thursday, May 2, 2013

How To Use A Windows Installer Disc To Back Up Your Files When Your Comp...

If Windows won't boot, recovering your files can be a headache. You do n0t have to pull the hard drive or use a Linux live CD -- you can use a Windows installer disc to quickly back up your files.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

How to Change Outlook 2013 Default Save Location on Windows

By default, when you use the save as... option to save e-mail messages and attachments in Outlook the items are saved in your My Documents folder. Here's how to change that.

Hope you guys enjoyed. I really appreciate the feedback. Hit the like button & show support it doesn't hurt :)

Saturday, April 27, 2013

How to Add Dropbox to Office 2013

Out of the box, Office 2013 is designed to integrate seamlessly with the cloud -- just as long as it's Microsoft's SkyDrive service.

If you use other cloud services such as Dropbox  you can obviously browse to your local folders in the Open and Save As dialogs but you cannot Add a Place (other than the two Microsoft services) to Office's open and save dialogs.

Hope you guys enjoyed. I really appreciate the feedback. Hit the like button & show support it doesn't hurt :)

Batch Script:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/84172904/dropbox_service_add.zip