Today I shared my lap-top during a conference, to performa a presentation of a Power Point file that was on a an USB, something happened maybe the usb was pulled out improperly and now everytime I open OpenOffice it tries to recover the file, but since it does not exists, it just keep trying for the next time.
So, if you ever have this problem, just remove (or rename) this file:
~/.openoffice.org/3/user/registry/data/org/openoffice/Office/Recovery.xcu
We have already installed SAP Business ONE, OpenOffice.org, and Adobe Reader on the Windows Server 2008.
Now we are about to install the Terminal Server, but during installation, it warns that the Terminal Server should be installed before any application that you want shared…. and it says that is possible that some applications would need to be reinstalled in order to have them available for the Terminal Server connections….
This is just another reason why I prefer a real Multi-User system… like Linux.
Today I needed to restart the GNOME panel, this is all what it takes:
Open the run application box (Alt+F2) or a console and type:
killall gnome-panel
That’s it.
We are connecting 6 branches, setting up a VPN, the company that sold the hardware, gave us the appliances already configured.
But once we begin to install the appliances had some troubles, specially with the firewall functions and we were hitting against the wall
We ask for some advise, and things are very clear now.
TELMEX made some modifications to it’s Thompson modems that doesn’t allow them to work properly with dynamic DNS services…
For the SAP project, in order to host the expensive Windows Server 2008, Microsoft-SQL and the even more expensive SAP server, the SAP integrators have recommended us to run it in top of Citrix XenServer, in order to have an easier maintenance, migration, backup, scenarios…
Here comes the fun, Citrix XenServer, is no other thing that a Linux Distribution Focused on Xen Virtualization, so in the end, the whole expensive proprietary software is going to end up running in top of Linux (what he knows, we all benefit from).
The bad side, in order to control the XenServer you need a client named XenCenter that only runs in Windows, nevertheless I have read about a coming web version. And about the OpenXenCenter project that will bring a Linux client. (there is of course the CLI option).
Since I don’t use Windows on my laptop I have installed the XenCenter inside the Windows 2008 that is running inside the XenServer, and I can control via RDP by tsclient from my Ubuntu Laptop.
I have been running an email, web and file server for more than 8 years.
As a server I have a regular $500US non branded PC with Linux.
The original PC stood on-line for 5 years without any maintenance or care (just automatic updates included in the distro), after 5 years the main disk got logically damaged, I simply replaced the disk reinstalled a newer distro, recovered the data from the old PC and voilà up again, during the change I got maybe 5 hours of no service at my Internet domain. That’s it.
Last year I got a newer PC and just replaced the old one.
I always wondered, why people spend so much money on real servers….?
Last week, because of the new implamementation of SAP, we got a server, an HP ProLiant ML350, that came as the recommend hardware by the SAP integrators. So I found it was time to explore my previouse question, this is what I found:
- As expected, it can be a very powerful machine, this one came with a 4 core Xeon processor, and 1Gb of RAM which we upgraded to 5.
- As also expected it has many expansion possibilities.
- Disks are removable and the system has RAID support built in.
- Everything is hot swapable, or at least swapable, therefore in case of any damage -like my previous disk damage- you got nothing or very few down time.
But, come on, a single hard disk for this server is more expensive that my current PC-Server! and it has more Gigs!
So my recommendation is, if you don’t run a mission critical service that doesn’t allow some downtime, just get a good PC and you can save some bucks.
Since Linux supports software RAID, just get that extra protection and you are done.
I manage a company, that is part of a bigger group. The largest company in the group was looking for a solution to the problems related of using the current systems (Adminpaq, Compaq, Checkpaq) that are not really integrated, and -I have to tell- not very well designed.
So the solution was easy: an ERP.
Then the question was: which one? the first obvious answer was SAP, but the thing is so expensive that an alternative needed to be searched.
There are several thing that I don’t like about the idea of using SAP:
- The price, of course.
- The fact that it needs a Windows Server, with it’s corresponding problems, vulnerabilities and costs.
- The fact that clients need Windows PC’s, making a further migration to Linux harder (although a Linux Terminal Server Client can be used).
- It does not have a Web interface, making branches working and administration more complicated, and costly.
- There is no access to the source, so real modifications can not be done.
I found OpenBravo and OpenERP as the best solutions -specially OpenERP-, nevertheless the lack of integrators in Mexico, and the fact that we don’t even have an IT department in order to do an in-house implementation, moved the balance back to SAP, so we are going with that.
In the end since my company is the smallest, so it will be our share, and will not affect our budget too much.
Still interested in the KDE version of Ubuntu, today I installed Kubuntu Karmic Koala Alpha 5 inside VirtualBox.
Very much improved over the last time I tried, there were two things that I particularly liked about this version:
- Running the script to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, was all what was needed to get the additions working, no need for manual configuration of the screen drivers. (This is imoportant because one of the reasons I’m not in Kubuntu is the bad support for screen and monitors, because I constantly switch my laptop from single monitor to dual head, or add a projector)
- OpenOffice.org
Oxygen Style in OpenOffice.org calc
The new packaging system packagekit, was not really usable the last time I tried, it seems to be doing all right now.
It’s very possible that with the release of Karmic, I’ll be back in KDE 
The main ISP in Mexico, Telmex, switched from 2wire to Thompson adsl modems.
One of my modems is a Thompson 585, I needed to put it on DMZ to a firewall, well the option is somehow hidden from the menu, so here is the link to assign a public address:
http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/publicip/cfg/?be=0&l0=3&l1=0&tid=ASSIGN_PUBL_ADDR
192.168.1.254 is the defult IP of the modem, if you have change it, just change it in the above url.
Today I saw again a problem with a college not being able to use his email outlook because the max size of the PST file has been reached, it’s incredible how often this happens to many people, I read that some versions of Outlook have corrected this problem… I have seen situations where it’s not possible even to delete messages,…weird.
The preoblem comes from two design errors, as far as I can tell:
-The PST have a maximum size of 2Gb
-Removing emails from the emails does not realy empty the file, this is related to the file structure.
The solution to solve this problems are:
-Remove as much as you can, and wait some time.
-Create a new Personal Folder, and assign it to be the new incoming folder.
The real solution, stop using Outlook, move to a better program, like thunderbird, or even better, stop using Windows, switch to Linux.
