I rather like Remote Desktop for Windows XP, the windows terminal services application. I found that when I installed Windows Server 2003, each user that connects to the box will spawn a new session, or connection. In Windows XP, any new logon will force the existing session to terminate. I wanted to change Windows Server 2003 to have that functionality, but I couldn’t figure out how.

After searching google for about an hour, I was able to find a solution. Essentially, the client needs to specify that it wants to connect to the “console session” of a server. You can specify this by running “mstsc /console” instead of simply “mstsc” for the Remote Desktop client.

I had someone request my slightly edited version of the WPAndreas07 theme for Wordpress. So, I published it.

Download file:
WPAndreas07r.tgz (0.04MB; 343 downloads)

I won’t provide support, however. Enjoy!

I installed Ubuntu Linux about a 3 days ago on my new system. It has not performed up to my expectations. I have compiled a short and concise list why I feel Ubuntu is not for me.

First, the OS is workstation oriented, in contrast to server oriented. There is very little support anywhere for a non-GUI based Ubuntu install, and everything is setup according to an ‘ease of use’ principle. There is talk on their forums about how the distro is slightly slow compared to some other Linux distros which compile their application packages, whereas Ubuntu simply installs the binaries. Moreover, something that really annoying me was the fact that you can’t by default su to root in an Ubuntu install, you have to instead sudo every command you want to execute as root. While I’m sure there are workarounds, such a ridiculous default option is nothing short of pestering.

Next, and further suggesting the above, the fact that the OS by default comes so bloated with software is somewhat annoying. It would probably be good for a typical workstation user, but for someone wishing to use the system as a server, the fact that OpenOffice, Gimp, etc. are installed is simply a waste of space. Personally, I think that Windows makes a great workstation, and I doubt I would anytime soon find a replacement. If the server were bloated with option server software, well that might be a different story…

Next, I was having some issues installing Oracle 10g. It turns out that Ubuntu isn’t a “Certified Linux Distribution” for Oracle 10g. Currently the only distros that are certified are

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (RHEL 4)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 (RHEL 3)
• Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 (SLES9)

I’m pretty sure each of those distros cost money. While I’m sure that the issues are probably easy to fix, I really don’t want to have to deal with it. I want an install that will work “out of the box.”

Next, the default “remote desktop” for Gnome acts as a vnc server, but it has enormous lag problems (compared to a system with 1/3rd the CPU speed and 1/4th the RAM). Not exactly sure why…

Lastly, their documentation is heavily lacking. But, I might have spoiled early in my *nux career.

Next step for getting an Oracle server? I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I’ve considered a Windows 2003 (win2k3) server, or maybe a VPS like Virtuozzo with win2k3 and some *nux (probably back to FreeBSD).

Have you ever looked at a website and wondered “how did they do that”? I’m not talking about how the design is laid out (because design is my weakest point), but moreso how the backend controls the frontend, and how the coding was done.

That is what I often wonder about on sites I visit. Let’s face it, doing something yourself with good examples is probably the best way to learn. The chat quote database bash.org looked like it would be fairly complex to emulate, so I decided to give it a shot.

I completed coding a near replica in about four hours. As far as I can tell, it’s completely equivalent, except for

• Moderator Application is disabled. Bash.org has it enabled.
• When a new quote is inserted, it’s automatically seen and “flagged”. Bash.org makes it not seen.
• The admin panel is… different. I wasn’t able to see Bash.org’s admin panel, so I improvised.
• Browse is not fully implemented… I need some more quotes to test it.
• Top 200 is not fully implemented, for the same reason.
• Some minor design and text placement differences.

See the site.

I implemented it in PHP, here is the source:

Download file:
bash.org.tgz
Warning: filesize() [function.filesize]: stat failed for /home/rdehler/raybdbomb.com/uploads/bash.org.tgz in /home/rdehler/raybdbomb.com/wp-content/plugins/downloads.php on line 17
(0.00MB; 395 downloads)

The MySQL (4.0.x) table is composed thusly

CREATE TABLE `quotes` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`quote` text NOT NULL,
`date` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
`score` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
`flagged` tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0',
`approved` tinyint(4) NOT NULL default '0',
`submitter` varchar(16) NOT NULL default '',
`views` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1 ;


Approved and views are not implemented, but they may be in the future.

Let me know if you have any comments. I had a request to implement RSS on it; and since Bash.org does not implement it I probably will not, but one never knows.

Since my DS was having issues, the people from whom I purchased it finally sent me this message:

We are sending a replacement unit to you with a return label. Thank you

This makes Ray very happy