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My workstation is almost working

After fighting with trying to clone my old 60 GB hard drive to my new 500 GB hard drive, I finally gave in and started from scratch. Since I was installing from Windows XP sp1 I was limited to 137 GB partition. Once Windows XP installed successfully I upgrade to sp 2 then sp 3 and installed all security patches and updates. Then I began reinstalling software beginning with Avast antivirus first quickly followed by iTunes.

Everything seemed to be going very well until I decided to actually switch back to working on the machine. I tried to remap my development servers but cannot browse my network. I get the error message:

WORKGROUP is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.

This list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available

Guess I’m network troubleshooting this weekend.

Update: I made an important discovery today. None of the computers in the house see each other anymore. I used to be able to open Windows explorer and browse to My Network Places then to Entire Network then to Microsoft Windows Network then to MSHome (the workgroup) then to a specific machine that was visible on the network. However at the workgroup level the error message above occurs. I thought it was specific to this Windows XP machine but I reproduced it on another Windows XP machine. Then I tried browsing the network with Windows Vista and also could not see any of the LAN. So on my newly installed Windows XP machine, I tested pinging various machines on the network with success. So in Windows Explorer I typed a machine name and a known shared directory "\\mickey\www" and successfully browsed the remote directory. I then successfully mapped the drive. On my Ubuntu Linux 8.04 workstation, I clicked Places then Network Servers then Windows Network and get the message "Unable to mount location – failed to retrieve share list from server" which in the past would have simply listed all the devices on the local area network.

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Of Being Dad – TP

The center of the Toilet Paper roll is filled with Tooth Paste. I should mention that between basic needs, the fun of simply spinning it off the roll, making mummies, and doubling as dog chew toys, we use a bunch of toilet paper. Second to food, toilet paper is given the highest priority in this house. Rethining that, I might allow us to run out of food before I would ever dare to run out of toilet paper. To have the toilet paper roll flopping around on the holder like a flat tire on a car and simultaneously smelling bubble gum (flavor tooth paste like bubble gum and children brush more) was a little unexpected first thing in the morning. This is the joy of parenting and, no, tooth paste in the toilet paper was not in the manual.

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I need a new editor

For most of the past decade I have coded using CFStudio 5. It is a fantastic editor that was bought by Allaire from another company under the name Homesite. CFStudio was a more robust version of Homesite. Eventually CFStudio was abandoned which probably had something to do with Macromedia buying Allaire and wanting to promote Dreamweaver as their preferred editor. Now that Adobe owns Allaire/Macromedia, CFStudio has been reborn as Homesite+ and Dreamweaver still exists.

When my computer crashed, I found myself reinstalling everything. Yes, the computer is back up. It is running Windows XP and has a 500 GB hard drive. I can finally download all the podcasts I want! It also begs the question of whether or not I am using the best IDE for my purposes. I am not an eclipse fan. I see the potential and I really want eclipse to be a good solution but I’ve had too many bad experiences with it. For the past several weeks I have been coding in Notepad++ and although the compare plugin rocks the editor itself is really just an editor and I need an IDE.

Suggestions? IDE should accommodate PHP, ColdFusion, CSS, JavaScript, etc.

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Good people abound

My neighbor fell this morning while I was ordering two sausage biscuits at the Rocky Hill McDonald’s. After getting the call, I rushed home leaving the food I’d paid for on the grill. My wife was already attending to my neighbor. She had a broken rib and was feeling very bad. When the paramedics arrived, without slowing down, they smiled and waved to Evan. The postman took a moment to inquire about her condition showing sympathy. I returned to McDonald’s assuming I’d have to settle for getting Cathy some fries instead of biscuits. As I walked in, the manager hollered, "He’s back!" An employee said she was cooking me some fresh biscuits even though breakfast hours were clearly over. Another employee offered me coffee and everyone asked about the neighbor. I can only assume they overheard my phone conversation. No one asked about political parties, believe systems, or views on health care reform. Everyone showed genuine concern. When we have differences with people, or experience a "bad" person, I think we should not let that person taint our view into believing all people or the majority of people are the same; acknowledge that we don’t fully understand that person and should strive to know them better; and know that ultimately, all things aside, it takes a community, and we will look after one another.

Update: Good news! They are back from the hospital and nothing is broken. My wife feels guilty for calling 911.