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BrowsrCamp – Test Web Designs on Mac

November 13th, 2009

At last, remote desktop has a practical use!

If you are working on a web design and need to see how it will look on Mac, your only choice up until now has been to buy a low-end Mac. That’s an expensive proposition for occasional use. If you’re a web designer by trade you are probably already using a Mac anyway, but for the rest of us there is finally a better choice.

Head on over to BrowsrCamp – for a pittance ($3 gets you 2 days of access) you get to control a machine running OS X.

You can use VNC to connect to the server; if you don’t have or can’t install VNC, BrowsrCamp offers a web interface so you can access the machine directly from your browser.

It’s such a simple, wonderfully executed concept that should be in any programmer’s bag of tricks.

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Posted in OS X | No Comments »

VISTA: How to fix SQL Server Express Error – CREATE DATABASE permission denied in database ‘master’

November 5th, 2009

If you’re using SQL Server Management Studio Express under Windows Vista and see either of these errors:

CREATE DATABASE permission denied in database 'master'

or

The database [Name] is not accessible. (Microsoft.SqlServer.Express.ObjectExplorer)

Here’s the fix:

  1. Close SQL Server Management Studio Express
  2. Open your start menu and locate that program.
  3. Right-click on the Management Studio and choose ‘Run as Administrator’
  4. Fixed!

I swear the simplest solutions can be the hardest to find – hopefully this saves someone (or my forgetful self!) some aggravation.

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Posted in SQL, Windows Vista | 1 Comment »

Six Flavours of Windows 7

February 5th, 2009

I’m starting to get enthused about Windows 7. Not so excited that I would stand in a line overnight to be the first to own a copy, mind, but I may actually be putting a PC back in the running for my next computer. One thing I am not so thrilled about is the six different versions to choose between.

Come on, guys. Mac has it right – one version of the OS for desktop use, another for server configurations. Do you really need a separate version for:

  1. Netbooks (essentially, a stripped-down driver-free version that can fit on solid state flash drives)
  2. Home “basic” Version (for emerging markets where piracy is a problem – do people seriously pay for these crippled versions when they can steal the full thing for nothing?)
  3. Home Premium (by all accounts nothing is “premium” about this version, it’s just the standard consumer-level version)
  4. Professional (meaning what, exactly?)
  5. Enterprise (for offices – the difference between this any professional has to do with site licensing)
  6. Ultimate (includes all the above)

I charge that the “Ultimate” version should be the “Only” version. Microsoft should quit playing games and obfuscating its software licenses – just sell the product; don’t make customers research all of the possible variations on features and functionality.

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Posted in Operating Systems | No Comments »

GoToMyPC vs Remote Desktop (RDP)

December 4th, 2008

For some time now, I have been using both Remote Desktop (RDP) and GoToMyPC to connect to the various Windows machines I am responsible for. I present here a summary of the differences I have found between the two applications:

The Same
Both GoToMyPC and Remote Desktop support Windows and Mac (my operating systems of choice.

Pro-GoToMyPC
GoToMyPC is a Java-based application, and runs in Windows, Mac and Linux. There have been ports of RDP for Linux but these are not officially supported, so GoToMyPC wins on this point.

GoToMyPC supports drag-and-drop file transferring. I wish RDP did this – RDP can only transfer files if using a Windows XP/2003/Vista version – the Windows 2000 version does not support file transfer at all.

GoToMyPC provides a handy one-stop web-based location for managing computers I am able to connect to. With RDP this is much harder – I must know the addresses of all the computers I manage. This process is much more difficult when dealing with dynamic IPs, although it can be mitigated somewhat by using a service like DynDns.

Pro-RDP
When RDP is running, my Internet is unaffected. GoToMyPC appears to use a much large amount of bandwidth – Google and Skype chats start to skip when I connect with it. RDP appears to make much more efficient use of bandwidth.

RDP comes with Windows and is free to use. GoToMyPC has a hefty monthly fee which is hard to justify if you are a technical user who is able to keep track of IT inventory and/or control the operating systems in use on the network.

Which one is better?
I see a lot of merit to GoToMyPC and recommend it for clients who are looking for a quick, brainless solution and don’t mind spending the money. My personal preference is for Remote Desktop because it is light-weight and fast. Although, as I mentioned, I really do wish it supported drag-and-drop file transfers.

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Posted in Operating Systems, Reviews | No Comments »

Reboot Windows Server 2003 Using Remote Desktop (RDP)

July 18th, 2008

Since Microsoft updated their Windows Server 2003 software, administrators relying on their Remote Desktop Connection are having difficulties rebooting.

When connected via RDP, if you reboot normally you will be disconnected from the server and all will appear well.  Sometimes, however, the server won’t actually reboot!  Furthermore, it will block all incoming connections to RDP, and to everything else.  The only means of recovery is rebooting from the console.

Solution

It is possible to use our knowledge of the command line to perform a proper system reboot using the shutdown command.

The relevant switches are:

/f – Force the shutdown even if other users are connected

/r – REBOOT, rather than shutdown

/t 0 – Set the timer to 0 seconds, i.e. perform the command right away

Example:

reboot /f /r /t 0

I hope this helps prevent some head-scratching!

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Posted in Windows Server 2003 | No Comments »

Getting Real Power in Vista

July 1st, 2008

Windows Vista hides the administrator user. In order to access it, open a command prompt and issue the command:

net user administrator /active:yes password

Password can be anything you want, and will set up the administrator user.

Although you can access much of your system’s setting under the default super user account, Vista implements a User Access Control System that effectively makes administrator the only real super user. In particular, the “Local Users and Groups” interface is normally hidden from you.

One more note – the command listed above can’t be run from a regular shell – you must open the shell as administrator.

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Posted in Operating Systems, Windows Vista | No Comments »

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