Kurtis Taylor's Blog

I just completed My Movies2 9.5 terabyte unRaid file server build.

I have all 909 movies ripped, cataloged, and organized to be streamed across my gigabit network and wireless G access points on all my HTPCs, televisions, X-Box, and computers in my house.

There is a great program called My Movies2 that I am using to make this happen. It will download all the dvd cover art, synopsis about each movie, and cast and characters for the movies by barcode information or title name. I like that way it uses SQL 2005 to centralize the database install to a dedicated server and install clients on each computer to use directly with Windows Media Center 2005, Vista, Windows 7 or X-box Media Center. It also will create a small website that will allow to show off your My Movies2 online movie collection to everyone on the web.

unRaid is a small Slackware Linux based operating system that will allow you to turn any PC based computer into a USB driven network attached storage server for storing and streaming your personal media files across the network and protect your data from hard drive failure and power failure.  What is also nice about it is even though it is a server which is meant to be powered on 24 hours a day, it is environment freely by introducing power managment functions such powering down of hard drives when not in use, and etc.

I will put up a video soon to show you unRaid running in my house and my latest purchases for my home data center buiild.  Let me know what you think!

I posted a quick video on YouTube of my home data center updated, reduced in size, some noise, and heat.  Check it out.  Let me know what you think.

Want to know how to convert or migrate your current software raid 5 from the extremely slow ext3 filesystem to ext4 faster filesystem without formatting or losing data?

Then here you go.

Type in the commands below and substitute your devices names if necessary.
sudo bash
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/md0
e2fsck -pf /dev/md0
mount -t ext4 /dev/md0 /mnt

Also before you reboot the computer edit your /etc/fstab file and change  the ext4 information for your raid mount.

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

The line you need to edit should look something like this

/dev/md0     /var/media     ext3     defaults     0     3

After you edit the line it should look like this

/dev/md0     /var/media     ext4     defaults     0     3

Save the changes and reboot to make sure it is mount properly.

Also, I recommend that you test the new filesystem data that you have good backups of for a good week or so to make sure that the filesystem is working good before permanently storing data on it because I read some forums that say after a sometime that filesystem disappeared along with some other problem during beta testing.  That problem could have been fixed since the new release of Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04.

There you have it.

While everybody is glued to their TVs for the Presidential Inaugural Speech. Heartland Payment Systems is communicating with the US Secret Service about what may be the largest security breach ever.   Apparently, Heartland’s computer network was exploited and software was added to the network to record all the payment transactions.  Read the entire article here.

I am getting a lot of questions asking why I stop uploading new videos on YouTube.  Well I am a very busy person but I try to upload some new stuff soon.  For now the videos will mostly be on how to videos related to computers and software.

As for my car stereo, I am working on a new install for the car I just bought. I got rid of the SUV because too much for gas at the time and I remove my subs and amps. Also, last’s summer Midwest flooding ruin my subwoofers, enclosure, and amps that patiently waiting to be install in my new car but now I have to start all over.

Here is a quick fix to another problem I found.  The Network Threat Protection pops up and blocks your network or internet connection. The problem seems to occur when you install Symantec Endpoint Protection client on Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2 and no Microsoft Security Updates.  The popup will maybe state a different service or file path but for me the popup stated the following:

“ Userinit Logon Application has changed sine the last time you used it.  This could happen if you have updated it recently Click Detail to see more information.  Do you want to allow it to access the network?”

Network Threat Protection Popup

When you click Yes it seems to allow the network connection to start working but it continues to popup the same dialog box waiting for your response to click Yes again to allow different services to run such as iexplore.exe, userinit.exe, and outlook.exe.  Also, the same Network Threat Protection popups will show up again after rebooting the computer and logging into Windows XP Professional.

To fix this problem and keep the popups from showing up again you must install the latest Service Pack and all of the Microsoft Security Updates on the pc and make sure that the Windows Firewall Service is disabled.  After I did this the popups stopped and the computer will continue to work as normal.

About a little over year ago I posted a video on YouTube showing my home data center.  My home data center use to be to massive, noisy and hot but it was mine and I liked it. Continue reading “My Home Data Center Updated”

Apparently there is a log only notification pop up box about the CommericalApp.2 for Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 on the Logmein.exe services and executable.   I only saw this problem with Windows Vista installations and not Windows XP Professional.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Error

It seems to not harm the helpful little program and the pop up is annoying and relentless.

Here is how you can resolve the CommmericalApp.2 Popup box for Logmein.exe.

First you must open the Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 client software and is should default to the Status screen.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Status Screen

Click on the Change Settings button on the left.  On the Change Settings screen click on Configure Settings button on the right size of the Centralized Exceptions bar.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Change Settings Screen

Click the Add button and choose TruScan™ Exception on the Centralized Exceptions dialog box.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Centralized Exceptions Screen

Symantec Endpoint Protection Tru Scan Selection

You will need to add the folder and file path to select the Logmein.exe file.

Choose Ignore as the Action and Click Ok.

Symantec Endpoint Protection File Path

The default path is C:\Progam Files\LogMeIn\X86\Logmein.exe.

That should resolve the problem and you should not see the popup box anyone!

I ran into a problem after installing Google’s Chrome internet browser the first time on a Windows Vista computer.

I received an error “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000005).  Click OK to terminate the application”.

Google Chrome 0xc0000005 Error Message

I found out that there is an easy fix by adding an argument at the end of the Chrome target called the  –no-sandbox.  I am not sure where I found the fix but I will explain the process.  Also, this may be a problem with if you have Symantec Endpoint Protection client install on the same computer with Google Chrome install on.

To fix the problem first you will need to find all of the shortcuts for the program including the one on your Quick Launch task bar. Right click on the shortcuts and go to properties.

Add the argument –no-sandbox at the end of the Target Path for Google Chrome shortcut. The argument should be spelled out like this:  hyphen,hyphen,no,hyphen sandbox without the commas.

Google Chrome 0xc0000005 Argument Added
After adding the argument in the Target Path line, click OK to save the changes.  Double click on the shortcut to execute the Google Chrome internet browser and it should work ok.
This fix allows Chrome to work in stealth mode and did not show any problems with that using it this way.  This mode is used by developers; however, it was recommended by Google’s developers not to use as a normal way to surf the internet this because causes vulnerabilities in the Google Chrome internet browser so use it at your own risk.  This is only a temporary fix to a growing problem and Google is supposing to working on a permanent fix.

The hardware requirements for Windows Vista are extremely demanding for some of the favors of Windows Vista 32 bit and 64bit versions. Everyone knows the minimum requirements just don’t cut it for Windows Vista or any of Microsoft’s software line; therefore, it is necessary to have the recommended hardware requirements, if not more.A 1 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM is suppose to be sufficient to be get the job done but I beg to differ under certain circumstances using the Windows Vista 32bit version. For example, these hardware requirements for Windows Vista may be suitable for a Windows Vista Business Edition with a Vista compatible laptop that is for everyday business use such as e-mailing, document processing, etc., and not for gaming, video editing, etc.

The real hardware requirements are Dual Core processor with about 2GBs of RAM using the Windows Vista 64bit version.  That should be enough to take advantage of the latest demanding software applications but is still not enough to handle the power needed by most gaming and video editing applications.
The best hardware requirements for Windows Vista 64bit Ultimate or Enterprise versions are a Quad Core processor and 2GBs to 3GBs for DDR3 RAM with a high-end graphics card. This should do the job for most video editing and gaming applications.

All three of these hardware requirements for Windows Vista favors can work but are mainly based on the user’s needs, wants, goals, and budget. Also, just like an automobile driver want to receive the best gas mileage; that automobile needs to be properly driven, well maintained, and tuned to get the best gas mileage. Computers need the same treatment to receive the best performance. This is how you can get Windows Vista to work better for you.