Why DavidOrlo.com? I wanted to create a new site where I would share information on various projects I am interested in but I have so many and one may have nothing to do with another so instead of coming up with a bunch of cool names for twenty plus websites I decided I would just create a site using my name and try to categorize it the best I could. Here you will find logs of all my projects, past, present, future. I decided to start logging them online to share any information I can and hopefully it will help out others interested in similar things. I have other projects that I start but just never finish. I thought these would be great to share because others could possibly add to the project or using software as an example they could manipulate the code for their own purpose. I tried my best to create categories and sub categories without creating too many or not enough. I didn’t want the site to be too difficult to
Check Exchange Version Easily
From the Exchange Management Shell Run the following command GCM exsetup |%{$_.Fileversioninfo} Note the ProductVersion number Check against Microsoft Exchange version referrence http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh135098.aspx
Syntax Highlighter Evolved AutoIT Brush Plugin
Here is my second Syntax Highlighter Brush attempt. This one was far more complex than the last Arduino / Wiring Brush I made. There are still a few things that need to be worked out such as multiline comments and there seems to be a bug in WordPress / Syntax Highlighter that adds a semicolon in various places where one didn’t exist before. I noticed this because the semicolon is used to denote comments in AutoIT and after adding that section of code to the highlighter I was able to easily spot this flaw. I plan to do more work on the expressions used and colors for various themes but for now this is pretty good, much better than using the VB Brush as I was before. I used Scite script editor as a rough guide for the color scheme and if your using the default or another light theme the colors should be near identical. One exception is the Preprocessor and Special Keywords which I just lumped together in the same category since there
Syntax Highlighter Evolved Arduino / Wiring Brush Plugin
I finally got around to making a custom plugin also called a “brush” for Syntax Highlighter that properly highlights the Arduino language called Wiring. I haven’t fully worked out the colors for the different themes but so far the colors I have chosen look nice with the Default theme and the Emacs theme. I’m going to work on the colors more and make specific colors for each theme in the future. Check out the before and after pictures, the before is using standard C++ code and the after is using the custom wiring code. I couldn’t find solid instruction on how to install these brushes so I just figured out a way to make it work on my own and I like the way this works so I don’ t plan to change it. First download the shBrushWiring.js file that I have attached to this post. shBrushWiring Next upload the file to the “/wp-content/plugins/syntaxhighlighter/third-party-brushes/” folder. Now we need to edit a few files, you can either do this directly in WordPress by going to Plugins and
LogFlush Tool Source Code
I have completed the LogFlush tool less a few extra features which I plan to add later. In the meantime here is the source code for the project. The tools is divided into 2 executables, 1 for the configuration and another which is the main task. The configuration data is stored in the registry and the task executable can be called at any time from a scheduler and it will call the last saved settings from the registry. Completed project is located at the link below with a self extracting installer http://ittechtools.net/windows/admin/logflush-intelligent-log-maintenance-application-with-recursive-folder-scanning The closest Syntax I could find is VB so some of the code isn’t highlighted properly. I am going to work on making my own plugin for AutoIT and Arduino Wiring Language once I have some time. Source Main GUI Task Executable
1971 Williams Zodiac EM Pinball Machine Resto
So I was given this pinball machine for free from a neighbor. He had it out front with a sign that said free and at first I didn’t think anything of it and ignored it for most of the day but then my curiosity got the best of me and I finally went over and asked about it later that night. He said it was working but then just stopped but no one had messed with it to figure out why. This was the key reason that made me say I’d take it because I didn’t want someone else’s problems. When I got the machine is was pretty beat up as you can see in the picture to the left. It looked like it was left out somewhere damp like a garage because the wood had swelled up slightly in spots. I was able to get it to turn on by simply cleaning some contacts and since then I have started a full blown project by cleaning the machine and all the little spring switch contacts but
Quadcopter (Quadrocopter?) My Ideas and Thoughts, Comments Welcome
So I have really been wanting to take on this project but didn’t really know where to start so I started with a list of things I wanted this project copter to do or be able to do with future expansion. The thought of all of the programming involved to get all these parts to talk is dizzying but I really want a Quadcopter and I want one that’s done right with all the bells and whistles just the way I want it. I have been bookmarking sites for quite some time now and for a while I was stuck on one component and that was the frame. The thing that makes my project different from most others is the desire to use the bigger 540 Can size RC Motors. These are the standard 1/10 Car and Truck electric motors while most other Quads and standard Heli’s use the much smaller 380 size motors. For all I know there called something different now but back when I was heavy into RC cars and trucks everything
New Software site is up for completed projects
Well not all of the projects are completed on the site but they are at least 90% or even 100% with the possibility of added features in the future. http://ittechtools.net/ Is the new site, I currently have 1 completed project up for download. I haven’t decided yet weather to keep the source code here or post it there. I would like to keep most of it here and link it back to some AutoIT tutorials since that’s the language its programmed in. Most of the programs listed on the site are 80-90% complete but I just need to polish them up and package them into an installer. I have some other larger projects I am working on including a simple server / service monitoring tool and a more complex monitoring solution. Comments are welcome on all of the posts so please if you have a suggestion for a current piece of software or an idea for a program just drop me a comment and let me know what you think.
Macbook Pro Unibody Hard Drive Disk Activity Light – MOD
Recently I started to run low on space so I decided to buy a new hard drive and although the speed increase from the faster drive was a nice bonus I still felt like something was missing, oh thats right an HD ACTIVITY LIGHT APPLE! I can see Steve Jobs making this call while saying something along the lines of it distracting from the cleanliness of the design and he probably called it an obsolete feature stating most disks are constantly active with modern search indexing and background tasks blah blah, I obviously don’t agree with this and many others don’t agree either. Even if I didn’t find this useful in OSX I do dual boot Windows and sometimes I find myself saying “what the hell is this thing doing”, its nice to know if it is doing something or if the OS is hung up on a task. Anyway enough ranting let’s get into the mod. I wanted to keep everything stock looking so I needed a place to put the LED where it
SAS/SATA LSI Hardware PCI-e RAID under $50
SAS/SATA LSI Hardware PCI-e RAID under $50, say what? Yes its true and I will show you how. Recently I was shopping for some Raid controllers for our Dell PowerEdge 2950′s at work which typically use a Dell PERC 5/i or you can outfit them with something better but I was looking for the OEM solution. I was hunting on eBay when I started to notice most of these cards where under $50, in fact I purchased 3 of them for $35 each. If you don’t know already a Dell PERC 5/i is nothing more than a re-branded LSI MegaRAID SAS 8480e utilizing an Intel IOP333 Processor. Intel makes some of the best and fastest RAID controller processors so any card with an Intel Processor is likely a good bet. I found this great article which details the Dell PERC 5/i, Dell PERC 6/i and goes into detail about reflashing the PERC 5/i with the MegaRAID 8480e firmware, there’s also a host of benchmarks including comparison to an onbaord Intel ICH9R. http://www.overclock.net/t/359025/perc-5-i-raid-card-tips-and-benchmarks So whats the catch?
Slow Disk to Disk File Transfers (Caching)
Recently I ran into an issue that I would like to share with you and it had to do with slow file transfers. To make a long story short I am upgrading my server which has a RAID 5 and I am replacing the onboard RAID with a hard controller. To do this I am going to need to back up all my data on the RAID Array but this is where I ran into an issue. When I would transfer files from the array to one of my non-array drives I would receive 40-50 MBps sustained writes on one drive while receiving 10-20 MBps sustained on another. I was getting very frustrated by this because the speeds would start out around 120 MBps but then dwindle down to nothing within 10-15 minutes. I did some searching but most of what I found led to what I already knew or only applied to IDE drives and not SATA drives. I checked and re-checked the settings in Device Manager which would be the cache settings for
