When I first created knez.org it was a means to an end. My goal was to learn PHP, a server side scripting language, and also get some experience with system administration. I started out hosting the site in Linux using Apache but quickly got fed up with always having to deal with .conf files and what felt like endless levels of weird problems and incompatibilities.

I switched to running the website under Windows XP and IIS. It was relatively painless to setup and administer. Very rarely did I ever need to login to the webserver to do anything. I just left automatic updates on and let it rip. I even setup an FTP and Email server in addition to the website.

Over time though the limitations of IIS under Windows XP Professional started to annoy me. For starters, it was not at all straight forward to host multiple websites on one computer. Secondaly, it was limited to 20 concurrent connections. Initially this was not a problem but recently web browsers ha...

Last week Nikki and I had Verizon Fios installed in our house. She was looking foward to the TV package and DVR. I was looking forward to 20 megabit upload speeds! That beats the pants off Comcast 1.5 mega bit uploads, especially considering that I almost never got that rate with Comcast. Instead I was typically getting 70 kilobytes up at best (560 kilobits, 0.5 megabit).

Putting the speed aside for a second, Verizon dropped the ball and missed our first installation appointment. Of course they promise to be there somewhere between 8AM and midnight (slightly exaggerated), and they dont do installations on the weekends so you have to take the entire work day off. I was very disappointed when no one showed up the first time. -1 cool points Verizon.

They did make the second appointment and got everything installed without too much hassle. I immediately ran a series of bandwidth speed tests. I consistently got 20 mega bit download speeds exactly as advertised. My upload ...

Thats no typo. I recently got over 300 mpg with my Saab. Well, actually it got infinite mpg as it was being towed behind the Bronco :)

A few days ago I went to leave work only to realize my car wouldn’t start. This was not the, "oops I left my lights on" kind of wont start. Everything seemed to be working, it would turn over, show me how much fuel was left, show the RPMs, etc. It just would not actually start.

After checking the obvious stuff like fuses and fuel lines I decided it would take more work than I was willing to do in my work parking lot. I came back the next day armed with the Bronco and a car trailer. I got the car loaded up and back at the house in no time.

I must say I am constantly impressed with the Bronco. I always does all the work I ask of it. It had no problems whatsoever in pulling the saab + trailer behind it. The suspension was not even that loaded which surprised me. I guess thats the payoff to having rough ride...

About 4 months ago the Bronco Car Computer hard drive died. My theory is that it died due to the extreme cold from the ambient temperature followed by the heat from running the computer.

In any event, I finally got a replacement hard drive. The hard drive is significantly smaller than my old one since it is from a computer someone gave me for free. As soon as I got the new hard drive I got an OS on it, installed a bluetooth adapter, and got internet access in my car using my Mogul cell phone.

I love it. The connection speed is more than enough for streaming internet radio. All in all it works very well and is very reliable once the connection has been established. The only problem is that every time I want to share the internet from my Mogul to the computer, I have to start a program on the phone then separately start a program on the PC. This is kind of a pain but I am sure a quick search on the internet will yield some software that does all this automatically.

Yesterday I tried to open my fiancial file and couldn’t; it looked like the file was corrupted. I thought I was going to throw up. I am the sort of person that never uses cash and painstakingly enters every penny I spend so I can track my spending habbits and monitor my budget. It took me a long time to get my financial program setup so my buget and bills perfectly reflected my life, not to mention I recently started doing Nikki’s bills also.

Thankfully it turned out to be user error, the financial file was fine and no data was lost. The experience was not without a purpose though, I finally got off my butt and started looking around for a decent scheduled backup program. Being a software engineer I understand the importance of keeping backups of anything critical. Despite that I never do a good job of making backups at regular intervals. Instead I make a backup here and there every 6 months when I have some free time.

Not anymore. After only about 5 minutes...

Not too long ago I accidently deleted (really deleted, not just recycle bin deleted) my entire website, all 12 gigs of content. Luckily I had a 6 month old backup and, for the most part, I was able to restore all the lost content that was new in the last 6 months. All in all I wasted about 4 hours getting the website back up and running and I will waste many more hours rewriting php code for pages I was not able to fully restore.

Recently someone heard this bad news and took pity on me. Thanks to the Tom and Sue I now have an external hard drive dedicated to backing up my website. This is much more convenient than zipping my website up and backing it up on multiple DVD’s. Now I can just copy it to the hard-drive which should keep me motivated to backup more frequently.

As a bonus I can keep the hard drive in my garage or at work so that if something happens to my computer in ...

The state I live in has determined that all cars must undergo an inspection just after purchase. For new cars this really is not a big deal... I am not known to buy new cars. The silly thing is that once your car passes inspection, it never needs to be reinspected until the next owner buys it. I fail to see the point of a state inspection unless it is periodic. I might get my car past the inspection meaning its safe on the road only to never replace the brakes for 12 years.

Most of my vehicles have been high milage so needless to say I am used to failing the inspection. The Saab was no exception. The final list of items to be repaired:

1. Reverse lights dont work
2. Tag light burned out
3. Rear view mirror glazed
4. Both front axles need replacement
5. Complete exhaust system needed
6. Front and rear pads and rotors needed

I cant say that the list suprised me too much. Even though the Saab is a dream to drive they have to find some...

I have been wanting a car for a while now. The Bronco gets the job done but I miss driving a compact sedan with a manual. After doing months of research I determined that I like way to many types of cars. There is typically a car from every manufacturer that I thought was sweet. To help narrow the list I came up with the following requirements. The car has to:

• Have a manual transmission
• Be quick, perferrably 0-60 in less than 8 seconds
• Be fun to drive
• Be in my price range (about $4k)
• Get better gas mileage than the Bronco.

That last requirements eliminated the Sherman tank I was thinking about getting but left almost every vehicle in the running. As I started looking at cars more closely I started to focus on the Volkswagen Corrado VR6, Ford Mustang GT 94-98, and the Chevrolet Corvette C3 74-81. I know the corrado was fun to drive but hard to find and parts would be an issue. The Mustang on the other hand was easy to find and p...

My first car computer was a thing of beauty (see it here). Unfortunatly, that system is long gone. About a month after getting the Bronco I started putting together car computer #2, AKA BronCo-pilot. Yeah, the name is kind of catchty but mostly lame.

I didnt put much thought into the name. The same could be said about how the car computer #2 has been installed in the bronco for the last 1-1/2. It was pretty much just laying in pieces on the floor, everything worked but nothing was convenient and certainly nothing looked good. 

As a matter of fact, I cant even find any pictures of complete initial installation. That says something when even I, the one who takes pictures of all my little hobbies, would not take pictures of this one.

As you may remember my 7" touchscreen LCD recently broke. I was able to fix it but its much to fragile to just have rolling aro...

For my birthday my brother got me a newegg gift certificate. Its easier for me to spend money on newegg then to it is to breath or keep my heart beating.

I picked up a bunch of stuff and just before checking out thought I would check out the universal remotes, especially now that the home theater was done.

Thats when I saw this little beauty. I was skeptical it could truely do everything I wanted it too given the $35 price tag. I have been pleasently suprised by this remote.

Full SIze Photos

To start with, it can learn learn the siganls of other remotes. Thats pretty standard. It has macro capabilities to allow you to do multiple actions with one button press. Ok thats a little more rare at this level. The best part, it connects to a computer for programming. Now we are talking!

I have to say the p...

A while back the picture quality on my 7" touch screen used in the car computer dropped off dramatically. It was well out of warranty so I took it apart to get a closer look inside. It turns out one of the contacts had melted as well as the corresponding line in the computer to screen wire. I contacted the manufacturer and they wanted a chunk of change to fix it, enough change that I could get a competitors brand new touchscreen, ouch.

I did some research online and found a vendor that sold the particular connector I needed, a female 20 pin DFP connector with 90 degree PCB mount. This actually took me a rediculously long time. $2.50 later I had the connector and was ready to go to work on fixing the screen.

What followed can only be described as the slow methodical murder of my screen. I had to remove 19 tiny connectors bef...

I have determined that my life is cyclical. About every 1.5 years lots of my stuff breaks. This is getting more and more annoying as I am getting more and more stuff.

Most recently within a 1 month period I had the following things break:

1. Work laptop battery suddenly wont work
2. XS1100 motorcycle started running rough
3. Bronco check engine light came on
4. 7 inch touchsceen for car computer started having really crappy picture

Thats it for now. Hopefully that its because that enough to deal with for a while. At least this time things have been realatively quick to fix. Work can take care of the broken work laptop. The XS1100 had poor fuel air mixture due to an air leak at the carb. Thats fixed now. The bronco has a throttle position sensor that isnt putting out enough voltage. I have the parts but have not installed them yet.

I have to look on the bright side, I am getting better at fixing things and at least none of my home theate...