by Tim Abbott CCNA, CCNP

Kawai GM-10K

Since I posted about the favorite of all my guitars a couple of months back, I figured now would be a good time to write something about the newest edition to my arsenal of instruments.  Pictured is my first piano: a baby grand K. Kawai GM-10K.  I bought this piano roughly 4 months ago.  Now, I didn’t decide one day that it was time for me to learn piano.  I took a few piano lessons when I was about 6 years old, but eventually chose the guitar as my instrument of choice.

The main justification for the purchase of a piano is that I wanted to start my children’s music education in the very near future and decided a piano would be a good start.  So, my wife and I began looking at pianos.  The first place we started was the Steinway Piano Gallery here in San Antonio.  The gallery was a nice place filled with many pianos from many different manufacturers.  While there I became somewhat frustrated about selecting a piano.  Aside from the unique timbre of each instrument, I couldn’t play anything to tell them apart.  Pianos have different “action” as well.  Sure I could press the keys on each but that would provide little help.

Baby Grand Kawai

Of all the pianos in our price range I listened to, the GM-10K had the best sound in my opinion.  So I did a little research about the manufacturer and gathered all the opinions I could regarding this piano line.  I found nothing negative, so decided to purchase the GM-10K.  We got the piano home the same day and it looks wonderful in our sitting room, but there was still one more problem.  No one in the house could play it!!  This problem was also frustrating to me, so I took it upon myself to learn how to play something.  Since I am a fan of classical music (Chopin is my favorite composer), I decided to learn Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 popularly known as the “Moonlight Sonata.”  It took me about a month to learn and in doing so I realized how much I enjoyed play the piano.  So much so, I decided to learn other songs.  I’m currently working on Debussy’s “Clair de lune” from the Suite Bergamasque, Chopin’s Prelude in E minor No. 4, Op. 28 and Nocturne in E-flat major No. 2, Op. 9.

-Tim

For those of you who follow the site, you’ve notice I’ve decided to change the title. Technology is a big part of what I do most of the time but I’ve also left out another aspect of what I am: a musician. If you sift though the archives, you’ll find at least one post (I think) about music. I’ve decided to write more about music especially since I’ll be beginning a new project in the near future. That’s not to say that I’ll be abandoning my ever so insightful opinions about technology, so never fear. Until then…

-Tim

While browsing the Wordpress plugins at wordpress.org, I came across a pretty cool plugin for those of you who visit the site with your iPhone or iPod Touch.  Basically, the plugin detects the HTTP user-agent and displays a version of the site that is designed for Safari on iPhone and iPod Touch.  In addition, I’ve add a custom home screen icon if you decided you like the site so much you want to add it to your home screen.  To add the site to your home screen, visit the site with your iPhone or iPod Touch and touch the “+” icon at the bottom of the window.  The OS will ask you what you want to name the icon and download the home screen icon.  Once you’ve named the shortcut; save it.  You will then have a shortcut on your home screen for this site.  Pretty slick, eh?

-Tim

P.S.  The plugin also works on Blackberry and Android devices.

Nexus 7010

The first production Nexus 7000s in the city of San Antonio.  I should have posted about this earlier I suppose, but it’s better late than never!  We installed these datacenter switches last Septemeber during a 12 hour maintenance window.  These two Cisco 7010s were replacements for two Cisco 6509 distribution switches.  I’m not going to give a full run down on what these switches can do but I will say a couple things I like about them.  They run NX-OS which has a very Unix CLI feel to it so I immediately felt right at home with the CLI.  These switches also have the ability to virtual port channel (vPC).   What that basically means is that you can set up a single port channel between a pair of Nexus switches and a host or other switch which is great from a redundancy stand point.  For the past several months, I’ve learned a lot about what the Nexus can and can’t do.  They are great pieces of network gear, but NX-OS has some maturing to do still.  Overall, they are pretty sweet.

-Tim



Hope everyone has a happy new year!

-Tim

Cisco’s IOS never ceases to amaze me.  While this feature has been around for a bit (since12.3) and I was aware of it, I only just recently decided to give it some attention.  If you want to host a web-server or other publicly  accessible network resource and don’t have a static IP address, Dynamic Domain Name Server (DDNS) is for you.  Services like DynDNS give you the ability to automagically update the dynamically assigned IP address from your ISP with the domain name you own.  There are several ways to do this including manually updating the IP address yourself or using a software client from within your network.  Another option is to use IOS’s DDNS support.  Below is a simple example of how to configure it on IOS routers:

Router#config t
Router(config)#ip ddns update method test
Router(DDNS-update-method)#HTTP
Router(DDNS-HTTP)#add http://user:pass@update.someddnsservice.org/index.php?ver=0.1&domain=yourdomain.com
Router(DDNS-HTTP)#exit
Router(DDNS-update-method)#interval maximum 0 2 0 0
Router(DDNS-update-method)#interval minimum 0 1 0 0
Router(DDNS-update-method)#exit
Router(config)#interface fast0
Router(config-if)#ip ddns update test
Router(config-if)#end
Router#copy run start
Router#

Pretty simple, eh?  There is a lot more you can do with this feature which includes updating a list of hosts from within your network.  If you want to know more, or what each command means, feel free to leave a comment or check out Cisco’s website.  Lastly, remember that the url string is not encrypted in the example above which means your username and password is visible to those who are trying to find it.  Other than that, enjoy!

-Tim

I’m sure you have already noticed, but I gave the site a new look. The theme is called Piano Black and can be found over at the Wordpress site. I enjoy it because it seems very elegant and it goes well with some of the functionality of the plug-ins I have installed on the site. Hope you enjoy it.

-Tim

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Have a safe and happy holiday season!

-Tim

Apple TV

While playing around with SL server this morning, I noticed that it includes a RADIUS option under services in ServerAdmin.  Naturally, I decided to investigate further.  To my utter amazement,  SL server has the ability to automagically setup Apple Extreme base stations with WPA2 Enterprise!!  I have wanted to get WPA2 Enterprise up and running on my home network for a while now, but lacked the desire to download FreeRADIUS and go through the hassle of configuring it.  So, I was immediately excited to get this service running.

I couldn’t believe how easy it was to setup this service.  SL Server walks you through the entire process quickly and easily.  It also automatically configures each Airport Extreme to use WPA2 Enterprise.  Inside of 5 minutes, I had the service running, all base stations configured, and authenticated to my wireless network with WPA2 Enterprise.  It was extremely cool.

Then I got to thinking…what does WPA2 Enterprise mean to all the other devices on my network?  I wasn’t worried about our iphones or laptops, but what about the AppleTVs?!  I couldn’t recall if I’d ever seen a configuration setting for WPA2 Enterprise in the AppleTV software.  I quickly ran to the AppleTV in the living room and was not surprised when it began to complain about the lack of network connectivity.  So,  I figured I only needed to run through the wireless setup once again to bring it back online.  To my utter disappointment,  AppleTV (as of this writing) does NOT support WPA2 Enterprise! Total.  Fail.

Your only options are to wire the device into your LAN using CAT5/6 cable or to create another wireless network with WEP/WPA/WPA2 Personal encryption.  My solution was the latter.  I truly hope Apple adds this functionality in future updates.  I really don’t like having a separate wireless network just for AppleTV.

-Tim

Server Admin Screenshot

So, I think I have resolved the issue of continuously receiving the message:

Uninitialized http://twistedcaldav.mail.IMAP4DownloadFactory#error IMAP factory connection failed.

I’m not entirely sure why, but when I disable “Enable email invitations” under iCal in Server Admin the messages stop.  I’m guessing it could be some for of authentication issue between iCal and Mail.

-Tim