An now for something completely different: dual boot :S

Ok, after years of evangelizing VMs against dual boot I’ve re-discovered dual boot! And what’s new about it? My new eSATA external disk!

 

I’ve now 3 OS on my laptop (and an extra 4 virtual machines):

• A conservative Windows 7 on my internal drive
• A Windows Server 2008 R2 directly on my eSATA
• A Windows Server 2008 R2 supported on eSATA as a VHD

 

The later was installed the way I’m installing OSs from now on. Here’s how:

 

• Start installing Windows Server 2008 R2
• Start the shell (Shift-F10)
• Launch diskpart
• Create a VHD file:
  • create vdisk file=”D:\Documents\Virtual Machines\VWMROMANO-DEV05\VWMROMANO-DEV05.VHD” type=fixed maximum=20000
• Attach it:
  • select vdisk file=”D:\Documents\Virtual Machines\VWMROMANO-DEV05\VWMROMANO-DEV05.VHD”
  • attach vdisk
• Install into your new disk :)

 

Here’s a simple how to.

 

It’s cool having a bunch of native OS on my laptop! Just think about it: the next time you want to test-drive a new beta OS, you can do it without compromising you stable workstation :)

 

<update>

When we already have the VHD, here’s how to registry the boot entry:

bcdedit /copy {originalguid} /d "New Windows 7 Installation"
bcdedit /set {newguid} device vhd=”[locate]\Image.vhd“
bcdedit /set {newguid} osdevice vhd=”[locate]\Image.vhd”
bcdedit /set {newguid} detecthal on

I had to look for it as EasyBCD messed up the VHD boot entry. In the same blog it states:

The advantages are magnificent:

• Simply copy one file (the .VHD file) and you’re entire system is included.
• Create incremental VHD files: One VHD file can be based on another one. So if you have different systems, create a base Win7 VHD and make all others incremental. This will save a lot of disk space!

There’re also some small disadvantages :-)

• The .VHD booted OS needs to be Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later.
• There’s a performance decrease of about 3%.
• Hibernate and some BitLocker scenarios don’t work
  (BitLocker CAN be used within the guest VHD though, but not on the disk where the VHD resides).
• Windows Experience index won’t work.

</update>

 

<update>

Here’s another link from TechNet.

</update>

Generating FLAC

I’m in the process of getting rid of my physical CD collection into a media hard drive. As I don’t want to compromise the quality of the conversion, I’ve chosen FLAC.

I’ve looked for some advices from my friends the music specialists, and here’s their advice:

Ripping	Playing
Exact Audio Copy	Foobar2000

Silver ink for wearable or throwaway electronics

Here’s a cool technology: Xerox developed a silver ink for wearable or throwaway electronics:

Xerox researchers have invented a kind of ink that can conduct electricity and be used to put electronic circuits on top of plastics, film, and textiles. That means in the coming years we’ll be able to wear or bend our electronics. You could even print out your electronic gadget on plastic sheets, as if you were printing a document.

This technology can prove decisive on the RFID market in massifying usage and pulverizing prices.

Internet speeds and costs

Here’s where we stand:

61Mbps? 0.27$ per Mb/month!I want to go to Japan!

in: http://files.redux.com/images/b3a38a65dc1991703826b71ef1d2e752/raw

eSATA versus USB

I’ve finally bought an eSATA external drive, a 1GB LaCie. Has it supports eSATA + Firewire + USB, I’ve decided to do a little home benchmarking. Here are the results:

 

USB

 

eSATA

 

Uau!… Bye-bye USB, here’s my new VM disk :)

 

And here are my internal disk results:

 

 

Strangely enough, these are worse than eSATA.

 

Update: I’m copying my VMs to my new eSATA external drive at 57MB/s. Cool.

 

<update>

Here’s a benchmark for another drive and external case (with eSATA):

This is a 2.5 disk. And the benchmark results are not so bright…

</update>

 

<update>

And here’s yet another cool setting from another development server we have:

</update>

SQL Azure Migration Wizard

Here’s the easiest way to migrate your SQL database to SQL Azure: SQL Azure Migration Wizard:

The SQL Azure Migration Wizard helps you migrate your local SQL Server 2005 / 2008 databases into SQL Azure. The wizard walks you through the selection of your SQL objects, creates SQL scripts suitable for SQL Azure, and allows you to migrate your data.

Windows 7 early adopters

Here’s one I’ve forgot to mention: the company I work for, Link Consulting, is one of the 30 Portuguese companies that are Windows 7 early adopters.

Other than me (I’m a full-time beta early-adopter of all Windows OS’s since I can remember), we’ve been massively installing Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 on our development and production environments.

Here’s a link to that news (in Portuguese).

Shrinking a Windows 7 disk

Windows 7 natively supports shrinking a disk, but doesn’t support reallocating the files to allow it.

Here’s a cool tool to do it: Power Defragmenter (GUI interface for sysinternals contig).

Here’s a cool howto: Working Around Windows Vista’s "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems.

The coolest periodic table!

Here’s something worth printing and posting on my daughter's study:

 

Read about it here, where the blogger states:

Not just a boring list of elements and stuff, but also includes things that actually use these basic building blocks of our universe

Cool!

Adobe PDF preview handler on 64-bit Windows version

Here’s a cool fix. It’s a simple 1 entry .reg file that Adobe just refuses to post… Arghh….

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Internet is now a better place

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is now more independent from one country only, as its control is being decentralized to other countries. As you all know, it was controlled by a US organization.

This are great news to the internet. I’d like to express my congratulations to the U.S. Department of Commerce for recognizing the need to give this baby away. They did a great job with raising this baby, but now it’s time for letting it go. Thanks :)