Author: Jeff Potts

Had to tweak the Xbox 360 network setup

I had my Xbox 360 on an 802.11g network. Unfortunately it was getting too much interference from my controllers and cordless phones to be able to consistently stream media from my Windows Media Center PC. Last weekend I added a new 802.11a access point (I double-checked that the Linksys router was listed as Xbox Live Compatible due to my earlier travails) and traded in the 802.11g wired-to-wireless bridge for the Xbox network adapter.

Right after I did it I was able to stream all evening without a single dropped frame. A couple of nights ago, though, it was a bit more spotty. I might have to fool with the router placement or something.

High-end document management getting squeezed?

Tony Byrne points out something I’ve seen happening at my clients recently as well: collaborative tools like Sharepoint and eRoom are being leveraged for “informal” document management while high-end tools such as Documentum are used for “formal” document management.

This sounds familiar. For most of the 1990’s me and my colleagues were hardcore Lotus Notes developers. We never saw any competition in Documentum. At that time we saw Documentum as a niche solution for high-volume, highly-regulated content, or imaging.

The current release of Sharepoint lacks “table stakes” functionality for all but the most basic of document management needs. The two critically lacking features are document-level security and any semblance of a basic workflow. But Microsoft looks to be addressing both of those features and more with its 2007 release.

As the price gap between Sharepoint, eRoom, open source solutions and high-end ECM platforms increases, and as things like web services make integration less of a headache, could we be seeing a regression in how the market views offerings like Documentum, i.e., only for the 10% – 20% of the specialized document management needs in an enterprise?

Vision of streaming media at home realized via XBox 360

Ever since my home machine started collecting digital media I’ve wanted a robust way to stream that media from my study to my living room. Over the years I’ve tried a few different approaches, but none were exactly what I wanted. They were either too unreliable or too limited in functionality to be worth the trouble.

Last Fall I started reading previews on the XBox 360. It promised to be just what I was looking for–ease of use, wireless capability, and access to all of my rich media types.

While I waited for Microsoft to meet demand for the consoles my wife and I got hooked on our Windows Media Center PC. After having lived with it for four or five months now I can say it has exceeded our expectations. The only problem? Our study was the only place to view recorded content. (Although I have to admit, our Dell ultrasharp widescreen flat panel doesn’t have me in a hurry to return to the living room).

A couple of weeks ago I came across an XBox 360 core system at Best Buy. I was tempted to snag it–I had never actually seen one in real life and I had waited so long for this last piece in the media streaming puzzle. But I opted to wait for the pro bundle–the hard drive alone made it a better deal.

Last weekend I was in Oklahoma. Thinking maybe in Small Town America the demand for a high-priced gaming console wasn’t as great as it is in The Big City, I had my stepfather swing by the electronics section at Wal-Mart during one of his routine runs. Sure enough. XBox 360 Pro bundles a-plenty.

Back in Dallas I had a bit of trouble getting the wireless in place. As it turns out, the little USB adapter made specifically for the XBox 360 only works with a limited number of routers and bridges. I thought 802.11a/b/g was 802.11a/b/g but I guess not.

After repeated trips to Best Buy, CompUSA, and Circuit City, and committing the “supported hardware” list on xbox.com to memory, I finally settled on a config that seems to be working fine for now. I’ve got my original Belkin Pre-N router talking to a Linksys 802.11g gaming adapter.

I also snagged an XBox Universal Remote–it makes navigating the Media Center controls on the XBox much easier than using the wireless game controller. From a UI standpoint it is exactly the same as if I were sitting at the Media Center PC. This is a big plus, especially because that UI is so intuitive and visually appealing.

So now I’m streaming home movies, digital stills, music, and PVR’d television from my study to my living room. But saying that is the only thing I use the XBox 360 for is like saying one reads Playboy only for the articles. The XBox is, after all, primarily a gaming machine.

I’m no hardcore gamer, but it only took one session for me to become a Project Gotham Racing addict. The realism is unbelievable. I didn’t think I’d be into competing against others from around the world via XBox Live but it’s kind of a rush. And moving from computer opponents to humans is a sure way to keep the ego in check.

This little project wasn’t cheap and it may not be over. Depending on how much interference I get from the wireless controllers and normal use of my 802.11g network I may decide to put the XBox on its own 802.11a network. And, the whole thing has me thinking about upgrading the TV. But, at least for now, it works and I am thrilled.

Excellent sailing two weeks in-a-row

Dad and I had the second week of excellent sailing in-a-row. Last week we went out on a Hunter 34 named Vesper Light. We covered about 30 miles in the 5 hours or so while we were out. Today we went out on a Catalina 42 named Cakewalk. Both outings were part of a “buddy sail” program at Texas Charters (link not working when I checked it last) up at Lake Texoma. They send out an email during the week with the name and model of the boat going out that weekend and whomever is interested replies and then shows up. Unfortunately, Jay is shutting down the whole operation to concentrate on his charter business.

Postfix fixed

I was tweaking the “dev tools” VMWare image today in an effort to get mail routing working. I had dropped Postfix on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 image but when it forwarded messages to our SMTP hub it acted like it was ignoring the “myorigin” config setting that told it to use only the domain name in the sender’s email address (rather than the fully-qualified host name).

Thanks to this thread, I was able to ascertain that it was probably a conflict with sendmail. Removing sendmail fixed the problem.

What was frustrating was that I got a couple of our Fedora Core 3 lab machines (non-virtual) working and they seemed to be able to coexist with sendmail just fine. I should have known to ignore that based on the different distro, sendmail, and postfix versions.

Handy use for VMWare #2: Instant training setup

My practice has put together a “Documentum Boot Camp” which is an intensive course aimed at taking folks with Java development experience and turning them into Documentum developers in much less time than if you were to take formal training on each topic. We cover everything from Administration, Security, and Workflow to writing custom Documentum WDK-based applications.

Keeping a pristine training environment set up, or better yet, providing each student with their own training environment wouldn’t be practical if it weren’t for VMWare. With VMWare we’re able to create a standard “client” and “server” image, each pre-configured with everything the student will need to get through the Boot Camp exercises. So, when it is time for someone to go through the Boot Camp, we give them a CD with the courseware, lab book, and instructions, and two DVDs with the VMWare images. They use the VMWare Player to run their images. If they trash their environment it’s no problem–they simply re-copy the image from the DVD.

I’ve seen training providers handle this with ghost images in the past. The nice thing about the VMWare approach is that the images run on the student’s machine on top of the OS they already have installed. This is the first time I’ve seen a training class where you can actually take the training “machine” with you when the class is over. The next time you pay for training, instead of asking, “Is this course material going to be available for download?” you should ask, “Is my training machine available over BitTorrent?”