WTF? WHS?

I went ahead and setup a Windows Home Server.

I know what everything is thinking: "You just did that because you now work for Microsoft. Nice glass of Kool-Aid."

Yeah, yeah. I have reasons. No, really I do.

First: Goals

I needed a place to store my files, a central location where I can not only keep everything [pictures, tv, movies, documents, etc] but also keep some of those replicated on more than one drive. I also wanted to have my machines backup automatically, but that was a second priority for me. As long as I don't lose personal data, I could care less if I have to reinstall my OS.

Second: Restrictions

In a perfect world, I would be able to go out and buy a new server. Or maybe even build one. But in my case, I had to use what I had around the house. Seeing that I only have two extra computers: a 4+ year old Motion Computing Tablet and a 1+ year old Mac Mini. I knew I would have use the Mac.

Based on what I wanted and what I had to work with; the only solution I saw was to setup a Windows Home Server (WHS). I had read so much about them for the past year or so, great reviews.

I was not sold on it just yet.

Why do I need a special OS and not just a XP/Vista machine with shares?

Windows Home Server allows me to have a drive pool. Normally if you have multiple drives, they show up as different drives. BUT with WHS, it pools the drives together. It appears as one large drive, a sudo RAID. It also allows you to replicate a share across more than one drive, to help protect against data loss.

Yeah thats all that matters to me; that sold me.

Its nice to have a compact, quiet server.

Next step is to get some add-ins...

Remodeling

Sorry for not having any new posts recently...I have been busy remodeling a house that I am going to rent with a friend in Capitol Hill (Seattle, WA)!

As soon as its finished, I will be sure to blog about what we did and how it turned out.

On a separate note, I think summer is over...

D60 Captures

So last week I got a new dSLR. I had been using a Canon Digital Rebel circa 2004, but it was getting old, I only had one lens and it had a mark on its sensor (it left this weird mark on each picture I took.)

I decided it was time for me to upgrade.

After much research, I settled on a Nikon D60. Its not the best, but its size, features, and cost fit me the best. I am working with the Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 VR lens for now, but looking to upgrade my lens collection in the near future, especially before I head to Lebannon.

I look the camera out to take some pictures last Saturday night.

First impressions are that its a light camera, and easy to hold on to. The VR or image stabilization helps a great deal, especially in dark situations. I was very pleased with the pictures I was able to take, remember that I am not that skilled [yet].

I am going to start using Adobe Lightroom 2.0 to process my photos, but for now even though I shot them in RAW [er I mean NEF, Nikon's version of RAW] I haven't done any post processing yet. They are noisey and blurry, I know, I know. Its my first run with the camera, at night, without a tripod.

I put up a few more pictures from my new camera on Flickr, take a look: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeewan_ghuman/sets/72157606974830826/]

New Layout

So what does everyone think of the new layout?

What could be better? What is good enough?

Leave suggestions/comments in the comments!

Roomba Resurrected

I was just browsing around the web today; fairly normal activity for me. And I came across a blog post/comment/forum post/etc mentioning a Roomba.

Oh yeah I have a Roomba!

I bought a Roomba a few years ago from Woot.com (it was my first Woot.) It worked great, I would turn it on and go off to class. By the time I came back, my apartment would be nicely vacuumed. I really didn't have many issues with it. I took good care of it.

When I moved out to Washington I brought the Roomba along with, assuming that it would provide the same service as it did back in Illinois.

I was wrong.

Shortly after I moved in, I wanted to clean up the dust and dirt from moving into an apartment. I went ahead and charged it up until the light on the robot turned green. I then pressed the large glowing button labeled "Clean." It turned on, moved out of its dock and started its vacuum motor. Everything seemed great.

Not really: it went in a circle and turned itself off after making all sorts of tones.

"OKAY, not a big deal" is what I said to myself. I will just have to clean it up a bit and it will be back to normal.

No Good.

I gave up on it. I quietly put it under my bed, assuming that one day I would be able to use its sensors, motors and gears to bring to life a future project of mine.

Okay, so fast forward 5 months to the present again.

So after work today, I dug out the Roomba and searched the Internet. I found out how to dissemble it by finding my way to: [http://mysteryroad.blogs.com/photos/fixthecircledance/xintroroomba_3549.html]

I figured out why it was going the "Circle Dance" (that's what Roomba enthusiasts call it.) The right wheel was getting locked up, because it's gears were chocked full of dust and dirt. Using my engineering degree's worth of knowledge I was able to take apart the right drive assembly and clean it out.

The Roomba is back to life!

(But I it might need a new battery...)

Get Down Goblin

A friend linked me to a 'music video' by Jan Terri on YouTube.

Apparently she was some sort of singer from Chicago in the 1980s (or 90s not really sure).

Its bad, but the worst part is that its stuck in my head

Watch for yourself:

Bare Walls No More

It's been literally 3 years since I wanted to put worthwhile photos and art on my walls. It all began with moving into my first apartment, grand ideas of setting it up as I wanted, making it into my home.

August 14, 2008: I finally got around to framing and hanging photographs I have taken all over the world over the years.

It looks great.

Suprise. Suprise. I got the frames from IKEA. By using my own photographs, I think I can avoid making my apartment look like a page out of their catalog. Hopefully.

The downside: I am planning on moving out at the end of September.

Better late than never, right?

Going to Lebanon

I am going to Lebanon. Yup.

I just purchased my tickets today! I am leaving on November 15th at 13:55 from Seattle and arriving in Beirut on November 16th at 15:45. I am coming back on December 3rd around noon.

I am sure by now some of you are wondering why I would just randomly choose to go to Lebanon, of all places. Why not England? France? Peru?

Adventure.

I am going to travel around Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan with my friend who lives and goes to school in Beirut.

I have had the chance to travel to Asia and Europe a few times already; while those trips were fun, they lacked a sense of adventure. They felt predictive, lame at times.

I plan on taking numerous photographs and I will be sure to put them up on Flickr when I get back.

If anyone has any tips on what to do/see/experience in those countries, leave them in the comments!

A Promise

I know that I have not posted here in a very long time, but that is
going to change soon. I promise you all that an interesting post is
coming this week.

Keep checking back to see a new post!

It's Been a While

For those that actually read this blog, you might be wondering why I haven't posted in a while. Truth be told, I just got lazy. Now on to the actual post!

One of the benefits of my job is that I can work from home whenever possible. Here at Microsoft, we have an informal "No Meetings Wednesday." It means that everyone tries to avoid setting up meetings (especially reoccurring ones) on Wednesdays. This allows people to get individual level work done, and for most Program Managers meeting free time is hard to come by.

I decided that I would work from home today. I have done it before, but today I tried something new. The first half I spent at home and the second half I spent at a coffee shop across the street. You might be thinking, "why? what point are you trying to make?"

Here it is: I am most productive when working at a coffee shop. It's the best of all worlds, I don't have the distractions of a television and books which exist at home. And I don't have people stopping by (which is inconvenient when trying to write a document or reply to email but a critical part of my role) or having the same old office environment that exist at work.

Oh yeah one more thing: Thanks Unified Communication and Exchange! Due to those two products/concepts I was able to have access to my phone line, email, calender, messenger, etc all day today.

Plus to top it off, I saved a bit of gas (well around gallon) by not driving into work today.

Anyone else out there have any comments about working from home?

Alternative Energy, Before It Was Cool

I came across this on my computer today. Its the beginnings of a letter a friend and I were writing to McDonalds in January 2005. This was before it became cool to care about clean energy and not using foreign oil.

Read away:

Dear McDonalds,

McDonalds is a staple of American Culture, it is not just a chain of restaurants spanning across this great nation; it’s more than that. Like most Americans we are concerned for the well being of this great nation. While some put flags on their cars, we choose to support this Union by keeping the land green, water clear, and skies blue. Unlike so many others that expect someone else to step in and solve our problems we choose to fix them ourselves. One of greatest problems is our dependence on oil, not only does the combustion of petroleum products negatively impact our environment, but also our dependence on foreign sources is a national security threat. We plan on solving this problem by introducing Americans to alternate fuels, such as vegetable oil. While we are not the first to pioneer this method of powering normal diesel cars, we do wish to demonstrate its effectiveness to the American public.

We want to harness the pioneering sprit of Ray Kroc, as well as the success of the McDonalds Corporation. We need your help. We need startup funds, used vegetable oil, and your support. What we plan on doing is, in the sprit of the American road trip, going from Chicago, IL to Los Angeles, CA, stopping by McDonalds’ restaurants to refuel.

This would help show how environmentally friendly fuels are beneficial to everyone; we get fuel to power our car, while McDonalds puts its waste product to exceptionally good use. Aside from the sheer cost benefits, there is also the fact that burning waste vegetable oil is better for the air we all breathe.

Comments?

Taking the Bus

I took the bus to work today for the first time, not bad at all.

I came to the decision to take the bus due to: (a) gas prices are too high, (b) I can do other things on my way to work rather than drive a car, (c) I am trying to do my part to reduce America's dependency on foreign oil.

Fun fact: I am writing this on my way home from work on the bus...I'm almost home in the time it took to write this post!

A "Specialized" Bike

I have always enjoyed cycling, ever since I was young. I spent the majority of my summer days during middle school (and even early high school) riding my bike around with friends. We went many adventures, from trying to find a store that sells Derby Hats to riding to downtown Long Grove to go to the "Apple Haus".

I recently revived that tradition, I purchased a new bike.

When I moved here to the Puget Sound area a few weeks ago, I noticed that there were a large number of bike paths and also riders to populate them. That was exciting. I could finally ride a bike with ease, with a dedicated path.

I spent the last few weeks looking at different bikes and going to different shops. I was lucky enough to get some really good advice along the way; which made my process much easier. I ended up purchasing a Specialized Allez, its a good starter bike. Its aluminum with a few carbon fiber parts; such as the front fork and seat post.

Oh yeah the cleats and clips are interesting to ride with. Its a little unnerving the first few times to ride with your feet attached to your bike, but you get used to it.

A picture of the bike...

For anyone that ever saw me riding my bike while at UIUC: this one fits me much better, I don't look as awkward on it...just thought that I should clear that up.

The Drive Home

Today on my way back home from work, I drove for a while behind this:

What's the interesting thing is that in the last week (since last Saturday) I have seen: above seen car, Bentley Continental GTC, Bentley Continental, Bentley Arnage, a Ferrari, Aston Martin Vantage, etc.

Oh yeah then right after that I saw a Rolls Royce with British license plates...

It's Only 9!

I just finished having dinner with a friend and I was near the Redmond Town Center (it's one of those outdoor malls.) I needed to pick up a few things; so I stopped by.

Everything is closed. Well not everything, "Seattle Sun Tan" is still open. That's not of much use to me.

This made me realize that there is a inverse relationship between how far a store is from a large city (Seattle is this case) and how late it stays open. The proof: stores in Bellevue Square Mall (closer to Seattle) are open until 9:30pm.

Time for me to go back home...its cold out!

Posting from My Phone!

I can now post to my blog from my phone, even with pictures.

The Club

I was walking in a parking garage today at work and I noticed something interesting. I saw a mid 90s Honda Civic with a Club on the steering wheel. Really? Does someone actually think that someone else will even try to steal their car? I could understand if it was a Ferrari, but a Honda, really?

Here are some reasons why no one is going to steal it:

1. It's a Honda Civic
2. It's parked in a Microsoft parking garage
3. There was a Lotus Elise, Mercedes Benz CLK550, many BMW 3 Series, and a Land Rover Range Rover parked near by. I assume people would rather steal those.
4. It's no longer 1996, no one uses "The Club" anymore
5. Plus if someone where pathetic enough to want to steal it, they would just use a flat bed. Making the use of "The Club" worthless.

Interesting way to start off the day...

Sad Zune Update

Update: I called the only site that I could find that sells Zune parts...the front screen is out of stock. I might just keep it the way it is, it might be good way to remind me to use more caution when using my electronics...

If anyone knows of any sites that sell replacement parts for Zunes, please post it in the comments section, thanks!

Sad Zune :o(

Long story short:

The good part is that it still works, I did also find a company that sells Zune replacement parts. I am going to give them a call tomorrow when they are open to see how much it costs to replace. In the mean time I will just use it as it is...

One Month(ish) Update

So it has been about a month since I moved to the Seattle area and started my new job at Microsoft. Things are going great, I love my job, its everything I expected it to be. I wake up each workday excited to go in and solve another problem, work with my co-workers and help build a great product.

Some highlights up to now:

• Walking into work the the second day and having three desktops and a tablet PC handed over to me, all of which I had to reformat and configure. It turned out to be not so bad.
• Buying a 6 line Cisco VOIP phone for my home line.
• Having a crazy man talk to me for over an hour at a Starbucks. One of the topics being how I am too healthy and I will thereby get arthritis, due to humans evolving to their surroundings. Yeah, that's it.
• Buying a burrito from a truck parked at a gas station per my office mate's recommendation.
• Seeing everyone panic and leave work early at the sight of snow falling. There was no accumulation and a few minutes later it started to rain after which the sun came out.

So far its been great, especially this weekend. Today the weather was amazing, it got up to 76 degrees and it was completely sunny out. A friend and I took this as our chance to take a look around a few of the parks in Seattle and enjoy some outdoor cafe time.

We first headed to Discovery Park, its on the western end of Seattle. It has great views of the Olympic Mountains and the Puget Sound as seen in this picture:

After that, we headed over to Queen Anne and had some coffee at a Tully's while taking advantage of both their outdoor seating and the great weather. After asking around, we found our way to Lookout Park where we were met with this view:

A House on the Lake, Literally

Last Friday (a week ago from yesterday) there was a house on Lake Washington. I don't mean a house on the side of the lake, there are plenty of those. There was actually a house on the lake, I guess they were moving it. I haven't found the time to investigate, but if anyone has any insight into it, let me know!

Oh yeah, a picture just incase you don't believe me....



Sorry about it having the same level of clarity of a Loch Ness Monster picture, we were moving fast and the car window had rain drops on it.

Semi-Exciting Weekend

This weekend started off interestingly. It snowed on Friday, yes snow in the Puget Sound area at the end of March, this caused everyone to leave work early. The best part was that shortly after it stopped snowing, there was none to be seen on the ground. It was melting as it touched the ground. So it seems that I cannot escape the snow, no matter how hard I try, oh well!

Later on Friday, a friend and I went to B & O Espresso in Capitol Hill (its a neighborhood in Seattle.) It was some of the best coffee (well latte) and cake (German Chocolate) I have ever had! The best part was that they are open late, until 12:00a or 1:00a depending on the day of the week. It gave me another reason to like Capitol Hill...hmmmm. While the eats where great, the people at the table next to us kept on trying to get their waitress' attention by staring at her...creepy...

Saturday started off with getting an oil change, which turned into me test driving a Saturn Sky Red Line. I have been meaning to drive it ever since it came out, but never got around to it. It is impressive. There is quite a bit of power in the engine, and it handles fairly good. Its no Lotus Elise, but it does the job. This is yet another example of how GM is actually turning around and making good products. The dealer was great, no pressure at all. Made for a very comfortable environment. He even told me to "stretch its legs"...good guy!

I test drove with the top down, it was 40 degrees out. Not my best idea.

After about an hour, my oil change and test drive were both over and I headed into Seattle with a friend. We checked out the Science Fiction Museum, it was interesting, a flashback to most of my elementary and middle school years. They also had a music museum in the same building, saw that and then walked around the area (its right by the Space Needle.) After all that sight seeing, we went to go eat. We were nearly done with our meal, when a kid comes in with his mother (or so I assume.) He brings in a portable DVD player, wait it gets better: and a DVD collection. What is wrong with kids these days? (answer this question in the comments section!)He can't even go out to a lunch with someone without watching some DVD...that kid is out of control.

Photo for proof:


Notice hows he is watching a DVD and trying to read the menu at the same time. At least he can multitask, right?

Oh yeah a picture of the Space Needle...enjoy!

Two and a Half Weeks

I am slowly starting to settle into my new "life". I am really liking my new job, its all I thought it would be plus more. The weather has been decent so far, rainy and 40/50s for the most part. Yesterday it was 60s and sunny, it was hopefully a sneek peak at the weeks to come.

But more importantly, I am addicted to buying things from IKEA. No not just random little things, or just a trip once every few months. No, I want my apartment to look like one of those model ones they have. Lucky for me today most of the things I wanted were out of stock, otherwise I would have come home with all sorts of furniture, linens, rugs, dishes, etc. I still need to take photographs of my apartment and post them up, but I am waiting until its a little more together. The walls are too bare right now.

First Day at Microsoft

As some of you might know, today was my first day of work at Microsoft. While I didn't do any work or even get to meet up with my manager, it still was a significant day. It started out with the usual paperwork, from there we filed into a conference room. We stayed in that room all day for the most part, the usual orientation type presentations were shown to us. I'm not going to lie, it got boring at times, but overall I found it reassuring. They had their act together. That was enough to reassure me that I made the right choice.

While I can't talk in detail about what they showed us, one movie, the one the day started with, really had an impact on me. It was one of those extended tv ads, it focused around this young guy who was leaving work to go to his girlfriend's place for a party. It showed how Microsoft products such as Local Live, Windows Mobile, Zune, Windows Vista, and many others helped to make his (and other's) lives easier. It was impressive because all the products shown are already out there, they aren't ideas for the future or concepts or what ifs, they are in homes and hands already.

Tomorrow I get to meet my manager and team...should be exciting!

India, In a Few Words

I know, I know, I promised an update on my India trip. Rather than trying to compress over three weeks of adventures into a few paragraphs, take a look at my pictures and post any questions in the comments. I will be sure to answer them in detail!

But I might post a story or two from the trip in the next few weeks...check back!

Five Days in Bavaria

I started off my travels by going to Munich, Germany for about five days. Instead of boring everyone by describing every little detail of the trip, I'll just give highlights.

I got a chance to see the newly opened BMW Welt located near the site of the 1972 Olympics. Think of the nicest car dealership you have ever seen, now imagine something MANY times nicer. It is located across the street from their world headquarters and one of their production facilities. After spending a hour or two warning around BMW Welt, we went on a tour of the production facility. I was not able to take any pictures inside the factory, which is unfortunate, it was very impressive. The amount of engineering that goes into their vehicles can be seen in each of the steps of production. A great deal of engineering goes into even the production system. The factory can produce 3 series sedans and wagons as needed, no need to change machines or retool to switch between the two models.

The next few days where spent going around Munich, I now know the city inside and out for the most part. From my short time there, I found the people to be very nice and helpful. They were evening willing to help us when they discovered we didn't speak any German. One of the highlights in Munich was the English Gardens. Even though it was winter, it was beautiful. There are a few creeks running through it with extremely clear and crisp looking water. It was nice to get away from the noise and bustle of a big city.

Out last day in Germany was spent going to two of the three castles built by King Ludwig II. I got a chance to see Neuschwanstein, it is located in Southern Bavaria near the Austrian border. It is the castle which Disney based his Snow White castle on. It was amazing to see, it seems almost as if its fake.

On January 26th we flew to New Delhi, India...check back for details on my India trip!

Back from India!

I just got back from India yesterday, trying to rest up and such. I will be sure to post about the trip (and past trips) in the next few days!

Found an Apartment and Hopefully a Home

Last week I was in the Seattle area looking for a place to live in come March. The good news is that I found a place! Its located in downtown Bellevue, WA within walking distance from the transit station (large bus stop), mall, many restaurants and the downtown park. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the place, and even if I remembered someone was living there. I think it would have been creepy to take a picture of the guy's stuff, right?

But here is a link to an aerial map of the building.

Taking a month long break, from my break

In two days I leave for a month long trip to Germany and India. I am excited. As much as I would like to complain about the fact that I have been traveling a lot lately, I can't. I love it. I have yet to start packing, but I expected that I would have waited till the last minute anyways. I hope that when I get back I'll have many stories to tell and pictures to post.

Oh yeah, if you want to contact me either use facebook or email, I am leaving my phone at home.

Back from the Southwest

I returned yesterday from a week long trip in California, Nevada and Arizona. Over the week we drove over 2,000 miles and went from nearly sea level in LA to nearly 8,000 feet elevation at the Grand Canyon. I will try to write as much as I can about the trip before I head out to Seattle on Thursday. So here it goes!



Los Angeles:

The first part of the trip took us to Los Angeles area for the Rose Bowl. Unlike last new years where I spent it in London among thousands of people watching the fireworks, this year I was filling up gas in Venice, CA... I guess they can't all be memorable, haha. As you might have heard, Illinois was playing USC in the Rose Bowl, unfortunately Illinois lost, but it was still amazing to be at the Rose Bowl, definitely worth the hassle! After the game we went a diner called Fred 56 (I think...) and the food was great! On January 2nd we explored Orange County and headed out to Las Vegas.

To be continued...