Posted on September 2nd, 2010%
After upgrading the CSFBL forums to vBulletin 4.0, I noticed that performance was slightly worse than in the previous version. A little searching revealed that vBulletin supports memcached (an in-memory distributed caching system). Since I’ve got RAM to spare, I figured this is worth a shot.
Unfortunately, getting memcached running on the server (Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit) took a few tricks, and getting memached running through IIS/PHP was another. To help other people through the same process (and to remind myself in the future), I’ll share the installation and configuration steps that worked for me below.
Downloading and configuring memcached
The official distributions of memcached are written for Linux systems, so the first task is finding Windows binaries. The memcached project site, fortunately, has links to Windows binaries, which are hosted by NorthScale. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available.
(Note that NorthScale also offers their own . . .
→ Read More: Installing and configuring memcached and PHP on Windows
Posted on September 14th, 2009%
On a newly-rebuild Windows 2003 server, I set out to install TFS 2008. After installing SQL 2005, and SQL Reporting Services, and SQL Analysis Services, and SQL 2005 Service Pack 3, I fired up the TFS installer, only to ultimately get the dreaded “Send Report/Don’t Send Report” dialog box.
Nice! Looking at the install log was so much more revealing.
[09/14/09,13:33:33] Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Error code 1603 for this component means “Fatal error during installation.”
[09/14/09,13:33:33] Setup.exe: AddGlobalCustomProperty
[09/14/09,13:33:33] Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5: ***ERRORLOG EVENT*** : Setup Failed on component Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Odd, why won’t the .Net Framework 3.5 install? Shouldn’t be hard to fix by downloading the .Net 3.5 installer and installing it manually. Or should it? That didn’t work, either. Again from the install log.
[09/14/09,13:42:31] WIC Installer: [2] Error code 1603 for this component means “Fatal error during installation.”
[09/14/09,13:42:31] WIC Installer: . . .
→ Read More: Can’t install TFS, or the .Net Framework, or almost anything? Check your security policies!
Posted on July 21st, 2008%
Defragmenting hard drives is something that is often unnecessary, but when it is necessary, most people run the built-in Windows “Disk Defragmenter” utility. It’s serviceable, but there is a better option: JkDefrag.
There’s a few things that make JkDefrag an improvement over what Windows offers:
It runs on anything that mounts like a disk drive — including USB drives and memory sticks.
You can run it from Windows, from a command line, or as a screen saver.
It offers several different optimization strategies.
It can be configured to defragment specific drives, files, or folders, or to exclude defragmenting specific drives, files, or folders.
You can run it in the background and tell it to run at less than full speed.
It’s continually developed by a person who you can actually talk to via an online forum.
There’s no installer — just extract files from a ZIP archive into a directory and run the executable.
It’s free, as in free beer, and open source.
Hats off to Jeroen Kessels . . .
→ Read More: A free replacement for the Windows defragment utility
Posted on June 3rd, 2008%
There’s one great feature in SQL: the “Generate Scripts” command. Unfortunately, it has one limitation: the default filenames of scripts look something like this:
dbo.fnc_PlayerValue.UserDefinedFunction.sql
dbo.UserSelect.StoredProcedure.sql
I’d much prefer the filenames to match the object name, without the owner (‘dbo’) or object type. In other words, I’d prefer the above two files to look like this:
UserDefinedFunction\fnc_PlayerValue.sql
StoredProcedure\UserSelect.sql
How do we get from point A to point B without a lot of manual file copies and renames? We use the FOR command!
First, create a subdirectory for each object type (Table, StoredProcedure, UserDefinedFunction, View, Schema, Trigger, and User), then run the following from a command prompt.
for %i in (*.User.sql) do for /f “delims=., tokens=1-3″ %j in (“%i”) do move %i %k\%j.%l
for %i in (*.Schema.sql) do for /f “delims=., tokens=1-3″ %j in (“%i”) do move %i %k\%j.%l
for %i in (*.Trigger.sql) do for /f “delims=., tokens=1-3″ %j in (“%i”) do move %i %k\%j.%l
for %i in (*.sql) do for /f “delims=., tokens=1-4″ %j in (“%i”) do move %i %l\%k.%m
The command . . .
→ Read More: Separating SQL script files generated by Microsoft SQL (by type)
Posted on May 20th, 2008%
I’ve been running a rather expensive Windows Vista computer lately, thanks to Boot Camp. However, two problems continue to plague me:
The latest Boot Camp update from Apple will not install successfully.
Sound is distorted when playing games, typically those using multiple sound channels (i.e. pretty much all games).
Fortunately, I finally found the fix for #2. It wasn’t Vista SP1, and it wasn’t figuring out a way to install the latest Boot Camp drivers (still can’t figure that one out).
The solution: Download and install the latest Realtek HD drivers. Thanks to a post on mac-forums.com which pointed me to the Realtek High Definition Audio drivers page.
One odd quirk: It took two installations of the Realtek drivers before it worked. After the first installation (which removed the old drivers) and a restart, there was no sound at all in Windows. A re-installation of the same Realtek drivers (and another restart), and it’s all working fine…
Just in time for Age of Conan, which . . .
→ Read More: Solving distorted sound issues in Boot Camp
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