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One sunny day while mowing the yard with the old John Deere I thought, “How cool would it be if I could mount a Small Business Server on this lawn tractor?' The answer (as you already know) is “not very cool”. Nobody wants to see a lawn mower running Exchange and SharePoint. Obviously, I need to drink more fluids when mowing the yard in the hot sun, but that’s neither here nor there. The proverbial wheels were turning, and I started brainstorming for something much faster and infinitely cooler than a green and yellow tractor Enter Matthew Snoddy – and owner of in Lexington, Kentucky. “” (nobody knows for sure) Not only is Matthew a fantastic network engineer and wheelman, he’s got some beautiful muscle cars, like this supercharged 2008 SRT8 Dodge Challenger. Matthew Snoddy–2008 SRT8 Dodge Challenger on the dyno A Challenger is much cooler than a John Deere, but it gets even better!

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Recently, Matthew expanded his stable with the addition of a rare (one of only 20 ever made). A street-legal race car. VIPER SRT10 ACR SPECS – BONE STOCK.

8.4-liter aluminum V10 engine. 600 horsepower. 560 lb. Of torque. 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. Top speed 184 MPH (202 MPH w/o the rear wing, but you’ll die) If you’re a gearhead, you know all about the.

Matthew’s red ACR is a convertible model of the car that. Car and Driver–Video of Virginia City Hill Climb in a Viper ACR Suffice it to say, the word ‘awesome’ does not even begin to describe this car. So one night Matthew and I discussed the viability of mounting a in the Viper, and “ Project Daffy” was born. “Why a goofy name like Project Daffy” you say?

Check out what happens when you invert the Viper ACR logo: Can you see Daffy Duck on the right? We took some measurements of the ACR and (shocker) it’s not really designed to hold a standard server like an, or even a smaller one like the. The trunk is so small, there’s not even a spare tire – just an air pump (left). Enter Greg Starks – SMB Solutions Program Manager at Hewlett-Packard. Greg has been with HP and Compaq for over 20 years, has presented at over 10 SMB Nation events, and he really knows his stuff. Awesome” (of that we.are.

sure) We needed something that had enough horsepower to run a server OS, but not so big that it wouldn’t fit in the Viper. With limited space, heat and power requirements, it was a tall order. Greg hooked up Project Daffy with the brand new and got it to us in time to make it to the racetrack! HP MICROSERVER SPECS:. AMD Athlon II NEO N36L processor 1.3 GHz.

Supports up to 8 GB PC3 DDR3 RAM. Embedded NC107i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter.

OCZ Vertex 2 200GB solid state SATA II drive. Cold boot to SBS 2011 login – 2 minutes 45 seconds. Shut down – 14 seconds. Operating System –.We took out the stock 160 GB LFF SATA drive and used the SSD instead to mitigate vibration from the car. (The SSD isn’t a factory option.) The is physically small enough (10.5' x 8.3' x 10.2') to fit perfectly in the Viper trunk with room to spare. The MicroServer doesn’t come with a DVD drive, so we took an ISO of SBS 2011 Standard Edition and and installed SBS 2011 that way – no problem.

After the OS installation, we did some testing with the UPS to estimate battery life (about 55 minutes). SBS 2011 runs on that SSD like a scalded dog! The next step was powering it and mounting it in the car.

ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT:. battery backup. 802.11b/g/n wireless router with DD-WRT. USB wireless n adapter w/ SMA connector. Acer Aspire One ZG5 netbook (Windows 7). “The Boom” – inverted DirecTV dish mounting hardware for Yagi mast.

“The Surfboard” – various mounting hardware from Home Depot Due to the irregular shape of the Viper trunk, we used a spare piece of cardboard as a template to map out the shape, and then transferred that outline onto a plank of 3/4” plywood (“The Surfboard”). After some lengthy trial and error moving things around, appropriate measurements were laid out to make sure that there was sufficient room for the equipment, padding, cabling, and tie-down equipment.

HEADING TO THE TRACK: It’s a pretty long drive from Louisville out to the (about 120 miles). When we got there it was so cold out that the grass in the shadows was still frosted even though the sun had been up for a few hours. Sadly, that morning one of Matthew’s friends lost control of his Corvette on the track and put it into the wall! Fortunately he’s OK, but the same can’t be said for the Vette. Even with safety equipment, racing is still a dangerous occupation. Mounting the server and network equipment in the Viper trunk went surprisingly smooth.

All of the planning and measuring paid off and it fit like a glove. We powered up the server and the router and ran some connectivity tests while Matthew drove around the track.

As long as we kept the Yagi antenna (attached to the netbook in our makeshift pits) pointed at the Viper, we never lost a single ping. That’s pretty impressive considering that the antenna was INSIDE the trunk. The car body is fiberglass (except for the carbon fiber rear spoiler) so there was nothing externally on which to stick the antenna. Side note: One of the coolest parts of the whole project was seeing the looks when people walked around to the back of the car to see what was in the trunk. The phrase of the day was, “You put a.server. in a Viper!?” Everybody thought it was cool!

My face hurts from grinning. Using the netbook back at the pits, we logged into the HP MicroServer via RDP and ran to keep an eye on the internal temperature of the CPU and SSD drive with the trunk closed. Since it was such cool day, all the temps stayed nice and chilly in the server. In fact, the only moving parts in the entire trunk were one cooling fan in the server and another one in the UPS. The rig doesn’t build up much heat anyway.

By design, the Viper ACR doesn’t have electronic traction control. On a cold day with cold tires, the lack of traction control meant that Matthew couldn’t safely punch the pedal to the floor without risking having the Viper suffer the same fate as the Vette.

We know what the car can do in warmer weather, so there’s no doubt that that we truly have The World’s Fastest Small Business Server on our hands. PICTURES OF THE COMPLETED PROJECT. A view of the Viper SRT10 ACR 8.4 liter 10-cylinder engine.

The blue tape keeps hot tire rubber from sticking to the paint. Left – HP ProLiant MicroServer Right – APC Smart-UPS Behold! The World’s Fastest Small Business Server. Close-up – You can see Buffalo wireless B/G/N router in the front and the “Surfboard” underneath. The APC and all other equipment is mounted rock solid and can’t move even 1/4”. This is what happens when you burn too much rubber – they have to literally scrape it off the track! I think they’ve been saving this for a while at the track, but I’m not sure how long.

If you’ve got questions about the project, please feel free to post them in the comments below. PICTURES – You can (test fit before tie-down and different views of the car, etc.) VIDEO – Matt Hester (IT Pro Evangelist for Microsoft) shot some video of Project Daffy today, so you may see it soon. If he does, we’ll link to it here. THANKS – Super-special thanks go to Matthew Snoddy and Greg Starks for making this dream a reality. Props to Andrew McIntosh too for the UPS, and to Lauren for assistance in the pits. You guys absolutely rock!! Title: Programming Windows Phone 7 Authors: Charles Petzold Publisher: Microsoft Press Date Published: © 2010 Microsoft Corporation ISBN: 978-0-7356-43352 Pages: 1013 File size: PDF 38.6 MB Price: FREE Download URL: Description: This book assumes that you know the basic principles of.NET programming and that you have a familiarity with the C# programming language.

If not, you might benefit from reading the free online book.NET Book Zera:. This is divided into three parts:. Basic Concepts of Windows Phone 7 Programming. Silverlight. XNA More Info: Source.

I have a lot of reading to do and I need to plow through an average of 40-80 pages from books on a daily basis. (That excludes 180-220 emails per day, blogs and websites).

I don’t know if that number is high or low by your standards, but I find that each year the amount of reading I need to do always goes up. Now, even though I’m a geek, I don’t want to be a nerd. And carrying a fake book around is getting pretty deep into nerd territory.

But i figure that with features like playing MP3s and cellular wireless, that swings me back over to the geek camp. So, after an inordinate amount of online research, I purchased a from Amazon.com. I picked the Kindle 2 model over the Kindle DX for several reasons. My considerations for which Kindle to purchase: Note: My winner for each category is shown in the far right column, and the spec I like best is highlighted in under each Kindle. Keep in mind that this is based on my research, not official Amazon specs / info. Also: You can click on any picture for a larger view.

Winner Weight 10.2 oz. K2 – 46% lighter Overall size 8” x 5.3” 10.4” x 7.2” K2 – 25% smaller Screen size 6” 9.7” DX – 2.5 x bigger Resolution 800×600 @167ppi 1200×824 @150 ppi N/A Max # books 1,500 3,500 DX – 2,000 more Storage 2 GB, 1.4 usable 4 GB, 3.3 usable DX – 1.9 GB more Battery life Up to 1 week Up to 1 week N/A Free Wireless Yes Yes N/A Free Case No No N/A Price $259 US $489 US DX – 47% cheaper GOOD – The DX has 2x the screen & 2x the storage. BAD – The DX has nearly 2x the weight and 2x the cost.

WINNER – At half the price and half the weight, I opted to buy the Kindle 2. OK, so all that looks good on paper, but what about the real test? How does this really look and feel? Let’s look at some key categories. SIZE As I mentioned in a previous post, I hate hauling around bulky or unnecessary items. When it comes to packing your toolkit or travel bag, size matters.

Here is the K2 next to some everyday items for perspective: 4GB Zune, dollar bill, K2 & Matt’s new book. (The Kindle 2 is shown in the optional case) The K2 is definitely smaller than a standard geek book, not as wide as a dollar bill, slightly thicker than a Zune, & a lot thinner than my Palm Treo Pro phone (not shown). READABILITY In spite of the resolution and poor focus of my camera phone, you have to see the screen to believe it. When I unboxed the Kindle 2, I thought there was a sticker on it, but that was the actual screen.

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Other than the background having a gray tinge to it (rather than a true white) it looks like a real printed page. For me the gray was a bit distracting at first, but I’m already used to it.

The picture above is showing my website, not an eBook. The camera phone doesn’t do the Kindle justice. This is a VERY impressive screen. GLARE Though contrary to popular belief, geeks do go outside in the sun for things other than driving to a customer site to fix a computer.

Here is the Kindle 2 outside at noon with the sun behind me as I took the picture. That’s full daylight, no clouds, with the sun shining right on it. If you try to use the Kindle as a mirror, it is possible to get a flare on the screen, but I really had to aim just right to get this much glare. Just a slight shift and the sun spot was gone. Readability outside is as-good, if not better than indoors.

WEB BROWSING The Kindle is designed to access the web, not to surf it. The screen shots above show that you can indeed surf the web though and read blogs and such. Just don’t expect a desktop PC web experience. READING PDF DOCUMENTS One of the killer features for me (and pretty much the primary reason I bought the Kindle) was the native ability for the Kindle 2 to read PDF documents. You just plug in your USB / charging cable and the Kindle shows up in Windows Explorer like a USB drive. Drag-and-drop, you’re done.

I have gobs of Microsoft Press books that include a CD in the back with a PDF version of the book. You can just plug in the Kindle, insert the CD, and drag and drop the PDF into the Kindle. GOOD – All the PDF documents I tested rendered accurately on the Kindle. BAD – Many PDFs are smaller on the 6” screen than they would be in real life, making them harder to read. And the cool font size changing feature doesn’t work on PDFs as far as I can tell.

MORE GOOD – Even though the text is smaller, I was able to search PDFs, bookmark them, and the Kindle remembered which page I left off reading. MORE BAD – I couldn’t add notes or highlights to a PDF like I could with a ‘real’ kindle book. Small fonts aside on PDFs, this feature still rocks. FILE CONVERSION The drag and drop on the Kindle 2 means I didn’t even have to email the document to Amazon for conversion like the Kindle 1. I did send a PDF to (the way to convert files to the Kindle AZW format without the $0.15/MB wireless fee), but that has a file limit of 5 MB. For a test I took the 1.92 MB “Windows Server 2008 Technical Overview.pdf” file and sent it to Amazon for conversion.

It came back to me in under 2 minutes as an AZW file that only weighed 5.4 KB. I pulled the AZW file into the Kindle 2 and it was just my sig line from the e-mail.

A few seconds later another email came in from Amazon with an attached PDF but now it was called “WindowsServer2008TechnicalOverview.pdf” and was the exact same size as the original. It still doesn’t change font sizes in the Kindle, but it works the same as before the ‘conversion’. I suspect I’ll be spending a lot of time learning the ins and outs of file conversion because I’d like to be able to shrink and grow the text if possible on a PDF. OPTIONS The only option I recommend (other than a warranty if you’re the fumblefingers type) is the. At, it’s not cheap by any stretch, but then again it’s not cheaply made either. It fits like a glove, and it still gives you access to the important bits for charging and such.

I wonder how long the elastic band / strap will last. Still, I think that the leather cover is a must-have. VERDICT So far I’m a very happy camper. This is the best (and most fun) technical purchase I’ve made since I got my Acer Aspire One netbook. The Kindle 2 can do text-to-speech and there’s supposed to be experimental support for MP3s, but I don’t care about that. This is a great device as-is. Want to get your hands on Windows Mobile 6.5?

Wait no longer! Title: Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit Version: 6.5 Date Published: Download size: – WM6.5 Professional (USA) 225.0 MB – WM6.5 Standard (USA) 71.4 MB File type: MSI System Requirements: XPSP3, Vista, Server 2003 SP2 Download URL: Description: The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit adds documentation, sample code, gesture APIs, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio that let you build applications for Windows Mobile 6.5. Even if you’re not a WM developer, if you support Windows Mobile devices, you should download these emulator images.

Emulator Images Included:. Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Square Emulator. Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional QVGA Emulator. Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WQVGA Emulator. Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional VGA Emulator. Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WVGA Emulator.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard Square Emulator. Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard QVGA Emulator Hint: You don’t need Visual Studio to use these emulator images. But if you want to these emulators to be able to communicate across the network and access the web, you’ll probably want to download and install (30.4 MB) if you haven’t done so already. The reason being; We just need the virtual network adapter, which is installed automatically when you install VPC 2007 – after that, we don’t need VPC 2007 anymore for the WM6.5 emulators. Configuring the Windows Mobile 6.5 emulator to connect to the Internet Once you’ve gotten the emulators downloaded and installed, here’s how you connect one to the network:. Make sure is already installed (see box above). Open the emulator from the Windows Start Menu.

The emulator should show a splash screen and then drop you into the WM6.5 operating system. In the emulator choose File / Configure. On the Network tab, check the Enable NE2000 PCMCIA network adapter to bind to, choose your network card, and click OK. In the emulator, click on Start, then click on Settings. Click on Connections.

Click on Connections again. Click on the Advanced tab at the bottom, and choose Select Networks. Set both selections to My Work Network, and click OK twice. Once you’re back at the Today screen, click Start and then click Internet Explorer. On the Internet Explorer Mobile page, try searching on something to test your internet connectivity. If you’ve done everything properly (including installing Virtual PC 2007 in the box above) you should be connected to the Internet. When you’re done using the emulator, you can choose File / Save State and Exit and the next time you launch the emulator (Step 2 above), you’ll pick up right back where you left off – already connected to the Internet.

If you get prompted to enable the network card the next time you launch the emulator, just choose Yes. Props: Thanks for the heads-up on the WM6.5 download. We’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating as the topic came up in one of the mailing lists today. I wanted to pass along the info in case you haven’t come across it before: If you sell Windows Mobile devices to your clients, this site is fantastic! This is, hands-down, my favorite Microsoft site.

Said it best: “No doubt, the most useful (and usable) site Microsoft has ever put together. I use it every day.” -Chris Rue SBS-MVP Sign up today and check it out.

They even reward you for taking the training. What more could you ask for? If you’re involved in small business, you need to attend the Third Annual Microsoft Small Business Summit, March 24 – 27, 2008. This FREE online event provides hours of valuable small business programming each day.

You’ll get tips, advice, and secrets from experts, all designed to make the hats you wear each day fit more comfortably. This 4-day event is broken into themes for each day (details and speaker list below). I attended the first two small business summits, and they had top notch speakers like Guy Kawasaki, and the content was fantastic. This year looks to be a great event as well, and I HIGHLY recommend you attend. You won’t be sorry (unless you miss it!) 🙂 Registration is free: REGISTER TODAY! Whitepaper Title: Deploying Windows Mobile 6 with Windows Small Business Server 2003 File Name: SBS-WM6122107.doc Version: 3.0 Date Published: January 2008 Language: English Download Size: 1.8 MB Pages: 49 Download URL: Description: Do you want to add Windows Mobile devices to your network?

Is your network based either on the Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS) server software with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or on Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2? If so, you can use the step-by-step instructions in this document to deploy devices that are powered by the Windows Mobile 6 software on a Windows SBS network. Contents. Step 1: Install ActiveSync 4.5 or WMDC 6.1. Step 2: Enable Mobile Services for Users. Step 3: Configure the Firewall and Web Services.

Step 4: Install a Certificate. Step 5: Configure Windows Small Business Server.

Step 6: Configure Device Synchronization. Step 7: Test the Deployment Source.

One of the nice things about Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 is that you can use a variety of clients to connect to it and control it. Clients like:. Desktop PCs. Laptops. Netbooks.

Thin clients. USB stations. Even iPads (yes, you read that right) I put together a short two-part video showing how to:. Remote control your iPad from a Windows PC, and. How to control a MultiPoint 2011 server from an iPad. Note: Part 1 of the video shows a jailbroken iPad. You do NOT need to jailbreak the iPad to control the MultiPoint server.

I jailbroke it so I could remote into the iPad to shoot the video (and because jailbreaking is fun and lets you do stuff that Apple should have done originally). You can do Part 2 of the video (controlling the WMS 2011 Server) with an off-the-shelf iPad 1 or iPad 2 and an RDP program from the iTunes App Store – rest assured that your warranty will still be intact. A little over a year ago, my beloved little Xbox 360 Elite decided to take a dirt nap. No more Netflix, no more games, no more MP3 / AVI / DVD-MS / Media Center on my big TV. Just three flashing lights, taunting my soul. It was the fabled ‘’.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put my Xbox back in the media lineup again. My most favorite digital possession had taken it’s last breath. I knew it was out of warranty so I got out my screwdriver to peek inside and see what the deal was. Afterwards I heard that you can pay for an ‘out of warranty’ repair.

My Xbox was over 1 year old and I had definitely voided the warranty when I opened it. So I tried to pay for an out of warranty repair though, but. Long story short, I want the world to know a few key things about getting the Xbox 360 repaired if it dies on you. Things I didn’t know back then. Things that Microsoft, in my opinion, is still not making clear on their website or on their phone support.

Note: This is not intended to be a rant, and I’m not trying to get Microsoft to change their policy on anything. I care about you, dear reader, and about the fine folks who work at Microsoft. And because I care, I’m trying to get the Xbox repair facts out there. Facts that may not be readily (or even remotely) clear or available on their website. First – If your precious goes blinky-blinky, there is a to determine what the flashing lights mean. Second – Stay AWAY from all of the eBay, Youtube, and mom & pop ‘Xbox repair’ offers. Third – If your Xbox 360 has 3 flashing lights (probably an E74 error), here’s what you need to know:.

If your Xbox is 1 year old and your warranty is expired – You may still be covered for an E74 error. Don’t throw the Xbox away. For a non-E73/E74 error you usually can for about $99.99-$119.99 + shipping. Fourth – And MOST IMPORTANT – NEVERopen your Xbox 360. Microsoft will never repair it (any any price) if the case has been opened. Even if you request to pay for an ‘out of warranty’ repair (listed above) if the case has been opened, they will return it to you and refuse to repair it. That point is pretty much the crux of this blog post.

The web pages for, and pages do not make this point clear. Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “ Oh well, it’s out of warranty. I’m a smart computer guy/gal and I always wondered what these look like inside. I’ll open it up, see if something’s loose, and if I can’t figure it out I’ll just pay for them to fix it. After all, $99.99 is still cheaper than a new Xbox”. I thought that, and I was dead wrong.

I’m now the proud owner of a $399 Xbox 360 Elite paperweight, which is not as cool as it sounds. Logically, if you own a car that’s out of warranty and needs repairs (even if you broke it yourself trying to repair it or crashed it into a wall) you can always take it to the car dealer and pay to have it fixed. It’s gonna cost you some cash, but you’ll drive away with a lighter wallet and you’ll have a functioning car. However, where Microsoft is concerned, an “out of warranty” Xbox repair is only possible on a pristine Xbox that has never been opened or modified. I hate to beat this dead horse, but if you open it, you might as well have just crushed it with a steamroller.

It’s a dumb policy, but it is what it is. If it’s too late and you already did open your Xbox, your only recourse is to surf eBay / YouTube / local Xbox-fixer-guy and have them take a crack at it. I guess it can’t hurt at this point. I can vouch for multiple ‘easy fixes’ that didn’t work for me:.

One sunny day while mowing the yard with the old John Deere I thought, “How cool would it be if I could mount a Small Business Server on this lawn tractor?' The answer (as you already know) is “not very cool”. Nobody wants to see a lawn mower running Exchange and SharePoint. Obviously, I need to drink more fluids when mowing the yard in the hot sun, but that’s neither here nor there. The proverbial wheels were turning, and I started brainstorming for something much faster and infinitely cooler than a green and yellow tractor Enter Matthew Snoddy – and owner of in Lexington, Kentucky.

“” (nobody knows for sure) Not only is Matthew a fantastic network engineer and wheelman, he’s got some beautiful muscle cars, like this supercharged 2008 SRT8 Dodge Challenger. Matthew Snoddy–2008 SRT8 Dodge Challenger on the dyno A Challenger is much cooler than a John Deere, but it gets even better! Recently, Matthew expanded his stable with the addition of a rare (one of only 20 ever made).

A street-legal race car. VIPER SRT10 ACR SPECS – BONE STOCK. 8.4-liter aluminum V10 engine. 600 horsepower. 560 lb.

Of torque. 0-60 in 3.4 seconds. Top speed 184 MPH (202 MPH w/o the rear wing, but you’ll die) If you’re a gearhead, you know all about the. Matthew’s red ACR is a convertible model of the car that. Car and Driver–Video of Virginia City Hill Climb in a Viper ACR Suffice it to say, the word ‘awesome’ does not even begin to describe this car.

So one night Matthew and I discussed the viability of mounting a in the Viper, and “ Project Daffy” was born. “Why a goofy name like Project Daffy” you say? Check out what happens when you invert the Viper ACR logo: Can you see Daffy Duck on the right?

We took some measurements of the ACR and (shocker) it’s not really designed to hold a standard server like an, or even a smaller one like the. The trunk is so small, there’s not even a spare tire – just an air pump (left). Enter Greg Starks – SMB Solutions Program Manager at Hewlett-Packard. Greg has been with HP and Compaq for over 20 years, has presented at over 10 SMB Nation events, and he really knows his stuff. Awesome” (of that we.are.

sure) We needed something that had enough horsepower to run a server OS, but not so big that it wouldn’t fit in the Viper. With limited space, heat and power requirements, it was a tall order.

Greg hooked up Project Daffy with the brand new and got it to us in time to make it to the racetrack! HP MICROSERVER SPECS:. AMD Athlon II NEO N36L processor 1.3 GHz. Supports up to 8 GB PC3 DDR3 RAM.

Embedded NC107i PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Server Adapter. OCZ Vertex 2 200GB solid state SATA II drive. Cold boot to SBS 2011 login – 2 minutes 45 seconds. Shut down – 14 seconds. Operating System –.We took out the stock 160 GB LFF SATA drive and used the SSD instead to mitigate vibration from the car.

(The SSD isn’t a factory option.) The is physically small enough (10.5' x 8.3' x 10.2') to fit perfectly in the Viper trunk with room to spare. The MicroServer doesn’t come with a DVD drive, so we took an ISO of SBS 2011 Standard Edition and and installed SBS 2011 that way – no problem. After the OS installation, we did some testing with the UPS to estimate battery life (about 55 minutes).

SBS 2011 runs on that SSD like a scalded dog! The next step was powering it and mounting it in the car. ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT:. battery backup. 802.11b/g/n wireless router with DD-WRT. USB wireless n adapter w/ SMA connector.

Acer Aspire One ZG5 netbook (Windows 7). “The Boom” – inverted DirecTV dish mounting hardware for Yagi mast. “The Surfboard” – various mounting hardware from Home Depot Due to the irregular shape of the Viper trunk, we used a spare piece of cardboard as a template to map out the shape, and then transferred that outline onto a plank of 3/4” plywood (“The Surfboard”).

After some lengthy trial and error moving things around, appropriate measurements were laid out to make sure that there was sufficient room for the equipment, padding, cabling, and tie-down equipment. HEADING TO THE TRACK: It’s a pretty long drive from Louisville out to the (about 120 miles). When we got there it was so cold out that the grass in the shadows was still frosted even though the sun had been up for a few hours. Sadly, that morning one of Matthew’s friends lost control of his Corvette on the track and put it into the wall!

Fortunately he’s OK, but the same can’t be said for the Vette. Even with safety equipment, racing is still a dangerous occupation. Mounting the server and network equipment in the Viper trunk went surprisingly smooth.

All of the planning and measuring paid off and it fit like a glove. We powered up the server and the router and ran some connectivity tests while Matthew drove around the track. As long as we kept the Yagi antenna (attached to the netbook in our makeshift pits) pointed at the Viper, we never lost a single ping. That’s pretty impressive considering that the antenna was INSIDE the trunk.

The car body is fiberglass (except for the carbon fiber rear spoiler) so there was nothing externally on which to stick the antenna. Side note: One of the coolest parts of the whole project was seeing the looks when people walked around to the back of the car to see what was in the trunk.

The phrase of the day was, “You put a.server. in a Viper!?” Everybody thought it was cool! My face hurts from grinning. Using the netbook back at the pits, we logged into the HP MicroServer via RDP and ran to keep an eye on the internal temperature of the CPU and SSD drive with the trunk closed. Since it was such cool day, all the temps stayed nice and chilly in the server. In fact, the only moving parts in the entire trunk were one cooling fan in the server and another one in the UPS. The rig doesn’t build up much heat anyway.

By design, the Viper ACR doesn’t have electronic traction control. On a cold day with cold tires, the lack of traction control meant that Matthew couldn’t safely punch the pedal to the floor without risking having the Viper suffer the same fate as the Vette.

We know what the car can do in warmer weather, so there’s no doubt that that we truly have The World’s Fastest Small Business Server on our hands. PICTURES OF THE COMPLETED PROJECT. A view of the Viper SRT10 ACR 8.4 liter 10-cylinder engine. The blue tape keeps hot tire rubber from sticking to the paint. Left – HP ProLiant MicroServer Right – APC Smart-UPS Behold! The World’s Fastest Small Business Server.

Close-up – You can see Buffalo wireless B/G/N router in the front and the “Surfboard” underneath. The APC and all other equipment is mounted rock solid and can’t move even 1/4”. This is what happens when you burn too much rubber – they have to literally scrape it off the track! I think they’ve been saving this for a while at the track, but I’m not sure how long. If you’ve got questions about the project, please feel free to post them in the comments below. PICTURES – You can (test fit before tie-down and different views of the car, etc.) VIDEO – Matt Hester (IT Pro Evangelist for Microsoft) shot some video of Project Daffy today, so you may see it soon. If he does, we’ll link to it here.

THANKS – Super-special thanks go to Matthew Snoddy and Greg Starks for making this dream a reality. Props to Andrew McIntosh too for the UPS, and to Lauren for assistance in the pits. You guys absolutely rock!! Invitation – January 2010 KYSBSUG Meeting #71 Meeting Date: Wednesday January 20, 2010 Time: 6:30 PM Eastern Location: Money Concepts Address: 323 Townpark Circle, Suite 100, Louisville, KY 40243 Topic: “ Password Security and Password Cracking” Guest Presenter: Dana Epp, MVP (Enterprise Security) Founder & President of Scorpion Software (makers of AuthAnvil) Website: MVP: Blog: Description: Dana Epp is an industry-recognized expert in security and Microsoft MVP (2006-2010). Dana will talk about local and remote password security in SBS and SMB networks.

He’ll also talk about topics such as two-factor authentication and tell you how you can implement this technology for your employees and customers. Following Dana’s presentation, we’ll have a hands-on lab to demonstrate some of the tools on the market and methods to test (and break) passwords. 6:30 – 6:45 – Local events & introductions 6:45 – 7:30 – Dana Epp presentation (via GoToMeeting) 7:30 – 7:45 – Dana Q&A 7:45 – 8:20 – Hands-on Lab 8:20 – 8:30 – Door prize drawing and wrap-up Door Prize: This month our door prize is an NFR copy of Windows 7 Ultimate. This idea came to me today while having lunch at my desk (don’t know why I didn’t think of it before). After putting the smack down on some tasty potato chips, I couldn’t find a chip clip to close the bag to keep it from going stale. However, I did have an ample supply of hard drive magnets lying around.

I put one on each side of the bag, and viola! The only trick is not smashing your fingers while placing the magnets near each other.

These magnets are so strong that I can hang the bag from a file cabinet or the side of the fridge. Sometimes I crack myself up. Thanks everyone who attended the KYSBSUG presentation on modding your wireless router with the DD-WRT firmware! Here are the show notes from tonight. Don’t forget to reset your wired NIC TCP/IP settings back to automatic after you’re done flashing your router.