February 9, 2010

 

Members of the Butler County Flying Club:

 

The BCFC has taken another big step toward our goal of purchasing an airplane.  At our meeting on February 6, four members committed $1,000 each toward that goal.  We are now looking for 6 to 10 additional members willing to do the same ---- commit to $1,000 per member.  Out plans and timetable are as follows:

 

All money will be held by our treasurer until such time as we have a minimum of $10,000.  No one’s check will be cashed until we have the minimum of $10,000 on hand.  We have set a deadline of March 12 to collect this total.  If we don’t make it, we will take a serious look at what the short-term future of the club should be.  If we cannot collect a minimum of $10,000 by that date, all checks will be returned to the owner.

 

If we collect the $10,000 or more, those members who have made the individual commitment of $1,000 each will form the decision-makers regarding the details of purchasing an airplane, i.e., what to buy; when to buy; how to finance; insurance; budgeting (fixed and operating costs as well as revenue generation); costs and terms of usage; scheduling, etc., all with one overriding principle in mind: the aircraft will be purchased in the name of the club and all members who are financially committed and obligated will have an equal opportunity yo use the airplane.  It is very unlikely and unrealistic to think that we will be able to purchase an airplane without financing some portion of the purchase price, which means that a lender will probably require personal guarantees of any amount we finance.  The cost of insurance may be less if we have fewer than 15 flying members, so while we need a show of support and financial commitment of $1,000 from a minimum of 10 members, we can probably accommodate up to 14 members for little additional cost.  Obviously, within reason, the more members we have, the lower the cost per person to own and operate the airplane.

 

No plane will be purchased until and unless all 10 - 14 members agree on details.

 

Airplane inventory is very plentiful now.  Prices are as good as they have been in years.  Terms for borrowing money are as good as they have been in a long time.  It won’t be too far in the future that we may be kicking ourselves if we don’t take advantage of all of these opportunities now.  If you are willing to add  your $1,000 to our seed money and willing and able to participate in the long-term financing, send or give your check for $1,000, apayable to the Butler County Flying Club to our treasurer, Dick Warn, 312 Horseshoe Lane, Harviell, MO 63945; Bill Gresham, P.O. Box 1510, 619 Vine St., Poplar Bluff, MO 63902; or, you may leave your check with airport manager, Mike Smith, at the airport.

 

We have placed out plans on hold for the pancake breakfast that was originally scheduled for March 20.  Our next regular meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, February 18.  See you then.

 

Bill Gresham

For more info please go to http://www.butlercountyflyingclub.org

What is Spiceworks? Well, acording to the site, Spiceworks is the complete network management & monitoring, helpdesk, PC inventory & software reporting solution to manage Everything IT in small and medium businesses.

I think the video below pretty well sums it up.

Check it out at http://www.spiceworks.com/

Wordpress is a very popular blogging/content management system application which powers hundreds of thousands of websites around the world. Installation on Windows Home Server is complicated however, requiring the installation of PHP, MySQL, configuration of the remote website and then the installation and configuration of Wordpress itself. Bleugh.

A beta version of the add-in is due to be released soon – it’ll mark a big step forward in the ability for WHS owners to create and publish their own website online, all hosted on their home server.

I’m looking forward to checking it out.

More Info: Wordpress for Windows Home Server

2.7 million views on youtube. I thought it was pretty funny and catchy. :)

If your home computer has Windows XP Pro (or Media Center Edition) installed, you can access it from any other computer running Windows from anywhere in the world using Remote Desktop Connection. Some versions of Windows, like 98, Me, 2000 and require software available from Microsoft.com:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx
There are a few steps required to configure your home network to accept connections from outside computers and additional security measures required to keep your PC safe from people who might be scanning for computers with RDC installed.

Set A Complex Password

Remote Desktop relies on Windows XP passwords for login. If you don't currently have a password configured for your account, or if your password is something simple, change it. At minimum, your password should be 10-12 characters long, with a combination of numbers, letters and special characters. This password is no longer just designed to keep out your roommate or family members, it's going to keep the entire Internet from accessing your computer.

Change the password for your Windows user account from the Users section of the Control Panel.

Enable Remote Desktop Connections

The first thing to do is enable Remote Desktop on the machine you want to connect to. Open System Properties either by right clicking the My Computer icon in the Start menu and choosing properties or Windows Key + Pause/Break on your keyboard. Click the Remote tab in System Properties and check the box next to Allow users to connect remotely to this computer.

You can verify RDC is working by connecting from any other computer on your local network.

Configure Your Router

If your router still has the factory default password, change it. While it's unlikely anyone will find your router on the Internet, not changing the password is asking to have it hacked. A strong password of 10-16 characters is advised.

The next step in the procedure is to configure your router to allow inbound connections to Remote Desktop on your local computer. This requires mapping a port on your router to a port on your local computer. The process for forwarding a port varies depending on who made your router, but in general there are a similar series of steps. Linksys refers to the port forwarding page as Applications & Gaming, most other routers refer to port forwarding options as Virtual Servers. To forward a router port your need to configure the following details:

Application or Description field: RDC
Port Range Start: 3389
Port Range End: 3389
Protocol Type: Both (or TCP if a both option isn't available)
IP Address of your PC: Type ipconfig at the command line if you don't know this
Enable: check a box to enable the port forward

For security reasons, if you don't travel often, disable this router port when you return from your trip.

Change the Remote Desktop Listening Port

For added security of your RDC setup, you can change the default port Remote Desktop Connection listens on from the host computer. This prevents detection by anyone doing a routine scan for RDC. This is also convenient if you want to connect to more than one RDC computer remotely. For instance, I have 3 computers that never leave home. By default, RDC watches the same port on all computers, which means I'll either get a conflict of some kind or I won't be able to connect at all. An alternative is to redirect RDC traffic to each computer.

You can read more about the process in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 306759

To change the listening port, you need to modify the Windows Registry. Locate the appropriate Registry key using Regedit.exe:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber

From the Edit menu, click Modify and then click Decimal. Choose a new port number. In general, choosing a number between 49152 and 65535 will avoid conflict with any other apps on your system, but you could theoretically use any port on the system. Once you set the port number you also need to configure your router to pass the specified port to your computer.

To access your computer remotely, instead of typing just the IP address, you need to type the IP address followed by the port number like this: 192.168.1.1:50001

Test Your Connection

The real trick is you need to leave home to test your configuration, so you don't really know it works until you are in the field. You need to know the IP address provided by your ISP to make the connection (Find your IP address). Visit a local coffee shop with WiFi to test the connection. Launch the Remote Desktop Connection client from Start > All Programs > Accessories > Communications.

Enter your home IP address and cross your fingers. If all went well, you'll see the Windows Login screen.

Read Original artical here.