Watch the demos shown during the Google I/O 2010 Keynote Speech (day 2) below:

This error can be triggered by many different things, but in general they’re all related to something to do with power management.

I just went through three motherboards, different VGA cards and harddisks, basically changing out everything except for the CPU, only to eventually find that the computer crashes were triggered by Windows 7 trying to manage the power state on my Intel Core i5 750 CPU. As soon as I disabled all C-States, it stopped crashing.

I found out about this workaround from the Technet forum threads “Periodic server core BSOD/Reboot, need help with bugcheck report” and “Iam having Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power crashes“.

The problem with this workaround, is that the new CPUs are supposed to save you energy by enabling the latest operating systems such as Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 to manage them more effeciently. By disabling all of the C-States, you’re basically forcing the CPU to run at full steam. This is most severe if you’ve invested in the latest Xeon processors mainly because of these features, as mentioned somewhere further down in the first forum thread I linked to.

If this is a fault with the new Windows core, I really hope Microsoft comes out with a hotfix soon. It cost me a lot of time and frustration to find the source of – and workaround to – the problem.

Sadly, the news were too good to be true. The latest Intel driver was incorrectly reported ^{(techPowerUp!)} to enable TRIM for SSDs in all RAID modes except for RAID5. However, this was bogus information from Intel. The correction came shortly thereafter, that support is ONLY for single disks and not while in RAID arrays.

Intel X25-V SSD - Still not getting its daily TRIM

The truth is that the new driver allows single disks that are connected while running the storage controller in RAID mode to receive the TRIM command.

It seems passing the TRIM command to SSDs in a RAID array is not a simple case with current chipsets and drivers.

The recommended workaround:
Yes, there’s actually a workaround! Just leave some 15-20% free, unformatted, unallocated space when formatting your RAID array of SSDs, seen as a single disk during OS install. The SSD controller will use this as “scratch space”. Also, do note that the much talked about performance loss over time that occurs with SSDs – is much less of an issue when in a RAID.

But what if I already formatted and used my drives?
No worries! You can still perform a Secure Erase ^{(ata.wiki.kernel.org)} to bring them back to basics. The same procedure can also be performed every 1-2 years if you experience noticeable loss of performance. But by then, maybe they will have conjured up some magical new drivers? Only time will tell …

Oh, almost forgot; for those “I run my single disk SSDs while in RAID mode” kind of guys:

Click here to get the latest Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Driver for Intel Desktop Boards.
Select your OS, then “Driver”.

Just open the Woobius Eye website, hit “invite” for a link that you send to your friend(s) via instant message or e-mail.

You can upload images from your computer or an image search on the web, then draw on it while discussing options.

Another great thing about Woobius Eye is that it’s free to use and does not require you to register for an account.

Check out the video demo from YouTube, below:

If you get an error about “service not running” when using one of these commands on a server, you may simply need to reboot it, for example after a name change. This could also generate “untrusted domain” errors when connecting to SQL or similar services running on the server that rely on Windows Authentication to grant remote access from applications.

Commands to update DNS for any computer running Windows:
Open a Command Prompt (Run -> CMD or Start -> Programs -> Accessories. Right-click and select “Run as Administrator” if you experience problems).

ipconfig /displaydns
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns

Commands for administration of a DNS server:
These mostly rely on the Resource Kit command line tool for DNS server administrators, known as DNSCMD.exe.
Right click the shortcut to Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator” before using DNSCMD.exe.

Tip: Add DNSCMD.exe to the System32 folder to be able to run it from any root in any command prompt window.

Credits to the source of this excellent list:
Mark’s Windows 2008 DNS Server Command Line Cheat Sheet.

Now might be the time. App-V now supports 64-bit!

Check out the App-V 4.6 Release Q & A (Springboard series blog).

Another recommended reading is the Lazy Admin blog post about real world experiences with App-V.

Vice president of Microsoft and currently leading the Windows Phone team, Joe Belfiore is the man responsible for the user interfaces of Windows 95, XP and recently known for his work on the Zune platform. Today he revealed a change in the Windows Mobile platform with Windows Phone 7. Applications will be more tightly knit together than ever before, instead of living in their own little islands on the phone. In other words; less like a PC and more like a phone that actually can intermix information between different channels and applications. For instance, pictures and contacts integration with Facebook is only a touch away.

The feature low-down:

• 4-point touch screen functionality in the hardware is required for standard operation
• Simplified: A revamped start button leads to the Tile menu, which has a search function and a back-button
• Limiting UI-customization to the built-in options available in the OS itself
• No Adobe Flash support built-in, but Steve Ballmer was clear that they don’t mind Adobe at all – a kick towards Apple’s recent anti-Flash outbursts
• Release before Christmas is guaranteed

So, let’s bench up for Christmas and hope they can impress us this time around, after the very disappointing Mobile 6.5.

Thunderbird <3 Exchange

EZUNIX.org has provided a nice guide for those of us that would like to use the Thunderbird mail client with the notoriously incompatible Exchange 2007 Server.

The guide is even available as a downloadable PDF document.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that Thunderbird 3 now comes with calendar support!

Currently a lof of features are still on the design board, and more soon to be implemented. Meanwhile, Google is steadily sending out more invites to people who signed up to test the service while in development. I have just received access myself, and invited some friends to join me.

Here’s an official video that attempts to explain more about waving and what this service will attempt to accomplish for people: