If you need to access VirtualBox shared folders from a Windows Server 2008 guest OS, do not use the Network entry in Windows Explorer to map a network drive, since you will not be able to view the share.
The easiest way is to load the command line in Windows Server 2008, and assuming your VirtualBox shared folder is named sharename, execute the following command to map the shared folder to drive x.
net use x: \\vboxsvr\sharename
If you need to create a new copy of a VirtualBox machine, i.e. clone the machine, do not copy the vdi files directly. If you do so, when you try to add the hard disk using the Virtual Media Manager you will get an error that an existing hard disk is already mounted.
VirtualBox stores a unique identifier UUID, similar to a GUID, within each vdi file and if it matches the UUID of an already mounted hard disk it will not allow you to add the copied hard disk.
The proper way to do this is through the command line VBoxManage utility. Strangely enough cloning functionality although available through this utility is not yet integrated into the GUI.
Anyway, before you can clone a vdi file make sure that there are no snapshots associated or if you have you need to merge all changes before you continue.
Here I show how to use the VBoxManage utility from a Linux terminal, in this case Ubuntu distro. If your host OS is Windows read Cloning and Copying VirtualBox virtual machines.
In Linux all you need to do is load the terminal, go to the location where the vdi file you want to clone is stored, and then execute the following command:
VBoxManage clonehd "original hdd.vdi" "cloned hdd.vdi"
That is all there is to it. Note that this process can take up quite some time. It all depends on the size of the vdi file you want to clone and your physical hard drive speed.
My main development machine was running on top of Windows Vista since it was pre-installed. When I bought the machine, I had neither time or willingness to switch OS.
To cut a long story short, Vista was really limiting the potential of my machine since out of the box it sucked up roughly 750MB of memory. After installing my usual tools, Vista was booting to a whopping 1GB of memory. This really limited my work since I constantly need to work with virtual machines.
So after reading some interesting information about using Windows Server 2008 as a main development machine and thinking how to go about it I finally made up my mind on the following setup.
Host OS: Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition + WICD Manager since Network Manager sucks, all of this installed in a 15GB partition along with a 5GB swap partition.
Ubuntu 9.04 uses less than 250MB after booting. Then I installed Sun’s VirtualBox 3 to create my virtual development machine. Guest OS, is Windows Server 2008 standard with some small tweaks to make it more useable as a desktop OS.
Windows Server 2008 consumes roughly 300MB after booting, leaving ample space for me to work.
With this configuration I also get all of the flexibility of virtual machines, such as cloning, suspending, using the same Ubuntu host OS machine to load any virtual machine I need, and on top of all that, never have to re-install Windows or any software if something goes wrong.
All virtual machines’ files are stored and run from an external 500GB drive, which is backed up on to another 500GB external drive. This way I am not tied to any particular machine, reducing downtime if something goes wrong. All big pluses.
At FruitfulTime we have just released a free version of our note taking software NoteKeeper. NoteKeeper really helps with keeping notes organized in one place, where they are easy to update and find.
For more information click on the following link: Free note taking software
Upgrading or installing WordPress 2.7 on certain servers will give you 404 errors if you choose to use permalinks such as day and name. This depends on the PHP settings configured.
If you are having this problem, the solution is the following. Create a php.ini file in the root folder where you installed WordPress and paste in these two lines:
magic_quotes_runtime = Off
magic_quotes_sybase = Off
Save it, try to load your blog once again and everything should be working nicely.
I guess nearly everybody from time to time wonders at the end of the day where did I spend my time today? If like me you spend most of your work time on a computer the above happens more frequently than say for manual workers.
Pretty obvious I guess. If you are a construction worker for instance, you can physically see your work so you do not need anyone or anything to track your time. This is not the case for information workers who cannot measure their work so easily.
Tracking time for information workers is even more important these days due to the internet. While the internet can be credited for simplifying, speeding up, and making possible certain business processes, on the other hand it has to be heavily penalised for millions of hours wasted each year by employees on unproductive activities such as social networking, chatting and emailing jokes.
So at FruitfulTime we designed and developed FruitfulTime ProductivityMeter a software tool that tracks your computer time automatically. FruitfulTime ProductivityMeter is FREE for personal use so you can download it now to start tracking your computer time.
A new year is just around the corner so this is the perfect time to start tracking your computer time. You can only improve what you measure and so if you want to boost your productivity you first need to track and measure the time you spend on your computer activities.
In these hard economic times, being productive and making efficient use of your time can make the difference between being employed or seeking a job.
So you, just like me, want to change your StumbleUpon account password and are experiencing frustration. You logged into your StumbleUpon account and spent a few minutes going through the available options without finding the simple option to change your password.
The simple answer is you cannot find an option if it is not there. StumbleUpon decided that it will provide all the options and settings in your online account profile except changing your password. This is ridiculous.
To change your password you need to download and install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser and then from the Tools drop-down menu choose change password. I might be wrong, but to me this seems like a marketing ploy to force users to download and install your toolbar. I for one won’t bother to download and install any toolbar.
I like the whole idea of StumbleUpon and this password changing decision goes against the grain of online communities. First of all, I do not like to load my browser with myriad toolbars, hence the Minimalist Geek, and secondly if I want to change my password while not on my personal computer and haven’t the option to install toolbars, how will I manage to change my password.
Please StumbleUpon listen to your community and let them be free to choose whether to download and install your toolbar. Add the change password option to our online profile.
Following good security practice I recently went through the process of changing my passwords. I started off this exercise by changing my ISP account password. So I went through the process, entered my strong password, and logged out to try out the new password.
Next, I tried to log on with my new password but I got an invalid account or password message. As happens to common mortals I thought, oh I must have entered the new password wrongly. So I tried again carefully typing in every symbol. Same result same frustration.
I am writing this post to save your precious time if you happen to be looking for the Management Studio of SQL Server 2008 Express Edition.
Recently I upgraded my 2005 express edition of C# to 2008. As part of the installation they include the 2008 version of SQL Server Express. I thought since the installation is upgrading my current 2005 version to the 2008 versions it will include everything I already have installed. Unfortunately, it turned out I was assuming too much from an installation.
C# 2005 and SQL Server 2005 Express editions were both upgraded to the 2008 version but the Management Studio was not. Surprisingly, or not, the 2005 management studio could not connect to the new 2008 installation. So I uninstalled it and went looking for the management studio version 2008.
As I wrote in my last blog post, I was busy working on FruitfulTime TaskManager 2.
Today I am happy to announce that after months of hard work, today we launched FruitfulTime TaskManager 2.
Time to celebrate 
Go check it out and download your own free 10 day trial from here.
Installation is only 300KB, so you can download and install in less than a minute 
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