https://chrisalley.com Chris Alley - Engineering, Infrastructure, Hardware Hacks & Technology Archive en-us Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:04:47 GMT https://chrisalley.com/posts/never-assume-no-one-reads-your-comments/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/never-assume-no-one-reads-your-comments/ Thu, 02 Oct 2014 12:00:00 GMT So, a few years back a client of mine was very excited about their recent uptick in web traffic, though it wasn’t very clear why. The client had just finished a... https://chrisalley.com/posts/the-day-we-fight-back/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/the-day-we-fight-back/ Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:00:00 GMT Regardless what you think of Edward Snowden, his actions illustrate one thing clearly: The data collected by the NSA is rife with potential for abuse. No matter... https://chrisalley.com/posts/the-bieber-algorithm/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/the-bieber-algorithm/ Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT So I had to reverse engineer some software we use at the office the other day. It uses a hash to store its current users in a table, and we needed a way to moni... https://chrisalley.com/posts/equallogic-cmd-lin/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/equallogic-cmd-lin/ Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:00:00 GMT Well, we had another failure late last month. The rebuild went fine… and quickly since I had another disk on hand. That disk was supposed to be replace the othe... https://chrisalley.com/posts/equallogic-with-a-questionable-drive/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/equallogic-with-a-questionable-drive/ Sat, 02 Feb 2013 12:00:00 GMT Well… last month we had one drive completely fail, which is what these arrays are supposed to protect against. However, when this happened, there were enough ba... https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/ps6100-semi-catastrophic-failure/ https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/ps6100-semi-catastrophic-failure/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT A drive failed, at 4:00 on a Friday (2 weeks ago)… Then at about 11 that night, the rebuild failed. I thought it was the end of the world; especially since we’r... https://chrisalley.com/projects/arduino/ https://chrisalley.com/projects/arduino/ Sun, 13 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT If anyone was wondering where I disappeared to for the last few days… I got an Arduino for christmas. This web based thermometer was an easy start, but I need s... https://chrisalley.com/posts/phone-system-error/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/phone-system-error/ Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT I honestly dont know what this error message is trying to tell me. Maybe it makes sense if you translate it to chinese. https://chrisalley.com/wtf/craigslist-1-hour-later/ https://chrisalley.com/wtf/craigslist-1-hour-later/ Sun, 25 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT So I got my first response from CraigsList less than an hour after I listed it… Hey, is your car still for sale? Yes, the car I listed at midnight on Saturday i... https://chrisalley.com/posts/lambo-tires/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/lambo-tires/ Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:00:00 GMT Whats wrong with this picture? For some reason, Walmart is out of stock on 335/30R18 tires. Isn’t that where all Lamborghini owners get their tires? https://chrisalley.com/posts/gcm-computers/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/gcm-computers/ Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:00:00 GMT MeetNWA interviews my old boss, Gary McLendon. I think GCM Computers is the best computer service center in Northwest Arkansas, but I may be biased since I work... https://chrisalley.com/wtf/protection-fail/ https://chrisalley.com/wtf/protection-fail/ Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:00:00 GMT I’ve recommended that my client replace this on several occasions over the last few years. But it hasn’t quite sunk in. It says it’s still “protected”, right? I... https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/ms-nixes-the-windows-installer-cleanup-utility/ https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/ms-nixes-the-windows-installer-cleanup-utility/ Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:00:00 GMT If you’ve ever seen the error: “The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable”, you’ve probably had to use the Windows Installe... https://chrisalley.com/posts/ios-4-is-here-well-almost/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/ios-4-is-here-well-almost/ Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:00:00 GMT iOS 4.0 is here… well almost. I managed to get the iOS 4 update going right after noon today. However, I had to go to lunch a hour later, and it hadnt shown any... https://chrisalley.com/posts/antivirus-false-positive-problems/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/antivirus-false-positive-problems/ Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:00:00 GMT My biggest gripe for all Anti-Virus solutions is the amount of false positives. One recent incident I posted about prompted me to completely change AV products.... https://chrisalley.com/posts/i-dont-want-to-jailbreak-my-iphone/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/i-dont-want-to-jailbreak-my-iphone/ Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT I’m catching a lot of flack from my iPhone enabled coworkers for not jailbreaking my phone. I’ve had my 3G for almost a year now, and I’ve been tempted many tim... https://chrisalley.com/posts/vb-formatbytes/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/vb-formatbytes/ Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT Quick function to format bytes in Excel / VBA into human-readable strings. Function FormatBytes(bytes As Double, Optional places As Integer = 0) As String If by... https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/delete-old-iis-logs/ https://chrisalley.com/tech-support/delete-old-iis-logs/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT I did some digging for a quick script to delete old IIS logs for a web host that uses IIS. Yes, there are some web hosts that use IIS… but not too many that STI... https://chrisalley.com/posts/whats-wrong-with-this-ad/ https://chrisalley.com/posts/whats-wrong-with-this-ad/ Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:00:00 GMT Home Subscribe to RSS Feed What’s wrong with this ad? I just saw this ad on LinkedIn… notice anything odd about it? Yes, thats a MacBook… though they fixed it w... https://chrisalley.com/projects/wiring-fail/ https://chrisalley.com/projects/wiring-fail/ Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT Another wonderful surprise as we progress with our closet project. Who needs wire caps, insulation or electrical tape? Not our house’s previous owner… He just s...