built a notepad++ (probably one of the best gui text editors out there) bundle in ZCM. notepad++ is packaged with NSIS and the silent install switch is /S. tested the deployment a few times, works well.

a schlage access control panel has been non-functioning for a few weeks now. tech support was positive it was a IT networking issue. pretty much debunked that being a possibility. the contractor tried several different NIC modules (that are sort of like daughter cards to the main panel). one module partially worked then stopped functioning, none of the other ones came close to working. despite that, the tech support was still trying to rule out that the main panel might need replaced…today the panel was replaced and everything is working fine.

helped shawn mess around with a linux bootcd to alter a windows partition. chose mandriva one 2008. i was fairly impressed that upon default boot it auto-mounted the windows partition with (i’m fairly sure) read & write access using the ntfs-3g driver.

other than that i was checking out slashdot and was disappointed by a pointless fork of pidgin (which i’ve been using since it was like gaim 0.xx). i think it’s always a great option with open source software that you can fork projects. after all, more options are good. some good examples: xfree86 > x.org, mambo > joomla, ethereal > wireshark (sort of), sodipodi > inkscape, and so on. sometimes there’s very good reasons for making a split…in this case there doesn’t appear to be one. so basically a bunch of talented developers are splitting their efforts when they could do more good working together.