If you head over to HomeServerLand.com you can be the first to try out new betas from Kentdome such as GirdBurn (a DVD/CD burning addin) places are limited so sign up fast. Also there are more things to do over at HomeServerLand such as a great forum and prizes to win every so often.

We are happy to announce the availability of limited Kentdome beta slots.

The Kentdome Beta Program is valuable because “real world” users (you) may find bugs that are difficult or impossible to locate in a development environment. Furthermore, it creates a way to contribute directly with a lot of hands on: help improve existing or add new product features and be a key player when we create new add-ins from scratch!

What does that mean? It means that this is not the usual shout-out for some brave souls to passively download software; instead we are looking for a limited number of active individuals (max 10 people) who are excited about the program and are willing to provide useful feedback and participation throughout the entire period. Technical expertise is not a requirement to participate in the beta program and there are some perks to entice you.

Admission to the Kentdome beta group will be based on correlation to our beta requirements.

How to make the cut? Simple – leave a comment below with your WHS hardware configuration and please answer:

Does your WHS have an internal or external CD/DVD burner?
Does your WHS have an internal or external POTS or VoIP telephony device?
Do you have a UPS? (Make, model #, interface (USB, RS232))
Why do you want to participate?
Thank you

Currently if you accessing this site from any ISP within the UK (UK IP address) then it will be blocked or timed out this is due to the IWF listing the shared server/ip address where this site is hosted on as “illegal” such as:-
* Child sexual abuse content* hosted anywhere in the world
* Criminally obscene images hosted in the UK
* Incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK
Source: http://www.iwf.org.uk/police/page.22.htm

If you can please use a proxy until either my host or I can get this block lifted from our domain.

The IWF may have found “illegal” files on another account(s) and put the block on the server. I am sure that my web host has already took action against the user(s). Hopefully the block will be lefted in due course (am hoping within the next day – if not it could be next week sometime).

UPDATE: it appears to just be some ISP and I have email IWF and they said that geekpill.co.uk was not on any list.
So sorry goes to IWF for me blaming them, when it was issues with ISPs within the UK.

One thing that I really hate is buying a DVD then have to sit and watch the warnings how downloading movies and TV shows is stealing and how stealing is against the law.  And you would think to yourself, “Hello I bought the DVD, I have not interest in download when its better on DVD and the fact that I have no interest in breaking the law’.

They are telling you off for doing the right thing like some people do in real life.  Telling you that there should be more people in and yet they tell this to the same people that come into the place day in day out.

This way of doing things gets peoples backs up.  I know I bought the DVDs to watch the show/film not to sit and get told that downloading films/shows is illegally.

Example of the crap you have to watch (yes you can skip it in some cases but you get a place that you cant skip [the contact details of the FACT, UK]).

Then might as well have the IT Crowd version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg

Someone has created a parody of it:

I was not alive 40 years ago when the Americans humans landed on the moon, but I am a geek that loves space.

Carina Software is giving away “free” astronomy apps (well one cent/ one pence – for the admin side of things).  This offer is just available today (20th July 2009) and is only for the download only versions of the products.  Go to http://www.carinasoft.com/products/index.html for more information and to “buy” the product.

So to those that died during the Apollo missions and those that landed on the moon and returned safely to Earth, you made it possible for this planet to have its first steps into space and the technology that has been created because of Apollo has changed so many peoples lifes.

If you want the backup to be better then you could buy a Drobo and install as much or as little storage as you wish.  To get this working and to have the abililty to upgrade the storage without the problems of USB, you need to use the network abilitiy.  This means that your WHS must have two Network cards, and your Drobo must have the Droboshare if your Drobo is not the DroboPro.

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If you have some idea what to do with starting your own site up using Wordpress for example and have done the config of MySQL databases the hard way and really want an easier option.  Well good news because the makers of MySQL has released the MySQL GUI Tools that you can get from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/gui-tools/5.0.html.  The possible of using this over phpMyAdmin is that the person need to be on the “desktop” of the server to edit and config the mySQL service.  Which is always a good point to have but then there are some that will complain about this ‘having to log onto the server desktop to create a new user and database”.  I would alway pick more time to do a job rather then more risk of attack to a system/network.

I have not yet tested this on my WHS as I have been busy, but hopefully when I have time I will post how to guide with lots of nice screenshots.

IF you are just starting off with your WHS or have been using it since it was released then you need to know about securing the WHS and the Network it sits on.  Well Chuck over at Homeserverland.com (HSL) has been doing a series on how to secure the WHS and network.  Just to warn you that the first few parts are to give background of security and it will allow you to better understand the rest of the series.  The Series is usually released every Sunday.

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If you have a WHS and have a lot of CD’s and DVD’s then AVA Media is one add in product that you could use, it is a paid option but with the paid option you don’t have to jump through hops to unlock features with the MyMovies which is what AVA is a modified version of.  I done some calculating and if you donate to the creator of MyMovies you would pay the same or a bit more then AVA Media.

If you wish to have a read of the review head over to http://www.homeserverland.com/blogs/hslblog/archive/2009/04/28/ava-media-v1-5-0-1-add-in-evaluation.aspx.

I will upload my review of AVA Media soon.

Kentdome has a new WHS addin in the works currently it is in Alpha build and members of HomeServerLand may request to test it.  It is called Grid BURN and it allows you when you have a CD/DVD RW drive to burn CD’s and DVD’s of folders on your WHS.

Media that it supports CD/DVD/HD-DVD and Blue-Ray

For more information on it check http://www.homeserverland.com/forums/t/326.aspx out.

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Home Server land is a somewhat new community and is growing all the time, at the time of posting they have 4578 members, from all over the world.  It is friendly and you can ask any question in relation to the WHS.

There are advantages on signing up to HSL the chance to Alpha and Beta test new WHS addins and software that Kentdome has created.

Head over now to www.homeserverland.com and sign up.