Get serial number for PC/Server

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If you need to get the serial number of a workstation or a server, then this command may be of use to you (not this will likely not work on homebuild systems, but systems like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer etc. should work fine) ; 
wmic bios get serialnumber
Type it in a command window like this;


WMIC csproduct get name
will get you the product name/model number of the pc (very useful when applying Driver Packs via SCCM with a WMI scope on it, this is the exact model number SCCM-WMI will also get).
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DSLR Nikon D3100

So this summer led to the way to early death of my compact Canon Ixus 860 camera 🙁  the screen got a bang and that was that 🙁  and of cause this model does NOT have any manual view finder….  so what to do, buy a new compact or go DSLR?  I went for option No2 – buy a new ‘expensive’ DSLR 😀  much encouraged by seeing that EVERYONE I met during my vacation in Rome Italy had a DSLR..

The choice ended up between Nikon D3000, D3100 and Canon EOD 1100, 550D.  I read review after review and eventually ended up with 2 models Nikon D3100 vs Canon 550D, after seeing the review http://youtu.be/WGZwk9YgeKg and seeing that the Nikon D3100 was approx 260,- us$ cheaper I ended up buying the Nikon..  one thing I really miss on the Nikon though is the mic-in, it would be cool for video recording to have an external mic.

I am optimistic though, it looks like a quite decent camera – now I just have to get used to having this large thing to carry around with me :-/

http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Nikon_D3100/video_review.shtml

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Clever IR controlled smoke alarm

Anyone should have a smoke alarm installed, I actually have 5 in my apartment. However we may all have tried placing one too near the kitchen and thus having it triggered by some “heavy doing cooking” :-/ real annoying.

Well someone has actually addressed this issue (First Alert Dual Sensor Smoke Alarm) and created a clever hybrid of the standard smoke detector, if the alarm is triggered then all you need to do is to grab ANY ir remote control point it at the smoke alarm and press any key, immediately this will silence the smoke alarm, thus it does not matter that the smoke alarm is in a very high-difficult-to-reach place.. how sweet is that 😀 you can even ‘ask’ the smoke alarm how the battery status is via an IR remote as well. Real cool I’d say 🙂

I just did a quick search and you can get it here (among other places likely);
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10035210

Video demo;
http://youtu.be/cQc5pOTGm_c

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