Yes, well I have been busy. Well no, I haven't. I have been slacking off.
It's a really good thing I work for someone else, because if I were to wholly rely upon myself for creating things out of the blue, I'd be up a creek.
So far January has been repair-month. A whole lot of fixing and workarounding (well it reads better than workingaround). For the most part it's been successful.
The DC at home is barely holding together. I REALLY need to get into the research to figure out if/how to make a Linux-based domain to replace this POS W2K Advanced Server box.
Network authentication is important at home since we have a few single-use computers around, it's easier to control my son's access when we aren't home, we have 2 network file shares, and I'm just addicted to single-sign-on in general.
I'm not very motivated to do this however. I ought not wait until the DC to fail though. Setting up another domain from scratch will undoubtedly cause much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
So Long Castle Cops!
Security Board CastleCops Closes Operations - After serving the IT community for nearly seven years - Softpedia:
This is a terrible loss to the IT community and an even worse loss to thousands of PC enthusiasts who desperately needed help with crippling malware. When software developers regularly enabled and ignored the obvious security issues with their software, Castle Cops was one of VERY few legitimate places to get assistance.
Ironic that the biggest purveyor of insecure software should hire away the man whose absence led to the demise of the site.
"For hundreds of CastleCops volunteers, Christmas has not brought good news this year, as reports about their beloved website closing down have surfaced. The community behind the project directed their efforts over the years towards tracking phishing campaigns, analyzing malware, training users and offering free assistance with cleaning systems."Castle Cops was the #2 destination for me when I'm investigating security issues. Sharp folks were there and very good advice was given constantly.
This is a terrible loss to the IT community and an even worse loss to thousands of PC enthusiasts who desperately needed help with crippling malware. When software developers regularly enabled and ignored the obvious security issues with their software, Castle Cops was one of VERY few legitimate places to get assistance.
Ironic that the biggest purveyor of insecure software should hire away the man whose absence led to the demise of the site.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
I know just enough to make things take too long.
I decided it'd be cool to make my computer as complicated as possible.
Well if I'm going to be supporting people again I need to really get comfy in Vista. What better way than to start using it at home.
Of course that means either wiping my XP partition or...
Resizing my XP partition so I can triple boot between Ubuntu, XP and Vista. Needless to say, it's been an undertaking.
Unbeknown to me, repartitioning caused my partition numbering scheme to change. And of course any Windows OS means the MBR gets rewritten, thus hosing my boot loader.
Long story short; here's what I SHOULD have done.
Once Vista was installed, boot to the Ubuntu Live CD. Drop to terminal, and do the following:
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
(that should tell you the new arrangement of your partitions, take notes of where things are!)
root (hd?,?)
(where ?,? is the partition of the Linux kernels)
setup (hd0)
quit
Then create a mount point, since I need to edit the Grub menu.lst
sudo mkdir /mnt/grubedit
mount /dev/sda2 (or whatever drive has your root partition) /mnt/grubedit
sudo gedit /mnt/grubedit/boot/grub/menu.lst
Now edit the bootload sections appropriately.
/happy
ONE more thing.
[gripe]
When selecting your time zone in the initial Ubuntu setup, just because you are close to Vancouver, BC Canada does not mean you should choose it. If you do, Ubuntu gets it in it's head you are IN Canada and all your file repository mirrors are setup for slowass Canadian servers (no offense, they're slow because of some latency-inducing NSA file scanning I'm sure). Choose LA, my West coast friends.
[/gripe]
Well if I'm going to be supporting people again I need to really get comfy in Vista. What better way than to start using it at home.
Of course that means either wiping my XP partition or...
Resizing my XP partition so I can triple boot between Ubuntu, XP and Vista. Needless to say, it's been an undertaking.
Unbeknown to me, repartitioning caused my partition numbering scheme to change. And of course any Windows OS means the MBR gets rewritten, thus hosing my boot loader.
Long story short; here's what I SHOULD have done.
Once Vista was installed, boot to the Ubuntu Live CD. Drop to terminal, and do the following:
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
(that should tell you the new arrangement of your partitions, take notes of where things are!)
root (hd?,?)
(where ?,? is the partition of the Linux kernels)
setup (hd0)
quit
Then create a mount point, since I need to edit the Grub menu.lst
sudo mkdir /mnt/grubedit
mount /dev/sda2 (or whatever drive has your root partition) /mnt/grubedit
sudo gedit /mnt/grubedit/boot/grub/menu.lst
Now edit the bootload sections appropriately.
/happy
ONE more thing.
[gripe]
When selecting your time zone in the initial Ubuntu setup, just because you are close to Vancouver, BC Canada does not mean you should choose it. If you do, Ubuntu gets it in it's head you are IN Canada and all your file repository mirrors are setup for slowass Canadian servers (no offense, they're slow because of some latency-inducing NSA file scanning I'm sure). Choose LA, my West coast friends.
[/gripe]
Friday, November 14, 2008
Windows XP, Vista, Seven.... What to do?
Brien Posey is one of my favorite authors and I will go out of my way to read his articles.
Not necessarily because I agree with him, but rather because he's not a Microsoft stooge. If M$ is wrong, he won't try and gloss it over. That earns my respect.
I caught his article on "Windows XP is Here to Stay (at least for now)", and of course I don't agree with his XP/Vista comparison for small businesses or home users. I think only well-funded large corporate IT departments can deploy Vista with the best chance of success from a productivity standpoint.
Everyone else is going to come out worse for the wear. Not only in terms of productivity, but in dollars lost through training, support or 3rd party replacement tools.
My unposted comment (since the Linux & M$ fanatics tend to romp right on top of these kinds of comments) went something like this:
I do agree with one point of Brien's. If you have XP, don't feel compelled to move on to Vista. The more time spent studying your current productivity the more sense one choice or another makes for you.
All that glitters (or is Web 2.0ish) ain't gold!
Not necessarily because I agree with him, but rather because he's not a Microsoft stooge. If M$ is wrong, he won't try and gloss it over. That earns my respect.
I caught his article on "Windows XP is Here to Stay (at least for now)", and of course I don't agree with his XP/Vista comparison for small businesses or home users. I think only well-funded large corporate IT departments can deploy Vista with the best chance of success from a productivity standpoint.
Everyone else is going to come out worse for the wear. Not only in terms of productivity, but in dollars lost through training, support or 3rd party replacement tools.
My unposted comment (since the Linux & M$ fanatics tend to romp right on top of these kinds of comments) went something like this:
The questions I'm getting from small businesses faced with new purchases is not only advice on Vista but from a workstation perspective; Office 2007. 2007 is the only currently-selling Office Suite from Microsoft today.
The two create a perfect storm of computer user learning curve in a time when productivity maximization is critical.
Linux + Open Office during this economic downturn is a very viable alternative when you consider the compatibility with the MS Office suite, the learning curve in either product (and it's arguable that 2007's is more steep than OO on the UI alone), and the most critical aspect facing everyone today: Price.
I do agree with one point of Brien's. If you have XP, don't feel compelled to move on to Vista. The more time spent studying your current productivity the more sense one choice or another makes for you.
All that glitters (or is Web 2.0ish) ain't gold!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Putting out my shingle again!
What better day to restart a small business than election day?!
I didn't really think about that. Maybe there's just too much optimism and hope in the air, I don't know, but River's Edge Enterprises is back.
REE is the business name I chose years and years ago to be the umbrella name of all the crazy crap I like to do and hope to get paid for it.
Presently, REE is all about computer consulting and repair again. The focus being in providing a great value to small business and home computer users. The value not only being my 17+ years of experience, but also in someone who knows how to translate geek-speak into something just about anyone can understand.
I'm just advertising in Craigslist for the moment, since I'm just going to do this part time (evenings and weekends).
I didn't really think about that. Maybe there's just too much optimism and hope in the air, I don't know, but River's Edge Enterprises is back.
REE is the business name I chose years and years ago to be the umbrella name of all the crazy crap I like to do and hope to get paid for it.
Presently, REE is all about computer consulting and repair again. The focus being in providing a great value to small business and home computer users. The value not only being my 17+ years of experience, but also in someone who knows how to translate geek-speak into something just about anyone can understand.
I'm just advertising in Craigslist for the moment, since I'm just going to do this part time (evenings and weekends).
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
One element I don't see in the Linux/Windows Debate
One thing I have noticed that is missing from the Linux & Windows discussions today is about the most important compatibility of all, and that's human compatibility.
Time and time again, Microsoft product versions have become more difficult to adapt to. There's always a learning curve with every new release. This curve belies some serious dollars in productivity and to our small businesses today; every dollar is critical.
Let's look at the last 3 years or so and imagine the dramatic impacts of this on business.
First of all, Exchange Server 2007 (to include Outlook 2007) is a significant departure in the standard for the Exchange line. Where once we had GUI interfaces to do the management of critical business functions, we now had to learn a whole new cryptic system for making these changes in a command shell.
Outlook 2003 was enough of a departure from the status quo, taking the always-present and highly-configurable Outlook Bar away and hiding it behind everything and calling it Shortcuts. I won't even go into how many gripes I've heard about the default grouping for message display.
Microsoft Office 2007 brought another dramatic change, which left users bewildered and I daresay on the precipice of madness. In fact I know of at least two small businesses that felt the investment in the software THEY ALREADY MADE IN 2007 did not justify the crippling blow to productivity that deploying it would cause. They trusted Microsoft enough to buy the software, but when they saw it in pre-deployment testing, they pulled the plug on the project.
Vista... Ok I'll let that horse rest in peace.
Ok so what has the Open Source community been doing?
They are making window managers more compatible with how people are USED to working.
Operating system installers have not only achieved ease-of-install parity with Windows XP, but in Ubuntu's case it's been surpassed.
Even office productivity suites like Open Office have been working hard to become fully compatible with Microsoft Office; and can with near transparency, work with MS Office software without losing a beat.
Microsoft has made great strides in trying to get people to BUY and adapt to their products, while the Open Source community is succeeding in adapting the FREE products to the people who use them.
The announcement of Windows 7 and other upcoming Microsoft products indicates that is a trend not likely to change anytime soon, but Open Source has some fantastic momentum and in an economic downturn; a great opportunity.
Time and time again, Microsoft product versions have become more difficult to adapt to. There's always a learning curve with every new release. This curve belies some serious dollars in productivity and to our small businesses today; every dollar is critical.
Let's look at the last 3 years or so and imagine the dramatic impacts of this on business.
First of all, Exchange Server 2007 (to include Outlook 2007) is a significant departure in the standard for the Exchange line. Where once we had GUI interfaces to do the management of critical business functions, we now had to learn a whole new cryptic system for making these changes in a command shell.
Outlook 2003 was enough of a departure from the status quo, taking the always-present and highly-configurable Outlook Bar away and hiding it behind everything and calling it Shortcuts. I won't even go into how many gripes I've heard about the default grouping for message display.
Microsoft Office 2007 brought another dramatic change, which left users bewildered and I daresay on the precipice of madness. In fact I know of at least two small businesses that felt the investment in the software THEY ALREADY MADE IN 2007 did not justify the crippling blow to productivity that deploying it would cause. They trusted Microsoft enough to buy the software, but when they saw it in pre-deployment testing, they pulled the plug on the project.
Vista... Ok I'll let that horse rest in peace.
Ok so what has the Open Source community been doing?
They are making window managers more compatible with how people are USED to working.
Operating system installers have not only achieved ease-of-install parity with Windows XP, but in Ubuntu's case it's been surpassed.
Even office productivity suites like Open Office have been working hard to become fully compatible with Microsoft Office; and can with near transparency, work with MS Office software without losing a beat.
Microsoft has made great strides in trying to get people to BUY and adapt to their products, while the Open Source community is succeeding in adapting the FREE products to the people who use them.
The announcement of Windows 7 and other upcoming Microsoft products indicates that is a trend not likely to change anytime soon, but Open Source has some fantastic momentum and in an economic downturn; a great opportunity.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Website update
It's been WAYYY overdue, but I have finally done a complete refresh on the old River's Edge website.
I've been known to do my HTML in Notepad, and I'm not averse to it, but there is something about using a fairly decent editor that makes you spend a little more time being creative and a little less time trying to remember what tag does horizontal lines.
Anywho, if you haven't been there, I invite you to my server room located behind www.riversedge.cc
I've been known to do my HTML in Notepad, and I'm not averse to it, but there is something about using a fairly decent editor that makes you spend a little more time being creative and a little less time trying to remember what tag does horizontal lines.
Anywho, if you haven't been there, I invite you to my server room located behind www.riversedge.cc
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