A recently released update KB 973917 from Microsoft that relates to the “Extended Protection for Authentication” Architecture first added in KB 968389 is causing issues with some Win2003SP2 servers. If the installation of Service Pack 2 on the server did not complete entirely, then some IIS related DLL files were never updated properly. These older DLL’s were never an issue until now, and there was no obvious way of knowing that the SP2 install didn’t completely successfully. Fortunately a resolution has been found for the application pool stopping… reinstall Service Pack 2.
Starting early in the morning the latest update for Avast has been tagging .exe files as a rather old trojan.
Of course the easiest thing to do is panic! Unfortunately in this case practically everything is being tagged with “Win32:Delf-MZG [Trj]“. This was brought to my attention when someone tried to run Rosetta Stone. After ignoring the first warning, this was brought up again when trying to run the updater for Rosetta Stone.
A quick search on the web found that multiple users are having trouble with this. The issues seem to stem from VPS version 091203-0 downloaded 12/03/2009. This VPS version is affecting at least the home version and the professional version.
There is an updated VPS version 091203-1 that has been released which will correct this issue. Please update your Avast by Right-clicking the “A” icon in your system tray, go to Update and select “iAVS Update” You should see a summary screen similar to this that indicates you are updated.
It is an unavoidable trught: The iphone has become a status symbol of smart phones. Other phones try to compete with it, 75,000 applications exist for it, and iphone owners are fanatical about them. I just don’t understand at all what is so fantastic about them. What do they do that other phones don’t? What can’t they to? I have a lot of animosity towards owners and defenders of iphones, as they can’t clearly tell me what is better about them, instead of a different device.
Since I’m not an iphone user I will point out the things I find great about it, and the things I find less than great. This article in no way claims to be unbiased, but I am trying to not be such a hater.
What makes the iphone great:
Large 3.5″ screen. Damn nice screen.
Fast. Where everyone says the inability to run multiple apps suck, I disagree as that is how the iphone keeps running so damn fast. If the other OSes ran a single app, they would be just as responsive.
Consumers get it. This is great to see technology in the hands of many.
What I dislike:
You have to use iTunes to work with it.
You can’t tether it.
No RDP
No SD card slot
Proprietary USB cord
No physical keyboard
Unremovable battery
None of these items make the device a show stopper for most people. So why can’t I just let it go that more and more peole are popping up with iphones? I feel rather like a Linux administrator trying to tell all the windows users that there is a better alternative.
I really hope someone can give me some concrete examples of why I should think the iphone is so great. I would also really like to finid out more information on what the iphone doesn’t do. I have seen the Droid commercials and also read the critiques of how inaccurate they are. So what doesn’t the iphone do? A few months ago it wouldn’t show you free/busy information from an Exchange server. They fixed that now so I can’t point that out as a shortcoming. As I find more and more things that I dislike about the iphone, and hopefully more and more things I do like about it, I will add it. If nothing else so there is at least a list in one place instead of having to surf a dozen different sites.
For several hours I’ve been trying to retrace my steps on how I managed to break our Operations manager 2007 email notifications. For 2 days now alerts are being triggered and our server’s health states are being updated, but no email was getting out.
I checked the message tracking logs on Exchange and nothing was ever leaving the OpsMgr server. I tried to telnet to the smtp server and that worked. I checked the logs and there was an innocuous message about the “Instant Notification” settings I were using, and how it was causing a notification workflow. The app log message looked like this:
Event Type: Error Event Source: HealthService
Event Category: Health Service
Event ID: 4509
Date: 10/8/2009
Time: 9:38:07 AM
User: N/A
Computer: OPS-RMS
Description: The constructor for the managed module type “Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.HealthService.Modules.Notification.Sip.SipNotificationTransportModule” threw an exception. This module was running in rule “Subscriptiond2e36701_7544_4b03_9c18_811f5d34a5fd” running for instance “Alert Notification Subscription Server” with id:”{E07E3FAB-53BC-BC14-1634-5A6E949F9230}” in management group “GROUP”.
The exception text is: Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.HealthService.ModuleException: The specified Uri : (sip:email@im.vanity.com/home) has one or more invalid elements. A valid sip uri should be of the format sip:user@host. Parameter name: uri —> System.ArgumentException: The specified Uri : (sip:email@im.vanity.com/home) has one or more invalid elements. A valid sip uri should be of the format sip:user@host.
(insert lenghty description of lots of things going crunch)
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
So I decided it was important to revisit my IM settings, since I knew that was what I was working on the day notifications had stopped. And there it was glaring at me in the face. the last thing I changed was added “/home” to the “Return Address” under the notification settings.
Once I removed that I proceeded to get 2 days worth of back-logged alerts. It is interesting to note that an error with the IM notification workflow actually affected the Email notification also.
I’m just happy I found it and fixed it. In case anyone ever sees the Event ID 4509 on your RMS, I would suggest visiting your notification settings.
For the last week I’ve been backing up data on my DNS-323 for the sole purpose of updating the firmware. It’s important to have a backup just in case the device takes the RAID set with it like it did a few revisions ago. I have had luck over the last 2 firmware updates where that wasn’t the case, but better safe than sorry.
Since the NAS is brimming with bits and has barely enough space to hold a text file this process took several hours of my time. Mostly due to the maximum length allowed for FAT32 filenames on my destination drive. Not Dlink’s fault in any way. Neither is the unfortunately slow 1gbps connection which could have been faster.
The entire reason for my upgrade was to enable the use of TLS/SSL for ftp purposes. I have a DNS-323 in another state where the ability to backup using the scheduled FTP client in the appliance would be really useful so no additional client would be necessary. 2 of the units with scheduled backups going to each other in separate states would give me that great big feeling of DR. Unfortunately after several more hours of not only reading, but attempting various tweaks to the gamut of FTP clients I could find (including the cmdline) it turns out that the advertised TLS/SSL support doesn’t actually work past a firewall. Maybe a little more into the RFC of secure FTP than I know, but apparently it has to do with the use of a range of ports used to transfer data aside from the statically configured port in the DNS-323 interface. What does that mean for me and maybe a dozen other geeks who are speaking out? It means it doesn’t work as expected. The directory listing never comes through and nothing ever happens. Pretty much makes my entire morning and several hours of my week useless. I finally have something to write about so at least it’s not a total waste.
If this feature hadn’t been advertised I’m sure I would have eventually added the firmware anyway for other fixes. Dlink is still advertising that the new firmware supports TLS/SSL but isn’t changing it to say “may not always work.” It’s too bad that my disappointment happened instead Dlink’s success in making a customer happy. Every time a company puts a product on the marketplace they have an opportunity to create a very pleased customer. This is no different with firmware and updates. Dlink had a great opportunity to expand and improve an already fantastic product. Instead they pulled off a half-hearted attempt at doing what they could without regard to how this might make customers feel. Perhaps it is viewed from the naive perspective that I have already paid and therefore Dlink doesn’t have to continually impress or make me happy.
Unfortunately in the world of marketing it is incredibly important to keep the customers you already have happy. Eighty-percent of a company’s business comes from twenty-percent of its customers right? So perhaps keeping the customers they already have happy would have been a good strategy for Dlink. It is too late for that as I’m willing to forgive to an extent the fact that you “can’t please all the people all the time.” Dlink’s continued advertising of a feature that’s doesn’t actually work can easily be taken as false advertising. It is too bad for Dlink that they are driving future purchases away from their products simply by an extremely disappointing history with another of their products. Should the new firmware update come out in a timely fashion that clarifies the issue and resolves it, Dlink will at least save face, but the hope for me recommending another Dlink purchase has become very unlikely.
If a product says it will do a thing, then it *must* do that thing, otherwise a company is selling nothing besides temporary junk and future-disenchantment.
Any one who knows me farily well, knows that I spent the majority of my youth shut indoors with my face glued to a TV that no doubt had some Nintendo game playing on it.
I just found http://www.virtualnes.com and browsed the lists of games they have. I recognized over a dozen that I’m sure I spent the better part of a week playing each one.
I think the only thing keeping me from playing them now is I get motion sick just watching the antiquated graphics flash by too quickly.
What a way to bring back memories. I’m going to go watch District 9, Cloverfield, ride a boat during a hurricane, and purge all interest in that website. Some things are better left to the past.
If you are like me and love deploying systems from an image, you have may have experienced a problem when having the Operations Manager agent installed on the image, and after deployment and a rename of the server, you end up with event id’s 1220 and 7022 in your Operations Manager event log every 30 minutes.
The reason for this issue is the Operations Manager certificate for this computer still has the original image build’s server name on it.
To fix this:
Stop the Operations Manger Health Service
Open up an MMC and openthe certificates snap-in for “Local Computer”
Navigate to Certificates -> Operations Manager -> Certificates
and delete the certificate with the original build’s name
Restart the Operations Manager Health Service.
This fix may not be the best way to solve this issue, but I have not done a thorough web search for better solutions yet. If no one else has this documented somewhere, the steps could easily be scripted, and if I don’t find a better solution I will post the eventual script for this once I have it done.
If you need to transfer the FUTURA AUTOPUNCH software to a new computer but have lost your CD key, you can use the following instructions to bypass the CD key requirements page and use Autopunch on your new computer. These instructions assume you still have access to your old installation.
1. Install the Futura software that came with your sewing machine on the new computer
2. Install the Autopunch software
3. Browse to the installation path of the software, default is C:\FUTURA, and rename it to C:\FUTURA.OLD
4. Copy the entire installation directory of your old computer’s FUTURA installation to the new computer. The destination of this folder should be the new install path prior to renaming it in step 3. i.e. C:\FUTURA
5. Launch the Futura software and verify there is no CD key requirement screen presented
6. Verify you can access Autopunch by selecting it from the CREATE menu
7. Delete the FUTURA.OLD directory created in step 3.
Most likely the CD key has actually been hashed and stored in a single file within the C:\FUTURA directory, but I didn’t take the time to see which of the 573 file it actually is.
This process was tested and verified with version 1.0.0.3 on Windows XP. The same process was functional for an installation on Vista after installing the Vista upgrade patch found on the Futura website.
Everything is amazing right now and nobody is happy.
so true.
I keep thinking about the disturbing pace at which technology is “evolving” and growing. Out servers at work are now being purchased with the idea in mind that they will be obsolete and “useless” within 3 years. This is absurd! You don’t buy a car thinking it’s only going to last 3 years! Why would we spend almost (or more) money on something that work’s just fine, knowing that we will dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into replacements for this equipment in 3 years.
I has become ridiculous but status-quo with large IT.
The hardware probably last another 3 or 4 years *after* the support contract is up, but parts may be hard to find. Total waste of money! And every vendor either hardware or software has us completely sold on this idea. It was called planned obsolescence when it was first noticed with car designs in the 40′s and 50′s. Now it’s called “life-cycle.” Since when did somethings life-cycle mean you already are planning it’s death before you get it in the door?
I keep thinking I’m going to write something insightful about technology, but technology is outpacing my thoughts so fast, I am getting nauseous from vertigo my head is spinning so fast. Exchange 2007 just came out 2 years ago and isn’t implemented in most places yet. However… everyone in “the biz” as my boss says is already talking about the next version of Exchange. What happened? When did it become OK for technology to NOT stagnate? Having something functional and well-running doesn’t mean you have to buy or do everything the vendor tells you to. And if it voids the “support” contract… guess what? You have systems administrators and engineers on payroll to fix problems like this. What the heck do I get paid for? To call a vendor and ask for support. That’s why I am offended by “the monkey pushes the button” mentality of large IT. It has been too long since I have been required to fix something *without* the “phone and friend” option. I remember the good old days where top-tier services would go down for days. ISPs would be down for hours, sure they would apologize for the inconvenience, but no one really expected anything different or miraculous. It was accepted that these systems fluctuate.
Now there is clustering and network load-balancing, and all sorts of redundancies built-in to mitigate resource contention. What a mouthful! It really means we have become so dependent on these systems that we built, that we are claiming a collapse of life as we know it if they were to go out. A system loss is rated in man-hours lost, and that directly translates into money lost while employees sit idle, because no one fills out form by hand anymore. And that money lost while they were idle coincidentally is the same figure as the salary the head-administrator is making…
Having a backup-strategy for your mission critical date used to me you were on top of it. You have a backup strategy. Solid as a rock you say. Nowadays the backup strategy would take you hours to even come close to being back online. What good is that? Backups to tape are now being replaced with “virtual tape libraries.” A VLT is a really expensive piece of hardware that really is keeping a live copy of your data, in case BOTH nodes of your cluster fail, you can bring back online your HOTSPARE server, and bring back your databases. That’s a lot of hardware just sitting idle, costing you money, the same hardware that may not ever get used in a production circumstance, and you have to pay for the replacement of that hardware within the next 3 years, or risk going out of support.
Oh how far we have come. I picked up a “Computer Basics” book printed in 1985 (revised 1986) that someone left on the table at work as a joke. It was incredible! The trip back in time when things were still esoteric, and it seemed that the guys in the white lab coats were doing something incredibly special. Magical. They were getting the machines to do things. Machines that lasted for years. Hardware.. big iron. Not commodity junk. Just the amount of money being poured into equipment is justification to not upgrade your software. At what point does an application become the ultimate example of what that type of application should do? Exchange 2007 is an incredible leap in technology. Along with it’s sister software SharePoint (MOSS version) and the overlooked step-child Office Communications Server, a business can survive, thrive, collaborate, and network amongst themselves for years to come. But… it will be out of support soon. It doesn’t matter so much that the software is fulfilling everything software of that type should fulfill. Those three products represent an incredibly huge investment. Several hundred thousand dollars in license fees, and it will be “outdated” and out of primary support within half a decade.
At what point is this technology “lifecycle” going to stop being driven by the greedy? Is Linux and open-source in general the most efficient way of improving technology for everyone’s benefit? From what little I know Linux isn’t getting changed so much every new release that it’s completely worthless years from now. You can get support for your particular flavor, and a particular version will be out of support someday, but in essence it is still the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago. You can probably still run software on it that was written 20 years earlier. “VI” did you really mentin VI? I haven’t heard of VI for years… and Pine! Who would have thought that they would recreate Pine to be the open-source “Alpine!” Wow… some things never change, but there may be a good reason for that.
When a tool is created it is usually to solve a particular function. The screwdriver was invented immediately after someone realized they invented the screw. The spear was invented to kill things. Software was originally created to solve problems. What good is software or tools for that matter, if they create more problems than they solve? It does no one any favors to have a hammer that is ineffective at driving nails.
I have finally purchased my all-in-one miracle device. It comes with wifi, camera, phone, GPS, calendar, email, address book, live weather reporting, web browsing, music, videos, audio recording, speech recognition, bluetooth, really cool “air mouse” capability, tethering for a modem, business card scanner, and it can print too! It doens’t make coffee but I can’t say that about my computer either. Although many coffee makers have computers, that is different. What is really frustrating is realizing that while I bought my device for function, hundreds of phones are being shipped overseas to pollute other countries. Unless they make it to our landfills first and pollute ours. What are we doing to the planet with our over-abundance of resuable and “disposable” lifecycle of technology.
www.BrianDeyo.us is a personal account of a Computer Geek and his wifes’ journey as Peace Corps volunteers serving in rural Swaziland. Having quit their job, and moving out of their fabulous Chicago apartment, this is a reflection on taking the ‘road less traveled.’more →
The content of this site does not reflect Peace Corps policy or opinion. It is my views, pictures, rants, and policies. I am not allowed to reveal any location identifying information. It's really easy to figure out though.
