The Outspoken Wookie

Encrypted Backups

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Up until now, Windows Server Backup and Backup Assist couldn't encrypt backups. And that hasn't changed at all! :) But what has changed is that the CRU Dataport 10 Secure and DataPort SecureDock devices (available through Datastor Australia) now work well with Backup Assist!

What this means is that using Backup Assist and a DataPort 10 Secure (or DataPort SecureDock) device, any backups written to the device are encrypted with 128-bit AES encryption - and this is whole drive encryption. So if someone gets hold of a drive (ie, breaks into your house while you're at work and steals your offsite backup drives), then all they will see when they mount the drive in a computer is an uninitialized disk. The only way to retrieve the data from the drive is through a DataPort 10 Secure or DataPort SecureDock device *and* using your hardware encryption token.

So, the upcoming Backup Assist 5.4, with its Hyper-V Granular Restore Console option and with the support for these secure CRU DataPort devices, will enably fully encrypted backups. As a bonus, any additional data written to these drives, such as LOB database backups and/or accounting system backups will be AES encrypted!

This is great news for our clients - the reason I first spoke with Linus about this option was that we have a number of clients who have sensitive data (patient records, financial records, HR records, etc) that cannot really be stored offsite in an unencrypted format. Previously, using Backup Assist, there was no real option to take this sort of data into account. So I spoke with Linus, indicated the issue we have, worked with him on getting some DP 10 Secure devices to trial and then hounded him until he got it working! (It didn't take much hounding, however, he's pretty responsive (and have I said yet that he's a nice bloke?) and easily saw the potential benefit.)

We've now got options. We can use ShadowProtect where that's appropriate and Backup Assist where that's appropriate - we finally have real choice when it comes to fully encrypted backups!

Have a read of Linus' blog post on this enhancement to Backup Assist here.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie
(Who is still supposed to be on holidays but has been working on this and a number of server sales - when this is all done today, he really, REALLY should take tomorrow and a few days after it off and have a real break!)

Immortality

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Do you want to know what's REALLY going through my mind? Immortality. And how much of a crock it is. :) I was sitting by the pool eating a nice hot (as in chilli hot) pizza, partaking in some Jim and this thought crossed my mind, so I couldn't resist blogging it. :)

The only things we *KNOW* are immortal are... cancer cells. Yes, cancer cells. The most well known immortal cells are known as HeLa Cells which is a line of cells derived from the Cervical Cencer cells of a Henrietta Lacks who died back in 1951 aged 31.

A normal human cell will divide around 40 - 60 times before it stops dividing, becomes senescent and eventually dies. That's regular human mortality. HeLa Cells don't do this - they don't enter senescence. They are immortal.

And as far as immortality goes, the reason these cells are immortal is that they don't suffer from the regular telomere shortening that occurs upon every cell division. They achieve this by having an active Telomerase enzyme during cell division which prevents this shortening of the telomeres.

Aha, yes - telomeres are the protective ends of our chromosomes. They act in a way similar to how melting the end of a nylon rope protects it from fraying. When the melted section is shortened and worn away, the rope frays. In a similar process, as our telomeres shorten to a crucial length, those cells no longer divide and eventually die.

So, as far as immortality goes, the idea of an immortal being is cancerous (on so many levels) and not something we should really aspire to, let alone worship! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie
(who is on holidays, so this sort of thing, instead of IT, is entering his mind once again!)

NetBIOS Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:44:00 +0000

OK, here's another silly "let's make life simple for stupid sysadmins" setting that can be easily used by a malicious attacker to gain knowledge of data that should have been secure - including ssl-encrypted data.

This information is *especially* important for any notebooks you may have that are used in hotels or other public locations. It is less relevant for machines that remain connected in the office - though if you have WiFi that's not running 802.1x and/or network points that are able to be used by malicious people, you may also want to seriously consider the scenarios I refer to.

Hands up if, by default, you disable the "Automatically detect settings" option in the LAN Settings part of Internet Explorer? OK, so I don't see any hands...

Have a read of this post to get a bit of background on how NetBIOS works. Now have a read of this post to see how it can be exploited even more readily. And then have a read of this post to see some examples of this exploit in action.

Microsoft gives a way to disable this ON YOUR LAN, but this in no way will help when the laptop is off your LAN and in a hotel - which is the main cause of concern for this exploit.

And if you think that this is only a newly discovered exploit, have a read of this post from January 2008 discussing this issue.

Maybe, if Microsoft won't do it, we need to do it for them - use GPO to disable this setting. Of course, if a laptop with "Automatically detect settings" disabled is connected to a network where the user isn't given proxy details and the owner of the network only knows "just set your computer to automatically detect the proxy" then I suggest this is a location that you DEFINITELY shouldn't be using - find another hotel where they have at least some vague idea about the services they are providing! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie
(who is on holidays and REALLY shouldn't be thinking about this stuff!)

FSM Appears On Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:58:00 +0000

As it is still around FSMas time, I thought it only appropriate that the FSM has showed me this image of himself on Mars. Obviously, the guys at NASA, being scientists and not true believers, needed to come up with some sham scientific-style explanation for the impression, however we true believers know that science is a crock and His Noodliness is real, simply because he says he is. We don't need any real proof of this, however this image goes a long way to proving what we already know as fact.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Thoughts On Various Imaging Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:58:00 +0000

ShadowProtect, Windows/SBS Backup, Backup Assist, Acronis TrueImage, R-Drive Image, Macrium Reflect, Image for Windows, DriveImage XML and a number of similar products exist and will all provide faster recovery times on the same hardware than a file-based backup and server rebuild could possibly enable. Some of these products also enable Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) as well, enabling you to restore an Open License/Open Business/FPP licensed (but not an OEM) Server or Desktop OS from one piece of hardware to another - ShadowProtect and Acronis being the most common two for this, however Backup Assist can also manage HIR quite nicely.

Now, there's 2 main ways that these products handle Full + Incremental backups - most of them create a single full image and then create additional incrementals, each building upon the full + previous incremental (or they handle full + isolated differentials), however Windows/SBS Backup (and therefore Backup Assist as it uses the Windows backup engine) creates a full backup that is the current/latest backup and negative incrementals (or decrementals) which are what was changed to go back in time. Basically the two methods are diametrically opposed in their thinking - most products give you a full that requires all incrementals (or the latest differential) to get you back to "latest" whereas Win/SBS backup and Backup Assist only require restoration of the last full backup to get you where you want to be.

Now, this difference in methodologies doesn't mean one is more right nor more wrong - it is just a difference in approach.

If you're looking into image backups as a (or part of a) backup strategy, I'd strongly recommend having a separate spindle in the server itself and then having the removable hard drives located in whoever's computer is tasked with taking the backups offsite - this works for all products that are *not* based on the Windows Backup engine as it requires Volume Shadow Copy snapshots to be present, and these are not copied across from the internal HDD to a removable HDD using RoboCopy. This is a much, much better option than having users add/remove hardware at the server directly - it is never really a good move to have users physically touching the server if you can possibly help it as their grubby, greasy hands, swine flu sneezing and dandruff will often make a server feel uncomfortable. OK, maybe not quite like that, but you know what I mean... :) Have the snapshots on the extra spindle then copied using some form of magic (robocopy, richcopy, goodsync, etc) across the network to these removable HDD units overnight and they will appear ready and willing for removal when the users rock up to work, bleary-eyed from a hard night on the turps.

If you're looking at replicating this same backup strategy to a cloud-based service (including to a large system on your own site) then you should look at using an Incrementals Forever strategy as this will reduce the size of data streamed across the Internet. Using Win/SBS Backup and/or Backup Assist won't work well in this scenario because of its "full = latest" strategy, unfortunately. ShadowProtect (and likely Acronis) will work rather well. One good thing with ShadowProtect (and I assume Acronis have this feature, too) is a handy little util that will look at an incremental and the whole tree back to the full backup and verify it. Another good thing is the ability to roll up daily, weekly, monthly, wheneverly incrementals into a big single incremental to save the need to keep multiple incrementals and need to restore them all, however there is no *need* to do this as the latest incremental will cause all prior backups right back to the full to be used for the restore.

So, having a client use, say, hourly incrementals between 8AM and 6PM weekdays that are based off a single full backup, then a midnightly incremental, and rolled up on Sunday to a single incremental will keep the file manageability down to a sane level, will mean you can push the daily backups up to an online bit bucket using rsync, and if this system is on your site (or a hosted server somewhere) then you can schedule image verifications daily and be notified if there are any issues as and when they occur.

All up, Image backups have many ways they can be used and offer a good form of onsite/offsite/online backup in almost a single process.

I'd *still* perform file backups onto a different media (such as DVD-RAM or Amazon S3) of what I call the client's "bankrupt data" - the data that if they cannot get back almost immediately, can send them into bankruptcy - their accounting data and quite possibly a LOB application's data.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Hyper-V Guest Licensing (including Hyper-V R2)

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Some people are still confused with how Hyper-V Guest Licensing works. This also goes for Hyper-V R2 which hasn't changed *at all* as far as how it can be licensed goes. So here's a first post on this topic. If there's more clarification needed, I'll likely post again with all of the questions covered that may arise from this post:

Hyper-V Guest Licensing really isn't in any state of flux - nothing's changed since it was first spoken about. (Well, the price changed, but that's irrelevant to Licensing concerns.)

Now, there's three ways to obtain Hyper-V and Hyper-V R2 and these will change the answer to your question:

1. Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 is a stand-alone hypervisor that is available for free. It is very much like ESXi in that it installs directly onto hardware (let's ignore the embedded ESXi variants for now). It is licensed for installation onto any compatible hardware, basically, and doesn't need any other OS License with it. Any and all OSes you wish to install on top of Hyper-V Server require their own licenses, whatever they may be.

2. Install Windows Server 2008 Standard (or better) x64 Core (or GUI) and then install the Hyper-V role onto this OS. If done this way, the Hyper-V role comes as part of a Licensed Microsoft Windows Server operating system. There are 3 main variants on this theme:

    2.1 Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard - One Physical and up to One Virtual License

        2.1.1 If the Host WS2K8 R2 Std OS that the Hyper-V role is installed on (W2K8 R2 Std Physical License) performs additional functions such as RODC, AD, DHC, DNS and/or other non-virtualization roles, then the License for WS2K8 R2 Std is completely in use and any guests need to be licensed separately.

       2.1.2 If the Host WS2K8 R2 Std OS that the Hyper-V role is installed on (W2K8 R2 Std Physical License) performs no additional non-virtualization-related roles, then the WS2K8 R2 Std Physical License has been used *only* to provide a host environment, so the single WS2K8 R2 Virtual License can be used for any roles you so choose (except, obviously, Hyper-V). Any additional guests need to be licensed separately.

    2.2 Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise - One Physical and up to 4 Virtual Licenses

        2.2.1 If the Host WS2K8 R2 Ent OS that the Hyper-V role is installed on (W2K8 R2 Ent Physical License) performs additional functions such as RODC, AD, DHC, DNS and/or other non-virtualization roles, then the Physical License for WS2K8 R2 Ent is completely in use and there are only 3 of the 4 WS2K8 R2 Ent Virtual Licenses available for use. Any additional guests need to be licensed separately.

        2.2.2 If the Host WS2K8 R2 Ent OS that the Hyper-V role is installed on (W2K8 R2 Ent Physical License) performs no additional non-virtualization-related roles, then the WS2K8 R2 Ent Physical License has been used *only* to provide a host environment, so the 4 WS2K8 R2 Ent Virtual Licenses can be used for any roles you so choose (except, obviously, Hyper-V). Any additional guests need to be licensed separately.

    2.3 Windows Server R2 2008 DataCenter - One Physical and unlimited Virtual Licenses

        2.3.1 Regardless of whether the Host WS2K8 R2 DataCenter OS that the Hyper-V role is installed on (W2K8 R2 DC Physical License) performs additional functions such as RODC, AD, DHC, DNS and/or other non-virtualization roles or not, then the unlimited WS2K8 R2 DC Virtual Licenses can be used for any roles you so choose (except, obviously, Hyper-V). Any additional guests need to be licensed separately - such as SBS 2008 and/or EBS 2008 or RedHat Enterprise.

3. If you buy SBS 2003 Premium Edition or EBS 2008 Premium Edition you are supplied a Primary OS (SBS/EBS) and an additional Server + SQL License (and in EBS you also have the Management instance and the Messaging instance).  This Primary OS instance cannot be used as a Hyper-V Host and this is detailed in the EULA. The additional Server License that comes with Premium can (as in can) be used as both a Hyper-V Host and Guest. So, in these environments, and we'll stick with SBS here for ease of describing how this would work, here's your options:

    3.1 SBS 2008 Standard Edition

        3.1.1 Install SBS 2008 Standard on Physical - no Hyper-V in use, so we don't care about its Licensing :)

        3.1.2 Install Hyper-V R2 Server (as mentioned above in Point 1.) and run SBS 2008 Standard as a virtual guest using the SBS 2008 Standard License.

        3.1.3 Purchase an additional Windows Server 2008 R2 (or WS2K8) License and use that as the Hyper-V Host, then install SBS 2008 Std as a virtual guest using the SBS 2008 Standard License.

    3.2 SBS 2008 Premium Edition

        3.2.1 Install SBS 2008 PE Primary Server instance in hardware on one machine and the Secondary Server Instance in hardware on a second machine - we're not using Hyper-V, so we don't care about its Licensing

        3.2.2 Install Secondary Server Instance as Hyper-V Host and then virtualize both SBS 2008 Primary and Secondary Server Instances. This is very similar to 2.1.2 above - the Secondary Server Instance is providing only virtualization-related services, so it can be used as a licensed virtual guest, in addition to this the SBS 2008 Primary Server Instance (the bit with SBS, Exchange, CompanyWeb, etc) is also virtualized using its virtual key (included with the OS).

        3.2.3 On a second physical server, install Secondary Server Instance as Hyper-V host providing only virtualization services, then virtualize it as a guest and then run the SBS 2008 Primary Instance on the main server. The second physical server is properly licensed, however here's the options for the main server:

            3.2.3.1 The SBS 2008 Primary Instance can run on hardware, Hyper-V not in play

            3.2.3.2 Hyper-V R2 Server can be used as the host (see Points 1. and 3.1.2 above) and the SBS 2008 Primary Instance as a licensed virtual guest.

            3.2.3.3 An additional License of WS2K8R2 can be purchased and the SBS 2008 Primary Instance as a licensed virtual guest (see Points 2.1.1 and 3.1.3 above).

Now, the only real clarification to this is that Virtual guests can run the OS as Licensed and any other lower product. So, if you have a WS2K8 R2 Ent License, the WS2K8 R2 Ent guests can be WS2K8 R2 Ent, WS2K8 R2 Std, WS2K8 Ent, WS2K8 Std, WS2K3 Ent, WS2K3 Std and so on. If you have a WS2K8 R2 Std License, you cannot run WS2K8 R2 Ent guests unless they are separately licensed. If you wish to run NOWS SBE, SUSE Linux, Free BSD, SBS 2003 or any other OS then you need to be separately licensed for that OS as applicable.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Drool...

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 08:13:00 +0000

I sooooooo want a RAID 10 array of these in the new DL380 Server we're getting for the office: pureSilicon Nitro N1 SSDs

Yes, the 1 TB units of course! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Australian Facist Party

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:46:00 +0000

It appears that The Australian Facist Party - or at least one of its elite members, Senator Stephen Conroy - has managed to twist the arm of the auDA into deregistering a website - http://www.stephenconroy.com.au/ - because it contained the most sane and technologically literate Senator's name.

Now, auDA has policies that need to be complied with, sure, and the owners of the site had phenomenally limited time given to them to prove that they complied before the site and domain was taken off the air. A variant is now available at http://www.stephen-conroy.com/ where an article outlining the recent actions is available on the main page. It also has a YouTube video that someone seems to have shot with a hidden camera in Senator Stephen Conroy's office when this website was brought to his attention. :)

If you're interested in an organization that will aim to protect sensibility, freedom of culture, the protection of civil liberties and inalienable rights of the nation's citizens and to protect the freedoms of the newly evolging global information society, you may want to have a look at http://pirateparty.org.au/.

Regards

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft Clusterfu^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HLicensing Site Still Not Functional

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:27:00 +0000

Well, in a move that doesn't bode well for Microsoft's ability to host our emails and data, Microsoft's Volume Licensing site underwant an upgrade last week, was due back online on 6 December, and now on 18 December, it still isn't fully functional.

It is bad enough not being able to install software and obtain keys easily with this site being down (and being given the runaround from MS Licensing staff who don't know what to do in this situation), but imagine if this was an Azure, BPOS or other MS Hosted platfowm where they botched an upgrade this badle and took your business data offline for the best part of a fortnight - would your business survive if Microsoft made your data totally unavailable for a week? A fortnight? Even a day or two?

Microsoft has some *serious* learning to do over this complete clusterfuck of an upgrade before they start seriously asking for us to host our business critical data with them.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

CERN and LHC Take A Festivus Break

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Well, all's good with the LHC over at CERN. On November 23 it created history with its first collision, on 30 Nov it created more history with a world record collision at 1.18 TeV. It has been creating collisions at 2.38 TeV for the past week or so and has now been closed for a shortened winter maintenance window to allow some system enhancements and tests before reopening for physics in February and aiming at 7 TeV collisions in early 2010.

That sort of collision energy requires around 6000 Amps of current in the superconducting magnets surrounding the beams - a serious amount of power, and this is what the enhancements are being put in place for. Testing of each beam at 3.5 TeV will begin in January in preparation for full commissioning and operation in February 2010 at 3.5 TeV/beam (a 7 TeV collision).

Out of interest, each if the hadron groups that are moving at very nearly light speed through the LHC's superconducting magnetic path carry about as much energy as your average passenger jet at cruise speed. That's quite a punch they are packing! So, should a condition arise where one or both of these beams need to be dumped - such as a "quench" situation in which the temperature of the superconducting components rises to 8K (from its normal temperature of 1.9K or -271.25 degrees Celsius) they are dumped ito one of a number of 7m long graphite blocks which are encased in steel, then water cooled and further wrapped in 750 tonnes of iron shielding and concrete. Basically, this will result in an event that the CERN guys notice but no-one above the LHC would even be aware of. And it would all be over rather quickly! :)

No, not life as we know it - the proton or ion beam dumping. That would be over rather quickly. The LHC isn't going to create a black hole that wil consume the Earth nor open doors to extra-dimensional space that will allow creatures that look like a red, pulsating Cheese Burglar to come through and enslave us all.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

The Physics of Santa

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:22:00 +0000

OK, so a fat man in a red suit is supposed to use flying male reindeer to deliver presents to the world's good Christian (and a few other religions, less a few Christian sects/denominations who don't celebate anything) children on December 24th? Really?

Well, the thing with reindeer is that the male reindeer (the older ones, at least) drop their antlers in December (the younger males around March and the females around June-July) which means that as time goes by, assuming that reindeer live for over 2000 (or so) years, Rudolph wouldn't have antlers around Christmas time. He may have when he was younger, or maybe Rudolph is actually female? Either way, Rudolph isn't quite what he's made out to be. Oh, yeah, and there's that flying thing, too!

So, the antler and flight issues aside, have you thought about how much energy one man would need to be able to travel around the entire planet - not just in a circle, stopping house-to-house to climb down a chimney (if one exists), deliver presents, drink milk/beer and eat cookies/whatever, possibly say hello in a special Santa way to mummy, and then head to the next house?

A relatively decent overview of the forces involved (though this does talk about "centrifugal" instead of the actual "centripetal" force involved) can be found at Snopes and many other places on the Intarweb.

A humorous, yet ludicrous account of how Santa may actually exist can be found here.

So, if we can encourage our children to believe in old, male, fully antlered, flying reindeer being able to pull a man around 121 million kilometers in one day (admittedly, with extended hours due to the rotation of the Earth) and a rabbit that delivers chocolate eggs, no wonder we can have them believe in a supernatural being that cares about our plight yet lets us make our own choices.

Personally, I'd rather believe in sanity, science and things that can actually exist.

Happy Festivus to all. Maybe we should all look towards having a HumanLight party which happens to approximately fall on the approximate day of Festivus - the 23rd December, to celebrate sanity and the belief in human beings having morals and good intentions without needing a supernatural prod in the right direction. This would encourage our children to grow up to believe in themselves, to believe in reason, to do good to others because it is simply the right thing to do.

As atheists, there's only one more God that we don't believe in compared to Christians, and here is the list. So, you can see that we have a great deal in common and a small amount that we disagree on.

So, to all, I wish you a happy and safe holiday season and a happy and prosperous 2010.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

ShadowProtect Update

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:46:00 +0000

Thanks to Robert Crane for bringing this to our attention. I believe the Australian ShadowProtect guys will release something later on, but the US guys released this earlier this week:

Critical Update Available for ShadowProtect 3.x Customers

Valued Partners:

StorageCraft would like to announce the availability of ShadowProtect 3.5.1 for download now. This software patch fixes a rare issue found in ShadowProtect 3.x which affects some incremental backup images, but not full backup image files. This issue causes some incremental image files not to include all of the file system changes made since the last backup image. Any affected file will show chkdsk errors when mounted. This rare issue occurs on some systems running Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 – but is not limited to these systems.

If you are running ShadowProtect 3.x, StorageCraft recommends that you download ShadowProtect 3.5.1, run the patch, reboot your system and begin a new backup image set – starting with a new full image of your system. To download this ShadowProtect update, please select:

ShadowProtect Server Edition:
http://www.storagecraft.com/downloads/ENU_Server_Setup_3.5.1.exe

ShadowProtect Small Business Server Edition:
http://www.storagecraft.com/downloads/ENU_SBS_Setup_3.5.1.exe

ShadowProtect Desktop Edition:
http://www.storagecraft.com/downloads/ENU_Desktop_Setup_3.5.1.exe

The ShadowProtect 3.5.1 update does not affect your current ShadowProtect 3.5 recovery CD. Therefore, a new .iso download is not necessary.

If you have additional questions regarding this update, please visit the StorageCraft Support Center:

http://forum.storagecraft.com/community/

For more information about this update, please refer to the ShadowProtect 3.5.1 readme file.

http://www.storagecraft.com/documents/readme_3_5_1.rtf

Thanks,
The StorageCraft Team

So, I hope that people other than US folks get to read this critical information - critical in that it fixes an issue whereby SP incremental backups are not backing up changed files properly. I do wonder why StorageCraft Australia still hasn't released information about this update to their users!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Beta Testing Office 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:29:00 +0000

Well, sad to say, but I have finally gone back to Office 2007 because the Outlook 2010 beta was SO FUCKING UNSTABLE it felt like I was beta testing F^HVista all over again.

COME ON GUYS - I sent probably 50 reports of Outlook 2010 crashing and didn't get a single response. And I KNOW I'm not the only one seeing this instability.

The rest of the product is nice. Some of the new features in Outlook 2010 are definitely nice, however having it crash on me all the time was simply unbearable and resulted in a great amount of lost productivity and increased frustration - neither of which are efficient.

So, when Microsoft gets their act together and can release a Beta product that's not at Alpha levels of stability, I'll try it again. But in the meantime, I'm quite happy with Office 2007.

Speaking of Office 2010, have a read of the First Look: Microsoft Office 2010 eBook if you want to know more about what Office 2010 will have to offer (once they get Outlook 2010 stable).

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Adobe AIR - clueless...

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Now, aside from the recently announced vulnerability in various Adobe products that is addressed in the current release (1.5.3) of Adobe AIR, it seems that Adobe coders still show little awareness of the environment in which they operate.

Proof of this is given in the following tale...

I decided that I'd swap around my Windows 7 licenses - I have a FPP Windows 7 Ultimate (from Beta testing the product) and numerous Windows 7 Pro upgrades (via MAPS). Originally, as I was beta testing mainly on my desktop, and during beta testing we had access to Win 7 Ultimate (and Home Premium for an upgrade test, but I'll ignore that) I therefore decided that I'd run my Ultimate license on my desktop and Pro on the laptop. Now I've decided to swap them around as we'll be implementing DirectAccess here soon and this requires Win 7 Ultimate or Enterprise to take advantage of it, so having Ultimate on my laptop makes a lot more sense than on my desktop as it lives in the office.

So, as one of the applications I use is TweetDeck, I went to reinstall that on my freshly rebuilt desktop PC running Win 7 Pro x64 using the online installer on TweetDeck's home page. No go - it bombs out with the following error message after AIR requests elevation and successfully installs:

Sorry, an error has occurred.

The application could not be installed because the AIR file is
damaged. Try obtaining a new AIR file from the application
author.

So I figured I'd look further into this. I uninstalled AIR manually, downloaded the AIR installer and installed it successfully (it asks for elevation during the install procedure, as expected). So fine, AIR installs two different ways, as expected.

Then I downloaded the TweetDeck AIR application and went to install that - double clicking on the app (or right-clicking and choosing Install) gives the same result and same error message - the AIR file is apparently damaged.

So, I noticed that the AIR package doesn't ask for elevation during the install unlike the AIR product itself. Hhmmm, does this mean that Adobe's AIR fails to recognise that it is running in a Windows 7 (and Windows F^HVista would also see the same issue) environment and because it fails to prompt for elevation, it fails the install? Maybe...

I went back to the TweetDeck page, but this time after opening MSIE with "Run as administrator" and agreeing to the elevation request. The TweetDeck AIR pachage installed without any issue. Go Adobe! :(

This means that, because of the poor design of Adobe AIR, it won't install any packages properly in a normal and secure Windows 7 (or F^HVista) environment (ie one with UAC enabled). Also, because AIR isn't an application you can run yourself, you can't run it elevated to have it install any packages properly. Go Adobe - brilliant effort. Extra Brownie Points for you this time! :( And not only that, Adobe can't even get their error message right - the AIR file is not damaged, as they report, but their product is!

So, if you need to install AIR packages and they are available on a website, if you "Run as adinistrator" an MSIE session, this is a way to work around this issue until Adobe coders get hit hard with a cluestick!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

MS Security Intelligence Report V7

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:09:00 +0000

OK, so if 69.2% of all spam blocked by Forefront Online Protection for Exchange in the first half of 2009 was for Pharmacy products (both sexual and non-sexual) and Non-Pharmacy product advertisements, SOMEONE must be buying this shit for spammers to see this as a viable market.

So, who is it that's buying this shit?

Please, I want to know if you've bought anything that was sent to you by a spammer as I need to know the types of people that we need to introduce International legislation for, banning you from using computers and electronic mail devices. Your stupidity is making life less enjoyable for the rest of us and you need to be stopped!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Uganda's Appalling Human Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Now, I'm not homosexual nor do I play one on television, but I have no problem with how anyone chooses (or other) to express their sexuality. What I DO have a problem with is this.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Midas and Klark Teknik = Behringer? Say It Isn't So

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:26:00 +0000

It seems that both the Midas (maker of some fine broadcast, recording and live sound mixing consoles) and Klark Teknik (maker of some fine signal processing equipment) business components of Bosch Communications Systems have been sold to the Music Group, who owns Behringer.

This truly is a sad day for quality audio products.

Behringer makes *some* good gear, but the rest is simply not up to the standards that professional sound engineers require. Their original Composer Pro (now superceded) and their current ADA8000 are nice (for the price), however that's about all of the Behringer kit I'd consider buying.

Let's see if the Music Group rolls Midas and Klark Teknik down to Behringer's standard or pushes Behringer's standards up towards Midas and KT.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Email Insanity

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Whilst I was emailing a friend about email and other things, I thought I'd check and see how many emails I've actually received since 13 November 2009 (and it is now 12 December, 2009).

Can you guess how many? 1000? I wish! 5000 - not even close! 7000, getting hot... 7425 - that's right, almost 7500 emails in a month. If I had a dollar for each email I received...

Now, how many have I sent? 745! That's simply ridiculous!

OK, I think it is time for this insanity to stop. Well, at least slow down somewhat.

Starting right now - bugger going for a walk tonight, I'm culling the number of mailing lists and email lists I'm on back to something actually *sensible*.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Motion: The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:24:00 +0000

This was an Intelligence Squared Debate presented from London by Zeinab Badawi that was broadcast on the BBC. The debate in its entirety can be found here. The presenters are the Archbishop of Abuja (Nigeria) John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe, British Conservative MP for the affirmative and Stephen Fry (do I need say more?) and Christopher Hitchens, journalist and commentator.

The whole shebang runs for approximately 46 minutes (timed, obviously, for an hour long TV program) and is split into 5 parts. Clicking on the first part will (or at least should) play the whole lot consecutively.

There was a poll of the audience prior to entry and then there was another poll taken after the debate and QnA from the floor (during closing arguments) with the results shown towards the end. And yes, due to the relative merit of the arguments presented there was a significant swing between polls.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

It looks like we're all screwed

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:36:00 +0000

Just in case anyone doesn't realise it, we're all screwed. Well, we're all screwed if we don't find, build or terraform a habitable location off this planet. Now, assuming we don't fuck up the environment bad enough in the foreseeable future to cause massive changes in life on this planet as we know it, we don't have that long (relatively speaking) to get off this dump and move somewhere with a better view.

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) have existed on this planet for approximately 200,000 years. The planet itself has been hanging around about 4.5 billion years - quite some time after the Big Bang at around 13.7 billion years ago. The Sun will finally become a White Dwarf in about 7 billion years.

Now, that seems a fair way off, however things are a little more desperate than that - as the Sun continues to burn its Hydrogen core, it will collapse due to gravity which will cause it to heat up, eventually burning off its remaining Hydrogen, causing it to expand into a Red Giant, heating up further to burn off Helium resulting in its eventual collapse into a White Dwarf.

All that collapsing and expanding happens up until this 7 billion year mark. We've only got about a billion years left before we likely have no oceans due to the Sun's impending death. And that's not the worst of it - about half a billion years away, the Sun would have increased in intensity enough to warm the planet so much that the decrease in CO2 as the planet becomes more and more desert-like will make it difficult for the remaining plants to survive. That's just half the time between now and when the oceans eventually evaporate into space.

So, we really have a fair bit less than half a billion years left on this planet. Considering we, as a species, have been here for 200,000 years and we have, say 400,000,000 years left before things start getting a little warm and desolate, that's not a lot of time left in the overall scheme of things (after all, the Earth is approximately 4,500,000,000 years old - it is therefore about 90% of the way through its habitable lifespan).

Humans spent approximately 190,000 years trying to move things with difficulty until they invented the wheel. Roughly another 700 years elapsed until we had the Industrial Revolution, and then another hundred and fifty odd years until we finally had a controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight. Another 58 years or so and we finally put a man into Space in 1961, and then in November 2000, we had the first manned crew of the ISS (sure, Salyut 1 was officially the first space station, back in 1971).

So, for roughly 199,500 years, man didn't have machines that did much, then in the last 500 years we've put people permanently into Space, landed on the Moon and Mars, investigated many other bodies in our Solar System and really are doing quite well. We've got 20 times the amount of time humans have existed before we need to leave this planet for a better place to live. I'm pretty sure that if we survive our own willingness to kill each other for religious or other reasons, we should easily be able to survive as a race when our home planet is finally consumed by the Sun and spewed into the Solar System as various forms of ash.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

AASFSHNR Reaches US$1.25m for Kiva

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:26:00 +0000

On October 8th, I reported the good news that our Kiva AASFSHNR Lending Team had been the first team to pass US$1m in loans. It took us about 13.5 months to make it to the US$1m mark and it has taken us less than 2 months to make it to the current mark of just over US$1.25m.

We're currently discussing a goal for the end of 2010 to be around the US$2.5 to US$3m mark and at the rate we've reached US$1.25m in loans, that should be easily achievable and hopefully easily surpassed.

Kiva has a total loaned amount of just over US$106m to microfinance borrowers witha current repayment rate ov over 98%, which is awesome. I wonder how many other finance institutions can claim repayment rates of above 98%? :) And remember this is microfinance - we're funcing loans for people in need of loans that the regular finance system will not loan to - including (but not limited to) entrepeneurs in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Benin, Costa Rica, Ghana, Honduras, Lebanon, Mali, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Uganda, Vietnam and even the United States who are looking to improve their businesses and/or family homes.

If you'd like an invite to Kiva, let me know and I'll send one to you.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows Experience Index - Win7

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:17:00 +0000

The WEI scoring system has changed a fair bit since it was introduced in Windows F^HVista and the version that's in Windows 7 is a result of the responses of many reports to Microsoft from users and beta testers around the world. One of the changes is that the WEI scores in Windows 7 now go from a bottom-feeding 1.0 all the way up to 7.9.

For a decent read about what the Windows Experience Index involves, have a read of this. It doesn't go into a lot of technical depth, however it is enlightening.

Now, I have a few computers here right now that I'm running Windows 7 on and below I've listed the scores as well as scores from other people's computers that I've been able to verify. I'm particularly interested in the CPU and RAM scores for use in regular daily office use. Not that CPU usage is really ever an issue (on modern PCs), but more so as a comparison between netbooks, notebooks and desktops. The component/figure in bold is the base score (determined by the lowest subscore). Also, as more figures are obtained, I'll add them to this table.

(If you want to send me details to add to this list, please send the following:
* Screen capture of Control Panel\System and Security\System
* Screen capture of Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools
* Screen Capture of Device Manager showing your HDDs (and highlighting the Primary HDD if you have > 1 installed)
* A zipped HTML output from CPU-z
as all of the above give me the detail I need to complete this table.)

System	Component	Subscore
Hilton's Desktop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz RAM - 6 GB Corsair 1800MHz (833 MHz) Graphics - 2 * Gigabyte HD4850 Fanless Gaming Graphics - 2 * GV-R485MC-1GI Primary HDD - Samsung HD103UJ 1 TB	7.6 7.9 7.3 7.3 5.9
Andrew's Asus M60J Notebook +Intel MLC SSD Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core i7 Q720 @ 1.60 GHz RAM - 4 GB Samsung PC3-8500F (533 MHz) Graphics - nVidia GeForce GT 240M Gaming Graphics - nVidia GeForce GT 240M Primary HDD - Intel SSDSA2M160G2GN 160 GB	7.0 7.3 6.4 6.4 7.6
Andrew's Asus M60J Notebook Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core i7 Q720 @ 1.60 GHz RAM - 4 GB Samsung PC3-8500F (533 MHz) Graphics - nVidia GeForce GT 240M Gaming Graphics - nVidia GeForce GT 240M Primary HDD - Seagate ST9500325AS 500 GB	7.0 7.3 6.4 6.4 5.7
Jim's HP 6730 Notebook Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-6400 (400 MHz) Graphics - Intel Mobile 4 Series Express Gaming Graphics - Intel Mobile 4 Series Express Primary HDD - WD WD3200BEKT-60F3T1 320 GB	6.3 5.5 4.1 3.4 5.9
Laz' Media Center PC Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz RAM - 3 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS Gaming Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS Primary HDD - Seagate ST3500830AS 500 GB	6.1 6.1 4.7 5.6 5.9
Andrew's Lenovo M57p Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - Intel GMA 3100 (Q35 Express) Gaming Graphics - Intel GMA 3100 (Q35 Express) Primary HDD - Hitachi HDT725025VLA380 250 GB	6.1 5.9 2.3 3.2 5.4
Quark Automation Laptop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5400 (400 MHz) Graphics - Intel GM45 Gaming Graphics - Intel GM45 Primary HDD - Seagate ST9320421ASG 320 GB	5.9 5.9 4.1 3.9 5.9
Laz's Desktop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40 GHz RAM - 3 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - ATI HD4890 Gaming Graphics - ATI HD4890 Primary HDD - Seagate ST350064 1NS 500 GB	5.8 5.8 7.7 7.7 5.4
Tony's Lenovo R61 Laptop Win 7 Ult x64	CPU - Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.20 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - Intel Mobile 965 Express Gaming Graphics - Intel Mobile 965 Express Primary HDD - WD3200BJKT-00F4T0 320 GB	5.5 5.5 3.5 5.8 5.9
Nathan's Latitude D620 Win 7 Ult x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.00 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - nVidia Quadro NVS 110M Gaming Graphics - nVidia Quadro NVS 110M Primary HDD - Seagate ST9120823AS 120 GB	5.0 5.0 3.7 3.5 5.2
Andrew's Toshiba SatPro P100 Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo T5500 @ 1.66 GHz RAM - 2 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - nVidia GeForce Go 7300 Gaming Graphics - nVidia GeForce Go 7300 Primary HDD - Fujitsu MHV2120BH PL 120 GB	4.5 4.5 3.6 3.4 4.5
Margaret's Acer Travelmate 8371 Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core Duo U9400 @ 1.40 GHz RAM - 4 GB Samsung PC3-8500F (533 MHz) Graphics - Intel 4 Series Express Gaming Graphics - Intel 4 Series Express Primary HDD - Hitachi HTS545032B9A300 320 GB	4.3 4.9 3.2 3.2 5.3
Hilton's M400 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core Duo T2300E @ 1.66 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - Intel 945 Gaming Graphics - Intel 945 Primary HDD - Hitachi HTS541080G9SA00 80 GB	4.1 4.7 3.4 3.2 4.3
Pete's IBM T43 Laptop Win 7 Ent x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.86 GHz RAM - 1.5 GB PC2-4200 (266 MHz) Graphics - Intel 915GM Gaming Graphics - Intel 915GM Primary HDD - Hitachi HTS541040G9AT00 40 GB	3.6 4.4 1.9 1.0 4.4
Hilton's M200 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.60 GHz RAM - 2 GB Kingston PC2700 (166 MHz) Graphics - GeForce FX Go5200 Gaming Graphics - GeForce FX Go5200 Primary HDD - Seagate ST9808211A 80 GB	3.0 4.1 1.0 2.4 4.1
Pete's IBM T41 Laptop Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.60 GHz RAM - 2 GB Kingston PC2700 (166 MHz) Graphics - Standard VGA Gaming Graphics - Standard VGA Primary HDD - 7200 rpm	2.9 4.1 1.0 1.0 5.0
John's HP Mini 5101 Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66 GHz RAM - 2048 MB Samsung PC2-6400 (400 MHz) Graphics - Mobile Intel GMA 950 Gaming Graphics - Mobile Intel GMA 950 Primary HDD - Seagate ST9320423AS 320 GB	2.3 4.5 2.0 3.0 5.9
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - VIA C7-M 1.60 GHz RAM - 1 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - VIA Chrome9 HC Gaming Graphics - VIA Chrome9 HC Primary HDD - Fujitsu MHZ2120BH G2 120 GB	1.5 3.9 2.0 3.0 5.2
Fujitsu Lifebook U1010 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Intel Atom 110 @ 800 MHz RAM - 1024 MB DDR2 Graphics - Intel 945GMA Gaming Graphics - Intel 945GMA Primary HDD - Toshiba MK4009GAL 40 GB	1.5 3.9 1.0 3.0 3.7
Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Laptop Win 7 Ult x86	CPU - Pentium III E 900 MHz RAM - 512 MB PC133 (333 MHz) Graphics - Trident CyberBladeXP Gaming Graphics - Trident CyberBladeXP Primary HDD - Toshiba MK4026GAX 40 GB	1.3 1.5 1.0 1.0 4.3

SBS 2008, WDS and Computer Names

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:20:00 +0000

Just in case anyone hasn't played with Windows Deployment Services under SBS 2008 using Windows 7 as the deployment option, you can configure WDS on SBS 2008 and remotely deploy Windows 7 to your client desktops a lot faster than installing via DVD. What will happen is that the computer name of the deployed system will be in the form of UserNamex where UserName is the name of the administrator account used to deploy the image and "x" is an incremental number for the images deployed under this user.

Once the image has been deployed, the computer is joined to the domain, saving the need to run the Connect Wizard.

Now, as this isn't normally the way we like to name systems (and most people seem not to do this either), we need to rename that deployed computer so that it fits in without preferred naming scheme. So, on the computer all you need to do is go to My Computer\Properties and click on the "Change settings" link for the Computer name, domain and workgroup settings, change it to what you need, then reboot the computer when prompted. This will change the computer name and update the record in AD so that the system is seen by SBS 2008 with the new name, allowing Updates and all other SBS Console functionality to work as it did had you installed the computer manually and then run the Connect Wizard.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Office 2010 To Ship June 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:03:00 +0000

According to Betanews, Microsoft Office 2010 will ship in June 2010.

I really hope they get Outlook 2010 a *lot* more stable before then because right now, it is next to useless.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft BPOS for Australian Partners

noreply@blogger.com (Hilton Travis) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:05:00 +0000

Register Now for upcoming Microsoft Online Services Events!

To help you understand the opportunity and discover the right strategy for your business, we are reaching out via webinars and face to face events and plan to continue to run these next year. We’d like to connect the community around this compelling new business trend and provide a forum to share information, provide training and best practices.

Please make sure you register for these upcoming events:

Date	Event Type	Description	Location	Registration Links	Time
2nd December	Webinar	Kick Start Event for channel partners – de-mystifying Microsoft Online Services	Live Meeting	http://bit.ly/LiveMeetingLink (Login on the day via this link – live meeting link only)	2-3pm (AEDT)
9th December	Breakfast Event - Sydney	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Sydney Theatre 1 - 1 Epping Road North Ryde	http://bit.ly/Syd_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am
10th December	Breakfast Event - Brisbane	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Brisbane Theatre 2 - Level 9, Waterfront Place 1 Eagle Street Brisbane	http://bit.ly/Bris_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am
11th December	Breakfast Event - Melbourne	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Melbourne Exhibition Room - Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place Southbank	http://bit.ly/Melb_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am

Proposed Agenda for Community Events:

Time	Agenda
8:30am	Registration – light refreshments will be served
9:00 - 9:45am	Presentation Topics: Overview of Online Services key Features and upcoming roadmap Key Business Models, how to sell to customers and sell against Google Key Resources available to drive your S+S business Introducing Telstra – who are your main Telstra contacts and how they can help accelerate your business
9:45 – 10:30	General discussion and Q&A Break into table to discuss key issues

Check LinkedIn site for more information: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1898991 or contact me at ksaducas@microsoft.com.

We hope you can join us.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie