Disqus - Latest Comments for Kevin

Re: PDAs…

Kevin — Tue, 08 Oct 2002 06:44:57 -0000

Oh man... too cool!

I've been checking out the hip-top since you posted a mention of it on your site. Looks like it might be the ticket.

Re: MT 2.5

Kevin — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 14:55:42 -0000

I found that out when I ran it on my laptop first. On the laptop I have W2K w/apache and MySQL. When I ran the update it zipped right by and appeared to make about 5 minor changes to the structure of the database.

Other than that, like you said, the installation / upgrade on both Win32 and Linux was a breeze.

Re: Database work…

Kevin — Mon, 28 Oct 2002 16:24:04 -0000

he he... Na... that was just a Friday "whine". :-)

It was nothing to modify the database. It just drives me batty to do any additional work on that database when I know it REALLY needs to be done right. I have an idea what I want, but databases are just not my thing. Guess they're going to have to become "my thing" if I'm ever going to be satisfied with this thing.

Cross-referencing the data has been the biggest pain. I think I'm just about done with the data that I have. Now I just have to estimate the rest.

Re: IBM Deskstar DTLA-307075

Kevin — Mon, 04 Nov 2002 17:24:02 -0000

Hmmmm... Perhaps there's a trend here.

I REALLY need to run the DFT utility on these things and find out if they work or not. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow and write up an update.

Re: Stolen laptop…

Kevin — Fri, 08 Nov 2002 09:35:51 -0000

Ha ha...

Just take care good of it... that was a nice epson projector too. :-)

I really don't expect too much out of this experience other that the grief caused be the lost data.

Re: Girlie flix night…

Kevin — Sun, 10 Nov 2002 05:00:11 -0000

I thought 13 days was pretty good... It was very tense, you could feel the stress. I too like Costner, especially in his baseball flicks, For Love of the game, Bull Duram, and my all time fav, Field of Dreams. But Waterworld... now that's one he should have just said no to. :-)

Insomnia was pretty good. Al Pachino was really good as was Robin Williams. What I'm waiting to see of Robin Williams though is One Hour Photo. For whatever reason, I like RW movies, at least most of his latest ones. So far my favorite of his is "What Dreams May Come" -- cool effects.

Re: Backups for the Road Warriors

Kevin — Wed, 13 Nov 2002 12:35:43 -0000

When you say, "backs them up to the server" do you mean tape? or directly to a hard drive? If it's a hard drive, I'd be interested in how you did that. We run BE and have the agents available. If I can backup their systems remotely to a hard drive, that would be optimum.

Re: Backups for the Road Warriors

Kevin — Thu, 14 Nov 2002 04:17:23 -0000

Dang!!!

Must be the difference between v8.5 and v8.6.

I don't have the "backup to disk folders" tree item.

That would really make things easier too.

I wonder... I purchased 8.5 just a week or so before they released 8.6. Maybe I can talk them in to a "free" upgrade? (I'm not holding my breath though.)

:-)

Re: Backups for the Road Warriors

Kevin — Thu, 14 Nov 2002 11:14:29 -0000

I sent off a request to Veritas today. Come to find out, after checking my records I found that I actually purchased the product 2 weeks after they announced the availability of 8.6. Their press release was on 6/18/01 and my purchase was on 7/5. Surely you'd think they would grant the "free" upgrade since I was sold "older" product.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Re: IT is always an afterthought

Kevin — Fri, 15 Nov 2002 13:10:30 -0000

I REALLY like the idea of a paperless office. How do you go about cataloging everything though? Do you maintain a database? It would seem like you'd have to maintain some sort of document control system just for keeping track of what was what.

Having everything at your finger tips is something I'd LOVE to be able to do. My little palm m100 just doesn't seem up to the task, though it does get used quite a bit. (something else for the XMas list this year along with Mike).

:-)

Re: Broadband Delima

Kevin — Mon, 18 Nov 2002 17:39:41 -0000

Not a bad idea if I could. Since AT&T; is taking over the telephone mess as well, there goes the DSL.

Besides... I don't want to pay 2 bills.

:-)

Re: WalMart - Microtel Linux PC

Kevin — Sun, 24 Nov 2002 03:23:16 -0000

I believe it was the price tag that was the attraction. I don't think it will serve the purpose that he is intending, but at least we're getting one in for evaluation anyway.

Re: Strolling down memory lane…

Kevin — Wed, 27 Nov 2002 23:26:10 -0000

he... actually... it's not fuzzy at all!

(I flat out never knew that one)

:-)

Re: Broadband Delima

Kevin — Sun, 01 Dec 2002 13:10:18 -0000

Diecided to go for it, and am glad that I did!

-KHD

Re: IBM Deskstar Drives - DTLA-307075

Kevin — Sun, 01 Dec 2002 13:21:09 -0000

UPDATE
I have installed the replaced drive in to a machine and installed Red Hat 8.0 with no problems whatsoever.

-KHD

Re: Today’s the day…

Kevin — Tue, 03 Dec 2002 06:32:55 -0000

After the installation, I went over to www.dslreports.com and ran a speed check. It appears that they have me limited to 1.54Mb/s down, and 256Kb/s up. As far as my down speeds, I was seeing about 1.2-1.3 Mb/s. Up was maxed at around the 256k.

I'm liking it. :-)

Re: WARNING: Laptops Harmful to Men

Kevin — Tue, 03 Dec 2002 06:35:04 -0000

I'm always sceptical of these kinds of stories... What cracked my up the most though was that it was Reuters and CNN who was reporting this... must have been a REAL SLOW news day. :-)

Re: VCDJB and IPv6 Stuff

Kevin — Tue, 03 Dec 2002 14:28:29 -0000

It's a 950MHz Celeron with a 128MB RAM and a 70GB HDD. (hope that's what you're asking. )

:-)

Re: Kids… Keep an eye on them

Kevin — Wed, 04 Dec 2002 12:10:33 -0000

Thanks for pointing out my typo... WHOEVER you are.

A word of advice though... you should go easy on the caffine.

:-)

Re: Dell Axim Update…

Kevin — Wed, 11 Dec 2002 02:52:16 -0000

Actually... most of the accessories I purchased additionally at the time of purchase. The 128MB SD Card, the zip up carrier, the cradle and travel cables.

One other accessory that isn't pictured, that I picked up seperately, is a wireless adapter. A LinkSys Wireless Network CF Card (802.11b).

Now that it's charged up, I'm ready to tinker.

:-)

Re: Minor Blog Updates…

Kevin — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 16:21:06 -0000

So far it's great...

It took a couple of days before I had enough time to drop it in and set it up, but once I did I was online in no time.

First thing I did was fire up the browser to see what I could see... hence the motivation to make my blog mobile friendly. :-)

Re: Grrr… WalMart/Microtel/Lycoris

Kevin — Tue, 17 Dec 2002 15:48:14 -0000

Oh... I don't doubt that. From what I gathered from Microtel Technical Support, there should have been 2 labels with the Lycoris Product ID postcard, one with the User ID (user) and the other the System ID (root).

My card at 2 labels, however they were both "user" labels... no root.

Re: Cool things with a Mini-ITX mainboard…

Kevin — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 06:24:48 -0000

Now THAT is cool!

This kinda gives me an itch to tinker.

:-)

Re: Busy Monday…

Kevin — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 18:55:06 -0000

test

Re: Grrr… WalMart/Microtel/Lycoris

Kevin — Sat, 21 Dec 2002 18:57:12 -0000

For user, try user.123 for the password, and for the system (root) password, try system.123

Keep in mind, these should all be lowercase.

Hope that helps.

-KHD

Re: SPAM is killing me…

Kevin — Tue, 24 Dec 2002 05:02:08 -0000

Thanks for the comments... I'm not running an open relay, I've tested that. What I'm doing is using postfix to receive mail destined for our domain for which it then passes it on to the Exchange server. The problem is that 1) I'm relying on Exchange to validate the recipient as an actual user in our domain, and 2) the spammers are utilizing bogus from addresses. Thus when it's determined by the Exchange server that the recipient does not exist, it tries to reject the message rejecting it back to the bogus address.

The only way that I think I may be able to counter this is to enforce reverse name lookups on the client sending the mail to match the from address by FQDN. However, I'm almost certain that I will be rejecting legitimate e-mail messages from some of our dealers.

I'm really quite confused about how to stop these forged from addresses.

Re: $199 WalMart PC Evaluation

Kevin — Tue, 24 Dec 2002 05:50:34 -0000

Ron: Glad I could help... just in time for Christmas.

Have a great one!

Re: It’s a tie…

Kevin — Sat, 28 Dec 2002 06:54:35 -0000

It was a blast! What was so funny about the goalie fight was that everyone was distracted with a different fight and then all of a sudden we look at center ice and they were going at it.

I don't know if I embarrassed my son or not... at 16 years old, sometimes Dad's can do that. But we both had a great time regardless.

Re: Last day of the year…

Kevin — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 11:10:53 -0000

Thanks! I appreciate that. Ditto the compliment.

It's been interesting to see the development of different sites surrounding the various interests that I have. What makes it even more interesting is to see much of the same people visiting those same sites.

Blogging has been a great experience so far and it has helped me on numerous occassions in my job and personal interests. Not to mention the creation of new acquaintances that I probably would never had made otherwise.

Re: Microsoft’s Auto Update “Feature”

Kevin — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 18:43:27 -0000

Thanks for the info... I've used qchain before. But qchain isn't of much use if the user is utilizing the Automatic Update facility that replaced the critical updates notification. The Automatic Update facility always "requires" a reboot for the changes to take effect.

What I've done in the past though is wait until the end of the day to do the updates. That way, instead of rebooting, I just do a shutdown. (That's as long as I remember) :-)

Re: GeoCaching

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jan 2003 04:19:12 -0000

Nope... Army. Ft. Hood, Texas. over 300 square miles of military campground. And oh... we went camping a LOT! :-)

Re: CY-8960 Woes… STILL!!!

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jan 2003 17:45:58 -0000

I have found that the combination of these drives teamed up with Veritas Backup Exec tend to require the Veritas version of the driver, regardless if there is an updated driver from Microsoft OR Exabyte.

Once my drive was replaced, I had some other errors that were affiliated with my power supply. If you've done everything else, I would check that. Even though it seems fine, try a new, strong, quality power supply and see what happens.

Looking at Brit's post above yours... I should locate my message to him too and post that.

Hope that helps, let me know if it doesn't. I get a LOT of hits on my site with searches for Cybernetics, Exabyte, Backup Exec keywords.

Good luck.

-KHD

Re: LCD Replacement

Kevin — Tue, 07 Jan 2003 07:44:35 -0000

When this unit was purchased, we selected the 3 year warranty, the first year being parts and labor, and the 2nd and 3rd years being parts only.

Since this unit was nearing the end of its 2nd year, Dell presented me with the option of paying for technician to come on site at $179 flat rate, or to do it myself. After confirming that if I did it myself that the remainder of my warranty would not be invalidated, I opted to do it myself.

I'm glad that I did too... it only took about 30 minutes to complete and I saved my company $179.00!

-KHD

Re: New “Fred” ads from CDW

Kevin — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 17:51:00 -0000

I did a quick search on google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie;=UTF-8&oe;=UTF-8&q;=capturing+streaming+video) and came up with the following link http://www.thefab.net/articles/video_streaming.htm.

I haven't used this piece of software, but it might get you pointed in the right direction.

Good luck.

-KHD

Re: New “Fred” ads from CDW

Kevin — Sat, 11 Jan 2003 03:51:32 -0000

That's a good question that I don't have an answer to. You might check with CDW and see if they make them available some how.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

-KHD

Re: About

Kevin — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 14:21:34 -0000

uh... arrepentido... no habla espaol.

-KHD

Re: Now THIS is the ticket…

Kevin — Fri, 17 Jan 2003 08:05:15 -0000

That's because your browser is TRYing to help you and interpreting the files as XML documents when in reality they're nothing but templates to generate XML files. Thus the error.

Go back to the links and right-click and save the link (or file) to your local drive. Then open with an editor and do a cut and paste to your MT templates.

Andrew has some additional tweaks within his how-to that 1)sets up the RSS feeds to include the entire body of each message instead of just an excerpt, and 2) the inclusion of the comments link. This way, you can simply click on the link from within your aggregator and be taken directly to the comments page of that post. Very nice.

Andrew's how-to is at http://www.aedunn.com/blog/mtrssfeed.txt

Let me know if you have any questions... I'm glad to help.

Re: LCD Replacement

Kevin — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 04:03:00 -0000

I have no clue... Might be better off to ask Dell.

My LCD was a warranty replacement so I wasn't concerned with part numbers.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

-KHD

Re: I think I caught something…

Kevin — Fri, 24 Jan 2003 08:43:11 -0000

Actually I've been thinking about a Mac for some time now, just not out loud. However, with your recent purchase, reading about everyone else's experiences with OS X, and finally, my installation experiece with OS X today and yesterday. I think I may be ready to take the plunge.

Not ready to commit just yet, but I'm pretty eager to take a much closer look.

Now if I can figure out a way to obtain some apps like Office v.X for $15... ;-)

I haven't been able to locate anything like that through my UoPhx stuff... with acedemic ID card or not.

:-)

Re: Hey… where did the filenames go?

Kevin — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 18:18:46 -0000

Yep... you're absolutely right.

doh!

Re: Ouch… Now that’s going to leave a mark!

Kevin — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 12:02:17 -0000

Well... there's really not much to see. All that happened was that it got extremely sluggish and eventually unresponsive. Finally, a dialog popped up stating that memory had become corrupt and to press a specific button to correct. If that didn't work, to do a hard reset by pressing the on button and reset at the same time. Doing the hard reset dumped EVERYTHING out of memory.

So... now its time to reinstall everything. Good thing I didn't have too much installed, but what I did have that was important to me was saved. Unfortunately, it appears to be a problem with the synchronization that continues to corrupt it. I've already done a hard reset 3 or 4 times now.

I'm going to wait until later tonight to tinker with it some more.

-KHD

Re: $199 WalMart PC Evaluation

Kevin — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 16:55:37 -0000

It came as part of the package... No special order.

-KHD

Re: SPAM Filters

Kevin — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 18:03:13 -0000

It depends on what you're wanting to do...

I can point you in the right direction however, if you're looking for a step-by-step how-to, I'm afraid I can't help.

If you can provide me with some more information I can see what I can do. What all have you attempted so far?

-KHD

Re: Ouch… Now that’s going to leave a mark!

Kevin — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 12:20:13 -0000

Unfortunately, I don't recall which applications were running, the only one that I can confirm for certain was active sync.

Chain of events:

1. hooked up axim to sync cable, sync'd with desktop (outlook and avantgo).
2. system sat idle without unhooking it from the cable for about an hour and a half.
3. disconnected from sync cable, clicked on Start button, received a tone, but delayed action.
4. Upon no visual reaction I tried to turn the unit off. It would not turn off.
5. Pressed the reset button on the side. Upon boot up only received a blank white body and a blue header, but nothing else.
6. After cycling the unit a few times, received an error message saying that memory had become corrupt and to press the left-hand button next to the d-pad. If that did not resolve it to then do a hard reset by holding down the power button and reset button down at the same time.
7. System cleared its memory and responded normally.
8. Attempted to establish another link in order to resynchronize the unit with my desktop. Sync appeared to work properly, but unit would not function properly--extremely sluggish.
9. trim down synchronizing items to that of only my calendar items from Outlook. After sync, attempted to use the unit, once again found it extremely sluggish.
10. Hard reset the unit again, but have not messed with it since. Probably will later on this evening.

-KHD

Re: Win32 Oddities - Unable to Expand System Variables

Kevin — Tue, 04 Feb 2003 10:49:27 -0000

Man... I couldn't agree more.

Too bad I didn't have a blog 3 years ago. :-)

Re: Sorry? Because we did the “right thing?”

Kevin — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 04:19:04 -0000

I suppose so...

I could understand a statement along the lines of "Sorry for the inconvenience", but "Sorry" or "Sorry about that" should be something he would say to his manager, not me.

Of course, that makes an assumption that 1) it is expected that I would have brought it back in to pay for it, though I'm not confident that everyone would have (though had he insinuated just the opposite I guess I would have been insulted) and 2) that $15 was nothing to his company.

I don't know... Just seemed odd to me.

BTW... I can now get back in the house from the garage. :-)

Re: Is this what blogging is all about?

Kevin — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 04:32:35 -0000

Dennis,

I know what you mean. Wading through all of the fodder on Google to get to the nugget. It's still an indispensable tool for me.

I can understand a brief comment within another entry that might state how popular a specific post has become, and especially in the instance of a 3 to 3000 hit increase, it's like to be a big deal to that person. But when you see some of the bloggers who are pushing to legitimize the act of blogging as a form of journalism doing this, they are distinctly showing the difference between the mediums.

Perhaps I'm oblivious to it, but when was that last time you picked up a newspaper and read a column solely dedicated to how popular their last column was?

I just think that if the A-list bloggers want to succeed at their quest, they should perhaps be a bit more humble about it. For many, people are already stroking them on a job well done--isn't that enough?

-KHD

Re: Is this what blogging is all about?

Kevin — Sun, 09 Feb 2003 04:47:32 -0000

Josh,

Same here...

My primary goal was to share my experiences with other IT folks and hopefully get something back in return. Blogging has definitely been a powerful tool for me so far. I think Mike said it best the other day in his post about blogging at work:

"Since I don't have a peer group at work, you guys become my peer group to bounce ideas off of, and to share knowledge with. Posting here during the day adds to my ability to do my job, because it allows me to learn about technology in a way that I wouldn't if I didn't have this forum."

I don't think I could say it any better.

-KHD

Re: Surplus Corporate Computers - Wiping Disks Clean

Kevin — Mon, 10 Feb 2003 15:21:16 -0000

Simply format a bootable disk from MS-DOS or Windows 95/98. Then copy the files mentioned above that don't require creation.

The steps pointed out above are pretty simple.

Re: One LONG day without power

Kevin — Sun, 16 Feb 2003 15:31:00 -0000

Nah... but I might suggest trying to watch it over a 2 or 3 settings instead of 1 marathon. I know there are a couple of episodes that I'm going to have to watch again due to dozing off. :-)

I'm really eager now to get the Baseball documentary by Ken Burns. I've seen a couple of episodes of it when they ran it on PBS, but I'd REALLY like to get this one for the collection. Maybe my wife will be kind for my birthday. ;-)

Re: Online log book…

Kevin — Mon, 24 Feb 2003 09:40:28 -0000

Josh,

Thanks for the recommendations... I've thought about a wiki... I like the ability to link everything together effortlessly.

I haven't looked at tuxcards... I'll take a look.

Thanks!

-KHD

Re: Online log book… Part II

Kevin — Tue, 25 Feb 2003 05:24:46 -0000

Now THAT would be cool!

-KHD

Re: Dell Inspiron 2650

Kevin — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:38:31 -0000

Markus,

You might be better served by checking with Dell for a document. A quick, simply search of google produced one for the 7000 series. I would bet Dell has something in writing for the 2650 as well.

Good luck!

-KHD

Re: I’ve got a new employer…

Kevin — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 17:34:35 -0000

Thanks... I was pretty relieved to finally get the details. There has been speculation that this was going to happen for the past few weeks. Nice for it to finally be out in the open.

BTW... Congrats to you too Kevin. Perhaps you too should start a blog? we could ALWAYS use another T-List blogger on the net!

;-)

Re: I’ve got a new employer…

Kevin — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 00:41:41 -0000

Thanks!

No kidding? I'm sure I'll be heading back that way at some point, but way too soon to know.

-KHD

Re: LCD Replacement

Kevin — Tue, 04 Mar 2003 15:48:44 -0000

The answer to your question has already been answered above.

Re: A bit more on the aquisition…

Kevin — Thu, 06 Mar 2003 18:02:47 -0000

Ha!! A blog comment from my long time buddy!

Yes... I'm coming back to Notes! I downloaded the trial the other day to start checking it out, but haven't found the time to tinker yet. Looking forward to it though!

-KHD

Re: A WiFi good time today…

Kevin — Fri, 07 Mar 2003 18:28:48 -0000

Alex: Simply past experience. I have one here at the house--besides the fact CDW could have it to me overnight. :-)

Chad: Win2K. Utilizing a profile for the WAPs with WEP enabled, I could connect to the WAP just fine. As soon as I would fire up Netstumbler, the connection would drop causing me to either reboot or eject the card and re-insert it. If I ran the card in Default mode, and NOT establish a connection with the WAPs, then I could fire up NetStumbler and get signal strength readings from all of the WAPs.

I'd certainly be interested in anything that you've worked out with this card.

-KHD

Re: $199 WalMart PC Evaluation

Kevin — Thu, 20 Mar 2003 08:12:34 -0000

From memory, once within the OS, the machine seemed OK performance-wise. At least enough so that it kept my teenage son entertained surfing the web and such when I brought him into the office with me one weekend. Then again, a web browser isn't pushing the OS either.

Overall, I would have to say the performance of the machine once everything was up and running was on par with all other inicators of the machine.

Simply put, it's an entry-level machine and nothing more.

-KHD

Re: Lotus Notes

Kevin — Thu, 27 Mar 2003 16:53:11 -0000

It's not really a matter of whether or not I like Notes better than Exchange, but rather, Lotus Notes is the company standard that is being enforced. I've had experience with both and consider them rather comparable. In this instance, I'm stoked about it because, even though I've used Notes before, I can consider it something new.

Besides... putting Domino on Linux sounds liek it'll be a hoot anyway. :-) Plus, I'm dying to do some tinkering... all of this school work and merger business is really draining me.

Re: How about THAT for a mechanic

Kevin — Fri, 11 Apr 2003 17:33:02 -0000

I'll bet you're right... thank goodness I never had to. Did have a blast though at Fort Hood -- while using blanks! :-)

Re: Updated my Axim

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2003 05:20:57 -0000

No kidding... that's good to know.

I did have to create a new partnership, copy over my backup to the new profile, then perform the restoration.

Thanks for the tip!

-KHD

Re: LTSP

Kevin — Mon, 14 Apr 2003 05:33:59 -0000

You might be better served by checking out the LTSP web site rather than having me try to explain it.

http://www.ltsp.org

-KHD

Re: MS-Exchange Issues

Kevin — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 10:17:42 -0000

You are correct; however, that is if you can locate a copy of the 5.5 Enterprise edition. In addition, if you were going to make that kind of leap, why not venture on to Exchange 2000?

At this point, for us, it's a moot point anyway. We're in the middle of a merger and the new parent company is forcing us to go to Lotus Notes. :-)

Oh well... Thanks for the input though.

-KHD

Re: Stirring up a hornets nest…

Kevin — Thu, 17 Apr 2003 17:03:01 -0000

Oh Dude... I had one guy who was at 1.3GB! And 2 more coming up on 1GB.

My push this week to establish an auto-archiving method to a local .PST file worked pretty well. Plus getting rid of the 15GB+ of .PST files on the server helped tremendously. I'm sloooowly tweaking down the limits. 500MB now, 300MB in a week and perhaps down to 200MB the week after. Simply implementing these measures has come as a shock to the users. The next steps should go pretty smoothly.

Re: Weekend Wrap-up

Kevin — Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:02:31 -0000

Thanks... I'm hoping this thing does heal fast, there's just too many things on my plate that I need to get done.

Josh: Thanks, I appreciate that. I think in anothet day or two I should be able to operate that kicker even with one hand!

:-)

Re: The TiVo is Here!

Kevin — Tue, 22 Apr 2003 18:31:43 -0000

And with one less paw even!

:-)

Re: Pondering the ACM

Kevin — Tue, 13 May 2003 16:23:58 -0000

Very intersting perspective Frank, thanks for the info. I'd be coming more from the operations side of things rather than a systems programmer. Primarily what I'm looking for is a group with an IT focus with a bent on management. The ACM seemed to be one of a few that might fill that need.

Thanks again for the input!

-KHD

Re: Very handy hack for mobile users…

Kevin — Sun, 18 May 2003 10:04:27 -0000

Step 12 within the link explains that...

http://www.jsifaq.com/sube/tip2200/rh2240.htm

-KHD

Re: No e-mail for us…

Kevin — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 14:23:48 -0000

We're running R5.

Taking a company of Outlook/Exchange users and dropping them into an app like Notes R5 has been an incredibly painful process. There is just so much bitching and whining that it's unbelievable.

I certainly with our new parent company would upgrade to R6 as I'm sure that many of the user's complaints would be resolved. Then again, until they place a server on-site (which is VERY unlikely to happen), these users are going to continue to bitch and complain.

Re: Geocaching…

Kevin — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 14:27:06 -0000

Yep... there's even another guy at work who has been turned on to it. In the next couple of weeks we're going to go out at lunch and check out some caches around work. Fun stuff!

We're getting ready to head out on vacation this next week--going down to visit my parents and spend a few days at Lake Tahoe. I plan to print out some caches for both areas and see if we can find some. Ought to be fun.

:-)

Re: Happy Birthday Justin

Kevin — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 16:32:42 -0000

LOL!! That's too funny!

Re: More on blog spam…

Kevin — Sat, 11 Oct 2003 09:05:25 -0000

OK... So let's see if this works now. :-)

Re: Mandatory System Checks

Kevin — Wed, 05 Nov 2003 05:00:49 -0000

You're absolutely correct... I have no enforcement capabilities so it IS possible that a PC could get on the network without being checked.

I like the logon script idea, and did consider it, however, most of the visitors are from a different domain thus authenticate over the wire to a foreign DC and run a myriad of different logon scripts. Here in my domain, all users run a single logon script. Since my problem is with visiting machines, it's not easy to nip this one in the bud.

So... I'm relying on the diligence of my co-workers / customer base to cooperate with my request. So far, as tends to be the case here, I've had really good support from my users. Granted, the one's having their PCs checked aren't too jovial about it, but once I explain what's going on they warm right up.

As for the visiting users from the site that does not have an on-site IT person, they're loving the attention.

In all... it's not an air-tight solution, but it is a step further in the right direction to solving this problem.

-KHD

Re: SAS

Kevin — Sun, 16 Nov 2003 08:46:23 -0000

Thanks Andy!

As a matter of fact, I believe that it was your site where I first learned of SUS. Sorry I didn't cite it.

I'm definitely going to check it out, besides... it's a great excuse for some more hardware. :-)

-KHD

Re: Blogrolling Replacement?

Kevin — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 09:39:26 -0000

Wow... maybe I CAN have my cake and eat it too! I'm going to check this out for sure now.

I'm much the same way, If I can't see it via RSS, then it's not likely to be seen (by me).

Re: BGInfo - wrong info

Kevin — Tue, 02 Dec 2003 10:15:21 -0000

Good question... unfortunately, since it's a laptop ..AND.. still under warranty, I don't dare pop the hood to see.

The support tech tried to tell me that it's Intel's SpeedStep technology at work. Even plugged in it runs at 1.6GHz and when the CPU utilization get high enough, it'll step up to 2.3GHz.

Sounds reasonable enough, but I want it to run full-tilt when I'm plugged in. So I tested... used a utility to peg out the CPU and then measured... Nope. Still sitting at 1.6GHz.

I'd say this thing is poop.

Re: SpeedStep - Phooey…

Kevin — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 16:34:23 -0000

That's BGInfo... When I first blogged on this issue, I thought it was a bug in BGInfo that was causing the problem. Once I found the Intel Utility, I knew differently.

It's a freeware DL from SysInternals.

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/bginfo.shtml

As for the AV Dat info... that's simply displaying info from the Registry.

I have taken and configured BGInfo that way that I want it for our environment, and then created an install script to package it all up into a .EXE. I can't recall if its a NSIS script or another one.

I can post the script here along with the free packager/compiler info so you can compile your own.

-KHD

Re: The DVD Christmas Card is FINISHED!

Kevin — Thu, 11 Dec 2003 18:19:30 -0000

Thanks... It was a LOT of work in a short time, but it was a blast to do.

It's gotten my creative juices flowing... I'm looking forward to creating a new one.

Re: SpeedStep - Phooey…

Kevin — Fri, 12 Dec 2003 11:02:40 -0000

If it's within the return period, I'd take it back to CompUSA and have them replace it... it's NOT what you ordered!

If it's outside of the return period, the only option is going to be to work with HP to get them to replace it. The most difficult part is going to be to convince them that the speedstep is NOT working! Getting that through their thick skulls is the challenge.

Thanks for sharing your info... I'd like to see more folks step forward.

-KHD

Re: Prime Rib Day Tomorrow…

Kevin — Tue, 23 Dec 2003 16:48:43 -0000

He he... well, it is a roast... but MAN is it going to be AWESOME!

I'd love to try one of these on the grill... Perhaps I'll give that a shot some time this next summer.

Merry Christmas!

-KHD

Re: BGInfo - wrong info

Kevin — Mon, 05 Jan 2004 07:23:07 -0000

Awesome!

I'm definitely going to give this a whirl!

Thanks a million!

-KHD

Re: Explorer.exe - Unable to locate component

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:33:59 -0000

Someone else had this same comment. If I'm not mistaken, either a re-install of IE resolved or the replacement of the file from the installation CD did it.

You might try either of these two methods and post back with your results.

HTH

-KHD

Re: Explorer.exe - Unable to locate component

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 14:12:34 -0000

I haven't come upon this error myself, but it appears amazingly similar to my original error--only a different .DLL.

If it were me, I would attempt the same steps as with UxTheme.dll. The steps to attempt this are outlined very well be other readers further up in this thread.

I hope this helps. If it does or does not, please check back and fill us in on what works or does not.

Good luck!

-KHD

Re: Daily Wrap Up

Kevin — Sat, 24 Jan 2004 04:27:40 -0000

Try Dell's support site. As long as you have the Service ID, you can easily access the drivers area with minimal effort.

Good luck.

-KHD

Re: Superbowl Halftime Show

Kevin — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 13:01:59 -0000

Thank you TiVo!!! ;-)

Re: Policy versus Productivity

Kevin — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 15:15:06 -0000

Jonathan,

I agree with many of your points and observations. My primary beef is concerning inflexible policies that disrupt productivity. Yes, I too believe in anti virus everywhere. But I don't feel policies should be so inflexible that certain classes of users are penalized for simply doing what they need to do to get their jobs done. By creating such policies, one tends to find those same users taking matters into their own hands and working outside of the system. Now IT is operating in an adversarial role rather than a cooperative working relationship.

If I could move away from McAfee, I would in a hearbeat. Unfortunately, this is a corporate decision that was made by Corporate IT in the U.K. Even when throttling back CPU usage by McAfee it is painful. If the users were at least able to alter the schedule as to when a system scan was performed, it would be a big step forward. But to force a scan at noon every Friday essentially knock developers out of commision of an afternoon.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate your point of view.

-KHD

Re: This is just out of control…

Kevin — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 02:35:46 -0000

Perhaps you are correct... at least had I not had that morning off due to another commitment.

Thanks for the comment though.

-KHD

Re: Superbowl Halftime Show…

Kevin — Fri, 06 Feb 2004 02:37:54 -0000

Sorry folks... this topic is boring me to tears. Thanks for all the comments, but I'm shutting them off on this topic.

-KHD

Re: Finally locked down…

Kevin — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 03:27:53 -0000

Well, currently I know of 2 Linksys units, my neighbors' and mine. Outside of that 3 block radius though, I did a couple of stumbles on my way home back in August.

http://blog.thedevins.com/archives/000433.php
http://blog.thedevins.com/archives/000436.php

Re: Teddy Bears…

Kevin — Sat, 21 Feb 2004 06:07:16 -0000

It's a matter of logistics...

1. He attends pre-school from 8:30 until noon
2. His school is on the other side of town, 20+ miles

Since it's only pre-school, we don't feel all that bad if he misses a day here and there. If he were in Kindergarten or higher, we would feel differently.

-KHD

Re: Ouch…

Kevin — Sun, 22 Feb 2004 11:10:19 -0000

Yeah... well I just hope it's not my skull. I haven't invested in a brain bucket for the slopes just yet... but perhaps I should?

:-)

Re: The Dark Tower series

Kevin — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 10:57:03 -0000

So far it's been great! I'm looking forward to the next one. Best of all though, as I stated, was the reclaiming of time that I'm getting out of it. It's awesome!

Re: IT Blogs on Channel 9

Kevin — Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:09:03 -0000

I know... I was simply poking fun at my readers, nothing more.

Re: Q308402 - Invalid Administrator Password

Kevin — Tue, 11 May 2004 04:50:52 -0000

Actually sort of did already. I have the Administrator's Kit from SysInternals. Resetting the password had no effect.

In the end, I had to perform a parallel installation just to get XP to write to the MBR. Didn't even have to fire up the new installation.

I'm back in business now ..AND.. I have the additional 10GB as well.

:-)

Re: Anyone else experienced this?

Kevin — Tue, 11 May 2004 09:18:04 -0000

Yep... looks like it might be the mouse. The user DID indeed have an external mouse attached to this box. (I should have spotted this one sooner).

Once the problem resurfaced we removed the mouse and all is well again. Going to keep an eye on this machine for a couple more days before stating that it's fixed.

Re: Q308402 - Invalid Administrator Password

Kevin — Tue, 11 May 2004 09:27:02 -0000

I don't think it is/was a problem with Locksmith per se... As Q308402 states, "This error message may occur even though you typed the correct password. If you start Windows XP, successfully log on by using the same password, change the local administrator's password, and restart the computer to Recovery Console, you receive the same error message."

It goes on to say "Sysprep.exe makes changes to the way that password keys are stored in the registry; these changes are not compatible with the Recovery Console logon routine."

I think Locksmith was doing its job, as would have the ntpasswd boot disk. It's just the Sysprep was flawed and caused the problem. The part I don't understand though is... this was supposedly fixed with SP1. I have SP1 installed, why didn't it work? Was it just because I didn't have the C:\CMDCONS installed? I'm going to see if I can't repair this and get my Recovery Console to working.

:-)

Re: Tent City 4

Kevin — Mon, 17 May 2004 18:39:34 -0000

Marina,

Thanks for the comment. In all honesty, I wasn't aware that it was St. Brendan's who made an offer during the Brickyard protest. I truly hadn't paid that much attention. I was only aware that 3 different churches had made offers. Additionally, during the two informational meetings that I attended Saturday and Sunday evenings, I learned that the original offer that Father Minder was making was for hosting a tent city perhaps 90 days down the road. It wasn't until the threat of the lawsuit arose did Father Minder commit the churches property, and our neighborhood, for immediate use.

My take isn't that I'm "happy" to see the tent city in my neighborhood, but as long as they live up to their claims, I have no problem with them being here. I realize that they need a place to pitch their tents and I'm willing to do my part as a "good neighbor." However, as I stated, I'm just not pleased about the way that it came about.

As for the Brickyard folks... All I can say is that I'm ashamed of the way that they have portrayed the residents of Bothell. I agree with them 100% though that they too were steamrolled by Ron Sims and Carolyn Edmonds by their stalling since November of 2003, when appropriations were passed regarding this issue (only to be vetoed by Ron Sims). I believe it could have perhaps been handled a little more diplomatically than how it has been depicted over, and over, on the news.

The intent of St. Brendan is to provide these folks, the inhabitants of TC4, with a place to pitch their tents while they continue to negotiate with Ron Sims and King County on a permanent solution. However, it is my opinion, and made pretty evident by the absence of a King County representative during each of the two informational meetings, the negotiations will not be complete by the end of this 90-day period.

With regards to attempting to persuade St Brendan to withdraw its offer, I was simply late to the party. It wasn't until Friday afternoon, when I learned about the agreement between King County, St Brendan, and SHARE/WHEEL, that I took it upon myself to get educated as quickly as possible.

I can't do much at this point except be a good neighbor to my new neighbors, hope that they will do the same, and focus my efforts on getting Ron Sims and the King County Council to act, and to act in a responsible manner upon which they were elected to do so.

Thanks again for the comment

-KHD

Re: CiceroUIWndFrame

Kevin — Sat, 22 May 2004 03:32:23 -0000

Angus,

Thank you for your comments. I've heard conflicting stories as well concerning whether or not MDAC 2.8 resolves the problem or not. I have found, as you pointed out, that the removal of the speech and handwriting recognition features of MS-Office to be the most effective.

The only thing that I can think of that might suggest MDAC 2.8 resolving the issue is perhaps if it was applied AFTER office was installed as opposed to being installed by default.

Just a thought.

-KHD

Re: How ethical is this?

Kevin — Sat, 22 May 2004 03:46:41 -0000

Chad,

That's a good point. I hadn't really considered the personal tasks part, I do those as well for many of the same reasons that you pointed out. But I still think that there is a line when it comes to using company resources on company time to answer questions concerning company experiences to make additional money for me.

I agree, being a clock watcher and IT simply don't mix and therefore I would expect some form of flexibility as you point out. But there just seems to be something fundamentally wrong to me to actually make additional $$ to what I'm already being paid while on the company's time.

I suppose, for the sake of my brain, if I was to walk out into the parking lot to participate in the survey via my cell phone, then perhaps I could attribute it to just another "personal task." But even that one is a stretch.

-KHD

Re: Another Memory

Kevin — Sat, 12 Jun 2004 17:59:34 -0000

Most likely the job market. He doesn't want to go into the military or to college. Perhaps the college thing might change in a couple of years, but for now, he needs to get a job!

:-)

Re: Sorry… My “Emergency” queue is full

Kevin — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 03:45:54 -0000

If I remember correctly, my only recourse was to restore the database from backup.

-KHD

Re: Great Weekend

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 04:27:46 -0000

Thanks... he LOVES the lake. :-)

Unfortunately, this is the first that I've heard of the dinner, and of course, I'm a day late. I've been to a couple of dinners at the Crossroads, but a Bothell Blogger dinner would have been cool.

-KHD

Re: Great Weekend

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 07:20:43 -0000

Unfortunately, I've been pre-occupied with other things in my life and haven't had a chance to puruse my referrer log as often as I'd like.

Any more, if it doesn't show up in my mailbox like a comment or trackback, I'm likely to miss it.

However, now that I'm aware of the next one... I'll be on the lookout. ;-)

-KHD

Re: The Migration Ends…

Kevin — Mon, 13 Sep 2004 16:43:59 -0000

Thanks... everything went pretty well. Users were pretty pleased. We had numerous comments that users couldn't tell a difference -- JUST what I was shooting for!

One think that REALLY helped speed things up was the steps we took.
- Cleared the user's temporary Internet files,
- Moved the user's contents of "My Documents" folder to a temporary folder,
- Deleted the contents of the TEMP folder within the users profile area.

After performing these three steps, we joined the PC to the domain, rebooted, logged in with the new account, logged out/logged in as local administrator, then copied the user's profile to the new area. Once complete, we moved the user's "My Documents" to the new profile.

Right, wrong or indifferent, it worked like a charm!

;-)

Re: An awesome tool…

Kevin — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 12:57:22 -0000

Now THAT is a cool script!

Thanks for the info Garrett!

-KHD

Re: SysFader error

Kevin — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 05:41:53 -0000

My symptoms seem to have "faded" away. Sorry... I couldn't help myself.

The machine in question is my laptop at work. It's running Win2K SP4. It seems that as I recall, there was an update for IE6 SP1 that I applied that got this mess started in the first place. I took and re-applied SP4 and everything seemed just fine. I went back to Windows Update and applied another update to IE6 SP1, and the problem re-appeared.

I then uninstalled the IE6 SP1 update and the problem went away. This was the GDI+ update that I just removed which concerned me when I started looking into it further. Now, this CAN'T be the same update that started this mess as my problem arose a couple weeks before the GDI+ update even appeared.

So... I've since, re-applied the GDI+ update and come this next week I should see if the symptoms have returned.

In the meantime, I'm going ot see what IE updates have appeared in the past 2 months and see if there are any similar files within the updates.

I'd be interested to hear anyone else's experience with this mess.

-KHD

Re: Adventures with SpyWare…

Kevin — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 13:27:27 -0000

Hey Mike,

Yep... That's pretty much what was going on. Once the thing was active, it was nearly impossible to stop until I rebooted in safe mode.

Finally got it cleared up though, but WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS!

-KHD

Re: Ah… A day I’ve been waiting for

Kevin — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 06:58:27 -0000

umm... depends on who's asking. ;-)

Re: Peering inside Nikon’s D3 and D300

Kevin — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:34:08 -0000

Any time man...

I'm actually trying to figure out how I can make the leap to the newly announced 40D that Canon announced. Not sure how I'm going to pull that one off... I'd REALLY prefer to invest in some L- Series lenses.

Re: The Best for Last

Kevin — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:50:28 -0000

Happy Birthday dude! Have one for me. :-)