Issue 24250 - chromium-os - Facebook.com: webcam doesn't work - Chromium OS - the open source project behind Google Chrome OS - Google Project Hosting

In the latear Beta Chromebook OS, access to the built in Webcam\Microphone is proving tricky for flash. You can change your flash security settings in order to ebable certain websites access without asking.

Visit:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager06.html

Issue 24250 - chromium-os - Facebook.com: webcam doesn't work - Chromium OS - the open source project behind Google Chrome OS - Google Project Hosting: 'via Blog this'

Linksys SRW Switch CLI | tepasom.com

Hidden CLI for Linksys SRW switches:

1.) ssh, telnet, or console into the switch as you normally would. Do not use the http/web interface.
2.) Log in with the menu system, using a valid, existing, account.
2.a) Provide the username and password, then "execute".
2.b) The "Operation complete" response is received. Press any key.
3.) At the "Switch Main Menu", Press CTRL+z.
4.) A carrot > command line will appear. Type in "lcli" (Light-weight Command Line Interface?) and press Enter.

Commands available are:

clear Reset functions

clock Manage the system clock

configure Enter configuration mode

copy Copy from one file to another

crypto Cryptographic commands

debug-mode Exit from the EXEC to debug mode

delete Delete a file from the flash file system

disable Disable privileged commands

dot1x 802.1x EXEC commands

exit Exit from the EXEC

help Description of the interactive help system

login Exit from the EXEC and Log in

no Negate command

ping Send echo messages

reload Halt and perform a cold restart

resume Resume telnet session.

set Set System Parameters

show Show running system information

telnet Open telnet session.

terminal Set current session functions

test diagnose

traceroute Discover the routes to destination

Thanks to:

Linksys SRW Switch CLI | tepasom.com: 'via Blog this'

The mcli password 'adminmcli' was found here:
http://lcli.wikidot.com/mcli

All old blog posts now redirected

I spent a bit of time today redirecting all the old blog posts (from my local Community Server install) to their new location (custom domain on Blogger).

I eventually decided to stop the existing Community Server site and run a blank website in it's place.
I then used the free version of Helicon Tech's ISAPI_Rewrite to redirect all the old Community Server paths to the new Blogger location, a simple robots.txt refirect, and then threw in  a wildcard redirect at the end to catch any other links (including comments that I didn't copy across).

It was actually quite easy to do in the end but needed to be done as adsense was still showing 10x more visits to the old blog as opposed to the new one. Also, since the fit of the new 100Mb line, I haven't had the port forwarded to the old server.

I'll run it for a while until all the search engines are updated and I can then finally drop my local server.

The product can be found here:
http://www.isapirewrite.com/

Handbrake Video Transcoder

I found this open source application when trying to find some software to transcode videos to an iPad.
I didn't need it in the end, as the paid for software I have by CucuSoft was quicker.
Still, looks great for free.
http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

DVD Flick

Nice little open source program to create DVD's.

Used this instead of Windows DVD maker as it allowed me to create a dual layer DVD and automatically adjusted the bit rate of video and audio to allow me to fit a given number of videos on the disk.

Here's the about:

About DVD Flick

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.

Features

• Burn near any video file to DVD
• Support for over 45 file formats
• Support for over 60 video codecs
• Support for over 40 audio codecs
• Easily add a menu
• Add your own subtitles
• Easy to use interface
• Burn your project to disc after encoding
• Completely free without any adware, spyware or limitations

For a more detailed list of features, see the Features page.

http://www.dvdflick.net/

The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista

I had a problem with the DVD drive on my laptop with Windows 7 and Kaspersky.

I kept getting an error 19 in device manager.

It didn't appear to like the Kaspersky filter or Gears ASPI filter.

I think it was probably the Gears filter as this didn't return and the DVD drive appears to be working again.

The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista: 'via Blog this'

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F - The Atlantic

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F - The Atlantic

Google SketchUp - Competitions

Something to keep the kids busy? Google SketchUp - Competitions:

'via Blog this'

BBC News - Valve's online game service Steam hit by hackers

With Valves Steam being hit by hackers - it might be an idea to change your Steam password? BBC News - Valve's online game service Steam hit by hackers:

'via Blog this'

Win32k TrueType font parsing and Duqu fixit

Microsoft have released a temporary fix to overcome the vulnerability that is distributing Duqu.
It works by denying access to the Win32k TrueType font parsing engine. The fix doesn't appear to be on Windows update yet, you have to enable\disable it from here.

Open Source Procurement Toolkit | Cabinet Office

This toolkit supports this statement: 'The Government ICT Strategy states that “Where appropriate, Government will procure open source solutions.”' Open Source Procurement Toolkit | Cabinet Office

Ok, Google+ is now available for Apps users. Let's see what this is about?

Ok, Google+ is now available for Apps users. Let's see what this is about?

iPad2 Magnet unlock bug to be fixed in IOS v5.0.1

Looks like the "Magnet unlock" bug will be fixed with the upcoming IOS v5.0.1. It doesn't allow the screen to be unlocked whilst on the power screen.

For the moment, you either have to disable the unlock feature, or educate the users not to leave apps in the foreground.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/11/02/apple-fixes-ipad-2-smart-cover-passcode-security-flaw-with-ios-5-0-1/

UK Government seeking bidders for 'G' cloud

Interesting article at The Register. The UK Govenment is seeking bidders to provide a cloud for us by public bodies. reg.cx/1Rpg

Ellie Goulding - Lights - WebGL/HTML5 Demo

Ellie Goulding - Lights:

Nice song, and nice psychedelic graphics!
You'll need Chrome or another WebGL enabled browser (are there any?) to view this.

'via Blog this'

divide.com

This allows you to separate Work and Personal stuff on the same device. Shortly to be released on Android, it is currently available in beta. Looks like it will also be released for IOS devices. http://divide.com - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Remote control for Chrome

Now, users of the Chrome browser can remote control any other computer running Chrome using this extension. Chromebooks don't support sharing yet but I've found the video response to be good and video scaling works well even if there is no support for sound.

Give it a go by downloading the extension for Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en-GB&hc=search&hcp=main

Unable to launch Citrix applications from Desktop

I had a problem launching short-cuts to applications delivered by Citrix to my Windows 7 desktop. Double-clicking an application showed a message saying that the program had been downloaded from the internet, and did I want to open it.

Problem was, it hadn't! It was a shortcut to the Citrix PNAgent to run a Citrix delivered application.
After trying a few things such as a group policy edit to classify .lnk files as moderately safe (didn't work), or changing IE9 to allow executables to run from the Internet Zone rather than prompting (worked but generated Internet Explorer security warnings) I hit on a similar issue.

I ran the following command to remove the warning:
icacls "C:\Users\Username\Desktop" /Setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)M

Minecraft - Pocket Edition - Android Market

Minecraft - Pocket Edition - Android Market: 'via Blog this'

I think you'll like this Tom?

Virtio balloon | Richard WM Jones

Virtio balloon | Richard WM Jones: 'via Blog this'

A nice explanation about Linux Virtio memory ballooning.

Want to see inside Microsoft’s global datacentres? - UK TechNet - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Want to see inside Microsoft’s global datacentres? - UK TechNet - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Ask Slashdot: What Will IT Look Like In 10 Years? - Slashdot

Ask Slashdot: What Will IT Look Like In 10 Years? - Slashdot

DK: 25,000 hospital staff Copenhagen region to use open source office suite —

DK: 25,000 hospital staff Copenhagen region to use open source office suite —

Chromebook screen corruption

I'm running the latest dev build on my Chromebook (14.0.835.98) and seem to have an occasional screen corruption issue.

I have reported it as a bug, but due to a known issue with this build, I was unable to attach a screenshot.

Google Plus for Google Apps in the coming months - wellsb.com

Google Plus for Google Apps in the coming months - wellsb.com

It's getting a little annoying not being able to use Google+.

According to this post (made at the end of June), it should be available in the next few months.

That should hopefully be by the end of August then?

Chromebook

I'm really interested in buying one of these to replace my Macbook Air, which I currently use to email and browse the web at home. I don't take my Macbook mobile because of it's dreadful heat issues, so I use an iPad for that. I think the Chromebook could replace both of these quite happily.

Problem is, I want to see one in the flesh before I commit to buy.

Amazon and PC World have them for mail order, but I just need to see one first!

VMware KB: VMware Data Recovery Integrity Check fails with the error: Trouble reading from destination volume, error -2241

VMware KB: VMware Data Recovery Integrity Check fails with the error: Trouble reading from destination volume, error -2241

Store contains either a STORE.LCK folder or you have corrupted backups.

You need to either remove the STORE.LCK folder or mark the corrupted backups for deletion.

Then run a manual integrity check.

I think this happens because of a power outage or storage server shutdown.

VMware KB: Running a manual integrity check on a VMware Data Recovery deduplication store

VMware KB: Running a manual integrity check on a VMware Data Recovery deduplication store

NHS Trusts in the dark over CfH licence transfer

How very, very, true...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/17/nhs_trusts_/

Virgin Media - Faster upload speeds

Virgin Media are rolling out upload speeds of 10% of your broadband download speed.
Ipswich (including Felixstowe) are due to get it next month.

More info here:
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/discover-broadband/broadband-speed/upload-speeds.html?buspart=DD_31

Looks like we're due to get 100Mb downloads in September :)
http://shop.virginmedia.com/content/dam/allyours/pdf/100Mb%20rollout%2003%2006%2011.pdf

Disk and File Recovery Tools

I've used R-Studio in the past (Commercial):
http://www.r-studio.com/

But recently, I've been using TestDisk (Open Source):

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

The best bootable USB\CD version I've found is SystemRescueCD (Open Source):

http://www.sysresccd.org

There are plenty of guides on how to use it on the site, but be careful, it can make changes to your disk that make the problems worse! If you're unsure, read the documentation and seek advice in the forums.

Search Amazon.com for data recovery

Lulz Security on the NHS

Looks like the NHS is the next target?

More details here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13712377

Unable to send document as attachment from Office 2010

On a Windows 7 x64 machine with Office 2010 x64 installed, I had an issue with not being able to send documents via email.

After looking around for a while, I found this thread:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/outlook/thread/0aefa8d4-a5e5-4295-bea6-6bd48b6d80e6

The fix for me was to:

• Click Start
• Type Default Programs
• Click Set Your Default Programs
• Click Microsoft Outlook
• Click Set this program as default

I can now Save&Send documents as atrtachments.

Extra space on Dropbox for free

If you want cloud storage, then Dropbox will give you 2GB for free.
In fact, if you sign up using the below link, both me and you will get extra space.

http://db.tt/2RlbzsG

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

IOS update 4.3.3 allows more control of location tracking

I've blogged on this before, but a new update seems to allow control over how much location information your iPad or iPhone collects. Here's what I collected using iPhone Tracker before the update was installed:

All Time

21/04/2011

28/04/2011

05/05/2011

When I connected to iTunes today I was offered IOS update 4.3.3:

Quote:

IOs 4.3.3 Software Update

This update contains changes to the IOS crowd-sourced location database cache, including:

• Reduces the size of the cache
• No longer backs the cache up to iTunes
• Deletes the cache entirely when Location Services is turned off

I've not verified the last statement as I use the location services a lot, but iPhone tracker certainly can't see the locations in the iTunes backup now:

I'm also not sure if this is new. The Location Services option in Settings shows an arrow next to any application that has used location services in the last 24 hours:

Liberal democrats lose three seats in Felixstowe West

Nice result! I think one Liberal Democrat stood down, and the other two lost thier seats.
I would have preferred to have had a choice of candidates other than the the three major parties.
I'd be prepared to vote for an independent candidate or some of the minor parties...

http://www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/yourcouncil/elections/may2011/district/default.htm


FELIXSTOWE WEST (3 seats) - CON GAIN, LAB GAIN 2  Stephen Gerald BEEDLE - Conservative (546 votes)
 Stuart Michael BIRD - Conservative - ELECTED (590 votes)
* Henry James DANGERFIELD - Liberal Democrat (547 votes)
 Jeremy Robert MOORE - Conservative (503 votes)
 Margaret Anne MORRIS - Labour - ELECTED (574 votes)
John MULLEN - Labour (535 votes)
 * Michael Robert James NINNMEY - Liberal Democrat (479 votes)
 Michael John SHARMAN - Labour - ELECTED (590 votes)
Peter Robert WOODS - Liberal Democrat (454 votes)
 Turnout: 37.3%
 Electorate: 4,840

*Indicates defending councillers

All posts transferred from old Blog

I've now transferred all my posts (by hand!) from the old blog to this one.

Next steps are to transfer selective comments over and then create some permanent redirects from the old blog to here.

I guess I'll leave these redirects on for a few months before I then trash the old blog completely.

Blackberry Playbook - A pretty damming review

I'm not sure this review is completely fair, and I've yet to get my hands on a Playbook to see for myself. This guy sure didn't like it though:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/rim-blackberry-playbook-unfinished-unusable-534

The requirement to have a Blackberry isn't going to be so bad if you already have one for work though? The Playbook just gives you an alternative presentation method for you existing data. I don't currently like duplicating my email accounts across all the devices I use anyway.

New battery charging technology

This new battery charging technology allows Lithium Ion batteries to charge in minutes, and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries to charge in seconds. It has far reaching implications! http://geekbeat.tv/two-minute-rechargeable-batteries/

Flipboard for iPad

I'm really loving this free App for the iPad - http://flipboard.com/.
It presents Facebook, Twitter and other stuff as a magazine feed which makes it so much easier to read. Also makes it very easy to get to the original story. Still hampered by the iPads lack of support for Flash when the obect is a Flash video or game though.

The title screen rotates photos from your feeds:

The contents page gives you a summary of your feeds and again rotates the stories:

Here's an example Facebook page:

Here's an example Twitter page:

Letter from Therese Coffey MP on Health and Social Care Bill

Dr Therese Coffey MP

Member of  Parliament for Suffolk Coastal

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

020 7219 7164

therese.coffey.mp@parliament.uk

07 April  2011

Dr Mr Foley,

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Government's Health and Social Care Bill.

The Government's plans to modernise the NHS retain the underlying principle - to ensure everyone is provide with great healthcare, free at the point of use and based on need and not ability to pay.

However, when the NHS faces the twin pressures of an ageing population and of advances in medicine, we must always be looking to modernise and improve our NHS services, starting now.

Additional funding was put in over the last 13 years and at the last election, the Conservative Party was the only party to pledge real increases for the NHS budget each and every year of this Parliament - and we have kept that pledge.

Despite the years of extra funding, productivity in hospitals has declined by 15 per cent over the previous 10 years. Despite the best efforts of its staff, the NHS doesn't achieve the best outcomes. Someone in this country is twice as likely to die from a heart attack as someone in France, survival rates for cervical, colorectal and breast cancer are amongst the worst in the OECD and premature mortality rates from respiratory disease are worse than the EU average. Despite previous reforms, the number of managers in the NHS doubled under the previous Government and whole tiers of bureaucracy continue to restrict the decisions of doctors and nurses.

The new Health Bill will give responsibility for the majority of the NHS budget to frontline family doctors - instead of remote Primary Care Trusts - so that they can shape services according to the needs of the patients they see every day. This key change to the bottom-up, patient-centred approach in the NHS was in the Conservative Party manifesto and in the Coalition Agreement.

The changes we are making are clear:

• Shifting power and resources from the back-office to frontline staff and communities
• Devolving decision-making power from bureaucracy to doctors and nurses
• Giving patients more information and choice about where they are treated
• Introducing local accountability with a new powerful role for local Government

As a result of these modernisation plans, the NHS will be able to save £5 billion by reducing the unnecessary administration in the NHS over this Parliament. Because the Government is protecting the NHS budget, all of these savings will be reinvested where they should be - in treating patients.

We are making real progress:

• Since the General Election, there are 3,000 fewer managers (beginning to reverse the doubling in the number of managers under Labour) and 2,500 more doctors - and our new 'Health and Wellbeing Boards' to drive integration and democratic accountability in the NHS are being established in 90% of the country
• Groups of GPs from over 6,500 practices now cover 45 million people in our 'pathfinder consortia', taking the lead in improving local NHS services
• We are being more transparent about hospital performance: on things like hospital-acquired infections, and the number of times patients are placed in mixed-sex accommodation

But we also recognise there are some big questions about what we're doing. Patients and carers want to see how our changes will improve services for them. Doctors and nurses are asking about what are plans will mean for them. We hear that - and we want to continue to work with them.

Concern has been expressed on timing and suggestions are being made that GP commissioning is untested. This is not the case. GP commissioning already exists today and there are a large number of doctors across Suffolk who have formed consortia as Pathfinders. Learnings will be taken from them and used across Suffolk and the country to make the transition.

Now that the Health and Social Care Bill has successfully completed its Committee stage in the Commons, we're going to take the opportunity of a natural break in the legislative process to pause, listen reflect and improve. This is a genuine listening exercise: where there are good suggestions to improve the legislation and the implementation of our plans, changes will be made.

The Government is shortly launching a website - www.dh.gov.uk/healthandcare - which will allow everyone to have their say. A series of events will be staged to hear from the NHS directly and a team of frontline doctors and nurses are to be recruited to act as expert advisers - the NHS Future Panel - on our modernisation plans.

I can assure you that this is not about the NHS being privatised or other incredible suggestions. It is about having an NHS that truly puts the patient at its heart, has confidence in GPs making clinical decisions and together deciding how tratment can and should be made.

Yours sincerely,

T. Coffey

Free service to view\remote control - join.me

Very simple to use with Windows, Mac, Android and IOS support. Join.me allows you to share your screen with 1 or more people. No sign in or software installation required, though there are Apps for Android and IOS.

http://join.me

The presenter (on a Windows PC):

Joining (from an iPad):

In action on a PC:

In action on an iPad:

Problem When Maximising Chrome

Had an issue appear recently. When I maximised my Chrome browser, it was slightly wider than the screen. This meant that the wrench icon slightly moved off the screen, but more importantly, the right side vertical scroll bar was positioned off the screen. I could resize it manually, but this was just slightly inconvenient.

This is how it looked:

I am running the developer version so it may well be a bug introduced in this version (12.0.742.12 dev-m):

I discovered that removing the theme caused the browser to behave as expected:

Problems using iPad on Office 365 Beta

I had some problems connecting my trial iPad to the Office 365 beta. I put all my credentials in but the iPad kept prompting for a server. I entered the server name as used by the Outlook account, but this didn't seem to work. Seems that m.outlook.com has now worked fine.

Thanks to this post:
http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/148/t/301.aspx

TomTom Data used by Police to set Speed Traps

Another misuse of data gathered from members of the public. The reported case was in the Netherlands, but I wonder if the same case is true in the UK?

You can find a statement from TomTom here:
http://www.tomtom.com/page/facts

Physical vs Virtual Steelhead appliance from Riverbed

We're currently looking at WAN acceleration products, particularly virtualised ones.
Here's a video on the Steehead appliance from Riverbed:
http://blog.riverbed.com/2010/07/demo-video-how-fast-is-virtual-steelhead-compared-to-the-steelhead-appliance.html

iPhone or iPad Tracker

There has been a little bit of a storm recently about the iPhone\iPad tracking database that was recently discovered on the device, and on computers used to backup the device.

I've used an OSX App to take a look at the data on an iPad I'm evaluating.

I live in Felixstowe and commute to Huntingdon, with the odd bit of work in Peterborough and Cambridge.

This is the data collected around my commute:

Note the odd one near Norwich and the ones around the North East of London? Well, I haven't been there since I've had this device. Notice also that the points seems to cluster around larger towns - I've used Waze on this iPad while driving so I was a bit surprised that the dots didn't follow the route that I use, the A14.

Here's a zoomed in part around where I live. The dots appear to be in a regular grid with only one small dot on my house:

It seems that the iPad\iPhone is only storing an approximation of your devices location.

The App I used can be obtained here:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

They also have a nice FAQ:
http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/#faq

Links to news stories here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/20/secret_iphone_location_tracking/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/22/apple_iphone_location_tracking_analysis/

Transfer of Blog progress...

Slow.

I'm having to move each post by hand, and after about 50 or so I get hit by Captcha word verifications:

This is slowing it down a little bit, so I'm about 100 out of 300 copied.

Dropbox have access to your encrypted files

Many, many, people use DropBox to share files between computers and each other.

I think you seriously have to question a service whom have access to the encryption keys of these files and can release them without the judgement of a court, indeed, even to protect thier own "property" rights.

Apparently this is a recent change, and you can read the DropBox privacy policy here.

Interesting article on passwords

http://redd.it/grfny - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:ASDA in Ipswich

Please standby...

Trying to transfer my posts from http://cs.thefoleyhouse.co.uk to here...

Convert Windows 7 from KMS to MAK License Keys

Installed some Windows 7 Professional VM's to find that they had defaulted to KMS licensing.

It was relatively easy to convert from KMS to MAK with the following command lines:

1. Install the product key (replace with your key):
   slmgr /ipk XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
2. Activate:
   slmgr /ato
3. Display license information:
   slmgr /dli

Thanks to this post for most of the help:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winserversetup/thread/1db5b305-510c-4800-ab1f-e0647cc8a877

FOG (Free Opensource Ghost) Multicast problem

I managed to get FOG up and running on everything bar multicast - I thought it might be something to do with VirtualBox until I dicovered a configuration gotcha.

If you set a MYSQL password, the installation instructions tell you to change the password in /var/www/fog/commons/config.php.

What I got was the following error message in /opt/fog/log/multicast.log:

Failed to connect to database, will try again in next iteration.

After trying mysql -u root -p to debug the password and altering the connection_timeout to 5000 as suggested elsewhere, I finally found the fix here:

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/373

Turns out I had to edit the file here as well:

/opt/fog/service/etc/config.php

Having done this, I was able to run a multicast session great!

Ubuntu boot error in VirtualBox - piix4_smbus 0000.00.07.0: SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade bios or use force_addr=0xaddr

Been having an annoyance with Ubuntu and other Linux distro's running in VirtualBox for while. It didn't seem to have an impact on functionality, but it possibly had an impact on speed of boot.

I managed to find the answer here:
http://finster.co.uk/2010/11/16/virtualbox-piix4_smbus-error/

Essentially, you do the following:

• Start a terminal 
• sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
• Add the line blacklist i2c_piix4 to the end of the file and save 
• sudo update-initramfs -u -k all 

You might want to optionally remove unneeded kernal images before updating the initramfs to cut down on how long that part takes.

Unable to add search provider to IE8

This has been bothering me for a while on my server, and only just had some time to do something about it.

 I found the answer here:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=4d9cc69c2ac5abd3&hl=en

The contents of the registry entry:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ TypeLib \ {EAB22AC0-30C1-11CF-A7EB-0000C05BAE0B} \ 1.1 \ 0 \ win32

Was set to:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\shdocvw.dll

Instead of:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ieframe.dll

Windows Live Messenger 2011 - 0x80048820 Logon Failure

I don't use Windows Live Messenger much, but after the install of the recent IE9 RC, I noticed that the darn thing wouldn't sign in properly.

I did the usual Google-Fu and tried stuff ranging from deleting cached contacts folders, repairing the install, removing and reinstalling, checking IE proxy settings to re-registering various DLL's all without luck.

I then tried logging (under Options > Connection > Logging) and got the following:

1aec            Messenger:              Zone_Voice (voicevideoplatformlogon.cpp:66): ERROR: [OnLogonResult called with an failure hrLogon] "" failed with 0x80048820 in .
1aec            Messenger:         Zone_LogonState CUIManager::OnLogonResult hr=[0x80048820] m_dwUILogonFlags=[2]
1aec            Messenger:                 Zone_UI CUIManager::OnLogonResult@0270CEC8: enter
1aec            Messenger:         Zone_LogonState CSignInUIController::OnLogonError> hrError=[0x80048820]
1aec            Messenger:         Zone_LogonState CLogonErrorHandler::DisplayLogonErrorDialog> hrError=[0x80048820] s_fDisplayingLogonError=[0]

I did a bit of network tracing, and found that messenger was trying to use my work proxy. Strange for several reasons:

• I wasn't connected to my work VPN
• I didn't have any proxy settings in IE9
• Work blocks messenger, so it could never have worked like that

After a little more head scratching, I remembered using the "netsh winhttp" commands to set a proxy to try and fix some VPN proxy issues we had, and when I checked, I could still see the winhttp proxy settings set.

Entering the following command cleared the proxy, and allowed messenger to run:

• netsh winhttp reset proxy

IE9 Beta Crashes on every page with Intel Express 4 Chipset Graphics

I have a Dell Lattitude E5400 running Windows 7 x64 and decided to try the IE9 beta that has just been released. Unfortuneatly, the browser crashed on every page load. After some investigation I found it was caused by my graphics driver. The E5400 uses the Intel GMA graphics driver from the Express 4 chipset.

Problem driver version was 8.15.10.2141.

Working driver version is 8.15.10.2202.

You can get the new driver here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/download.aspx?url=/19336/a08/Win7Vista_64_151711.exe&DwnldId=19336&lang=eng 

Connnect bug is here:
https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/599630/running-internet-explorer-9-with-gpu-accelleration-crashes-the-browser

Exchange 2007 Backup Woes

We use Exchange 2007 and backup using CommVault Simpana 8.0. We had an issue with a store that ran out of disk space, and then dismounted. The store logs were moved to another drive and the store mounted again. From this point on, backups (full or incremental) failed with CommVault with the following error:
Error Code: [28:163] Description: The Exchange server returned the following error message: [0x50d] - [Unknown]. Api: [HrESEBackupSetup()], Item: [Fourth Storage Group]

NTBackup could backup the store but took 20 hours compared to ComMVaults just over 2.

Investigating the event log produced an event id 9840 with error 1293:
An attempt to prepare the storage group 'Fourth Storage Group' for backup failed because the storage group is already in the process of being backed up. The error code is 1293. (Note that if a backup was recently aborted, then it may take several minutes for the system to detect the aborted backup and initiate backup cleanup procedures, so this message may be generated if an attempt was made to backup a storage group before a previous backup attempt had fully terminated.)

Turns out, the store filled during a backup leaving the backup in progress flag set. NTBackup works because it uses the old Exchange backup API's, not the VSS backup used by CommVault.

The fix was to dismount and then mount the affected store. 

Ubuntu x64 10.04 - Inital issues

Decided to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 using an in place upgrade - This failed horribly. There were several errors to do with likewise-open (my laptop belongs in a Windows AD domain). The final one told me that it had left my distro in an unusable state (some 3 hours into the upgrade).

I took the opportunity to reinstall the x64 version of 10.04 but ran into a few issues.

1. The Citrix ICA client install is complicated somewhat by the x64 architecture. The ICA client assumes you're running an x86 environment with 32 libs and a 32bit browser. It's fairly easy to work round - See the previous post.

2. The Cisco VPN client is a bit flakey. I can connect fine from the command line using vpnc, but the Gnome GUI hardly ever works. Sometimes it asks me for the password, only to fail the connection. Sometimes it doesn't ask me anyhting, just tells me the connection has failed. Sometimes it does nothing at all. I would prefer to use the GUI because you get a nice visual app showing if you're connected to the VPN or not.

Citrix Receiver on Ubuntu 9.10 x86

1. Install libmotif3
sudo apt-get install libmotif3

2. Create libXm.so.4 as needed by the Citrix receiver
cd /usr/lib
ln -s libXm.so.3.0.2 libXm.so.4

3. Download the Citrix receiver as a TGZ file from www.citrix.com

4. Extract this to a tmp directory and install
cd ~/Downloads
mkdir /tmp/citrix
cp linuxx86-11.100.158406.tar.gz /tmp/citrix/
cd /tmp/citrix
tar xvf  linuxx86-11.100.158406.tar.gz
sudo ./setupwfc

5. Follow the prompts - This is quite straight forward

6. Stop the EULA showing (As a blank dialog box)
 touch ~/.ICAClient/.eula_accepted

This now allows me to run Citrix apps through the web interface using Firefox.

Things still to fix:
Fix ugly Citrix GUI font
Authenticate to Xenapp View
Run access in Chrome

Changes for x64:
I had to download libmotif3 manually and copy stuff into lib32
This post helped a lot:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=333534

Get Device Manager to show non-present devices as hidden devices

Start a command prompt and set the following variable:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Start Device manager from the command line:

devmgmt.msc

On the view menu, click Show hidden devices.
More info here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

Error installing Dell OpenManage Server Administrator 6.1.0

First I had an error saying Windows Remote Management wasn't installed. I got it here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=845289ca-16cc-4c73-8934-dd46b5ed1d33&DisplayLang=en

Second problem was this error:

"The installer has detected that HTTPs Listener is not enabled for Windows Remote Management. Enable HTTPs Listener for Windows Remote Management to use Standards Remote Management capabilities. See "Remote Enablement Requirements" section in the Installation and Security User's Guide for detailed information. Note: Remote Enablement is applicable only for systems that support Server Instrumentation."

This led to this post:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384372(VS.85).aspx

The fix was to run:

winrm quickconfig

This enabled an HTTP listener, but not an HTTPS one. Re-reading the above url, this worked:

winrm quickconfig -transport:https

ActiveSync - Guest only

To force an ActiveSync to allow guest only access (therefore with no prompts) carry out the following registry edits:

HKLM \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft\Windows CE Services

Add a new DWORD Value called ‘GuestOnly’ with a value of ‘1’

Blog off the air - Oops!

My blog has been off the air for a while. I moved the blog to a new server and recreated the domain.

Turns out the account used to run the blog needed modify access to C:\Windows\Temp - Looks ok for now!

Transistion to Cloud Servers

I'm moving all my locally hosted content to cloud based servers. So far I have moved my email to Google Apps For Your Domain and I have created a new blog (no content yet) to replace this one.

The Gmail move went pretty well as all I had to do was update MX, SPF and some CNAME records. The only non-working part was the start page as Google seem to have dropped support for this. I had actually setup apps before this limitation was implied, and I can activate the start page but it just doesn't work. There are others who mention this and the work-round seems just to use a Google Sites page if you want this. In fact there's quite a complete template for sites, just for this. I don't really need it anyways.

The blog will move slower. I have moved it off to a smaller sevrer for now and I'm trying to find a way to export the posts from CommunityServer to Blogger. I may just have to use the smaller server to setup redirects to the new blog.

Latest hotfix for DPM 2007

I think I explained earlier that my DPM 2007 product does not get updated by Microsoft update.

I tried reseting Windows Update components, but that didn't help:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

I've discovered I'm a little bit behind on hot fixes, and that Microsoft have released KB976542 on October 23rd 2009.

This seems to include all the hotfixes posted since DPM 2007 SP1:

• KB961502
• KB963102
• KB968579
• KB970867
• KB970868

Still, looks like DPM 2010 will soon be here.

Wireshark on Snow Leopard

Nasty startup problem solved thanks to Nick Klienschmidt.

Run:

cd /Library/StartupItems

sudo chown -R root:wheel ChmodBPF 

http://kleinsch.com/2009/10/03/wireshark-chmodbpf-errors-on-snow-leopard/

Belkin N1 Expresscard with DLink DIR-615

I was supplied with a DLink DIR-615 router as part of my Virgin Media package. Tried connecting my personal laptop using a Belkin N1 Express card (F5D8071), but it just wasn't happy. This same card would connect with a Belkin Vision N1 quite happily (surprise, surprise).

Anyway, I downloaded the Vista drivers and they worked fine. Find them here:
http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/468

My card was the 3000 version.

Creating a dynamic distribution group with advanced filtering on Exchange 2007

In Exchange 2003, it was very easy to build a dynamic distribution group with the GUI. Exchange 2007 is much more limited unless you use Powershell. I needed to create a dynamic distribution group targeting a particular server, as long as the user mailboxes didn't have a forwarding address. The reason for wanting to avoid the mailboxes with forwarding addresses is we still have Quest's Exchange Migration Wizard creating forwarding details for users on the legacy Exchange system.

The process is a two part process:

• Create the dynamic distribution group
• Set the filter criteria for the distribution group

To create the dynamic user, type the following all on one line in the Exchange Powershell console (don't type in the bold italic comments):

New-DynamicDistributionGroup 'The applett

-Name "Group name" 'What the group should be called

-IncludedRecipients MailboxUsers 'Just include users with mailboxes

-OrganizationalUnit "domain.com/ou1/ou2" 'Where to create the dynamic distribution group
e.g. New-DynamicDistributionGroup -Name "Group name" -IncludedRecipients MailboxUsers -OrganizationalUnit "domain.com/ou1/ou2"

To set the filter:

Set-DynamicDistributionGroup 'The applett

"Group Name" 'What the group is called

-Notes "Blah blah blah" 'Description

-RecipientFilter {ServerName -eq 'ServerX' -and ForwardingAddress -eq $Null} 'Mailbox exists on ServerX and the forwarding address is empty

-RecipientContainer "domain.com/ou1/ou2" 'What container the recipients are under - It can just be the domain

e.g. Set-DynamicDistributionGroup "Group Name" -Notes "Blah blah blah" -RecipientFilter {ServerName -eq 'ServerX' -and ForwardingAddress -eq $Null} -RecipientContainer "domain.com/ou1/ou2"

Once set with Powershell, they can be viewed by the GUI, but not changed. Beware that the preview button does not take account of the -RecipientContainer parameter - It will show you all users in the domain that match.

Inspiration from:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123796.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb738157.aspx

DanW

Windows 7 on an HP DV9000 (DV9292EU)

I've been having a bit of an install fest this weekend with Windows 7 Ultimate on my HP DV9292EU, Windows 7 Enterprise on my Work laptop and Android (!) on my trusty ASUS eeePC 701. All went fine except the HP laptop which had three unknown devices in device manager after the install.

One was labeled as a co-processor. I don't know what it was, but downloading the NVidia Nforce 430 drivers from here solved it:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk

Select Legacy, NForce 4 and then one of the 430 drivers. It downloaded this file which worked for me:
15.49_nforce_winvista_win7_32bit_international_whql.exe

The two other device were labeled Base System Devices and proved to be some sort of Ricoh devices.
Downloading the Windows 7 drivers from the Lenovo site fixed these for me!
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/WIN7-BETA.html#rmcr

It now all looks good!

Google Wave invites

These are looking really hard to get - Any one have one?
Please send an invite to Karl.Foley@gmail.com.

How-To Prepare A Certificate With Subject Alternative Names Using Exchange Powershell

1. Use powershell from an Exchange 2007 box to generate a certificate request (all on one line and replace italics with your details):

New-ExchangeCertificate
-GenerateRequest:$true
-Path C:\NewCert.req
-DomainName fqdn1.domain.tld,fqdn1,fqdn2.domain.tld,fqdn2
-PrivateKeyExportable:$true
-FriendlyName "fqdn1.domain.tld"
-IncludeAcceptedDomains:$False
-Force:$true
-SubjectName "CN=fqdn1.domain.tld,OU=Department,O=Organisation,L=Location,S=County,C=GB"

2. Request a certificate from your AD certificate server, (http://yourcertserver/certsrv). This needs to be an advanced request, using the request file generated above, and for a web server. Download it to your local drive as C:\CertNew.cer.

3. Import the certificate into your Exchange server using:

Import-ExchangeCertificate C:\NewCert.req

4. On the Exchange server, use the MMC certificate snap-in, export the certificate. Export it with the private key to a PFX file. Make sure you target the computer certficate store when loading the MMC. Use a password to protect the exported certificate.

5. On the target server, load the certificate MMC, again targeting the computer store and import the pfx file.

6. Using the IIS console, switch your webserver to the new certificate.

7. You can delete the original certificate from your Exchange server if you wish.

Vista\2008 SP2

This has been RTM for a while, and I was expecting it to show up on Windows Update today, but it didn't. I downloaded it from Technet but just noticed it on the Microsoft main site here.

I particularly like the combined Vista\2008 32bit\64bit DVD here.

How to get the latest build of Chrome

Hacked off by the fact that IE8 had stopped responding my system, and not wanting to reboot right now, I decided to start using Chrome again.

I had been using the beta builds before but forgot how to get them.

You can find out how here:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel 

Isinteg fails to run on Exchange 2007 with Error: FULLCHKMGR::EcReadRowCountGlobalFlag failed with error JET_wrnColumnNull

I had a corrupted mailbox, so created a temporary store to move the mailbox into. I then wanted to run an isinteg on this store before returning the mailbox back to the original store.

The first part went ok, but when I went to run isinteg I received the following error in the logfile:
Error: FULLCHKMGR::EcReadRowCountGlobalFlag failed with error JET_wrnColumnNull

Searching around prodeuced a few solutions, but none in English! I found the following post:
http://www.spurius.nl/?p=46

My Dutch isn't very good, but I surmised that the command to run was:
isinteg -s servername -fix -test rowcounts

I ran this, and indeed I could then run an isinteg with -test alltests. Thanks to whoever that blogger is!

Feb 2009 Hotfix Package for DPM 2007 (KB963102)

For some reason, my DPM server doesn't seem to pick up on updates from Microsoft, so I occasionally scan download.microsoft.com for any updates.

Today, I found a new hotfix download for DPM 2007:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8a551a13-270e-46c0-91ee-4a6d3d8bf034

It patches some issues detailed here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;963102

Can anyone tell me how to make DPM 2007 register with Windows update on this server?

Communicator 2007 Automatic Sign-in Failure

In my case this was caused by lack of DNS entries.
Just creating a sip CNAME to my OCS 2007 server was enough, but there are others you can create.

I found a tool that helps you troubleshoot DNS issues here.

A\CNAME records:
  sip.domain.com
  sipinternal.domain.com
  sipexternal.domain.com

SRV Records:
  _sipinternaltls._tcp.domain,com
  _sipinternal._tcp.domain.com
  _sip._tls.domain.com

Communicator 2007 Fails to download corporate address book

In my case, this was caused by https certificate problems. The certificate had been generated during the install, but had not been applied to the IIS server.
Can also be caused by firewall issues with ports or IIS MIME issues for dabs (application\dabs) or lsabs (application\lsabs).

OCS 2007 Activation Problem

Failure to activate OCS 2007 during installation.
This can be based by having a space ( ) or quote (") character in the service account passwords.
Looks like the setup program does not quote the password correctly, so fails when either of these two charaters are used.

DPM 2007 SP1 Real Soon

Launched at the start of December 2008 apparently.
I'm not clear as to how the Hyper-V protection will work though - Will we have to pause Hyper-V guests or not during protection?

More details here:
http://blogs.technet.com/jbuff/archive/2008/11/24/what-is-new-for-protecting-sharepoint-with-dpm-2007-sp1-technet-edge-video.aspx

Unable to complete configuration wizard for System Center Essentials 2007

The confugration wizard was generating the following error:

Date: 12/10/2008 00:23:47
Application: System Center Essentials
Application Version: 6.0.1251.0
Severity: Error
Message:
: Verification failed with [1] errors:
-------------------------------------------------------
Error 1:
: Failed to verify Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f].
Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f] is a duplicate to Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServere2f7dfce1adc45e0adbcbf63664743af] defined within the same ManagementPack. Please remove any one of the duplicate overrides.
-------------------------------------------------------
Failed to verify Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f].Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f] is a duplicate to Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServere2f7dfce1adc45e0adbcbf63664743af] defined within the same ManagementPack. Please remove any one of the duplicate overrides.
: Failed to verify Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f].
Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f] is a duplicate to Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServere2f7dfce1adc45e0adbcbf63664743af] defined within the same ManagementPack. Please remove any one of the duplicate overrides.
: Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServer6c1cc55796f6477f97fbe53bcdb1154f] is a duplicate to Override [OverrideForRuleMicrosoftSystemCenterEssentialsInternalScheduledDiscoveryForContextMicrosoftSystemCenterRootManagementServere2f7dfce1adc45e0adbcbf63664743af] defined within the same ManagementPack. Please remove any one of the duplicate overrides.

I found this closed bug:
http://connect.microsoft.com/OpsMgrFeedback/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=286212
(Didn't help)

Then I found this, which did...
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2253298&SiteID=17

System Center Essential OpsMgr Error 0x80004005

After an install of SCE 2007, the OpsMgr service would not start and kept throwing an 0x80004005 error.

Found another blog with a fix:
http://blogcastrepository.com/blogs/brian_tucker/archive/2008/01/16/scom-opsmgr-2007-health-service-error-0x80004005-event-id-7023.aspx

It was a little different in my case, I had to remove LMIRfsClientNP from the registry key:
HKEYLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\HwOrder\ProviderOrder

D-Link DCS-6620G - HTTP 400 Bad Request

After the install of Silverlight - My D-Link DCS-6620G camera started returning HTTP 400 Bad Request errors.

After a bit of investigation, I found this:
http://silverlight.net/forums/p/7452/77779.aspx

Locating the key, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents, I removed a couple of XML document type I figured that I would never use.
Everything now works fine.

Kaspersky Internet Security 7 will not install

I'd forgotten this one... Something gets left in the registry so that the Kaspersky install keeps giving you this error:
"You must restart your computer before proceeding with the installation."

Download and apply this registry fix from Kaspersky.

More details here:
http://support.kaspersky.com/kolt/?eid=207694096

Network connection keeps stopping in Windows Vista Ultimate x64

I've recently had an issue with my main desktop machine losing network connectivity overnight. No other machines are affected, only my desktop one. The problem computer is connected via wired ethernet to a Netgear GS105 Gigabit switch. The lights on the switch stay on, so there appears to be nothing wrong with the physical connection but the system still can contact nothing on the network.

What has worked as a fix, was to go into the network connections, disable and then enable the LAN connection. The computer will then work fine for another 24 hours.

After some searching, I read this:
http://forums.techarena.in/vista-help/791873.htm

Which then led to this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927168

Now, each time the connection has stopped working, I have had my Windows Mobile 6.0 phone plugged in, synchronising and charging. I wondered if this was the same as Internet Connection Sharing as the phone is given an IP and can access the network via my desktop computer. When I had network problems with my network camera, I do remember switching on RSS (receive side scaling) as part of the changes made to the IP stack.

I've disabled RSS for now using the command:
netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled


I'll followup with any further lockups or not!