Diary of a Wolfeman

Today’s project: retire a wheezing Netware server and replace it with a new SBS 2003 server, and toss in some new XP workstations so we can recycle the Win98 boxen.

Yep. That’s what I said, too.

Thankfully, they don’t have tons and tons of data, because it took most of the day (somewhere around 4+ hours) just to copy the data off of the old server to a workstation. Let me say that again: 4+ hours to copy over 4 gigs of data.

To contrast: when replacing the workstations, I yanked the 4GB hard drives out of the old boxen, hooked ’em up to the new XP box with an IDE-to-USB converter, and copied the drive wholesale in under ten minutes.

If only I could have done that with the Netware drives.

So as they sit right now, the new workstations are in place, the server is in place, but I haven’t configured DHCP or anything so nothing is talking yet. That will be first step tomorrow.

The really fun part is the Line-of-Business software. Installation is apparently pretty easy, but getting a hold of the vendor to find this out took all day. I started calling him at 9 this morning, and he didn’t get around to returning my call until after 6pm – which was 9pm for him, he being on the East coast. Now it’s three hours later, and I am still waiting for him to email me with the download link so I can get the updated installer and instructions.

Yay.

To expand upon what the WBGF gave me for starters, we went to the Oregon Leather Company on Saturday and I grabbed a big bag o’ tools for me to hurt myself with.

Because, really – what project is complete before the obligatory blood sacrifice? Mechanics, woodworkers – you all know what I mean. A barked knuckle on the head while removing a bolt, or that nasty splinter in your palm while prepping your latest shelving project? Yeah, there will be blood if there are tools involved.

Knowing this, I decided to prevent as much of that as possible by turning the first use of these new tools to making scabbards for said tools. The Skiving knife, with it’s bare razor blade was a must. The last thing I want to do is reach into the tool kit and take half the flesh off my hand on the way back out. That one was pretty simple, just a folded over swatch of leather with a rivet and a snap.

My new leather shears ran a distinct chance of bashing themselves against my miniature anvil, so that scabbard was more to protect them than me.

This one was a good starter project, as it includes all of the basics: designing, cutting, sewing and rivets / fasteners. I tried two types of stitching, to get a feel for which one would be better in the long run. First, I tried with the Speedy Stitcher sewing awl, which was definitely the easier of the two, but I don’t like the look of the back-side of the stitch. This may be improved with experience, though. More experimentation is required.

The second method, a saddle stitch, looks the same both front and back so it will be the one to use if both sides are visible – but this method is slightly more difficult and more likely to lead to me sticking a needle into myself, which is exactly what I did. Twice. Unlike a regular cloth needle, leather needles have a triangular head, which is sharp for almost a centimeter. This means you bleed more when you stab yourself. So as usual, bandages in the toolkit.

Now to plan the next project…

Kill some Zombies!

Client emails us in a panic because his email server for their sub-company is down. He has no idea why, it was working fine the day before and he hasn’t been messing with it. I spend most of the day bashing away at it, can’t find the cause.

Serendipitously, Comcast finally comes through with the second feed and new IP address so we can move this project out from under the main business and onto a separate firewall. Mail is already dead, the users won’t know if we move stuff around so we go with it. I re-write all of the firewall rules in record time, (That CSSA course paid off!) and disable all the rules for this project in the main firewall. At the time, I notice something I think is a little odd, but move on. I make the changes to DNS at a quarter to five. Nothing to do now but wait and see.

Go home, scrounge some dinner, zone on some tv, splatter about 500 zombies and generally turn off. My subconscious percolates.

Just a few minutes ago, Bam! that oddness in the firewall comes back into focus and I realize one of the rules I had disabled in the main firewall was the killer. Check the mail server, and thar she blows! Email for all!

The question now is, was one of our guys mucking around in there, or was this a 1st Rule violation?

My money is on the fish.

So, the CSSA class and exam last week was fun – if you like being a guinea pig. Okay, that sorta goes with being a Techie, so it really wasn’t that bad.

We were only the 4th group to go through the new course, so thankfully the instructor was one of the top Engineers from SonicWALL and had the knowledge necessary to make heads and tales out of the slide deck and course book. Whoever wrote it was not a native-born English speaker, and apparently did not know what to do with the grammar check in his office suite.

Nor was that person a CSSA, as they got a number of things just outright wrong.

The really fun bit though was good and bad. The class is normally taught using a TZ170 Wireless model firewall that you get to keep (one of the reasons the class costs $1300 is $400 worth of training hardware). This time, though, they gave out brand-new TZ180 Wireless units, which is pretty cool. The new hardware is a definite improvement over the 170 (about twice the throughput and memory as the 170), but it isn’t in full production yet. The hardware is just fine – it’s the firmware that is still in beta. The best bug we found is that if you enable the “block all” content filter, it blocks all webpages – including the login page to control the unit.

Oops.

Still, even with all that going on, I thought it was a good course, but that probably has a lot to do with the instructor’s knowledge level. If you take the pre-req online courses and pay attention during the training, you should be able to pass the test – unlike me.

I missed one question too many. D’oh!!

My big problem with tests is that I read quickly, and comprehend just as fast. When taking a test, I have a habit of zooming through and usually doing pretty good. Old age, however, has apparently thrown a wrench into that because the last few tests I’ve taken I have done poorly the first time through. I’ve taken to forcing myself to take the test twice, essentially – go through it once as normal, then go back to the start and do it again to double-check my work.

I couldn’t do that this time, however, due to the nature of the test. The test code is written in such a way that once you submit your answer, there is no going back. I tried to slow down, but it just wasn’t enough. The instructor popped up a couple of times with either additional information or corrected information to a couple questions, but I had already submitted those answers and so ended up missing one too many to pass the exam. (I missed 9, but would only have missed 5 or 6 with the additional info / corrected questions.)

So, as I’m asking the instructor about setting up a re-test, he gets an email from the rest of the testing team saying they have to lower the passing grade requirements due to the problems with the course book and test questions. A passing grade is now 75%…and I had scored 76%.

Woohoo!! Saved by email!

As Da Roomie noticed, I have revamped my digs. Upgraded to WP 2.1.3, and got myself a new theme. Which also meant, of course, staying up waaaay to bloody late last night hacking CSS to get it to look the way I wanted.

It also meant upgrading a few plugins. The latest one added is ubernyms, and if you follow that link you’ll see why this is so cool. If you find yourself typing the same thing in a lot of your posts, you can have it just replace text, or wrap it in acronym or abbreviation tags, and even insert the links automagically. All the links above were generated by the plugin.

Very nice.

From Forbes

LONDON (Thomson Financial) – Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc could face a possible lawsuit for failing to include measures to control access to copyrighted material in products such as Vista OS, iTunes and the iPod, two companies have warned.
…
MRT and Bluebeat said the failure to use an available copyright protection solution contravenes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…

So, if you follow their logic, the producer of the world’s safest automobile could conceivably sue anyone who isn’t driving their cars for public endangerment. Doctors and hospitals could sue bandage manufacturers for enabling the public to do without their services.

If the judge doesn’t just laugh them out of court, I will personally hunt him down so I can ask him to share whatever it is he’s on.

Way back in the 80’s, IBM manufactured a large mainframe system called the 4341. This system, like many today, included an emergency power-off switch, which could be used to immediately stop power should the sprinklers go off (or some other power problem), saving the unit from destruction. This switch was quite large, very red, and a little too accessible – as proved by a programmer’s daughter (named Molly) who managed to hit the switch twice – in the same day.

A Molly Guard is now considered to be anything that covers up a Big Red Switch to prevent mishaps, but is most commonly a plexiglass cover that can be flipped up. These devices have been installed all over the world – usually after someone trips the BRS accidentally.

Such is the case with one of my former employers.

I had just transferred to a new department – we were connecting slot machines from all over the country into one central jackpot. While I was in the installation department, actually getting the games online, we worked very closely with the guys in the data center and were fairly regularly in and out of it’s lovely air-conditioned depths. (Hey, it was ‘Vegas in the summer, and sometimes the building AC got a little overloaded.)

The Big Red Switch was not right out in the open, but it wasn’t exactly hard to get to, either. Nor was it covered with a Molly Guard.

One day I was out in the field testing my latest batch of installed machines with one of the DC guys on the phone when I hear a sudden silence and then “oh shit.” Then, quite distinctly, I hear my supervisor Al say “uhm…ooops?” as every machine in three banks of games starts flashing “no link”.

Turns out Al had been in there just to BS and soak up some AC, when he got bored and started looking around, and there’s this Big Red button, just asking to be pressed… so he pressed it. (None of us were surprised that Al was the one to trip it, it was completely in character.)

We had maintenance in there inside of 20 minutes with a new plexi shield.

Our company, being as IT-related as we are, has decided to migrate our Exchange 2003 system up to Exchange 2007 so we know what do to when our clients ask for it. Here’s how to do it:

1) Buy new server. You cannot upgrade an existing E2003 server.
2) Install OS of choice – in this case, Server 2003 Enterprise Edition 64-bit
3) Install all updates, antivirus, etc.
4) Print and read the 15-or-so pages from Technet describing the install process.
5) Read them again, damn thing is still updating.
End of Day 1
6) Join new server to domain.
7) Run dcpromo to convert to backup domain controller.
8) Watch dcpromo fail because you have to run adprep from the S2003 Ent-64 cd first.
9) Watch adprep fail because you have to run it on the Server 2003 domain controller.
10) Run adprep on the other DC…ok, it worked that time.
11) Run dcpromo on new server. Again, it worked this time.
12) Read the docs again, discuss with more experienced engineer – who doesn’t recognize any of the new terminology M$ is using either.
13) Curse M$ for the bastards they are.
14) Slot the Exchange 2007 DVD and run the installer.
15) Blow past the first three meaningless EULA screens and get to the actual install screen.
16) Steps 1-3 are to prep the server for Exchange. Step 1: install .Net 2.0. Click on Install, it bounces open IE to a download page. They had over 4Gigs worth of space on that DVD and they couldn’t include the .Net2 runtimes?
17) Download and install .Net
18) Step 2 is to install MMC – already done. Moving right along.
19) Step 3: Install PowerShell. Again, it bounces me to a download screen.
20) Download and install PowerShell.
21) Step 4: Install Exchange! Woohoo, here we go!
22) Watch installer launch the tester to see if you are ready for E2007. Watch tester throw big red X’s. Read and discover that I need to update .Net and install IIS because I forgot it. Read further about the pre-install Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer that would have told me all of these things and possibly more – that was not mentioned in any of the docs I already read.
23) Update .Net
24) Install IIS.
25) Google search for the Analyzer and download. Double-click to install.
26) Watch as install fails: I need .Net 1.1?!!?
27) Download .Net 1.1
28) Curse M$ for the Bastards they are.
29) install .Net 1.1 – watch installer throw warning that the 64-bit version of the OS has a known issue with .Net 1.1 and I will have to type a really long command into a command shell after I install it. Save info to text file because you know that shit won’t be at the end of the install where it really should be.
End of Day 2. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the underlying stanchions of the Cyberpunk genre is that someday we will be able to control computers and other electronic gizmos with our brains rather than having to use control interfaces such as keyboards, mice or joysticks. A networking adapter socket is installed somewhere on your person, and you simply plug in a cable and off you go.

Well, according to this article at Computerworld, we have stepped closer to this goal.

While the device being used here is very much the Sci-Fi staple of a “control helmet” consisting of a colander on your head covered with electrodes, the theory is the same. Electronic sensors sense the change in the electric fields in your brain as you move through your thought processes. These signals are then interpreted by software into command codes, which are then sent on to the device being controlled.

The theory is sound, and has been in research for many years at this point. The big news here is that the research group has the device down to a mostly-portable size and working with a respectable level of success. From here, the research team should be able to both increase the accuracy and reduce the size in a fairly linear fashion – one could almost apply Moore’s Law at this point with a fairly reasonable accuracy.

With current studies in nanotechnology, the opportunity is also present to begin working on a way to manufacture the sensor grid in such a manner so that it could be implanted between the skull and the skin – relieving you of the necessity of wearing a control helmet.

One of the most obvious uses for technology of this nature (to me anyway) is to more closely integrate the operation of a replaced limb. Instead of having some sort of physical interface for control, one would merely think “extend arm, grasp glass firmly, bring to lips and tip”. Considering the number of recent war veterans who have lost limbs in combat, I can’t imagine they would have a shortage of volunteers for testing.

This also brings us to a second stanchion of Cyberpunk: willfully exchanging your limbs for cybernetic replacements with built-in enhancements. Again, all the recent amputees have resulted in a surge of research into replacement limbs, which have become quite complex.

So now, all of the pieces are in place for Stage One of the Cyberpunk Revolution: control interface, advances in computer technology, and a large number of amputees who don’t feel threatened by the addition of more technology into their lives or bodies. At current levels of research and miniaturization, I would say the first actual “cyberlimb” will be installed before 2012.

Place yer bets, folks.

For those who may have been wondering, I did get all the gear from NewEgg last Friday, and spent Sunday rebuilding the rig. The Full Monty:

Proc: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz (stock cooler)
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5 w/ NVIDIA nForce 590 chipset
RAM: Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300)
HDD: 2ea Seagate 100GB SATA drives (from Hyperion)
Optical: 2 ea LITE-ON 20X DVD+/-R IDE Burner with LightScribe
Video: EVGA GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express

Cue “6 Million Dollar Man” theme.

The results:
I had some trouble with the Windows install. Big shock, I know. Using a known good install disk, there were about 20 file copy failures in the initial process. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out WTF, so I went ahead and let the install finish, ignoring anything that wouldn’t copy. Once it had installed and booted, I went back and used the msconfig / expand function to pull those files off the disk and into the file system. I may have missed one somewhere, however, as I can’t get the rear speakers in the sound to work. Not a critical issue, but it’s gonna annoy me eventually. And I also somehow lost the right to a USB mouse, since any mouse will now only work when plugged into a PS/2-USB adapter. (USB keyboard works fine.)

Everything else seems to be ok for now, so I’m going to leave it be.

Performance: Rocks. Flat-out, this is the quietest computer I’ve used since a Commodore VIC20 back in the 7th grade. If I really stress it, the CPU fan will spin up a bit, but otherwise this thing runs at minimum rpms and near silent. Same with the video card. In fact, it may have only been the eVGA’s fan spinning up, I haven’t run Speedfan to figure it out yet.

Video performance has been sweet. DarkStar One runs glassily smooth at maximum resolution and effects, even during a 10-bad-guy furball in an asteroid field. The same goes for X3: The Reunion, which I could finally now play, if the damn thing didn’t bore me silly. The only bummer so far in the gaming aspect is just that: Mechwarrior doesn’t support widescreen aspect ratios, so everything is short and wide. I tried to configure the card and monitor to not stretch, but it won’t work. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone other than M$ will pick up the license from FASA.

Hint. Hint. Hint.

So. It’s faster, but how much? Unknown. I never ran any real benchmarks on the old rig, so I only have anecdotal evidence – and really not even that until I run something like a DVD encode on it. Hyperion was pretty damn fast itself, so it’s hard to see at this point. If video game graphics peformance is an accurate benchmark, I’d say I got a 20% – 30% increase overall.

In any case, it makes me happy :)